The Holy Spirit

Caleb Eissler

Ghosted (Holy Spirit) Sermon Series • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Threw Gods gift of the Holy Spirt we can see five key truths about him. The Holy spirit Indwells Believers, Glorifies Jesus, Testifies about Christ, Convicts of Sin, and Produces Fruit and Love in us.

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

It’s an honor to be with you today. I want to welcome everyone here in the worship center as well as those joining us in the Chapel and online.

Introduce Yourself

If we haven’t met, as Pastor Merle said, my name is Caleb Eissler and I serve as one of the pastors here at PV, where I’m primarily involved with our Twenty-Somethings and Adult Group Life ministries. Even though I’ve only been on staff with PV for about 3 years, I’ve actually attended PV since I was 2, so about 25 years. PV is the church where I accepted Christ. PV is where I was discipled and mentored. And PV is the place where God first called me to ministry. So it is an incredible honor to be opening up God’s Word with you today.

Resurrection Intro

As Pastor Merle said, today, we’re kicking off a new sermon series called “Ghosted” which will focus on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. In many ways, the timing of this series could not be more perfect. We just powerfully celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus. Following Jesus’ resurrection, the Bible tells us that He carried out 40 days of ministry and then ascended bodily to be at the right hand of the Father in glory. But in His ascension, Jesus didn’t leave the disciples (or us) alone. In fact, just before He was put to death, Jesus told disciples these shocking words in John 16:5-7:

“But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.”

Here Jesus is talking to men who have devoted their lives to Him and who had followed him around for the last few years, and yet Jesus has the audacity to say that it is better for Him to leave so that the Holy Spirit can be with them and ultimately dwell in them. J.D. Greear summarizes this shocking truth this way: the Spirit inside you is better than Jesus beside you.

In many ways, we’re going to spend the next few weeks unpacking that truth together as we see what the Bible tells us about incredible person of the Holy Spirit.

My prayer is that you would have a deeper understanding and affection for the Spirit because of our time together as you see just how amazing and intimately related to your Christian walk the Holy Spirit really is.

Today’s sermon is meant to be more of an introduction to the person and work of the Holy Spirit, primarily focusing on John chapter 14 through 16. This won’t be an exhaustive account by any means, but I pray it will give us a helpful foundation for the rest of the sermon series.

If you have your Bibles, turn or tap with me to John 14, John 14. While you do that and before we dive into our passage for today, I’m going to lay out some foundational frameworks related to the Trinity and the Spirit’s work in the Old Testament to give us solid ground to stand on for the rest of our sermon series.

Let’s begin by talking about a basic framework for the Trinity.

Trinty

Arguably, the most foundational truth of the Christian faith is that we believe in a Triune God. What that means is that we believe that God exists as three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), in one being. For reference, You and I are one person in one being. God is three persons in one being.

The Trinity means that the Father, Son, and Spirit are all divine persons who have existed in one being for all of eternity.

The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God and have been so forever. Not three gods, but one God existing eternally in three persons.

This glorious truth has been named “the Trinity.”

And while the precise word Trinity is not found in Scripture, the truths of Trinity are all over the Bible as you will see in the coming weeks.

The Trinity is not a problem to be solved but a truth to be amazed at. We, as finite beings, should not expect to fully comprehend the infinite God. If we could comprehend everything about God, He wouldn’t be God. He would be weak, small, and a mere figment of our imaginations. And worse still, we would be god then. But our God is none of those things. He is all- powerful, all-loving, all-good, all-wise, and Triune.

No other religion has a view of God quite like this. Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and others all deny the existence of the Triune God.

The Trinity is a uniquely Christian belief and it is beautiful.

God is Love (v.s. Islam)

Because God is Triune love is an essential part of who He is. That can’t be said of any other god in any other religion.

For example, Islam may claim that Allah is love, but because Allah is only one person in one being, he can’t love anyone until he creates mankind, because before creation there was no one else for Allah to love. That means Allah’s love depends on something outside of himself and is therefore weak, temporary, and not an essential part of who he is.

But because the Christian God, our God, is Triune, love is a core part of who He is. For all of eternity past, the Father has loved the Son and the Spirit, the Son has loved the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit has loved the Father and the Son. Love is central to God’s identity. God’s love doesn’t depend on anyone but Himself and is therefore mighty and eternal.

This is why 1 John 4:8 doesn’t just say that God is “loving,” but that God IS love. God is the essence of love.

That distinction makes all of the difference in the world for us and will be vital as we talk more about the Holy Spirit.

One final note on the Trinity. We’ve talked briefly about the persons of God, but let me just provide a broad and simple framework for the work of God.

Work of the Trinity

In general terms, we can think about the work of the persons of the Trinity like this:

The Father plans, the Son initiates, and the Spirit brings to completion. *[REPEAT]* The Father plans, the Son initiates, and the Spirit brings to completion.

We can see a helpful picture of this in both creation and salvation.

In creation, the Father plans from eternity past. The Son initiates creation because God spoke creation into existence by His Word and Jesus is the Word. And finally, Genesis 1:2 tells us that the Spirit hovered over the waters to bring order to creation.

In salvation, the Father elects from eternity past. The Son initiates salvation by accomplishing our redemption at the cross. And finally, the Spirit brings salvation to completion by applying the benefits of redemption to us and bringing order to our lives by sanctifying us to be more like Jesus until we make it to glory.

The Father plans, the Son initiates, and the Spirit brings to completion.

So as we focus on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, we will get to see the many ways in which the Spirit brings to completion the work of salvation planned by the Father and initiated by the Son.

Old Testement Work of the Spirit

As we prepare to dive into what John 14-16 has to say about the Holy Spirit, let me say a couple of quick things about the Holy Spirit’s work in the Old Testament leading up to this to help frame our discussion.

The Holy Spirit has always been at work. We already mentioned his work in creation, but we also see the Spirit resting upon the prophets and guiding God’s people. The Spirit was pivotal in pointing people’s gaze to the Messiah through the prophets and the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit was active and at work within the world and in the midst of God’s people in the Old Testament. But there was one key way in which the experience of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was different from our experience of the Spirit now on the other side of the cross and Pentecost: in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit did not dwell in believers. He was WITH them but not IN them.

But the cross and Pentecost changed everything. And this leads us to our first truth about the Holy Spirit.

Truth #1 The Holy Spirit Indwells Believers

Our first truth is that the Holy Spirit indwells believers. The word indwell is a fancy way of saying that something is permanently present in someone's soul or mind. In other words, when we place our faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit doesn’t just regenerate and convert us, but He actually comes to live within us! Jesus shows us this in John 14:16-17 when He says: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.” Think about that. If you are a Christian here today, the Spirit of the Living God lives within you. What an incredible privilege! You know, we so often lift up the many divine wonders in the Old Testament such as pillars of fire, the splitting of the Red sea and other things. We can sometimes be jealous of Old Testament believers because they got to witness those things, but in reality, they would’ve been jealous of us! You see, the Holy Spirit didn’t dwell within God’s people in the Old Testament. The Spirit was WITH them but did not dwell IN them. That’s a special privilege of believers in the New Covenant. God’s people in the Old Testament would’ve traded witnessing all of those many wonders in order to have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside them. We have an incredible privilege as New Covenant Believers on this side of the cross and Pentecost.

Here’s one of the most beautiful and applicable realities in light of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit: Because the Holy Spirit lives within us, it means that we are never alone. It doesn’t matter how isolated we might feel right now. Many of us have felt lonely this past year because of quarantine and other forms of isolation. A few weeks ago, I talked with a woman who had just come to church for the first time since the pandemic began. The moment she stepped in the building and saw the people, she was overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry because it was the first time she had been around people like that in a year. We absolutely need human community, but as we all wrestle through isolation and loneliness to varying degree we can remember this incredible fact: if we are Christians, and therefore have the Holy Spirit living in us, we are never ever alone. The Spirit of the Living God of the universe dwells in our hearts. Let that amazing truth bring us comfort! With that, let’s move to our next truth about the Holy Spirit.

Truth #2: The Holy Spirit Glorifies Jesus

Our second truth about the Holy Spirit from John 14-16 is this: o The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus. Jesus says this explicitly in John 16:14-15 when He says: “He [the Holy Spirit] will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit loves to glorify Jesus and He does this by declaring what the Father and Son give to Him. He did it in the Old Testament by pointing people to the Messiah. And now, after Jesus’ earthly ministry has ended and he has ascended to glory, the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ by lifting up the greatest responsibility God the Father gave Jesus: the sin-defeating work of the cross and the death-defeating work of the resurrection. The crucifixion, resurrection are the climactic acts of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Philippians 2:5-11 beautifully reminds us of this when it says this of Jesus:

“though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The glory of Jesus in the Gospel in his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension is the climax of Jesus’ ministry and it is this glory of Jesus that the Spirit continually declares to us. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by driving us to the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ came to earth, became a man, lived a perfect life and fulfilled God’s law on our behalf. Then on the cross, He died the death that we deserved to die as He took on the just punishment of God that we deserve for our sin. After defeating sin at the cross, He was buried and rose again three days later in victory over sin, Satan death, and all of the powers of Hell. Because of Jesus’ victory at the cross, we have a living hope and can be saved from our sin. And in being saved from our sin we are given access to the greatest gift of all: a relationship with God in perfect joy and satisfaction forever.

Those glorious truths of the Gospel are what the Spirit loves to glorify Jesus for. And those glorious Gospel truths about Jesus are what the Spirit glorifies when He drives our hearts and minds back to the Gospel time and time again. Let’s move on to our third truth about the Holy Spirit.

Truth #3: The Holy Spirit Testifies about Christ

Truth number 3 about the Holy Spirit is this: the Holy Spirit doesn’t just glorify Christ, He also testifies about Christ. The Holy Spirit testifies about Christ. John 15:26-27 In John 15:26-27, Jesus says, “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

John 14:26-27 Jesus affirms this truth about the Holy Spirit’s testimony again in John 14:26-27 when he says: “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.”

The Holy Spirit primarily testifies about Christ in 2 ways: through Scripture and through His witness in our hearts. When Jesus says the Holy Spirit will testify about Him and that the disciples will as well, He means that the Holy Spirit will help guide the disciples to remember the truths of Christ as they write the words of the New Testament as they’re carried along by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures and the Scriptures stand as a concrete testimony to the glorious Gospel of Jesus that is passed down from generation to generation in precise form. But the Holy Spirit also testifies to the truth of God as He works in our midst and in our hearts. The Spirit reminds us of the truths of the Gospel and drives our hearts and affections back to Christ over and over again. The Sermon Today Shows How the Spirit Testifies So for example, as you listen to God’s Word be preached this morning, you’re seeing a beautiful picture of how the Spirit testifies about Christ. Lord willing, the Spirit is speaking through me as I expound the words of Scripture which the Holy Spirit inspired. And insofar as you grasp the beauty of the truth of Christ in Scripture, it’s because the Holy Spirit is testifying to the truth of Jesus in your heart today. Now, let’s move to our fourth of five truths.

Truth #4: The Holy Spirit Convicts of Sin

Our fourth truth about the Spirit is that the Holy Spirit convicts of sin. John 16:8-11 In John 16:8-11 Jesus says: “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. He points the world to Jesus’s sin defeating work at the cross where Jesus delivered a death blow to Satan, the prince of this world. Colossians 2:15 tells us: “[Jesus] erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.” Jesus defeated Satan at the cross and shows Satan to be judged by God. The Spirit points the world back to the cross so they can see this judgement. The cross shows us the seriousness of sin and the deadly verdict we face if we refuse to accept Christ as our Savior.

But the Spirit does this work of conviction with a heart of love. The world is dead in its sin and needs the salvation of Jesus. The Spirit helps people see their sin so that they will turn to Jesus. This conviction, despite its connotation, is a beautiful thing.

Cancer Illustration

Think about it this way. If you have terminal cancer, you already have a deadly sentence before the doctor gives the diagnosis. Whether or not you realize it, you’re in danger. But when the doctor is able to identify and show you the problem, they can help you heal your sickness. The same is true of the Holy Spirit and our guilty verdict of sin. We are guilty whether or not we hear the verdict, but with the Holy Spirit revealing our deadly condition, we can actually do something about it. And it’s not just that the Holy Spirit is the One prescribing the treatment, He is also the One applying it. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin and then testifies to the truth and glory of Christ so that people will turn from their sins and embrace Christ by the power of the Spirit. But the Spirit’s conviction of sin doesn’t stop at salvation. The Spirit convicts us of our sin even after we become believers so that we can kill sin and obey and love God. This leads us to our final truth.

Truth #5: The Holy Spirit Produces Fruit and Love in Us

Our fifth and final truth is this: the Holy Spirit produces fruit and love in us. Look with me at John 15:1-10 Jesus says, ““I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples. “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” Now you might say, “That’s a beautiful passage, but what does that have to do with the Holy Spirit? There’s not even a mention of the Spirit there.” Let me read several verses from the beginning of Romans 8 in order to connect the dots.

The Apostle Paul says this in Romans 8:1-14:

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you. So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.”

That was a lot, so let me summarize the point of the passage: the Spirit brings about obedience in us. The Spirit is the one who helps us bear fruit. The Spirit is the one who gives us life and helps us remain in God’s love. And the fruit that the Spirit helps us bear is evidence that we are in Christ and His love. Connecting this to John 15, if Jesus is the vine and we are branches that are meant to bear fruit as a testament to Christ’s love, then the Holy Spirit is like the nutrients that flow from the vine into the branches so that they can bear fruit. And the Holy Spirit, acting as the nutrients that flow to us who are the branches, is the one who keeps us alive in the vine of Christ and His love. If you want to love Jesus, you must obey Him. If you want to obey Jesus, you must have His Holy Spirit dwelling within you, otherwise, as Romans 8 tells us, we cannot please or love God. Going back to our earlier truths, the Holy Spirit doesn’t just glorify God through testifying to the truth of Christ in the scriptures and by convicting us of sin. The Holy Spirit also glorifies Christ through us by helping us put sin to death and stirring us up to love and worship God. The fruit that the Spirit produces in us testifies to the truth of Christ and the life change of the Gospel, and therefore glorifies Jesus. And by keeping us in the vine of Christ, the Holy Spirit keeps us in the love of God and helps us experience the love of God. And it’s this great love of God that I want to use to tie together the threads of this message.

The Love of God and Romans 5:5

You see, it’s God’s love that is the foundation for all of these truths about the Holy Spirit. In fact, it’s by God’s Spirit that we experience God’s love. Romans 5:5 tells us this when it says:

“God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

How often do we sing: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!” In reality, and even better way to say it would be this: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Spirit tells me so”. The Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures and testifies to Jesus’ love for us in our hearts. The Spirit shows us our sin so we can see our great need for a Savior and see the love Jesus poured out for us at the cross. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by driving us back to the truths of the Gospel. And the Holy Spirit dwells in us so that we are never separated from God’s love. I pray that we all have experienced love of some kind from others in our life. And we know the incredible impact that love has on us. Love has the power to transform us

When we know we are loved and that love is attested to by word and deed, it has a profound impact on us. I saw a profound picture of loving transformational and affirming power through my mom a while back.

Johnny - Mom Illustration

My mom is a teacher at a school for special needs students, especially students who have particularly rough backgrounds. She also cares for my grandparents, her parents, who have moderate to severe Alzheimer’s Disease. During her time at the school, there was a student my mom worked with who was particularly difficult. We’ll call him Johnny. He had a heartbreaking home life and his lack of love at home at deeply impacted him. His birth-parents had disowned him and he had been in and out of foster home his whole life. At the time of this story, his current foster parents had been considering give him up as well. Johnny’s story was absolutely devastating .

One day, he was being extra difficult for my mom, and finally she stopped him and said, “Johnny, I need you to work with me today. Do you know what I do every morning before I hang out with you at school? I take care of my two elderly parents who both have Alzheimer’s. I change their diapers, give them showers, feed them breakfast, get them dressed, give them their medicine, and so much more. I’m tired and I want to care for you today. But I need you to work with me.” After hearing this story, Johnny’s demeanor suddenly changed. He looked at my mom and said, “You do all of that for them? You must really love them.” Then he paused for a second and said, “Tell your parents I love them.” My mom wasn’t expecting Johnny’s response at all, but she took his request seriously and relayed his love to my grandparents. The next day at school my mom came up to Johnny and said, “Johnny! I have something to show you.” Johnny leaned in. What came next was not at all what Johnny was expecting. What came next was a recording from each of my grandparents telling Johnny they loved him by name. Each of my grandparents with physical weakness but deep and warm tenderness enthusiastically said, “We love you, Johnny!”

Hearing my grandparents express their love for him by name stopped Johnny in his tracks. From that day forward, Johnny was like a different person. He followed my mom around the school all day long and was always on his best behavior. Day after day, he would ask about my grandparents as his behavior continued to improve. Johnny was a different person. He was changed.

For the first time in a long time, maybe years, or maybe even ever, Johnny heard that someone loved him. He felt genuine loving affirmation. And the striking thing is that this affection came from people who he had never met and who, because of their Alzheimer’s, probably didn’t remember his name the next day. But just hearing loving affirmation changed Johnny’s whole outlook on the world. If hearing feeling the affirmation of love from individuals who he’d never met and probably couldn’t remember his name is what it took for Johnny to be changed, imagine how the affirmation of the love of the God of the universe might transform us and change our outlook of the world. That affirmation of God’s love is exactly what happens through the Holy Spirit. And this love doesn’t just transform us, it brings us from death to life in Christ!

Theologian John Owen puts it this way:

“[God] loves life, grace, and holiness into us; he...loves us into heaven.” God will never forget our names. He’ll never leave us or forsake us. He’s the one knit us together in our mother’s womb and knew us in the furthest reaches of eternity. And He loved us so much that He sent His very Son to give His life for us so we could experience God’s love. This love is testified to us and given to us in the Holy Spirit. God’s love isn’t just spoken to us so that we might forget it. It’s is written to us in the Scriptures, engraved on the palms of Jesus, and ultimately poured into our hearts in the Holy Spirit.

If you’ve experienced God’s love, then you’ve experienced the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit is the member of the Trinity we probably sense most on a day today basis as he indwells us, glorifies Christ in us, helps us understand the scriptures, convicts us of us, helps us bear fruit for Christ, and helps us experience the love of God. I pray that as we continue to learn more about the Holy Spirit in the coming weeks that you would come to experience God’s love through Him more and more.

Invitation

If you’re here today and you’re not a Christian and therefore don’t have the Holy Spirit living in you, but you want to experience the love of God, you could not be in a better place. If you feel a sense of conviction for your sin and a sense that you are ready to put your faith in Jesus as the only one who can save you, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit in your life right now. We would love to talk with you in the next steps center right after service about what it means to give your life to Jesus and experience the love of God through the Holy Spirit. Let’s Pray

Pray

God, we thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the way the Spirit guides us to you. Holy Spirit, we thank you for helping us experience the love of God and the glory of Christ. We’re eternally grateful for Christ’s death for us so that we could be saved. It’s in Jesus’ mighty name we pray, by the power of the Spirit......Amen.

Pause, Promo, Dismiss

[PAUSE FOR ONE SECOND AFTER SAYING, “AMEN.”] It was a joy to be able to worship with you today.

If we can serve you in any way, we would love to.

If this is your first time with us, we’d love to be able to meet you in the Next Steps Center in the Commons right after we dismiss.

We hope to see you next week as Pastor Cory preaches on experiencing the Holy Spirit.