Word of Salvation – Vol. 31 No. 17 – May 1986

 

The Holy Spirit And The Christian

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on John 14:18-20

Reading: John 14:1-21

Singing: 301; 95; 400; 222.

 

When do believers have the Holy Spirit living in them?  And what is the evidence of His presence?

When these questions are discussed, reference is often made to what happened on Pentecost day.  And that is fine, so long as we remember that Pentecost was a unique event.  For on that day the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ passed on to the church, his body, the gift He had just received from the Father.  As we read in Acts 2:33,

"Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear."

In his Spirit Jesus Himself came to His disciples and they saw Him as they had never seen Him before.  For the first time the Lord Jesus came to dwell in their hearts.  For the first time they saw Jesus with the eyes of faith in such a way that they were filled with joyful assurance that Jesus Christ was really the Lord.  You might say they saw the connection between Jesus and God and also the connection between God and themselves, through Jesus.  They were amazed and overjoyed.

Gone was their fear, their hiding from men.

Boldly they stood up among the crowds and in the temple.  Even the threats of the priests and the courts could not stop them talking about their Lord.  They were sure that Jesus was with them in a powerful way.  And their living and exalted Lord was more powerful than any person or power on earth.  They knew for certain that Christ their Lord had overcome the world.

When the Holy Spirit showed them something of the greatness of the Lord Jesus they knew they could trust Him all the way.  From the time the Holy Spirit came into them, Christ became bigger and the world and earthly men became smaller.  They loved Jesus!  They were thrilled at understanding His promises.  Had He not told them,

All this I have spoken to you while still with you.  But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

And how they remembered it!  And understood it, on that wonderful day when Jesus came to His church on earth in the Spirit.

On that day they knew, deep in their hearts, that they were not on their own.  Christ had come to them in a way they had never known before.

Yes, the disciples had had the privilege of walking and talking with Jesus as he went on his tours of the land of Palestine.  That's a privilege we will never enjoy.  The best, as far as that is concerned, that we can do is go to that land and imagine what it would have been like.

But I am sure that if you could ask the disciples, what is better, to walk with Jesus as you were able to do before Good Friday or to live with Him after Pentecost, I am sure the disciples would answer, it was much better after Pentecost.  It was only after Pentecost that we really got to know Him.  After Pentecost we were filled with His presence and love.

It was after the Holy Spirit was poured out that we saw how Jesus is the fulfilment of all God's promises.  He is the divine Saviour of His people.  He is the Lord to whom has been given all power and authority in heaven and on earth.  Before the Holy Spirit came, these things never clicked.  We had little glimpses of His greatness.  We all knew Jesus was someone real special.  We followed him.  But on Pentecost, with the arrival of the Holy Spirit it was as if heaven was opened and we saw visions and dreamed dreams of the greatness of our king.  Every knee will bend before him, every tongue will one day confess, Jesus Christ is LORD.

Yes Christ was greater and nearer to the disciples now than He had ever been while he walked with them in the body of His flesh.  Now he walked with them in the body of their flesh.  Now the world could no longer see Him as Jesus of Nazareth.  Now the world would see Him as Peter, James and John, or whatever the believers' name may be.

The world might not recognise Him as such.  Even believers may not always see Him in each other or themselves.  And still Jesus Christ is there, in His members, in His body.  And one day we will see Him and even the world will see Christ in the believers, for as John says,

we shall be like Him
we shall see Him as he is.

But our text is not referring to Christ's final coming in glory, (to judge the living and the dead).  Jesus is here not talking about the end of the world.  Nor of what will happen after death.  It is important that we realise this, for a proper understanding of our text.  Yes for the whole chapter.

I must confess that I have usually thought of chapter 14, at least the first few verses, as referring to what awaits believers after death.  I always understood that when Jesus said that there are many rooms in the Father's mansion, and that He was going to prepare a place for us, that our Lord was referring to where we would go after death.

Now reading chapters 14-17 closely in preparation for this sermon, I find that this is only partly true.  The truth is far greater and far more immediate.  In chapter 16:25 Jesus says,

though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.

Now when you read chapters 14-17 of John in the light of Acts 2, that is, in the light of what Jesus gave and did for His people on Pentecost day, you will find that Jesus is not talking about something after the disciples' death, but of something that would happen during their lifetime on this earth.

We read plainly that He was going to the Father.  And with the statement that in His Father's house there are many rooms, Jesus implied, in my Father's presence there is room for many people.  And when He said, “I am going to prepare a place for you,” he was teaching His disciples that He would make it possible for them to come into the presence of God.

Is Jesus here not talking about His atoning sacrifice on the cross and His going into the Holy place itself (the presence of God) with His own blood?  Is the coming of the Holy Spirit to the people of God on Pentecost day not the glorious proof that full atonement has been made by the Lamb?  Did the Holy Spirit not bring the assurance, through faith in Jesus, the Christ, that being justified we have peace with God?  Isn't this the gift of eternal life?  To know God in His grace; to be in His presence?  Did Jesus not say, Because I live, you will live also?  And is this not the glorious truth which the Holy Spirit reveals to all who now believe in Jesus?  Does the apostle Paul not refer to this when he writes of the Spirit by whom the believers in amazement call out, “Abba Father!”  Does he not write about the Spirit of adoption?

This is the heart of receiving the Holy Spirit and being filled with Him, to see Christ Jesus as the all-sufficient Saviour by whom we are reconciled to God.

By the Spirit the believer knows, because Christ our Saviour lives – because He is and has done all that is necessary for us to come to God – we also live.  Being justified, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

What more can a disciple desire?  Why do so many look for signs, for visions, special experiences, speaking in tongues etc.?

Is it because they have not yet seen Christ in true faith?  Have they not yet seen him, by the power of the Spirit, as their glorious Lord and Intercessor?

Let me be clear.  Do not seek to base your assurance of salvation on signs.  Rather pray God that the Holy Spirit will reveal Christ to you in all His glory and power to save; in all his righteousness, sanctification and redemption.  For Christ Jesus only can be the source of our peace with God.

The signs and sounds of Pentecost were like the extras at the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.  God used angels and strange occurrences to draw the attention of dull and slow-learning sinners to the greatness of the events that were taking place at that moment.  But if I may say it like this, to make it a bit clearer for you, the birth of Jesus would have been just as real and important without the angels in the fields of Ephrathah.  God sends no angels to convince us of Christ's birth, does He?

The resurrection of Jesus would have been just as true and miraculous without the earthquake and the angels at the tomb.  God does not repeat these signs to convince individuals of the fact that Christ is risen from the dead and lives.

So we should not seek signs with respect to the coming of the Holy Spirit.  He Has come, He has been given to the church.

Rather than looking for signs, we should pray for God the Holy Spirit to open our minds and hearts to an understanding of the events that have taken place once for all.  We should pray for the Spirit to show us the riches of God's free gift in Christ Jesus the Son of His love.  Is that not what Jesus clearly teaches us in His words to His disciples, 'on that day, the day that I come to you in the Spirit, you will realize that I am in the Father, and you are in me and I am in you.'

Now if you do not realize this yet, then listen to what Jesus has to say to those who desire to know it.

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.

He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love and show myself to him."

Our Lord repeats this in an answer to the question of Judas who said, but Lord why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?

Jesus replied,

If anyone loves me,
he will obey my teaching.
My Father will love him,
and we will come to him
and make our home with him.

Clearly Jesus implies that those who follow Him sincerely, love Him.  And what Jesus is saying here is what He had said already in another context:

 To him who has, more will be given.

In other words, if we follow Jesus and act in faith on what we have been taught so far, more of Christ will be revealed to us.

To be filled with the Spirit is to see something of Christ's greatness.  To be aware of the reality of the Kingdom of God.

Believers share in the Pentecost event when Jesus comes to live in their hearts by faith.  It was at Pentecost that the disciples, who had walked and talked with Jesus for three years, became full-blooded Christian believers.  It was then that they were truly united to Christ by faith through the operation of the Holy Spirit.  It was then that they began to enjoy the presence of Christ with all the benefits of that wonderful bond with Christ.

Let us therefore give our wholehearted and sincere attention to the Word and Spirit of Christ.  And let us pray that as we follow Jesus we may become more and more filled with the Holy Spirit who imparts Christ and all His benefits to those who keep His word and do it.

AMEN.