7 Things Jesus Said About the Holy Spirit

Hanging Out With Jesus: What Does the Holy Spirit Do, and How Does He Do It?

Unedited Transcript

John 16:5-16

Good morning, men! Welcome to Man in the Mirror’s Men’s Bible Study, where we always have room for one more guy. So we’re going to show you here a little video clip. This ministry, our Bible Study, has grown over the years, and we now are in every state and I don’t know how many foreign countries, but it’s an international Bible Study that we’re doing. We have somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 men attending with us, which is crazy! Technology has advanced a lot, and so technology has basically over the last decade evolved in such a way that it has left us behind. So with the prevalence the HD TV and other devices, the HD material that we lack has really begun to be a hindrance to us. So we found a camera that gives us the quality that we want, and we want to show you an example of that.

Plays clip

A special word of thanks to Brian, Michael, and Dave, our IT team, for putting this together! The reason that I’m showing this to you is I’m going to ask you to consider funding the new equipment, and also all of the HD editing and so forth to put this program in good position for the next year. I’m rounding off the numbers they gave me. I’m rounding up. We can get all the camera equipment we need for $4,000. So if the Lord is leading you, somebody out there could do that. If you put all of the computer editing, the warrantees, and the hosting and everything for this program to be in good shape for a year, $23,000. So we have a total need here of $27,000. If you want to participate, you can see me, you can see one of the IT guys, you can write a check, you can give it to Jeff, ask more questions, and we’d love to have you participate. For those of you who are online, you’re the recipients of this, so I’m going to read to you a text, for all of us both here and there. 2 Corinthians 10, what we’re hoping for (this is Paul speaking to the Corinthians) is that as your lives grow in faith, you’ll play a part within our expanding work. Let it be so.

We’re going to do a shout out now. This one goes to Mighty Men of Valor. They are part of the Christian Family Worship Center in Columbia, Mississippi. 12 men who meet twice a month on Saturdays at the church using the Video Bible Study. The leader is Terry Montgomery, and just to note we don’t have any Area Directors yet in Mississippi, so guys if you are that man or know somebody who might be that man, let us know! I wonder if you would join me in giving a rousing welcome to Mighty Men of Valor in Columbia, MS? One, two, three, hoorah! Welcome guys, we’re glad to have you with us!

We’re doing this series, Hanging Out With Jesus. We’re up to the ministry or work of the Holy Spirit in John 16, beginning at verse 5. The title of the message today, What Does the Holy Spirit Do, and How Does He Do It? The Bible tells us, and we often encourage each other with the words I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. But guess what? Jesus has left the building, and for these disciples, he is getting ready to leave the building. In fact the last verse in our text says in a little while you will see me no more. The question then becomes how does this work? How does it work that he will never leave us, that he will never forsake us? The answer is it’s the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. I wish personally that God would not have called himself the Holy Spirit. It’s such an impersonal name. The Christ is also a little impersonal, but Jesus is very personal. So I wish there was a personal name for the Holy Spirit, but there’s not, so that’s that. What we want to do is look at this ministry of this personally indwelling Holy Spirit and see what he does and how he does it. Look with me at verses 5-7:

⁵ but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things (even though the Bible says I will never leave you nor forsake you, they are filled with grief and that’s pretty natural). ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.

Well what’s so good about him going away? The next sentence:

Unless I go away, the Advocate (paraclete) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

We’re going to look at this work that the Holy Spirit does, this ministry of the Holy Spirit today. I want you to see in the text 3 things that the Holy Spirit does. Down at verse 8:

⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment…

That’s the first thing. Down to verse 13:

¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.

Then the third thing down at verse 14:

¹⁴ He will glorify me…

He’s going to convict the world of guilt, he’s going to lead the disciples into the truth and then he’s going to bring glory to Jesus. These are the three things. So let’s take a look at them with a little bit more detail.

He Convicts The World Of Guilt

The first thing we’re going to look at is the Holy Spirit. He, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of guilt. So let’s continue reading at verse 8:

⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about (three things,) sin and righteousness and judgment.

What is he talking about here? Sin, righteousness and judgment. He’s saying that the Holy Spirit is going to convict the world, reprove the world, is going to make the world aware of the difference between right and wrong and the consequences. Sin: what’s wrong, righteousness: what’s right, and judgment: the consequences. One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to, on behalf of Jesus, convict the world of the difference between right and wrong and the consequences if you don’t receive the Lord Jesus. It says, reading on:

⁹ about sin, because people do not believe in me

The purpose of conviction of sin is that people will believe in Jesus. Remember last week we said God doesn’t hate anyone. People hate God, some people do, but God doesn’t hate anyone. For God so loved the world… Then in verse 10:

¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

Now this is a very difficult passage to understand. There’s so many different opinions on it. My conclusion is I’m not even going to try to teach it yet! Just understand that the top line was good, convicting the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. Just stop there and you’ll understand what Jesus is trying to say about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. How does he do this? He does this four ways. He does this through his works in creation, he does it through his word, he does it through the whisper of the Holy Spirit to our spirits, and he does it through the witness of other Christians. There are 4 hows. The Holy Spirit can do this work immediately without a mediator. He can do that, and he does, but it’s very common for the Holy Spirit to use a mediator, a witness. Or maybe his word, or something that happens in creation. We’ll talk a little bit more about that.

It would be interesting to know, and someday we will know, how much of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is done through us and how much is done by Him on His own. My guess is that you take all of the good deeds ever done by human beings since the beginning of time and that ever will be done until the Lord comes again, and they’re probably less than 1% of the work of the Holy Spirit. When you think about the work of God just in creation alone, we’re such an infinitesimally small thing! If you took a string and you strung that string from here to New York city, I think that’s maybe 1,500 miles. Let’s just say that represented the first million years of infinity. Make it the first 10,000 years of infinity, something you can really comprehend. Down here in Orlando, mark off 1 inch of that string between here and New York, that’s your life. Born 1987, 1 inch dash, died 2000 whatever. My guess is that the work of the Holy Spirit is more than 99% of the work that’s being done, period. Speculation. But the purpose of all of this, why the Holy Spirit is doing this conviction of guilt is why? Well, we know it’s not because God hates people. It’s not because he hates the world, he loves the world! Christ died for the sins of the whole world, 1 John 2:2! No, the reason that the Holy Spirit convicts of sin is because people need a savior. This is how we get to the savior. So this text has to be understood in the context of the purpose of Jesus, he came to seek and to save the lost. We all know John 3:16, but John 3:17 says for the son of man did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. That’s why he came, and so that’s the context of this, the Holy Spirit is making people aware of Jesus.

Here’s the Big Idea for today: The Spirit will make Jesus known to you in every way you need to know Him. The first way that we all need to know him is as the savior. The first way that we need to know Jesus is as our savior. The Big Idea today: The Spirit will make Jesus known to you in every way you need to know Him. So if you’re part of the broken world and not yet part of the grace world, then the Holy Spirit is still in your life or influencing your life, he’s speaking to your heart and then when you turn toward the grace world and just see the love, peace and joy, and you begin to be drawn towards the border crossing that is Christ, it’s the Holy Spirit that is drawing you.

He Guides Disciples Into All Truth

Next up, he guides the disciples into truth. Looking further down at verse 12:

¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth (there it is again, remember it’s a personal pronoun here), comes, he will guide you into much truth.

It doesn’t say much, does it? It says:

he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

What does that mean? What is yet to come? He was talking to the disciples then, and back then what he meant was is that I’m going to, through my spirit, tell you what is yet to come. So when you read Paul, 1 Corinthians 15 for example, and you read about the resurrection, and then when you read Revelation by John, the author of this Gospel and you read about the future, this is one of the things it meant to them at that time. What kind of truth is it? It’s whatever truth you need! It’s whatever truth that you need in order to be the disciple that God wants you to be, to lead that powerful life that has been transformed by Jesus! That surrendered life, whatever truth you need! John 16:24, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I have said. I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself.

How does this happen now? How does the Holy Spirit teach us the truth now? Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, John 14:6, we already looked at that. Keep your finger here and turn to John 17:17. Jesus says sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. So how does this happen now? What pleases God today? How do we know the difference between right and wrong today? There are 7 means to finding God’s will. These are also 7 means of finding the truth of Jesus, because the truth of Jesus is the will of God. The first way is the word. The second way is prayer. The third way is the Holy Spirit. The fourth way is circumstances. The fifth way is conscience. The sixth way is counsel. The seventh way is fasting. Let’s just take a brief look at each of these.

The word. We just said your word is truth, John 1:1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So when we know the word, we know God. Jesus is the word of God, every word in this Bible that we have is Jesus Christ. He is the word, he was with God in the beginning.

Through prayer. When we pray, Jesus has said that if we’re doing what he would be doing, then we can ask for anything in his name and he will do it. That was John 14:12-14, we looked at that. When we want to do what Jesus wants done and we pray in his name, it’s 100%, a certainty that he will give that to us. So when we’re praying for the truth, it’s absolutely certain that he’s going to reveal it to us.

Through his spirit, we’ve been talking about his spirit. But you know you have heard the voice of God. I have men come to the first timer’s table on a somewhat regular basis who talk about how they were living the life of a profligate. I had a man come one time, and the details probably aren’t exactly right, but he had a Christian roommate. He was living a prodigal life and he began to hate his life because it was so meaningless. He was leaving this wake of destruction. He came in one night and he would have liked to talk to his roommate but he was asleep. So he sat down and looked at his roommate, and as he did so, he said a sense of reverence and awe began to come over me and the Lord began to speak to me and ask me questions. He led me to surrender to Jesus Christ. His friend led him to Christ when he was asleep! Through the Holy Spirit because it was his work, you see? It is the work of the Holy Spirit that’s leading us to Jesus.

Then counsel, wisdom is found in the abundance of counselors. Circumstances, we’ve talked about this from time to time. If you’re 5’6”, like to work with numbers, and can’t dribble, you’re probably not going to be an NBA player. Conscience; when you are looking at pornography, 50% of the church, Christians, look at pornography on a regular basis. Probably a pretty good estimate. All you guys trying to control your breathing and not swallow hard and everything, it’s okay. It’s a sin, but look, that’s your conscience. That’s the Holy Spirit right now speaking to your conscience. So when your conscience lines up with the word of God, this is one way that the Holy Spirit leads you into the truth.

I was talking with a guy on the phone this week. He’s not a young guy, not an old guy, and he had never really gotten involved in pornography. But about 4 weeks ago, he decided one day that he would look at some porn and it was like BAM! These talons locked into him! He was telling me the good news that he had confessed that to his wife. She was hurt but it had only been going on for a few weeks, and he was wanting to know what he could do to make sure he didn’t do that again. We just went through the whole idea that yeah you need to modify your behaviors, but remember it’s not behavior modification. Go ahead and get Covenant Eyes, and some software that you could put on your computer. Yes, don’t drive by the places on the way home that you’re tempted to go in for pornographic or sexually immoral things. Do all of that, but remember that you will be far more likely to be successful if you turn to the power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit and look to the holiness of God. Put yourself in the presence of the almighty in a positive way, and you’ll be so overwhelmed with wanting to be there that then you’re not wanting to be over here in broken world where this pornography is. On the other hand, if you’re over here trying to manage your pornography, what are you? Well, first of all, you’re already in the broken world, and so God’s going to have to send a rescue party to get you out. Wouldn’t it be far better to work at it from the other side?

Then fasting. I fast 1 day a week. What I find the benefit of it is, and I pray for a lot of things, but fasting slows down your system, your world. You are more focused on the Lord and savior and you are more sensitive to the voice of the Spirit and the word of God and prayer. It helps you to find God’s will and to find the truth that is in Jesus Christ. Again, the Big Idea here today: The Spirit will make Jesus known to you in every way you need to know Him. Whatever truth it is you need to know, or whatever guilt it is that you need to be convicted of, whether it’s right or wrong or the consequences. The first way he makes the truth that we need known is convicting us of guilt and showing us that we need a savior. The second way is to show us that we can be sanctified by his truth, that he’s the Lord.

He Brings Glory To Jesus

Third up, he brings glory to Jesus. At verse 14, he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. Most of what belongs to the Father is mine. No, it says ALL of what belongs to the Father is mine, that is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. There is this unity between the Father and the Son, the fullness of the Father is seen in the humanity of Jesus. Everything you need to know, not everything there is to know, but everything you need to know about God you will find in Jesus, because he has taken what is known about him and he’s making it known to us today, through the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, mentoring us with his word and each and so forth.

Let’s talk about what kind of glory it is that he brings to Jesus. It says that all that belongs to the Father is mine, so what is it then that belongs to Jesus? What is it of God the Father’s that belongs to Jesus? It’s everything! It’s his omnipotence, Jesus in his divine nature, he is omnipotent, he is the creator, he was there in the beginning with God. The Bible says that he was the actual creator, Colossians 1, Genesis 1, and so forth. He is the creator. He is omnipresent, he is omniscient, he knows everything. He is omnibenevolent. He is not only the creator, he is the sustainer, sustaining all things by his powerful word. He is the redeemer, and he is holy. Every characteristic of God is in Jesus, because all that the Father has also belongs to Jesus. He’s infinite, he’s eternal, he’s transcendent, he’s imminent, he’s with us. It is the Spirit of Jesus that is with us. So how does he do this now? How does he bring glory? Well, he takes you to the Grand Canyon and he sets you over on the rim where you can hear the silence and look across the vastness of the Grand Canyon and you are struck with the awe of the creator. Or, he takes you into a wilderness stream, in a pair of waders with a fly rod, and you fish. You experience the majesty of the creation. Or you hear a sermon that makes your adrenaline pump. That preacher is talking to me right now! Or you hear a special song in church and it just really strikes deep within your soul and your spirit. Or it might be that you’re staring at a work of art. It could be a Michelangelo, it could be the David, or it might be a handprint of your child in plaster. It might be meditating in a holy place. It could be Westminster Cathedral or it could be a country church, and the spirit of God comes on you. The sense of reverence, the sense of awe. We all have these moments where we palpably sense the power and presence of the almighty! We’re overwhelmed! What do we do with that? We give glory to Jesus Christ, because that’s what the Holy Spirit is doing! At that moment he is bringing glory to Jesus Christ by inspiring us to awe and to reverence!

The Big Idea again here today, The Spirit will make Jesus known to you in every way you need to know Him. You need reverence in your life! You need awe in your life! I went once to a commencement ceremony for Reform Theological Seminary, my alma mater. As I walked away from that wonderful occasion, I was struck! I said to the person I was with I needed this! Because without moments like this, the husk of life’s banalities, trivialities, and absurdities, it gets too thick and God can’t get through. I need these things often so that little crust doesn’t get to be so big. You need that too! That’s why you come here. The Spirit will make Jesus known to you in every way you need to know Him. In the same way that we learned the last time we talked about the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit is doing even more for us now than he did for the disciples then! So this third way is so that we will worship him as God. Let’s worship him, Jesus, as God. Let’s pray!

Closing Prayer

Our dearest Father, Lord, we thank you for the ministry and work of the Holy Spirit, for showing us the things that he does and even how he does them. Lord, I pray that each of us would, through the Holy Spirit, be able to know you in every way that we need to know him. We will give you the glory and the praise that you deserve, in Jesus’ name, amen!

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