God the Father is easy enough to picture, and so is Jesus, but how do you picture the Holy Spirit? One student admitted that for years he imagined him as a tiny man shut up inside him, banging on the pipes of his conscience like a caretaker locked in a building. This sermon turns to the words of Jesus in John’s Gospel (John 14-16), where the Spirit is called helper, defender and advocate, the one who lets us see with the heart what the eyes cannot see. Listen if you want to understand why Jesus said it was better for us that he should go.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- In John 16:7 Jesus says, "It is better for you that I go away." Why might these words have sounded strange to the disciples, and according to the sermon, why is the coming of the Holy Spirit better for us?
- According to John 16:8-11 the Spirit convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment. How do you understand these three areas, and how does the picture of the Spirit as an advocate or defender fit them?
- The sermon stressed that the Holy Spirit is a person, not just a power or a symbol. What images of the Holy Spirit do you carry, and what in John 14 to 16 confirms or corrects them?
- The speaker listed many moments when the Spirit worked unnoticed: meeting a believer at work, an invitation to a service, a sermon that seemed to be about you. Where do you see His fingerprints on your own journey to Jesus?
- Jesus ties loving Him to keeping His commandments and promises that He and the Father will come and make their home with such a person. What does it mean to you that obedience is an invitation rather than a threat?
- After his baptism, Marek noticed he could no longer swear and shout at the men he supervised. In what specific situation this week do you want to let the Holy Spirit grow the fruit of gentleness, patience or self-control in you?
