But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6
But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7
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. 8
And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9
concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11
concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.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. 14
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15
All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The Holy Spirit has come to convict us regarding sin, righteousness and judgment. We also see that in verse 14 the Spirit comes to direct all attention and glory to
Jesus Christ, the Savior of Sinners. He will bring glory to me…Jesus says. All the attention of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to be directed to Jesus. The Spirit causes Christ to be the focal point of everything!The Spirit desires that nothing
should divert the souls’ gaze from the Lord.
When you have at those times of worship, corporately or alone in your home, been so overwhelmed by the work of Jesus, so filled with love for your Savior, so in awe
of His sacrifice for you and his loved poured upon you, that you are almost certain you could reach out your hand and take hold of His garment…Or in the quiet you feel as though you can almost hear the angels singing…it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
I received a letter from a Christian sister who was telling about an encounter with the Lord and she wrote: I have never felt the Lord’s presence more in my life,
and while it terrified me it also thrilled me to the point I actually didn’t know what to do with myself. I was overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted all at the same time. That is the Holy Spirit.
When temptations are served up to you and your thoughts quickly run to, “No, I must not and will not dishonor my Savior nor sin against Him who purchased me…” When
the very mention of His name gives you hope and peace, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. I hope you can see where many have gone astray in trying to emphasize the Holy Spirit, he doesn’t want to be emphasized, he wants Jesus to be emphasized!
Let me give you an example: If asked, what would you say Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost, is about? What is the main thrust, what is God teaching us? Most would
say its emphasis is on the Holy Spirit, the chapter is about the Holy Spirit. Now, no doubt the chapter tells us about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to equip the church for the great work of taking the gospel to the nations…but Acts chapter 2
is not chiefly about the Holy Spirit at all.
The chapter is about Jesus. And I know this because the Bible says so. The Holy Spirit’s coming was about the exaltation of Jesus Christ in the eyes of the world not
the exaltation of the Holy Spirit. Peter says that the prophet Joel spoke of the day when God, Yahweh, would pour out His Spirit. He then says, in verse 33, that Jesus has poured out his Spirit, equating Jesus and the God of the prophet Joel. He says in verse
36, “Therefore…” which signals us that he is going to tell us what all of this means, in light of what you have seen in light of all this, here comes the point: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both
Lord and Christ.” According to Peter the message, the point of all everything in Acts 2 centers around the Lord Jesus Christ! That is what Acts 2 is about, the exaltation of Jesus as Lord and Christ, for the Holy Spirit will always point us to Jesus, that
is His purpose, His will.
The Spirit of God working in us is working so that everything we do would be a reflection of the glory of Jesus. You and I are to be about one thing, whatever honors
Jesus, whatever glorifies Jesus, whatever exalts Jesus…Our Worship is to be about Jesus, about who He is and what He has done and about what pleases Him. Everything in life, worship, thought, word and deed, pointing our hearts and the hearts of all who know
us, to the Lamb of God.
This is what all Christians say today but it is not what all Christians are living. Today too much is about man, even worship itself is judged by how man likes or
dislikes what is going on…what man wants worship to be…as though the worship is really about MY preferences, MY wants, MY purpose. I only bring this up because this is the one place where we would think that we would not lose sight of Jesus, when we come to
worship…Jesus…In our living? Ok, easy to get distracted from our central purpose, no excuse, but we admit it is so…but worship??? “Hey let’s worship Jesus and give Him praise, and I better like it and I better get something out of it, and the music better
be good, and it better create in me a good and warm feeling and the preacher better not speak for more than 25 minutes and no one better tell me I should tithe, and whatever happens, I better not get pressure to come back and do it all again in the evening!”
As Christians we have the Holy Spirit in us…The Holy Spirit’s work is chiefly to make Jesus obvious…Therefore, if we are listening to or walking under the influence
of this Holy Spirit, then it only follows that Jesus will be obvious in our lives. So…is He? Is Jesus obvious in your life? Our lives must more and more be one with God the Holy Spirit and should shout at all times, at work, at play, at home, at church, “I
am about Jesus…He is mine and I am His.” Does your life say that?
Last, the ministry of the Spirit as verse 13 says is to guide us into all truth, teaching us what is to come. It is by the Spirit that we come to know, understand
and embrace the truth. It is because of the work of the Holy Spirit that the Bible is the very Word of God. And, it is because of the Holy Spirit that we know it to be the very Word of God. It is only by the Holy Spirit that the reading and the preaching of
the Word of God becomes the life-transforming voice of God himself.
The Word is truth and the Spirit leads us in truth so He leads us in, by and through the word. That is why we will always seek to make the Word of God central to what
we do at our church.
If you have a bulletin tucked away in your Bible, take a look at it: it is scripture-saturated. We want to read the word, preach the word, sing the word, pray the
word and see the word in our sacraments. We don’t do this because we think we are something special, we do this because we are desperate…We need Jesus, we need grace, we need the truth, we need the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
It was said of John Bunyan that if you cut him anywhere he bleeds bible. His thoughts, his words, his deeds, were controlled by the truth of the Word of God. For
us the Word of God must be the bottom line; when it has spoken, God has spoken. Our law, our wisdom, our happiness, our fruitfulness as human beings – it is all to be found in keeping the Word of God that the Holy Spirit has first provided for us and then
opened our eyes to see and our ears to hear.
The Spirit who fell upon the world with tongues of fire at Pentecost, who transformed the world by his power, and who created the church out of nothing, that same
Spirit is immediately present to our own hearts and is in our midst as a congregation of Christians. He is here and involved and active, effecting and changing our lives with his mighty power.
But, true as all of that is, it is also true that we, you and me, can live and act as if the Spirit were not present at all, as if we were not His temple, as if He
did not live in us. How can that be? How can we have God in us and it not appear that we have God in us? Frankly, brothers and sisters I have no idea…but it is undoubtedly true. The Holy Spirit is in us and with us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t at times
grieve him, disobey him, and rebel against him…How many times if you were honest, have you known that the Holy Spirit was telling you something…He was telling you to speak, but you did not…telling you to stop speaking but you just kept on going…telling you
not to take that first step toward the sin because it will then be too late, but you thought you could handle it and paid no heed to His prompting? It is a frightening reality that you and I could have God the Holy Spirit indwelling us and his influence would
be virtually invisible to anyone else.
I will conclude this morning with these questions and remember I am not asking you if you believe IN God, I know you do…I am asking you do you Believe God, in these
particular things:
Greater is He who is in me, than He who is in the world—Do you believe that?
Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh—Do you believe that?
There is no temptation but that which is common to man, and God is faithful and will provide a way of escape-–Do you believe that?
God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in Xp Jesus—Do you believe that?
Brother…Sister…God the Holy Spirit is in you, pointing you over and over to Jesus…He will convict you of sin, don’t ignore him…He will point you to the only true righteousness
that God accepts, the righteousness of Jesus…He will make it clear to your mind that the judgment of your sin has fallen…fallen on Jesus so that you have nothing to fear…And He will lead you in all truth.
This is the work of God the Holy Spirit!
Prayer: Father, I have often ignored Your Spirit but by the grace given me in Christ Jesus, I will do so no more! I want to be sensitive to alert to heed the promptings
of the Spirit so that I will live in His presence and with my eyes firmly set upon my Savior. I want to walk in the true righteousness of His leading and to give glory to You my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen.
Hymn: Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart