How do you live for Jesus in a hostile and hateful world without Jesus physically present? That's the question the disciples are facing. And it's your question too.
Scripture Focus: John 15:26; 1 John 2:20, 27; Psalm 119:18
"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."
"But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know... the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you."
"Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law."
Jesus has just promised them His peace—supernatural peace that the world cannot explain. He has promised them His love—just as the Father loves the Son, He loves them. He has promised them His joy—full and overflowing. And then He says: the world is going to hate you.
And now the looming question in the minds of the disciples is: how can we live for Jesus without Jesus?
The Helper is going to come.
The chief focus of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to testify about Jesus. Sometimes we pray, "Come, Holy Spirit." And we have this idea that something dramatic should happen. But Jesus says here—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.
The Holy Spirit's aim is to glorify the Son. The Son's aim is to glorify the Father. The Father's aim is to glorify the Son.
And how does the Holy Spirit initially testify about Jesus? Through the inspiration of Scripture. Jesus says in John 14:26, "The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." He provided the disciples with the supernatural memory needed to write Scripture. Second Timothy 3:16—all Scripture is breathed out by God. Second Peter 1—men were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
But for everyone in this room today, the Holy Spirit comes and His chief work in our life is to testify about Jesus through illumination. He turns the light on. He helps us understand what God has written.
First John 2:20: "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know." Every single person that is born again has an anointing from the Holy One. He takes up residence in the life of a believer—not as a visitor who occasionally drops by, but as a resident truth teacher. He testifies to your soul and your mind about who Jesus is through the word of God.
The simplest babe in the Christian faith has an anointing from the Holy One. You don't need to be a seminary graduate. You don't need to master Hebrew and Greek. This is why the psalmist prays in Psalm 119:18: "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law." That's a prayer to the Holy Spirit. That's His work—illumination.
You are the home of God. And one of His chief functions in your life is to open your eyes to behold the wonderful things in His word.
1. Are you relying on the Holy Spirit's power and illumination to live the Christian life—or trying to live it in your own strength?
2. When you open God's Word, do you pray first—asking the Spirit to open your eyes and teach you?
3. Do you understand that you have an anointing from the Holy One—that the resident truth teacher of the universe lives within you?
Stay dialed in
