The Spirit Of Truth Series

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at what makes us different than those around us. What distinguishes us from the people we meet every day who aren’t followers of Jesus? These are the people we say hello to when we’re getting coffee at the bank. People we meet when we’re taking a walk around the lake. The people sitting next to us at a high school basketball game. What makes us different? Are we smarter, or more capable than they are? Probably not. Are we nicer, or more generous? Not necessarily. In fact, Paul says the opposite; he wrote to the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 1:26) that among them there were not many who were wise, or influential, or who came from one of the leading families of that area. They were normal, ordinary people; there was nothing unique about them. And the same is true of us; on the surface, we look like anyone else.

What makes us different is something deeper and more profound. What makes us different is that we have a supernatural power. Not to be confused with a superpower; we’re not faster than a speeding bullet, or more powerful than a locomotive. But what we do have is something better than a super-power. We have a power that comes from the Spirit of God who lives in each of us. That power is what makes our experience of life, day to day, different than the life experience of those who do not yet know Christ. And my goal throughout this series is to help us to better understand His power, so that we can experience all that God has for us as his children.

We began by looking at the power of prayer and the power of the Word. I hope that you are applying what we learned in those sermons. I hope that you are praying, once a day, “Father, please bless our church”. And I hope you will read your Bible today. Because both of those—consistent prayer and consistent intake of the Word—are important means of accessing the Spirit’s power. Last week, we studied how the Holy Spirit enables us to live together in unity and harmony as the body of Christ. How He enables us to treat one another with compassion, and kindness, and humility, and gentleness, and patience. How He enables us to bear with one another, and to forgive one another, as Christ forgave us. And that’s a wonderful thing. It’s a joy to be together with other believers and to share our lives, when we are living out these virtues by the power of God. Our love for one another is also a testimony to the power of the gospel, as the world around us sees it being lived out, day to day.

So today, we continue looking at the power of the Spirit. And as I mentioned last week, this is not an independent spiritual force that we can manipulate, as you might find in some Eastern religions. No, the Power of the Holy Spirit is simply the person of the Holy Spirit acting in power, in and through us. I’ll highlight three ways in which the Holy Spirit empowers us to know God, and to live lives that are honoring and pleasing to God.

First, he leads us into the truth, and protects us against falsehood, especially with regards to the truth about Jesus Christ and salvation. Let’s look at Jesus’ promise:

“16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-18)

Here, we see that the Spirit is called “the Spirit of truth”. What this means is that truth is an essential aspect of his character. There is no falsehood in him, of any kind. There are no contradictions, no deceptions, no gray areas. He is true in every respect. And this can be difficult for us to fully accept, because we are so accustomed to treating everything we see and hear with skepticism. Which is necessary. You can’t take at face value everything you read online, or see on television; or even what you are told by other people. You have to ask, constantly, is this really true? But when it comes to what the Spirit has given us in the Word of God, we can trust it completely. Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. And Jesus Christ said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6). He Himself is the Truth.

The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of truth because he is the source of truth for us. He reveals to us the truth about Jesus Christ. How does he do that? Verse 17 in the passage we just read tells us that in the past he was “with” God’s people—meaning that he provided revelation and guidance to them, but from an external perspective. He was working from the outside in, through their eyes, and ears, through their senses. However, in the present age, ever since the day of Pentecost, he is not only “with” us but he is “in” us. And so he is no longer outside of us, or separate from us. He indwells us; he inhabits us. And he inhabits every part of us—our mind, and our emotions, and our will. Another way of saying this is that, if you are a follower of Christ, there is no aspect of who you are that is untouched by the Holy Spirit. And that is how he is able to lead you into the truth more fully; because he is no longer working from the outside in, but is working from the inside out.