Author: Dave

“The Holy Spirit: The New Comforter”
John 14:15-27
August 24, 2014
Rev. David Williams
Scripture: John 14:15-27
Sermon:
Introduction
	Great leaders are often remembered for inspirational speeches, encouraging their listeners to acts of bravery and tenacity in the face of danger.  [pics] One thinks of Winston Churchill’s famous radio address during WWII when England faced imminent invasion by Nazi Germany, “we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender….”  
Sometimes famous leaders’ speeches are more artistically rendered in plays and movies.  I remember in High School I read Shakespeare’s Henry V.  I loved the moving speeches by the young King Henry, rallying the troops! Some of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches come from this play. I always loved the one during the siege of Harfleur, beginning, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;” [Henry V, Act 3 scene i]
Then Henry leads his battered soldiers once more through the breach in the wall of Harfleur and on to victory!
Or, also from Henry V, is the famous St Crispin’s day speech in which Henry’s commanders are worried about being out numbered 5 to 1 before the battle of Agincourt, fought on the holiday for St Crispin.  Henry is not worried, though, and instead urges his brothers in arms, “we few, we happy few” not to wish for more men because that would mean each of them would receive a smaller slice of glory after the victory.  In the future, he tells them, they will stand up on their toes on St Crispin’s day, the anniversary of the battle, knowing that they had been there and won the victory against incredible odds.
	If Shakespeare is not your thing, perhaps you’ve seen Mel Gibson playing William Wallace in Braveheart. His famous “Freedom speech” in which his fellow Scots want to run away from the English who outnumber them badly.  He encourages them to stay and fight or else they will look back on that day in their old age and wish they could return to tell their enemies that “they can take our lives but they can never take our freedom!”
	The thing these speeches have in common is that they are an exhortation, an appeal to their listeners for courage.  They serve to change their listeners’ hearts, minds and wills so that they will stand up for what they would not normally stand up for, that they would charge forward when their natural desire is to run away, that they will fight on when they want to give up.
	The thing that these speeches have to do with the Holy Spirit is that the word Jesus uses to describe the Spirit, which many English translations render “comforter” or “counsellor,” has these same aspects of encouragement and appeal to do great things one would not normally do.  The Greek word “paraklete” means “one who comes alongside” and the verb form of the word has to do with exhortation, confidence and encouragement, all aspects the word “comfort” used to carry with it but no longer does. But we are getting ahead of ourselves!  Let’s turn to our text.
Context
	Over the past few Sundays we’ve been looking at some different or surprising aspects of the Holy Spirit.  We’ve seen the activity of the Spirit in creation and bringing life, especially human life to the world.  We’ve seen what it means to be the “Third Person” of the Trinity, including the facts that the Spirit has a will and is personable, one with whom we can have a relationship.  He is still fully God as well.  We’ve looked at the work of the Spirit in the OT, including giving gifts to leaders of Israel and leading them to wage war against their enemies and bringing them great victories.  We’ve even seen how having the Spirit fall upon you is not enough to mean you are saved, considering the pagan prophet Balaam!
	Today we are going to look at one of Jesus’ teachings on the Spirit in the Gospel of John.  Our passage today is one of several in John in which Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as “a new Comforter” or in the NIV “another Counsellor.”  We are going to explore what it means for the Spirit to be a Comforter, Counsellor or Advocate.  We must remember that the concept of the Trinity is only visible in the OT in hindsight.  For Jews in Jesus’ day, the idea of the Trinity was unimaginable.  Jesus himself offers insight into God’s nature when he both claims to be God himself and speaks of the Spirit in passages like this one, which makes this an important passage for our understanding of who God is and who the Holy Spirit is. Let’s apply our useful tool for understanding a Biblical passage, our COIN acronym.  Remember, COIN stands for Context, Observations, Interpretation and Now apply it.  This is a helpful way to work through any Biblical passage and we use it here on most Sundays in order to model it for your own use at home.  Whether you’re reading your Bible on your own, having family devotions together or attending a Bible study, you can use the COIN acronym to help you make sure you see what the text is really saying.  
So, with COIN in mind, let’s consider the context of our passage.  It takes place not long before Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. In chapter 13 Jesus washes his disciples’ feet.  Earlier in our chapter, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (verse 6) which is significant for our purposes because he refers to this new Counsellor as the Spirit of Truth. Jesus’ disciples are asking him about how to follow where he is going and to please show them the Father.  Jesus’ response is that in knowing him they know the Father since he and the Father are one.
Observations
It is in that context that we pick up our passage, beginning with “If you love me, you will obey what I command and I will ask the Father….”  Let’s make some observations about our text!  First, notice the link between loving Jesus and obedience to him.  Loving Jesus is linked with obeying him which, in turn, is linked to a relationship with the Father.  This is in verse 15, 21 and 23 and the negative form, if you do not love Jesus you will not obey, in verse 24!
If obedience and love are so closely tied together, it is useful for us to know what it is we are to obey!  Jesus’ teachings, his commands, can be boiled down to two things: believe in Jesus and love one another “out of the well of being loved by Christ.” [Frederick Dale Bruner, John, p. 836] Believing in Jesus, in the context of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, means letting Jesus love us and wash us of our sin.  Throughout the NT, belief carries with it the idea of more than just mentally believing something to be true. Belief requires action and movement. It means committing to something. It means believing in something like believing in a cause.
Love, here, is our favourite word at Priory, agape.  Agape love is a divine self-giving love primarily concerned with the well-being of others, in particular their spiritual well-being.  In the past we’ve spent a lot of time on this concept, but I realize the term may be new to many of us here this morning.  Almost every time you come across the word “love” in the NT it is this special form of love, agape.  There are four words for love in Greek, one for friendship or brotherly love, one for affection like loving your dog or loving steak, one for the love between and husband and wife and then agape love, the word John uses to describe God when he says, “God is love” in his epistles and in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son….”  You could almost call this “Christian love” because its meaning is almost completely determined by its use in the NT.
One thing I learned looking into this passage is that the Greek here actually gives a bit of freedom in the English translation.  Because of the way Greek works, you could also translate verse 15-16, “When you want to love me, you will want to obey what I command and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever.”  [Bruner, p. 837] Why is this significant?  Because wanting to love Jesus, wanting to follow Jesus, wanting to believe in Jesus and wanting to obey Jesus are the first signs of faith.  It is only when the Spirit works in us that these things happen. Without the Spirit, we are lost in sin and we do not want to love Jesus, nor obey him, nor believe in him nor follow him.  Wanting to believe is the first sign of belief.  
It also makes the statement seem more attainable. “If you love me you will obey me” is great until we realize that we do not have the spiritual or moral strength to actually obey Jesus.  It can be quite discouraging for us when we continually fall into sin, when we continually find ourselves falling short of obedience and wondering if it means we don’t really love Jesus at all.  But, when we render the verse this way, “When you want to love me you will want to obey me” we can see that our change of heart is the key, a change in our desire to love Jesus is what Jesus is looking for.  This brings us to his promise to ask the Father to send another Counsellor.
In verse 16 we see that the first consequence of love and obedience for Jesus is that he will ask the Father to send the disciples “another Counsellor.” This is our Greek word I mentioned earlier “paraklete” which means literally “one who comes alongside.” The Greek word’s [counsellor/paraklete] most common secular meaning is to call in help in a legal trial, to summon an ally, counsellor or advocate.  The counsellor, the one who comes alongside, is the advocate.  In 1 John 2:1, John refers to Jesus as our advocate with the Father, using this same word.  That is why in the Gospel of John the Holy Spirit is called “another” or “a new” Counsellor or Advocate.  The advocate in a court case would be called in “to speak in support of [the person’s] character, in order to enlist the sympathy of the judges in his favour.” [William Barclay, New Testament Words, p. 218] Think about this with respect to Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  It is not that Jesus or the Spirit come to give us counsel, but rather they are our “legal” counsel called in to speak on our behalf to the judge, the Father, with the goal of gaining the Father’s sympathy in our favour!  When faced with judgement for our sin, our Counsellors’ are pleading on our behalf for mercy!
But the verb form of paraklete has an even deeper meaning than just to call in an advocate.  The verb also means to encourage the faint of heart. It is used to exhort troops who are about to go into battle. [Barclay, Words, p. 220]  Like the examples in our introduction, the counsellor or encourager is the one who issues the rallying-call, “the one who puts courage into the faint-hearted, one who nerves the feeble arm for fight, one who makes an ordinary man cope gallantly with a perilous and a dangerous situation.” [Barclay, Words, p. 221]
Now let’s put this understanding of the word “counsellor, comforter or encourager” to the Holy Spirit, especially with respect to verses 15-16.  “When you want to love me you will want to obey my commands [but I know you cannot do this on your own] so I will ask the Father and he will send you another encourager [to strengthen you in your weakness, to give you courage and to help you cope with the dangers and perils of sin] and he will be with you forever.”
Isn’t that cool?  I find that so very encouraging and I hope you do too!  This is one of the reasons why it is important to work through the meaning of the text carefully and to use the help we can find from Biblical scholars.  Who knew that Jesus was saying so much when he referred to the Spirit as a Comforter or Counsellor?  But when we are able to work together and make use of the gifts that God has given some for studying his word, we can see all kinds of new depth in a passage.
Now, we’ve let our observations and interpretations start to overlap here, but that’s not too uncommon.  However, we’ve only looked at the first 2 verses of our text! Yikes!  But that’s ok, because our sermon today is mainly focussed on the Holy Spirit, mentioned in verses 16, 17 and 26.  There is a lot of wonderful, meaty stuff in the intervening verses, but we’ll have to leave that for another day.  I do want us to make a few observations from verses 17 and 26 though before we move on to some conclusions in the Interpretation section.
In verse 17, Jesus calls the Counsellor the Father will send “The Spirit of Truth.”  Remember, I mentioned earlier that in verse 6 Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Jesus is the Truth in person. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.  Verse 26 tells us that the Father will send the Spirit in Jesus’ name.  Remember, name doesn’t just mean a label for a person. Name means a person’s character or nature.  So if the Father sends the Spirit in Jesus’ name, that means the Spirit is sent in the character of Jesus.  The role of the Spirit, according to verse 26, is to teach and remind the disciples of all that Jesus has said to them.  That the Spirit will teach “all things” does not mean the Spirit will teach you quantum mechanics, advanced calculus or who will win the next Kentucky Derby.  Rather, the Spirit will teach “everything you need to know to be Christian disciples in the world.” [Bruner, p. 845]  
Later, in chapter 15 [John 15:26] we are told that Jesus will send the Counsellor from the Father and the Counsellor will testify about Jesus.  So the Spirit comes from the Father and the Son, that He comes in the name or nature of the Son, that his role is to testify about the Son and remind the disciples of the teaching of the Son.  The Spirit’s title means that he will advocate for the disciples to the Father, just as Jesus does, and that he will strengthen and encourage the disciples in their weakness to live out the commands of Jesus to love and obey him and to love one another.  So you can see that there is an intimate link between the work of the Spirit and the Son, Jesus.  You could almost say that the Spirit is the “alter-ego” of the Son!
Interpretation
So what does it all mean?  We’ve made our observations about the Spirit in this text. We’ve drawn some conclusions or interpretations, but what does it all mean?  The most important thing for us to walk away with this morning is a deeper understanding of the word “comforter” or “counsellor.”  The first time the word comforter was used in English to translate this passage was back in 1382 by John Wycliffe.  Back then, over 600 years ago, the word comforter had a much deeper meaning than it does today. Today, the word means to cheer somebody up during a sad time. When we hear that a person has lost a loved one, we want to comfort them. When a child is scared or hurt we want to comfort them.  When we are cold, we want to snuggle up in a blanket, also called a comforter!  I remember a classmate of mine in seminary who was already pastoring a church said that his congregation wouldn’t understand the word paraklete, but they understood what a comforter was- something you pulled up around your chin to keep you warm when you’re cold.  Too bad that’s not actually what the word meant when Jesus used it!
While it is completely true that the Holy Spirit will comfort us in times of sorrow and fear, it is a great shame when we limit our understanding of his work to just these things because that’s what the word comfort has come to mean today. [Barclay, Words, p. 216]  Rather, if we are thinking of the role and work of the Holy Spirit, the word comforter needs to take on its meaning from when Wycliffe used it originally.  That is, we need to realize that the Holy Spirit, the paraklete, the one sent alongside, not only brings comfort in times of sorrow or fear, but he also advocates for us to the Father.  He seeks to win the Father’s favour for us.  He also encourages us and strengthens us in our weaknesses.  The world is filled with danger. The road Jesus walked was a road filled with persecution, suffering and ultimately death.  That is a difficult road to follow Jesus down!  But we are called to follow him, to walk in his footsteps, even if that means walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
When following Jesus gets hard, when loving our neighbour in a self-giving way gets hard, when obeying Jesus gets hard, when believing in Jesus and committing to him gets hard, that is when we need the encouragement of the Spirit.  That is when we need to let the Spirit work in us, inspire us and strengthen us to fight the good fight, to resist temptation, to diligently make use of the tools Jesus has given us for our spiritual walk.  And that is what the Spirit is here for!  He is another counsellor like Jesus!
Look at the role Jesus played in the lives of the disciples.  He taught them.  He invited them to partake in ministry with him. He modelled faith for them. He challenged them. He chastised them. He loved them and forgave them.  This motley crew of disciples, drawn from all walks of life, were completely transformed by the experience of Jesus Christ.  When the Spirit came upon them, they were empowered to literally transform the world.  It was this power of the Spirit at work in the early church that grew a group of 120 believers at the resurrection to hundreds of thousands just 30 years later. [Barclay, The Promise of the Spirit, p. 34-36]  Two thousand years later, more knees bow to the name of Jesus than to any other name in history.  It is the same Spirit at work in the world today bringing the number of Christians worldwide to 2 billion!
We spent most of the last year studying Jesus.  We’ve seen who he is and the effect he has had on the world through his effect on individuals and communities.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He comes in the name or character of Jesus. He is the Spirit of Truth, Jesus is the Truth in person. They are two sides of the same triangle of the Trinity.  When we speak of the effect Jesus has had on the world, we are really talking about the effect the Holy Spirit has had on the world bringing into effect the work of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection. It is the Spirit that moves in people to believe and to obey. It is the Spirit that works in people to bring enlightenment about Jesus and to fill them with love for Jesus and the love of Jesus for others.
The Spirit reminds us of what Jesus said. He reminds our conscience of Jesus’ words when we face temptation.  How often have you faced a trial or a test and had the words of a scripture verse or a hymn or a song come to mind?  That is the Spirit reminding you of all Jesus said!  The Spirit is our source of comfort during times of grief, sadness or trial.  He comforts us directly and reminds us that our High Priest, Jesus Christ, suffered on earth as well. He is not unacquainted with our struggles, and therefore is the best high priest possible as he stands before the throne of Judgement.  The Spirit is also the bearer of challenge when we are complacent, lazy or ensnared in sin.  It is the Spirit that pricks us and prods us to our Christian work and obedience.  The Spirit convicts us of sin, especially with respect to believing in Jesus. He convinces us of Jesus’ righteousness and goodness and of our own deserving of judgement.  
It is the same Spirit who works in you love the unlovable.  When you don’t feel love for someone, but you still act lovingly towards them, when it’s hard to muster up the emotions, but you work for somebody else’s well-being it is the Spirit at work within you, bringing up the agape love from the well of love Jesus has for you.
Through the Spirit we, like the disciples, know our main mission in life: “to want to believe this Lord and to want to love his mission fellowship of believers and so to go out with them in love and service to the people whom the Father so deeply loves in the whole wide world.” [Bruner, p. 840]  To obey Jesus’ commands, to believe him and to love one another for his sake, are not onerous commands, but “exciting privileges” which the Spirit helps us take seriously “by accepting them simply and (always) undeservedly.” [Bruner, p. 841]  We are invited by Jesus to believe him and to love him. We are then empowered by Jesus through his Spirit to actually believe him and love him.  He gives us the invitation and he also gives us the ability to accept the invitation by giving us his Spirit.
Now Apply It
	So how do we apply this?  What are we to do with this?  Of first application is our new understanding of the role of the Spirit.  The Comforter, the Counsellor, the Paraklete is not just one who brings cheer in a time of sadness.  No, he is our advocate before the judge, our strength in times of weakness, our convictor in times of sin and complacency and our rallying-cry in times of danger. [pics]  The Spirit strengthens our weak limbs, brings courage to our frightened hearts, clarity and understanding to our clouded minds.  In the battle with sin, it is the Spirit that speaks to us of victory, that rallies us to fight on the beaches, the landings, the fields the streets and the hills of our hearts, to never surrender!
	When faced with the overwhelming task of loving our neighbours, of loving our fellow believers, of giving of ourselves, it is the Spirit that calls us once more into the breach.  The Spirit who brings gentleness and patience, turns that gentleness and patience into weapons against sin.  The Spirit strengthens weak knees when we want to run from yet another person who needs to be loved.
	Because that is how Jesus reveals himself to the world.  Judas, not Iscariot, asked Jesus in verse 22 of our text why he was going to show himself to his disciples and not the whole world at once.  Jesus’ response is that he shows himself to the world the same way he showed himself to them- “person to person, friend to friend, through individual human beings who love [him] and [his] word… through people who simply want to be real Christians.” [Bruner, p. 843]  Jesus and the Father live with and in those who want to love Jesus.  He and the Father dwell in them through the Spirit. When they go into the world, they take the Father, Son and Spirit with them and are their witnesses to that world.
	Our new century presents us with many fresh challenges and hard questions, not the least of which is the question of truth.  Jesus is the Truth in person. Our Comforter is the Spirit of Truth.  That is worth pondering as we engage a post-modern culture that wonders if truth is accessible at all.  By listening to the Spirit as He reminds us of Jesus’ words, as He gives us reformulations and fresh, faithful shapings of Jesus’ historical teachings of the first century, we will be equipped to face the challenges of the twenty first century. [Bruner, p. 846]
	Jesus speaks throughout these verses of sending the Spirit to “you” and of being with “you,” living in “you,” etc.  All of these “yous” are plural.  Jesus and the Father live in us plural.  It is the fellowship of believers, living together, loving one another, believing with one another, serving one another in which Jesus and the Father make their dwelling through the Spirit.  “The Spirit’s special work is to create a Christ-centred church.” [Bruner, p. 835]  That is because it is the Christ-centred fellowship of believers that demonstrates the very nature of God- agape love- self-giving love devoted to the well-being of others.  That is really, really hard to do, which is why we need a Counsellor.  We need one who will call us out, strengthen us in our weakness, encourage us in our fear and give us a spiritual kick in the pants when we need it. (That’s a special theological term, you know!)  Fellowship is where the Spirit lives and thrives, which means we need to be in fellowship with one another if we want to experience the Spirit, if we want to love Jesus and obey his commands.
To Do: Our to do this week is to pray to the Spirit to want to believe in Jesus more, to want to obey him better and ask him to remember his promise to ask the Father to send us the new Counsellor so that we can do it.  Amen.