The Spirit Will Guide You Into the Truth

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My name is Luther George. I'm a 9th grader at Oakland Tech and I'm in the youth group.

My name is Eli Gilbert. I'm an 8th grader at Claremont Middle School and I'm in the youth group.

A reading from the gospel according to John.

John 14 verses 16 through 18.

John 14:16–18

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. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him.

He lives with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.

Continuing with verses 25 through 26.

All this I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,

will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 15 verses 26 through 27.

John 15:26–27

When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who goes out from the Father,

he will test about me and you also must testify for you have been with me from the beginning.

John 16 verse 17 through 15.

Be very truly, I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.

Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.

About sin, because people do not believe in me.

About righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer.

And about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.

He will not speak on his own.

He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

All that belongs to the Father is mine.

That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.

He will glorify me.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Thanks to you, Lord Christ.

Thank you so much for that reading, Eli and Luther.

And good morning, Christ Church.

It's good to be with you.

And is it warm in here?

Could someone turn the heat down back there?

We're going to melt if it stays like this, or I am at least.

If you're a guest today and you're new at Christ Church, we're delighted to have you.

We'd love to meet with you after the service and connect with you over our coffee time.

I have three weeks until my sabbatical begins, so this is my moment to form a connection with you for a little while.

I will be here on April 17th, Easter Sunday, and then April 24th, which is a time when we'll celebrate our 16th birthday as a church.

It should be really fun.

As Andrew said, the mission of our church is to lead people into a deeper relationship with Christ and his church through community and for the city.

And part of that mission is that we don't really talk about sports here at this church.

Particularly, we don't talk about college basketball.

We especially don't talk about the Final Four, the Duke-UNC rivalry.

And if you're here to talk about that today, I don't want to talk to you because sports are dumb.

Sports are just dumb.

Okay.

All right.

Well, you can tell my team lost last night, so let's just get into the good news, shall we?

We're looking at the farewell discourse, the Gospel of John, chapters 14 to 17.

John 14 · chapter mention

And it's the upper room.

It's Thursday night before Jesus' Good Friday crucifixion.

And he's been saying to his disciples that he's going to leave them.

And the result is that they're full of trouble in their hearts.

Because they know that they can't continue the work that Jesus is entrusting to their hands unless Jesus is with them.

And without Jesus, the mission is going to be impossible.

And so they have sorrow in their hearts because if he leaves, we're totally helpless.

We don't have the power we need to carry out this ministry.

And so Jesus, in this discourse, he's anchoring them in something bigger than themselves.

He's anchoring them in the being of God and the heart of the triune God.

And so that's why in John 14, he's talking about his father.

In my father's house, there are many rooms.

And then in John 15, he's talking about the son, that I am the true vine and you are the branches.

And then in John 16, he begins talking about the Holy Spirit.

And this is really the most concentrated teaching we have from Jesus on the Holy Spirit in the four Gospels.

And Jesus is comforting these grieving disciples who are preparing for his departure by saying,

the spirit of truth is going to come and he's going to take my place.

And this is how I will continue to be with you, my disciples, during my time of physical absence from you.

So as we dive in to learn about this mysterious person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit,

I want to encourage you also to be thinking ahead to next week.

We have this congregational meeting.

And one of the things we're going to do in that meeting is nominate new elders and deacons for this church.

And, you know, as we think about what are the character and competency qualifications for somebody who's ordained to lead in the church,

there's a lot of ways to answer that question.

But surely part of the answer is that that person would be full of the Holy Spirit,

that they'd be a person who walks with the Holy Spirit and is led by the Holy Spirit

and bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit that we're going to be learning about.

So I want you to keep that in mind as well.

Well, what does Jesus teach us in the Farewell Discourse?

What we learn is that the Holy Spirit speaks about Jesus through the apostles to us and through us to the world.

The Holy Spirit speaks about Jesus through the apostles to us and through us to the world.

And I want to begin with the idea that the Holy Spirit speaks to us about Jesus.

You can look in chapter 14.

He lays some stuff down in chapters 14, 15, and then really unpacks it in chapter 16.

But chapter 14, verse 16, Jesus says,

I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth.

So first of all, the Spirit is a who and not a what.

The Spirit is a person and not an impersonal force or thing.

And as a person, he's an eternal person, not a created person who just kind of shows up here on the scene in the first century.

Jesus is talking about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who existed before creation

and has been related to one another in an eternal, unceasing outpouring of love, each with the other.

And so Jesus says, I'm going to send you another advocate.

I've been your advocate these three years.

I'm going to send you another advocate who's going to be just as helpful to you as I've been to you.

And then he says, if you turn to chapter 16, verse 7, Jesus says,

Very truly I tell you, it is for your good, it is to your advantage that I go away.

For unless I go away, the advocate cannot come.

But if I go away, I will send him to you.

Now that's a striking statement because if you're like me, you often think,

if only I could have been with Jesus, if only I could have seen his face or heard his voice,

if only I could have watched him feed the hungry and heal the sick and raise the dead,

if only I could have sat at his feet like Mary and leaned on his shoulder like John,

how could it possibly be better for Jesus to go away?

How could it possibly be more for us to have less of Jesus?

How could that be for our good?

Well, I want us to keep in mind that there were two limitations to Jesus' physical presence.

First of all, Jesus' presence was local, meaning that he could be separated from his disciples

and their fellowship could be interrupted.

If Jesus went down to Galilee or went down to Jerusalem, some of them stayed behind in Galilee.

If the disciples went out to fish on the sea and Jesus stayed on the land, they couldn't be together.

And if you think about it, if Jesus were still on earth today, we would not be able to get near him.

All the planes, all the ships, all the roads, they'd be packed and there'd be really, really long lines

and you'd be at the back of the line.

But what the Holy Spirit does is he universalizes the presence of Jesus

and makes Jesus available to every disciple in every church everywhere.

Pretty awesome.

Jesus' presence was local, but Jesus' presence was also external,

meaning that he was not able in his ministry to enter into the personalities of his disciples.

He wasn't able to change them from within to get into their thoughts and their passions

and their motives and their desires.

But we learn here that the Holy Spirit internalizes the presence of Jesus.

Jesus says the Spirit will be in you.

And this is why the apostles go on and on about this.

This is Ephesians 3.

It says Christ dwells by his Spirit in our hearts.

Or 1 Corinthians 6 says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

And what that means is that when congregations get together to worship,

Jesus is here in our midst by the Holy Spirit.

That when two or three disciples get together to pray,

Jesus is there in their midst by the Holy Spirit.

And that when you as a Christian are alone,

you're actually not alone because Jesus is with you by the Holy Spirit.

And that's why Jesus says it's to your advantage,

it's for your good that I'm going away to send you the Holy Spirit

because he's going to universalize my presence to the church and to every disciple.

They're going to have the internalized presence of Jesus.

Well, what does the Holy Spirit do when he's inside of us?

What is his ministry within us?

Well, let me just repeat a few of these verses we heard.

John 14, 26, Jesus says,

The Spirit of truth will teach you everything you need to know

by reminding you of everything I have said to you.

Chapter 15, verse 26, Jesus says,

The Spirit of truth will testify about me.

And then in chapter 16, verse 13, he says,

The Spirit of truth will guide you into all the truth,

speaking what he hears from me

and making known what he receives from me

and bringing glory to me.

So I like to think of the Holy Spirit as the floodlight.

When floodlighting is done well,

the lights are so subtly placed in front of a building

that you can't see the fixtures.

And it's meant for us to just be able to see the building

that the floodlights are illuminating.

So think about like the Campanile at Cal at night.

It's lit up at night, right?

You're not paying attention to the lights themselves,

but to the thing that's being lit.

And the Holy Spirit loves nothing more

than to light up Jesus Christ,

to illuminate Jesus.

Jesus says,

He will glorify me.

So the Holy Spirit is this self-effacing,

never advertising himself,

always glorifying Jesus person.

How do you know if you're in a Spirit-filled church

or with Spirit-filled Christians?

Well, because are they centered on Jesus

or are they centered on some other center?

That would be the way to answer that question.

Well, how does the Holy Spirit illuminate or glorify Jesus?

Jesus says five times,

He calls the Holy Spirit the paraclete.

Paraclete.

And that word in Greek means

one who comes alongside of us.

Sometimes it's translated as a helper,

a comforter,

an encourager,

a counselor.

It's one who comes alongside us

and brings us to Jesus.

And Jesus says three times

that this Spirit is the Spirit of truth

who will teach and testify and speak.

So that when the Holy Spirit comes

on the day of Pentecost,

we find Him to be a speaking Spirit,

a declaring Spirit,

a teaching Spirit.

And He will continue the teaching of Jesus

after His death,

His resurrection,

His ascension into heaven

where we can see Him no longer.

Jesus' teaching ministry

will be carried on by the Holy Spirit.

If you're familiar at all

with the Acts of the Apostles,

it's really a book

that's a theology

of the person and work

of the Holy Spirit.

And if you look at Acts chapter 2

Acts 2 · chapter mention

on the day of Pentecost,

what happens

is that tongues of fire

come to rest on the apostles.

And it's a vivid picture

of this speaking Spirit

who comes and touches

the lips of His church,

comes and touches

the organs of speech

of His disciples

so that the flame of Jesus

is resting on them

that the Spirit,

that Jesus might speak

by His Spirit

through His church.

And what happens

at Pentecost next

is that they all begin

to open their mouth.

And they all begin

to speak in different languages

about the wonderful works

of God done

in and through Jesus Christ.

What happens

on the day of Pentecost

when the Spirit comes?

The Apostle Peter

preaches a really long sermon.

Not a three-pointer,

a five-point sermon,

longer than any of you

could possibly bear

to listen to.

And what is that

Spirit-inspired sermon about?

It's about Jesus.

The Spirit is a calling,

beseeching,

entreating Spirit

who says things like this

in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

He says,

God has raised this Jesus

to life,

and God has made this Jesus

whom you crucified,

both Lord and Messiah.

Repent and be baptized,

every one of you,

in the name of Jesus Christ

for the forgiveness

of your sins.

That's what it sounds like

when the Holy Spirit

shows up and begins speaking.

So the Holy Spirit

speaks about Jesus.

But also the Holy Spirit

speaks about Jesus

through the apostles

to us.

The Holy Spirit speaks about Jesus

through the apostles

to us.

It's really important

to remember

that Jesus is not speaking

to us in this farewell discourse,

but that he's speaking

to these 11 apostles.

And he says again

in verse 26,

the advocate,

the Holy Spirit,

whom the Father

will send in my name

will teach you all things

and will remind you

of everything I have said

to you.

The Holy Spirit

will remind these apostles

of Jesus' teachings

that they've already heard.

And of course,

these apostles are human.

Their memories

are fallible.

Of course,

they don't have TVs

and smartphones

like we do,

so their attention spans

are far larger than ours.

And in their oral culture,

they had a capacity

to memorize

as far greater than ours.

In fact,

Jews in the first century

learned more by memory

than they did by manuscript.

And so we can be assured

that these apostles

had the capacity

to remember all the things

that Jesus did and said,

but we have even greater assurance

because the Holy Spirit,

it says,

came to remind them

and be teaching them.

And that assures us

of the accuracy

of all the things

that we have

in our New Testament.

That here,

in a special act of God

through the Holy Spirit,

He preserved

the unique teaching

of the supreme intelligence

who's ever visited

our planet.

The Holy Spirit

has given us

divine objective truth

in the New Testament.

And that's what Jesus

is teaching us here

in chapter 16,

verse 12.

He says,

I have much more

to say to you,

more than you can now bear.

There's a ton more teaching

you apostles need to hear,

but I know you can't

take it in.

I know you can't carry it.

I know it's too heavy

a burden tonight.

You could not possibly

assimilate it

to teach it to others

at this time

because your hearts

are so full

and so burdened

and so troubled

with the events

that are leading up

to my cross

tomorrow night.

But, Jesus says

in verse 13,

when He,

the Spirit of truth,

comes,

He will guide you

into all the truth

and He will speak,

He will not speak

on His own,

He will speak only

what He hears

and He will tell you

what is yet to come.

The Spirit will come

to bring the entire truth,

all the truth

that I taught you

and all the truth

that I wanted

to teach you,

all the truth

that God sent me

into the world

to teach you.

And the Holy Spirit,

when He comes,

He doesn't give

a new,

independent,

secret revelation.

The Holy Spirit

does not teach

a new gospel

that's different

from the doctrines

and the ethics

that Jesus taught.

We don't become

a Christian

and then learn

the gospel of Jesus

and then sometime later

learn the gospel

of the Holy Spirit.

It's all one thing.

Jesus says

He's going to hear,

He's going to speak

what He hears

from the Father

and the Son

and He's going to declare

to you

the things

that we find

in the gospels,

in the apostolic letters

and in the Acts

of the Apostles

and in the revelation

given to John,

all the stuff

that's in the New Testament.

And the question is,

can we trust

these writings

to tell us

the truth?

And I want to suggest

to you today

that if Jesus

gave the Holy Spirit

and the authority

of the Holy Spirit

to the apostles

to teach

and if He empowered

them with His Spirit

of truth

to nudge their minds

as to how Jesus

would be responding

to all the opportunities

and the challenges

of these new Christian communities

to which these letters

were being written,

then we have to give

those letters

final authority

in our lives.

We have to believe

those words

as words that are coming

straight to us

from the resurrected,

ascended Jesus Himself.

We are not at liberty

to selectively affirm words

that fit our own paradigms

and then to ignore

or even reject words

that we simply don't like.

You guys tracking with me?

So, the same thing applies

not only to the apostolic letters

but to the gospels

because these are the result

of the Holy Spirit

bringing to remembrance

all the things

that Jesus said

and all the things

that He did

climaxing

in His Good Friday

and Easter Sunday work.

And the Holy Spirit

doesn't just give us

this cold

and lifeless book.

What the Holy Spirit does

is He takes this firm word

of the scriptures

and He gives us

a fresh word

for our spirits.

When the Holy Spirit comes

we call upon Him

to teach us

through the New Testament

which is the end product

of the Spirit's work

in the apostles

and we ask the Holy Spirit

through this external

objective word

to give us an internal

subjective word

for our spirits.

And what we need

to hear today

the Holy Spirit

makes this Jesus

not just a historical figure

of the past

but a living contemporary

who speaks to us today.

The Holy Spirit

applies

the historical

revelation of Jesus

to our present experience

and He renders

the truth of Jesus

active and alive

in our hearts.

The Holy Spirit

interprets to us

the words

and the works

of Jesus

and takes what belongs

to Jesus

and makes it plain

to the church.

And that's how you know

the Holy Spirit's working

when that's happening

among us.

The Holy Spirit

doesn't just enable us

to look backward

to memories about Jesus.

The Holy Spirit

enables us

to look upward

at the living Christ

Himself

and to look forward

to the kingdom

in which

Jesus

is leading us.

So do you want

to know the Holy Spirit?

Do you want

to have a relationship

and experience

the power

of the Holy Spirit?

You've got to spend time

near the hot spots

of the Holy Spirit.

And the hot spot

is the scriptures

that the Spirit

produced.

The Spirit of God

produced the Word

of God

and you've got

to create

and develop

a daily discipline

to digest

those scriptures

and to make them

a part of your life.

A predictable pattern

for reading the Gospels

and the epistles

of the New Testament.

And when you do

to ask the Holy Spirit

to guide you

into the truth

that He's revealed

to illumine

and glorify Jesus

for you

and to enlighten

your mind

to understand it

because He knows

Jesus best

and He knows

you best

and He knows

how to take

what belongs

to Jesus

and make it

yours.

And we should be

saying to the Spirit

as we're reading

Spirit,

what do you want

to say to me?

What do you want

me to do?

What do you want

me to say

as a result

of what you're speaking?

And don't be surprised

if the Spirit

comes back to you

and says,

well, keep your eyes

fixed on Jesus

and see what a

capable,

competent Savior

He is for you

and trust Him.

Live for Him.

Don't let Him down.

Follow Him.

Serve Him

with all of your life.

That's the kind of stuff

the Spirit

says over

and over

and over

again

and as much

as possible

we should try

to read

the Word of God

created by the Spirit

of God

with the people

of God

because that's

again the hot spot

of where the Spirit

likes to show up

and do His work

on the world,

on the earth

and in the world.

The Holy Spirit

speaks about Jesus

and likes

no other topic

more than that one

and the Holy Spirit

speaks about Jesus

through the apostles

and really

no other organism

but that organ.

He speaks through

the apostles

to us

but finally

the Holy Spirit

not only speaks

through the apostles

to us about Jesus

but He speaks

through us

to the world

about Jesus.

Now I have much

more to say to you

more than you can

now bear.

This could be

a really long sermon

but I'll try

to keep it short

when the Holy Spirit

comes at Pentecost

we see Him

as a missionary spirit.

He's a witnessing spirit

and that's what Jesus

is telling us

in verse 8.

He says

when He

the Spirit

comes

He will prove

the world

to be in the wrong

about sin

and righteousness

and judgment.

The Spirit

is a powerful advocate

who goes

before the church

to bring the world

under conviction

and in bringing

the world

under conviction

to expose

the falsity

of the world's

most fundamental

ideas.

All people

everywhere

have ideas

about what's right

and what's wrong.

All people

everywhere

draw lines

to mark off

that which is good

from that which is bad

that which is true

from that which is false

that which is worthy

of honor

and that which is worthy

of condemnation

and Jesus is saying

the Holy Spirit

is going to come

do three things.

First of all

how do people

here where we live

how do they

answer that question

of what's most wrong

with the world?

What is the greatest

sin of the world?

And Jesus says

in verse 9

He says

the Spirit's going

to come

and prove the world

wrong about sin

because people

do not believe

in me.

The Holy Spirit

is going to show

that our rejection

and condemnation

of Jesus

was a failure

to respond

to the coming

of God

in the flesh.

The Holy Spirit

is going to come

and show

that the root

wrong in the world

is a refusal

to believe in Jesus.

A refusal

to trust

in God's Messiah

who was sent

to reveal

the Father's love

for the world.

The Holy Spirit

Jesus says

is going to come

and show

that this persistent

ongoing refusal

to believe

in the greatest

of all world realities

namely Jesus

is the greatest

of all wrongs.

That that is

the basic evil

out of which

all other evils

flow.

And then the second

thing the Spirit

is going to come

and do is

Jesus says

well how do people

around you

how do they answer

that question

of what's most

right in the world?

What is the reality

and the event

and the fact

that is the most

right thing

that's ever happened

in human history?

And Jesus says

in verse 10

the Spirit's going

to come

and He's going

to convict

the world

that it's wrong

about righteousness

because I'm going

to the Father

where you can see

me no longer.

The work of the Spirit

is to come

and show us

that Jesus' career

His life of obedience

to the Father

His crucifixion

to atone

for the world's sins

His resurrection

to conquer death

His going

to the Father

to rule

over all things

in heaven

that these

are the most

important

helpful

just

and right

deeds

that have ever

been done

for the world.

And you see

by the world's

understanding

of righteousness

Jesus was found

to be in the wrong.

The greatest

of all religions

the greatest

of all governments

at that time

said Jesus

is wrong

and they put Him

on a cross.

But in God's

higher tribunal

in the higher

law court

of God

Jesus was found

not to be

in the wrong

but to be

in the right.

And Jesus' cross

reveals

that the one

hanging there

is He is

the righteous

one of God.

And that by

His hanging there

He's won a victory

of the righteousness

of God

over human sin.

And that everybody

who places

their faith in Him

we share

in His status

of being people

who are not

in the wrong

but who are

in the right

with Him.

This is what

the Holy Spirit

does.

You want to know

the third thing

He does?

He convicts the world

that it's wrong

about what's wrong.

He convicts the world

that it's wrong

about what's right.

And then Jesus says

that you know

how do people

around you

answer this question

about who wins

in life's

great contest

between what's

right and what's

wrong.

Between sin

and righteousness.

Between just

and injustice.

Between good

and evil.

Who ultimately

wins?

And Jesus says

the Spirit

comes

in verse 11

and He convicts

the world

that it's wrong

about judgment

because the prince

of this world

now stands

condemned.

The prince

of this world

the evil one

the dark power

who enslaves

people and holds

people in bondage

that same power

that came to

condemn

and to destroy

Jesus

on His cross.

Well guess what?

The resurrection

the resurrected

Jesus

shows us

that the power

of that evil one

has been

definitively

broken

and that

He has been

dethroned

and that

that dark power

that prince

of this world

He has been

soundly judged

and condemned

so that all

those whom

He was

condemning

can be

set free

and all

those who

were in

bondage

can be

liberated

and have

a new

life.

That's what

the Holy

Spirit

comes

to show

us.

Sorry I've only

got a couple

more sermons

and then

I'll go on

sabbatical

you don't have

to put up

with my passion

too much

longer

but this

missionary

spirit

this witnessing

spirit

He convicts

the world

in order to

convert the

world

in these

three major

areas of

what's wrong

with the

world

what's right

with the

world

and who

ultimately

is judged

to be

victorious

and who

ultimately

is judged

to be

defeated

and Christ

Church

I just

want to

encourage you

today that

you have

this

missionary

spirit

that

residing

within

you

is

this

witnessing

spirit

that

the

holy

life-giving

spirit

of God

is in

you

that

according

to Romans

8

the one

who

the spirit

who raised

Christ

from the

dead

is living

in you

right

now

and that

through

your words

and your

works

through the

words and

works of

this

disciple

community

this

mighty

spirit

this

mighty

advocate

who

wants

to

bear

witness

to

Jesus

through

your

lives

and

through

what

you

do

and

what

you

say

this

mighty

spirit

wants

to

bear

witness

so

that

people

look

upon

this

hated

and

humiliated

one

on

his

cross

and

with

us

they

come

to

confess

actually

Jesus

is

Lord

the

Holy

Spirit

brings

the

power

of

God

and

the

truth

of

God

to

bear

so that

people

look at

Jesus

cross

of

shame

and

defeat

and

they

come

to

believe

with

us

actually

that

is

his throne

of glory

and victory

in this

world

the

spirit

of the

father

the

spirit

of

Jesus

the

spirit

of

truth

wants

wants

wants to

perform

his

own

miracles

in the

hearts

of

people

here

in the

bay

area

so that

they

are

brought

to

recognize

Jesus

as the

one

he

is

and

he

wants

to

perform

those

miracles

through

us

through

us

may it

be

so

the

holy

spirit

longs

to

speak

about

Jesus

through

the

apostles

to

us

and

through

us

to

the

world

may we

be

empowered

to

do

that

very

thing

in the

name

of

the

father

the

son

and

the

holy

spirit

amen