The Promise of the Spirit (John 14:16-18)

  • Tony Evans tells the story of a man who went to buy a refrigerator
  • he bought the most incredible refrigerator you could imagine
  • it had all the bells and whistles you would expect, and then some
  • it cost thousands of dollars more than a normal refrigerator, but what could you expect for such a fine product?
  • the store delivers the new refrigerator to the man’s home
  • excitedly, he fills it with everything he can think of, and then retires for the evening
  • the next morning he rushes into the kitchen excitedly, only to find that the milk is spoiled, the ice cream is running out of the bottom of the freezer compartment, and the vegetables are changing color
  • the refrigerator is not working
  • the man calls the store to give them a piece of his Christian mind
  • the man at the store says, “I don’t understand. Open the door and see if the light comes on”
  • he opens the door; no light
  • “Put your ear up close to the refrigerator and see if you can hear the hum of the motor”
  • no hum
  • and then the man says, “There’s a cord at the back or your refrigerator. Please check to see whether it’s been plugged in”
  • sure enough, our friend finds it wasn’t plugged in
  • he comes back to the phone and said, “You’re right, the cord was not plugged in. But for the kind of money I paid for this refrigerator, that shouldn’t matter. This thing should work anyway”
  • you see, refrigerators are dependent things
  • no matter how much you pay for it, although it has all the parts necessary to run, it cannot operate without an invisible power source called electricity
  • unless you plug in that cord, the food will continue to spoil
  • friends, our spiritual lives will not work without the Holy Spirit’s power
  • when God saved us, he gave us all the component parts necessary for spiritual life and victory
  • but we are dependent creatures
  • we have not been designed to work on our own
  • only as we are empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit will we produce what our lives are supposed to produce
  • between now and Palm Sunday, we want to study the Holy Spirit
  • the Holy Spirit is not some nice addendum to the Christian faith
  • he is at the heart and core of it
  • the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, God himself
  • some people have taught that the Holy Spirit is merely a force
  • but the Bible is clear the Holy Spirit is a person
  • he is not a force or an “it”
  • the Holy Spirit has all the components of a personality: intellect, emotion, and will
  • and there are Scriptures that demonstrate this
  • and the Bible is also clear that the Holy Spirit is God
  • if there’s anything we need to understand in order to live the victorious Christian life, it is the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit
  • that’s why our study will not be an intellectual one
  • our goal is that we will experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit and that it will transform our Christian lives and those around us
  • let’s begin by considering the disciples
  • they were a handful of unlikely misfits, as one person writes, a “rather ragged aggregation of souls”
  • they do not impress us as being key types of men
  • none of them occupied prominent places in the Synagogue
  • none of them belonged to the Levitical priesthood
  • for the most part, they were common laboring men
  • somebody has written a fictional management report to Jesus, describing the lack of potential apparent in the disciples
  • TO: JESUS, SON OF JOSEPH
  • FROM: JORDAN MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
  • Dear Sir:
  • Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.
  • The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.
  • As part of our service and for our guidance, we make some general comments, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without any additional fee.
  • It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.
  • Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.
  • One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.
  • We wish you every success in your new venture.
  • Sincerely yours,
  • Jordan Management Consultants
  • the Gospel of John sets the scene for us in John 14 and on
  • please open your Bibles to John 14:16
  • it was hardly a great time to be a disciple of Jesus
  • everything was in a spiritual downtime
  • Judas was about to show himself to be a traitor
  • Peter had just been told in the next twenty-four hours, he would publicly deny Christ
  • the Jews wanted to get rid of Christ and all his disciples
  • and then Jesus delivered the worst blow
  • he said:
  • “I am going…to prepare a place for you. You can’t come to me until I come for you. I am not going to tell you when I will come for you, but trust me”
  • the disciples reacted with shock
  • Thomas said in effect, “Jesus, you have got to be kidding. We’ve put all our eggs in your basket, and now you’re going to leave us? We’ve had enough problems making it with you here. How are we ever going to make it if you leave us?”
  • in this context, Jesus said:
  • John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—
  • John 14:17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
  • John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.
  • Jesus promised them that his replacement would be “another Counselor,” literally another legal advocate
  • this is the promise that Jesus gave to us
  • in the remainder of the time we have this morning, I want to unpack the power of the promise given by Jesus
  • Jesus promised us the indwelling of another advocate
  • because Jesus knew that the disciples’ need was complete, he promised them another “Helper” after he left
  • the world for helper is paraclete in the Greek
  • it is translated differently in various Bible translations because it is such a rich term
  • the best understanding of this word is probably that of “advocate” in a legal sense
  • in the ancient world, a paraclete was someone summoned to give assistance in a court of law
  • and the text in John 14:16 says he is “another paraclete
  • in other words, he was going t o pick up where Jesus left off
  • the word “another” in the Greek means another of the same kind
  • just as Jesus had come alongside and dwell with them
  • it’s important to notice this: the text talks about him taking over the ministry that Christ had among the disciples
  • in other words, as Christ was to the disciples while he was on this earth, the Holy Spirit is to us today
  • Jesus was saying in effect, “I am going to leave you now. But I am going to send you someone who is always going to be there for you. No matter what your problem, no matter what your circumstance, no matter what your trial, frustration, or irritation, no matter what you come up against, this helper will be with you”
  • unlike Jesus, who had only been with them, the Holy Spirit would be within them
  • Jesus said, “he will be in you”
  • not many days after Jesus gave this promise, it was actually fulfilled
  • the Holy Sprit took permanent residence in the lives of the disciples
  • the Holy Spirit was and is, from the day of Pentecost on, present in the lives of all believers
  • let’s think about that
  • not even in the lives of Old Testament greats was this true
  • you have an advantage that they didn’t have
  • and it’s this: the Holy Spirit has taken permanent residence in you
  • it’s what we call the indwelling ministry of the Spirit of God
  • when a believing sinner comes to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in that person’s life and becomes his helper
  • the best help for whatever problem you face is inside you, the power of the Holy Spirit
  • you see, Jesus is not here in person, but he has left you and me another helper who is just like him
  • if you are a believer, this helper is closer to you than anybody else could ever be, because he is within you
  • Jesus says, “You’re not getting less of me. The Holy Spirit will be all to you that I was to you.”
  • the Holy Spirit is our indwelling, ever-present helper
  • in John 14:12, Jesus made an astounding statement
  • 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.
  • even though Jesus was God, when he became man, he could only be in one place at a time
  • his deity was only in the same vicinity as his humanity
  • Jesus never traveled more than a few miles from his home, or preached to more than a few thousand people
  • Jesus said that we would do greater things than he did
  • how is that possible?
  • not that we can do greater miracles
  • but because the Holy Spirit is ever present within us and indwells us wherever we go
  • truly believers have done greater things than Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit
  • on Pentecost Sunday, Peter preached and three thousand people believed
  • Jesus himself never had that type of response, as far as we know
  • because the Spirit is in us, He is wherever we happen to be
  • all of God that we ever could want to have, we have, if we’ve come to Christ
  • there’s never a situation in which you have less access to God than the next Christian
  • when we’re defeated in the Christian life, it isn’t because we have too little of the Holy Spirit, it’s because the Holy Spirit has too little of us
  • the second and last aspect of the promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus gave was the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us
  • we’re going to talk about this in coming weeks, so I don’t want to spend too long on this
  • John 16:13-14 says the Spirit’s ministry is to glorify Christ
  • Jesus said, “He will bring glory to me”
  • the Spirit’s job is to elevate Christ above all other things and glorify him
  • John 16:13 says that the Spirit would guide us into all truth
  • and John 14:26 says that the Holy Spirit will “bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26)
  • the Spirit has a teaching role in our hearts
  • other passages in Scripture talk about the Spirit interceding for us, sanctifying us by making us more holy
  • the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts
  • Jesus told the disciples to wait, and that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them
  • this is the life that God intends for every Christian
  • in coming weeks, we’re going to look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit in some detail, but there’s no mistaking our need for this ministry
  • let’s go back to the disciples
  • they started out as a bunch of misfits
  • but they ended up “turning the world upside down”
  • when the promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled in their lives, it turned them from petty, competitive, small-minded men to strong-hearted, incredibly confident and powerful servants of God
  • and it was through the power of the Holy Spirit
  • friends, the Holy Spirit is not an nice addendum to the Christian faith
  • he is at the heart and core of it
  • unless we’re plugged into the power of the Holy Spirit, unless we believe in God and have the Holy Spirit take residence in us, we’re not plugged in
  • and our milk is going to go sour and our vegetables are going to turn a funny color
  • but if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, Jesus has sent you another helper just as he was to the disciples
  • this Spirit takes permanent residence in your heart, goes with you wherever you are, transforms your life into something wonderful
  • it’s an advantage you have over Old Testament Christians
  • in coming weeks we’re going to learn more about the Spirit’s work in our lives, and how we can experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit
  • but would you bow with me now and give thanks to God for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives?
  • and if you’re not a believer, I’ll invite you to become one today that you may receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit
  • [prayer]
  • John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—
  • John 14:17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
  • John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.
Darryl Dash

Darryl Dash

I'm a grateful husband, father, oupa, and pastor of Grace Fellowship Church Don Mills. I love learning, writing, and encouraging. I'm on a lifelong quest to become a humble, gracious old man.
Toronto, Canada