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Lord, thank you for your blessings to us so far as we've gathered here to worship. I just pray for your continued anointing and blessing on the rest of the service. Pray for Ivan as he ministers to us. Pray that Holy Spirit would speak through him to each one of us present here today in a way that honors you. In Jesus name, Amen.
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Amen. Thank you, wilson. So I'm going to take a little pastoral liberty here and I'm going to move down here because with the front of the church being empty, I feel really far away when I'm up there. So I'm going to share from down here this morning. It's been good to be here and I enjoy singing and hearing a little bit about why people choose songs and just been good to be reminded of the truth of God's word in that way. This morning I want to ask you, if somebody was to ask you who is the Holy Spirit? What would come to your mind if you were to describe who is the Holy Spirit and what does the Holy Spirit do? What is the ministry of the Holy Spirit? And understand that we could spend the rest of the morning answering those questions, but just to think a little bit about who the Holy Spirit is. And this morning what I'd like to do in our, in our study together is go through. We're going to look at a large section of scripture, but we're actually going to only read a little bit of it. And we're looking at John 14, 15 and 16, the night before Jesus died in the upper room discourse. He's there with his disciples and they want to follow him. And he's telling them, I'm going to leave, I'm going to go away. And they are distraught and they are confused and they don't know what's going to happen. They're overwhelmed. And then come these chapters 14, 15 and 16. And I will put the verses we're going to study up on the screen. But if you would open your bibles to John 14, 15 and 16 so you can see the context of what we're going to talk about. And these are some of the most well known and just loved chapters of the Bible. So there's things like don't let your heart be troubled. He's telling them, I'm going to go away, I'm going to prepare a place for you. He tells them he is the way, the truth and the life. He says, ask anything in my name and I'm going to do it. He says, if you love me, you're going to Keep my commandments. He says, I'm going to give you my peace. He says, I'm the vine and you are the branches. Abide in me. He tells us we are to love each other, that we're his friends. Then he says the world is going to hate us because we are his disciples. And he says, in the world you're going to have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. So those are all the themes in those, in those chapters here. But the things that I didn't point out is how Jesus is teaching about who the Holy Spirit is. That's woven through all of those things. And none of the things that he talks about in those chapters would be possible or make sense without the coming, without the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so I'd like to look at what Jesus is teaching his disciples here today. Now that we are on the other side where he has given us His Holy Spirit. Let's see what he told his disciples, who the Holy Spirit was going to be and what his ministry was going to be. And I hope that today we can just be. Well, maybe if it's just for me, that's okay, but just a little more tuned into the Holy Spirit, aware of who he is and what he's doing and thankful that God has given us His Holy Spirit. So that's the intent to walk through that this morning. Like I said, keep your Bibles open there. And I will read through certain the passages where Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit. And again, we're not going to read a lot of Scripture, but we're going to try to look at what is Jesus telling us here? What can we learn about the Holy Spirit and who he is? So we're going to pick up in John 14, verses 16 through 18, and I will pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. So this is the first of about four little sections here that we're going to look at to learn about the Holy Spirit. The first thing I want us to note here is Jesus is saying, I will pray the Father, he's going to give you another comforter. And just note the word he, that he may abide with you. And what I would like to be real clear about is that the Holy Spirit is a person. He is a person of the Godhead. He is part of the Trinity. And so he's spoken about in that way that he is going to come. This is noted in. I just want to highlight a few verses that clarify that the Holy Spirit is God and is part of the trinity. In Matthew 28, what's called the Great Commission, he says, go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So just to be very clear that there is one God in three persons. The Father, the Son, and. And the Holy Spirit. And this is also highlighted in First Corinthians 3:16, where it talks about that we are the temple of God because the Holy Spirit lives in us. So Scripture is really clear that the Holy Spirit is God. And I want to spend some time clarifying that because there are groups who deny this. So if you ever talk to Jehovah's Witness, they would not believe in the deity of the Holy Spirit. Mormons do not recognize the deity of the Holy Spirit. And sometimes I think it can be easy to just. We don't really mean it, but sometimes it can almost be language of almost instead of he kind of it that it can be a little. The Holy Spirit can be a little mysterious. But I want to be real clear that this is the person of God. It is he, and he is at work. I like this quote from R.A. torrey. I think it's important. He said, if we think of the Spirit as a force or a power, we'll likely ask, how can we get more of it? But if we think of him as a person, we'll ask, how can he have more of me? How can he have more of me? So again, as we think about the Holy Spirit and God sending him, this is a person that we are to give ourselves to, to follow. Another thing I want us to notice in this is Jesus is saying, I'll pray the Father and he's going to give you another comforter. And this is interesting. The word here doesn't mean, like, there's one type of comforter and now God is going to change it out for a different type of comforter. It actually means like the same. So Jesus is here and he is working and he's going to leave to go to heaven and God is going to send the Holy Spirit, who is the same that is going to continue that same ministry, yet in a different way. So I think it's important that we note the word another. The next thing I'd like us just to note here is the word for comforter. And this can mean all kinds of different things, but in general, I will try to boil it down. It has the idea of when somebody is called to your side and that person is called to your side, often to help, to give you comfort and to help, to give you strength. But it also could mean, like in these days, if you would go to court, you could pick somebody and not think more than lawyer. You could pick anybody in these days, just somebody that had a good reputation and say, I need to go to court. Would you come stand with me? And you can speak to me, and you can also speak on my behalf. You could essentially vouch for me. And so this word is very interesting for comforter. It's used four times here in John 14, 15 and 16, and it's used one other time in 1 John 2. So every time this word is used, it's always John. I'll read how it's translated in 1 John 2:1. My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous. So in 1 John, it's translated advocate. And depending on what translation you read, you may see words like comforter, advocate, counselor, or helper, because it carries such a broad, broad meaning. So when you think about the Holy Spirit, think about those terms comforter, advocate, helper, and counselor. So that is who the Holy Spirit is. He's the comforter. And also note that he is described as the spirit of truth. So I want to just highlight again, who is the Holy Spirit that is going to come. He is the comforter, the helper, the advocate, the counselor. And he is the spirit of truth. So the Holy Spirit always points to truth, leads the truth, speaks the truth, and think about how wonderful this is when who is the devil? He's a liar. He's the father of lies. He's an accuser, He's a slanderer. He deals in deception and lies. And the Spirit of God is the spirit of truth. So this is who the Holy Spirit is. He's a comforter, helper, advocate, counselor, and he is the spirit of truth. So I want to back up just a little bit here and note a couple things now about the ministry. So we talked about who he is, and from here on we'll look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit doing in your world, in the world today and in your life? So I want us just to note a few things here. In 16 he says, I'll pray the Father he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. So Jesus is about to leave, but the Holy Spirit lives with us eternally. And then in 17 he says, he dwells with you and shall be in you. So the Holy Spirit is given to be with us forever, not only just with us, but in us. And I don't think that we can hardly grasp how radical this is, because in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was active, but he would come onto people for a certain time for something that they needed to do. And it was much more of a for this time only. And now the Holy Spirit is coming to live in us forever. It's incredible. In the Old Testament you have people who were to build the tabernacle. The, the Holy Spirit came for a time. Gideon, Samson, Ezekiel, the prophets. And now God is saying, I'm coming to live with you and in you. So I want us just to note a couple of the promises here. The Holy Spirit is going to be with us forever. He's going to dwell with us, and he's going to be in us those three promises about the Holy Spirit. One other thing to note here where, where he has the word abide in 16 and dwell in 17. That is all the same word that's translated abide. When you get into chapter 15, where we're to dwell with God. And so this all starts by God dwelling in us and abiding in us. And then we're invited to dwell and abide in Him. So those are the promises of this section. So now again, we've looked at who he is, and we'll start filling in what his ministry will be. So the first thing I want us to note is that he lives with and in me forever. If we've surrendered our life to Jesus and are born again, the Holy Spirit lives with and in me forever. All right, let's jump forward in chapter 14. And again we're. From here on, we'll be looking at the ministry of the Holy Spirit and, and what he does. Verse 26. But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance. Whatsoever I have said unto you, peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither Let it be afraid. So I want to just note a few things here in these verses that the Holy Spirit is sent in my name. And so he is representing Jesus to us and to the world. What do we note that he's going to do? One of the first things it calls out is that he is going to teach. That he will teach you all things and also bring all things into remembrance. So think about the disciples. They had just spent three years with Jesus. And a lot of what Jesus was doing is teaching. He was teaching people. And Jesus is saying, I'm going away. But now the Holy Spirit will be the one teaching and leading people into truth. And the Holy Spirit does that in our life. He speaks truth to us. He teaches us what we know. He does this a lot of different ways, but one of the primary ways he does that is as we read God's word. Who is the author of Scripture? The Holy Spirit. As we read God's Word, the Holy Spirit illuminates. It gives us understanding and can know who Christ is and he can speak to us. Then. So there's the teaching aspect. And he will bring all things to remembrance. So what does it mean that the Holy Spirit brings all things to remembrance? I guess if you're in school, you could maybe misread this and think, well, I don't have to study my Bible memory that hard because the Holy Spirit's just going to bring it to remembrance. That's not what he's talking about here. Specifically for the disciples. They were going to write the New Testament. And so that is one of the things that he's saying, is that I'm going to have you remember everything you need to know to write the New Testament. But I think it also applies to all of us. How often in life have you been facing a situation and God brought a verse or something to your remembrance that you needed at that time that you know, you can probably all think of some way that God met you in a very personal way. That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He brings His Word to remembrance and applies it to our heart. So he's going to teach us. He's going to bring to remembrance the things that Christ has said. So continuing to fill in our chart of his ministry beyond living with and in me forever, he will teach me and he will bring all things to my remembrance. Now flip Forward through Chapter 15. Almost at the end, we're going to read a couple of verses there about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, Even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning. The next thing we see about the Holy Spirit is he is going to testify about Christ. And the concept of testifying is just the picture of a witness. If you call somebody to the stand and say, hey, what happened? And the Holy Spirit will testify about Christ and will always point people to Christ and to the truth of who he is. Now, if that's what the Holy Spirit does, and we're walking in the power of the Spirit, he will also lead us to testify about Christ and to share that message. And when we do that, we can know the Holy Spirit will also be testifying and saying, this is true. This is who Christ is. So again, adding to his ministry is that he bears witness to Christ. Now we're going to flip forward to the last section we'll look at in chapter 16. There's a little bit of a longer section here about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now read these verses. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin, because they believe not in me of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them. Now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that he shall speak. And he will show you the things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. Okay, so let's go back to the top here. And again, what is the passage teaching us about the ministry and the work of Jesus? He starts out by saying, I'm telling you the truth. I'm going to go away. And this is for your good. And if you are anything like me, whenever your mom and dad would start a phrase that way, look, trust me, this is for your good. You knew that it it probably was going to be, but it meant that it was going to be difficult in the moment. And so Jesus, I think, is just recognizing the disciples are at this point, they are discouraged and down he says, look, it's actually going to be to your benefit that I go away. And I want to continue to explain how this is going to be to your benefit. So one of the ways it's to our benefit is Jesus had to die to make us right with God and think about the physical ministry of Jesus Israel teaching. Now the Holy Spirit is present everywhere, teaching, convicting, working, changing, and it is to our benefit. So then he goes on in verse 8 and talks about more what he's going to do. So the first thing is he's going to reprove or convict of sin, righteousness and judgment. Now this is. This is kind of one of these sections that's a little bit hard to get a hold of, of what exactly is the Holy Spirit going to do? So the first thing is reprove or convict. He's going to come and bring things to the light. And again, if we're here this morning, we've all experienced the Holy Spirit working in our heart and convicting in his grace, just shining the light in her heart and saying that this isn't right. This is not what should be. That is one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin. So of sin, the sin here he says, because they believe not in me. So the sin is not believing in Christ. And believing Christ is the only way to actually deal with sin. So the Holy Spirit works in my life and reveals sin. Then he talks about convicting of righteousness. And this could mean a lot of different things, but one of the ways he's talking about it is Christ is going to go to heaven and he is going to. The Holy Spirit's ministry is to convict people that Jesus is the standard of righteousness. But also what does the Holy Spirit do in the life of believers? He not only convicts of sin, but he bears witness that we are born again, right? That we are righteous, that if God has taken our sins away, then we're righteous. So the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, but he also convicts of righteousness. And then the last thing he does is convicts of judgment and that we still see Satan working in the world, but he is a defeated foe. And the Holy Spirit moves in people's hearts in such a way that reminds us that we will. We are accountable to God. There is coming a judgment day. So I'm very grateful for the work of the Holy Spirit, convicting of sin, of righteousness and judgment in my life and in all of our lives. Then moving ahead to verse 12, he says, I've got a lot to tell you, but you can't bear it or you can't carry it right now. I have a good friend who I was with, and he was talking about how they relate to their children and some of the questions that come up. Because children will ask you things that you may need to give an answer for, but they're not really ready to hear the whole thing. And so the phrase that they would say is, hey, we'll talk about that someday, but you're not really ready to carry it right now. Like, that's a topic that you can't carry right now. And so Jesus is knowing the disciples is saying, I've got a lot to tell you. You can't carry it right now. You're not really ready for it. But. But look at this in 13, though. When he comes, when the Spirit of truth comes, he's going to guide you into what? How much truth, all truth he's going to guide. And so I want us just to catch this, that this is still how the Holy Spirit works today, that there are times where God is always teaching us and guiding us into truth that we are ready for. You know, it's not, again, using the analogy of a parent. It's not like I sat down Caden at 6 years old and said, caden, today I'm going to tell you everything that you need to know for life. And I want you to get it today. The Holy Spirit works in us in the same way. He knows where we're at and he guides us bit by bit with what we can handle, but he will guide us into all truth. And that is the promise that he's saying here about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And how do we know he's going to guide us into truth? Because he doesn't have his own agenda. He's not speaking on his own. Whatever he hears that he's going to speak, so he knows the word of God and what he hears from Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit is going to teach us and he's going to lead us into truth. So I have a question. Does the idea of the Holy Spirit guiding us into all truth, does that make anybody uncomfortable at all? Or does anybody say, yes, that's true, but I can point to examples where maybe people got a little off the rails with this concept. Am I the only one that at times wonders, what do we do with that? That God promises the Holy Spirit is going to guide you into all truth? And yet we can all probably point to examples of where maybe this was super highlighted. And sometimes you're like, well, how did that end up where it did? One of the things that I just want to say about that is let's not minimize who the Holy Spirit is, what he does, and the promise of God just because we may have seen people misapply it. Let's not minimize or ever sell, you know, stop short of that. Often I think when people get off track with this promise, one of several things happen. One is there is a diminishing of the Word of God. And I know I'm speaking kind of broadly, but often if people say the Holy Spirit is going to guide me into all truth, that's all I need. There can be a diminishing of the Word of God. And then I think we're in danger of getting off track because the Word of God is written by the Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit is going to always lead us into the Word and will never contradict the Word. So that's one of the things that can happen. The other thing I think can happen is sometimes we can take this in a very personal way that, you know, it's just me and God and I don't really need a body. And if we minimize the body of Christ, then I think we're at risk of ending up somewhere that we shouldn't with this. But at the end of the day, God promises through His Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. He often does it through His Word and He does it through his church. So an amazing promise to guide us into all truth. Then I want us to note here the last thing is that in verse 13 he says, I'm going to show you something. In 14 I'm going to show you something. And in 15 I'm going to show you something again. This is hard to understand, but in 13 he says, I'm going to show you things to come. And we all have examples of people where God has given the ability to look ahead and to see things. And he doesn't give us all the details. But it is not uncommon for God to give somebody insight into the future. And that is the ministry of the Holy spirit. Then in 14 he says that the Holy Spirit will always glorify Jesus and that he shall receive of who Jesus is. And that's what he's going to show. So the Holy Spirit is always working and applying who Jesus is in your life. He's always revealing who Jesus is, and he's working that into your heart. And that's what he's showing us in 14, and then in 15, Jesus was given all things. You know, think about Colossians, where it talks about who Jesus is and the Holy Spirit shows us that as well, reveals that to our hearts. So I'd like to, I guess, go back to our chart here that looks at who Jesus is and what his ministry is. So in this passage, we talked about Jesus, how he convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit will guide me into all truth and he will show us things to come, and he will show us Christ's glory and all that he is. So again, this is an overview of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in John. There's a lot of the New Testament we didn't get into, but I wanted us just to see and have a foundation for the ministry of the Holy Spirit and how it works with the ministry and who Jesus is and how it's really continuing that work in our hearts. So I guess just looking at this and standing back and wrapping this up, when you look at who the Holy Spirit is, I'm thankful for everything that he does. But in closing, I'd like you just to think a little bit about who he is, that he's revealed himself as the comforter, our helper, our advocate, our counselor, and the spirit of truth. That's who he is. And so where you're at this morning, whatever you're facing, is there a certain part about who the Holy Spirit is that you need to be reminded of that you know the comforter? Maybe you're going through something very difficult. And the word comfort does talk about what we think of as like caring for sadness, but in scripture, it also is a giving of strength. Isn't that awesome that it's a like the Holy Spirit gives us his strength to face what we need. Helper. Maybe you look at where you're at and help, Lord, I need help or an advocate. We all have an enemy that is coming with temptation that is going to be speaking. He's going to be slandering you every which way this week. And do you need to be reminded of your advocate of who Jesus is and who you are in Christ or the counselor or the spirit of truth? I just need guidance and need to know what to do. So this is who the Holy Spirit is. What do we need to do to hear from the Holy Spirit and experience Him? Just ask, listen and make ourselves available. This is who God is and what he wants to do. And we are just to listen, obey, make ourselves available. And be willing to follow him. Kevin, I forgot to ask you this ahead of time. Would you be willing to lead us in 4:22? There's a little song, Spirit of the Living God. Yeah. In songs of faith and praise. I'd like to have a word of prayer. I will also thank God for the food that's downstairs and then stand together and we'll sing this prayer. The song is just asking God his spirit to fall afresh on us and that we can live in and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit this week. So let's pray together. God, I want to thank you for who you are, Lord Jesus. Thank you for your redemption and thank you for sending your Holy Spirit. And Lord, we want to just make ourselves available to you. We want to ask you to fill us with your spirit. We want to walk in the power of your spirit. God, I pray for each of us here that this week we would be just sensitive to you, sensitive to your spirit, what you're doing in us and those around us that we could just live in and the wonder and the gift of your Holy Spirit living inside of us and changing us. And we don't deserve it. It's all your grace. And so we just thank you for that. God, I also want to thank you for the food that's downstairs. We receive it as a gift from you. And I also pray that you would bless our time together as we spend time talking and just being together this afternoon. We love you. In Jesus name, amen.