The Spirit of Truth

INTRO

John 15:26–27 says, “When the Counselor comes, the One I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me. You also will testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” Jesus is truth. He comes from the Father and will send the “Spirit of truth” to us. And we will bear witness of this. We have the Holy Spirit getting us ready for something.

TEACHING

John 16:1–3: “I have told you these things” (v. 1), refers to all Jesus taught the disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit. “To keep from stumbling” implies that things will continue to come at us and to pull us away from God. God promises that when we walk into His presence, nothing can happen to us (Psalm 91:3-12). In John 16:2a, Jesus explained that “they,” the religious, will ban those who follow Christ (John 9:22).

We live in a spiritual battle, and the church today doesn’t even recognize the enemy. Time to Revive has found that it is the religious who don’t like us, who try to stop what we’re doing, because they can’t control what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives. As we walk forward with the gospel of Christ, we should expect people to be angry and threatened by us. If they’re not, we have to ask if we’re really doing the will of God. The Holy Spirit will help us learn how to deal with those who don’t like us. Jesus said, “they hated Me for no reason” (John 15:25). As the time nears for Jesus’ return, the opposition will ramp up even more. We don’t see the persecution in America, possibly because we’re not going out to do what Christ called us to do. Psalm 35:19 says, “Do not let my deceitful enemies rejoice over me; do not let those who hate me without cause look at me maliciously.” Psalm 69:4 says, “Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head; my deceitful enemies, who would destroy me, are powerful. Though I did not steal, I must repay.”

Verse 2 continues with, “Anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God” because “they haven’t known the Father or Me” (v. 3). Philippians 1:28–30 points out that we will “all suffer for Him, having the same struggle” that Jesus had. We can expect to suffer, even to the point of death. Think about it—when we go into a community, it’s never the lost who have issues with us, but it’s the religious! It’s always in-house. What I’ve seen is that it’s difficult to elevate truth when what people want most to elevate tradition.

Why were the religious against Jesus and His gospel? Dan Stewart (blueletterbible.org) suggests six reasons:

1. Jesus’ claims outweighed the authority of the religious (John 7:48–49). Jesus didn’t care about the religious leaders’ authority because He didn’t allow traditions to outweigh the triumph of what He had come to do.

Jesus’ deeds outraged the religious leaders (Matthew 12:23–29). His deeds testified that He was the Son of God, and that outraged the Jewish leaders.

Jesus was a threat to the Jewish religious system. John 2:13–15 describes Jesus clearing out the Temple. Truth will always threaten the system created by those who don’t walk by faith.

Jesus was a threat to the Jewish leaders’ way of life. I’ve never understood territorialism in the body of Christ. Imagine if we really did all come together as the body of Christ!

The people with whom Jesus socialized outraged the religious leaders (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:39). The religious leaders didn’t socialize with sinners because they were filled with false pride.

Many times, our churches don’t reflect their communities but reflect who they hang out with. Christ hangs out with us (Romans 5:8). A church becoming more diverse will encounter growing pains and cultural issues that will take time to work out. Jesus introduces the possibility for overcoming these issues and stumbling blocks by hanging out with our community.

Jesus had a lack of respect for their traditions. Colossians 2:6–8 says, “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, overflowing with gratitude. Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.” When traditions don’t breathe life into your walk with the Lord, it’s time to let them go (Mark 3:4–6; Acts 5:29; Hebrews 5:11—6:3).

John 16:4: Jesus told His disciples that He had told them all these things so that when their times of suffering came, they would remember He had warned them and also promised them the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to help them.

CLOSING

We all have to answer this question: Do we want to put our trust in truth or our trust in traditions? Traditions are important. Family traditions are fun. But please don’t ever elevate those traditions over Jesus Christ. If we’re not careful, it’s easy to let that happen.

Mark 3:26–27 says, “And if Satan rebels against himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is finished! On the other hand, no one can enter a strong man’s house and rob his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he will rob his house.”

If you’re dealing with the spirit of religion, gather other believers together and pray that the Spirit of Christ will bind up the spirit of religion.