The Spirit Meets the Mission’s Needs

0:00You don't need to feel bold and strong and valiant right now. You don't. You just need to say, when it comes, I swear I feel that 70. I don't like the prospect of dying. I like the idea of being with Jesus, but like RC Sproul uses it. I'm not afraid of death. I'm just afraid of dying. No old person likes what they see at the nursing home. So how do you face that? How do you deal with that and the answers? He'll be there. He'll give what you need. There's a kind of fear that comes from looking too far ahead and asking, what if I can't handle that? What if I'm not bold enough, not steady enough, not faithful enough? Piper's answer here is deeply freeing. I'm your host, Dan Cruver. In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper reminds us that the spirit of God does not

1:04merely send us in the hard places. He sustains us there. This message was originally delivered at Cross Conference in Indianapolis on December 28, 2016. The great commission is to go and make disciples baptizing them in the name, not names of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, which means that if that is not to be gibberish at the baptismal recitation, we're called to teach everything that Jesus taught, which includes the personhood of the Holy Spirit and of the Son and their co-eternal nature with the Father. Otherwise we're talking nonsense when we baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

2:05We're not sent into the world to talk nonsense. We're sent to talk very mysterious and wonderful things as we baptize people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What we say in a nutshell is the one God standing forth in three persons eternally of the same nature, co-eternal with each other is that the Father planned our salvation. The Son came and purchased our salvation and the Holy Spirit now is applying and extending and spreading our salvation throughout the world. We live in the third great era of earth's history. The first era from creation to incarnation was the era of a focus on the monotheistic

3:09God with only dim echoes of the trinitarian nature of God. So the Father has preeminence until the incarnation. For 33 years the Son goes on display as never before. Jesus Christ, second person of the trinity, gets all the attention for those 33 years. He goes back. He pours out the Holy Spirit who is working today until Jesus comes back. We live in the era of the Spirit. Our question is what's his mission? What was he sent to do? And what does he promise to do in your life as part of his mission? The answer to his mission, and this is the sentence I hope you can repeat when we're done, the ultimate mission of the Holy Spirit is given in John 16, 14.

4:14He goes like this, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will glorify me, Jesus talking. When the Holy Spirit is sent, is poured out after my ascension. He will glorify me. Now he does many other things. We're going to talk about a few of them. You were made to make much of Jesus. And I'm saying the Holy Spirit was sent to make much of Jesus or the Holy Spirit was sent to help you make much of Jesus. That's why we sent his ultimate mission in the world is to magnify Jesus. That's why we call him the shy member of the trinity. He's always putting Jesus up, putting Jesus up. And if you want him to be at work in your life, put Jesus up. If you want to be at work in your small group, put Jesus up. He loves to make Jesus shine. That's why he came. He came to glorify Jesus.

5:15And that means reveal the beauty of Jesus to people who are blind. Open the eyes of the blind, raise the dead so they can see Jesus. The world is blind, the world is dead. They don't see Jesus as supremely beautiful, supremely great, supremely powerful, supremely wise, supremely valuable. The treasure of their lives, they don't. He's boring. He just fits into some theological pocket over there or non-theological pocket and they will remain that way without the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit opens eyes when Jesus is lifted up through mouths or books, blogs, tweets. The global admiration of the glory of Christ is the goal of God in the world and the work of the Spirit. Romans 1.5, we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of the name of Jesus among the nations.

6:22So Jesus magnified among the nations is the work of the Holy Spirit and He aims to use you to do it. Last question. What is He committed to do for you? If you want to go, if you're contemplating, I just want to be totally available, whatever He wants me to do, what is He promised to do for me if I'm out there utterly yielded? Number one, He has given you life. Let's just start there. He has given you spiritual life. You need to know that's how you are alive. Romans 2, Ephesians 2.5, the Holy Spirit will make you alive and He made you alive. John 663, it is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is of no help. John 36, that which is born of the flesh, flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. So born, born from what?

7:23To life, to life, that which is born of the flesh, flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit and the Spirit is life. Paul said it this way. Second, Grindin's 36. We are ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills the Spirit gives life. So do you have any life in you? About life, I simply mean, is your Spirit, your heart, your soul awake to the beauty of Christ, the value of Christ, so that you say, He's my treasure. I treasure Jesus above everything. If that's you, you're alive. And you got alive because the Holy Spirit raised you from the dead. You were blind and now you see Jesus as surpassing value. What a miracle. You should be so happy about that. You should give Him all the credit. You should wake up in the morning every day, amazed that you're a Christian giving Him all the glory. Number two, the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of salvation.

8:25This is really relevant because a lot of Christians, most Christians, all Christians at some point struggle with the assurance of their salvation. So not only does the Holy Spirit make you alive, He helps you know you're alive. Here's the key text. Romans 8, 13 to 16. If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body. So by the Spirit you crucify, mortify, put to death sinful deeds that your body might otherwise perform. If you kill them before they happen by the Spirit, you will live for an utterly crucial word, all who are led by the Spirit, all the sons of God. Now keep that connection in mind because we're going to come back and talk about how the witness of the Holy Spirit works here. For all who are led by the Spirit, led what? Led what? To marry, to go to school, to be missionary, no. Led into warfare with your sin. Get me read again. So you see that.

9:26Four, you did not receive the Spirit of slave. Read it fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons. When we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. Now there are two ways, and get this, this may be the most important thing for your struggle that you hear in this message. There are two ways the Holy Spirit works by His witness to give you assurance that you're really saved. One, He leads you. And in the context what we saw was, the leadership is lead you into hatred of and battle against your sin. I hate it. I'm killing. I'm a murderer. I hate my sin more than I hate anybody or anything. You do that? You hate your sin more than you hate the devil? Your sin is a way bigger problem than the devil is. The devil cannot put you in hell. Your sin can. Your sin is the biggest problem in the world.

10:31You hate it. You make war on it. If you do, the Holy Spirit is loudly witnessing bearing testimony. Your mind, because everybody led by the Holy Spirit is the Son of God. And secondly, do you, like a little baby, helpless putting on no airs say, Abba, Father, I need you. I think that's what's implied. I think that's why Paul said Abba. Like, might he say Abba instead of just Father? Everyone says Father is experiencing the witness of the Holy Spirit because he was trying to say, no, no, no. The real witness of the Holy Spirit is the work in here of a child's likeness unless

11:31you turn to come like children, you will never enter the kingdom of God. He has worked a childishness in you, a little desperate helpless. I need help. I have a nobody. I can't save myself. I've got to have a daddy. I can't live without help. That's the Holy Spirit talking. Is it not a computerized Abba, Father? This is real childlike, happy cry to the Father. So if you're hating your sin and putting it to death and if you are brokenhearted little child calling out to your Father, you're a Christian. Now, you can know it because he's working those things in you. That's number two, the assurance of salvation. Number three, the Holy Spirit sanctifies you. He only gives you life, gives you assurance, he starts transforming you.

12:34Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13, God shows you as the first fruits to be saved through, to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit. So salvation and the pathway there through the pathway to final salvation, heaven is holiness. Stripe for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12, 14, holiness and that holiness is by the Spirit. You are totally dependent on the Holy Spirit to get to heaven because you're totally dependent on the Holy Spirit to become holy and nobody goes to heaven if they're not holy. And I love the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Yes I do. We're not playing games here. The Holy Spirit is not dwelling in you for nothing.

13:38He means for you to be holy and He will do it. Not perfect. That's a heresy. Number four, He fills you with joy and power for boldness in witness. He fills you with joy and power for boldness in witness. Verse 518, Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit. So you are commanded in this room right now to be filled with the Spirit. Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit. Addressing, here's a participle. You gotta figure out how this participle works, right? Addressing. My suggestion is that it's the overflow. It's what you do with your full of the Spirit.

14:41Addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, making melody to the Lord with your heart, whatever ethnicity you are, you know, with cramped emotions or wonderful emotions. It's matter. You're told to sing and make melody to the Lord from your heart because that's what happens when you're full of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit brims over enjoyable songs to the Lord. Now, I think that is beyond above steady state ordinary contented Christianity. I don't know of any Christian who in history or today has walked consistently in the fullness

15:45of the Holy Spirit as I'm explaining it right now. Nobody. Not Paul, Peter, pick your favorite hero, Christian. One of them has experienced Roman Ephesians 5, 18 by moment all their life. Otherwise, I don't think Paul would even bother commanding it if that were normal, steady state Christianity. So I'm interpreting fullness over the Spirit as a special. It's special. It happens repeatedly in the book of Acts. Not one time, not like the baptism of the Spirit wants or something, but repeatedly. And it comes with unusual, joyful power for boldness in witness. For example, Acts 4.31, when they had prayed and the place in which they had gathered was

16:45shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and were speaking the Word of God with boldness. Now that happened. That was a happening. A half an hour earlier, it wasn't the same. Jesus connected this directly with World Missions in Acts 1, 7, and 8. He was about to return to heaven. The disciples said, will you now at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? And he said, it is not for you to know the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power, power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Al-Judiya and Samaria.

17:47Earlier at the end of the Gospel of Luke, I think he described this as being clothed with power, different pictures of this empowering, special, outpouring of the Holy Spirit from on high that we should want so badly. So I'm arguing there is a special fullness for power, unusual joy, boldness in witness that is beyond different, something more than the good, ordinary, sweet fellowship that you have with Jesus every day. Martin Lloyd Jones described it like this. He said, picture God like a father walking with a little child, hand in hand, and they're walking down the road on a beautiful day. And the child is happy. Content, just glad to have daddy's hand on my hand, looking all around, and suddenly the

18:51Father owing to nothing but pure affection, sweeps the little child up because, looks and says, I just love you. Have the child is so glad. He said, that's the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Nothing wrong with walking like this. If you've ever been in a situation where you need extraordinary boldness and your mind is suddenly becoming distracted and you can hardly remember a Bible verse and everything in your head is going haywire. You need help. Big time. And so today in the book of Acts, and so we should plead to God for the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That is for a special joy, a special power, a special anointing, a special outpouring for Yemen and for Japan and for your city and your church.

19:54Not the ordinary good, good, good steady state Christianity. I devoted most of my life 33 years to steady state Christianity. I'm happy with the fruit God bore at Bethlehem. But oh, I was ever calling out for some extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We saw little seasons where there was remarkable urnuses about prayer and bonus and missions, but not as big as we all long for. Number five, the Holy Spirit gives special guidance in your mission for Christ. Special guidance. This needs amazing texts. Acts 20-22, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit not knowing what will happen to me there. Acts 19-21, Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia. I go to Jerusalem saying after I've been there, I'm a sea-room. I'm resolved in the Spirit.

20:55I'm resolved in the Spirit to go. Acts 16-6, they went through the region of Phrygian Galatia having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. You start to go there? No. How did that happen? I don't know. He just, the Holy Spirit didn't let it happen. He guided them not to go there. Acts 13-2, while they were worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart from a Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Solution and from there they sailed to Cyprus. If you count every branch of the Christian church today, every imaginable branch of the Christian church, there are about 400,000 foreign missionaries in the world. In 10 years, hundreds of you, I believe, are going to be among that number.

21:57You will be somewhere. You will be among some people group. You'll be performing some task. How will you get there? From here to there. How will that happen? Answer. The Holy Spirit will get you there. Let's see, will. And so when you call upon Him for guidance, believe that. Believe that. 6-6, the Holy Spirit will give you everything you need for suffering and death. A life obedience to Christ in the cause of world missions requires some measure of suffering. It does, just required. It won't happen without it. It may cost you your life. I don't doubt that there are martyrs in this room. I do not doubt it. If I had to, will it to my head here and somebody said, there won't be martyrs in this room.

23:02You get a bullet. If you get it wrong, I would say they're going to be martyrs. Then it might be one. I don't think so. I don't think so. That wouldn't be a martyr. Let me stupid. The Holy Spirit will give you everything you need. Listen to this. Luke 21-16, you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. And some of you, they will put to death. As my question to you is, will you be able to stand in that moment? Will you be able to endure to the end? And my answer is yes you will. And the reason I have confidence that you will is because of what the Holy Spirit will do for you. Right now you do not feel that, probably. Jesus the salonians 1-6, you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the

24:08Word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. These are brand new baby Christians. And as soon as they crossed the line into faith, they get persecuted. And they are happy. That's not normal. That's a miracle. That's why he calls it the joy of the Holy Spirit. So I'm generalizing. I'm saying that's what he does for suffering people. His people suffer. He's called them to suffer. And he's there. He will not let you be stranded without the spiritual resources to endure the suffering. Peter put it like this. I love this text.

25:08Verse Peter 4-14, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, now I'm going to generalize from an experience of being insulted out to other kinds of suffering, but you see if that's a legitimate. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed. Why? Because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. What does that mean? If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed. It doesn't feel like a blessing. Oh, yes. Why? The Spirit of God, of glory and of God rests on you. I think that means, don't you? Whatever form the suffering comes in, there's a presence. There's a glory. There's a spiritual arrival.

26:12So that an hour before the torture or the firing squad, your heart may be beating with uncertainty, what you can maintain, your faith, because the Holy Spirit is going to give you what you need when the hour requires. And I'm just asking you to believe that he will, because he promises to. You don't need to feel bold and strong and valiant right now. You don't. You just need to say, when it comes, I swear I feel that 70, I don't like the prospect of dying. I like the idea of being with Jesus, but like R.C. Sproul uses it. I'm not afraid of death. I'm just afraid of dying. No old person likes what they see at the nursing home. So how do you face that? How do you deal with that? And the answer is he'll be there. He'll give what you need. No, 7. Finally, the Holy Spirit will raise you from the dead.

27:15Romans 8, 11. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also. If the Spirit dwells in your mortal body, He who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also. Life from the dead, assurance of salvation, holiness or sanctification, fullness of joy and power for witness, guidance, help in suffering and death, and finally resurrection. The Holy Spirit will not fail you. He promises you all those things as you go with Him into His mission. Thank you for listening to this episode of Light and Truth, where we are committed to providing God-centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and treasure Him truly. I'm your host, Dan Cruver. On our next episode, John Piper concludes our five-part series, Joy that reaches the

28:20nations with the message titled, Give Your Life for Lasting Game. I hope you'll join us. For more resources visit desiringgod.org.