Introducing The Holy Spirit Series

Let’s talk about the Holy Spirit tonight. The background for tonight’s study is the Lord’s devastating announcement that he is going away. The disciples are not to be alarmed, though, because another comforter is coming. The comforter is promised. The Greek word for comforter means “one called alongside” for protection or counsel.

READ verses 15-16

The word “another” (v 16) means “another of the same kind”). Jesus was one comforter. The Holy Spirit was another comforter, another of the same kind.

I. We are told that The Holy Spirit Indwells Believers, (John 14:16, 17, 20)

The Holy Spirit is invisible to the world but indwells believers. Earthly fellowship with the Lord Jesus was about to be terminated. The Holy Spirit (“the Lord’s other self,” as he has been described) would come to abide with us forever.

John 14:17 - “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” The philosophy of the world is “seeing is believing.” This materialist philosophy makes it impossible for non-believing individuals either to know or to receive the Spirit of God. He is real, but he is invisible.

17b. “. . . He abides with you and will be in you.”

The Holy Spirit comes to take up permanent residence in a believer’s heart and life. So the body of the believer becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

1 Corinthians 6:19, 20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Romans 8:9, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” So, the HS indwells believers.

II. Along with that, The Holy Spirit In-fills Believers

The filling . . . does not mean the believer gets more of the Holy Spirit, but rather the Holy Spirit gets more of the believer.

How does the Holy Spirit fill a believer? If we compare Eph. 5 with Col. 3. “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) = “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16 ). So, to be filled with the Spirit is to be obedient to the Word!”

The Christian life is a supernatural life. It’s the life of Christ lived out in every believer by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit. READ John 14:18-19.

The word for “comfortless” has to do with begin an orphan. The news that Jesus was going away devastated the disciples. They felt orphaned. They felt helpless and hopeless, bewildered, frightened, lost. “I will not leave you orphans,” Jesus said. “I will come to you.” Here is “a promise of his coming which is simultaneous with his absence.” Yes, He was leaving them physically but he would be with them spiritually in a new way.

“but you will see me.” (v 19) Present tense indicates a continuing vision.

“I live.”(v 19) He used the dateless, timeless present tense, indicating undying life. Although he stood a stone’s throw of the cross, in divine confidence he assured his own that they were about to partake of the very life that he lived. We live because He lives. We shall live as long as He lives. We live the life that He lives.

III. The Holy Spirit Insures and Assures the Believer in v 20. READ. Some believe that “at that day” meant the Pentecost. This mystical relationship was made good on the day of Pentecost. The disciples were unable to comprehend the dimensions of all this, when the words were spoken in the upper room. The reality burst on them at Pentecost.

The Lord Jesus is in his Father; we are in him; he is in us. This interlock of persons and personalities guarantees the eternal security of the believer, as well as the transformation of our lives in Him by the transmission of His life through us.

READ John14:21. The Holy Spirit Insures the Believer. Several New Testament passages teach that the Holy Spirit is the “earnest” of our salvation. If we could lose our Salvation, the God, the Father, and the Son Jesus Christ would have to forfeit their down payment of the Holy Spirit. In addition to that according to verse 20 we are all wrapped up together in this. This insurance package provides us with the assurance of our salvation.