The Holy Spirit

John 16: 13-15

As first and most important question we ask:

What is the work of the Holy Spirit as meant in this text fragment.

To this we connect the following questions:

What has the Holy Spirit heard and what does he take from the Lord Jesus as the Son??

And thirdly:

What is of the Father?

We shall treat the last question first, followed by the second question, and finally we shall see the first question being answered by the second and last.

What is of the Father?

It was the twelve year old Jesus who gave an answer to this when He was sought by His mother.

When she asked "Son, why have you treated us so ?", he aswered with "Did you not know that I must be in My Father's house?"

The things of His Father Jesus found in the Tempel and everything that belonged to it, namely, the service as it was held there, the laws and regulations and the psalmbooks and the books of the Prophets that were kept in the Tempel.

Shortly, there He found everything that God Jehova had worked and revealed in the 01d Covenant and these were all things of His Father.

It is known to us that the 01d Covenant a shadow and example is of the New Covenant.

In that 0ld Covenant, which seems hard for us because of the service of death as the apostle Paul names it, the love of the Father beams at us. He wants the recalcitrant mankind to feel his impotence so that they shall regain the lost Paradise by their own merit and good wotks.

The love of a Father who in the fallen human child wants to amuse the longing for a Saviour, yes, fot the Saviour who was to be given by the Lord God Himself to lead back mankind to Him and save them from the misery they had sunk to.

The love of the Father, which expressed itself in the peace offerings; and the Lord indicating love and forgiveness, Whose name at the lawmaking on the Sinai was called by Moses: "Lord, Lord God, charitable and merciful, long-suffering and of great mildness and truth".

The love of the father which expresses itself in the psalms and the Prophets, and in which the Spirit of Christ revealed itself. See Peter 1:10,11.

All the laws and ordinances and revelations in the Old Covenant were like the Manna, the bread from heaven, the image of the Word of God. Of this the needed was given to the people, but the great mysteries that were a part of these were kept in the Sanctuary by the High Priest.

And this would, like the manna that was concealed, be revealed as being the true bread from Heaven, in the Lord Jesus as the Word made Flesh. (John 6:48).

And so were the things that were of the Father, including that of the Son as the Word; and that of the Old Covenant which in found fulfilment in Him.

And therefore he could also say: "He, who has seen me,has seen the Father."

And, now the Holy Spirit was to take from Himself but also from that which was of the Father !!.

That's why in the present in the prophecy, from the Old Covenant as well as the New Covenant we find the imagery.

And now: What is it that the Holy Spirit has heard and shall take from the Son?

It all flows into one whole for had not the Word spoken in the Old Covenant: "Lo I come...I delight to do thy will" Psalms 48:7,8.

And did not the flesh that had become Word speak during it's bitter suffering: "Thy will be done!".

See there, THAT is what the Spirit has heard; THAT is what he shall take from the Son, namely to let it be known to the people and to te h them to LET GODS WILL BE DONE.

Therefore is He the Teacher of Truth who shall lead in truth. To make sinners capable to do the Lord God's will.

The Holy Spirit has heard how the Lord Jesus prayed for his people as the High Priest, and therefore the Holy Spirit prays also with unspeakable lamentations.

The Holy Spirit has heard how Jesus, like the Word, spoke: " Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory".

And therefore the Holy Spint proclaims the future of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He puts us in mind of everything that the Lord, as the Word, has spoken and this the Spirit takes from both that which is of the Father and that which is of the Son and therefore from the Word.

Behold, all of the above is already an answer to our first Question: " What is the work of the Holy Spirit as meant in this text fragment?"

We can however express and shortly summarise this as follows: The work of the Holy Spirit is that which the Lord Jesus revealed on earth, namely He was God and revealed the Divine on earth, and the Holy Spirit does the same.

The Holy Spirit lived in the body of the Lord Jesus and revealed therefrom the Divine, and this the Spirit does now also, in and through and from the body, the congregation.

According to Philippians 3:20,21 the Holy Spirit also is the force or the action through which we are once made identical to the Holy and Glorious body of the Lord.

Through bis purifying and holifying fire the Holy Spirit prepares us for the Day of the First Fruits.

This Day of the First Fruits is portrayed for us also in the feast of Whitsun of the Israelites (see Numbers 28:26), who then had to come to the Sanctuary with two leavened breads that had been baked from two-tenths of the flour of the new wheat harvest.

Just like the Lord and therefore the Bread is from Heaven, such is also His body, the congregation like that bread that is prepared by His Word and worked by the fire of the Holy Spirit.

His congregation of first fruits comes forth from the Kingdom of God- (the number ten)-, and consists of the first and the last Apostolic Church- (the two breads)- while they are brought forth by the dual testimony- (the two-tenths of flour)-.

There was a striking difference between the breads of Easter and those of Whitsun.

The breads during Easter have to be unleavened, as the image of the non-sinful bread from Heaven, just like the Lord Jesus.

However, the breads during Whitsun were leavened, as the image of the congregation of first fruits that sprung forth from the sinful people.

Yet these sinful people are still prepared by the Holy Spirit as firstling bread in order to be brought to the Sanctuary.

They are prepared with a special care to be brought as first fruits, being the chosen ones. This is where we recognise the image of the admission of the congregation of first fruits.

Later then comes the great harvest feast, known as the Feast of Tabernacles which is celebratcd at the end of the year, for then alt the fruit had been taken from the fields and the trees.

The complete harvest ended with the Feast of Tabemacles and is the shadow image of the selection of believers that stay behind when the Lord Jesus with His glorified Sainh returns to found the 1000-year realm of peace.

Then even the heathens with join the celebrations of the Feast of Tabernacles for they shall also fall under the sceptre of King Jesus. ( Zechariah 4:16).

So we see that the work of the Holy Spirit, who would lead in all truth, already had its shadow examples in the 0ld Covenant.

And as the Teacher of Truth he teaches us to do the will of the Lord God according to that which he heard of the Son, and He proclaims us the coming things from both that which is written in the Old as well as in the New Covenant.

As in the heavenly manna, concealed in the pitcher of the Old Testament and as the heavenly bread embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The concealed manna and heavenly bread together becomes His, worked and revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit and His own Godly workings.

Through all this He lets us understand the coming things so that we are prepared for His future by his Godly and Holy works.

The Word: "Let the Spirit forever dwell within you" that is spoken during the sealing shall then in the future be kept completely so that we through God the Holy Spirit shall be elevated to the Godly and the Lord God shall be in everything.

MARAN-ATHA

The Lord Will Come!