I Believe in the Holy Spirit

I Believe in the Holy Spirit – Manuscript John 16:4-15 Our Scripture this morning is from the Gospel According to John chapter 16 verses 4-15. This is in the second half of John’s Gospel Account. The first eleven chapters of John’s gospel, Jesus discloses himself in word and deed. He proclaims the truth about who he is and he demonstrates that with what he does. From chapter twelve onward, Jesus discloses who he is through his suffering on the cross and his resurrection. In chapters 14-17, Jesus is speaking to the disciples one final time. He begins by speaking to them the sad news that he will leave them but they won’t be orphans in chapter 14; he continues speaking to them about remaining in him and how that will cause them to go in the first half of chapter 15; then Jesus speaks to them about how the world will hate them because they hate him in the second half of chapter 15 and the first couple verses of chapter 16. We pick up where Jesus explains why it is to their benefit that he leave because then the Helper will come. I invite you to follow along as I read John 16:4-15. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 1 This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Prayer of Illumination: Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to use today. Amen. What we’ve been doing in worship for the past month, is we have been looking at the Apostles’ Creed. The Apostles’ Creed is one of the oldest confessions of faith in the Christian Church. It wasn’t written by the Apostles themselves but it is a summary of their teaching as found in Scripture. The Apostles’ Creed is a basic summary of what Christians of all nationalities, ethnicities, and denominations have always believed. This really is the basics of our faith. This morning we begin the third section of the Creed. The first section of the Creed speaks about God the Father; the second section of the Creed speaks about Jesus Christ and is the longest section of the Creed. The third section of the Creed deals with the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. This morning, we are going to examine John and see what he tells us about the Holy Spirit. We’ll see that he tells of who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit does, and then we’ll look at how we can participate in his work. Who the Holy Spirit Is The very first thing Jesus tells us is who the Holy Spirit is. In verse 7 Jesus says, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” The very first thing we should notice is the Holy Spirit is a person. This is something that is hard for us. We struggle with speaking about the Holy Spirit. And I think part of that has to do with the English language. In English, everything except men and women are inherently neuter. The pronoun we use for anything besides a person is “it”. This shirt I’m wearing is an “it”. This pulpit is an “it”. Occasionally, someone might name their car or their guitar and refer to it as a “she”. But that’s not standard. And when people do that, we often roll our eyes at them and think they’ve placed too much sentimentality on an item. And because of the way our language works, when we hear the word spirit we automatically want to use “it”. But the Holy Spirit is not an “it”. Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as he. That means the Holy Spirit is a person. One of my favorite movie series is Star Wars. My dad loves the movies and he shared his love of the movies with my brother and me. I always look forward to the new releases. In Star War there is this mystical thing called the Force. In Episode IV, Ben explains the Force as an “energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together”. In the movies, the Force is this impersonal thing that sustains, guides, and directs life. It is an “it”. The Holy Spirit is not the Force. The Holy Spirit is a knowable person. He is not some impersonal force of God as some have suggested. He is a person and as such it is inappropriate to refer to the Holy Spirit as an “it” or a force. We can actually know the Holy Spirit just as we can know God the Father or God the Son. He has a personality. You can’t know a force. I know that gravity is the force that keeps me from floating away but I can’t actually know gravity. Gravity isn’t a knowable person. But the Holy Spirit is. We are therefore to praise and worship him just as we do the Father and the Son. We see that the Holy Spirit is a person. But he is also called “the Helper”. That’s not necessarily a bad translation of the word but the Greek word there has a richer meaning. Some translations say “Counselor”, some say “Advocate”, some of the older ones say “Paraclete”. All of those help express who the Holy Spirit is. He is someone who is called to come alongside of us to help us, to counsel us, and to advocate for us. What Jesus is telling us is that even though he has returned to the Father it is for our benefit because we now have the Helper, we now have the Counselor. His ascension to heaven allows us to know the Holy Spirit as our helper and as our counselor. That is a good thing. Now that we’re seeing that the Holy Spirit is a person whom we can know and that he comes alongside to help us, to counsel us, to advocate for us. That sounds like the what a friend does. I have some amazing friends. Whenever I need help with something, I know that I can call them and they will help me as best they can. If I need counsel, they’ll counsel me as best they can. If I need someone to advocate for me, they will do that. The Holy Spirit is someone we can know as a friend. We can know him because he is a person and not a force. And because he is a person, he is our helper, our counselor, our advocate. But how does he do that? How does he help, counsel, and advocate for us? What the Holy Spirit Does Jesus tells us in verses 8-11 what the Holy Spirit does. He says, “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged”. What the Holy Spirit does is convict. The first thing we’re told he does is that Holy Spirit convicts concerning sin. This is probably a bitter pill for many of us to swallow. We don’t like the word convict. It’s along the lines as the word judgment. As a culture, we don’t like either of those ideas. But as we saw last week, judgment isn’t bad. We need God’s judgment of sin and evil so that we do not continue the cycle of violence and death. And the convicting work of the Holy Spirit is similar. Probably the single most popular genre of TV show is the “cop show”. Law and Order has been around since 1990, almost 30 years. It has spawned four different shows. If you don’t watch Law and Order, maybe it’s one of the CSI shows or Perry Mason or Sherlock. Those are popular shows. And when the good guys win in those shows, they get a conviction. The jury has heard the evidence, has found them guilty, and then the defendant is convicted of their crime. The good guys walk away thinking, “Job done”. And so often in these shows when someone is convicted, the D.A. or one of the cops makes a snarky one liner that makes it clear the person convicted is a bad boy, she is a bad girl. But when the Spirit convicts us, he isn’t saying, “Bad boy. Bad girl”. That’s not what he is saying. The convicting work of the Spirit is to move us away from our sinful behaviors and attitudes. It is a gracious thing. The convicting work of the Holy Spirit is meant to expose sin in us and cause us to weep over it. That is a gracious act. The Spirit also convicts concerning righteousness. His work here is to grow a believer in righteousness. Do you remember a couple of months ago we talked about Jesus as the true vine? Do you remember what said about that passage? We said that for us to grow, we need to remain in Jesus. And sometimes that growth isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s painful as our sinful behaviors and habits are exposed and cut away. That growth is possible because the Holy Spirit is convicting us concerning righteousness. He works in our lives to replace unrighteousness with righteousness. Probably the most dramatic example of the Spirit’s convicting concerning righteousness is found in the Apostles. Before the Spirit fell on the Apostles on Pentecost Sunday, they were regularly fought over who was more important. They even abandoned Jesus when they thought they might get hurt or die. But after they are filled with Holy Spirit, the Apostles boldly proclaimed Jesus’ death and resurrection, gladly taking the beatings because it meant they were becoming like Jesus. The Apostles stopped arguing over who was the most important. They were happy to work together for the proclamation of Jesus’ name, recognizing him as their king. The Holy Spirit was the one to change their unrighteousness for righteousness. He was convicting them concerning righteousness. The Holy Spirit’s convicting of righteousness in their lives actually impacted others; it convicted them of their sin. The Apostle Paul was arrested pretty regularly. And while he was arrested in Philippi, an earthquake shook open the cell. The Roman soldier thought all of the prisoners had escaped. And as he drew his sword to take his own life, the Apostle said, “We’re here. We haven’t left”. The righteousness that the Holy Spirit had cultivated in Paul convicted the soldier. He was amazed at how the Apostle Paul’s attitude while imprisoned and the conviction of Paul’s righteousness caused the soldier to want to know how he could live like that. Is the Spirit convicting you concerning righteousness? Is he cutting away sinful behaviors and habits in your life? Is he empowering you so that you live a righteous life? Does the righteousness he is cultivating in you cause others to wonder how they could live like you? Or does your life look the same as it did five years ago? Ten years ago? Twenty years ago? The Spirit also convicts concerning judgment. The Spirit causes conviction in peoples’ hearts that Satan has been judged and that he has been defeated. When the Spirit causes newness of life in a person, when they come to faith, begins showing them that the ruler of this world, Satan, has been judged and defeated. Where was he judged? Where was he defeated? At the cross, Jesus’ death shows that the world has been judged. It has been judged for their sin and evil and God’s judgment is death. There at the cross on Calvary’s hill, Jesus Christ showed that the judgment against sin, evil, and the world is death. Either his death or the death of the world. The Spirit convicts those who are in Christ that Satan has been judged for his lies. The Holy Spirit tells us that if we are in Christ, Satan no longer has any claim on our lives. Satan has been judged at the cross and he has been defeated by Christ’s resurrection. The final thing that Jesus tells us what the Holy Spirit does is found in verses 13-15. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” We’re told that the Spirit reminds us what Jesus has said. One theologian put it like this that the Holy Spirit is like a floodlight. He writes: When floodlighting is well done, the floodlights are so placed that you do not see them; you are not in fact supposed to see where the light is coming from; what you are meant to see is just the building on which the floodlights are trained. The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not be seen for the darkness, and to maximize its dignity by throwing all its details into relief so that you see it properly. This perfectly illustrates the Spirit’s new covenant role. He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight shining on the Savior.2 The Holy Spirit doesn’t draw attention to himself. He’s not in the corner jumping up and down saying, “look at me, look at me”. The Holy Spirit is always pointing us back to Jesus. He is reminding us, “This is what Jesus said. This is what Jesus did”. He is a floodlight illuminating Jesus Christ. He shines brightly on Jesus so that we can see him in high definition; so that we see Jesus in all of his glory and perfection. So when someone comes and says, “The Holy Spirit is telling me this” examine it against Scripture. Does what that person claims the Holy Spirit is telling them line up with Scripture? Does it match Jesus’ words? If it doesn’t agree with Scripture, then that isn’t the Holy Spirit speaking to them. That’s their own thoughts, their own desires, their own wishes. Or it’s Satan posing as an angel of the light. The Spirit only tells us what is in accord with Scripture. He only illuminates Jesus Christ. How We Participate In His Work So how do we participate in this work? Three thoughts. Read, pray, and fellowship. First, we need to spend time daily in Scripture. As we examine Scripture, we learn who God is and his ways. As we read, the Spirit convicts concerning sin and righteousness. I can’t tell you how often that I’ve been reading and the Holy Spirit has spoken to me and convicted me. I’ll be reading and he’ll convict my heart to see an area that doesn’t line up with God and his ways. As we are reading, the Spirit will cause us to see Jesus in all his glory and how unrighteousness is in this part of our lives. As he does that, he will begin the process of removing those sinful behaviors and habits. Second is pray. Praying is like reading. While prayer is mostly a one-way conversation between us and God, occasionally during our prayers the Spirit causes us to remember something in Scripture. He might cause us to reflect on a particular passage we read. But most certainly and without doubt, during prayer the Holy Spirit helps us fix our minds and hearts of Jesus Christ. That isn’t always easy. Christ is not physically present among us. It’s not easy to talk to someone you cannot see. But with the Holy Spirit’s help, we can turn our attention to Jesus as we pray. Third is fellowship. While the Holy Spirit does cause us to grow through our own personal Scripture reading and prayer, the place we grow the most is in fellowship of other believers. Jesus tells us that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there. And he is there through the Holy Spirit. As we spend time with them in corporate study of God’s Word and prayer, fellow believers empowered by the Holy Spirit can speak into our lives. They can speak to us concerning a sin in our lives. While that isn’t always easy, it is necessary. It’s often easier for others to see sin patterns in our lives than for us to see those same patterns and behaviors. And empowered by the Holy Spirit, they can graciously and loving convict us. But they can also speak encouraging words, counseling us in our time of need. This happens as we fellowship with other believers. The Holy Spirit is a person. Know him. As you know him, he will speak to you. He will speak to you convicting concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. He will also speak to you what Jesus has taught and done. Let us pray.