The Holy Spirit is Your Advocate

The Glove

I trust that everyone had a good Easter holiday. The events leading up to Resurrection Sunday should be in our minds every year, if not several times per year. Lent is a time to meditate on Jesus, commitment, sacrifice, etc. To think of all that Jesus went through to secure our redemption is a healthy exercise.

Today, we turn to one of the promises Jesus made in his farewell address to his disciples. In it, he announced his departure, but also made the promise of the Holy Spirit.

And so what did He say in this large section about the third person of the Trinity? The Forgotten God, as Francis Chan calls him.

I have a glove here in my hand. The glove cannot do anything by itself, but when my hand is in it, the glove can do many things. True, it is not the glove, but my hand in the glove that acts. The Christian is a glove. It is the Holy Spirit in us, the hand, who does the work. We must make room for the hand so that every finger in the glove is filled and you can fulfill God’s purpose for your life.

Today and next week, I hope to introduce you to the Holy Spirit in a way that is instructive and refreshing. Today, I want to address the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

The reason for this is that we cannot understand the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood person in the Bible. I hear some call Him an “it.” Other times He is mistaken as a force. But He has a crucial position in our faith. We say each time that we recite the creed: “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” He is the third person of the Trinity, the Lord and Giver of Life, as the Nicene Creed teaches. [1]

We first discover that

I. IN LOVE, JESUS PROMISED US THE HOLY SPIRIT.

It is in the context of love, that Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit. Just as a survey, Jesus says in John 14:15-18

John 14:15–18 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

It is out of Fatherly love that Jesus defines what it means to love him, and the demonstration of his and the Father’s love by His generous provision of the Spirit in our lives. And notice the gift of the Spirit is not for the world at large, but for the church only. It is the Holy Spirit who bears spiritual fruit and Christlikeness in our lives. He is the cause and the grounds of Christian ethics and attitude. His indwelling power changes a person’s life and influences them to walk in God’s commandments.

To share some background with you, John 14 is a part of Jesus’ upper room discourse. This section begins in chapter thirteen and carries through most of chapter 17. Within this section, Jesus mentions the Holy Spirit several times.

The Greek word is παράκλητος, which means “Helper, Intercessor. The Greek term is made of two words: “para” or “alongside of” and “kaleo,” which means “to call.” It is the idea of helping. This “helping” results in greater works of the gospel.

Jesus said that it is because of the Holy Spirit that the apostles would do “greater works than these,” (i.e. what they had done with Jesus.). This implies greater in scale, involving more people. In the Spring of each year, we celebrate Pentecost, the day in which we recognize the gift of the Holy Spirit. We read of that day that Jesus foretold in Acts 1:8:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

When that day came, cloven tongues of fire lit on each one of the disciples and they spoke the word of God in foreign languages which they did not know- a miracle. After Peter’s sermon-explanation, recorded in Acts chapter two that 3,000 people came to faith in Jesus Christ and were baptized. Pentecost is often referred to as the birthday of the church.

Think about it. It was only by the Spirit of God that those who had abandoned Jesus; those who denied Jesus, later became His greatest spokespeople, would start a worldwide movement that still exists today, and would die for Him.

II. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS FOR YOU!

And the Holy Spirit was not just for the apostles, but He is for every person who follows the Lord Jesus. Interesting is how the Heidelberg Catechism, answers its question 53, “What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit?” Its answer:

“First, that he*, with the Father* and the Son is true and eternal God. Second, that he* is given to me, to make me share, by true faith, in Christ and all his blessings, to comfort me, and to remain with me forever.”

And so we see that the Holy Spirit was given for your sole benefit. In love, He comforts you, is present with you; He teaches you and facilitates your faith. He is the very presence of God. It is as if God, in the grand outworking of His design for your life, has given you someone to assist you throughout your walk of faith and service.

The Christian faith and life is filled with interactions with the Holy Spirit. The following are just to name a few:

· You are baptized into the Holy Spirit in Matthew 28:19.

· As a result, He indwells you (1 Corinthians 3:16).

· Your body is His temple and you are not your own (1 Corinthians 6:19).

· His seal is set upon you and the Spirit’s presence functions as a guarantee of your belonging to God (2 Corinthians 1:21).

· He is the bestower of every spiritual blessing in your life (Ephesians 1:3).

· He brings comfort into your life from God (Acts 9:31).

· He makes you a child of God (Romans 8:14);

· He leads you and upholds you in the spiritual warfare that is a part of everyday Christian living. Paul said: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16,18.

And He has a mission. Just as Jesus had a mission (to seek and save the lost; to serve and give His life as a ransom for many), so the Holy Spirit has a complementary one to Christ. Dennis Johnson states that He is

“…the divine Applier of the salvific benefits that Jesus Christ achieved for his people.”

B.B. Warfield, longtime professor at the then conservative Princeton seminary in the early 20th century called Him: “....the executive of the God-head.” (Dennis Johnson, “The Holy Spirit: New Creation-Power for God’s Redeemed People,” Theology for Ministry, Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 196)

I had the pleasure of interviewing a special education teacher several years ago. This person spends a lot of time with her students one on one. She will do anything with which they need assistance: helping them off the bus, taking them to special programs or assemblies, getting them involved in the classroom; helping them adapt to an integrative environment with kids who have full abilities;

And she is not easy on them. She helps them walk, but does not walk for them. She helps them communicate, but does not communicate for them. This instructor also teaches the other students around her student to be helpful and accepting.

And when her student is having a bad day, she encourages them; shows them affection. When they are separated, this teacher will send the student videos of herself saying hello. The student knows their teacher is their advocate and helper.

The results are wonderful. The child is able to learn with his peers. They have the ability to succeed and be another kid in a classroom full of kids. Because of the teacher, the student can attend a public school.

This interview reminds me that you and I are in need of a helper. In fact, without this helper, we could not live out the life God calls us to. None of us would be successful without the Holy Spirit.

He is your teacher, but He is also so much more. Dennis Johnson goes on to state that the

“...Old Testament prophets announced that the suffering and glory of the Messiah would bring the long-anticipated unleashing of the Holy Spirit in new-creation power to gather, fill, equip, grow, and glorify God’s redeemed people.” (Johnson, 197-198).

And so it was to our benefit that Jesus would return to His Father, so that the Holy Spirit would come into our lives. The Holy Spirit is immensely exciting and given to us out of the Fatherly love of Jesus.

III. ARE YOU FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT?

You can negatively impact the Spirit’s work in your life. For instance, the Holy Spirit

· He can be lied to, as is found in Acts 5:3: But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?” You cannot lie to a force.

· You can grieve Him (Ephesians 4:30) through unconfessed sin and living for yourself rather than for God. “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

· And you can knowingly quench or inhibit His work . When Christ is not given His rightful place in our worship or in your life. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Do not quench the Spirit.”

We do our best work when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. But the filling must be ongoing and daily. As someone once said: “We leak.” We must continually come before God and express our neediness.

This is a tremendous blessing. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was only available to prophets, priests and kings. And even that on a limited basis. Now, He is available 24/7 to all believers in Christ because Jesus makes Him available.

How does this relate to our Christian education and spiritual formation? He works through the Scriptures and applies them supernaturally to our lives.

The Holy Spirit brings every Christian to faith.

You and I could never find God on our own. It is the Spirit that drew you to faith in Christ and having heard the gospel, enabled you to respond in faith. Jesus said in John 3:8

John 3:8 ESV

8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Recently I was reading the story of Khodayar, a young Iranian man who came to faith in Christ. His family was devoted Muslim, but God used someone who was brave enough to give Khodayar a Bible and patiently answered his questions, showing a Christ-like love.

The story goes: “One of the first things Khodayar read about Jesus was how he restored sight to the blind. But he had a hard time believing that Jesus, if he were really God as Christians claimed could be both all-powerful and all loving, Khodayar had always viewed Allah as authoritarian and had even blamed him for taking his oldest son. When Khodayar eventually read John 10, in which Jesus describes himself as ‘the good shepherd’ whose sheep ‘follow him, for they know his voice,’ he was reminded of his own childhood as a nomadic sheepherder.

He remembered how deeply he cared for the sheep in his flock and how he slept in their pen when they were sick or injured. He recalled how the sheep in his care followed him wherever he went and could find their way to him even when they were lost among hundreds of other sheep.

Thinking of Jesus Christ as his ‘good shepherd’ helped Khodayar understand that Jesus loved him immensely, even more than he had loved his own sheep. In that moment, he saw God in a new light.

‘That night, all my fear was replaced by trust,’ Khodayhar said. ‘I was certain that these were God’s words- a letter from a father to his son, a letter to the lost sheep that is seeking a secure home. That night, God brought peace to my heart and I started talking to him.’

Khodayar felt as if God had reassured him that he didn’t take his son, Mohammad, but had sacrificed his only son to have a relationship with Khodayar and his family. ‘Since then the sorrow of losing my son has turned into a pleasant feeling of missing him with abundant love.’ Khodayar said. ‘If there is one God, this is who he is, and I believe in him.’

[1] https://www.ccel.org/creeds/nicene.creed.html. [2]H.H. Drake Williams III, ed. Caspar Schwenckfeld: Eight Writings on Christian Beliefs. (Kitchener, Ontario: Pandora Press, 2006), 109.