Introduction: If Sermon on the Mount is the first recorded sermon of our Lord Jesus Christ, here in John chapters 14 to 17, we have the record of his last sermon. Imagine your best friend is going to be hanged by the neck tomorrow. He is charged with a crime he never committed. And for his final few hours left he has invited you to spend time with him. This is going to be the most memorable day of your life. Every word your friend speaks to you in this final hour of his life is definitely going to be of utmost importance for you and your friend.
How much important speaking about the Holy Spirit for Jesus was? The Lord Jesus Christ was going to die next morning. He called his friends, those most close to him, his twelve disciples, to spend final hours with him before his dies. He has got six hours. In this six hours he spoke what he thought the most important things for his disciples. He also washed their feet and taught them to love one another. He prayed for them, what we call the high priestly prayer. He taught them the importance of bearing fruit in the vine and branch relationship. These things were so profoundly important and would eternally affect his disciples and the church they would build. But in this last six hours, he also promised them the Holy Spirit and explained to them about His (the Holy Spirit’s) ministry to them. He spoke quite a lot about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit in this last six hour of His life.
What Jesus spoke about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit in these chapters? Before speaking about what I have in my heart to speak for this morning, first I want to go through the Scriptures in John 14-17 and find out straight forward facts about the person and work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus himself spoke about.
John 14:16 The Holy Spirit does not come automatically, but as a result to Jesus’ prayer to the Father. The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father on behalf Jesus, for the sake of the believers
John 14:17 The unbelieving, unregenerate world neither can believe nor can receive the Holy Spirit.
John 14:25 The Holy Spirit is sent in Jesus’ name. He (the Holy Spirit) accomplishes things in Jesus’ name. When we pray for someone in Jesus’ name, the answer to the prayer is executed by the Holy Spirit
John 14:25 One of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is teaching. We as servants of God’s word can teach and preach day in and day out, but unless the Holy Spirit takes the word and plant in our hearts to germinate all our effort is in vain. The Holy Spirit also brings understanding to truth that are never known by us. He loves to wow us. It is good to have someone teaching us God’s truth. But it is better that we have the Holy Spirit to teach us.
John 14:26 The Holy Spirit is also reminder of Jesus’ words to us. We are amazed how the gospel writers could remember precisely and accurately Jesus’ words so as to record them. But when we see the ministry of Holy Spirit who loves to remind Jesus’ words, we should not be surprised.
John 15:26 The Holy Spirit is the source of all truth. All Scriptures is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught some deep truths to his disciples. The Holy Spirit would continue to guide them into all truths. Our life becomes a journey of discovering new truths that the Holy Spirit highlights as we make progress.
John 15:26 The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus, as we see from the Scriptures, often accompanied with signs and wonders. His testimony about Jesus is the primary motivation for our testimonies.
John 16:7 Jesus must go back to the Father first, for the Holy Spirit to come and take His place
John 16:8 The Holy Spirit convicts people of their sin. No matter how hard we preachers and teachers try, we cannot convict anyone of his or her sin. We can convict people of a crime they committed but we cannot convict them of their sin. It is because a crime is committed against another fellow human. But a sin is committed first and foremost against heaven and against God. Only the Holy Spirit can convict people of their sin.
John 16:9 The Holy Spirit not only convicts sin, but also of the availability of righteousness. Jesus says that not only God is fully righteous, there is a human being who was fully righteous in the sight of God. He is Jesus. Jesus going back to the Father is the proof of his righteous living. There is righteousness available for us who are unrighteous, because God credits the righteousness of Jesus to us. We were not there when Jesus was crucified. We have not seen him alive in his physical body. But because of the Holy Spirit’s testimony we are sure of the forgiveness and sure of being made righteous in our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 16:9-10 The Holy Spirit convicts the world of God’s judgment on all ungodly. We did not see Satan’s defeat at the Cross. But because of the Holy Spirit’s testimony we are sure of our ultimate victory. The fear of standing before God and all our shameful sin being exposed became real to us when the Holy Spirit convicted of judgment and hell.
John 16:12 The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth.
John 16:13 The Holy Spirit takes the secrets of Jesus’ heart and makes them known to us, even the things and events that are yet to happen, in order to prepare us
John 16:14 Jesus is a King. But his kingship is from the position of servantship. Jesus did everything to bring glory to the Father. In the same way, the Holy Spirit loves His position of servanthood especially to bring glory to Jesus. The Holy Spirit loves to remain anonymous while magnifying and glorifying Jesus.
… We can go on finding more truths about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. But please do your own study and come out with more understanding on this subject …
The three "goings and comings" Jesus spoke about: Jesus repeatedly spoke about His going and coming back in these chapters. But he spoke about three different goings and comings in three different contexts. But the contexts are so mixed up that when we read first time we get utterly confused. Even the twelve disciples were utterly confused about his “goings and comings” (John 16:17-18). I am sure that they could only sort out the three different ones only after the coming of the Holy Spirit. Let’s examine them.
First, going in death and coming back in resurrection with a gap of three days. The verses that fit to this are John 14:18; 16:16; 16:22
Second, going to heaven to the father in the Ascension and returning to earth at the Second coming, with a gap of hundreds of years. No one knows the day or the hour of His return. But Jesus’ second coming is as sure as His first coming. The verses that describe this are John 14:2-3; 16:5
Third, removing His physical presence from them when he went to heaven and returning to them in the Spirit, with a gap of 10 days, on the day of Pentecost. The verses that describe this are John 14:23; 16:7
It is this third going and coming that we are primarily concerned this morning. Now I want to talk about two key verses in these chapters.
Another Comforter: In John 14:16, Jesus says: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever…” The Holy Spirit is described by Jesus as a Counselor. A counselor is one who gives direction and advise. The same word “Parakletos” in Greek is translated by the King James Version as Comforter (Jn 14:16 KJV), by the New King James Version as Helper (Jn 14:16 NKJV), by the New Living Translation as Advocate (Jn 14:16 NLT), by the Message Bible as Friend (Jn 14:16 MSG). Counselor, Comforter, Helper, Advocate and Friend all describe the attributes of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit. I want to think deeply of His name Comforter in the KJV.
What does a Comforter mean to you? The one who takes you out of your troubles and difficult situations and soothes your pain! That is the irony of the modern English language. The original word Comforter actually comes from the latin word fortress, from which are also derived fort and fortitude. That’s what is meant when the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter. He does not take us away from our problems and difficulties. He rather puts us into the problem and difficult situations and gives the necessary strength to face it. He fortifies us. He equips us not to run away from life but to face it and be victorious. He makes us more than conquerors in the midst of all kinds of battles. That is what Jesus meant when he promised the Comforter for the disciples.
Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world.” Jesus meant that we too can overcome the world because the Comforter will be in us. The world is full of troubles and as the end of the age approaches, Jesus has predicted about great trouble or the Great Tribulation. Some Christians claim that they will be whisked away before this great tribulation comes, although there is not even a single Bible verse that explicitly talks about this. But instead of trying to figure out how to escape the great tribulation, we must have the Comforter in our side, for whom no trouble or tribulation is great enough! If we learn how to walk in the Spirit, the time of great darkness can be our finest hour to rise and shine the light of Jesus and bring in the Great Harvest!
Now I want you to notice that word another Comforter, this time the emphasis on “another.” In English the word another does not convey the meaning quite clearly. There are two equivalent words for another in Greek: Allos and Heterous. Heterous is used when another object is described which is different in substance, meaning and purpose. The word allos is used when describing another object that is exactly same or identical as the previous one.
Allos Parakletos: When Jesus said another Comforter, he mean “allos Parakletos,” an identical Comforter, exactly same like Jesus in every way. This helps us to see some deeper truths. The Holy Spirit is exactly like Jesus in his personality and attributes. The Holy Spirit is equal in His deity. Not only this the Holy Spirit is a Friend like Jesus was. Jesus was known as the friend of sinners. The Holy Spirit loves sinners too. Jesus was Advocate of the broken and the weak. He still is our defense Lawyer in the heavenly court room! To save one helpless and weak soul from being murdered Jesus once said, “Whoever is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” The Holy Spirit is an Advocate like Jesus. Jesus was a servant King. The Holy Spirit is the greatest Servant in God’s household. He is a Helper like Jesus was.
The second key verse I want us to look is John 16:7. “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” Jesus said that he must go and the Holy Spirit must take His place for the good of the disciples. Some other version of Bible translation says, “for your advantage…” In other word, having the Holy Spirit in us is even better than having the physical resurrected Jesus. If we do not have the Holy Spirit we are missing something important, we are in disadvantage by Jesus’ own words!
How is the absence of Jesus’ physical presence and rather His spiritual presence in the Holy Spirit for our good, for our advantage? I want to think about the answer in two ways. First, how often can we have Him in HN. 36, Malviya Nagar? Maybe once in a lifetime! We know that even with His resurrected body Jesus could be only at one place at one time. There is no record in the Scriptures that says the Jesus was at two different places at the same time. Even the great miracles Jesus performed were only when he was physically present at the situation. Only on one occasion Jesus performed a miracle from a distance, but even then a close relative was with Jesus when the miracle occurred. This is why when Jesus arrived after Lazarus’ death, Martha said to him, “Lord, if you were here my brother would not have died,” and Mary said the same thing too. That is the limitation of Jesus because though He is fully God, He is also fully a man. Moreover, we claim that He is seated on the right hand of God, then how can we say that He is alive on the earth and working? The answer is He is here as the Holy Spirit. That’s why the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Jesus. That’s is why Jesus can be at the throne room of God at this hour on July 15, 11:00am and yet He is here in HN 36, Malviya Nagar, He is there in a nearby place where they are having worship service, and He his everywhere in India and all over the world where people have gathered to worship Him.
You shall do greater things than Jesus did. Jesus in the Spirit opens up tremendous possibility for evangelism and soul winning. We know that Jesus was very close with His disciples. Yet at times he expressed frustration about their slow learning, their inability to comprehend deeper spiritual truth, and their ineffectiveness at times. But the same Jesus promised that a day will come when His disciples would do greater things than He did. John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” This statement of Jesus becomes true, only when the Holy Spirit is no longer with us but in us (John 14:17).
In a previous lecture, we already learned that the great and mighty things Jesus did was because He was anointed and baptized in the Holy Spirit. At His baptism through John, the Holy Spirit came down like a dove and remained on Him. It is here after that Jesus began to do great things as the Messiah. He was what He was because of the Holy Spirit and Jesus did not hesitate to clearly proclaim about it in His hometown synagogue when he said, Lk 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." … Lk 4:21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." The Holy Spirit in Jesus opened up great possibilities for evangelism. Imagine, the Holy Spirit in all of the believers! What tremendous opportunity to extend the Kingdom of God, what tremendous opportunities to set people free and bring them to the Kingdom.
When a person becomes so full of the Holy Spirit that the Spirit knows all of his thoughts and not only that the Spirit can put His thoughts into the person’s mind. The Spirit uses this person’s vocal chord and his mouth to utter the words of God the Spirit would like to speak. The Spirit lets Him pray for things that are close to God’s heart. The Spirit uses this person’s hands as if his hands become the very hands of God from where God’s blessings are released as this person lays his hands on others. What tremendous possibilities when the Holy Spirit is in us. In fact the Spirit in us molds us to become a Comforter, a Friend, an Advocate, a Helper after Jesus’ image and after His own image.
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