Holy Spirit - Part 20: Our Teacher
In the last conversation with His disciples before His crucifixion Jesus made a statement that was revealing of what was to be the next step in God's revelation of Himself to man.
John 14:26
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you”.
Here we see that the Lord revealed a two fold purpose for the coming of the Holy Spirit, teaching, and bringing to remembrance what Jesus had already taught. It may be better to consider the second purpose first.
This promise was made primarily to the Apostles and is the guarantee of the accuracy of their report of what Jesus said however the Holy Spirit does a similar work with each believer. The Holy Spirit brings to our mind the teachings of Christ and of the Word just when we need them for either a necessity of our life or our service.
It is by the Spirit bringing His words to remembrance and then later continuing to teach us the truth of those words that we obtain and then abide in His peace.
There is a more explicit promise made to us on this matter two chapters later.
John 16:12-14
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now, Howbeit, when He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you”.
This promise was first made to the Apostles, but the Apostles themselves applied it to all believers.
1 John 2:20
“But ye have an unction (meaning an act of anointing) from the Holy One, and ye know all things”.
It is a privilege of each believer in Jesus Christ, even the most humble among us, to be taught of God through His Spirit, sent to each of us exactly for that purpose.
While each of us learns much from men, we are not dependent upon them. We have a Divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit. The most precious and ultimate truth concerning godly things is taught only by Him. The believer taught by this Holy One will understand the truth of God even better that scholars who may have deep knowledge of both Hebrew and Greek.
This step by step teaching occurs over time. Each moment, hour, and day brings further teaching as we seek His will that we should know more.
There are some things which God has seen fit to keep to Himself, secret things belonging only to Him.
Duet 29:29
“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God...”.
Among those things are the time of the Lord's second coming. No man is allowed to know this time (as taught in Acts 1:7). No amount of speculation nor study will reveal to man those things God has reserved unto Himself.
The teaching of the Spirit is above all things designed to reveal the truth of Jesus Christ and thereby to bring glory unto Him as we learn more and more is reflected in our lives in His image.
On the day of Pentecost when Peter and the rest of the Lord's own were filled with the Holy Spirit, they talked about Jesus, speaking little if any concerning the Holy Spirit.
Peter's great sermon on that day as seen in Acts 2 rested only on the them of Jesus and by that sermon, 3,000 souls were saved. Had Peter tried to preach that same sermon the day before, there would have been no such results.
We read also in scripture how the Spirit reveals not the things of the world, but the deep matters of God to all chosen and saved.
1 Cor 2:9-13
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him...”.
These things are freely given to us and revealed that we should become better stewards of His truth as long as we remain here to do His will and work. Not only does the Spirit reveal these things but He also assures that we understand them.
Psalm 119:18
“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things...”.
In theory, our modern church recognizes the insufficiency of man's righteousness. Perhaps we need a renewed acceptance that in these modern days of the insufficiency of man's wisdom.
There seem to be three things that may be hindering the effective communication of that need in our modern day assemblies:
Some other message is being taught other than the message revealed by the Holy Spirit. Much preaching tries to discuss science, art, literature and economics, and the current poor state of world affairs, not the direct and simple message of God as taught by the Holy Spirit as found in the Book he wrote for us – the Bible.
The Spirit taught understanding tries to be understood by the thoughts of natural man as opposed to seeking understanding though prayerful study begging the Spirit to sit beside us, and guide and teach us more.
There seems to be a reluctance to recall and renew the fact taught clearly in our Holy Word that only by full and humble surrender do we begin to welcome once more the wishes of God into ourselves.
Psalm 51:16-17
“Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it...The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart...”.
He must be the power as well as the message.
We must rely on the Spirit. Biblical study and interpretation is a spiritual exercise. We must depend on the light given by the Holy Spirit to avoid error as we seek to interpret the Word of God correctly. This dependence we must have upon the Spirit as our teacher was foretold by Jesus.
John 6:63
“It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”.