THE HOLY SPIRIT AS REVEALER

JOHN 16:12-15

APRIL 28, 1996

 

Distortions concerning the Holy Spirit abound in our day.  Through various media, the evangelical church continually finds itself bombarded with non-Biblical ideas concerning the truth about the Holy Spirit.  Entire movements in the Christian realm have been based on a false understanding of the Holy Spirit.

 

Recently, I received a brochure in the mail advertising what is called a "National Symposium on the Postdenominational Church."  While that may sound a bit strange to us, it has a line-up of well-known leaders from across the country, many with media ministries.  The thing that struck me about this conference is that it pre-supposes the idea that there will be revelations at the meeting, so that all the conferees can "be inspired to move with the flow of the Holy Spirit."  The aim of that statement is that the Spirit will be leading with new revelations which the churches are to follow.  Many of the speakers that I am familiar with are known for their extra-biblical revelations.

 

You may ask, "Okay, Pastor, what is the problem with this?  Why should something like this concern us?"  Those are fair questions.  I would propose to you that we must be concerned about what is being passed off as new revelations because they eventually find their way into the mainstream of evangelicalism.  If we are not discerning, we too can be swept up by a tide of teaching that has no biblical authority and which will ultimately lead us to bondage.

 

With this in mind, it is vital that we seek to have a clear, biblical grasp of what God has spoken about the Divine Paraclete.  This is especially true concerning the revealing work of the Spirit.  As you know, cult groups have formed on the basis of someone claiming to have a revelation.  Joseph Smith claimed to have a revelation of the angel Moroni and the golden tablets known as the Book of Mormon.  Multiplied millions have followed this heretical revelation.

 

Need I mention the revelations of men like Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Paul Crouch who are household names among evangelicals?  Even a man like Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade and respected by the masses of evangelicals, has fallen prey to this idea of new revelations that are not grounded in Scripture.  His latest book, The Coming Revival: America's Call to Fast, Pray, and "Seek God's Face", is the story of God's revelations to him while on a forty day fast.

 

Frankly, I think that all of this is extremely dangerous because it places our future in the hands of any person's subjective declarations of revelation.  It is as if there is not enough in Scripture to speak to every need we have and every situation we face.  It is as if Christ and His work is just not enough, just not sufficient for all of life and eternity.  It is strange that so many of these revelations lead people away from the centrality of the cross of Christ into some kind of subjective experience.  The strange thing is that multitudes of professing Christians are following men and their revelations and leaving the Word of God behind!

 

So we need desperately to understand what Jesus is saying to us about the Holy Spirit in these passages of John's Gospel.  We are not talking about some vague ideas or philosophies which are optional for us as Christians.  We are looking at some truth that is essential for us in going on in obedience and faithfulness to our wonderful Lord.  

 

So, what does the Holy Spirit do in this area of revelation?  The Holy Spirit works to continually unfold to us Jesus Christ and all that He has accomplished in the divine economy.

 

I.  The Necessity of the Holy Spirit as Revealer

 

Paul addresses the need for divine revelation in I Corinthians 2.  He points out that in our natural or unregenerate state, we cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God.  Instead, he points out that spiritual things can only be understood by spiritual means, therefore "We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God" (I Cor. 2:12).  Paul adds that it is not the physical abilities or mental abilities of a person that enable them to grasp the truths of God, but "to us God revealed them through the Spirit" (I Cor. 2:10).

 

On that occasion when Jesus asked the disciples who they thought He was, Peter responded, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus then quickly told him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."  The whole point is that spiritual truth must be revealed to us before we can truly understand and grasp it.

 

1.  Uniqueness of Divine Truth

 

Jesus said, "I have many more things to say to you...."  The question we must ask is "what things?"  What were the things that Jesus wanted to say to the disciples?  He had already stated in John 15:15, "...all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you."  How could there be more?  The point Christ is driving home is that out of all the revelation of Himself to the disciples over the three years they walked with Christ, there was so much more to fully explain it all.  The labors of the Apostles and their closest associates during that first century gave us these unique truths concerning Christ.  We call all of this together the New Testament.  Essentially, the Epistles simply expand upon and explain what the Gospels recorded.  Combined with the Old Testament, we have the Word of God to us.  What better way to understand the Word of God than to have the Divine Author, the Holy Spirit, teaching it to us!

 

When we consider the uniqueness of divine truth, then we can better see the need for the revealing work of the Spirit.  God's truth is unlike any other truth in the universe.  Throughout our congregation are representatives of those who have become proficient in various disciplines of truth.  Some have mastered mathematical truths and applied it in your work.  Others have mastered areas of physiological truth so that they can serve mankind's medical needs.  Others have become proficient in geometrical truths enabling them to design or build things to improve society.  All of these disciplines of truth can be acquired by diligent study at the proper academic levels.

 

But when it comes to grasping divine truth, not even study at the academic level is adequate to absorb it.  Sure, there are plenty of people who labor over various facts and data in the Bible or debate certain theories and philosophies that arise from academic research.  A person can have advanced degrees in the study of the Bible or theology, yet when it really boils down to the heart of the matter, he may not know God nor understand redemption through Christ.

 

God's truth requires divine work for sinful man to grasp.  And rightly so, for we are not talking about the works of Shakespeare or Newton or Einstein.  They were mere mortals who, though great geniuses, had finite minds.  We are talking of the Word of God!  This Book is God-breathed; it is living, active, and powerful; it is the revelation of the Almighty Creator of the universe to His creation.  

 

While there are plenty of inspirational and motivational books in the world, the Bible stands alone as the revelation of God to man.  When we consider that the Bible reveals God and all that we know of God is found in the record of Scripture, we must realize that it contains depths which we cannot fathom in a thousand lifetimes.  Millions of books have been written about this one Book, the Bible.  None of those millions of books can fully explain the Bible, nor can all of those millions of books put together collectively.  It is a divine Book that contains all that we need to know and understand about God, His eternal plan, His redemptive work, the way we are to live, the things we are to do, etc.

 

2.  Capacity of the Human Mind

 

Jesus told the disciples, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."  The idea of "bear" simply means to understand.  In common vernacular, Jesus could not unload the whole wagon because the disciples could not handle it!  It was necessary for the Holy Spirit to gradually bring these disciples along in understanding truth.

 

Our minds are amazing in terms of their capacity to gather information, retrieve it, and put it to use.  With all the marvels of computers, they still cannot rival the human mind.  Yet, with all of the great minds on earth, without the aid of the Spirit, man cannot grasp the spiritual.

 

There is another factor that is very practical at this point.  Our minds can absorb just so much at one time.  Have you ever been in a lecture or seminar all day long?  Think of how tired your mind gets in trying to absorb all that is taught.  The disciples could not grasp everything Jesus wanted them to know just from a saturation level.  They were humanly incapable of absorbing in three short years the wealth of spiritual riches He desired to unfold to them.

 

I find a lot of encouragement in this verse!  There are so many things that I do not know about the Lord and His works.  Yet, I long to know them.  The Lord knows how much I can "bear" at any given time, so He graciously paces me according to my capacity to learn and absorb truth.  He gives a little at a time so that I will not just be gathering facts, but "learning truth" and living in this truth.

 

Some of you struggle at this point.  You see someone who seems to be grasping truth at a rapid pace and perhaps your pace is much slower.  We all learn at different rates.  We must not despise those who learn faster, but rejoice with them and encourage them to help us along the way.  We must be patient with ourselves, yet also persistent in seeking to know the truth of the Word.  It is so vital that we pursue the truth of God's Word since we are drinking from a vast ocean of spiritual living waters!  Some can gulp.  Others can sip.  But, brethren, let us all drink...and drink deeply from the riches of the Word of God!

 

II.  The Work of the Holy Spirit as Revealer

 

We see the revealing work of the Spirit quite immediately in the book of Acts.  You may have noticed how the things that baffled the disciples, such as the cross and resurrection, suddenly became the whole center of their lives.  The things Christ spoke of in parables became living precepts to follow.  This was due to the Holy Spirit who revealed the Word to them.

 

Jesus had already identified the Holy Spirit as "the Spirit of truth," a title which so meshes Him with truth and revelation that we readily see that we cannot know truth apart from Him.  John 14:16 reminds us that the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth or know Him.  He is specifically given to the child of God to bring that believer along in understanding the things of God.  How does the Spirit reveal?

 

1.  As One who Guides

 

Two key words are used to describe this revealing work of the Spirit.  The first is "He will guide you into all the truth."  The word "guide" implies someone who shows the way.  It is a word that pictures a guide introducing a traveler to an unknown country.

 

I understand something about this after my recent trip to France!  Pastor Louis DeMeo, along with a few others, served as "guides" to us in France.  From the time we landed we were dependent upon our "guide" to show us what to do, where to go, what to avoid, what is appropriate, what is impolite, what certain things meant, etc.  We were in a foreign land, though a beautiful land.  It was full of wonderful sights and the kinds of things we had never seen before.  So the guide was essential to understanding the land, enjoying the country, getting the most benefit out of it, and seeing the country for what it really is.

 

Do you see what our Lord meant by the Holy Spirit guiding us into all the truth?  As our "Guide," He brings us along in our journey with the truth of God.  As we step into the depths of Scripture, we are not going alone.  The Spirit is showing us every hue, every radiant nugget, every life-giving doctrine so that we might fully know our Lord.  The Author has come along to direct us so that we see those truths that we need for knowing our Lord and walking with Him.  

 

Don Carson makes a needed clarification on this verse:  "The notion of 'guidance' (the Gk. verb is hodegeo) in all truth has nothing to do with privileged information pertaining to one's choice of vocation or mate, but with understanding God as he has revealed himself, and with obeying that revelation" (The Gospel According to John, p. 540).  Some people are much more interested in knowing all kinds of subjective, temporal ideas, rather than in understanding the living God in all His fullness.  The Spirit comes to reveal the true intent of Scripture, that is, knowing God.  As the Shorter Catechism puts it:

 

Q.2.  What rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him?

The word of God, namely the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him

 

Q.4.  What do the Scriptures principally teach?

The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

 

The Spirit guides where He has already spoken in the Word.  He will never guide in contradiction to the written Word of God.  His revelation to the heart is ever in concert with the written revelation.  This is where some folks err.  They claim to have a revelation from God, sometimes termed 'a word from God', but it is contradicted by the written Word.  It may be a revelation, but it is not from the Holy Spirit when it goes against the written Word of God!

 

The very language of the text shows the intent of the Spirit's work.  "He will guide you into all the truth."  It pictures a journey through the Word, with the Spirit explaining, directing to certain portions, amplifying, expanding upon the riches of the Word.  

 

My friend, are you enjoying the journey with the Holy Spirit as the Guide?  Call out to Him to guide you into the truth of the Word.  Ask Him to teach you the Word.   

 

2.  As One who Proclaims

 

There is a second word that is used to describe this revealing work of the Spirit:  "disclose."  "And He will disclose to you what is to come.  He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you."  The repetition of any word adds to strengthen its usage in a text.  The word carries the idea of "announcement" or "revelatory declaration," but perhaps best put as "a reiterative announcement" (Carson, 540).  It is an unfolding or unpacking of all that is seen in Christ and all that Christ accomplished.  It is a bringing to the surface those obscure truths that the disciples could not see while walking with Christ.  

 

Specifically, when He discloses "what is to come," it has obvious reference to those events that were soon to take place after these words were spoken.  So, all that would take place in our Lord's passion, all the judicial work of the cross, all the life-giving power of the resurrection, all the glory of the ascension of Christ were things they did not understand at this time.  But in the days ahead, the Holy Spirit would begin to "unpack" what Christ had foretold to the disciples, so that those words now made sense; yes, and those words became life and food for them!

 

The Holy Spirit has the unique way of speaking the Word of God to our minds and hearts.  We can read a passage of Scripture a thousand times, then suddenly, it seems to be aimed squarely at our hearts.  We see it as we've never seen it before.  We drink from its fountain.  We apply its healing balm.  We refresh our hungry hearts.  We give ourselves to obedience.  This comes from the disclosing or proclaiming work of the Holy Spirit.

 

Have you neglected the Spirit of Truth who alone can reveal the Word of God to you?  Are you grieving Him by slothfulness or neglect of the Word?  Are you quenching His urgings through the preaching and teaching of the Word?  Ask Him to speak truth to your heart and mind.  Read the Word with expectancy and with a heart to obey fully and completely all that He demands of you.  Thank Him for being the One who guides and proclaims the truth of the Word to you.

 

III. The Aim of the Holy Spirit as Revealer

 

When we consider the Trinity, we must realize that each Person of the Godhead has specific functions or roles in redemptive activity.  For instance, when it comes to our salvation, the Father elects, the Son redeems through His atoning work, and the Holy Spirit applies the work of redemption personally and individually.  While Jesus personally taught His disciples during His earthly ministry, that continuing work of teaching has been given to the Holy Spirit.  Christ revealed truth to the disciples while He walked among them.  Now, the Holy Spirit reveals truth to Christ's present disciples.

 

As we think of the Holy Spirit's office as Revealer, there are a couple of things that our text points out to us.

 

1.  To show the Unity of the Godhead

 

There is no disunity in the Godhead!  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit operate in perfect unison, absolute cooperation, and with wonderful symmetry.  On several occasions earlier in John's Gospel, Jesus had pointed out that He could do nothing unless it was granted by the Father, nor could He speak unless He first heard the Father speak.  "The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works" (14:10b).  "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak.  And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me" (12:49-50).  "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.  And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him" (8:28-29).

 

In the divine economy, God the Son submitted to all that the Father said and spoke.  Jesus gave glory always to the Father for all the words and works He gave Him to speak and do.  In the high priestly prayer of John 17, Jesus prayed to the Father, "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do" (17:4).  He was constantly glorifying the Father in all that He did.

 

When the Holy Spirit began His permanent work among the believers, He was not acting apart from the Godhead.  All that He does is in perfect unity with the Father and Son.  This is why our Lord states and re-states that the Holy Spirit "takes of Mine, and shall disclose it to you."  In addition, as Christ did not speak on His own initiative, the Holy Spirit will not speak on His own initiative.  "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."

 

Jesus is assuring us in these words that the message of the Holy Spirit is absolutely divine and totally follows the unity of the Trinity.  He is not delivering a man-made message to us, but the very Word of God, just as Christ Himself delivered to the disciples the Word of God.

 

2.  To Glorify the Son

 

"He shall glorify Me."  All that the Holy Spirit does brings glory to Jesus Christ in the same way that all Jesus Christ did on earth brings glory to the Father.  And rightly so, for the Holy Spirit continually reveals Jesus Christ in all of His fullness and glory and majesty to us.  "For He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you."  Do you long to understand the depth of Christ's divine personhood or the totality of His redemptive work?  The Holy Spirit unfolds these truths to us through the Word of God.  He guides us into all the truth concerning Christ and speaks that truth to our minds and hearts so that as just as the hearts of the two disciples burned within them on the Emmaus Road as the Risen Christ spoke to them, the Holy Spirit burns the truth concerning Christ in us.  Our hearts flame with a new love for Christ, a new passion for following Him, a new delight in worshipping Him, a new obedience to His every command.  "He shall glorify Me."

 

The 19th century Scottish pastor, Charles Ross, gives the most satisfying explanation of what this means, "He shall glorify Me."  He points out that this glorifying of Christ in a person's life is a process.  First, it begins by laying the sinner low and prostrate in the dust.  "He humbles and uncrowns the pride of self before He glorifies Jesus.  He awakens grief, which non but Jesus can assuage; he inflicts a wound, which none but Jesus can heal; he creates a void in the soul, which none but Jesus can fill up; in a word, he brings the sinner to such a case that none but Jesus can meet the condition of his soul."

 

Second, having prepared the soul for blessing, He continues glorifying Christ "by showing how suitable a Saviour Jesus is to meet the case of such a soul--that he is an all-sufficient Saviour--almighty to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God through him, and as willing as he is able.  Oh!  what a glorifying of Jesus is this, when the Spirit of God opens the blind eye to see the glory, all-sufficiency, and suitableness of Christ as a Saviour."

 

Third, He glorifies Christ "by causing the soul to give him his own place on the throne of the renewed heart and will."  The natural response of the soul that has met Christ in saving power is to bend the knee to Him gladly as King of his life.  The Spirit opens our closed hearts to receive the King of glory and to rest in Him, His righteousness, and His grace day by day.

 

Fourth, the Holy Spirit then enables the believer "to lead a progressive life of faith."  He does not lead Him to Christ in faith then cast the poor soul to depend upon His own works throughout his life.  He brings the soul to rest in Christ and His sufficiency in all things.

 

Fifth, He glorifies Christ "by transforming the soul into his Divine image."  'Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord' (II Cor. 3:18).  The Spirit does not rest until the image of Christ radiates through us in every way!

 

Finally, "the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by enabling his people to render active service, and, perhaps, also to suffer for his sake."  [The Inner Sanctuary, Charles Ross, pp. 168-170]

 

Conclusion

 

The Holy Spirit has come to reveal the living Christ to us!  Will you ask Him to do this revealing work to you?  Will you approach the Word of God with a renewed consciousness that this is a Divine Book, with a Divine Author who has come to you in the new birth to reveal Christ to you and in you?

 

Perhaps Jesus Christ is really foreign to you in your relationship and experience.  My friend, call upon the Spirit of God to show you this Christ, to make His glorious person and power to save known to you.  Plead for Him to glorify Jesus Christ in your own life by humbling you, showing you your sin, and revealing to you the sufficiency of Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection.

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