God Pointing to God
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
John 14:23-24
“Jesus said, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him.
“He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
Romans 10:9-10 (NLT)
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
“For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”
Please open your Bibles to: John 14:15-27
Over the past few weeks we have taken a look at two chapters that have each had a major point to make.
In Matthew 25
- Two parables and a prophecy
- The return of Jesus and the coming judgment
- At the return – time for decision making is gone
- This seems harsh and it would be except for what we find in Luke 15
Luke 15
- Three parables about things lost and found
- We are all lost
- Jesus wants to find us before it is too late
What has God put into place to find us?
Grace calls us.
But how does that happen?
Grace is to salvation like an operating system is to a computer.
Computer with no operating system is useless.
How is this grace extended to us and how does it enable us?
Several times a year we will take a look at the Trinity.
The Trinity is a mystery which cannot be comprehended by human reason, but is understood only through faith and is best confessed in the words of the Athanasian Creed which states that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the Substance, that we are compelled by the Christian truth to confess that each distinct Person is God and Lord, and that the deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is One, equal in glory, co-equal in majesty.
Where do we see God in the Bible?
- God (the Father) in the Old Testament
- Jesus in the NT
- Holy Spirit everywhere
- In the OT references to the Holy Spirit are preceded by an definite article
o THE Spirit of God
o THE Spirit of the LORD
o You would almost get the impression that the Holy Spirit is some sort of mystical force
- In the NT pronouns are used when referencing the Holy spirit
o (He, Who, etc.)
In the New Testament we see something radically different. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is often preceded by a personal pronoun …
- The Holy Spirit, WHO has been given to us … (Romans 5:5)
- The Holy Spirit WHO lives in us … (2 Timothy 1:14)
- The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First HE says … (Hebrews 10:15)
- The Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father - HE will testify about Me … (John 15:26)
Jesus, Himself, prophesies about the Holy Spirit who is to come into the world …
With that in mind let’s read from God’s Word: John 14:15-27
May God bless the reading of His Word! (Prayer for help)
The Holy Spirit is seen in the Bible from the very beginning
Genesis 1:1-2
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Old Testament we see the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of the LORD coming to rest upon men.
- Judges
- Prophets
- Kings
- Even Balaam
In the NT – HS available to everyone!
Did you know that the Holy Spirit is responsible for this great Bible we have?
In 2 Peter 1:20-21 Peter writes,
“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
The function of the Holy Spirit in the Bible is to be a pointer a spotlight!
The Holy Spirit never, ever points to Himself. He is the Pointer!
The Holy Spirit is God’s spotlight.
The Holy Spirit is the Pointer. He is the Explainer. He is the Revelator!
OK. So, what is the Holy Spirit doing now?
How does all of this matter today in our lives?
The Holy Spirit is the purveyor of grace. Unmerited Favor …
The Holy Spirit provides prevenient grace.
- Explain prevenient grace
- How it works
The Holy Spirit also provides saving grace.
Ephesians 2:8-9
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.”
We are damaged merchandise – sinful nature
Jesus is the remedy
The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus
With Prevenient grace the Holy Spirit brings us to Saving grace
- The Holy Spirit enables us to say “yes”
- Our sinful nature enables us to say “no”
Holy Spirit then provides Sustaining Grace
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we become conduits of God’s Grace
The Holy Spirit never points to Himself
We should never point to ourselves
The Holy Spirit points to Jesus through us through prevenient grace
Holy Spirit helps us to
- Point to Jesus
- lead others to Jesus
- teach and guide others to know Jesus
- encourage fellow believers in the faith
- continually be pointing to Jesus
Pointing … pointing … pointing … always pointing, just like the Holy Spirit!
Why? Because we are filled with the Holy Spirit!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says,
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
A “Christian” with no Holy Spirit is like the computer with no operating system – useless.
So, what’s the point? God is the Point!
Just as the Holy Spirit pointed to God throughout the books of the Bible and by His grace, so we too, are to be pointers to Jesus!
Are you a pointer?
Final thoughts and prayer
