Sound The Trumpet : The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

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“The Ministry of the Holy Spirit”
by Hugh Davidson
September 20th, 2009

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

John 15:26-16:11,^”But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. ⁸And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”

William Randolph Hearst was one of the wealthiest men in the world of his time and he was known as a passionate collector of fine art. One day he was looking through a catalog of rare paintings and he saw a piece he just had to have. So he instructed his purchasing agent to do whatever it took to find it. And after a long and difficult search, the man finally located it. It was in Hearst's own collection! He already owned it but he had so much in his collection, he didn't even know it was there.

Spiritually speaking, many of us are like Mr. Hearst. We’re saved by the blood and sealed by the Spirit and yet, many of us don’t even know who the Holy Spirit is let alone what He has done and intends to do now that we’ve committed our lives to the Lord. And as a result, we live as "spiritual paupers" never realizing how "rich" we are in Christ. It's like living below the poverty level when you have $10 million in your checking account.

So, here we find Jesus is speaking to His disciples about the future because the events that will take place over the next couple of days including His arrest, torture, death and burial will seem to be the end of everything He ever said or did over the last few years. And now He’s going to assure them of the presence and comfort of the Holy Spirit in spite of everything that’s coming down the road. And this isn’t just for these twelve disciples but these are words of reassurance for you and I as well.

So, we begin in the last two verses of John 15 where John tells us about the Holy Spirit’s coming and it’s not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ He will come. And John tells us that Jesus will send the Holy Spirit from the Father and once again we have the mention of all three members of the trinity all in one verse.

In terms of identifying the Holy Spirit Jesus tells us three things about Him when He says He is the Spirit of truth, He comes from the presence of the Father and He shall testify of Jesus. And then He says, “And because He is coming, ye shall also bear witness” or be testimonies for Jesus as well.

So, He’s the Spirit of truth and the Holy Spirit communicates truth to a hostile world through the conviction of sin and the witness of Jesus Christ. And in the energy of the Holy Spirit we too can be used to boldly face a hostile world with the gospel. In verses 26 and 27 we have the words "testify" and "witness" are both of these are legal terms. So, what John is doing is using the imagery of a law court and telling us we are the witnesses for the defense because Jesus is on trial before the watching world.

Now, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and twice in John 15:26 John indicates this. It says, "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me." So, the witness of the Holy Spirit originated with the Father.” And you notice where it says, “He shall testify of Me.” So, when did the Holy Spirit come as a witness of Jesus Christ? Jesus promised His disciples in Acts 1:8, "Ye shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me" And we know that this promise was fulfilled on the day of the Pentecost. So the Holy Spirit came from the Father at Pentecost to witness to the Son and the Spirit witnesses to the Son by indwelling and empowering believers. And because of His coming we are told that He will empower all of us to testify about Jesus. Now listen, this is important. There's no such thing as a Spirit-filled Christian who doesn't witness and that's because it's the Spirit's ministry to testify about Christ. It’s what He does. And Spirit-filled people tell the world about Jesus because that's what the Spirit directs them to do.

Hebrews 2:4 says of the apostles that, “God bore them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit." In other words, they were given supernatural gifts by the Holy Spirit so they could dispense the gospel. In Romans 15:19 Paul says, "Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ." So, it was the filling of the Holy Spirit that enabled Paul to preach the gospel everywhere he went and the Holy Spirit continues to empower God's people to witness about what Jesus has done for them.

This tells us that the moment we were saved, we were indwelt by the Holy Spirit and He will stay in us to witness through us until we stand in the presence of Jesus Christ and that’s either at the time of our death or when Jesus comes back to take us home through death or the rapture.

So, what’s He doing? He’s living in our hearts giving us both the strength to be a witness and the words to say to the unsaved. And to be a witness, first, we must be precise. A witness states the facts the way they have experienced them. So, we are to present Jesus Christ as simply but as accurately as possible which means we never give half of the gospel and we never share it in a way that takes away its power to save.

And then second, our goal is to exalt Jesus Christ in our lives. People should see Jesus in us and be either attracted to Him or repelled by Him depending on their willingness to know Him. God wants us to confront the world with a clear testimony about what Jesus has done for us and what He can do for them and our goal is not just talk about ourselves but it’s to share our testimony in a way that turns the attention to Jesus. People must come to understand who Jesus Christ is and who we are is secondary.

For instance, if someone hears my testimony and walks away saying, man he really led either an exciting or an awfully dull life then all they’ve heard is me. The purpose of giving our testimony is to testify what Jesus did to save us and to tell them how He can do the same for them. It’s not to tell them how good or bad we were in the eyes of the world because that doesn’t really matter.

Listen, there's no such thing as a Spirit-filled Christian who doesn't witness because it's the Spirit's ministry to testify about Jesus, that’s what He does. So, Spirit-filled people witness because the Holy Spirit directs them to do it. In other words, we are all given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit and the purpose of these gifts is to share the gospel.

In John 15:27 Jesus gives an important qualification for being a witness when He says to His disciples, "Ye have been with me from the beginning." So, what is it that makes a witness legitimate? He has to spend time with the Lord. He has to have known what happened to Him and why and then be willing to share it. After all, you can't go into a court and be a witness unless you saw or experienced something. And the only person who is able to give a testimony for Jesus Christ is someone who has had the experience of coming to know Him and that takes our testimony out of the cold realm of the mind and puts it into the warmth of personal experience. The testimony itself is not just our personal experience but it also includes what we know about the Lord and what He has accomplished on the cross in terms of salvation for all who are willing to repent and trust Him.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13