The Purpose of the Spirit
Life in the Spirit, Part 2
John 16
Jesus has been speaking to His disciples in the Upper Room Discourse (that is His last conversations and teachings with them before He died.) He carried them to a private gathering to explain to them how they were going to maneuver in light of His leaving. I’m sure that they weren’t excited to hear that He was leaving, and
they were even less excited when they heard John 16:2-3:
“They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me.”
John 16:2-3
Your greatest problem is going to be with the religious people. “The synagogue is where you are going to be hassled because people will want religion, but they won’t want Me.” And there is a difference between Christianity and religion. Religion is man’s attempt to reach up to God, Christianity is God reaching down to man. There is a difference.
So Jesus says, “I am going to leave you, and you’re going to run into some difficult times simply because you’re a Christian. Not a religious person, not a church member, but a real Christian. You’re going to have some difficulties.”
Its like going to the Muslim controlled Middle East. You don’t have to do anything wrong. You don’t have to break any Muslim laws; the only thing you have to do is to be an American. Simply by being an American, you will incur the wrath of Muslims because they hate America. When you represent Jesus Christ, you don’t have to do anything wrong, all you have to do is to be a real Christian. Now the reason why some of us aren’t messed with is because they don’t know that we’re real Christians. But I ain’t going to talk about that.
Jesus’ concern is that they understand serious representation of Jesus Christ is going to bring serious repercussions from religious people who don’t want serious Christianity.
He comes to John 16:5 sand He says…
“But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and none of you has asked me where I am going. Instead, you are very sad. But I tell you (catch this), it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (remember the parakletos?) shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
John 16:5-7
He says, “It is to your advantage that I go away.” Let me say it another way: “You’re going to be better off if I leave.” That doesn’t sound right, does it? They have been walking with Jesus for 3 and a half years, and He says, “You haven’t seen anything yet! Let me go, and you’re really going to see something!” They were trying to hold onto Jesus, and He says, “It is to your advantage; You’re going to be better off if I leave you.” The disciples are thinking, “Come on, Jesus! You’re the Son of the living God, the second member of the Trinity, been teaching us for 3 years, the Lamb of God that takes the sins of the world—How can we be better with this invisible Holy Spirit than with You, the visible Christ?”
Very simple. Jesus Christ has voluntarily limited the expression of His deity to humanity. In other words, all of His God-ness is in and related to His humanity. So, to put it bluntly, He could only be at one place at a time. Not because He Himself is limited, but because He has chosen to limit Himself. If all we had was Jesus, we would be in trouble. SO Jesus says, “Gentlemen. You’re going to be better off, because what I am going to do is leave here, but I am going to send you a parakletos, a Helper, who is the Spirit. So when you go to Japan, and someone else is in Iowa, He can be both places at the same time, because He has not so limited Himself with matter.”
So what we got by having the Holy Spirit is the availability of the God-head in the most intimate way (since He indwells us), so that no Christian is any better off than another Christian if, in fact, they are being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is to our advantage that we have the Holy Spirit rather than just the physical Christ. Now, nobody has to wait.
What is the Holy Spirit’s Primary Purpose?
Does He get you excited? Does He make you pray? Does He give you a certain feeling? He can be
involved in those things, but that’s not His primary goal. Let me show you His primary goal.
He will bring glory to me by revealing to you whatever he receives from me. All that the Father has is mine; this is what I mean when I say that the Spirit will reveal to you whatever he receives from me.
John 16:14-15
The Holy Spirit Glorifies the Son
The main job description of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus Christ. Now catch the Trinity in these verses. Jesus says, The Father gives to Me, and I give to you. But the way I get what the Father gives to Me to you is that the Holy Spirit acts as the delivery service. His job is to take what the Father gives to Me and to make sure that you get it. If you were just counting on Me, you wouldn’t get it, because I have voluntarily limited Myself. But so that I could make sure everybody can have it, I am going to disclose it to the Spirit, and the Spirit’s job is to disseminate it.”
The job of the Holy Spirit is to glorify, make known, manifest, to put on public display Jesus Christ. Any time the Holy Spirit gets more attention than Jesus Christ, you have a problem. The Holy Spirit is key, but He’s key in glorifying Christ, not glorifying the Spirit. So whenever the Holy Spirit gets more attention than Jesus Christ, it is a misuse of the Spirit. In fact, in 1 John 4:2-3 that any Spirit that detracts from Jesus Christ is not the Holy Spirit, He is the anti-Spirit . Anything that lessens the Person and work of Jesus Christ, no matter how nice it makes you feel, or how excited you get, is not the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ is becoming glorified, manifested, seen more through the Holy Spirit.
How does the Spirit Glorify the Son?
How does the Spirit glorify Christ? The Spirit Glorifies Christ in 4 ways. First…
1. The Spirit Glorifies Christ through the inspiration and illumination of the Bible.
Look at what Jesus tells them in 16:12.
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth (Guess what His name is? Truth), comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears (From Me), He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.
John 16:12-14
The Holy Spirit Glorifies Christ through the inspiration and illumination of the Bible. Let’s talk about that.
All Scripture is God-Spirited, or God-breathed, it is inspired by God… 2 Timothy 3:16
All scripture emanates from God. That means that this is not just a book. This is the Breath of God. What I am holding in my hand today is what the Spirit of God produced.
I hear people all the time say, “Man wrote this book! And men are fallible. They forget, they make
mistakes. So this book has errors in it. Why? Because man wrote it.” Let me show you 2 Peter 1:21:
No prophetic message ever came just from the human will, but Holy men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 1:21
In other words, “You’re right. Man wrote it. You’re right. Men are fallible. You’re right. Men forget. You’re right. Men make mistakes.” But that’s not the question on the floor. The question on the floor is, “Is the Holy Spirit fallible? Does the Holy Spirit forget? Does the Holy Spirit make mistakes?” If the answer to that is, “No, He doesn’t,” then the question is “Who was in charge of the writing exercises?’ 2 Peter 1:21 says, “When the Apostles picked up the pen, the Holy Spirit jumped in the ink.” The Holy Spirit ‘carried men along’, so that they didn’t write what they wanted to write, they wrote what they were carried along with.
That word, carried along means to be directed by the wind. You know how it is when you put up a sail on a sailboat? Once Mr. Wind shows up, you may be at the helm, but Mr. Wind controls the direction. The Apostles had their sails up; they were holy men, and they were the ones who held the pen. They were the ones who were at the stern, but the Holy Spirit was the wind, controlling which way the ship went.
The Bible was written by men who were sinners, but it was under the authority and control of an infallible, third Member of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit. That is why the Bible is without error. From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, from Beginning to End, cover to cover, this book is the absolute, uncompromising, authoritative, errorless, inerrant Word of God. Absolute.
There is another thing you need to know about the inspiration of the Bible: It is objective truth. What do I mean. It is true whether you like it or not. It is true whether you feel it or not. It is truth whether you experience it or not. It is truth whether you’re in the mood for it or not. It is objective truth. It has nothing to do with whether your feel it, into it, do you like it, do you not like it, do you want it, do you not want it—it doesn’t matter. Martin Luther said, The Bible? I don’t have to defend it. It is like a lion. All I have to do is set it loose; it will take care of itself.” It is objective truth.
It is sort of like gravity. You don’t have to like gravity. You don’t have to get excited about gravity. You don’t even have to believe in gravity. But if you get up on a 3-story building and jump off, gravity will let you know that it is objective truth. It will let you know that it has nothing to do with whether you’re in a gravity mode today. If you go up high enough and jump far enough, gravity will let you know that it is the last truth you will ever learn! It is objective truth. It’s not whether you want to obey the Word, you’re into obeying the Word—it is objective truth.
I am not against an emotional experience. I am not against you ;feeling’ the Spirit of God. I am not against you having legitimate times where God brings tears to your eyes and an excitement in your voice—I am not against that. But I am against anything that compromises objective truth.
There is a place for emotions in worship and living the Christian life. It is a sin to be bored as a Christian. Anybody who is bored as a Christian is unspiritual. Christianity is not a boring, emotionless life. But it is based on objective truth.
When I say to my son, “Clean your room,” that doesn’t mean ‘If you feel like it’ or ‘If you’re in the mood.’ That is an objective truth that transcends feeling. It has got to do with absolutes.
The Holy Spirit them illuminates on the Truth, God’s Word. He makes you understand it. Without the Holy Spirit, there would be no Bible, and without the Holy Spirit, you wouldn’t understand the Bible.
You can read this book until you’re blue in the face and not understand one word. Because it is a supernatural book. It takes supernatural help to understand supernatural information. Let me read 1 Corinthians 2
Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, which has not entered the heart of man, but to us (men can’t have this information, but to us as Christians) God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we (You and I as Christians can) have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words (not human stuff) taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
1 Corinthians 2:9-13
What you have when you pick up this book is the thinking of God. I heard one guy say, “Yeah, I read this book, but I want to know what God has to say.” He didn’t understand. This is the thinking of God. If you want to know what God thinks read His thoughts.
Here’s the problem: People don’t like what God is thinking. They read this, and then they say, “Oh, God couldn’t be thinking that.” The reason why they say that is because their not thinking that way. But remember, this is not by human wisdom. That is why you have to be walking with God to appreciate and understand the thoughts of God.
This is not just another book. These are the thoughts of God, and we should be into what God thinks. This is the tool that the Holy Spirit uses to give you understanding in how you should think. Not dreams. Not signs. Not audible voices. God’s Word.
2. The Spirit Glorifies Christ through bringing people to Christ.
“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment.”
John 16:8
The Holy Spirit’s job is to convict the world, and that means unbelievers. The Greek word for convict in this context would be better rendered convince or to clear up. What the Holy Spirit’s job is for sinners is not trying to give them an understanding of the Bible, it is trying to give them and understanding of salvation so that they can get to the Bible. His job is to convince the world (sinners) about ‘sin, righteousness and judgment.’ To put it another way, the Holy Spirit’s job is to make non-Christians to understand those three issues. Let’s look at those
three issues.
• Understanding about Sin
…concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me. John 16:9
But you say, “Wait a minute. I know sinners who believe in Him!” No you don’t. You know sinners who believe about Him, but you don’t know any sinners who believe in Him, because we don’t understand sin.
Here’s what we mean about sin. What we mean by sin is ‘I have done some things wrong, but I am not as bad as that person!’ The Bible says that mankind is rotten with a cesspool of evil in them so bad that God isn’t even going to try to reform it.
If all of us could be turned inside out, so that we didn’t only reveal what we did, but what we wish we could do if we didn’t think that we would get caught if we did it, we would all run out of this building. Because the Bible says that the intent of men’s heart is evil. The people that get on your nerves, who hurt you, if you had the guts and could get away with it, who you say, “I wish you were dead”, God says, “That’s what I am talking about. When I open up the skin and pull back the flesh, and I look inside the core of who you are, I see a cesspool of evil.”
When God calls sin sin, men don’t understand that they’re sinners to the point that they realize that God is their only hope, because that’s the only time that sinners believe in Him. You only believe in Him when you understand ‘He alone is the only hope to deal with the sin problem.’ As long as you think you can keep the Ten Commandments and deal with it yourself and that you’re better than you’re neighbor, you don’t understand the issue of sin. God views us as such a cesspool that it really doesn’t matter. All of us are in the gutter, you just may be in a higher part of the gutter than your neighbor. That’s why man can’t fix his sin problem.
So the Holy Spirit convinces people that they are sinners before a Holy God. Secondly…
• Understanding about Righteousness
…concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more.
John 16:10
The first thing that the Holy Spirit does is help men to see that they are real sinners. The second thing that the Holy Spirit does is explains to people Jesus is the only way to get right.
How does He explain that? Because, “I go to My Father…” What does that mean? He arose from the dead. What He is saying is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ puts Jesus in a no-comparison category. The resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ means that no one else compares to Him. Not Buddha—he died. Not Mohammad—he died. Not Confucius—he died. Not Ron L. Hubbard—he died. Not Joseph Smith—he died. But the moment Jesus Christ got up out of the grave, He called a meeting of 500 and made that thing public ! He met with those 500 people and said that “I am going to My Father.” The only way a person is made right with God, once the Holy Spirit has revealed their sin, is to understand that Jesus is the risen Lord.
That is what the Holy Spirit does. He convinces men of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. It is not Jesus AND anybody. Jesus plus anything equals nothing. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Once you say ‘Jesus and…’, we’re on different wavelengths. That is the issue Christianity has with Mormons, that’s the issue Christianity has with Jehovah’s Witnesses, that’s the issue Christianity has with Scientology. Jesus is unique; He stands alone.
• Understanding about Judgment
…concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. John 16:11
People don’t like judgment. They read this stuff and say, “Wait a minute. I believe in a God of love.” I do too. But you can’t go out and rape somebody and then go to the Judge and say, “I believe that you’re a Judge of love.” You can’t go out and kill somebody and say to the Judge “I understand I shouldn’t have killed them, but you’re a Judge of love.” Why? Because Judges have to execute justice. Judges have to apply a standard.
The Holy Spirit wants to let you know that hell is real. Now, there are some things in life you take a chance on—this is not one of them. Even if you don’t know that there is a hell, you don’t chance that one. You can chance a lot of stuff, but where you spend eternity is not one decision you chance!
Jesus says, “The prince of this world order has been judged.” Satan is on death row waiting for the execution. He has been judged already. The judgment is already pronounced. “Satan, you will spend forever in the eternal Lake of Fire; you’re on death row.”
But you ask, “If Satan is on death row, how come he is causing me all this havoc?’ The same way Al Capone could be in prison and still have his henchmen working out in the fields. He has his demons all over the place. He just sends the word and they do his bidding. But the Bible says since Satan has been judged, all of his demons will be judged with him. So when Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire, all of his demons who work on his behalf out in the world will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
Here’s the problem. Every man and woman who rebelled against God, joining against the forces of God, to serve the kingdom of the devil by not responding to Jesus Christ, will get their long lost wish—to live forever with their father who they faithfully served on Earth called the devil. So when God takes the devil and throws him away to forever, and takes the demons and throws him away to forever, He is going to take all those people and say, “Since you love hanging out with them so much, why don’t you join them for forever!”
That is what God does. “Since you’re into rejecting Me, and since you wanted him to be your god, I will let you spend the rest of your eternal life with him, since that’s the one you love.” The Holy Spirit convinces you of that, and if you understand that today, you are under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
But you say, “Well, I don’t feel it.” You don’t have to feel it—you just have to understand it. That is what the word convince means. It just has to make sense to you. You have to finally realize that you’re a sinner, that Jesus is the righteous standard, and that judgment awaits if you reject Him. If you understand that today, you are
under the Spirit’s conviction.
3. The Spirit Glorifies Christ by reproducing Jesus’ character in a Christian.
He glorifies Christ by the reproductive character of Christ is the life of the Christian. Galatians 5 calls this reproductive process ‘The Fruit of the Spirit’. He calls it fruit singular, but then lists a lot of fruits. Fruit is the
Christ-like character, and it is all coming off this one tree, although there are different kinds of character.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…
Galatians 5:22-23
What God does through the Spirit is change your character, because your character is responsible for your actions. You see, we want to change people’s actions without changing their nature. You can’t do that long term. You have to change a person’s character. That is how you know you’re growing—when you see character changes. Character changes always produce functional changes.
That is what the Spirit does. He makes your character like Christ’s. For example. One of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. You have a Christian that says, “I am saved and I know it, but I have a temper. Don’t you be messing with me!” That is a character flaw. Why is having a temper a character flaw? Because it is a lack of self-control. Now, if you’re just getting started in the Christian life, you’ve just become a Christian recently, having an anger problem isn’t that big a deal. But the goal of the Holy Spirit is to change that. So, next year at this time, when that person said to you what they said last year that made you fly off half-cocked, if you have been learning to walk by the Spirit (which we will soon talk about), you should now be able to control your temper. That is what the Spirit does—He gives you self-control.
The way Christ is glorified is when you look like Him. Romans 8 says that…
Christ is the first-born among many brethren… Romans 8:29b
In other words, Jesus is the Big Brother, and God wants a lot of other people who look just like His Son, because He likes the way His Son look so much. He is trying to reproduce the character of God in you. That is how Christ is glorified with the Fruit of the Spirit. It is what the Spirit produces that glorifies Christ.
Finally…
4. The Spirit Glorifies Christ by enabling us to serve Him.
Look at Acts 13:2.
And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting (they were in touch with God), the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Acts 13:2
The Holy Spirit said, “Separate for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I (the Spirit) have called them.” This opens up something we need to talk about. The Spirit of God calls Christians to places of service, and equips them to fulfill that responsibility for which they have been called to serve. It is called gifts.
Please notice that they didn’t hear the call until they were ministering to the Lord. To put it another way, God only hits a moving target. You can’t stand still and be led, because people standing still don’t move. People sit back and wait for this thunder from heaven to hit them so the Lord can lead them to where they ought to go.
They pray prayers like, “Lead me.” No. They were ministering to the Lord—that’s when they heard the Holy Spirit. You cannot be doing nothing and then expect the Spirit to lead you. He only leads you when you’re obeying and ministering to Him. You do not get this jolt from heaven unless you’re first ministering to the Lord. Do what you know you should be doing under God, and the Holy Spirit takes you where you don’t know; He takes you to the next step. If you’re not moving at all, don’t worry about it. You can’t be led.
It’s like causing your brother to stumble. You can’t cause someone to stumble who is not moving, because you can’t trip if you’re standing still. The idea is to be moving so that you can be led.
They other key word in this passage is the word called. Some of you are living in misery. You hate to get up in the morning because you despise what you’re going to be doing all day. Why? Because you don’t know about your calling.
Every believer has been called. Not only to salvation in heaven, but to service on earth. There are 3 reasons why you may not realize you’re calling.
1. God hasn’t revealed it yet. He is taking you to it. But the only way you know He is taking you to it is that you’re moving on what you know. If you’re not moving on what you know, He’s not going to take you anywhere.
2. Some of you, because you have not walked with the Lord, may be in your own calling rather than the Lord’s calling. Because of this, it is not a fulfilling thing.
3. Some of you are actually in your calling. You are doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. But the reason why it is not very fulfilling is because you’re not doing it for the why your supposed to do it. Remember, the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ. If what you’re doing is not glorifying God, then He is not giving you any fulfillment in the calling.
So many people just do a job. They could even be making a lot of money, but there is no meaning there. Why? Because there is no glorification of Christ there. Where God can’t be glorified, the Holy Spirit doesn’t give any empowerment. When a man is called, you can’t intimidate him. You can talk about him like a dog, stomp on him and put him down, but he is called. And once a man is called, it doesn’t matter the opposition you raise up against. He knows God is going to make a way somehow—because he is called. You don’t wrestle with the problem of joy when you’re called.
The Spirit gives you spiritual gifts which empower you for the calling. Any calling you have from God must always be made to work for God’s people through the church. If God has given you a calling as a teacher, and you’re doing what you’ve been called, then the adults, or teens, or kids—whoever you’re teaching—should benefit from your calling. The calling is to serve the Body of Christ.
Let me close by going back to John 16.
“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
John 15:26-27
The Holy Spirit will bear witness, but you will bear witness also. It is you and the Spirit, not you or the Spirit.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
Anybody who is walking with the Spirit can’t help but to talk about Jesus. What is the Holy Spirit? The witness of Jesus. And Jesus says, “You will be My witness also…” If you can go a month, 2 months, and Jesus’ name doesn’t come up in the workplace, He doesn’t come up in School teenagers, He doesn’t come up in your activities (His name comes up in church), but His name doesn’t come from your lips in your community—what that means is that you and the Spirit aren’t on the same wavelength. The Bible says that if the Spirit is doing His job, and you’re doing your job, you will be witnesses ALSO.
Anybody not talking about Jesus has a spiritual problem. Because that is what the Holy Spirit does—glorifies Jesus. The Holy Spirit goes nuts about Jesus. He sees people and says, “Okay. Start talking. Let’s go. I’m ready. All I need is a mouth—open it.” The Spirit of God goes nuts talking about Jesus—to represent the claims of Christ; the Spirit of God doesn’t back down. Why? Because that is what the Spirit does. And that’s when they’re going to start not liking you. They’re not going to start not liking you because you go to church. They go to church. They’re not going to give you a rough time because they have a little religion—they have that. The problem comes when you start this ‘glorifying Jesus’ stuff. That is what they don’t want.
I get into meetings. Some people come up with good ideas, but I say, “Let’s see what the Bible has to say about this.” “Wait a minute. We’re talking business now; we don’t need no Bible.” That is where you get into the problem. They want religion, but they don’t want God’s Word—they don’t want this much religion.
What does the Holy Spirit do? He is always talking about Christ. How? 1) Through the Bible. 2) Getting non-Christians saved. 3) Making you look more like Jesus. 4) Making you a witness for Jesus. But its all about Jesus.
FOOTNOTES:
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
1 John 4:2-3
Inspiration is the supernatural act of God whereby He so directed human authors of Scripture that, without destroying their individuality, literary style, or personality, His complete and connected thought toward humanity was received/recorded without error or contradiction-each word being supernaturally written and preserved so as to result in an infallible document in the original writings.
Illumination is the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit upon all who are in right relation with God so that our lives are changed by God’s supernatural power to comprehend and apply inspired truths.
After that He appeared to more than five hundred people at one time…
1 Corinthians 15:6
