The Purpose Of The Spirit Series

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