The Great Counselor
Sermon Notes
Today we’re continuing our teaching series called Visible God, which is about seeing God through the life of Jesus. We’re studying a book of the bible called the Gospel of John which records the life and words of Jesus, as it was written by an original source, an original follower of Jesus. Now when it comes to life, both skeptics and believers sometimes need help in life. We sometimes need help in our marriages, our parenting, our relationships. We sometimes need help figuring out problems that’re consuming our hearts and minds. We sometimes need help overcoming sin or deep rooted issues in our lives that we haven’t been able to conquer with our own strength. It doesn’t matter if you’re an alpha male or alpha female who’s too prideful to ask for help. Sooner or later everybody needs help in life, and today Jesus is gonna offer us that help. So let’s turn John 16:5-15 and get into it. Open your bible to the middle, turn a few books to the right, you’ll find John. We’ll be in John 16:5-15. The title of today’s message is The Great Counselor, and the big idea is: Jesus didn’t abandon us, he sent the Holy Spirit to help guide us. Jesus didn’t abandon us, he sent the Holy Spirit to help guide us.
Context:
Here’s your context. John 16 is still a part of what’s known as The Farewell Discourse of Jesus. Jesus knows he’s about to die, he’s less than 24 hrs away from being crucified, so he’s sharing some final words with his disciples. One of the primary things he talks about is the Holy Spirit. I taught 6 things about the Holy Spirit several weeks ago in a message titled The Promised Helper, you can check it out on our website. But our primary focus for today will be on how the Holy Spirit helps to guide us, and I’ve broken the text down into 3 sections. It’s The Internal Help (vs 5-7), The External Help (vs 8-11), and The Method of Help (vs 12-15). The Holy Spirit helps us internally, externally, and uses a specific method for helping us. Let’s check it out.
The Word:
John 16:5-15 states, “But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away...” What an interesting statement Jesus is making here. He’s about to die, about to be crucified, yet he tells his disciples “It’s for your benefit that I go away.” But how could Jesus being away from them, be a greater benefit than Jesus being beside them? I mean we tend to think the opposite of this saying things like, “If I only could’ve seen Jesus with my own eyes. If I only could’ve seen him do a few miracles, heal a few people, resurrect Lazarus or himself from the dead, then I’d have faith like the disciples too! I’d handle life better and have faith like them too!” But it isn’t true! It isn’t true because the disciples saw all those things and yet they’re still found hiding in an upper room after Jesus dies! We say “If I only could’ve seen,” but they saw! They saw Jesus and all the miracles, yet the text says their hearts are still filled with sorrow and they’ll also be filled with fear and doubt after Jesus dies. It’s because they’re thinking like us. They’re thinking the greater benefit is Jesus staying beside them, instead of away from them. So what’s Jesus talking about? What’s he mean by saying it’ll be a greater benefit if he goes away? Jesus tells us in vs 7.
Again vs. 7 states, “Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.” The Counselor Jesus is talking about is the Holy Spirit. He’s saying it’s a greater benefit if he goes away because he’s sending us the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, which means we’ll have...
#1 The Internal Help of the Holy Spirit = We now have access to the internal help of the Holy Spirit, instead of the localized external help of Jesus. When Jesus ascended into heaven he shifted his ministry from a localized external help, to a more globalized internal help. If Jesus didn’t do this, if he chose to remain physically in one location, his help would’ve been limited to that location. Because of his divinity he still would’ve been able to do miracles, but because of his humanity he would’ve limited his divine power to that location. Can you imagine how long the lines would be to see Jesus today if he was still here physically doing miracles today? He had massive crowds following him back then, but with how fast news travels through social media and the internet the crowds would be even worse today! We’d have very little if any access to Jesus if he chose to remain here physically. But thankfully he chose to go away to send us the Holy Spirit so all of us could have access to his presence. Thankfully he shifted his ministry to a more globalized internal help, allowing anyone, anytime, anywhere to have access to his friendship and help through the internal indwelling help of the Holy Spirit.
In fact Jesus said in John 14:17, “The Holy Spirit remains with you and will be in you.” The Holy Spirit remaining with you allows the friendship of Jesus to remain constantly with you, and the Holy Spirit remaining in you allows the help of Jesus to constantly be working in you! This is where the power to become more like Jesus comes from. It doesn’t come from you, it comes from the Holy Spirit working in you! A lot of times as Christians we’ll rely on Jesus for our salvation, but then rely on our own will power for our transformation. I also know a lot of skeptics who admire Jesus, want to be more like Jesus, want to have a loving heart and character like Jesus. But you can’t live a life like Jesus if you don’t have his loving power working in your life. There’s an author and pastor in the early 1900’s who put it perfectly, his name was William Temple. Temple states, “It’s no good giving me a play like Hamlet and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it, but I can’t. It’s also no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it, but I can’t. However, if the genius of Shakespeare could come live in me, then I could write plays like his. And if the Spirit of Jesus could come live in me, then I could live a life like his.” The good news of John 16 is Jesus already sent his Spirit to live with us and in us. We can actually live a life like Jesus because we have the internal help of the Spirit. There’s no greater help, no greater benefit than this.
Vs. 8, “When he comes, he will convict the world...” Okay so there’s the 2nd benefit Jesus gives for going away. The 1st is to give us the internal help of the Holy Spirit, and the 2nd is...
#2 The External Help of the Holy Spirit = The Holy Spirit not only helps us internally, but also helps our world externally. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world, meaning the Spirit’s working in the world to lead more skeptics to Jesus. We see this happening in Acts 2 when Peter preaches the gospel to a crowd of skeptics and 3000 people start believing in Jesus! It wasn’t Peter’s brilliant preaching that led them to Jesus, because you can read his sermon in Acts 2. It wasn’t a brilliant seeker friendly message at all, yet 3000 people converted to Jesus in a single day. It’s because the Spirit’s power was working in and through Peter’s gospel witness, and the Spirit’s still working in and through our gospel witness today! If you’re following Jesus today it isn’t because you were born a believer, it’s because the Spirit worked through the gospel witness of another believer. The Spirit empowers us for ministry so we can lead others to Jesus both locally and globally. The Spirit empowers us not to live isolated in our city, but to partner with the life transforming work the Spirit’s already doing in our city. We’re actually about to do a 4 wk teaching series on this next week. It’s our 2021 vision series we’re calling Instruments of Grace, and it’s about helping us go from being recipients of grace, to being instruments of grace. It’s about helping you personally to join in the life transforming work of the Spirit in our city and world. The Spirit doesn’t empower you to be a consumer kicking your feet up, relaxing in the church, while other believers fight the battle in the foxhole. You’ve been empowered to get in the foxhole too! You’ve been empowered to be an instrument of grace, to lead others to Jesus.
Again vs. 8, “When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: 9 About sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” The Spirit will convict the world of sin, of their need for the perfect righteousness of Jesus to cover their sin, and of the victorious judgement Jesus already declared over Satan for leading the world astray. It’s a victorious judgment that was proven when Jesus rose from the dead. The NIV translates this verse saying, “The Spirit will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.” He’ll prove the world wrong, so they’ll see Satan’s been distorting the truth, leading them astray, and they’ll put their faith in Jesus. The Spirit’s helping skeptics all over the world, to realize what we as Christians already know! It’s that we’re far more sinful than we ever imagined, yet far more loved by Jesus than we ever dreamed.
Vs. 12, “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.” Notice Jesus calls the Holy Spirit ‘the Spirit of truth,’ meaning one of the Spirit’s roles is to reveal the truth of the bible to us. The Spirit did this historically by helping the early disciples to remember what Jesus taught them so they’d write it in the bible and pass it on to us. Jesus said in John 14:26, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.” The implication isn’t that the Spirit taught them everything about the universe, about things like human genetics or quantum physics. Instead the Spirit taught them everything they needed to know about Jesus so they’d write it in the bible and pass it on to us. It’s a task given only to the early disciples of Jesus, which is why we don’t write or re-write the bible today. However the Spirit does illuminate our minds so we can understand the bible. Some of you are like “But I don’t always understand the bible. I feel like everybody else gets it except me.” Don’t get discouraged by that, because everybody starts like that. We all start out not understanding the bible, but overtime the Spirit grows us in understanding the bible as we continue reading it and growing in our relationship with Jesus. But you’ll never understand the bible without Jesus and without actually taking time to read your Bible.
Now what I love about this text is that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit both a Counselor and the Spirit of Truth. Some of you know I have a counseling background, I have a Master’s in Counseling, and what makes somebody a great counselor is they’re both empathetic and truthful to the person that’s struggling. If a counselor’s empathetic but not truthful, the person will feel loved but remain stuck. If a counselor’s truthful but not empathetic, the person won’t be able to hear the truth because they don’t feel loved. So a good counselor’s both empathetic and truthful, which is exactly what we have in the Holy Spirit. The Greek word Jesus uses for Counselor is the word para-kletos. Some of your bible’s translate it as advocate, helper, comforter, counselor. All these translations are fine since they’re all true about the Holy Spirit. But if we break the Greek word para-kletos down, it’s para which means someone who relates with you, assists you, stands alongside you. It’s also kletos which means to declare or speak the truth. Jesus is saying the Holy Spirit’s para-kletos, He’s somebody who relates with you, assists you, stands alongside you, while at the same time speaks the truth to you. What we have in the Holy Spirit is a perfect balance of empathy and truth. What we have is a perfect Counselor...He’s a perfect Counselor who empathizes and speaks biblical truth, the truth of Jesus, in a way that transforms your heart.
Vs. 14, “He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.” This is the Method of the Spirit’s help. We’ve learned about the Internal help, the External help, and now we’re learning about the Method of the Spirit’s help. Every counselor has a methodology for helping people, and the Spirit’s method is to point us to Jesus. In vs 14 Jesus says He’ll glorify me, meaning the Spirit will point us to Jesus in a way that the truth of Jesus becomes real to you, and that’s when your heart changes. It changes when the truth of Jesus becomes real to you. The great 1700 preacher Johnathan Edwards once said the problem we’re facing is that people say they believe in God, but that belief hasn’t become real enough in their hearts. In one of his sermons Edwards states, “I see people always getting upset because God isn’t doing this or that, or they’ll only pray when things are bad, only pray when they need something from God. They’re using God. They don’t have a sense of the glory of God in their heart, they just have a concept of the greatness of God in their minds.” He then says this is the difference between a mature and immature Christian because if you truly believe in the love of God, then why are you always feeling snubbed? Why are you always feeling slighted?... Why are you always getting upset when people insult you or haven’t noticed you?...He says it’s because the love of God isn’t real enough to you, because if it was those things wouldn’t bother you.
City Awakening, do you believe Jesus is all knowing and all powerful? If so, then why are you so worried about your future and other things in life? It’s because his knowledge and power hasn’t become real enough to you...Do you believe Jesus is holy and omnipresent? If so, then why do you do certain sinful things in the dark that you wouldn’t want anyone else knowing about? It’s because his holiness and omnipresence hasn’t become real enough to you...Do you believe Jesus loves you? If so, then why do you wrestle so much with feeling unloved? Why do you wrestle so much with identity issues, your looks, body image, insecurities, feeling like you have to prove yourself to others to gain their love and respect? It’s because the love, the emotional security of Jesus hasn’t become real enough to you. Jonathan Edwards is right! It’s the root of all our problems! It’s that we believe Jesus in our minds, but don’t believe him enough in our hearts. If we did we wouldn’t be as jacked up as we are. If the knowledge, power, holiness, love of Jesus was real to us then all the things I mentioned wouldn’t bother us. If the forgiveness of Jesus was real to you then you’d never question his forgiveness of you or the necessity for you to forgive others. If the provisional goodness of Jesus was real to you then you’d never doubt him or shake your fist at him when life’s hard, or when he doesn’t answer your prayers the way you want. But the reason we have these issues is because these truths haven’t become real enough to us. So we need to consistently read our bible, pray, attend church for Christian accountability since the Spirit speaks through those things. We need to read our bible and pray asking the Spirit, the great Counselor to empathize and speak the truth of Jesus in such a way, that it becomes real to our hearts.
The Big Idea:
Look the big idea is Jesus didn’t abandon us, he sent the Holy Spirit to help guide us. He’s still at work in our lives transforming us internally, and he’s still externally at work in our world leading skeptics to him. So if you want to experience great life change, the great benefits Jesus talks about, then have regular meetings with the great Counselor. Read your bible to see Jesus calming the storm with a simple word. Then ask the Holy Spirit to make that story real to you so his power will calm the anxious storm in your heart...Read the story of Jesus loving the lepers who society outcasted and nobody wanted to touch. Then ask the Holy Spirit to make that story real to you so his love will fill the unlovable identity issues in your heart...Above all else read the story of Jesus suffering and dying on the cross for your sins. Read it and hear him saying “Father forgive them! For they know not what they do.” Then ask the Spirit to make that story real to you, so his forgiveness will completely consume your sinful heart, silencing any doubts about the eternal security of his love, grace, and mercy towards you. The Holy Spirit’s primary job is to make that truth, the truth of the gospel, the truth of Jesus so real to you, that it changes your heart every day, and helps you to live a more joyful life like Jesus. Let’s pray for that...
Pray For The People
#1 We now have access to the Ineternal Help of the Spirit
John 14:17, “The Holy Spirit remains with you and will be in you.”
Temple states, “It’s no good giving me a play like Hamlet and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it, but I can’t. It’s also no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it, but I can’t. However, if the genius of Shakespeare could come live in me, then I could write plays like his. And if the Spirit of Jesus could come live in me, then I could live a life like his.”
#2 We now have access to the External Help of the Spirit
NIV states, “The Spirit will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.”
John 14:26, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.”
Edwards states, “I see people always getting upset because God isn’t doing this or that, or they’ll only pray when things are bad, only pray when they need something from God. They’re using God. They don’t have a sense of the glory of God in their heart, they just have a concept of the greatness of God in their minds.”