1 HOLY HELPER JOHN 14:15-27 SERMON Frank Sinatra s career spanned six decades and his popularity transcended the generations. One of Frank Sinatra s best known songs was My Way. The lyrics of the song struck a responsive chord among his fans. Remember how the song ends, I did it my way? Most of us want to do things our way! But Jesus told us to do things His way or God s way. Jesus told us to obey His commands and follow His teachings. His way, Jesus way often challenges our natural, human inclination and response to people and circumstances. Many of us find it hard to swallow our pride and seek God s way. Jesus knew that we would have difficulty obeying his commands and following his teachings so He sent His Holy Spirit to help us. We read about the Holy Spirit coming powerfully upon the church in Acts, chapter 2. You might recall this incredible, amazing, supernatural event where Jews who had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Pentecost experienced a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other known languages. Peter preached about Jesus and his death and resurrection and called the people to repent. People responded positively to Peter s message and 3,000 people were converted and baptized that day! Talk about church growth! Today we celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church. Some refer to this day as the birthday of the church. I want to speak this morning on how the Holy Spirit helps us live the Christian life. Most of you know that living the Christian life can be very challenging and difficult! Jesus set incredibly high standards for us to follow and keep, like loving and forgiving our enemies, seeking God s kingdom first in our lives and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus commanded us to take up our cross and follow Him; to preach the kingdom of God and make disciples of all nations. I declare good news to you! We can obey and follow Jesus commands with the Holy Spirit s help! Think about this for a moment: You can live the Christian life with the Holy Spirit s help! That s the good news I declare to you this morning! You can live the Christian life with the Holy Spirit s help! What kind of help does the Holy Spirit provide? 1.He helps us obey Christ s commands. I ve noticed over the years in the statements of faith written by our new members that many new members refer to the Holy Spirit as an it not a He. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit with a personal pronoun. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. We worship a personal God. So, we refer to the Holy Spirit as Him not it. Vs. 15 Jesus stated that obedience proves love. If someone says they love Christ, then they will obey Christ. Today, people use the term love very casually. Jesus never did! Jesus taught that true love costs. If we really love Christ, we will obey him!
2 Vs.16 Jesus informed his disciples of the Holy Spirit s imminent arrival. He s referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Jesus called him Counselor. The word in the original text is paracletos, meaning literally, one who comes alongside. Ancient Greeks would use the term to refer to legal assistants or advocates, people in positions who would plead the cause of another. So, the Holy Spirit comes alongside us to plead our case, to be our advocate, our helper! The phrase, to be with you forever appears in the original language as a purpose clause. So, the meaning seems to be that the Father will give us the Holy Spirit to be our advocate, in order that He would be with us forever. Remember, Jesus words in Matthew 28:20, And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Vs.17 Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth. Jesus told us that the world cannot accept him because it neither sees nor knows him. But the disciples know him because he lives in them! Vs.18 Since Jesus will send the Holy Spirit he will not leave them as orphans. The word for orphan in the original text means desolate. Jesus will come to them and us in the person of the Holy Spirit. Vs.19 The world will not see him because he will die and when he comes back from the dead only believers will see him! They will see him as the resurrected Christ! Jesus guaranteed eternal life to his believers. Vs.20 On that day refers to Pentecost when the Holy Spirit will fall in power upon the believers in Jerusalem. Vs.21 Jesus reiterated what he said earlier, in vs.15: obedience proves love. Further, Jesus states that God loves those who love him. When my son played minor league baseball as a nine and ten year old, it used to be a test of every parent s patience to watch the games. The games would go on forever! I recall some four hour games! My son s coach, who had to be the most patient man alive, would yell, OK guys, how many outs? One or two of the players would yell, one! Then the coach would yell, OK, where s the runner? On first. OK, guys, if it s a ground ball, throw it to second. So, the batter would ground the ball to the third baseman, who seemed dazed with the idea of knowing what to do. By the time he decided what to do with the ball, it was too late to do anything. Everyone s safe on base! The third baseman heard exactly what to do from his coach, to throw it to second, but he didn t do it. Time after time the patient coach would remind the players of what to do, but time after time, they couldn t seem to follow his instructions. Many of us live the Christian life this way! We know what we re supposed to do but we just don t do it! Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to help us do what we re supposed to do! If you re a believer in Christ, the Holy Spirit lives within you and will help you live Christ s commands! The Holy Spirit helps us obey Christ s commands! Perhaps God has spoken to you recently about obeying one of his commands such as loving the difficult person in your life or forgiving them. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you love that difficult person and forgive them! The Holy Spirit can come alongside of you and give you supernatural help! Or, perhaps you re trying to share your faith with someone at school or work or a friend. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you, to give you the right words, the right attitude, etc. Ask the Holy Spirit to prepare the person s heart for your words and then take a risk and share the gospel with them!
3 Vs.22-24 Judas asked Jesus why he intended to show himself to them and not the world. Jesus has special plans for true believers, those who obey his teaching. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in the hearts of true believers. True believers enjoy the benefit of the in-dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He lives within us! We see also, that the Holy Spirit: 2. He helps instruct us. Vs.26a Jesus refers again to the Holy Spirit as Counselor or paracletos. In this passage, Jesus clearly identifies the Holy Spirit as counselor. In reality, both Jesus and the Father send the Spirit. Jesus said in John 15:26 that he sends the Spirit from the Father. Note that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things. Turn over to John 16:12-15 where Jesus describes what he means by all things. The Holy Spirit will take what belongs to Jesus and make it known to us. Janet Christian, our fine Director of Children s Ministries, does a marvelous job putting together children s messages each week. Janet often attributes the origin for her ideas to the Holy Spirit who inspires her. Many times in preparing my Sunday messages I ve had a hard time figuring out the meaning of the passage. In desperation I will cry out to God, What s the meaning of this passage? After venting my frustration I m amazed at the way the Holy Spirit helps me discern the correct, Biblical message. I hope if you have a ministry of teaching that you consult the Holy Spirit regularly in preparing your Sunday school lesson or Bible study or whatever you teach! Our preparation time should always include praying for the Holy Spirit to teach us the real meaning of the passage we will be teaching to others. We teachers of the Word must understand the message ourselves before we can communicate it to others! For those who simply read the Bible for devotional purposes, when you come across difficult passages to understand, pray for the Holy Spirit to instruct you as to the meaning of the passage! Let s turn back to our passage in John 14. 3. He helps us remember what Jesus taught us. Vs.26b Note the phrase, will remind you of everything I have said to you. The Holy Spirit reminds us of scripture we ve learned! Last week I spoke of the importance of memorizing scripture. Many people have told me they have trouble remembering verses of scripture, especially where the verse is found in the Bible. Many people recall the basic point of the text but forget its location and context. The Holy Spirit can help us remember! Isn t He great! I like to broaden the scope of this teaching to include all kinds of things we forget: car keys, wallets, names of people, etc. Pray for the Holy Spirit to help you remember whatever you forget but remember his primary work consists of helping us remember what we ve learned about Jesus. Jesus said the Holy Spirit helps us remember, Everything I have said to you. Catherine Marshall wrote a wonderful book in 1978 on the Holy Spirit called, The Helper. I mentioned this book last week. Over a million copies of the book have been sold. We have a copy in our church library.
4 Catherine Marshall includes a story of the time she visited Australia in 1963. Arrangements were made for her to appear on the television program, Meet the Press. Catherine faced a panel of news people, men and women noted for their tough approach and ruthlessness. Before the program, Catherine prayed that the Holy Spirit would help her and even take over. She wrote, And he did! Never have I had a prayer more gloriously answered. The first part of the answer was that the representatives of the press were not antagonistic. But on top of that, the Helper revealed himself a brilliant Rememberer. I heard myself calmly giving dates, places, names, quoting portions of Peter Marshall s Senate prayers verbatim, even (most surprising of all) providing sports data- I who pay little attention to professional sports! Pgs. 106-107 Often times when I preach, the Holy Spirit brings to my mind a verse of scripture that I ve learned in the past that applies to the point I m trying to make in my sermon. So I insert it in my message even though I hadn t prepared to use it in my preparation time. When I drive to church on Sunday morning I pray for myself, our worship time, for new people to come and I ask the Holy Spirit to help me remember people s names. Why do I ask to remember your names? Because our names are very important to us! 4. He fills our hearts with peace! Last week we only had two sub-points so I m making up for it this morning with four! Vs.27 Remember, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as our paracletos, one who comes alongside of us. The Holy Spirit can bring great comfort and peace to our troubled hearts! Before I discuss the peace that the Holy Spirit brings, note what Jesus said, I do not give to you as the world gives. Jesus meant that he gives unconditionally, out of love. The world often gives expecting some form of recognition for the gift: a note of thanks, a verbal expression of appreciation, even a gift in return. Jesus gave the Holy Spirit and his peace as an unconditional gift to his believers. Isn t that great? Jesus simply gave us the Holy Spirit and his peace. Is your heart troubled about something this morning? We have people in our congregation who have lost loved ones recently, people struggling with addictions, we have marriages which have failed, people struggling with chronic diseases. As Christians we re not immune to the troubles and trials of life. But Christians have the Holy Spirit to help us during our troubled days. If you re enduring tough times, pray for the Holy Spirit s peace! Peace from the Holy Spirit means wholeness and tranquility in the midst of difficulty and pain. God s peace doesn t come from calm, external circumstances but rather the very presence of the Holy Spirit living within us, in the very midst of our difficulties! So, it s possible to experience very difficult circumstances but have an amazing peace and comfort given to us by the Holy Spirit. In the book I mentioned earlier, The Helper, Catherine Marshall shares the story of her husband s Peter favorite story of peace: At one time a famous art association announced a contest. All pictures submitted were to depict the word, peace. Paintings of all sorts were submitted. There were serene pastoral scenes, placid lakes, an intimate cottage scene, cheerful and snug before a cozy fireplace, untrammeled vistas of freshly fallen snow. But
5 the painting selected by the judges for the first prize was very different from all the others. It depicted the height of a raging storm. Trees bent low under lashing wind and driving rain. Lightning zigzagged across a lowering, threatening sky. In the center of the fury the artist had painted a bird s nest in the crotch of a gigantic tree. There a mother bird spread her wings over her little brood, waiting serene and unruffled until the storm would pass. The painting was entitled very simply, Peace. That Peter would point out is a perfect picture of the peace God has promised us. (pgs. 185-186) We often have to contend with storms in life but the Lord has given us his Holy Spirit to fill us with peace and comfort. Let the Holy Spirit help you live the Christian life! He will help you obey all that Christ commanded, He will instruct us, help us remember what Christ taught and fill us with incredible peace. Tap into the Holy Spirit s presence and power in your life. Ask Him for help! Earlier, I referred to the fact that you might be troubled this morning, struggling with a difficult problem or issue in life. I d like to invite you to come up for prayer! It doesn t have to be a huge problem but something for which you could use prayer support. If our elders and prayer team people would get up and make themselves available for prayer, please do so now. I have oil here in the front if you would like to be anointed with it.