Trinity Sunday - The Spirit that Reminds Us

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, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

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How much can we bear?

How much can we bear? How much can we take responsibility for in the mission that Christ gives us? Many people have said that God never gives us more than we can handle, which is not a bible verse. In fact, there are many verses that show and tell just the opposite. God often gives us more than we can bear ourselves. The task is always more than we can do. That keeps us humble enough to recognize our part and what we have to offer, as well as God’s part in equipping us to serve and providing resources for the work ahead. When it becomes “my own ministry” that I run, manage, or attempt to save, I can expect trouble and frustration ahead as God reminds me who is really in charge. I know there's this thing called the Holy Spirit. Some people talk about it like it is a feeling. Others claim it takes them over, leaving them with no control over the words they say and the things they do. There are those who believe that the Holy Spirit went out of style when the Bible was written and that God does not use it anymore. Many others point to the Holy Spirit as the thing we follow instead of the Bible, as if it was a replacement connection between us and God. We are not looking for a middle ground between all of this, hoping that by missing the extremes, we might accidentally land on the truth. The truth of God’s Holy Spirit and its work in us is much simpler. The Holy Spirit reminds and guides us to the teachings of Jesus as we grow ready to receive them.

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Guiding into All Truth

Jesus taught that the role of the Holy Spirit begins as it guides us into all truth. Three years was not enough. Jesus recognized that himself when He told the disciples that there was much more that He wanted to teach them. There was not enough time. That is not surprising when you consider that Jesus was teaching them how to live in His eternal kingdom and giving them a head start here in this world. They probably already felt like they were drinking from a firehose in those weeks after the resurrection. Now Jesus was handing the stewardship of the whole kingdom responsibility over to them. It would have felt overwhelming. I think it may have been comforting to hear Jesus affirm that it was more than they could bear, and even more uplifting to know that He was giving them help. The Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that He carried with Him, was going to guide them into all truth. Not just a few more truths. All truth. Change was happening, no matter what the disciples thought or felt. 1000 years of Temple-centric worship was about moved forever to anywhere and everywhere, and no one thought that was a good idea, nor did they care to look back and realize that it was God’s idea from the beginning. Like Jonah, God was leading them straight to the heart of Nineveh, only for the disciples, it was the heart of the Roman Empire. And everywhere else. There was a plan and the Holy Spirit was going to guide them one step at a time. Worship location was one of many other changes that would happen across the world and across time and the Holy Spirit was leading according to God’s plan in scripture, building upon the foundation that Jesus laid. Even more incredible, the Spirit led those early disciples in different works simultaneously. As with a human body, the foot does not always know what the hand is doing, but they depend upon each other to do their work well, to keep us balanced, moving, safe, and growing. The Spirit stands above us all and guides us like a compass to those teachings of Jesus as we need to receive them. The direction, North, does not change. How we get there could be different for each of us depending on where we stand. Truth does not change, but what we do with it may differ. The Holy Spirit acts like a compass for us to guide us to the truth like a compass guides a person north. The same Holy Spirit guides us today and you and I are called to be part of the same unfolding plan of God that Jesus called the disciples to carry out into the world. The Holy Spirit reminds us of all the things that Jesus taught. It reminds us of all that God did in the Old Testament. It helps us to see the connections between all of the Bible and then leads us in ways of carrying out the same work that flows from that work today.

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Declaring the Truth

We all have the task of discerning the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God and the gifts it brings do not belong to us as individuals. It moves and works through the Church, the Body of Christ, like the glue that holds us together in love with God and each other. Scripture gives us a wealth of direction and examples, both good and bad, but there are specific situations that fall outside of direct answers in the Bible. There are two dangerous temptations we face in this discernment work and both come from trying to do the interpretation ourselves. The first danger is taking the approach that if it is not in scripture then God does not care about the situation. This is untrue. Most of the nations in the world, including our own, did not exist in biblical times, and yet we know God cares for us very much. The second danger is that we follow the guidance that we think is the Holy Spirit, which leads us away from Scripture. This is perhaps the challenge of our age because we look for easy answers and immediate gratification. Not all the words in the Bible are meant to teach us exactly the same way. Some parts are historical records. Just because someone did something in the Bible does not mean God wants us to do it too. There are many bad examples that the Bible tells us not to follow if we read enough to see that. Sometimes, the role of the Spirit, working through our scripture reading, is the encouragement to read a little bit more before we make that decision or compare it to another passage the Spirit may bring to mind. The Holy Spirit declares truth to us like a messenger from Jesus. We must learn to recognize His Word when the Spirit speaks to us.

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Sharing the Truth

The Holy Spirit does not speak on its own. It shares what it is given by Jesus. Jesus shares all He is given from God the Father. Today’s passage is one of the scriptures that we read to better understand God as the Holy Trinity: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons, but one God. It is one of the more challenging beliefs we have as Christians, one that many of us honestly choose to say we believe without really understanding it. And for good reason. There are aspects of what it means for God to be three-in-one that we may never fully understand. But that does not mean it does not matter. In our social media, we share things all the time that do not belong to us. With the click of a button, we can share an entire church service or we can share gossip about someone else and broadcast it out to anyone and everyone we know. In the days before the internet, it used to be a little more difficult to spread gossip quite as far and as fast as we can today. The internet creates a connection between us all, as much as we choose to use that connection. Jesus claimed that all truth comes from God the Father and Creator of everything. However, God is Holy and our sin and brokenness keep us from being connected with Him. God wants to share everything with us, but we cannot bear it on our own. There is too much darkness in us. So God sent Jesus into our world to make a way, to build a bridge back to Him. As Jesus formed relationships with the disciples, He shared the truth that He had brought from God the Father. But He could not share everything. When He left, He sent the Holy Spirit to lead us across that bridge, one step at a time. All the wisdom of God is there to be shared with us because God is three-in-one and invites us to be in relationship with Him. And God, like the Good Father, gracious Lord, and perfect teacher, gives us exactly what we need, at just the right time, so that we grow closer to Him with each step we take.

Have you heard the Spirit of God speaking to you through the scriptures? When you hear Him calling, do you listen or do you turn away? What truth is God trying to share with you today? God is sharing with you, declaring truth to you, and leading you to live it out if you will listen and follow in faith.

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