The Spirit of Truth

John 16: 12-15

Last Sunday, I preached on the subject of the Holy Spirit. We looked at who the Holy Spirit is and what his purpose is and as we only just scratched the surface, I have decided to look at another aspect of the Holy Spirit this morning. However, before we do let’s just recap with a few important points.

The Holy Spirit is God. He is equal in power and personality to the Father and to the Son.

The Holy Spirit is another who is exactly the same as Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is a counsellor. He is the one who makes Jesus real to you and to me.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, who reveals God’s truth to all believers.

The Holy Spirit is Holy. He gives us the desire to confess our sins and the power to separate from those things that are not holy.

And finally, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to empower, enlighten, encourage and to equip us. In other words, He is the power into whom we need to be plugged!

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus introduces us to another facet of the Holy Spirit’s character, the Spirit of Truth. “When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.” In the Old Testament, Joshua, as Moses’ successor, had the task of leading the people into the promised land, so the Holy Spirit as Jesus’ successor, has the task of leading Jesus’ followers, both you and me, in the sphere of truth. Jesus told the disciples, “it is to your advantage 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.”

Jesus knew that it was to our advantage that he went away. Why? Jesus, you see, was limited in what he could do. This is something we don’t often think about because we like to think of Jesus able to do anything, able to understand everything, able to see into the future, able to look into people’s hearts and see their deepest secret and all of that is true. Jesus was in tune with God. He knew God’s plan. He knew that he would suffer and die and be resurrected in three days. He knew that he would ascend to heaven and that the Holy Spirit would come to take his place. However, Jesus’ limitation was that he was God wrapped in the flesh, and it was the flesh part, that imposed severe limitations on him, as it does with us.

Being in the flesh, meant that Jesus could only be in one place at a time. Even though he attracted crowds in the thousands, he could personally touch only a few people on any given day. The flesh part also meant that Jesus felt the stress of the crowds, and had to retreat to private places for prayer. It meant he had to stop and eat. It also meant he was limited in the length of time that he lived.

“But I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away.”

What was that advantage? The advantage was that the Holy Spirit would come and he did. Those of us, who have experienced him, know and can testify to that, the very same Spirit that Jesus talked about, dwells in people’s hearts, living inside us, rather than on the outside. The Holy Spirit is able to dwell in all hearts at the same time, limited only by our unwillingness to receive him. The Spirit never has to take time to sleep or to travel to another place. The Spirit is never absent. Whether we are at home, or at work, or on holiday, the Holy Spirit is with us always. We are never alone! Isn’t that just awesome and mind boggling! The Holy Spirit, God, is with us always!!

Jesus also said, “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” It’s an amazing thing truth, isn’t it? Truth liberates, but it can also destroy. Some truths are just too much to bear. Just imagine, for example, what it would be like to have people able to read your mind and to know your every thought! In a court of law, people swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but that is different from knowing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Knowing exactly what was ahead of you in the future could be a terrible thing. Jesus did not burden the disciples with truth too heavy to bear, truth that would reveal everything that was ahead of them, truth that would break them. Instead, the Spirit would open each page as circumstances required, and would help the disciples to bear the hard truths that they would face.

God gives us the Spirit of Truth, who guides us into truth as we need it and as we are able to bear it. Just imagine if we were able to see into our futures. I for one might have been tempted to give up if I had known all that was to happen in my life time. The Holy Spirit is utterly dependable because he neither crushes us, with more truth than we can bear nor leads us into a lie. We can have the same confidence that a child has, in the presence of a loving parent. The Spirit of Truth will guide us rightly and the Spirit of Truth will guide us perfectly.

The Spirit of Truth is never far from us. God sends the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth to dwell in our hearts, so that he is always present to meet our needs. He is that still small voice that gives us that sense of peace in the midst of calamity.

The Spirit of Truth inspires and encourages us to speak the truth into the world. Unfortunately, we, in this country of ours, seem to be suffering from what I would call “truth decay!” Those we choose to lead us, fudge the truth, bringing in laws that may have far reaching and damaging long term effects and we allow them to do it.

Another name for the Spirit of Truth is the Advocate. He is our help, God’s presence to defend us and to take our side. The Spirit of Truth is with us in the doctor’s office, he’s with us in the hospital, he’s with us when we are recovering from major surgery, he’s with us when we lose a child through cancer, he’s with us when we’re laid off work, he’s with us when our house is filled with liquid faction, he’s with us when we wake tossing and turning at three o’clock in the morning. The Spirit of Truth is present with us in every time, and every place, and in every circumstance.

The only place the Spirit cannot go to, is to the person who will not receive him. The only limit on the Spirit is our willingness to follow him. The only obstruction to the Spirit is the hardness of our hearts. Let me repeat that.

I wonder where your heart is this morning? Has the busyness of your life changed your focus away from God and left little room for a relationship with Jesus? Maybe you have experienced disappointment in your life and have allowed that to sour your relationship with God. Perhaps you are still hanging onto things of the past and have let the spirit of unforgiveness build an ugly wall against any sense of reconciliation. Whatever place you find yourself in, no place is too hard or a situation too hard for the Holy Spirit to penetrate and heal if you will only allow him into your life. The question is, will you allow Him to do that this morning?

Receptiveness to the Spirit’s guidance varies widely. Some of you may shut out the Spirit, and derive no benefit from his teaching. Others of you will seek the Spirit’s help in times of trouble, but pay no heed in normal times. Still others of you will hear the Spirit’s voice, but only faintly through the din of competing voices. My prayer is that you will all receive the Spirit’s counsel gladly, and produce abundant fruit, and become spiritual giants: people like Bonhoeffer, Dr. Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and Billy Graham.

Something occurred to me, while I was putting this sermon together that I had never considered before and that is this: the Holy Spirit has the power to bring that kind of spiritual vitality to life within us, if only we will open our lives fully to the Spirit’s guidance and teaching. We can all be spiritual giants. Yes really! The only thing that holds us back is ourselves!!!

I believe the question for us today is not whether the Spirit has the truth we need to hear. The question is whether we will hear the Spirit’s truth. If we will hear, the Spirit will guide us. If we will heed, the Spirit will save us. If we respond, the Spirit will bless us with every blessing. So, I wonder, what on earth are we waiting for?

Who is the Holy Spirit?

Acts 2:1-21

Last Sunday was one of my favourite times in the Christian calendar but, unfortunately, due to the baptism of my youngest grandchild I was unable to be here. Who can tell me what was important about last Sunday? Pentecost! We often think of Pentecost as being the birth of the church as we know it, and it was. But did you know that Pentecost actually has an older history? Pentecost concluded the Passover season and began the season of harvest, as the Feast of Weeks, one of the three great holidays in Jewish life. Pentecost celebrated the first fruits of the harvest. Jews were required to observe the Feast of Weeks fifty days after the offering of the barley sheaf at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Greek word, Pentecost, simply meaning fifty, reflects the fifty days between the two significant festivals. It is not accidental, of course, that the birth of the Church, this great “harvest of souls,” should occur on this important “harvest” festival. And that’s the fascinating thing I find about the Bible, nothing happens by chance, for when you become familiar with God’s word, time and time again, you will see how, what is in the Old Testament, is fully revealed in the New Testament.

The same author, Luke, wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. In my mind, it is unfortunate that the two books are separated in the New Testament by the Gospel of John, because placing Acts directly after Luke would help us to see how one flows into the other; how the book of Acts picks up where the Gospel of Luke leaves off. Luke began his Gospel with the story of Jesus’ birth. He begins the book of Acts with the story of the Church’s birth. First, came the Messiah; now comes the Holy Spirit.

There are so many misunderstandings and misconceptions about the Holy Spirit that I decided today, after we have celebrated the birth of the Christian Church, the day the Spirit brought life to the lives of all those on that incredible Day of Pentecost, it would be an opportunity to address these. So,

Who is the Holy Spirit?

Firstly, the Holy Spirit is God. He is a person as much as the Father and Son are persons. He is not an “experience”, or an “it,” or a “dove” or a “flame of fire” or even a “ghost.” While he may be symbolized by some of these things, like the flames you often see decorating the church at Pentecost, He is an invisible person with a mind, emotions, intellect, and will. He is God, equal in power and personality to the Father and to the Son. He is the third member of the Trinity, not because He is the least, but because He is the last to be fully revealed in the Scriptures.

Secondly the Holy Spirit is another Jesus.

Jesus described the Holy Spirit as “Another” The Greek word actually means “another who is exactly the same.” So although the Holy Spirit is a distinct person, He is exactly the same as Jesus, but without the physical body, or as one child once described Him, Jesus without skin! Jesus didn’t leave us to stumble along through the future on our own. He sent “Another.” One who would have His same mind, His same will, His same emotions, and His same intellect. He is the One who will get along side you and me. Don’t you just marvel at that!

Thirdly the Holy Spirit is the Counsellor

Have you ever wished that Jesus were here in the flesh to sit beside you, take your hand in His, tell you how much He loves you, talk to you about your problems, and give you wise advice? Well He has come! He is here in the person of the Holy Spirit, who makes Jesus real to you and me. The holy Spirit is the One with whom we can commune today, right here, right now!

Fourthly the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit is not only another me, but He is also the Spirit of Truth which means He never works independently or in isolation. He always works through the Truth, the Living Word of God, who is Jesus, and the Written Word of God, which is your Bible. And for those of you who read God’s word regularly, you will have experienced, time and time again, the power of God’s word in your lives, which is, in fact, the power of the Holy Spirit.

And finally the Holy Spirit is Holy.

This is rather stating the obvious, isn’t it, but often we overlook and forget that the Holy Spirit is Holy! You and I can never assume we are filled with the Holy Spirit if our lives are full of sin. One of the first things He does when He comes into our lives is to give us a desire to be holy. The very sins we used to enjoy, we begin to hate and, increasingly, as we surrender to Him, saturating ourselves with the Scriptures, He gives us the desire to confess our sins and, the power to separate from them.

Well, we’ve learned who the Holy Spirit is but,

What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit?

For besides giving us counsel, sealing our salvation and giving us an awareness of the presence of Jesus in our lives, what does He actually do?

Firstly, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to Empower us.

When the Holy Spirit comes into your life at your baptism or at your invitation, you receive as much of Him as you will ever need. Unfortunately, there is a misconception that you get a little of Him at a time and a little bit more at later experiences. This is not so. Since He is a person, you cannot get Him in pieces. You either have all of the Holy Spirit or you have none of the Holy Spirit. The more we surrender our lives to Him and live moment by moment under the control of the Holy Spirit, His character, which is the character of Jesus, becomes evident to those around us. The Holy Spirit empowers us, not just to live for Jesus, but to be like Jesus as He forms Christ within us. Yet we are not just an imitation of Christ but also an embodiment of Him.

Secondly, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to Enlighten us.

The world sees Jesus as a man, perhaps even a good or great man and possibly even as a prophet, but still a man. It is the Holy Spirit who opens our spiritual eyes of understanding so that we see Jesus as much more than just a man. We see Him as our Creator, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the long awaited Messiah, the only Son of God, the Redeemer of Israel, the Lamb of God, the Saviour of the world, the Good Shepherd, the Risen Lord, the Judge of whole universe, the reigning and ruling King of Kings. The only way we can be convinced of Who Jesus is, is through the enlightenment we have received from the Holy Spirit. Jesus explained, “When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all 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 bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” ( John 16:13-14 )

Thirdly, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to encourage us.

Even when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, it is with encouragement that he will give us the power to confess it and put it out of our lives. The conviction itself is evidence that he cares about our Christ-likeness, that he is attentive to our spiritual growth and that he is active in transforming us into the people God wants us to be. In the journey of life when we think we can’t go one more step, when the journey becomes painful beyond endurance, when our hearts feel heavy, when our spirits are burned out, we have the Holy Spirit who comes alongside us, puts his everlasting arms around us and gently encourages us with His presence.

And finally, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to equip us.

When you and I received the Holy Spirit into our lives, we became members of the larger body of Christ, the family of God that includes other believers. But the new privilege of belonging to God’s family brings with it new responsibilities to care for and build up the other family members. For that purpose, the Holy Spirit gives us each gifts that enable us to be contributing family members. It is not something we need worry about for, as I have discovered, whatever God commands us to do, the Holy Spirit equips us for it and it’s really that simple!

My prayer is that we, like Peter and the disciples on that incredible day of Pentecost, will open our hearts to the infilling of the Holy Spirit, that He may so empower, enlighten, encourage and equip us that we, here at CPAC, will see the Holy Spirit not only ignite us but set our hearts on fire for God!

HEAVEN IS NEAR

Scriptures: Ps 45; Revelation 4: Mth 4: 17- 25

Intro: Today I’m preaching the first of 2 sermons about Heaven because this is a subject that we all need to consider and “The Kingdom of heaven” was a central theme in Jesus ministry and teaching. ”Everybody wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die!” but I hope to show you today that you don’t have to wait until you die before you can experience something of Heaven.

(1) WHAT DOES THE NEW TESTAMENT TELL US ABOUT HEAVEN ?

A definition of heaven

The Oxford Dictionary defines heaven as: ‘a place regarded in some religions as the adode of God and the angels, and of the good after death, often characterized as above the sky.’ the OT Hebrew word and NT Greek word for heaven mean ‘the dwelling place of God.’

1. The first and last books of the NT have most to say about heaven. In Mth ‘heaven’ is used 74 times and in Revelation 53 times. It’s like the NT is book-ended by heaven. It’s a key subject in the Bible so it’s important for us to think about Heaven. Hopefully we will spend eternity in Heaven with the Lord. If we get to know a little about heaven now it won’t be such a shock to us when we get there. E.G. I’ve been singing a little chorus lately, ’Oh oh ow ow ow heaven is in my heart.

2. The Book of Revelation is primarily the revelation of Jesus Christ and His rule from Heaven and His sure victory over all His enemies and our enemies. It was a series of revelations given to the Apostle John when he was imprisoned on the island of Patmos during a time of extreme persecution of Christians by the cruel Roman Emperor Nero. Many Christians were being killed for their faith in Jesus Christ and these revelations were a great encouragement to them as they are today to us as world events and our lives at times are so pressured. Revelation 4 and 5 set the scene in heaven as John is called to witness it. Three things dominate the scene:

1. THE THRONE OF GOD THE FATHER: (Rev 4:1-4) When you visit the place of rulership of any Emperor, King or ruler the seat of the ruler is most important. There the ruler surrounded by his top advisors makes decisions and judgements which are carried out by the forces of that ruler throughout his country or realm. When we visited the Doge’s Palace in Venice a few years ago we saw where he ruled from in the magnificent counsel room; in the Czar’s Palace in St Petersburg the Romanov autocratic Emperors ruled over the immense Russian Empire. There the throne room was magnificent and dominated by the Czars imperial throne. The first thing John saw in Heaven was God’s throne. The throne represents the supreme power and authority of the Heavenly Father. It speaks of the everlasting security and confidence that we can place in God Almighty the King of all Kings and ruler over all rulers of earth and heaven. Around the Father and His throne are the 24 elders seated on their thrones and the 4 all-seeing winged creatures. All these worship the Father.

2. THE SEVEN FLAMING TORCHES represent the seven-fold Spirit if God proceeding from God.( Rev 4:5) Again the Spirit is depicted as seven eyes of the Lamb sent out into all the earth.(Rev 5:6) An insight into the meaning of these seven functions of the Spirit is given in Isaiah 11:2-5) where is listed: The Spirit of the Lord; the spirits of wisdom; understanding; counsel; might; knowledge and the fear of the Lord. All these rested on Jesus and now since Pentecost are to work through us. Our creed says The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you shall be my witnesses in all the earth.”

3. The LION and the LAMB: Jesus is the all conquering lion of Judah who overcame death and is seated in heaven above every name that can be named in heaven and earth and under the earth but he is also the crucified Lamb of God slain from the from the foundation of the world(Rev 5:6 and 13:8) His sacrifice is eternally able to save us from sin and sickness and evil and He causes us to triumph as followers of the mighty Lion of Judah.

(2) HOW DID JESUS TEACH US ABOUT HEAVEN?

A. Jesus announced the Kingdom of Heaven then illustrated it with demonstrations of the power of heaven. We see this at the beginning of all 4 gospels.

e.g. In Mth 4:17 He proclaimed “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ In other words the ‘man from heaven’( was telling the people I have brought the life of heaven with me and I’ll show you how it works. In verse 23 it says, ‘Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people… those afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics and paralytics and he cured them.’

After demonstrating the K of H by many healings and miracles Mathew sums up in 9:36 by saying, ‘When Jesus saw the crowds he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then Jesus said to his disciples. “The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”

B. He then sent out the 12 to do as he had done: Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go proclaim the good news. The Kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.

C. In Mathew 13 Jesus told 7 parables all about the Kingdom of Heaven: the sower; weeds among the wheat; the mustard seed and the yeast; the hidden treasure and the pearl and the fishing catch. So we can see both from Jesus own ministry, that of his disciples and his teaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was central. You could say the prime purpose of Jesus coming was to announce, demonstrate and teach people about heaven breaking in to our fallen world so that we could be restored to live again as sons and daughters of the living God.. the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

D. That’s why Jesus taught his disciples to pray: ‘Our father in Heaven…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven…’

E. Then He died to save us, rose to give us new life and ascended again to Heaven that we might be seated with him and He sent the Holy Spirit from heaven that we might continue his ministry to make disciples of all nations.

(3) TODAY WE SENSE SOMETHING OF HEAVEN

Ÿ When we pray and feel our prayers are heard and answers come.. prayer breakthroughs

Ÿ When we worship and sense the angels of heaven assisting our praise

Ÿ When evil is confronted and justice is achieved such as when the poor are helped.

Ÿ When the gospel goes forth and people come to faith in Christ and we and the angels rejoice

Ÿ When people are healed and when miracles happen

Ÿ When we take communion and really sense we are sharing the heavenly banquet e.g. a 4 year old pastor’s daughter asked her mother for some bread and water because she wanted to share communion with Jesus in her room. Later her mother asked her how she got on and the daughter said, “Mummy I went to heaven with Jesus: you know you can go there anytime!”