The Work of the Holy Spirit
The Work of the Holy Spirit
John 14-16 (15:26-16:15)
The Sunday after Pentecost in the Church calendar is Trinity Sunday. It’s a good time for us to talk about the major figure in Pentecost: the Holy Spirit. Let me begin with this: the Holy Spirit is much misunderstood and misrepresented in the Church today. I’m not sure why, but there seems to be a lot of confusion. I will tell you this, though, I can pretty much tell what your faith orientation is by how you speak of the Holy Spirit.
For example, I was watching a talk show on television. The host purports to be a Christian and talks a lot about the Bible and the need for more Christian influence in society. But then he made a comment about the world needing more holy spirit. The talk show host revealed himself as a Mormon in those words. Whenever someone refers to the Holy Spirit as a thing, or says “it,” they are either not Christian or they have a real misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit. That shows, too, when people experience deep emotion in a worship service and talk afterwards about how the Spirit was present in the service. They confuse the presence of emotion with the presence of God’s Spirit. It is crucial to understand that the Holy Spirit is a person. He is always He, never It. He is not some force, some emotion, some motivation. He is not a thing. Always He, never It.
There is further confusion when Christians think the Holy Spirit is a New Testament phenomenon, something new from God. I don’t have time to pursue it much this morning, but if you’ll take the time, you’ll discover that God’s Holy Spirit is active throughout the Bible, including the Old Testament. A quick search reveals that the Holy Spirit is named twice in Isaiah 63, and the Psalmist prays in Psalm 51:11, Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Beginning with creation, the Spirit of God is mentioned 25 times in the Old Testament, including in Exodus, Samuel, Chronicles, and Job. The Holy Spirit comes on certain people at certain times enabling prophecies or power. The Holy Spirit came to the Church at Pentecost, but he has been active in God’s plan since the beginning of time. But he has been uniquely at work in the Church, mentioned 93 times, including 27 times in the gospels – before Pentecost. It is in the gospel of John that Jesus gives us the clearest teaching regarding who the Holy Spirit is and what his work is.
So, those two questions will occupy us this morning: who is the Holy Spirit? And what does he do? And, let us note that the clue to what the Holy Spirit does is in part defined by who He is.
First, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, has acted throughout history and throughout the Bible, but without any reference to who He is other than that He is the Spirit of God. Jesus is the one who begins to tell us who the Holy Spirit is. He begins with his farewell message in John 14:15: “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will send you another advocate to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of Truth.”
Now, note that the Holy Spirit is being sent to help us keep Jesus commands. Put this together: “If you love me, keep my commands. ... the Father ... will send you another advocate to help you ...” The first thing Jesus tells us about the Holy Spirit is that he will help us, empower us, enable us, to keep the commands. We are not expected to obey in our own strength. That, by the way is the point of Jesus telling us to “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me ... for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mt 11:29-30). A younger, weaker ox is yoked to a stronger experienced ox. The stronger one carries the most load, teaching the younger. Jesus yoke is easy because he is the bigger, stronger worker. The work of the Holy Spirit is to help us carry the load.
Jesus also calls the Holy Spirit by two names: Advocate, and Spirit of Truth. When you are standing in a court of law, you need an attorney to speak for you. He is your advocate. He is on your side, defending you and advocating for you. And Spirit of Truth. That means his whole being and interest is truth. That’s why there was a test for false prophets in Deuteronomy. They had to speak truth and not deviate from it. That’s why John tells us to test the spirits: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 Jn 4:1). And Paul instructed the Thessalonian church, Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil (1 Thes 5:21). We are told to test the spirits, test the prophecies (and the preachers) beside the ruler of Scripture. The Scripture is our measure – not bits and pieces, but the whole. Even if it sounds good. Paul said, even if is comes from an angel (Gal 1:8). The Holy Spirit will not lie to us and will not advocate or promote lies.
There’s another clue to who the Holy Spirit is, but I need to put some Scriptures together. The first is John 14:18, after he has promised to send the Spirit of Truth, Jesus says, “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.” Then down to verse 26, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name ...” Further to John 15:26: “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father ...” Next John 16:7: “Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” Now, all the way to 1 John 2:1 - My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. How did the apostolic church deal with this? Jesus is the one who comes – and the one who sends the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is also sent by the Father (which is why the Nicene Creed says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son). Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Advocate, but John remarks that Jesus is our Advocate with the Father. The Apostolic Church said, we don’t know how to explain it or understand it, but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit somehow exist together as one God, and they called it the Triune Godhead (or, the Trinity, a word I don’t like). But it is this Triune Godhead that we celebrate on Trinity Sunday – God working over us, for us, and in us. Our hymn celebrates “God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity.”
Now, back to what the Holy Spirit does. And this is crucial. Let me tell you first of all that the Holy Spirit is not at all interested in your emotions. You certainly may have an emotional response to the presence or work of the Holy Spirit, but the presence of emotion does not necessarily mean the Holy Spirit is present. I’ve heard so many people say something like, “Didn’t you feel the presence of the Holy Spirit today?” or “I really felt the presence of the Holy Spirit.” What you feel, what your emotions may have been are no indicator or the presence or absence of the Holy Spirit. Remember, the first name given is Spirit of Truth, not spirit of emotion.
Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit does six specific things:
- He will teach and remind. John 14:26 - The Father sends the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name to teach you all things and remind you of everything Jesus has said. People will ask how the gospel writers could quote, word-for-word, what Jesus said some forty years after he said it, the answer is this: Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would remind them. He will teach you what Jesus said. He will remind you of everything Jesus said. How could Matthew quote the entirety of the Sermon on the Mount? How could John quote the Passover sermon and the High Priestly Prayer - John 14-17 are almost all quoting Jesus? That was the work of the Holy Spirit. Peter wrote, For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:21).
- He will testify about Jesus. John 15:26 - “... the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father - he will testify about me.” I’m going to add to this a bit later. But note for the record that the work of the Holy Spirit is to talk about Jesus and to focus our attention on Jesus.
- He will prove the world wrong about sin, judgment, and righteousness. John 16:8-11 - Sin is not error in judgment. Sin is not mistakes. Sin is not flawed character. Sin is not preferences. Jesus said that sin is unbelief. Adam didn’t heed God’s warning because he didn’t believe God’s warning. We don’t obey because we don’t believe God is God or that he cares much about us. We sin, first of all, because we don’t believe the word of God. Righteousness comes in obedience to the commands of Jesus. It is not just faith in Jesus, but faithfulness, fidelity to Jesus. And judgment is certain. God is not just love, he is also Judge. God is a righteous Judge who will weigh our lives. Satan stands condemned already, and those who rebel against God are condemned with him. Jesus took judgment seriously enough to warn us repeatedly about it. Go read again the parables of judgment in Matthew 25.
- He will guide you into all truth. John 16:13 - “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” He is not the source of truth, but the guide to it. Jesus is the Truth. John 14:6, in answer to Thomas’ question, Jesus responded, “I am the way, the truth and the life ...” Jesus told Pilate that he “came into the world ... to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth, listens to me.” Pilate responded, “What is truth?” (Jn 18:37-38). The Truth was staring him in the face and he couldn’t see. Jesus is the truth, so the Holy Spirit guides us to Jesus.
- He will speak only what he hears. John 16:13 and 15. The Holy Spirit is not the originator of Scripture, nor the source of prophecy. He is the messenger. The Holy Spirit is not an innovator or inventor of new things. His job is to relay the message of God to us. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will not speak on his own, but will speak only what he hears. And what he hears is from Jesus. In verse 15, Jesus said, “the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” That is, the Holy Spirit speaks to us in the words of Jesus. Here is a vital note: If the Holy Spirit speaks only what he receives from Jesus, then every prophecy, every sermon, every pronouncement has to be measured beside the words of Jesus. Whenever someone says to you, “The Holy Spirit told me ...” take that message to the Scripture and see if it sounds like Jesus. See if it aligns with the words of Jesus. If it does not, it is not a message from God, and it was not the Holy Spirit who told them anything.
- He will glorify Jesus. John 16:14 - “He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” I need you to understand this very clearly. The work of the Holy Spirit is to exalt Jesus, to glorify Jesus, to put Jesus front and center. If you are in a church service where the Holy Spirit is front and center, where the Holy Spirit is exalted, where all the focus is on the Holy Spirit, you are not in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the message; he is the messenger. The Holy Spirit does not shine the light on himself, but always and only on Jesus. You can know the presence of the Holy Spirit, not by emotion, not by spiritual gifts, not by the exaltation of the Holy Spirit, but by the exaltation of Jesus. Where Jesus is lifted up, there the Holy Spirit is at work. Where Jesus is the focus, there the Holy Spirit is at work. Where the words of Jesus are being studied, there the Holy Spirit is at work. Where the life and work of Jesus is being preached, there the Holy Spirit is at work. Wherever Jesus is exalted and glorified, that is where the Holy Spirit is at work. You know the presence of the Holy Spirit when Jesus Christ is the focus.
So, we should put this in the context of Pentecost and ask why the Holy Spirit was given to the Church on that day. How did the apostles respond to being filled with the Holy Spirit? Peter stood up and delivered a sermon about Jesus. Acts 2:36 is Peter’s final sentence: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” The Holy Spirit empowered the Church to glorify Jesus. Then, in Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested and threatened and told to stop speaking about Jesus. On their release, they went back to the church and held a prayer meeting. After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit ... And did what? They spoke the word of God boldly (Acts 4:31). And what was that word? It was Jesus the Messiah. The reason the Holy Spirit came was to empower the Church to proclaim the name of Jesus boldly and unashamed.
That is also, by the way, how we know a church is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is when Jesus is exalted, when Jesus is front and center in worship, and when we are not ashamed to speak the name of Jesus. We pray for the fulness of the Holy Spirit, for the anointing, so that we might boldly proclaim Jesus, Redeemer, Reconciler, Savior, and Lord and King. Crown Him. Exalt Him. Serve Him. Speak his name without embarrassment. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in us.