Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] Amen. Okay.
[00:00:18] So a turning point in my marriage was a particular moment when. And I think this is just. This was the. I don't think this was the grace of God in my life. Okay? But a turning point in my marriage was a moment, a decade into marriage, when it was like God began to help me see that I cared more about the picture of my marriage to other people than I cared about the person I was married to.
[00:00:53] So as a pastor, this can be a tempting thing. So my wife and I got married the week before I was ordained as a pastor. And so we've only known marriage inside the context of vocational ministry, which is both wonderful and a bit of a challenge.
[00:01:09] And so I didn't realize that this is what I was doing, that this was in my heart. But I found that anytime the appearance of my marriage to outsiders looked less than what I wanted it to be, it made me really angry, made me angry at her, made me angry about our circumstances.
[00:01:27] And it was like, in that moment that God began to clarify for me.
[00:01:31] Ephesians 5. Husbands, love your wife like Christ loves the church. He doesn't say, husbands, love your marriage like Christ loves the church.
[00:01:41] Love your wife. Your wife is a person. Wife. See that you respect your husband, submit to the leadership of your husband. Like, this is a call to love people like a person, an actual person made in the image of God. And so as I began to realize this, it became pretty apparent, like, gosh, I don't know, that I know her super well as a person.
[00:02:01] So, like, if somebody came up to me and asked me, who are you married to? I would say, I'm married to Sydney.
[00:02:05] She's not in the room right now. She's in kids. So I can just talk about her. But I'm gonna say good things. They're all gonna be good things.
[00:02:13] I could say, I'm married to Sydney, and this is what she does, and this is her occupation, and this is what she's good at, and this is how she's gifted. I mean, I could go on and on and on talking about all these things and. But that's not the question, right? The question that the person asked was not tell me everything that you know about your wife. It's, what's she like?
[00:02:29] Like, what's she actually like as a person?
[00:02:32] And that was the question that, for me, at that moment was like, I don't know that. I know that as well as I should.
[00:02:39] Okay? And so the reason I bring this up today is to say if somebody came up to you on the street and said, who is the. Who is the Holy Spirit?
[00:02:48] What would you say?
[00:02:51] Not a church person who knows all of the vernacular that you and I, who maybe have been familiar with some of it, are accustomed to.
[00:02:59] Okay, so take the kind of churchy language outside a little bit. What would you say?
[00:03:05] How would you describe the person of the Holy Spirit? Would you say he's a person? Would you say that he's a part of God?
[00:03:13] Would you say that he's a thing?
[00:03:17] Like, how would you describe him? And I would venture to say, though I could be wrong, this is a pretty smart group of people. I would venture to say that if I asked you that question privately, I'd get a lot of different answers.
[00:03:29] And so what does God reveal about himself? That's what the Bible is. The Bible is God's revelation of himself to you and I. That's what the Bible is, God's revelation of himself to us.
[00:03:43] Okay? Who he is, what he's done in history, what he will do in the future, the good news of Jesus. That's what the Bible's about.
[00:03:51] Okay, and so what does God have to say about himself in regards to the person of the Holy Spirit? And that's really.
[00:04:02] That's really what we get to when we come to John chapter, really, chapters 13 to 16.
[00:04:08] So John, chapter 13 to 16 comes at the end of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is known by some to be the book of signs. Okay? The purpose of the Gospel of John, as is stated in chapter 21, is that you and I might know and believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
[00:04:25] So that's the invitation for you this morning. If you're here this morning and you're not yet a Christian and you're here for whatever reason, we're grateful to God that you're here. The invitation for you is, is to know and to believe that Jesus Christ alone is the Son of God, that Jesus Christ alone is the one mediator between God and man. That it's not about what you do to earn your way to God. It's about what God has done on behalf of sinners and sufferers for you to be reconciled to him. And it's all through Jesus. That's the point of the Gospel of John. So chapters one through twelve in the Gospel of John are all about the signs of Jesus, how Jesus is showing himself through the power at work within him, which is the person of the Holy Spirit to be God.
[00:05:09] And that obviously culminates in his resurrection when Jesus rose from the grave he proved himself to be everything that he said he was.
[00:05:16] God.
[00:05:18] And so that's what the first 12 chapters are about. And then we get to chapter 13 through 16 in the gospel of John, we get to what's called his farewell discourse. Jesus is on his way to die and he says this is why he came.
[00:05:31] Jesus came to die.
[00:05:33] He came to lay his life down as a ransom for many for his people. That's why he came. And so in chapters 13 through 16, he's in the upper room, he's about to institute the Lord's Supper, and he's giving his disciples some final words before he dies on the cross for our sins, rises from the grave and ascends back to the right hand of the Father in heaven. So there's our context. Does all this make sense so far? So here's what Baptized by fire means. And this is why I chose this as a sermon title, not just for clickbait purposes, but because this phrase is actually in the New Testament. Okay, so John actually uses this phrase. He says Jesus is going to come. He's going to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
[00:06:20] Okay, so this is a New Testament phrase and here's what it means. And this is a quote. Well, on one hand, on one hand, what it means pertains to Jesus. Jesus was going to get baptized not because he needed to, because of his own sin, but because he was going to fully identify with us.
[00:06:38] Does this make sense? This is why Jesus is baptized. He says, fulfill all righteousness. Jesus is baptized to identify with the people he's going to die and rise for his people.
[00:06:49] And fire denotes this idea of suffering. Jesus is going to experience the fire of suffering, specifically the fire of God's wrath for the sake of his people.
[00:07:03] But it also means this. And this is a quote from Ligonier. It says, the long awaited flame of the Holy Spirit.
[00:07:09] It's the person of the Holy Spirit. God will purify the soul and eventually remove all corruption from those who submit to the Son of David. That's Jesus.
[00:07:22] So for all who put their faith in Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit will indwell them and will begin this process of purifying the impurities out of us that will last through the duration of our life until we go to be with Jesus in glory. So we're not going to be sinless on this side of heaven. We're going to be sinless on that side of heaven when we see Jesus in glory. But it's the Holy Spirit and it's this like Refining fire that the Holy Spirit does in our hearts over the course of our life to make you and I more and more and more like Jesus.
[00:07:53] He's purifying us.
[00:07:56] But the quote goes on to say, those who continue in their rejection of this King Jesus will find only a fiery destruction. So Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and. And with fire. Jesus says, I do not come to bring peace, but to bring a sword.
[00:08:13] Right? Jesus is exclusive.
[00:08:17] Now, on one hand, Jesus says, come to me. All. All are invited.
[00:08:21] Come to me. It's your sin that qualifies you to come, not your righteousness. It's your sin that qualifies. That's why he came.
[00:08:29] Okay? But not everybody will come to him. And there's only one way to the Father, and it's through faith in Jesus.
[00:08:35] All right, so this is what baptized by fire means.
[00:08:39] And as we get into John 16, and I promise you we'll get there in just a moment. Sean said last week that I struggled to land the plane. And that's true.
[00:08:48] So before we get to John 16, I think it's important for us to talk about this. That I think again, if I were to go around the room and ask various people, who is the Holy Spirit? What does he do?
[00:09:02] Why is the Holy Spirit relevant? We'd probably get a variety of answers. And I think Christians by and large kind of err, maybe sometimes myself included in one of two camps. Either in the camp of under emphasizing the person of the Holy Spirit, or in the camp of overemphasizing the person of the Holy Spirit. How can you overemphasize God? You would say, well, this is how. If you overemphasize or if you focus exclusively on one member of the Trinity, one person of the Trinity at the expense of the other two, the that you're missing the point that the Holy Spirit wasn't sent for his sake alone. The Holy Spirit exalts Christ. Christ exalts the Father. The Father loves the Son in the Spirit. This is why God is love, because God is Trinity.
[00:09:46] Does this make sense? And as Christians, this is what you and I by grace, are wrapped into. This loving union between the Father and the Son in the Spirit.
[00:09:56] Okay, so the Spirit is not primarily about himself. The Spirit is about Jesus.
[00:10:00] Jesus is not primarily about him himself. Jesus is about the Father. This is a glorious reality of who God is.
[00:10:09] And so whether we underemphasize the Spirit or we overemphasize the Spirit, we. We have to come to this biblical place of Recognizing who he is and why he came. Because if we fail to recognize or answer that question biblically, then we really miss out on the transformative power that the Spirit of God can bring into our life, that he came to bring into our life.
[00:10:33] So who is the Holy Spirit? Let's look at the text.
[00:10:36] We'll start in verse seven.
[00:10:37] This is Jesus.
[00:10:39] Jesus says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.
[00:10:49] He tells his followers, remember, he's talking to his disciples.
[00:10:52] It's to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.
[00:11:01] But if I go, I will send him to you.
[00:11:05] Like that statement in and of itself. We could just sit on and absorb, and it would be. It'd be wonderful.
[00:11:14] Jesus is saying to the disciples and to you and I that it is actually better for his bodily presence to go to heaven to be with the Father.
[00:11:25] And you have to think, if you're one of the disciples, like, that's impossible.
[00:11:30] The bodily presence of Jesus. We say this too, don't we? Sometimes. I've said it before, right?
[00:11:35] If I could only see Jesus, like, if I could just see him, then I would believe and I would do this, and I'd be bold and I'd be courageous and I'd have joy and, you know, all these kinds of things. But Jesus actually debunks that by saying, hey, it's actually better for me to go, because if I go, then I'll send my helper to you. And that's actually better for you.
[00:11:56] It's better for you, for the helper to come to you.
[00:12:02] I will send him to you. So who is this helper?
[00:12:07] Who is the Holy Spirit? This is our first question.
[00:12:10] Well, to answer that more robustly, more clearly, you have to go back to John 15. Okay, so we're in John 16, 7. But look back just a few verses to John 15, verses 26 and 27, and I'm just going to read them to you. So John 15, verses 26 and 27. Jesus says this as he introduces the helper, the Holy Spirit. He says, but when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father. He will bear witness about me. So let's say this collectively, together. Who did the Holy Spirit come to bear witness about?
[00:12:49] Jesus.
[00:12:51] He will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. So the Greek word used for helper is perkledos. This word could also mean comforter, advocate, counselor or companion.
[00:13:16] And so this helper, this comforter, this advocate, the first thing Jesus says about him is he says that he's the Spirit of truth.
[00:13:27] This is the first thing to note about the Holy Spirit. First of all, even before this, the Holy Spirit is sent from the Father and from the Son. The Holy Spirit is not created. The Holy Spirit is not a thing. The Holy Spirit is a person of the triune Godhead.
[00:13:44] The Father and the Son send the Spirit into the hearts of God's people and he's the Spirit of truth or the Spirit of testimony. But we'll say the Spirit of truth.
[00:13:56] The Father sent the Spirit to testify for His Son first thing.
[00:14:04] And the Father and the Son send the Spirit to the people of God to testify to the truth regarding the Son. So Sinclair Ferguson, in a really helpful book called the Holy Spirit says, in our Lord's culture.
[00:14:17] So this is first century culture. In our Lord's culture, trials were conducted not by lawyers acting for the prosecution and the defense, but by a judge eliciting the truth from witnesses who came forward for evidence. So this is Deuteronomy 17. This is what the Scriptures say. God says through Moses and Deuteronomy that somebody cannot be accused apart from the evidence of two to three witnesses. So this is where the word comes from. In such a context, the advocate or defense counsel sought by an accused person was not a highly trained professional, but someone who would vindicate him or her by telling the truth.
[00:14:56] Against this background, the Spirit, the Spirit of God is ideally suited to be the chief witness for Christ because he was the intimate companion of Jesus throughout his ministry. From womb to tomb to throne, the Spirit was the constant companion of the Son.
[00:15:17] So Jesus was conceived in and by the Holy Spirit, Jesus.
[00:15:23] We see the Spirit descend from heaven at the baptism of Jesus, anointing and empowering Jesus for gospel ministry, for his ministry to proclaim the kingdom of God that was coming, being inaugurated and through his person.
[00:15:38] The Spirit is with Jesus in the garden as Jesus prepares to suffer and die the death that you and I deserve. And the Spirit is present in the resurrection of Jesus as Jesus is raised he into newness of life. The Spirit was Jesus closest companion.
[00:15:53] The Spirit is the one who empowered Jesus for ministry. The Spirit is the one who led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan and who energized and animated and empowered Jesus to overcome those temptations by the enemy.
[00:16:07] So if we want to know what a life that's filled with the Spirit looks Like a life that's led by the Spirit, we look no further than the person of Jesus.
[00:16:18] Jesus life, Jesus ministry, his death, his resurrection. That's what life with the Spirit looks like.
[00:16:27] This is the fulfillment of Isaiah 42:1 in the Old Testament that talks of the coming Spirit or talks of the coming Messiah, who will be filled by the Spirit, says, behold my servant Jesus, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.
[00:16:43] I have put my Spirit upon him.
[00:16:46] He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. So the first thing to note about the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.
[00:16:56] He's the Spirit of truth. He's the empowerer for those who proclaim truth, namely the gospel through the word of God. He's the Spirit of truth.
[00:17:10] The second thing from John 15:26, 27 to take note of is that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.
[00:17:25] The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. Ferguson goes on to say, as a result, when he comes to Christians, the Holy Spirit comes to Christians to indwell them. He comes as the Spirit of Christ in such a way that to possess him is to possess Christ himself, just as to lack him is to lack Christ.
[00:17:51] So I understand this gets a little bit heady, but kind of stick with me for a moment because the hope is that this would be very comforting to you.
[00:17:59] John 14:18, Jesus says, so just before this passage, this all works together. You have to read the Bible. You have to read books of the Bible like this. Not in isolation, not verses in isolation. John 14:18, Jesus says to the disciples, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. I have always understood that text to mean the return of Jesus, but I don't think that's what it means.
[00:18:24] I think what Jesus is saying is, he's saying, hey, I'm not going to leave you as orphans. I'm. I'm actually going to come to you in the person of the Holy Spirit following the resurrection at Pentecost.
[00:18:35] I'm going to come. And so that means for us today in the room, all who have put their faith in Jesus. The presence of Christ actively and presently dwells in you.
[00:18:47] God dwells in you.
[00:18:52] That doesn't mean that you are some kind of deity.
[00:18:57] The Spirit of God, God himself, the Spirit of Jesus dwells in you. That you and I, by his grace might become more fully human, living the life that you and I were created and redeemed to live for the glory of God on this side of heaven until that day when we're without sin for the first time, I will not leave you as orphans. Jesus says, I will come to you.
[00:19:24] And he has.
[00:19:27] He's come to you. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. Romans 8, 9, 10 says this overtly.
[00:19:34] You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature. If you're a believer in Christ, you're controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit.
[00:19:45] If the Spirit of God lives in you and anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ, there's the phrase, he does not belong to Christ.
[00:19:57] But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
[00:20:09] So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ dwells in you. If you're a believer in Christ.
[00:20:19] And we know who the Spirit is and what he's like by looking to Jesus, in the same way that we know who the Father is and what he's like by looking to Jesus.
[00:20:30] Isn't that wonderful?
[00:20:32] We can open our Bibles and read what God is like. Like God. It wasn't enough for God to just create everything that's glorious in and of itself for us to know that he's there. Romans 1 says that we as people can look up into the skies, into the heavens, and say, there's a God, because look at the beauty of creation. Creation's marred by sin. It's filled with suffering.
[00:20:56] All of those things are true, yet it does not negate the reality that creation is still beautiful and that beauty testifies to the existence of God.
[00:21:05] So it wasn't enough for him to just create all things and say, here I am.
[00:21:11] I'm there, like God's there. But he spoke His Word, and even more gloriously and specifically, he spoke to us through His Son.
[00:21:20] And it's through Jesus that you and I see the Father. It's through Jesus that you and I see and know the Spirit.
[00:21:27] This is what the Spirit is like. This is what the Father is like. Jesus.
[00:21:33] So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus.
[00:21:40] But what did the Father and the Son send the Spirit to do? So now we get back to our text. Okay, so John 16, we've read verse seven. Now we're reading verses eight through 15.
[00:21:50] So the holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
[00:21:57] He is the Spirit of truth, and he's the Spirit of Jesus who lives in all who believe upon Jesus Christ for salvation.
[00:22:06] What did he come to do? What did the Father send Him to do? Look at verses 8 through 15.
[00:22:11] Jesus says, and when he comes, when the Helper comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment concerning sin, because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
[00:22:35] Jesus says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them. Now, when the Spirit of truth comes, there's that phrase again.
[00:22:41] 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 declare to you the things that are to come.
[00:22:52] He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
[00:23:00] All that the Father has is mine. Therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you again. This is just, glorious.
[00:23:10] He will take what is mine and declare it to you. So Jesus says the first. One of the most preeminent things that the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son to do in the world is to convict the Spirit convicts.
[00:23:29] He will convict the world. Jesus says, that's those who are far from God.
[00:23:36] He'll convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment. Because. And this is a great promise that I hope would just fill you with hope this morning that the ruler of this world has already been judged like Satan, the prince of the power of the air, according to Ephesians chapter 2, has already been defeated. He's a defeated enemy. Just like if you're a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, your sin, that indwelling sin that you hate so much that just weighs you down, that feels so discouraging. It's already been defeated.
[00:24:12] He's already canceled the record of death that stood against you by nailing it to the cross. That's Colossians 2.
[00:24:18] So the victory's already been won.
[00:24:20] Right? We've talked about this kind of transition that happened between D Day and V Day in World War II, right? Like, D, the battle had already been won for World War II. And so when the troops stormed the beach of Normandy, the battle had already technically been won. There was still a lot of casualties in the process between the time between those two days. But the battle had been won.
[00:24:39] It's not to say there won't be casualties on this side of heaven. It's not to say cancer won't become a reality in your life. It's not to say that you won't experience loss and I won't experience loss.
[00:24:48] And all of those kinds of things are realities in our life, living in a fallen world. But we do. We continue on from victory because Christ has already judged the ruler of this world.
[00:25:00] He's already defeated our sin, nailing it to the cross and solidifying that in the resurrection. So we don't fight for victory. We fight from victory. It's an amazing promise in this text. And he says that he sends the Spirit into the world to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment. Listen to what Oswald Chambers says about this work of the Spirit to convict.
[00:25:27] Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin.
[00:25:30] Okay? So I read that and I was like, I don't know. I know some things about conviction of sin. But listen to what he goes on to say. Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin. We know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things.
[00:25:43] So let me just pause, okay? We know what it's like to feel bad because we've done wrong things. That's called being fearful of consequences.
[00:25:52] Okay? So the consequences that come as a result of our bad decisions and our sin is really painful.
[00:25:59] And much of our remorse, not all, but much of our remorse is due to this fact that we just hate the consequences.
[00:26:10] We know it's wrong. We don't like the thing that it's wrong. But conviction, I think, is an even deeper thing than that.
[00:26:18] He says, we know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things. But conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost blots out every relationship on earth and leaves one relationship only against thee.
[00:26:32] The only have I sinned. That's from Psalm 51. When David commits adultery with Bathsheba, he tells God, God, I know I've hurt a lot of people.
[00:26:45] I've lost my son because of my sin.
[00:26:49] I've betrayed my nation.
[00:26:52] I've done all these things. But what disturbs me the most is that I've sinned against you.
[00:26:59] That's conviction.
[00:27:04] And this is what the Holy Spirit came to do.
[00:27:09] Not to lob accusations, not to accuse. That's what Satan does.
[00:27:16] But to convict or to convince deep in the inner recesses of the human heart that we've sinned against God.
[00:27:27] That the greatest problem, friends, that we have is that we've sinned against God.
[00:27:35] There's no greater problem in the world than that.
[00:27:38] There's no greater treason than that we've sinned against the holy God of the universe.
[00:27:48] We struggle so much with the reality of hell because we don't understand this reality.
[00:27:55] Hell is hard for us because we really don't think that we have that big of a problem.
[00:28:01] If you don't think you really have that big of a problem if you're a pretty good guy, of course you're not going to understand the reality of hell.
[00:28:08] Of course it's going to seem unfair to you.
[00:28:12] But the Holy Spirit came in grace and in mercy to pull us out of that falsehood and convince us into the inner recesses of our soul that we've sinned against God.
[00:28:29] And not to just leave us there, not to just convince us that we're sinners before a holy God, but to convince us that the righteousness of Christ, the life of Christ, the death of Christ on the cross, the resurrection of Christ from the dead, is enough to pay the penalty of our sin.
[00:28:52] The Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness.
[00:29:00] Because Jesus says, I go back to the Father.
[00:29:03] I've completed the work necessary for you to be reconciled to the Father forever, to be forgiven of all of your sin, to be cleansed of all of your unrighteousness.
[00:29:15] And so he comes to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment for the day to come. The ruler of this world has already been judged. And it's the spirit of God in us who convinces us, convicts us of the judgment to come by which Christians who are in Christ will not be condemned on the day of judgment. Praise God for that. If you're a Christian, life now is as bad as it's going to be for you.
[00:29:46] It only gets better as we await the return of Jesus.
[00:29:51] If you're not a Christian, the only heaven you'll ever experience, barring you turning from your sin and believing upon the Lord Jesus, is now.
[00:30:02] But if you are a Christian, the only hell you're ever going to experience is, is what you experience now.
[00:30:09] It only gets better as we await the return of our Lord. And it's the Spirit of God who convicts the world concerning sin, the righteousness of Christ and the judgment to come. So that's the first thing that he does, is the Holy Spirit convicts.
[00:30:25] The second thing. We've just got two more and then we're wrapping up, we're landing the plane.
[00:30:31] The second thing is the Holy Spirit illuminates.
[00:30:36] So the Holy Spirit convicts. The second is that the Holy Spirit illuminates. Look at verses 12 and 13, John 16, 12, 13. He says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
[00:30:52] When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.
[00:30:57] For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
[00:31:08] All right, Interpretive question. That's really, really important for us as we think about this passage. Who is the you that Jesus is referring to in that passage?
[00:31:19] Because here's what you and I do, okay? And it's a normal thing to do it, but it's a really good practice to learn not to do it, is that when we read the Bible, the first thing we do is say, what does this have to say to me?
[00:31:34] And so we insert ourself into the text and we say, well, the you is me.
[00:31:39] Right? But that doesn't make sense, does it? If you put yourself in the scene, like Jesus is talking over the disciples to you in the 21st century, okay, that doesn't. That's not the way that it worked. Jesus is in a room with actual people.
[00:31:52] He's looking at those actual people. He's teaching those. He's telling these people these 12 something.
[00:32:00] And so when Jesus says you, he's talking about them.
[00:32:03] That doesn't mean that it has no application for you and I, as we'll talk about in just a moment, but it does mean for you and I to arrive at, right, application of what this means. You have to first understand the context in which it's written and in which it's spoken. So Jesus tells his disciples in the first century that when the Spirit of truth comes again, this is when we get into the Book of Acts at Pentecost, when the Spirit of truth comes, he's going to guide you disciples into all the truth.
[00:32:36] For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears from the Father, from Jesus, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. The Spirit of God illuminated the minds and the hearts of the authors who wrote the New Testament.
[00:32:57] Okay?
[00:32:59] The authors of the New Testament were illuminated. They were inspired, they were empowered, they were spoken to, and they were led by the Spirit of God to write the Bible.
[00:33:12] And that's a glorious thing. That doesn't mean that the Spirit never continues to speak, as we'll talk about in a few weeks when we get into the very controversial topic of prophecy and what New Testament prophecy is and what we think it means, but what we do know and what you should know for certain and be able to walk out, because I hear this a lot as a pastor.
[00:33:32] People will say things like, I just wish I could hear God speak.
[00:33:37] Like, I Just wish I could hear his voice. I wish I could have an attunement to his voice the way that I hear other people do.
[00:33:43] People talk about hearing from God. They talk about hearing from the Spirit. They talk about, you know, all these. I just feel like I never do.
[00:33:51] And doesn't it just make everything in you want to come out and say, he has spoken to you.
[00:33:59] He has spoken to you.
[00:34:01] Like this book, man. I heard a pastor say this one time, and it's absolutely true of my life too. I became a Christian age 21, radically saved out of just total, total depravity, okay? Like absolute depravity.
[00:34:16] Saved by the grace of God, radically changed by Jesus, still continued to be radically changed by the grace of Jesus. And I heard this pastor one time say, jesus saved my soul and the Word saved my life. And I've always resonated with that.
[00:34:30] Don't allow yourself. Don't be tempted to devalue this book.
[00:34:36] This book contains the words of God Almighty, Creator God.
[00:34:43] This is the deepest book you'll ever read.
[00:34:47] It's the most profoundly penetrating book you'll ever read. It speaks to the human condition unlike any other book in the history of the world has ever spoken to the human condition.
[00:34:57] You're never going to master it.
[00:34:59] And if you think you have lovingly, brother sister, you should repent.
[00:35:06] I mean, I've got a master of divinity, okay? Like, this is the word of God.
[00:35:18] He spoke to his disciples, he told them what to say, and they wrote it down for us that we would know God and believe upon Jesus Christ and live by the power of the Spirit according to the truth.
[00:35:35] This book is truth inspired by the Spirit of truth.
[00:35:42] So the Spirit didn't just inspire the disciples, those who did write the New Testament, but the Spirit illuminates yours, your heart and mind, to believe it.
[00:35:53] Okay, the reason you're here this morning, whether you're a Christian or not, but especially if you're a Christian, the reason that you're here and that you desire the things of God at all is because the Spirit of God has illuminated your heart.
[00:36:06] That's why you're here. So it's as one Puritan said, that the slightest evidence of sanctification of your growth as a Christian is the surest sign of your adoption.
[00:36:16] Because apart from the Spirit of God living in you, man, you would just be an absolute mess. And you know it.
[00:36:23] So there's freedom in just admitting that. Yeah, I'm kind of a mess, like on my own.
[00:36:29] Not very impressive. And neither Are you? So you're in good company.
[00:36:34] Stop trying to pretend like you're better than you are, okay? And just rest in the fact that you're here because the Spirit of God has moved in you, has illuminated your heart to see the Bible and see it not just as truth, but as beautiful.
[00:36:48] That's what he came to do.
[00:36:50] He's the illuminating Spirit.
[00:36:54] And then the final thing, and then we will close on this is the Spirit exalts. This is verses 14 and 15. The spirit exalts, so the Spirit convicts. The Spirit illuminates and the Spirit exalts. Verses 14 and 15.
[00:37:11] Jesus says, he, that being the Spirit will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
[00:37:23] All that the Father has is mine.
[00:37:26] Therefore I said that he, the Spirit, will take what is mine and declare it to you.
[00:37:33] The Spirit of God was sent by the Father and by the Son to exalt Christ.
[00:37:40] This is what the Spirit does in our life.
[00:37:44] It's what he's doing in the world as he's continuing to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and, and judgment. He's doing it all for the glory and the exaltation of the Son to the glory and exaltation of the Father. This is what the Spirit came to do. So here's my closing question for you, what I want to encourage you to consider today, okay?
[00:38:05] If you're a Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus, let me just hopefully allow the truth of the Gospel to wash over you one more time. Jesus has already defeated your sin in Christ. You are blameless before the Father, adopted, loved, cherished, chosen, righteous before the Father.
[00:38:31] Your future could not be brighter if you're in Christ, because being in Christ means what happened to Christ will happen to you. And I being in Adam, which is the opposite of that, means what happened to Adam will happen to you.
[00:38:49] Adam was condemned. You too will be condemned if you're in Adam. You need to be rescued from being in Adam to being in Christ. And that only happens by grace, through faith in Jesus. And that invitation is available to you if you're here this morning and you're not a Christian. But for those who are in Christ, your future couldn't be brighter. You're loved, you're adopted, you're your chosen, your blameless, holy, glorious truths.
[00:39:15] So I want you to think about that and I want you to ask yourself, I want to encourage you to ask yourself this question, how much of your daily prayer for those of us who pray daily, and I Hope we're all learning to do this.
[00:39:29] How much of your daily prayer is about your circumstances?
[00:39:35] It's a good thing to pray for your circumstances.
[00:39:38] But is your prayer life disproportionately circumstantial?
[00:39:44] Hard things in my life, hard people in my life, maybe relationships, health, finances, good things. You should pray for these things. I want to be really clear about that.
[00:39:58] But is it disproportionately about these things?
[00:40:03] Question number one. Question number two is, is there ever a time in your day that you pray a prayer like this?
[00:40:10] Spirit, exalt Jesus in and through me.
[00:40:17] So if the greatest gift that God could ever give us is himself, and we believe this to be true, and Jesus says, I'm not going to leave you as orphans, I'm going to come to you. And that I'm coming to you means I'm going to come to you now in the person of the Holy Spirit. That's me in you.
[00:40:34] That's the greatest gift that God could ever give us is himself. And he has.
[00:40:39] How often do you and I pray prayers, not just of gratitude for that, but Spirit, exalt Jesus in my life.
[00:40:49] Exalt Jesus in me.
[00:40:54] Empower me and energize me to say, as the apostle Paul says, that Christ is preeminent.
[00:41:00] Even if I don't get the thing, whatever the thing is, Jesus, I want you to be enough for me.
[00:41:08] What about that prayer?
[00:41:12] Even if the promotion doesn't happen, even if the relationship isn't reconciled, even if, whatever. Whatever the case is, Jesus, I want you to be enough for me. Holy Spirit, exalt Jesus in me.
[00:41:26] Or Holy Spirit, exalt Jesus through me.
[00:41:33] Exalt Jesus through me. 2 Corinthians 2, 5, 15, 17 talks about this idea of the aroma of Christ being around Christians.
[00:41:47] I think a diagnostic question pertaining to this prayer of exalt Jesus through me is honestly asking yourself and maybe asking those who are close to you, hey, what's it like to be on the other side of the table for me?
[00:42:01] Like, what's that experience like?
[00:42:05] That's a hard one, isn't it? Yeah, nobody's. It's hard. I know it's hard for me. What's it like to be on the other side of me?
[00:42:12] Is the aroma of Christ and being on the other side of me. Do those two things go together at all?
[00:42:19] I mean, is your experience of me anything like the person of Jesus?
[00:42:26] Holy Spirit, exalt Jesus in me. Exalt Jesus through me. That my family and friends would sense and see something of the person of Jesus through me, though imperfectly, should be the desire of our heart that my fellow church members, church attenders, should see and sense something of the person of Jesus through me.
[00:42:49] My neighbors and co workers, especially those who aren't Christians, they're not going to agree with what you have to say.
[00:42:56] They might even hate what you have to say.
[00:42:59] But might they sense and see Jesus through me so that 1 Peter 2:12 would be in line with our life? Keep your conduct among Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, not if but when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
[00:43:21] So Holy Spirit, exalt Jesus in me.
[00:43:25] Holy Spirit, exalt Jesus through me to the glory of God. Might that be our prayer? So we're going to pray that now, and then we'll prepare for communion.
