The Assistant Coach

The Holy Spirit is my “coach on the field”.

Introduction: (What?)

There are times when we need a “coach in our heads” as we encounter life day by day. We may have difficulty remembering what Jesus has said regarding how to handle the trials of life. Fortunately we have such a “coach” in the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, not many Christians understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit and what He does to help us live victorious lives. Today we’re going to look at the work of the Holy Spirit and learn how to access His power through our daily lives.

Examination: (Why?)

Meet the Assistant Coach

John 14:15–17 ““If you love me, you will keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.”

Jesus knew that His ascension to heaven would leave His followers more or less on their own to carry out the Great Commission. He also knew that they could not do it alone. Consequently He promised “another counselor” who would be with those who love Him. Those in the world who did/do not love Jesus will not be able to receive this “Counselor” or even recognize Him.

Just as Jesus’ promise to answer prayers that relate to doing the works of Jesus, and even greater works, the help of the Holy Spirit is also related to kingdom purposes. The Holy Spirit is given to those who surrender to Christ to empower them to be witnesses. (Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”” )

Those who love Jesus are those who keep (obey) His commands. It makes no difference how many services or Bible Studies you attend or how loudly you sing during worship, or how much you put in the offering plate. If you don’t obey the commands of Jesus...you don’t love Him. Also you must remember that the commands of Jesus and the commands of God are inseparable just as Jesus and God are inseparable. For that reason we should examine ourselves to see if we are obedient. It might help is you give someone permission to hold you accountable to your obedience to Christ.

The “other counselor” is the Spirit of truth, or the Holy Spirit who replaces Jesus’ physical presence by PERMANENTLY indwelling those who have surrendered to Christ.

Why You Need an Assistant Coach

John 14:18–25 ““I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it you’re going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me. “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you.”

For over three years Jesus’s physical presence had given His followers a sense of being protected and empowered. The news that Jesus would be leaving, even for a little while, was terrifying to them. the “other counselor” whom Jesus promised, will “guide them into all truth, remind them of the commands of Jesus, and empower them to be witnesses to Christ as the Messiah. (more about that in a moment).

The ones who would receive this “counselor” are those who love Jesus. Four times in this passage Jesus emphasized how one would know if they were among those who loved HIm.

John 14:15 ““If you love me, you will keep my commands.”

John 14:21 “The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.””

John 14:23–24 “Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.”

We might say that obedience is God’s Love Language. In his book “Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman posited that each of us has a love language which we prefer that make us “feel” loved.

Acts of service

Receiving gifts

Quality time

Words of affirmation

Physical touch

Jesus said that when someone loves Him, they WILL keep His Word and they “will be loved by my Father”. “I will also love him and will reveal Myself to him”. The opposite is also true. Jesus will NOT reveal Himself to those who don’t love Him.

3. The AC’s Job Description

John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

To further set the hearts of the disciples (and us, because we are now disciples) at ease, Jesus gave them the job description for their new assistant coach (Counselor, Holy Spirit).

“He will teach you all things” and “remind you of all I have commanded you ”.

This means that He will teach you the entirety of Jesus’ teachings and the deeper meanings of His words and actions. Not only that, but He will help us remember, understand, and apply these teachings. Of course this is contingent on your reading, studying and meditating on scripture, especially the gospels. Whatever else you are reading and studying, you need to always be in one of the gospels because that is where the teachings of Jesus are found.

In John 16 Jesus told them (and us) the reason He was revealing these things, and also added some other parts of the Assistant Coach’s job description.

John 16:1–15 ““I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling. 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. They will do these things because they haven’t known the Father or me. But I have told you these things so that when their time comes you will remember I told them to you.

This is a prophecy from Jesus that had a near and far fulfillment. The near fulfillment was in the lives of the Twelve and most likely some of the 120 who would be in the Upper Room prior to Pentecost.

The “far fulfillment” is going on today where Believers are being persecuted and killed because of their faith in Christ. If we live long enough, it will be fulfilled in our lives as well. Remember what Paul would later tell Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12 “In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 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.

Here’s something to chew on. You and I today are better off than the Twelve during the days of Jesus ministry on earth. They became better off after Jesus ascended back to the Father. Why? Because during His earthly ministry Jesus could only be in one place at a time. However, when the Assistant Coach (Holy Spirit) came, He was, and is IN every believer, all the time and no matter where they go.

If I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

You will never be able to “convict” anyone that they are a sinner. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. You will never be able make the lost understand what righteousness is, but the Holy Spirit can. The idea of judgment is foreign to the un-believer unless the Holy Spirit gives the an understanding.

“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 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.

(this is like what Jesus told his disciples when He said in John 5:19 “Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.” and in John 7:16 “Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.” and in John 12:48–50 “The one who rejects me and doesn’t receive my sayings has this as his judge: The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said. I know that his command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.””

The moment you think that you can improve on what God has said is the moment that you are totally outside the will of God. If Jesus had to depend on the Father for what He said and taught...so do we!!!

He (Assistant Coach, Holy Spirit) will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 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.”

Another benefit of the Holy Spirit in our lives is found in Romans 8:26–27 “In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

Application: (How do I apply this to my life? What does God want me to do today?

If you have surrendered to Christ, Holy Spirit (the assistant coach) now lives in you...however, He may not control you.

In order for the Spirit to control you, you must live in a state of continual surrender, and let Him tell you what to do and say at any given moment to anyone.

There is one “indwelling”, but there are many “fillings” (Ephesians 5:18 “And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit:” The verbs “be filled” are in the continuous-active mode and would be better read as “be being filled” like a glass under and open tap.