Necessity Of The Holy Spirit

Intro

Have you ever felt like you did not have what it takes to live the Christian life? Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the challenges of life? What do you do when you feel like circumstances are pressing in on you with almost irresistible force? Perhaps you have never experienced those feelings. But the disciples did on the night Jesus was betrayed.

They were in the upper room eating a meal during the Passover feast.i We refer to it as the Last Supper. Jesus revealed to them his imminent departure. Judas is exposed as Christ’s betrayer. One of their own has proved to be an impostor.ii Peter is told that he is about to deny the Lord three times.iii The situation has thrown them into a state of despondency. They know their utter dependence on Christ. He is about to leave them. The authorities are coming down on Jesus, but the whole group is at risk.

I want you to get a sense of their emotional state when Jesus says these words to them in John 14:16-17: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth.”iv Let me make the application to any believer who is feeling overwhelmed with your circumstances. Jesus says to you: “I have asked the Father, and he has given you another advocate to help you.”

That other advocate is the Holy Spirit. Amid all our struggles, we can easily lose sight of the tremendous help that is available to us. Do not underestimate this infinite source of strength. The word translated “advocate” is parakletos. It is impossible to translate it into another language with just one word. It is variously translated as Comforter, Counselor, advocate, or Helper. The Amplified Bible says, “Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby).” Each of those words captures part of the meaning but not all. The Greek word basically means “one called alongside to help.”v

We get a sense of the Holy Spirit’s significance when we realize he is replacing Jesus for these disciples. Jesus was the first Parakletos, and the Holy Spirit is the second. The Holy Spirit “is to be to us all that Jesus was to his disciples.”vi Spurgeon asked the question: “What would that little company of disciples have been as went through the streets of Jerusalem without the Lord?”vii Their influence would have been negligible. And what would they have been after Jesus’s ascension without the Holy Spirit? They still would have been a small band of people with insignificant influence. The empowerment of their influence was the Holy Spirit. That’s why Jesus commanded them to wait in Jerusalem for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Holy Spirit, those people turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). Without the Holy Spirit they would been totally ineffective.

Without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we, too, are ineffective—no matter how industrious and well-intentioned we may be. One of our greatest errors is to underestimate our need for the Holy Spirit. One reason the church is so weak is that we try to do God’s work in our own strength. Sixty-nine percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians.viii Can you imagine what America would be like if all those people were filled with the Holy Spirit? If even one-tenth of them were filled with the Spirit, they would turn this nation upside down for Christ.

The problem in America is only secondarily political, only secondarily philosophical. The most fundamental problem is a lack of the Spirit in the church. Your greatest need and my greatest need is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. When that is properly in place, everything else follows.

But it is very easy to neglect this most important need. We learn better leadership skills. We upgrade our technology. We study our Bibles more diligently with better study helps. We reach out to the community with benevolent efforts. All those things are good. But without the power of the Holy Spirit, they are relatively ineffective.

That is why Jesus told his followers to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49). We are busy people. We are an impatient generation wanting our instant coffee and our fast food. We are running to and fro trying to get something done. And in the end, get very little done.

Wait until you are endued with power from on high. The American church does not want to wait. As a result, she is not (for the most part) endued with the power of the Holy Spirit. Our unwillingness to wait for divine enablement, betrays our inner sense of self-sufficiency. Some churches have attained superficial success through effective marketing strategies. They can get people to attend their meetings. But those meetings have little effect on the lifestyles of the attendees. They are part of that sixty-nine percent of professed Christians who have almost no influence as salt and light.ix We must remember that our assignment is not big attendance per se, but to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). Being a disciple is a full-time commitment, far more than a two-hour event on Sunday morning.x Our greatest need is a fresh empowerment of the Holy Spirit.