Introducing The Holy Spirit

The background for today’s sermon is the Lord’s devastating announcement that he is going away.

The disciples are not to be alarmed. Another comforter is coming. The comforter is promised.

The Greek word for comforter is (Parakleton) and is rendered “advocate” in 1 John 2:1.

The word means “one called alongside” for protection or counsel.

A story in Leadership magazine illustrates this phrase: “Jackie Robinson was the first black to play major league baseball. Breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.” —Daily Bread

The word “another” is allon (meaning “another of the same kind”) rather than heteros (another of a different kind). Jesus was one comforter. The Holy spirit was another comforter, another of the same kind.

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

The Holy Spirit is Invisible to the world but Indwells Believers.

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

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 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.

The philosophy of the world is “seeing is believing.” This materialist philosophy makes it impossible for unregenerate individuals either to know or to receive the Spirit of God. He is real, but he is invisible.

16, 17, 20. 17b. Indwelling. “. . . for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

The Holy Spirit comes to take up permanent residence in a believer’s heart and life. Thus the body of the believer becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit, a truth of immense importance.

1 Corinthians 3: 16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

1 Corinthians 6:19, 20, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Romans 8:9, “ But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

II. The Holy Spirit In-fills Believers

Explain the difference between filling and indwelling.

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

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

The Christian life is a supernatural life. It is the life of Christ lived out in every believer by means of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

John14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

John14:19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

The word for “comfortless” is orphanous. The news that the Lord 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 contemporaneous with his absence.” Yes, He was departing from them physically but he would be with them spiritually in a new way.

“ye see me.” The use of the present tense indicates a continuing vision.

“I live.” 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