Introduction to the Holy Spirit in John's Gospel
by David Luke, Pastor, 28 Oct 2007 evening worship
Bible Passage: John 1:32-34
During negotiations between the British and Irish in the early 1920s Lloyd-George, the British Prime Minister, who was himself a very shrewd political operator, found Eamon De Valera, his Irish counterpart a very difficult man to deal with. He said that negotiating with De Valera was like trying to lift mercury with a fork. Upon hearing this De Valera replied, 'what about using a spoon?'
Some things are it seems extremely difficult to negotiate like lifting mercury with a fork. Or nailing jelly to the floor. Or putting the toothpaste back into the tube. And sometimes whenever we come to think about the Holy Spirit we find ourselves in the same place. We think that we are dealing with a subject that is extremely difficult to negotiate. That its like trying to lift mercury with a fork.
One of the reasons for this is that because the term 'spirit' is by its very definition ethereal and faceless, we assume that it is going to be difficult to come to terms with the Holy Spirit and His work. A second reason we find it difficult to come to terms with the work of the Holy Spirit is that very often we think we know about the Holy Spirit. But the reality is that we only have in fact a very vague notion of the Holy Spirit and his work. As Jim Packer notes in one of his books, 'We glibly assume that because we know something of the Spirit's work in our own lives, we therefore know all that matters about the Spirit himself.' A third reason that we can find the Holy Spirit and His work elusive is that because of the crucial role of the Holy Spirit in the work of God's kingdom, Satan is at work seeking to sew confusion amidst His work. So that even when the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work, often there is alongside that work a good deal of counter activity by Satan. So much so that much that is ascribed to the work of the Spirit is nothing of the sort.
So there are difficulties that confront us as we come to think about the Holy Spirit and His work. But although those difficulties are there it is not impossible to understand the Holy Spirit and His work. It is not as difficult as trying to lift mercury with a fork. But it does require some hard work and some hard thinking. John Owen, who spent more than seven years working on a treatise on the Holy Spirit called, Pneumatalogia, began by reminding his readers that studying and understanding the work of the Holy Spirit requires more than a glance. If we are to understand the Holy Spirit and to have more than a merely notional knowledge of Him but be shaken and stirred by Him, then we must earnestly pursue Him and seek to understand His ministry.
As we come to look at the Holy Spirit and His work I want to do so by looking at the Holy Spirit in John's gospel. John writes extensively about the Holy Spirit and in particular Jesus teaching about the Holy Spirit and the relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit. So to study what he has to say about the Holy Spirit is not only instructive but hopefully it will also help us to structure our thinking, and give shape to our series of studies about this most important subject.
The Holy Spirit is introduced to us quite early in John's gospel, as it is with the other gospel writers. Although Matthew and Luke speak of the role of the Spirit in Jesus conception, John along with Mark introduces the Holy Spirit at Jesus baptism. From chapter 1:19 John has been focussing upon the preparatory ministry of John the Baptist. During this ministry John denies that He is the Christ, but in the words of Isaiah, he states that he has come to prepare the way for the Christ (vs 23). This is a point that he reiterates when he first introduces Jesus in vs 29-31. He has come not for his own sake but to prepare the way of the one who surpasses him because He was before him.
In vs 32-34 we have what is described as John's testimony. He states first of all, 'I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.' (That is Jesus) Now this is the common testimony of the evangelists that at Jesus baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the appearance of a dove. There is some evidence that there was an association in Jewish thought between the Holy Spirit and a dove. So John is reflecting here on the time when he baptised Jesus and the appearance of the Spirit at that time. John then goes on to say that this particular manifestation of the Holy Spirit has great significance.
For he continues, 'I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, "The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit."' (vs 33) John tells us that it was the appearance of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus in the manner in which God had told him, that enabled him, John, to identify Jesus as the Christ. And so he says with great conviction, 'I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.'
Now what John says here, what he testifies to is very significant in terms of our view of Jesus as the Christ. But it is also a very significant passage in terms of our understanding of the Holy Spirit.
(1) The first point we should notice is the relationship between the Christ and OT prophecy regarding the Holy Spirit. On the one hand John identifies Jesus as the Christ because of God's word to Him. But whilst that may allow the specific identification of Jesus as the Christ it also follows in a line of OT prophecies that identify the coming of the Christ with the work of the Holy Spirit.
So, for example, we read in Isaiah 11 how God says, 'A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; for his roots a branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him — the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.' (vs 1,2) Later in chapter 42 God says of His anointed Servant, 'Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.' (vs 1) There is that OT expectation that the Christ will be one upon whom the Spirit of God rests in a very evident way. That He will be equipped with the Holy Spirit in a unique way to carry on God's work.
Furthermore there is that OT expectation that the coming of the Messiah will usher in a new age in which the work of the Spirit of the Lord is especially evident. So for example in Isaiah 44 God says to Israel, 'I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants (vs 3). Repeatedly in the OT we see that the new age that is coming, the Messianic age, will be an age marked by the pronounced activity of the Spirit.
Now at the outset of our studies on the work of the Holy Spirit it is important to note this. That the OT links the coming of the Messiah with the work of the Holy Spirit. Now it is evident from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is active in the OT era. But it is also clear that the Messianic age will be marked out in a particular way by the activity of the Holy Spirit. And that that will bring with it immeasurable blessing to God's people. Blessings beyond that which they experience in the course of the OT.
Now, as I have said, this is something very significant that we should think about as Christians. That the activity of the Holy Spirit in this age is something that is central to the blessings that we receive in this gospel age. Or to put it more strongly, if we understand the Christian faith aright then we cannot conceive of it apart from the work and the activity of the Holy Spirit.
So let me ask you. Is the Holy Spirit and His activity central to your understanding of the Christian life? If it is not then your thinking about the Christian life is flawed. And you have not grasped the great blessing that God intends to give you through the Holy Spirit. And sadly for many people that is the case. They give little if any real consideration to the activity of the Holy Spirit in their lives. And if that is the case they often then give little thought to His place in the life and work of the church. Sadly we can trundle along in our lives and in the life of the church, day in and day out, week in and week out, without giving any real thought to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Or indeed without attaching any real importance to the work of the Holy Spirit. The result it that we are in danger of becoming like those whom Paul describes as having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Now I would like us to examine these two OT themes further — how the Messiah will be anointed by the Spirit and how He will usher in a new age of the Spirit.
(2) That brings us to the second point in this episode where we see clearly that not only is Jesus identified by the coming of the Spirit. But He is also filled with the Spirit. Twice in these verses John makes the point that He is the one on whom the Spirit descends and remains. Jesus is a man who is filled with the Holy Spirit. The other evangelists make this point perhaps even more explicit whenever they speak of how following His baptism Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit was taken into the desert to be tempted.
Jesus was a man filled with the Holy Spirit and under the authority and direction of the Holy Spirit. He is the one to whom 'God gives the Spirit without limit.' (Jn 3:34) He is the one God anointed with 'the Holy Spirit and power.'(Acts 10:38) Now here we begin to peer into holy mysteries as we consider the idea that the one who was the very Son of God, was also filled with the Holy Spirit. We are brought into the complex and mysterious realm of the relationships between the members of the godhead. And the relationship between the human Jesus and His divinity. And it is perhaps one of those areas in which we draw assurance from the fact that it has taxed greater minds than ours!
But we can say this. That in His humanity Jesus was, like any other human being, reliant upon the Spirit of God. He was reliant upon Him to live the life He lived. And He was reliant upon Him to do the things He did. This is how He is able to speak God's words. This is how He is able to carry on God's works. In His humanity Jesus was fully reliant upon the Holy Spirit. That is also the reason why He prayed. That in His prayer He expressed His complete reliance upon the Holy Spirit to carry on the works which God had called Him to do. Jesus was, in Sinclair Ferguson's[info] words, 'the man of the Spirit par excellence.' Basil of Caesarea, one of the influential figures in the early church, described the Holy Spirit as 'Christ's inseparable companion.'
Now it's easy to think about these things and then to dismiss them as interesting theological points. Or to dismiss them as interesting but impractical. But what John is telling us here has great practical significance for us as we think about the Christian life.
The first point is to notice that Jesus is a man filled with the Spirit. He is the one who is filled with the Spirit without measure. And so if we want to know what the Spirit filled life looks like, then we look to Jesus. Now this is a critical point of great practical importance. In an age when people have all kinds of ideas about what the activity of the Spirit looks like. And how we might know the work of the Spirit in our lives. Well, here is the answer. We must look to Jesus as the man who is supremely filled with the Spirit. We might say that Jesus puts a face to the activity of the Holy Spirit. If we want to know about the work of the Holy Spirit in someone's life then we must look at Jesus.
People have all kinds of fanciful notions about what the work of the Holy Spirit. But here is the key to understanding the work of the Holy Spirit. The chief work of the Holy Spirit is to conform us to the image of Christ. And so if we want to know about the work of the Holy Spirit then we must first and foremost look to Jesus as man living His life in perfect communion with the Holy Spirit. A man filled to the fullness with the Holy Spirit. To use our modern terminology Jesus is our role-model for the Spirit-filled life. And if we keep that to the forefront of our thinking it will deliver us from a great many errors regarding the work of the Holy Spirit.
The second point we should notice is the fact that Jesus lived His life in intimate dependence upon the Holy Spirit serves as a rebuke to us. For so often we try to live our lives apart from that dependence upon the Holy Spirit. We try to live our lives in our own strength. We try to serve God in our own strength. We try to fight temptation on our own. We seek to live by our own wisdom. But if the very Son of God lived His life in that prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God what does that say about our need to do likewise? Can we honestly say, 'Jesus lived that way but I don't need too?' The reality is that all too often that is what we are saying.
Imagine you had an ambition to be an opera singer. And a world famous opera singer heard about this and offered to train you for three years. For two years they would help train your voice, show you how not to strain your voice, how to breathe, all about posture, how to rest your voice and so forth. So you go and join them. But after a month you leave. You say, 'well I know all there is to know now. I don't need to learn anything else. Indeed they could learn a few things from me now.' It would of course be hugely insulting to the opera singer. It would be arrogant beyond belief. And it would display not your ability but your ignorance.
Well, we must see that that is how we behave towards Jesus, if we do not learn to live that life of constant companionship with the Holy Spirit. We are in effect saying 'I know it all. I can do it by myself.' It is sinful folly. Our lack of concern for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That failure to live as Jesus lived in the power of the Holy Spirit is a failure that rebukes us.
(3) We see, according to John, that Jesus comes to baptise with the Holy Spirit. That as the man who is filled with the Spirit He can then baptise with the Spirit. Again John is signifying here the beginning of the age of the Messiah. When, as the OT foretold, there would be a new work of God's spirit. A work that would surpass anything carried on under the old covenant. A work that would overcome the human weakness that undermined man's position under the old covenant.
The immediate contrast here is between John's baptism and Jesus baptism. Where John baptised with water signifying repentance Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit imparting the gift of spiritual life. John's baptism marks the transitional period between the old age and the new. Jesus baptism with the Spirit marks the beginning of the new messianic age.
Now whenever we look at the OT anticipation of the age of the Spirit we see that it is marked out by two key features. Features which are interrelated. In the first instance the coming age of the Holy Spirit would be marked out by the fact that it would change lives. Repeatedly under the old covenant the problem with God's people was the problem of the human heart. That although God's people had received the covenant blessings, the promises of God and the mark of the covenant in the flesh, their hearts remained hard. But in this new era God's promise is that He will change the hearts of His people through the work of His Spirit.
So God says through the prophet Ezekiel, 'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (36:26,27). The coming of the Holy Spirit will bring about a dramatic inward change in God's people. Where they will no longer be inclined to rebel against God but to follow Him faithfully.
But of course we see in the OT that many other figures enjoyed the presence of God's Spirit with them. So what is different here? Well, this brings us to the second significant feature of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the NT era. That is the permanency of His work. That whilst in the OT we witness certain people being given the Spirit to perform certain tasks for God, in the NT we see the Holy Spirit coming to dwell with God's people. This is perhaps expressed most fully in the idea of the universal scope of the Spirit's work in the coming age. In this day all of God's people will be filled with that intimate knowledge of God as Jeremiah 31:33,34 proclaims. And as Joel declares in that day God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.' (Joel 2:28)
Wherever we look in the OT the promises of the coming Spirit declare His coming in abundance and with universal scope. Promises we see gloriously fulfilled on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts.
And it is to this coming abundant, heart changing work of the Holy Spirit that John identifies Jesus here. He is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit. The image of baptism is itself an image of abundance. As Baptists we are sensitive to the fact that the word 'baptism' as it appears in the Bible is not translated from the Greek but simply transliterated. So what John is saying here is that Jesus will 'immerse' with the Holy Spirit. He comes to soak with the Holy Spirit. He comes to lavish the gift of the Holy Spirit upon His people.
Let me briefly draw your attention to two consequences of this.
The first is that the gift of the Holy Spirit brings about inward renewal. Why? Well, as we noted, it overcomes the disobedient heart that is orientated away from God. It changes our hearts towards God and His word, so that we love these things. Hence He is not just the Spirit, He is the Holy Spirit. He sanctifies us by changing our hearts. This is crucial to His ministry. If you want to know if you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, then you must ask this question. Do I love God? How do you know if you love God? John tells us, 'This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.' (1Jn 5:3) You have received the gift of the Spirit if you delight in God and His commands.
Secondly, if we have truly grasped this message of the coming of the Holy Spirit we will see its place in salvation history. We will see that the age in which we live is supremely the age of the Holy Spirit of God. We will recognise that this is the great blessing of the age in which we live. And it will be all our desire and all our delight to earnestly seek to know the fullness of this wonderful gift.
© David Luke
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