Another Helper

RIVERSIDE INDONESIAN FELLOWSHIP
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Another Helper

Riverside Indonesian Fellowship
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2021 · 3 October 2021
It is a challenge because it presents to us the most difficult of all divine mysteries, the nature of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three-in-one. Through the centuries, efforts made by preachers to try to explain the Trinity with illustrations. But they are all useless because the Trinity cannot be illustrated in anything that is within our created world.

It transcends human understanding. There are divine mysteries that we can never comprehend that all have do with essentially the nature of God. This one is the most challenging of all, that God is one, and yet consists of three distinct persons at the same time. First of all, realize that you’ll never fully understand it. Even in heaven, there may be elements of God’s Trinitarian nature that will escape our comprehension.

Because we will never be God. If you start by understanding that you will not ultimately, grasp the fullness of the Trinity, and then move to understand what the Bible says about the Trinity, you will find exactly what God wants you to know. We can understand the Trinity to the degree that the Scripture has declared it to us; and that is the opportunity we have before us today.

As believers, we have a heavenly inheritance promised to us. We’re not Christians just for this life only, but we’re Christians because we anticipate the promises that God has given to those who believe in His Son and come to Him for salvation, the promises that basically are laid up in heaven for us. That’s our desire, and that’s the promise of God to us, to spend forever in a place of peace and joy.

But as believers, we hold tightly, not just to the general idea of heaven, but to the specific reality of what heaven is. It is a promise that is an inheritance to us. We are joint heirs with Christ. And Peter says it is a definite promise that cannot be canceled or altered. It is an inheritance beyond comprehension. Paul prayed that our understanding would be enlightened so we could grasp its glory.

So we approach with Ephesians 1:18 in mind saying, “Lord, at least give us some grasp of this inheritance that You have for us.” When most people think about heaven, even Christian people, they think about a place; and it is a place. It is a place defined and described as to its character, its nature, its components, and even its dimensions in the book of Revelation. It is a place.

Most people, when they think about heaven, they think about it as a place where certain activities take place; and that is true. There will be activities around the throne of God in heaven. One of them will be praise, worship and adoration. That will be going on all the time. But there will be other activities as well. We will serve throughout eternity in ways that are unimaginable to us.

But if that’s all you think about heaven, then you miss the main point. Heaven is primarily a fulfilled relationship. When you think about heaven, think about it that way. It is the full presence of the triune God; the full, glorious presence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will be in the full, complete, transcendent relationship with the Trinity. That will define our existence.

Why am I discussing this? Because in John 14, our Lord promises to grant to us a preview of this full presence. We now, as believers, possess a down payment on the full presence of the Trinity that we will experience in heaven. But we in our current bodily form are not fitted for that kind of full relationship. We need a different body because this current one is not for eternity.

Life is really just a constant, inexorable movement toward leaving this world. These are bodies that die; and along the way, they are troubled, and sick, and injured, and wounded, and inept, and inadequate, and disabled, et cetera. We struggle not only with the physical part of our bodies, but the mental part as well. We have limits to our capacity to understand heavenly things.

We struggle emotionally and we struggle with sin and temptation. So we not only need a different outside, we need a different inside. If we’re going to be in the full Trinitarian presence of God forever, in perfect righteousness, joy, and peace, we’ve got to swap this for another one. The promise of Scripture is that when a believer dies, that believer’s spirit enters heaven transformed and sinless.

And one day, there will be a resurrection of a new glorified body like the resurrection body of Christ, to join that spirit and to become that eternal being to enjoy the full presence of the triune God. So when you think about heaven, think about a perfect, fulfilling relationship with the Father and with the Son and a perfect, fulfilling relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Now all of that is in the text in front of you, our Lord promises to give His disciples, including us, a preview of this full presence on the eternal heavenly celestial communion with God, and give it to us here and now, so that as a believer right now, you are in communion, to the degree that it’s possible in the form we’re in, you’re in personal communion with the Trinity.

One way to define a Christian is as somebody who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul talks about being in Christ and Christ being in us. And, of course, you recognize that the Holy Spirit lives in you, right? You are the temple of the Spirit of God. And you are led by the Spirit, and filled with the Spirit, and enabled by the Spirit and gifted by the Spirit.

Let me start at John 14:15 - 18, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

That is about as profound a portion of Scripture as you have ever read because it takes you into the impossibly comprehensive and complex elements of Trinitarian life. “I am in the Father, the Father is in Me. I will send the Holy Spirit. Summed up in verse 23, “We will come.” You are the temple of God; the abiding place of the Son, and the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit.

Now know that our Lord is addressing His disciples on Thursday night of Passion Week, and they know He’s going to die. He has told them He would be arrested; He would be beaten, mistreated; He’ll go through a trial; He’ll be crucified; He’ll rise again; and then He’s going to heaven, to the Father. They’re having lots of trouble with that. In fact, John 14 begins with, “Stop letting your hearts be troubled.”

Now in John 14 begins the first promise in verse 15. He has already promised them that they would do greater works than He did, greater in extent, not greater in kind. He already promised them that He would answer their prayers and provide everything that they needed if it was in His name to His glory and to His purpose. He has also made promises that they’re going to continue to work.

And they’re going to continue to be able to have access to the supply that He has in heaven to provide for that ministry. Verse 15, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.” All the promises of greater works, of whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, of the Trinity coming in you, to whom does He make such promises? Answer, “Those who love Me and keep my commandments.”

A true Christian loves and obeys. It’s not about saying you are a Christian. “Many will say unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord, I did this; I did that; I did the other thing.’ I will say to them, ‘Depart from Me, I never knew you.’” Love is the motive and obedience is the action. John 15:10, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

We look at people’s action and try to understand their heart because that’s all we can do. But that’s deceptive because people can do the action without the heart. God doesn’t view people that way. He looks at the heart and interprets the action. We look at the action and interpret the heart. And what is God looking for? Not just obedience, but obedience motivated by love for Him.

So look at verse 16, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.” That is the Holy Spirit. You have the Trinity in that verse: “I,” the Son; “the Father,” God the Father and “the Helper,” the Spirit. Now the Christian life is also primarily a loving relationship that results in obedient behavior; but it is at the core a relationship.

Our Lord says, I’m going to ask the Father and He’s going to give you the Helper.” It’s the word Paraclete, which means ‘to call somebody alongside’. Called for what? For everything that you would need. Could be an intercessor, an advocate, could be a comforter, an encourager and could be a teacher. Somebody with more wisdom, truth, power and more knowledge than you have.

In many Bibles it says the Comforter, but that’s such a narrow understanding of what the role of the Holy Spirit is. Certainly He’s there to comfort. But far beyond that, to help at every level where we need help. Notice this, “I will ask the Father and He’ll give you another.” In the Greek, there are two words for ‘another’. There is another of a different kind, and another of the same kind.

Jesus used ‘another’ of the exact same kind; and that defines for you the ministry of the Holy Spirit. What did Jesus do for them? He did everything for them. He answered every question they ever had. He provided everything they needed. He supplied all their protection, all their provision, all their instruction, all their wisdom, all their knowledge. He interpreted all their experiences.

Jesus not only told them the meaning of what had happened and was happening. He told them what was coming and what was going to happen. He explained to them the significance of divine revelation. He was absolutely everything to them, and He says, “I’m going away, but I’m going to give you a Helper, a Paraclete, exactly like Me. And He is coming that He may be with you forever.

He will be with you through your entire life here and through your entire life in heaven. That’s why in John 16:7 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it’s to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I’ll send Him.” And, when you go into heaven, your relationship to Him will become everything that it could be and should be in its perfection, forever.

Verse 17, “He is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” Of course He is, because God is truth. And Jesus said earlier in verse 6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He will be what I was to you; and I am the truth, and He is the truth; and everything He tells you will be the truth.

The world doesn’t know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you.” How did the Holy Spirit abide with them? Listen, in the person of Christ. That is the primary point of that statement. Who was it that gave life in the womb of Mary? It was the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who was at the baptism of Jesus, and descended from heaven, and rested upon Him.

And the Holy Spirit led Him into ministry, and the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted, and the Holy Spirit empowered Him and enabled Him; and Jesus committed all the credit for His ministry to the Holy Spirit. Remember in Matthew 12, the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders said He does what He does by the power of the devil. That’s proof that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit.

That’s how blind the world is. The Holy Spirit has been here, doing His work in Me. That’s why Jesus said to those who said He did what He did by the power of Satan, “You have blasphemed the Holy Spirit.” Why is He called the Spirit of truth? Because, “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” He is called the Spirit of truth because He will bring the truth to them.

Let me just put this all together. The revelation originates with God. God discloses that revelation in Christ. Christ lives and teaches and ministers, and then the Holy Spirit comes, takes all of that and reveals it to the apostles, who then write it down. In fact, that’s exactly what Peter said, “Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will.

So if you attack the inerrancy of Scripture, you have made an assault on the Trinity. So as believers, you say, “How does this apply to us?” What this guarantees is that this book is true. I don’t need anything else. I know this book to be absolutely accurate. First Corinthians 2:16, “We have here the mind of Christ.” And here you have the Trinity engaged in the writing of Scripture.

Now the world doesn’t understand this. So the first of these amazing promises of divine presence is that, “The Spirit has been with you in Me, and He will now be in you forever.” And the first task will be to bring to your remembrance the full revelation of the Father, to the Son, through the Spirit, that you can write down. Holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of God, Amen? Let us pray.



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