God's Promises on the Holy Spirit
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The Key to Life with God is the HOLY SPIRIT
38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
True life starts within and it starts inside with the Holy Spirit. It's not about material wealth, or health, or academics, or accolades, or sports accomplishments, or your 401K, or retirement, or building a platform, or being popular on social media, or having an influence, or changing the world.
The good, abundant life that Christ came to give us starts on the inside and it's an overflowing internal reality. We can unintentionally prioritize a life for God over a life with him. This is the difference between a life for God and a life with God.
I would encourage you today that as we read through scriptures to circle every time you see with, or within. That is what I want you to capture. That's what we want you to see today that God desires to live in you, with you, to teach you, to empower you, and the Holy Spirit is the person to empower and animate your faith. You cannot do this on your own.
So, first it's this internal reality that overflows into an external reality. And when we get this backwards, when we think that being a Christian is about having all of our ducks in a row, and our behavior in a row, and our mouth and do all these things, when we think that, that's what it means to follow Jesus we have completely missed the message of the gospel in the New Testament.
Religion will sink in and it all be about behavior, and rules, and judgment. And Christ came to give you relationship. To restore your relationship to God. So, the good news is that you and I can get off a spiritual treadmill today. You can step off of it into the glorious unknown of God's divine goodness and grace and discover a life with God through his Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit 's key to life with God.
So, what are his roles? How does he do this? And we want to talk just about four roles today. There are so, very many and we could spend all day and afternoon, and really the next year talking about all the ways that the Holy Spirit works in our lives, but we want to focus just on four ways today primarily.
And they're focused out of John's chapter 13 through 17 and I would encourage you to, this week pick up your Bible and just read through those chapters. They're the last alone time that Jesus had with his disciples before he was handed over to be crucified.
God’s Gift of the Holy Spirit is to . . .
1. Connect me to God’s presence forever.
1. Connect me to God’s presence forever.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.
The disciples are troubled, they're discouraged, they're confused, they don't understand what's happening. They have literally given up everything to follow Jesus. He is their rabbi, he is their leader, he is their teacher and they believe in his vision and his message, and they are not ready for it to be over. They're not ready.
They've sacrificed everything and Jesus in his kindness responds to them this way, on your outline. John 14:16 says, "And I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate to help you and to be with you forever the spirit of truth." Circle that word with. "The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him. He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you."
Up until now, Jesus has been their advocate. He's been the very presence of God with them, even if they weren't fully aware of it at the time Jesus was making God known to them. And here he's saying that, "I'm leaving, but don't worry I'm going to stay with you forever through my Spirit."
Jesus is comforting them and us by promising us that the Holy Spirit will be with us, to advocate for us. And even though the disciples’ lives clearly will end, they're human. The Holy Spirit, he's here to stay. He's here to stay.
He's also saying that he's going to come live in them. Now, this is a completely new concept for the Jewish people who are following Jesus. These disciples, they're from a Jewish background, they follow Judaism and in the Old Testament when God comes to meet with his people he does so in a visitational form. He comes to temples, he comes briefly to prophets, to kings, or to judges and he visits his people, but he can't stay because there's no repair in the rupture of relationship between humanity and God.
So, he comes for brief times. So, they're in this mindset that God comes and visits, and if we see him we meet him in a temple. And here God is saying, now Jesus is saying, "No, guess what? I'm going to come live in you." No longer is God going to dwell in temples or visit, he is going to be a... We are going to become habitations of God. God is going to come dwell amongst us.
Now, we don't really understand this, because we enjoy the freedom to choose what we want to believe, but that is not so for the majority of believers around the world. For so many it costs family, and status, and safety, and tradition to follow Christ. And Jesus knows that. He knows the cost for his disciples, and he knows the cost that's coming for the rest of the world. And he says, "I'm going to adopt you by my Spirit into my family. And you're going to be a part of a family that never breaks up. Never breaks up."
20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
These are the last words that were recorded of Jesus in the book of Matthew. And what comforting words they are.
This demonstrates God's clear, full heart for us, that he has no desire that we'd navigate this life on our own. He is not interested in saving us and then saying, "Good luck, I'll see you in heaven."
2. Teach me how to know God.
2. Teach me how to know God.
25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
The reality of Christ's presence is real. Now, some of you might be saying, "Yeah, well, I don't feel like he's with me. I don't feel any less alone. I hear you say that, but I don't feel any different." Then I would say to you what I say to my teenagers when we have this question about experiencing and feeling God is, do you feel your blood pumping through your body and your organs?
Do you feel your bone marrow making new blood cells? Do you feel the synapsis connecting and firing in your brain as you're listening to me and processing what I'm saying? Do you feel your immune system fighting for you and keeping invaders away? No. But your body is beautifully and harmoniously working together for you making your body work so that you can sit here, stay sitting up, pay attention, give me eye contact, and listen. And that is the same with the Holy Spirit. He is animating your soul and your faith life. He is present regardless of whether you feel it or not.
Now, God is good and he wants you to feel it, and he wants to give you that experience for sure, but know that it's not dependent on whether you feel it in any given moment or not. God's truth of his presence with us is irregardless of whether we feel it or not.
So, first, God's promise of the Holy Spirit is to give us his presence forever. But secondly, it's to teach me to know God. It's to teach me to know how to know God. Teach me how to know God. John 14:26 says, "All this I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you."
Jesus is saying here that it's his job to teach us. It's his job to teach us. Even more so than your ministers and teachers. The Holy Spirit is our first teacher. Jesus is saying it is his responsibility to remind us of what? All things. That's a huge promise. All things about God. To remind us and to lead us into truth.
“For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
There are three primary ways that need to be a part of every believer's life. And they are scripture, prayer, and the family of God. Those three ways are primary ways that the Holy Spirit is always teaching us and training us in truth.
You are getting a 24/7 teaching, training lesson from culture. It's coming in through your phone all day long, it's coming in through your media. You are getting a 24/7 training course on postmodern, post-Christian culture every single day of your life. And now it could come into your bedroom at one in the morning.
So, if you and I are not regularly trained in understanding what scripture says, how God speaks, what he's like, what he values, what he loves, what he doesn't, then it'll be really difficult for us to be able to decipher truth from the lie.
3. Help me walk out my faith with God.
3. Help me walk out my faith with God.
The Holy Spirit helps me walk out my faith with God.
I want you to help me out. I want you to say this out loud. I want you to finish some phrases for me. These are familiar phrases, but I want you to say it out loud and finish these out with me. Are you ready?
God helps those who? (Help themselves)
If it's to be? (It's up to me.)
At the end of the day the only person you can count on is who? (Yourself)
That's the world's wisdom. The world says, "Look, if you're going to make it happen it's going to be up to you. You're going to have to go through this life on your own. You're not going to have anybody to help you. And God says, "No. No, I don't want you to go through life on your own. I want you to have a helper." And that's why he sent the Holy Spirit.
Look at this next verse:
7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.
This is a really unique verse, because this is Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit coming, the promise of the Holy Spirit coming and he said this very interesting thing. He said, "Look, it's to your benefit. It's better for you if I go away."
Well, what's better than Jesus? That doesn't make any sense at all. I mean, he's right there. And Jesus says, "It's better because the Holy Spirit will come, God's Spirit will come, my Spirit will come and live inside of you. And so, it's better if I go away so you can have a helper."
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
But first, the Holy Spirit is your comforter. That's one of the ways he helps, he's your comforter. When you're grieving, when you're heartbroken, when you're wounded and scared, or feeling anxious, or confused about life, he's there. He will comfort you. When you're feeling lonely his presence is there to comfort.
Loneliness is something that I understand quite a lot. I've felt alone for most of my life. I would be in crowds of people and I would feel alone. I'd be in a classroom and I would feel alone. I would be out with friends or at dinner and I would still feel alone. Even in my marriage I have felt loneliness. Now, that's not Amy's fault. She's my best friend, she's great. It's just, she can't be my everything.
But when I really understood who this person is, the Holy Spirit inside of me. That his job, one of his jobs is his presence to take away loneliness. And I started tapping into that. Loneliness doesn't stick to me like it used to. I feel his presence and I don't feel as alone.
Look at this next verse, Romans 15:13. It says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Will you circle that word overflow? "With hope by the power." Circle that word power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit gives you power to hope when you feel like there is no hope left in your circumstances. He gives you the power to have peace in the midst of the storm. He gives you joy. As a believer it's your right to have joy. He wants to give you all of these things if you trust him, if you follow him it's yours as a believer.
The second thing the Holy Spirit does, is he is your intercessor. Now, this word means a number of different things, but it primarily means that he intervenes on your behalf. Have you ever gotten to this place before in your prayer life where you just feel like, "I've just prayed everything. I've prayed, and I've prayed, and I don't know what else to pray." Have you ever been there?
Well, God says, "I have given you the Holy Spirit to help you pray." Look at Romans 8:26, "In the same way the Spirit also helps our weaknesses. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."
Now, this word groanings has a very interesting meaning, because it means a deep grief, a deep longing and it's the same word that's used for the intensity of childbirth and the pressure of childbirth. Now, every women here knows, that's given birth how intense that is. I will never forget Amy giving birth to all of our kids, all three of our kids, and I was in there helping her do this. Everything she was going through and I remember thinking, "Oh my goodness, I am not man enough to give birth. This is crazy."
When you're crying out to God, when you're pouring your heart out to him the Holy Spirit is praying with that kind of intensity. The intensity of childbirth for you. I've been in so many circumstances where I've been praying and praying, and I didn't know what to pray and I've wondered, "Are my prayers even getting past the ceiling?"
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
He is the ultimate prayer warrior on your behalf. All you got to do is say, "Holy Spirit, I don't know what to pray anymore." When you pray to the father. He's already doing it. He's already there doing it for you. So, when you get to the end of your rope in prayer he takes over. He's praying before the father.
The Holy Spirit is your helper is that he is your healer. The Holy Spirit is your healer. Throughout the Bible, God gives us many words to describe himself. These words to describe himself are for aspects of who he is and what his character is all about.
And one of the words that he describes himself is called Jehovah Rapha and it means the God who heals. Exodus 15:26 is where Jehovah Rapha is found. It says, "For I am the Lord who heals you." The Holy Spirit is God and he wants to do his healing work in your life, and he does it on multiple, multiple levels.
He heals you spiritually, he heals you emotionally, and he can heal you physically. He does on all three. And sometimes this healing is immediate. It happens right away. And sometimes he heals progressively over time, but throughout the Bible you see God healing his people.
26 He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”
4. Convict me of my need for God.
4. Convict me of my need for God.
The promise of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life is number four, is to convict me of my need for God. Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit in John 16:8.
8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. 10 Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. 11 Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.