When we were looking together at what John’s Gospel shows us about Jesus, we looked at the promises of Jesus in chapter 14 that started with the words “When the Spirit comes.” Some of those times He referred to the Spirit as “Counsellor” or “Spirit of Truth” or “Holy Spirit”, but each time Jesus was referring to the same person of the Trinity that we refer to most often as Holy Spirit.
Jesus spent time with the disciples teaching them about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t a set of lessons that He dreamed up, but they were based on scriptures that the disciples had – what we know as the Old Testament. Jesus taught with authority from His place within the Trinity – God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
J Packer has written a well-respected book called “Keep In Step With The Spirit” in which he gives the church something of a wake-up call. He considers that the church spends plenty of time discussing God, studying Jesus, thinking about what it means for all of us to work together as the Body of Christ, and where we should be involved with mission or social engagement, but that we pay “lip service” to the Holy Spirit. He goes on to explain his concern: “…where the Spirit’s ministry arouses no interest and other preoccupations rule our minds, the quest for life in the Spirit is likely to be neglected… Then the church will lapse.”
Later on in his book Packer adds: “those who have thought about and sought after the power of the Spirit in their own lives have regularly found what they were seeking for…” because our search for understanding the Holy Spirit has less to do with knowing the finest detail of the theology of the Spirit, and so much more to do with understanding the place of the Spirit in our lives. The theology will obviously form the basis of and be behind the teaching, but the key point for us is that we get to the place where we can demythologise any hang-ups or misunderstandings we have about the Holy Spirit, and replace them with a life enriching personal experience of all that God has to offer to us.
My prayer is that as we work through these studies together, we’ll all be able to experience a fuller awareness of the relationship we have with God, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 16: 1 – 15. It is easy to read the opening verses of Acts 16 as if Paul was doing exactly what he wanted, when he wanted, and how he wanted (1-5). But we know from the full breadth of Paul’s teaching that he constantly let the Holy Spirit guide him, and that he […]
Acts 2: 1-41. To fully grasp all that took place when the Holy Spirit came down on God’s people at Pentecost, we need to recognise the “heart” of Pentecost (1-21). That happens as we see the importance of the outward expression of the Holy Spirit, but the inner experience of the heart must come first. […]
Ephesians 4: 1-16. In John 13:35 we have the words of Jesus declaring: “This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you love one another”. That happens through unity. In his commentary on Ephesians in the Bible Speaks Today series, John Stott helps us understand from Ephesians 4 how unity depends […]
1 Corinthians 12. The Apostle Paul is keen to make sure that the people of God don’t remain uninformed about the gifts of the Holy Spirit through which we are equipped. He sets that out in three distinct, yet intertwined, ways as he shows us: The purpose of the gifts (vs. 1-3): to bring glory […]
Romans 8: 1-17. Renewal through the Holy Spirit happens as we turn away from our “old” selves, and embrace our “new” selves. Turn away from the “old” you (vs. 1-11): Bound by the law of sin & death (vs. 1-2); Minds controlled by the “sinful nature” lead to destruction and death (vs. 5-9); Sinful nature: […]
John 14: 15-27. John shows us the depth of the promise that our relationship with God will be unbroken and unshaken. The words of Jesus in this chapter explain that the Holy Spirit is our constant source of comfort that will never leave us. Therefore we can trust the integrity of the promise, and live […]