The Powerful Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit CONFIRMS Jesus to us

August 5, 2001 Over the past three weeks we’ve looked at several elements of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. The Holy Spirit converts us. The Holy Spirit Comforts us and helps us to cope in our everyday life. Today we look at the most important "job" of the Holy Spirit.

There are times I wonder what it would have been like to have walked and talked with Jesus while he was here on this earth. Aren’t there just a few questions you want to ask him directly? Do you feel bummed out - or feel even worse off - because you never had that option?

As you know Jesus Left us a gift - a special and unique gift - the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. The Holy Spirit constantly points back to Jesus Christ. We don’t have to be bummed out because we don’t have the physical Jesus right here. The Holy Spirit constantly keeps us in touch with Jesus. He keeps us focused on Jesus. Three ways the Holy Spirit does this is through history, doctrine for the church and revelation of the future, things that are yet to come.

Historically, the Holy Spirit confirms Jesus to us for this was Jesus’ way to set in motion the beginning of a new history in which God would be dealing - one-on-one - with millions of people - instead of a small group of twelve. Individuality and scope are new here.

The promise of Jesus is that the Holy Spirit would be the vehicle through those who were who were specifically commissioned to the ministry of writing down this history...the words of the New Testament. Some of those writers were from among these eleven disciples, Matthew, John, Peter, and a close friend of Peter’s, named Mark. Two later followers were James who was Jesus’ brother and Luke, and still later Paul. These words direct us to the historical events of Jesus, his life, ministry, and his death and resurrection. This is the Gospel - Jesus Christ. Jesus did not want the disciples to forget those historical events.

As we dig deeper in our reading of our Bibles, we also find there theological doctrine and practical life teachings of the church, you and me. The gospels and much of Paul’s writings give this to us. Then we God’s words from his heart revealing details of Jesus’ second coming and our eternal future. The gospel of John and his book of Revelations, and Paul’s epistle to the Romans, leave no room for doubts about things to come.

So you see, Jesus knew there was so much more they had to learn. There was so much that Jesus had to tell his disciples. However, they were not able to bear it or hear it all at that moment in history. The Holy Spirit was going to be that vehicle to help them to remember, to learn yet more and deeper and to pass on that information to us.

You and I aren’t that different from the disciples at all. You and I cannot learn and know all we are to know intellectually and spiritually - all at one time. We need the Holy Spirit to bring about this information to us. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide us into all the truth. He has chosen to reveal this truth to you and to me in a progressive sort of way. Commentator William Barclay uses the example that "it is impossible to begin with the binomial theorem when we are trying to teach a young person algebra. We do not begin with the advanced theorem. Rather we work up to them gradually."

The same would be true in learning most things, a foreign language, for example. I can’t say much for the French I took in high school and later again in a Community College class. No doubt I was not ready to learn French. However, when I was in seminary, I had to learn Greek and Hebrew. I did not start off reading chapter and verse in my Greek New Testament or my Hebrew Bible. I did not begin by reading complete sentences - not even complete words. No - I began learning the letters of the languages...the alphabets. It is the same with you young people who have told me you are, or will be, taking Spanish. We learn the easy and the simple things first. Let me tell you how excited I was when I could put a few letters together and knew that the word was logos, meaning the word; or when I put the letters for agape together and I knew that the word was love. And more and more, until I could put the words together, including the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs and conjunctions to form a complete verse. Then I was able to actually translate verses and sections of scripture. I am still not able to read French, but I am able to do so with Greek and some Hebrew. The entire process was an amazing revelation to me!

God’s revelation to people is similar to that. Each of us is a different learner, God knows that, too, and he teaches us what and when we are able and fit to learn. Revelation in these areas, history, church doctrine and information about things to come, and many other areas will often be that way. The Holy Spirit is like our personal tutor. You have this personal tutor when you read your Bibles for personal devotions, Bible Studies and daily reading. God reveals only as much as we can understand. The apostle Paul grasped this fact so clearly. In I Corinthians (13:11) Paul says, "When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became an adult, I did away with childish things."

Now we already know that Jesus was limited to a specific time and place. However, the Spirit is his "parting gift" to the Church to make His presence as real to us as if we were listening to him teaching beside the Sea of Galilee, or right here on steps of our patio. The Spirit can do more for you and for me that Jesus could ever have done had we been his contemporaries. He can come within us, and take up residence within our very beings. He not only can bring to our remembrance what Jesus taught, but can reveal to us the deeper significance of his person, and his death and resurrection and his second coming. All of this we could never have grasped even if we had lived and walked and talked with Jesus on this earth.

All this work is being done by God through the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Yet it is not the Holy Spirit who is getting the recognition. Go figure! All that work, and no recognition! When I shared with two friends in the spring about this series on the Holy Spirit, we spoke about peoples’ confusion regarding the Holy Spirit and his role to us. One of the reasons people don’t always understand the role or work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, is because the Holy Spirit is not the focus. Indeed, the Holy Spirit does not want to be the focus.

There is deep significance to the meaning of Jesus’ words: "He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you." The message is not about the Holy Spirit. As my illustration at the beginning showed, the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. The role of the Holy Spirit is always to point us to Jesus. If you and I are focused on Jesus Christ, then the Holy Spirit is doing his job!

As we come to the Lord’s Table today our focus needs to be on Jesus. The very mystery of Communion points us to Jesus. It is because of Jesus’ coming, his life and ministry; and it is because of Jesus’ death for our sins and his resurrection that the Holy Spirit helps us to remember him and what he did for you and me. We are also reminded of who he is as God’s unique Son, and we share this meal until he returns. Because we remember we are humbled and can grow closer to God. We celebrate Communion because the Spirit of truth points us to the truth, Jesus. We are indeed, better off because of Jesus’ "Parting Gift". Let that gift, the Holy Spirit, do His job, always to point you to Jesus.