‘John and Jo Christian – Meet the Holy Spirit’

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.

Spurgeon on the Spirit

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was the great Baptist preacher of Victorian London. His sermons reflect learning, meditation and incisive common sense. Here is his message on the Holy Spirit in 1880.

The Holy Spirit helps us bear the infirmities of our body and of our mind; He helps us to bear our cross, whether it be physical pain, or mental depression or spiritual conflict, or slander, or poverty, or persecution.

We bathe our wound in the lotion of prayer, and the pain is lulled, the fever is removed. Here then, in the nick of time, as a very present help in trouble, comes in the Holy Spirit. He draws near to teach us how to pray, and in this way He helps our infirmity, relieves our suffering, and enables us to bear the heavy burden without fainting under the load.

Now, beloved, it is in such a plight as this that the Holy Spirit aids us with his divine help, and hence he is a “very present help in trouble.”

He instructs us.

He instructs us as to our need and as to the promises of God which refer to that need.

He show us what our necessities are, and then He casts the same light upon the promises of the Word and lays home to the heart that very text which was intended to meet the occasion – the precise promise which was framed with foresight of our present distress.

How greatly we ought to value the Holy Spirit because when our perplexed spirit is so befogged and beclouded that it cannot see its own need, the Spirit of God comes in and teaches us all things, and brings all things to our remembrance.

The Holy Spirit has a wonderful power over renewed hearts, as much power as the skilful minstrel has over the strings among which he lays his accustomed hand.

The influences of the Holy Spirit at times pass through the soul like winds through [David’s harp], creating and inspiring sweet notes of gratitude, to which we should have been strangers if it had not been for his divine visitation.

He can arouse us from our lethargy. He can warm us out of our lukewarmness. He can enable us when we are on our knees to rise above the ordinary routine of prayer into that victorious [attitude] against which nothing can stand.

…and this is all part of that process by which in inspiring our prayers He helps our infirmity.

A true Advocate is He and a Comforter most effective.

Blessed be His name.

(Scripture inspired by the Spirit.)

A Force That Is So Much More

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).

John 14-16 – Four Paraclete Passages

The Spirit is given a new name to express a new ministry. The Paraclete/Parakletos (Greek) is Jesus’ other self – “another Helper” (John 14:16). Here, as elsewhere, Jesus shows full equality between himself and the Spirit. One reason it is called the Spirit of Christ (Galatians 4:6).

The teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit is the “successor” of the Son of God’s earthly ministry. John 14:28 says the Holy Spirit will teach you all things. Christian doctrine was not fully completed through Christ’s earthly ministry – e.g. the Acts 15 conference defining the new relationship to the Law. A.J. Gordon says: “Jesus is about to vacate his office on earth as teacher and prophet; but before doing so he would introduce us to his successor…For there is no equality between a person and an ‘influence’…If the promised visitor were to be only an impersonal emanation from God, it would seem impossible that our Lord should have so co-ordinated him with himself.”

The Holy Spirit gives testimony to Jesus. He convicts the world of sin by dramatically presenting the full, finished work of Christ – His birth, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification. John 15:26 says, He will testify of me. A spirit-empowered glimpse of Jesus “is God’s means of making sin repulsive and Christ adorable” (J.I. Packer). The Law was given that the world might be condemned before God. But the Holy Spirit works on men and women to lead them to repentance through the recognition of the Son’s work on behalf of the Father (Galatians 4:6).

The Holy Spirit is the agent of illumination, a revealing of the deep things of God (John 16:13-14). Illumination is “a work within us that enables us to grasp and to love the revelation that is there before us in the biblical texts as heard and read, and as explained by teachers and writers.” See Spurgeon’s fine address (box).

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.