John 14 15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
I must have read these words from John 14 a hundred times. I have studied the passage dozens of times from looking at John’s Gospel as the A level set text to specialising in the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit as a postgraduate theology student. And I couldn’t count how often I have preached on the Holy Spirit. Listen to the amazing promise Jesus makes to all His disciples.
“I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. John 14:16.
The Helper, the Paraclete, the Counsellor, the Comforter, the Advocate – one who comes alongside to help and comfort and strengthen.
“Another counsellor.” “Another helper.” I have pointed out before that the Greek has two different words for “another.” One means “another of the same kind” and the other means, “another of a different kind”. And here the promise is clear: “another of the same kind.” Jesus is the first helper. The Holy Spirit is another Helper, not different to Jesus but another of the same kind as Jesus, another Helper like Jesus, continuing the work of Jesus in our lives. But whereas Jesus was alongside us, Emmanuel, God with us, the Holy Spirit is the Helper living INSIDE us. God IN us!
v 17 , for he lives with you and will be in you
v 20 I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you
v. 23 and we will come to him and make our home with him.
God the Holy Spirit is INSIDE us! We are even closer to God than Adam and Eve were when God walked beside them in the Garden of Eden. In Christ we have gained even more than Adam ever lost by sinning. We are even closer to God than the disciples were when they followed Jesus and listened to Him and ate with Him in Galilee. Because God the Holy Spirit is INSIDE us to be our Helper! There are many occasions when we would wish that Jesus was right there with us, by our side. And the good news is that God is there, not just with us but even better WITHIN us, by the Holy Spirit.
In all the times I have read and studied and preached on John 14:16 I had never noticed before the context of the previous verse. In John 14:15. Jesus says this.
John 14 15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth.
John 14 15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.
The context is loving and obeying Jesus. If we love Him we will want to obey Him. And THIS is why the Holy Spirit is given to be our Helper, our Comforter, our Counsellor. To help us to love Jesus and to obey Jesus’s commands. There are many ways in which the Holy Spirit comes to be our Helper listed in John chapters 14 to 16, and many other activities of the Holy Spirit we read about elsewhere in the New Testament. But the primary reason Jesus tells us in this passage that God gives us the Holy Spirit is not to bring us blessings but to equip us for obedience.
John 14 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.
The Holy Spirit helps us to love Jesus and to obey Jesus. And the Spirit our Helper does these things in a number of ways.
Helping us to know Jesus better
John 16:12-15 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all 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 bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
It is the Holy Spirit who reveals Jesus to us and helps us to know Jesus.
Rom 8:15-16 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “ Abba , Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
That new relationship with God is at the heart of what it means to have eternal life, life in all its fullness. The Holy Spirit helps us in our relationship with God. He helps us to know Jesus better in at least two ways:
The Spirit helps us in understanding the Bible
2 Peter 1:20-21 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
we need the Spirit who inspired the Scriptures to help us understand the scriptures
and the Spirit helps us in prayer
Romans 8:26-27. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
Ephesians 6 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
Knowing Jesus better –The Holy Spirit helps us to understand the Bible and helps us to pray.
PAUSE TO REFLECT – how would you like the Holy Spirit to be your Helper in THIS area of your life?
Helping us to become more like Jesus
I read an interesting quote from Billy Graham this morning. “Being a Christian is more than an instantaneous conversion – it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.”
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to change us into the image of Christ!
“All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
The Spirit “metamorphoses” us into the image of Christ. He is the HOLY Spirit and His work is to make us holy too. That process is called “purification” or “sanctification” depending on which book you read. Oswald Chambers “Sanctification is not something our Lord does in me; sanctification is himself in me.”
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to help us to turn away from sin and evil. And then the Holy Spirit also helps us to do what is right, bringing the fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5: 22-23. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
Helping us become more like Jesus – the Holy Spirit helps us to stop sinning and to develop the character of Christ.
PAUSE TO REFLECT – how would you like the Holy Spirit to be your Helper in THIS area of your life?
Helping us to serve Jesus
The Spirit equips us to serve Jesus.
1 Cor 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
EVERY CHRISTIAN is equipped by the Holy Spirit to serve God in one way or another. Whether by teaching or serving, by gifts of prophecy or even miracles, GOD IS INSIDE US to help us do His will and bring glory to Jesus.
Helping us to serve Jesus in the church and in the world.
PAUSE TO REFLECT – how would you like the Holy Spirit to be your Helper in THIS area of your life?
Helping us to tell others about Jesus
“When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
The Holy Spirit give us power to be witnesses for Jesus, especially in times of trial and persecution.
Jesus said in Mark 13:10-11 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit
Helping us to be witnesses and tell others about Jesus.
PAUSE TO REFLECT – how would you like the Holy Spirit to be your Helper in THIS area of your life?
The Spirit is our helper!
D.L. Moody said, “You might as well try to hear without ears, or breathe without lungs, as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart.”
Helping every Christian – and especially needed by Christian leaders.
Tozer writes, “I have reason to suspect that many people are trying to give leadership in Christian circles today without ever having yielded to the wise and effective leading of the Holy Spirit. He truly is the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel and power. Knowledge and the reverence of the Lord. We are too heavily leaning on human talents and educated abilities. We forget the illumination of the Holy Spirit of God is a necessity, not only in our ministerial preparation, but in the administrative and leadership functions of our churches.”
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me! Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me!
Spirit of the Living God – fall afresh on me!
