Holy Spirit, show us Jesus.
Prayers on the Road to Glory • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Warren Brosi
March 16, 2025
Dominant Thought: Holy Spirit, show us Jesus.
Objectives:
I want my listeners to understand the actions of the Holy Spirit.
I want my listeners to feel encouraged by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
I want my listeners to pray, “Holy Spirit, show us Jesus.”
There’s a reason we learn our ABC’s and 123’s before we read and do addition and subtraction. Students are ready to read until they can recognize letters. A good teacher will start with the basics before moving to more complex concepts. We learn numbers before we add and subtract. We add and subtract before we multiply and divide. Then, we eventually learn the order of operations: Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction.
Jesus says in John 16.12, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can bear.” He’s been the Master Teacher with his disciples for three years. He’s challenged them, told them stories, giving them an example like washing their feet. He’s told them about the challenge that awaits in Jerusalem and that he would be betrayed. The hearts of the disciples are heavy. There’s more to say, but they are ready yet. In John 14, Jesus even opens this long section of teaching by saying, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled...” Later to bookend this section of teaching, we read John 16.33, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart I have overcome the world.”
Within the bookends of all this trouble, Jesus tells His disciples a Helper or Comforter will come.
For our time today, I want to read John 15.26-16.15, and focus in on John 16.12-15.
As we look at John 16.12-15, we discover three ways the Holy Spirit helps followers of Jesus. Remember one of the ways we become better followers of Jesus is becoming Spirit-filled. Let’s learn about the ways the Holy Spirit helps us.
1-The Holy Spirit guides us into all the truth (John 16.13). He is called the Spirit of truth. He is not a liar. Jesus called the devil a liar and the father of lies (John 8.44). In John 16.11, Jesus speaks about the devil when he says, “the prince of this world now stands condemned.”
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
Later when Pilate interrogates Jesus, Pilate will ask, “What is truth?” (John 18.38).
Craig Koester writes:
The Word of Life: A Theology of John’s Gospel The Spirit as Advocate
Truth is communicated in order to free people from bondage to sin (8:32), to awaken authentic worship of God (4:23–24), and to shape actions that are truly life-giving (3:21).
We live in a world that desperately needs the truth. For many, truth is what they decide is right. Truth is found inside. People say something like it’s true for you, but not for me. Frank Turek gives a good example in a video on the one-minute apologist (see video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpthujJFozc). He suggests, you go to your bank and ask the teller that you want to withdraw $100,000.00 from your bank account. The teller pulls up your account and it lists $47.16. Will the teller let you withdraw $100,000.00? No. But the person could reply, “Hey, that’s true for you, but not for me. Give me the $100,000.00.” You are not walking about of that bank with $100k because it is not true that you have that amount. It does not correspond to reality. Truth corresponds to reality.
In this world of gender identity confusion, fake news, biased journalism, it can be difficult to find the truth. The Holy Spirit will guide us to the truth that is found in Jesus. The Holy Spirit will guide us to the truth found in His book, the Bible. He inspired the word of God.
If you are in a situation where you need answers, guidance, and direction. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth.
2-The Holy Spirit announces the good news (John 16.13-15).
Three times in John 16.13-15, we encounter the word in NIV, “tell” (John 16.13) or “make known” (John 16.14-15). It is the same word translated differently by the NIV. The English Standard Version translates is “declare” in all three verses. It is the word where we get our word, “angel.” An angel is a messenger or one who announces a message. So, the Holy Spirit announces or declares the good news of Jesus.
In John 16.13, the Holy Spirit will declare to the disciples the things that are to come. People have gone so far as to connect it to predicting the future. It may be better understood as the Holy Spirit will connect the dots on what will soon happen to Jesus. Jesus will be crucified, buried, and raise from the dead. Jesus will ascend on high as King, and the Holy Spirit will lead the followers of Jesus into the future. The Holy Spirit will announce, declare, disclose, the gospel of Jesus. He will declare the good news of Jesus. Jesus will go away to prepare a place for His people, but He will return as King.
The Holy Spirit will take what belongs to Jesus and declare it to His people. The Holy Spirit speaks.
“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 will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), was a man of deep personal conviction who prayed this simple prayer each day of his life:
Grant me, O Lord my God,
a mind to know you,
a heart to seek you,
a wisdom to find you,
faithful perseverance in waiting for you,
and a hope of finally embracing you. (Quoted in The Disciple’s Mind by Chad Ragsdale and Daniel McCoy, p. 18).
3-The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus (John 16.14).
In John 17, Jesus tells the Father that He brought Him glory by finishing the work He was sent to do (John 17.4). Jesus asks the Father to glorify the Son (John 17.5). And here in John 16.14, we see the Holy Spirit glorifying Jesus.
To glorify is a worship term. We give glory or honor to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit above everything else. At a well in Samaria, Jesus meets with and befriends a woman who’s had five husbands and isn’t married to the man she’s living with. She turns the conversation toward worship and Jesus shares what kind of worship the Father seeks.
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
Later on in the story, Jesus shares about the Holy Spirit like living waters.
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
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.
The Holy Spirit will come on the believers of Jesus after Jesus ascended into heaven. Acts 2 describes that event. We believe the Holy Spirit lives inside and dwells with followers of Jesus at baptism based on Acts 2.38.
Earlier, the prophet Isaiah describes the coming of the Spirit.
This is what God the Lord says— the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:
“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
“I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.
See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”
What would it look like for the body of Christ to glorify Jesus. What would it look like to care for those who are blind and captive. To care for those living in darkness. To live lives with no idols. Could that new life start in New Berlin and Pleasant Plains, Loami, Ashland, and Springfield and Jacksonville.
Augustine (354-430) wrote, “What the soul is in our body, the Holy Spirit is in the body of Christ, which is the church” (quoted by Francis Chan in Forgotten God, p. 141). We need the Holy Spirit. We value the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Will you pray this week, “Holy Spirit, show us Jesus.” And when you pray, the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. He will announce the good news of Jesus. He will glorify Jesus. And we can partner with him to share that truth, announce that truth, and live that truth for the glory of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
