What The Spirit Comes To Do

John 16:5-15

Intro: Remember when life was complicated? And then, technology fixed it.

You see, life used to be complex. You used to have to rise from your seat, walk to a television, and turn the channels. Sometimes, you even had to adjust the antenna. Now, you have one of these: universal remote. It controls everything ¡V your video monitor, surround sound, cable, tivo, satellite, dvd, blue ray, CD player, and microwave! You do have one, don't you?

Problem is, not everyone is exactly sure about how to use all of its features. Or is that just me? This really began with VCRs, with that annoying blinking 12:00 that 85% of Americans were unable to stop. From there, it just grew. Now, you have your choice of either a universal remote, or trying to figure out which remote it is that you're supposed to be using!

It's funny how you could survey about something so common, and find that most people didn't really know how to use it. I'm betting that, this morning, if we were to survey around most Christians would have a pretty thick fog when it comes to what, exactly, the HS does. He's something all Christians have in common. He’s a pretty familiar topic in the Bible, but most folks just don't understand Him. We know He’s there. We’re just about 85% not sure why He’s there.

"Led by the Spirit" is a Bible term. But what does it mean to be "led by the Spirit"? We’d probably get a lot of different answers if we were to take that question around the room.

So, I want us to look at part of the Gospel of John this morning - ch 16. It’s some of the last teaching Jesus did with His disciples just before He was crucified. Right in the middle of it are these words about the Holy Spirit. Now, we have an advantage today, because we have that Spirit. He was a new concept to the disciples as they listened about Him for the first time. Still we manage to have developed a lot of misconceptions about the Spirit today. This passage we’re looking at touches on some of those:

1. We have to "pray Him down." v7 - He’s sent, not coaxed! Jesus sent Him. That’s His promise. We don’t get the benefit of the Holy Spirit by getting ourselves worked up into a frenzy and convincing Him to do something among us!

2. He replaces Jesus or His work. v7 again. The HS isn’t "the part of the trinity for today." He’s part of the work that Jesus is continuing in the world. When the Spirit does something, it’s also the work of Jesus. In fact, there’s a place in Acts 16 where the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus are used interchangeably.

3. He mysteriously reveals truth today. v13 If He guided the Apostles into all truth, and guided all the other writers of the Bible the same way, how can there be any more truth to add to that? We need to be very careful when we start saying that the Spirit tells us things. Does He, really?

Once in a while, it’s good to just take a passage of Scripture that teaches us about some important truths we need to know and step back and soak it in.

Chapter 14 speaks about Who He is and the work He does inside of Christians. In Ch 16, we look at the work He does not just in us, but in the world as well. So, what we have here is a great opportunity to better understand the HS and the role He has in our world today - it’s a chance to put away some misconceptions and to get closer to understanding Who He is and what He does.

Understand...

I. He Comes to Continue the Work of Jesus

Imagine being the disciples that evening: You’ve known Jesus for some 3 years. You left everything behind to follow Him and learn from Him. Now He’s talking about leaving, and the thought of Him going away is sad -- not because you care about where He’s going, but because you care about Him leaving you. Your teacher and mentor is going to be leaving, it seems. So Jesus wants His followers to understand...

(A. For your good) This chapter in God’s plan is for their good

It’s easy, isn’t it, for us to say, "If only Jesus were here to see and touch and hear."

Ill - One Christmas at Pape, MO we had the kids gather around a birthday cake to sing

"Happy Birthday" to Jesus. April, age 4, said, "It’s hard to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus when you can’t see Him." April was just being honest and saying out loud what some people think but are afraid to say. Why? Because there are times when we can excuse our devotion by saying that Jesus isn’t here like He was then.