Another Helper

A Sermon based on John 14:23 -29, delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on May 13, 2007 at the Hampton Inn, Barboursville, WV.

Let’s have a little quiz as we start today:

How many of us think that the Bible is easy to understand? Raise your hands…
How many of us think that it’s no trouble to love your neighbor as yourself? …To forgive those who sin against us?

How many think that it’s a piece of cake to maintain perfect spiritual peace all the time?


If you’re like me, you didn’t answer affirmative to any of these questions – or to any of the other myriad of things that Christ taught us to do in the Sermon on the Mount. Frankly, the Christian life is impossible to live - on one’s own steam that is. Like Paul says is Romans 7, with my mind I agree with the law of God, but I find another principle at work within me, that is in my flesh. The good that I wish to do I don’t do, and the evil I don’t wish, I do. …Oh wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death?!

But then of course, he goes on to give thanks to God for Jesus Christ and for the salvation that comes through Him. Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins and He is our righteousness and advocate before God. However, it’s perfectly obvious to us all that Jesus is not walking around in bodily form any more. He is with the Father and we are here. Distressingly, he says to us in Jn. 14:23 that “If anyone loves me – he will keep my word”.

Already from the git-go, we’re in trouble! I don’t know about you, but I think I can keep His word for about a minute or two without thinking something rotten. If the standard of faithfulness is Jesus – and it is – then there is no way really to live a truly Christian Life. So, as Christians, we are in a real quandary. We really need someone to help us and to advocate for us. In the providence of God, He knew this and in our lesson today, Jesus explains how this dilemma is going to be resolved: He will send us a Helper.

Now the word helper in Greek is Parakletos, and it has a legal meaning: a lawyer or assistant in a legal question. In a broader sense, it simply means someone who encourages, counsels and strengthens another in a time of need. This is what we need: someone to help us.

This helper is ‘just like Jesus”. He is the third person of the Trinity and is in complete unity with the Father and the Son. He has a personality unique to Himself, yet at one with the Father and the Son.

Jesus says, in v. 26, The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name… Jesus asks the Father and the Father sends the Spirit – will come to us and take up residence within us, will dwell with us (v. 23). This is what we call the Procession or “Spiration” of the Holy Spirit. In our Nicene Creed, we say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This phrase, and the son, is called the “filioque clause” and is what caused such a division between the churches. The clause was actually added to the creed in 589 at the Council of Toledo. The East says that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father. Affirming anything less denigrates the majesty and mastery of the Father.

The West looks at passages like this one today and sees cooperation: the Son asks the Father, and the Father sends the Spirit. In Jn. 16: 7, Jesus says, “I will send him to you”. So this is the basis of the conflict – and we in the west live under the understanding that the Spirit comes from the Father and the Son. (May God bless our Orthodox brothers and sisters).

So here we have the resolution of our basic dilemma. If we love God and desire to do His will, that is, if we profess Christ as Lord of our Lives, God, Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit comes to make his home in us. Jesus tells the disciples to expect this before time, so that when it happens, they will believe in Him (v. 29).

And I’m just so sure that the disciples said, “Great! This is excellent! Can’t wait! They were probably totally confused. Face it, this is amazing: The Creator of the Universe, the Eternal One, all powerful and self-existent has chosen to take up residence in his Creatures in an act of Incarnation that is really shocking when you get right down to it. Indeed, there are some people who think this is the reason why Lucifer rebelled initially. He could not stand the idea that the Holy god, would so humble Himself as to disrespect the Pure Spirit that He would breathe life into dirt and then chose to have a relationship with it. Appalling! Unfathomable!

Nevertheless, the Pure Spirit God has been sent to us to live within us – and this is actually one of the ways that a person knows they are a Christian – they have what Paul calls the “internal witness of the Holy Spirit. …The Spirit Himself bears witness to our spirits that we are indeed born again. God himself tells us we are His. We have received a spirit of adoption, by which we cry out, Abba, Father. Again, this is bound up in what we refer to as Incarnation Reality. The Holy Spirit lives in us, making us alive and giving us Help.

The Help he gives us is varied and we will only focus on three aspects today: Teacher, Memory Enhancer and Peace-Giver.

I grew up in the church and heard the bible stories and sermons all my life. The narrative of the Gospel was part of my consciousness. As a teen, I would occasionally try to read the Bible on my own. But I would cover about three verses before getting completely stuck! It just didn’t make much sense to me. Amazingly, immediately after becoming a Christian, I went down to the local Bible Book Store, bought a bible and went home and started reading it. Amazing! It actually made sense. I could read whole books at one sitting – even several books if they were short enough. I was riveted by what I was reading and transformed by it. This is the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, teaching us and helping us to understand God’s Word.

An example from the life of Christ is where Jesus is walking with the disciples and as he walks, he systematically expounds the Scriptures from Genesis to Malachi, revealing to them all things concerning Himself. When Jesus broke the bread, the disciples’ eyes were opened and they realized that it was Jesus – and suddenly everything came flooding back to them – and it all made sense. John 16:13: When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…” The Spirit helps us understand the Word.


Remembrance: one of the things people object to about the Scriptures is the aspect of oral Tradition. From our written word perspective today, we think that unless something isn’t written down as it occurs that it must not be accurate. Here in verse 26, we have a specific word from Jesus that God is involved in helping the disciples to remember the events of the past, to report them accurately and to pass them on correctly. This oral tradition is what Paul refers to as Tradition with a capitol T. This is what I received, this is what I am passing along to you. It is a faithful transmission of Truth – and it is enabled and powered by the Holy Spirit. This should help us to have confidence in the Bible and in the Apostles teaching as it has been handed down to us.

Then finally, God demonstrates his pastoral care over us in that he wants us to have Peace – the peace of God that passes all understanding (Phil 4:7). We are also told in Galatians 5:22, that the fruit of the Spirit includes Peace. If we are full of the Holy Spirit, this is, if we are directed by and controlled by the Holy Spirit, then we will experience peace even in the midst of the roughest storms.

This peace, however, is bound up in being in Harmony with Gods’ will. We learn from 1 Cor. 3:12 that we can be fleshy or carnal – and that being carnally minded prevents us from understanding spiritual things. We are called to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is the “new natural” for Christians. If you’re not full of the Holy Spirit as a Christian, there is something wrong with you. You’re not receiving all that God has for you, and you’re not able to give out all that God want to do for the world through you.

The remedy for being carnal or fleshly is simply to confess your sins (I John 1:9) and then to ask God to fill you with his Spirit according to Ephesians 5:18. In so doing, you will experience the:

Teaching illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.
The Remembrance of all that you have learned in God.
The Peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

You will be helped personally and equipped for ministry to others.

Today as we confess our sins to God, I’d like us to pay special attention to the possibility of asking god to fill us with the Holy Spirit. After our Confession, let’s take a moment to do just that so that we might be truly Spiritual Christians full of the Spirit, just as Jesus was. AMEN.