WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: ENLIGHTENING THE MIND (II Corinthians 4:1-6) INTRODUCTION The first stanza of Amazing Grace reads: Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see Was blind but now I see. When we sing this song we are singing about the power of the Holy Spirit to open our blind eyes to the truth, to open our blind eyes to God s grace, to enable us to see Christ and the Gospel as we need to see. As I have been preaching these messages on the Work of the Holy Spirit in bringing us to conversion, the opening of our SPIRITUAL eyes is an essential part of that work. The Holy Spirit enlightens our minds to see the truth of the gospel in Christ in a saving way. The classic Biblical illustration for this is when Jesus healed the man born blind recorded in John 9. After his healing the authorities wanted to know how this happened. He couldn t explain how it happened, he could only testify to it. He said one thing I know, that, once I was blind, now I see. We may not be able to explain how the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, but when He does, we know that we are now seeing Christ in a saving way. Last week I preached on the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting our consciences of our sins. He convicts and convinces our consciences that we are real sinners, that we are guilty sinners, that we are condemned sinners. What we want to consider today is the Spirit s ministry of enlightening our minds to the things of Christ. Without being convinced of our sins, we will not make a true assessment of our spiritual condition and we will not know why we need to trust in Christ as our Savior. Without our minds being opened to the truth we will not see Christ as the One who can forgive us of our sins. This work of the Spirit is essential because of our spiritual condition. The need is simple: we are by birth spiritually blind. We are somewhat like little kittens whose eyes are not open when they are born. It takes time for the kitten s eyes to open. We are born spiritually BLIND. For us to have our spiritual eyes opened, it takes more than time, it takes a special work of the Holy Spirit. Paul says it very clearly in (1 Cor 2:14 NKJV) : June 24, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 1
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Opening eyes is one of the ways the Bible describes the work of the Spirit in the ministry of applying the Gospel. When Paul shared with King Agrippa God s commission to him in Acts 26 he used that phraseology: (Acts 26:17-18 NKJV) 'I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, {18} 'to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.' Now Paul couldn t open people s eyes, but the Holy Spirit used the message of Paul to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light. Just what is involved in having our eyes opened spiritually? We know that it has to do with a certain way we see Jesus and it has to do at how we see the Scriptures. Let s go into this a little deeper. HOLY SPIRIT WORK OF ENLIGHTENMENT IS MORE THAN INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to Christ it is more than INTELLECTUAL knowledge. The frightening thing is that the natural man can have quite a bit of intellectual knowledge about spiritual things but still be in darkness. It takes the Holy Spirit to open their eyes. The Bible is filled with examples of those who heard the Word and had a somewhat intellectual understanding of the Word, yet remained in spiritual darkness. There is the example of Herod Antipas who loved to hear John the Baptist preach. Mark 6:20 gives this description of Herod for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. But eventually Herod had John put to death. Herod was obviously still in spiritual darkness. There is the example of the three high officials who heard the word preached by the Apostle Paul: Festus, Agrippa, and Felix. Festus, the Roman Governor, spoke out in the bold language of a natural man, to whom the preaching of the Gospel was foolishness: Paul, thou art beside thyself: much learning doth make thee mad. Herod Agrippa was impressed and moved, for he said, Almost thou persuadeth me to be a Christian; and Felix, another Roman Governor, was still more deeply moved, for it says that, as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled. It is frightening how close a person can come to seeing the truth and yet remaining in darkness. June 24, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 2
It takes a special work of the Holy Spirit to open a person s eyes to see and understand the truth of the Scriptures. What does the person see when the Holy Spirit opens their spiritual eyes? WILL UNDERSTAND HOW JESUS FULFILLS SCRIPTURES The Spiritually awakened mind will see Jesus in the Scriptures and understand how Jesus FULFILLS God s plan of saving you. Remember what Jesus said and did on the first Easter Sunday when He met with the disciples? Luke records it. Luke 24:44-45 NIV He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." (45) Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures, that they could understand what the Scriptures taught about Jesus. If the disciples, who had been with Jesus for three years, still needed their minds opened to understand and see Jesus, certainly we do today! To the experts in the law who had great intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures Jesus said: (John 5:39-40 NKJV) "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. {40} "But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. There is more than intellectual knowledge of Jesus or the Scriptures to truly see Jesus. We must see Jesus if we are to be converted. We must see the truth of Scriptures about Jesus if we are to have saving faith. The Holy Spirit must open our minds to the truth of Jesus. He must give us spiritual eyes. And this He will do. SEE JESUS AS THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD What will we see about Jesus when the Holy Spirit enlightens our eyes? We will see Jesus as the CHRIST, the Son of the Living God. This is what Peter saw. When Jesus asked the disciples who did they say that He was, Peter spoke the truth. He said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus then said this to him. "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. (Matthew 16:17) June 24, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 3
Notice that Jesus said that the Father in heaven revealed this to Peter. This is another way of saying that the Holy Spirit opened Peter s spiritual eyes to see Jesus as the Son of the Living God. When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes we will see Jesus as the Son of the Living God. We will see Jesus for who He is, the one who is anointed by the Father to be the Messiah, our Savior and King. This takes the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to see this as truth, not just an intellectual fact. SEEING THE GLORY OF CHRIST When the Holy Spirit opens our spiritual eyes we will see the GLORY of Christ. In the Upper Room when Jesus was explaining what the Holy Spirit whom He would send would be doing, He said: When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. (14) He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. (15) All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you." John 16:13-15 He will glorify me. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ to us. When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes we will begin to see the glory of Christ and we will be changed into the likeness of Christ. Paul said that the Jews of his day had a veil over their eyes when they read the Scriptures. But the Holy Spirit could take away that veil and as they contemplated what they saw, i.e. the glory of Christ, then they themselves would be changed into that glory. Listen to how he put it in II Cor 3:15-18 2 Corinthians 3:15-18 NIV (15) Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. (16) But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. (17) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (18) And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. With unveiled faces contemplate the Lord s glory and are transformed into his image with ever increasing glory. Now this is a powerful work of the Spirit. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in opening our eyes to see the Lord s glory that we might believe and be transformed into the image of the Lord. GOD S LIGHT SHINING IN OUR HEARTS June 24, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 4
When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes it is God s LIGHT shining in our hearts. This ministry of the Holy Spirit is likened to light shining in our hearts. This is the image in 2 Cor 4:6 (2 Cor 4:6) For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This Work of the Holy Spirit is like a light bulb going off in our heart. All of a sudden we see clearly that Jesus is the Light and we need to come to Him in faith. The question to be asked is, Has this light been shone in your heart? When you embraced Christ by faith was it a result of the eyes of your heart seeing Jesus in the Scriptures as He is in truth your Savior, the Son of the Living God, the One whom you need to forgive your sins? CONCLUSION I have been emphasizing the essential work of the Holy Spirit in bringing a person to the point of conversion. He needs to convict us of our sins, open our eyes to see Jesus, and renew our wills to desire to trust Christ. But this is the work of the Holy Spirit throughout our Christian life. How should we respond to this work of the Holy Spirit? We should praise God that our salvation is not left up to how SMART we are, how we must struggle to find the truth about Jesus. The Holy Spirit will open the eyes of our heart in a way that we can put our faith in the true Son of God. If there is a DESIRE in your heart to see Jesus more clearly, you need to come to Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes. This is what the Holy Spirit desires to do. If you have been converted, you still need this ministry of the Holy Spirit THROUGHOUT your life. When we come to the Scriptures we are to continually pray that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes to see wondrous things from God s Word. We are to continually pray that the Holy Spirit would show us our sins that we may confess them and turn from them. We are to continually pray that He would incline our hearts to follow His testimonies, not our selfish gains. This work of the Holy Spirit is what brings us to Christ and what causes us to be grow in Christ and be strong in the Lord. It is a work that is all by the grace of God. No wonder John Newton penned the hymn Amazing Grace. As you may know John Newton started his career at sea at a young age, and later became the captain of a slave ship for several years. After experiencing a Christian conversion, He eventually became ordained as an June 24, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 5
evangelical Anglican clergy. Newton renounced his trade and became a prominent supporter of abolitionism, living to see Britain's abolition of the African slave trade in 1807. Someone said he went from disgrace to amazing grace. That is what happens to each of us when the Holy Spirit convinces us of sin, enlightens our eyes to Christ, and renews our will so that we may embrace by faith Jesus Christ. We all experience the Amazing Grace of God. Newton wrote: Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed. I implore each of you to receive the grace of God by looking to Jesus to be converted and the Holy Spirit will open your eyes. Amen? Amen! June 24, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 6