Pastor Nick Sutton drives home the truth in fact we are never ever alone in this difficult walk of life.  Following below is the text of his message for you to read and study with him to prove to yourself the support of the Holy Spirit.

The Paraclete

Listen to Jesus’ words spoken to his disciples shortly before His death.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”

The world did not disappoint in following through with Jesus’ predictions.

Death of the Disciples

[Substitute slide inserted for clarity depicting the death of each disciple]

• Slide to be take with a grain of salt
• Most certainly the disciples died cruelly for their faith

The disciples did not belong to the world because of their status of belonging to Christ. They were hated just like Jesus predicted in John 15.

Jesus and His disciples had spent several years together going around professing that the Kingdom of heaven was at hand, condemning the religious leaders for their actions and healing the sick. These actions were certainly not going to be taken lightly by their opposition.

The world and the Gospel are at odds against one another because of sin!

Jesus was leaving very soon and the disciples, who were extremely dependent upon him, were going to be vulnerable in His absence.

JESUS OF COURSE KNEW THIS!

But he also knew that the gospel message needed these chosen men to be bold, to stand in the face of the world’s hatred for them and persevere in preaching the good news of the kingdom.

I cannot imagine how deflated they felt when Christ breathed his last upon that cross.

How were they to have boldness after watching Jesus suffer and die the way he did?

If you remember, many accounts of the disciples following Jesus’ crucifixion were shrouded in doubt and fear of what was to come.

Transition – You know how they say hindsight is 20-20. We are fortunate in that we now have the “In the beginning”, the result of sin over the world, the crucifixion story, and the ability to read certain events in real time while knowing the outcome.

The disciples were not so fortunate, and the outcome certainly may have been different had they known how they would die.

Imagine Jesus saying…

‘“Hey Peter, come follow me”…disregard the part about being crucified upside down because you don’t feel worthy to die the same way as me. That is a minor detail.’

You see, Jesus was preparing these men for what was to come throughout their entire time together. We get to read this dialogue after the fact, seeing it in real time but also knowing that Jesus’ predictions would come true.

Turn with me to John (The Gospel) Chapter 16 and I will read you an example of what I mean.

John 16:1-4

“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,”

Jesus couldn’t reveal the outcome of their lives from the beginning because he knew that fear would hinder them from their responsibility of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

But his presence with them enabled them to be bold and courageous.

It is not so hard to understand how they were emboldened to proclaim a message that people wanted to kill them for when considering that were with a man who performed miracles, calmed the seas, and had an uncanny knack for knowing what they were talking about even when he couldn’t hear them speaking.

But Jesus, their source of strength, is not far from ascending to the right hand of the Father. How were they going to maintain the same boldness in His absence?

Let’s continue reading to answer this question.

Verses 5-7  

⁵but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

 Grief filled the disciples when he spoke of leaving. They could not grasp the thought of being without Jesus.

This is such a pivotal moment for their mission.  They feel hurt and confusion with Jesus talking about going away.

But Jesus, in His comforting nature, tells of something wonderful that is to come in verse 7.

⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

Albeit the grief the disciples feel about the thought of Christ leaving overshadows their immediate understanding.

• We know the outcome
• We know the gift they will receive in the Holy Spirit.

Look at verse 7 with me again.

That underlined word is very important. Other versions interchange different words to try and describe what exactly John meant in the original Greek,

You will see words like Counselor, Helper, Comforter, Encourager, or Advocate.

So, if you’re following along, Jesus says it will be better for His disciples if he goes away because they will receive something that our English vocabulary struggles to clearly define from its Greek Origin.

We must stop and do a little word study. As we will soon see, John uses this same Greek word to describe something that Jesus is promising to come in His absence.

The Greek word is Parakletos –   

And to share with you all a little of my expensive education…Parakletos transliterated becomes Paraclete  

Transliteration is the process of taking a word…Parakletos from its original Greek alphabet and putting into a different alphabet, in our case in the English alphabet to make it easier to pronounce.

Parakletos to Paraclete

What is really important about whichever way your English version chooses to describe this word Paraclete – Counselor, Helper, Comforter etc… is that it is always capitalized.

We know that when we see words capitalized like this that it is referencing God in one of His forms. This time it is the Holy Spirit.

You may be asking yourself why so many different words are used to describe the word Paraclete.

Robert Fredrikson explains why very well with this observation from my Communicator’s Commentary. Page 231-232

I love that! We cannot define the nature of the Holy Spirit in English. Our best attempts lead us to use words like Counselor, Helper, Comforter, Encourager, or Advocate.

Is the Holy Spirit our Counselor- You Bet!

Is the Holy Spirit our Helper – In every way!

Is the Holy Spirit our Comforter – Most certainly!

Is the Holy Spirit our Encourager – Absolutely!

Is the Holy Spirit our Advocate – Yes He is and praise the Lord!

He is our Paraclete, which means so much more.

Can you see why Jesus said that is was for the disciples own good that he went away?

Jesus was limited in the flesh, by his own choosing (remember in Philippians that he emptied himself of God’s power taking on the form of a servant.)

Well now, the disciples don’t understand this because they can’t see past the grief of losing Jesus

They don’t understand what they will gain the Holy Spirit.

We know..the hindsight 20/20 thing.

They will inherit - The unhindered complete power of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son!

That is what all who have professed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior over their lives possess.

John uses this word Paraclete a lot between chapters 14 and 16.

Let’s take a look at these usages.

John 14:16

 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever”

I don’t know if you guys caught that. Another counselor??? Are we taking another Spirit, how many spirits are there…

You see, Jesus is also referred to as the “Paraclete” In fact, Jesus has been the disciples Paraclete this whole time. He has been their comforter, their advocate, their helper, and so much more.

Even though we struggle to understand the full nature of the trinity, we get to see examples of it right here.

God is our Paraclete in all His forms.

• As the Father
• As the Son
• As the Holy Spirit

Let’s look at 14:26

“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

Jesus is telling His disciples not to worry about losing me because you will have this Spirit that teaches you through ALL aspects of your life and will remind of you of ALL the things I personally taught you.

I don’t want to jump too quickly to application for us but this is exactly what we should expect of the Spirit of God living in us. Our Paraclete will walk us through anything this life has in store as long as we learn to rely on Him. That is the difficult part.

Our next example is found in John 15:26

 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”

This is another interaction between the trinity working in the lives of those who have been sealed through belief in the Son. God the Son, interacting with God the Father, to send the Spirit to guide believers in truth.

Then finally, 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.”

We have come full circle to where we started. Jesus, despite the disciple’s fear in losing Him, was preparing them to receive the full unhindered power of God to lead them through hatred that was to come.

We talked about being slaves of Righteousness for God a few weeks ago, the disciples were in fact slaves to God’s righteousness. They were made new in Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit for God’s purpose…not their own…just like you and me.

God’s purpose called them to preach a gospel that was going to get them killed.  Persecution was to come just like Jesus promised them.

But they were not alone. We too, my friends, we are not alone in this difficult walk of life.  Brian taught us last week that we are sealed, stamped, marked by God once we believe in Jesus Christ.

Your underwear says child of God right in the lining.

You have this Paraclete residing in you who is your teacher, your advocate, your helper, your counselor, your comforter, your encourager, and so much more.

But I need you to ask yourself a question this morning.

Does the world around you know that?

Remember Jesus’ words in the beginning, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own.”

Does the world hate you or does the world love you? They don’t do both.

I am going to read with you Galatians 5:16-22

Now I want you to keep in mind that this passage was written by Paul who was not one of the original disciples but is recorded to have died and been martyred for his faith just like the rest.

Let these verses be an evaluation for your life this morning. Look deep within and see which side you more closely align with this morning.

READ IT.

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever^[a] you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

 

Since we live by the Spirit, (Our Paraclete) let us keep in step with the Spirit as Paul urges.

In step means that we are walking, we are moving, we are actively pursuing our relationship with God, through prayer, fellowship, breaking bread together, and teaching as well as serving others for His name sake.

We all sin and fall short of the glory of God, which is why he gave us himself in multiple forms.

The Holy Spirit, as we have learned

• Is undefinable in the English vocabulary
• Is the full and unrestricted power of God in us.
• And is available to all who profess Jesus Christ as Lord over their lives

If you have not already done so, won’t you make that step yourself so you can be sealed by the Holy Spirit?

Let us pray.