Trinity Series - Sermon # 6

If you have not been following this series, please go to the post for January 22 where an explanation of the format is given. Happy studying!

All of God:
Exploring the Mystery of the Trinity
God the Holy Spirit
John 14:15-26; 15:26-16:15

We are in the middle of a three month series about the Trinity. The Trinity is considered by some to be the most important doctrine in Scripture – I agree. We are told in the Bible that God is one – and, He is three. One nature, one essence, but three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are coequal and coeternal. Since God the Father has never had a beginning, neither has Jesus or the Holy Spirit. While all three are equal, there is order in the Trinity with God the Father holding the position of leadership and authority over Jesus, and with the Father and the Son both holding authority over the Spirit. Today’s message is about the Holy Spirit, but before we go there, let’s think for just a moment about the Trinity.

One of the most important figures in church history in helping us understand the deity of the Holy Spirit was a late fourth century priest named Gregory of Nazianzus, which was a town in modern day Turkey. You may recall about a month ago we talked about how important Athanasius was in the early to mid part of the 4th century when the debate about the deity of Jesus was raging. Late in the 4th century, the debate continued about Jesus, and more attention was being given to the Holy Spirit, also.

Gregory of Nazianzus was known, along with his two friends, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, as one of the three Cappadocians. And, I bet many of you just don’t care! But, if you believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, you are indebted to the three Cappadocians! I will not go into great detail about their contributions to our understanding of the Trinity, but I want to share with you a passage about the wonder of the Trinity from Gregory Nazianzen’s book, Oration on Holy Baptism. John Calvin said, “This passage vastly delights me.” I think you will see why. Quote:

“No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendor of the three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one.” Stop right there – does this experience seem familiar to you? Rather than let it frustrate you, let it bless you as your wonder of the greatness of God grows. Let’s start over: “No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendor of the three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of any one of the three I think of Him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that one so as to attribute a greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.” You will hear that again at Home Fellowship this week, and in fact, if you would like a copy, there will be some available for you as you leave today.

Well, today we are talking about one of the three Persons of the Trinity – God, the Holy Spirit. There is probably more sloppy theology about the Holy Spirit in our day than with any other doctrine. People are waiting for something that has already happened and they are praying for something that they already have. We will attempt to bring a little light on the Holy Spirit’s role in the Trinity and His work in our lives today. But, today is not going to be enough – we will need at least one more week, probably two, to cover all that needs to be said about the Holy Spirit.

This morning, we will read from several places in John 14, 15, and 16, which covers the teachings that Jesus shared about the Holy Spirit with His disciples on the night before He was crucified. Much of what is in our text will not be covered in the message – there is just not enough time – but I want you to absorb all the truth you can as we read. Some of these truths will be covered at Home Fellowship this week, including the truth about how the Holy Spirit worked differently before He came to the believers at Pentecost than He did afterwards. Today we are going to see the Holy Spirit’s place in the Trinity and His blessings to us in our lives. So, let’s get started.

Would you please stand as we read God’s Word together? We begin with Jesus speaking to His disciples:

John 14

15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
21 Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, He it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, He will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
24 Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
25 These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
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 have said to you.”

John 15
26 “But, when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from
the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father,
He will bear witness about Me.
27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with
Me from the beginning.”

John 16

1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.
2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor Me.
4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.
5 But now I am going to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 Nevertheless, 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.
8 And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:
9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;
10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer;
11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
12 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.
14 He will glorify Me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.
15 All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

My son-in-law, Ben Price, is quite a talented guy. He can do almost anything. He is quite an athlete, he can fix anything or build anything within reason, he converts used cooking oil into fuel for his van that has a diesel engine, he loves horticulture, he is a wonderful husband to my daughter Liz and a fantastic, fun father to my three grandchildren. He is also a gifted speaker, an avid reader, and can discuss the philosophically nuanced theology of Frances Shaffer at a high level. Whenever something breaks in my house, I count the days until Ben can get here and fix it. He is multi-talented.

My gifts are more limited. If I could no longer make a living in some sort of speaking ministry, I would be in trouble. I barely know the difference between a screwdriver and a hammer. But I do love people, and I especially love to connect people when there is need and also, opportunity. It gives me great pleasure to introduce people to one another when I am almost certain that the relationship that will develop will be beneficial to both. Even though I don’t know how to fix your problem, I know a person who can and I can connect you with that person, and I know the person who helps will be glad he got to know you.

That is a poor analogy for the work of the Holy Spirit, but it is in the right direction, because the Holy Spirit connects us with the Father and with Jesus. He is God, you know, thus the title – God, the Holy Spirit. Oddly enough, we could have titled this message, “It’s All About Jesus,” and not changed much of the Scripture or the focus even though we are talking about the Holy Spirit. Our text included most of what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit on that special night of teaching about the Trinity which was conducted just before He was arrested. Jesus’ comments were said in the flow of the greater context, but because we have time constraints, we will skip around and put the verses into an order that helps us understand the Holy Spirit as best we can. We will look at three truths about the Holy Spirit, beginning with the one to which I have already alluded:

I. The Holy Spirit delights in glorifying Jesus (14:26, 15:26, 16:13-14)

We call the Holy Spirit the third Person of the Trinity. He is every bit as much God as the Father or the Son, yet He takes a less conspicuous role than the other two Persons of the Trinity. He comes to us, in fact, both by the Father’s will and Jesus’ will, not of His own accord. Look at the truth found in our text: Jesus said the Father will send the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name. But, then Jesus also said that He, Jesus, would send the Spirit in the Father’s name and that the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Jesus made it clear that the Holy Spirit would not speak on His own authority, but that He would speak, or lead us into truth, at the direction of the Father and the Son – you may only see the Father in this verse, but a little later we will see the Spirit pointing Christ-followers to the truth taught by the Son. In John 16:14, Jesus says very plainly, “He will glorify Me.”

Do you remember last week how we saw that God the Father has chosen to exalt His Son, Jesus, above all creation? The Father directs the Spirit to help in this process of exalting Jesus. But, in our day, so much attention is given to the Holy Spirit that the glory of the Son seems secondary. God’s Word, written at the direction of the Holy Spirit, makes it absolutely clear that our exaltation of the Spirit is absolutely not the way it should be. You don’t have to worry about hurting the Holy Spirit’s feelings. He wants to glorify Jesus!

To exalt the Spirit would be akin to stopping a wedding right in the middle of the ceremony and the pastor saying, “Before we go one step further, I think you would all agree that Scott and Lisa make a beautiful couple, am I right? Well, here is what you don’t know. Scott and Lisa were introduced to one another by Janice Roland, so Janice is the real star of this ceremony today – Janice come on up here and everyone give it up for Janice Roland!” If Janice is the kind of friend she should be, she would be horrified at such attention on her – her delight is in the attention being put on the groom and the bride! Bringing attention to Jesus is what delights the Holy Spirit.

So, it sounds like the Holy Spirit is inferior to the Father and the Son, is that right? NO! If you are just getting in on this series about the Trinity, you need to know that we have clearly established from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is every bit as much God as the Father and the Son. Each Person of the Trinity has a role, and their roles involve leadership and following, authority and submission. Since each Person of the Trinity is fully God, there is no bickering or frustration. Every Person fills His role perfectly, and the role of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus.

Another truth we find is that:

II. The Holy Spirit is the agent of truth (14:16-17; 16:12-13)

Jesus told us so. The Spirit gives us truth. If we believe God the Father and God the Son, we can have 100% confidence in the Spirit. We will not take time to read from 2 Peter 1:20-21 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17, that tell us that the Spirit, or God’s breath, guided all who wrote Scripture. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 tells us about the Spirit’s role in helping us to understand Scripture.

This is one of those days when we need much more time than we have to unpack what I am about to say, but it should be said in this context anyway: The Holy Spirit will never lead us in ways that contradict His Word. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit’s primary purpose and desire is to elevate Jesus, and Him crucified. Why is that significant? Because, in our day, there are a number of people who claim to be led by the Holy Spirit to act and speak in certain ways that are contrary to God’s Word.

For instance, if you were to say that God has led you to steal from someone in order to support missions, that would be contrary to His truth about honesty. That’s an easy one, though. How about someone who says that the Holy Spirit had led him to rebuke someone who disagreed with him over a non-biblical matter, say what color the sanctuary should be painted? That’s just wrong. More dangerous, though, are the kinds of claims that the Spirit is leading me to tell you to sell your house and give that money to a needy family. If you want to point to Jesus and the rich young ruler as your Scriptural proof, may I say that a lesson on biblical interpretation would be in order? Be very careful about taking examples from the gospels and the book of Acts to justify a particular action or doctrine. Also, know for sure that if people are exalting the Holy Spirit, it is being led by the Holy Spirit. I am NOT saying that it is a wrong motive that is inspired by the Devil – it is simply a misunderstanding about the Holy Spirit’s role to point us to Jesus. It is fine to worship Father, Son, and Spirit, but Scripture never encourages us to single out the Spirit for special worship. Do not forget that when we worship the Father, when we worship Jesus, we are worshiping the Holy Spirit, because all three members are God and the essence of the Father is the essence of the Son and Spirit. There is so much more to say about this and I have not defended the point as fully as I would like to, but let’s consider for just a moment:

III. The Holy Spirit is the Perfect Helper (14:26; 16:7-11)

The Holy Spirit is our Helper. Of course, your translation may call Him the Counselor, the Comforter, or the Advocate. So which is it? All of those descriptions would fit the Paracletos. The Holy Spirit is our perfect Helper. Consider the context in which these words were said. Jesus had been with His disciples for three to three and a half years directing their every move. His leadership had been perfect, of course. Now, He tells them that it is a good thing that He is going away, because on earth, Jesus had limited Himself, most of the time, to being where His body was and there only. There were exceptions, but that was the standard. Now that He would be going back to heaven, the Holy Spirit would come and be in every single Christ-follower. And, He would help them.

One of the primary ways that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would help them, and by extension help all Christ-followers, would be to not allow us to live as we want to live. The Holy Spirit will, Jesus said, convict the world of sin. During His entire ministry time on earth, Jesus had pointed out the sin of the world, but His Word had not been believed. The Holy Spirit would now continue this ministry of showing the world its sin through the witness of those who follow Jesus. This is not as negative as it sounds. Indeed, the only hope we have to be related to God is to face, acknowledge, and repent of our sin and put our hope in Jesus. The Holy Spirit helps us to come to this place of repentance.

What about the next two points of conviction? There are a lot of different ideas about that, but since the Holy Spirit often led John to look back to the OT book of Isaiah, there is likely a connection to Isaiah when Jesus said that the Spirit will convict the world of righteousness. There is a good chance that Jesus was referring to the world’s self-righteousness. Isaiah had given the spiritual leaders of his day the message from God that all their righteousness was as filthy rags. Jesus had preached the very same message to the religious leaders of His day. The Holy Spirit continues that message today. Sometimes, as believers who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, other people don’t like us – for no reason other than the lives that we lead convict them and they don’t want to think of themselves as sinners.

We are also told that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of judgment – of its false judgments and ways of looking at life. Why does the Spirit convict in this way? Because Satan is judged. Remember, just a few hours after Jesus spoke these words, He would die on a cross. The religious leaders would think that their judgment was vindicated. Not so. Jesus’ heel would be bruised, according to Genesis 3:15, but Satan’s head would be crushed.

No matter how you interpret these particular verses, the point is that the Holy Spirit is our helper and He leads us into God’s truth. Aren’t you glad that He will not allow you to live any way you want to live? Aren’t you glad He cares enough to tell you the truth rather than let you be deceived and spend eternity apart from Him in hell?

God, the Holy Spirit – every bit as much God as the Father and the Son, but willingly taking a lesser role and pointing to the Father and especially to the Son. I hope that God continues to grow bigger in your heart and mind as we proceed in our study. More about the Holy Spirit after a two-week break. Let’s pray.