If you have your Bible, please turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter seven.

Last month, I spoke on the Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel, surveying His appearance by name in chapters one through six. I stated that Holy Spirit is the Master Craftsman and Storyteller in the universe and of everyone’s life. He is telling through us stories that will redound to the glory of God in eternity. Ephesians 3:10 tells how “the manifold wisdom of God [will] be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” Every story of God’s grace in redeeming and perfecting a child of God reveals the manifold wisdom of God: for we are each a unique and unrepeatable miracle of God.

Jesus emphasized that until one is born of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He also said that those who are born of the Spirit are like the wind whose origins and destination others do not know. There is a freedom that being born of the Spirit gives the believer that liberates them from the constraints of an unbelieving world. John 3:34 says, “He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.” Holy Spirit empowerment comes upon those whom God has sent to speak His word. Through them, others may believe and receive the promises of God that lead to eternal salvation. God’s promises enable us to be genuine disciples or Christ followers.

Jesus came that we might find spiritual sustenance through His body and blood. He called these true food and true drink, but later explained that these are imbibed spiritually. Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

Now in chapter seven, the scene shifts from a miracle of multiplying fish and loaves to a national feast in the capital city of Jerusalem, the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. This was one of three obligatory feasts that the Law of Moses commanded Jews to observe. The other two were Passover and the Feast of Weeks that we know of as Pentecost. The Feast of Weeks celebrated the ingathering of grain, whereas Tabernacles occurred around the time of the grape and olive harvests.

According to the historian Josephus, the Feast of Booths was the feast the Jews enjoyed most. Rightly so, for the Feast anticipated the gathering of the saints in heaven – the eternal tabernacle of God for His people.

Jesus refused to go to Booths from Galilee with His brothers, for He said, “My time is not yet here… Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” He knew that the next feast, Passover, was His appointed time of death. So His brothers went on ahead, while Jesus stayed in Galilee a few days.

He then secretly came to the city and began teaching in the temple. His presence immediately aroused controversy – some saying He was a good man, but many others accused Him of leading others astray. This became the established view among leading Jews. The Babylonian Talmud dismissed Him as “Yeshu the Imposter.”

Jesus declared in response (vv.16-18), “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. ¹⁷ If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. ¹⁸ He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”

Those who commit to do God’s will shall know that Jesus’ teaching is from God, because He sought the glory of the Father. He then said of Himself, “He is true and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” This would be brazenly narcissistic were it not true. Jesus is, in fact, the Holy Son of God. He could speak unaffectedly about His blameless Truth in speech and conduct. But I believe He was also speaking sincerely about the motivations of His future disciples.

Whenever we truly seek God’s glory and not our own, we are being true to our heavenly calling, and there’s no unrighteousness in our present actions. The Holy Spirit enables us to act and speak like Jesus in a true and righteous way, when we put self aside and seek God’s glory.

Now on the last day of the Feast of Booths, there was a climactic ceremony that symbolically appealed to God for the latter rains that allowed a full harvest of grapes and olives to come in. The high priest went to the Pool of Siloam with a golden pitcher and drew water and would then proceed through a processional throng to the temple altar, where the water would be poured as part of the daily sacrifices. Along the way, the people would sing Isaiah 12:3, “You will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation.” The word for salvation used here is yeshuah, which in fact, is Jesus’ Hebrew name. So Jesus used this climactic event to declare Himself to the people by way of analogy. Reading from vv.37-39 of John 7,

“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” ³⁹ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Just as the Feast of Booths celebrated the rains that allowed a bountiful harvest, Jesus asserted that He was the answer to people’s spiritual thirst. Believing in Him would cause rivers of living water to flow from their innermost being – that is their immortal spirit. Jesus was alluding to the gift of the Holy Spirit, Who would be given to believers, as John said, after Jesus was glorified – risen and ascended into heaven. That occurred on the Day of Pentecost, fifty days after His resurrection.

What are the “rivers of living water” that Jesus spoke about. Even though they come from one Spirit, they are plural – rivers. This suggests that the Spirit’s impartation can come in multiple forms and blessings. Let me suggest a few “rivers” that impart abundant life to us. First, the Spirit:

• Regenerates our inner spirit with the nature of righteousness in Christ Jesus. So sin is no longer the driving force in our life – Christ is. We are a new creation, and our spirit receives everlasting life through
  
• The indwelling Holy Spirit. Our new life is intertwined with His, making each one of us, and all of us collectively, a living temple of God’s Spirit. The Spirit, in turn, imparts
  
• All the virtues of Christ to our spirit as a permanent depository upon which we can draw. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has imparted to us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Along with this, the Spirit imparts
  
• Abilities to obey God that we never possessed before. Jesus said earlier, “If anyone is willing to do His will, He shall know of the teaching.” The problem we humans deal with, however, is that apart from divine grace we have NO willingness to do God’s will, only our own for our temporal, sinful satisfaction. Another river, I suggest, is
  
• Delight in seeing and understanding things from a divine perspective. Jeremiah praised God at the Spirit’s impartation of revelation to him, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” Only the Spirit can cause us to delight in God’s word as life-giving truth. Another river of God’s Spirit is
  
• The desire to nurture others with the truth we’ve received. Isaiah the prophet lived to impart life-giving truth to the people of Judah. Isaiah 44:3-4 says, “‘I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring and My blessing on your descendants; ⁴ and they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.’” The last river I will mention is the one that has enabled the Christian Church to grow into a worldwide movement:
  
• Gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts come in different forms: the five ministry offices listed in Ephesians 4; the nine charismatic gifts of empowerment, listed in 1 Corinthians 12; and the gifts of service in listed in Romans 12. All of these working together have contributed to the proclamation of the gospel and the building up of Christ’s body through new births and multiplication of disciples.

Let’s move forward roughly six months to Passover night 30 AD, the night of Jesus’ arrest on what is called Maundy Thursday. Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, or command, from which the word mandate derives. On Maundy or Holy Thursday, after the Passover meal, Jesus His disciples a new command to obey the Platinum Rule:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Even as I have loved you that you love one another, even as I have loved you that also you love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

John MacArthur notes:

The commandment to love was not new. Deuteronomy 6:5 commanded love for God, and Leviticus 19:18 commanded loving one’s neighbor as oneself (cf. Mt. 22:34-40). However, Jesus’ command regarding love presented a distinctly new standard for two reasons: 1) It was sacrificial love modeled after His love, and 2) it is produced through the New Covenant by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. (cf. Jer. 31:29-31; Ez. 36:24-26; Gal. 5:22).

That’s right! Jesus’ timing in announcing His new standard of love came between the Lord’s Supper where Jesus proclaimed the bread and wine to be His body and blood shed for us, and the actual crucifixion that confirmed that He is God’s Paschal Lamb forever.

Now Jesus led His disciples towards Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. Along the way, He gave a protracted final discourse to His disciples before His arrest. John 14-17 is known as the Olivet Discourse. He opened the discourse in John 14 with the assurance of His return to receive His disciples to Himself in heaven:

Do not let your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places.; if it were not so, I would have told you, for I got prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

He then assured them that those who have seen Him have seen the Father. Jesus is God in human form, so that those who see Him as He really is are also beholding the face of God and understanding God’s heart. He also promised His disciples that they would do the works that He did because He was going to the Father. He then closed His opening portion of the discourse with a promise concerning a new Helper, the Holy Spirit, in 14:16-17:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

Let’s consider what Jesus was saying about this divine Person. First, Jesus called Him a Helper. The Greek word is parakletos, which can also be translated Comforter or Counselor. The word parakletos literally means “one who walks beside” – to give advice, assistance or comfort. Second, Jesus said the Paraclete (or Helper) would be with us forever. Third, He called Him the Spirit of Truth and then distinguished between those who cannot receive Him and those who do. The unbelieving world neither sees nor knows the Holy Spirit, because He can only be apprehended by faith. But we know Him through faith in the Son, Jesus Christ; and so He abides with us and in us.

There are many things that could be said about the Holy Spirit, but I’d like to focus on the connection between the two titles Jesus gave Him that are descriptive of His role and character. The Holy Spirit is our Helper, and He is the imparter or inbreathing source of Truth. Holy Spirit helps or counsels us first and foremost by always connecting us with ultimate Truth, that is Christ Himself and God’s purpose.

At the Abundant Life Retreat I attended last weekend at Fort Flagler State Park, one of the founding leaders, said “God only deals with the real; never what is false.” We men can conjure images and fantasies in our minds, or false scenarios of what might happen. But God only deals with the present reality, the now. The Holy Spirit, if we’re honest with Him, will always cut through “imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (2Cor. 10:5 KJV) that we’ve allowed to control our thinking.

Truth invariably aligns with divine wisdom, which in turn, helps us make wise choices and use wise words that bring us favor and benefit. Holy Spirit helps us discern what is true against what merely appears right. He does this, Jesus said, by abiding with us and in us. Holy Spirit becomes an inner spiritual GPS that keeps us pointed toward the true north of Christlike character and love in action.

John 15:26, reinforces this Scripture and adds another point, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” The Helper’s most important work is to testify about Jesus to us, and then through us to others. Jesus plainly stated to His disciples, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” The Spirit of Truth bears witness in our souls and to others that Jesus is the Truth about God and how to experience everlasting life in God’s kingdom.

A few sentences later, in v.26 Jesus again mentioned the Paraclete: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

Here’s another role of the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit teaches us by illuminating our minds to new insights from God’s word and God’s creation. God’s word points us to divine truth; but all truth is God’s truth. So assisting us in mastering complex tasks or new skills is also part of His helping role. There’s real joy in mastering a problem or understanding something you didn’t grasp before.

I read about a student in a graduate-school math class who was really nervous about a final exam. He prepared and he prayed. The exam contained esoteric math problems that defied simple calculation. The student calmly set to work and though the problems were really hard, he was able to complete the exam before the exam ended. The professor gave him a quizzical look, and later told him he didn’t expect any of the students to and finish the exam. He just wanted to see how far they could get. That is the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit for whom all knowledge is immediately present.

Secondly, Holy Spirit brings back to our remembrance things we have learned about God from Jesus, but may not have reflected upon for a while. One of the great benefits of scripture memory that I have found is the sudden resurgence of a scripture or maybe just a biblical phrase when I need it. The Holy Spirit uses the word that we have deposited into our minds to engraft them upon our hearts. Then He takes what is in our hearts to instruct us when we need it. Psalm 119:9-11 speaks to this:

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. ¹⁰ With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. ¹¹ Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.

I can say without reservation that the one discipline that has had the greatest impact on my Christian life is Scripture memory. Starting off with the five Lessons on Assurance scriptures produced by the Navigators, I then memorized the sixty verses with thirty topics in the Topical Memory System.

I went on to memorize chapters and Psalms of the Bible. Scripture memory has kept me grounded in God’s word, which has done exactly what the Psalmist promised. It has kept me from wandering too far from God’s commandments to get me into deep moral trouble. Thank God my faith, my marriage, my self-respect and basic integrity and reputation are still intact. I give God all the glory for doing this in my life, because I know what a base sinner I am apart from His grace.

In the end God’s agenda, and the inner working of the Holy Spirit, are to conform us to the character of Christ, so as to prepare us for heaven. God fully intends that each of us be holy and blameless members of His royal family in heaven, and fit to play the highest role in the universe as members of His royal priesthood. Revelation 1:5 says, “He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.” That is right! Today, you are prisoners garbed in prison clothing. In eternity, you will be royal princes and priests of God – having the highest status and position in God’s creation as the redeemed children of God. Isn’t that worth following Jesus and overcoming your inner battle with sin?

Jesus said the Spirit brings to our remembrance all that He said to us. Since Jesus is the living Word of God, all Scripture is His word to us. There are two Greek words, logos and rhema, that mean “word”. In the modern Church, logos and rhema have different ascribed meanings. Logos stands for the written word of God, that which is immutable and inviolable.

John 1:1 says that “In the beginning was the word [logos] and the logos was with God, and the logos was God.” In scripture, God’s word has the authority and force of God behind it to bring to pass whatever God decrees. Christ is God’s logos; what He speaks comes to pass.

Rhema, on the other hand, has come to mean an inspired word that brings conviction or encouragement to a person’s soul. The Holy Spirit’s rhema is a word that comes at just the right moment to convey a meaning that is life-impacting. Prophecy in the New Testament is meant to be the kind of inspired word that brings “edification and exhortation and consolation”, according to 1 Corinthians 14:2.

A rhema in your mind might be a gentle word of encouragement or a sharp word of rebuke from your conscience that stops you from doing something dangerous. The Spirit has perfect timing; so when He speaks, He speaks for effect. I say that God always does the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, with the right effect for the right purpose – His eternal glory and the eternal benefit of His people.

Now let’s move forward to John 16, where Jesus further explained the role of the Helper, or Paraclete. John 16 begins with a sobering warning from Jesus to His disciples in preparation for His death and soon departure from earth. “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. ² They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. ³ These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.” He then told them He was returning to God, and sorrow would fill their heart.

Then He assured them: “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. ⁸ And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; ⁹ concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰ and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; ¹¹ and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”

Jesus explained the three-fold convicting role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, because of their unbelief in Christ. Sin, in essence, is a deviation from God’s standard of Truth or holiness. Unbelief is at the heart of all sin, because it blocks divine grace from saving us.

Unbelief in Christ opens us up to all other manner of sin for three profound reasons. First, it relinquishes us to our own sin nature which is inherently opposed to God’s holiness. Romans 1 tells how God gives over people who won’t believe or trust Him to their own innate depravity. Second, unbelief makes us susceptible to the sinful world and culture around us. Most of you didn’t end up in prison without friends who were partners in crime, or addiction, or other forms of wickedness. As Paul wrote, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” Third, unbelief puts us in the Satan’s domain; and his host are expert in detecting and exploiting your own sin nature to bring you into bondage to sin and death.

The Holy Spirit also convicts of righteousness. First, righteousness means right standing with God, of being justified before the Supreme Judge. Righteousness also means trusting God with your life. “Abraham believed in the LORD, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness.” Additionally, righteousness means living and doing right in God’s sight, especially as we relate to others. And then righteousness means living with the understanding that you are now in an unbreakable, everlasting covenant with God, which was purchased through Christ’s death.

Finally, the Holy Spirit convicts of judgment. Romans 14:10-12 says,
For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. ¹¹ For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.” ¹² So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

God has sworn that every person who has ever lived will have their life reviewed before Christ face-to-face, when He is seated upon His throne. In truth, this judgment ennobles us, because it proves that we are individually important to God. But tragically, those who don’t believe in God’s final judgment will enter His presence abjectly guilty and terrified in the face of God’s infinite holiness.

Beloved, the Holy Spirit protects you from that terrible, fateful day by forewarning you of the fatal consequences of sin, convincing you to pursue righteousness and thus be prepared for the Day of Judgment.

The last reference to the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ Olivet Discourse comes shortly thereafter. In John 16:13-15, Jesus said,

When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. ¹⁵ All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.

Jesus said the Spirit of Truth only speaks what He hears from God the Son. The Triune God lives in perpetual, eternal communion so the Spirit does nothing independently from the other two Persons of the Godhead; nor they from Him. The Father has given the Son complete dominion over the earth; and the Holy Spirit executes Christ’s dominion within us. The Holy Spirit’s agenda is to glorify the Father through the Son, because Jesus represents the glory, the outshining beauty, of the Father.

Finally, on Resurrection Sunday, Jesus appeared to His disciples and explained the significance of His death and resurrection as the fulfillment of all that had been promised in the Hebrew Scriptures. Reading in John 20:21-23, Jesus showed them His pierced hands and side:

So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” ²² And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

My systematic theology professor, J. Rodman Williams, believed this was when the Holy Spirit entered the disciples through regeneration. Pentecost, he said, was the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, not their initial baptism. Jesus’ breath, representing spirit, and words strongly suggest that what Williams said was true.

Beloved, I believe God has appointed every one of you to eternal salvation. That’s why you’re here this morning – to reinforce your reconciliation with God and receive everlasting life, and a better life in this world than any of us deserve. You and I know that if we treat God and His word lightly, we’ll become a debtor to it. God will not keep us from wandering back into sin if we choose to go that way; but His grace is here right now persuading you not to go astray, but to keep trusting Christ each and every day for your present salvation from sin’s deadly power. I know His persevering grace is with you. Don’t ever doubt it; lean upon it, revel in it and keep coming back to God in your heart, to His word daily and church on Sunday.

God’s word promises, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and will forgive us of all our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God’s word encourages us not to sin, but assures us, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation [or satisfactory justice] for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the world.” And your eternal destiny will be made secure, because you know that God’s Holy Spirit is the One working behind it all to ensure that you are safe and secure in Christ’s kingdom.

Let us pray.