Scripture Introduction
The Apostle John uses the full name, “Holy Spirit” only three times in his book. In chapter one, he quotes another John (the Baptist) as saying that Jesus “baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And at the end of this book, after the resurrection, Jesus says to his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The only other use of “Holy Spirit” in John’s gospel is in John 14.
In spite of the relatively infrequent use of the title, however, John tells us more about the Holy Spirit than probably any other Bible author. And since all followers of Christ should understand the Spirit’s work, I hope to show you some of his glory and ministry today. We will be reading John 14.15-31.
[Read John 14.15-31. Pray.]
Introduction
Dr. James (J. I.) Packer is one of the best known and most well-respected theologians of our time. He points out that the Spirit is less understood among Christians because his primary work is pointing people to Jesus. Packer calls this a “floodlight ministry in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“I remember walking to church one winter evening to preach on the words, ‘He will glorify me’ (John 16.14), seeing the building floodlit as I turned a corner, and realizing that this was exactly the illustration my message needed. When floodlighting is well done, the floodlights are placed so that you do not see them; in fact, you are not supposed to see where the light is coming from; what you are meant to see is just the building on which the floodlights are trained. The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not be seen for the darkness, and to maximize its dignity by throwing all its details into relief so that you can see it properly. This perfectly illustrated the Spirit’s new covenant role. He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight shining on the Savior.
“Or think of it this way. It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder on to Jesus who stands facing us. The Spirit’s message to us is never, ‘Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me’, but always, ‘Look at him, and see his glory; listen to him and hear his word; go to him and have life; get to know him and taste his gift of joy and peace.’ The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together” (Your Father Loves You, 1986).
Packer is correct. The Holy Spirit turns our attention to the Messiah. Jesus is God in human form, God becoming sin, God bearing the wrath of divine holiness, God perfectly fulfilling the law, God dying to redeem mankind, God rising in victory over sin and death, and God reigning until all returns to submission to his good and perfect will. It is by the name of Jesus that salvation comes, for “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4.12). Our relationship with God must be mediated, and the appointed mediator is the God-Man, Jesus, the Christ. God the Spirit shines light on God the Son to draw us to the Messiah and salvation.
At the same time, we should not ignore the Spirit and his work. The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. To love the Spirit with the mind means we labor in the word to know who this person is and what he does. To love him with the heart draws out our affections for his special ministry in and for us. To love the Holy Spirit with the soul deepens our communion with him, as an individual person in the Trinity. To love him with our strength includes being devoted to his glory and praise, as surely as we are to the Father and Son.
Augustine preached and pastored about 400 years after the resurrection. His prayer provides an example of fulfilling the greatest commandment in relation to the Spirit:
“Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. Amen.”
And we begin loving the Holy Spirit by observing (first) that he is God.
1. The Holy Spirit Is God
We see this in our text by the way in which the one work of God is related to all three persons.
John 14.23: Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” So the Father comes to true believers and dwells (or “makes a home”) with them.
Now look back at John 14.20: “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Here the Son is specifically said to be in his people.
Finally, John 14.16-17: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” The Holy Spirit indwells God’s people.
False religions remind us often that the word, “Trinity” is not in the Bible. That is true; instead, the Bible uses language just like this to show us that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all possess divine characteristics. Here is another example:
In John 6.63, Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life.” But earlier in the same chapter, Jesus had already said of himself, “I am the bread of God who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6.33). But in John 5, we are told that it is the Father who has life in himself and who gives life (John 5.21, 26). So one way God explains his being three persons in one is by showing us that all three persons do works which only God can do.
What are some other ways the deity of the Holy Spirit is taught? Acts 5 specifically calls the Spirit, “God.” Acts 5.3-4: “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.’”
Another way: when New Testament authors quote the Old, they sometimes attribute to the Holy Spirit what was clearly the word of the Lord God. Hebrews 3.7-9 is an example.
Another whole category of ways in which the Holy Spirit is revealed as God, is by reminding us of his divine attributes. The Holy Spirit is:
• Eternal: Hebrews 9.14 says that Christ offered himself without blemish to God through the eternal Spirit.
• Omnipresent: Psalm 139 teaches that the Spirit is everywhere present, there is no place we can hide from him.
• Omnipotent: Romans 15.19 reminds us that it is by the power of the Spirit that Paul did his great signs and miracles
• Omniscient: 1Corinthians 2.10-11 explains that the Holy Spirit searches everything and knows even the depths of the mind of God.
• Sovereign: in John 3.8, Jesus explains that the Spirit blows where he wills, giving the new birth to God’s elect.
In addition to divine attributes or character traits, God the Holy Spirit also does divine works. He creates, regenerates, resurrects and acts with the authority of God.
Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 380): “The deity of the Holy Spirit ought to be clearly recognized in Scripture. Look at these facts: Christ is born; the Spirit is His forerunner. Christ is baptized; the Spirit bears witness. Christ is tempted; the Spirit leads Him up. Christ ascends; the Spirit takes His place. What great things are there in the character of God which are not found in his power? What titles which belong to God are not also applied to him except only unbegotten and begotten…? He is called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the mind of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of adoption, of truth, of liberty; the Spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, of might, of knowledge, of godliness, of the fear of God. This only begins to show how unlimited He is.” (Much more in Schaff, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 2nd series, VII, 327).
The Bible’s consistent and clear testimony is that the Holy Spirit is divine. The church has always given the same testimony.
2. The Holy Spirit is a Person
Notice, please, John 14.26: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Teaching and reminding are things which real people do. False religions speculate that the “spirit” is a cosmic force, like gravity or magnetism. But impersonal forces do not remind us of things we have forgotten. Nor is this the only personal characteristic of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit knows and understands (1Corinthians 2.10-11). He gives gifts and abilities as he wills (1Corinthians 12.11), and he has power to accomplish his desires (Romans 15.13). The Spirit speaks (Acts 13.2), certainly a mark of personhood. He also reveals things to people and prophesies about the future (1Peter 1.11); he guides (John 16.13), comforts (Acts 9.31), and warns (1Timothy 4.1). Additionally, he may be grieved (Ephesians 4.30), resisted (Acts 7.51), lied to (Acts 5.3), and blasphemed (Matthew 12.31-32).
The Bible describes the Spirit as a person who is God, yet distinct from the Father and the Son. The church has, from her earliest days, called this teaching, “The Trinity.” One living and true God, infinite, eternal and unchanging in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth, and existing in three persons forever, to whom belongs all glory and honor and praise. This is truth; how do we use and apply it?
3. Application: The Work of the Spirit
First, truth has inherent value. God is the uncreated Creator and the ground of reality. In him we live and move and have our being. So the fact that God is triune is not simply an abstract fact; it is the “A” note by which the whole universe is tuned. I want to know about Helen because we love one another and we are married and one flesh. In a similar way, true believers want to know God the Spirit simply because he exists and everything else has its existence in him. Christians love truth because God is true. Test yourself by this: if truth for its own sake does not resonate in your soul, then you need to turn whole-heartedly to the one who is truth and meet him.
Second, Bible truth protects you. Every cult begins with an error about the nature of God. The two most well known today, the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, both refuse to accept the Bible’s teaching about who God is. And these false teachings have terrible consequences. The practice of polygamy is not a random error; it is the natural consequence of defective theology. Christian marriage has its definition in the Trinity: one Father and one Son, equal in power and glory, send one Holy Spirit into the world to regenerate and sanctify a people for Christ. So one man and one woman (equal in value and glory and honor and importance) send children into the world to take dominion for Christ. It is rebellious theology that offers a man more than one wife, or to treat his wife as a lesser person. Truth frees from tyranny and oppression.
Third, the nature of God is humbling to the pride of mankind. There is a ready example in John 4.16-17: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him….” People do not like to be told that they cannot know God apart from the sovereign working of the Spirit. They do not want to hear that they are bound to lies unless the Spirit of truth opens the eyes and ears.
A. W. Tozer pastored for 44 in the early 1900s and wrote several books still in print. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, he notes: “Religious instruction, however sound, is not enough by itself. It brings light, but it cannot impart sight. The assumption that light and sight are synonymous has brought spiritual tragedy to millions. The Pharisees looked straight at the Light of the World for three years, but not one ray of light reached their inner beings. Light is not enough. The inward operation of the Holy Spirit is necessary to saving faith. The gospel is light but only the Spirit can give sight.”
Have you seen the light? Have you been touched by the Spirit? Let not pride in your abilities keep you from salvation. Ask Jesus to give his Spirit, so that you will no longer be lost and blind.
John Calvin: “All that Scripture declares about the Holy Spirit is only a dream to earthly men, because they rely on their own reason and despise heavenly illumination. Although this pride, which extinguishes so far as it can the light of the Holy Spirit, abounds everywhere, yet we ought to be conscious of our own poverty and to know whatever belongs to sound understanding flows from no other source. Christ’s words show that nothing relating to the Holy Spirit can be learned by human reason, but that he is known only by the experience of faith.”
Some people imagine that Christianity is an exercise in intellectual acuity. Theirs faith is not a continuous dependence on the working of the Holy Spirit. They vainly suppose that they grasp truth by their own skills and efforts. But the Spirit teaches all things and reminds us of what the Son has said. Oh may the doctrine of the Spirit make us a humble, dependant, God-seeking people!
Fourth, the Spirit is our helper, comforter, friend, and counselor. In verses 16 and 26 in the version I am using, Jesus promises another “Helper.” The NIV translates the Greek, “Counselor.” Other versions have “Advocate,” or “Comforter.” The Greek word is para,klhtoj (parakletos), formed from two words, para (alongside) and kletos (called). A paraclete is one who comes alongside another to provide help.
R. C. Sproul, The Mystery of the Holy Spirit: “In the ancient world a paraclete was someone summoned to give assistance in a court of law. The paraclete was a legal adviser who pleaded a person’s case in court. This is the central sense in which it is used in 1John 2.1: ‘My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’ Here the word translated “Advocate” is Paraclete. There is no doubt in this passage that it is Jesus, not the Holy Spirit, who is called Paraclete.”
Sproul then observes that the Spirit is the paraclete in John 14: “The Holy Spirit assumes the title of “Another Paraclete” in light of Jesus’ absence. The Spirit is sent to be Christ’s early “substitute” or “replacement.” The Spirit is the Supreme Vicar of Christ on earth.”
Here is a most valuable lesson for all God’s children. Jesus reveals his love for you in giving the Holy Spirit to be your helper, your advocate, your friend, your counselor, your comforter. Let us call on the Spirit when we need wisdom from above. Let us depend on the Spirit who prays in, and through, and for us. Let us trust in the Spirit to teach us the truth in the Holy Scriptures. Let us count on the Spirit to sanctify us, conforming us to godliness. Let us keep in the step with the Spirit, labor to walk by the Spirit, strive to be filled with the Spirit, by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body. Let us be led by the Spirit, receive the Spirit of adoption and be encouraged by this witness with our spirit.
4. Conclusion
One of my favorite illustrations of the application of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit to us is from D. L. Moody. He held up a glass and asked the folks he was teaching, “How can I get the air out of this glass?”
One man shouted, “Suck it out with a pump!”
Moody replied, “That would create a vacuum and shatter the glass.”
Other suggestions were offered, but none would work. Finally, Moody picked up a pitcher of water and filled the glass. “There,” he said, “all the air is now removed.”
The main work of the Holy Spirit is to fill us with Christ, so that we have his victory, his righteousness, his grace filling us and our sin and self driven out. You think about that. Amen.
