WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.139 We're starting a new series tonight, like we did this morning on 1 John, tonight's 00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:09.960 on the Holy Spirit, and we're going to be looking this semester at the identity of the 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:13.919 Spirit, the activity of the Spirit, and how we walk in the Spirit. 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:17.359 So we'll look at three or four sermons actually on each of those. 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:19.039 So we're going to get very specific. 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:26.039 Now when I was in seminary, in our preaching class, the professor who's from Wales, he 00:00:26.039 --> 00:00:33.640 said that you can preach one topical series a year, and then you have to repent. 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:38.359 Normally here we like to preach just through books of the Bible, but we get one a year, 00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:40.920 one topical series, and here it is, the Holy Spirit. 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:45.480 We're going to look at it from September through November, and tonight we begin with 00:00:45.480 --> 00:00:46.480 John 14. 00:00:46.480 --> 00:00:50.759 We were with the Apostle John this morning, we're with the Apostle John tonight in John 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:51.759 14. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:57.960 It's a very helpful introductory text to look at who the Holy Spirit is, and we're going 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:02.320 to camp out on who the Holy Spirit is over the next three to four weeks, but tonight we're 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:04.439 going to give an overview on that. 00:01:04.439 --> 00:01:08.959 This is John 14 as part of the farewell speech of Jesus Christ. 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:15.519 This is actually the longest section in the whole Bible of the continuous words of Jesus 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:20.000 in all the Gospels that we have, and it's got a very clear central theme. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:21.640 It's really twofold. 00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:26.319 One, Jesus is saying farewell, which is why we call it the farewell speech. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:31.040 He's saying, the very famous word that John uses over and over again, that Jesus uses, 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:34.040 is my hour has come. 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:38.319 An hour in the book of John always means the same thing, the hour. 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:44.000 It's a reference to the cross, the hour of the cross, whenever Jesus was to die. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:49.240 And so Jesus here says, it's time for me to go and leave you, and that brings you to the 00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:57.679 second theme of the farewell discourse, which is exemplified in chapter 13 when Jesus says, 00:01:57.679 --> 00:02:02.959 my hour has come, I'm going to leave you, and Peter says, anywhere you go, I'll go 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:03.959 with you. 00:02:03.959 --> 00:02:05.799 I'm not letting you go, Lord. 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:13.800 And Jesus says, where I'm going, you cannot come, but if you love me, keep my commandments. 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:18.879 And so the second big theme of the farewell discourse is a commission. 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:23.159 Jesus says, I'm leaving you, but then he says, but I'm also commissioning you. 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:29.519 And the commission is, if you love me, if you want to follow me, keep my commandments, 00:02:29.519 --> 00:02:32.639 tell the story, love me and obey me. 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:35.439 And you see it right here in the text that we read tonight. 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:40.800 Now the question may be the question of the book of John. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:47.639 It's bookended with this question, how can a person like Peter, who's going to run from 00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:53.839 Jesus shortly, who's going to betray Jesus, how can he obey such a grand commission? 00:02:53.839 --> 00:02:58.519 To love, if you love me, Jesus says, keep the commands that I've given you. 00:02:58.519 --> 00:02:59.719 How could he obey? 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:04.279 It's the same question that Nicodemus faced in John chapter three. 00:03:04.279 --> 00:03:08.319 Jesus said, you want to be a child of God, you've got to be born of God. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:13.919 And the question then becomes, how can I, how can a sinner, how can somebody like me be born 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:20.319 of God, and the answer that Jesus gave there becomes the answer that Jesus gives here. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:22.159 And that's, you need the wind. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:24.159 That's how he puts it in John three. 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:27.159 You need the spirit. 00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:34.000 And so the spirit, the Holy spirit, the spirit of God becomes the answer to really what is 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:36.359 the oldest problem. 00:03:36.359 --> 00:03:41.439 And that's the problem of the great divorce, as Lewis put it, the divorce that has taken 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:45.359 place, the separation between God and humanity. 00:03:45.359 --> 00:03:46.800 How could I be born of God? 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:49.759 How could I obey the commands of God? 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:55.319 And the answer is that the spirit comes to fill the rupture, to fix the rupture of the 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:59.840 great divorce, of the separation that we've experienced from Genesis three forward. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:03.199 And so let's ask tonight, we're going to get very detailed in this series about the Holy 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:05.280 spirit, very detailed. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:12.400 But tonight, let's ask, who is the spirit and what does the spirit do according to John 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:13.400 14? 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:15.479 All right, so first, who is the spirit? 00:04:15.479 --> 00:04:20.319 Now the very first thing you can see here is that if you noticed the way Jesus talks 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:24.399 about the Holy spirit, he keeps saying, he keeps using a pronoun. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:28.000 He says, he, he will come. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:32.120 I'm leaving, but he will come and he will be with you. 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:36.280 And that's enough to make the first point. 00:04:36.280 --> 00:04:41.680 The very first thing we have to say about the Holy spirit is that the spirit is a person. 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:44.439 The spirit's a person. 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:53.639 In our Westminster Confession, larger catechism, the question is what is God? 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:54.759 And that's a good question. 00:04:54.759 --> 00:05:00.040 But I think John Calvin helps us out when he says, whenever we're talking about God, 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:04.280 we ought to, we probably ought to say who, not what. 00:05:04.280 --> 00:05:05.680 And that's exactly it. 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:08.840 Jesus says, when you're talking about the Holy spirit, the question's not what is the 00:05:08.840 --> 00:05:11.800 spirit, but who is the spirit? 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:15.400 He is, he's not impersonal, but he's personal. 00:05:15.400 --> 00:05:20.360 And when you look across the New Testament text, we have, well, from verse 17, he will 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:21.360 be with you. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:24.879 But listen to these verbs that we have about the Holy spirit. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:28.960 The spirit searches, first Corinthians 2, judges X 15. 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:33.399 Here's John 16 speaks X 13, Revelation 2, bunch more. 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:39.919 Will's, first Corinthians 12, teaches John 14, intercedes Romans 8, witnesses John 15. 00:05:39.919 --> 00:05:43.959 He can be grieved, he can comfort, he's personal, he's a person. 00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:45.279 He's not impersonal. 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:46.759 He's not a force. 00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:48.479 He's a person. 00:05:48.479 --> 00:05:50.879 Now the second thing, who is the Holy spirit? 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:56.919 Secondly, we learn here, Jesus says very early in the passage that he is also the spirit 00:05:56.919 --> 00:05:57.919 of truth. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.720 And I'm going to send to you, Jesus tells us the spirit of truth. 00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:06.319 Now I'm going to come back to something if you were here this morning that we talked 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:07.319 about this morning. 00:06:07.319 --> 00:06:11.400 We said this morning that in the contemporary world, I mentioned it to the children that 00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:16.360 it's very, very normal for a person to say, I'm a spiritual person, but I'm not religious. 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:22.200 I'm spiritual, but I don't need historic religion to give me a happy life. 00:06:22.200 --> 00:06:24.160 I'm a spiritual person. 00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:26.319 And I've talked a lot about that this morning. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:30.480 I won't say everything again, but let me say this, let me just say this. 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:37.120 We very quickly learn from John 14 that being spiritual in the language of the contemporary 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:41.439 world is completely different from Christian spirituality. 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:42.959 Those are two different things. 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:48.920 Being spiritual today is different from, it's not the same as Christian spirituality. 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:52.920 One author I was looking at defines modern spirituality like this. 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:59.680 This is what he says, he says, it's quote, feeling a connection to everything, an emotional 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:02.560 existential oneness with the cosmos. 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:08.600 First, second, it's specifically feeling a connection with an unnamed higher power, the 00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:14.480 same as what has been called the world force or the fate that guides us all. 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:20.639 Third, it's having experiences that transcend the mind and the body. 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:28.159 It takes one beyond the mind through meditation into deep realms of imagination. 00:07:28.159 --> 00:07:35.039 So the mindfulness movement, the literature surrounding it, it emphasizes that to be 00:07:35.039 --> 00:07:41.759 spiritual today is to have an experience, a spiritual experience with an unnamed spirituality, 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:46.599 an unnamed spirit where you move beyond mind, beyond body. 00:07:46.599 --> 00:07:49.560 You have a great spiritual experience. 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:55.399 And look, Christianity comes and says, yes, we believe in spiritual experience. 00:07:55.399 --> 00:08:02.600 We believe in deep spiritual experience, but the difference, the difference, Jesus here 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:09.120 comes and says, the spirit is the spirit of truth, of truth. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:13.120 Now let me give you one more just brief example of this. 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:16.800 This modern spirituality comes in all sorts of degrees. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:21.800 One that is extremely popular right now has been made popular by Sam Harris. 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:26.720 Sam Harris is one of the four or five most famous atheists that was a part of the New 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:29.400 Atheist Movement in the early 2000. 00:08:29.400 --> 00:08:35.639 He's a brilliant man, a great thinker, a philosopher, and a scientist both. 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:40.680 And he has popularized a specific spiritual movement in the mindfulness tradition. 00:08:40.680 --> 00:08:43.960 And I won't say much about it, but that's just a simply note. 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:49.440 Sam says, there is nothing but matter in motion. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:51.600 There's nothing but, what is the spiritual? 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:54.440 It's nothing but your mind in motion on the one hand. 00:08:54.440 --> 00:08:58.600 And he says, so you can be spiritual, but you need to know that there is no spirit at 00:08:58.600 --> 00:08:59.600 the same time. 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:03.240 But on the other hand, there are plenty of people in the modern world who are spiritual 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:04.480 who would say exactly the opposite. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:09.240 They would say, look, I am spiritual because I believe in some form of divinity, some form 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:10.639 of deity. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:14.799 And I don't know what it is, I can't name it, and that's exactly the point. 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:15.799 I can't ever know it. 00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:20.399 It's just to be spiritual is to be connected with the spirit, the fate, the thing that 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:21.399 guides the world. 00:09:21.399 --> 00:09:22.399 I don't know what it is. 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:28.240 And you see, you can be atheistic and spiritual, you can be agnostic and spiritual. 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:34.039 But in all of these cases, this is something completely other than Christian spirituality. 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:40.439 Because Jesus tells us that the spirit that he introduces here is the spirit of truth. 00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:45.960 Now, truth, the spirit of truth. 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:51.560 If you were to go down to George Square and speak with the philosophers at the philosophy 00:09:51.560 --> 00:09:54.800 department, some of them, when you ask, what is truth? 00:09:54.800 --> 00:09:57.760 That's a big question. 00:09:57.760 --> 00:10:02.480 But one of the ways that we've always talked about truth is very simple. 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:10.480 Truth is whenever whatever you think or understand in your mind actually corresponds with the 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:12.519 reality outside of you. 00:10:12.519 --> 00:10:17.560 So if I say that this podium here is wooden, that's my sentence, that's the experience 00:10:17.560 --> 00:10:18.560 I've had of it. 00:10:18.560 --> 00:10:20.120 The podium is wooden. 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:25.639 And all of you come up here and check it out and hit it with a hammer, try to drive a nail 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:30.039 through it, and then you come to me and you say, the podium is wooden. 00:10:30.039 --> 00:10:34.879 And what we have there is a correspondent theory of truth established. 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:40.579 And that's that my subjective experience of this podium corresponds with the objective 00:10:40.579 --> 00:10:42.399 reality of the podium. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:43.399 And that's the truth. 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:48.719 And look, you might say, okay, look, why are we talking about philosophy? 00:10:48.719 --> 00:10:50.599 Don't pass over this. 00:10:50.599 --> 00:10:52.199 Don't pass over that. 00:10:52.199 --> 00:10:59.079 Because when Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, yes, yes, if you've 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:02.480 been in the church for any time, you know He's saying more than that. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:06.200 But He's also not saying less than that. 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:08.120 Do you know that? 00:11:08.120 --> 00:11:15.160 That Christians, the Bible, we believe that every single time you have a real experience 00:11:15.160 --> 00:11:19.160 with the world that it's because the Holy Spirit has given you that. 00:11:19.160 --> 00:11:20.560 Did you know that? 00:11:20.560 --> 00:11:26.160 John Calvin speaks of the common operation of the Holy Spirit, that He's so the spirit 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:34.279 of truth, that He so gives us life and breath and knowledge, that the gifts of God to you, 00:11:34.279 --> 00:11:39.079 the common gifts that we all share, that if the Holy Spirit were to pull away from the 00:11:39.079 --> 00:11:44.439 world that we couldn't know anything, that we couldn't speak, that we couldn't breathe, 00:11:44.439 --> 00:11:49.959 that we couldn't have food to eat, that the spirit of truth is the spirit who upholds 00:11:49.959 --> 00:11:54.799 all the common things that we share as human beings, that the spirit is underneath all 00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:55.799 of it. 00:11:55.799 --> 00:11:59.159 He gives us all of it, so we can't. 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:04.359 He is the spirit of truth as knowledge, but of course there's more than that. 00:12:04.359 --> 00:12:09.319 When Jesus says here that He's the spirit of truth, it's not just a common reference 00:12:09.319 --> 00:12:14.319 to what we all share, but there's something special as well as we might put it. 00:12:14.319 --> 00:12:18.879 Now, if you've read the Gospel of John, you probably can pick up very quickly what Jesus 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:20.959 is doing. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:26.639 Here on in John 18, there's a very famous moment where Pilate is going to ask the question, 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:33.560 Pontius Pilate, Jesus is going to stand and Pontius Pilate is going to say, what is truth? 00:12:33.560 --> 00:12:35.519 What is the truth? 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:39.120 And Jesus is silent in that moment. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:42.320 And if you've read through the Gospel of John and you've gotten all the way to John 18, 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:49.440 when Jesus says not a word before Pontius Pilate, you as the reader say, Jesus, tell 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:51.680 Him, tell Him. 00:12:51.680 --> 00:12:53.560 He just asked you, what is the truth? 00:12:53.560 --> 00:12:58.280 Tell Him, because you read John 14. 00:12:58.280 --> 00:13:04.280 And in John 14, he very famously, just before he tells us that he's giving to us the spirit 00:13:04.280 --> 00:13:11.040 of truth, he says, I am the truth. 00:13:11.040 --> 00:13:15.480 And so just before this, Jesus has said, I'm the truth and now I'm sending to you the spirit 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:16.480 of truth. 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:18.080 Do you see what he's saying? 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:25.240 He's saying what John said about Jesus, the Son of God and God the Father in John chapter 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:26.240 one. 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:33.360 In John chapter one, he said, the Jesus Christ that I saw, that I touched, that I looked at, 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:36.080 He was in the beginning with God. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:39.120 He is so in the beginning with God that He was the Creator. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:42.759 He's so the Creator that the Son of God has come down. 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:44.360 He is God. 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:51.360 And now Jesus is saying, I'm sending to you the spirit of truth who shares the same identity 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:52.360 with me. 00:13:52.360 --> 00:13:55.240 I am the truth and He is the truth. 00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:56.240 He is the spirit of truth. 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:00.639 And you see, he's saying, the spirit is God. 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:02.800 The spirit is God. 00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:06.560 That's why we call Him not the spirit, but the Holy Spirit. 00:14:06.560 --> 00:14:08.680 He is more than other spirits. 00:14:08.680 --> 00:14:09.800 He is the spirit. 00:14:09.800 --> 00:14:11.600 He is God. 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:19.159 And look, you say, I know that, I just read it in the Catechism number 36. 00:14:19.159 --> 00:14:25.920 The spirit that is near you, Christian, He is God. 00:14:25.920 --> 00:14:26.920 He is God. 00:14:26.920 --> 00:14:28.639 He's God with you. 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:29.840 He's God near you. 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:31.680 He's God beside you. 00:14:31.680 --> 00:14:33.240 He's God in you. 00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:36.639 He's the God who comes alongside your heart. 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:42.519 And so what we have here is a pronouncement of the unity of the Godhead, that God is one 00:14:42.519 --> 00:14:49.679 in essence, three in person, Father, Son, and Spirit, the great mystery of the Trinity. 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:53.919 That's what Jesus is saying when He says the spirit of truth. 00:14:53.919 --> 00:15:00.240 Now modern religious mysticism, spirituality in general, it says, leave your mind, leave 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:04.639 your body, and have a spiritual experience. 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:11.679 When Jesus comes and says, have a spiritual experience by knowing personally the triune 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:15.360 God Himself, the spirit of truth. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:19.600 Know that the spirit of God is near you and with you. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:24.559 He is the life-giving, renewing person of the Godhead that proceeds from the Father 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:25.879 and the Son. 00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:28.639 That's what Jesus Christ is saying here. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:34.039 Now, secondly, secondly, what does the spirit do? 00:15:34.039 --> 00:15:36.039 What does the spirit do? 00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:38.159 He does two things here in this passage. 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:42.399 You can see it in verse 17 and verse 26. 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:46.519 The spirit of truth whom the world cannot see, cannot receive because it neither sees 00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:47.879 him or knows him. 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:51.879 You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. 00:15:51.879 --> 00:15:54.319 So the first thing we're told, what does the spirit do? 00:15:54.319 --> 00:15:57.480 The spirit dwells with you and is in you. 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:03.439 And then verse 26, the spirit teaches you, speaks to you, communicates to you. 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:04.440 Jesus tells us. 00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:05.920 All right, let's think about that. 00:16:05.920 --> 00:16:09.560 First, the spirit dwells with you. 00:16:09.560 --> 00:16:15.880 Now remember John, Texas in his gospel and in his letter of first John back to the beginning 00:16:15.880 --> 00:16:19.080 of human history, Genesis one. 00:16:19.080 --> 00:16:25.720 Genesis one and two, when you read that, you immediately realize that the Garden of Eden 00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:28.480 is God's temple on earth. 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:33.519 And the reason that it's both a garden and God's temple is because gardens are where humans 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:37.639 are supposed to live and the temple is where God lives. 00:16:37.639 --> 00:16:39.600 But in Eden, you have both come together. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:42.240 You've got the garden temple. 00:16:42.240 --> 00:16:48.320 And what that means, what that means is that from the very beginning of human history, 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:52.240 God made the world to dwell with his people. 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:54.840 God made the world to dwell with humankind. 00:16:54.840 --> 00:16:59.160 And Emmanuel has always been the message that even from the beginning from the Garden of 00:16:59.160 --> 00:17:02.560 Eden, God wants to be with us, with you. 00:17:02.560 --> 00:17:04.680 That's always been the point. 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:12.360 And in John's gospel, in John's gospel at the end, when Jesus Christ is crucified, the 00:17:12.360 --> 00:17:15.519 temple of God himself come down, is crucified. 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:23.160 He is buried where he's buried in a garden that was next to Mount Moriah, the place where 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:25.120 he was crucified. 00:17:25.120 --> 00:17:30.240 And the temple itself goes into the garden, you see? 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:34.200 And it goes under, it's buried in the grave, in the garden. 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:40.279 And then when he rises to new life, the angels that guarded the way to the garden, they're 00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:42.480 dismissed, they're gone. 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:45.920 And at that moment, the temple curtain tears in half. 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:50.840 And that's not to say that now you're invited into God's presence, no. 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:56.519 It's to say that now because of Jesus, God's presence has gone out. 00:17:56.519 --> 00:17:57.639 It's gone into the world. 00:17:57.639 --> 00:18:01.000 It's gone to fill the world, to make the world his temple. 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:08.559 The issue of our sin, the issue of your sin, are shaking our fists at God, are saying no 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:13.199 to God from the very beginning, has always been about us saying that we want to be separate 00:18:13.199 --> 00:18:16.079 from God and God saying, I want to be with you. 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:19.199 I want to come and dwell with you. 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:24.960 And so right here, Jesus says, as I go, as I leave, I came to be with you. 00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:27.400 I came to be God with you. 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:31.680 And as I leave, God will not leave you. 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:37.400 God will dwell with you because that has been the point from the very beginning that God 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:42.480 would be with you, that God would dwell with you, that Emmanuel would always be. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:48.080 And now this is the age of the Spirit, the age where God will never leave his people, 00:18:48.080 --> 00:18:49.180 his church. 00:18:49.180 --> 00:18:51.039 Jesus says here that he dwells with us. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:52.039 He is in us. 00:18:52.039 --> 00:18:53.240 He's with us. 00:18:53.240 --> 00:18:57.680 This is the answer to the problem of Genesis 3, the great rupture. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:07.000 And C.S. Lewis' famous book, The Great Divorce, he speaks about this in a very indirect way. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:14.519 This is not a book that you use for our systematic theology class at ETS across the street, but 00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:20.160 it's a great book because it gets you thinking about the great divorce Lewis' reference. 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:25.879 There is subtly to the great divorce of Genesis 3, the separation between God and humanity 00:19:25.879 --> 00:19:29.240 and all the problems that that's caused throughout history. 00:19:29.240 --> 00:19:33.920 Now in one moment in this book, there's a character named Pam. 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:42.839 And Pam, she dies and her soul goes into the heavenly realm and she meets a spirit in heaven 00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:45.240 named Reginald. 00:19:45.240 --> 00:19:46.919 And this is what happens. 00:19:46.919 --> 00:19:51.879 Pam had lost her young son when she was on earth. 00:19:51.879 --> 00:19:53.919 He had died long before her. 00:19:53.919 --> 00:19:56.559 And this is the interaction between Pam and Reginald. 00:19:56.559 --> 00:19:59.359 Oh, Reginald, it's you, is it? 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:02.480 Yes, dear, said Reginald, the spirit. 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:10.199 I know, Reginald says, that you expected somebody else, but I hope you can be a little glad 00:20:10.199 --> 00:20:12.639 to see me even. 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:17.520 She says, I did think my son Michael would have come to see me. 00:20:17.520 --> 00:20:22.320 And then almost fiercely, he is here, of course, isn't he? 00:20:22.320 --> 00:20:23.320 Reginald said, he's there. 00:20:23.320 --> 00:20:24.920 He's far up in the mountains. 00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:28.040 Well, why hasn't he come to meet me here? 00:20:28.040 --> 00:20:30.400 Didn't he know that I was coming? 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:32.480 And I'm going to paraphrase Lewis here. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:39.720 Reginald says, Pam, if you wanted to see Michael, you had to realize that you were made for 00:20:39.720 --> 00:20:48.279 more than Michael, that the separation that you felt between you and Michael is not first 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:51.000 about you and Michael. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:55.440 It's about a greater divorce, a greater separation. 00:20:55.440 --> 00:21:00.480 And she says, oh, you mean religion and all that sort of thing? 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:03.720 This is hardly the moment, Reginald, and from you of all people. 00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:04.720 Well, never mind. 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:06.360 I'll do whatever you need me to do. 00:21:06.360 --> 00:21:07.360 You want me to pray? 00:21:07.360 --> 00:21:08.360 I'll pray. 00:21:08.359 --> 00:21:12.599 I'll read the Bible or read the Bible, whatever you want me to do. 00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:19.479 Michael says, Reginald says, no, you're treating God only as a means to Michael, but the whole 00:21:19.479 --> 00:21:25.159 point is learning to want God for God's sake. 00:21:25.159 --> 00:21:28.399 And she says, if God loved me, he'd let me see my boy. 00:21:28.399 --> 00:21:31.319 If he loved me, why did he take away Michael from me? 00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:37.359 I wasn't going to say anything about it, but it's pretty hard to forgive. 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:38.359 Forgive me my boy. 00:21:38.359 --> 00:21:39.359 Do you hear it? 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:41.719 I don't care about all your rules and your regulations. 00:21:41.719 --> 00:21:44.639 I don't believe in a God who keeps a mother apart from a son. 00:21:44.639 --> 00:21:45.959 I believe in a God of love. 00:21:45.959 --> 00:21:48.000 No one has a right to come between me and my son. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:49.159 Not even God. 00:21:49.159 --> 00:21:51.439 Tell that to his face, she says. 00:21:51.439 --> 00:21:54.399 Now, look, this is a hard illustration. 00:21:54.399 --> 00:21:59.799 It's difficult, but you see what Lewis is trying to get at? 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:07.319 He's saying that what Pam cannot see is that the total opposite of what she said is true. 00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:12.919 She thinks that the great separation that she feels in life between person and person, 00:22:12.919 --> 00:22:21.480 between us and the land, us and the animals, us and everything, she thinks that it's because 00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:23.639 of what God has wanted. 00:22:23.639 --> 00:22:25.139 God has done. 00:22:25.139 --> 00:22:30.039 What she's missing is that the great divorce is because we said no. 00:22:30.039 --> 00:22:32.839 When God said yes in creation to us, we said no. 00:22:32.839 --> 00:22:33.960 We said, I don't want you. 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:35.039 I don't want to know you. 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:36.879 God said, I made you for me. 00:22:36.880 --> 00:22:38.160 I made you to dwell with me. 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:41.040 I made you to delight in my presence. 00:22:41.040 --> 00:22:49.200 We said no from the very beginning that when we rejected God, God rejected his own son 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:56.840 for us that we might dwell with the one we were made for from the very beginning. 00:22:56.840 --> 00:22:58.360 God gave up his son for us. 00:22:58.360 --> 00:23:00.120 God brought great reunion. 00:23:00.120 --> 00:23:06.520 Now, Jesus is saying here at the very beginning of this passage that Jesus Christ is the 00:23:06.519 --> 00:23:08.160 mediator of redemption. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:10.000 He's going as the hour is coming. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:16.839 He's going to bring us back to God, but that the Holy Spirit, He will be the one who will 00:23:16.839 --> 00:23:19.000 reunite us to the Father. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:22.839 He's the one that will come and dwell with us and take everything that Jesus has done 00:23:22.839 --> 00:23:27.079 and make it powerful unto our hearts in our lives. 00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:28.079 All right. 00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:33.000 Now, lastly, and secondly, the Holy Spirit dwells with us. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:36.839 Verse 26, the Holy Spirit communicates and teaches us. 00:23:36.839 --> 00:23:39.759 Very last thing here. 00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:45.880 The central point, the Spirit not only dwells with us, but He speaks to us. 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:49.680 He communicates to us. 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:56.799 Now I searched across different translations of this passage, and you can see it. 00:23:56.799 --> 00:23:58.440 It comes up several times here. 00:23:58.440 --> 00:24:03.440 Verse 26, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will 00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:09.519 teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you. 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:15.640 Jesus calls the Holy Spirit here the Helper in our ESV translation. 00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:18.120 You'll see this in different ways across different translations. 00:24:18.120 --> 00:24:22.640 It'll say Helper, Comforter, or Advocate. 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:25.200 The NRSV has Advocate. 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:31.840 And I think Advocate is actually the most helpful translation because the word that stands underneath 00:24:31.840 --> 00:24:36.640 this, the word that stands underneath this is a famous Greek word. 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:38.720 We had one famous Greek word this morning, Koinonia. 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:41.600 We've got a famous Greek word this evening. 00:24:41.600 --> 00:24:44.640 Maybe you've heard it, pericaleo. 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:51.880 Pericaleo, we have para, the prefix, and a ton of words that we use, parachute. 00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:53.440 What does a parachute do? 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:57.640 Comes alongside you on your back, keeps you alive. 00:24:57.640 --> 00:25:02.720 Paramedic comes alongside you, keeps you alive. 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:05.360 Same thing basically. 00:25:05.360 --> 00:25:13.000 Pericaleo, one who comes alongside you and callio argues with you. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:15.600 That's the sense of the word. 00:25:15.600 --> 00:25:22.200 Speaks to you, argues with you is more a legal sense like an advocate. 00:25:22.200 --> 00:25:26.120 Now there's one aspect of the Spirit's identity that I did not mention earlier, and that's 00:25:26.120 --> 00:25:27.120 this. 00:25:27.120 --> 00:25:34.120 Jesus says, I'm leaving you, but I'm going to send you another pericaleo, another helper. 00:25:34.120 --> 00:25:35.720 Why does he say another? 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:38.559 Why is the Spirit another helper? 00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:44.700 And it's because the New Testament over and over again, John, Hebrew says that Jesus Christ 00:25:44.700 --> 00:25:47.880 is the first pericaleo. 00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:49.680 He is the first. 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:50.680 So we have two. 00:25:50.680 --> 00:25:52.680 Do you know that? 00:25:52.680 --> 00:25:58.759 That you have two advocates, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 00:25:58.759 --> 00:26:02.360 And to put it in the words of one preacher, he says it like this, it's just to understand 00:26:02.360 --> 00:26:05.120 it, you just got to change the preposition. 00:26:05.120 --> 00:26:12.000 Christ is the pericaleo who advocates for you to God the Father. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:15.600 The Spirit is the one who advocates to you. 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:23.240 You see, God the Son speaks on your behalf right now to God the Father. 00:26:23.240 --> 00:26:27.559 And he says, every time you son, he says, I died for him. 00:26:27.559 --> 00:26:29.679 I died for her. 00:26:29.679 --> 00:26:32.899 He offers him, he says, look what I've done for them. 00:26:32.899 --> 00:26:34.759 He's the advocate before the Father. 00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:39.359 But then the Spirit is the advocate who then comes to you on behalf of the Son and tells 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:43.879 to you, tells you, he died for you. 00:26:43.880 --> 00:26:46.120 And that's what it means. 00:26:46.120 --> 00:26:49.520 Comforter is true, but it's a little too soft. 00:26:49.520 --> 00:26:50.520 It's more than that. 00:26:50.520 --> 00:26:54.120 He's the one who comes and wrestles with your heart, argues with you. 00:26:54.120 --> 00:27:00.640 And Romans 8 makes this very clear that whenever you are prone to wander, you're prone to struggle, 00:27:00.640 --> 00:27:06.040 you're prone to anxiety, you're prone to fear, you're prone to try to get God by your own 00:27:06.040 --> 00:27:08.880 means or to push him away altogether. 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:10.800 Is that you? 00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:16.399 If you're like me, the message is that the Holy Spirit is the one who comes alongside 00:27:16.399 --> 00:27:22.919 you and actually says to your heart over and over again, you're a child of God. 00:27:22.919 --> 00:27:24.559 Don't go that direction. 00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:27.720 Don't chase after that because you're a child of God. 00:27:27.720 --> 00:27:33.399 The Holy Spirit is the pericle who comes alongside and preaches to you when both Satan and your 00:27:33.399 --> 00:27:36.960 own self, your consciousness, accuse you. 00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:39.960 The Holy Spirit comes and preaches the gospel to your heart. 00:27:39.960 --> 00:27:42.920 The Holy Spirit is the pericle, the advocate. 00:27:42.920 --> 00:27:46.720 Now the question tonight, and I'm just going to leave us with this because we're going 00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:51.799 to come back and we're going to get deep into the doctrine, into the truths, into the hope, 00:27:51.799 --> 00:27:55.000 into how to abide and walk with the Spirit. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:56.319 We're going to do it very closely. 00:27:56.319 --> 00:27:58.960 But look, here's the question tonight. 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:05.920 The Holy Spirit is the one, is God who comes to be with you and speaks to you? 00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:12.880 If you're a Christian today, do you know the Holy Spirit in your life? 00:28:12.880 --> 00:28:16.880 Do you listen to the Holy Spirit in your life? 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:18.039 Do you hear the Spirit? 00:28:18.039 --> 00:28:20.400 Do you commune with the Spirit? 00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:21.880 Do you walk with the Spirit? 00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:24.400 Do you pray to God the Spirit? 00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:25.400 He is God. 00:28:25.400 --> 00:28:26.640 Pray to God the Spirit. 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:30.519 Do you hear the Spirit? 00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:34.160 And this is an invitation tonight to do that. 00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:35.160 Let's pray. 00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:40.080 We ask now that you would help us to hear the Spirit. 00:28:40.080 --> 00:28:43.200 And so we know that the wind blows where it wishes. 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:50.160 We pray and ask, oh God, that you would move through here and affect our hearts, that we 00:28:50.160 --> 00:28:54.080 might hear the Spirit in our daily lives. 00:28:54.080 --> 00:28:56.240 And we ask for that now in Christ's name. 00:28:56.240 --> 00:29:06.799 Amen.