Do you ever feel like there ought to be more to life? Do you read the accounts of supernatural events in the Bible and think to yourself, “Why isn’t my life more like that?” Do you read about Moses parting the Red Sea or Elijah calling down fire from heaven or the eyes of Elisha’s servant being opened so that he could see that the mountains around him were filled with horses and chariots of fire and think “I’ve certainly never experienced anything like that?” Do you read how the Holy Spirit came upon the early church and people were empowered to hear others speak in their own language and how an ordinary fisherman like Peter was able to preach Jesus with such boldness and long for that kind of power in your own life? Shouldn’t there be something more to this life as a follower of Jesus?
I sure know that I feel like that at times and my guess is that most of you do, too. I think the late great Baptist pastor Adrian Rogers had a pretty good handle on why we often feel like that. He once compared Christians who don’t understand the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit to someone who buys a new car and then pushes that car everywhere he goes because he doesn’t understand it has an engine. Unfortunately, I think that is probably a pretty accurate picture of the way that so many followers of Jesus attempt to live their lives apart from the empowering work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
And I’m convinced that is the main reason why we often feel like there ought to be something more to life. I think we sense deep down that there is power out there, but for some reason we’re not connected to it. That is not a new problem in the church. When Paul wrote his letter to the church in Galatia, he addressed that very problem:
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
(Galatians 3:1-3 ESV)
I think it would pretty safe to assume that all of us who have entered into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus would acknowledge that our relationship with God would not be possible without the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Without Him drawing us to Jesus and revealing our sin and our need for a savior, none of us would have ever submitted our lives to Jesus on our own. Our walk with Jesus, as Paul puts it, was clearly “begun by the Spirit.”
But once we’ve entered into that relationship, it seems that we often abandon the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and attempt to live for Jesus like those Galatian believers – trying to perfect our faith “by the flesh”. And I’m convinced that in most cases we don’t do that intentionally – it’s just that we don’t have a good understanding of the Holy Spirit and how He works in our lives. So therefore, we’re unable to tap into the power that He makes available to us. So it’s no wonder that we feel like there has to be something more to life.
That’s why we’re going to spend the next nine weeks or so taking a look at what the Bible teaches us about the Holy Spirit – who He is, what He does, and most importantly of all, how He can empower our lives on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, there seems to be both a lack of understanding as well as a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Perhaps some of you who, like me, come from a conservative church background and have a conservative theology, even get a bit uneasy when I say that we’re going to spend nine weeks focusing on the Holy Spirit. And there is good reason for that apprehension given the manner in which some groups who claim to be Christian have engaged in activities that they claim to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
So let me just assure you before we begin that we’re not talking here about things like uncontrollable laughter, barking like dogs, public healings, and other similar actions which some, mostly charismatic churches, have claimed are manifestations of the Holy Spirit. As we’ll discover in our study, the Holy Spirit has many much more important things that he want to do in our lives in order to empower us to live abundant, godly lives.
So it seems like the logical way to begin our study is by answering the question: “Who is the Holy Spirit?”
Although I could take you through a whole lot of Scripture to answer that question, we’re going to look at just one passage this morning and I’m going to let Jesus answer that question with His own words. Let me tell you right up front that the message this morning may be a bit different than you’re used to. Rather than give you a logical outline to follow or some main points where you can fill in the blanks, what I’d like to do is to just work our way through the words of Jesus and then wrap up with some conclusions that we can draw from those words. So in your sermon outline this morning, I’ve given you some room to make some notes as you’d like, but you won’t find the usual fill-in-the blanks outline.
Go ahead and turn with me to John chapter 14. Before I begin reading there, let’s consider the context.
In John 13, Jesus had gathered the disciples to observe the Passover meal together. He washed their feet as an example of the kind of love that they were to have for each other. And at the conclusion of the meal, He revealed that He was about to give His life because of His love for them. So it’s not hard to imagine how troubled His followers would have been. After all, they had spent three years of their life being with Jesus. They had come to know and love Him and they just wanted to be with Him. But now Jesus was going to leave them.
Perhaps those disciples felt a lot like we often do and were wondering if that was all there was to life. What were they going to do once Jesus was gone? But as we’ll see, Jesus was going to leave them physically, but He certainly wasn’t going to leave them on their own.
Knowing that their hearts were troubled, Jesus spoke words of comfort beginning in verse 1 of chapter 14:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
(John 14:1-3 ESV)
Even though He was about to leave them, Jesus reassured his disciples that His departure wasn’t going to be permanent. He was going to prepare a place for them and one day He would return to take them to dwell permanently with Him. Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that it was actually a good thing He was leaving them.
As Jesus continues to reassure His disciples, those disciples seek some clarification. Let’s pick up the account in verse 4:
And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(John 14:4-6 ESV)
Obviously the disciples still don’t completely understand what Jesus is saying. They still think He is referring to a physical location here on this earth because the idea of Jesus’ resurrection is still foreign to them. But Jesus makes it clear that when He leaves them to go to the Father, that they will eventually be able to join Him there. But there is only one way that that they can get there.
When I use the map app on my iPhone to get directions, that app often gives me several different alternate routes that I can take to get to my destination. But when it comes to how to get to be with Jesus while He is at His Father’s house, there is only one route – faith in Jesus, the one who is the way and the truth and the life. Jesus assures His followers that if they just keep following Him, they will get to the Father.
As Jesus continues, He reassures them that because they have seen Him and know Him, they have also seen and known the Father.
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
(John 14:7-11 ESV)
I think we’re often pretty quick to condemn Thomas and Philip and the other disciples because they are so slow to understand some of the things that Jesus was saying. But let’s step back a moment and think about what was going through their minds.
Those disciples had been taught from the Scriptures since childhood that there is only one God and that God is one. Even today, every faithful Jew recites every morning and evening a prayer known as the Shema, that begins with these words:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
(Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV)
But here Jesus is telling them that He and the Father are one - Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Him. And yet they are different – Jesus is not the Father and the Father is not Jesus.
Do you understand that? I don’t. Even on the other side of the cross I can’t totally wrap my mind around those ideas. I believe it because it’s in the Bible, but I sure don’t understand it fully. But I’m Ok with that knowing that because He is God there are just some things about God that I’m not going to fully understand until I see Him face to face one day. That very same book of the Bible that reveals that God is one also contains these words:
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
(Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV)
There are some things about God that we just have to take on faith right now because God has chosen to not reveal them fully to us. And certainly the idea of a God who is one and yet who consists of more than one person is certainly one of those mysteries. But it is a mystery that is taught so consistently throughout the Bible that I believe it.
Up until now, the comfort that Jesus has been giving to His followers has dealt strictly with what was going to happen in the future. Jesus was going to leave them to go to His Father, with whom He was one, even though He was not the Father Himself. There He would prepare a place for them and then in the future He would return to take those who had placed their faith in Him to be with Him and His Father.
Now that’s certainly great news, but I have to think that the disciples had the same kinds of thoughts we have when we think about those future things. It’s great that we’ll be able to be with Jesus and the Father some day, but what about right now? How does that empower us to live our lives here on this earth until we go to be with Jesus?
Unfortunately there are some, if not many, who claim to be Christians who try to live their lives without ever answering that question. So their lives are lived just trying to “hang on” until either they die or Jesus returns. And in the meantime they are miserable. That certainly doesn’t sound like the kind of abundant life that Jesus had earlier promised to his followers.
As Jesus continues His discussion with His disciples, He begins to answer that question. He begins to reveal the secret to living an abundant life of obedience to the things of Jesus right here and now.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
(John 14:12-14 ESV)
Even though Jesus is going to be with the Father, His followers are going to have access to Him through prayer. Although they will remain on earth when Jesus leaves to be with the Father, they have the ability to ask Jesus to work in their everyday lives. And Jesus promises that if they ask according to His will for their lives, He is going to answer those prayers. He is going to do that for two reasons.
First, He is going to answer their prayers because He wants to empower His followers to do even greater works than He had done during His earthly ministry. That idea really blows my mind – how can we possibly do greater things than the Son of God? We don’t have time to dwell on that idea this morning, but at least in part that is possible because Jesus was just one man who was limited in His humanity to being in only one place at one time. But millions of his followers, empowered by prayer, can minister to many more people than Jesus ever encountered personally while here on earth.
Secondly, Jesus is going to answer the prayers of His followers because when He answers their prayers, His Father gets glory from that.
The fact that Jesus is going to answer their prayers begins to answer the question about how they are going to live for Jesus right now. While Jesus is with the Father and they are on earth, they can still speak to Jesus and He will answer them. But Jesus still has something even better in store for them.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 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.
(John 14:15-17 ESV)
Jesus is going to send another helper – one who would be with them forever. He was leaving, but He wasn’t going to leave them alone. And this helper would not only be with them, He was going to dwell with them and even be in them. Later in His discourse, Jesus clearly identifies this helper as the Holy Spirit.
Certainly these brief words of Jesus don’t tell us everything we need to know about the Holy Spirit, but they certainly give us enough insight to begin to tap into the power that He has for the followers of Jesus. So let’s see what we can learn from these verses.
First, Jesus promises to ask the Father to send another Helper. In Greek, there are a couple of different words that can be translated “another” in English. The Greek word “heteros” means “another of a different kind”. We get our English word “heterosexual”, which means a relationship between two people of a different sex, from that word. But Jesus uses a different word here – the Greek word “allos”, which means “another of the same kind.” It is the same word that Jesus used in John 10 when he said that He had “other” sheep and the word that is used frequently throughout the gospel of John when John refers to the “other disciple.” In all those cases we see that the word indicates another of the same kind.
Jesus is saying here that the Helper He was going send was going to be like Him. The Holy Spirit would be just like Jesus in almost every way. In fact, the only significant difference is that His leadership would be invisible as opposed to the leadership of Jesus which had been physical and visible. But other than that, the Holy Spirit would think, behave, and operate in exactly the way that Jesus had. In other words, the Holy Spirit, like Jesus, is God!
Here in this chapter, Jesus has given us a beautiful picture of the Trinity, even though He never uses that word. He and the Father are one. They are both God, but the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father. And once Jesus leaves the earth, He is going to send the Holy Spirit who is God, just like He is. But again, Jesus is not the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not Jesus. So we have all three persons of the Godhead here in this chapter.
Together they comprise one God, but each of them is unique and has a different role. Once again, it’s really hard to get our minds around that idea, but there is no doubt that the concept of the Trinity is clearly taught here by Jesus.
Next we see that the Holy Spirit is a “helper.” Some of you may be aware that the Greek word John uses there is “parakletos”, which is a compound word:
“para” (beside) + “kletos” (to call or invite) =
“to call alongside”
Probably the best way we could picture what that word meant to Jesus’ followers is to think of the helper as a coach – one who comes alongside an athlete to help them accomplish their goals. That coach is constantly reinforcing everything the athlete is doing correctly and making corrections and providing instruction when the athlete needs to improve his or her performance in some area.
That’s essentially the role Jesus had played in the lives of His followers while He was on earth. He encouraged them when they followed Him faithfully. He rebuked them when they strayed off course. He provided instruction when their understanding was inadequate.
He was going to leave them now, but He was going to send another that would be just like Him in providing that kind of coaching in their lives. But even though the other Helper, the Holy Spirit would do the same things that Jesus had done for them, He was going to do that in an amazing, supernatural way. Jesus had been with them. He had walked with them. But the Holy Spirit would not only dwell with them, but He would be in them – He would actually come and live inside their body.
Do you understand the significance of that? I think the disciples who were with Jesus that day had to be totally blown away by that thought. After all, Jesus, in His humanity, couldn’t be with all His followers all the time. So even while He was physically present here on earth there were times when the disciples were alone and felt like they had to live life in their own power. Sound familiar?
But the promise of the Holy Spirit is that God Himself will dwell with us permanently. Every moment of every day, He is available to us to be that coach who guides us, teaches us, rebuke us when we need it, and trains us to live in a way that would be pleasing to God.
Knowing that leads us to the second conclusion that we can draw about the Holy Spirit today. Our first conclusion, which we came to just a few minutes ago, is that the Holy Spirit is God. But we also see in the passage that the Holy Spirit is a person.
Unfortunately, far too many people have developed their understanding of the Holy Spirit from the “Star Wars” movies than from the Bible. There is some variant of the famous phrase “May the force be with you” in every single movie in that series and I’m afraid that even many Christians think of the Holy Spirit like that – some kind of impersonal force.
But the work of the Holy Spirit, as revealed in the Bible, shows that He - notice I didn’t say “it” – manifests all the characteristics of a person. He has a mind, knowledge and a will. He exhibit emotions. He speaks, teaches, bears witness, guides, hears, and intercedes, among other things. Only a person can do that.
Have you ever heard someone say something like this: I wish that I could have lived when Jesus was on this earth. It would have been great to live my life physically in the presence of Jesus – to walk with Him and talk with Him. If only I could have done that I know it would have been so much easier for me to live for Him? Perhaps you’ve even had those thoughts yourself.
But what Jesus tells us in this passage is that it is better for us that He left the earth and left His followers here. Because He ascended to be with the Father, we now have the Holy Spirit, a person who is 100% God, who lives not just with us, but in us.
But folks, in order for that fact to really matter in our lives, we’ve got to quit pushing our spiritual cars around and recognize that those cars have engines and get in the cars and turn on the ignition. In the coming weeks we’re going to spend some time looking at how we can do that – how we can plug into the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we no longer have to go around asking, “Is this all there is?”
We’ve just scratched the surface this morning, but it seems to me that the appropriate response to God’s Word this morning is that we should spend some time in prayer, asking God for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the life of our church.
So would you join me as we do that? I’m going to give you a few minutes just to pray that on your own and then I’ll ask you to join me as we pray together as a body.
Corporate prayer:
Father,
Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, your people,
and grant us:
• A new vision of your glory,
• A new experience of your power,
• A new faithfulness to your Word, and
• A new consecration to your service,
That your love may grow among us,
and your kingdom come.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen
