The Spirit Is Our Teacher Series

A. Once there was a teacher who saw one of her students sitting there without a pencil doing nothing while the rest of the class was working on their assignment.

1. The teacher asked, “Where’s your pencil?”

2. The student answered, “I ain’t got no pencil.”

3. To which the teacher explained, “How many times have I told you not to say that? Now listen. I haven’t got a pencil. You haven’t got a pencil. They haven’t got a pencil.”

4. Looking perplexed, the student exclaimed, “Well, what’s happened to all the pencils?”

B. I’m sure that teacher was a bit exasperated at that point, don’t you think?

1. Students can really frustrate teachers and I’m sure I exasperated many of my teachers.

2. There have also been times when I gave my teachers a good laugh, like the time I gave an unintentionally humorous answer to a test question in my college psychology class.

a. The question was: What are the causes of depression?

b. My answer was: My list included decapitation. (I meant to put dismemberment)

c. Obviously, there’s a big difference between the two: one leads to depression and the other results in death.

C. Today, I want us to talk about the fact that the Holy Spirit is our teacher.

1. And like the teacher and student in the story I started with, I am sure that many of us have exasperated our teacher, the Holy Spirit.

2. Last week, we started a new sermon series about the Holy Spirit.

3. Last week, we explored the fact that the Holy Spirit is a Person and is God, a member of the Godhead; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

4. We also talked about the fact that the Holy Spirit is our helper who comes with power.

5. As our helper who comes with power, the Holy Spirit helps us in many different ways.

6. Today, we want to understand how the Spirit is our teacher.

D. We’ve all likely had some really good teachers.

1. Some of them were good teachers because they really cared about us and showed special interest in us.

2. Others were really good teachers because they were experts in their fields and were gifted in presenting and explaining their subject.

3. When I was a freshman in college I signed up for New Testament Greek.

a. Unfortunately, before the end of the first semester, I had to drop the class.

b. The problem was probably mostly mine, as I probably wasn’t ready to apply myself the way I needed to in order to be successful.

c. My teacher was an expert in ancient languages, but I’m not sure he was gifted in organizing and presenting the material in a way that I could understand it and learn it.

4. When I was a junior in college I gave Greek another try under a different teacher.

a. This teacher wasn’t an expert in ancient languages, but he had been an engineering major before he did his master’s and PhD degrees in Bible, and so he presented the material in a very organized and understandable way.

b. I was a little older and more disciplined, but I also was able to grasp the concepts of the language in a way that I hadn’t under the previous teacher.

c. This time I passed with flying colors and got all A’s.

E. Good and skillful teachers make a big difference, right? Now consider the fact that the Holy Spirit is the best teacher ever.

1. The Holy Spirit cares more than any teacher and the Holy Spirit is truly an expert about spiritual things.

2. Also, consider the fact that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us and is our personal tutor.

3. What an amazing opportunity for us to learn and to grow from our teacher, the Holy Spirit!

F. Let’s take a few minutes and look at what Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit as our teacher.

1. It was during the last night before Jesus’ arrest that Jesus conveyed this important information about the Holy Spirit to His disciples.

2. Let’s start with John 14:16-17: 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.

3. Let’s notice a number of important things that we learn from this passage.

4. First, notice the unity of the Godhead – notice how the trinity works together in cooperation.

a. God the Son asks God the Father to send God the Holy Spirit.

5. Second, we notice that the Holy Spirit is called the paraclete.