Another Helper

John 14:15-31

 

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a disciple of Jesus when he was living here on planet earth? – Live with him for 3 yrs

A)Long walks / late nights – what it must have been like to share a meal together  Jesus you have some sauce in your beard – Ketchup on your mustache

 

B) Wonder if they ever had to chase a Bee out of his hair – Did they tell jokes

1)  did Jesus ever sit at night listening to the disciples having Burping Contest ?

 

C) It is hard to picture that – but the guys that Jesus chose were not the sophisticated, they weren’t  the well educated – they were not Scientist

1)   Not afraid to get dirty

 

D)They were down to earth – Today they would have consisted of Plumbers / carpenters probably would be surfer types – low key – guys

1) Those guys lived w/ Jesus for 3 yrs – but on this Particular night – Jesus Rocked their world

 

It all started w/ talk about Betrayal / all Forsake / even Peter would deny –

A)Washed their feet – and told them that they needed to love each other the way that he loved them – which meant they needed to serve each other

 

B) Now that in itself was hard because these guys didn’t exactly like each other all the time –

 

C) Then to top it all off – Jesus tells them – that He is leaving – preparing a place for them – where He is going they can’t come – right now –

1) But the good news was He wasn’t leaving them stranded – { Orphans } – He would send a Helper

 

D) Which meant their inner action with him was going to Change

 

See They had come to depend upon HIS personal presence W/ THEM

A)Their inner action w/ Him centered around their Physical senses –

John put it this way 1jn 1:1

1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life ( Touch / saw / Heard )

 

B) But Now He was going to inner act w/ them in a different capacity they would develop a different sensory organ

1) They would have to learn to be sensitive to the Spirit w/ in them – Learn to relate to the Lord on a Spiritual plane

 

C) Notice what He says in v.18 – I am leaving but I will come to you

1)   V.20 I am in you / you in me

 

D) Now I that there are many Christians who do not understand this truth about their new life in Christ.

1)The truth from which they get their identity is this fact, that Jesus lives in them.  His Spirit is in them – they are not on their own

 

Ever wonder how things would be different in the home if Jesus Physically sat at the dinner table every night  kinder Conversation – No one would get called  a dork{ No fighting 

A)How would your parenting Change – I can be so crabby sometimes / You just wait until he goes to be you are really going to get it

Lord you look like you could use a nap

 

B)If He was Physically w/ us in traffic ? What would that be like ?

1)Little boy – Mom why are there so many Idiots on the Rd when dad drives

 

C) How many of you guys would stop on the way home from work – say Lord sit here while I run in & get a cold one

1) At the Beach - Lord look at that Babe

 

C) You who are single – what if the Lord was w/ you Physically on a date sitting in the back seat ( Or would he need to sit in the front seat )

1) IN reality He is w/ us in all those situations – His Spirit w/ in us

 

That is exactly what the Lord is saying to His disciples/send helper to them/  He is w/ us – He is In us – always in every situation / struggle

A)But because we can be so dependent on our Physical senses / we Forget that / He is w/ in – He is in us / We go / He goes

 

B)That is one of the most important things the Lord would have us realize about our Relationship w/ Him

 

C) Same Jesus who walked / talked /ate / w/ the disciples day in and day out is w/ us – Every moment of every day!!

 

Now in this passage we see four tremendous characteristics of the Holy Spirit outlined for us in Jesus' words:

A)First, the One who is coming would be another Helper  In the King James Version it is translated "Comforter - 

 

B) The word translated "Helper is parakletos. It means "one who is called alongside of,"

1)one who will be your companion, your strengthener, your guide. One who is with you to strengthen you, to fortify you.

 

C) Another of the same Kind !!Now Who was the first Comforter? It was Jesus himself.

1)Jesus had been their Counselor, their Comforter, their Strengthener.

 

D)He was the One who had guarded them and kept them and empowered them and taught them. Now Jesus would be doing that thru his Spirit

 

The second characteristic v.17 is that he would be the Spirit of truth. A)What does that mean? Truth, of course, speaks of  reality. Truth is what exists, what really is there.

B) The Spirit of God has come into our lives to lead us and to help us  to understand what is Real.

1)    There are many illusions in life, things that we think are true but which aren't true at all,

 

C)But the Spirit of truth has come to help us to understand life as it really is, to dispel these illusions and strip off all the falseness.

1) He is the unending foe of every pretense, of every fraud, and of every bit of phoniness.

 

Paul put it this way in 1 Cor. 2:14 Contrast Natural man & the spiritual

12Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

13These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14But 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. …… we now  have the mind of Christ.

 

We have the mind of Christ /We are unlearning our dependency upon the physical senses and we are learning a New Faculty called Discernment

A)Our entire lives we have spent  learning the things  we know thru those 5 senses of what we See/ Hear/ Touch/ Taste/ Smell

 

B)But the things of the Spirit are communicated to us in a different way

  1) When we read the Scriptures not just a visual & Intellectual thing that is taking Place / but His Spirit actually is inner acting w/ Our Spirits

 

C) His personality actually penetrates our personality/ thru that His  truth is actually embedded w/ in us / Communion between our Spirit & His Spirit

1) Revealing Truth

 

 

The third characteristic,v.17  Jesus says, is that the world doesn’t Know Him -

A)The world speaks of those who are not believers in Jesus Christ – The Natural man –  Actor & the Pastor

 

B) The world speaks of those who try to look at life without making any provision for God or for God's operation;

1)   Those who think of life as consisting merely of what they can see  and who think they don't really need God in order to live.

 

C) Our world is being rapidly secularized. Education is losing its Christian perspective and is taking on a wholly secular point of view.

1) Pushing God out of everything - How will the world see Jesus – they will see Him in us

 

4th  thing – Spirit produces love in us

A)In Verse 21 he goes on to speak about love and obedience: 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." 

 

B) Notice carefully the connection between Verse 21 and Verse 20.

1)   Here in Verse 21 you have the proof of love: - "He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me," says Jesus.

 

C) But notice that he does not reverse this, as many do who read this. They think he said that if you obey him you will thereby love him,

1)   that obeying his commandments is what creates love for him.

 

D) There are many Christians who are trying to live on that basis. who exhibit in their lives a very mechanical obedience which they think will create love for Christ.

 

E) But In reality that is a recipe for legalism. To read this, "Obey me, and you will love me," produces a mechanical, sterile, dry, dusty Christianity

1) No joy / no passion / no heart

But what Jesus says is, "If you love me, you will obey me." Natural response -  It is easy to do, not difficult.

A)It is cause and effect: "If you love me, the result is that you will keep my commandments."

 

B) That is the secret of all proper behavior in the Christian Life - ,

1)   Now, if it takes love to obey, what produces love? That is really the question, isn't it'? That is the issue.

 

C) Love of Christ – Contrains him -  Remember how John puts it in his first letter: "We love, because he first loved us," {1 Jn 4:19 RSV}.

1)Or, as Paul puts it in Romans 5, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us," {Rom 5:5 KJV}. 

 

Therefore the way to produce love is to remember who you are, to whom you belong, and who he is -- his death, his resurrection,

A)You cannot remind yourself of that without having something happen to you, - Produces love in you –

 

B) Lose sight of that & you get mechanical – Amy’s hair –

1) Time in my life – lost sight of that – busy – not sitting at the Lords feet

 

5th Characteristic – Peace Verse 27:  Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 

C) "I give not as the world gives." How does the world give peace? If you were troubled, upset, and disturbed, and you went to a doctor who was not a Christian and asked him, "What can I do to gain peace," what would he tell you?

 

D)"Take a trip. Go to Hawaii. Get away from it all." In other words, "Change your circumstances. Get to the place where nothing bothers you, where everything is peaceful around you. Then you can be at peace."   KC

But Jesus says, "I give peace right in the midst of trouble, right in the midst of distress and turmoil and heartache and pressure.

A)Peace that surpasses understanding - I can impart peace to your heart right there, and not as the world gives."

 

B)Why? Because we can return to that basic relationship we have -- "You in me, and I in you."

1)Out of that comes the guarantee that he is working out his purposes. He will bring us to the end of the trouble.

 

C) He will still the storm and quiet the waves. We rest in the boat, content, knowing that

"No water can swallow the ship, where lies the Master of ocean and earth and sky." That is peace.

 

D)Jesus had no fortune to bequeath His followers, but He gives them gifts that can’t be bought –

1) the presence of the Holy Spirit and the presence of peace.

 

E)How many a defeated lives would buy the power of the Holy Spirit if they could? How many distraught souls would buy the peace of Jesus? These can’t be bought, but Jesus gives them as gifts to His people.

 

These gifts do not grant us exemption from the storms of life, but promise us the power and the peace to weather any storm.