HOLY
SPIRIT- EMPOWERED
Introduction: What comes to
your mind when you hear the word Empowered? Do we think of a police officer in
uniform who flagged your car and gave you a traffic violation ticket? What provides
the policeman with authority and makes him powerful? The police department’s
badge and the uniform give him authority, and the gun in his hands makes him
powerful. So, we better listen to him in the traffic. When he removes his
policeman’s clothes, he has no more authority.
We
respect and admire people who are empowered, right? But did you know that every born-again
believer is also empowered? You may be
wondering by whom, how, and why? Last week we began our journey to understand
Hope Church’s Core values. To refresh your memory, what is a core value? It
is a principle that guides an organization's internal conduct as well as its
relationship with the external world. Before my arrival here as a
pastor, a team of people may have prayerfully identified six core values that
would guide internal conduct and help Hope Church in their relationship with
the outside world.
For
the next several weeks, we will look at our Core Values and what they mean to
us as a church. How are they shaping our internal conduct, and how are they influencing
us in our relationships with the outside world? Our first core value is that we
are a Biblically-Centered Church. This means God’s word the scriptures are our
final authority in all matters of life. Our second Core Value is that we are a
Holy Spirit-Empowered Church.
We
all hunger for life in the Spirit; without the Spirit’s influence, no amount of
Bible knowledge amounts to anything of eternal value. At Hope Church, we
earnestly pray for the Holy Spirit to convict non-believers and empower
believers to be powerful witnesses for Him.
I title this message, Holy Spirit-Empowered. John 16:5-15
If
we truly hunger for life in the Spirit and are convinced that the Sprit’s
empowerment is necessary for a fruitful and purposeful living, then it is
essential that we understand all the Holy Spirit has in store for us. Let’s
bear the fruit and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit for God’s glory.
John
Maxwell notes, “Leaders can never empower anyone else until they are first
supernaturally empowered themselves…Whenever someone is filled with the Holy
Spirit, something happens. Empowered leaders express God’s power; then empower
others.” Before we look further, how do we understand who the Holy Spirit is,
and what are his workings in the life of a believer? How and why He empowers
believers?
I. Who is the Holy
Spirit?
The context for
our passage is set in John chapter 14, where Jesus consoled his grieving
disciples that they were not going to be left as orphans because he was going
to send another helper or advocate. The Greek term here literally means, “one
called alongside to help. This helper
will be with them and in them forever. He will make a permanent residence in
believers.
In
Vs. 17, Jesus clarified who this helper was by saying, “He is the Holy Spirit,
who leads into all truth.” That brings us to the question of who is the Holy
Spirit? If you have grown up in the church, you have been taught about the Holy
Spirit as the third person in the Trinity. The scriptures teach us that God has
manifested himself as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We
see this concept of the Triune God throughout the Bible. For example.
Genesis
1:1-3 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The
earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the
Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God
said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
The Bible begins, continues, and ends
with the working of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. For
that reason, at Hope Church, we believe and worship the Triune God.
II. Why did the
Holy Spirit come into this world?
The
Holy Spirit came into the world to continue and complete what Jesu came to do,
which is to save the lost and to represent Jesus here on the earth. John 14:
26, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative that is the
Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I
have told you.”
Jesus
further explained the three exclusive works that the Holy Spirit only could do.
John 16:8-11, “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of
God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it
refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the
Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of
this world has already been judged.”
The
first work of the Holy Spirit is the conviction of Sin. Though all humanity is
depraved and cursed by their violation of God’s law and sinful by nature, what
ultimately the Holy Spirit convicts of them is their sin of unbelief. Their
unwillingness to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as savior. I still remember
how I came under the compelling conviction of the Holy Spirit in that
evangelistic meeting three decades ago and surrendered my life to Christ.
Secondly,
the Holy Spirit will convict people about true righteousness by exposing their
self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Jesus often called out those who were
righteous in their own eyes. He called them blind guides, hypocrites,
whitewashed tombs, and the children of the devil. After Jesus ascended to heaven, now it is the work of the Holy
Spirit to call out and expose the darkness of the human heart. We can feel the
weight of such conviction when we come under it. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit
convicts the individual believer and the world about the upcoming judgment. God
has already pronounced judgment upon Satan, the great deceiver.
The
Holy Spirit inspired John the evangelist to record what will happen to Satan,
and those who follow him, and the glorious future of all those who have
believed in Jesus in the last two chapters of the book of Revelation. That
brings us to our third point, how and why the Holy Spirit empowers all
believers in Christ.
III. Holy Spirit-Empowered.
Besides convicting people of
unbelief, righteousness, and judgment, the Holy Spirit is sent into the world
to come alongside and help the believers in their spiritual journey. It is one
thing to be born again, pray, read your bible, and attend church regularly, but
it is another thing to be Empowered by the Holy Spirit. You might be wondering
why I need empowerment?
If
you want to live a life that is pleasing and honoring to God, and if you want
your life to count, if you're going to impact this world for Christ, then you
need this empowerment. Jesus had promised to His disciples that they would be
empowered by the Holy Spirit, for what?
Acts
1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you
will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere-in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The Greek word
Dunamis means power from where we get the English word dynamite. In other words,
when the Holy Spirit comes upon God’s people, they will become bold and
explosive for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
We knew by reading the Church history, what
happened to an uneducated, and dejected disciple of Christ named Peter? When He was filled with the Holy Spirit, he
gave a powerful sermon and three thousand people were convicted by the Holy
Spirit and were baptized.
That
was the beginning of the worldwide church of Jesus Christ. God is not yet done.
God desires that all his followers would be empowered by the Holy Spirit so
that they can be powerful witnesses for Him in this world and bring more people
into His Kingdom.
How
is the Holy Spirit empowering individual believers and the church at large? By
causing them to bear fruit and equipping them with various ministry gifts. The
apostle Paul encourages the believers in Galatia to live and be guided by the
Holy Spirit so that Holy Spirit will produce fruit in them. The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23.
How
are you bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life? Now about the gifts.
I Peter 4:10, “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of
spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.” These gifts are not meant
for us to enjoy but to serve one another. The Bible records three categories of
Gifts. Today we only have time to look at them briefly.
The
first category, a set of seven motivational gifts: Romans 12:6-8, 1. Prophecy.
2. Server. 3. Teacher. 4. Exhorter. 5. Giver. 6. Leadership. 7. Mercy. The
second category, a set of nine manifestation gifts: I Corinthians 12:7-10, 1.
The word of wisdom. 2. The word of knowledge. 3. Faith. 4. Gifts of healings.
5. Working of miracles. 6. Prophecy. 7. Discerning of spirits. 8. Various kinds
of tongues. 9. Interpretation of tongues.
The
third category, a set of five ministry or equipping gifts: Ephesians 4:11, 1.
The apostle. 2. The prophet. 3. The evangelist. 4. The pastor. 5. The
teacher. These are not titles, but functions. I encourage you to go home and
read about these different gifts; I am sure you will find one or two gifts the
Holy Spirit may have given you. If so, how are you using those gifts?
The
Holy Spirit gives us these gifts so that we might serve one another. If being
empowered by the Holy Spirit is one of our core values, then we must study and
learn about all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including the gift of speaking
in tongues. It is not enough to know about them but use them in the Lord’s
service. My prayer is that the Lord will continue to fill us with His Holy
Spirit. That is what makes Hope Church Holy Spirit-Empowered. Amen!
