By Neil Earle
Since January we’ve been going through a series on the Holy Spirit across the Bible. Just as well because the great Christian writer James I. Packer claims in his best-selling Christian book, Knowing God, that “the average Christian…is in a complete fog as to what the Holy Spirit does.”
Let’s see if we can blow away some of that fog this morning by looking at the Holy Spirit in the Book of John. That is where Jesus updates his disciples on the important role the Spirit will play in the future of the Church. The word he uses in John 14-16 is “parakletos” whch literally means “One who comes alongside to help.” The English word is paraclete – not parakeet (lol).
But first some review.
A month ago we looked at the Spirit in the Old Testament. We saw that the Holy Spirit was the Agent of Creation. The Spirit “moved or brooded on the chaos waters.” “Then God said” – implying the Spirit was God. Elihu said in Job 33:4 that “the Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
Now that’s quite a thought.
The Holy Spirit is described accurately in the Nicene Creed as’ he Lord and Giver of life” (John 6:63). He possesses all the characteristics of a persona – Intellect, Will and Activity. Only we would be better off saying the Spirit is supra-personal.
The Holy Spirit – not just a force, like the element mentioned in Star Wars but the “Holy” Spirit – was experienced as a powerful presence across Israel’s history, a presence that could be grieved and who reacted to human effort (Judges 13:24-25; Isa. 63:7-14).
Then, in the upper room during Jesus’ last night on earth, Jesus introduced his followers most emphatically to the new role assigned to the Spirit. That’s in John 14-16, which could be defined as a “meet and greet” for the Parakletos. After this night the Spirit becomes no more “a transient visitor, but… an eternal inhabitant” (Augustine).
John Calvin said: “The name Paraclete is applied to Christ as well as to the Spirit (1 John 2:1) and properly…Christ is a perpetual guardian, but not visibly...now He preserves us by His Spirit.” The Spirit led Jesus in his ministry (Matthew 4:1) and now leads the Church. As we said two weeks ago, there is no church apart from the Spirit because Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20) and raise by the Spirit of holiness (Romans 1:4).
Thus, the Paraclete teaches more than Christ Himself taught. Gordon asks: “Has not the glorified Christ more of knowledge and revelation to communicate than he had in the days of his humiliation?” Yes indeed. That is why Jesus said it is “to your advantage” that the Spirit comes to us, both to teach us and lead us into all truth that he had not time to communicate.
What a sublime subject. We will see next time that the Holy Spirit is unavoidable in the very next book of the Bible, the Acts, as some say, of the Holy Spirit.