John 14:15-21
A King-sized Comforter
Jesus shares today’s scripture with his disciples over the Last Supper. He knows his arrest is imminent, that he will soon be nailed to a cross, so all of his words here carry a weighty importance. He wants to reassure his disciples, to help them to keep going when, soon, they will be at their lowest point; to know that, in the darkest times of their lives, God will still be very much present and at work.
I see three simple—yet profound—truths in today’s scripture. They were true for the original disciples and they are true for you if you call yourself a Christian, a follower of Jesus. They are simply these: God is for you, God is with you, and God is in you. Let’s examine each.
1. God is for you. In a world where it’s sometimes hard to know who you can trust, you can always know that God is on your side. As the Apostle Paul writes, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:38).
In today’s passage, Jesus promises his followers that he will send “another advocate.” There are a couple of important words here. First, look at that word “advocate.” Perhaps your Bible translates it as “helper” or “comforter” or “counselor.” The Greek word is “paraclete.” It’s a legal term, meaning one who comes to your defense, but it has a broader meaning as well: one who comes alongside you, who encourages you, who comforts you or helps you.
When I think of one who comes alongside, my mind goes back to the Army Physical Fitness Test or APFT. I don’t know about the other services, but in the Army, when it comes to the timed run event, you can actually have a paraclete at your side if you want. (They don’t call it that, but that’s essentially what the person is.) That person cannot touch you, but they can be there for you. Every time I took the test with a unit, I always saw some paracletes running with us. These were people who were coming alongside those who were struggling, telling them, “You can do this. Keep going. You’re almost there. Just one more lap! Come on, kick it in, give it everything you’ve got, finish well!”
I imagine that with the Holy Spirit. He says, “Hang in there. Don’t give up now. God is for you!” The Holy Spirit is our encourager, our comforter, our helper. He whispers in our ear, “God is for you!”
But also note the word “another.” Jesus says, “I will send ‘another’ comforter.” That tells us Jesus is our original advocate. Jesus is for us. Jesus cares about us. Many years later, the elderly apostle John will write some short letters to the churches, what we call 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John. And in 1 John 2:1, he says, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate [same word in the Greek] with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” Jesus, too, is our advocate, our comforter, our helper. He advocates for us with the Heavenly Father. He says, “This is your child, Father. Please forgive him or her.” But Jesus, while fully God, is also fully human. Jesus will not physically be with all of us all of the time. So this other member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus himself, reminds us whenever we need it, “Jesus is for you. God is for you!” Today’s passage also reminds us,
2. God is with you (v. 16-18, 21) – Jesus describes this paraclete in verse 16 as being “with you forever.” In verse 17, he says the Holy Spirit “lives with you.” In verse 18, he assures his followers that they will not become orphans. Here he gives them a veiled sign of his impending death. But even though he may have to leave their side, he will send another—one they already know—for indeed it is the Spirit of Jesus himself who will be with them, so that they will never be alone.
This is how Jesus can promise, right before his ascension to heaven, “And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). (By the way, this is also a sign that Jesus favors the Army over the Air Force, because he says, “And low, I am with you always,” not “And high, I am with you always.”)
God is with you. It reminds me of a grandpa who walked into the family room to find his little grandson, Jeffy, standing up in his playpen, crying. He looked so pitiful there, and when he saw his grandpa, his face lit up in a way that grabbed the old man’s heart. Jeffy immediately reached up his little chubby hands toward the sky and said, “Out, Papa, out!”
What grandpa could resist such a plea? Not this one! He walked over to the playpen and began to reach down to lift his little buddy out of captivity and distress. But just then, Law and Order entered the room. Jeffy’s mom said, “No, Jeffy! You’re being punished. You have to stay in bed. Leave him right there, Dad.”
What’s a grandpa to do? His grandson’s tears and reaching little hands tugged mightily at his heart, but he didn’t want to interfere with a mother’s discipline either. One thing was for sure: He couldn’t sit nearby and pretend to ignore his little buddy’s plight, nor could he find himself able to leave the room and pretend it wasn’t happening. So, slowly and carefully, he climbed into the playpen with Jeffy. “If you’re in the playpen, Buddy, I’m in the playpen. What’s your sentence? How long are in you for?” And finding a big, jolly grandpa filling his little prison cell, the little boy found comfort even in his captivity.
(Thanks to Rick Burdette, as sited in https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-spirit-of-comfort-rick-burdette-sermon-on-holy-spirit-193148?ref=SermonSerps)
Doesn’t it give you comfort to know that God is with you? God says in Isaiah 41:10, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Folks, whatever you have to face, you will not face it alone. When your heart is broken, God grieves with you. When you celebrate, God celebrates with you. When you are lonely, God is with you. When you are depressed, God is with you. When you’re angry, God is with you. When you’re tired, God is with you. When you feel like giving up, the Holy Spirit is at your side.
God is for you, God is with you, and lastly, Jesus tells us,
3. God is in you. How can our minds grasp this, that Almighty God fits into each one of us? It’s mind-boggling, if we think about it. In verse 17 Jesus says to his disciples that the Holy Spirit “lives with you and will be ‘in’ you.” These guys know about the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament, how he moved in the lives of David, of Samson, of Deborah, of all the great leaders of old. And how, when God was done acting through that person, the Holy Spirit would depart from him or her, as the Spirit of God left King Saul. In fact, after David sinned with adultery and murder, he begged God, “Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me!” (Psalm 51:11).
Now the disciples are starting to pick up that the Spirit of God is present in Jesus, that the Holy Spirit is living “with them.” But what they don’t yet know is that soon, this same Spirit—for the first time in history—will start to come into the lives of believers permanently, to live “in them.”
Everything will change at Pentecost. After Jesus ascends to heaven, his followers gather in prayer as instructed. There, the Spirit comes down and appears like tongues of fire above each believer’s head, and the believers find themselves doing things they could never do before: they speak in foreign languages, proclaiming God’s love to everyone in the crowd in a way each can understand. The believers speak boldly, without fear, and they know exactly what to say. They sense that God is using them miraculously.
And from Pentecost forward, the book of Acts records this new pattern: whenever someone accepts Jesus as their Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into their life and gives them power to do what they could not otherwise do on their own. Thus, God gets the credit.
In today’s passage, Jesus gives an early hint of things to come. The Holy Spirit is not only for us, he is not only with us; the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ is actually in us. The moment you turn over your life control to God, he puts his Spirit within you.
Scripture says the Holy Spirit does lots of things for us while he resides in us. He convicts us of sin, he reassures us of our salvation, he prompts scripture for us when we need to resist temptation, he reminds us of God’s presence, he comforts us, he gives us the words we need to defend our faith, he gives us the courage we need to share our faith. The Holy Spirit is the silent partner of the Trinity, always at work behind the scenes, helping us just as we need it, right when we need it. God for us, God with us, God in us. Let us pray:
Father, thank you for this beautiful gift of yourself, that somehow you reside in each one of us who are yours, through your Holy Spirit within us. For someone here today not yet your child, please help them to turn over life control to you, confessing to you their sinful rebellion; humbly asking for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to cover all their sins; and inviting the Holy Spirit to come in and take charge. Help us to not take your presence for granted. And help us not to grieve your Holy Spirit, but to fully cooperate as we follow your promptings, celebrating that you are for us, you are with us, and you are in us, amen.
