The Promise of the Spirit (John 14:16-18)
- Tony Evans tells the story of a man who went to buy
a refrigerator
- he bought the most incredible refrigerator you could
imagine
- it had all the bells and whistles you would expect,
and then some
- it cost thousands of dollars more than a normal refrigerator,
but what could you expect for such a fine product?
-
- the store delivers the new refrigerator to the man’s
home
- excitedly, he fills it with everything he can think
of, and then retires for the evening
- the next morning he rushes into the kitchen excitedly,
only to find that the milk is spoiled, the ice cream is running out
of the bottom of the freezer compartment, and the vegetables are changing
color
- the refrigerator is not working
-
- the man calls the store to give them a piece of his
Christian mind
- the man at the store says, "I don’t understand.
Open the door and see if the light comes on"
- he opens the door; no light
- "Put your ear up close to the refrigerator and
see if you can hear the hum of the motor"
- no hum
- and then the man says, "There’s a cord at
the back or your refrigerator. Please check to see whether it’s
been plugged in"
- sure enough, our friend finds it wasn’t plugged
in
- he comes back to the phone and said, "You’re
right, the cord was not plugged in. But for the kind of money I paid
for this refrigerator, that shouldn’t matter. This thing should
work anyway"
-
- you see, refrigerators are dependent things
- no matter how much you pay for it, although it has
all the parts necessary to run, it cannot operate without an invisible
power source called electricity
- unless you plug in that cord, the food will continue
to spoil
-
- friends, our spiritual lives will not work without
the Holy Spirit’s power
- when God saved us, he gave us all the component parts
necessary for spiritual life and victory
- but we are dependent creatures
- we have not been designed to work on our own
- only as we are empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit
will we produce what our lives are supposed to produce
-
- between now and Palm Sunday, we want to study the Holy
Spirit
- the Holy Spirit is not some nice addendum to the Christian
faith
- he is at the heart and core of it
- the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity,
God himself
- some people have taught that the Holy Spirit is merely
a force
- but the Bible is clear the Holy Spirit is a person
- he is not a force or an "it"
- the Holy Spirit has all the components of a personality:
intellect, emotion, and will
- and there are Scriptures that demonstrate this
- and the Bible is also clear that the Holy Spirit is
God
-
- if there’s anything we need to understand in order
to live the victorious Christian life, it is the person and ministry
of the Holy Spirit
- that’s why our study will not be an intellectual
one
- our goal is that we will experience the fullness of
the Holy Spirit and that it will transform our Christian lives and those
around us
-
- let’s begin by considering the disciples
- they were a handful of unlikely misfits, as one person
writes, a "rather ragged aggregation of souls"
- they do not impress us as being key types of men
- none of them occupied prominent places in the Synagogue
- none of them belonged to the Levitical priesthood
- for the most part, they were common laboring men
- somebody has written a fictional management report
to Jesus, describing the lack of potential apparent in the disciples
-
- TO: JESUS, SON OF JOSEPH
- FROM: JORDAN MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
- Dear Sir:
- Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve
men you have picked for management positions in your new organization.
All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only
run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews
for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.
- The profiles of all tests are included, and you will
want to study each of them carefully.
- As part of our service and for our guidance, we make
some general comments, much as an auditor will include some general
statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes
without any additional fee.
- It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees
are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the
type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept.
We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience
in managerial ability and proven capability.
- Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits
of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two
brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest
above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that
would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell
you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better
Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely
have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the
manic-depressive scale.
- One of the candidates, however, shows great potential.
He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a
keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated,
ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller
and right hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.
- We wish you every success in your new venture.
- Sincerely yours,
- Jordan Management Consultants
-
- the Gospel of John sets the scene for us in John 14
and on
- please open your Bibles to John 14:16
- it was hardly a great time to be a disciple of Jesus
- everything was in a spiritual downtime
- Judas was about to show himself to be a traitor
- Peter had just been told in the next twenty-four hours,
he would publicly deny Christ
- the Jews wanted to get rid of Christ and all his disciples
- and then Jesus delivered the worst blow
- he said:
- "I am going…to prepare a place for you. You
can’t come to me until I come for you. I am not going to tell you
when I will come for you, but trust me"
- the disciples reacted with shock
- Thomas said in effect, "Jesus, you have got to
be kidding. We’ve put all our eggs in your basket, and now you’re
going to leave us? We’ve had enough problems making it with you
here. How are we ever going to make it if you leave us?"
- in this context, Jesus said:
- John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give
you another Counselor to be with you forever—
- John 14:17 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 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans, I will
come to you.
-
- Jesus promised them that his replacement would be "another
Counselor," literally another legal advocate
- this is the promise that Jesus gave to us
- in the remainder of the time we have this morning,
I want to unpack the power of the promise given by Jesus
-
- Jesus promised us the indwelling of another advocate
- because Jesus knew that the disciples’ need was
complete, he promised them another "Helper" after he left
- the world for helper is paraclete in the Greek
- it is translated differently in various Bible translations
because it is such a rich term
- the best understanding of this word is probably that
of "advocate" in a legal sense
- in the ancient world, a paraclete was someone
summoned to give assistance in a court of law
- and the text in John 14:16 says he is "another
paraclete"
- in other words, he was going to pick up where Jesus
left off
- the word "another" in the Greek means another
of the same kind
- just as Jesus had come alongside and dwell with them
- it’s important to notice this: the text talks
about him taking over the ministry that Christ had among the disciples
- in other words, as Christ was to the disciples while
he was on this earth, the Holy Spirit is to us today
-
- Jesus was saying in effect, "I am going to leave
you now. But I am going to send you someone who is always going to be
there for you. No matter what your problem, no matter what your circumstance,
no matter what your trial, frustration, or irritation, no matter what
you come up against, this helper will be with you"
-
- unlike Jesus, who had only been with them, the
Holy Spirit would be within them
- Jesus said, "he will be in you"
- not many days after Jesus gave this promise, it was
actually fulfilled
- the Holy Sprit took permanent residence in the lives
of the disciples
- the Holy Spirit was and is, from the day of Pentecost
on, present in the lives of all believers
- let’s think about that
-
- not even in the lives of Old Testament greats was this
true
- you have an advantage that they didn’t have
- and it’s this: the Holy Spirit has taken permanent
residence in you
- it’s what we call the indwelling ministry of the
Spirit of God
- when a believing sinner comes to Jesus Christ, the
Holy Spirit takes up residence in that person’s life and becomes
his helper
- the best help for whatever problem you face is inside
you, the power of the Holy Spirit
-
- you see, Jesus is not here in person, but he has left
you and me another helper who is just like him
- if you are a believer, this helper is closer to you
than anybody else could ever be, because he is within you
- Jesus says, "You’re not getting less of me.
The Holy Spirit will be all to you that I was to you."
- the Holy Spirit is our indwelling, ever-present helper
-
- in John 14:12, Jesus made an astounding statement
- John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith
in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things
than these, because I am going to the Father.
- even though Jesus was God, when he became man, he could
only be in one place at a time
- his deity was only in the same vicinity as his humanity
- Jesus never traveled more than a few miles from his
home, or preached to more than a few thousand people
-
- Jesus said that we would do greater things than he
did
- how is that possible?
- not that we can do greater miracles
- but because the Holy Spirit is ever present within
us and indwells us wherever we go
- truly believers have done greater things than Jesus
through the power of the Holy Spirit
- on Pentecost Sunday, Peter preached and three thousand
people believed
- Jesus himself never had that type of response, as far
as we know
-
- because the Spirit is in us, He is wherever we happen
to be
- all of God that we ever could want to have, we have,
if we’ve come to Christ
- there’s never a situation in which you have less
access to God than the next Christian
- when we’re defeated in the Christian life, it
isn’t because we have too little of the Holy Spirit, it’s
because the Holy Spirit has too little of us
-
- the second and last aspect of the promise of the
Holy Spirit that Jesus gave was the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us
- we’re going to talk about this in coming weeks,
so I don’t want to spend too long on this
- John 16:13-14 says the Spirit’s ministry is to
glorify Christ
- Jesus said, "He will bring glory to me"
- the Spirit’s job is to elevate Christ above all
other things and glorify him
- John 16:13 says that the Spirit would guide us into
all truth
- and John 14:26 says that the Holy Spirit will "bring
to your remembrance all that I said to you" (John 14:26)
- the Spirit has a teaching role in our hearts
- other passages in Scripture talk about the Spirit interceding
for us, sanctifying us by making us more holy
- the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts
- Jesus told the disciples to wait, and that they would
receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them
- this is the life that God intends for every Christian
-
- in coming weeks, we’re going to look at the ministry
of the Holy Spirit in some detail, but there’s no mistaking our
need for this ministry
-
- let’s go back to the disciples
- they started out as a bunch of misfits
- but they ended up "turning the world upside down"
- when the promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled in
their lives, it turned them from petty, competitive, small-minded men
to strong-hearted, incredibly confident and powerful servants of God
- and it was through the power of the Holy Spirit
-
- friends, the Holy Spirit is not an nice addendum to
the Christian faith
- he is at the heart and core of it
- unless we’re plugged into the power of the Holy
Spirit, unless we believe in God and have the Holy Spirit take residence
in us, we’re not plugged in
- and our milk is going to go sour and our vegetables
are going to turn a funny color
- but if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, Jesus
has sent you another helper just as he was to the disciples
- this Spirit takes permanent residence in your heart,
goes with you wherever you are, transforms your life into something
wonderful
- it’s an advantage you have over Old Testament
Christians
- in coming weeks we’re going to learn more about
the Spirit’s work in our lives, and how we can experience the fullness
of the Holy Spirit
- but would you bow with me now and give thanks to God
for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives?
- and if you’re not a believer, I’ll invite
you to become one today that you may receive the indwelling presence
of the Holy Spirit
-
- [prayer]
- John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give
you another Counselor to be with you forever—
- John 14:17 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 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans, I will
come to you.
