SERMON: “The Ministry of the Holy Spirit, Part 2” (John 16:12–15)
“The Ministry of the Holy Spirit, Part 2”
(John 16:12–15)
Series: “John:
Life in Christ’s Name” Text:
John
16:12–15
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date:
September
15, 2024
Venue: Living
Water Baptist Church Occasion:
AM Service
I.
Introduction
We’ve been talking about the importance of Jesus’s departure. He said in v. 7, “But 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.” Last week we began to consider what a
blessing He would be, not just so those who reject Christ could know the truth,
but also because of how He comforts believers.
Because of the Holy Spirit, we have the completion of Holy Scripture,
and we have His ongoing work available to us.
We need the Holy Spirit.
We see three reasons why we need the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit first because we know
truth through Him. Second, we need the
Holy Spirit because we know Christ through Him.
Third, we need the Holy Spirit because we know God’s ways through Him.
II.
First, We Know Truth through the Holy Spirit
(vv. 12–13)
I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now. But when He,
the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will
not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He
will disclose to you what is to come.
Jesus had so much more to reveal to His disciples, but they
weren’t ready for it. He says, “I have
many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” Their minds were preoccupied with their own
concerns — their present sorrow over Jesus’s departure, and their ongoing
desire to be the greatest in the kingdom.
They weren’t prepared to hear the deeper truths about Christ’s death,
resurrection, and the life to come.
Their hearts needed the transformation that only the Holy
Spirit could provide. The good news for
their current state is that the Spirit of truth would come later and give them
what they cannot currently bear! Jesus
says in v. 13 that the Spirit is coming, again affirming the blessings which
will befall them at Pentecost.
Of course, Jesus is talking about the “Spirit of
truth.” Jesus mentioned this specific
designation for the Holy Spirit in John 14:17, making this an important
repetition to communicate the truthfulness of His nature. There are false spirits in this world willing
to whisper deceptions in our ears, sometimes tapped into through new age and
pagan practices, but this is the Spirit we want if we desire spiritual
truth.
It is the Spirit of truth that Jesus says will guide us into
truth. To be clear, this is a promise
for all the disciples of Christ. In the
original language, Jesus says “y’all,” not just “you” singular. We tend to have an individualistic view of
Christianity, where we think it’s just about “me and Jesus,” but it’s more
accurately “us and Jesus,” as He has called us to be a single body. People tend to think there’s no problem
deciding to be in church, skipping church, changing churches, or just dropping out
of church all together, using this individualistic view as justification to cut
themselves off from the Spirit’s wider work.
Just as the finger would be foolish to say, “I have the blood, so I can
leave the hand!”, it would be foolish to say, “I have the Spirit and truth, so
I don’t need any particular church.” The
Holy Spirit works through the body, not simply in individual
believers. See yourself as part of the y’all
rather than a single “you.”
Moreover, it’s important to know that, when Jesus speaks of
the Holy Spirit guiding believers into “all truth,” He’s not referring to every
kind of knowledge but to specific truth about Christ and His redemptive
work. Some wonder if the Holy Spirit
reveals new truth to believers today.
It’s fitting to note that even the continuationist D. A. Carson said,
“The question of the possibility of continued ‘revelation’ amongst Jesus’
disciples after the eyewitnesses have passed from the scene is not here directly
addressed.”[1] This is not the passage to turn to if you
want to prove that the Holy Spirit is still speaking prophetically to
Christians, and according to 1 Corinthians 12:29, not everyone is a
prophet. We can’t say “we have the Holy
Spirit, and that is enough;” we need Scripture and the body of Christ.
So, how does the Spirit lead disciples into truth? The apostles are the first order of
fulfillment for this question. They certainly
would receive revelation as they needed to complete Scripture or know God’s
next plan for laying the foundation of the church. They would know the truth of God and even the
future at times (“what is to come,” v. 13).
He will bring things to their remembrance, as Jesus said back in John
14:26. The Spirit reveals truth
progressively, and when the people of God were ready to bear it, He revealed
the next steps.
For the rest of us, the Spirit is active in helping us to
see what we need to know about the gospel.
We can also have illumination of the Holy Scripture to our hearts. As 1 Corinthians 2:9–10 says, “Things which
eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which
have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love
Him. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit
searches all things, even the depths of God.”
We don’t need to look to horoscopes, astrology, or anything else to find
truth. We’re to trust that the Holy
Spirit can lead us into all truth that we need.
The Spirit leads, then, through His written word and the
application of that word within us. We
don’t follow feelings, which can be deceptive, nor our own inner voice, which
can lead to what we already want outside of Christ. We don’t listen to other voices that may
approach us, for those may be demonic (Job 4:12–21; 2 Cor. 11:14–15). Instead, we follow the leading of the Spirit
of truth according to His Scripture.
Why? The Holy Spirit
doesn't operate independently. He speaks
only what He hears from the Father and the Son, maintaining the unity and
harmony within the Trinity. Just as
Jesus said, “I speak the things which I have heard from Him [the Father]” (John
8:26), so the Spirit continues that work, guiding believers into the fullness
of God’s revealed truth.
This is why what the disciples recorded from the Holy Spirit
was the Word of God. This word exalts the
good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.
As we read Scripture today with the Holy Spirit, we see our need for
this gospel message. We see our need for
Jesus Christ, for His cross, the resurrection, and ascension. That brings us to the next point:
III.
Second, We Know Christ through the Holy Spirit
(v. 14)
He will glorify
Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
The Holy Spirit's mission is to glorify Christ. Jesus already said the Spirit would testify
about Him in John 15:26. Here, Jesus
reports that the Holy Spirit will be in the business of glorifying the Son of
God.
Again, this is how you can tell the difference between a
true Holy Spirit ministry and a counterfeit one. A false ministry will claim to have all kinds
of miracles of the Holy Spirit. It will
recite supernatural reports, and prophecies about the future, and blessings for
those who give to the ministry. It may
even complain about those Christians who are “afraid” of the Holy Spirit and
won’t allow Him to outpour the spiritual gifts of tongues and prophecy upon
them. A counterfeit Holy Spirit ministry
will specialize in that kind of teaching, not in the proclamation of
Christ. It may throw in a watered-down
gospel message and mention Jesus from time to time, but everyone will be caught
up in manifestations and sensations, not in Jesus Christ. It will emphasize long, repetitive worship
music and the supposed signs of the Spirit, not the message of the cross.
The Holy Spirit’s role is not to draw attention to Himself
but to direct our gaze toward Jesus. He
does this by making Christ known to us, unfolding the truths about His life,
death, and resurrection. As John
MacArthur notes, all New Testament “truth revealed by God centers in Christ”
(cf. Heb. 1:1–2), for Christ was the theme of the Old Testament, as the New
Testament claims.[2] The Spirit continually reveals Christ's glory
through Scripture, molding believers into the image of Jesus.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit’s ministry to us isn’t separable
from the agenda of Christ. The Spirit
takes what belongs to Christ and declares it to us, illuminating Christ’s
person and work. Calvin notes that nothing
“is bestowed on us by the Spirit apart from Christ, but He takes it from Christ,
that He may communicate it to us.”[3] The mission of the Spirit and Christ are the
same because the Spirit borrows His ministry from Christ, announcing it to our
hearts.
This ministry of the Spirit is vital for our spiritual
growth. The more we behold Christ
through the Spirit’s illumination of Scripture, the more we are transformed
into His image (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). It is
through the Spirit that we come to a deeper knowledge of Christ and are
conformed to His likeness. This
conforming happens as we learn more about God’s ways, as we see next.
IV.
Third, We Know God’s Ways through the Holy
Spirit (v. 15)
All things that
the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will
disclose it to you.
In this verse, Jesus emphasizes the perfect unity within the
Godhead. What belongs to the Father also
belongs to the Son, and the Holy Spirit takes from what belongs to the Son to
disclose it to us. Thus, there’s no
division in the Trinity.
Consider first that we see the belongings of Christ and the
Father are the same. This elevates the
Son from the status of a mere teacher or human to that of co-equal with the
Father. Jesus is “is the image of the
invisible God” (Col. 1:15). The Holy
Spirit, then, is not just taking from the Father when He discloses truth to
us. Rather, just as Christ was faithful
in reporting what the Father had said, the Holy Spirit is faithful in reporting
what both the Father and the Son say.
The Father, Son, and Spirit are completely united in purpose
and essence. Thus, the truth of the Holy
Spirit is the very truth of God. The God
of the Old Testament was always moving in this direction, meaning that we
should read the Old Testament with a New Testament view. We must not think that the Father was moving
in one direction for humanity in the Old Testament, but His Son changed His
mind or usurped a plan of law with grace.
The Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament, and now He presents to
us the next stage of God’s plan of redemption in Christ.
All that the Father possesses belongs to Christ, and through
the Spirit, that truth is declared to believers. This declaration happens first in Scripture,
the Spirit-inspired Word of God. As the
apostles penned the new revelation God had for the church, they were seeing
what is now and what will be in the future.
Their words included how God wants us to live today, and the Holy Spirit
comes into our hearts for us to see the application of God’s Word to our unique
circumstances.
Thus, we begin to be conformed to Christ’s image and carry
out the Father’s will. You may be a
young man or lady, but the Lord has a will for you at your stage of life. He has a will for both the married and the
single people in here. He has said what
He wants of young and old in places like Titus 2. As each of us in our various situations read
Scripture, the Holy Spirit can begin to open our minds and hearts to applying
God’s will to our homes, workplaces, families, friends, and everywhere else in
the world. Jesus said earlier, "He
who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9); the Holy Spirit shows us
the Father’s heart, will, and ways for our individual circumstances.
V.
Conclusion
We need the Holy Spirit!
Without Him, we wouldn’t have Scripture, and we couldn’t know the truth
of the gospel, the person of Christ, or the ways of God. So, He’s our Teacher, our Comforter, and the
One who continually points us to Jesus.
As Jesus promised in this passage, the Spirit leads us into all truth,
glorifies Christ, and reveals the things of God.
Therefore, let’s trust the Holy Spirit’s work in our
lives. As the apostle Paul says in 1
Corinthians 2:12: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by
God.” Let this be our prayer as we rely
on the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts and minds, drawing us closer to the
Savior.
[1] D. A. Carson, The
Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, (Leicester,
England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 542.
[2] John MacArthur Jr., Ed., The MacArthur Study Bible, electronic ed., (Nashville, TN: Word
Pub., 1997), 1617.
[3] John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, (Bellingham, WA: Logos
Bible Software, 2010), 2:146.