John: Chronicles of the God-Man Part 28

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There is a lot of confusion about the Holy Spirit today.
Charismatic abuse
Waving jackets and knocking down crowds of people
Fake healings
Sticking pennies to the wall
Fake prophecy and words of knowledge
Practice
Feeling the HS on your hands
Wrong thinking about the HS:
Not a force or a power, but a person
Not a feeling or experience, but a presence
The Holy Spirit is not less divine than Jesus or the Father

What does the Holy Spirit do?

Gives life
Gives help
Gives revelation
What does the Holy Spirit do?
Gives life (Jn 6:63-65, 1 Cor 2:12-14)
Gives help (Jn 14:15-17, Jn 14:26, Jn 16:7, Rom 8:26-27)
Gives revelation (Jn 15:26-27, Lk 12:11-12)
Convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgement (Jn 16:7-11, 1 Tim 4:1-2)
Guides into all truth, declares things that are to come, glorifies Jesus (Jn 16:12-15, 2 Pet 1.21)

The Holy Spirit gives life

John 6:63–65 ESV
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
1 Corinthians 2:12–14 ESV
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Story about Brandon Roth
Ten years ago, Becket Cook was a gay man in Hollywood who had achieved great success as a set designer in the fashion industry. He worked with stars and supermodels, from Natalie Portman to Claudia Schiffer, traveling the world to design photo shoots for the likes of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. He attended award shows and parties at the homes of Paris Hilton and Prince. He spent summers swimming in Drew Barrymore’s pool. 
A decade later, Cook has moved on from that life—and he doesn’t miss it. 
What changed for Cook? He met Jesus. On a momentous day in September 2009, while drinking coffee with a friend in L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood, Cook started chatting with a group of young people sitting at a nearby table—physical Bibles opened in front of them (remember, this was 2009). They were from a church called Reality L.A., and they invited Cook to visit the church.
Cook took them up on the invitation and visited Reality L.A. the next Sunday, where he heard the gospel and gave his life to Jesus. He never looked back, trading his gay identity for a new identity in Christ. In the years since, Cook completed a degree at Talbot School of Theology and wrote a memoir of his conversion, A Change of Affection: A Gay Man’s Incredible Story of Redemption, which just released.
You can talk to others in our church, that have amazing Holy Spirit conversion stories.
Talk to Alex Blackwell
Talk to Mike Reynolds
Both saved as adults, but listen to their stories and you’ll be blown away by how the Holy Spirit opened their eyes...
I was 3 or so when...
My son, Levin, was 7, just this last year...
One day in second grade, my teacher asked me the catechism question, “What is our only hope in life and death.” I raised my hand and wanted to answer the question, “That we are not our own, but belong body and soul, both in life and death to God and to our Savior Jesus Christ.”
It was when I answered that question that I got the reason I wanted to be baptized. I wanted to live life close to God.

The Holy Spirit gives help

John 14:15–17 ESV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you 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 will be in you.
This is the first time the Holy Spirit is referred to has the “Helper” and is referred to this way 3 more times in the book of John...
Some churches teach a separate “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” I do not believe this is Biblical. If you are in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. There is not a separate filling; every church I’m aware of that teaches the separate filling doctrine ends up cheapening the power of the Holy Spirit to parlor tricks and gimmicks.
Romans 8:9 ESV
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Romans 8:26–27 ESV
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:28–30 ESV
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

The Holy Spirit gives revelation

John 15:26–27 ESV
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Looking at John 15:26-16:15, there are at least 3 ways the Holy Spirit gives revelation, and it may not be what you’re thinking.
There is a very real sense in which a Christian knows Jesus is alive because the Holy Spirit has illuminated their heart. Is this a strong apologetic argument? Not for the world, but you can rest knowing that the Holy Spirit is making Jesus real to you.
And just as the Holy Spirit makes Jesus real to you, that is, bears witness to you, you bear witness to others.
Acts 1:8 ESV
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
This is the first thing I mean when I say that the Spirit gives revelation.
Without the Holy Spirit, there would be no revelation of Jesus Christ.
Luke 12:11–12 ESV
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
John 16:7–11 ESV
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. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
The second way the Holy Spirit gives revelation is concerning sin, righteousness, and judgement.
1 Timothy 4 speaks of some who “sear” their conscious. In our rebellion against God, we become hardened against the truth of God and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. I am coming to believe more and more this is why sin is not only tolerated in our culture, but in many cases celebrated. And we are invited to join in the celebration. This celebration of sin is directly combating the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
John 16:12–15 ESV
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 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 is the Spirit of Truth. This is not the only place that the Bible talks about the Spirit bearing witness to the truth, and with the Spirit living inside believers, I certainly believe that He is leading us in truth. That is revelation. The truth is most clearly revealed to us in the word of God. Jesus said he came to bear witness to this same truth...
More than this, I believe this is referencing the revelation of scripture to the Church.
The church was built on the authority of the Apostles. The Apostles were given special authority by Jesus himself
2 Peter 1:16–21 ESV
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
This is not happening today.
Peter was in a special position to be able to say this.
So the third way I mean that the Holy Spirit gives revelation is through the word of God and its preservation.
The Holy Spirit gives revelation
Revelation of Jesus Christ
Revelation concerning sin, righteousness, and judgement
Revelation of scripture
WHAT I DON’T MEAN:
Modern day “thus says the Lord”
New scripture
Direct words from God
John 7:37–39 ESV
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 20:21–22 ESV
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:6–8 ESV
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 2:1–4 ESV
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And Peter quotes the prophet Joel, that the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all flesh.
We are living in the days were the Spirit of God is given freely to those who are in Christ
And the Holy Spirit...
Gives us life
Gives us help
Gives us revelation
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