The Wonder of the Holy Spirit: Preparing the Disciples

We are continuing in our series on the Wonder of the Holy Spirit. Last week we talked about the importance of embracing the concept of the Trinity and how God clearly demonstrated throughout Scripture that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the One God we worship and serve. Before we dive into the arrival of the Holy Spirit, I want us to take a look at how Jesus prepared His disciples. He didn’t just tell them at the last minute to wait for the Holy Spirit, but He had been teaching about Him and preparing them all along.


On more than a half dozen occasions during His time with the disciples, Jesus spent time talking with them about the Holy Spirit.


He explained that the Father would be giving them a good gift in the Holy Spirit:

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

(Luke 11:13)

He explained to Nicodemus that He needed to be born of the Spirit:

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Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit'

(John 3:5-8)

He warned them of the dangers of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit:

Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Sprit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

(Matthew 12:31-32)

Then in the final hours before His death on the cross, He spent a significant amount of time reassuring the disciples and sharing promises of the Holy Spirit’s coming and work:

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you … Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him … But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

(John 14:16-17, 23, 26)

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.

(John 16:7-15)

Jesus shared all of this with His disciples before telling them at the end of Luke and beginning of Acts to wait in Jerusalem for the arrival of the Holy Spirit. He was faithful to prepare them for what was coming and how important and good this would be. And the beautiful, wonderful thing is, in preparing, teaching, promising, and reassuring His disciples, Jesus’s words do the same for us. We have a Helper who will be with us forever!