John 14:15-31
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, 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. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION ®. NIV®. COPYRIGHT © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by
Biblica, Inc.®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Discussion Questions:
- In the sermon, Cory emphasized the role of the Holy Spirit in helping people live ethically. How does the Holy Spirit help with this? What are some ways in which you can rely on the Holy Spirit for help?
- According to the Lord’s teaching here, how is it that love and obedience go together in the Christian life? Why is this important?
- According to the text, the Holy Spirit comes to live with us and in us (v.17). The Spirit also opens us up to experience God the Father and God the Son. How does the thought of personally experiencing the triune God affect you? Has this been your experience (have you felt like your Christianity is a participation in the divine)? Explain.
- Why is it that some will not “see” the ministry of the Holy Spirit? How should that inform our own ministries?
- How can the Holy Spirit grant you the peace that the Lord speaks about in this passage?
10/1/2023
Transcript
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit
*This transcript is generated from the sermon audio. This document has not been edited for spelling, grammar, or exactness.
All right, let’s find Bibles if you can, and get to John, chapter 14. John, chapter 14. Bibles are available here on site in the book racks in front of you and in the Bibles that we have here. John, chapter 14 is on page 927. Nine two seven. We’re doing a series on the final lessons that the Lord gave to his disciples before his departure. Before he went to the cross, and before he ascended to glory. He had some final words for them to help them prepare for his departure. That’s what we’ve been spending our time doing. So I’m going to read John, chapter 14. We’re going to do verses 15 to 31. Then we’ll pray and we will get to work. This is John, chapter 14, starting in verse 15.
If you love me, keep my commands and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. The spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me, because I live. You also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in Him. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them. Then Judas, not Judas, Iscariot said but, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own. They belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, 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. Peace I leave you. My peace I give you, I do not give to you, as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. You’ve heard me say I am going away and I am coming back to you. If you love me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father. For the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what My Father has commanded me. Come now, let us leave.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you that by Your Word you can communicate to us today. And we pray that you would give us an understanding of Your Holy Spirit and the ministry that he performs in us and for us, and help us to become a Spirit filled people who are living for Your glory.
Well, I’m going to show you here four different aspects of the Holy Spirit’s ministry. The ministry of the Spirit is ethical, relational, spiritual, and peaceful. Ethical, relational, spiritual and peaceful. We’ll take those one at a time.
THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT IS ETHICAL
First off, the ministry of the Spirit is ethical. Now, ethics is that area of study where you try to determine what is right and wrong and who gets to decide that. And so the ministry of the Spirit helps us to do that. The ministry of the Spirit is helping us to understand how we should live, answering the question, how should we live? And so the Spirit is doing this. The Spirit is giving us an understanding and helping us to actually obey the teaching of the Lord. Look at verse 15. So the opening line here, if you love me, keep my commands. This is interesting, right? Because love, we often think, is more of a feeling. But the Lord says, if you love me, one of the ways that love will be shown is through your obedience to My commands. One of the ways that love shows up in the life of a believer is through the demonstration of obedience, of faith. He says, if you love me, keep My commands. It’s telling us that we are supposed to be a people of obedience, joyfully and delightfully following the ways of the Lord. Now, one of the things that we’ll notice here is that the Spirit is given for this purpose, the Spirit is given to help us with this project. Look at verse 16 says, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate. Here’s the line I’m underlining here to help you. He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. So if you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the father. He will give you another advocate to help you. These are not two different ideas. In fact, I was curious about it and so I looked it up. I pulled this thing off of my shelf. It’s a Greek new testament. So I pulled it off and I was like, I’m going to look at this thing. By the way, I don’t know how to read Greek. So I pull it off and I’m like, okay, we’ll see if this works. But I open it up. And I did take an Intro to New Testament Greek class, and out of the handful of things I learned. I learned that periods are the same in English and in Greek. So I’m like, I can figure this one out. If there’s a dot at the end, I’ll know that’s the end of that thought. If there’s not, then we have to go somewhere else and figure out what’s going on here. Sure enough, I read verse 15 of John, chapter 14, and at the end of it there is not a period. So it’s not a new idea. It’s not a new thing like that’s in the rear view mirror. We’re going to move on to something new. No, there’s something that’s equivalent to a semicolon. And what’s going on in verses 15 and 16 then, is the Lord is saying, if you love me, keep my commands. And then he’s telling us, here’s something that’s going to help you with this. I’m going to the father. He’s going to send another advocate who will help you. The Holy Spirit has a ministry of helping us to live out our obedience to love the Lord and to keep his commands. The Spirit is given for this reason. In fact, I was in a theology class where we were studying the Spirit. There was an assertion that was made that surprised me. I hadn’t heard this before, but studying the Spirit and all that the Bible has to say about the Holy Spirit, there was something that was highlighted. One of the primary ministries of the Holy Spirit is to make people holy. You know, at first I’m like, Are you sure? Because if I were to ask you, what is the Holy Spirit mainly about? What does he get excited about? What is he eager to do? What is his ministry to us? And if you study the Scriptures, what you find out is that one of the primary things that the Holy Spirit does for believers is the Holy Spirit helps us to become a holy people, a people who are set apart to God and a people who live in joyful obedience to Him. The Holy Spirit helps us with that project. Now, you might be thinking right now, core I’m not sure I agree with that. I think there are a lot of other things that I could fill in there, things that the Holy Spirit would be doing in the life of a believer. But let me show it to you here in this passage in our text today. So here’s my question, class. What is John 14 about? What is this passage ultimately about? If you look at verses 15 to 31, what’s it about? The main subject that’s here is the Holy Spirit. And in fact, in the NIV, the translation crew gave us that little heading, “Jesus promises the Holy Spirit.” I read that and I go, yeah, I agree with them. This is about the Holy Spirit. So, look at how this unfolds in verse 15. Opening statement, if you love me, keep my commands. Okay, now look at the final statement. In verse 31, it’s mirroring that first one. This time it’s not the believer who’s doing it, it’s the Lord Himself. In verse 31, he’s telling us that the Prince of the world is coming, the enemy, the devil. He says, he’s got nothing on me. Verse 31, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. He’s doing it. So if you love me, obey my commands, he says, and that’s what I’m doing. The enemy’s coming, and you’re about to see how much I love the Father and obey his commands. So at the beginning and the end, the bookends of this entire section are ‘love of the Lord and obedience of faith.’ It’s also right in the heart of it as well. In verse 21, whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. If you’re writing something and in the intro, you say, this is what it’s about. In the closing, you say, this is what it’s about. In the middle, you say, this is what it’s about. What is it about? Whatever that is, right over and over again we see it here in our passage. The Holy Spirit has a ministry of helping us love the Lord and keep his commands. And that’s a beautiful thing, because we do not want to become a people who are obeying the commands in our own resources, in our own strength. When we do that, it gets ugly pretty quick when somebody says, I’m going to read the Bible, and I’m going to obey the Bible because I’m going to do it, that is called self-righteousness. That’s where we perform it in our own strength. And you guys know this to be the case. People who are self-righteous are no fun to be around. They’re judgmental, they’re critical, they’re condescending, they’re smug, they’re arrogant. They’re better than you from their perspective. So you don’t want to be that kind of person, a person who’s obeying the Scriptures out of your own strength. But people who are enabled by the Holy Spirit of God to walk out their obedience in a way that’s pleasing to God, they’re different, they’re gentle, they’re kind, they’re compassionate, they’re joyful. They don’t view obedience as this obligatory thing that they have to do. Well, I don’t want to do it, but God says I should, so I’m just going to do it because I’m a good boy or a good girl. No, that’s self-righteousness. People who have the Spirit of God, they get a new heart, they get new desires. They begin to look at the things of God and say, I would delight do the things that my Lord commands me to do. Those people are walking out obedience of faith. John Bunyan, who wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, he’s attributed with this little diddy, and I find it very, very helpful. And he uses the words law and gospel, but we could translate it to our terms today, and we could make it about self-righteousness and righteousness by faith and the work of the Holy Spirit. But he puts it like this “run, John, run. The Law demands but gives us neither feet nor hands.” So the Law says, hey, here’s what you ought to be doing. And if you try to do it in your own strength, you begin to realize I don’t have the resources I need to pull this off. It’s telling me to run. I don’t even have feet. The Law makes these incredible demands on us. “Run, John, run. The Law demands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. Far better news the Gospel brings. It bids us fly and gives us wings.” The good news of the Gospel, the work of the Holy Spirit allows us to not only see what God demands from us, but the Holy Spirit actually has come to help us walk in obedience of faith. He helps us live this thing out. So when I look at this primary ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is helping us become a holy people. We’re learning how to live in step with what God wants, and the Spirit is enabling us to do that. And that’s a beautiful thing. So when we look at we want to be a Spirit filled church, we’re talking specifically about the Spirit coming into our lives and helping us to live like Christ. And we see that as one of his favorite ministries, that he’s coming and he’s helping us. He’s an advocate who comes alongside us to help us love the Lord and obey the Lord’s teachings. Number one, he has this ministry that is ethical.
THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS RELATIONAL
Number two, he has a ministry that’s relational. The Holy Spirit is drawing us into a relationship with the living God. Now, this is a mind bending reality, but he’s saying followers of Christ who are experiencing the ministry of the Holy Spirit are being brought into a relationship with the trinitarian God. And this one’s confusing because first off, the Trinity is confusing. I’m not good at kids. You know, they bring their math sheets home and I help them, and then we send it off and they come back. And I’m like how’d I do. And usually it’s not well. But you look at the Trinity and you’ve got this idea of God being one, three persons, and it’s hard to wrap your head around and to understand what’s really going on there. And I’d love to say if you study it, it becomes absolutely clear that’s not necessarily the case. But we’re being told here by the Lord that the Holy Spirit is drawing us into a relationship with this trinitarian God that we get to experience the presence of God Himself in our lives. Look at verse 16. There are a bunch of relational terms here. God will give you another advocate to help you and this is now the line I’m underlining and to be with you forever. A relationship with the Holy Spirit that is enduring. The Holy Spirit is coming and will be with you permanently. So you get to have the Holy Spirit, and it’s not a little booster of like, hey, you need some help? The Holy Spirit’s going to come in and you’ll be helped along for a moment and then it’ll wear off. No, this is saying the Holy Spirit is a permanent inheritance for you. He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, and you will know Him. Verse 17 the world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for he lives with you and will be in you. The Holy Spirit comes to be with you. He lives with you and he resides inside of you. He will be in you. What an incredible thing. It’s saying that the Holy Spirit is no longer this external reality, but the Holy Spirit. You come to know Him personally, and he’s with you and he’s in you. This is wild, right? So Christianity is not some run of the mill, ordinary kind of stuff. It is the infusion of God into us. It’s wild. Then he says, I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. He’s departing. The Lord Himself is departing through his execution, through the cross, then his resurrection, then his ascension to glory. But he says, but I’m not leaving you. It’s not that. You’re going to be all alone now, and you just have to figure it out on your own. He says, no, I’m not leaving you as orphans. I will come to you. I will return. You go. Well, how’s that going to work? And he explains that for us in verses 19 and 20, he says, before long the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me, because I live. You also will live. He says, the world is going to look for Him, and he’s gone, right? His body is gone. He’s no longer here, they no longer see Him. He says, but you will see me. You will see the resurrected and ascended Christ, and you will live. Because I live, you will have this spirit-filled, resurrected life. And he says, on that day verse 20 on that day you will realize that I am in My Father and you are in me, and I am in you. This is wild. He’s saying, if you’re a believer and you have the Holy Spirit, all of a sudden, on that day, you’re coming to realize I’m in God, he is in me, he is for me, I am in Him. There’s this incredible spirit filled, resurrected life being offered to believers because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is drawing us into a relationship with the living God. He goes on to say verse 21 whoever has my commands and keeps them, is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. So Jesus is leaving, but he’s not leaving us as orphans. He’s sending his spirit. His Spirit lives in us and with us. And we then become aware on that day that we are being brought into a relationship with the Trinitarian God. The life in the Spirit is life in a relationship of love with God. What a beautiful thing. Now, it is confusing, right? It’s mind bending to think through. What does that mean exactly? There was a Puritan preacher who was observing a friend and he was concerned that maybe this friend wasn’t a sincere believer. He was doing a lot of spiritual things, but he was like, I don’t know if he gets it. And so he wrote a bunch of letters and then those letters were later published. But what he was trying to say is, when you become a Christian, it’s not just the performance of Christian activities, it’s the infusion of God into your life. The Holy Spirit comes to be in you. And that batch of letters was later published and the title of it, you can hear it here the Life of God and the Soul of man subtitled real spirituality. When we talk about Christianity around here, we’re not just talking about some ideas or some concepts or some activities that we might perform. When we talk about true Christianity, we are talking about the Holy Spirit of God invading our lives. We get caught up into a relationship with the Triune God because of the work of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Peter, who was sitting at that table listening to the Lord say these things when he wrote a letter later on, he wrote it like this two Peter, chapter one, verse four. God has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine. It’s incredible, is it not? Christianity is an invitation to experience a relationship with God. We want everybody who can hear my voice and everyone who comes to Park City Church to recognize that Christianity is an invitation to a relationship with God. And it is the promise that Christ has made available to us that the Holy Spirit can come to be in us and with us for our good.
THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS SPIRITUAL
The third thing that we note here is the ministry is spiritual. You might say. Well, no duh, it’s in his name. It’s spiritual. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is spiritual. And what I’m trying to get at here is the fact that it is invisible. Not everyone will see it, not everyone will lay hold of it. It will be plain to some, but it will be obscure to others. So look at verse 17. We’ve already seen this throughout our passage, but let’s look at it again. It says the world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for he lives with you and will be in you. In other words, it’s laying down this distinction. There are some people who will not see the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Why? Well, because they don’t see or know Him. There are others you. You do know Him, because he lives with you and will be in you. So how can that be the case? How can some people look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit and go, I don’t see it. Right? It’s like the remember those illustrations that were like a jumble of things and if you crossed your eyes, like it would become this 3D thing and you’re like, Whoa. And some people see it and others don’t. And you go, how does that work? But the Holy Spirit, some people look at it, they look at his ministry and they go, I don’t get it. I don’t see it. It doesn’t click for me. And then some people, they have eyes of faith. They see the spiritual realities and they see the beauty of what the Holy Spirit is actually doing. And there’s a distinction here. And the Lord continues that distinction in verses 19 and following before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me, because I live. You also will live. There are people who won’t be able to find or locate the Lord because he’s gone, he’s ascended. But there are those who live by faith. They recognize the presence of Christ with them and in them. And for them, the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. Believers see the Lord, they see his work present, real time. They see how he is at work, unbelievers, do not have eyes of faith to apprehend the work of God. Well, that begs a question. Look at verse 22, an honest question. Why? Verse 22 judas, not Judas Iscariot the betrayer. Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied again, he’s developing this answer where he’s saying there are some people who love me and obey me, they know me. Those are people whose eyes have been spiritually opened and they see the work of God in the world. And there are those who have not received the Lord by faith, and therefore they are spiritually blind to these things. Says to those who see, we will come to them and make our home with them. But those who do not obey or love the Lord, they do not apprehend the things of God. And again, it’s that distinction that the Lord is giving us here. And he’s saying the ministry of the Holy Spirit is spiritual to some. It will become obvious by their eyes of faith, but to others, it will be unintelligible to them. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote one Corinthians, he put it like this. We’ll put it up on the screen. Chapter two, verse 14. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. In other words, they do not recognize these spiritual things because they don’t have the spiritual ability to apprehend them by faith. Now, why is this important? Because you’re like, okay, this is weird. Some people see, some don’t see. What’s the point? Why even bring that up at church? And the reason why I’m bringing it up is because we need these categories. We need to recognize that the work of the Lord will be mysterious to some that they won’t always see like we see. And as we’re doing ministry, our job is to try to make it as plain as possible. But it’s also to pray that spiritual eyes would be opened to the glory of who Christ is and what he’s done. And we need to be aware that that’s our work. We labor in that direction. We pray for that reality to come true for them so that they too may see, and we make those efforts in that direction.
THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS PEACEFUL
All right, finally, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is peaceful. The ministry of the Holy Spirit leads to our peace. At the end of our passage. Today, we find this section where the Lord is again trying to encourage his followers, knowing that he’s about to depart, and he’s telling them that there are some special resources available to them because of his ministry and his work that will now be extended to them through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So, verse 25, he says, all this I have spoken while still with you. I’m preparing you. This is my final instructions, my final lessons for you, and I’m making it plain for you. I’m departing. You better be ready. And I’ve been saying this, and I’m preparing you for it. But there’s one who’s coming. Verse 25, verse 26. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I’ve said to you. The Holy Spirit’s going to come in and he’s going to help. He’s going to show you these realities. He’s going to remind you of the things that the Lord has taught. He’s going to point people to the work of Christ on the cross. The Advocate is coming to continue the ministry of the that’s what my budy Mickey Klink says in his commentary. He makes a point here that they’re not in competition with each other. It’s not like the Lord is tapping out the Holy Spirit’s, tapping in and saying, I’m going to get this one done. You couldn’t do it. I’ll do it. No, they’re in harmony, working to accomplish the ministry that has been accomplished for us. The Spirit. This is what Clink says. The Spirit is not technically a replacement of the ministry of Christ, but rather a continuation. The Holy Spirit comes in the name of Christ and will teach all things and remind you of everything that Christ has said. So the Spirit is highlighting the beauty of Christ. And the reason why this is so important is because we need the application of the Gospel. We need to be assured that what Christ has done is effective for us. We’re an anxious people. We’re a forgetful people. We go through life and we forget that the Lord loves us and that he sent his Son to die for us. And the ministry of the Holy Spirit comes in and says, hey, I’m going to remind you of some things. Here you have a Lord who went to the cross for you, bled and died so that you could be redeemed. You don’t have to be so anxious. You can actually experience the peace that the Gospel offers you. Look at verse 27. Peace, I leave you. My peace I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. This is incredible. The Lord is saying to his friends, you don’t have to worry right now. I’m giving you my peace. Now, when you think about the context, that for me, is what makes this so radical. He knows what’s about to happen. He has just been betrayed. Judas has just gone out. The betrayer has gone out. He knows that the enemy, the prince of the age, is coming. He knows that he’s going to be arrested. He knows that this weekend is going to be a very, very long weekend for him and for his followers, that they will come and they will arrest him and he will be tried and all the disciples will scatter in fear. He knows that they’re going to torture him, that they’re going to beat him almost beyond recognition. He knows that he’s going to go to Calvary and ultimately to the cross and suffer and die. He knows that his body will be buried in the garden tomb. He knows also that he will resurrect and return. But he is aware of all these things that are happening, and he has the audacity to say, my peace I give to you. Peace, I leave you. My peace I give you I do not give you as the world gives you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. He has this calmness about him, which, if I’m aware that things are about to go very, very poorly, I’m freaking out, right? That’s the normal response. You look at it and you go, oh, man, this is going to be so hard. And it was, it was incredibly, you know, sweating, drops. Of blood, and he was agonized by the reality of the crucifix, but he had a calmness about him. Where the Bible describes him in multiple places, peter describes it, Isaiah talks about it. When he was going to the cross, he was quiet, he wasn’t complaining, he wasn’t grumbling, he wasn’t saying, I can’t believe this is happening to me. No. He was like a sheep before the shear, silent. And he calmly goes to the cross, and in fact, not only calmly, but he joyfully goes there. Hebrews Twelve Two says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross scorning, ashamed. There was some peace going on inside of him that allowed him to go through hell on earth and to do it with grace and poise. It’s a wild thing. And now he says to us, peace, peace I leave with you. My peace I give you, I do not give you, as the world gives you. Listen, the world cannot touch this one. What is the world doing right now? It is fretting. It’s freaking out. Everyone’s freaking out about everything, like politics and economics, know, global issues and just everything you talk about anything. Everyone’s just anxious, right? Everyone’s like, man, sky’s falling and Jesus is able to step in and go, Peace. I have peace that I can offer to you. You do not have to be troubled. You do not have to be afraid. And then you begin to wonder, how on earth could I access that? Like, you just telling me that. That’s great, that’s wonderful, I believe you. But how could I ever possess that? How could I be more like you? Listen, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes the beauty of the good news of the Gospel and helps us to believe it. He applies it to us. So we begin to see what Jesus is doing is for me. What he has accomplished at the cross is for me. How he defeated evil and death is for me. No matter what’s going on around me, because the Holy Spirit is helping me, I can begin to onboard that into my own soul, and I can begin to see that the work of Christ is for my good. So, friends, the Holy Spirit has come to minister to us. He has come to make us holy. He has come to help us make choices that reflect the heart of God, to love the Lord and obey the commands. He’s come to invite us into a relationship with the triune God, to say, this isn’t just an abstract thing. You can participate in a relationship with God. He’s come in a way that’s spiritual. So we pray that our eyes could be open to see his work, and he’s come to bring us peace through the Cross-work of Jesus Christ. So, friends, please accept the work of the Holy Spirit for your soul.
Let’s pray. Lord, we ask right now that you would help us to believe the good news of the Gospel, that we would see the ministry of the Spirit at work within our church. Help us to become a people who are holy, that are obeying because your law is a delight to us and we want to obey your commands because we love you. Lord. Help us to recognize the relationship that we have with God because of the work of Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we pray that you would help us to be spiritual people who are able to discern the realities that are going on in this world and help us to have peace, knowing that you have accomplished all of this for us. We pray in your name. Amen.