Elder Brian Haferkamp preaches on John 16, the giving of the Holy Spirit. He reminds us that Christ had to leave so that we can have God’s comfort, guidance, and assurance of the New Covenant through the Holy Spirit.
In the grand scope of history, we see God moving closer and closer to mankind. He created a man and woman and would come and walk with them. Then he called a people group out for himself. Then he dwelt among that people in the Temple. Then he came and dwelt with that people in the person of Jesus Christ. Then he sent his Spirit to live in the heart of each individual who believes. It is foretold that, when the end comes, God will bring all who are in Christ to be with him in his presence forever. Can you see how important God’s presence is to him and to his people? It is at the heart of God's redemptive plan. It is at the heart of this life that we are called to live.
One of the major themes in John 13-17 is God's presence. Jesus comforted the disciples because he was about to leave them. He didn’t want them to fall away or lose heart so he told them about what was to come.
Jesus had been telling the disciples that they would do marvelous things. They would pray and Jesus (who would no longer be with them) would give them what they pray for. They would do greater works that even he had done. They would not be alone even though Christ would not be with them. They were to love as Christ loved. They were to abide in Christ, the True Vine. God would make his home with men and women.
But Jesus had also told the disciples that he would be leaving them, so how could these things come to be?
The answer is that God would provide his Holy Spirit to dwell within the hearts of those who are in Christ. From that point on the Father and the Son would be at work in the world through the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit dwelling not in the Tabernacle or Jerusalem, but in the hearts of everyone who confesses that Jesus is Lord and takes up Christ’s cross to follow him daily as his disciple.
As I’ve looked through this chapter this week one of the things that has been impressed upon me the most is how important God’s presence is to him and for his people. If you look back to the stories we all know so well, it will be plain to see.
When God called Moses, he met Moses’ appeal with the promise of his presence:
Exodus 3:11-12; 4:10-12
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
10 But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”
Joshua's courage was also to be based on God's presence:
Joshua 1:5-6, 9
“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
When God had brought the people to the edge of the Promised Land, he encouraged them not to be dismayed by the people in Canaan.
Deuteronomy 7:21
21 You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.
When Jeremiah was called by God as a prophet, God’s retort to Jeremiah’s reluctance was to remind him of his presence:
Jeremiah 1:6-8, 19
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the LORD said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.”
19 They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you.”
God had Israel build the tabernacle to be a place where he could dwell with his people:
Exodus 30: 41-46
41 The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD. 42 It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. 43 There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. 44 I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. 45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.
The Temple also was built as a place where God and humanity could meet. God would dwell with the people there, hear their prayers and forgive their sins.
In the New Testament, there are two main demonstrations of God’s presence. The first is Jesus Christ.
Matthew 1:20-23
20 But as [Joseph] considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
One of the names of the Messiah is “God with us.” As we see in John 16 this means more than just that God understands our trials and temptations; more than that he lived the life of a man. He was God on the earth--in the flesh--walking with us.
John 1:14
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
And now, with those who have faith in Jesus Christ, God is building a living temple:
1 Peter 2:4-10
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Now Jews and Gentiles alike have been made into a new priesthood; they are being built into a new temple for God. God no longer dwells in the Temple in Jerusalem but in the hearts of all men and women who call upon his name, take us the cross of Christ, and follow him.
Ephesians 3:14-19
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
This is no metaphor. The reality of the life in Christ is that we now have the presence of God with us through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit. Christ had to leave in order that his Spirit might come and dwell, not in the Temple but, in the hearts of every man, woman, and child who responds to his call; to everyone who opens the door when he knocks; to all who seek him.
The affirmations of the presence of someone who loves you are so important. God is aware of that importance and has supplied reassurances and demonstrations of his presence and love.
The Holy Spirit is also the sign, or seal, of the New Covenant between God and humanity. This New Covenant was prophesied in the book of Jeremiah, as well as other places in the Old Testament.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
This is the New Covenant that God made with his people. It was instituted and made binding through the blood of Christ:
1 Corinthians 11:23-25
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
The mark, or seal, of the New Covenant is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You can think of the Spirit as a sort of down payment, or guarantee, of the promises of God.
Ephesians 1:13-14
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
God has made an earnest payment in the form of his indwelling Spirit, that we might have an assurance of the eternal life God promises through faith in Christ.
Mos of the ways we can know that the Spirit is dwelling with us and working in us are very personal. It is difficult to see the work of the Spirit much of the time.
However, when Jesus talked about the Vine and the Branches in John 15, he was talking about a discernible evidence of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit and an evidence of our participation in the New Covenant.
The promise of John 15 is that if we abide in him we will bear much fruit. As we remain connected to Christ--being obedient to Christ’s commands and loving others--the fruit of the Spirit will begin to show in our lives.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control;
This fruit is an evidence--to ourselves and to others--of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and is one of the byproducts of living in the New Covenant with God through Jesus Christ.
Finally, God gives his Spirit as a present guide in this age, that we might be reminded of the words of God in the Scriptures and in the life of Christ. The Scriptures themselves have been given by God through his Spirit. They are his words to humanity. Regardless how it happened, the Spirit was the one who gave the writers the words, guiding them into all the truth.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
God’s word is integral for living godly lives:
Psalm 119:97-104
97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.
101 I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.
102 I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
The promise of John 16:13 is that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth. He is not speaking on his own authority but is in harmony with the Father and the Son. Therefore, the truth he leads us into, the word that he has given to men, and those remembrances he provides are as true as the words of the Father or Jesus Christ.
In chapter 14, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will do the work of teaching us:
John 14:15-16, 25-26
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 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.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 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.
If you ever find yourself wondering how to live or what to say, God promises, through his Spirit, to remind us what he said and, like the prophets before us, put the words in our mouths.
Matthew 10:16-19
16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Whether we are studying the Bible or facing persecution and being called to account for our faith or we are actively participating in ministry, God promises, through the Holy Spirit, to teach us and give us the words to say. His Spirit is integral to Christ’s continuing work in the world through his people.
The Farewell Discourse of Jesus might seem a little disjointed at first. He's covering a variety of topics that are cryptic, at best. However, understand that the giving of the Holy Spirit is at the center of what Christ is saying in each section. His presence was critical to the work ahead for the disciples and it is critical in our lives today.
If we are to live this life God has called us to, it will only be because his Holy Spirit is within us leading, guiding, teaching, and directing. If you are trying to live this life without God’s presence you are walking in your own flesh. Let us not walk by the flesh, by the Spirit of God.
Galatians 5:16-25
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Christ died and was resurrected that we might be set free from Sin and Death. He left to be with the Father that we might have the presence of God with us continually through the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to actually walk with Christ. But God quickly reminds me that I know every day what it was like. Because he is in us we have the continual presence of Christ in our lives.
By God’s Spirit we can abide in Christ and he will bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. By God’s Spirit we can ask for what we want in the name of Jesus and the Father will give it. By God’s Spirit we can walk in this new way of life that we have been called to. By God’s Spirit we will have God’s presence and comfort to live in a world that hates the name that has been given to us. By God’s Spirit we will not be left as orphans in the world. By God’s Spirit our sorrow will be turned to joy.
Amen.
