FULL - Truth-Full
- Sep 25, 2011
- John 16:7-14
- Gary Brandenburg
- Series: WonderFULL
- Park Lane Campus
Have you ever been around someone who has “it?” There is something different about them but you can’t really put your finger on what “it” is. Some people call this “the “it” factor.” In business, sports, entertainment, you name it, the “it factor” refers to intangible qualities that explain why one employee becomes CEO while others never even get a promotion, why one athlete becomes great and others with similar skills are forgotten or why one actress becomes a star while another is still waiting tables in L.A. waiting for her big break. I don’t suppose we will ever know what “it” is but we all know “it” when we see “it.”
The Bible is largely a book about the “it” factor. Story after story features ordinary people doing extraordinary things. “It” is a dominant theme in the book. But the good thing about the Bible is that we are told what the “it” factor is and it turns out not to be an “it” at all, but a “Who.” The Holy Spirit is our “it factor.” He is invisible but hardly intangible. Men and women yielded to the power of the Spirit can be confident in the truth and accomplish great things.
One of the most important roles of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the role of truth-teller. We don’t have to go through life dazed and confused. The Holy Spirit reveals truth to anyone who will invite Him into their lives. A Spirit-filled life is a truth-full life. A Spirit-filled relationship is a truth-full relationship. A Spirit-filled home is a truth-full home. Today we are going to examine the relationship between the Holy Spirit and truth.
The Holy Spirit is the source of truth. He is described by Jesus as “the Spirit of truth.” He said, John 14:16-18. The indwelling Holy Spirit is our internal GPS. When you are confused, the Holy Spirit “will guide you into all truth.” When your feel displaced or dislocated, the Holy Spirit is your internal GPS helping you get a “fix” on truth. When you are living slightly “off key” the Holy Spirit is your tuning fork. I once heard a story about a man who used to greet his neighbor with, “What do you know?” The neighbor would reach over and pick up a tuning fork, strike it on the table and say, “I know that this is middle C. The guy up stairs sings off key. The kid across the hall is playing on a piano that is a quarter note flat. But this is middle C.” Too often we tune our instruments to the instruments of others and we slowly drift out of tune. The Holy Spirit is middle C.
You could say that the Holy Spirit and the word of God are practically synonymous and I will, but not yet.
The Holy Spirit reveals the truth about Jesus. John 16:13-15…“He will not speak on His own initiative but whatever He hears He will speak.” The Holy Spirit is dependent upon Jesus for everything He says. His purpose is to glorify Jesus. That is why I get a little uncomfortable when someone wants to focus attention on the Holy Spirit as if He feels sort of forgotten. His purpose is not to gain attention but to shift the focus onto Jesus. Have you ever been to a beautiful historic landmark at night like the Washington Monument or the Acropolis in Athens? Those sights are breathtaking to me. But no one stands around examining the flood lights. If someone walks away from the Eifel Tower at night in Paris and says, “Wow! Those flood lights are incredible.” They have missed the whole point. And the whole point of the Bible is Jesus.
Verse 13 says He will, “disclose what is to come.” Jesus tells His disciples that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to first of all remind them of the things Jesus taught. John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” They would need to remember what Jesus said when they were surrounded by hostile forces and endless perversions of the truth.
The Spirit would not only disclose the things Jesus had already said but 16:13 says He would continue to reveal truth to the apostles. So the work of the Spirit is not only an historic remembering of the things Jesus taught but an ongoing illumination of the text of scripture opening our eyes and hearts to the truth in new ways but ways that glorify Jesus and are consistent with what the historic text says about Him.
This is where truth gets tricky. There are all sorts of religious offshoots that are based on someone’s new revelation. But one important test of anyone who has some kind of “new revelation” is to ask, “What do they say about Jesus?”
“Historic revelation must always be the measure by which new revelations are tested. Revelations that fail to glorify Jesus, that fail to recognize Jesus’ preeminence and glory, dishonor the Father since it is he who is the source of everything Jesus has. The Father is at work in the Son, the Son is at work in the Spirit; any revelation that disrupts the glory of these is not from God.” Burge, Gary M. “The Fifth Promise of the Spirit (16:12 – 15)” In The NIV Application Commentary: John. By Gary M. Burge, 439. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 2000.
The Holy Spirit reveals the truth about Jesus. In fact, you could say that the Holy Spirit and the word of God are practically synonymous, and I will, but not yet.
The Holy Spirit reveals God’s “secret wisdom.”1 Corinthians 2:7 – 16. This phrase “wisdom in a mystery” refers to the details of God’s eternal plan of redemption. When the Bible uses “mystery” it means something previously hidden and now revealed. The OT saints could not anticipate how God would redeem His fallen creation but Isaiah (v. 9) did know that there would be some unexpected wonders surrounding the plan of salvation. The Holy Spirit who draws people to Christ now reveals what was once unknown. God reveals them to us by His Spirit who has access to God’s thoughts. In other words, just as we are the only ones who can know our own private thoughts, God’s Spirit knows the thoughts of God. Since God’s Spirit dwells within us then we can know the mind of God because His Spirit reveals it to us. So God has graciously revealed spiritual thought in spiritual words (v. 13). Vv. 14-16 says that believers have the ability to bring the mind of God to bear on every aspect of life. We have the mind of Christ.
There is a wisdom that all Christians possess by virtue of the fact that we have the Spirit of God living within us. But we appropriate that wisdom only when we are yielded to the control of the Spirit and not the control of the world, the flesh or the devil. The root of much of the confusion among Christian people is our reliance on the wisdom of this world. Worldly wisdom often sounds good or it would have no appeal. But the world’s wisdom is often opposed to God’s wisdom. Here are some examples:
“A woman has a right to do what she wants with her own body.”
“I can choose any behavior I please as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.”
“We don’t have the right to judge anyone.”
“You have a right to be happy or you deserve to be happy.”
These may sound right but they are all contradicted by the word of God. If you follow this worldly advice you could find your life off course or worse because you assume this conventional worldly advice is true. If we don’t dig down and get the truth we could get ourselves in some real trouble…like the news reporter who was assigned to get some camera footage of the wild fires. He called the airport and chartered a small plane and a pilot. They said we will have the plane on the runway waiting for you when you arrive. The man arrived, hopped in the plane and said, “Let’s go.” A little later he asked the pilot to fly lower. When the young pilot asked why he said, “Because I’m a news reporter and I have to get close shots of the fire.” The pilot replied, “You mean you’re not my instructor?”
Just because it’s an airplane with a pilot doesn’t mean it’s the right plan and pilot. The Holy Spirit will reveal God’s wisdom. In fact, you could say that the Holy Spirit and the word of God are practically synonymous and I will but not yet.
The Holy Spirit reveals the true meaning of sin, righteousness and judgment…John 16:7-11. The convicting work of the Holy Spirit is necessary because of the spiritual bankruptcy of the world. The problem is that most of us have adapted to the world so successfully that we no longer truly believe that its systems of thought are wrong. We’re like that proverbial frog that is slowly cooked in a warming pot of water - we don’t realize we are in jeopardy till it is too late.
The Holy Spirit serves as the conscience of the world revealing sin, righteousness and judgment. Judgment is a good thing. If there were no standard against which to measure my life I would never get to where I want to go. When I hold my life up to the truth I can evaluate how I’m doing. Having the Holy Spirit doesn’t make us inherently better than those without the Spirit but it does give us that internal GPS to keep our lives on course. I once heard an airline pilot say that when he flew he was off course 99% of the time. External factors keep moving the plane left and right; up and down but the course has been programmed into the planes navigational system and every time it gets slightly off course the instruments respond to bring it back to its preset coordinates. When we walk in truth we glorify God and adorn the Gospel.
You could say that the Holy Spirit and the word of God are practically synonymous and now I will do just that. In fact, I will show you how the Bible correlates the two.
Ephesians 5:18-21 Colossians 3:16-17
Be filled with the Spirit Let the word of Christ richly dwells within you*
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
singing and making melody with your heart singing with thankfulness in your hearts
wives, husbands, children wives, husbands, children
*(“To dwell within” is the word enoikeo which could be translated “at home.”)
When you look closely at these two passages penned by the apostle Paul it becomes clear that there is a close connection between the work of the Spirit of God and the word of God. In fact, you could say they were practically synonymous. The word of God is merely an expression of the person of God. I cultivate a relationship with God, a real person, by consuming His words. How is that possible? Easy, it happens all the time, sometimes to the detriment of the naïve.
Occasionally we hear about a young girl who is enticed by some older man who makes contact on the internet and draws her in until she runs off to meet him. This predator makes use of some incredible technology to lure her, not some candy or a puppy but words on a computer screen. His word is the vehicle to form a relationship. Words are powerful things because there is a real person who is the source of those words. In this case, a bad man who seeks a relationship to the harm of the one lured in by his words. But God is good. God is perfect. God is love. Behind God’s word is a real person who seeks a relationship, one that will save us and give us life. The Holy Spirit is a person and not simply a force. So how can I be full of the Holy Spirit? How can I have a relationship with the Spirit? “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.”
Here is your HomeWork. Stop by home point and take advantage of some of the materials we have down there so you can feast on the truth and be filled with the Spirit.
