Sermon nuggets Fri Sept 19
Theme Our Special Counselor
Verses John 14:16-17
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
John 14:25-26 "All this I have spoken while still with you.26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
The Part the Spirit Plays
We are living in the church age. This is the age of grace and begins at the end of the gospels and continues to the end of time until Jesus returns from Heaven. Today God is with us and within us as inspiration, instructor, as energy, strength and power. This explains Jesus' concern on explaining the role of the Holy Spirit in the last hours of his life with his disciples in the upper room.
v.16 The Holy Spirit is described as a Counselor. I think the KJV uses the term, Comforter. The word actually means strengthener or fortify, or helper. It is a legal term, but with a broader meaning than counsel for the defense. It referred to any person who helped someone in trouble with the law. The Spirit will always stand by Christ's people. He is described as being with us forever. He will never leave us. I do not have to hunt and search for him for He dwells within. And He will never lead as astray.
What a joy to know that God never leaves us. He never forsakes us. He is constantly with us and within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, with all who accept Christ to save them. God is not far away. He is much closer than any can imagine. Remind yourself today that your body is the temple, the dwelling place, of the most high and holy God in the Spirit. Live in the way that honors that temple.
v. 17 He is the spirit of Truth. He brings home the truth of the Gospel. Do we accept it or not? All three persons of the Trinity are linked with truth. But when God is rejected, so is His message. The Holy Spirit cannot be part of us if we fail to believe and obey. Therefore, He is described as rejected by the world as unseen and unknown. Indeed, the world that refuses to acknowledge Jesus Christ will never accept or receive the Holy Spirit. It cannot, for the only way to have the Spirit is to respond in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have heard Christians say often, "I don’t know how people can get along without the Lord.” When we lean, learn and are guided by the truth of the Bible in our already upside down world, no wonder those without the Spirit seem lost and without hope. Yet they haven’t experienced the more excellent way.
v.25,26 The Holy Spirit is also our teacher, teaching us all things. I was the job of the Holy Spirit to bring to remembrance the words of Jesus to the Apostles. Now let me add that it is through this process that the Holy Spirit is the author of the Scriptures moving within men to put the words and stories down that the Lord desired to be preserved. This is done innumerous ways.
The Holy Spirit is the avenue through which we respond to the Son and the Son is the avenue through which we respond to the Father. The Spirit convicts of sin, and moves in our hearts to say yes to Jesus, and applies the truths to our understanding. He is an active force within the life of the believer. He is God.
I pray every Sunday morning that the Word of God preached would be by the power of the Holy Spirit, illuminated by the Spirit as He teaches us truth. But the same is also truth thorugh our daily lives as we becomes students and meditate and pray on the Scriptures. For the heart ready to receive the Holy Spirit takes what is painfully human and in a mysterious way with people taps on their hearts to encourage, excite, rebuke, train, guide, empower and correct our minds that we might live to the glory of God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What a marvelous privilege we have.
Pastor Dale.
