Of What Kind Of Spirit Are You?

John 15:26-27, & 16:4b-15

WHEN THE HELPER COMES…

15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”

16:1 "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3 And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. 4 But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. 5 "But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ’Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

OF WHAT KIND OF SPIRIT ARE YOU?

No we are not having a séance, but the person who wrote the book of Acts also wrote the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of the Spirit. Doctor Luke mentions the Holy Spirit and the human spirit 21 times in his Gospel, which is more than any other Gospel writer. This same writer wrote in the book of Acts in Chapter 2:1 “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come…” and most will know the rest…the Holy Spirit came on the disciples first and then into the hearts of those listening to Peter’s great sermon on that day…and so the NT church was born.

Luke also records an interesting saying of Jesus:

Luke 9:55 “But He (Jesus) turned and rebuked them (James and John), and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.’ ”

According to my version of the NT, this is the only place that this saying of Jesus is recorded. Jesus challenges His disciples James and John and asks us to examine our own hearts as to what kind of spirit we are from.

In his Gospel, Luke was writing a book to record Jesus’ ministry on earth. In the book of Acts he carefully records what happened after Jesus’ prediction about the coming of the Holy Spirit whom He would send from heaven. In Luke and in John’s Gospel in particular, Jesus predicted that He would go back to the Father in heaven. As a result of that event, which we call the Ascension, Jesus promised He would send the church a Gift. And the Gift that He promised was the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts chapter 2, Luke wrote down the events that fulfilled Jesus’ prediction and so we have the Day of Pentecost recorded in detail. But it is on the verses in John 16 that are set down for today that I want to concentrate.

First of all, as Jesus said in John’s Gospel: “…these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.” (Jn 16:4)

The time Jesus refers to is the Day of Pentecost and the birth of the NT Church and all that flowed from that.

A little further on in that same passage, Jesus tells us that there are three things that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, came to bring…

Conviction of sin, conviction of righteousness, and conviction of judgment.

8 “ And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (Jn 16:8-10)

So the three things we are looking at today are conviction of sin, conviction of righteousness and conviction of judgment.

CONVICTION OF SIN

“Conviction of sin” because people do not believe in Christ, says Jesus.

Jesus Himself goes so far as to say that if you do not have the Spirit you are not in God’s kingdom.