Pastor Tom covers John 15:26-16:15 in a brief message discussing the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Transcript:

This morning's reading is from the 15th chapter of the book of John, verses 26 through 27.

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 seen you, because you have been with me from the beginning.

I think it's a pretty common experience for most of us to either have been in the position of having to get oriented to doing a new job or having to orient someone else to doing a new job and, and when you first begin or when someone else first begins and learning a new task, a lot of help is presented upfront. Kind of hand over hand, and that continues for a while until the person is prepared to be able to go and do the tasks themselves. Sometimes we might get a little annoyed, or other people might get annoyed with us if we cling too, too much upon someone to be, oh, I, I'm, I just don't know if I can do this. I really need you there. The whole goal in orienting someone and preparing someone and training someone is so that they can do the job themselves. Now, when we think about the Christian life, there are some similar dynamics going on as we stand in relation to Christ, but there's also differences too.

There's similarities in so far as when we come to Christ, we depend completely upon him for our salvation and we depend completely upon him for his grace to transform us into the sort of people that we've been called to be, created to be, redeemed to be in him. And yet, we're not supposed to be babies the whole rest of our lives. We're supposed to be able to move on from milk to meat, not just doctrinally, I think, but also in the course of our lives where yes, he takes us up from the heap. You know, a lot of us get caught up in sin. He picks us up from the heap, and then he says, I've got a mission for you. And that's what we see in the course of Paul's life.

Paul is heading in a complete opposite direction, and then God grabs him. And Paul could have just kind of sat in like all the things that he had done, but then God said I've got a mission for you, and I'm gonna send you on that mission. Now, the difference here between the Christian mission and anything else that we might do as human beings is that we, we don't do it on our own. That in fact, God does provide guidance for us along the way. If it was all just dependent on our abilities, this thing would've ended a long, a long, long time ago. And so in the passage that Clay read for us in, in John 15 verses 26 through 27, Jesus anticipates the time when a helper is going to come. This Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, and the Holy Spirit bears witness about Christ. And as we're gonna read further on here in John 16, he does more than this in the lives of the disciples so that they might do the work that the father has called them to do, that Christ is commissioning them to do.

So in John 16, start, just first reading verses one through six. Jesus tells his disciples, and this is right before he is going to be betrayed, crucified. So kind of a, a culminating moment here. Jesus tells them, I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he's offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I'm going to him who sent me, and none of you asked, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

So what is Jesus telling his disciples here? He's telling them that you should anticipate suffering. You should anticipate persecution. That even people might think that by killing you, they're doing a good thing, they're doing a service to God. And actually when we think about Paul, Paul thought that very thing in trying to arrest and, and kill the Christians. Now when you're told that, I, I mean, when we hear that, and certainly you imagine when those original disciples heard that you can imagine them thinking, well, Jesus, I want you right by my side during this whole thing, but Jesus says I'm going away. Which at that point, oh no, all this is gonna happen and you're gonna go away? How could I possibly stand in the face of such opposition? It makes a whole ton of sense that their hearts are filled, that, with sorrow at this prospect.

But there's good news. Jesus is going away, but we are not being abandoned. This is where he picks up this line about the fact that, as he said, in verses 26 and 27 of chapter 15, he's sending a helper. So reading verses seven through fifteen. 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'll send him to you. And when he comes, he'll convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you'll see me no longer; considering judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he'll guide you into all the truth, for he'll not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he'll declare to you the things that are to come. He'll glorify me, for he'll take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said to you, he'll take what is mine and declare it to you.

Jesus assures them, gives them this reassurance that he's going to send them this helper person of the Holy Spirit, and he describes the role, the task of the Holy Spirit as follows. The Holy Spirit has the task of convicting the world in various regards, of sin because the world did not believe in Christ. And we see Christ even rejected now, but especially when we think about on the day of Pentecost and, and Peter highlighting to his fellow Jews of how you rejected the Messiah who came to you. Some of them were cut to the heart and they came to believe. Holy Spirit testifies to the reality of who Jesus is.

The fact that Jesus goes away, while you know, a difficult thing is an awesome thing in two regards. First, is it demonstrates the reality of who he is, that by his resurrection and ascension, it is seen that he is in fact the Son of God. Because he ascends to the right hand of the Father, he is able to stand as our great high priest. He's interceding on our behalf. And so we are assured of the forgiveness of our sins, that we are covered by his righteousness. And we also see that by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, there is this conviction that the rule of this world, Satan, is under God's judgment. And, and along with all of this, along with this conviction that the Spirit provides, what the Spirit gives to the disciples is guidance. Guidance into all truth. So at this point, it's not assumed that the disciples know everything that they need to know, and in fact, we're gonna see their knowledge grow after Jesus departs, and they're gonna realize things that they hadn't realized before. And this is, the whole New Testament is built upon this.

And so we see actually right before us how the Holy Spirit guides them into all truth. The wonderful thing though is that the Holy Spirit continues to operate in that way today, that as we harken to the voice of the Holy Spirit, he is able to guide us in all truth in so far as it accords with that which the Holy Spirit has already revealed through the inspiration of the scriptures.

And that's something that we must always be, be eager to do. I think it's, it's very easy for us to drift away from really looking to divine guidance and just trying to trust in our own wisdom. What I think we see as we've been going through the Book of Acts is that we're not only seeking guidance from the spirit in just theological matters or things that might be thought to be spiritual matters. It's not, it's tough to make a, a hard and fast division between the spiritual and the material because they intersect in all things. We should be interested in the guidance of the Holy Spirit and seeking direction from God through him. Now there's this whole little kind of, um, back and forth here towards the end of these verses.

Verse 13, he says, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he'll not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he'll declare to you the things that are to come. He'll glorify me, for He will take what his mine and declare it to you. All that the father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Now, you might be wondering, why is Jesus dwelling on this so much about, well, the Holy Spirit's not gonna speak on his own, own authority, saying what I am, I'm saying, and all that the father has is mine, what is Jesus trying to reveal to us here? He's trying to reveal to us the unity of the three persons of God, that ...