The Work Of The Spirit

Alpha & Omega Ministries iconAlpha & Omega Ministries

6 views

Comments are disabled.

00:00
John chapter 16, we press on slowly but surely.
00:08
Next week I will be in, I will be much colder than you next week.
00:14
I will be in St. Charles again. It will be year number 14 that I have been there the first full,
00:23
I guess this first full weekend. I guess that's why it sort of feels like a week later this year. First full weekend in December.
00:31
Covenant of Grace Church, they just keep having me back. I guess it's just become a tradition. I guess they're,
00:37
I mean think about it, there are kids in that congregation that don't know what they would do the first weekend of December if that strange guy from Phoenix wasn't here.
00:45
So, I mean, wow, that's pretty amazing. But anyways, they're predicting some nice, cool weather coming in this week.
00:57
And it's going to get there right about the same time I do. And I might get to see some snow and highs of 25 degrees and low of 14.
01:10
Well, I don't take my bike on trips, so I'm not too worried about that.
01:20
But anyway, it's just outside of St. Louis. But good folks there and gotten to know people and watch that church change and seeing people die and see people born.
01:38
I'm sort of an honorary elder there, so it's sort of fun. Anyhow, so I'll get my holiday spirit going by freezing to death going to and from the church.
01:51
But that's how it's happened in the past, and that's very enjoyable. So then, though,
01:57
I think for a while I'm going to be around. There's a possibility of something coming up in January.
02:03
It hasn't come to fruition yet. But I may have a quick trip to Spain in January.
02:11
I don't know about that. If it doesn't get scheduled this week, it's not going to happen. But then in February, we're looking forward to teaching church history in Kiev.
02:22
That's going to be interesting. Kiev, Ukraine, that's going to be church history and a seminar on grieving.
02:32
That was their request. I'm a multitasker, evidently.
02:43
But I guess somebody had read my book on grieving, and I haven't spoken on that particular subject for about 15 years.
02:56
So that's going to be a bit of a challenge. Anyhow, it's going to be interesting to visit the
03:01
Ukraine and the brethren there. I know them because the whole group of them came and took my sexual criticism class in Berlin back in June.
03:11
So that's how the connection got made. Great guys, and looking forward to that.
03:18
So anyways, what that means is we'll probably still be finishing up the synoptics toward the end of this decade.
03:24
Who knows? We'll see. We'll see. But we are trying to work through the material that is found in the
03:33
Gospel of John that is not directly parallel to the synoptics.
03:39
So I guess you could say when we finish this, we'll have done pretty much the entire Gospel arc of covering
03:46
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So we will see how all that works out.
03:54
We have been looking at the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and I feel the heat coming on.
04:05
Definitely do not stop, cease, desist. Just let the fan run.
04:15
It's set at 70, and it's already up to 75. It's like, hello. Of course, those particular thermostats were made right around the same time the building was.
04:27
They're getting to be about 65 or so. They're ready for retirement, I think. Anyhow, we're looking at the ministry of the
04:34
Holy Spirit, which is interesting because if this Spain trip thing comes off, it's a
04:43
British television network that wants to do this, and bring myself and Michael Brown over.
04:49
One of the things we'd be doing would be debating the issue of healing.
04:55
Are there divine healers who have a specific apostolic gift of healing?
05:02
It's all related to the big debate going on right now in regards to cessationism, continuationism, all the various areas of spectrum within that particular realm.
05:15
I just thought there were two sides, but actually there is a spectrum when you start asking very specific questions.
05:23
Anyhow, it's relevant to what we've been looking at in John 14 -16. We had already looked at the description of the
05:32
Spirit as the Spirit of Truth in verse 13. We had mentioned that the
05:39
Spirit has been in the world, that there is clear biblical teaching of the
05:47
Spirit's role, for example, in the building of the tabernacle. Remember how the Spirit would come on a particular person, gift them to have certain abilities, do certain things, etc.
05:56
It's not like the Spirit of God didn't exist. There is a specific function that the
06:02
Spirit of God is going to adopt, however, as the one who is sent forth from the Father and the
06:07
Son to take up residence in the Church of Jesus Christ, in each individual believer in the
06:16
Church as a whole, the whole regenerate body. And so when
06:21
He comes, He comes in a particular fashion. In regards to the Day of Pentecost, there is a clear manifestation of His presence.
06:30
This is very important in light of the distinction that has to be drawn between, and I know there are people who deny this distinction, but I think it's very clear, the distinction between the true people of God and the ethnic people of God, the people of Israel.
06:53
Those who are of faith, Paul's statement in Philippians, we are the true circumcision, who worship
07:00
Christ Jesus as the Spirit and the truth. This is necessary for the break to be made, not the break between Israel and the
07:13
Church, quote -unquote, but between the idea that even many of the apostles had, that there was an ethnic element that defined the covenant people, to a recognition that the new covenant is made up solely of those who, by God's grace, have been made heirs according to the promise.
07:34
And hence, the promises that have been made are given to the people of Israel, etc., are given to the Church, etc.,
07:39
etc. So, it was important that the Spirit come in such a way that you could see the manifestation, and you could see that in His coming, the vision was the gospel to go the whole world, because what takes place at the
07:54
Day of Pentecost is, unfortunately, people focus in our day, especially since 1903 or whenever that particular event was, they focus upon tongues and what that meant, and it's all about manifestation of power and stuff like that.
08:14
But when, really, you step back, the real message of Pentecost was that this gospel is going out into all the world.
08:27
There were men and women in that gathering that day from nations all over, outside of Israel, and they heard the gospel message in their own language.
08:41
It's a shame that what we miss is the emphasis on the universality of the call to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, and the fact that the gospel is going to go out to everybody, and that the people of God cannot be defined as an ethnic group.
08:58
They never really could be, in reality, because when you think about the nature of the
09:04
Old Covenant, while there were people in the Old Covenant who bore the covenant signs, there were many people who did not have a heart of flesh.
09:13
And one of the great superiorities of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant is that all who are in the
09:19
New Covenant know the Lord from the least to the greatest of them. That is one of the differences.
09:24
So, the Spirit of Truth, He comes. He comes in a special way so He can be seen. He will guide you into all the truths, specifically, first and foremost, that's fulfilled with the apostles.
09:35
We always have to be very careful in our hermeneutics to see what is transferable from the original apostles to ourselves.
09:45
The reason He will guide in all truth, He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak. Very similar to Jesus' words concerning His message.
09:55
Again, this is not a presentation of the inferiority of the
10:01
Spirit. There are a lot of people who look at this and say, how can the Spirit be divine because He does not speak on His own initiative,
10:07
God always speaks on His own initiative, not somebody else's initiative, blah, blah, blah. But, once again, just as in John chapter 5, you have the same concern on the part of John here that you had in John chapter 5, and that is
10:23
Jesus is not some separate deity out there doing His own thing in competition with the Father, so our worship is divided and all the rest of this stuff.
10:31
No, there is perfect unity. This unity goes back to eternity itself.
10:38
And so, the same thing here with the Spirit. His role, which
10:43
He has taken sovereignly, is one where He does not speak on His own initiative, but whatever
10:51
He hears, He will speak, just as whatever Jesus heard, He spoke. So, there is one source of divine truth, there is no division, there is no dissension, there is no dividing our worship up so that we're confused as to what we're supposed to be doing, so on and so forth.
11:11
And He will disclose to you what is to come. Now, again, some people take that as just some general prophetic idea, but I think there's probably more of a body of truth involved there in the sense of He will be the one through whom what
11:29
God is doing this world would be explicated much further, and it is in the Gospels. Hyper -red -letterists always end up in balance and off -beam because it was not
11:43
God's purpose to reveal everything that He was to reveal for the health of the church in the ministry of Jesus specifically.
11:53
Jesus never claimed other than that. And those who say, well, if it's in red letters, that's what's really important, the black letters, eh, you know, take it or leave it, do not seem to understand the full impact of their particular claims.
12:10
He will glorify me, for He will take of mine and will disclose it to you.
12:17
Now, we enter, well, we have been entering into, but texts like this are very challenging to us.
12:33
Sometime this week, I forget when it was, I was, it was Wednesday, okay, Wednesday this week,
12:39
I was listening to a series of lectures by Dr.
12:44
Carl Truman at Westminster Seminary on Luther's, I guess
12:50
Luther's theology of preaching, I guess would be the terminology. And Luther basically said that when you preach, you should keep things very, very simple.
13:06
That you should really always be sort of going for the lowest level of things.
13:14
And I certainly understand what he was saying, especially in light of the scholastics of his day, you know,
13:19
I understand what he was saying. But I don't know how you preach or teach a verse like this without having to seriously try to enter in to what it's saying.
13:33
And what it's saying is not simple. We are called,
13:38
I think, to really utilize the entirety of the gifts that God has given to us.
13:46
And sometimes that means we have to really concentrate. I mean, you can think of certain topics in your education that were just difficult for you.
13:56
And it's different for each one of us. I mean, we're just made differently from one another.
14:05
I never got a B during higher high school, but that still didn't mean that all things were easy to me.
14:14
Math was my toughest thing. And if I got 107 % in English, I got an 89 .6,
14:24
rounded up to a 90 in math. Well, except for one.
14:30
It's funny, I was listening to Michael Medved, and he was saying this was his downfall. And I just sort of chuckled. Trigonometry, I loved the proofs.
14:37
Remember trig? You know, I loved those proofs. That I did well. That was fun. Trying to figure out how to construct these proofs.
14:45
That I actually enjoyed. But other stuff, not so much. But think of whatever your difficult area was.
14:54
And some of you are going, well, it's easier for me to think of the ones that weren't all that difficult, actually.
14:59
But it all depends on your educational. I mean, I happen to be very thankful. I went to school back east.
15:06
And I saw a huge difference. It was very, very different, at least back in the olden days.
15:17
Back in the days when 43rd Avenue ended at Greenway Road.
15:26
I was just thinking about that, because the Kmart up there at 35th and Greenway just closed. And I felt really sad, because that was the first place we shopped when we moved here.
15:36
I mean, that was the only place. It was within driving distance, really, of us. Back then, we were so far out in the boonies.
15:43
And now, my, how things change. Anyways, I have wandered away from this point. The point being, this is a tough text.
15:51
And just as you had to maybe re -read some paragraphs, and spend some time going over things, and ask questions.
15:59
It's a tough text. Why? Well, because it says, He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and disclose it to you.
16:06
That sounds fairly simple. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is focused upon glorifying
16:14
Christ, applying the ministry, words, teachings of Christ, and disclosing these things to us.
16:25
But, if we just took it at that level, I think we would be greatly cheated in thinking through what is there.
16:37
Because, I mean, the very next verse, All things the Father has are mine, therefore I say that he takes of mine, and will disclose it to you.
16:44
You've, the, really, the only way to see what is being communicated in these chapters, and I've argued this many times in debate contexts, the only way to make sense out of the
16:59
Gospel of John is to understand it within the Trinitarian context. It just makes no sense, whatsoever.
17:07
I mean, if you deny the doctrines of Trinity, turn the Son into a creature, turn the
17:14
Spirit into an impersonal active force, this whole section becomes a mishmash of incomprehensible poetry.
17:26
That, really, I can't see what possible use it could have to almost anybody. He will glorify me.
17:35
So, the Spirit of God will glorify me. I thought it was the Spirit of God that glorified
17:41
God. Well, yes, we can read this, and because we know who Jesus is, this doesn't throw a curve at us.
17:49
We're not left going, this is impossible. But, in some fashion, in the work of the outworking of the covenant of redemption, eternity past, the
18:03
Father, Son, the Spirit covenant together to bring about creation and the redemption of particular people in Christ Jesus, all the glory of the
18:10
Father, Son, Holy Spirit. In the working of that out, each of the divine persons takes a different role, and as such, bears a unique relationship to believers.
18:31
If there was no unique relationship to believers, we couldn't tell who was who. I mean, someone might have the name
18:37
Father, someone might have the name Son, someone might have the name Spirit, but we wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Remember, I mentioned to you, and again,
18:46
I think Luther would disagree with my discussing this, maybe he wouldn't in a class situation, but he might in a sermon,
18:52
I'm not really sure. But anyways, what we're talking about here, wow, we need to clean this board. I never really turn around and look at it very much.
19:01
So, what we're talking about are the opera ad intra, and the opera, what was it?
19:11
Is it X? My Latin is rusty. Yeah, external would be
19:21
X. The opera added to the internal operations and external operations of the
19:29
Trinity. So, internally, how do we differentiate between Father, Son, Holy Spirit?
19:36
Well, the Father begets the Son, the Son is begotten. It's a relationship term, not an origin term. The Spirit proceeds from the
19:44
Father and the Son. Remember, these orthodox go, no, only from the Father. But that's the whole filioque clause controversy we've talked about before.
19:54
But these are relationship differentiations. Now, when we talk about what's going on in redemption, we're talking about the economic
20:06
Trinity. That is, the Trinity as we see the different roles each of the
20:11
Divine Persons has taken. And so we see they've taken different roles. It's not the Son who is incarnate.
20:17
It's not the Spirit who is incarnate. It's not the Father who is incarnate. It's not the Spirit who is incarnate. It's the
20:22
Son who is incarnate. The Father is not sent by the Son, the
20:27
Spirit, etc., etc. They take different roles, and so we can differentiate between them.
20:33
Well, since they take different roles, clearly the role of the
20:41
Son as the incarnate One, and as the
20:49
One who gives His life, and whose name we are baptized into, and whose name we bear in a particular fashion, is in some ways emphasized.
21:09
And I think we can fairly say, as we look at the New Testament, we have a tremendous emphasis upon the
21:15
Father as the fount and source of all things. We must emphasize that the
21:22
Father is the fount and source of salvation itself. You know, look at Ephesians 1, look at Romans 8.
21:33
It all begins with the Father, flows from Him. It's very, very important because there is the tendency on the part of some
21:39
Christians to sort of put the Father so remotely, and so much in the role of judge, that there is a non -New
21:52
Testament imbalance in our thinking. Certainly the biggest example of this is when people think that the
22:01
Father is this big, mean, nasty guy out there, and the Son comes along and makes Him nice to us.
22:07
No. That is a horrific misunderstanding. That is not what reconciliation means or anything else.
22:17
And that's certainly not a New Testament perspective. But they take different roles, and we relate to them in different ways.
22:27
And what has been obvious to generations of Christians is that the
22:33
Spirit's role is not nearly as prominent as that of the
22:41
Son, for example. And here, He will glorify me. Well, who will glorify
22:48
Him? You know, you ask that question. I think it's an appropriate question.
22:55
He will glorify me, for He will take of mine, and will disclose it to you. All things the
23:00
Father has are mine. So, it's not like I have my stuff, and then the Father has His stuff, and it's mine.
23:07
You know, don't take it from me. No. All things the Father has are mine. Again, words utterly impossible for some even highly exalted creature, but any creature to say.
23:22
Therefore, He takes of mine, and will disclose it to you. We know that, for example, when Paul speaks of the
23:28
Spirit, he speaks of the Spirit searching the deep things of God, etc., etc. I think you have the same themes being struck here.
23:35
But the point is, the Spirit glorifies the Son. He doesn't glorify
23:42
Himself. He doesn't call attention to Himself. That's one of the problems with the charismatic movement as a whole.
23:48
That's where part of the imbalance is found. Biblically, the
23:54
Spirit glorifies the Son. And so, especially when it comes to the work of the
24:03
Son, if you want to see a deeply spiritual ministry of the
24:11
Holy Spirit, it is disclosing to someone the work of Jesus Christ.
24:18
So, it strikes me that in so many places where allegedly the Spirit is just causing people to bounce off the walls, you ask them almost the most basic, simplistic questions about the work of Christ, and they're clueless.
24:33
Have never even been thought to think about. Well, what do you think about the role of Jesus as the
24:40
High Priest? That's biblical stuff. And they're like, huh? What? What are you talking about?
24:46
I'm, I'm, I'm, don't interrupt me. I'm praying for my new house. What are you talking about? And this thing, you're just like, no.
24:53
The role of the Spirit is to glorify Christ. He will take a mind and disclose it to you. This disclosure of the very work of Christ is part and parcel of what you should see when the
25:06
Spirit of God is active amongst people. Now, why do
25:11
I mention all of this? Well, again, we want to say we've honestly dealt with the text and struggled with some of the difficult questions.
25:22
And Trinitarian questions are challenging. But they're there, they're right there in the text.
25:27
I'm not making this stuff up. I didn't, you know, stick this in here this morning. It's in all of your Bibles. That would have been a pretty neat trick on my part.
25:37
The text itself invites us to ponder the relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit and to rejoice in the revelation that's been given to us.
25:48
I have said many, many times we need to allow the
25:54
Scriptures themselves to mark the boundaries of our speculations.
26:03
Remember, I've told you that I think in history we have an excellent example of two men, one of whom heeded this and one of whom did not.
26:12
Calvin frequently, he used the phraseology, we need to make an end of speaking where God has made an end of speaking.
26:21
So, if God says, I reveal to this point and no farther, there is something irreverent and maybe immature about a person who walks up that line and they spend their life staying at that line just wondering what else is out there.
26:42
I wonder what God's not showing us. This type of thing. I mean, behind them there is an entire vista of revelation.
26:51
But they stand there right at the edge and, oh, I wonder. And then we have
26:57
Jonathan Edwards, a tremendous Christian man, a tremendous mind.
27:03
But I think, especially when it comes to trying to figure out the relationship of Adam and Adam's will to God's decree, he decided to jump on over that line.
27:16
And even his most ardent admirers and fans have admitted in the process he ended up in an inextricable mess of self -contradiction.
27:28
It just, it can't be done. Part of the reason it can't be done, I think, is because we're dealing about, we as temporal creatures are trying to delve into eternal matters and we just can't do that.
27:37
And secondly, we just aren't given enough biblical data. There's only a matter of verses about Adam before the fall.
27:46
And everything else after that takes as a given Adam's fall and fall in nature.
27:52
And that's a different world that we're dealing with at that point. So anyways, we need to keep that in mind, that God has given us, he's let us enter into some tremendously deep material, but he has also made a limit, this far and no farther.
28:18
One of the reasons I mention this is I think, and I'm just going to point it out to you and see if you can see where the connection is,
28:29
I think that what we have here is relevant to what we have in 1
28:41
Corinthians chapter 15. I think it's one of the most challenging texts out there. Just take a look at it quickly. 1
28:46
Corinthians 15, 25 is talking about Jesus. Let's go back to 22.
28:55
For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ all were made alive. If you can't see that all there does not mean every one, you're going to be really confused and become a universalist.
29:06
But I won't expand upon that at the moment. But each in his own order, Christ the first truth after that, those who are
29:13
Christ that is coming, then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and all power.
29:22
So what are we talking about here? We're talking about redemption itself.
29:28
We're talking about the grand scheme of redemption. We're seeing it sort of in an overview.
29:36
And we have the emphasis upon the key player, and that's
29:43
Christ. And he has abolished all rule and authority and power.
29:53
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death, for he has put all things in subjection under his feet.
30:02
But when he says all things are put in subjection, it is evident that he is accepted who put all things in subjection to him.
30:08
So everything becomes subject to Christ in his kingly role.
30:18
Now, what does that mean? Well, universalists say that means everyone is going to be saved. We could expand upon what's being said here, but try to leave some of that speculation off to the side for a moment.
30:28
What he's saying is there is one who is not subjected to the Son, and that's the Father. And then we have verse 28.
30:36
When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected, the one who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all.
30:47
Now, favorite texts of Unitarians, favorite texts of those who wish to deny the deity of Christ, or at least present a view of the deity of Christ that is unorthodox.
31:02
The common argument today is the Sheliach argument.
31:08
The Jesus is a representative. That's where he bore the powers and names of God, but really wasn't
31:13
God himself. He was still just a mere creature. That's the big popular Unitarian argument today.
31:20
The point is, when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected, the one who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all.
31:28
Now, the Unitarian goes, see, God is God the Father there, and Unitarian, and so Jesus isn't
31:34
God, and so Jesus' role will eventually be subjected and sort of disappear. Now, from an orthodox perspective,
31:42
I think what we have here in Paul is enlightened by what we just saw in John chapter 16.
31:52
In the work of redemption, there is a differentiation of the persons as to what they do, and hence, from our perspective, an emphasis upon one over another.
32:09
We see more about Jesus in the Christian experience and the
32:14
Christian message than we do about the Holy Spirit. And there is that fact that Jesus is our all in all, and our approach to the
32:29
Father is through him, and so there is that immediacy regarding the Son. I think what
32:36
Paul is saying is, someday the work of redemption will be completed.
32:42
All things will be subjected to Christ. In other words, not universalism, not everyone's been saved, but the order that is the intention of the triune
32:55
God to establish through Jesus Christ, who subjected all things to Christ, the
33:01
Father subjected all things to him, that order will be established. That includes justice. Justice will have been done.
33:08
Holiness will be satisfied. Everything, the final judgment has taken place, and everyone is where they should be, for God's justice, holiness, love, mercy, grace, all of his attributes to be fully seen.
33:25
And so, the peculiar and particular roles, now Jesus does not cease to be the
33:30
God -man. We are eternally united with him. He eternally has that physical nature.
33:37
All of that stays the same. But the work is completed. And in the completion of that work, you then have a changed state, so that, it says, the
33:58
Son himself also will be subjected. He's been getting all the attention, but now he himself will be subjected, the one who subjected all things to him, just as the
34:09
Son was obedient to the Father in his human life. So that, now isn't it interesting?
34:15
God may be all in all. Now, it's easy enough to assume that means God the Father. But up above, when it referred to God in that way, what does it say in verse 24?
34:29
The kingdom to God the Father. The very term is found in, it's literally, to the
34:37
God and Father. Father's not repeated here. It's just simply, so that God may be all in all.
34:46
So, in other words, I think what we see here in Paul is enlightened by what
34:53
John tells us in regards to the Holy Spirit glorifying me. There will be a time when the entire work of the
35:00
Triune God is completed, and our worship will be of the Triune God in fullness.
35:08
Because the work has all been done. And we will see him as he is.
35:14
And that unevenness of exposure, shall we say, due to the roles that each of the divine persons takes in redemption, will be resolved in the perfection of worship in eternity to come.
35:32
And unfortunately, we have run out of time. But that's why I said, Luther may have said, never talk about that kind of stuff in church, but I think there's a place for it.
35:45
Because I see, again, the Scriptures are a whole.
35:51
There are threads that are woven through the tapestry of Scripture. And if we do not see how they relate to one another, then we're in danger of tearing the cloth apart, digging for something.
36:02
And we end up missing the true beauty that it really has. And I think this is one of those places where that's the case.
36:08
Okay, let's close the Word of Prayer. Indeed, Father, we thank you for your
36:14
Word, and we thank you that you call us to ponder all that it would lead us to understand, that you have blessed us with such a great revelation of your purposes.
36:24
We would ask that we would revere you, revere the limits that you place upon how far we go, but also that we revere you in listening to all that your
36:33
Word says. May we not be apathetic, and may we be good students of your Word. We ask that you be with us now as we go into worship.
36:41
May we sing to your praise, pray to your praise, hear your Word. All to your honor and glory.