REVIEW
So, let’s continue our series this week entitled— “The Types of the Holy Spirit.” Now what we are doing in this series is looking at the various descriptions used of the Holy Spirit throughout God’s Word, understanding that there are many of these physical examples and analogies used in the Bible to describe Him. Thus far, we have looked at the most popular picture we have of the Holy Spirit—the Dove. And we learned from this a lot about the Holy Spirit’s gentle and peaceful nature. We then looked at what is likely the most common type of the Holy Spirit used in the Scriptures—Oil. And we saw that just as various people and things were “anointed” with oil in the Old Testament, likewise we have been anointed in this New & Better Covenant. Then, we looked at another type of the Holy Spirit—how He is described in the Scriptures like Water. And we saw that as one is baptized in water for repentance, we can also be baptized in the water of the Holy Spirit. Amen! And we learned that the Holy Spirit, like water, is our source of life—refreshing, cleansing, and satisfying us. Yes, just as water is a necessity for our physical life, the Holy Spirit is a necessity for our spiritual life. Yes, the difference between us merely being saved, and the Holy Spirit being upon us, is like the difference between a spring or well of water, versus rivers of living water. Then we turned from water to wine and began to look at another aspect of the Holy Spirit that we can drink of—New Wine. And what we learned is that living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit is what causes us to enjoy life and live free. Then, we looked at how the Holy Spirit is also described as Wind. And we learned that, as Jesus said regarding the wind that, although we can’t see Him, the Holy Spirit blows where He wishes, and we can certainly see the effects of it. In other words, He does things according to how He wills to do them—dispersing His gifts and graces as He wills. But we learned how we can “set our sails” and let him take us in whatever direction He wants to. We saw in Matthew 4:1 how, when Jesus was being led by the Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, the word “led” there also is used to describe “setting sail.” This word “led” was used to describe how navigators would launch out to sea by setting sail. So, we learned that there is cooperation needed on our part! Our sails must be set to catch the wind and to be led into His plan and purpose for our lives. This is when we looked at both Second Timothy 3:16-17 & Second Peter 1:20-21, where the apostle’s give us insight into how we set our sails—and we learned that it is through the Word of God. In fact, we learned that the Scriptures themselves were written as these holy men allowed the Holy Spirit to blow in their sails. So, we learned from examples like Luke chapter one how the Holy Spirit’s leading is like a soft, gentle breeze. But we also saw how the Holy Spirit is described as a rushing “mighty” wind in Acts 2:2. Yes, wind can be powerful too! We saw that this word for “mighty” is only used this one time in the Scriptures, and it describes a violent and forceful wind. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit is described as “wind,” then we can see that when He comes, “power” comes to! And we saw that this is why Jesus said that we would be “endued” with power from on high, speaking of the Holy Spirit. THE FIRE And last week, we looked in Acts chapter 2, where we see the Holy Spirit described as something other than the sound of a rushing mighty wind: In Acts 2:3 we are told— “Then there appeared on them divided tongues, as of fire.” Therefore, like the Holy Spirit has appeared to be like a dove and also operates like oil, water, wine and wind, here we see Him described as FIRE—more specifically, divided tongues of fire that rested on each one. This means that the way the Holy Spirit manifested in that upper room was in the form that looked like fiery physical tongues. It is rather obvious to me that they were grasping to describe this supernatural experience and were using the best examples they could think of to describe what they saw on that day. So, it was as if the disciples who were in that upper room on that day were the candles (i.e. candlesticks, lampstands, etc.) and the Holy Spirit was that flame on the wick. Which should teach us how important we are in this equation. You see, if there is nothing to burn, a fire does no good and will cease. So, just as we need the fire to burn bright, the fire (i.e. the Holy Spirit) needs the church to burn bright through. Amen? Saints, we need to understand just how valuable we are to the Lord: While we certainly need Him (There’s no questioning that!), He needs us too. This is why He has done everything He has done for us by His grace. Sure, He did it because He loves us, but He has covenanted Himself with us because He desires to work together with us. This is how much He respects us as well as loves us. Therefore, He made His Church “golden candlesticks” (see Revelation 1:20). No, we are not dollar store candles here; we are the richest of the rich, the swankiest of the swanky; yes, we are the top shelf GOLDEN lampstands. So, you ought to remind yourself of this— You’re golden! But my point is that the manifestation of the Holy Spirit looked like little flames of fire. And the Holy Spirit appearing to be like fire in Acts 2:2 should not be foreign to us—for can you recall what John the Baptist said in Luke 3:16-17, in speaking of Jesus? In this passage he said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” So, what accompanies the Holy Spirit when we are baptized is also a baptism into fire. And in the next verse he explains what this fire’s purpose is— “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” This describes to us what this baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire does in our lives. This “fire” of the Holy Ghost will burn away the sin and everything else that doesn’t need to be there. We see that God is called an “all-consuming fire” in Hebrews 12:29 and this is one of the many benefits of fire—to burn things, particularly things that need to be burned up. Do you remember when the Bible says that God sat on the mountain after the Exodus, and that “the mountain melted like wax at the presence of the Lord”? This is found in the 97th Psalm, which says, “The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries round about. His lightnings lighten the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.” (Psalm 97:1-6). In fact, we see this in Exodus chapter 19 when the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai—the Bible says that mountain began to smoke because of the fire of the Lord that sat upon it (see verse 18). So, in this example, when God sits on the mountain, the natural could not stand the supernatural. Likewise, when God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, sits upon you, those carnal things that are contrary to Him will melt away at the presence of the Lord. All impurities are burned out of us through His fiery presence. Amen! You see, fire changes everything it encounters. Nothing goes away from fire unchanged. Either is it consumed or purified. But nothing goes away from fire unchanged. Likewise, having the Holy Spirit will change us, and the more we allow Him to burn in our hearts, the less the things that are carnal and sinful will be allowed to remain in us. Church, the Holy Spirit is a purifier! It has the power to take the hidden impurities that are in precious gold and cause it to rise to the surface that it may be removed once and for all. But we must ask ourselves the question, “Am I letting the Lord reign in every area of my life?” We must invite Him in, deeper and deeper into our lives. We can do this directly, and we can also do this indirectly through praising and worshipping Him, as He inhabits the praises of His people (see Psalm 22:3). His reigning in my life pushes out all that doesn’t belong - sin, disease, sickness, lack, etc. On that note, we hear many in the church today preaching that the fire that tries us are the trials and tribulations that come into our lives. And while there is some truth to that, I submit to you that the best way to be refined is through the indwelling presence of the FIRE Himself! Yes, the Holy Ghost—like fire—works in us like a consuming fire, burning up all the chaff in our life. Amen. So, as we’ve seen, we have already been made golden, but the fire of the Holy Spirit can make that gold purer & more precious. And hopefully this is all of our desire—to have the Holy Spirit refine us and make us more into a living reflection of the Lord Jesus Christ in our choices, behavior and life in general. Amen? And one of the ways we can keep this fire burning brightly is by praying in the Spirit, which edifies or builds us up in the Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 14:4, Jude, verse 20). Now this “fire” can also refer to as the zeal and charisma that the Holy Spirit gives us. Romans 12:11 says, “not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” The Amplified says, “never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit…” So, notice that the Holy Spirit is who makes us glow. The world today will tell you that you need this or that to be more attractive. I’m of the persuasion that the most vital ingredient to looking good is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Yes, He will give you joy and a light in your eyes that money cannot buy. Amen? So, as we learned earlier, the Holy Spirit is the fire that makes our light burn bright for the Lord. Therefore, as First Thessalonians 5:19-20 encourages us, we need to avoid “quenching the Spirit.” The word “quench” carries the idea of dampening the flame of the Holy Spirit fire. So, this shows us that we have a responsibility to keep that fire of the Holy Spirit burning bright in our lives and not putting the fire out. One quenches the Spirit by not esteeming the moving of the Spirit or rejecting the gifts or the fruit of the Spirit (verse 20). So, we need to make sure we esteem the things of the Spirit. So, the fire that the Holy Spirit imparts into us gives us a burning passion and a zeal for God’s service as well as burns away the impurities that are unpleasing to God. In other words, He lives in us to cleanse and purify these golden lampstands that we might be that spotless bride on the Day of Jesus’ Second Coming. May the Fire of the Holy Spirit be with us all, amen! So now, let’s move on to another couple of types of the Holy Spirit that we see in the New Testament that are connected in some ways—the Seal and the Earnest. We see both of these used in Second Corinthians 1:21-22 where the apostle Paul says, “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” So, we see here in verse 21 that it is God who both “confirms” (def. establishes) and “consecrates” (i.e. anoints) us. Now we have learned that the Holy Spirit is the anointing that God has given us, but in verse 22, Paul goes on to say that God has also sealed us through His Spirit as well as given us Him as a guarantee (or, earnest). And this is what I want to spend some time talking to you about—how the Holy Spirit both seals us and serves as our guarantee. THE EARNEST So, first of all, notice how the Holy Spirit is called our “Guarantee.” If you are using the older King James version, you will see how the word “earnest” is used. Now when we talk about the Holy Spirit being our “Earnest,” we are not talking about Ernest from TV & the movies. Know what I mean, Vern? No, this word “earnest” is not a name but is where we get the term “earnest money” from. It describes a “deposit or down payment that is a pledge of giving more.” Thus the reason, we see it translated by the New King James translators as “guarantee.” We see this same word used in both Second Corinthians 5:(1-)5 & Ephesians 1:(13-)14: Now in Second Corinthians 5:1-4, the apostle Paul describes our present life in these physical bodies versus the eternal life that we will have in our resurrected bodies. He uses the examples of dwelling in a tent versus dwelling in a home, as well as being naked versus being clothed. So, understanding that, when Paul says what he does in verse 5— “Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”—we can see that it is God who has made all things ready for us to be both fully clothed with our glorified bodies and to have our permanent residence of resurrected bodies on that Great and Glorious Day. And what He did in the meantime was give us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of what lies ahead. In Ephesians 1:14, Paul describes the Holy Spirit as “the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession…” Again, this is obviously talking about our inheritance of receiving the glorification of our physical bodies which were bought with a price. Therefore, when the Holy Spirit is described as being our “guarantee,” Paul is saying in both of these passages that He is our “down payment or deposit.” Therefore, we can clearly see that He is God’s pledge that more of the same is on the way. This would be similar to how when a buyer of a house pays the deposit, it is understood that he intends to pay the balance. Therefore, the Holy Spirit gives us a little foretaste and a guarantee of the good things to come—that is, when we experience the fullness of our salvation and are glorified. In other words, the Holy Spirit gives us a little heaven on earth—a little taste of the glory; a sample of the resurrection power that is to come! Hallelujah! Therefore, when we experience Him in fullness, we can get a little intoxicated, a little free, and a little happy. Those experiences are just God’s pledge of the ecstasy that awaits us in heaven. Amen? So, just imagine the most you have experienced God’s glorious presence in this life. Well, that was just a small “deposit” of what we are going to experience in the kingdom of God. This is why it is called (a future) redemption: the inheritance is already ours but still needs to be “redeemed,” like a check you have already received, but is only redeemed when it is presented to the bank. But He not only is our guarantee of the bliss of heaven but He is also our promise of the marriage between Jesus and His Bride. In fact, the Greek word that is translated “earnest” can also be used to describe “an engagement ring.” Now what is an engagement ring? It is the pledge of the man to not only marry the woman, but to give her his life and share with her all that he possesses. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the engagement ring that the Bride of Christ has now until the marriage takes place at Jesus’ second coming when we will become joint-heirs of everything our Husband owns! Glory and praise to God! THE SEAL Now speaking of rings, another title that the Holy Spirit is given that is used alongside of the term “Earnest” is the word “Seal.” We have already seen this term used in both Ephesians 1:13 & Second Corinthians 1:22 and we can also see it used in Ephesians 4:30 that when we believed the gospel of our salvation, we were “sealed” with the Holy Spirit. And notice that in all three of these passages of Scripture, this “sealing” of the Holy Spirit is spoken of as having already taken place. This is important as it pertains to what this term means. So, what does this mean to be “sealed”? In their days, a “seal” was made by the signet ring of a king or any kind of authority figure when they had important documents or contracts. After wax was poured on the crest of the rolled-up paper, the authority would stamp the spot of wax with his signet ring to “seal” it and to leave his symbol on it. Therefore, this “sealing” describes four important things:
Therefore, the “seal” represents our identity and security, and it also teaches us of God’s ownership and promises. This is why our hope will not disappoint—because God has poured out the Holy Spirit in our lives, thereby confirming His love for us (Romans 5:5). His Spirit’s witness in us not only lets us know we are God’s children (see Romans 8:15-16), it also gives us little tastes of our eternal inheritance—that is, the redemption of our bodies (see Ephesians 1:13-14). Glory! So, the Holy Spirit certainly is the mark of God’s grace in our lives—for He shows us that God has set His seal on us as He did with His Beloved Son, Jesus. He is our foretaste of God’s goodness that is to come as well. Praise God, that we have been baptized in the fire of the Holy Ghost and He is here to make these golden lampstands burn bright for God’s glory! Amen.
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REVIEW
So, let’s continue this new series on the Holy Spirit entitled— “The Types of the Holy Spirit.” Now, what we are doing in this series is looking at the various descriptions used of the Holy Spirit throughout God’s Word, understanding that there are many of these physical examples and analogies used in the Bible to describe Him. Thus far, we have looked at the most popular picture we have of the Holy Spirit—the Dove. And we learned from this a lot about the Holy Spirit’s gentle and peaceful nature. We then looked at what is likely the most common type of the Holy Spirit used in the Scriptures—Oil. And we saw that just as various people and things were “anointed” with oil in the Old Testament, likewise we have been anointed in this New & Better Covenant. So, we saw the various benefits of that. Therefore, in part one of this new series, we learned that while we want to be “harmless” as the Holy Ghost is, we don’t want to be “harmless” to the kingdom of darkness. We are to let the anointing of the Holy Ghost break the yokes around us. Therefore, let’s get on His team and start putting our hands on people—letting the anointing destroy the sickness, oppression, poverty, etc. that the enemy has bound people with. Amen. Then, last week, we began looking at two more types of the Holy Spirit—the Water & the Wine. And we saw that as one is baptized in water for repentance, we can also be baptized in the Holy Spirit for the power to repent. Amen! But we saw that this compares the water to the Holy Ghost. And like water is the source of life—refreshing, cleansing, and satisfying us—the Holy Spirit provides these same benefits in our spiritual lives. Yes, just as water is a necessity for our physical life, the Holy Spirit is a necessity for our spiritual life. And as we also learned last week, one of the reasons for this is because the difference between the Holy Spirit being upon us and us merely being saved is like the difference between a spring or well of water versus rivers of living water. Yes, the baptism of the Holy Spirit provides a huge difference in our spiritual walks. But we also learned that it is up to us to drink of this water of the Spirit. Yes, God promised us this in Isaiah 44:3 when He said, “For I will pour water on Him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants.” So, we’ve got to get thirsty—for those who thirst for righteous things will be filled with righteous things, and this includes the Holy Spirit. But then we turned the water into wine and began to look at another aspect of the Holy Spirit that we can drink of—New Wine. We saw that on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost in that upper room, that there were those mocking who thought that they were drunk with new wine (Acts 2:13). But then we saw Peter correcting them saying, “For these are not drunk, as you suppose…” (2:15). So, we saw that the Holy Spirit has an effect on us that wine has on people. Therefore, we need to, as Ephesians 5:18 says, “be not drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” Notice that the apostle Paul here compares being drunk with wine as being filled with the Spirit. One expositor states that the word “drunk” means “to be filled.” So what Paul was literally saying was “don’t be filled with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.” And we saw that just as Jesus must have been fun to be around if the kids all liked Him, we too can be more enjoyable to be around if we stay full of the Holy Spirit. Yes, we learned that a believer does not need wine to experience joy; however, drinking of this new wine will produce genuine joy. Amen? So, let’s stay full of the Holy Spirit and experience the various benefits of this spiritual water & wine. This will yield the joy, happiness, satisfaction, and abundant life that only He can provide! Lord, fill our cups to overflowing today! Amen! THE EFFECTS OF WIND So now, let’s move on to another type of the Holy Spirit, and like it is with this particular example of the Holy Spirit, we don’t see a lot of it, but we certainly see the effects of it. In John chapter three, we have the popular story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus in the nighttime and Jesus teaching him about the new birth. The story begins in verse one: “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’” (John 3:1-8) So, we can clearly see that Nicodemus, coming to Jesus by night, was not wanting his fellow Pharisees to know about this meeting. And we also see that he confesses that “we” know that He was a teacher sent from God because of the signs that prove His Father was with Him. That means that even though they accused Him of casting out demons and healing the sick by some demonic power, they really knew the truth—that He was sent by God. But I love how Jesus never even responds to Nicodemus’ comment, but jumps right into the truth regarding the necessity of being born again. So, after Nicodemus questions how a man can be born a second time, Jesus goes on to explain that this new birth is a spiritual thing and, therefore, the Holy Spirit is who performs this spiritual new birth in us. But here is the point I want you to see: In verse 8, after Jesus tells him not to marvel that He said that one must be born again (verse 7), He describes this spiritual rebirth with a physical example. Again, He says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” What was Jesus saying here? He was saying that while we cannot see wind, we can see the effects of it. Likewise, while we cannot see the spiritual new birth that takes place in those who believe on Jesus Christ and confess His Lordship in their lives, we can see the effects of it. In other words, we cannot see the spiritual change that took place within someone, but we can both see and hear the fruit of that change. Yes, like Jesus said, we cannot physically tell where this change came from or where it is taking us (i.e. We cannot see how the Holy Spirit entered someone and our ultimate destination in heaven). Amen? Another point that can be taken from verse 3 is that, just like Nicodemus, unless you are born again, you won’t be able to understand spiritual truth. So that may be why you have not been able to get through to non-Christians when trying to share spiritual things. But Jesus was specifically talking about being “born of the Spirit,” right? So, we are seeing the Holy Spirit being compared to the wind that blows where it wishes. Therefore, just as the wind blows where it wishes, the Holy Spirit blows where He wishes. In other words, this means that He does things according to how He wills to do them—dispersing His gifts and graces as He wills. But the fact that the Holy Spirit is described as “wind” in the Scriptures, teaches us more than just He’s going to do what He wants to do. We can learn how He leads us in what He wills to do. SETTING OUR SAIL Interestingly enough, when we look at Matthew 4:1 where Jesus was being led by the Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, the word “led” there also is used to describe “setting sail.” Yes, this word was used to describe how navigators would launch out to sea by setting sail. You see, when you are sailing you don’t just set your sails how you want to, you let the direction of the wind dictate how you arrange your sails. Likewise, we shouldn’t try and “set” everything in our life; we should let the “wind” (the Holy Spirit) dictate how we arrange everything. It is pointless to work against Him. Therefore, “the wind” can refer to “His will.” Now the fact is, like it is possible to sail against the wind, it is possible for a believer to go against the Holy Spirit’s leading. And the truth is, the majority of Christians have done this more often than we have not. Like it was with Saul of Tarsus, in his zeal for what he thought was the will of God, he “kicked against the goads,” persecuting God’s church. And while that is an extreme example of going against the will of God, it shows us how we can, as Bob Seager sang, go “against the wind”—kicking against the direction the Holy Spirit is trying to take us. But the truly spiritual person lets the wind of the Spirit direct them. And when we learn to let the Holy Spirit blow into our sails and take us in the direction He wills for us to go, we will always be led into victory. He is not going to lead us into darkness and defeat, but into that perfect path of triumph as Second Corinthians 2:14 teaches us. Thanks be to the Holy Spirit who always leads us in triumph! But again, there is cooperation needed on our part! Our sails must be set to catch the wind and to be led into His plan and purpose for our lives. So, how do we do that? Well, let’s look at a couple of Scriptures that teach us how to “set our sails.” Now the first example shows us the necessity of actually having a sail to set before we ever learn how to set it. This is found in Second Timothy 3:16-17 where the apostle Paul said, “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.” The words “thoroughly equipped” in verse 17 come from a word used to describe a boat that was “completely outfitted” with all of the bells and whistles that would “totally equip” that boat for sailing to its destination. So, what are we seeing here? That it’s the Word of God—in fact, all of the Scriptures—that thoroughly equip us with the sails needed (among other things) to get to the other side. Hallelujah! Jesus said that His words were spirit and life (John 6:63). Therefore, in order to be equipped with the sails that will catch the wind of the Spirit, we need to be in the Word of God—studying to show ourselves approved and meditating on His saying both day and night. Now we will come back to these verses in Second Timothy in a moment, but let’s look at another verse that teaches us how we set our sails to catch “the Holy Wind”—and it sheds light on the example we just saw of the importance of God’s Word. In Second Peter 1:20-21, the apostle Peter gives us insight into how the Scriptures were God breathed. It says, “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” You see, these holy men wrote the things that they wrote because the Holy Spirit was “moving” them to write them. And don’t be mistaken here: This does not mean that He was directing them, dictating to them what to write. No, He was simply blowing into their sails and “inspiring” the things that they wrote. THE SOFT, GENTLE BREEZE You know, if you look at the Holy, Inspired Scriptures, one might wonder how this could be the infallible Word of God—because some of these writings certainly seemed like they were written by men due to the personal aspect in them. But what we need to understand is that when the Holy Spirit “moves” one to do and say something, that doesn’t mean He has taken them over. No, I can stand up before you today and be inspired by the Holy Spirit to say the things I am saying to you, but that doesn’t mean that everything I am saying is from God. The truth is—some of the things I say come through this weak and flawed vessel. For example, the Holy Spirit does not say, “y’all.” But on the other hand, He doesn’t say “thou” either. I know we have heard prophecies before that seems like God talks in the King James version, but that’s not true. But again, that doesn’t mean because we heard a prophecy laced with a bunch of old English that it wasn’t from the Lord. All that means is that God flows through these pipes and so we are capable of getting some God and some of the person in every God inspired unction. So, my point is that everything that is “Thus saith the Lord” is not all “Thus saith the Lord.” Some of it is “Thus saith them.” One of my favorite examples of this is found in the Book of Luke. In Luke 1:1-4 we are told by Dr. Luke- “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.” So, notice what Luke was saying here: He said in verses 1&2 that there had been many who had taken it upon themselves to write about the life and ministry of Jesus—some of them being actual eyewitnesses to the things that Jesus said and did. But in verse 3, Luke said that in spite of all that had already been recorded by others, “it seemed good” to him also to write an orderly account of Jesus’ life and ministry because he had a perfect understanding of all things from the very first. Now we know that he had this “perfect understanding” from the beginning of Jesus’ life because of how Luke’s gospel has more details of the birth of Jesus than all of the other three gospels. But I want to draw your attention to those three little words he used in verse 3— “it seemed good” —because they are extremely important regarding the subject at hand. Now we should know that the Gospel of Luke was inspired by God as well, down to the very last jot and tittle. So, it would be a gross understatement to say that Luke was “led by the Holy Spirit” to write this book that would be canonized as Holy Scripture, correct? But this “moving” of the Spirit is subtle, like a soft breeze and a gentle nudging. In fact, looking at this example in Luke as well as all of the other books of the Bible, you would have to add to the Bible to say that these individuals knew that what they were writing was God inspired. For example, one would think that if Luke were going to be chosen to write one of the four most important books that would ever be written, God might have instructed him to do so through a dream, an open vision, an audible voice, etc., but he did not! You would have to add to the Bible to say that God led Luke to write this gospel through any of these spectacular forms of guidance. In fact, there is actually no indication that Luke even knew what he was writing was going to be passed down for 2,000 years and considered part of the Holy Scriptures. So, this is pretty amazing to think that God led him to write one of the most important books ever written—one of the four Gospels that have been passed down for 2,000 years declaring the truth about our Savior—simply by the fact that it just seemed like a good idea. You would think that God would either have spoken to him in an audible voice saying— “Luuuuuke, I am your Father (notice the Star Wars undertone to this😊)! Write the things which I will tell you” or maybe God would have sent an angel with the message— “Thus saith the Lord, thou art to writest a book that wilt be canonizeth as Scripture and read by billions of people!” No, God led this man to write one of the most important books ever written simply by bearing witness with his spirit which manifested itself as it just seeming like a good thing to do! That is amazing! Now here is the point we should learn from this: If God led Luke to write his gospel by just simply dropping an idea in his heart, how much more will He lead us in the same way!?! Let me say it this way: If the Lord led Luke to do something of such super-significance by this unspectacular inner witness, how much more will He lead us to do things of less significance by an unspectacular inner witness!?! That’s a powerful truth, my friends! And the Spirit, a still small voice (not our emotions), will lead us as we have more of God's Word hidden in our heart, because the Spirit and the Word agree. But again, this Holy Spirit “moving” that Peter described is similar to how wind will carry things. Therefore, we see the truth of “setting the sail” used again, and we can learn that if our intentions are to glorify God and to love and bless others, then we can trust that the Holy Spirit will move us into His perfect plan for us! For example, we see this same word being used in the account of Jesus’ burial, how the man we began this teaching talking about—Nicodemus—was led. In John 9:39, it says, “And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.” Yes, the word “bringing” there is the same word that Peter used to describe how holy men were moved by the Holy Spirit to write the things they did. Now it might seem like Nicodemus is just choosing to do this, but I want you to see that just as Dr. Luke was obviously being moved by the Holy Spirit to write his gospel, Nicodemus was being moved by the Holy Spirit to honor Jesus at His burial. In both events, there were no fireworks and spectacular manifestations, but they were being moved by the Holy Spirit simply because their sails were set. Amen. THE RUSHING MIGHTY WIND Interestingly enough, the word Peter used for “moved” in Second Peter 1:22 is the same word used in Acts 2:2 when the Holy Spirit is described as a rushing mighty wind. Therefore, the sound that came from heaven of a “rushing mighty wind” described a mighty wind that was “carrying or moving” something. Amen? Therefore, we can clearly see that the Holy Spirit is a mighty wind that moves and carries people or things. And we need to understand this about the Holy Spirit—that one of His primary functions is to lead, inspire, and move us in our lives. But this example in Acts 2:2 teaches us something else about the effects of wind—it can be powerful! Notice that when the Holy Spirit showed up, He was described as a rushing mighty wind. The word for “mighty” is only used this one time in the Scriptures, and it describes a violent and forceful wind. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit is described as “wind,” then we can see that when He comes, “power” comes to! Jesus said in Luke 24:49, “…tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high,” speaking of the Holy Spirit. The word “endued” comes from the Greek word enduo which was a word first used in Greek literature in the story of a very ugly woman who went to a magician to see if he could help her. So, she came to him she said, “I’m very ugly. Can you help me?”, and he looked at her and agreed that she indeed was very ugly. But he told her that he could help her. So, he said, “Close your eyes and get ready to receive.” Then he proceeded to cast a spell on her and “Walla,” she was turned into a gorgeous woman. Now it is very interesting to me that Jesus would use this word to describe the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but it paints an accurate picture. You first recognize that you need help, that you need something more, or that you are deficient in some way or another. Then you come to God and tell Him that you need His help and He looks at you and agrees that you indeed need His help. He proceeds to “endue” (or “clothe”) you with His Spirit and, as it says in First Samuel 10:6, “you are turned into another man”—a man or women of God clothed in the ability and power of God. Yes, with “wind” comes “power”—the power to change us and the power to change others through us. Amen! This example in Acts chapter two gives us the very root meaning of the word “Spirit.” You see, the word “spirit” also can describe “breath.” So, the Spirit of God can also be called the breath of God. Genesis 2:7 speaks of something God did only for man, and not even for the animals when we are told that the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and “breathed” into his nostrils the breath of life; which made man a living soul. Now it is very clear in this verse that the breath of God is referring to when the very Spirit of God was breathed into Adam which gave him his spirit! But, as we know, Adam forfeited his spiritual life when he sinned in eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Therefore, because of his offense, we all died spiritually. But now, thanks to Jesus, all who are born again by the Spirit of God have life breathed back into our spirit. Therefore, what Adam lost in the Fall, Jesus regained in the Resurrection! We see this in John 20:22 when He breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” So, just as the old creation began with the breath of God, so the new creation began with the breath of God as well. This is when His disciples were born again—when Jesus breathed into them the breath of life. And as we fall in love with the Word and start to breathe it in, it will be life in us. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, like a rushing wind, breathes life back into us! So, may we let the Holy Spirit do His work in our lives—leading and guiding us through the wind that blows into our sails all the way!?! Glory! REVIEW
Last week, we began a new series on the Holy Spirit which we are calling, “The Types of the Holy Spirit.” And what we are doing in this series is looking at the various descriptions used of the Holy Spirit throughout God’s Word, understanding that there are many of these physical examples and analogies used in the Bible used to describe Him—such as oil, water, wind, fire, wine, etc. So, there is no shortage of illustrations that the Lord has used in the Bible to describe the Third Person of the Godhead. So, last week, we began by looking at by far the most popular symbol of the Holy Spirit that we see used in the Word—the DOVE. But we learned that this does not mean (contrary to popular opinion) that the Holy Spirit is some sort of spiritual bird. No, we saw that He is not a dove, but rather this describes the personality and traits that He possesses. So, we looked at the event where Jesus was baptized in the Four Gospels—and saw that He was said to either descend “like a dove” or “in bodily form like a dove.” Therefore, this describes the Holy Spirit both descending “in the manner” that a dove does and also His form “appearing to be” like a dove. So, we asked the question: What is a dove like? And we saw that a dove is gentle, tender, and peaceful. So, perhaps the gospel writers described the Holy Spirit resting upon Jesus like a dove because He glided down so smoothly and so softly and landed on Him as a dove would. And our take away from this was that He’s not going to force Himself on us. He will come when we want Him and in the manner in which we invite Him to. Yes, He’s gentle and tender like a perfect gentleman. Therefore, He is not going to force Himself on us and make us do something we don’t want to do. Church, evil spirits possess people. They are the ones who make people do things they don’t want to do. Therefore, if one cannot control themselves, then it isn’t the Holy Ghost; it’s another spirit. So again, the Holy Spirit must be yielded to and cooperated with. Therefore, the Holy Spirit and His gifts are subject to us as to how much we desire to let Him flow. And if you don’t believe that—then just look around you. If we believe that the Holy Spirit is just going to do whatever He wants to do in us and we are not seeing a plethora of gifts flowing in our lives, then that means He doesn’t want to move that often. But no, I can assure you, the problem is not with Him desiring to work; it is with us learning to yield to His work. Amen? So, the Holy Spirit operates like a dove—gently and graciously. He leads and guides us in an unassuming way—inspiring us, yet not driving us. Another way of saying this is that is He is “harmless” just like Jesus said we are to be in Matthew 10:16— "harmless as doves.” Then we looked at another type of the Holy Spirit—the most common type, mind you—in the Scriptures. We saw that He is often described in the Scriptures as OIL. And we saw that in the Old Testament, various people and things were “anointed” with “oil”: Originally, it was used exclusively for the anointing of the priesthood as well as the articles of the Tabernacle and subsequent temples in Jerusalem. However, it was used later to include the anointing of kings for their role. So, the oil was used to anoint the kings, priests, and the articles of the Tabernacle. And why? We saw that it was to consecrate them and to also make them “most holy.” So, we saw what this means to us today: Jesus has made use kings and priests unto our God (see Revelations 1:6). And we saw what this means—if we have been made kings and priests, then God must have anointed us too! Amen! Therefore, we are “anointed” to be His children (those born [again] to be His kings) and to serve Him (i.e. priests). Therefore, we are the ones anointed to be kings and priests in this new and better covenant (see First Peter 2:9)! But it got even better: We also saw that we are now the Temple and Tabernacle of God—for He does not dwell in temples made with hands, but now dwells in the temple of our bodies. So, we learned that if we are the Temple of God today, then we must be anointed by God! Therefore, we are anointed to be indwelt by Him. Glory! Yes, we learned that the common misconception that some Christians are anointed and some are not is wrong. We saw in First John 2:20 that we all have an anointing from the Holy One. It doesn’t say that we hope to be anointed or we will be anointed by Him someday. No, it says that we all—every born again, Spirit baptized believer—has an anointing from the Holy One Himself! Therefore, when Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to…” this means that we have been anointed with the same anointing that He was anointed with! Therefore, the same Spirit that He had, we have! Amen! You see, church, all throughout the Scriptures when we see someone being anointed with oil, that is symbolic of the Holy Spirit being poured out on them—either to equip and empower one for a particular office or to set free and deliver one from a particular bondage. We saw it used the latter way in James 5:14-15 where the anointing with oil is seen as a method to bringing healing and deliverance to the afflicted. This, of course, is not saying that there is inherent power in the oil itself to heal someone; rather, it is using oil as a contact point between the minister and the one receiving ministry. And since “oil” is symbolic of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the sick with oil is a symbol showing how it is the power of the Holy Spirit to set the captive free. But we also saw that being anointed was another way of saying that the Hand of the Lord is upon us! Therefore, we learned that if God’s Hand is on us, then we ought to get our hands on people! And we saw that the very last sign that Jesus said would follow those who believe in Mark 16:18 was “they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Church, ministering God’s healing power to the sick is part of what we have been delegated the authority to do in Jesus’ name. It is a sign that is supposed to follow these kings and priests! And the truth is—if we have been called to do it, then we have been anointed to do it! Therefore, while we want to be “harmless” as the Holy Ghost, we don’t want to be “harmless” to the kingdom of darkness. It’s the anointing that breaks the yoke (see Isaiah 10:27). And those yokes and burdens are what the evil spirits put on people; not the Holy Spirit. He is in the yoke destroying business, not the yoke building business. Therefore, let’s get on His team and start putting our hands on people—letting the anointing destroy the sickness, oppression, poverty, etc. that the enemy has bound people with. Amen. THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY GHOST So, now that we’ve looked at both the Dove & the Oil—which both describe how the Holy Spirit comes upon us (i.e. descending upon & being poured out upon us)—let’s look at another type of Him that will echo this truth—water. You see, just as when one is baptized in water he or she is totally immersed in the water, when someone is baptized in the Holy Spirit they are immersed in the Spirit—meaning, they are not sprinkled with a little bit of Him to where He only affects a relatively small portion of them. Like when one truly is “baptized” in water, they get soaking wet. Likewise, when one receives the “baptism” of the Holy Spirit, they get soaked in Him—meaning, it’s not just their spirit that gets sprinkled; their whole man gets wet. That means our heart is affected, our soul gets affected, and our body gets affected. We get soaking wet in the Holy Ghost! Amen! Notice how Jesus compared being baptized with water to being baptized with the Holy Spirit: In Acts 1:5 He said, “for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So, what does it mean to be “baptized” with the Holy Spirit? Well, notice here that Jesus made the comparison to John baptizing with water to us being baptized with the Holy Spirit. You know, even the baptism of John has been misunderstood: People today baptize incorrectly because when you look up the word “baptize,” it literally means to be “immersed or dunked” in water, not “sprinkled.” In other words, to be baptized in something means to be completely dipped or plunged into it. So, if being baptized with water means to be immersed, dipped, dunked or plunged into the water itself, then it is to be understood that being baptized with the Holy Spirit also means to be immersed, dipped, dunked or plunged into the Holy Spirit Himself. Amen! Saints, this is the difference between having the Holy Spirit “within” us and having the Holy Spirit “upon”: Sure, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us when we are born again and He regenerates our spirit, but there is a subsequent Promise which is what Jesus was talking about here where the Holy Spirit doesn’t just dwell in us, but He comes upon us. Amen! I remember a time when I was attending Charis Bible College in Colorado Springs and a discussion came up in the breakroom about what is the difference between receiving the Holy Spirit at salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This question was being debated and then, by what I believe to be a word of wisdom, the Lord gave me the answer right then and there: You see, when one is born again, they receive the Holy Spirit to where He comes and regenerates, renews and then seals their spirits (Titus 3:5 & Ephesians 1:13). Yes, He dwells in that born-again believer’s spirit, but the hidden man of the heart is the only part of us that He affects. Amen! This is where the baptism of the Holy Spirit (or, the Holy Spirit coming upon us) comes in: You see, while it is certainly important for the Holy Spirit to affect the spirit of man and perform that first work of grace in our lives, what about the other parts of man? What about the body and the soul? You see, the question that was getting raised in that CBC breakroom that day was— “Did we not get all of the Holy Ghost when He came to live in our hearts at our salvation experience?” Well, sure, we didn’t just receive a part of the Holy Spirit when we were born again and another part of Him when we were baptized in Him. No, we received all of Him when we were born again but He did not receive all of us. Let me substantiate this statement, further by us considering the different terminologies that are used to describe this second work of grace:
Therefore, from these terms we see how the Holy Spirit is supposed to be poured out “upon” us to where we are completely “immersed” with Him and totally “filled” by Him. Amen! But my point is that just the phrase “baptism in the Holy Spirit” shows us that the Holy Spirit is likened to water. Now there are other benefits to water rather than just the symbolism of us being washed in Him that is being used in the water baptism. Let’s look at some other Scriptural examples of this to see other benefits of the Holy Spirit in our lives. … WELLS & RIVERS Now it is clear the role that the Holy Spirit plays in our salvation. Yes, we are told in Titus 3:5 that we were saved, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” Amen. So, both the washing and regeneration (i.e. new birth) that transpired in our salvation were done by the Holy Spirit according to this passage. In fact, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman in John 4:14— “…But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” So, say this with me: “The water that Jesus has given me has become in me a fountain of water that springs up into everlasting life!” Amen! Now it is clear that fountain of water is the gift of salvation. We see this echoed in Isaiah 11:3 when the prophet said, “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Church, this is the fountain of water that springs up into everlasting life—the well of salvation. But it is also to be understood that the Holy Spirit is the one who put that well of salvation on the inside of us in the first place. Yes, that water had to originate from another body of water. And that originating body of water is the Holy Ghost. This is why Jesus said what He did in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of John: He said in John 7:37-39, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Now the timing of Jesus’ statements here is significant—for it was on the last day, the great day of the Feast of Tabernacles. But that is a lesson for another day. The point is that Jesus cried out that He who is thirsty could come to Him and drink—which He went on to say that this is simply believing in Him which would result in rivers of living water flowing out of our hearts. Therefore, we see again the association made between our salvation and water. But notice what John goes on to tell us in verse 39— “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Ohhh, so now we are seeing that the Holy Spirit is who Jesus was really speaking of here! Therefore, the Holy Spirit was prophesied to be those rivers of living water that would flow out of our hearts. So, this goes back to my point regarding the difference between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and receiving the Holy Spirit at salvation. When one is saved—being washed and regenerated by the Holy Spirit—a well or fountain was placed within us. But although wells and springs contain and produce water, they are not rivers of living water. That’s what the Holy Spirit produces—rivers, not wells or fountains! Yes, His presence in our lives is like the difference between having a well in us and having rivers of living water in us! Glory! ARE YOU THIRSTY? Now I want you to notice that Jesus equates “water” in both John 4:14 & 7:38 to “life” (i.e. springing up into everlasting life & rivers of living water). What this teaches us is that the Holy Spirit is our life and as we learn to daily “drink” from Him, we experience and walk in “the God kind of Life.” You see, just as “water” is absolutely essential to physical life, the Holy Spirit is likewise a necessity for spiritual life. First Corinthians 12:13 says that we, “…have been made to drink into one Spirit.” The Greek word used that is translated “drink” not only describes an individual drinking water; it also describes a piece of land that has been irrigated. The Holy Spirit will refresh us as rain refreshes a desert, giving us irrigation when we feel dry. This is what I believe God promised us in Isaiah 44:3 when He said, “For I will pour water on Him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants.” You see, “water” refers to “refreshment” and “the source of life,” right? Therefore, just as “water” is needed to live; so is the Spirit. Just as “water” is used for refreshment; so is the Spirit. So, I ask you today: Are you thirsty? No, not physically, but spiritually, emotionally, etc. Are you truly satisfied and content in your heart? If not, your problem might be that you need to drink of the Spirit. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve never drank of Him before, just that you need to be washed in Him again. Like water, we have to continuously drink in order to stay hydrated. And like the Holy Spirit is who washes and refreshes us, He is also who we drink and derive our life from. WATER TO WINE Now speaking of drinking, that leads me to the next type of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures—Wine. Yes, like we see in Jesus’ first miracle, we are going to also turn the water into wine right now! So, let’s look at a couple of examples in the Bible where the Holy Spirit is compared to “wine”: First of all, on the day of Pentecost, when the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost in that upper room, we see that while the majority were amazed and perplexed by what they were hearing (i.e. the disciples speaking in other tongues and declaring, in their own tongues, the wonderful works of God), there were others mocking who thought that they were drunk with wine (Acts 2:13). But then we see Peter correcting them saying, “For these are not drunk, as you suppose…” (2:15). Notice this phrase— “as you suppose.” So, they were drunk alright, just not like those people thought! You see, most people “suppose” that the reason this group of people thought they were drunk was just by the tongues they were hearing, but when you hear people praying in tongues have you ever mistaken that with someone being intoxicated? I haven’t. So, what this shows me is that the effects of the infilling of the Holy Spirit can easily be mistaken for the effects of being filled with alcohol. Of course, the Holy Spirit does not come to make us senseless and silly; He makes us sharp and bold. Many have abused those verses in Acts to defend bizarre and ungodly behavior. I believe in the joy and power of the Holy Spirit, but much of what we have seen on display is just the flesh. So, what was it that made the onlookers assume that the believers were drunk? It’s because they were acting under a new influence. They were behaving abnormally. They were speaking and moving in a way that was different. No, they weren’t belligerent, but they were bold! They weren’t incapacitated, but they were joyful. The Holy Spirit is compared with wine, not because He brings foolishness and chaos, but because He brings boldness and joy. Just as people receive wine in celebration, so are we to receive the Holy Spirit with gladness. His presence, like wine, marks the occasion. Wine represents the joy, prosperity, and boldness brought about by the Holy Spirit. Which leads me to my next point: FILLED WITH WINE OR FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT? Ephesians 5:18 says, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” Notice that the apostle Paul here compares being drunk with wine as being filled with the Spirit. One expositor states that the word “drunk” means “to be filled.” So what Paul was literally saying was “don’t be filled with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.” But notice that Paul makes the point of saying that being drunk with alcohol leads to “dissipation.” The word “dissipation” comes from the Greek word “sozo” which is the word translated “salvation.” But this word “sozo” has the alpha negative “a” before it which gives the word “sozo” the exact opposite meaning that it has on its own. It literally describes the opposite of that which has a saving quality about it. Therefore, it rather has a destructive quality. So, Paul was describing how living a drunkin’ lifestyle just leads to destruction and bondage, but how having a Spirit-Filled lifestyle has the opposite effect. It leads to freedom and wholeness! Why do people like to get drunk anyways? It is because it frees them from their inhibitions. Yes, they become free to do the things they normally wouldn’t do. Another reason is because it makes them joyful and fun to be around. Likewise, full of the Holy Spirit, we become free to be ourselves and become joyful and fun to be around. You know, Jesus must have been fun to be around if the kid’s all liked Him, right? Children aren’t drawn to sour-pusses, I can assure you. Speaking of Jesus, Hebrews 1:9 says, “Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than your companions” The Holy Spirit is called the “oil of gladness” because that is what is produced in a believer who is full of the Holy Ghost—JOY! Joy unspeakable and full of glory! You see, the believer does not need wine to experience joy. Wine can only give unfulfilling counterfeits of what the Holy Spirit offers. The Holy Spirit is the wine of Heaven—and the good news is that He is free and He doesn’t give you a hang-over either! So, in essence, Paul is saying, “Hey guys. Don’t get drunk on wine because that just leads to bondage. But instead, be filled up with the Spirit and experience the new wine!” In other words, one doesn’t need alcohol in order to have a good time and enjoy life; learning to drink of and being filled with the Holy Spirit can give one what they felt like only alcohol could give them. Amen. Now someone might say, “Well, I am Spirit-filled but I am not experiencing all of those effects of the Holy Spirit!” Well, there is a difference between having been filled with the Spirit and currently being full of the Spirit! You see, in this verse, when the Apostle Paul says, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,” he is talking to a church of people who had already received what we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We see this in Acts chapter 19, when the apostle Paul came to Ephesus and asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit since they believed and they were subsequently all filled with the Holy Spirit (see Acts 19:1-6). Therefore, this church was already introduced to the infilling of the Holy Spirit. So, why does He tell them here to be filled with the Holy Spirit? What we need to understand is that there is one initial infilling of the Holy Spirit, but there are many subsequent refilling’s: You see, the phrase “but be filled with the Spirit” in Ephesians 5:18 literally means in the original Greek “be being filled” or “be continuously filled.” Therefore, this is an instruction to stay full of the Spirit of God. Yes, there are numerous instances throughout the Book of Acts that state that a believer was filled with the Holy Spirit even after they had been initially baptized in the Holy Spirit. So again, there is evidently one initial infilling of the Holy Spirit but many subsequent refilling’s. But we have to choose to keep being filled. We have to remember; we are experiencing as much of God as we really want. If we want more, we will press in more. God is looking for people who are seeking Him with all their hearts to move mightily on His behalf. STAYING FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT So, a good question then is: How do we stay full of the Holy Spirit? Well, let’s look at the next verse and find out how: Ephesians 5:19 says, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” A major key to staying full of the Spirit is the words that come out of our mouth. In other words, just as our mouth is the primary way one fills their belly with wine, our mouth is the primary way one stays full of the Spirit. Paul said here that we are continuously filled with the Spirit when we let “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” come out of our mouth. So, what are “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs?” “Psalms” suggests what we would call “scriptural music.” In almost every usage of the Greek word “psalmos” the Psalms of the Old Testament are what is being referred to. So, singing “psalms” would be singing the Psalms of the Old Testament obviously, but it could also include singing other portions of Scripture. The term “hymns” literally describe “festive songs” or “songs of praise specifically addressed towards God.” A hymn differs from a psalm in that while a psalm is generally scripturally-based, a hymn is a song that comes of human origin. Some examples of “hymns” could be “I Sing Praises to Your Name”, “Holy, Holy, Holy”, or “the Doxology.” Then Paul said that the third and final songs that we should sing are “spiritual songs.” The word “spiritual” literally means “non-carnal.” So “spiritual songs” are “songs that are not of human origin”—that is, songs that are given by inspiration of the Spirit. This would include singing in tongues or simply just singing a song in our own understanding that the Holy Spirit puts in our hearts and that did not originate from man. Someone might say, “But it is not always convenient to sing. What do you do in those times?” That Is why Paul’s next phrase in Ephesians 5:19 is “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” In those times where it is not appropriate to sing aloud, we can make melody in our heart to the Lord. We can always maintain that inner communion with Him. God is a spirit so we can worship Him (or, fellowship with Him) in spirit (i.e. not naturally). So, when we cannot let it come out of our mouth, we need to let it continue in our heart. Actually, this singing and making melody in our heart is always important to do. Sometimes we can just let songs come out of our mouth without our hearts being behind the words. If all we do is just sing psalms and hymns without our hearts truly being involved it will do absolutely nothing to keep us full of the Spirit. That is why Paul went on to say “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” This means that the songs that come out of our mouth should be aimed at the Lord. That is, that we are not just singing but that we are actually singing to the Lord—making Him the object of all the words that proceed from our mouth. This is getting our heart involved in our psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Paul goes on to say in Ephesians 5:20— “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Along with letting the praises of God come out of our mouth we need to let thanksgiving flow from our lips as well. Psalm 69:30 says, “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.” The first phrase in this verse is a description of Ephesians 5:19 and the second is a description of verse 20. This Scripture shows us how we magnify the Lord. It is through giving thanks to Him! And although this is not the intended meaning of David, when we thank God always for all things, we will magnify God on the inside of us! In other words, we will have more of the Holy Spirit filling our bodies. Notice that Paul said, “giving thanks always for all things.” We are to give thanks all the time and for everything! Someone might say, “How can we be thankful all the time and for everything?” Well, for example, if your car breaks down you can still thank God that He gave you a car to drive before it broke down and that He will provide for you to drive it again in the future. You can always find something to be thankful for in everything. You can always find something positive to thank God for in every situation. And keeping this kind of positive and grateful outlook is a major key to staying full of the Spirit of God! Here is a good place to mention complaining. The opposite of praising and being thankful is complaining - this is how we quench the Holy Spirit. So avoid complaining at all costs. Finally, Paul says in Ephesians 5:21 that we are to stay full of the Spirit, “submitting to one another in the fear of God.” Someone might say, “What does submitting to other believers have to do with being filled with the Holy Spirit?” Well, when you are submitting, you are serving, and when you are serving, you are giving out. And this is how one stays filled up with God—by giving out to others. Amen. But the main point I am making is the importance of praise, worship, and thanksgiving coming out of our mouths regarding maintaining a Spirit-Filled life. Amen. This is how we drink in the Spirit, when His praises come out of our mouth. And just like we need to bathe regularly so that we won’t stink in the natural, we need to be "bathed" in the Holy Spirit continually so that we won't stink spiritually. NEW WINE Now do you remember how those mockers in Acts 2:13 said, “They are full of new wine”? They don’t know how true that statement really was—because yes, the disciples were indeed full of new wine! “Full” in respect to them being full of the Holy Spirit, and full of “new wine” in respect to them being filled up with the One Who had just been given to us—the newly arrived Holy Spirit, who is typified as wine. Now do you recall when Jesus said in Mark 2:21-22, “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”? The “new wine” referred to here can describe our salvation or the Holy Spirit Himself. I choose to believe that it describes the Holy Spirit because of these other comparisons in the Scriptures to the Holy Spirit being like wine. The salvation experience, in my opinion, is when the old wineskins are replaced with new wineskins. Once the new birth occurs, we have the capacity to house the new wine! So, it starts with being born again—drinking of the waters of salvation—becoming renewed wineskins. And then we are capable of receiving the new wine of the Holy Ghost. But then we must continually be filled with this new wine—staying full of Him to where it is not just us having the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit having us. This yields the joy, the happiness and the abundant life—the Spirit filled life! Lord, fill our cups to overflowing today! Amen! REVIEW & INTRODUCTION
So, we have spent the first half of this calendar year talking about the Holy Spirit, haven’t we? We spent time camping on the Communion of the Holy Spirit—which was that fellowship, intimacy, and partnership that we are called to walk in with Him. We then studied what I called the Advantage of the Holy Spirit—which was our look at the various advantages that the Holy Spirit provides for us in our lives which were similar to the advantages Jesus gave to His disciples. And most recently, we studied the Commission of the Holy Spirit—which is all of the specific things that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was assigned to do for us. So now, beginning this week, I want us to look at what we will call “The Types of the Holy Spirit.” Yes, I want us to begin looking at the various descriptions used of the Holy Spirit throughout God’s Word. And if you are well-versed in the Holy Scriptures, you will understand that there are many of these physical examples and analogies used in the Bible used to describe Him—such as oil, water, wind, fire, wine, etc. But the Holy Spirit is also described in some of the things and people that we see in the Scriptures as well. So, my point is that there is no shortage of things that the Lord has used in the Bible to describe the Third Person of the Godhead. Therefore, we will begin looking at all of these types and shadows of the Holy Spirit this week. But let me say this: We are not studying these things just to cram more head-knowledge in us. No, this is not just academic. While we certainly need to grow in knowledge in order to grow, our goal is not just to learn more; our goal is to do and experience more! Amen? And so, as we go through these various examples of the Holy Spirit, we will learn how all of these things apply to our lives and how the Holy Spirit is meant to benefit us. Amen? Therefore, I am believing God that this will be a fruitful series! GENTLE LIKE A DOVE So, the first type of the Holy Spirit I would like us to look at is—the dove. You know, by far the most popular symbol of the Holy Spirit that we see used in the world today is of a dove. Yes, we have even used it on our HPC logo. But does this mean that the Holy Spirit is a dove? It might seem comical to you, but some do think that the Holy Spirit is some sort of spiritual bird. But I am going to show you today that He is not a dove, but rather this describes the personality and traits that He possesses. You see, although the Holy Spirit is referred to as a “Dove” in all four Gospels (Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22, & John 1:32), He was said to either descend “like a dove” or “in bodily form like a dove.” So, this describes the Holy Spirit both descending “in the manner” that a dove does and also His form “appearing to be” like a dove. So, since the Holy Spirit is literally described here as being like a dove, we can look back at the account in Genesis chapter 8 where Noah sent out the raven and the dove to see if the waters had subsided on the earth. And we know that the raven wound up just flying back and forth until the waters subsided. But the dove went out and returned—telling Noah that the waters had not subsided. Then he waited seven days and sent the dove out again, and it returned with an olive leaf in her mouth. So then, Noah waited another seven days and sent her out again, and this time, she didn’t return. All of this paints a picture of Holy Spirit’s ministry here on the earth—to find life and rest there. Now let me ask you: What is a dove like? A dove is gentle, tender, and peaceful. Perhaps the gospel writers described the Holy Spirit resting upon Jesus like a dove because He glided down so smoothly and so softly and landed on Him as a dove would. So, what we can we take away from this? We can see that this means that He’s not going to force Himself on you. He will come when you want Him. He’s gentle and tender like a perfect gentleman. Along these lines, in the King James version, He is referred to as the “Holy Ghost.” In the other, more recent translations, the word translated “Ghost” here is translated “Spirit.” However, in the time the King James Version was translated the word “Ghost” actually had a pleasant meaning. When we think of a “ghost” nowadays, we think of something scary but back then the word “ghost” referred to “a welcomed visitor” or “the guest of a household”. This implies how we should treat Him; as our honored guest with the most comfortable atmosphere we can give Him in our tents. He is the “Holy Guest.” So, my point is that the Holy Spirit is honorable and a gentleman. Therefore, He is not going to force Himself on us and make us do something we don’t want to do. Evil spirits possess people. They are the ones who make people do things they don’t want to do. Yes, they drive, force, and manipulate the people and things they live in. Therefore, if one cannot control themselves, then it ain’t the Holy Ghost; it’s another spirit. The apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 14:32– “…the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” Now we know that the context of First Corinthians 14 is Paul teaching this church that, in regards to spiritual gifts, all things must be done decently and in order in our assemblies. And in this verse, he is saying that those who have been given the gift to prophesy and even stand in the office of a prophet are in control of how they operate in their gift. So again, the Holy Spirit is not bypassing the person who has the gift and doing & saying whatever He wants. No, the person must yield to Him—cooperating with the Holy Spirit and letting that gift operate. Therefore, the Holy Spirit and His gifts are subject to us as to how much we desire to let Him flow. And if you don’t believe that—then just look around you. If we believe that the Holy Spirit is just going to do whatever He wants to do in us and we are not seeing a plethora of gifts flowing in our lives, then that means He doesn’t want to move that often. But no, I can assure you, the problem is not with Him desiring to work; it is with us learning to yield to His work. Amen? This is why some people have a difficult time praying in tongues when they receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. It is because they have to yield to this gift of the Holy Spirit. Tongues are not like when we throw up—to where we cannot hold it back and it’s coming up no matter what we want. No, Acts 2:4 says that they “…were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Now notice how this is worded— Dr. Luke said first that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and then he said “…and began to speak with other tongues…” What this teaches me is that one can be filled with the Holy Spirit and not speak with other tongues—which contradicts some Pentecostal teachings out there that say if one does not speak in tongues, then they have not been filled with the Holy Spirit. No, I don’t believe that’s true. However, I do believe that if one is filled with the Holy Spirit, they have this gift available to them. You see, the Holy Spirit gave them the utterance, but that does not mean that He made them utter those tongues. No, people must yield to their prayer language by taking the words (i.e. utterance) that He gives them and then using their “tongues” to speak out what they are being given. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s utterance is not to be mistaken as the Holy Spirit forcing us to speak. So, the Holy Spirit operates like a dove—gently and graciously. He leads and guides us in an unassuming way—inspiring us, yet not driving us. Another way of saying this is that is He is “harmless.” HARMLESS AS DOVES Do you remember when Jesus commanded His disciples to “be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” in Matthew 10:16? Here, we see the Lord encouraging us to carry on the traits of two of creatures—one being the dove. But, first of all, what did Jesus mean by encouraging us to be “wise as serpents”—because in the Bible, snakes are usually associated with bad things, right? But here, we are actually encouraged to be like a serpent in one respect—and that’s being wise. So, let’s consider how a serpent is indeed wise: Have you ever noticed how snakes spend a lot more time being still than they do moving? In their natural wisdom, they only make small, calculated movements. Well, I believe that this is a very important element of wisdom that we would do good to embrace in life: Take small, calculated steps. Don’t be quick to move and just blare on without giving a lot of thought to where you are going and how you are getting there. For example, many people don’t consider the outcome of their fleshly impulses. They just do what feels right at the moment, giving no consideration to what it will cost them tomorrow. Jesus was saying to not be that way. We need to operate in this kind of wisdom. But if the Lord told us to live this way, we can be sure that He Himself lived that way, and if Jesus walked in this wisdom, then we also know that the Holy Spirit does the same. Amen? Therefore, the Holy Spirit makes calculated decisions that are not haphazard and reckless. Now this doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit will not lead and inspire people to dance, run, laugh, and all of the other blessings many of us have experienced in certain meetings and at certain times. It just means that these things will not be chaotic and reckless. I have personally experienced meetings where the Holy Spirit moves upon several people to take off and start running around the church and no one fell, got hurt, etc. I have also seen people get “slain in the Spirit” (as many like to call it) with no “catchers” and no one hurt themselves. You see, when the Holy Spirit is moving people to do any of these demonstrative things, it is not disruptive and is in no way dangerous. It is only when man decides to start doing these things in themselves and gets outside of what the Holy Ghost is doing that people can get hurt and things get out of order. But notice that Jesus went on to say, “and (be) harmless as doves.” So, Jesus was encouraging His disciples to be wise. Yes. But to also to be harmless at the same time. You know, some people operate according to the wisdom of this world, but do it at the expense of others. In other words, they take care of themselves, but harm others in the process. We ought not to be that way, saints. Yes, we are careful and take calculated steps like the serpent, but we are careful not to harm others through our actions and even our example. We should act for the benefit of others rather than ourselves. We need to ask ourselves, "What would love do?" Do all things for the glory of God. "If you can't do it for the glory of God, you can be sure it's not the will of God." Now the word “harmless” here means to be “innocent & morally pure.” And a dove is certainly one of the top creatures we would think of to describe this definition, right? Therefore, since the Holy Spirit was described as a dove in the Scriptures we’ve looked at, this describes the Holy Spirit as being “innocent and pure.” That is one of the reasons why He is called “the Holy Spirit.” It is because He is pure and innocent just as a dove is pure and innocent. Yes, the Holy Spirit is referred to as a dove because He is gentle, tender, meek, innocent, and pure. But looking back at how the Holy Spirit is described as a dove in the Gospels, did you notice how He descended upon Jesus. In other words, He came from above and rested on Him—which leads me to the next description I want us to look at regarding the Holy Spirit. THE OIL The Holy Spirit is often described in the Scriptures symbolically as “OIL.” In fact, “oil” is the most common type used of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. But why? Why is “oil” one of the most common examples used to describe the Holy Spirit? Well, in the Old Testament, we see various people and things being “anointed” with oil: Originally, it was used exclusively for the anointing of the priesthood as well as the articles of the Tabernacle (Exodus 30:26) and subsequent temples in Jerusalem. However, it was used later to include the anointing of kings for their role (First Samuel 10:1). So, the oil was used to anoint the kings, priests, and the articles of the Tabernacle. But why was this done? Well, let’s begin answering this question by looking at what the Bible says was the purpose of the oil. In Leviticus 8:30, It is referred to as having sanctifying power. In this verse, it is described how Moses was instructed to “anoint” the priesthood: “Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood which was on the altar, and sprinkled it on Aaron, on his garments, on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him; and he consecrated Aaron, his garments, his sons, and the garments of his sons with him.” The word “consecrated” here literally means to dedicate, to set apart, and make holy. In other words, it essentially means to sanctify something or someone for some special purpose. And in Exodus 29:7, we are told specifically how the oil was applied to Aaron and his sons. It says, “And you shall take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him.” So now we get some answers as to both how and why people were anointed with oil. It was to set them apart and consecrate them for their calling & purpose. And when it came to the Kings and High Priest, this occurred by pouring the oil on their heads—all of this being significant to us today. Did you know that we too have been made Kings and Priests unto our God? Revelations 1:6 says that Jesus has made us Kings and Priests to His God and Father! So, guess what that means? If we have been made kings and priests, then God must have anointed us too, right? Amen! Therefore, we are “anointed” to be His children (those born [again] to be His kings) and to serve Him (i.e. priests). Therefore, we are the ones anointed to be kings and priests in this new and better covenant (see First Peter 2:9)! Praise God, He has anointed us to be His heirs and His ministers! Also, did you know that we are now the Temple and Tabernacle of God? For He does not dwell in temples made with hands, but now dwells in the temple of our bodies (see Acts 7:48 & 17:24). So again, if we are the Temple of God today, then we must be anointed by God! Therefore, we are anointed to be indwelt by Him. Glory! Now let’s look at the word that is used to describe this act of pouring oil upon these people & things in order to consecrate them—the word “anoint.” THE ANOINTING There are some squirrely ideas in the Body of Christ regarding the anointing. A common misconception is that some are anointed and some are not. And while that is true in regards to whether one has been baptized in the Holy Spirit or not, it is not true that some Spirit-filled people are anointed and some are not. We just saw that He has made us all kings and priests before our God. Therefore, in order for us all to be kings and priests, we had to all be anointed to be in those positions. Amen? Also, in First John 2:20, we are told we have an anointing from the Holy One. It doesn’t say that we hope to be anointed or we will be anointed by Him someday. No, it says that we all—every born again, Spirit baptized believer—has an anointing from the Holy One Himself! Now do you remember when Jesus said in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to…” This means that Jesus was anointed for service unto His Father. Therefore, since we have been anointed with the same anointing that He was anointed with, then the same Spirit that He had, we have! Amen! But notice here that we see the equivalent to being anointed is having the Spirit of the Lord upon us. Again, this quote from Isaiah 61:1 is saying that because He has anointed His Messiah, the Holy Spirit is upon Him. In other words, being anointed is having the Holy Spirit poured on us like the anointing oil was poured on the kings & priests. Thus, the reason we can see the Holy Spirit being what the anointing oil represents. And so, if we all have the Holy Spirit, then we are all anointed. More literally, we have the Spirit of the Lord poured upon us like the kings, priests, and articles of tabernacle did! Amen! Do you remember when we studied the 23rd Psalm and saw how David said that “He anoints my head with oil” (see Psalm 23:5)? Well, when we looked at that, we saw that the good life is the anointed life—because this was an obvious reference to someone being honored by the hospitality of their host when invited into their home. Do you remember when David told Mephibosheth "You will always have a seat at my table?" When he sat at that table, no one could see his disability. When we sit at the table with Jesus, our lack is seen no more. Church, all throughout the Scriptures when we see someone being anointed with oil, that is symbolic of the Holy Spirit being poured out on them—either to equip and empower one for a particular office or to set free and deliver one from a particular bondage. We see it used in the latter way in James 5:14-15 where the anointing with oil is seen as a method to bringing healing and deliverance to the afflicted. This, of course, is not saying that there is inherent power in the oil itself to heal someone; rather, it is using oil as a contact point between the minister and the one receiving ministry. And since “oil” is symbolic of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the sick with oil is a symbol showing how it is the power of the Holy Spirit to set the captive free. THE HAND OF THE LORD Now regarding the New Testament usage of the word “anointed,” it comes from the Greek word chrio. This word was a medical term describing a physician pouring oil on his hands and then rubbing it into the body of the patient until the oil was transferred from the doctor’s hands deep into the skin of the patient. So, the word chrio has to do with “the hands” of the doctor as well as the oil itself. It describes God as being the Great Physician Who has the Holy Spirit as a type of oil on His hands, and once He has the Holy Spirit on His hands, He can’t wait to get His hands on the believer. Once He does, He begins to rub and rub until the believer is totally saturated (i.e. baptized) with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to be anointed with the Holy Ghost means to be totally saturated with the Holy Ghost. So, saying someone is “anointed” is another way of saying “God’s got His hand on them.” Amen! In fact, we see this phrase “the hand of the Lord” being upon someone used several times in the Old Testament, and it was accompanied with that person doing something supernatural. Church, the hand of God is upon us! We are anointed—because of the baptism of the Holy Spirit! So, guess what our responsibility is…??? It is to put our anointed hands on people: Notice that the very last sign that Jesus said would follow those who believe in Mark 16:18: “and they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Church, ministering God’s healing power to the sick is part of what we have been delegated the authority to do in Jesus’ name. It is a sign that is supposed to follow those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! And the truth is—if we have been called to do it, then we have been anointed to do it! Now we know that the laying on of hands is considered one of the elementary, foundational principles of Christianity (see Hebrews 6:1-2)—which obviously includes more than just administering healing to the sick but also setting someone apart for ministry work among other things. But what is it about the laying on of hands that passes healing on to others? It is simple: it is the transference of the Holy Spirit who is upon us onto them. Amen! But, saints, this is the lesson I want you to walk away with today: If we have been anointed to minister God’s healing through the laying on of hands, then healing is in our hands to give! Now I am making both a literal statement and a metaphorical statement—for while there is a literal transference of the healing power of God through our physical hands, we can see that healing is in our possession (i.e. hands) to give to the sick and infirmed. Amen! Church, we are anointed! The oil has been poured out on us if we have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit! Yes, the dove has rested upon us if we have been filled with the Holy Ghost! Now it is up to us to walk in what we’ve been clothed with. So, let’s be as “harmless” as the Holy Ghost, but not “harmless” to the kingdom of darkness. It’s the anointing that breaks the yoke (see Isaiah 10:27). And those yokes and burdens are what the evil spirits put on people; not the Holy Spirit. He is in the yoke destroying business, not the yoke building business. Therefore, let’s get on His team and start putting our hands on people—letting the anointing destroy the sickness, oppression, poverty, etc. that the enemy has bound people with. Amen. REVIEW
Today, we will conclude our study of the Holy Spirit’s commission in our lives by looking at one of the last, and in the writer’s opinion, most important assignments that He has. But first, let’s quickly review what we have covered thus far: We have seen that the Holy Spirit is commissioned to be like our own personal apostle. Which means that He is our Teacher, promised to teach us all things. He is our Reminder, promised to remind us of all the things that the Lord has already said to us. He testifies of Jesus (we will get more into that in a moment). He is a Convicter. No, not a condemner, making us feel guilty for our mistakes, but the One who simply shines light on things for us and convinces us of the truth. Along those lines, we saw that He is our Guide, guiding us into all truth. And finally, last week we saw that He tells us things to come—that is, He will show us the future, revealing to us all the glorious things God has in store for us and also showing us the difficulties that might lie ahead to both help us avoid them or simply be prepared for them. I highly encourage you that if you missed any of the first seven parts of this series, go back and listen to them on our website @ www.highpointmacon.com. These notes are also available on our sight as well, if you prefer to read these truths. However, even if you have heard all of these things and simply have not begun to see them working in your life, do yourself a favor and listen to & study them again. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, so the more you hear them, the more faith will arise in your hearts to receive the Holy Spirit’s ministry in your life. Amen? GLORIFYING JESUS So, this week, let’s move into the Jesus’ last words that He uttered to His disciples concerning the Holy Spirit before His crucifixion. Let’s look at John 16:14-15 where Jesus says, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” As I said earlier, I see this as the primary objective of the Holy Spirit—the number one thing that He is commissioned to do here on the earth—to GLORIFY JESUS! Notice that Jesus said at the beginning of verse 14, “He will glorify Me!” The dictionary defines the word “glorify” as “to honor, praise, extol, or magnify.” Therefore, when one “glorifies” Jesus what they are doing is honoring, praising, extoling and magnifying Him. And we are told here that this is what the Holy Spirit does—He honors, praises, magnifies, and glorifies Jesus. Now, of course, this does not mean that the Holy Spirit Himself is praising & worshipping Jesus in the way we do. He Himself is the Third Person in the Godhead. So, it should be obvious that God the Spirit is not worshipping God the Son. Which leads me to another point: WHY DO YOU CALL ME GOOD? The majority of the Church uses this truth that the Holy Spirit’s ministry to glorify Jesus means that the Holy Spirit never needs to be glorified—meaning, we are not supposed to praise & worship the Holy Spirit. But I am the kind of person that I want to see it in the Word of God. Yes, if you can’t show it to me in the Bible, then I won’t put too much weight in it. And this Scripture, nor any other one that I know of, says that the Third Person of the Godhead does not deserve to be worshipped any more than God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, if the Holy Spirit is God, shouldn’t He receive some love too? So, one time while I was in prayer, I began to praise the Holy Spirit just like I praise God the Father and God the Son. And as I was telling Him how good He is, a Scripture popped up in my heart. It was the very words uttered by Jesus to the rich young ruler, when he approached Jesus and called Him “Good Teacher…” And do you remember how Jesus responded to him? He said, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (see Matthew 19:16-17). Now let me say this: When Jesus said, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but God” He was not saying He wasn’t God. What He was doing there was simply pointing the praise and glory back to His Father. You see, Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve—to serve mankind but also to serve His Father. In essence, one could say that He came to glorify Father God like the Holy Spirit came to glorify Jesus. But that is exactly what I heard in my spirit that day— “Why do you call me good? There is none good but God.” Now when I heard that, I immediately knew these were not Jesus’ words to me on that day; this is what the Holy Spirit was saying to me in response to me calling Him “good.” And do you know what I learned that day? From that He revealed to me that the same way that Jesus always reverted the praises He was receiving back to the Father during His earthly ministry, that is the same thing the Holy Spirit is doing today in His earthly ministry—He is glorifying Jesus! Yes, just as Jesus was sent by the Father and only said and did what He saw His Father say and do to where even when someone gave Him praise for something, He would give the glory back to His Father, likewise, the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus to point us back to Him. Yes, the Holy Spirit only says and does what He sees Jesus saying and doing, and when someone tries to praise Him for something like I did on that day, He will point us back to Jesus. Church, the Holy Spirit has been sent to glorify Jesus in the same way that Jesus was sent to glorify the Father. Amen. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GLORIFY? So, what does it mean to “glorify” Him? Does it mean, like so many believe, to just raise one’s hands and say, “Jesus, I glorify You”? No, like it is with praise and worship, glorifying Jesus is not just saying, “Jesus, I praise You” or “I glorify You, Lord.” To glorify Him is to actually glorify Him—meaning, to both say and do things that bring Him glory. Let’s look at some Biblical examples: This same word that is translated “glorify” here is predominantly used in the Four Gospels to describe what the people did when Jesus performed a healing or miracle. Some examples are Matthew 9:8, 15:31; Mark 2:12; Luke 5:25-26, 7:16, 13:13, 18:43; and John 11:4. In all of these someone was healed and either that individual or the people who saw the miracle first hand began to glorify God. For example, in Luke 7:11-17, we have the account of Jesus raising the widow of Nain’s son from the dead. After Jesus touched the open coffin and told the young man to arise, he sat up and began to speak. Then we are told in verses 16-17— “Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has risen among us’; and, ‘God has visited His people.’ And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.” What report? This “glory report” of the young man being raised from the dead. Yes. But also what the people were saying about Jesus because of this miracle—that a great prophet had risen among them and God had visited His people! So, what do we see here? It is that when Jesus performed this miracle, it produced people glorifying God by saying certain things about Jesus. So, we can learn two very important lessons from this: Number one, what glorifies someone or something is when people begin to say things that bring glory to that person or thing. In this case, everyone who witnessed this miracle began to talk, calling Jesus a great prophet. Now we know that He was and is more than just a great prophet. He is the Son of God. Nonetheless, this still glorified Jesus among the people by being acknowledged as a great prophet. But they were also glorifying God by saying that He had visited His people. How? Through this Man that they saw as a great prophet performing these miracles. And we are told in verse 17 that all of these things they were saying about Jesus spread even throughout all Judea and the entire region., So, it was not just that these people here in Nain were glorifying God, but it spread throughout the surrounding region—thus, the glory being given to God multiplied as a result of it spreading! Amen! Therefore, to glorify Jesus is to speak words of praise that magnify Him! So, this means that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to help us to praise Jesus! You know, some of us have a difficult time in praise & worship. For various reasons, many believers have a hard time entering in and glorifying Jesus. If this is you, I have good news for you! The Holy Ghost’s ministry is to glorify Jesus through you! Yes, He will make you a better worshipper if you will let Him. Simply ask the Holy Spirit on the inside of you to help you see Jesus in His glory. Ask Him to reveal Christ to you to where, like the prophet Isaiah, you see the Lord high and lifted up and you see His train filling the temple (Isaiah 6:1). I can guarantee you that when you see Him high and lifted up, the “high” praises of God will be in your mouth (Psalm 149:6) and your voice will be “lifted up.” Amen. But when yielded to, the Holy Spirit will also put the right words, verses, and phrases in your mouth that will glorify Jesus. He will put a new song in your mouth, hallelujah, and will help you worship Him in the most appropriate manner for that moment. Glory! This is worship that is done in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24)! This is, as Philippians 3:3 says, worship that is done by the Spirit of God. Amen. Now the other lesson we can learn from our passage in Luke chapter 7 is one of the ways how the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus. What was it that caused God to get glorified in this account? It was the miracle, wasn’t it? The young man being raised from the dead is what started all of this glory! Amen! Therefore, we can see here one of the ways that the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus—by performing miracles, signs and wonders! Amen! So, the Holy Spirit does not just glorify Jesus by saying something; He does it by doing something! So, the Holy Spirit’s ministry to glorify Jesus is also accomplished by Him performing His spiritual gifts in and through the church. Amen. As I said earlier, this was the primary way that this word “glorify” was used in the Gospels—in the healings & miracles that Jesus performed. And when people received their miracle, both the Father and Jesus got glorified. “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” John 15:8 Now in this verse we see this truth amplified because Jesus said here that what ultimately glorifies God is the fruit we produce. This is, of course, the miracles, but fruit can also be producing converts, making disciples, and simply bearing the fruit of the Spirit. All of this fruit glorifies God. Therefore, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord by producing this fruit in and through us. THAT WAS MINE! Now do you remember that one of the things that Jesus said the Holy Spirit was commissioned to do was “testify” of Him (John 15:26-27)? And do you remember that we talked about how our testimony is meant to glorify Jesus, and not us? Therefore, what we spend time testifying of is what we essentially are glorifying. And this is why Jesus said what He did next in John 16:14-15. Notice what Jesus specifically said the Holy Spirit will do that will also glorify Him: Jesus concluded His teaching on the Holy Spirit’s different commissions in John chapter 16 by saying— “…for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you” (verses 14-15). So, after Jesus said, “He will glorify Me,” He went on to say it was “for” (or, because) He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. So, just as Jesus spent His time glorifying the Father by taking what was His and declaring it to His disciples, likewise the Holy Spirit spends His time on the earth glorifying Jesus and taking what is His and declaring it to us. Did you know that this is another way in which we can glorify someone? When we receive what is someone else’s and declare to others. For example, if I were to hear a really good joke from one of you and then turn around and tell that joke to someone else—with it being understood who I heard the joke from in the first place—who does that “glorify”? The one who told me the joke in the first place, of course. Likewise, as we saw in verse 13, the Holy Spirit does not share things with us that originate from Him. No, He shares with us things that He has heard from Jesus. Therefore, all of the good news that we receive the Holy Spirit should glorify Jesus because it all originated from Him to start with. Amen? So, when Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will glorify Him by taking of what was His and declaring it to us, He was saying, “He shall praise me and bring me great honor by showing you my glory” (The Living Bible) and “He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.” (The Amplified Bible). You know, I wish people would take the things I say when I stand behind this pulpit and share it—word for word even. Do you know why? Because it glorifies the Lord! Like Paul said in Philippians 1:15, even if people say the same thing we’ve said with the wrong motives, we can rejoice in the fact that the truth is being proclaimed—for it glorifies the One who gave it to us in the first place! THE MIND OF CHRIST Now, on the surface, it is hard to understand exactly what Jesus was referring to in these verses, but it becomes clearer when we compare it with what Paul said in First Corinthians 2:9-16: Like we saw last week, in First Corinthians 2:9 the Apostle Paul starts off quoting Isaiah by saying, “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 Him.” And again, there are many Christians today who love to quote this verse like it is some New Testament reality, but they forgot to quote the next statement: Paul went on to say in verse 10, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit!” You see, under the Old Covenant it was most certainly true that they could not even imagine what God had prepared for those who loved Him, but now under the New Covenant, we have the Holy Spirit who is specifically commissioned to reveal to us these things that God has in store for us! Praise God! Paul went on to reiterate this in verse 12 by saying that the Holy Spirit was given to us so that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. And these things that have been freely given to us are a direct reference to our inheritance! Do you remember how in John 16:15 Jesus said, “All things that the Father has are Mine”? He was specifically referring to the inheritance given to Him by His Father. So now that we have become children of God too—Jesus being the firstborn of many brethren—we have become joint heirs with Christ to “all things that the Father has” (Compare Romans 8:17)! And the Holy Spirit is specifically commissioned to reveal to us all the things that we are joint heirs of with Christ! Glory to God! This is part of what Jesus was referring to when He said that the Holy Spirit would “take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” In Romans 8:26-27 we are told that the Holy Spirit also intercedes on our behalf so that God’s perfect will for our lives will come to pass. And one way He does this is by revealing or communicating to us the thoughts the Lord is thinking about us—thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). So, when Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will “take of Mine and declare it to you” He also meant that the Holy Spirit would declare to us what the mind of the Lord is. And the Apostle Paul went on to say this same thing in First Corinthians chapter two: He concludes this teaching on the Holy Spirit’s commission to reveal to us those things that were previously unknown by saying, “Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ” (vs.16)! In other words, in the Old Covenant, when “eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor had entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for those who love Him” (vs.9), they were unable to know the mind of the Lord. But now, under this new and better covenant, we have the Holy Spirit—and He has been commissioned to reveal the mind of the Lord to us! So, when Paul said next in verse 16— “But we have the mind of Christ”—it was just another way of saying, “But we have the Holy Spirit, who declares to us the purpose and plan of Christ.” Hallelujah! The Holy Spirit is the mind of Christ! So, in John 16:14-15 when Jesus said, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you”, a good paraphrase would be— “He will honor Me, because He will share with you what I have (not only everything I possess in regards to My omniscience, but also everything I possess in regards to My inheritance). You see, everything that My Father possesses is Mine also. That is why I said that the Holy Spirit will share with you what I have.” Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s commission is to reveal to us what is in the plan and purpose of Christ for our lives in everything from our inheritance in heaven to our calling on the earth. And guess what this does? It glorifies the One who made all of this possible—Jesus! Saints, the Holy Spirit’s job, simply put, is to glorify Jesus. And as we’ve seen, He does this by helping us to praise & glorify Jesus in our own personal worship experience. He glorifies Jesus in what we say! He also does this by producing His fruit in and through our lives. He glorifies Jesus in what we do! And finally, He shares with us all of the grand and glorious things that Jesus has said and done for each one of us. He glorifies Jesus by declaring to us all of the things Jesus has prepared for us. It’s all about Jesus, folks! And the Holy Ghost would share those sentiments. His ministry is designed to magnify, exalt, lift up and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s let Him do this through us today and every day. Amen? REVIEW
Now today, we will continue our look at the Holy Spirit’s commission in our lives by studying another particular assignment that He has. Last week, we looked at John 16:13 where Jesus told us that when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide us into all truth. So, we looked at this in detail and the first thing we learned is that when Jesus starts off this verse by saying “however,” He was pointing them ahead to the ministry of the Holy Spirit coming in His place and picking up where He left off. So, while they could not handle the spiritual truth that Jesus desired to show them because they were still unregenerate and unspiritual, the Spirit of truth’s soon arrival would unlock all of these truths for them. What this shows us is that the Holy Spirit is our key in being ushered into spiritual things. Therefore, without Him, we will be severely limited in understanding these spiritual things. But since Jesus called Him the Spirit of truth and said that He would guide us into all truth, we know that the Holy Spirit is obviously an expert in the truth. So, we looked at what truth is. And we saw that truth is “that which is not hidden, which makes God known” (A Holy Spirit given definition to me). And we saw how this definition certainly coincides with a couple of other things that God’s Word teaches us is “truth.” Number one, we saw that Jesus is the truth because it says in John 14:6 that “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” Secondly, we found that God’s Word is also truth because in John 17:17, Jesus said, “Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth.” Therefore, we learned that the Holy Spirit’s commission to “guide us into all truth” means that He will guide us into all of Jesus, as He is the Truth. But it also means that He will guide us into all of the Word, as His Word is truth as well. But we also saw that one could also say that the “truth” that the Holy Spirit guides us into is the opposite of the “lie”—meaning, if we are walking in the truth, we are not walking in a lie. Therefore, the truth we are being guided into is the LIGHT itself. Yes, the Holy Spirit guides us into the light at all times. So, we looked over at John chapter 11 and saw how Jesus was guided by the Holy Spirit when it came to His friend, Lazarus. No, He did not let him die so He could receive more glory for it, like so many teach. That would be like someone kidnapping a child and then if a reward was offered for anyone that could find the child and bring him home, that person who kidnapped him brought him back and collected the reward. That wouldn’t be right, would it? Well, God is not doing that either—He is not stealing life and then giving it back so He can get the glory. Amen? But then we learned how the Holy Spirit does this guiding: We saw that Jesus does not say that the Holy Spirit will “drive” us into all truth or “drag” us into all truth. No, Jesus said He will “guide” us into all truth, which carries more of the idea of Him leading us. On top of that, we saw that you cannot guide something or someone that is not already moving! Therefore, like a boat, you can turn the rudder one way or another, but if the boat is not already moving it will not make a difference in the direction that the boat goes. Yes, you can turn a rudder as far as it will turn, but if the boat never leaves the dock, it will remain pointed in the same direction. Likewise, we have to be “moving” in order for His guidance to become effective. What do I mean by “moving?” I mean that there must be cooperation on our part because some of the responsibility has been given to us. Say, for instance, if we desire to know the truth of God’s Word. Well, we can’t just sit back and do nothing and expect the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth of His Word. No, we must seek the truth through reading, studying, and meditating God’s Word. When we get our “boat” started in that direction is when the “Rudder”—Holy Spirit—can guide us through teaching us and bringing things to our remembrance. We looked at a good example of this in Acts chapter 8 from the life & ministry of Philip the Evangelist. In this story, we saw Philip obeying the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel and then the Holy Spirit was able to guide him “from Samaria to Ethiopia.” So, we learned that we don’t need to be “mulish”—that is, hard to be moved and stubborn—but we are to be “rein-trained” to where we are easily guided by the Holy Spirit when He gives us that slightest tug. Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s job is to guide us into all truth—which includes all of the Word (for His Word is truth), all of who Jesus is (for Jesus Himself is also the truth), and also everything else that we need His help in guiding us into. He is our Guide and He has the light that we need! So now, this week, let’s look again at John 16:13 and pick up where we left off last week. Shall we? DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAK OF HIMSELF? Again, Jesus says, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” So, after telling His disciples that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, He goes on to tell them why this is the case… “for (or, because) He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak…” Now the NKJV says, “for He will not speak on His own authority,” but notice that the word “authority” is italicized here. The reason for that is because it was added by the translators. Therefore, it was not in the original text that the New Testament was written in. And to add even more confusion to this phrase, the original King James version translates it like so— “for He shall not speak of himself.” Now this particular translation has led many to believe that the Holy Spirit never talks about Himself because it says He shall speak “of” Himself. Thus, the reason you have many churches not ever talking about the Holy Spirit. Church, that is not what Jesus was saying in this verse. When Jesus said that He would not speak “of” Himself, the word “of” comes from the Greek word apo which literally means “away from” and denotes “from the place of origin.” So what Jesus was saying here is that the Holy Spirit will not speak “from” Himself, or the things He says do not originate from Him. In other words, as Jesus was known to say Himself, He only said what He heard the Father say and He only did what He saw the Father do (see John 5:19, 8:28 & 12:49)—which shows us how the Holy Spirit is here on the earth doing things just like Jesus did them, not speaking by His own authority. Therefore, I believe the translators of the New King James version correctly translated this phrase by indicating that the Holy Spirit does not speak out of His own authority. But notice what Jesus goes on to say— “but whatever He hears He will speak...” Now a good question to ask here is— Why is it important for us to know that the things the Holy Spirit says do not originate from Himself? Well, why did Jesus essentially say the same thing? It was because the people needed to know these were not just His words, but He was both speaking & operating from a higher authority. So, that is what I see Jesus was saying here about the Holy Spirit—that He is not speaking by His own authority, but the entire Godhead is backing Him up. You see, we need to understand that when the Holy Spirit says something, it is really GOD saying it—that is, the entire Trinity. The Holy Spirit is not some subservient form of God, but is doing and saying the things that He does because God the Father and God the Son are inspiring Him to. This is why I believe it is not always black & white as to which member of the Godhead is talking to us at various times. Sometimes it sounds like it’s Jesus talking to us, but that might just mean it’s Jesus speaking through the Holy Spirit. Likewise, in some cases it might sound like God the Father, but it might just be the Holy Spirit that the Father is speaking through. We need to understand that they are One, and that when one speaks, the others are speaking the same thing. But I digress. I want us to camp on what Jesus said next in John 16:13… DECLARING GREAT THINGS Notice how Jesus ends this verse by saying, “and He will tell you things to come.” The original King James version uses the word “shew” (or, show) instead of the word “tell.” Now the Greek word for “tell” or “show” means “to declare, report, or to announce.” In fact, this same word is used two more times in John 16:14&15 when Jesus went on to describe the Holy Spirit “declaring” certain things to us. So, we need to understand that this word means to verbally “say” more than it means to visibly “show.” We see this same word used in various places in describing how people “told” others about the great things the Lord had done and the things that they needed to know. One of my favorite instances is found in the demoniac of the Gadarenes. After this man’s deliverance, Jesus told him— “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” (Mark 5:19). So, when we compare these other instances of the word used for “tell,” we can see how the Holy Spirit’s assignment is likewise to tell us what great things the Lord will do for us since He will tell us things to come. Amen! Saints, I’ll “tell” ya 😊… The Holy Spirit desires to show you and I all the good things that God has prepared for us in Christ Jesus! Yes, He wants to tell us about all of those great things that God has, is, and will do for us! Amen! Sure, He knows the plans He has for you—those plans that are good, full of peace, and contain a glorious future of hope (Jeremiah 29:11)—but the He wants us to know those plans too! And that is the Holy Spirit’s assignment—to tell us of these great, good, and glorious things that are to come! You see, people like to quote passages like First Corinthians 2:9 which say, “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 Him.” But we need to read the following verse. These awesome things that the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has even been conjured up in man’s heart which God has prepared for us who love Him are not supposed to stay that way for the believer. The apostle Paul goes on to say in verse 10— “But God has revealed them to us (How?) through His Spirit.” So, the Holy Spirit is specifically commissioned to reveal to us the wonderful things that we have to look forward to in our lives here on the earth and the glorious things we have to look forward to for all eternity (see Ephesians 1:18)—and this certainly includes our heavenly inheritance (We will discuss this in more detail next week). TO PREPARE US But not only does this particular ministry of the Holy Spirit show us the wonderful things that God has prepared for us; it also prepares us for other things as well… You see, the Holy Spirit desires to tell us of what’s ahead even in this life—thus preparing us for those things. Therefore, this illustrates the prophetic commission of the Holy Spirit. You see, His being a member of the Godhead and working together with the Father and the Son, has complete omniscience and is willing to reveal to us future events. This has several different applications. It can range anywhere from revealing to us tough times that might be ahead so that we can be prepared for them to revealing certain traps of the enemy so that we can avoid them altogether. You see, The Holy Spirit’s commission is to share with us His invaluable foreknowledge of upcoming disasters and hindrances so that we can always stay one step ahead of the devil. You see, if we will just learn to develop a high level of intimacy with the Holy Spirit, we can partake of this miraculous and beneficial commission of His. This is one of the many reasons why walking in communion of the Holy Spirit is so vital to the life of a Christian. There have been many Christians who have suffered or even died prematurely simply because they did not take advantage of this commission of the Holy Spirit to show them things to come. So, like I said, there are a variety of reasons why the Holy Spirit shows us things to come. In some cases, it is to encourage us with the good things that lie ahead. It is also to prevent danger from the bad things that are ahead. In other cases, it is simply to tell us what is going to happen so that we can be prepared for it and not be caught off guard by it. A good example of this is in Acts 11:27-30, where we have the account of a prophet named Agabus who “showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world” during the days of Claudius Caesar. So, by the Holy Spirit showing them things to come, it enabled the disciples to go ahead and send relief to the brethren in Judea (verse 29). This reminds me of Joseph and the dreams that the Lord gave him which was used to propel him into his place of leadership in Egypt. Therefore, in both of these cases, they were prepared for these tough times and by being forewarned, were able to help their loved ones. So, we can see from these two examples that the Holy Spirit tells us things to come in a variety of ways—such as through a prophetic word like we see with the Prophet Agabus and also through dreams like we see in the life of Joseph. However, the Holy Spirit will also show us things to come simply by speaking to our hearts. So, we simply need to be open to the variety of ways that the Holy Spirit will perform this ministry of His in our lives. Now do you suppose the Holy Spirit will do that for us today? If there was an economic crash coming in the world tomorrow, will the Holy Spirit tell us about it? Sure, He will! How about if there was traffic jam on the interstate? Will the Holy Spirit give us a heads-up about that? Absolutely! And sometimes God is waiting on us before things are fulfilled. God has something planned for us, but we are not ready to walk in it yet. We need to prepare ourselves, seek Him, and walk in what we know so far. No, saints, there is nothing too big or too small that the Holy Spirit will not prepare us for by telling us about it beforehand. We just need to open up our hearts to receive this invaluable ministry He provides for us. Then we can have the faith to receive it. DID PAUL MISS IT? Another good biblical example of how the Holy Spirit tells us things to come is found in the life of the apostle Paul. We see several times in the Book of Acts that Paul was warned of what was going to happen to him if he went back to Jerusalem. Now there are those out there who whole-heartedly believe that Paul missed it in taking that last trip to Jerusalem that led to his arrest and final imprisonment. And I am not here today to convince you one way or another. I personally am not thoroughly convinced myself, but I think that these Christians possibly make a valid point because of one verse we see in the Book of Acts. So regardless of what one’s opinion is, I believe we can learn some good lessons by considering the prospect that Paul missed it. But let’s look at that verse that people use to make the point that the apostle Paul was disobedient in going to Jerusalem: In Acts 21:1-5 notice this: “Now it came to pass, that when we had departed from them and set sail, running a straight course we came to Cos, the following day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. And finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. When we had sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload her cargo. And finding disciples, we stayed there seven days. They told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. When we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went on our way; and they all accompanied us, with wives and children, till we were out of the city. And we knelt down on the shore and prayed.” So, notice that during the voyage they came to the ancient city of Tyre, which is north of Palestine. And there they looked up certain disciples who, through the Spirit (as Luke records) told Paul that he should not go up to Jerusalem. Now that is clear and to the point, is it not? And notice that it was not just these disciples’ desire that didn’t want him to go up to Jerusalem; they told him not to go “through the Spirit.” Therefore, it was Holy Spirit inspired direction. Now, first of all, let me say that one of the reasons that it is difficult for us to even swallow the prospect of Paul missing it here is because of our tendency to put these great saints of God on pedestals and not see their flaws & mistakes. But the fact is, men like Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Peter, etc. made mistakes! They were not perfect. The only one who never made a mistake in regard to obedience to God’s commandments and being led by the Holy Spirit was our Lord Jesus Christ. So, it should not be an odd thing to consider whether the apostle Paul made a mistake here—albeit, a noble one. But the fact is that it is certainly hard to believe that Paul would ever deliberately disobey the Holy Spirit, but we have a verse that seems to indicate that the Holy Spirit was giving him direction which the apostle chose to ignore. Other reasons that people do not believe that Paul missed it here is because the Lord Jesus said that Paul would stand before kings and give his testimony, and that it was the fact that he was a prisoner which finally brought him before kings. But this does not mean that Jesus was saying it was necessary that he come before kings in chains. And another point people make is that it was from this prison experience that Paul wrote some of the finest epistles that we have. However, arguably two of the greatest letters from his pen, his epistles to the Galatians and the Romans, were not written while he was in prison. On top of that, didn’t the Lord Jesus, when he first called Paul on the Damascus road, say that he was going to suffer great things, which provides us with an important point—that sometimes the Holy Spirit shows us negative things that are going to happen because it will help us to know about them beforehand. You see, one of the reasons the Holy Spirit tells us about the things that are coming is because we need to be mentally prepared for it. Like, for example, when it comes to rough sailing being ahead, if we know it is coming, it won’t surprise us and create that negative emotional response. Therefore, it is good to know when some things are on the horizon because we won’t get caught off guard and can know that the same one who forewarned us is the same one who will get us to the other side of it. Amen? So, in Paul’s case, I’m sure it was very helpful for him to know about the persecution & suffering that he would incur going into his ministry. Likewise, it is helpful for us to have information beforehand so that we can be mentally prepared for any difficulties that we might face. And I believe the Holy Spirit will tell us of these things if we will open ourselves up to this ministry of His. But the Road to Damascus was not the only place that the Lord communicated to him about the difficulties that he would encounter. Let’s consider something that Paul said before Acts 21. In Acts 20:22-23, he said, “And see, now I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.” So here, we see the that the Holy Spirit was bearing witness in every city that he went through that chains and tribulations awaited him in Jerusalem. Now this Scripture by itself certainly seems to indicate that Paul was in the will of God in going back to Jerusalem because he said that he was going to Jerusalem because He was “bound in the Spirit.” Therefore, all of these times that the Holy Spirit was telling him what lied ahead there, look to be things simply to prepare him for those chains and tribulations. Also, in Acts 19:21 we see another instance somewhat contrary to this notion that Paul was not supposed to visit Jerusalem. When he was in Ephesus, we see that “when these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” So, that phrase “purposed in the Spirit” seems to indicate that his plan to go to Jerusalem and then go see Rome was a Holy Spirit-inspired plan. And perhaps it was at that point. We don’t necessarily know. However, it is also possible that Paul had “purposed” and planned this himself because the phrase “in the Spirit” could also be translated “in spirit”—that is, in his own spirit because he had set his own mental disposition in that direction. Which is likely because in Acts 20:16, we see Paul’s deep desire to go there. Notice that it said— “For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost.” So, just assuming that Paul did indeed miss it in ignoring these warnings of the Holy Spirit, can you see why? It was because his desire was to be at Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. Therefore, he was “hurrying” to get there. Church, most of the time, when we are “hurrying” to get somewhere or do something, it is not the Holy Ghost. In case you haven’t noticed, the world tries to get us to hurry all of the time. For example, when we are buying a car, the car-salesman is trained to do what? “HURRY now! This is a limited time offer! Don’t you want to get it today!” And, of course, this appeals to people’s fleshly impulses to act before we think. Another good example is with some of the cons and fishing techniques of criminals out there. Some of them will prey on the elderly, calling them and telling them that they are with the IRS or the Police and if we don’t give them our social security number or send them some money RIGHT NOW something bad is going to happen. Hurry, hurry, hurry! That’s all this is. But very rarely will the Holy Spirit ever lead you to hurry and He will certainly never put pressure on you. And why do you suppose Paul wanted to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost? This answer is found in his epistle to the Romans. In Romans 9:1-5, he unfolds to us something of the urgency of his own heart concerning his people: “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.” So, do you see Paul’s heart here? As we know, he was a Jew, and, as a Jew, he loved his nation. He loved their heritage, their background, and their possession of the promises of God. And he longed to reach them. His heart was broken as he saw their bitterness and frustration, and the hostility and opposition to the cause of Christ which came from his own people, Israel. So, he knew that at Pentecost there would be a gathering of Jews from all over the Roman Empire, and he had in his heart a great hunger to be there at that time. So, his own desire was for his people to know their Messiah. And there is nothing wrong with that. The problem occurs when our own desires do not align themselves with God’s will for us. You see, Paul was not called to his fellow countrymen. He was called to the Gentiles. This was obvious. In fact, when you study his life, you find that his biggest problems occurred when he tried to minister to his brethren. Yes, it was his own countrymen who caused him the most grief and problems. So, one could make the case that the bulk of his afflictions were a result of him trying to minister to the Jews and not to the Gentiles. But it’s like what many of us have been guilty of doing with our own family members. We desire so much that they be saved, that we overstep the Holy Spirit and come on a little too strong and provoke a negative response from them. This is what I believe the apostle Paul did to some degree. If he would have just run his race (to the Gentiles), and trusted that the Lord had some other able vessel to minister to his brethren (i.e. Peter), then he could have avoided some of the difficulties he endured. So, after all of these things, we see a rather painful scene that followed: At Caesarea, they came into the home of Philip the evangelist (You remember—that man who led the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ?) (see Acts 21:7-14). There Agabus, a well-known prophet of the Lord and who we just referred to, took Paul's belt from around his waist and bound his own feet and hands, and said, " “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” So, taken in connection with the verses we referred to earlier in Acts chapter 21, it is clear that this was the last effort made by the Holy Spirit to awaken the apostle to what he was doing. Agabus was joined in this by the whole body of believers. The whole family present urged him not to go, Luke said. We read, "When we heard this, we and the people there begged him not to go up to Jerusalem." Now we don’t know whether or not they were Spirit-inspired in pleading with him not to go. It certainly could just be their own desire in not wanting him to suffer and die. However, it could be that they did not believe it was God’s perfect will for him and they were against him going for that reason. But notice Paul’s response— He said, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” While we certainly can find no fault with the bravery and courage expressed in those words, it is possible that Paul had a martyr complex because, based on Acts 21:4, it was not necessary for him to go, and the Spirit had told him so. Then we see that when Paul refused to be persuaded his friends said, "(Well) may the will of the Lord be done." Church, that can be what you say when you do not know what else to say. That can be what you pray when you do not know how else to act. So, they might have simply been saying, "Lord, it is up to you. We can't stop this man. He has a strong will and a mighty determination, and he's deluded into thinking that this is what you want. Therefore, you will have to handle it. May the will of the Lord be done." OUR CONCLUSION? Now, as we have seen, the Spirit of God, as he was with Paul, is always faithful to forewarn us of things. We need not stumble blindly into the enemy’s traps, any more than Paul needed to, but what this shows us is that we must be very careful to be obedient to the Spirit's voice. When he gives us a check, red flag, or a more spectacular warning like a prophetic word, dream, etc., we need to listen. Otherwise we can open ourselves up to unnecessary heartache, unnecessary limitation and restriction, as the apostle Paul might have done here. Lord, help us to learn this—that if even a man of God can fail in listening to the Spirit at times, we are certainly capable of making that same mistake. May this serve as a lesson to us that we need to take advantage of this wonderful ministry of the Holy Spirit to show us things to come so that we can be led & guided into not just the good and acceptable, but the perfect will of God. Church, it has been given to us to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God—for we are His disciples! On top of that, we are friends of God and not just servants of God. Therefore, the Holy Spirit will not keep from declaring to us all things that the Godhead tells Him. Even better, since we are more than just disciples & friends but are sons of God, how much more are we to know what lies ahead? Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” All we have to do is, call. Call on the Holy Spirit today and let Him show you the things you do not know. Amen. REVIEW
Today, we will continue our look at the Holy Spirit’s commission by looking at yet another thing that He has been assigned to do for us, Jesus’ disciples: Just to pass in review, we have been looking at the things Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would do for us which are located in John chapters 14-16. Thus far, we have seen that He will abide with us forever, teach us concerning all things, remind us of the things that the Lord has already spoken to us, and testify of Jesus. Last week, we moved into chapter 16, and saw that another thing that the Holy Spirit has been specifically assigned to do is to “convict.” So, we looked at verse 7 and saw how He has come to convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Then we saw in verses 8-10 why He is convicting the world of these three specific things—of sin, because they do not believe in Him; of righteousness, because He has gone to His Father and we see Him no more; and of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. So, we dispelled a couple of popular beliefs that people have of these verses and about the workings of the Holy Spirit in general: We, first of all, saw that Jesus said that He has come to convict “the world,” and not necessarily the church. And we saw that when Jesus referred to the world here, He was certainly including the unbelievers of this world because, in verse 9, when He goes on to explain why He will convict the world of these three things, He says, “of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Therefore, this is certainly talking about those of the world who have not yet believed on Jesus. However, we saw that it certainly included those who are in the world but not of the world as well (i.e. believers) because in verse 10 He says, “of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you (His disciples) see Me no more.” But we saw that the fact that the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of sin is important to understand because how many of us have heard how the Holy Spirit “convicted” one of our brothers or sisters in Christ of their sin—taking them to the woodshed and making them feel horrible for what they did wrong—and they used these very verses to substantiate it? But the fact is that what a lot of Christians say is the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit—which led us to the other misconception people have of these verses: Part of the reason people misunderstand the workings of the Holy Spirit is because of this word we see in the King James version— “convict.” So, we saw how, in our modern-day terminology, the word “convict” has more of a negative tone to it. To us, the word “convict” paints the picture of a courtroom and carries the idea of some judge who is looking down on the guilty and condemning them for their wrongdoing. Therefore, a good portion of the church teaches that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to constantly hound us—condemning us for all our various faults and shortcomings. Saints, this is not what the Holy Spirit is commissioned to do! So, we looked at what the word “convict” actually means? We saw that the Greek word translated as “convict” carries more of the idea to “convince or to prove” than it does to “condemn.” In fact, we saw that the Greek word that the apostle John used here literally means “to bring something to light, and thus to expose it.” So, don’t get stuck on the word “convict” and let that word paint a negative picture of the Holy Spirit’s dealings with the world. So, we made the point that if the Holy Ghost is not condemning people but is simply convicting or convincing people of their sin, then neither should we. We certainly should not be condemning people, but we shouldn’t be trying to convict them either. Why? Because that is the Holy Spirit’s job, not ours. No, we are not “Holy Ghost Jr.” In fact, we learned that we are not called to be “convicters”; rather, we are called to be “witnesses” (see John 15:27 & Acts 1:8). And there is a big difference between someone who simply a witness and someone who does the convicting. We made the point that a witness is not the judge or the jury. A witness just simply testifies of what they have seen, heard, or experienced. And we saw that just as sometimes a witness is needed to convict a lawbreaker in a court of law, a witness is needed to open the door for the Holy Spirit to convict an unbeliever of their sin in the kingdom of God. We, as witnesses, are not to point our finger at them; we are just to tell people what we’ve experienced and then let the Holy Spirit do the convicting. Amen! So, the Holy Spirit exhorted us to not leave the witness stand and let Him do His job of convicting. Amen! We then looked specifically at what the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of. And I am so glad that He did not just leave it up to us to figure out how and why He does this. As we’ve seen, Jesus went on in verses 9-11 and answered those questions for us. Notice again that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit convicts the world “of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” Now I do not want to spend too much time this week reviewing these three things, but I will say that Jesus covered the three basic areas of conviction: The Holy Spirit convicts the world of what is wrong (i.e. sin), what is right (i.e. righteousness), and last but not least, He convicts the world of the outcome of doing what is wrong or right (i.e. judgment). So, this is what the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of: He is ever in the process of convincing those in this world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Yes, He convicts them of sin because they have not believed on the One who died as payment for their sin. He convicts them of righteousness because Jesus is not here to display the way of righteousness to them. And He convicts them of judgment because the penalty of rejecting Jesus and His righteousness is the same penalty as that of the ruler of this world. But we did see that this does not mean that the Holy Spirit is not dealing with us—God’s children—on things as well. No, just because Jesus only addressed “the world” as being subject to the Holy Spirit’s conviction here, does not mean that He does not fulfill this in a certain measure to the church. We are in the world as well, just not of the world, and I am thankful for all of the times that the Holy Spirit has shown me when I am missing it and what I ought to be doing. And we saw that this correction is not a negative thing; it is a positive thing because He is an exhorter and an encourager, and not a condemner. So, while He certainly does “convict” us when we do something wrong in the sense that He simply brings it to our attention, He does it in order to teach and train us to become more like Jesus in our attitudes and conduct, and not to make us feel bad. Yes, He is a convicter, and not a condemner! So, as we saw, when we sin and fall short of the glory of God, the Holy Spirit does not beat us up over it, but He simply brings to light what we need to see and then gently encourages us to get back up and believe on Jesus. You see, just as He would convict the world of sin because they did not believe on Jesus, likewise, He likes to draw us back to that place of believing on Jesus—which is at the root of all obedience and disobedience. But we also saw that the Holy Spirit does not just convict us of the ways that we miss it; He also is commissioned to convince and persuade us of other things pertaining to God’s righteousness. In other words, He will show us what we ought to do—what is right and in agreement with God’s standards. And again, this is the difference with conviction: It does not put the attention on what we shouldn’t have done, but will point us to what needs to be done. For example, it will not beat us up for the mistake we already made, but will show us what to do now that we’ve already done it. Amen! So now, this week, I want us to move into the following verses of John chapter 16: In John 16:12, Jesus went on to tell His disciples— “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” And if you recall, we saw how the word “bear” here literally describes taking something up with the hands. Therefore, you could translate this phrase as— “I still have many other things I want to tell you, but you cannot handle them at this time.” And the reason they could not handle these other truths Jesus had to share with them was because they were still carnal and could not handle these spiritual truths. In other words, this describes their inability to receive certain spiritual meat because they had not been regenerated and reborn spiritually. That is why Jesus goes on to say in John 16:13, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth…” So, when Jesus starts off by saying “however” in verse 13, He was again pointing them ahead to the ministry of the Holy Spirit coming in His place and picking up where He left off. So, while they could not handle the spiritual truth that Jesus desired to show them because they were still unregenerate and unspiritual, the Spirit of truth’s soon arrival would unlock all of these truths for them. What this shows us is that the Holy Spirit is our key in being ushered into spiritual things. Without Him, we will be severely limited in understanding spiritual things—which is what I believe the Lord wants to teach us about today. WHAT IS TRUTH? Now, first of all, notice that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit here “the Spirit of truth” and said that He would guide us into all truth. So, the question that needs to be answered here is the same question that Pilate asked Jesus just prior to His crucifixion (see John 18:38)— What is Truth? Several years ago, after asking the Lord many times to define truth for me, I finally got my answer. On my back porch, during a time of prayer, the Lord spoke to my heart the following statement: He said, “Truth is—that which is not hidden, which makes God known.” So, let’s consider this definition for a moment: First of all, He told me that truth is that which is not hidden. What that means is that God is not concealing it. It is on full display. For example, like with the reality of God and His existence—while people might say that He hides Himself, His glory is revealed in the glory of His creation. If people will simply open their eyes to His reality and not shut up their hearts from Him, they will know Him. Secondly, He told me that truth is that which makes God known—meaning, truth will always point us to Him. When we are hearing truth, we are directed to the One True & Living God. And when I heard this statement in my spirit that day, I immediately saw a few things from the Scriptures where “the truth” is described to us. Let me explain: Number one, Jesus is the Truth: In John 14:6 He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” Ephesians 4:21 also says that the truth is in Jesus. So, if Jesus is the truth, then the Holy Spirit would be “the Spirit of Jesus.” This would definitely coincide with what else we have seen that Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was commissioned to do—to testify of Him (see John 15:26). Amen? You see, the Holy Spirit’s primary objective is to glorify Jesus and make Him known throughout the world. He is here to bear witness of Jesus’ lordship and redemptive work. So, this is a major reason He is called “the Spirit of truth.” So, in that definition the Lord gave me of truth, I saw how Jesus perfectly fit that description of the truth because Jesus was not hidden. He came from heaven to earth to show us the way to eternal life. So, He was not hidden, but came for all to see—and He came to make God known so that we could see the true nature and will of our Father. As Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9). Therefore, Jesus was not hidden and He most definitely made God known. Number two, God’s Word is truth: In John chapter 17, Jesus was praying for His disciples and in the middle of His prayer, He states— “Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth” (John 17:17). So, if God’s Holy Word is also the truth, then the Holy Spirit would be “the Spirit of the Word.” And this certainly does not contradict the fact that Jesus is also the truth because Jesus is the Word (see John 1:2). Therefore, when Jesus said that when He—the Spirit of truth—has come, He will guide you into all truth, you could say that He will guide you into all of God’s Word. So, I saw how God’s Word also perfectly fits the description of truth that the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart because the Bible certainly has not been hidden and it also makes God known to us. Yes, the Scriptures which contain God’s truth have stood the test of time and are readily available to whomever desires them. Not to mention, they also reveal to us God’s will, ways, and thoughts—making Him known. Amen? But, as we’ve seen, we have yet another description of truth when Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit a couple of times as “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17 & 16:13). You see, the Holy Spirit came to bring the revelation of God the Father and God the Son. As Jesus said, He speaks not of Himself but came to glorify Him (Jesus). So, His intentions are certainly not hidden. He is here on the earth today to make the truth Himself known to us. Amen! So, the Holy Spirit’s commission to “guide us into all truth” means what? It means to guide us into all of Jesus, as He is the Truth. We have seen that it also means to guide us into all of the Word, as His Word is truth as well. But one could also say that the “truth” that the Holy Spirit guides us into is the opposite of the “lie”—meaning, if we are walking in the truth, we are not walking in a lie. Therefore, the truth we are being guided into is the LIGHT itself. Yes, the Holy Spirit guides us into the light at all times. Amen? WALKING IN THE LIGHT The definition that the Lord gave me of truth is that it is that which is not hidden, right? So, the polar opposite of walking in truth is walking in darkness where things are most certainly hidden. The darkness is where the lies and deception occur. It is where people hide the truth—outside of the light. And do you know who certainly walked in the light? Jesus! Jesus lived His life in the light—being the Light of the world himself. But do not be mistaken in thinking that He lived His life this way because He was the Son of God and had some advantage over us in this respect. No, for the last three years of His life on the earth, Jesus operated as a spiritually alive man who had the Holy Spirit guiding Him every step of the way. One of my favorite examples of this is in the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead: In this familiar story located in John chapter 11, news was brought to Jesus that his friend Lazarus, whom He loved, was sick. Now if this would have been most Christians in Jesus’ shoes here, they would have immediately gone to heal their friend. But not Jesus! We are told that He stayed where He was another three days! And why did He do this? Well, I believe it was because the Holy Spirit simply led Him not to go the first three days, knowing that this was a scheme of the devil. You see, Jesus just came from this area and, just before He left, the Jews sought to stone Him there. So, I personally believe the enemy was trying to set Jesus up to return out of an emotional response so that he could have Him stoned by those same Jews. But thank God for the Holy Spirit who led Him to stay where He was for a few more days and then, after Lazarus died from that sickness, released Him to return there. You see, I can see those religious leaders who wanted to stone him just waiting around Lazarus’ home for those three days, waiting for Jesus to return because they just knew that if He was going to come heal anyone, He would certainly come heal His friend. But then, when Lazarus died, they left figuring Jesus was not going to come after all. And this was when Jesus came in and pulled off the biggest miracle of His ministry to date! Glory to God! And did you know that Jesus explained precisely why He was “led” to not go to Bethany initially? When Jesus’ disciples asked him— “Why are we going back to Judea seeing that the Jews sought to stone you there?” (see verse 8)—Jesus responded in John 11:9-10 with— “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” So, His answer was basically a proverb about walking in the daytime versus walking in the nighttime, and the key to this parable is found in one “seeing the light of this world” and that light being “in us.” You see, daytime travel doesn’t guarantee a hazard-free trip, but the light does allow us to see the hazards coming and being led around them. At nighttime, it’s inevitable that we won’t see these hazards and will continuously stumble and even hurt ourselves. Likewise, walking in the light of God’s direction and guidance doesn’t mean that there won’t be bumps in the road, but the alternative of “doing our own thing” (which is walking in darkness) is guaranteed to get us into trouble. So, Jesus was obviously obeying the leading of His Father to return to Judea. He could see exactly what was going to take place, and He was going to walk in the light that His Father had given Him. Likewise, our decisions should not be based on whether or not we will be hurt in some way as a result of our actions, but we should discern God’s will and do it regardless of the cost. Both the day & night that Jesus was talking about was a defined timeframe or season on the earth to do His work. In their time, the night was a time when no one could work—obviously because they did not have electricity. All of this indicates the short time we actually have to do His will on earth before we are gone. Also, in both John 8:12 & 9:4, Jesus refers to those who follow Him and have the light in them as not walking in darkness. What this teaches me is that even though the night has indeed come, when Jesus is no longer physically with us, we can still avoid walking in the darkness of the night and walk in the light. And why? Because although the Light of the world ascended to heaven, we have been endued with power since Acts chapter two. Therefore, we have electricity now! Yes, we have power! And when we walk in this light of the world (i.e. Jesus) we can produce the fruit of the light, which includes being led and guided by the Holy Spirit. Amen. Yes, church, when we are in the “dark” on something—say, you were lost traveling somewhere—we have THE Guide living on the inside of us—the One promised to lead and guide us to our destination. And when it comes to walking in the dark, what is particularly helpful is having a guide with a light. Amen? And that is what we have! The Guide with the light! Amen! HOW TO BE GUIDED Now unfortunately most Christians are like many of us men—we don’t like to ask for directions. We would rather waste an hour trying to find it ourselves rather than simply stop and ask someone who has been there for directions. Humility will acknowledge when it needs guidance. So, it all goes back to asking for directions and inviting the Holy Spirit to lead & guide us into all truth. But another important truth that Jesus gives about the Holy Spirit’s ministry to direct us is found in the word “guide.” Notice John 16:13 does not say—the Holy Spirit will “drive” us into all truth, or He will “drag” us into all truth. No, Jesus said He will “guide” us into all truth. To guide someone carries more of the idea to lead them. On top of that, you cannot guide something or someone that is not already moving! Take for instance, a boat: You can turn the rudder one way or another, but if the boat is not already moving it will not make a difference in the direction that the boat goes. Yes, you can turn a rudder as far as it will turn, but if the boat never leaves the dock, it will remain pointed in the same direction. Likewise, we have to be “moving” in order for His guidance to become effective. What do I mean by “moving?” I mean that there must be cooperation on our part because some of the responsibility has been given to us. Say, for instance, if we desire to know the truth of God’s Word. Well, we can’t just sit back and do nothing and expect the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth of His Word. No, we must seek the truth through reading, studying, and meditating God’s Word. When we get our “boat” started in that direction is when the “Rudder”—Holy Spirit—can guide us through teaching us and bringing things to our remembrance. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate study guide! But this is what we must understand: The Holy Spirit’s job is to guide us, not to drag us. In other words, His ministry is to help us stay on God’s path, not to tell us every little step to take. You see, He is not interested in “making” us do anything. He is not “the good cowboy”—driving and corralling His flock and making them go in the direction He desires. No, the Holy Spirit—similarly to Jesus’ proclamation of Himself because they are one and the same—is the Good Shepherd. Yes, like Jesus, the Holy Spirit is commissioned to lead us beside the still waters and into greener pastures. But, just as a shepherd does, He leads us, but we are responsible for following Him as He guides us. This describes the Holy Spirit’s ministry toward us! His nature is to gently guide us in the direction that we need to go—whether that be leading us into a fruitful, abiding relationship with Jesus or leading us into increasing in our wisdom and understanding of the Word. He guides us into all the truth! GUIDED FROM SAMARIA TO ETHIOPIA This word for “guide” is also used in Acts chapter 8 in the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. You remember the story: Philip was in Samaria preaching Christ in many villages and an angel spoke to him to go south, to the road which goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. And when he went, he saw this eunuch travelling in his chariot, reading the Book of Isaiah (vs. 28). So, as he saw him, the Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake the chariot.” So, we pick up now in verse 30: “So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the Scripture which he read was this: ‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.’ So, the eunuch answered Philip and said, ‘I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?’ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.” (Acts 8:30-35) Philip’s question to the eunuch is very practical to what we are talking about today—for I have come across many Christians who do not feel like they understand what they are reading. Well, just as the eunuch answered Philip, I believe this is true for all of us as well— “How can we, unless someone guides us?” You see, the reason many believers do not understand the Word like they can is because they have never taken advantage of this particular commission of the Holy Spirit—to guide us into all the Word. In other words, the Holy Spirit is the key to understanding the Bible. I have heard from countless Christians that after they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Bible just came alive to them and they started getting more out of it. And this should not surprise us—for the Holy Spirit’s job is to teach us the Word and guide us through the truth of His Word. Amen! So, as we’ve said, being guided into all truth would be (and is) being guided in all the Word of God, based on John 17:17. Which we know is at least part of what Jesus was saying here because how these verses parallel what we saw in part two of this series when we learned that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things. So, when we read our Bible, we don’t have to do it alone. We ought to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us throughout our reading and studies—inviting Him to unfold the truth that is behind every passage of Scripture. Amen. For example, we wake up in the morning, get our cup of coffee, and sit to read, but before we do, we might say, “Good morning, Holy Spirit! Thank You for being my teacher, and I thank you one of your assignments in my life is to guide me into all truth. Well, Your Word is truth. So, as I read Your Word—Your Truth—this morning, I thank you for guiding me. YOU are my study guide! Amen!” Again, would it make any sense for me to expect the Holy Spirit to lead me through the truths contained in the Bible if I never occasionally read my Bible? No, if I want to capture a spirit of wisdom and revelation of God through His Word, then I must first seek to grow in knowledge which comes through reading and studying (Ephesians 1:17). While certainly He could reveal the truth to us through some sort of miraculous revelation if we were in a situation where the Word of truth was not readily available to us, this is not the common way He will reveal His Word to us. I would be foolish to expect God to instruct me this way if I have the Word of God sitting on my nightstand collecting dust because I never take the time to read it. No, in order for me to take advantage of this ministry of the Holy Spirit, I must give Him something to work with. I must begin reading, studying, and meditating the Holy Scriptures. Then, and only then, will I be in position for the Holy Spirit to guide me through the Bible’s books, chapters, and verses and into all the truth contained in them. But there is also another lesson regarding being guided by the Holy Spirit in the account we are looking at: How was Philip guided by the Spirit to have this encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch. It began as Philip was busy about his Father’s business. We see earlier in this chapter, as Saul was persecuting the church and the saints were scattered, that Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ to them (verse 4-5). So, what was Philip doing here? Obeying the mandate given to all of the Lord’s disciples in Mark 16:15 to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” So, let me ask you a question—when is it ever appropriate for a Christian to not do this? Never! If Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, then it is always appropriate to share the good news with every person. And this is a problem so many of God’s children have: They are waiting on God when, in fact, God is waiting on them! God has already told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation! God has already told us to lay hands on the sick and they will recover! God has already told us to do all of these things, yet the majority of the church is sitting on their hands waiting for a sign from God to begin doing these things. Well, God has already spoken because it is already written! You see, God is a God of the green light, not the red light! What do I mean by that? I mean, He is not a God who wants us sitting at that proverbial red light, waiting on Him to turn the light green for us. No, He wants us moving on the green light already given to us in His Word while being open to the red lights that the Holy Spirit might give us in certain situations. This is a big difference in mentalities. For example, if Jesus healed them all, then that ought to tell us that God certainly is not going to be leading us to not pray for the majority of sick people that come across our path. No, it should actually be a rare thing that the Spirit not lead us to pray for someone who is sick and ailing! The Spirit and the Word agree! So, if you are consistently being “led” to not pray for someone who is sick, then I question what you are being “led” by—because it is not God’s Spirit. My heart is not to condemn in saying these things. It is just my observation that we, as the church, are missing our “God moments.” We are passing by those that are lame like the man at the gate called beautiful, and are denying them their moment to receive God’s will for their life. And at the same time, we are denying God’s moment to be glorified! My brothers and sisters, we need to get off our hands and start putting those hands on people! Now not only was Philip preaching the gospel and doing his part in fulfilling the Great Commission, but when the angel spoke to him and told him to go even further south to the “deserted place,” he went. It was then that the Holy Spirit gave him the reason for this particular assignment and spoke to him about overtaking the eunuch’s chariot. So, here’s my point: What if Philip would have still been in Jerusalem hiding out in a house, and not doing what Jesus had already commissioned us to do? Further, what if, even though he had gone to Samaria, he hadn’t heeded the instructions of the angel of the Lord and not gone down to the desert? Well, I can all but guarantee you that he would have not heard “the Spirit said” in verse 29. So, I believe this shows us how the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth—because if Philip would not have already been moving, the Holy Spirit would have not been able to guide him to minister to this eunuch. Amen? DON’T BE MULISH! But even though this is how God has planned to lead us, many believers will still make statements like, “If God wants me to do that, He is going to have to speak to me through a burning bush!” or “God is going to have write in the clouds what He wants me to do.” When Christians have that kind of attitude, they are just being “mulish.” What do I mean by “mulish?” Well, when you think of a mule, what do you think of? Here is the one word most of you probably thought of—stubborn! A mule oftentimes has to be motivated to move through being yanked around or beaten because of this stubborn nature they are known for. I can assure you, this is not how God wants His children to be led. I can guarantee you that you are not going to guide a mule if its being stubborn. In Psalm 32:8-9 the Lord says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. So do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they would not come near you.” Here God is telling us that He does not want us to be “bit & bridle” Christians. No, He desires to lead us without all these things that “make us” be guided by Him. No, we should not be like a horse or a mule that has no understanding of what its master is leading it to do unless it gets its head jerked around with a bit and bridle. Notice that He promised to guide us, but it was not with His hand, but with His eye. Why do I make this point? It is because, again, guidance is not something God is going to do for us. We have to be moving. In Psalm 16:7 David says, “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.” The King James Version actually translates the word “heart” as “reins” here. This is interesting because it is as if David were saying that he was like a horse and God was steering him through the “reins of his heart.” This is how God desires us to be: “rein-trained.” He does not want us to require an audible voice or some other spectacular experience before we will do what He is telling us to do. He wants us to be willing to move in the direction that His slightest tug on the reins of our heart will direct us to do. And if that was His perfect will for the Old Testament believer, how much more will it be His will for the New Testament believer!?! We have the “Jockey” (i.e. The Holy Spirit) on the inside of us and He is called to tug on the reins of our heart, leading and guiding us into the direction we should go! Hallelujah! God wants us to be like the “rein-trained” race horse which does not need to be forced to turn this way and that, but will, with just the slightest nudge of the reins, turn in the direction that its jockey desires. Our job is to move in the direction of that which seems good to us and be sensitive to the Spirit’s slight and gentle nudges to change courses. But, again, we must be moving! Unlike the mule that will not move until it is made to, we need to follow what seems good to us, trusting that as we are walking in fellowship with the Lord and are doing things that are helpful and beneficial to others, that He is ordering our steps. As I have said time and time again: In order to receive God’s specific direction for your life, you first need to follow His general direction for all of our lives. What I mean by this is that God has already told us to do many things which are contained in His Word. So, before we seek more specific direction from God through His Spirit, we need to act on the general will of God found in the Scriptures. WHAT IF I MISS GOD? You see, I have grown up in the circles where the importance of being led by the Holy Spirit and hearing from God has been greatly emphasized. And while certainly being led by the Spirit and doing what God tells us to do are two of the most important things we can learn, there is a tendency that comes from embracing these truths that must be avoided. You see, oftentimes when someone gets the revelation of the importance of only doing what God leads or tells them to do, there is a fear that creeps in of “missing God.” What I mean is that when they begin to see that God has a perfect will for them and that He wants to lead them along His path for their life, many do not move forward until they know that they have heard from God. Generally, this happens because they fear getting out of His will and doing something that will derail His plan for their life. Therefore, the reason for this is usually not noble, but is motivated by the fear of missing His plan for their lives. But what we need to understand is that, even if we make a mistake, God is more than able to get us back on the path He has for our lives. A very close friend of ours once had this concern about “missing God.” She had a decision before her and was seeking God for His direction but did not want to do anything that would derail her from His plan and purpose for her life. So as she expressed her concern to Him, He said to her, “If you miss Me, I know where to find you.” In other words, the Lord was settling that concern by letting her know that it is not the end of the world if she made the wrong decision because God, who alone is wise, is able to work all things together for our good and turn any mistake into a miracle. My friends, waiting on God’s direction has never been His plan for His children! While He has always desired to lead us and tell us what to do and where to go, His intention is not for us to sit still- waiting for Him to tell us what, when, where, etc. His intention is for us to act on the direction that He has already revealed to us through His Word. He has already told us to do many things in the Bible, and as we walk in the light of what He has already revealed, He will guide us along the way. So, in conclusion, the Holy Spirit’s job is to guide us into all truth—which includes all of the Word (for His Word is truth), all of who Jesus is (for Jesus Himself is also the truth), and also everything else that we need His help in guiding us into. He is our Guide and He has the light that we need! Let’s begin moving—doing our Father’s business—and we can expect the Spirit to guide us into God’s good, perfect, and acceptable will. Amen! REVIEW
So let’s continue our look at the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our lives today by studying another aspect of what He has been commissioned to do: In a quick review, we have been looking at the things that the Lord Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would do for us in John chapters 14-16. Thus far, we have seen that He will abide with us forever, teach us concerning all things, and remind us of the things that the Lord has already spoken to us—all of these being mentioned by our Messiah in chapter 14. Last week, we moved into chapter 15, and saw that another thing that the Holy Spirit has been specifically assigned to do is to testify of Jesus. We saw in verses 18-25 how Jesus warned His disciples of the hatred they would incur from the world and we saw just how important it is to be prepared for tough times like this. But we saw that the truth is—the more diligently we are seeking His kingdom, the more Satan will try and oppose us, and oftentimes this occurs through people—for he will stir up people to hate us, to ridicule us, and to simply discourage us. But then we looked at what Jesus went on to promise them on the heels of these warnings in verse 26: “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” So, we saw how the Holy Ghost has been commissioned to testify of Jesus, and we saw how the Greek word used to translate “testify” here is the word where we get “martyr” from—which is someone who suffers or is even killed for their “testimony.” So, this word literally describes “being a witness, to bear witness, or to give a testimony.” And we learned that He does not necessarily do this through us because of what Jesus went on to say in verse 27 when He said, “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” We saw how the words “bear witness” in this verse come from the exact same Greek word that was used in verse 26 to describe the Holy Spirit “testify(ing)” of Him. Therefore, we cannot say that what Jesus was saying in verse 26 is that the Holy Spirit witnesses of Jesus through us because in the next breath, Jesus said, “and you also will bear witness…” Therefore, we learned that we are bearing witness of Jesus through our words, actions, lifestyle, etc., but the Holy Spirit is also somehow bearing witness of Him as well. So, I would submit to you that the Holy Spirit is not just bearing witness through us; he is bearing witness to us. So, we asked the question—How? How is He doing this? Then, understanding that the apostle John loved to use this word martyreo, we looked over at John 1:6-8 and saw how he used it in relation to John the Baptist—identifying Jesus’ forerunner with the same commission as the One who would follow Him (i.e. the Holy Spirit). And we learned that the Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus just like John the Baptist did: He was sent from the Father to serve as a witness of the Light of the world—the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not here to be the Light Himself, but is on the earth to bear witness and testify of Jesus, that we might believe on Him. Amen. So, we then looked at how we “testify” of Jesus through both our witnessing to people and our giving our testimony to people. And we learned that there are a lot of lessons in how the Holy Spirit does this that we can learn from ourselves as we testify of the Lord. And one particular thing we learned from Romans chapter one is that the Lord is the One who reveals to the world the fact that God is against sin and of the judgment to come—not us. Our job is to preach the gospel and what this glorious salvation has done in us, and then the Holy Spirit reveals the rest. Which leads me to my next point: TO CONVICT THE WORLD The next thing that the Lord Jesus shows us that the Holy Spirit is commissioned to do is to “convict”: So now, let’s continue this teaching by looking ahead to John 16:7-11. Now if you recall, Jesus had just shown His disciples how important us having the Holy Spirit is by saying, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” So, having the Holy Spirit provides us with an advantage even over having the Lord Jesus Christ here with us in the flesh! Amen. But then notice what Jesus immediately says after this: In verses 8-11, Jesus said, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” Now let me begin by dispelling a couple of popular belief systems that people have of these verses and about the workings of the Holy Spirit in general: Notice, first of all, that Jesus said, “And when He has come (And He most certainly has come!), He will convict the world…” Convict who? “The world.” So, who is it that the Holy Spirit will convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment? The world! And we know that when Jesus refers to the world here, He is certainly including unbelievers because, in verse 9, when He goes on to explain why He will convict the world of these three things, He says, “of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Therefore, this is certainly talking about those of the world who have not yet believed on Jesus. However, I also see it as including those who are in the world but not of the world as well (i.e. believers) because in verse 10 He says, “of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see Me no more.” (We will deal with how the Holy Spirit performs this in our lives in the latter part of this teaching) So, this particular commission of the Holy Spirit in John 16:8-11 is what He is assigned to do for everyone living in the world, and not necessarily just for God’s children. This is important to understand, particularly as it pertains to the sin portion, because how many of us have heard how the Holy Spirit “convicted” one of our brothers & sisters in Christ of their sin—taking them to the woodshed and made them feel horrible for what they did wrong—and they used these very verses to substantiate it? Well, I’m here to tell you that what a lot of Christians say is the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit—which leads me to point number two: Part of the reason people misunderstand the workings of the Holy Spirit is because of this word we see in the King James version— “convict.” You see, in our modern-day terminology, the word “convict” has more of a negative tone to it. To us, the word “convict” paints the picture of a courtroom and carries the idea of some judge who is looking down on the guilty and condemning them for their wrongdoing. And religion certainly has not helped this perception of conviction either: It has painted the picture that God is looking down on us with a lightning bolt in His hand ready to strike us down at any moment for our sinful ways. So, therefore, a good portion of the Church teaches that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to constantly hound us—condemning us for all our various faults and shortcomings. Saints, this is not what the Holy Spirit is commissioned to do! So, what does the word “convict” actually mean? The Greek word translated as “convict” carries more of the idea to “convince or to prove” than it does to “condemn.” In fact, the Greek word that the apostle John used here literally means “to bring something to light, and thus to expose it.” So, don’t get stuck on the word “convict” and let that word paint a negative picture of the Holy Spirit’s dealings with the world. But the fact is (as we’ve made the point of already), Jesus specifically said that the Holy Spirit’s assignment to “convict” of sin is aimed at the world, and not at the church. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s job of convicting, convincing, and simply bringing to light one’s sinful condition is specifically targeting unbelievers. Which brings up an important point—Not only is His ministry to convict of sin not aimed at us but to the world, this ministry to convict of sin is His job to perform and not ours. HOLY GHOST JR. Now allow me to take a little rabbit trail here concerning this: It is unfortunate, but there have been many believers that think that this is their ministry—to bring people under conviction. No, this is the Holy Spirit’s job, not ours. You see, the Bible does not call us “convicters”; it simply calls us witnesses (see John 15:27 & Acts 1:8). And there is a big difference between someone who simply witnesses and someone who does the convicting. You see, a witness is not the judge or the jury. A witness just simply testifies of what they have seen, heard, or experienced. And just as sometimes a witness is needed to convict a lawbreaker in a court of law, a witness is needed to open the door for the Holy Spirit to convict an unbeliever of their sin in the kingdom of God. We, as witnesses, are not to point our finger at them; we are just to tell people what we’ve experienced and then let the Holy Spirit do the convicting. Have you ever noticed that when you have realized someone has missed it in some area and then you, in your zeal, call them out on their sin, that you rarely get the desired response? Yes, people do not usually respond well to us when we try and do the convicting. However, when we take the humble approach of simply testifying to what we’ve seen and experienced in our own life, we will get more “God-results.” Second Timothy chapter two, gives us a good example of this: In Second Timothy 2:22-26, the apostle Paul says to Timothy, “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” First of all, notice how he first tells Timothy what he should “flee & pursue” Why is this important? Because the first part of being a good witness is to walk in the truth ourselves. And not just because we ought to avoid hypocrisy and ruin our witness, but because our lifestyle and behavior is also what sheds light on the darkness that the world walks in. Have you ever noticed how the world around us just seems to be convicted from being in our presence? Now we might not have noticed that if we are walking like the world ourselves, but if we have been pursuing the things of God and we are carriers of God’s presence because our relationship with Him is where it needs to be, the ungodly around us will get convicted simply from being in our presence—and here’s the kicker: without us even saying a word. Therefore, by being Christ’s witness simply by our example, the Holy Spirit is able to fulfill His commission to convict. Now I will say that this does not always mean that the person under conviction will have a repentant reaction. In fact, in most of these cases, the person under conviction will more than likely have a negative response by resenting, hating, or even persecuting us. But that is just the response you get when letting your light shine before men: You will have both the moths & the roaches—the “moths” being those who come to the light and the “roaches” being those who run from the light. And unfortunately, we live the woods of the world, where there are many more roaches than there are moths. Then Paul goes on to show us that we need to avoid disputes and quarrels because all they generally do is generate strife. Why? Because with the vast majority of people, they do not dispute to find the truth, but to defend the truth they think they know. So, arguing and debating is generally fruitless and actually anti-productive according to Paul. But notice how he goes on to describe that there is a place for correcting others, but just that we should do it “in humility.” For example, when we are tempted to correct & convict someone else for something and we are certain they are doing wrong, it is always a good idea to broach the subject in humility. How? By instead of correcting them for what they are doing wrong, be a witness of what the Lord has shown you. Say, for example, you see someone having the wrong attitude about something. While you might be tempted to just correct their “stinkin’ thinkin’,” you can give them an example of how you yourself once did what they are currently doing and then share with them how the Lord corrected you. This takes that “holier than thou” perception of you out of the picture and enables them to see more clearly how they need to respond like you did. Not to mention, it opens the door to the Holy Spirit to validate in their heart the truth that you gave witness to. We see this in the remainder of these verses in Second Timothy. Paul went on to say, “if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” So, what we see here is that it begins with us being a witness, and then what follows is God—in the Person of the Holy Spirit, I might add—who helps the person to repent, know the truth, and come to their senses to escape the snare of the devil. Amen! Again, we cannot make a person repent. We cannot make someone come to know the truth. And we cannot bring them to their senses. This is the Holy Ghost’s job! And for us to try and do this ourselves is just pride—thinking we can do His job for Him. You see, some people, in their zeal, have gone beyond the witness stand and tried to bring people under conviction themselves. This not only can frustrate the witness but it can drive the people we are trying to convict away from God. We need to eliminate this “Holy Ghost Jr.” mentality of trying to convict people of their sins ourselves and let the Holy Spirit do His job. Again, He’s the Judge who convicts; we are simply the witnesses—and by doing our part of being Christ’s witness, we open the door for the Holy Spirit to do His part of being Christ’s convicter! Don’t leave the witness stand! SIN, RIGHTEOUSNESS, & JUDGMENT So, what is the Holy Spirit convicting the world of? Well, Jesus said in verse 8 that He convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. And I am so glad that He did not just leave it up to us to figure out how and why He does this. As we’ve seen, Jesus went on in verses 9-11 and answered those questions for us. Notice again that Jesus said, “of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” Now I do not want to spend too much time here explaining these three particular things that Jesus said He would convict the world of, but would rather focus on His commission to convict in general. I will say, however, that in meditating what Jesus was saying through these three examples, I have seen how Jesus covered His three basic areas of conviction: The Holy Spirit convicts the world of what is wrong (i.e. sin), what is right (i.e. righteousness), and last but not least, He convicts the world of the outcome of doing what is wrong or right (i.e. judgment). But again, I am so thankful that Jesus did not end with verse 8, but went on to explain what He meant by saying that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of “sin, righteousness, and judgment.” First of all, in verse 9, He said, “of sin, (Why?) because they do not believe in Me.” You see, the Holy Spirit is not necessarily convicting the world of specific, individual sins. Jesus said here that the real issue is the sin of unbelief—that they do not believe on Jesus. So, this is what the Holy Spirit targets in the unbeliever—the fact that they do not believe on the Way, the Truth, and the Life Himself, which is at the root of all of the sinful fruit they produce in their lives. Now we, on the other hand, like to convict the sinner of his or her specific sins. Yes, some Christians like to deal with people’s individual sins and heap condemnation on them for them. But not so with the Holy Spirit. He likes to deal with the root and not the fruit. You see, if we just get an unbeliever to clean his or her act up a bit, that will not change their ultimate destiny. They must believe on Jesus! They must put their faith in His deeds, not simply change their deeds. There are many people who darken the doors of churches and call themselves Christians who are no better off than the rankest sinner on the streets. We must be born again—and that happens through believing on Jesus. Now when one does believe on Jesus in their hearts, it will certainly produce a change of fruit in their life. Yes, when the root system has genuinely been changed, the fruit will wind up being different. But simply picking off some of the bad fruit that we have on our branches does not change the type of tree we are. That is my point. Then in verse 10, Jesus said, “of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you see Me no more.” So, the Holy Spirit also convicts the world of righteousness—or you could say, “rightness.” (Be careful not to read into the meaning of this word by one definition that you have of it). The fact is, there are two kinds of righteousness—there is the righteousness that we receive by faith when we are born again, but there are also the righteous deeds that are what are “right” and in agreement with God’s standards. And I believe if we consider why Jesus said the Holy Spirit convicts the world of righteousness here, we will see what He meant. You see, the reason the Holy Spirit needs to convict the world of “righteousness” is because Jesus has gone to His Father and we do not have Him physically with us any longer. In other words, since Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the throne of His Father and we do not have Him on the earth with us any longer to show us what is “right in God’s sight,” the Holy Spirit’s job is to show us what is “righteous.” Amen. Therefore, the Holy Spirit does not simply reveal “sin” and point out the negatives; no, He is here to reveal to us what is right and in agreement with God’s standards! Thank God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit! And finally, in verse 11, the Holy Spirit is said to convict the world “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” Now this is something that the Universal Church does not like to address, but the fact is, there is a judgment to come. And the Bible actually teaches us that eternal judgment is one of the foundational teachings of the New Testament (see Hebrews 6:1-2). So, the Holy Spirit is here to convict the world of this judgment. Now unfortunately, people don’t tend to receive the conviction of this until they are on their death bed. But the fact is, the Holy Spirit is here to warn the world of this impending judgment. I believe there are a couple of reasons why the Holy Spirit is not able to “convince” them of Judgment Day: For one, I believe it is because we are not giving witness to it. In other words, it is not on our radar; therefore, how can we expect it to be on theirs? Secondly, I don’t believe that they are open to it until they are faced with death—whether that be at a funeral of someone else or as they know they are faced with death themselves. And why does Jesus say His Spirit is convicting the world of judgment? It is because the ruler of this world is judged. So, I would explain it this way: Because Satan—the ruler of this world has been judged, all of those who choose to follow and serve him are under the same judgment that He is. Now Satan has already been judged and the verdict has been declared. All that is left now is the execution of that sentence, which will occur at Jesus’ Second Coming. And all of those who reject Christ’s Lordship now in this life will be subject to the same sentence that Satan has. So, this is what the Holy Spirit is convicting the world of. He is ever in the process of convincing those in this world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Yes, He convicts them of sin because they have not believed on the One who died as payment for their sin. He convicts them of righteousness because Jesus is not here to display the way of righteousness to them. And He convicts them of judgment because the penalty of rejecting Jesus and His righteousness is the same penalty as that of the ruler of this world. CONVICTION VS. CONDEMNATION Now does this mean that the Holy Spirit is not dealing with us—God’s children—as well? Since Jesus said here that the Holy Spirit is doing this commission of convicting & convincing to the world, does that mean that He does not show us things as well? I do not believe so. No, just because Jesus only addressed “the world” as being subject to the Holy Spirit’s conviction here, does not mean that He does not fulfill this in a certain measure to the Church. We are in the world as well, just not of the world. I for one am thankful for all of the times that the Holy Spirit has shown me when I am missing it and what I ought to be doing. I have seen many in the Church today reject even the notion of God correcting us or pointing out our mistakes because they see it as a negative thing. But the truth is, we all do stupid things and we all need correction from time to time. So, who better to provide us with all of the instruction, correction, and direction that we so desperately need than the Holy Spirit? Again, people take correction as such a negative thing. But this particular commission of the Holy Spirit is not a negative ministry; it is a positive ministry! He is an exhorter and an encourager, not a “beat ‘em down in the dumps” condemner (see Romans 8:1&34)! While He certainly does “convict” us when we do something wrong in the sense that He simply brings it to our attention, He does it in order to teach and train us to become more like Jesus in our attitudes and conduct, and not to make us feel bad. Church, He is a convicter, and not a condemner! The question that begs to be answered then is: What is the difference between conviction and condemnation? Understanding the difference between these two is vital to being able to discern the difference between what comes from God, Satan, and even us. Earlier in my walk with the Lord, He taught me how to tell the difference between these two: He said, “Conviction brings a state of hope; Condemnation brings a state of hopelessness.” What this means is that when you just feel bad over what you did and are basically void of any hope of ever getting back on track—then rest assured, what you are experiencing is condemnation and not conviction. You see, condemnation only yields death. It does nothing but beat you over the head for the mess you are in and does nothing to help you out. It will lay on you such a heavy burden, but not help you lift it even in the least. Condemnation will even try and ultimately cause you to despair of life in general. In other words, it will not stop with making you feel hopeless with your individual mistake. It will end up trying to make you feel hopeless about your Christian walk altogether. Condemnation is a quitter! So, if you are ever being tempted to entertain the thoughts of quitting, know that condemnation is in there somewhere. On the other hand, when you are receiving the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you might feel remorse, but it won’t be the kind of hopeless, guilt-infested sorrow that the world brings. You will sense hope to overcome, hope for change, and hope for forgiveness! The way I personally can discern the conviction of the Holy Spirit is that I always end up feeling better after I receive it. During those times (which are more than I would likeJ), I feel like I can genuinely say to the Holy Spirit, “Thank you sir! May I have another!?!” His loving and gracious rebukes do not make me feel like a failure. Instead they infuse me with a hope for repentance and also provide the way of escape at the same time (i.e. the “how to” in regards to repentance). But my point is that the Holy Spirit’s commission to convict is a positive, life-giving commission and not something that we should dread. His is a commission of conviction, not condemnation! Yes, church, we must know that the Holy Spirit never, ever condemns us! So, if we ever feel even a hint of condemnation over something that we did then we should eliminate the Holy Spirit from being a possible suspect, which would leave Satan or ourselves as the only two possible suspects. HOW THE HOLY GHOST CONVINCES US So, in conclusion, let’s look at some of the ways in which the Holy Spirit will also “convince” us of things: Well, as we have seen, when we sin and fall short of the glory of God, the Holy Spirit does not beat us up over it, but He simply brings to light what we need to see and then gently encourages us to get back up and believe on Jesus. You see, just as He would convict the world of sin because they did not believe on Jesus, likewise, He likes to draw us back to that place of believing on Jesus—which is at the root of all obedience and disobedience. You see, all sin is a result of not believing on Jesus. What do I mean by that? Well, from a positional sense, if we believe on Jesus, we have no sin. Sin has been dealt with. It has been eradicated. The just (those justified and declared righteous) live by faith! But even from a practical and experiential sense, all sinful behavior is simply the fruit of not believing on Him. Let me explain: if I perhaps stole something, why did I do that? It is because I did not “trust” that Jesus could meet my need or give me the contentment that I need. Isn’t this what occurred with David and Bathsheba? After David’s “sin,” the Lord reminded him of all He had blessed him with, and if that would not have been enough, He would have given him even more (see Second Samuel 12:8). So, in essence, David did not believe in the goodness of God, which resulted in him trying to take something that was forbidden. Well, the truth is that every act of disobedience is somehow, someway not believing on the Lord. So, a lack of faith in the grace & goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ is at the root of all sin. But the Holy Spirit does not just convict us of the ways that we miss it; He also is commissioned to convince and persuade us of other things pertaining to God’s righteousness. In other words, He will show us what we ought to do—what is right and in agreement with God’s standards. And again, this is the difference with conviction: It does not put the attention on what we shouldn’t have done, but will point us to what needs to be done. For example, it will not beat us up for the mistake we already made, but will show us what to do now that we’ve already done it. Amen! Do you remember that Christian fad from a decade or so ago where everyone was wearing those rubber bracelets that said W.W.J.D—standing for “What Would Jesus Do”? Well, I’m here to tell you that we have something other than a bracelet to wear on our flesh, reminding us of what Jesus would do; we have Someone living in our heart who will remind us of what the righteous thing to do is in every situation. Amen! In fact, the Bible tells us that He was sent to convince and prove to us that we are God’s children (Romans 8:15-16), of God’s love for us (Romans 5:5), and that God’s promises will come to pass (Ephesians 1:13-14 & 2 Corinthians 1:20-22). The terminology may differ in these verses, but they all denote the same thing as “convict.” Yes, the Holy Spirit wants us to be convinced of His goodness. So, in conclusion, the Holy Spirit is here to convict the world. And again, this is His assignment, not ours. Let’s do our job of being witnesses and not leave the stand to try to do the Holy Spirit’s job. And as we have learned, the good news is that if we just be the witnesses that we are called to be, we can help the Holy Spirit do the convicting that He is called to do. Amen? REVIEW
So today, let’s continue our look at the Holy Spirit by looking at what His ministry is towards us. We have titled this series “The Commission of the Holy Spirit” because we are learning what is assigned to do on our behalf. So, we have been looking at the things that the Lord Jesus said that He would do for us in John chapters 14-16. And we have seen that He will, first of all, abide with us forever. That’s a big one because we must first know that He will always be with us in order to know that all of the other ministries that He will perform in our lives will always be there as well. So, in John 14:25&26, we saw that the Holy Spirit is specifically commissioned to teach us all things. And we learned that all of the things that the Holy Spirit wound up teaching Jesus’ disciples were the things that we have recorded in the Epistles of the New Testament. So, we learned that one of the ways that the Holy Spirit teaches us all things is by teaching us out of our New Covenant doctrine contained in the Epistles. But we also learned that the Holy Spirit will also teach us through the wrong teaching that is out there. This is why we can be confident that we will always know the truth—because the Holy Spirit is always there to teach us. But then we learned last week that not only will the Holy Spirit teach us new covenant things, but He will also remind us of the things that the Lord already spoke to us. Now we learned that this can apply towards the things recorded in the four Gospels—which obviously contain many of the things that the Holy Spirit reminded the disciples of after Jesus’ departure. Therefore, the Holy Spirit reminds us by putting in our hearts the things that He had reminded Jesus’ disciples of. But we also saw that the Holy Spirit reminds us of other things—such as, the things that the Lord had spoken to us in the past. We looked at some examples of these “rhema reminders” and saw how they serve various purposes: On one account, they put a sword in our hand when we are faced with spiritual warfare. In other words, these rhema’s are our offensive weapon against the wiles of the devil. But we also saw that there are other benefits to these Holy Ghost reminders. The apostle Peter said that they stir up our pure minds, and the apostle Paul said that they further establish those things in our hearts. Therefore, we saw that reminders do three things: Number one, they equip us in times of need—putting a sword in our hands to combat thoughts, fears, and temptations with. Number two, they “cement” those truths in our heart—further establishing them in us. And number three, they “stir up” those truths in our mind—thus making them pure & fresh. So, you see, we not only have the Holy Spirit here to abide with us forever, to teach us all things, but we also have Him here to remind us of the things He has already spoken to us. TO TESTIFY Now let’s move on to John chapter 15 and see something else that Jesus said the Holy Spirit has been commissioned to do… Beginning in verse 18, Jesus began to warn His disciples of the persecution they would endure after His departure by saying, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’” You know, it is important to be prepared for tough times like this. Many times, when we endure persecution and go through trials & tribulations, the enemy of our soul likes to deceive us into thinking everything from “what’s wrong with me that I’m going through this” to “I must have missed God and lost His favor in my life.” Yes, the accuser of the brethren will fill our minds with the lies that God is through with us, that He doesn’t love us, or we are too far removed from His salvation. All of these are LIES, church! The fact is, if we are living for God, we will have more opposition than we would have if we weren’t. The truth is that the more diligently we are seeking His kingdom, the more he will try and oppose us. And oftentimes this occurs through people—for he will stir up people to hate us, to ridicule us, and to simply discourage us. So, this is why Jesus was preparing His disciples for the persecution that they would go through after He was gone. But I love what Jesus goes on to promise them in verse 26: “But when the Helper (i.e. the Parakletos) comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” Now it is important to note that even though Jesus said these things in the future tense, they are no longer to be understood as something yet to come—for He has already come! Yes, in Acts chapter two, the Holy Spirit has come, He was sent to us by our Heavenly Father and has proceeded from Him. Therefore, He is here to testify of Jesus! So, we see here that one of His jobs is to “testify” of Jesus! Now the Greek word used to translate “testify” here is the word where we get “martyr” from—which is someone who suffers or is even killed for their “testimony.” This word literally describes “being a witness, to bear witness, or to give a testimony.” So, how does the Holy Spirit do this? How does He testify of Jesus? Well, one might think that He does that through us somehow—either by giving us the words, the gifts, etc. that bear witness of Jesus. But notice what Jesus said in verse 27: He went on to say, “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” The words “bear witness” in this verse come from the exact same Greek word that was used in verse 26 to describe the Holy Spirit “testify(ing)” of Him. Therefore, I don’t believe we can say that what Jesus was saying in verse 26 is that the Holy Spirit witnesses of Jesus through us because in the next breath, Jesus said, “and you also will bear witness…” So, yes, we are bearing witness of Jesus through our words, actions, lifestyle, etc., but the Holy Spirit is also somehow bearing witness of Him as well. So, I would submit to you that the Holy Spirit is not just bearing witness through us; he is bearing witness to us. Then the question I ask is—How? How is He doing this? BEARING WITNESS OF THE LIGHT Well, let’s look at another passage of Scripture that uses this word in order to illustrate it, and it is found in the Gospel of John as well. (In fact, this word used for “testify or bear witness” is obviously a loved word by the apostle John. He uses it in 31 verses in his gospel!) And in this one found in John 1:6-8, we have what I believe to be a great description of the attitude that the Holy Spirit has: John says, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” The word martyreo is used a couple of times in these verses, but what I want you to notice is how John the Baptist’s commission is similar to that of the Holy Spirit’s: In verse 7, we are told that he “came for a witness,” and did you know that this is why the Holy Spirit came? To be a witness according to John 15:26. A witness of what? The apostle John goes on to say that John the Baptist came “to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.” So, like John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit was also sent here to testify of Jesus—the True Light of the world—in order that all might believe through on Him. And so, this is what we need to understand that the Holy Spirit does too. He always points us to the Light! When it comes to unbelievers, He seeks to draw them to the Light and out of the darkness they are living in. But He also does this with us: When we are walking in darkness, whether that be that we are believing something that is wrong or we are making poor choices, He will point us back to Jesus! Praise God! Then notice how the apostle John goes on to say in verse 8 regarding Jesus’ forerunner, “He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” So, we are clearly told here that John the Baptist was not that Light, and have you ever noticed how John made sure to tell the people he preached to that the One who was to come after him was mightier than he, etc.? So, John was constantly pointing people (i.e. testifying) to Jesus—bearing witness of the True Light. Church, this is what the Holy Spirit does as well. Just as John the Baptist was not the Light himself, we likewise need to understand that the Holy Spirit is not the Light either. His job is to simply point us to the Light, and to testify of Him. You see, while we certainly need to learn about the Holy Spirit and His ministry in our lives, we still need to maintain the mentality that it is all about Jesus. This is what HE (the Holy Spirit) would tell us. But again, this obviously does not mean that we never talk about the Holy Spirit; it just means that we need to always remember that Jesus is the Light that we should be desiring to see through it all. Amen? So, this is exactly how the Holy Spirit testifies: He was sent from the Father to serve as a witness of the Light of the world—the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not here to be the Light Himself, but is on the earth to bear witness and testify of Jesus, that we might believe on Him. Amen. HOW HE WITNESSES So, let’s look at this word and its possible meanings to help us to understand how the Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus—for there are two major functions of our lives that are enveloped in this word: the word “witness” and the word “testimony.” And we are to both do and possess them both: The first one that we’ve seen this word martyreo means is to give witness or to bear witness. So, let’s consider how we “witness.” When I witness to unbelievers, what should my primary intention be? To share Jesus with them and point them to His goodness & grace. I know there are some out there that see “witnessing” as an opportunity to tell people what low-down, dirty sinners they are. You’ve probably heard of or seen these groups that will hit the streets preaching hell, fire, and damnation messages—telling people they are sinners and are going to hell. And if you go to them and ask what they are doing, they might say, “We are preaching the gospel!” Well, gospel means good news, not bad news—and telling people they are lost sinners who are going to hell does not contain any good news. No, saints, it is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance, not telling them how bad they are. In other words, what people need to hear is the solution to their dilemma, and not just what their current situation is. As the old proverb states—you’ll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar. In other words, you will win more people with the good news than you will with bad news. It works this way in everything. Now, yes, some people are only going to respond through fear, but in my experience, most people respond better to love, goodness, kindness, etc. The reason for this is because fear simply changes the borders and boundaries, but it doesn’t change the heart. In other words, while hearing only the consequences might produce some outward conformity, hearing the gospel will produce more of a willing obedience. Amen. So, when it comes to witnessing, we need to seek to point people to the good news, to salvation, and to Jesus Himself. This is what people need to hear. And this is exactly what the Holy Spirit does! He will share God’s goodness with folks! He will convey God’s extraordinary kindness to both us and the world! Church, there is no better witness than the Holy Witness Himself! I can give you example after example of how the Holy Spirit does this—like just the other day, I was in the woods and while I was seeking to avoid any poison ivy, looking for those three leaves, the Holy Spirit just gently helped me to notice how there are a lot of plants that grow all around us that have three leaves. And what He showed me was how even nature teaches us of the Trinity in that we have all of these plants that have three leaves on one plant. Glory! You know, this is what Saint Patrick was known for doing in what we know today to be Ireland—when he went to their land and was witnessing to its natives, he taught them of the Trinity by using the three-leaf clover. But this is what the Holy Spirit lives to do—to use even things like nature around us to witness to us and others of the glory of God! Didn’t the apostle Paul teach us all of this in Romans chapter one? In Romans 1:16, he says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” So, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that holds the power for salvation, right? Therefore, if we want to see people saved through our witness, then the gospel of Christ is how it is going to get done. Then Paul goes on to say in verse 17, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” For in what? In the gospel of Christ! In it, the righteousness of God is revealed. This is what we want people to see, believe, and receive, church—the righteousness of God and that it is received simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. But then notice what Paul goes on to say in verses 18-20, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse…” In these verses, the apostle Paul was saying that God’s wrath—a far cry from God’s righteousness—is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And he goes on to say that God is the One who has already shown it to them. So, what this means is that we do not need to go around telling people that God hates sin and He is against all of their ungodliness and unrighteousness. No, God has already made this manifest to them. Sure, this doesn’t mean that we never need address these things, but it absolutely means that we do need to major on these things. God has already done it. People already know God is against sin and there is a judgment to come. Now it might seem like they don’t, but have you ever noticed how the ungodly are so quick to call out a Christian who is being hypocritical about there sin? Oh, yeah—they know. And then in verse 20, Paul goes on to describe how God has shown these things to them—through creation. Yes, if people would just open their eyes, they would see that all creation points us towards the existence of God, and as Paul says here, even to His eternal power and Godhead. Yes, God’s creation—from the stars of the heavens to the plants on the earth—points us towards God’s omnipotent power and through that, to His Triune Godhead. Praise God! So, as Paul says at the end of verse 20, there is no excuse for not believing. I know people will say, “Well, what about all of the people who never heard the gospel? How will God be able to righteously judge them?” Friends, everyone has the opportunity to hear the gospel because if they do not hear it from another man or woman, the Holy Spirit is here to testify of the Way, the Truth and the Life Himself. All they need to do is open up their hearts and humble themselves—asking this “unknown God” what His name is. Well, as we can see in verses 21-25, what happens is that mankind has this tendency to form their own gods even when they have this general knowledge of God. In other words, even though they had the knowledge of God’s existence, they chose not to seek for a deeper knowledge of Him and glorify Him as the One True and Living God. Let me give you a real-life example of what these people should have done: There was this woman who was attending a Bible College and, while seeking the Lord as to His plan for her, she had Him give her a name, a name of a place that she was unaware of. Well, as she did some research, she found out that this place was a remote island where no one had been before. Therefore, she concluded that the Lord was sending her there. So as her plane arrived on this island, she was met by a local tribe and their chief greeted her. He began praising God that this prayer was heard! You see, this tribe was praying to an unknown God to tell them His name. In other words, they knew that there had to be a god through that inward intuition these verses speak of, therefore, they just humbly prayed to the God they didn’t know yet and asked Him to reveal himself to them. So, God arrested this woman and sent her across the world to preach “Jesus” to them! Glory to God! But most people have not been this wise throughout history. The majority of people have made up their own gods like the children of Israel did in the wilderness when they created a golden calf as an image to worship. This is the epitome of pride and foolishness. My point is, that if there is already an inward intuition in the world that God is real and that He is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, and what this world needs to hear is the gospel of Christ and have the righteousness of God revealed to them, then why would the Holy Spirit be any different? He isn’t! He is here to testify to the goodness and righteousness of God! So, if we as believers or even the ungodly would open up our hearts to hear what the Spirit is saying, we would hear things like “God loves you. He has a wonderful plan for you. He has made His righteousness freely available. Just cry out for mercy. His grace is sufficient. Open up the door of your heart because Jesus wants to move in and dine with you.” HOW HE TESTIFIES Now, as I said earlier, the word for “testify” also describes giving a testimony. So, let’s look at how we not only witness, but how we give our testimony as an example of what the Holy Spirit does. You know, when you and I stand up and give our testimony before people, did you know that our intention should be to point people to Jesus? Yes, our testimony is not to have people look at us but to help people believe! Believe what? That Jesus is the Answer to everything! That He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life—and that He is the Light! In other words, when we testify, our intention should be to point people to Jesus—that they might believe that what He has done in our life, He will do in theirs as well! Amen! Church, our testimony is so vital in the grand scheme of God’s kingdom being spread in this world—because it is the number one thing that will cause the world to believe. No, it is not our wonderful sermons; it is your testimony—consisting of both the words you speak and your actions. This is what will either bring people to Christ or bring a reproach to Christ. First of all, how we behave is what people are looking at. For example, say we leave church today and it is obvious that we have been to church by what we are wearing, etc. And we go to a restaurant and treat our waitress like dirt. But she saw us praying over our food. Did you know that this can turn her off to Christianity? We have to be sensitive to things like this, knowing that people are always watching. And when it comes to our words, I believe we have all seen how some people’s “testimony” does not draw people to Christ. Yes, we’ve seen those who stand before a group and give their “testimony” but it doesn’t point people to the Light, but to darkness. What I mean is that it is filled with all the bad things they went through, all the heartaches and struggles, etc. And don’t get me wrong, I understand that we need to give the background to tell people where we’ve come from, but we need to keep the background in the background. Jesus and His salvation need to always be in the foreground! Hallelujah! And this is how the Holy Spirit gives a testimony: He doesn’t ramble and waste a lot of words telling us all of the negatives. No, He gives us the truth in a nutshell, wrapping so much power in the few words He shares with us. You see, have you ever noticed how when the Lord speaks to you that it is short, concise, and to the point? Yep, rarely does the Holy Spirit give us a long, drawn out statement of truth. This is why those two gifts of the Spirit are not called the “paragraph of knowledge” or the “story of wisdom.” No, He gives us a “word of knowledge” and a “word of wisdom.” So, when we testify, our intention needs to be to glorify Jesus—not the bad things we did, not the evil we experienced, and certainly not anything involving, “I, me, my, etc.” Sadly to say, when you hear some people’s testimonies all you hear about is their “Test” and their “Moanies.” Lol! And as I made the point of earlier, this is exactly how the Holy Spirit testifies—He doesn’t like to talk a lot about Himself, but prefers to revolve everything around the Light of the World, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, in conclusion, the Holy Spirit knows how to witness, and He knows how to give a testimony. And in both situations, He points people to Jesus! He glorifies Him! He strategically and systematically points people to the Light, attempting to help both the church and the world to believe on Jesus. So, whether we as the Lord’s body are struggling and need some encouragement, the Holy Ghost will step in and give a testimony of how Jesus is our answer. Or whether an unbeliever is walking in darkness and needs to know Jesus, the Holy Ghost will take advantage of every open door that He is given and point them to the Way, the Truth and the Life. Yes, He will testify of Jesus because this is His commission! Amen. REVIEW
Today, we are continuing our look at what the Holy Spirit has been commissioned to do for us. And the purpose of this particular series of teachings on the Holy Spirit is for us to study the variety of things that the Lord Jesus told us that His Spirit would do for us. So, we are looking at how He is here to teach us, remind us, guide us into all truth, convict us, glorify Jesus through us, etc. And as I have made the point of already, it is essential that we understand each of these things that His Spirit was commissioned to do for us because if we feed our spirits on these things, then we will have the necessary faith to receive them in our lives. You see, if we don’t ever hear these things, how can we expect to have faith for them? In other words, if faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17), then how will we have faith for these things if we don’t hear them? We won’t. So, that is why we are camping on these various things that the Lord told us that the Spirit of grace wants to give us. So, we learned in part one of this series that His ultimate commission is to be our own personal and internal apostle. Yes, He was commissioned from heaven and sent to the earth to, similarly to an apostle, to start, establish, and build up churches—that is, to build the Lord’s church one brick at a time (through changing each and every one of our lives and conform us into the image of Christ). But as we’ve seen already—the fact is, we are told some very specific things by the Lord Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit is commissioned to do for us in John chapters 14-16. So, what we began doing over the last couple of weeks is going through some of these things so that we are more aware of these things that He is assigned to perform in each of our lives. We saw in John 14:16-18 that one of the general things that He has been commissioned to do for us is to abide with us forever. That means that He is not “flighty”—that is, He is not quick to leave us just because we made some mistake. No, the Holy Spirit sticks with us forever—which would have been good news to Jesus’ disciples because they were faced with the sobering fact that Jesus would soon be leaving them. Therefore, for them to be told first that this other Helper was going to be with us forever would be very good news. In other words, He was not going to leave after three years. Then, last week, we saw that the Holy Spirit is specifically commissioned to teach us all things. In John 14:25&26. Jesus was still in the middle of teaching His disciples for the last time and said, “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 your remembrance all things that I said to you.” First of all, we saw that in verse 25 Jesus said— “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you…” And we saw that the phrase “These things” is a specific referring to everything from what Jesus was currently teaching them here on this night recorded in John chapters 14-16 to everything that Jesus had taught them during His entire earthly ministry. But the time was fast approaching that He would be leaving them and returning to His Father, and although He had taught them many great things while being present with them, He had not taught them everything there was to know. And we saw that part of the reason for this was because His disciples were unregenerate all during His earthly ministry. Therefore, they, as natural, carnal people, could not effectively understand all spiritual truth. Jesus alluded to this in John 16:12 when He said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” The word “bear” here describes taking something up by the hand. So, I believe a good translation of this verse is— “but you cannot handle them now.” And the reason they could not “handle” these things was because they were still carnal and sold under sin. As I stated last week, trying to feed spiritual teaching to carnal people is like trying to feed a T-bone steak to a baby: they can’t handle it! So, although Jesus could not teach them all things during His earthly ministry, the day was soon coming that they would be born again and would be in the position to bear and handle all spiritual truth. This is why Jesus went on to say— “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things…” Now notice how Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was being sent by the Father in His (Jesus’) name. Now does this mean that the Father said from heaven, “Holy Spirit, go to the earth, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”? No, I’m certain that is not what He did. But that’s what we often do when we do things in the name of Jesus. What we need to understand is that when we do and say things “in the name of Jesus” that doesn’t mean we are just tacking that phrase to the end of our word or deed. No, Jesus was literally saying that the Holy Spirit was being sent in His place. So, that verifies what we have been learning—that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are One. If you have seen One, you have seen the other. We have established that already. But guess what else this should show us? If the Holy Spirit’s being sent in Jesus’ “place” (i.e. name) further verifies that they are One, then what about all of those Scriptures that show us that Jesus’ disciples are also sent out in His name? The lightbulb should come on for us that us doing things in the name of Jesus (i.e. in His place) is truly us doing things like Jesus Himself were doing them! Amen! You see, the Holy Spirit being sent in Jesus’ name doesn’t make Him less than or inferior to Jesus, does it? No! So, us being sent out in His name should show us the same! Yes, we are in good company with the Holy Spirit. Amen? So, we saw that what Jesus was telling us in this verse is that the Holy Spirit would continue to teach His disciples as Jesus had taught them until they had learned all things. In other words, part of the Holy Spirit’s commission was to finish teaching Jesus’ disciples the truths of the New Testament that Jesus had begun to teach them while He was on the earth with them. Therefore, one thing we should take away from this is that the things Jesus taught His disciples in the Four Gospels is not everything. What do I mean by that? I mean, the teachings of Jesus were simply an introduction into New Testament teachings, but were by no means all that we need to learn. I bring this out because I know of a lot of people who hang their hats on the Gospels and the sayings of Jesus. This is where they pitch camp. But we can clearly see right here that the Four Gospels are not all the things we can and should learn. We need to also learn all the things that the Holy Spirit continued teaching Christ’s disciples. Now of course I was not trying to discourage anybody from reading the Gospels. My point was simply that the Gospels are essentially the incomplete message of the New Testament. They are certainly essential to our New Covenant doctrine, but we need what was revealed after Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection through the Holy Spirit. Amen? Now it is quite obvious by studying the content of the New Testament epistles that the Holy Spirit had indeed fulfilled this commission to teach them all things! After Jesus’ disciples (such as Peter and John) received the Holy Spirit, He began to systematically teach them the full council of God. Then the Holy Spirit inspired some of them to pen letters that would be canonized forever as New Testament Scripture. During this time, there were others who also received the Holy Spirit and were taught even deeper truths of the gospel of Christ and were inspired to write them down as well. And then we went over to First John chapter two and saw further how the Holy Spirit teaches us: We saw in First John 2:27— “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things…” Now the anointing is a specific reference to the Holy Spirit—for the Holy Spirit is referred to as “oil” elsewhere in God’s Word. But notice what John said is a benefit of Him abiding in us: He said that we do not need anyone to teach us. Now some have mistakenly interpreted this to say that we do not even need teachers in the Body of Christ. Those who believe this reject the teachers God has placed around them because, in their arrogance, they think all they need is the Holy Spirit to teach them. This is not what this Scripture is saying! All the apostle John was saying was that we do not have to have teachers. In other words, we who have the Holy Spirit are not limited to being taught by other human beings. You see, the key word in First John 2:27 is “need.” Now as I made the point of last week, I believe we use this word far too loosely. And I used an example to illustrate this since we are talking anointing oil here. What if I said, “I need someone to come change the oil in my car for me.” The truth is, none of us really “need” someone to do that for us. We could do some research and study up on how it’s done if we were put into the position that we “needed” to. Say, for example, you were stranded in the desert and had to do it yourself. And you had the oil, the tools, and all the information of how to change it. If we were in this situation, I bet we could change our oil. Therefore, technically, we don’t “need” anyone to change our oil for us. But does that mean that it is not appropriate or even helpful to have others do it for us? Wouldn’t it be a better stewardship of some of our time to get someone else to do it? Sure, it would! Well, this is how we need to read this verse. Sure, if we were stranded on the Isle of Patmos and had no anointed preachers to teach us, we have the unlimited resources of the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit abiding within us to teach us. Sure, we have the oil, but that doesn’t mean that good anointed teachers are not helpful for our spiritual growth and do not provide us with a more “advantageous” way of being taught by the Lord. So, just as all we need is the oil to change our oil, all we need is the Anointing Himself to be taught. However, having an anointed teacher to learn from is akin to having a professional mechanic to change our oil for us. Praise God! But then we looked at how the apostle John went on to say at the end of this verse: “but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things…” Now notice that John referred to the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things as “the same anointing.” By using the word “same,” I believe John is comparing the anointing of the one teaching to the anointing of the one being taught. In other words, He is referring to having the Holy Spirit abiding in you and also being taught by someone ministering by the same Spirit. You see, this is the best way to be taught the Truth in my opinion. Why? Because when you have the Holy Spirit in someone else teaching you and the same Holy Spirit on the inside of you teaching you, you are more likely to not miss the truths He wants you to get. Again, sure you can have the Holy Spirit teach you directly, but a “can’t miss” way to be taught by Him is to have a personal relationship with the Teacher on the inside of you and to sit under good, Holy Spirit-inspired teaching. Then, its going to be hard to miss what He wants you to learn. And we saw that another important truth to notice in this phrase is found in the word “concerning” (NKJV). Remember that when Jesus gave this commission of the Holy Spirit, He just told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things (John 14:26). But here, John said that He would teach us “concerning” all things. Why did John add this word? There are two very reasonable answers to that question: For one, I believe it is because John wanted to dispel another common error of false teachers: You see, many false teachings come from “revelations” that heretics supposedly receive which go totally beyond what is written in the Scriptures. In other words, false teachings rarely ever stay within the boundaries of the Bible. They are oftentimes a product of an idea or philosophy and sometimes are even a result of some spectacular dream or vision that they had. So, when John said that the anointing would teach us “concerning” all things, he was referring to the things that the Holy Spirit had already revealed to the apostles and were communicated to us by the apostles. So, Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things, but John is telling the church that the Holy Spirit would teach us “concerning” all those things that He taught them. You see, this is how this promise affects us: We have the Holy Spirit abiding in us to teach us all things, but He is only going to teach us within the boundaries of all the things that have been written. So, how does He do this? Well, it might be that as we are reading the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians and we come across a certain verse, that we have another truth come up in our hearts. Then we discover that it was in the apostle John’s first letter. So, as we look at it, it further clarifies what Paul was saying in Galatians. That is one of the ways that the Holy Spirit teaches “concerning” all things. But another possible explanation of this word “concerning” is in how the anointing can and will teach us concerning even the error that we hear. Let me explain: Say we are sitting in a meeting and someone is teaching us. And this teacher is saying some things that don’t seem right. We can’t explain it, but there is simply no peace, joy, etc. on the things we are hearing. Then, when they make a point, we have one, two or even three Scriptures come up in our hearts that contradict what they were saying. What is happening here? There is a good chance that the Holy Spirit on the inside of us is teaching us “concerning” the error that we are being taught. Church, this is the Holy Spirit’s job—to teach us truth on the inside, even when we are being taught error on the outside. Therefore, we can learn well even when we are sitting under bad teaching. But as we learned, the best way to learn is to sit under good anointed teaching while listening to the Anointing on the inside of us! He will always confirm the anointed Word! Praise God! HIS COMMISSION TO REMIND But this week, I want us to go back in John 14:26 and notice how Jesus also said at the end of this verse regarding the Holy Spirit that He will— “bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” So not only did Jesus promise His disciples that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things, In the same breath, He also promised that the Holy Spirit would remind them of everything that He had already told them. So, that means that He would specifically bring to their remembrance all of the things that He had taught them over the past three years. Now you do understand that during that three-year span, Jesus’ disciples did not have the privilege of writing down what Jesus was teaching them at the time, don’t you? I’m sure that they sometimes had to put their heads together to remember what Jesus had said just a week before. But Jesus was assuring them here that they need not worry if they did not take notes of what He had taught them because the best note taking system—the Holy Helper—was coming to remind them of all the things that He had spoken to them! So how does this commission of the Holy Spirit apply to us? I mean, if we weren’t there to be personally taught by Jesus during His earthly ministry, what does the Holy Spirit remind us of? I believe this promise has a couple of different applications to us today: THE FOUR GOSPELS For one, I believe that this can apply to us is like so: If Jesus then said that another commission of the Holy Spirit was to remind His disciples of the things that He had previously taught them, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that what is recorded in the four Gospels are what the Holy Spirit reminded them of? That’s right: What we have recorded in the four Gospels and have been canonized as Holy Scripture are a literal fulfillment of this commission of the Holy Spirit to remind Jesus’ disciples of what He had taught them. So, with this being the case, the Holy Spirit fulfilling His commission to remind us of the things that Jesus taught 2,000 years ago would be Him reminding us of the things that are written in the four Gospels. Let me give you an example to illustrate how this might work: Say, for instance, you were telling another believer about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit but they were afraid that if they prayed to receive the Holy Spirit that they might open themselves up to something bad. But while they were explaining their apprehensions, the Holy Spirit quickens Luke 11:11-13 to you that explains how if no natural parent would give their children something harmful if they asked for something beneficial, how much more will our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him!?! You then quote this saying of Jesus to them and immediately all those apprehensions leave and they are ready to receive. That would be an example of the Holy Spirit bringing to our remembrance the things that Jesus had said. RHEMA REMINDERS But I also see this as applying to whatever things that the Lord has specifically spoken to us individually. For example, if we have been walking with the Lord for any amount of time, we have had Him speak certain things to our hearts whether it be an exhortation, rebuke, or just simply a truth that we needed at a specific period of time. Well, the Holy Spirit’s commission is to remind us of those things when we, through the weakness of our flesh, forget what He has told us. For example, say at some point in our life we were struggling with kidney stones. And then as we inquired of the Lord as to why this was happening, the Lord spoke to our hearts the word “potassium”—and we realized that He was letting us know that we need a little more potassium in our diet. Of course, we might have had no idea that a lack of potassium is connected with kidney stones. So, instead of simply obeying what the Lord spoke to us—maybe writing it off as not being “spiritual” enough—we go about our business and ignore what we heard in our heart. But then a year or so later, as we are continuing to struggle with the same kidney stone issues, the Holy Spirit gently reminds us of what we heard previously. Then, we recognize that this must have been the Lord, and we begin eating foods that are high in potassium or start taking a supplement—which completely eradicates the issue. That would be a good example of the Holy Spirit’s commission to remind us of things that the Lord already told us. Another good example is with the things that the Lord has spoken to us through the gifts of the Spirit working through other people—such as a prophecy, word of wisdom, etc. Say, someone gave us a word in the past that God is taking us to the other side of some particular trial that we are going through. But then as time passes, we start becoming “weary in well doing.” You see, sometimes we go through difficult times, and when we are in the middle of the storm, sometimes we need a little reminder of the promises God has spoken into our lives in order to receive strength to make it through those trials. So, the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts the very same words that were given to us in that prophecy—thus reminding us of what He had already spoken to us through one of His vessels. Mind you, it might be the other way around as well. Perhaps, He spoke a word to your heart originally. And then as time passed, you forgot that He had said what He did to you. So, the Holy Spirit inspires one of His servants to give you a word that reminds you of what He already told you personally. But the fact is, how the Holy Spirit chooses to remind us is up to Him. My point is that our spiritual antennas just need to be up so that we are in the best position possible to receive His wonderful reminders. Now it needs to be said here that this should not promote laziness on our part, to where we don’t do our part in reminding ourselves. We absolutely should do our best to keep the things the Lord has spoken to us in front of our eyes, so we don’t ever forget them. But the fact is, we are in this natural body and our tendency is to forget things. So, this commission of the Holy Spirit is there to help us in those times where we may have dropped the ball and where we need supernatural recall. These are what you call “rhema reminders.” WHAT IS A RHEMA? This is what I believe the apostle Paul meant when he described our lone piece of offensive weaponry in Ephesians chapter six. If you recall, in Ephesians 6:17, he told us to take “…the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Notice what Paul calls the Word of God here: He calls it “the sword of the Spirit.” Why does he call it “the sword of the Spirit”? What does the Holy Spirit have to do with God’s Word? I believe what we are talking about today is a big part of this: You see, as we are learning, He is commissioned to remind us of the words of our Lord. So, the Holy Spirit’s job is to take the Word of God, and put it in our hands so that we can use it as a sword! You see, I believe the Amplified Bible brings this out best: It translates this passage as, “and the sword that the Spirit wields…” What this means is that it is the Holy Spirit who wields the sword from its sheath (i.e. drawing it out for us to put into use against the enemy). Therefore, when we are confronted with various trials & temptations, we need that Word from God to combat them with. That is when the Holy Spirit is there to pull that “Word” out of your belt of truth and put it in your hand to use. He is here to bring Christ’s words to our remembrance to combat the enemy with in those times. Thus, the importance of having our belt of truth on first. Do you remember how God’s Word is called the truth (John 17:17) and how we described our belt of truth as partly consisting of the written Word of God? Well, if we do not have our belt on (i.e. we do not spend time in the word of truth, reading, studying, and meditating) then the Holy Spirit will not be able to draw those timely words from our sheath. Why? It is because He will not have as much to work with when you need His help due to the fact that He has a limited amount of truth to recall to you. You see, you can only be reminded of what you have heard. Likewise, if you are not making it a practice to hear the Word of God and if you are not moving towards discovering the truth, then the Holy Spirit will have a hard time fulfilling that part of His ministry in your life. Therefore, it is imperative that we spend time in God’s Word because the Holy Spirit has more of an opportunity to draw out the specific Scriptures that we need when situations arise. And we need to spend time with the Lord, learning how to hear the voice of the Spirit, so that we know when He is giving us a word for the fight. He will draw out that sword that we need to wage war against the many different devices of the enemy at the right times! Thank you, Lord, for the Holy Ghost! This point is also brought out in the Greek word Paul used for “word” in Ephesians 6:17 when he described our sword of the Spirit as the Word of God: When Paul identified the sword of the Spirit, the Greek word he used for “Word” was rhema. He did not use the word logos which is the Greek word commonly used to describe the written Word of God. He used the word rhema which describes “a spoken or quickened word.” I believe there are two reasons for this: Number one, it is because our spiritual sword is us speaking God’s Word out of our mouths! Just like the Master verbally responded to the temptations of the wicked one in the wilderness with “It is Written, It is Written, It is Written,” likewise we wage a good warfare with our words as we speak God’s Word. For example, if you are being tempted to be down, discouraged and depressed, what should you do? You grab yourself by the ear and say, “NO! It is written, rejoice in the Lord always! So, I will rejoice right now! Flesh, I don’t care how you feel! You are not my Lord—Jesus is! So, I will rejoice in Him right now!” Amen! But the other thing that I believe this rhema describes is it is the sword which the Spirit wields, as I previously stated. In other words, when the Holy Spirit draws a Word from God out of our sheath at those moments when it is needed, He is quickening a word to us—that is, He is making a Scripture come alive to us so that we can use it in our specific situation. Therefore, He is putting a “(S)WORD” from God into our hands so that we can use it to combat the enemy! And that is when we need to speak it out of our mouths, as I just made the point of. In fact, we see in Luke 12:11-12 that He will do this when it comes to our “rhemas” when we are speaking to people: Jesus said, “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” What Jesus was teaching us, His disciples, here is that we need to put more dependence on the Holy Spirit to give us the words to speak than we do on our own natural preparations. Sure, I want to stand before you today having studied and being as prepared as I need to be, but as the old adage goes—you prepare like there is no Holy Ghost, but you preach likes there’s nothing else but the Holy Ghost! So, yes, we need the Holy Spirit to remind us of these truths so that we can wage a good warfare—whether that be Him giving us the Word to speak to the devil and our flesh or Him giving us the Words to speak before men. But there are also other benefits to being reminded. Let’s look at some of them: MIXING MENTAL ASPHALT I love what the apostle Paul says in the beginning of Philippians chapter 3: “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.” (Philippians 3:1) Notice how the Preacher begins this chapter with the word “Finally…” I find that quite comical that even the great apostle Paul did the same thing that just about every other preacher does—essentially say “In conclusion” when he still has two chapters left to share. 😊 But my point is that after he tells them to rejoice in the Lord, Paul goes on to say, “For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe.” Now the fact is, this is how most people view “reminders”; they see them as “tedious”—that is, as wearisome, monotonous or boring. When we remind people of something, what is a general response we get? “I know” (with a little attitude). But what should our response be when someone reminds us? We should genuinely thank them! And why? Well, have we ever forgotten anything before? Has there ever been a time where we wish someone would have reminded us of something because we indeed forgot and suffered the consequences for forgetting? I’m sure we all have. So, what humility would do is thank the person for the reminder since there just might be the slightest chance that we could forget. So no, repeating and reminding is not something that should grieve us (unless of course it is them telling us the same story or joke for the umpteenth time😊). However, Paul went on to say it is “safe.” The Greek word that he used which is translated “safe” here is where we get our word asphalt from. So, what Paul was saying here was that the more we are reminded of certain truths, the more they become cemented on the inside of us. Yes, being constantly reminded of truths such as this will cause those things to become more solid in our heart similar to the hardening process of asphalt. So, while there are some things we need to forget and never dwell on, there are good things which we should constantly be reminded of. Now it is worthy to note the specific truth that the apostle Paul just gave the Philippian Church before he made this statement, that it was not a tedious thing to write the same things to them. Again, he began Philippians 3:1 with— “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord…” Have you ever noticed how this one exhortation— “rejoice in the Lord” —is one that we need to constantly be reminded of? Yes, this is one exhortation that we should have repeating on our playlist over and over again. The reason for this is because our carnal tendency is to not rejoice in the Lord. Yes, our flesh tends towards only rejoicing in our circumstances and when we feel like it. (And I’d be willing to bet that there is someone hearing this right now that is having this particular commission of the Holy Spirit that we are studying today working in them at this moment. Yes, I believe He is reminding some of us today to rejoice in the Lord. Thank you, Holy Spirit!) Now, we see the apostle Peter referring to the importance of being reminded twice (imagine that) in his second epistle. In the first instance, he said that he would not be negligent to remind them of the things he already said to them, even though the recipients of his letter knew and were established in the present truth (Second Peter 1:12). So, as we made the point of last week from Hebrews 2:1, even when we think we know the truth, we still need to continue hearing it and even more diligently, because that carnal part of us is oh-so-quick to forget. In fact, Peter goes on to say in verse 13 that by reminding them of these truths, he was attempting to stir them up. He repeats this in Second Peter 3:1 when he says, “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder).” So, we see that being reminded of truth has a similar effect on our minds as a spoon has on a pot of soup. If you allow soup to just sit stagnant in the pot without ever stirring it, a film will develop on the top; but if you stir that soup occasionally, you will keep it fresh and tasty. Likewise, as we from time to time stir up our minds with the truths that we might already be established in, we again purify our minds. Amen. FINALLY! So, what have we seen thus far—that reminders do three things: Number one, they equip us in times of need—putting a sword in our hands to combat thoughts, fears, and temptations with. Number two, they “cement” those truths in our heart—further establishing them in us. And number three, they “stir up” those truths in our mind—thus making them pure & fresh. So, why would we ever see a reminder as something that is unnecessary and pointless? I’ll tell you why—pride. Let’s not be like that, church. Let’s operate in humility and invite the Holy Spirit and even the people in our lives to remind us of the things that we need to remain fresh in us and that we need to be further established in. Amen? You see, we not only have the Holy Spirit here to teach us, we also have Him here to remind us. He will remind us of everything from what the Lord has spoken to us individually to what the Lord has spoken to us all as revealed in the Gospels. His commission is to remind! |
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