Part 1: The Presence & Filling of the Holy Spirit

Text: John 14–16

Good morning everyone.

We’re starting a new series today on the Holy Spirit—three parts:

• This week: The Presence and Filling of the Spirit

• Next week: The Fruit of the Spirit

• Then: The Gifts of the Spirit

Now, we’re separating these for clarity—but in reality, they always belong together.

You don’t get the Spirit’s presence without transformation.
You don’t get transformation without being sent.

It’s one life.

And here’s the big idea for our series:

The Spirit fills us to make us like Jesus and send us like Jesus.

1. YOU ARE NOT ALONE (John 14)

Let’s step into the moment.

John 14—Jesus is about to leave.

The disciples have left everything for Him.
They’ve built their lives around Him.
And now He’s saying: I’m going.

They’re anxious. Confused. Unsettled.

(John 14:18) And into that moment Jesus says: 

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

That word matters.

He doesn’t say: I’ll leave you instructions.
He says: I won’t leave you alone.

The Gospel (we are invited into His life)

And this is where we need to pause and remember the bigger story.

Jesus didn’t just come to teach us how to live.

He came to bring us into His life.

• He lived the life we could not live—bearing good fruit daily and perfectly obedient to the Father

• He died the death we deserved—bearing our sin

• And He rose again—defeating sin, death, and everything that separates us from God

So that now… We are not just forgiven, we are brought in.

Brought into relationship with the Father.
Brought into union with the Son.

(John 14:10-11) Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

If you are in Christ by faith, today is for you. It is a day of being reminded of the beautiful story of the eternal love of God that we’ve been drawn into. A love that existed between Father, Son and Holy Spirit from before the world was created. Perfect unity, perfect community, perfect fullness of joy and love, satisfied within themselves, equally God, but distinct persons of God, with unique, complementary roles.

It is into this beautiful trinitarian unity and love that we are invited into by God.

And how does that become real for us?

By the Spirit.

The Trinity (brief, relational, not technical)

Jesus says in John 14:

• The Father sends

• The Son asks

• The Spirit comes

This is the beauty of the Trinity.

God has always existed in perfect love—Father, Son, and Spirit.

And through Jesus, by the Spirit… we are invited into that relationship.

2. GOD WITH YOU → GOD IN YOU (John 14–15)

Jesus says something astonishing in John 14:23:

“We will come to him and make our home with him.”

Not visit. Not occasionally show up.

Make our home.

This is the shift

In the Old Testament:

• God was with His people — in a pillar of cloud, then in the tabernacle, then in the temple, in specific people

• Promise of God through the Joel 2:28: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”

And NOW Jesus says: God will be in you.

Abiding (John 15)

Then in John 15:1-6

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers

This is the language of connection, union, dependence.

And this is where many of us get it slightly wrong.

We think Christianity is mostly about:

• Trying harder

• Being better

• Copying Jesus

But Jesus is saying:

“This is not imitation alone—this is participation.”

You’re not only trying to live like Jesus. Jesus is living in you by His Spirit.

Re-anchor the big idea

The Spirit fills us (abides with us) to make us like Jesus and send us like Jesus.

First: make us like Jesus
Then: send us like Jesus

Jesus connects abiding with fruit:

“Whoever abides in me… bears much fruit.” (John 15:5)

Inward life: Fruit (NEXT WEEK) is what grows when you are connected to the source of life.

Outward life: (After that) Witness

Then Jesus says:

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” (John 15:26–27)

So the Spirit does two things at once:

• Forms something in you

• Flows something through you

Simple framework

The Spirit works:

• With you → comforting, helping

• In you → saving, transforming, forming

• Through you → empowering, sending

3. WHO THE HOLY SPIRIT IS & WHAT HE DOES

Jesus uses the word parakletos—Helper, Counselor.

Reason the image of the series - flames with Jesus’ face - another one like Jesus.

The Spirit is not a force.

He is God with you.

The Spirit WITH you

• He comforts

• He strengthens

• He brings peace

• He keeps you from falling away

The Spirit IN you

• He reminds you of truth

• He guides you into truth

• He convicts of sin, righteousness, judgment

• He shapes your character

The Spirit THROUGH you

• He points to Jesus

• He glorifies Jesus

• He empowers you to witness about Jesus

Important clarity

The Holy Spirit does not draw attention to Himself.

He shines a spotlight on Jesus.

So when the Spirit is at work…

Jesus becomes more real, more beautiful, more central.

4. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “FILLED”?

Paul says in Ephesians 5:

“Do not get drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit.”

Contrast

• Drunk → controlled by something external

• Filled with the Spirit → led and shaped by God’s presence

Everyone is being influenced by something.

The question is:

What is shaping you?

If you’re anything like me, the dangers are:

• Netflix episode of your current favourite series

• Social media trends

• The latest cultural focus of anger

• What the culture in our business is

• What our friends would like us doing

After telling his friends, his disciples, that He must die, but that he will not leave them alone (orphans), Jesus is crucified on a Roman cross for the sins of the world, as he said. He was buried and rose again on the 3rd day as he said, to prove that Jesus has now conquered sin and death itself.

Desperate sadness to great excitement, Jesus is alive!!! YES!!! And then 40 days later Jesus ascended into Heaven (like He said he would)…NO!!!!

He told the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples of every nation, teaching them to obey everything Jesus had taught them, and leaves them again with the promise that "I will be with you to the end of age” Matt 28:…

Let’s read Luke telling of what happens in Acts 1:1-9:

1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And 10 days later, on the Day of the Feast of Pentecost - harvest festival, celebration of thanksgiving for Gods provision. The disciples were feeling very provided for….

They were feeling scared, alone, uncertain - they had a mission from Jesus, but no idea how to do it.

And then (Acts 2:1-4): 

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

With this awe inspiring moment of wind and fire in that room, the disciples were baptised with the Holy Spirit, filled with the very presence of God, the promised gift for them from heaven.

Wind, the breathe of God. The same way that breath is the life of humanity, so now the Spirit is the breath of the new Spirit-filled humanity. In the same way that God breathed his breath into Adam and made him alive, so now the ‘Ruach’, the wind from heaven, the very breath of God, breathes new Spiritual life into His people.

The second symbol, fire, has often been associated with God. Abrahams burning lamp, Moses’ burning bush, the fire of God descending upon the temple of Solomon, the fire that consumes the sacrifices brought for the cleansing of sins.

‘Our God IS a consuming fire’ the Bible says. 

The fire will lead you into all truth, and as the Psalmist says, “a lamp to your feet and light unto your path” (Psalm 119:105)

In the wind and the flames are the unmistakable elements of the very life, power and presence of God, now WITH and ON and IN his people.

And they began speaking in strange languages that none of them knew, but we recognisable to those Jews who had come from far-off lands for the Feast of Pentecost. A sign that God was undoing the curse of the Tower of Babel. No longer foreigners to one another, but one humanity under God.

Just as the prophets of the Old Testament had prophesied and Jesus had promised, in the same way that they were baptised, covered, saturated, submerged in the waters of baptism, so too they were now filled, saturated and baptised with the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit.

We see this happening again and again in the New Testament.

Peter in Samaria where he lays his hands on believers, and they are filled with Spirit. 

Peter in the house of believing Cornelius where the Holy Spirit fills the entire household who begin speaking in tongues and prophesying and they are all baptised in water afterwards.

Ananias lays hands on Saul/Paul to be filled with the Spirit.

Paul at Ephesus meets a group of faithful men who had been baptised with water but had never heard of the Holy Spirit…

Acts 19:6-7: 

And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.

The experience of the Holy Spirits fullness and power and presence coming upon believers time and time and time again.

The Apostle Peter who after the incredible moment in the upper room of being filled, being baptised in the Spirit of God, preaches his first sermon as a Spirit-filled follower of Jesus, and we can immediately think of the promise of Jesus, to ‘receive power to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth’. 

The power of the witness of God was on display here, and people cried out as Peter preached in the fullness of the Spirit: What shall we do to be saved! Acts 2:38-41:

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

3000 souls were added to the newly born church of Jesus Christ that day. Truly the promise of power and witness was being seen.

Now it’s probably worth mentioning at this point, because like it was for me, for many Christians, this is part of their experience, that being a Christian means that the Holy Spirit has made you alive. 

You cannot be a Christian and call on the name of the Lord Jesus and call Him Lord of your life, without the Holy Spirit allowing you to do so.

So it is correct to say that every Christian has been filled with the Holy Spirit. Agree?

It is also clearly correct to say that that there is a fullness of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus calls, being ‘baptised with the Spirit’ that is different to the work of the Spirit in salvation. Agree?

What is also clear, from this morning, is that neither of those moments, salvation by the Spirit and a powerful fullness of the Spirit can be created by us.

We can’t manufacture this moment, or produce the Spirits work in our lives! We cannot force God’s presence.

As Andrew Wilson says:

To say be filled with the Spirit is like saying: “be phoned by your mum.”

You can’t make your mum call you.

But…

You can:

• Keep your phone on

• Stay in range

• Be ready to answer

EAGERLY LOOK FORWARD TO IT

Our posture

We don’t strive—we position ourselves.

• Surrender

• Repentance

• Hunger

• Prayer

Very often in the scriptures, we see hands are laid on people, like a gift being given.

It’s not the strength of the persons faith who is laying on hands or the strength of the faith of the receiver that is anything. It is the great love and power and desire of God that is everything. It is HIS DESIRE to come close to you. To not leave you on your own, but to abide with you.

To draw you into the closest embrace of the Father. The intimate embrace that Jesus and His father shares, we are invited into by the Spirit.

It is the joy of God to pour out His Spirit upon us to make us more like Jesus in our inward being, and by the same Spirit to make us powerful witnesses to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection story, that we’re also part of by faith.

We don’t earn the Spirit. We welcome Him. We receive Him like a gift.

Wonderfully the Holy Spirit is gentle and kind, but we see that being filled with the Spirit is not an optional extra in the Christian life.

He is:

• The presence of God with you

• The life of God in you

• The power of God through you

The Spirit fills us to make us like Jesus and send us like Jesus.