Hello and welcome to Hope for Today. The program you’re listening to is produced by Heralds of Hope. We’re an international Gospel media ministry. Each week our Bible teaching broadcasts circle the globe in English and 22 other languages. We are honored the be here with you today. Thank you for joining us. We will continue our study from the book of John in just a bit; before we do that, I’d like to share a few things with you.
Here are a few testimonies from other listeners. The first one is from Edwin in Kenya; he writes, “Thank you for keeping us in the word of God through radio and for helping us to keep on looking to the Lord in all things.” Amoah from Ghana shares, “I started listening to Hope for Today in my youthful day, over 20 years ago, and I am still listening due to the Spiritual contents.”
We appreciate hearing from you, and if you’d like to share how this program has impacted you, we would love to hear about it. Just keep listening; I’ll give you our contact info at the end of J Mark’s teaching. Today he will be teaching from John 16 verses 7-11; the title is The Comforter.
In these verses, Jesus tells us He is leaving, but the Comforter is coming, and Jesus tells us what the Spirit will do when He comes. As he describes what the Spirit will do, it is obvious these are things only God is capable of. We believe God has shown himself to exist as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is not an easy concept for us to understand. However, if our God is infinite and we are finite, we should not be surprised that we can’t understand Him or figure Him all out. I am actually thankful God is beyond comprehension and we will never be able to completely understand Him.
Here are 2 verses which point to the doctrine of the trinity. John 10:30 Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” Jesus calls Himself one with the Father, the Jews at the time understood him to be saying He was equal with God. So, they immediately took up stones to stone Him because of His blasphemy, and this statement is blasphemous for anyone except Jesus. He alone is able to claim equality with God because He is God.
Second, consider Genesis 1:26, “God said, let us make man in our image” Notice God refers to Himself using plural pronouns; we use these words to refer to more than one. What happened? Did God get the wrong word? Absolutely not; God knew exactly what he was doing, and when we are confused by God’s word choice, there is a good chance there is a great lesson there for us. This verse points to the plurality of God’s nature. We will never completely understand this or be able to explain it, but we believe and trust Him, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now let’s give our attention to J Mark for more teaching on the Holy Spirit.
God made us so we can think. He made us with minds, and we can, in a large measure, think like He thinks. But even though we can think, and in some measure think like God thinks, we will never know everything. Especially not just by thinking.
Because we cannot know everything, it is necessary for us to have somebody to help us, somebody to guide us. Now the Lord knew that; yes, God knew our need. So in His plan, He sent a helper whom He called THE COMFORTER; somebody who could guide and help us. Jesus told His disciples about that part of God’s plan in John 16:7-11.
7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I...
