The Holy Spirit’s ministry John 15: 26-16:11
William Randolph Hearst was one of the wealthiest men in the world of his time and he was known as a passionate collector of fine art. One day he was looking through a catalog of rare paintings and he saw a piece he just had to have. So he instructed his purchasing agent to do whatever it took to find it. And after a long and difficult search, the man finally located it. It was in Hearst’s own collection! He already owned it but he had so much in his collection, he didn’t even know it was there.
Spiritually speaking, many of us are like Mr. Hearst. We’re saved by the blood and sealed by the Spirit and yet, we don’t even know who the Holy Spirit is let alone what He has done and intends to do now that we’ve committed our lives to the Lord. And as a result, we live as "spiritual paupers" never realizing how "rich" we are in Christ. It’s like living below the poverty level when you actually have $10 million in your checking account.
So, here we find Jesus is speaking to His disciples about what’s to come because the events that will take place over the next couple of days including His arrest, torture, death and burial will seem to be the end of everything He said or did over the last few years. And now He’s going to assure them of the presence and comfort of the Holy Spirit in spite of everything that’s coming down the road. And this isn’t just for these twelve disciples but these are words of reassurance for you and I as well.
Do you remember a few weeks ago when I told you that Jesus uses this chapter and the two preceding ones to tell us about the various ministries of the members of the Godhead? As I said, in chapter 14 Jesus emphasized the work of the Father and He used the word Father 21 times in 42 verses. And then in chapter 15 He talks about Himself and the role He has in the matter of salvation and beyond and He actually uses the word ‘I’ 71 times in 31 verses. And now that we’re at chapter 16 He emphasizes the role and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
And so we begin in the last two verses of John 15 where John tells us about the Holy Spirit’s coming and it’s not a question of if but when He will come. And John tells us that Jesus will send the Holy Spirit from the Father and once again we have the mention of all three members of the trinity all in one verse.
In terms of identifying the Holy Spirit Jesus tells us three things about Him when He says He is the Spirit of truth, He proceeds from the Father and He shall testify of Me. And then He says, “And because He is coming, you shall bear witness of Me.”
So, He’s the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit communicates truth to a hostile world through the conviction of sin and the witness of Christ. And in the energy of the Holy Spirit we can be used to boldly face a hostile world with the gospel. In verses 26 and 27 we have the words "testify" and "witness" are both of these are legal terms. So, what John is doing is using the imagery of a law court in this passage and we are the witnesses for the defense because Jesus is on trial before the watching world.
Now, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and there are two times in John 15:26 where John indicates this. It says, "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me." So, the witness of the Holy Spirit originated with the Father.
And then it says, “He shall testify of Me.” When did the Holy Spirit come as a witness of Jesus Christ? Jesus promised the disciples in Acts 1:8, "Ye shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me" And we know that this promise was fulfilled on the day of the Pentecost. So the Holy Spirit came from the Father at Pentecost to witness to the Son and the Spirit witnesses to the Son by indwelling and empowering believers.
And because of His coming we are told that He will empower us all to testify about Jesus. Now listen, this is important. There’s no such thing as a Spirit-filled Christian who doesn’t witness and that’s because it’s the Spirit’s ministry to testify about Christ. It’s what He does. And Spirit-filled people tell the world about Jesus because that’s what the Spirit directs them to do.
Hebrews 2:4 says of the apostles that, “God bore them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit." In other words, they were given supernatural gifts by the Holy Spirit so they could dispense the gospel. In Romans 15:19 Paul says, "Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ." So, it was the filling of the Holy Spirit that enabled Paul to preach the gospel everywhere he went. And the Holy Spirit continues to empower God’s people to witness about what Jesus has done for them.
This tells us that the moment we were saved, we were indwelt by the Holy Spirit and He will stay in us to witness through us until we stand in the presence of Jesus Christ and that’s either at the time of our death or when Jesus comes back in the rapture.
So, what’s He doing? He’s living in our hearts giving us both the strength to be a witness and the words to say to the unsaved. And to be a witness, first, we must be precise. A witness states the facts the way they have experienced them. The apostle Paul said in Galatians 1:7-9, "There are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." This tells me that we are to present Jesus Christ as simply but as accurately as possible. And that means we never give half of the gospel and we never share it in a way that takes away its power to save.
And then second, our goal is to exalt Jesus Christ in our lives. People should see Jesus in us and be either attracted to Him or repelled by Him depending on their willingness to know Him. God wants us to confront the world with a clear testimony about what Jesus has done for us and what He can do for them. And our goal is not just talk about ourselves but it’s to share our testimony in a way that turns the attention to Jesus. People must come to understand who Jesus Christ is and who we are is secondary.
For instance, if someone hears my testimony and walks away saying, man he really led either an exciting or an awfully dull life then all they’ve heard is me. The purpose of giving our testimony is to testify what Jesus did to save us and to tell them how He can do the same for them. It’s not to tell them how good or bad we were in the eyes of the world because that doesn’t matter.
I remember hearing a guy share his testimony about how he had gotten into the criminal lifestyle before he met Jesus and it wasn’t his testimony that stuck out but the fact that he had his hair styled so he looked like a rock star and then at one point in his testimony he ripped his shirt out of his pants to show the scars he received in a knife fight. He was the center of attention, not Jesus. And when he gave the invitation and a whole slew of kids came forward to get saved. And I wondered if these same kids went forward every time they heard someone give an exciting testimony.
Now, I don’t want to totally write off these events because I’m sure that God used them to save some of these kids but at the same time I think that an awful lot of them were responding to an emotional appeal as well as the few who were answering the spiritual one.
I was speaking up in Syracuse, New York one night and when I finished a guy came up and said, “That’s not much of a testimony. You were never arrested or involved in a gang. I’ve heard a lot better than that.” (I felt like apologizing for having lived such a lack luster life and then promise that if I ever back slid I’d blow his mind with my next testimony.) What I actually said was that my testimony wasn’t so much about how much sin I had gotten into but that the Lord saved me and He could do the same for anyone who came to Him.
There’s no such thing as a Spirit-filled Christian who doesn’t witness because it’s the Spirit’s ministry to testify about Jesus, that’s what He does. So, Spirit-filled people witness because the Holy Spirit directs them to do it. In other words, we are all given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit so we can share the gospel. And these gifts are not to make us famous or help us raise money but the purpose is always to spread the gospel.
In John 15:27 Jesus gives an important qualification for being a witness when He says to His disciples, "Ye have been with me from the beginning." So, what is it that makes a witness legitimate? He has to spend time with the Lord. He has to have known what happened to Him and why and then be willing to share it.
After all, you can’t go into a court and be a witness unless you saw or experienced something. And the only person who is able to give a testimony for Jesus Christ is someone who has had the experience of coming to know Him and that takes our testimony out of the cold realm of the mind and puts it into the warmth of personal experience. The testimony itself is not just our personal experience but it also includes what we know about the Lord and what He has accomplished on the cross in terms of salvation for all who are willing to repent and trust Him. In Acts chapter 2 it says, "When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." The day of Pentecost in the book of Acts came ten days after Jesus’ ascension into heaven and we find that the disciples were all gathered together. And then it says that the Holy Spirit came but it doesn’t say that He arrived as a result of the disciples’ prayers or as a fulfillment of some special spiritual requirements but the Holy Spirit came because that was what God said He would do and this was the time for it to happen. The one thing I want you to understand is that God didn’t send the Holy Spirit in response to anything that anyone did.
I remember when I was involved in the charismatic movement we had a week-end of meetings with some well-known leaders of the charismatic movement from Florida. And one of them was sharing with a group of twenty or thirty of us how to receive the Holy Spirit. And he was telling us to breathe deep and led out minds go blank and then he said that the Holy Spirit would come in and fill us and we’d all speak in tongues. And after a while of practicing what he said most people did experience what he was talking about. And do you know what the strange part is? The apostle Paul didn’t know anything about this. He never gave any instructions or promised any spiritual gifts to anybody who did it this way.
Listen, tongues are not the spiritual domain of just the charismatic crowd. There are people in almost every cult in the world that speak in tongues but they know nothing of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
In Acts 2 we also see the signs of the Spirit’s arrival in verses 2-4 where it says, "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and if filled all the house where they were sitting." I want you to see the source of this tremendous experience. It says the sound was like a mighty rushing wind that came from heaven. One thing we’re sure of is this, the source of this sound was from God, it wasn’t from man or and it certainly wasn’t from Satan. This was a sudden phenomenon and the church came into being instantaneously. I’m sure that no one was expecting anything but God made something happen that neither they nor anyone else had ever experienced before.
And if you look there you’ll see where it says it was a sound like a wind but listen, it wasn’t a wind. So, maybe they heard the sound and they saw the tongues of fire but no one actually felt any wind blowing. In the scripture, wind is often an emblem of the Holy Spirit. In John 3:8 it says, "The wind bloweth where it willeth, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell from where it cometh, and where it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Generally the Greek word translated "spirit" is pneuma, which also means "breath" or "wind." But in Acts 2:2 the Greek word is pnoes, which means "a blast of breath." So, it’s wasn’t a gentle breeze; it was more like a strong gust of wind but as I said, I think they heard it but they didn’t actually feel it.
Later on we read that unbelievers came to where this miracle happened. It says they were curious because they heard this sound and came to see where it had come from. This gives us the impression that this was such an audible demonstration that the unsaved were attracted from outside the house and some of them were amazed when they heard the various languages being spoken while others actually started making fun of them by saying they were drunk. And the same thing happens today when the world sees someone who was living for the devil turn around and live for the Lord. There are always a few who’ll be amazed at the change while others will write off this person’s experience by saying, he must have had some kind of breakdown, just give him time and he’ll get over it.
Today people define what they call the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a spiritual experience. But in Acts 2:2 this baptism was non-experiential. These people were all sitting in the room and they were all baptized but they didn’t seem to show any reaction at the time. There was no yelling, no tears and nothing emotional of any kind whatsoever.
And listen, a good example of what happened here is what happened to you when you became a Christian. The moment you received Jesus Christ into your heart the Bible says you were justified. And that means that no sin you ever committed or ever will commit will be charged to your account. Now, let me ask you, did you suddenly feel justified? No, justification is a judicial act of God. It’s a non-experiential reality. It happens the moment you were adopted into God’s family on the basis of your faith in Christ.
I know this is a little off topic but I was thinking about this the other day. Someone said being justified simply means ‘just as if I never sinned.’ Now, listen because this is very important. The moment you were saved Jesus took all of your sins whether they were sins of the past, present or future and they were all nailed to the cross. Now, is that right? Did He or didn’t He? Was all your sin paid for once and for all? Yes, and listen very carefully, that means that every time God looks at you He never sees your sin but He sees the payment that Jesus made on the cross. In other words, you were and are justified in the sight of God. And that means you are justified even when you don’t feel like it and you were also justified even though you don’t act like it.
Now, let me get back to where I was. There are those who will point to the speaking in tongues in Acts 2:4 as the experiential reaction to the baptism of the Spirit and they come to the conclusion that this is the norm for all believers. And yet, throughout the New Testament there are certain verses that tell us what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 Paul said, "As the body [the church] is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. By one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." So, this tells us that all believers whether they’re Baptist, Pentecostal or whatever they are, if they’re truly believers they are baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is when the Holy Spirit takes a believer and places him in the body of Christ. You can, but you don’t have to shout and you can, but you don’t have to feel goose bumps when this happens. It’s a spiritual work.
It’s like when you got married. When the pastor said the vows and you repeated them you may have been emotional about the commitment you were making but the vows themselves are clear commitments to living a lifetime together. As a matter of fact I’ve had people go through the same vows at the practice on the night before and there was no emotion at all. So, we might get emotional about the work of the Holy Spirit but His work isn’t necessarily an emotional experience.
And it’s interesting to see that the speaking in tongues that came with the filling of the Spirit only happened to certain people during the foundation of the church. And history tells us that by the end of the first century this experience had completely faded out. It fulfilled the purpose for which God gave it to the church which was to testify to the Jews. It’s interesting to see that the people were speaking were actual languages that were spoken by people who didn’t know them. They weren’t angelic languages or special prayer tongues and when you read Acts 2 you’ll find all of the languages listed and a group of people who understood what was being said.
Now, having said that these gifts of the Spirit are no longer in the church I don’t want to give the impression that the Holy Spirit is no longer active because where people are getting saved and growing He is definitely involved in the process because if He wasn’t then no one would even be saved.
I read something interesting last week, according to a Christian newspaper columnist by the name of Cal Thomas a mistake was made by George Bush senior before a religious broadcasters’ conference in 1990. Thomas tells the story in one of his books and he says that the Lord has a way of revealing those who really know him and those who don’t. He said Bush gave a speech about how his faith is so "important" to him in an attempt to convince the American people why they should consider him for President. As a matter of fact, He announced that his favorite Bible verse was John 16:3. Of course the speech writer meant John 3:16 but none of Bush’s staff was familiar enough with the scripture to catch the error. And do you know what John 16:3 says? It says, "And they will do this because they have not known the Father nor Me.” The Holy Spirit works in strange ways and by His works He reveals the true and exposes the frauds.
So, in the last two verses of chapter 15 we see the promise of the Holy Spirit’s coming and then second we see in verses 1-4 where Jesus tells His disciples that the believers will be rejected by the world. In the first two verses He said, "These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, that whoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service."
We assume that the book of John was written sometime around the close of the century and that many of the believers were being persecuted for their faith. So, John was writing to strengthen the faithful by quoting Jesus words where He said, I’ve told you these things so you wouldn’t be offended. The Greek word for offended is ‘scandalized’ and it means to be made to stumble. So, the disciples were not to be surprised that people would try to kill them in the name of religion and history verifies that this is exactly what happened. And let’s face it, all kinds of atrocities take place in the name of religion because false religion always persecutes those who speak God’s truth.
He says, they’ll put you out of the synagogues. Now, this meant a big deal to these people because they were not only raised to attend the synagogue every Saturday but even their education took place there. This is where they learned to read and write. Just to show you what the average Jew thought of the synagogue, one of their rabbi’s said that prayer was not effective unless it was offered in the synagogue. In other words, if you wanted God to listen to your problems you had to go to the synagogue to pray. And besides this, the early church used the synagogue for their initial place of meeting.
Imagine if you were involved in the very founding of this church and when the building was about to be built you were actually part of the meetings where the initial plans were accepted and then you were here every day to help and you not only worked here but you also sacrificed so that the materials could be bought. And then one day years later the deacons met and you were told you could never come to this church again for any reason. I mean, that’s what these people were going through.
Jesus also said there is a time coming when people will actually thinking they’re doing God a favor or doing service for Him by killing you. And the word He uses for service is the one that describes what a priest does when he serves at the altar of God. Or we could think of one of our deacons serving communion and that’s the kind of image that portrays the attitude these people would have when they were killing the believers.
Now, that doesn’t make an awful lot of sense to us in our present situation but Jesus went on in verse 3 and says, "These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." And what He saying is these people will claim to be serving God but they don’t have a clue as to who God is. Listen, a commitment to external religion is no guarantee that anybody is a true believer.
I was reading the other day how the torturers and judges of the Spanish inquisition have left behind a name that’s an embarrassment to the Christian church and yet, they thought they were serving God by torturing heretics into accepting what they considered to be the true faith. And these people actually believed they were saving men from hell by what they doing.
And then in verse 4 Jesus says, "These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you." And what He was saying was that when He had been with the disciples, He was the object of the world’s attacks but after He returned to the Father, the disciples would become the focus of the world’s hatred.
And then in verse 5 He says, now I’m going back to where I’ve come from and no one even asks Me where I’m going. This shows us that they were more concerned about the fact that they were being left alone than where He was going. And He says because I’ve said these things sorrow has filled your heart but I’m telling you the truth, I have to go away because if I don’t go the Holy Spirit won’t come but if I go I’ll send Him to you.
"Nevertheless, I tell you the truth." Jesus continued in verses 7, "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” He knew it was best for them for Him to return to the Father because the Holy Spirit would then come to dwell in them. And then the Holy Spirit would help them deal not only be the witnesses they were sent to be but also He would help them deal with the problem of sin.
And then in verses 8-11 it says, “And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”
Now, the key to understanding verse 8 is the Greek word translated "reprove" because it has two meanings which are to condemn and to convince. In the first sense it speaks of convicting with a view toward judgment or sentencing. It’s a courtroom term. The judge used it to declare a person’s guilt and then pronounce his judgment. And this tells us that the Holy Spirit reproves men by declaring them guilty and men deserve this condemnation because they have rejected Jesus Christ. Although it is the Holy Spirit who makes the declaration, He is not the One who carries out the condemnation because that responsibility belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
And the second term is convinced. So, the Holy Spirit condemns men for sin and then He convinces them that they need Jesus Christ. The condemning work of the Holy Spirit happens first and then the convincing or the conviction comes. If we don’t respond to His convincing then we will end up being condemned.
And here we are told that the Holy Spirit uses three things to convict men and these are sin, righteousness, and judgment.
In verse 9 He says, "Of sin, because they believe not on me." This tells us that the basic problem of all unbelievers is that they don’t believe they’re really sinners in the sight of God. We noticed in the films on witnessing that everybody starts off by saying, there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m just as good as everybody else.
There was a man named Dennis Lee Curtis who was arrested in 1992 in Rapid City, South Dakota for robbery. Curtis apparently had scruples about being a thief. In his wallet the police found a sheet of paper on which were written his philosophy of life. And this is what it said,
1. I will not kill anyone unless I have to.
2. I will take cash and food stamps but no checks.
3. I will rob only at night.
4. I will not wear a mask.
5. I will not rob mini-marts or 7-Eleven stores.
6. If I get chased by cops on foot, I will get away. If chased by vehicle, I will not put the lives of innocent civilians on the line.
7. I will rob only seven months out of the year.
8. I will enjoy robbing from the rich to giving to the poor.
Personally, I think he should have gotten some credit for writing all this out but the fact was that when Dennis Lee Curtis stood in front of a judge, his personal code of conduct didn’t really matter. He wasn’t judged by his own standards; he was judged by the higher law of the state. And so when men stand before God, no one will be judged by the code of morality they have written for themselves but by God’s perfect law. I like how a poet once wrote, "Some men die in ashes; some men die in flames. Some men die inch by inch playing silly games." And that’s what people are doing when they’re trying to devise a way that God will overlook our sin.
The problem is people have no sense of sin. We notice here in verse 9 that it doesn’t say "sins" but "sin." You see, our business is not to convince the world of its sins but of the basic, fundamental sin of unbelief. All of our sins are the result of our sin of unbelief and in the final judgment a person either goes to heaven or hell depending on whether his sin was forgiven because he believed in Jesus Christ.
Someone once asked me if they’d go to hell for smoking and I said, “You won’t go there for smoking, you’ll just smell like you’ve already been there.” You see, it’s not what we do but what we are. We’re either forgiven or we’re not.
The Holy Spirit reveals our sin so we can see and act upon our need of forgiveness and cleansing. So the ministry of convincing is an act of love because without it, man would continue on a sure and steady course to hell.
The Holy Spirit convicts, or convinces the world of sin by producing in people a sense of guilt and wrongdoing. He uses this conviction to cause nonbelievers to see their need for Jesus Christ. Some well-meaning but misguided believers turn to pressure tactics to lead someone to the Lord. Yet, we can actually hinder the process of conversion when we interfere with the Holy Spirit’s work in this way.
The Holy Spirit will also only convict a person of their sin for only so long. When a person no longer feels any guilt or remorse for his or her sin, it is an indication that this person is no longer under the Spirit’s conviction. And by refusing to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, this individual is calling the Holy Spirit a liar and he stands condemned.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was said to have played a practical joke on twelve of his friends. He sent them each of them a unsigned telegram that said, "Flee at once…all is discovered." And within twenty-four hours, all twelve of his friends had left the country. This tells us that everyone is conscious of their sinfulness and the fact that one day we’ll all stand in the presence of God.
And then He says that man will also be reproved of “righteousness." “Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more." Righteousness is a New Testament term for what the Old Testament called "holiness." I confess I have never liked the word "holiness" because when I was growing up I always thought of holiness like some kind of a grim austere look that they had to have in church. Holy people never smiled and they never enjoyed anything. In fact, if they did enjoy anything, they felt guilty about it later. So, I never liked the word until I learned to substitute for it another word that says exactly what holiness is, and that is the word "wholeness." So, being righteous is being whole or complete. And not being righteous means we are lacking something.
The worse thing that any of us can do is to measure ourselves by ourselves. After all, none of us think we look all that bad when we’re all by ourselves. Let me just point out a simple way we do this. When we’re home in the bedroom with a full length mirror we might look at ourselves and think, you know, I don’t look all that bad. But when we go to the mall or even to the church we can always find someone who looks better and then we don’t feel all that good about ourselves.
So, what I’m saying is that we have to follow the only true standard of righteousness and that’s in the person of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit wants to show us the righteousness of Jesus so we’ll understand who we really are.
The righteousness of Christ is best demonstrated by the fact that God accepted Christ back into His presence. That’s what "because I go to my Father and ye see me no more" speaks of. On the cross God laid our sin upon Jesus. However, because of His obedience Jesus was raised in righteousness. And His righteousness was proven because the Father accepted Him back.
And then third, it says, He will reprove the world of "judgment." And it says the world will be reproved because the prince of this world is “judged." The prince of this world, Satan, was judged on the cross. While the death of Jesus Christ looked like Satan’s greatest victory, it proved to be his death blow as soon as Jesus arose from the grave. So, Jesus is not speaking of some future judgment, but of a judgment that has already taken place.
Colossians 2:15 says Jesus triumphed over Satan and all his hosts. Revelation 20:1-3 says that in the end, Jesus will cast Satan in a pit and bind him for a thousand years. Then He will cast him into the lake of fire where he will suffer and remain forever. This tells us that Satan is a defeated enemy. So, if Jesus can judge the greatest sinner in the universe He can and will obviously be able to judge every unbeliever who refuses to repent of their sin.
Conclusion
How does the Holy Spirit use believers to restrain evil? Believers act as "salt " in this world. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men."
Salt was a preservative in ancient times. To be "salt" means to stand up for what is right and true and to do what we can to stop the rampant spread of evil in our culture. Believers are also to act as "light." Jesus also said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." To be light means to be a witness to others through the good works that we do. It is also to let others know of our faith in Jesus Christ. The proclamation of the gospel is the most effective defensive and offensive weapon in our spiritual arsenal.
And the good news is that we aren’t alone in this but the Holy Spirit has a special ministry in the life of every believer. First, He brings about the work of conversion and as part of the process of conversion, the Holy Spirit personally gives us the assurance that Jesus Christ is in our hearts. The scripture says the Holy Spirit indwells us by taking up residence in our hearts. And then second, the Holy Spirit seals us. Scripture tells us that once we believed in Christ, we "were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." This description alludes to the royal seal of a king used in ancient times. Anything stamped with the king’s seal signified a unique mark of ownership. In the same way, God has put His "royal seal" upon us and this is the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also called the "deposit guaranteeing our inheritance" in Ephesians 1:l4. It’s like putting money down to "hold" some merchandise until we can make full payment. So, God gives us the deposit or the down payment of the Holy Spirit to show that He means business! He guarantees our future inheritance which is eternal life in heaven with Him. And then third, the Holy Spirit teaches us. And as we read and study Scripture, the Holy Spirit can give us incredible insights into what God’s Word to say and it means to us today. While some passages can be difficult to grasp, the same Holy Spirit who inspired the Scripture can illuminate or explain the Word of God for our benefit. And then fourth, we are told that the Holy Spirit also helps us to pray. Many times we are disappointed when God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want them answered. And as I said a few weeks ago sometimes we forget the true objective of prayer which is not a means by which we change the mind or the will of God but it’s the means by which God can change us. And then fifth, the Holy Spirit stops the wholesale spread of evil. You might say that the Holy Spirit "keeps a lid on things." His work through the Church is a restraining force in the world today. While we see an escalation in sin and an increasing disregard for human life, it is nothing compared to what the world will see in the last days when Jesus takes His Church out of this world because the Bible says, "For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the One who now holds it back will continue to do so till He is taken out of the way." Once the Holy Spirit’s unique work through the Church stops and He no longer restrains evil then the powers of darkness will take over.
In World War II, the American and British prisoners in one camp had built a homemade radio. One day, they heard the news that the German High Command had surrendered and the war was over. They roared in celebration; men walked around singing and shouting, waving at the guards, even laughing at the dogs. They knew something the Germans didn’t. Three nights later, the Germans finally heard the news. They fled into the dark, leaving the gates unlocked. The next morning, the Brits and the Americans walked out free. Yet they had truly been set free three days earlier by the news that the war was over. And we’re in the same situation. We have a joy that the world knows nothing about and they can’t understand it because they don’t know the source of our joy.
Tony Campolo said: “Nothing is more controversial than to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Nothing is more dangerous than to live out the will of God in today’s contemporary world. It changes your whole life.” And then he said, “Let me put it quite simply. If Jesus were living on earth today and He had $40,000 in the bank and He knew about the kids who are suffering and dying in Haiti, what kind of car would he buy?”
