January 5, 2025

The God Who Makes His Home With Us Forever!

Pastor: Wade Trimmer Series: Knowing God Scripture: John 14:15–23

The theme of our last 14 studies has been “Knowing God”. We have attempted to give a sample of a truth in a miniscule period of time that will be the believers ongoing experience forever! We have focused on John 17:3 numerous times, where Jesus, praying to His Father, declared: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” 

What does it mean to “know the Father and Jesus the Christ”? The word know is used 141 times in John’s Gospel, but it does not always carry the same meaning. In fact, there are four different “levels” of knowing according to John. The lowest level is simply knowing a fact. The next level is to understand the truth behind that fact. However, you can know the fact and know the truth behind it and still be lost in your sins. The third level introduces relationship; “to know” means “to believe in a person and become related to him or her.” This is the way “know” is used in John 17:3 in a present tense form, meaning “to go on knowing”. In fact, in Scripture, “to know” is used of the most intimate relationship (sexual intimacy) between man and wife (Genesis 4:1).

The fourth use of “know” means “to have a deeper relationship with a person, a deeper communion.” It was this level Paul was referring to when he wrote, “That I may know Him” (Philps 3:10). Jesus describes this deeper relationship in John 14:15-23. And the key to an ongoing, deepening, intimate relationship with God, involves the person and work of the Holy Spirit. He is the only God who is here and now and the One who makes our hearts the home of the Triune God!

Attempting to teach about the Third Person of the Trinity – Holy Spirit – in a 40 minutes or less teaching is like trying to describe Niagara Falls by showing a jar of water taken from the Niagara River. But it may stir your heart to go on tasting and experiencing personally, the life and love of the God who makes His home with us, now and forever!

I. The Identity of the Holy Spirit’s Person

I heard of a boys' school where every morning before classes the youngsters were supposed to recite the Apostles' Creed. Each one was given a segment of the creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty," and so on down the line. One morning they were getting along pretty well until all at once there was a dead stop and a deep silence. Then a lad spoke up and said, "The boy who believes in the Holy Spirit is not here this morning." I'm afraid that's happened in the lives of so many Christians. Their belief in the person, presence, and power of the Holy Spirit is absent, for the most part.

Many years ago, Nelson Bell, father-in-law of Billy Graham, and a missionary to China, said, “Ignoring the place of the Holy Spirit in individual salvation and in the life of the church might well be called the great omission of the twentieth century.” Theologian Carl F. H. Henry, echoed this truth in similar words when he said, “The most misplaced person of the twentieth century is the Holy Spirit.” Although much has been done to correct this sad assessment, it still must be admitted that the typical Christian is woefully ignorant of the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.

  1. The Individual Personality of the Holy Spirit – According to the Southern Baptist Lifeway Research, about sixty percent of self-identifying evangelicals believe the Holy Spirit is a force. A force has power, but not personality. When two magnets repel each other, we observe their force, but we would never dream of trying to have a personal relationship with them. Forces are incapable of relating as persons.

However, Scripture refers to the Holy Spirit as a person. Discussing the Spirit, Jesus says, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14). Jesus uses a singular, masculine pronoun. The Spirit is a “he,” not an “it.” And that makes all the difference.

Jesus spoke in these verses in John 14-16 of the individual personality of the Holy Spirit. Of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “He will be with you forever.” (Jn 14:16) “The world neither sees him nor knows Him.” (Jn. 14:17a) “He dwells with you.” (Jn. 14:17b) “He will teach you all things.”(14:26a) “He will testify of Me.” (Jn. 15:26b) “I will send Him unto you.”(Jn. 15:26a) “When He has come, He will reprove the world.” (Jn. 16:8) “When He has come, He will guide you into all truth.” (Jn. 16:13) “He will not speak of His own authority.” (Jn. 16:13) “whatever He hears He will speak.” (Jn. 16:13b) he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (Jn. 16:13c) “He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (Jn. 16:14).

The New Testament, in its revelation of the person of the God the Spirit, ascribes to the Spirit at least twenty titles: the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), the Spirit of God (Matt. 12:28), the Spirit of the Father (10:20), the Spirit of the Lord (Luke 4:18), the Spirit of the Son of God (Gal. 4:6), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), the Spirit of the living God (v. 3), the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29), the Spirit of reality (John 14:17; cf. Acts 1:8), the Comforter (v. 16), the Spirit of power (Luke 24:49), the Spirit of glory and of God (1 Pet. 4:14), the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14), the seven Spirits (Rev. 1:4), and the Spirit (John 7:39). Although every title refers to and is a designation of the one, unique, divine Spirit, each title nevertheless bears its own significance and unveils a particular aspect of the Spirit.

No less than nineteen times in a span of nine verses in John 14, Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as “He” or “Him,” thus establishing beyond doubt or debate the individual personality of the Holy Spirit.

And he wants us to know him. In Scripture, the Spirit acts like a person (speaking, teaching, guiding) and is treated like a person (obeyed, walked with, grieved) because he is a person! The Spirit is a divine person to be known, worshiped, and enjoyed.

Paul encourages us to talk with the Spirit when he says to pray in the Spirit at all times (Ephesians 6:18Jude 20). Praying at all times means making the Spirit a regular reality of your life.

Some object to praying to the Spirit because the Bible does not explicitly say, “Pray to the Spirit.” But praying to the Holy Spirit is an implication of his being a person in the Godhead. While John Piper says the normal pattern of prayer is to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, he also says, “It is just strange if [the Spirit] is a person, and I have grieved him, that I would just ignore talking to him and go to the Father and say: I am sorry I grieved your Spirit.” Jesus and the Spirit are persons, not just the Father — “and to speak to them, as a saved sinner would, cannot be unnatural.” If we don’t relate personally to the Spirit, we hinder our appreciation of the fullness of God.

Whether you’re a new convert or have walked with God for years, it’s never too late to begin, or renew, relating personally to the Holy Spirit. He hears. He helps. He leads. He guides. He teaches. And especially when we’re at our weakest, he loves to comfort us with his presence and lift our eyes to Jesus.

II. The Indispensability of the Holy Spirit’s Presence

Jesus said in John 15:5, “ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me (or “without me” – NKJV) you can do nothing.” Keep in mind that Jesus has just told his disciples that he was going away, yet he’s telling them that without him they could do nothing of eternal significance. So the inference is that the Holy Spirit is absolutely indispensable in producing, providing and preserving the Christian life it’s fruits.

Dwight L. Moody describes the indispensability of the Holy Spirit to our Christian and church life like this “You might as well try to hear without ears or breathe without lungs, as to try to live a Christian life without the Holy Spirit.”

John Stott expresses the same thought like this, “Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness of character apart from His fruit, and no effective witness without His power. As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead.”

The Spirit of God gave the Church a supernatural entrance into history and will give her a supernatural exit. Therefore the church must live a supernatural existence and experience. The church may employ Madison Avenue tactics to draw the masses, but there won't be any miracles. And without the obvious presence of the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit, we will boast about being many for God, but we won't be much for God! We can convince unbelievers by the power of our reasoning that God exists, but only the Holy Spirit can convict and bring the revelation that God can be known by personal experience.

One of the most successful tactics of the devil has been to make most Christians so afraid of the abuses people have performed under the guise of being Spirit‑filled or Spirit‑led that they settle for the Holy Spirit's absence. We are so afraid of "excesses" that we are willing to wallow in deficiency. The blunders and disasters of the Church are largely, if not entirely, accounted for by the neglect of the Spirit's ministry and mission. The Church has lost the note of authority, the secret of wisdom, the gift of power, the joy of her Lord, all because she has lost her experiential acquaintance and knowledge of the Holy Spirit.

Without the welcomed and received presence of the Holy Spirit, our churches are like the church at Laodicea in Rev. 3:17 – rich and respectable, prosperous, filled with people, influential, complacent and confident – yet powerless.

Only when we recover all the power and hope available to us as produced by the person of the indwelling, infilling presence of the Holy Spirit and begin to believe that in Christ we always have live in the age of advantage, will we begin to proclaim the gospel with saving power to the poor; and with compassion and power, heal the brokenhearted, bring deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised!

Come Holy Spirit, we need Thee. Come Holy Spirit, dark is the hour. Come Holy Spirit and fill us with your power! Introduce yourself to us. We want to know you personally, intimately and powerfully.

What is the nature of the business into which the Holy Spirit takes us into His partnership to accomplish? It is allowing the Holy Spirit to do now in and through the mystical body of Jesus, the Church, the people of God, the same things that Jesus did in His physical body while hear on the earth. In other words to continue the things that Jesus began both to do and to teach.

The job description that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit was six‑fold:

  1. Operating in the same miraculous power as did Jesus – Jn 14:12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”
  2. Teaching us all things ‑ Jn 14:26a, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things…”
  3. Reminding them of all that Jesus said ‑ 14:26, “…and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” 
  4. Testifying about Jesus ‑ Jn 15:26, But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”
  5. Guiding us into all truth ‑ Jn 16:13a, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority…”
  6. Telling you what is yet to come Jn 16:13b,but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” Literally, “the coming things.” This phrase is found only here in the N.T and means the things already begun concerning the work of the Kingdom not a chart of future history.

So the Spirit will focus on the Son and will not speak on his own but will speak only what he hears (John 16:13). The Son has done exactly the same with respect to the Father (John 3:32-34; John7:16-18; John 8:26-29, John 8:40; John 12:47-50; John 14:10; John 15:15). The Son has revealed the Father, and now the Spirit will reveal the Father by revealing the Son.

We see these different job assignments worked out in the book of Acts. Which, by the way, as a title, I think should read – The Continuing Acts of the Holy Spirit Through the Spirit-filled People of God.

In my opinion, the absence of the supernatural, of the inexplicable, of the power of God in our lives and gatherings as a church, is one of the most Holy Spirit grieving aspects of church life, especially in the Western world.

III. The Intimacy of the Holy Spirit’s Partnership

Notice what Jesus said in Jn 14:17. He tells His disciples that they would “know the Holy Spirit.” But for the most part the average Christian today has never really come to know or gotten personally and intimately acquainted with the Holy Spirit. The Church corporately and multitudes of the people of God individually have lost the note of authority, the secret of wisdom, the gift of power, the joy of their Lord, and perhaps greatest, all the hope and advantage that is available for them now – and all this because she has lost her experiential acquaintance and knowledge of the Holy Spirit.

It is by getting to know personally, intimately, obediently and powerfully the Other Jesus without a body – Third Person of the Trinity – Holy Spirit, that the kingdom comes more fully, the will of God is done more freely, and the name of God honored more famously.

What is involved in knowing and serving in the intimacy of His partnership?

1. We Must Cultivate His Fellowship – 2 Cors. 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion (NKJV) fellowship (ESV) of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” The word translated “communion” or “fellowship” is “koinonia”. It’s used 20 times in the NT and contains at least four ideas: relationship, fellowship, partnership, and companionship.

Communion with the Triune God is based upon union with Him. We read in Romans 8:9, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” The miracle of the Holy Spirit's regenerating ministry restores us to relationship with God. The presence of the Holy Spirit within the child of God makes our bodies "temples of God" and brings Jesus to live in me in a personal way. The Holy Spirit comes to deliver us from our orphan state and to be just like Jesus‑ minus his body in us. No wonder the poet exclaimed: "Most tender Spirit! Mighty God! Sweet must thy presence be, if loss of Jesus can be gain, so long as we have Thee!"

Our hearts become his home, not his hotel. He wants a place to live in which he can feel at home and not a place where he is permitted to check in at 11:00 am on Sunday's and is expected to check‑out at around Noon.

2. We Must Cooperate With Him in Declaring His Message and Doing His Mission - John 16:14, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

3. We Must Eliminate That Which Grieves or Quenches the Holy Spirit - Ephesians 4:30, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” 1Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not quench the Spirit.”

Four sins are mentioned in the New Testament regarding possible offences we may commit against the Person and Presence of the Holy Spirit.

  1. “Resisting the Holy Spirit” - Acts 7:51 – a sin against salvation.
  2. “Blaspheming the Holy Spirit - Matthew 12:31-32 – a sin again spiritual sensitivity.
  3. 3. “Grieving the Holy Spirit,” - Ephesians 4:30 – a sin against
  4. 4. “Quenching the Holy Spirit,” - I Thessalonians 5:19 – a sin against

The first two of these sins can only be committed by unsaved people. The last two can only be committed by saved people.

My dear brother, Herb Hodges, challenges us as he writes: “What would happen if each Christian lived with an ungrieved, unquenched Holy Spirit all day long every day? The knowledge, power, and activity of the Holy Spirit would “cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.” May God give to us, one by one, this lifestyle of living with an ungrieved, unquenched Holy Spirit until an army of Spirit-walking, Spirit-monopolized, Spirit-manipulated, Spirit-empowered, Spirit-manifesting, love-dominated, others-centered Christians are found in every community on earth - and Jesus is “happening” to people in deep and profound ways. May God hasten that day, and may He graciously use us to do it.”

A final question, AM I DESPERATE for His Spirit and His Word? The beautiful modern worship song ties all these thoughts together with these words...

This is the air I breathe
Your Holy Presence living in me
This is my DAILY BREAD
Your very WORD spoken to me
And I, I'm DESPERATE for You
And I, I'm lost without You!

Come Holy Spirit, we need Thee, Come sweet Spirit we pray. Come and fill us and fire us up to be aglow with God so we can spread the fame of His name!!

 

other sermons in this series

Dec 22

2024

The God Who Became Man

Pastor: Wade Trimmer Scripture: Hebrews 2:5–18 Series: Knowing God

Dec 1

2024

The God Who is Just and the Judge!

Pastor: Wade Trimmer Scripture: Romans 3:25–26 Series: Knowing God

Nov 24

2024

The God Who is Absolutely Truth

Pastor: Wade Trimmer Scripture: Deuteronomy 32:4 Series: Knowing God