The Spirit Of Truth – Rev. John De Hoog

(Sermon 2 of 2 to be used around Pentecost Sunday)

 

Text: John 16:12-15 (Read 5-15)

Scripture reading: John 14:15-27

Suggested music: BOW 34a; 118:1,4; 354

 

There were once two pirates, Jake and Samuel. Both were searching for buried treasure. Both had a map, and a set of instructions on how to read the map. Well, actually, not a set of instructions, just one instruction. The instruction was this: “Put on this pair of glasses”. For with each map came a pair of glasses.

Jake was an expert map-reader. Before he became a pirate he had been a surveyor; he had graduated in map reading at the university. He knew everything there was to know about scales and angles and navigational markings and horizontal and vertical elevations. Jake was an expert map-reader. And he had good eyes. He didn’t need glasses. He stubbornly refused to put the glasses on. In fact, he left port and sailed away in pursuit of the buried treasure, and left the glasses behind. “Who needs them?” he said proudly.

Samuel was not such an expert map-reader. He had been born a pirate, his father had been a pirate and his grandfather. He had never had much education, all he knew was pirating. Map-reading was not his speciality, and he felt jealous of all Jake’s knowledge. Samuel felt sure that Jake would find the treasure before him. But Samuel had weak eyes, and so he gladly followed the instruction that came with the map: “Put on this pair of glasses”. And as he put them on, he realised that the glasses held the key to the map. They were special glasses that emphasised certain colours and features of the map so that the location of the treasure became very clear. Without the glasses, the map was actually impossible to understand properly. Jake, for all his map-reading skill, would never find that treasure. Only Samuel, with his special glasses, could ever find it.

The Bible is like a map for our lives. Anyone can read it. Anyone can become an expert in it in the academic, intellectual sense. But to see the treasure, you are going to need special glasses, the glasses of the Holy Spirit. You may be an expert in the Bible, an expert at reading the map, but without the Holy Spirit showing you the truth and the message of the Bible, you won’t find the treasure. You won’t understand or believe or trust what the Bible says.

That’s the message of John 16:12-15. Will you take that message to heart today? Before we look at these verses in detail, let me ask you some preliminary questions. As we go through the passage, ask yourself these kinds of questions. Is this passage relevant to me? Do I find this interesting? Do I agree with this passage? Can I see how this passage applies to me?

If this is all just a boring drag to you, if you are not interested in knowing the meaning of this passage and how it applies to you today, then let me challenge you to get really worried. To become extremely concerned about your own spiritual welfare. You may have come to church today thinking you are a Christian. But it may be that you are wrong. How you react to this passage will be a very good test of your own standing with God.

In these words, Jesus is speaking about the work of the Holy Spirit.

Vss 5-11 of this passage record what Jesus says about how the Spirit works in the world today. The Spirit works to convict the world of guilt with regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit uses the message of the gospel to convince people of their need for Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

But vss 12-15, the verses we are focusing on today, tell us something of how the Spirit works in the church, how he works in the lives of believers. How he works in your life if you are a Christian. It doesn’t deal with every aspect of the Spirit’s work. Other passages talk about the Spirit’s work in moulding your character so that you increasingly show the fruit of the Spirit, or about his work as the giver of spiritual gifts in the church, or about his work in praying with us and for us, or about what he does in assuring us of our adoption into God’s family. This passage doesn’t deal with those things. Rather, it focuses on the Spirit’s role as the Spirit of truth who guides us into all the truth about Jesus Christ.

Look at these verses again, and see how they picture the Spirit’s work as the teacher of truth. Jesus says, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell what is to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”

Notice how Jesus begins this section. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” Think of the setting. Jesus and his disciples are gathered around the Last Supper table. He has clearly predicted his death, they are filled with grief, says vs 6. Jesus is speaking words of comfort and assurance as he prepares the disciples for the events about to unfold.

Jesus has many more things to say, the disciples have many things to learn. But they can’t learn these things now. They are emotionally distressed. More importantly, they are not ready spiritually. They have not yet been baptised with the Holy Spirit! In a very real sense they are still Old Testament believers. Even tonight as they gather around the table they have shown how slow they are to understand Jesus’ work. Soon they will desert Jesus and be scattered, and Jesus will have to face his accusers alone. Jesus knows it all. He knows how weak and frail they are. But he doesn’t rebuke them. He only encourages them and seeks to strengthen them.

And yet, it is still the case that Jesus has much more to say, and the disciples have much more to learn. The Spirit will fill this need. Vs 13 “But when he, the Spirit it truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”

Of all the words Jesus spoke that night as they were gathered around that table, the most surprising announcement of all was his assurance that although he was going away, another would come to take his place. 14:16f “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth.” The Holy Spirit is “another Counsellor”, says Jesus. I have been your teacher, your counsellor, says Jesus. Now the Holy Spirit will take my place as your teacher, as your counsellor. And he will teach you the truth, the truth that you can’t bear right now. What will he teach? 14:26 “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.”

Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will bring everything he has taught to his disciples back to their memory. And they will understand it.

When you read the gospel accounts of Jesus’ teaching, you can’t help noticing something about the disciples. A lot of the time, they were very confused about Jesus’ teaching! Time and again we read of how slow they were to understand, or how they completely misunderstood Jesus’ teaching. But when the Spirit comes, says Jesus, this will no longer be so. Vs 13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” When the Spirit comes, the disciples will begin to understand the truth without confusion.

When Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, many aspects of the truth clicked into place in the disciples’ thinking. Jesus spent forty days after his resurrection teaching the disciples. Luke 24:45 says, “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” And their hearts burned within them as the scales of their hearts fell away and they began to see. When the disciples were baptised with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, that process of understanding gathered momentum. Jesus was teaching them as he had promised, through the work of the Holy Spirit.

So the apostles and their immediate associates were especially equipped to write the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, Jude, the author of Hebrews. God breathed out his Word through them, and so God’s Word was completed, Old and New Testament. And so the first step in teaching truth was completed.

But in the history of the church, the Spirit has taught the truth by a two-step process. The first step was to inspire the authors of the Bible, to breathe out God’s Word through them. The second step is to illuminate the hearts and minds of believers so that they can understand the Bible. The first step is finished, complete. The second step goes on every day, and will go on until Jesus returns. The Spirit of truth is active today teaching the truth by enabling people to understand and respond to God’s Word.

We need to think very seriously about our own response to the Spirit’s work in our lives. Think of it like this. The Holy Spirit has inspired the Scriptures in such a way that it is without error, completely authoritative and sufficient for all we need for faith and life. Here we have the truth. Here we have God’s mind and will revealed. 2 Tim 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, has finished this first step. The Bible is complete.

But you will never be able to profitably understand the Bible without the Spirit’s help. Remember Jake and Samuel, the two pirates. Even though Jake is an expert map reader, he will never find the treasure unless he puts on the special glasses. There is nothing wrong with the map, his eyes are blinded to its meaning without the glasses. So we will never be able to profitably understand the Bible without the glasses of the Spirit. Paul teaches this in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” People without the Spirit are described in Ephesians 4:18. “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”

You see, there are two stages in the Spirit’s work of revealing truth. The first stage is an objective setting down of the truth in the Bible. The second stage is enabling people to profitably understand the Bible.

I emphasise profitably understand, because it is possible to have a good knowledge of the Bible and still gain no profit or advantage from such knowledge before God. There are two kinds of knowledge of the Bible – natural knowledge, and profitable knowledge.

What kind of knowledge do you have? Natural knowledge puffs you up with pride, you think you know it all and can’t be taught any more. True knowledge, which the Spirit works in you, profits your soul and makes you hungry for more. You experience the power of the truth you learn, and you know that truth is for you, and you want to know more. Natural knowledge is knowledge of words and sentences, a knowledge that informs the mind and the intellect, but goes no further. Truly profitable knowledge illuminates and transforms the mind; it leads to belief and humble trust.

That’s why I asked you about your attitude to the truth at the start of our study today. Are you truly concerned to know God’s truth and to apply it in your life? If you are not, then you have to be very concerned about your own standing with God. You have come this evening confident of your faith, confident you are a Christian. But do not become complacent, over-confident! If you think you are standing firm, watch out! What kind of knowledge do you have? Just natural knowledge, from years of exposure to truth, or profitable, Spirit-given understanding and conviction?

When it comes down to it, the difference between natural knowledge and profitable, Spirit-given knowledge revolves around your attitude to Jesus Christ. The main task and aim of the Holy Spirit is to teach concerning Jesus Christ. Vs 14 “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” What kind of knowledge of Jesus Christ do you have? You might know all the facts. You might know that he lived a perfect life. That he died on the cross, that he was sent for that very purpose, to die for the sins of his people. You might know that he rose again, that he ascended to the place of all power and authority, that he will return one day as judge of the universe. You might know these things. Do you?

But what is your attitude to these facts? Knowing all this might be simply natural knowledge, simply learned at home or at Catechism classes or from sitting in church year after year. Has this knowledge transformed your mind? When you think about these facts of history, do you want to fall on your knees and praise God for his grace and mercy? Are these facts the foundation of your life? Do you trust in Jesus Christ alone as your Saviour, and are you filled with thankfulness for his mercy to you? Are you humbled each day as you realise your continuing sin, and do you wonder and marvel afresh that God could love and choose a person like you?

This is the kind of truth that the Holy Spirit guides you into. Truth that glorifies Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Here is the Holy Spirit’s primary aim and purpose – to glorify Jesus Christ by teaching the truth about him.

There are three very practical questions that naturally flow from this passage.

1. Do you study the Bible regularly? Think of what the Bible is. It is everything we need to know of the mind and will of God perfectly revealed. Repeat. Jesus said, that the Spirit of truth would lead you into all truth. The first step in this work of the Spirit was to breathe out God’s Word.

Do you study the Bible regularly? Perhaps you say, “Ah, I’m not a reader!” Perhaps you say, “Ah, after a hard day’s work, I’m too tired to read the Bible!” Perhaps you say, “I’ve learnt the basics in Catechism and at church, I know that God loves me. I don’t need to go into the fine details of the Bible. That’s for theologians and ministers.” Do you know what you are doing with such excuses? You are insulting and provoking God! Imagine treating a letter from your wife or husband or girlfriend or boyfriend like that! “I’m not a reader. I’m too tired. I know she loves me, I don’t need to read about it.” Imagine how insulted the letter writer would feel! The Bible contains everything we need to know of the mind and will of God perfectly revealed. God has given it to us to know and study. To refuse to read and study the Bible regularly and seriously is a high provocation of God.

2. When you study the Bible, do you ask the Holy Spirit to teach and instruct you? Only when the Holy Spirit is illumining your mind can you gain true knowledge of the mind and will of God from the Scriptures. Only if you are wearing the glasses of the Holy Spirit can you profitably understand what God is saying to you in the Bible. Prayer that the Holy Spirit would teach you to understand the Bible should be an important part of your daily prayer. Nothing pleases God more than a desire to know his mind and will so as to obey them. To undertake the interpretation of any part of Scripture without asking to be taught and instructed by the Holy Spirit is a high provocation of God.

3. When you study the Bible, do you study it with a desire to obey the mind and will of God revealed there?

Jesus said the Spirit will lead us into all truth. But not just truth for the brain, not just to feed the intellect, but to feed your life and to change it. If you want to learn to drive a bus or build a house or play the violin, you need to practice. You only learn properly by doing, a theoretical knowledge that’s just in the head is of no value. So it is with truth. You only really learn it when you practice it, when you do it. To study the Bible purely for intellectual reasons is a high provocation of God.

 

Pause

 

Jesus has promised that the Spirit will lead us into all truth. The Holy Spirit has taken Jesus’ place, he is the “other Counsellor” that Jesus promised. He will teach you. But learning truth is never a passive process. Do you want to know the truth, the truth about Jesus Christ that will set you free? Then seriously study God’s Word, ask daily that the Holy Spirit would teach you the mind and will of God, and aim to practice it.

Amen