to set up the scripture that we'll be reading this morning,
I wanna say, first of all, you got your thumb there,
your finger there in that reference.
This is taking place in the book of John.
We were there last week in John chapter 14,
and this section, John 13 through 16,
is what's been called the upper room discourse.
Now John is very unique in this in that he spends a lot,
the bulk of his book, in the final days
and hours of Jesus' life.
And the upper room discourse, you might think of this
as his final intimate words.
Now chapter 13 and 14 represent the words that he spoke
around the Last Supper.
We just participated in a remembrance of the Last Supper.
13, 14 are the words he spoke during that to his disciples.
And then moving into 15, 16, you have Jesus and his disciples
en route to the Garden of Gethsemane,
and he continues to teach them and instruct them
in what he wants them to remember.
So these are his final intimate instructions
to the people who walked with him for three years.
And the truth is they're troubled.
They're really troubled in heart because Jesus has told them
they're going to have lots of difficulties and troubles,
that the people that they have loved or grown up around
are going to turn against them,
and they're going to be persecuted because of Jesus.
He's also said that he himself is going to die.
He's going to die.
And Peter, his right hand man, is going to deny him.
And that he will have to go away for some time.
And for us to really understand the moment
that the disciples are in, we kind of have to wrap
our brains around what might be called Jewish eschatology
or the Jewish mindset around the end of times,
what that will look like.
And what they believed would happen was that a time
of great trouble would come upon the nation,
and the trouble was intended to awaken the hearts
of God's people so that they would turn back
and cry out for a messiah.
In other words, it's kind of like a repeat of Egypt.
When the people were in slavery and they were crying out
for God to send a deliverer, they believed at the end
of times that would happen again.
Trouble would come, they would be enslaved,
or nations had come in and taken them captive,
and they would awaken in their hearts to remember the Lord
and cry out to him.
And then after that time of trouble,
a forerunner would come.
Someone would come announcing the messiah is at hand,
an Elijah.
And so for the disciples, they were in great trouble.
Rome had taken over.
Rome was occupying their lands.
And they were in great distress and trouble.
But John the Baptist, the forerunner, had come and said,
the messiah is coming, the lamb of God,
who takes away the sins of the world.
And the disciples believed them.
And so you can imagine, point number one
in their Jewish eschatology, check.
Point number two, check, it's happening.
It's happening in our day and time.
Look, and then Jesus comes on the scene,
and the messiah is there.
And in their mindset, the messiah would appear,
and he would establish his kingdom forever.
His kingdom on earth is what they thought.
His kingdom in the physical.
He would route the Romans and drive them out of the country
and reestablish all the tribes and worship.
And so to them, this is what was happening.
And everything that Jesus has told them now is just wrong.
It's wrong.
How does that fit in to what we expected?
And so John, writing this much later,
after Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension,
when he writes his letter,
he's trying to capture that feeling.
And in this upper room discourse,
and throughout his writings, really,
he uses a technique, a style called amplification.
It's very unique to John.
If you read John or 1st, 2nd, 3rd John,
or even Revelation, he'll use it.
But amplification is where he introduces some themes
into the text, and then he keeps looping back around to them.
So instead of being like Paul,
who introduces a logical progression to a conclusion,
John introduces three or four themes,
and then he just keeps looping it back
and adding more and more.
It's kind of like holding something
that is so beautiful in your hand,
that you can't take it all in with one look.
And so you hold it in your hand,
and you turn it around, and you turn it around,
and you look, and then you look,
and it's getting more and more beautiful and glorious.
Well, that's John's style, his amplification.
And so in this upper room discourse,
we've already hit on the themes
that we're gonna read in today's scripture
multiple times before.
And he's hitting them one more time to bring them up
and help us to see them again from maybe a different facet
or a different light on this glorious thing.
Just to give you a quick survey,
the scriptures won't be up here,
but in John 14, 15 through 17,
he said, if you love me, you will keep my commands,
and I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another counselor
to be with you forever.
He is the Spirit of truth.
The world is unable to receive him
because it doesn't see him or know him,
but you know him because he remains with you
and will be in you.
And then a little bit later in John 14,
he says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word.
That sounds familiar.
Did I already read this?
Yes.
Amplification, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word.
My Father will love him,
and he will come to him and make our home,
and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Gabe, there's a little bit of feedback.
The one who doesn't love me will not keep my words.
The word that you hear is not mine,
but is from the Father who sent me.
I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you,
but the counselor, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you all things
and remind you of everything I told you.
And then again, in chapter 15,
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.
So we see over and over again,
he's interjecting a little bit more about the Holy Spirit
and telling us a little bit more.
And so today's scripture out of John 16,
takes it one step deeper.
Read with me.
Not with me, but read along with me.
Ha ha ha.
It's too long to read with me.
Ha ha ha.
I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling.
They will ban you from the synagogues.
In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you
will think he is offering sacrifice to God.
They will do these things
because they have not known the Father or me.
But I have told you these things
so that when their time comes,
you will remember I told them to you.
I didn't tell you these things from the beginning
because I was with you.
But now I'm going away to him who sent me.
And not one of you asks me, where are you going?
Yet because I have spoken these things to you,
sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth.
It is for your benefit that I go away
because if I don't go away,
the counselor will not come to you.
If I go, I will send him to you.
When he comes, he will convict the world
about sin, righteousness, and judgment.
About sin because they do not believe in me.
About righteousness because I am going to the Father
and you will no longer see me.
And about judgment because the ruler of this world
has been judged.
I still have many things to tell you,
but you can't bear them now.
When the Spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you into all truth.
For he will not speak on his own,
but he will speak whatever he hears.
He will also declare to you what is to come.
He will glorify me because he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you.
Everything the Father has is mine.
This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine
and will declare it to you.
This is God's word.
Has anyone in here been to the Holy Lands?
Couple of folks have been on a trip there.
Anyone else who hasn't been there
wanted to go at some point in life?
Like you thought, I wanna go there.
That's me, man, totally.
It's like a history junkie's like dream to go there.
Not just that, then you read the Bible
and you imagine it coming alive as you go and you step foot.
Maybe walk in the places that Jesus walked with the disciples,
but I could even one up that, right?
If I had a time machine and I could go back in time,
I'd go to the Holy Lands,
but I'd go back when Jesus was there, right?
And I'd slip into the crowd, you know,
just kinda trail along, see what he's doing,
and witness the events.
Watch as he feeds the 5,000.
Maybe watch and observe as he calms the waves on the sea
to see the miracles of Christ.
The first point, if you're taking notes,
I'll have you write down the Spirit and Jesus,
and it comes out of verse seven
where John, recording Jesus' word, says,
it is for your benefit that I go away
because I can't go away,
but because if I don't go away,
the counselor will not come to you,
and if I go, I will send him to you.
Another translation says it is better,
it is better that I go.
If I don't go, the Spirit, the counselor,
will not come to you.
The Spirit will not come to the believer
unless and until Jesus first goes.
And that's hard for them to hear, but why is that?
What is the relationship between the Spirit and Jesus?
And the truth is that the Spirit cannot come
and cannot do its job unless and until Jesus first
goes to the cross, unless and until Jesus goes to the tomb
until he rises from the grave and ascends to heaven,
only then can the Spirit do its work.
Why?
That's because while the Spirit did work
throughout the biblical history,
the full power or the most essential work
of the Holy Spirit is this, to glorify Jesus.
That's what the Spirit is about.
Verse 14 says that, he will glorify me.
He will speak to you my words.
He will remind you of what I have said.
He will bring glory to God the Son.
The Holy Spirit's power, as one pastor put it,
is Christ exalting, Gospel applying,
new covenant fulfilling, deepest sin convicting,
Satan defeating power.
And none of this can be testified to by the Spirit
until Jesus goes to the cross, enters the tomb,
is resurrected, and ascends to the Father.
Only then can the full force of the message of Christ
be preached.
He must go away in order for the Spirit to come
and declare, empower the truth, the exalted Christ.
The resurrection and the ascension
prove that the world was wrong.
Not only wrong, but guilty of hatred and unbelief.
The resurrection and ascension prove
that what they believed about Jesus,
and particularly the world in John, in his writings,
represent the unbelieving Jews of his time.
So the world, the unbelieving Jews
who represent all those who are in unbelief,
they demanded the death of the perfect and righteous Jesus.
They actually went further than that, right?
They actually said that he was a sinner,
that he was a sinner when he was,
they were interviewing the blind man, right?
And they said, Jesus, Jesus,
bring glory to God, tell the truth.
Certainly the sinner over there
couldn't have done those things.
They put him to death as a sinner.
Well, the Spirit in the resurrection
testifies to the validity of Christ's claims
that God said, no, he's mine.
He is righteous in his death,
burial, resurrection, and ascension.
And so we begin with the Spirit and Jesus,
but number two, the Spirit in the world
the Scripture talks about.
We understand the primary role of the Spirit
is to exalt Christ and not me, right?
He's not a me exalting Spirit.
And that's important for us to remember,
especially as you consider
how some people treat the Holy Spirit,
as if he is a me exalting Spirit.
Give me the gifts, give me the whatever,
the enablement, the power to exalt myself
or exalt what I want higher than anything else.
Good morning, come on in.
No, she's not.
And so we now need to look at how the Spirit
will convict the world, the Scripture says,
convict the world in three specific areas.
Verse eight, when he comes, he will convict the world
about sin, righteousness, and judgment,
about sin because they do not believe in me,
about righteousness because I am going to the Father
and you will no longer see me,
and about judgment because the ruler of this world
has been judged.
So A, it's about sin.
The Holy Spirit will convict the world about sin.
And the word convict is like the word convince
or attempt to compel an understanding,
to prove their need for, to declare their guilt.
When it says that the Bible, when it says that he will
convict the world is saying that he will show them
that they're under guilt.
He will prove to them that they're guilty.
It's not always easy to hear that you're guilty,
but it's necessary.
No change will happen until you recognize first
the guilt that you're under.
You don't need a savior if you're not guilty.
And so the Holy Spirit comes to the world
and convicts the world of its sin.
Now notice that it says sin and not sins.
One word, sins, describes the individual things that we do
that are morally wrong, whereas the term sin
describes something else.
It is more of a technical term, and it means unbelief.
Unbelief.
And so the Holy Spirit will come and convict the world
of unbelief because they did not believe in me.
We don't like to hear that we're guilty,
but we need to hear it.
And the Holy Spirit will bring conviction into this world.
He will prove our need for a savior.
He convicts them of their unbelief.
The Jewish folks of his time believed
that they knew the father.
They claimed Abraham as our father,
and Jesus said, if you don't know me,
you don't know the father.
If you don't know who I am, you don't recognize
who I am in this story, then you know nothing of the father.
You would recognize me, you would believe in me
if you knew the father.
Rejecting Jesus is rejecting the father.
And the Holy Spirit's work here on earth is to come
and convict, to declare under guilt
those who have not believed.
But he also convicts of righteousness.
And the ascension of Christ is a declaration
of Christ's righteousness.
It validates his claim about the father.
It says that his work in this life
and his death and resurrection were not actions
that earned him standing with God.
We tend to think of righteousness as if it's something,
what's the list of righteousness that I need to do
in order to earn something?
Righteousness is not about a list of things.
It's about a standing, a status that one has.
When Jesus was resurrected and his ministry was validated,
it proved he had a standing before God of faith.
It proved that he was in right relationship with God.
And God came by divine action and did what only God
could do, everyone recognized,
man can't resurrect dead people.
We can't go around and make dead people alive again.
And so if this person is truly alive,
if the resurrection happened, it was a divine action
that could only come from the father.
And if the father, God involved in this business
of resurrecting this person,
it must mean something about that person.
It must mean something about his standing before God.
And the Holy Spirit comes to testify of his standing.
According to the standard of righteousness,
the standard of righteousness that the people
of Jesus's time held, that Jesus was a sinner,
he deserved death.
He should have known not to heal this guy on the Sabbath.
Should have known not to restore this broken person's body
on the Sabbath.
If he had known that, he would have been righteous,
but he's not righteous, he's a sinner because he healed.
According to their standard of righteousness,
they judged and lived by.
They saw Jesus as the sinner.
The Holy Spirit, though, will testify
to the righteousness of Christ.
He will convict the world of all the false standards
of righteousness that we hold.
That's cool.
Try preaching like that, right?
All right.
We can paint the building,
but we can't get a music stand, right?
But let's talk for a second,
now that I've distracted everyone, and comic relief.
What are some areas of false standards of self-righteousness
that people, not anyone here, but folks get caught up in?
What are false standards of righteousness
that we might get ourselves into and believe as true?
Does anyone have an answer?
I go to church every Sunday.
A religious identity.
I go to church every Sunday.
That means I'm righteous.
You don't know how many folks I've asked,
are you a Christian?
Are you a believer?
And you know what their first answer is?
I go to church every week.
And right there, it's like, okay,
you have put your righteousness, your standard of righteousness
in your religious identity.
I go to church.
I'm a part of this.
And some people do it based upon which church they go to.
Right?
I go to this church.
I'm not like those people over there at Village.
Right, religious identity.
Any other ones?
Other places we put our standard of righteousness in?
I do more, give more?
Yeah, yeah.
So this, comparative, right?
I think I put it down as comparative righteousness, yes.
Measuring one's own righteousness
by comparing them to someone else
and then usually feeling superior
when your list looks a little bit longer than theirs.
Or the flip side, feeling like you're not measuring up
when you compare to someone and go,
I'm not as good as them.
Any others?
My revelation, yeah, my understanding of God.
I have a better, fuller picture of it.
And so, again, comparative.
I'm comparing against you.
And so you really are my standard.
And if I can beat you, then I'm better than you.
Yeah.
Self-righteousness, right?
In one's own actions, in one's own morality,
one's own adherence to laws and rules,
you might call it legalism, right?
I keep all the rules.
I read the book, I made the list, I keep all the rules.
I'm owed, I earned righteousness.
I earned right standing before God.
One that I highlighted on my list here
is sentimentality or sentimentalism.
My righteousness is found not in my good deeds,
but in my good intentions.
Just the world is all, it never works out,
but I want it to do right.
I feel better about myself now.
I feel better.
All of these and all the other ones,
tolerance, my righteousness is found
in tolerating anything and any belief in anyone, right?
I'm open.
I'm tolerant.
That makes me more right.
All of our false standards of righteousness,
when compared to Christ and what he did,
fall flat in the spirit, testifies to righteousness.
It comes and says, your fault,
it destroys all of our crooked and false standards
of righteousness in light of Christ,
because he testifies to Christ,
that Christ was the only one perfect human
who ever walked, who walked righteously before God,
and the righteous man was killed by the hands of humans.
And like Adam, right in the garden, we go,
oh man, he really screwed it up for humanity.
No, he represented humanity.
He made the choice that every one of you would have made
if you were there.
The same is true of Jesus.
Oh, I wouldn't have crucified him.
Really?
You don't think in your self-righteousness.
You don't think in one of your other standards
of righteousness, he wouldn't have rubbed
against the grain on you, and you would have said,
I don't like this guy, let's get him out of here.
But instead, Christ gave himself freely,
out of his standing before God, he lived his life
and died the death that we deserved,
and the spirit testifies and convicts the world
on our false standards of righteousness.
You can't measure up.
No matter how many good things you do,
it's not enough.
No matter how many people you compare to,
someone's always better.
And all your good intentions,
sorry, look what they got you.
The final one is judgment.
Sin, righteousness, he convicts on judgment.
He will convict the world concerning judgment
because the ruler of this air has been judged.
The ruler of the air refers to Satan,
that snake from the garden, and the one who
his defeat was prophesied all the way back in Genesis 3,
when it said from the woman would come an offspring,
a male offspring who would crush the head of that serpent.
He is defeated, and yet, there's this already and not yet
that is very indicative of our faith,
and that is something can be true
and absolutely true right now, and yet we don't see
the fullness of the effects of that truth yet.
It's already true, and yet we're waiting too
for the full effects of it.
Like the Bible says that we're seated with Christ
in the heavenly realms.
Look around.
We're in the youth chapel.
And yet we're seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.
It's already and yet not yet.
And the same is true of the defeat of the enemy.
He is 100% defeated, he's done.
Christ destroyed the work of the enemy.
In fact, that's what 1 John 3 verse 8 says.
The son of man came to defeat the works of the enemy,
and that's exactly what he did.
And yet we also see that there are effects
of his temptation and his work still on this earth
that we're waiting for a final eradication of those effects,
the already not yet.
The Holy Spirit convicts of judgment
because we like to ignore the reality of judgment,
and some folks want to ignore God
in the reality of the final judgment in their life.
1 Peter or 2 Peter chapter three, verse three,
talks about this.
Above all, be aware of this.
He's talking about the last days,
so the days that we are in, and he's talking to the church,
he's talking to you, and he says, beware of these people.
Be aware of scoffers who come in the last days
scoffing and following their own evil desires,
saying, where is his coming that he promised?
Ever since our ancestors fell asleep,
all things continue as they have been
since the beginning of creation.
Everything's the same.
Where's this second coming of Jesus?
Where's this judgment you talked about?
It's exactly the way it's always been.
There's no judgment.
They deliberately overlook this.
By the word of God, the heavens came
into being long ago when the earth was brought about
from water and through water.
And through these, the world of that time
perished when it was flooded.
By the same word, the present heavens and earth
are stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment
and destruction of the ungodly.
You may think God is long in coming.
You may think he's delayed or not happening,
but it's coming.
As sure as the judgment came the first time,
it's coming again.
And he may be delayed, and the Bible goes on to say
that he's delayed for a reason.
Because of his kindness, so that more might be brought in,
more might believe, but it is in their unbelief
that they deny judgment, put it off and say,
oh, it's not coming.
The Holy Spirit comes and convicts the world.
The Holy Spirit moves about this world,
convicting of sin and righteousness and judgment.
The Holy Spirit will use all kinds of means
to accomplish this, but do you know what the primary means
the Holy Spirit uses to bring conviction of sin,
righteousness and judgment is?
Us.
Where does it say the Holy Spirit will come?
Is he gonna be down at the Circle K?
And anyone who goes into the Circle K
will have an encounter with the Holy Spirit
and might be convicted.
Where is he gonna make his home?
Where is he going to do his work?
What is he going to transform and change
into the likeness of Christ?
Us.
And it's our presence in this world at this time
that is the primary force bringing conviction,
the Holy Spirit within us, living out through us,
bringing conviction on the world of sin, of unbelief,
of their false standards of righteousness
and their denial of the impending judgment
that is coming upon them.
It is us, the people of God.
How many people were converted in the Book of Acts
without the active participation of one of Jesus' followers?
Were there a couple stories you go,
well, Paul, he was on the road, right?
He kinda got knocked off, right, his donkey,
found himself on the ground and was like, what the heck,
you know, and just had this encounter with Jesus.
And yet what did the Spirit tell him to do?
What did Jesus tell him to do?
Go, I'm gonna send someone to you.
Why did he need someone to go to him?
Because the primary use, the primary way
that the Holy Spirit works is through us.
Think of Peter, right, an angel appears, tells him,
hey, you've been thinking about this whole thing all wrong.
Right?
It's all wrong, but I need you to go over here and do this.
I need you to talk to these people
because your presence there is going to bring the gospel,
bring the word of Jesus, convict sin,
conviction of righteousness and judgment,
and people will believe, it's through his people.
We've seen how the Holy Spirit works in the world at large,
convicting it of sin and righteousness and judgment,
but what about us as believers?
How does the Spirit work in our lives?
And that's the final point, the Spirit and believers.
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.
The counselor, the Spirit of truth will come to you.
Why is that important?
Why is it better that he is with us?
One of our big problems, maybe our biggest problem is
that the things we know in our head aren't real in our heart.
The things we know in our head aren't real in our heart.
And that reality causes all kinds of trouble
and difficulty in our lives.
How many would acknowledge, I know a lot,
but it doesn't always move me to do the right thing.
We know that God is our Father and we are his children,
but at times our hearts are anxious and worried.
We know that we have overcome Satan
and we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus
and yet we'll spend our days cursing the darkness
and acting like we're defeated.
You guys probably run into a person like that, right?
The devil's always getting them.
We know we are right to be defeated.
We know we are righteous on the merits of Christ
and that this is the true meaning of Sabbath rest,
that we don't need to work for our salvation,
but we can rest in the merits of Christ,
but we work tirelessly to earn God's favor
and to stay in his good graces and this crushes us
because we can never live up to it.
Enough is never enough.
And so how do we respond to these troubles
and this disconnect between our head and heart?
Usually two ways.
We think we need new circumstances.
Just give me new circumstances.
Man, if I only had more money, I would have fewer problems.
If I only had a better car or a different house
or a new job or a different spouse,
my life would be better.
Just give me new circumstances.
Or maybe we think we need new information.
If I just read the right book or I talked to the right person
or I got the right counseling
or I went to the right conference
or I listened to the right podcast
or I found the perfect routine,
my life would finally be free of this disconnect
and I'd finally take the information that I have in my head
and it would go down into my heart and I would live it out.
But what we actually need is not new circumstances
and new information.
What we need is for the Holy Spirit
to make us mentally acknowledge
that mental knowledge that we have
to be backed up by experiential power.
We need the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.
D.L. Moody once gave an illustration.
He held up a glass, like a cup,
and he held it up before a crowd and said,
how do I get the air out of this glass?
And he said, I could take a vacuum
and I could seal it up over it and suck all the air out,
but this glass is not working.
I could suck all the air out,
but this fragile little glass would just break and blow up
and that would not get the air out.
And then he walked over to a table
and he picked up a pitcher of water
and he held out the glass and he poured the water in slowly
and as the water filled up, he said,
look, the air is slowly displaced out of the glass.
I think a lot of us think we have to go into our lives
and we have to get new information or new circumstances
to go through and pick through all the sins of our hearts
to get us clean.
We gotta, I just gotta find them all.
I gotta find everything in the dark recesses of my heart
and I think the Spirit is saying,
no, you need to be filled with the Spirit.
The Spirit will displace the things in your heart
that shouldn't be there.
You need more of God's presence in your life,
not more activity, more trying to fish out
the dirty things of your heart.
You need more of Jesus, more of Jesus' Spirit,
more of the Holy Spirit at work within your heart.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit and then you will not,
dot, dot, dot.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Not so that you can have a better life.
Not so that you can have better circumstances outside,
but so that your view of circumstances change altogether
and the purpose of your life changes
from being all about you to being all about
the glory of Christ because the Spirit will not come
and occupy a heart that is self-centered and all about you.
The Holy Spirit is here for one purpose.
His express highest call is to glorify Jesus
and if you pray, fill me up so that I can glorify Jesus,
he will answer that prayer every single time.
Fill me up so that I can bring glory to Jesus.
He will fill you up and displace the things in your heart
that shouldn't be there.
You don't need to go picking around
and you don't need anyone else
nitpicking your sins either.
You need more of the Holy Spirit in your life.
The Holy Spirit has the power to overcome sin.
It has the power to equip us to do the work of the gospel.
It has the power to send us out into this world
and have an effect, to preach the gospel
and things actually happen.
Hearts change, people fall under conviction and ask,
what must I do to be saved?
That's not our power.
That's not in a book somewhere.
That's the Holy Spirit.
And that's what we need.
Just think about the apostles' experience.
Think about the apostles before Pentecost
and after Pentecost.
That's a different crew, man.
That's a different group of people.
Before, they hardly ever got anything that Jesus was saying.
They misunderstood him all the time.
They completely missed his teaching often.
They denied him.
They scattered when he was crucified.
They looked like weaklings,
not a crew that I would choose for anything noble.
And yet Jesus said, just hang on.
When I go, when I'm enthroned in heaven
and I send the Holy Spirit to you, just wait.
And in the upper room at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes
and Peter preaches his first written message
that we know of and what happens.
People were cut to the heart, asked,
what must we do to be saved?
Thousands gave their life to Christ.
Thousands committed to follow the same Peter
who days earlier was a denying weakling,
was filled with a power.
And people went, wait a sec, who are these people?
Who are they?
In the book of Ezekiel, chapter 36, it says,
something.
I love this, I really love this scripture, man.
It's talking about the work of the Spirit
when he comes to God's people.
It says, I will give you the power
to follow the same Peter
and he says, I will give them a new heart
and put a new spirit in them.
I will remove your heart of stone
and give you a heart of flesh.
I will place my spirit within you
and cause you to follow my statutes
and carefully observe my ordinances.
You will live in the land that I gave your ancestors
and you will be my people and I will be your God.
I will save you from all your uncleanliness.
I will summon the grain and make it plentiful.
I will not bring famine on you.
I will also make the fruit of the tree
and the produce of the field plentiful
so that you will no longer experience
reproach among the nations on account of famine.
You will remember your evil ways and your deeds
that were not good and you will loathe yourself
for your iniquities and detestable practices.
It is not for your sake that I will act.
This is what declares the Lord.
Let this be known to you.
Be ashamed and humiliated because of your ways,
House of Israel.
This is what the Lord God says.
On the day I cleanse you from your iniquities,
I will cause the cities to be inhabited
and the ruins to be rebuilt.
The desolate land will be cultivated instead of dying,
lying desolate in the sight of everyone who passes by.
They will say, this land that was desolate
has become like the Garden of Eden.
The cities who were once ruined, desolate and demolished
are now fortified and inhabited.
Then the nations that remain around you will know
that I, the Lord, have rebuilt what was demolished
and have replanted what was desolate.
I, the Lord, have spoken and I will do it.
It goes along and it has this beautiful poetic thing
like the Lord's gonna do all these beautiful things,
he's gonna give us our spirit
and then the reality hits, right?
Yeah, you're the sinner.
You're the sinner.
God's doing all of it.
He's putting a new spirit in you
to lead you to obey his commands.
He's washing you clean of all your iniquities.
He's taking away the guilt and shame of your heart.
You're the detestable sinner, he's the glorious Lord.
Let's bring glory to God.
Let's bring glory and honor to him.
Let our hearts be moved that he would take someone like me
and if you go, and I'm not a detestable sinner,
remember the false standards of righteousness we hold.
Remember, next to Jesus, we are all detestable sinners
in need of a savior, but the promise that God made
in Ezekiel is that he would send his spirit
and he would do in us what we could never do for ourselves.
We could never clean ourselves up good enough.
You will receive power when the spirit comes on you
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea,
and to the ends of the earth.
I wanna remind that this is not power in general.
This is not power to get a better parking spot.
This is not power to wake up in the morning.
This is power to be a Christ-exalting, God-honoring,
Satan-defeating, deep as sin-convicting,
covenant-fulfilling, gospel-applying disciple
with the spirit of Christ alive in you.
If you are serious about living the life of Christ,
then you need the spirit's power more than anything,
but not power to help you do whatever it is that you want.
Power to bring glory and honor to Christ.
Power to exalt Christ.
Power to make Jesus glorious in your life
and in the lives of those around you
so that when they look into your unveiled face,
they see the glory of the Lord shining.
That's what the spirit is all about
and he will answer those prayers.
And so church, how will we bring the gospel to life?
It will be that the spirit will be the spirit
that exalts Jesus and that convicts the world
is the same spirit that empowers our mission.
Without Jesus, we can't do it.
The question is how will you respond to the spirit?