The Counselor's Ministry

Overview

Jesus is continuing His preparation of His disciples for what is going to lay ahead not only for Him but for them as we pick up our study at the end of John 15 into John 16.

Although Jesus promises to give another Counselor in John 14, He expands in our passage his evening about:

Who this Counselor is

Why is He coming

What tasks will He carry out

Yet the third person in the trinity is often overlooked if not downright neglected in church life today. In his book called, “Forgotten God”, Francis Chan makes the following observations and assertions about The Holy Spirit and churches today:

Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit Introduction

The benchmark of success in church services has become more about attendance than the movement of the Holy Spirit. The “entertainment” model of church was largely adopted in the 1980s and ’90s, and while it alleviated some of our boredom for a couple of hours a week, it filled our churches with self-focused consumers rather than self-sacrificing servants attuned to the Holy Spirit.

Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit Introduction

the Holy Spirit is as essential to a believer’s existence as air is to staying alive

Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit Introduction

If I were Satan and my ultimate goal was to thwart God’s kingdom and purposes, one of my main strategies would be to get churchgoers to ignore the Holy Spirit. The degree to which this has happened (and I would argue that it is a prolific disease in the body of Christ) is directly connected to the dissatisfaction most of us feel with and in the church. We understand something very important is missing. The feeling is so strong that some have run away from the church and God’s Word completely.

I believe that this missing something is actually a missing Someone—namely, the Holy Spirit. Without Him, people operate in their own strength and only accomplish human-size results. The world is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation. And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural. The church cannot help but be different, and the world cannot help but notice.

The third member of the Godhead, God the Holy Spirit, is something or someone we don’t teach about or preach about much in our churches today. Why do you think that is? Are Francis Chan’s observations spot on?

Who is this Counselor

Read John 15:26-27

John 15:26–27 CSB

26 “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Amplified Bible Chapter 15

But when the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who comes (proceeds) from the Father, He [Himself] will testify regarding Me.

But you also will testify and be My witnesses, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

He is the Spirit of Truth - a title aptly given for one of His main purposes is to testify

He is a distinct person - a divine person who comes from the Father. Matthew Henry describes Him as the emanation of divine light, and the energy of divine power. It is He, who Christ tells His disciples in Acts 1, will give them power to become witnesses. The One who testifies empowers us to also testify.

He is the fruit of intercession Christ makes of us. In John 14:16, “16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.”

Jesus prays to the Father to send us the Counselor; therefore, He is the fruit of Christ’s intercession. He is sent by Christ, from the Father (see Acts 2:2 “2 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.” ) to the apostles to instruct, enable and minister to and through them. Not only was He given to them but to their spiritual children and their children’s children. Is. 59:21 “21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children’s children, from now on and forever,” says the Lord.”

He is our Advocate - to maintain Christ’s cause against the world’s infidelity

He is our Comforter - to us against the world’s hatred.

He is a witness see 1 John 5:7-8 “7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three are in agreement.”

The Apostles are to testify as well. We will see in the courtroom that is about to take place between God’s Son and the prince or ruler of this world, that these witnesses will exude cowardice and run. Yet when God’s Spirit is given them in Acts, their cowardice is turned to courage and they upset the entire world. These apostles who were with Christ (He chose them they did not chose Him) from the beginning would later write in their letters: 2 Pet. 1:16 “16 For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” 1 John 1:1-3 “1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

Why is He Coming

Read John 16:1-6

John 16:1–6 CSB

1 “I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling. 2 They will ban you from the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 They will do these things because they haven’t known the Father or me. 4 But I have told you these things so that when their time comes you will remember I told them to you. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 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.

We know more about Who this Counselor, Advocate and Comforter is but why is He being sent? In verse 1, Christ is dealing faithfully with his disciples by telling them them about the worse that is to come so that they might sit down and count the cost. In chapter 15, Christ tells them of the world’s hatred of Him and ultimately of them, but He knows that what He is about to go through in the coming hours will impact them. He is using the Latin adage - Praemoniti, praemuniti, i.e., being fore-warned are fore-armed. Therefore, He tells them this so: 1) Being offended by the cross, they can face and defeat the temptation to turn from God; and 2) By giving notice, Jesus is trying to disarm the terror and surprise of His upcoming death for them.

Christ turns his warning to them and foretells what they will experience and suffer. In verses 2 and 3, He shares that there are basically two swords that will be wielded against them: the sword of religious censure and the sword of civil power. They will be banned from the synagogues. Not only banned but they will experience beatings and scourgings to go along with their banishment. There will be some who will seek to kill you since you will be viewed as heretics, and they think they will be doing God a service.

What is the reason Christ gives for religion’s and the world’s rage against them? They haven’t know the Father or me.

What is the result in the apostles for Christ to have shared this message with them? V. 6, sorrow has filled your heart. In Chapter 15, Jesus had shared His message about remaining in the vine and loving each others as Christ has loved them so that John 15:11 “11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” Yet, now sorrow has filled their hearts. What is the cause of this sorrow?

Matthew Henry supposes this: “They were big with hopes of their Master’s external kingdom and glory, and that they should shine and reign with him: and now, instead of that, to hear of nothing but bonds and afflictions, this filled them with sorrow. Nothing is a greater prejudice to our joy in God than the love of the world; and the sorrow of the world, the consequence of it.”

Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 2022.

So looking back at this passage, why was it so necessary that the Counselor come? Why is it necessary that He is with us today?

What are His Tasks

Read John 16:7-15

John 16:7–15 CSB

7 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. 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. 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. 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.

To reprove / convict

Sin

Fact of sin - that we have done this or that

Fault of sin - our actions have worked ill in our lives or someone else

Folly of sin - we have acted against right reason or a true interest

Filth of sin - we have become odious to God; the best we can be is as filthy rags before a Holy God

Fountain of sin - our corrupt nature

Fruit of sin - the wages of sin is death

What is the chief sin Christ mentions here? Unbelief. This is the root from which all sins grow, and if someone possesses unbelief in Christ then salvation is not possible.

Righteousness

Christ’s personal righteousness - Luke 23:47, 1 John 2:1

Christ’s ascension communicates His exaltation and that His task of providing justification and salvation for us is completed;

Judgment

Christ is stronger than Satan and can disarm an dispossess him

Christ’s errand in this world to set things right in it and to introduce a time of regeneration and transformation proves that the prince of this world has been judged

He has broken the serpent’s head, destroyed him that had the power of death.

He will execute the final judgment forever against Satan, the ringleader

To convince - a legal term to sum up the evidence

He shall put to silence the adversaries of Christ and His cause, by discovering and demonstrating the falsehood and fallacy of that which they have maintained, and the truth and certainty of that which they have opposed. Matthew Henry

The Spirit is called the Counselor (Comforter in some translations) John 16:7

And here it is said, He shall convince. One would think this were cold comfort, but it is the method the Spirit takes, first to convince, and then to comfort; first to lay open the wound, and then to apply healing medicines. Matthew Henry

3. To guide

a. That they do not miss their way - He will be their pillar of cloud and fire.

b. That they do not come short of their end - He will guide them into all truth like a skillful pilot guiding a plane into an airport. It is not enough to “know” the truth, but we need to be intimately and experimentally acquainted with it.

4. To glorify Christ

a. By leading us into truth - Eph. 4:21

Ephesians 4:21 CSB

21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus,

Note: The work of Holy Spirit sometimes goes unseen, but He is all about truth. Jesus declares in John 17:17, that “your word is truth!” Therefore, He guides us to learn more and more about Jesus who is God’s Word (The Word became flesh and dwelt among us). When we encounter truth, we have different reactions, but we also need to have hearts and ears which are open to receive the truth. Such was the case that Fred Rogers, or Mr. Rogers, found while he was studying in seminary:

750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers 305: Holy Spirit

According to writer Lisa Belcher-Hamilton, Fred Rogers, of the television program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, took courses on how to preach during his time in seminary. Said Rogers:

Years ago my wife and I were worshiping in a little church with friends of ours. We were on vacation, and I was in the middle of my homiletics course at the time.

During the sermon I kept ticking off every mistake I thought the preacher—he must have been eighty years old—was making. When this interminable sermon finally ended, I turned to one of my friends, intending to say something critical about the sermon. I stopped myself when I saw the tears running down her face.

She whispered to me, “He said exactly what I needed to hear.” That was really a seminal experience for me. I was judging and she was needing, and the Holy Spirit responded to need, not judgment.

Although we must always give ministry our best effort, we must never forget that the Holy Spirit can work through even the most faulty instrument.

b. By revealing and making available all that the Father has in Christ to us. Jesus is the embodiment of grace and truth John 1:14

John 1:14 CSB

14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.