The Powerful Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit COMFORTS and helps us COPE

July 29, 2001 We all have them, many items that require batteries in order to utilize them. Cameras can give us joy, and a sense of history, enabling us to remember. Radios can provide strength, and even guidance, depending on the station to which we tune. Perhaps even a sense of having company. That need for company which stems from loneliness can be lessened by using a radio and the CD player. For some both can be a coping device. That is, using it to tune out the world around us. Cell phones and flashlights certainly can provide a sense of security or even comfort.

Now I realize many of these same items and others within our homes and offices are made to run quite nicely on electricity. However, with the daily threat of earthquakes and rolling blackouts, well, we seem to fall back on relying on battery operated items. Now my cell phone seems always in need of charging. If it, and these others, don’t have charged batteries they don’t work! Without their power source none of these can comfort, or help us cope in any way!!!

Is there not anything then which encompasses all the help, ability to guide, strengthen and comfort that we would need? What about our need to cope? Is there a power source for that? Isn’t there something on which we can call and utilize, now and forever? Is there not a different kind of power source on which we can rely? Let’s see what Jesus told his eleven disciples, who were the first to hear about this different power source, in John 14:15-31.

Two weeks ago I (rather "Joanna") preached on the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. Last Sunday the topic was on what role the Holy Spirit has in our conversion. In our conversion the Holy Spirit provides us with a personal relationship with God, through His radical, life-transforming power.

So it is also that unique power which Jesus tells about now. Jesus asked the Father to give this eternal power source, that special relationship, to the eleven disciples. But the disciples’ anxieties and fears were running pretty high upon hearing that Jesus was leaving...really leaving.

Jesus, being the astute one, really knew these men with whom he had spent the last 3 years. He knew they were upset, angry, and had feelings of being totally forsaken. They were feeling abandoned by the very one for whom they had dropped everything so they could follow him. They felt abandoned by the one who made them a family; the same one who cared for them and taught them to care for one another. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever wondered as the disciples did, "Now what was going to become of this family - their family?" Were they to be split and have to go with the winds to different parts of the earth? What was to happen to them?

Jesus begins by assuring them. Jesus tells them he will not leave them orphans. Jesus made it very clear he was not abandoning these men. In the same way, Jesus has not and will not abandon you and me.

That same special relationship Jesus wanted for his disciples, he wants for you and me. That relationship is our power source and is totally empowering. As a matter of fact He is an empowering presence. This empowering presence enables us not to feel feelings of rejection, abandonment, helplessness, loneliness. This empowering presence and unique relationship equips us to cope with the everyday emotional, mental, physical and spiritual stresses, and other trials and tragedies that come our way. This unique gift of the empowering presence is what Jesus referred to as "will be in you", called the Holy Spirit. There are a number remarkable facts about this unique relationship.

Jesus said the Spirit continues on with the work that He had already been doing with the disciples. They were not orphans while he was with them. Jesus had been with them for three years. He had counseled them, taught them, strengthened them and ministered to them and alongside them. Jesus helped them to cope and grow in all kinds of situations.

They were not going to be orphans now that He was leaving them. This personal presence was not going to be different from Jesus. The Spirit comes from Jesus, who was with them and known to them and now would be in them to continue to journey with them. The empowering presence of the Holy Spirit was not going to teach new truths beyond what had been revealed by Jesus. Rather He was going to continue to remind and assure the disciples, and now us, of the truth already revealed in Christ. The relationship between the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ is inseparable.

Nonetheless, while this relationship is inseparable there is still a difference. Jesus, the human was limited. For instance, when Jesus was with Peter on the boat, he could not be with James on the shore. But the Holy Spirit is not limited. That is why Jesus says in another part of his discourse on the Holy Spirit, "It is to your advantage that I go away." This comforter, our encourager, the One who helps us cope with life, will be with us and in us, one-on-one, wherever we are. God is available and accessible to us in His wonderful, unlimited intimacy through the work of the Holy Spirit.

You see, the ones to whom Jesus spoke to then and refers to here and now are those who have been drawn to Jesus by His love, and love him. They are the ones ready to obey what Jesus says. These are true followers of Jesus to whom this unique power source is given from the Father, because Jesus asked for it to be so. This source IS a special and unique relationship with God, and is available to each of us who love him.

Jesus also said that because of this unique relationship the Spirit will be a continuing abiding presence - that is to continue without change - forever. As one commentator writes: "When the Spirit comes into our lives, He does not come and go, and come and go. He does not have to be invited in again and again. He comes to dwell in us and He comes forever. The writer of the book of Hebrews puts it this way: ‘God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."’ That happens to be the strongest negative in the Greek language. God is saying, in effect, ‘I will never, never, under any circumstances, never, ever leave you nor forsake you.’

Now, I know there are some groups that teach that we continually need to get ‘more of the Spirit.’ But you cannot have ‘more of the Spirit’! Our goal can and should always be to allow the Spirit to have more of us — more control of our behavior, more control of our thoughts, more of our time spent in prayer and worship. The Apostle Paul tells us, "Do not quench the Spirit that is in you. Let the Spirit do His job." He does not say to go and get more of the Spirit. As genuine Christians, we have all of the Spirit we are ever going to get! The Spirit is a Person. He does not come in bits and pieces. He comes as a whole person. He comes complete, and He comes to live in us, forever. He comes to us ready for immediate use. Batteries are not required. This means we have the power to call on Jesus because of the mighty works of the Holy Spirit at all times.

Jesus says of this unique relationship that the Spirit is the revealer of truth. What a promise this is! None of us can even come close to living out such a promise - no matter our good intentions! Jesus says the Spirit brings truth because the Spirit belongs to truth. What He does and says can be relied on as absolute reality. This is the most important aspect of the work of the Spirit. The Spirit gives us the Word. That Word, the BIBLE, is interpreted by the Spirit, and is absolutely dependable..

Another aspect of the Spirit at the revealer of truth is that Jesus was also assuring the disciples that the Spirit would not move them in false and wrong ways. Jesus is telling us the same. The Spirit demands from us truth in our relationship with Him. Nothing less of us will be acceptable. However, you and I do have the responsibility to listen to the Holy Spirit. It is like what Pastor Sheri and Rick illustrated in the childrens’ sermon two weeks ago. We must listen to the Holy Spirit when He says, "Hey watch it!" so we won’t move in false and wrong ways.

If we want to maintain a good relationship with God. We must be honest with Him. We must be honest with ourselves. We must be honest with each other. This means admit our need. Admit our feelings. Admit our sin. Do not pretend. You and I how know how lies between us are disruptive to our relationships. How much more are lies disruptive to our relationship with God.

Jesus said this unique relationship is not available to the world. Why? Because the world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. This means that the world actually denies God. Secular society refuses to acknowledge God and cannot see Him. So they try to keep God out of His own world!!! The world does this despite the sentiment of the old African-American Spiritual, "He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands." Even though God does hold everything in His hands and guides and directs the destinies of people and nations, the world refuses to accept Him. To the world, the most important and profound reality in all the universe is regarded as a matter of complete irrelevancy.

This God, through the mighty power of the Holy Spirit is NOT irrelevant and is OURs for life. He is our guide, helper, enabler, comforter. He is the One who helps us to cope in our daily life, in our anxieties and in our fears.

The Apostle Paul experienced the calming, healing, encouraging, coping ministry of the Holy Spirit first hand. As we heard in the passage of Acts (18:1-11) that Rick read, Paul was in Corinth and was being tossed to and fro emotionally and spiritually. He was being rejected by the Jews to whom he was preaching the gospel of Jesus. He was fearing for his own life. Acts 18:9 tells us how Paul very clearly heard from Holy Spirit to not be afraid, to go ahead to speak. The Spirit also told Paul that he would not be harmed. Paul also found out from the Spirit that there where many in that very city who were God’s people, even though they all did not know this at the time.

I know that many of you have felt the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You have heard the Holy Spirit give words of comfort and peace at the time of the loss of a loved one. You have felt that comfort and peace. You have felt the Holy Spirit encourage you when you have made the right decision, whether in business or personal; or perhaps when you have said or done the right thing for others. You have felt the Holy Spirit even when you have come to church alone and found a friend with whom to sit.

With the love and work and ministry of the Holy Spirit we are each assured of that continued personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. This is a guarantee; a promise to those who love Jesus! You and I have not been abandoned. You and I are not orphans, nor will we be. Because we have this awesome gift of the Holy Spirit, He is the One Who stands along side us in times of darkness, in times of crisis and need. He is the One Who helps, guides and assists us. The Holy Spirit urges and nudges, which means we must listen and pay attention and act. He also comforts, enables us to trust, and encourages and gives us God’s peace. He helps us to cope in our world, as believers, as people, as human beings. This comforting and coping ministry of the Holy Spirit is God with us in a personal, one-on-one, unlimited relationship, anytime, for all times.