The Advent of the Spirit | John 14:15-16, 25-27 | Pastor Andrew Coleman | May 11, 2025

Indeed, he alone is the one who can give

us the rest that we need. Jesus said,

"Come to me all you who are weary and

heavy laden, and I will give you what?

Rest." That's what he says. If you would

take your Bible and turn with me to John

13 and 14 as well, we have a sermon

outline for you and some men are coming

to the for the front in order to hand

those out. If you're joining us online,

I would invite you to download those

notes from our website as we study the

word of

God. Last Easter, just three weeks ago,

we looked at the amazing resurrection.

We didn't only look at the resurrection,

we looked at that first Easter Sunday.

There was a few other things that

happened besides the women going first

and discovering the tomb empty. And then

Peter and John came. And then we read

those glorious pastor passage passages

where we see that Jesus truly was not in

the tomb. And there were there was the

declaration by angels that he is living.

He's not dead. And then we see that

beautiful Sunday where Jesus appears on

the road to Emmas. We studied that the

conversation that they had and then we

see that he appears that evening to

other disciples. What we started was a

little bit of a study of this time

period

postresurrection. Postresurrection. So I

want you to notice this little diagram

that I've made here for us today.

Passover, crucifixion, and resurrection.

You remember that Jesus was crucified as

a result of the Passover feast. This was

the critical timing that just as God had

passed over the the children of Israel

in Egypt and spared them from death as a

foretelling of his great salvation that

would come through the Messiah. Jesus

met for the last supper. He observed the

Passover. He was crucified and then he

rose again. What happens after that? We

lead up to the ascension. And then after

the Jesus Jesus spends time with his

disciples over those 40 days leading to

the ascension. He appears. He comes and

goes. The disciples are disturbed.

They're not sure what to think at first.

He has spent three years with us, but

now he's only here part of the time. and

he's we're starting to remember what he

has done. But what do we do now? Some of

them went back fishing. We studied that

even last week. And then it all leads up

to the feast of Pentecost. So they would

all return to Jerusalem for the feast of

Pentecost. That's 50 days later. And the

Holy Spirit comes upon the church. Now,

that's part of what we're really going

to look at over these next few days.

Notice this with me. Remember the

ascension happened 40 days after um

Passover and then the Pentecost, the

coming of the Holy Spirit at that Jewish

feast when they are gathered, the Holy

Spirit falls upon them and we see the

church begin to explode as many many

people are being brought to Christ. That

was at the pente means 50th or 50. And

so that was part of an Old Testament

feast. We're going to we're going to

look at that. But these these

appearances that Jesus was making is

part of where we've been studying. In

fact, remember with me that uh we looked

last week at Peter's two charcoal fires.

When was the first charcoal fire that

Peter um that Peter

experienced? When was the first charcoal

fire?

When he denied the Lord. He was there in

that courtyard where Jesus was being

held. And we we see these these horrific

sham trials that um are condemning the

Lord, declaring him an outlaw. And we

see that Peter was still there, but he

was fearful. And three times he denies

the Lord. And then we see a second

charcoal fire. And this is after the

resurrection. This is after Jesus has

gone back to the Sea of Galilee. And

there he is fishing and a great miracle

occurs. Jesus jumps out of the boat into

the water, swims to shore to see the

Lord that he had

denied. And we see at that charcoal fire

that the Lord gives him three

opportunities to say, "I love you,

Lord." And even though he couldn't meet

the Lord with the same level of

commitment and passion in those

statements, we studied that last week.

The Lord was saying, "Do you do you love

me like I love you?" And he's saying,

"Lord, I love you as a friend." And he

goes, "Do you love me like I love you?"

unconditionally. And he's saying, "Lord,

I love you as a friend." Because he

didn't want to lie. He had already he

had already denied the Lord. He had

already been the fraud. And he was

trying to be honest and he was just

saying, "I don't see how I can do it."

And so he kept saying, 'Lord, I I love

you with a fileo love, a brotherly

love. And then finally the Lord came

down and said, 'Okay, Peter, do you love

me like a friend? And he said, Lord, you

know I love you like a friend. So the

Lord came down to his level, met with

him. And why is it that Peter would

eventually change and have the power to

say, "Lord, I love you. I love you uncom

unreservedly.

I love you. I love you unconditionally.

I love you, Lord. I love you like you

love me. Eventually, Peter would say

that, but not at that

moment. What was the difference? Well,

the great difference is what we study

today. Can you read the sermon title

today? What does it say? The advent of

the Holy Spirit. On your outline there

with your pen, above the word advent,

write coming. C O M I N G. The coming of

the Holy Spirit that he comes to

us. You know, in

um in our Christian calendar, we

celebrate the advent of Christ's coming.

And we're going to see this morning that

we celebrate beyond that. But notice

here with me that we want to look at the

coming. Notice where it says intro. Can

we skip to the intro? Look down there at

the intro. Look what it says.

as Christmas and Easter focus on the

coming and work of Christ. So Christmas

and Easter focuses on the coming and the

work of Christ.

Pentecost focuses on the coming of what?

The Holy Spirit.

And so it is interesting that we give a

lot of attention to Christmas and

Easter and we give very little attention

to the feast of Pentecost when the Holy

Spirit fell on the church. The Holy

Spirit came and empowered them. Notice

this the first bullet point there. We

rightly celebrate the incarnation.

That's the birth of Christ. That's

Christmas. We rightly celebrate the

crucifixion and the resurrection of

Christ the Messiah. It's right that we

celebrate these things. Why? Because

look at the next bullet point. God's

salvation comes through, and this is

very important, the

vicarious substitutionary atonement. It

wasn't just that Jesus would die for

others, but he died for others in their

place. Vicarious means willing to go die

for others, but substitutionary means he

dies in their

place. And that's that's how he atones

for their sin. He makes them right with

God. And so a huge part this is how

people become Christians is because

Jesus goes to the cross in your place,

in my place. in this vicarious

substitutionary atonement is

accomplished through the virgin birth,

the sinless life, the sacrificial death,

the burial, and the victorious

resurrection of Jesus Christ. If

somebody were to say to you, "What did

Jesus do to save anyone?" If they were

to say, "What do Christians believe that

Jesus did?" That list should be on your

mind. The list should be on your mind.

He was born of a virgin which means that

the inherent sin nature was

broken. He was conceived of the Holy

Spirit. The virgin birth is an extremely

great doctrine that is key to the

mission of Jesus. Because the next thing

that you see there, he lived a what? A

sinless life. If he had been a sinner,

he could not pay for the sins of the

world. He would not be an appropriate

sacrifice. He would not be an acceptable

sacrifice. But he was the perfect,

literally the perfect sacrifice because

he lived a sinless life. And then he

died a sacrificial death instead of a

bull or a goat or a lamb being executed

for the representation of the bulls and

goats and lambs cannot pay for the sins

of humans. All of those bulls and goats

and lambs of the Old Testament law were

pointing to the perfect sacrifice of

Jesus the Messiah. And so we see this

sacrificial death finally happens. And

the Bible tells us that he was buried.

And then the Bible tells us that he was

raised to life by the power of God. And

this is the victorious resurrection that

overcomes sin and death. So if somebody

were to ask you, how did Jesus how did

Jesus pay for our sins? You would say,

well, he was born of a virgin. He lived

a perfect life. He died a sinful death

because as we'll see here, he took on

our sin. He was buried and he rose

again. And this is what God does to save

us from our sins. In fact, notice Isaiah

53:es 5-6. It says, "But he was pierced,

underline it, for our transgressions."

You see, he was crucified. He was

pierced for our transgressions. He was

crushed, underline it, for our

iniquities. It wasn't for no reason. God

had a plan. And then look at the next

line from verse 6. It says, "And the

Lord hath laid on him the iniquity or

the sin of us all." So he died in our

place. He took our deserved

wrath. Look at second 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 5:21

5:21.

God the Father made him Jesus God the

Son who had no

sin circle it to be sin. Jesus who had

no sin becomes sin for us so that in him

we might become the righteousness of

God. This is unimaginable when we think

about the character of God, the nature

of God, the sinless, holy God, taking on

our sin into

himself, paying for it in death, and

receiving the wrath for our sin. He

takes it upon himself, showing us that

he is the only hope. Look at First Peter

1 Peter 3:18

3:18. Christ also suffered once, what

does it say there? for sins. He suffered

for our You wonder why did they crucify

Jesus? Why did God do this? It was the

whole point was paying for our sins.

Look at what it says there. The

righteous, that's Jesus. The righteous

for the unrighteous. That's Andrew. Put

your name above

unrighteous. Put your name above

unrighteous. That's you. The righteous

for the

unrighteous. To for what purpose? Let's

read it out loud together. To bring you

to God. That was very weak. Look at what

it says. 1 Peter 3:8 says, "Christ also

1 Peter 3:8

suffered once for sins, the righteous

for the unrighteous." Read it out loud.

To bring you to God. Peter makes it so

clear. You see, this is later. Peter

writes this decades later. It's all come

together for him. He now fully

understands. In fact, we see that as

soon as the Holy Spirit falls on him,

and as we're going to study this over

the next few weeks, he preaches with

power this truth. The one who kept

mumbling about and bumbling about and

getting things wrong, the openmouth,

insert foot disciple finally starts

getting it right. And how does he have

the courage? And how does he have the

knowledge? How does he have the power to

get it right? It's through the coming of

the Holy

Spirit. Notice this, the next bullet

point. Throughout the Old Testament, the

promise of a saving Messiah is

prophesied. We study that in December.

We study that when we're leading up to

Christmas. The Messiah was going to

come. And we see all of those

prophecies. And this begins immediately

in the Old Testament. It begins

immediately after our fall into sin when

God curses the serpent and promises that

the offspring of the woman, right below

the word offspring, Messiah. This is

what that's referring to. All the way

back at the beginning of your Bible in

Genesis chapter 3, the plan is starting

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

to be seen. We fall into sin in Genesis

3 and immediately we see that God has a

solution for our problem of sin. So look

what it says there that he promises that

the offspring of the woman that's the

Messiah shall bruise your head and you

shall bruise his heel. So there's the

very first reference to the fact that

Jesus is going to come and he's going to

crush Satan and he's going to take the

sting of death into himself for our

salvation. Now those are all the

promises of a coming

Messiah. But what about the

promises of another person of the

Trinity, the coming of the Holy Spirit?

I want us to see here the persons of the

Godhead, the Trinity, fulfilling their

often distinct, fill it in, their

distinct

roles. Their distinct roles. The

Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit have

distinct roles. And as I've been

thinking about this a little bit, I

decided to go back and remind us of the

whole message of the Bible. Do you

remember the whole message of the Bible

can be delivered in four words? For

those of you who are new to us and you

haven't heard this before, this may be a

mind-blower for you. The entire message

of the Bible can be summarized in four

words that describe the key

issues. The first word is what?

Creation. God is the creator of all

things. He c where did we come from?

God, what did he do? He created all

things. How did he do it? By his word,

by his word he spoke and he created.

This is this is the ultimate power that

God speaks and out of nothing there is

something. And this is the greatest

explanation that everybody's trying to

figure out since time began. And God's

word clearly says at the beginning with

no uncertain terms. In the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth.

So God creates and and we see that not

only does God create but then we see

immediately we fall into sin. We rebel

against God and we see immediately in

Genesis 3:15 that God has a salvation

Genesis 3:15

plan and we see this redemption. And

then where does it all wind up when this

period of redemption is over and that

process is finished? We enter into

eternal glory when all things are going

to be made right. The whole Bible from

Genesis all the way to Revelation is

about creation, fall, redemption, glory.

The mass group of that is the redemption

story. The the the huge part of the

Bible, most everywhere you read in the

Bible is that God giving his law,

showing us we're sinners and that he is

holy and showing us that a Messiah is

going to be provided. And then we come

into the New Testament. The Messiah is

provided. And then we see the church,

God's people, going forward in faith by

the sacrifice of Christ. So creation,

fall, redemption, glory, and the trinity

is involved in all of these. You see,

the trinity

creates. We see in the very first words

in in Genesis chapter 1 that the spirit

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

hovers over the waters. And we see

Elohim, God, the the idea of God the

Father is there in creation speaking,

"Let there be light and there was light.

Let there be the heavens and the earth.

Let there be separation of the waters."

And then we also see man falls into sin.

Now, what's the key actor there? Satan

comes and tempts and we rebel. And when

we fall into sin, the father

curses both Satan and the man. And we

see that this curse comes. Then there is

the redemption. The father gives the son

key part here of what the son does. The

father gives the son to what? Do you see

what it says there? The father gives the

son to what?

Pay for sin.

The father and the son send the spirit.

That's part of what we're focusing on

now. And the spirit comes and convicts

and gives faith. That's what we see that

the father, son, and spirit working in

perfect harmony for this purpose. Notice

the glory that is here. The son returns

to judge and to reign. The father it

says has the heavenly father the god the

father has given over judgment to the

son. He has honored the son perfectly

honoring the son. The son judges the

world concerning righteousness and

reigns on high. And the trinity raises

from the dead. Both father son and

spirit raised from the dead. We see

various passages that show us that. And

the Trinity makes all things new. At

different points, we see that different

members of the Godhead do

this. These are important truths as

we're going to see that we often have

forgotten, that we've often have been

confused by. There's many of you, this

is the first sermon that you've really

ever

heard

explaining one, the Trinity or two, the

Holy

Spirit. I want you to notice a few

things here before we forget

them. The Bible presents the one and

only God of the universe as Filidin 3 in

one. The Bible

presents God as three in

one. What do we mean by that? Go to the

next one. One God in three. Two key

words in three divine

persons. So these aren't just persons.

These are divine persons. These persons

are

God. So this isn't three different gods.

It's one God in three

persons. Now notice the next one. These

exist both in perfect

harmony and perfect unity. It's not just

that they are together, but they also

have distinct roles. So they complement

one another. Okay, Kulvin Pinkerton

usually makes fun of me when I do this,

but for the first five years that I was

teaching here and we were going through

the Gospel of John, I spent a lot of

time dealing with the Trinity because

the Gospel of John deals with the

Trinity and the Gospel of God John helps

us to

understand Jesus as God. God the Father

sending God the Son with the power of

the Holy Spirit into accomplish the

Father and the Son and the Spirit's

will. This is the beautiful picture of

God three in one carrying out his plan.

And we begin to see, listen to this, who

God

is. You see, notice the next one here.

The Trinity reveals that God's very

essence, this is who he is, is big one

right here,

relational. Fill that in. He is

relational. And not only is he

relational, but he's holy and that he is

also loving. First John tells us that

God is love. That everything he does is

motivated by love. So, it's not just

that he's great. It's not just that he's

powerful. It's not just that he's holy,

but it's also that he is loving. You

see, if he wasn't loving, then

everything else would simply be

terrifying. But because he is loving,

it's what motivates everything. John

John 3:16

3:16 says, "For God so loved the world

that he what? He gave his only son that

whosoever would believe in him would not

perish but have everlasting life." This

is the amazing gospel. to this God. We

see father, son, and spirit. Everybody

take your hands and kind of go like

this. Father, son, and spirit. All

right, you're you're starting to see

they're they're one, but it's father,

son, and

spirit. He get we we see that he is

relational in his being in who he is.

And he made us in his image. This is why

we are relational beings as

well. Notice this as well. Our minds are

finite. The nature of the trinity is

infinite. That means we are limited. He

is

unlimited. Friends, I believe that when

we get to

heaven, we will never fully comprehend

who God is because we're not God.

There's only one who fully comprehends

himself. Now we are we've been told that

we will know as we are known. We are

told that we are going to grow in in

appreciation and worship and the glory

of God. There's there's no doubt about

that. But friends, he is beyond what we

are capable of

understanding. And so when people are

confused about the Trinity and they're

struggling with the Trinity and they

think that something's wrong, you can

look at them and say, "No, no, it's

okay. It's all right for you to be a

little confused by

that. The Lord has given us much to hear

and much to learn about him. And what we

need to know, we know. But if you try to

figure out every way in which Jesus is

both man and Jesus is God, one in the

same, we we

we can't fully explain

that. It's just like this word that's in

front of you. how this is is explained

as being both the word of God written

through 40 different authors that God

through his Holy Spirit inspired to do.

This is both the word of God and the

word of man because God used men to

write it. That's what he did. It's

clearly what he did. We see this about

many different aspects of the Christian

life. And here we see that our minds are

finite and the nature of the trinity is

infinite. Notice the next one. Though we

cannot fully comprehend what is revealed

about the nature of the trinity, we can

certainly believe what has been revealed

by the nature of the trinity. You may

not fully understand it, but you can

certainly believe it. Now, how would we

relate that to life?

How many of you rode in a car to get

here today? Anybody ride in a car to get

here today? I would say 98% of the

people in this room rode in a car to get

here today. How many of

you are a chemist, an

engineer, a mechanical engineer, a

metallurgist, a a design engineer? How

many of you fully understand everything

about how a car

works? Almost none of you. In fact,

there are even scientists that would

say, "Well, there are principles at play

both in physics or in metallurgy or in

other things that have to do with the

design and with the function of a

vehicle that we don't even know exactly

all the reasons why it works the way it

works. But we just know that this is the

case and it will work." You see, we

don't know everything, but yet we trust

it and we use it.

You believe that the car will safely get

you to the church and so you get in the

car and you ride to the church based

upon what you know it is able to do what

it needs to do and you're able to

experience the benefit of that. Well,

that's very similar to things about God.

You may not fully understand all about

the intricacies of how God works and

what he does. But here's what you can

know that God knows what he's doing.

He's told you what you need to know.

He's told you that he is father, son,

and spirit. and he's told you that they

work together. He's told you that they

are one. And he's told you that if you

will come to him that you will in no

wise be cast out. This is amazing truth.

That's what you need to know. And so

this is notice the last one here. When

it comes to the Holy

Spirit, there is a great danger. There's

a great danger. We see specific

scriptures on all four of these that we

are not to blasphe the Holy Spirit to

grieve the Holy Spirit to deny the Holy

Spirit or fill it in. Seek to use the

Holy Spirit. Now before you turn the

page over, I want you to look at those

four very carefully.

In fact, in Matthew, there is a

disturbing verse about this that the

Lord Jesus when he's speaking of the

Holy Spirit, and we'll we'll go into it

more later, but Jesus says this. He

says, "You know

what? You can mess with

me. You can deny me. You can blaspheme

me. And depending on how things go and

if you repent and everything else, you

can be forgiven.

But if you blasphe the Holy

Spirit, that is an eternal

sin that will never be forgiven. You

know what that

means? That means you're cut off from

God forever because God accepts no

sin. This is a very, very sober passage.

G. Campbell Morgan spoke of this passage

and he said this is so

sobering that it can cause great fear in

the sitting and reading of

it. We should think very carefully when

we see Jesus's own words warning us

about what we do with the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, there have been many who have

blasphemed the Holy Spirit. There have

been many who have grieved the Holy

Spirit. There have been many who have

denied the Holy Spirit. And yes, in this

present day and time, there are many who

seek to

use the Holy Spirit for their own

gain. And that doesn't have to be the

preacher on television with a $5,000

suit and $150,000 car and a $24 million

jet.

It can be someone sitting in this

room that as we seek to manipulate and

use the Holy Spirit for our own gain,

that is of great, great concern. I want

you to look at the top of the page and I

just want you to see what kicks all of

this off. Look at the top of the page in

John chapter 4, not page two, page one.

John 4 · chapter mention

Look at page one, the box on the top of

the page.

This is the night before Jesus would be

crucified. We already see that he has

set the example in John chapter 13 by

John 13 · chapter mention

washing their

feet. And this room, this is called the

upper room discourse. Look at the screen

in front of you. This is called the

upper room discourse. And it starts off

in John 13 when Jesus washes their feet.

And there in the middle of that, Jesus

calls out Judas and he sends Judas out

of the room to go finish his work of

betrayal. And so Judas leaves the room

to go and get the Roman soldiers and the

Pharisees. And Jesus goes on from there

after he leaves into a long discourse.

It's a long time of teaching. It's a

beautiful, glorious time of teaching

where Jesus is saying to them, I'm

leaving. They are going to crucify me.

I'm going to

die. It the time has come. This is it.

It's happening now. I've told you

before. You didn't understand, but now

it's happening. And you can imagine the

guys are sitting there with food in

their mouth looking at

Jesus. It's happening

now. What does this mean? And you

remember with me, it's also in that ver

in chapter 13 where Peter says, "Lord,

not

me. I'll not deny you. I'll not leave

you." And what did the Lord say to him?

Peter, before the cockrows, tomorrow

morning you will have denied me three

times. So they're sitting there whlaid

by this

information. They're shocked. And Jesus

is saying, "Oh, there's so much for you

to hear right now." And he begins to

talk about the father and the

son. And he also talks about the spirit

who is going to

come. Just a glimpse of those several

chapters that are there. Look with me in

the box on the top of the page. John

John 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14 and verse 15 and 16. Jesus

says this. If you love me, you will

what?

Keep my commandments. Verse 16.

I will ask the father and he will give

you another helper to be with you what?

Forever even the spirit of truth whom

the world cannot receive because it

neither sees him nor knows him. You know

him for he dwells with you. And then

notice

this in the future he will be. You see,

that's a future tense. He will be where?

In you. In you. Now, for those of you

who are new to the study of the Bible,

here's what we need. What we're going to

start to see, and this is very, very

important, and this this will start to

make more sense. In the Old Testament,

the believers by and large did not have

the Holy Spirit living within them. At

different times, the Holy Spirit would

touch down on different individuals. And

we can read about what God was doing in

their lives. But it wasn't a given that

all of those who had faith in God had

the spirit of

God. And even the disciples, part of the

reason that they got it wrong so many

times, part of the reason they were

tired and didn't stay awake and pray,

and part of the reason that they would

ask really dumb questions or make really

stupid statements or sidestep on a

regular basis was that they had Jesus,

but they didn't yet have his Holy

Spirit doing all that his Holy Spirit

would do.

And this is part of the reason that

Peter, when Jesus was asking him, Peter,

do you love me unconditionally? He's

saying, 'Lord, I love you as a

friend because I know I can't love you

unconditionally. I've already I've

proved it over and over again, and I've

failed you. I cannot claim

that because he didn't have the Holy

Spirit living in him. And so this this

passage verse 17 is really really

beautiful and it's really specific and I

want you to see this. You know him. Look

at the end of verse 17. You know him for

he dwells with you. The idea is he's in

the same room with you. He's around

you. And then and that's in the present

by the way. He dwells with you and he

will be in you.

Look at verse 25. We skip down to verse

25. These things I have spoken to you

while I am still with you. See, Jesus is

about to leave. He's about to be

crucified and then he'll show up for

about 40 days. And then he's going to

send to the father.

Gone. Verse 25. These things I have

spoken to you while I am still with you.

Verse 26, but the helper and clarifies

the Holy Spirit whom the Father will

send in my name, he will teach you all

things and bring to your

remembrance all that I have said to you.

You see, the reason you have Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John, and the reason you

have the letters of the of the New

Testament that tell about Jesus and the

things that he said is because the Holy

Spirit was divinely inspiring those men

to

remember what God had done and what God

had said when he was here in the person

of the Son. Look what it says. And bring

them into remembrance all that I've said

to you. And then I love this verse 27.

Can you read verse 27 aloud? Because

this is really, really important. This

is the heart of Christ for his disciples

in the midst of all their questions, in

the midst of all of their

angst. Notice this verse 27. Let's read

it out loud. Peace I leave with you. My

peace I give to you. Not as the world

gives do I give to you. Let not your

hearts be troubled, neither let them be

afraid.

Wow. Now, the other chapters that are

there are absolutely essential for us in

this day and time because they were

essential for the disciples in that day

and time. And listen to this. Do you

know that in those other chapters, we

also see that Jesus has us in mind? When

he says all of these things, he has us

in mind. How do we know that? In John

17, a few chapters later, when Jesus is

praying to the father, it's called the

high priestly prayer, praying for us

before he goes to the cross, praying for

for the disciples. He says, "And father,

I pray for not only these, but also for

all of those who will believe on account

of them." The idea is all of us.

Everybody who will come to have faith in

Jesus Christ. everyone who will be

incorporated and folded into the

generations after generations, the

centuries, the millennia of the church,

we see that Jesus had us in

mind. And so these words of awareness

and these words of comfort are for us.

If you can flip the page and just kind

of notice this. And I and I've outlined

these because we make such a big deal of

the prophecies of Jesus coming the first

time. We make such a big deal of the

coming of the birth of Christ and we

look back through the Old Testament and

we see all the prophecies of that

Messiah will be prophesied to come. But

you know, sometimes we haven't paid

attention to the prophecies of the Old

Testament that say that the spirit will

come. And we should do that. And these

are just three areas of scripture. There

are many, many more. I want you to see

Joel 2 28- 29. And it shall come to pass

afterward that I will pour out what? My

spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your

daughters shall prophesy. Your old men

shall dream dreams and your young men

shall see visions. Even on the male and

female stance in servants in those days

I will pour out my spirit. Now this is

prophesied several hundred years before

Peter would stand up and preach and

basically declare and reference the Holy

Spirit has

come. the fulfillment of this prophecy

at Pentecost and then in the days

following Pentecost. Look at Ezekiel 36

26- 27. And I will give you a what?

A new heart and a new spirit I will put

within you. So he's going to change your

attitude. And that appropriately is a

little s as in your mindset or your

attitude. How does he change your

mindset or your attitude? Look what it

says. And I will remove the heart of

stone from your flesh and give you a

heart of what? Of flesh. Instead of

having a hard heart, I'm going to give

you a heart that's

alive. Verse 27. And I will put what? my

spirit within

you and cause you to walk in my statutes

and be careful to obey my rules. We're

going to say this over and over again.

And part of what I I hope we gain out of

these weeks is that for those of you who

have started to say, "Golly, I've been

coming. I've been learning. I've been

trying to figure all this out and I've

been listening to you guys talk about

the gospel. and listen to you guys talk

about Christian life and I'm I'm just

not sure I've got this and in fact I if

you only knew what I did this week if

you only knew how how much I failed and

how much I'm not like you guys. We hear

this on a regular

basis. I would just look at you and say

you're right. Some of you you really

don't have

it. Can I just

say none of us have it.

None of us can do

this if we're trying to be you. You

heard Christine say, "I was trying to be

Christian. I was trying with all my

might to go to church and be a good

person, be kind to people. I was trying

to have a good

heart." But what this indicates to us is

that the second or excuse me, the third

person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit

is going to be given to us. And the Holy

Spirit, look what he says in verse 27.

and I will put my spirit within you and

then look at this and cause

you to walk in my statutes and be

careful to obey my rules. You see, you

can't live the Christian life on your

own. You have to have the power of the

Holy Spirit within you. And the only way

that you get the power of the Holy

Spirit within you is by coming to Jesus

and having your sins washed away, your

heart washed clean, and the Holy Spirit

comes and he does a new thing in

you. This is the way we live the

Christian life. This is the way we stop

losing it with our wife or losing it

with our husband or losing it with our

kids. This is the way we start to have

control of our spending. This is the way

we start to give generously. This is the

way we start to stop porn. This is the

way we start to have a pure mind and a

pure heart. He comes and he gives us a

new heart. He changes our priorities. He

changes our habits. He gives power over

food and Hallmark movies and James Bond

movies and everything else. all the

things that you can't ever seem to

overcome. You say, "What's wrong with

Hallmark movies?" Well, you know, I

don't

know. If they have more influence on you

than God's word does, there's probably a

problem. All the things of the world

that seek to crowd out God in our lives,

the Holy Spirit is the one who can make

the things that seem so impossible to

change to

change. Look at Ezekiel 37 and:e14.

And I will put my spirit wherein you

within you. And then look what it says.

And you shall

live. Really live. Right above that.

John

John 10:10

10:10. You see Jesus said, "I came that

you might have life and might have it

abundantly." And that which opens the

door for the power of the Holy Spirit

and the joy of life to come into you is

through the cleansing of Jesus Christ.

And when he cleanses you, you get the

Holy Spirit. And so, look what it says.

The spirit is going to be given to you

and you shall live and I will place you

in your own land. Then you shall know

that I am the Lord. I have spoken and I

will do it, declares the

Lord. So, these are prophecies saying

the Holy Spirit is going to come. And

he's not only going to come at

Pentecost, but he's also going to come

when we come to the end of this present

age. We see that the spirit's power is

going to be working and moving. Part of

these prophecies, like we've often seen,

have multiple trajectories in which they

are accomplished. Sometimes they're at

the present moment. Sometimes they were

even before Messiah came. At times in

the Old Testament, but then we also see

God's plan unfolding and all of these

promises having multi-phase prophecy

coming to fruition. And especially when

we come to the final judgment and the

glory of eternal life, God's spirit

rules and reigns in a completely

unfettered way. Look at Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 43 · chapter mention

43 and verse three. I love

this. For I will pour water on the

thirsty land and streams on the dry

ground. And I will put And this is

talking about not just desert land. This

is talking about spiritual desert. It's

talking about spiritual

deadness. I will pour water on the

thirsty land and streams on the dry

ground. I will pour my spirit upon your

offering and my blessing upon your

descendants. And they shall spring up

among the grass like willows by flowing

streams. So they're going to spring up

like just like the willows that grow by

the

river. Look at verse five.

This one will say, "I am the Lord's."

And another one will call on the name of

Jacob. And another one will write on his

hand, "The Lord's" and name himself by

the name of Israel. So those who

struggled with God like Jacob and

Israel, those who came and God dealt

with them and they dealt with God, they

are going to be coming to faith in

Messiah and they will become God's

people. Jesus promises that the Holy

Spirit will come. We've seen it already.

John 14:16 and 17. Look what it says.

John 14:16

And I will ask the Father and he will

give you another helper to be with you

forever. Verse 17, even the spirit of

truth, which the world cannot receive

because it neither sees him nor knows

him, you know him, for he dwells with

you and will be in you. What about John

16? So, a couple of um minutes later as

Jesus is teaching, he circles back on

it. He wants the disciples to know this

is in that same upper room teaching

time, that that time of great assurance

to them. Look in verse 17. Nevertheless,

I tell you the truth. It is to your

advantage that I go away. For if I do

not go away, the helper will not come to

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

you. So in one place we see the father

is sending the spirit. Here we see the

son is sending the spirit. The trinity

is working in perfect

harmony. Verse 13, when the spirit of

truth comes, he will guide you into all

the 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. That's his

role. His role is to amplify the truth

from the father and the

son. Each one in the trinity has certain

roles, but they are all unified working

together. And so this is why Peter and

this is why Paul and this is why others

who were at one time wrong can be

knowing the truth and being the right.

You know this is why when you look at

this, he will guide you into all truth.

I many times have heard people in this

congregation say

this. You know, I used to read the

Bible and I was totally

confused. I used to read the Bible and I

understood nothing. Absolutely nothing.

In fact, I would read and I've I've

heard people say, "I powered through the

whole Bible." Now, that's an

accomplishment.

I but I I didn't understand. But when I

became a Christian, when I when Jesus

washed my sins away and he changed my

heart and I started to see, it's

amazing. I've discovered that if I'll

read a little bit, I will be absolutely

blown away at what all God has

done. God has done a great and mighty

work.

Look at Acts 1:es 4 and 5. Look what it

says down there. And while staying with

them, he ordered them not to depart from

Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise

of the father, which he said, you heard

from me. For John baptized with water,

but you underline it will be, you will

be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And

then how when not many days from now,

pretty specific.

So Jesus was very specific about the

fact that they will

be experiencing his great

glory. Now this morning I'm going to

skip that section that says what why has

the reality of the Holy Spirit often

been neglected? Um I'll probably cover

that Wednesday night, but I want you to

skip down to the bottom of page three. I

want you to see some

blessings. What are the blessings of

recognizing the presence and the work of

the Holy Spirit? Number

one, understanding God's grace in our

salvation through the spirit's work in

us. When the spirit has worked in your

heart and you start to see that you're a

sinner and he's a savior and he changes

your heart, he gives you the faith to

believe. It is amazing. The tremendous

blessing. This is why we should

recognize it is God's grace through the

Holy Spirit that draws us to him. Number

two, discovering the power to live the

Christian life. That's what I was just

talking about. You can't live the

Christian life on your own. You have to

have God's help. And that's exactly what

Jesus was saying in John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

Without me, you can do nothing. He

wasn't just talking about God the Son.

He's talking about God and in this case

in this day and time obviously God the

spirit. How about number

three? Experiencing the comfort of God's

presence at all

times. Didn't we just read that Jesus

said, "Be at peace. I'm going to be with

you." I mean, when your boss goes nuts

and the pressure is on you and you think

this is over and I'm not going to be

able to make my mortgage payment and

what's going to happen next. And this is

this is when the Lord is saying, "I got

it. Look at me right now. Be with you. I

you know, I'm bigger than your mortgage

payment. I'm bigger than the cancer. I'm

bigger than the slurred speech of your

13-year-old.

I'm bigger than whatever you have if you

will rest in me and let my spirit rest

in

you. You will have the peace that the

world cannot

give. Jesus said, "The world gives a

peace that will not last. I give a peace

that is eternal." That comes through the

spirit. Look at number four.

We have the blessing of knowing that God

is at work in ways that we that cannot

be seen or fully

understood. He is at work in your life.

He is at work in every circumstance. And

by the power of his spirit, he does what

he is going to do. So here's my question

for you and notice these. How can these

strengthen? This is a good discussion

for you this afternoon or time of

meditation for you. How can these truths

strengthen your love for it, your faith

in your

obedience to

God? Would you stand with me for prayer?

Father, I thank you this morning that

you know exactly what we need to know.

And through the power of your

word, we learn of not only the Messiah

who would pay for our sins, but we learn

of the Spirit who would convict us of

the truth that we are sinners and that

we need a savior.

Father, thank you for giving us all

things pertaining to life and godliness

through

Jesus. And thank you for your

spirit who comes and gives us light to

believe. And father, I pray for my

brothers and sisters here today. I pray

that those of you who have those of who

have not yet come to faith in Christ and

realizing that he is the Messiah, Lord,

I pray that

today that they would repent of their

sins and cast themselves

upon faith in

Christ. And for those of us who have

been trying to kind of do things on our

own little Christian strength, our own

power, going through the

motions, Lord, I pray that you'd begin

doing a new work in us to jolt us free

from that and help us to

look at the great

dynamic of your spirit's work in our

lives, Lord. that we would not do things

just based upon

sight, but we would begin to live based

upon

faith in

you. So Lord, thank you in the wonderful

name of Jesus. We thank you for this

word. Amen.