The Helper

Most of you know we lived for 8 years in Langley, BC where we pastored a Church called SouthRidge Fellowship. The whole time we were in Langley I was allowed to Pastor on what was called a visitors visa. This status was given to religious workers from out of the country, and it worked well for a number of the years. But then something happened that changed all that. It seems that a number of Chinese immigrants were coming to BC using the same kind of Visa as I had been using, all claiming to be religious workers. When they did that, they could bring their entire family over and their children could get a free education. So at some point the BC government discovered this abuse of their immigration system and decided to do something to discourage people from taking advantage of this status. So they begin charging a $25,000 foreign student fee for any child who was to enroll them in the public school system. All of a sudden I received a notice that if we were going to stay in Canada, we would have to pay 50 grand a year to keep my kids in school. At that time my yearly salary as a Pastor was around 48,000 before taxes.   This was not good. So we began trying to see what we could do to wave this fee so we could stay in Canada. We had conversations with our School, contacted our local MP and even spoke with the Board of Education in Victoria, but nothing could be done. It seemed like we had exhausted all our options. So we shared this need with our leadership team and also with our small group, asking people to pray for us. Now it turns out we had a brand new believer in our small group who happened to be an attorney. And when we shared this seemingly impossible situation, John decided he would take up our case and see if he could help us. And within a week, he found a legal way that these fees could be waved for us. We just had to fill out some new paper work, have it notarized, and then we could stay in Canada and our girls could stay in school. And at the end of the day, even John waved our fees. He was glad to help us. After all, that’s what an Advocate does. An Advocate takes up your cause and works on your behalf. An advocate by definition is really someone who comes alongside to help you when you cannot help yourself.

And that is precisely what the Holy Spirit does for us. The Holy Spirit is our Advocate or Helper. At least that’s how Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit to His disciples and yes, to us. For He knows that if we are going to truly live as His disciples, if we are going to learn to live and love like Him, we need someone who can come alongside, take up our cause, and help us to actually do what Jesus is calling us to do. That’s the role of the Holy Spirit. And beginning today, we are going to acquaint ourselves with God’s greatest gift to us – the gift of Himself in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. So, if you brought your Bible with you today, let me encourage you to find John 14, where Jesus introduces us to the Helper, the Spirit of Truth, our Advocate, our Friend, the Holy Spirit. And as He does, we are going to look at four ways the Holy Spirit helps us know and follow Jesus. And the first way the Helper helps us is found in John 14:15-18, where the Helper Helps you Know Jesus Where the Holy Spirit helps you experience a living relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s pick up his teaching in verse 15, “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, 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. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:15-18

Here now Jesus introduces to us, the Holy Spirit by calling him “another helper.” There are three truths that Jesus wants us to immediately take hold of as He introduces the Holy Spirit. The first is this: The Holy Spirit is another helper just like Jesus. When Jesus calls him “another helper” he uses a word that carries this meaning. He wants them and us to know that the Holy Spirit is another helper just like Jesus. Not kind of like him, but exactly like Him. That’s why the apostle Paul identifies the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:9 and Philippians 1:19 as the Spirit of Christ.  He is “another” just like Jesus.

And we see that in the very next thing Jesus says. He sends the helper, “to be with you forever.” This is a beautiful description of relationship. The Holy Spirit comes to be with us. He comes to mediate the presence of Jesus with us, so that we can know him in a personal relationship, not just know about Him. So in this way anyone who follows Jesus can personally encounter Jesus through the life of the Holy Spirit.

And that leads me to the second thing Jesus wants us to know about the Helper: He is called “the Spirit of Truth” This is significant, because Jesus had just told them, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” And now with Jesus calling the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, we see how the Holy Spirit mediates Christ’s presence to us: He helps us by revealing the truth of Jesus to us. The Holy Spirit makes Jesus knowable to us. Not just when you first meet Jesus, but everyday and forever. What a gift!

This is the good news of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes Jesus alive to us. He reveals Jesus to us. He mediates Jesus’ presence with us. He is always with us. And what’s even more incredible, is that Jesus himself says, He will dwell in us.

Let this sink in for a moment. What that means for you if you’ve received Jesus Christ by faith is this: The moment you believed, Jesus Christ took up residence in your life by the Holy Spirit.   And now because Jesus never goes back on His promises, this means He will always be with you, always be in you, and will always make Himself known to you.   Your body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit. The God of the universe has chosen to take up residence in your life by the Holy Spirit!

So think about this: If Jesus gave you the Holy Spirit to help you know Him and be with Him forever, how might this change your faith? I can think of a couple of things. First, knowing this should give you an amazing sense of security. That is, if the God who created the heavens and earth is now alive in you, and promises to always be with you, you will never be separated from Jesus and His love.   So not only will you have a great sense of security, but you can live with a new sense of confidence. I mean, we of all people should be the most confident and courageous people on the planet, because the God who raised Jesus to life is now alive in us. Wow!

Secondly: knowing Jesus has given you the Spirit of truth means you can experience not only His presence, but you can walk with Him, learn from Him and be changed by knowing Him. What a blessing! All because Jesus has given us the Helper. He helps us know Jesus. And that’s just from John 14:15-18. But that’s just the beginning.

Now flip to John 14:25-26, where we see that the Helper Helps you Learn God’s Truth

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 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 have said to you.” John 14:25-26

This teaching is somewhat specific to the disciples sitting there with Jesus on this night, but it has huge implications for us. For what we see here is that both the Father and Son sent the Spirit to these first apostles so that we might know Jesus today. When the Holy Spirit came, He was the one who not only taught them about Jesus , but helped them remember the things Jesus taught while He was with them. And now because Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, we have the Gospels and the New Testament.

Listen to how Paul describes this process from 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. All Scripture is the product of the Spirit of God! So learning God’s Word, learning to live and love like Jesus all comes as a result of the Spirit’s help in revealing God’s Word.

But the Spirit wasn’t finished when He taught those first disciples, for we know from other New Testament writings, that the Holy Spirit continues to helps all believers understand all of God’s Word. First, in Ephesians 1:17-19 we are told that the Helper is called the Spirit of wisdom and revelation who opens the eyes of our hearts so that we might know Jesus better. And then in 1 Corinthians 2:9-12, we are told how the Helper helps us understand all of God’s thoughts: It is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

Again this is incredible news. Without the Holy Spirit helping us, we could not know Jesus, and we could not know the mind of God. But thanks to Jesus and the Father sending the Spirit of truth to us, we can even know the deepest truths of God’s Word. And that’s Amazing. But there’s even more. The third way Jesus tells us how the Helper Helps us is recorded for us in John 15:26-27. I alluded to this briefly last week.

But the truth is basically this: 3. The Helper Helps you Bear Witness to Jesus“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” John 15:26-27

Here now, Jesus tells us that the Advocate is sent by God to conduct the case for Christ in the world. The Holy Spirit, then, is God’s missionary Spirit, sent by Jesus from the Father so the world can hear about Jesus. But here’s the twist: The Holy Spirit is sent to testify about Jesus, but we are the conduit through whom the Spirit speaks.

In other words, this witness of the first disciples also applies to us. We who now have the Spirit of truth dwelling in us, now have this same missionary Spirit. It is His Spirit in us that compels us to want to share the good news about Jesus with others. But here’s the good news with that: because the Spirit is in us, we never witness alone. The Holy Spirit is always present, helping us make much of Jesus. That’s His job. That’s why everyone who has experienced the grace and love of Jesus have this inner compulsion to share the good news about Jesus. That’s why Jesus final words to the church were this: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8

The Helper doesn’t just give us the desire to share Jesus, He also gives us the power to share the good news about Jesus! This is the role of the Helper, the Advocate. He is the one who makes the case for Christ – through us. And that leads us to the final way the Helper Helps us. And to see that, please turn over to John 16:7-11 4. The Helper Helps you Believe in Jesus   “Very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”

The Holy Spirit helps you believe in Jesus by doing three things:

1) convincing you of the guilt of your sin

2) convincing you of the righteousness of Jesus

3) convincing you of the judgment of Satan

The Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus to help people become convinced that they need a Savior. But before people realize their need of a Savior, they must first realize they are lost and in need of a savior. And the Holy Spirit helps us become convinced of our need in one of three ways, or all three ways. The first, the Holy Spirit convinces you of your need for a Savior by convincing you of the guilt of your sin. How? By pointing out your unbelief in Jesus. Until we hear of Jesus and how He offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sin, we have some awareness that something’s not right in us. But once we see that God loved us by giving Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin – now we become aware that our sinfulness has consequences, and that God demands justice for our sin.

And the cross tells us that God sent Jesus to take the consequences of our sin. So now we are left with a dilemma: either we accept God’s sacrifice in Jesus, or we reject it. It all comes down to a matter of belief. Do we reject Jesus or believe in Him. This is how Jesus put it in speaking of himself: Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:18   When people hear the good news about Jesus, they become convinced of the guilt of their sin. Then they either receive God’s offering or reject it.   That’s the first way, the Helper convicts people of their need of a Savior.

A second way the Helper convinces us that we need a Savior is by revealing the righteousness of Jesus to us. The truth is this: Jesus lived a righteous life. His righteousness shows us our unrighteousness. He loved perfectly. He obeyed all of God’s law. He fulfilled all righteousness. And by doing so showed us that we all fall short of God’s righteousness and need a Savior. Once again, it is the Helper who does this as He reveals Jesus to us. That is why we need to introduce people to the Jesus of the Gospels. This is why we encourage you to follow Jesus together in a Journey Group. For its here, the Holy Spirit can reveal the righteousness of Jesus and help them see their need for a Savior.

And the third way the Helper convinces us that we need a Savior is by revealing the judgment that occurs on the cross. On the cross, not only was our sin dealt with, but Satan was condemned. Now if Satan a former angel and powerful spirit being, stands judged before God, what chance is there for man to escape judgment if God’s grace is refused? There is absolutely no chance. Those who follow Satan will share his doom. There will be a judgment day. And when the Holy Spirit convinces you that you will be judged by what you have done, then indeed, a person will see their need for a Savior.

Now with all of this, let me share the good news. We don’t do the work of helping a person see their need of a Savior. The Holy Spirit does. But He choses to use us. How? Don’t be ashamed to confess the name of Jesus. There is power in his name. When the world knows we believe in Jesus, they will be convinced of their sin and guilt. If we keep the name of Jesus silent, then our friends will not know their need of a Savior. But when we make Jesus known, they have to do something with him.

Second, Live righteous lives. Let the Holy Spirit live in you so that you live and love like Jesus. Jesus was completely righteous. He lived life the way God intended. When the Holy Spirit works in us to help us live like Jesus, again the Holy Spirit will do His convincing work through our righteous lives.

Finally, Share your story of the cross and Jesus crucified. Because it’s at the cross the sins of all mankind were thrust upon Jesus and condemned in him. He became sin who knew no sin so we could become the righteousness of Christ! When we preach the good news of the cross, the Holy Spirit does the convincing!

Now, this is just some of how the Holy Spirit helps us know and follow Jesus”

The Helper helps you to know Jesus.

The Helper helps you to learn God’s Word.

The Helper helps you to witness to Jesus.

The Helper helps you believe in Jesus.

Where is Helper wanting to help you today?