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Open your Bibles this morning
again to John chapter 14. We're going to ponder some more
words of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. And the focus of
our text is going to be verses 25 and 26. I'm going to begin
reading in verse 15, and I'll read through verse 26, and then
we'll pray and ask for the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says,
if you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father, and
He will give you another Helper. Remember, that's another of the
same kind as Jesus. That He may abide with you forever.
The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He
dwells with you and will be in you, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you a little while
longer, and the world will see me no more, but you will see
me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will
know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves
me. And he who loves me will be loved
by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you
will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered
and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and
my Father will love him, and we will come to make our home
with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words, and
the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent
me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with
you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance
all things that I said to you." Let's pray. Holy Father, we thank
you that we get to read these words that Jesus spoke while
being present with the disciples and that through the power of
your Spirit they were inspired to write an infallible account
of these words for our benefit. And we come, Lord, humbly recognizing
our need for the Holy Spirit to enable us to understand these
words. Fill us with your Holy Spirit,
we pray, with understanding that we might better know Christ as
Lord and Savior, and that we might trust Him more fully as
Lord and Savior, that we might love Him more as Lord and Savior
each and every day. thus glorifying you, magnifying
Christ in our lives in the power of the Spirit. We pray all these
things in the name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen. Before we begin our examination
of these two verses this morning, I think it would be helpful for
us to remember a particular theme that John has highlighted in
this gospel. It's a theme of lack of understanding
on the part of the disciples prior to Jesus' death and resurrection,
followed by understanding of the disciples after his death
and resurrection. He highlights this theme earlier
in the gospel in a couple of important ways. For example,
in John chapter 2, He records the challenge that was put to
Jesus after he'd cleansed the temple. You know, he drove out
the money changers and such. And in John chapter 2, verses
18 through 22, we read this challenge where the Jews answered and said
to him, to Jesus, what sign do you show us since you do these
things? Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up. And then the Jews said,
it has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will
you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple
of his body. Therefore, when he had risen
from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this
to them, and they believed the Scripture and the word which
Jesus had said." Now notice that. At the time, the disciples didn't
understand what Jesus was saying any better than anyone else did.
It was after, sometimes after His resurrection, that they got
it. That they came to understand
that's what He meant when He said that. And they were able
to put it together. Another instance illustrating
the same thing may be seen in chapter 12, where John records
the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. And I'll read
you verses 12-16 of John 12, where you see the same kind of
thing happening. There, beginning in verse 12,
it says, The next day a great multitude that had come to the
feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took
branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out,
Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, the King of Israel! Then Jesus, when he had
found a young donkey, sat on it, as it is written, Fear not,
daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a
donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand
these things at first. But when Jesus was glorified,
then they remembered these things were written about him, and that
they had done these things to him. Again, we see that the disciples
didn't fully comprehend some of the things that Jesus taught
until sometime after his resurrection from the dead. In fact, here
John says that they understood when Jesus was glorified, which
in this gospel, as we've seen in our past studies, refers to
this complex of events that includes Jesus' death, his resurrection,
his return to the Father. That's his glorification. That's
how he returns to the Father, through death, resurrection,
and ascension. And all together, that's how He is glorified. So
it's after these things happen, after His glorification, that
everything started to really come together and they began
to understand things. But how did they come to understand such
things so much better after Jesus was glorified? Are we to assume
that it was simply due to the benefit of hindsight? I don't think so. I don't doubt
that hindsight certainly helped them and played a part in their
greater understanding later. What really made the difference
was hindsight that was empowered by the Holy Spirit. That's what
really made the difference. It was the power of the Holy
Spirit working in their lives that brought them such clarity. This presence of the Holy Spirit
was promised by Jesus. And in the manner in which the
Holy Spirit brought this clarity was taught by Jesus. He said
that this would happen. He said that after He was gone,
they would understand things better. And He said how? It would
be through the work of the Holy Spirit teaching them that they
would understand things better. And this is what these verses
are really about, verses 25 and 26. How do we end up with gospel
accounts? How do we end up with the teaching
of the apostles? How do we know that they understood the things
that Jesus said and passed them on to us accurately and so forth?
How could they be assured when they were so confused during
his ministry that they would finally understand all these
things? The Holy Spirit is the answer to those questions. We
read in verses 25 and 26 again, These things I have spoken to
you while being present with you, but the helper The Holy
Spirit, Jesus says, whom the Father will send in
my name, he will teach you all things
and bring to remembrance all things that I said to you. There's the key. The work of
the Holy Spirit. Now, those who have been paying
attention as we've been studying the Gospel of John in recent
weeks, We'll quickly recognize that this is the second time
that Jesus has mentioned the Helper in the Upper Room Discourse
here. There's going to be several more coming. The first time the
Helper was mentioned was back in verses 16 and 17 of the same
passage, probably just minutes before, actually. in the actual
conversation that took place. Look back at verses 16 and 17
and see what Jesus said there when He first mentioned this
Helper. I will pray the Father, He says, and He will give you
another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit
of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees
Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and
will be in you. That was the first mention. of the helper. We saw in our study of that text
that this word translated helper in both of these places is this
Greek word parakletos. It's led some theologians to
refer to the Holy Spirit as the paraclete rather than trying
to figure out how to translate it here. They just call him the
paraclete and transliterate it, kind of like we do with the word
baptize. This Greek word has the basic
meaning of one who is called alongside to help. It can be
used as a legal, technical term, as one who appears in another's
behalf. In that sense, it can mean an advocate, a defender,
or an intercessor. In fact, the word is used that
way of Jesus, in 1 John 2.1, as our advocate. But it can also
refer to one who gives protection, help, and security. And in that
sense, it can be translated like a helper, comforter, or counselor. It's this latter meaning that
seems to be in the foreground of Jesus' thought here in both
of the uses of the term that we've seen here in chapter 14
of John thus far. I think he's speaking of the
help, the comfort, the guidance his disciples will receive from
the Holy Spirit after he himself has returned to the Father. They need help in understanding
what Jesus has been saying. He's going to give them that
help. They need help and guidance in the days ahead to navigate
all the trials that are coming their way. The Holy Spirit's
going to eventually give them that help that they need. He's
going to protect them when Jesus is gone. And in the early days
of the spread of the Gospel, when there's so much persecution
and so forth, the Holy Spirit's going to empower them to continue
the work of taking the Gospel to the whole world. He wants
them to know the Holy Spirit is coming because He's going.
That's the context. And He wants them to know that
they have another Helper who's like Him. Another of the same
kind. But there are differences in
the way Jesus speaks of the Helper here from the earlier passage. And I'd like to focus on three
such differences because I think in looking at the differences
in the way Jesus in this second time talks about this helper,
the Holy Spirit, and comparing it to the first one, we can see
some nuances of meaning that he intends to add and to bring
out. There's a reason he says things
a little differently this time than before, I think. I want
to ponder a few of those. So here's the first one. Earlier,
Jesus referred to the Helper as the Spirit of Truth, in verse
17. But now He refers to Him as the
Holy Spirit. I think this highlights the connection
between truth and holiness in the mind of Jesus, in the mind
of God. And it helps to prepare us to
better understand the role that the Holy Spirit is to have in
the lives of believers as their Helper. with the role the Holy
Spirit's going to have in the lives of the apostles, and then
ultimately in all Christians. He will help us to grasp the
truth and to become more holy ourselves as we do so. Since it's by means of the truth
that we ourselves will be sanctified or made holy. These things go
together. Our Lord Jesus says later on
in His intercessory prayer for the disciples in John 17, to
the Father, He says, I have given them, the disciples, your word,
and the world has hated them because they are not of the world,
just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should
take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from
the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of
the world. You sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. That word
sanctify means make holy. As you sent me into the world,
Jesus said, I also sent them into the world, and for their
sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by
the truth. I do not pray for these alone,
but also for those who will believe in Me through their word." That's
all of us. Jesus was praying for us, who are believers now. And what was He praying? Sanctify
them by Your truth. Your word is truth. They will
be sanctified by the truth. So, the Holy Spirit is the one
who makes us holy. And how does He do it? Well,
He's the Spirit of truth. He does it with the truth. That's
how he does it. I think William Hendrickson then
is correct when he writes of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is called holy because he is not only himself completely sinless
and in possession of all the moral attributes in an infinite
degree, which of course is true also with respect to the Father
and the Son, but also because it is he who takes the leading
part in the work of making others holy. In other words, in our scientification. So, here's something really important
we need to understand. We cannot make ourselves holy. The Holy Spirit is the source
of holiness that God desires to bring about in us, and he
is the source of this holiness because he is also the spirit
of truth, and we cannot be made holy apart from the truth. So, away then, I say, with the
silly notion that so many seem to have these days that you can
become more like Christ without the Word of Christ. It's nonsense. Away with the equally silly notion
that the Holy Spirit works to make us holy somehow apart from
the Word. There are a lot of professing
believers in so-called evangelical Christianity today We like to
talk about meditating in a way that's not really scriptural,
and sitting and waiting on God to sort of speak to them and
show them things. They may as well be going, om,
like some Hindu, right? Look through the Bible and look
at meditation. Look at all the places where the Bible talks
about meditation or contemplation. You know what it'll be talking
about meditating on? The Word. Because the Holy Spirit
transforms us through the Word. He works in, with, by, through
the Word in our lives. We become holy through the Word.
He doesn't work apart from the Word that He inspired. He doesn't
go against the Word that He inspired. There are many Christians that
assume that God is leading them to do things. I talked to a pastor
recently who's convinced God called him into pastoral ministry
even though he admits he's never been trained, he's not really
qualified, but he knows God called him. How does he know that? Does the Holy Spirit lead people
against His Word? I don't think so. In fact, I
know He doesn't. This is something we need to get our minds wrapped
around. We need to latch on to this idea.
There is no work of the Holy Spirit apart from the Word in
the life of Christians. In one way or another, He always
works in, with, by, through the Word. Jesus does not imagine
our becoming more holy in any other way than the Holy Spirit
working through the Word in our lives. And He certainly doesn't
imagine that we can do it in our own strength. Or else why
promise the Holy Spirit at all? He knows what we need. We need
the Holy Spirit. That's what we need. Secondly,
here's another difference. Earlier, Jesus referred to the
Helper as the one whom the Father would give the disciples in response
to His request. Remember, He said, I will pray
the Father and He will give you another Helper. But now He refers
to the Helper as one whom the Father will send in My name.
Changes it up a little bit. What's the significance of that?
I think D. A. Carson hits on it when he
writes this in his commentary on this passage. That the Father
sends him, the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name may not be greatly
different from saying that the Father will send him in response
to Jesus' request, as said earlier in verse 16. There may, however,
be a further point. If he ascends in Jesus' name,
he is Jesus' emissary, not simply his substitute. Just as Jesus came in his Father's
name, i.e. as his Father's emissary, so
the Spirit comes in Jesus' name. I couldn't agree more with that
assessment. I think he hit the nail on the head there, what
Jesus is saying. As we've seen in our previous
study, The Holy Spirit does communicate the presence of the Father and
the Son to us, but he does so as an emissary who is himself
present with us as the representative of both the Father and the Son. So he works in accordance with
the Father and the Son to break about their mutual purposes in
our lives. This passage is very Trinitarian, right? That's the second difference.
We need to see the Holy Spirit. We've seen earlier, he's another
of the same kind, this helper, as Jesus. And one of the ways
he's similar to Jesus is that he comes as a representative.
Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. You experience
the presence of the Father when you experience my presence. And
now we're seeing that we experience the presence of the Father and
the Son when we experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. They are
one. And this way, he's like Jesus. There's a third difference here.
And this is going to kind of build on the one I just described.
A helper of another kind, who comes to us in the way that Jesus
comes to us, in a similar way, as a representative of the rest
of the Godhead, you might say. Because remember, Jesus also
said, the Holy Spirit is with you in my presence. So it wasn't
just the Father that was with them in Jesus' presence, it was
the Spirit too. You just can't have the Father without the Son
and the Spirit. The Son without the Spirit and the Father. The
Spirit without the Father and the Son. It's just not possible.
Our third difference. Earlier, Jesus referred to the
Helper as the One who dwells with you and will be in you.
But now He refers to Him as the One who will teach you all things.
What's he going to do when he indwells them? Here's one thing
he's going to do. We've implied he's going to make
them holy, because he's the Holy Spirit, right? And Jesus later
prays that that will happen through the truth. But now he says he
will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all things
that I said to you. Now we've already recalled, and
now you see why, this of misunderstanding of the disciples
before Jesus' glorification, followed by understanding after
His glorification. Now, this verse shows us where
that understanding came from. After His glorification. The
teacher came. The helper came. And He made
all the difference. It wasn't just hindsight. It
was Spirit-empowered hindsight all the difference. He's the
one who enabled the disciples to put things together in the
right way, to fully understand what Jesus had taught them. And
so his work is focused on who? Jesus. As Tom Chantry has aptly observed,
there is great confusion in the church about the work of the
Spirit, and thus much confusion also as to how we might worship
and honor him. Jesus thought that the Spirit's
work is primarily as a teacher, and that His teaching brings
us back to Christ. The Spirit is honored then through
doctrinal clarity rather than mysticism, and through Christ-centeredness
rather than Spirit-centeredness. You show me a group of Christians
that talk about the Holy Spirit all the time, that don't talk
about Jesus very much, and I'll show you a group of Christians
that don't know the Holy Spirit very well. No matter what they say. Because
Jesus tells us what the Holy Spirit's ministry is about. It's
about Him. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It's about our getting to know Him as our Lord and Savior better.
Knowing the things that He wants us to know about Him better. This ministry of the Holy Spirit
also assures that we have a true account of Jesus' life and ministry
in the Gospels. and by implication also the teaching
of the rest of the apostles. It is true. I think R.C. Sproul is right when he points
this out. He says even the best students
were not capable of memorizing everything Jesus said during
his lifetime. Humanly speaking, we forget things, important facts
and such slip from our minds. But Jesus said, I'm going to
take care of that. One of the first things the Holy
Spirit is going to take care of when He comes is to bring
all of these things to remembrance. That's part of the reason we
have so much confidence in the accuracy of the Gospels. These
accounts do not rest primarily on the ability of the disciples
to recall perfectly what Jesus taught them. Rather, their record
was superintended by the Holy Spirit Himself, the Spirit of
Truth, whom Jesus sent to represent Him." That's where confidence
comes from. Thank God we don't have to rely
on Peter's memory for our salvation and for an accurate account of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We'd be doomed then. This is
a crucial point, as a matter of fact, that Peter himself made
later when he spoke of the apostolic teaching. I'm going to read to
you a little bit more extensively from 2 Peter 1, what Peter had
to say about the apostolic teaching that we have recorded in the
New Testament. Beginning in 2 Peter 1.13, he
says this. Yes, I think it is right, as
long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you,
knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord
Jesus Christ showed me. Jesus predicts the death of Peter,
and that's what Peter has in mind here when he says, just
as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. He knows he has to give his
life for the gospel, and that's coming soon. He says, moreover,
I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of
these things after my decease. How's he going to be careful
of that? He's writing it down, see? That's how. That's one of
the ways. He said, for we did not follow
cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. Then he gives an example of how
they were eyewitnesses. He says, for he received from
God, the Father, honor and glory when such a voice came to him
from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased. And we heard this voice which
came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.
He's looking back on the Mount of Transfiguration now as an
example of the eyewitness testimony that He can provide. But He's not relying simply on
His own memory here. He goes on to say, and so we
have the prophetic word confirmed, which you would do well to heed
as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first, that
no prophecy of Scripture is of any in private interpretation.
And there he doesn't mean that nobody can go around and interpret
things on their own. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about here the revelation of Scripture never
came by. These prophets just didn't make
things up. or have visions and interpret
them on their own, or something like that. That's not how it
happened. He says, for prophecy never came
by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were
moved by the Holy Spirit. Now, in this context, he's putting
his own teaching in the same category as that. How can you
be assured that what I'm telling you is true? Because no prophecy
that's a genuine prophecy from God ever just came from a man. How did it come? Not the Old
Testament prophecies about Jesus? Not the things I've given you?
The prophetic word I've given you? And here he's talking about
the teaching and preaching that he does. Not just foretelling things? How can you be sure of that?
He said, holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy
Spirit. Peter's talking about the ministry of the teacher.
Assuring that he understood things correctly and passed them on
correctly. That's what he's talking about.
And he saw the teaching that was passed on by himself and
his fellow apostles as being in the same category as the Old
Testament scriptures, as ultimately being the result of the supernatural
work of inspiration by the Holy Spirit. He wants us to know that
this is why we can trust their writings. since they'd experienced the
ministry of the Holy Spirit just as Jesus promised that they would.
In a unique way. So then, we have three differences
in the way that Jesus has described the ministry of the Holy Spirit
here in this second teaching about the Spirit from the first.
And I think highlighting those differences has helped us to
see how Jesus is expanding what he's been saying to them. But
I'd like to point out one more significant aspect of Jesus'
teaching here. It's also a little different
because it's here that we see for the first time that Jesus
uses a Greek masculine pronoun, a kados is the Greek pronoun
here. It's translated he. Here, if you look again at verse
26, that the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you all things. In the Greek,
that is a masculine pronoun. But here's the thing, pneuma
is a neuter word. See, in Greek they have this
grammatical gender. You can have feminine, neuter,
and masculine words. And if you have a feminine word,
it will require a feminine pronoun to refer back to it. If you have
a neuter word, it requires a neuter pronoun to refer back to it.
A masculine word, a masculine pronoun to refer back to it.
The genders need to match grammatically. That's just good Greek grammar.
Jesus takes a masculine pronoun and refers back to a neuter word.
And it's not because he doesn't know Greek grammar. He's spoken
Greek very well in these teachings that he's been giving. This is
on purpose. Jesus doesn't make mistakes,
you know. This is on purpose. In fact, he does it again, several
more times. in John. For example, later in
John 15, 26, Jesus says, when the Helper comes,
whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth
who proceeds from the Father, He, there's a kenos again, will
testify of me. So you have that masculine pronoun
again. He does it again in John 16,
verses 13 and 14. However, when He There it is, Kainos again. The
Spirit of Truth has come. He will guide you into all truth,
for he will not speak of his own, or from himself, using the
masculine again, referring to the Holy Spirit as a himself,
not an itself. He will not speak on his own
authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell
you things to come. Ekanos, masculine again, will
glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it
to you. So, Jesus deliberately and repeatedly uses the Greek
masculine pronoun with reference to the Holy Spirit, even though
he knows that the Greek word for spirit is neuter, rather
than masculine. And when he does this, it must
be that he wants us to understand something about the Holy Spirit,
that Greek grammar isn't sufficient to show us. The Holy Spirit is a person,
not a thing. That's what Jesus is saying.
It was implied throughout the text already. And when He said,
another of the same kind, He'll be one who represents just as
I represent. He's present with you in the
same way the Father and the Son are present with you. These are
personal beings, the Father and the Son. And so is the Holy Spirit
of Jesus. is emphasizing that. As a matter
of fact, this is why most modern translations, everywhere that
the articles are used of the Holy Spirit, even when they're
neuter articles, because pneuma is a neuter word, English translations
regularly translated he. Why? Because Jesus said we should
see him that way. Jesus said so. That's why. That's a good translation for
that very reason. J.A. Carson had spoken of the
Holy Spirit in personal terms in his commentary, and he defended
why when he wrote this. He said, these notes have consistently
referred to the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, as a person, inasmuch
as the Paraclete is given as, in certain respects, a personal
replacement for Jesus, and that John does not hesitate to use
the personal masculine pronoun of him. I would argue that John
is repeating Jesus' teaching. Jesus did this. Even he says,
though the word spirit in Greek is formally neuter, this approach
is entirely justified. We're justified in constantly
referring to the Holy Spirit as He, because Jesus teaches
us to. Not just in this use of the pronoun, but in the way the
Holy Spirit is described. We could look at other texts.
We could remember that Paul warns the Ephesians not to grieve the
Holy Spirit. Things don't get grieved. People do. Persons do. personal beings do. He tells the Corinthians that
the Holy Spirit gives gifts to whom He will. Things don't make
decisions. Personal beings make decisions.
So there are other ways we could see this in the New Testament
as well. But for now, I just want to point out that Jesus
emphasized this in the way He spoke about the Holy Spirit,
so there could be no doubt about it. The Holy Spirit is a personal
being. Those who say, like the heretics,
the Jehovah's Witnesses, that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal
force that emanates from God. That's just flat-out heresy.
That's blasphemous. We should rarely reject that.
The Holy Spirit is a personal being, period. He's equal as
such to the Father and the Son. We've come to the end of the
passage, and I think we've stirred the waters of the text. And in
the process, we've sort of seen some things rise to the top,
right? That I just want to emphasize again before we finish. I want
to restate several applications that have come up. First, we
need to remember that we cannot become more holy in our own strength.
We need to remember that as we leave here today. It is only
through the power of the Holy Spirit that we're sanctified,
and the Holy Spirit works through the Word to bring this about.
We must never forget that. He is both the Spirit of truth
and the Holy Spirit. These two things, truth and holiness,
cannot be separated. Ever. Those who think they get holiness
without the truth know nothing of holiness, and they certainly
don't know God. They certainly don't know the Holy Spirit. As
our confession reminds us, They who are united to Christ, effectually
called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit
created in them through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection,
are also farther sanctified, really and personally, through
the same virtue by His Word and Spirit dwelling within them.
They nailed it, didn't they, in their confession? They got
Jesus' teaching. We need to remember that the
Holy Spirit has assured us that we have a true and infallible
Word from God, since He has inspired the writing of the Scriptures
for our benefit. We can trust in God's Word to
be all that we need. We can trust. We're not trusting
in the memory of Peter and John. We're not trusting in the creativity
of Paul as a theologian. We're trusting in the Holy Spirit
as our teacher, who ensures that we have an infallible Word. This
is why Paul wrote of the Holy Scriptures,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith,
which is in Jesus Christ. And this is why Paul concluded
that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly
equipped for every good work. We have an authoritative and
sufficient word from God because Jesus kept his promise to send
the help. And the Helper, the Holy Spirit,
guaranteed that we would have Jesus' teaching just like we
needed to have it. And it is all we need now to
be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. But I'd
also add that our assurance of the truth of God's Word is not
due simply to the work of the inspiration of the writers, but
to the Word of the Holy Spirit in our hearts as we read the
Word. Listen to what Paul said to the
Corinthian believers. As it is written, Eye has not seen, nor
ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which
God has prepared for those who love them. Nobody can ever have
dreamed up God's plan of salvation. It can never have come from a
human mind. But God has revealed them to
us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things,
yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things
of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even
so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God." Sounds like he read John 17 almost,
right? "...that we might know," he says,
"...the things that have been freely given to us by God." These
things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but
which the Holy Spirit teaches." He was a beneficiary as one of
the apostles of this special teaching power of the Holy Spirit.
But here he's talking about how we all become believers, how
we all understand spiritual things. He says, these things we also
speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the
Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
You might better translate it, speaking spiritual things with
spiritual words, in this context. He says, but the natural man
does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. Paul is explaining to the Corinthians
why they understand spiritual things at all. The things that they've been
given through the apostles, the apostles didn't invent. They
couldn't have invented these things if they tried. These things
haven't ever entered the heart of man. They didn't come originally
just from men, they came from the Holy Spirit. And people who
understand these things don't understand them because they're
able to as natural men either. But only because the Holy Spirit
enables them. These words come from the Holy Spirit, we receive
them as from the Holy Spirit, through the power of the Holy
Spirit. This is what Paul is teaching. This is where our assurance
comes from, and our understanding of God's Word. It comes through
the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. So when Jesus told his disciples
that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in
my name, will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all
that I said to you, He anticipated and prepared the way for the
teaching that we saw in Peter, 2 Peter, and from Paul in 1 Corinthians. They're simply repeating and
teaching the ideas that Jesus had already taught. And they're
doing it through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.
The third and final application that's come forth from this text
We need to remember that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal
force emanating from God, as I said earlier. That is a heresy. He is himself God, and he is
himself a person, a personal being. So that means, just as we are
right that we ought to worship the Father, we ought to worship
the Son, We ought also to worship the Holy Spirit. He is worthy
of all honor and praise, even as the Father and the Son are. But how is he best honored? When we're Christ-centered, Scripture-centered
people, that's how we best honor the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Holy Father, it has been my intention
to just meditate some more upon the teachings of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ this morning. We don't want to pass over these
things too quickly. We want to take time to ponder
and think about these amazing things that Jesus says to his
disciples. And we do so, Lord, thankful
that we too now have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit that
enables us to understand them as we should. For that we are
truly grateful that we can know the things that have been freely
given to us by your grace because of the
indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. For that
we are truly grateful. Thank you, Jesus, for sending
another helper. Thank you, Father, for sending
your Son. Please help us as we go forth
from here to remember what true holiness is really all about.
It's becoming more like Christ, and it happens through the Word. Help us not to lose sight of
that, I pray. We ask all these things in the name of our great
God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Holy Spirit IS Our Teacher
Series The Gospel of John
| Sermon ID | 1117142113463 |
| Duration | 44:39 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 14:25-26 |
| Language | English |
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