Hang On Help Is On Its Way (part 2) - [John 14:15-17]

The Comfort of God’s Greatness in Times of Trouble

The Bible's filled with examples of that. If we think of, for example, Moses, he's kind of squirming. He's like, who am I to go to Pharaoh? Who am I to represent you in front of Pharaoh and tell him you need to let Israel go?

I'm not a good speaker. I'm not the right guy for this. What does God tell Moses? Oh, Moses, you can do it. You're strong enough. You're good enough. Just cinch your bootstraps up a little bit. You can do it.

He tells him what? He says, let me tell you something, Moses. I am who I am. I am self-existent. I, by my right hand, will lead Israel out of Egypt. In essence, he's saying, forget about you, Moses. You represent me.

You go forward and you tell him about me. That'll take care of it. Moses goes on and does it. When God foresees that Israel is going to need some encouragement after the Babylonian captivity, this is years still in the future.

He writes, by the prophet Isaiah, the power of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah chapter 40. If you recall, it starts, comfort my people. What does God give Israel to comfort them? Tales of heroes, of Israelis gone by, great military victories of Israel.

Gives them a recitation of the attributes of God, his power, how he even measures how he holds the oceans in his hand, how he measures or accounts all the grains of sand. In times of trouble, the people of God need to be reminded of God's greatness.

Even in 1 Peter, when Peter is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to a group of Christians who are going to be persecuted, what does he do? The first thing is he talks about the sovereignty of God and salvation.

God's people want to hear about God. They don't want to hear about how good they are. They want to hear about how powerful God is and about how, essentially, he's on their side. Let's open our Bibles to John chapter 14, and we're going to see something very similar to that today.

Jesus Comforts Troubled Disciples in John 14

Truths about God, theology, doctrine, they encourage us. Why? Because in times of our greatest distress, in times of our greatest troubles, we don't need to be reminded about who we are. We need to be reminded of who God is, what he has done for us.

And make no mistake about it, as we come to John chapter 14, the disciples are not having their best day. John chapter 14, I'm going to read starting in verse 1 to kind of refresh your memory where we are.

It's been a few weeks. John chapter 14, verse 1. Let not your hearts be troubled. What does he say right away? Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. Just that comfort that Jesus gives these disciples. Verse 4, and you know the way to where I'm going.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going, or we, yeah, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

Just look at all the doctrinal truths, even as we go through this opening bit here. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father and it is enough for us.

Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father? 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.

He's talking about the miracles that he's done. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the father.

If you recall, these aren't greater in magnitude. They are greater in number, greater in scope. They're going to take place over a wider area. He's not talking about greater than walking on water, greater than all the things that he does.

Verse 12, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these he will do because I'm going to the father. Verse 13, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the father may be glorified in the son.

If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. Now the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle John, and I like to call him Jesus' best friend because he calls himself the beloved apostle. He's not lying.

He and Jesus were good, good friends. He's beloved of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit moves him to write this about 90 AD, after the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are already written, and his primary focus is on the deity of Christ.

He wants his readers to know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing, everyone who reads, if they believe, can have life in his name. Now the last time, a few weeks ago, we looked at how Jesus sought to comfort his disciples by telling them of the soon coming of the Holy Spirit, and he really was preparing them by saying, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Now no one, we know this, no one loves Jesus unless he loves them first, and the disciples had spent three plus years living with him. They loved him. They didn't obey him perfectly. They were not, by any stretch of the imagination, sinless, but they loved him.

They wanted to obey him, like we do. We want to obey. We don't do it perfectly. Our love, or the disciples' love, is not really, it's not emotional only. It's demonstrable, because those who love Jesus want to obey him.

We're talking about in Sunday school. Listen, obedience isn't the path to heaven in the sense that, if I obey enough, God's going to love me more. But it is the path to heaven in this sense, that once God has saved me, he has done what?

He's created me for good works, or he's put me on that path in Ephesians 2. He's created these good works for me to walk in, right? So people who just consistently disobey God have no reason to be sure of their salvation.

By the same token, can I measure my salvation by my good works? The answer is no. The question was asked in Sunday school, well, you know, what about crowns? And crowns are things that we're told we're going to receive in heaven.

I think the issue though is, if we're striving for crowns, if we're looking for rewards, we might kind of veer off into the sense of legalism rather than love. And on the other hand, if we just say, you know what?

May we sin all the more, that grace may abound all the more. Well, that's wrong too. So there is a path that we're called to walk on, and we're going to be pulled both directions, both towards legalism and antinomianism.

But we need to just obey the Lord Jesus. We show our love for him by obeying. I mean, what kind of love would it be if there was no obedience whatsoever? That doesn't sound like love. And this morning, we're going to see from this passage, excuse me, this passage here, five truths about the Holy Spirit, five doctrines about the Holy Spirit.

And you say, well, doctrine, how interesting could that be? I think it's kind of interesting, and here's the point. If we just think about it, and I don't want to get too kind of dramatic about it, but I mean, we can almost envision the disciples kind of forlorn, sort of worried about what's going to happen next.

They know Jesus is going to leave. They know he's just said that Peter is going to deny him three times before the sun comes up. We know that Judas is off doing something or other, and a couple of the disciples know that he's the betrayer.

So all this is going on, and it's almost like I want to just picture him sitting at the campfire and all the disciples just kind of like this, right? Just kind of hang dog. And Jesus is going to encourage them.

And what's he going to encourage them with? Not obey me more when I leave, but by sending the Holy Spirit. So first, before we get to the five attributes of the Holy Spirit, or the five truths about the Holy Spirit, we're going to talk about the sending of the Holy Spirit in verse 16.

The Father Sends Another Helper

If you love me, you will keep my commandments, right? As a condition, but not a condition that they will fulfill, Jesus will. But look at verse 16, and I will ask the Father. He's going to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit.

I will ask the Father. And when he says he's going to ask, you know, normally we think of asking and we think, well, there's a chance of rejection. Well, there is no chance that this request is going to get rejected, and we'll talk about it in a moment.

But if you look back at verse 13, Jesus says to the disciples, whatever you ask, right? We look at it in the English, same word, whatever you ask in my name. In other words, pray to me, Jesus. This I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

And then verse 14, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. And so we come to verse 16, and I will ask the Father. And we think, oh, this is the same thing. Jesus never uses the same Greek verb when he's talking about himself that he does when he's talking about the disciples.

Well, why is that? Because he's the Son of God. He's the Son of God. He's a different verb. Why? Because he's on a different plane when it comes to asking in prayer. He tells them that he will answer their prayers, but there's a rightful gap established.

Jesus is God, and the disciples are not. Our prayer requests are answered when, or the prayer requests of the disciples are answered when, when they're aligned with the will of the Father. But what do we know about Jesus' will?

It's always aligned with the Father. So when he asks for something, it's because it's what the Father wants him to ask for. And look, verse 16 tells us he's going to ask, but look, there's a certainty involved.

And he will, the Father will, give you another helper. Absolute certainty in the request. Not, I'm going to ask and we'll see what happens. Now we start getting all theological. We're going to talk about the economic trinity.

And this isn't spreadsheets and economic forecasts. This talks about the function of the trinity. How do they work together? And if you answered perfectly, that's a good answer. First, the Son, Jesus, is sent by the Father.

Don't turn there, but I'll just read a couple passages. John 8, 16. Yet, even if I do judge, my judgment is true. For it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. John 8, 42. Jesus said to them, if God were your Father, you would love me.

For I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he, speaking of the Father, sent me. So the Son is sent by the Father. Now, the Holy Spirit is sent by both the Father and the Son. Isaiah 48, 16.

Pre-incarnate Jesus. You can look it up, study it for yourself. He says this. Draw near to me. Hear this. From the beginning, I have not spoken in secret. From the time it came to be, I have been there.

And now the Lord God, speaking of the Father, has sent me and his spirits. John 15, 26. Just a little further in the Gospel of John. Jesus says this. But when the Helper comes, speaking of the Holy Spirit, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me, both the Father and the Son send the Spirit.

The Son is not sent by the Spirit. The Father is not sent by the Son or the Spirit. But this is not some kind of ranking system. The Father is more important than the Son. The Son is more important than the Spirit.

This just tells us how they function. The wife is not more important than the husband. The husband is not more important than the wife. They just have different functions. So that's the economic trinity.

When we talk about the ontological trinity, another 25 cent word, that just means how they, that they're equal. That there is equality, that they're all equally God. They have all the attributes of deity.

So we have the economic, the operational trinity, and then the ontological trinity. Now, that theological primer is vital so that you can better grasp what's being said by Jesus. Why will the disciples need another helper?

Well, that should be obvious. They need another helper because the helper that they have is leaving. These are needy people. We're needy people. They need another paraclete, another one to come alongside them because Jesus is leaving.

He's about to be wrongfully arrested, tried, and crucified. Jesus was everything to them. If they thought things that were difficult now, their circumstances were about to get much worse. And so he offers them comfort by telling them these theological truths.

And now we get to these five truths, these five theological truths about the Holy Spirit, the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Our first truth, the Spirit is a person. You say, well, why is that even important?

It's important because he's not a force. He is a he. He is not an it. He is a person. First, notice that word in 16, another. What does that mean? Well, if we say another, sometimes in the Greek, it would be the word heteros.

If we think of heterosexual, what does that mean? It means another person, but of a different kind, of a different sex. My wife is opposite sex, which is good. Heterodoxy. If something is heterodox, that means it's a different practice.

It's another of a different kind. It's not a good thing. It's a bad set of theology. So that would be another of a different kind, would be heteros. However, this word here in the Greek means another of the same kind.

So it's another, but another of the same kind. So if Jesus is a person, and he is, and he says, I'm going to send another comforter, would it make sense that he was going to send a force? That would not be another of the same kind.

That would be another of a different kind. Jesus is a person. In fact, that word paraclete, one who comes alongside, it was used of an advocate, like a lawyer, means mediator, intercessor, helper. What sort of comfort, and that's the point of this passage, right?

They're troubled. John 14, when the disciples are troubled, they're forlorn. They're sitting around moping around the campfire. There's no campfire in the text, by the way. But they're downcast. I'm going to comfort you.

I'm going to give you comfort by sending you an impersonal force. No, no. And the attributes of personhood are used of him in many scriptures. I'm going to stick mostly with those authored by John. John 14, 26.

You can just turn the page here a little bit. John 14, 26. I almost asked somebody to read it. I'm all in Sunday school mode. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will do what?

Teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all the things that I have said to you. Holy Spirit is a person. A force doesn't teach John 15, 2. And this is important. But when the helper again talking about the advocate, this paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom I will send you from the father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness about me.

Now, the whole idea of bearing witnesses comes from a Jewish mindset of having two or three witnesses to affirm every fact. You can't witness to something or an impersonal force cannot witness to something.

Let's just put it that way. This is a person. You say, why are you stressing this? Because some people don't get it. Our one excursion outside of the writings of John here. Acts 15, 28. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit to lay on us or lay on you.

No greater burden than these requirements. Holy Spirit evaluates these requirements and impersonal force doesn't evaluate anything. Revelation 22, 17 again written by the apostle John. He says the spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty say come.

Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Listen. The bride. The bride of Christ, the church, the elect. Say come and link to that is the spirit. The spirit is not an impersonal force.

The spirit is a person just as the bride of Christ are people even in his relationship to the members of the Trinity. Tell us that the Holy Spirit is a person even his relationship to the members of the Holy Trinity.

The other members tell us that the Holy Spirit is a person Matthew 2819, you don't even have to turn there. You know, this is part of the Great Commission, but listen to it. And this is how we baptize people.

Right? Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. The Greek grammatical structure there does what it elevates or puts on par.

Let's put it that way. It makes equivalent the father the son and the Holy Spirit. There's no kind of rank structure and there's certainly no idea. It would be a foreign concept to say that this could possibly be the Holy Spirit as a force.

He is he first Corinthians 12 verses 4 to 6. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirits and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all and everyone.

Now, you probably wouldn't catch this unless you were reading along with me, but let's let me just kind of highlight this for you. The same Spirit, the same Lord, the same God Spirit, son, father, all equal, grammatically equal.

Second Corinthians 13 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all different order son father spirits. First Peter chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 Peter and apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia Bithynia.

According to the foreknowledge of God the father in the sanctification of the Spirit for the obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling with his blood may grace and peace be multiplied to you different order again father spirit son.

It would be foolishness. It would be nonsense to suppose that a force is elevated to the same stature as the father and the son. Scripture is clear. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity Divine names and Divine attributes.

I mean, I could go on and on about this. He's eternal. He's omnipresent. He's omnipotent. He's omniscience. So that's our first truth. He is a person second truth. The presence of the Holy Spirit is permanent.

He is permanently with us. Look again at verse 16 and he will the father will give you another helper and notice is there to be with you forever to be with you forever. Jesus was only going to be with them for a time.

He was only on this earth for a time and while he was with the disciples, they were well-equipped. They had a great advocate with them. They had a great helper. What else could they need? But he's going to leave now.

We know that when he leaves, what's he going to do? He's going to be an intercessor in heaven, right? He's seated in the heavenlies. Now Ephesians 2 tells us and in fact in 1st John 2 1 John wrote my little children.

I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate same word with the father. Jesus Christ the righteous. He is now in heaven interceding on behalf of believers in a very real sense.

They're not losing by Jesus leaving and that's what he will tell them. They're better off now. Why? Because he's interceding for them and they have a permanent paraclete with them right now. The Holy Spirit will arrive at Pentecost and he will remain forever with the church.

Jesus will be their helper in heaven. And the Holy Spirit will be their helper on Earth. Hendrickson wrote it this way. He said the first meaning Jesus pleads their case with God. The second the Holy Spirit pleads God's case with them.

What does he do? You know, he afflicts our conscience, right? He directs the church. He does a lot of things. But he's also the seal of all believers. The proof that we are in Christ. So he is with us forever.

The Spirit of Truth Leads Believers into Gospel Truth

Thirdly third truth about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads believers into gospel truth. He leads believers into gospel truth. Look at verse 17, even the spirit of truth this talking about the helper that he's going to send even the spirit of truth.

It's interesting. I was I interact with people on the Internet. I was even reading this thing on the Internet yesterday at church in Boston. And this pastor said this. He said basically that the Holy Spirit isn't welcome in a lot of churches.

And what did he mean by that? What he meant was a lot of churches just aren't willing to set aside. What the Bible says when the Holy Spirit brings a fresh movement into them. So the question is, you know, can the Holy Spirit contradict the word of God?

Well, no, because then he wouldn't be the spirit of truth, which is what he is. It's interesting because just a few verses before this, Jesus said that what he was in verse six. He said that he was the way the truth and the life and now he calls the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth.

Hmm. What's this point that God the Holy Spirit cannot lie? He can never lie just as God the father cannot lie in the son cannot lie. He is the very source of truth just as Jesus is the source of truth.

He calls him the spirit of truth because he communicates truth, right? We read earlier that he will lead the disciples into all truth. Well, what did he what do you mean in John 1613? When he says when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak on his own authority.

Doesn't that sound familiar? What did Jesus say? I do not speak on my own authority, but on the authority of him who sent me and here's what the Holy Spirit will do for. He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak and will declare to you the things that are to come.

In other words, the disciples are going to write what we will call the New Testament. He's going to lead them into all truth. And this is true for all believers. Not that we're going to write the New Testament by the way, and please don't add to the New Testament.

That would be bad. But the Holy Spirit communicates to us now and you say should I listen for a still small voice? No, you should listen for the still small voice. That's written in black and white all over your scriptures there.

And some of you have red and that's fine. Whatever color. It's a scripture that the Holy Spirit communicates to us through. He is the author of scripture and the author of truth the Furnisher of truth.

Paul told the Corinthian Church in first Corinthians 2 that the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and that he reveals these things that are freely given to us. We have this whole revelation. He's given us the depth and the riches that are contained in the word of God that are mind-bogglingly deep that we can only begin to really mine during this lifetime.

We have this by virtue of the work of the Holy Spirit and when we think about the spirit of truth and how he works in believers, you ever ask yourself, you know, why is it that every time I hear a baptismal testimony or every time I hear the gospel preached, I don't ever think I wish we could talk about something else.

Why is that? Why does that move us? Because the Holy Spirit, right? He's a spirit of truth. We are children of the truth. We hear it. We go, man, that's good to hear. That's so good to hear. Jesus died for my sins.

Jesus gave me the righteousness. I need Jesus raised on the third day. This is good news to us. It delights us. The Holy Spirit affirms to our spirit that we belong to him Paul wrote in Romans. He gives us that subjective feeling that we belong to the father the Holy Spirit.

Also, he is the source of truth. He is the spirit of truth. And he also points to truth not just in the word, but he points to the truth incarnate read this earlier, but John 1526 when the helper comes whom I will send you from the father the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father.

He will bear witness about me. In the economy the functioning of the Trinity. It is the Holy Spirit's purpose to point us to Christ. As the son sought to glorify the father right how he was always pointing to the father.

The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus Christ. So first three truths the Holy Spirit is a person. Secondly, the presence of the Holy Spirit is permanent. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit leads believers into gospel truth.

The World Cannot Receive the Holy Spirit

And fourthly, the Holy Spirit must move first and I'm going to read this you're going to go. I don't get it. You will get it the Holy Spirit must move first. Look at verse 17 again whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.

Jesus tells us that the world which is to say unbelievers, right those outside of the kingdom of God. He says cannot receive. They don't have the ability to receive the Holy Spirit to to receive him. It's a similar language that he uses in John 6 44 when he says no one can come to me.

Unless the father who sent me draws him the world does not have the capacity to receive the Holy Spirit to believe the Holy Spirit. Why Paul would say in first Corinthians that the things of the spirit are foolishness to them because they're spiritually discerned.

We know that unsaved people are dead in their sins and trespasses. They hear the word of life and they want nothing to do with it. Jesus says unbelievers are spiritually blind. They cannot see them. They do not see them do not see him.

They're also spiritually ignorance. They cannot see him. They do not know him. And again, I just as I read this and as I said this, I decide okay, this is the same Jesus that the world caricatures these days as being all about love.

And you know, they spend his time partying with sinners and Harry is comforting these believers. And what does he say? He says the world cannot cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Doesn't see him does not know him.

The children of Satan those in the thrall of the prince of the power of the air have no desire for the things of God. They are dead to these things and they have no interest in them. Fifth truth about the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit Indwells Believers Forever

The Holy Spirit indwells believers. He indwells believers, you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. Now that's part of the verse. I mean, it seems I mean, I could I'm going to try to make it simpler than it is.

You could just read this and say, you know him they the disciples know him for he dwells with you and will be in you but to say it that way and to just leave it at that kind of skips over the whole import of Pentecost something changes at Pentecost.

And this verse is kind of analyzed to death by commentators. And the primary reason is because of the present tense verbs know and dwells think about it this way. The disciples have been with Jesus for more than three years.

They know Jesus they would know something of the work of the Holy Spirit. But his presence the presence of the Holy Spirit would have been dwarfed by the reality of the second person the Trinity whom they had every single day with them.

If there was going to be no change in their relationship to the Holy Spirit, the whole idea of comfort Jesus telling them, you know, I'm leaving but I'm sending you something better would be missing. So Jesus is looking at the future Pentecost and telling them what they should anticipate a new and fuller sense of a permanent indwelling a stronger greater relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Of course, it is not only the Holy Spirit who indwells us. I mean, this is kind of mind-boggling. I've been studying and listening about this, but each person the Trinity can be said to indwell us in his high priestly prayer.

I can't really develop all this but in his high priestly prayer interceding for all who would ever believe in John 1726. Jesus said this I made known to them talking about the disciples your name. He's praying to the father and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them there's a very real sense in which Jesus is in us, even though he's in heaven interceding for us.

There's a very real sense in which the father is in us the father son and Holy Spirit reside in you if you are in fact in Christ Jesus and you think I have within me not because of anything good in me the triune God at work in me that how to encourage us five truths about the Holy Spirit meant to comfort the disciples in distress.

The Holy Spirit the third person of the Trinity is not merely a comforter. I mean one writer said something like, you know, we should not think of him as a security blanket or a big fluffy pillow. He is our helper.

Yes. He comforts us, but he is far more than that. He convicts he instructs he works through his word to refine us. He is all these things and more but it's so important that we understand he is God if you have the spirit of God within you is because you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you've not believed I urge you even now believe on Jesus and be saved be safe from what you might ask be safe from the wrath of God the problem was so much of our society is we don't understand what sin is how even the slightest thought or deed that is not in keeping with the word of God is such an offense to a holy God that it warrants that it merits as it were.

Eternity in Hell Eternity in Hell and how can you be saved from that? It's not by things that we do. It's not by works that we accomplish. It's by the grace of God. It's by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ by having forgiveness of sin because of his work because of his perfect life because of his obedience even to the point of death on a cross.

And then his raising being raised from the dead on the third day those things believing in him. That's how we're forgiven from our sins. That's how we're saved from the wrath of God. That's how we will spend Eternity with God and it's how we are in dwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Let's pray father. How encouraging for these disciples who are really wondering what is going to happen to them to something they wouldn't even have called Christianity but to this faith that they've been given.

How could they go on without the Lord Jesus Christ? He told them that he would send a helper. He would send a comforter one that would indwell them one that would stay with them forever one that would even move them to do greater things than they could ever imagine.