The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them
now. When the Spirit of truth comes,
He will guide you into all the truth.
For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He
hears, He will speak. And He will declare to you the
things that are to come. He will glorify me, for He will
take what is mine and declare it to you.
All that the Father has is mine. Therefore I said that he will
take what is mine and declare it to you, the gospel of the Lord.
Let me tell you a story of a young Christian man who found
himself in a conceptual dilemma after drifting away from
childhood. Faith.
This young man was miraculously brought back to faith in Christ,
and by then this avid reader had broken into the library of a
local school where his mother worked, and he had stolen a
dozen of books. And though this wrongdoing was
unknown, he soon began feeling a conviction to return the stolen
books. And yet the fear of shame and
the possibility of facing consequences for this misdeed
and others kept him from acting upon this persistent in a call.
And the closest that he came to fulfilling this conviction was
packing the stolen books in a travel bag and dropping them at
his mother's house on the school premises and returning to his
rented apartment that was miles apart in another city.
But still the conviction remained because the prompting
was clear. He needed to return the books
directly to the school authorities.
So the reminder continued, starting in the heart of this
young Christian man. And on this fateful day, the
young Christian man had visited his mother and was scheduled to
work in the garden. And that morning he felt a
strong conviction, telling him that if you proceed with your
work before returning the books, you will encounter red ants or a
snake in the garden. But he resisted to the prompting
and continued on to go ahead and slash a bushy section of the
garden. And no sooner had he started
slashing that he stumbled on a colony of red ants.
And he said maybe they're here, change the spot and went and
tried another area, still the same story.
He comforted himself and tried another area, still the same
story. Red ants.
It was then that he recalled the morning caution that he had and
realized that something was was coming.
And his heart pounding, he scanned around for a snake says
with fear. He fled away from the garden,
and summoning all his courage, he took the travel bag, carried
it to the school headmistress's office, and with humility
expressed his regret, saying, I took these books from your
library, but something is telling me to bring them back.
Notice the usage of the words something, something has told
me. Doesn't this confession express
a conceptual dilemma? What is this something?
Could it be that the Holy Spirit was guiding this young Christian
man? In John 16/12/15, which I
request you to turn to in your bulletin, Jesus makes another
profound promise of the Holy Spirit, which remembered it
being fulfilled last Sunday on the day of Pentecost.
But in this passage, he offers us valuable insight into how the
guidance of the Holy Spirit can be recognized.
And in this and from these words of Jesus, we are able to
identify two general characteristics of how believers
can be able to recognize and be able to trust the Spirit is
leading. I invite you to reflect with me
on these two marks of the Spirit's leading.
First, the Spirit leads according to God's Word.
The Holy Spirit is consistent and trust what unfaithful for
the character of God as revealed in Christ and in Scripture.
To paraphrase this mark as well in a form over the spiritual
discernment anchor. The Holy Spirit always leads in
harmony with God's Word, never independently of it and never in
contradiction of it. As a Master teacher, Jesus
exemplifies the principle of aligning instruction with Lana's
stage of understanding. He recognizes that at this time
of His spiritual and physical journey with the disciples that
we are not yet fully ready to grasp some of the things He was
going to present to them, blessings like His suffering and
His resurrection and His ascension.
They were not yet ready to understand them fully.
Therefore He postponed these hardcore lessons to a later
time, and He assigned them to the teaching ministry of the
Holy Spirit. So He says when the Spirit of
truth comes, He will guide you into all truths.
Notice how the personality and the role of the Holy Spirit is
described in terms that are closely associating Him with
Jesus. He's referred to as the Spirit
of Truth, a title that mirrors how Jesus identifies himself
elsewhere in John. I am the way the truth and the
light and his ministry is described.
Using these words, He will guide you in all truths.
Similarly, all over the Gospel of John, Jesus is portrayed as
the bearer of truth. A couple of verses ago, in the
same chapter, verse 7, He says, I tell you the truth.
The truth bearing nature and the ministry of the Holy Spirit
indicates that he continues on the revelatory work of Jesus
Christ, making true known the God who Jesus had made known in
his actor ministry. The Holy Spirit is not something
that is revealing, something that is new, independent from
what Jesus was revealing. He's a continuation of the same
revelation that Jesus was disclosing, disclosing to us who
God is. His self disclosure aligns and
affirms with the truths that Jesus had already revealed and
as they are tested to in Scripture.
And as a complementary guide, the Holy Spirit enables the
believers or the disciples to freshly understand the words of
Jesus. He would illuminate the truths
that Jesus had presented, even those truths that the disciples
we are not yet able to grasp and understand.
The Holy Spirit will empower the disciples to understand these
truths. These teachings are new to also
enable them to apply the teachings of Jesus into new
situations and revealing new strategies and insights that are
parallel with the teaching of Christ.
Just as the Holy Spirit illuminated the lives of the
disciples to understand Jesus's word, he still acts today in our
lives, bringing clarity and wisdom and freshness into the
complex and evolving needs of human nature that around us.
I mean, it's challenging political, social and economic
issues that around us. The Holy Spirit empowers the
believers to be able to discern God is will to be able to know
what is Christ is teaching. How does it apply to my context
at the moment? And he offers us strategies to
remain faithful to the heart of the gospel as we address the
real issues that are around us. But according to the teaching of
Christ, and Jesus speaks clearly about the source of the Spirit
is guidance. He says, for he will not speak
on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will
speak. And he already anticipates that
there might be an implied question asking for whom does he
then hear from? Jesus continues on in verse 15
to say all that the Father has is mine.
That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and
declare it to you. He reveals A promote A profound
truth in this statement because the message of the Holy Spirit
is not detached from the Trinity.
He does not act independently from the character of Christ and
the will of God the Father. His guidance is perfectly
aligned with the unified purpose and the truth of the trying God.
Speaking about the trying God on a Trinity Sunday like this, it
is a fitting moment to reflect on the work and ministry of the
Holy Spirit alongside the other persons of the Divine Head,
because it is only after the completion of His earthly
ministry Jesus returns into glory.
He ascends, which culminates into the out powering of the
Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
And after all those events, the disciples, we are now in at the
right time to understand the God in His God, in His trial nature.
They had seen the Son walk with him.
Now they had also encountered the Holy Spirit, but also they
had known of the God of their Father in all ages.
So now they were at this at the right moment to understand the
Trinity. That is why the events of the
Trinity we think about this on Trinity Sunday, because Trinity
Sunday follows after all those events of Christ ascending and
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Because at this time we presume that we are able to interact
with all the Persons of the Trinity, We celebrate Trinity
Sunday not just as a Sunday for us to think about the mysterious
concepts of the Trinity, but also to understand how the Holy
Spirit continues to work in salvation history.
He came as we remembered last Sunday, but also now we are
prepared to understand the Divine Trinity in all His
working. Because we have been able to
encounter the Son, we have seen Him, we have remembered all
those events, we have remembered how the Holy Spirit came, but
also we know that God the Father has always been working in or
ages. The Trinitarian origin of the
Holy Spirit is revelation offers us a vital question for
spiritual discernment. As we are designing the will of
God through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, We also ought
to ask ourselves, is this consistent with the character of
the Father and the Son? In other words, we might hear
something, we might hear voices speaking to us, but does that
reflect the heart of Jesus and the revealed will of the Father
in Scripture? We ought to hope, we ought to
ask ourselves a question, is this prompting or the word that
I'm hearing? Does it align with the nature
and the purposes of God as revealed in Christ?
When we faithfully answer those questions, we are able to
discern where whether the Spirit of God is speaking to us.
But also another close discernment question is, does
this align with the Scripture? In other words, is the word or
the prompting that I'm receiving or hearing?
Is it in alignment with the revealed truths in God's Word?
The Holy Spirit did not only enable the disciples to remember
the words of Jesus, but also He inspired them to write what we
know now as the New Testament, the words in the Scripture, the
New Testament. He inspired them to write all
those books. He continued on to give them the
self revelation of God which they wrote for us in the New
Testament. He not only inspired them to
write but also inspired them to apply.
He inspired them to interpret the teachings of the of the of
the ages which we know as the Old Testament.
They were able to interrupt it to them and to apply them a new
sometimes in places in the New Testament.
The Spirit of the Lord continues to inspire us to interpret and
to apply Scripture in our lives. Several times we encounter what
are called difficult passages in the Bible, and when we encounter
those, we feel we cannot apply them in our lives.
Some of these difficult Texas difficult passages are passages
because some of them are detached from our culture.
Some of them are written in a literary style that we are not
comfortable with. Some of them are written in a
historical context that is away from us and we feel they are
difficult for us to understand. What what do we do?
Sometimes we discard them. We say these are they don't
apply to me anymore. How about if we just surrender
because the Spirit of the Lord can enable us to interpret and
apply All scripture Is God breathed by the Spirit of God?
We can ask the Spirit of the Lord to enable us to understand
even the hard passages that we say those we are for that
culture, they don't apply to us. This is the word of God, how
does it apply to me? We should continue to ask the
Spirit of the Lord to enable us to freshly apply the Scripture
in our lives. Even those passages that seem to
be hard and difficult, the Spirit of the Lord can breathe
life into those passages, but also breathes life into those
passages when we study them. If we don't study them, they
don't have meaning, they don't have life, but when we study
them, they have life. Even those passages that you
feel that they are distant to me, they can't have life.
If you ask the Spirit of the Lord to breathe life into them
anew. But also the Spirit of the Lord
gives the ongoing prophetic gifting to the church, the
gifting that is revealed as forestalling and foretelling.
But also this remains subject to the authority of Scripture,
because even when the Spirit of the Lord is speaking
prophetically, he does not contradict.
God is revealed word in Scripture and through Christ.
So it also gives us another means of discerning whether the
Spirit of God is speaking. But he does read in harmony with
God is truth in His Word. Then secondly, the mark that I
can refer to as is the second general mark is the Spirit of
God who leads us to Jesus. This is what he says in verse
14. He will glorify me because it is
from me that He will receive what He will make known to you.
The Holy Spirit functions like a floodlight up there, above,
there, casting illumination not on himself, but on another.
Just as the floodlight is designed to cast light on a
building, on a scene, not on itself.
The floodlight does not shine on itself.
It casts light on the person speaking, not on itself.
It brings glory to another subject, not on itself.
The Spirit of the Lord walks like that.
Even Jesus himself worked like that.
He cast him he he brought glory to the Father.
He says that I have glorified you speaks to the Father.
The spirit is law is not self promoting.
He does not reveal in a way that he promotes himself brings
himself to be the one who is in the in the in the floodlight.
He reviews the presence of God, but without seeking the
spotlight for himself. This is what I would refer to as
the floodlight ministry of the Holy Spirit, which is a vital
litmus test for us to be able to design spiritual revelation but
also spiritual ministry. Passages like Deuteronomy
chapter 13 verse one to five teach us how the measure of us
of a prophet. How should we recognize that a
prophet has spoken in that verse?
It says even when there is accuracy, if a prophet leads you
to another God, then that is not the word of God, even when it's
an accurate word. Sometimes we look at prophets as
being if someone speaks and it comes to pass, but in determine
and other passages, even when it's accurate, if it's directing
you to another God, that is not the word of the Spirit of God
revealing to us that genuine spiritual revelation must lead
to glory to God. It should lead us to submission
to God through Jesus Christ. If the Spirit of the Lord is
leading, He leads us to see God. To see him through Christ,
through illumination into the spiritual realm is always marked
by exaltation of Jesus. It is not self exaltation, but
it's exaltation of Jesus. It is not just having emotions
of the Spirit is leading. If you have those emotions that
the Spirit is leading you, He should be leading you to Christ.
It is not just merely being fascinated with supernatural
revelation, but these should lead us to Christ.
Therefore, we should continuously ask ourselves a
central question. Does this magnify Jesus?
Is this deepening my love for Him, and is it increasing my
trust in Him? Does it lead me to greater
obedience? If it doesn't address those
questions, it is not the leading of the Spirit.
Even when it's prophetic and it's actually it in one way or
another, then Spirit empowered ministry is identified by its
focus on Jesus. A ministry that is truly led by
the Spirit of the road will exalt Christ, bringing
preeminence said to him and to Him alone.
It doesn't shed light onto the minister.
I've seen ministries that tend to, to to to put light onto the
charisma of the person ministering.
And then all people are drawn to the charisma of the person
ministering. Some of those people refer to
themselves as people of the Spirit, not even as servants of
Christ. But genuine Spirit LED ministry
evaluates not the individual and his experiences, but it
magnifies Christ. So this is caution for us as
spiritual leaders in whatever form, maybe as the pastors,
maybe as worship leaders, not to see to it that we turn the glory
of the Spirit for our own serves.
One of the people who were in the Bible who could have turned
the glory for himself was John the Baptist.
John the Baptist comes on sin after a time of prophetic
silence and when there was a lot of messianic expectation.
People are waiting for the Messiah, and then he comes on
the scene giving prophecy. But this is what he says.
He must increase that I must decrease.
He wants Christ to be glorified in all ways.
This is the confirmation that indeed this John the Baptist had
the Holy Spirit, even as we hear that from from Bath.
He had the Holy Spirit leading him.
He was able to be humble and submit himself to the leading of
Christ to give Christ the glory, not himself.
Of course, this principle of giving glory to Christ does not
only apply to Christian or church ministry, but also in
every city of life, even on other forms of leadership.
We should always strive to see that Jesus is given his
exaltation in everything that we do.
Even on the things we are feeling we are gifted.
Christ should take the glory even where we feel that we have
the talent. Christ should take the glory in
all those things that we do. By the way, I didn't finish the
story of the young Christian man, and the young Christian man
is yours truly. And despite my questionable
confession, the headmistress was moved by my honesty because she
knew how naughty I were. So she mercifully forgive me and
he she offered to that I can even keep some of the books,
those that I still wanted. And among the books that I kept,
I kept a commentary on the on revelation.
And it became dear to me that even it inspired my very first
summon that I preached. But if I were to go back today
and make that confession, I would revise my shallow wording
to sound like something like this.
I would edit that word. Something is telling me and I
would submit that with someone is telling me.
And this is how I would say I took these books from your
library. But the Holy Spirit God Himself
has told me to return them to you, friends.
Likewise, every believer should come to a point of growing in
recognizing the leading of the Holy Spirit because this
awareness is outstanding. This awareness begins by us
noting that the Holy Spirit is the person.
He's not a thing. He's the person.
And as a person, He speaks to us.
He interacts with us, He directs us, He commands us on what to
do. He even knows the future.
He is the person who I can relate with.
He's the person who relates with me, but after knowing that he's
a person, we are invited to remain teachable, to cultivate a
deep and an ongoing willingness to surrender ourselves to His
leading. We should adopt A posture of
humility and submission because the Spirit of the Lord wants to
reveal to us issues. But when we are submissive, if
we continue on in our heartedness, then we shall miss
Him out when He speaks to us. He led the disciples in speaking
to them about the truths of Christ.
He still wants to speak to us even at this time, but He speaks
to us depending on our spiritual maturity and our openness.
So I pray that as we think about the Holy Spirit on this Trinity
Sunday would allow Him to act as a person in our lives as we open
ourselves and we surrender to Him to lead us to Christ.
And according to the Word of God, let us pray.
Holy Spirit, we don't want to speak about you as a mere
concept in the Bible. We want to speak about you as a
person who we can relate with, We can speak to, we can ask
questions. We can wait upon a person who
can speak to us right now. We ask you to continue directing
our lives. Feel us anew.
We open our ears to hear from you.
The mysteries of the Trinity continue, leading us towards
knowing and understanding of the Father and the Son.
Pray all this in the name of the Father and of the Son and the
Holy Spirit. Amen.