I hold it true, whate'er befall;

I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have lost at all. (Samuel Butler’s revision)

Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam: (1850)

No, that’s not quite how Tennyson wrote it.  It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.  Do you think that could ever be true?  Is it good sometimes to lose something?  Especially, regarding people we love, is it possible that losing someone we’ve loved is superior to not losing them? It’s hard to think it could be so.  There are few sadnesses more intense than the loss of one loved.

As far as real love is concerned, anything is better than separation, we think… anything.  That’s why the marriage vow is “’til death us do part”.  That’s why bereavement is the often the most disturbing emotional event human beings ever experience.  For those who love, really love, you know there is little positive about having loved and lost.   And yet, today we will see that Jesus in John 14-16 insists that there issomething positive.  At least as far as Jesus’ going is concerned, there is.

16:7 -- Very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  Jesus is saying without equivocation that that having the Holy Spirit is an improvement on Jesus’ presence with us here personally.

This brings us to the 6^th article in our proposed SOF.  In this “Story of Our Faith”, we have just come through two beautiful and powerful articles – one about the person of Jesus and then the work of Jesus (out of love dying for us on the cross).  But though Jesus’ life and work happened in history, we know Jesus lived a long time ago.  We might ask, “What difference does that make now?”

Jesus himself anticipated that question in his final words with his disciples on the night before he died (see John 14:15-27). He was departing from them, and in one sense, he would no longer be with them. But he assured them that they would see him again (John 14:19) and that he would continue to love them (14:21). Furthermore, because he lived, they too would live (14:19). In other words, Jesus is promising a relationship with his followers after his departure.

How could this be? How can he be with his disciples even after his death, resurrection and ascension? The answer is largely found in Jesus' words of promise: "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever –- the Spirit of truth” (John 14:15-16). Jesus is assuring his disciples that though he will be leaving them physically, he will be forever with them through the personal presence of the Holy Spirit. We believe that this Spirit still unites us with Jesus the Son and so draws us into a personal and daily relationship with God as our Father. In this way the barriers of space and time are overcome, and the life of Jesus touches our lives today. In fact, Jesus said he touches us more fully than if he were physically present in our gathering this morning. We say:  God's gospel is applied to our lives by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

#1:  Who Is He – the Holy Spirit?

Simple answer: A divine person – one of the three persons making up our triune God

He is God -- Many things indicate this in the Bible – but just notice Jesus’ words in 14:16, “I will give you another -- another Helper…”  What does He mean by that? There must have been a helper before. It’s like Alice at the Mad Hatter’s tea party when asked if she wanted more tea when she hadn’t received any in the first place.  So—Who had been this earlier helper?   

Read the context and its clear that it had been Jesus Himself.  He had been supporter, friend, and advocate to his followers.  But, now Jesus was going to the Father and someone else would have to play that role in Christians’ lives.

Well, the phrase “someone else” may be too strong. Do you notice how Jesus subtly moves back and forth from third person to first person when He’s talking about the Helper?  See 14:l7b and l8a.  Also, there is this situation of Jesus saying in 14:18, I will not leave you -- I will come to you.

I know it sounds a bit confusing. It’s no wonder old Judas found himself completely baffled in v. 22.  He wondered: Why all this personal talk about a Helper who is both me and him. But Jesus only goes on in verse 23 to re-state his teaching and to add that the Father will also be dwelling in people.

Now, I don’t know if you see the importance of this. It s plain to me that Jesus is discussing the Holy Spirit as one with Jesus -- yet also somehow different. One with the Father, yet somehow different -- just as Jesus is one with the Father yet somehow different.  The Holy Spirit is one of three persons in the one triune God of the Bible.  He is God.

He Is a Person --Several things show us conclusively that the Holy Spirit is personal: 

1. The name -- Counselor. The Greek word is familiar to some of us – “paraclete” = “Someone called alongside to assist.” It was often used in legal context so sometimes it’s translated “advocate” or “counselor”.  But, it’s a broader word than that so might be better to understand the name as “Helper”. But, no matter how it’s translated, a paraclete is always a person -- never a thing.

2. Masculine Pronouns -- This is impossible to see in English translations but the personal pronouns Jesus used for the Holy Spirit are used to emphasize that he is a person.  Jesus was emphasizing the personal nature of the Helper.

Just as one example -- In 14. 26, what Jesus says is, “But the Helper, He will teach you all things. Jesus doesn’t want us to miss the point. The point is that help coming from a person is so much better than simply when some impersonal thing is available -- especially, when this helper is God Himself.

Think about it, Jesus has given to us the very presence of God to help us.

Even though many Christians in our day emphasize the Holy Spirit, I still think the Spirit's personhood is not taken seriously. It seems to me that the central word in people's minds when they hear of the Holy Spirit is the word "power."  And that has a danger to it, for the word power sometimes makes you think of divine electricity or an explosive.  It's so impersonal.

Many seem to think that the Spirit’s power something we can manipulate and control if we know how to do it – how to tap into it. It's something we make use of.  But there was one named Simon Magus in Acts, who made just that mistake.  He thought of the Holy Spirit as a power he could make use of and Peter had to rebuke him in the clearest of terms.  Too many seem to think that if we pray certain words, or hold our hands in a certain way, or pray loud or in some strange religious tone that we can force God's Spirit to exercise power at our beckoning call.

But the truth is we can't use the Holy Spirit.  If we understand that he is a Person, then we understand why that's so.  You can use things and that's fine, but using people is bad.  For example, if a bomb were sent to your home, you would have to decide how to dispose of it.  It's an impersonal force.  But if a totalitarian dictator like Muammar el-Qaddafi came to your home in Libya with his armed followers, he would decide how to dispose of you.  There is a difference in how you deal with powerful things and powerful people.

Jesus is saying that he gives us the most powerful person imaginable to indwell us and help us.  God hasn't promised us impersonal packages of bomb‑like power that we open in a certain way.  He has promised us a powerful Person, the Holy Spirit.  He is not at our disposal; we are at His.  We don't use Him; he helps us.  If we receive Him, it's not because we've mastered some religious technique for directing His power, but because the One who has died for us has known our need and has given Him to us.

And Jesus assures us that it is better for us that He leave as God in flesh so that this other gift can be given to us:

*As God in flesh, he could only be with them.  As God the Spirit, He is with and in us.

*As God in flesh, he could only be with them a little while.  As God the Spirit, He is with us forever.

*As God in flesh, he was present in one geographical and historic location.  As God the Spirit, He transcends spatial and physical limitation.

Now, be warned! There is a danger of simplistically speaking of the Spirit as Jesus in another form. It’s a heresy called modalism that the church has had to battle for generations. It confuses Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as being one actor who exchanges roles or wears different masks at the same time. But the Bible won’t allow that. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit co-exist as separate persons and have relationships with one another. The Spirit is both distinct from Jesus and one with Jesus. He is another helper, similar to but not identical.

The best way to understand this is the historic Christian teaching about the Trinity -- God is one being eternally existing as three persons. When we are given the Spirit, God is giving us something of Jesus and of the Father as well. lt’s a tremendous truth if we can but grasp it. Jesus has not abandoned us. He has given us a gift. – the indwelling presence of His own Spirit.  In other words:  The Holy Spirit is real! He is God!  He is a person with us!  And, He is here!

 

#2:  How Do We Receive Him?

Simple answer:  When we receive Jesus by faith, we receive the Holy Spirit.

When he was on earth, Jesus promised he would give His Spirit to all his followers. After the Holy Spirit came and filled Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles in the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul simply takes for granted that the Spirit is received when people receive Jesus.  For example, in Galatians 3:1ff, as Paul took on some people (who were arguing that they needed to do more than believe on Jesus to be saved) he said, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.  I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?  Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of your own efforts?”

And Paul simply assumed that all who trust Jesus have the Holy Spirit when he discussed how God’s Spirit pours gifts on his people for the building of the church family in 1 Corinthians 12:6-7: There are different kinds of working (of God’s Spirit), but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

I want you to know today that, if you have trusted Jesus, you have been given the Spirit of God.  He will make himself known however he will.  Sometimes, people think that the only way the Spirit makes himself known is through some emotional experience or supernatural gift. Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:18, “No, God will do it as he will!”  I’ll say more about that in a moment.  But now, I want you to know that if you have asked Jesus into your life, he is present through God the Spirit.  You don’t have to beg.  You don’t have to try to manipulate God into giving you himself.  When you have Jesus, you have the Spirit.

#3:  What Does the Holy Spirit Do when He Comes In?

Simple Answer: He compensates us for the physical absence of Jesus – but, again, in a way better than if Jesus was here physically.  Jesus was Immanuel, God with us. So is the Holy Spirit.  Jn. 14:16, 18.

In Article 6 of our SOF, we’ve put it this way:

We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He makes sinful people alive to God through faith in Christ, and through the Spirit they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs into the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.

This is too big a topic to cover one sermon – so I’ll make only a few points in this one.

1] He makes God real to us

Repeatedly, Jesus said that the Spirit glorifies Jesus – he reflects all the realities of Jesus to us in our lives.  In Jn. 16:12-14, Jesus said to the 12 disciples, “You cannot handle or bear all that I have to say to you now but the Spirit will come to guide you into truth.  He will not speak on his own… He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.”

I simply want to say that, when God is present, you and I should expect the unexpected.  God will always be consistent with his Word but we won’t be able to say to say to him, “Here is how you have to make yourself known.  Here is when and how you should work.”  No, he is and will be God and he knows how to make Jesus known to us.

Sometimes he will do it like he did at Pentecost when the Spirit came on all those gathered -- evidenced by miracles of speaking and hearing.  Sometimes, he will do it through the miraculous work of unifying -- making one -- a people as diverse as we are one: finding ways for someone born in WV to sing to our one Father together with people born in – oh – Egypt or Iran.

He’ll break stereotypes  -- Not always doing what we think he should do – “as he will”.  Some groups have relegated the presence and work of the Spirit to the emotions.  The Holy Spirit pours out as he will – there may be little emotional component at all.  When I read the lists of how the Holy Spirit gifts people, I recognize there will be a huge diversity of ways that he will make himself known – but it will always be for the growth of God’s people – both personally and corporately.

He is the one sent to make Jesus real to us – to glorify Jesus and to be our advocate as Jesus is.  I pray that I will be open to his leading as your pastor and that you will be too.

2] He is involved in the whole process of us (and others) coming to faith in Jesus –

The Bible is clear that, on our own, we are dead to God because of our sins (Ephesians 2:1ff).  How do dead things come to life?  They don’t give life to themselves!  No, it is God through the Holy Spirit who draws us – who convicts us of our sin – who works in us to know that the message of Jesus is true – and then who makes us alive when we place our faith in him.  We have a role in this – we are called to repent of sin and believe in Jesus.  But, at the end of the day, it is by grace that we are rescued.  It is by faith – and that isn’t our work either.  It is a gift of God so that there is no boasting.

Let me ask you:  Why is it that a person can live a whole lifetime without any concern for God – and live that way for years – then is suddenly arrested with a sense of sin?  We’ll suddenly say, “I’ve been wrong!”  Sometimes, the person will be suddenly consumed with the fear of death, knowing he’s not ready to meet God.  He’ll become aware of an urgent need to be forgiven and saved.  What’s explains that?

Jesus would say, “It’s the work of the Holy Spirit.”  It is He who convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.”   What Jesus is saying is that the Holy Spirit not only performs the role of being with us when we give testimony to Christ.  He also goes on the offensive.  He challenges the conscience of unbelievers too.  He’s not just a defense lawyer; He’s a prosecuting attorney.  We witness to Jesus and the unbelievers sometimes challenge us.  But the Holy Spirit stands with us – and then He calls them to come our way – to be believers too.

The Holy Spirit is active convicting the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.  He often does it through you and me.  You and I must testify – 14:26-27.  There is also real encouragement for those who want to convince people of the truth about Jesus.  Well, the Holy Spirit is with us in this. So if you talk to people about rightness, be encouraged!  You’re not alone.  God is with you.

3] He is central to our growth in becoming like Jesus

There is no part of our growth in Christlikeness that excludes the presence and work of God in our lives.  He illuminates our minds to Scripture so that what was once a regular piece of literature becomes God’s very voice to us.  He knits us together into a church – the main place for our spiritual nurturing and growth.  See Ephesians 4:11-16 and you’ll see each of us and all of us grow to experience the “whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  And once we’re in the church, God’s Spirit pours out gifts on us all – each of us being important to the church family.  Those gifts operating in a church family worshiping together, serving together, and living in fellowship with one another provide the means of our spiritual growth.  And then, when we leave church, the Spirit goes in us to empower us to overcome temptation toward sin and to strengthen us in the midst of trials.

In our day there are some churches that never talk about the Holy Spirit – that’s wrong.  There are churches that talk much about the Holy Spirit but don’t teach much about the Bible – that’s wrong.  There are churches that talk about the Holy Spirit and you don’t hear much about Jesus – that’s wrong.  The Holy Spirit gives glory to Jesus.  He has no interest in talking about Himself.

But I do think it is a far more lethal error to make too little of the Spirit than to make too much.  Show me a church focused on sacraments and liturgy with no awareness of the Spirit and I’ll show you a dead church.  Show me a church obsessed with theology and doctrine and no awareness of the Spirit and I’ll show you a dead church.  It’s the Holy Spirit who brings the church to life.

So today, when you leave church, take these thoughts with you:

*As you go, the Holy Spirit goes with you and in you. Learn to count on it.  Learn to “Practice the Presence of God”

*But come back again.  Usually, for us to be confident of the Holy Spirit’s presence and work, we need to worship regularly with God’s people.  He dwells in me – but in a special way he dwells in us!  In the church, God speaks to us – and we know we believe and we sense his guidance. Perhaps you have felt that inner prompting to believe today – or to turn from some sin today.  You feel the need to decide for Him.  Well, it’s not just your imagination or something you ate.  Something may hit you as God’s Word is spoken that’s never quite hit you that way before.  It has little to do with the speaker’s eloquence.  God’s Spirit Himself is at work:  Challenging you – calling you to a deeper commitment.  This happens when we meet together under our Father’s Word.

*Go from this gathering today filled with hope – God’s Spirit will complete his sanctifying/glorifying work in you. Sin will be overcome.  Your trials will not do you in.  Don’t give up – for God has given himself to you.

The Holy Spirit turns Jesus from just being a figure in the past, commemorated in our books and rituals, into our living present Lord.  So, if you had a choice of walking in Palestine and hearing Jesus teaching -- or sitting here and hearing Jesus preached with the Holy Spirit to illuminate you, you would be wise be choose the latter.  Jesus is the one person in the world who it is better to have loved and lost -- for rightly understood, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, we haven’t lost Jesus at all.