Morning Message Text: John 14: 15-21
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, keep my commands.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Morning Message: “The Spirit of Truth”
Morning Message:
In two weeks, we will celebrate Pentecost. We will focus on the powerful way that the Holy Spirit moved on that day and how that power resides in all of us. Today I would like us to gain a better understanding of this very important power that dwells in us. If there is a misunderstood member of the triune God, it is the Holy Spirit. His behind-the-scenes role in the plan of God may be due to His status as “Spirit”—a state less concrete than “Father” or “Son.” Yet it is a deficiency in our understanding that we know less of the Holy Spirit than we do of God the Father or Jesus the Son. There is no shortage of biblical data about the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of God is mentioned just over 70 times in the Old Testament and more than 250 times in the New. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament came upon individuals in power to accomplish tasks and purposes but did not dwell permanently within people. The prophet Ezekiel foresaw that God would soon change that dynamic. God said, “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36: 27). It had become obvious that God’s people were incapable of keeping God’s law in their own strength; they needed supernatural help.
The Holy Spirit’s role changed significantly in the New Testament. Instead of his ministry being task-driven it is now people-driven. As Christians we have the presence of the Holy Spirit constantly. How much you feel his presence is up to you. We now have the ability to live a life that is pleasing to God because we have the Spirit of truth dwelling inside of us. We don’t need to pray for God to give us the Holy Spirit; he is always with us. We need to pay close attention to what Jesus is saying in today’s scripture. “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” Our relationship with Jesus gives us the ability to keep his commands because we have the Spirit within us to help us; the Spirit of truth. Now this is important for us to grasp today. The Holy Spirit will always tell us the truth and let us know what God wants for our lives, but we still have to submit ourselves to what God wants in our lives, and we don’t always do that. The Spirit of truth, many times is screaming inside of us, “Don’t do that.”
The Spirit’s ministry to the Christian is multi-faceted. The Greek word that Jesus used to describe the Spirit, translated “Advocate”, is derived from a verb meaning “to come alongside.” The Spirit comes alongside the Christian as a helper, teacher, guide, and encourager. Jesus named three particular tasks the Spirit would have regarding all of humanity.
For one, He would “prove the world to be wrong about sin and righteousness and coming judgment” (John 16: 8). Divine work is required to convince sinful souls of their lack of righteousness and coming judgment. That work would belong to the Holy Spirit once Christ ascended to heaven. The Spirit of truth must move in order for people to know the truth. We are not good on our own. God will judge everyone someday, and yes, the truth be known, our choices have eternal consequences.
Secondly, the Spirit would continue Christ’s earthly work — teaching His followers and reminding them of truth, guiding and encouraging them, convicting them of sin, calling and sending them into ministry, and interceding for them. What Christ did for a small number of individuals while he was on earth, the Holy Spirit does for all who are in the body of Christ. The Spirit of truth lets us know the truth, but do we listen?
Thirdly, He gifts the members of the body of Christ with spiritual abilities (spiritual gifts) and manifests the character of Christ (the fruit of the Spirit) in and through them. As the disciples’ responsibility was to be obedient to Christ, so our responsibility is to obey him by keeping in step with the Spirit. This is the way to true Christian living. As followers of Jesus, we have no excuse for not living a victorious life for him. God has given us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. We can never say that we don’t know or understand what God wants us to do, we can only confess that we have not fully submitted our lives to him and allowed the Spirit of truth to guide us in his ways.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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