GETTING TO KNOW
THE HOLY SPIRIT
PART FOUR: THE
REVEALER
The Bible comes to us over many centuries and through the
translation of many languages (Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic…not to mention Latin, Old
English, German, etc.). It is a miracle that we have the Bible in our own
language and can discern God’s truth from this book. Communication can be a
tricky thing.
The Los
Angeles Times recently printed a sampling of signs from around the world that
attempted to communicate in English. Here are a few examples.
In a
hotel elevator in Paris: “Please leave your values at the front desk.”
On the
door of a Moscow inn: “If this is your first visit to Russia, you are welcome
to it.”
In a
Soviet newspaper: “There will be a Moscow exhibition of arts by 15,000 Soviet
Republic painters and sculptors. These were executed over the past two years.”
In a
Bucharest hotel lobby: “The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that
time we regret that you will be unbearable.”
“Lost in
translation” comes to mind. Communication is not merely word exchange, but is
in fact meaning exchange – two or more people sharing ideas and understanding
what is meant, not just what is said.
We have
identified over the last few Sundays that the Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, the
Witness, and the Convicter. One further role that Jesus taught concerning the
Holy Spirit is His role as Revealer. This is important in regards to how we
receive and understand the Word of God.
With the
help of the Holy Spirit we are able to hear what Jesus taught and apply to our
lives with remarkable understanding. Without the Spirit in the life of the
Bible reader, Scripture would be incomprehensible. So today we will explore
this role of the Spirit: The ministry of
the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is to reveal Jesus through the
Scriptures.
1. You can’t handle the truth…yet
One of the most dramatic lines in movie history comes
from the film A Few Good Men. A
marine officer on the witness stand in a court trial is pressed with telling
the whole truth. He yells in reply: “You can’t handle the truth.”
Jesus
didn’t yell. He did intimate that He could not tell the disciples everything He
would like to have told them. Jesus knew that the disciples were not ready to
comprehend the full scope of His teaching. “I
have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear” (12).
This may
have been due to their slowness in understanding. Jesus told them early on
about His impending death at the hands of men. Luke records the reason, “But they did not understand what this
meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were
afraid to ask him about it” (Lk. 9:45; see also 18:31-34).
When the
Jews confronted Jesus and wanted to know who He was, Jesus tried to explain
where He came from. But the Jews did not understand. Jesus replied, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then you will know who I am…” but not before (Jn. 8:28). And when Jesus
entered Jerusalem in so-called triumph and saw the crowds praising Him, the
disciples did not understand what was happening. John tells us that it was only
after Jesus was glorified that they realized what it meant. And when Jesus rose
from the grave, at first they did not understand from Scripture that He had to
rise (Jn 20:9).
We take
these events for granted. We tell ourselves we understand better than the
disciples. But here’s the difference. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost
and filled the believers, the truth of Christ came flooding into their
understanding. At this moment in John 16, the disciples were unable to grasp
the truth, but they soon would.
2. Guiding us into all Truth
We need to remember that Jesus was speaking to His
disciples in John 16. This is not a general statement that applies to us
directly. Jesus promises to reveal truth to
them through the Spirit. So some will ask if there aren’t new revelations
of God today and I think we need to be clear about this – Jesus is not saying
here that new truth will be revealed to an indefinite number of people, over an
indefinite period of time.
Jesus
said, “But when he, the Spirit of truth,
comes, he will guide you (the apostles) into all the truth…” (13). This
means that this promise of future revelation through the Holy Spirit is a
promise to the NT apostles and not something we can claim today. These apostles
were a distinct group through whom the NT scriptures were given. The NT is the
result of this promise.
They
will be guided into all truth, Jesus says. “All the truth” does not mean “all
the truth about science or math or history.” It refers to all spiritual truth
concerning the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus that we need to
know for growth in godliness. And even then, John tells us, we could not
possibly know everything about Jesus for “if every one of them were written
down, I suppose the whole world would not have room for the books that would be
written” (Jn 21:24).
That the
Holy Spirit is a guide to the apostles suggests a progressive revelation (“what
is yet to come”). In other words, the apostles, and we ourselves, could not
grasp everything about Jesus in a single sitting. It is a growing experience;
it is a process. Though we are not the recipients of new revelation, we have
the same “guide” as the apostles who wrote the NT, and He helps us to catch the
meaning of Scripture.
With
this in mind, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us understanding and
illumination (to reveal the Word to us) when we read Scripture. He is our guide
through the mystery of God’s Word.
"Truth
may be compared to a cave or grotto, with wondrous stalactites reaching from
the roof, and others reaching from the floor, a cavern glittering with spar and
abounding in marvels. Before entering the cavern you enquire for a guide, who
comes with his lighted torch. He conducts you down to a considerable depth, and
you find yourself in the midst of the cave. He leads you through different
chambers. Here he points you to a little stream rushing from amid the rocks and
indicates its rise and progress. There he points to some peculiar rock and
tells you its name, then takes you into a large natural hall, tells you how
many persons once feasted in it, and so on.
"Truth
is a grand series of caverns, it is our glory to have so great and wise a
conductor as the Holy Spirit. Imagine that we are coming to the darkness of it.
He is a light shining in the midst of us to guide us. And by the light he shows
us wonderful things. He teaches us by suggestion, direction, and
illumination."[i]
3. Glorifying Jesus by Revealing Him
What is the truth that the Holy Spirit reveals to us?
Jesus
said the Holy Spirit “…will not speak on
his own, he will speak only what he hears…He will glorify me because it is from
me that he will receive what he will make known to you” (13-14).
According
to Jesus’ own words, the Holy Spirit takes what is Christ’s, what Christ has
told Him, and reveals it to us. All that the Spirit shows us is
Christ-centered. If what you perceive is from the Holy Spirit (a word, a
thought, a picture) does not match Jesus Christ, it is not the Holy Spirit.
John, in
his first letter, wrote “This is how you
can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not
acknowledge Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2-3). That is the test John
commands we use when we encounter “spirituality” or “things of the spirit” and
we are unsure if they are from God. And there are many of those in our context.
John
MacArthur writes It is a sad twist of irony that those who claim to be most
focused on the Holy Spirit are in actuality the ones doing the most to abuse,
grieve, insult, misrepresent, quench, and dishonor Him. How do they do it? By
attributing to Him words He did not say, deeds He did not do, phenomena He did
not produce, and experiences that have nothing to do with Him. They boldly
plaster His name on that which is not His work.[ii]
He goes
on to mention some strange stuff that occurs in some churches: Holy Ghost hokey
pokey, “toking the Holy Ghost” as if to get high on the Spirit, barking like a
dog, or women mimicking giving birth as they writhe on the floor. Where do we
see this in the NT?
The
Spirit will never do anything that is contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ
or the written Word of God. Everything the Spirit teaches us is for our
strengthening and encouragement. Christ paid a high price for us to have this
indwelling Paraclete who is there to remind us of Jesus.
How the
Holy Spirit works in us could be compared to an elementary school play. When
the day for the big performance arrives, and the costumes, lights, and
excitement overwhelm the young performers, they are apt to forget their lines.
Whispering loudly from somewhere offstage, some patient teacher prompts the
nervous thespian with the next line. Parents smirk or stifle a chortle, but the
play goes on until another actor freezes.
I’m not
sure if Rainbow Stage employs stage prompters. Their job is not to draw
attention to themselves but to make sure that the words of the script are
delivered correctly and the play continues without interruption.
This
really is what the Spirit does – He ensures the correctness of God’s Word – the
script – is heard and understood. If any of you grasp the Word of God as you
read it or hear it, you can be assured that the Holy Spirit is working in you.
4. Revealing Personalities
The Holy Spirit’s task is to illuminate Jesus Christ
without drawing attention to Himself. I suppose that is why we do so much of
what we do in our individual lives or in the church body without much thought
of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps this is why He has been referred to as the “shy”
member of the Trinity.
But to
conclude that we should not focus on Him or seek His presence would be a
mistake. He is a member of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is
God living in you.
As Jesus
said, His role is to make God known to us. “All
that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive
from me what he will make known to you” (15). Jesus came to reveal the
Father; everything we need to know about the Father, we see in Jesus. Jesus
sent the Spirit to underline what Jesus has shown us about the Father.
Jesus
insisted more than once in the Gospel of John that He did not speak or act on
His own, but spoke as the Father gave Him words to speak (Jn. 5:19, 30; 8:28;
12:49). So too, the Spirit speaks only what Jesus has given Him to say. The
Three are in agreement; there will be no contradiction between Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit – it is impossible.
I cannot
find anywhere in Scripture that we should seek the Holy Spirit as such. Paul
tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that comes through the Word
indwelling us. But we are called to follow Christ in daily discipleship. And if
we obey Jesus, we will find that the Holy Spirit is right there with us.
There is so much more we could say about the Holy Spirit,
but we have confined ourselves to the teaching of Jesus on the eve of His
crucifixion. I could add how the Holy Spirit helps us when we pray (Romans
8:26-27), or talk more about the filling of the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).
But what
is important now as we apply what we have heard? Let’s ask a few questions of
ourselves:
Can you say that the Holy Spirit is guiding you into all
truth, the truth of Christ, as you study His Word? Are you growing in your
relationship with Christ, being conformed to His image through the work of the
Spirit? Are the deep truths of Scripture impacting your life? Is your life
increasingly Christ-centered?
These
are hard questions. If you are having trouble answering “yes” to these
questions, you may find that you are not walking with the Spirit. You may find
that you are not submitting to the Spirit’s work in your life. Perhaps you are
even resisting the Spirit. You may not even be aware of your resistance. Sin
and disobedience can dull the sensitivity of one’s heart. The Spirit cannot
work in us to the full if we hang on to sin. Confess your sins and let the
Spirit flow into you.
The Holy
Spirit is given to those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of their sins. And the Spirit invites you to come to Jesus and be satisfied.
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And
let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever
wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation
22:17).
AMEN
Father,
thank you for sending your Son, Jesus, to reveal your person to us. Thank you
that your Son sent the Holy Spirit to comfort us, bear witness to Jesus,
convict us of our sins, and reveal Jesus to us in the Bible. I pray that our
respect for the Spirit’s work in our lives would grow us we come to understand
Him more and more. I pray that the Spirit of truth may guide us into more and
more truth so that we might glorify Jesus more and more in our daily lives and
in our worship. For those who struggle in their walk with the Spirit, I pray
that they may accept the invitation to drink deeply of the water of life, the
Holy Spirit. Father, do for them what we cannot possibly do for ourselves.
Quench their thirst for God. In Jesus name, Amen.
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