6 April 2008
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to John 16
7. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
8. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
9. in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;
10. in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
11. and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12. "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
13. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
15. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
-- In 2007, life in the African country of Malawi changed dramatically -- for a long time, this country had hovered on the brink of famine and survived only because they received food and resources from other countries -- but in 2007, things changed -- in 2007, Malawi sold more corn to the U.N. World Food Program than any other country in southern Africa and also exported tons of corn to Zimbabwe
-- how did this happen? -- how did this country go from being a welfare state to a country that was not only self-sustaining but was capable of reaching out and exporting food to other nations? -- the answer is quite simple -- the dramatic change came from nothing more than fertilizer
-- Malawi's president got tired of begging for charity so he pushed for the expanded use of fertilizer and fertilizer subsidies -- the government encouraged the farmers to start using fertilizer, and it made all the difference -- now the nation is not only feeding its own people, but helping other nations as well -- their once depleted soil has become a source of renewed life and livelihood -- and Malawi is not just a consumer, but also a major producer1
-- for those of us who are seeking to become disciples of Christ, the same principle that Malawi used applies -- adding spiritual fertilizer to our lives can move us from famine to feast -- from being consumers -- people who just take up space in the pews -- to being producers -- people who multiply and who produce fruit for the kingdom of God
-- Jesus knew of our tendency to become complacent -- to become stagnant -- to become routine in our spiritual lives -- this has been a problem in the church all the way back to the days of Moses -- it causes us to trade in vibrant spiritual lives for the dryness of religion -- it causes us to trade in knowing God in a real and personal way to just being satisfied going through the motions on a Sunday morning
-- Jesus knew that we were going to need His continual presence in our lives to keep our soil productive -- He knew that we were going to need the constant inflowing of His life into ours to help us be true disciples -- and so He sent us spiritual fertilizer -- He sent us the Holy Spirit
-- this morning, we are going to start a series of messages on the foundations of our faith as recognized in the Apostle's Creed -- having just come through Christmas and Easter, we are not going to focus on the first paragraph of the creed, which covers our belief in the Lord God Almighty and in Christ Jesus -- I think that our messages through the Christmas and Easter seasons quite clearly fleshed out our belief in the Father and the Son -- the first two persons of the Holy Trinity
-- instead, I want us to focus on the second paragraph, which primarily concerns itself with the work of the Holy Spirit in calling us to salvation and sanctification and in building the church of Christ
-- so, we are going to start by considering the first phrase in this second paragraph, "I Believe in the Holy Spirit"
II. The Holy Spirit
-- when I talk to people about God, nothing seems to confuse them more than the idea of the Holy Spirit -- growing up, it seemed to me like no one ever talked about the Spirit -- and when they did, they called Him the "Holy Ghost," which just made it all the more confusing and mystical
-- when you're 7-years-old and the preacher is saying you need the Holy Ghost, I can tell you, that's the last thing that you want in your life -- I was always scared of ghosts -- holy or not -- and I sure didn't want one hanging around with me day in and day out
-- But, thankfully, if the past 20 years or so, there has been a revival of sorts in the understanding of this third person of the Trinity -- in the presence and purpose and power of the Holy Spirit -- people now have a better understanding of the Holy Spirit -- and it has made a big difference in our churches and in our ministries and in our individual spiritual lives
-- so, who is the Holy Spirit? -- well, as I said, He is the third person of the Trinity -- now, don't misunderstand what the Trinity is -- there are three persons, but there are not three gods -- there is only one God -- each person in the Trinity is distinct in function, but they share the same deity and reflect the attributes of the one living God
-- this means that the Holy Spirit is fully and completely God -- just as the Father and the Son are fully and completely God -- it is perfectly acceptable to pray to the Holy Spirit just as you pray to Jesus or to the Father
-- the Holy Spirit is not just a force or a power like some denominations and some cults teach -- He is not impersonal or unthinking -- the Holy Spirit is a person, just like Jesus -- just not in a physical body -- He is a living being -- the very presence of God in our lives
-- I like the way A.W. Tozer explained the Holy Spirit in his book, "The Counselor," -- Tozer wrote: "Spell this out in capital letters: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON -- He is not enthusiasm -- He is not courage -- He is not energy -- He is not the personification of all good qualities, like Jack Frost is the personification of cold weather -- Actually, the Holy Spirit is not the personification of anything...... He has individuality -- He is one being and not another -- He has will and intelligence -- He has hearing -- He has knowledge and sympathy and ability to love and see and think -- He can hear, speak, desire, grieve and rejoice -- He is a Person."
-- the Holy Spirit has intellect, emotion, and will -- He speaks to us -- He has feelings -- He can love -- He can be grieved -- He can be hurt -- He has all the characteristics of God because He is God -- He is all-knowing -- all-present -- and all-powerful
-- but as the third person of the Trinity, He has specific roles and functions in our lives and in the life of the church --this is what I want us to look at in this passage
III. Scripture Lesson
-- this passage covers the Thursday night of Holy Week -- Maundy Thursday -- the day that Jesus and His disciples shared the Last Supper in the Upper Room and the day that He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot and turned over to the High Priest and the Romans
-- as this passage opens, the last supper is over -- Jesus has washed the feet of the disciples -- Judas has left to go to the temple to betray Him -- and now Jesus and His remaining disciples are making their way to the Garden of Gethsemene, which is located on the western base of the Mount of Olives
-- as they are walking along, Jesus is sharing with them His final instructions and His final teachings to help them understand what is about to happen and what it means for the Kingdom of God -- He has told them that He is going away and that this is the plan of God the Father -- and to calm their fears and to make sure they understand that He will never leave them or forsake them, He shares with them now a teaching about the coming of the Holy Spirit
-- if you would, look back with me again at verse 7
7. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
-- the disciples were distraught at what Jesus had been telling them -- they couldn't understand why He was leaving -- they didn't understand why He was saying that He had to die -- don't forget, the disciples are still living on the mountain of Palm Sunday -- they are still expecting Jesus to start a revolution and conquer Rome at any moment -- they have no idea that Good Friday is coming -- they have no idea what Jesus means when He says that He must die and then rise again on the third day
-- this is a man that they had lived with for three years -- a man that they knew intimately -- a man that they knew was from God -- some of them, I am sure, thought He was God at that time, even though they did not have a full understanding
-- so Jesus is trying to encourage them -- to lift up their heads -- to help them see that things are really going to be better when He leaves
-- "When I leave, I will send the Counselor to you -- He cannot come while I am here -- but when I go to the Father, I will send Him to you" -- the Greek word that Jesus uses here is "paraclete" -- it means counselor, comforter, advocate, and helper
-- these were all roles that the Holy Spirit had performed in the past in the lives of God's chosen people as He would come upon them -- men like Moses and David and Samson -- but in the times before Jesus, the Holy Spirit would only come and rest on them as they served God's special purposes and accomplished His will
-- this anointing of the Holy Spirit could be taken from them -- that is why David wrote in Psalm 51:11 after he sinned with Bathsheba and killed her husband, "Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me."
-- the difference this time is that the Comforter -- the Holy Spirit -- would not just come upon the believers of Jesus for a temporary time -- but would instead indwell them -- as it says in John 14:17, the Holy Spirit lives with and within believers -- filling them with the very presence and power of God in their lives
-- when you are saved -- when you respond to Jesus' invitation to come to Him for salvation and the forgiveness of sin -- at that moment, the Holy Spirit comes to live within you
-- that is why Jesus said it was good for the disciples and us that He was physically going away -- this way, the Holy Spirit would be a part of our lives at all moments and at all times -- when Jesus was on earth, God incarnate in a human body, He was bound in one place at a time -- He could not be in multiple places -- but in the person of the Holy Spirit -- living in us -- He could
-- verse 8
8. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
-- as our paraclete -- as our Counselor and Comforter and Advocate -- these are the three overarching purposes of the Holy Spirit -- the roles and functions that God intended the Holy Spirit fulfill in us and in the life of the church as He worked in us and through us to accomplish His will
-- the reason the Holy Spirit has come is to convict the world -- to point out its guilt -- in respect to sin, righteousness, and judgment -- so that the world might respond in faith and repentance to the finished work of Jesus Christ for us all
-- in a nutshell, the Holy Spirit has come to empower the witness of Christ on earth among non-believers -- using us -- His church -- as His voice and His hands and His feet to reach out to a people who desperately need the grace of God in their lives
-- verse 9
9. in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;
-- the Holy Spirit has come to convict the world of its sin of unbelief -- the Holy Spirit is here to speak in counter to those people who tell us that there are many paths to God -- who tell us that all religions lead to God -- Jesus says here that it is a sin to not believe in Him -- to not recognize and trust in Him and His saving grace for our salvation and the forgiveness of sins
-- verse 10
10. in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
-- the Holy Spirit has come to convict us that Jesus is the righteousness of God -- our tendency is to compare ourselves to others -- to think that we are doing o.k. because we are more righteousness than those around us -- "I go to church more than so-and-so, so I know I am going to heaven"
-- but Jesus came to show us God's standard of righteousness -- complete and total sinlessness -- life without any sin at all -- holy perfection -- and then He fulfilled that requirement of righteousness with His own body and blood on the cross
-- Romans 10:3-4 says, "Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. -- Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."
-- the Holy Spirit convicts us -- He opens our eyes and pricks our hearts to this truth
-- verse 11
11. and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
-- the Holy Spirit has come to convict us of the fact that the power of Satan has been broken -- that the curse of sin and death on all creation has been lifted -- and that judgment has come to the unrighteous
-- the Holy Spirit has come to let the people who are still living in this chains of sin know that there is a hope and a future in Christ Jesus
-- verse 12
12. "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
13. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
15. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
-- the Holy Spirit has come to speak the truth of God in our lives and in the lives of this world -- leading us and those around us into the truth for the glory of Christ Jesus
-- His purpose is to lift Jesus up -- to proclaim the work of the Father through Jesus so that all might be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth
-- and He does it through us
IV. Closing
-- turn over to Romans 8
11. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
-- in one of his books(2), Dr. Tony Campolo -- a well-known pastor and evangelist -- related a story about the time he was teaching a seminary class -- he turned to one of the young men in his class and asked him, "How long have you lived?"
-- the startled young man responded, "I'm 22 years old" -- Dr. Campolo responded, "I didn't ask you how long your heart had been pumping blood -- I asked you how long you had lived."
-- Dr. Campolo was trying to point out that there is a difference between living and being alive -- as St. Irenaeus said, "The glory of God is man fully alive" -- a person who is alive is doing more than just trudging through life -- just merely existing
--a person who is alive is doing more than just waking up in the morning -- going to work -- and then going to bed at night
-- a Christian who is alive is doing more than just getting up -- going to church -- and then going home again
-- to be fully alive means that you have been joined with the eternal -- that you have been given a glimpse of the presence of God -- in nature -- in people -- in your life -- and in that moment, you felt more truly alive than at any other time in your life
-- Dr. Campolo told about the time he had a moment in eternity at the top of the Empire State Building -- a time when he was caught up in the glory and the majesty of creation -- how looking over the edge of that building at creation was a moment in which he was so fully alive, so fully aware of the presence and the majesty and the glory of God, that he knew it would always be a part of him
-- after hearing that story, Campolo's student responded, "Then I guess I have only been alive for a few minutes -- it's hard to say -- most of my life has been the meaningless passage of time between all too few moments of genuine aliveness"
-- the Apostle Paul tells us in this verse that we have been made alive through the power of the Holy Spirit living within us -- that through Him we have become truly alive
-- J. B. Phillips wrote in, "Plain Christianity," "Every time we say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit," we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it"
-- the reason we have been given the Holy Spirit is to change us -- to make us alive -- to make us like Christ -- to lead us into the full and abundant life that Jesus said He had come to give us -- and to make us better able to serve those around us
-- as we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we become more aware of God's presence in our lives -- more aware of those around us who need His touch and who need to hear the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ
-- and we become empowered to be His witnesses and to be Christ's hands and feet in this world -- changing it and changing those around us as we seek to follow Christ in all our ways
-- it is the Holy Spirit working in the life of the believer who changes the church -- and it is the Holy Spirit working in the life of the church who changes the world
-- every revival that has ever been seen -- every outpouring of the presence of God leading to repentance and salvation and life-transforming power has been through the direct work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God's people
-- if you want to be truly alive -- if you want to experience revival in your life and in the life of this church -- then you must be filled with God's Holy Spirit -- not just indwelt -- but filled -- baptized in His presence
-- this means that you are filled with the joy and peace and presence of God -- that you are submissive to God and empowered to serve Him where He calls -- this means that you are living in faith -- not just on Sundays, but every day of your life
-- as John Piper points out, "this should be our aim, our goal, our great longing."3
-- it won't happen every day -- we won't go through life filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit -- but there will be those times when we are truly alive -- when we are experiencing eternity in our lives -- when we are empowered and filled to overflowing with the presence of God and are able to reach out and touch that one person -- to speak the words of grace that they need to hear -- to minister to their need and point them to Christ
-- it is those times that we should be living for -- striving for -- aiming for with our lives as we seek the Holy Spirit's presence
-- it is those times that we and the church were created for
-- I believe in the Holy Spirit -- I trust in His power and presence in our lives -- and I pray that we would be filled to overflowing with His goodness and grace so that we might be truly alive and serve God more effectively with our lives -- so that we might see revival break out in our homes and in our church and in our community -- so that we might see lives changed and hearts transformed for Christ
-- I believe in the Holy Spirit -- do you?
-- let us pray
1
2Campolo, Tony. Let Me Tell You a Story.
3Sermon, "Be Filled with the Spirit," by John Piper.
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