PASSION WEEK – Thursday Night
THE HOLY SPIRIT
No wonder sorrow has filled the disciples’ hearts. Jesus has just said, “I’m leaving. Oh, and you’re going to be kicked out of the synagogue and probably killed.”
Let’s put ourselves in their sandals. Their understanding of prophecy is that Messiah will come and restore Israel, annihilate the wicked, and usher in a global paradise. And Jesus has been preaching for over 3 years that the Kingdom of God IS near. And now He says He’s going away and… no kingdom? Where’s the kingdom He promised? What kind of deal is this?
This is the necessary part of salvation that was not on their Messiah BINGO card.
Jesus has to reveal a little bit more of the plan to them so that when it happens, they will understand that it’s not random. It HAS to happen.
And Jesus is not going to abandon them.
Enter: The Holy Spirit.
As we read the OT, we saw “the Spirit of the LORD” come upon men and women empowering them to prophesy, see visions, fight with supernatural skill, and other divinely enabled things.
We’ve read how the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary in the conception of Christ and filled John the Baptist and Elizabeth.
But the Holy Spirit has never stayed. He’s always been more like a guest, popping in to rest upon people. Now, Jesus says, the Comforter is coming to stay.
Who is this mysterious 3rd Person of the Trinity? And what does He do?
Oh, before we go any further, I hereby charge you to never, EVER again refer to the Holy Spirit as “it.” Also, I think that pronouns of deity should be capitalized so you will notice that when I write about “He” (the Holy Spirit) I use a capital H.
Let’s see if we can summarize what Jesus teaches about the Holy Spirit. We’ll start with…
His Name
“But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
John 16:7 LEB
Here’s the Greek word:
We learn a few things from this one verse.
- Jesus and The Holy Spirit are like a wrestling tag-team. They both are not in the ring at the same time. Jesus must go away in order to send the Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit is called The Advocate. This name explains what He does just as the name of Jesus (salvation) explains what He does. The Holy Spirit stands with us as our Friend, Defender, and Counselor.
- Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “Him.” This indicates a distinct personhood. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal “force” or an “it.” If Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “Him” I think we should too.
Conviction…
So, the Holy Spirit is the Advocate for the saints. But His role toward the unsaved is different.
“And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment:”
John 16:8 LEB
To convict means to tell a fault, to convince, to rebuke or admonish. It is to make someone aware of their flaws.
At Bible College we often heard this little maxim:
“You may be filled with the Holy Spirit, but you are not the Holy Spirit.”
You and I cannot convict the world of sin. Most people don’t exactly enjoy being told all of their flaws, nor would they receive such a rebuke from just about anyone. There have been people I wished I could shake some conviction into, but I can’t. I’m not the Holy Spirit.
I also have to sleep and eat and can only be in one place at a time. The Holy Spirit doesn’t sleep, doesn’t need food and can be everywhere and anywhen at once.
Jesus said the Holy Spirit convicts the world (rebukes and makes them aware of their flaws) in 3 ways:
- Sin – Unbelief is sin. The Holy Spirit makes a sinner know that it is wrong to not believe on Jesus.
- Righteousness – Jesus is going away. Somebody has to hold the standard of what is right and wrong in the world. And the Holy Spirit basically says, “I got you. I’ll do it.” The Holy Spirit makes a sinner know that it is wrong to be unrighteous.
- Judgement – Humans assumed the role of Judge when they believed the Serpent in Eden who told them “You can be like God knowing good and evil. You will get to decide and determine and judge for yourself what is good and what is evil. You will have your own truth.” Well guess what. The prince of this world who opened that can of worms – HE has now been judged as evil and knocked off his high horse (see Jn. 12:31). And there’s a new Sheriff in town who will decide what is good and what is evil. And the whole world will be judged by that righteous standard.
Unbelievers NEED the conviction of the Holy Spirit or they will never realize they need saving. When a sinner reads the Bible or hears the Gospel preached, the Holy Spirit makes his faults known to him. We call that “conviction” and you should pray that sinners’ hearts would be able to feel it. Conviction is that super uncomfortable feeling that makes the sinner aware that he isn’t right with God.
The problem is that sinners do not like this feeling because it gets very much in the way of enjoying sin and so some of them push the feeling away, refuse to hear preaching, and come up with all kinds of reasons why that feeling is bad and should be ignored. Unfortunately, some churches have agreed that sinners should not feel uncomfortable so they have abandoned preaching the clear Gospel and no longer tell sinners to “repent and believe the Gospel,” (Mk. 1:15). Beware of church practices based on making sinners feel comfortable. Sinners should feel loved, but not comfortable.
And even us saints should ask and invite the Holy Spirit to deal with us. He can make us uncomfortable too if we’re allowing beliefs, attitudes, or actions that hinder our growth, compromise our witness, or hurt others.
The Holy Spirit and Jesus…
The Holy Spirit NEVER draws attention to Himself.
“But when he—the Spirit of truth—comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will proclaim to you the things to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and will proclaim it to you.”
John 16:13-14 LEB
These words are crucial for determining if a message is truly from the Holy Spirit. Anyone can say (and honestly believe) that the Holy Spirit has spoken to them. But if what they teach does not agree with the rest of scripture, if it doesn’t glorify Jesus, it’s probably not the Holy Ghost.
A true, Holy Ghost anointing will always result in exalting Jesus.
People who fling coats and wax dramatic and declare “God says,” but do not mention Jesus or make Him the center of attention… we should be very wary of that.
THE FATHER LOVES YOU
I just love this text:
“On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
John 16:26-27 LEB
A lot of people equate God the Father with “the God of the Old Testament,” (as if the eternal Son – the Word – or the Holy Spirit were somehow missing from the Godhead prior to the NT.) And they view “the God of the Old Testament” as harsh and angry while Jesus is seen as kind and gentle.
Even some Christians imagine that the Father is angry and that Jesus (the favorite Son) basically stands before Dad and we hide behind His robes. And if we dared showed our faces we would get yelled at. So we tug on Jesus’ robe and ask Him if He would ask the Father for a favor.
And while it is true that our access to the Father is only through the Son, Jesus makes it clear that it’s not due to the Father’s anger. The Father LOVES you.
Who do you think sent the Son to save you?
CHAPTER 17 – THE PRAYER OF JESUS
This is sometimes called Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” because Jesus goes before the Father on behalf of believers like the high priest interceding on behalf of the people. And Jesus is our faithful High Priest. Jesus prays first a short prayer for Himself, then for His Disciples, and then… for us.
Jesus’ prayer for Himself…
- Jesus prays to be glorified so that He might glorify the Father
- Jesus reports that He has completed the work He was sent to do
Jesus’ prayer for the Disciples…
- In v6 Jesus says, “I have revealed your name to the men you gave me…” Jesus Himself has embodied and personified the Name of Yahweh. He has literally lived out the name of the LORD in actions.
- Petition 1: “keep them in your name which you have given to me…” To be in Christ is to be IN the name of the LORD. The name Jesus means “salvation.” This is a way of praying that the Disciples will be kept in salvation.
- Petition 2: “Protect them from the Evil One.” We know that Satan wants to sift Peter like wheat and that they will all be running and hiding very soon.
- Petition 3: “Sanctify them in your Truth – Your Word is Truth.” Sanctification making holy) is in Christ, see 1 Cor. 1:30
Jesus’ prayer for all Believers…
There haven’t been many places in the Bible so far where we could put our finger on a verse and say, that’s talking about ME! Sure, we can apply all scripture to our lives in some way, but most of it isn’t addressed specifically to future believers in the 21st century. This part, verses 20-26, includes us.
- “That they may be one…” In verse 11, Jesus prays that the Disciples would be kept in the Lord’s name SO THAT they would be one. And this one-ness is meant to be the same kind of one-ness shared by the Father and the Son. We recently did some unpacking of the God-head; how the Father, Son, and Spirit share the same Divine Essence but are still distinct Persons. The kind of unity Jesus prays for His Church is not a cult-like group-think where distinction of personhood is lost. Nor is it some mystical union where individuality is lost in some cosmic whole. You are you and I am me but we are both in Christ and have the same Divine Essence (The Holy Spirit) dwelling in us that brings us into agreement (if we will listen to Him).
- The result of real Christian unity is that the world will know that the Father sent the Son to save us all because He loves us.
- I say “real” Christian unity because there is a lot of fake unity out there. It’s just compromise that has been rebranded. We’re not meant to sacrifice truth on an altar labeled “unity.” Real unity is unity in Christ. As believers lay down self and personal preference and conform to Christ we all become more unified.
- “I want them to be where I am…” Jesus wants us to be with Him. This is the heart of a Bridegroom who does not want to be separated from His Bride.
There aren’t many prayer requests of Jesus recorded in scripture.
Can you imagine a heavenly prayer meeting, and the Father says, “Does anyone have any prayer requests?” And Jesus says, “Yeah. I have a couple of requests. I want all of those who believe on me to be united as one and I want them with me.”
Do you think Jesus gets His prayers answered?
