Message: ‘Being “Pentecost-al” Christians’ pt.1                                                                          Text: John 16:5-15

Introduction: The human body is a most remarkable machine. It can maintain a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees no matter what the weather is outside. Whether a man is at the Arctic Circle or the equator, his body temperature is about the same. There’s an inner mechanism that makes the difference.

The Holy Spirit dwells within the Christian to achieve this kind of stabilization in terms of spiritual health. Whether we face good times or bad, whether we are riding the chair lift to the mountain top of joy or plummeting to the depths of despair, the Holy Spirit keeps us stable within. He is the great equalizer when it comes to our spiritual disposition, our inner self, if you will.
 
This stabilization of your spiritual life, this inner equilibrium of spiritual health, does not come automatically.  While the Holy Spirit does live in every believer, every believer does not live in the Spirit…that’s why Christians often suffer great depression, severe anxiety, deep hurt, and unexplained fear. They have in one way or another grieved the Spirit by hindering his work in their life.

Background:  

Question: What do you think of when I say the word ‘God’?
    •    God the Father, the creator of all we see and can’t see.
    •    God the Son, Jesus, the God-man who died on the cross.
    •    But do we ever truly picture God the Holy Spirit who indwells all who profess to be a Christian by faith in Jesus Christ?

Question: What picture do you see in your mind when I say the words ‘Holy Spirit’?
    •    A wisp of smoke floating around like something from Ghostbusters?
    •    An invisible presence whispering good things in your mind?
    •    A secret friend who goes with you wherever you go?

Just because the Holy Spirit is hard to picture doesn’t take away from his awesome presence and immense power. It also doesn’t mean we can’t know something about Him…yes Him not ‘it’.

A tremendous amount of confusion and controversy exists concerning the Holy Spirit.
    •    Our Pentecostal and Charismatic friends have, in my humble opinion, overemphasized the miraculous gifts of the Spirit
    •    While our conservative bothers and sisters have under-emphasized the awesome power of the Spirit.

This message, however, is not concerned with either the ‘gifts’ or the power of the Spirit. Both important topics, but instead, we’ll examine the presence of the Holy Spirit in the world and in the life of the believer.

The Holy Spirit was first given after Jesus ascended into heaven on the day called Pentecost. This is the first time Believers were filled with the Holy Spirit. If we live depending upon the presence of the Holy Spirit each day, if we live filled with the Spirit, then we are Pentecost-al Christians.

Transition: Open your Bibles to John 16:5 (pg. 825 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you). Here Jesus will comfort his disciples, then and now, with the promise of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

I. John 16:5-7          It’s good that Jesus is in heaven.
Read: John 16:5-7

'It is good for you that I go' If you were one of the disciples with Jesus that day, you wouldn’t have been thinking Jesus’ leaving was a good thing…no matter how you looked at it.  They couldn’t believe Jesus’ going away was good for them. Partly because they had become dependent upon his physical presence to help them do what he asked them to do. Recently he told them they will do even greater things when he’s gone. I’m sure they were wondering how this could possibly be true.

Jesus is saying that having the Holy Spirit in them is better than him being with them. Do you believe that? 

Question: Why would it be better for Jesus to go back to Heaven and send the Holy Spirit to be in and with us?
    •    Jesus was human, he couldn’t be in more than one place at a time. That means he wouldn’t be able to be present everywhere as the Holy Spirit is
    •    Jesus said ‘For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.’ Mt 18:20 He couldn’t promise that if he remained in the flesh,
         but he could promise it if he went back to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit.
    •    And what about the battle of sin in your life? The Holy Spirit enters your heart to do battle for you against sin, against temptation. Jesus could only
         encourage you from the outside and you would have to take your turn since he couldn’t be everywhere.
    •    Same for battling depression, hurt, pain, fear, and, anxiety. The Holy Spirit is in you to help and promises to never leave you. If Jesus stayed on the earth
         in physical form, you would certainly almost never get a few minutes with him considering how many people are on the earth.
    •    If Jesus didn’t leave and go to heaven, there would be no one there making constant intercession for you, praying to the Father for you when you don’t
         know how to pray.
    •    Think about this. Before Jesus  left, the disciples were confused, thick headed, afraid and self centered. After he left and the Holy Spirit came, they were
         wise, surrendered, bold and joyful.

Yes, it was good for Jesus to leave his disciples and go to heaven. It is good for us too.

Transition: We’re going to return to why it’s good for the Christian that Jesus goes back to heaven and sends the Holy Spirit. But now, I want to see why it’s good for the rest of the world too.

II. John 16:8-11 The Holy Spirit will convict the world
Read: John 16:8-11

In our text, Jesus gives us three reasons the Holy Spirit coming to the world is a good thing. This morning we’ll look at one.

A. Of the guilt of sin
First, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will be God’s instrument of salvation by convicting people of their sin. That’s odd, we usually talk about the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of people who are already Christians, don’t we? But the first work of the Holy Spirit is actually in the lives of unbelievers, people who have yet to place their faith in Jesus as their Savior.

To convict the world of sin simply means God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, will move in peoples’ hearts and minds to convince them that they are sinners in need of a Savior.

Why is that important? Because apart from this gracious act of God, we don’t see the problem, we don’t acknowledge our sin or recognize gravity of it.
    •    I bet over 90% of people polled would say they are a good, decent person.
    •    Including you child who also would say that the one responsible for the crayon on the walls is ‘not me’. Does that means you have an evil personal called
         ‘not me’ running around and hiding in your home or does it mean even your child, sins?

Question: True or false. People go to hell because they don’t believe in Jesus.
    •    False. People go to hell because they sin and sin separates them from God’s presence.

Question: True or false. People go to heaven because their sins have been forgiven by placing their trust in Jesus Christ?
    •    True.

ILL:  A person who jumps from an airplane without a parachute doesn’t die because they didn’t use a parachute. They die because they broke the law of gravity. Had they used a parachute they would have escaped the judgment of the law of gravity which in this case would be splattering all over the ground.

The first work of the Holy Spirit is showing us our sin, and then guiding us to Jesus so we don’t become splattered all over Hell.

ILL: J. Vernon McGee tells the story of a young man being questioned about his salvation experience. “How did you get saved.” He was asked. He replied, “God did his part and I did my part.” The man asked, “What was God’s part and what was your part.” The young man replied, “God’s part was saving and my part was sinning. I ran from Him as fast as I could, but He took after me till He ran me down.”

That’s why I don’t have altar calls, That’s why I don’t pound my fist and yell that you need a Savior.
    •    Because I can’t convict anyone of their sin,
    •    Because I can’t convince anyone of their need for a Savior.

Only the Holy Spirit can do that. And at that moment, when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, it’s totally between you and him.

Tell me later that you asked Jesus into your heart. But, in that most solemn of moments, forget about me and everyone else around you. Respond to God’s call and ask him to be your Savior.

Most people however are comfortable as they are. They’re spiritually blind and they like it that way. It’s actually denial about their standing before God. Their tendency is to minimize their guilt before God, to point to others who are worse than they are. They do that to make excuses.

So the Holy Spirit comes
    •    to invade the relative safety of our blindness,
    •    to shatter the illusion of relative goodness,
    •    to silence our excuses
    •    to show us how we truly stand before God…guilt and helpless.

Conclusion
If you’re a Christian with a guarantee of a future in heaven, it’s  because the Holy Spirit did his job…he was faithful. Aren’t you grateful?

If you are here this morning and you really can’t say you know for sure you have a guarantee of heaven when you die, I want you to listen for the small voice of God, the Holy Spirit, speaking to you.

Conviction is an awareness of your sinfulness, of realization of God’s holiness and of the great gulf that spans the two.

Conviction is responding to the Holy  Spirit’s touch just as those whose sin was revealed when they heard Peter’s sermon on  Pentecost responded. ‘What shall we do?’

Peter replied, repent. In other words,
    •    Ask Jesus to forgive your sin,
    •    Ask Jesus to be your savior
    •    Ask Jesus to promise you heaven

And like the people on that first Pentecost, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. Equipped to handle whatever comes your way.
And you will become a Pentecost-al Christian.