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THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE COMFORTER FOR CHRIST’S CHURCH
The Text, St. John 16:5-15 (v. 7-8). “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
Risen Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Almighty God, heavenly Father, we ask You to give us Your Holy Spirit, so that we believe Your holy Word – especially the truth that Jesus saves us from our sins – and live godly lives here on earth and forever in heaven. Amen.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ, who sends His Holy Spirit: Grace be unto you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
We must remember that as Jesus speaks to His disciples in John 16, on the way to Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed, they are effectively all the church that He has, the whole of His church on earth.
It’s true that His church also consisted of the women who followed Jesus, His mother Mary, Martha and Mary and Lazarus, and various other people He helped – Jairus’ family, a Canaanite woman and her daughter, the paralytic and his friends, blind Bartimaeus who can now see, and Zacchaeus; they all believed that Jesus is the Christ, so they were all in the holy Christian Church, which consists of all who believe. Somewhere out there in the dark were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who believed in Him secretly, whose faith no one knew but Jesus; they are in His Church. So were all the Old Testament saints now in glory.
But for all practical purposes, the existence of the Christian Church, and whether it would continue and bring in all those whom Jesus said “are not [yet] of this flock,” this depended on these eleven men taking His message to the world, to the ends of the earth.
As we hear Jesus speaking with them, it doesn’t look promising. Jesus’ words – meant to bring them consolation and joy – ring hollow to them. All they could think of were His words, “I am going away.” Even after three years with Jesus, their response is really a childish “I-don’t-want-to-hear-it.” Jesus says, “Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” Yet He has a solution. It’s really not on their shoulders.
Jesus’ answer is the Holy Spirit, whom He will send to them. Here He calls Him the Paraclete, a name you don’t see in your English Bible. That’s the word Jesus uses though. Often translated “Helper” or “Comforter.”
Jesus has said this previously, within this hour that He was talking with the eleven. In John 14:26, when they were in the Upper Room, Jesus said, “But the Paraclete [Helper, Comforter], the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.” In John 15:26 as they walk to Gethsemane, Jesus says, “But when the Paraclete [Helper, Comforter] comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. And you also will bear witness.”
Now Jesus says: “If I do not go away, the Paraclete [Helper, Comforter] will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
This is Jesus’ answer. Helper or Comforter doesn’t quite give the full range of the word Paraclete that Jesus uses. His word includes not only comforting and helping, but also counseling, encouraging, exhorting, defending, and even rebuking and correcting. The word or name Paraclete actually pictures the Holy Spirit as one who is literally “called to your side” to give you comfort, help, encouragement, correction and counsel.
Jesus says: “I will send Him to you.” That’s you-plural, as in “y’all.” Jesus is speaking to them as His Church. Not only individual Christians, but His Church is the “you” to whom Jesus will send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter or Helper, the Paraclete. This is important for us.
As His Church, we need Jesus to send the Holy Spirit to help and to comfort, to rebuke and correct, to exhort and encourage. For we are no more promising than those disciples were. Not all our notions are right. We have to be corrected. We have the sinful nature too. We have the same propensity to fear, to be self-serving, to set aside God’s Word, to be intimidated by the world, to lose hope, to give in to sadness and discouragement, to be ruled by human thinking.
It was easy for Jesus’ disciples to think they could only fail. Jesus could have thought His Church’s prospects were poor, if all depended on them. We find ourselves tending to be discouraged when we look at it this way. Look at the world we live in. See how the world responds to the Christian message, and treats us with scorn, reacts in anger, and doesn’t seem receptive at all. The world we live in is returning to pagan ways all the time and the majority feel they are just fine without Christ or the church.
You can also look at yourself and be discouraged, how easy we make it for the devil, how much we make it about ourselves, how quickly we forget God, how we get intimidated into not living the faith we profess.
What do you need? You need Jesus. What does the world need? The world needs Jesus. But what’s the way to have Jesus? The Holy Spirit.
This brings us back to that beautiful name for Him, Paraclete – that Jesus will send Him, that the Father will send Him in Jesus’ name, that the Holy Spirit wants to be sent – to all the world, but starting with you, and starting with us who are His Church in the world. This is how God’s salvation works: His saving love for the world proceeds from the Father, who sent His Son to redeem all people in the world, but it’s the Spirit who brings this salvation to people, gives and preserves faith. In the hymn we’re singing this month, it’s with the Holy Spirit that we end the hymn saying: “we trust in Thee to save us,” the Spirit, whose work brings us to heaven.
It’s that funny name Paraclete that includes in it that He comes to us, alongside us, to help us make it. Notice that all the words that describe this – that He is the Helper, the Comforter, that He counsels, He encourages and exhorts, even rebukes and corrects – these are all words describing God’s Word and what it’s for. That’s what Jesus emphasizes here. Jesus – who is the eternal Word and says, “I am the Truth” – He calls Him “the Spirit of truth.” Far from thinking you’re fine on your own, or that the world is fine apart from Christ, the Spirit “will guide you into alltruth.”
What the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, uses is: Law and Gospel. These are the two chief teachings of the Bible, which is the Holy Spirit’s book. Even before the New Testament books are written, Jesus is saying it here about the Holy Spirit: “when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will only use the preaching of the Law – to bring people to know their sins and repent – and the preaching of the Gospel – to give repenting sinners the comfort that all their sins are forgiven through Jesus.
Jesus says: “He will convict the world of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Apart from Jesus, without faith in Him, all of a person’s sin remains on him/her condemning them – all the evil you’ve thought, said and done, and all the good you’ve failed to will or do. Everyone needs to hear this. Everyone needs the Holy Spirit to convict them of sin. Not just initially to be converted, but every day. This is for our good.
Jesus says “the world” because this is for everyone. The Law that the Holy Spirit preaches says what we are to do and not do, but it gives us no help in doing it. So the chief way it functions is that it shows us our sins, and along with this it shows us that we are guilty and under God’s judgment; our sins condemn us. God doesn’t want to condemn anyone. So when you hear the Law being preached to you, when we’re being made uncomfortable by what God says in His Word, this is the Holy Spirit being the Comforter – not that the Law comforts, but that He’s being sent to use the preacher to speak the words through which we’ll repent and be saved. By the Holy Spirit the Law has power to make you sorry for your sins.
But this message of the Law does not ever stand alone. Jesus then says the Holy Spirit’s message is one “of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.” This is the Gospel. Speaking the Law is always done so the Gospel can be spoken as the final answer.
The Gospel is the message of a righteousness no person can achieve by trying to obey God’s Law; the righteousness earned and completed by Jesus, who came to be tempted in every way we are and yet remain without sin. It’s crowned when He ascended to heaven, that His righteousness has God’s favor. It’s Jesus’ righteousness but it’s to benefit you! He shed holy precious blood, and His suffering and death was innocent. The great exchange is that He took all our sin and gives us His righteousness.
This is the Gospel. The righteousness that you have is by faith. This message is for people who are troubled by their sins, to be comforted and cheered up with this declaration from God Himself that you are not guilty in His sight, but you are righteous by faith in Christ, innocent for His sake. When you hear the Gospel, as the forgiveness of sins is spoken to you, you are to know that it’s the Holy Spirit being sent in the mouth of the preacher to you, to comfort you with these words and give you faith that this is true of you, you have no guilt, only God’s favor. By the Holy Spirit the Gospel has power to give you this faith and build you up in it.
As the Gospel gives you faith, the Holy Spirit then uses the Law to guide us, so we walk in it and the Spirit of truth, in us, “will crush Satan under our feet” (Ro 16:20), as we live by faith and walk in love.
So the Holy Spirit is the Comforter for His Church. As His Church we need Him to be our Helper, Comforter to avert our woe and give us calm. Nothing’s on our shoulders. All is done by His power in the Word. Amen!