Help is On The Way

My family is extremely close knit. We have a desire and drive for being together and for doing everything in life together. In truth, I think it comes from serving in missions and in pastoral ministry. Having spent so many years in places where we were far away from our extended family and friends, we learned to depend on each other. There is a level of closeness and intimacy among the five of us that I don’t know how to really explain.

When we were living in Spain, some of our friends told us that we were “la familia unida”, the united family. We took this as a high compliment because we were living and working among a people that place a tremendously high value on family. But they gave us this title because we did everything together. Where one of us was, there the rest of us were. We were united in the things that we did, the places that we went, and in living life.

Turn with me, if you will to the Gospel of John, chapter 14. That’s the John 14. And as you find your place, let me just remind you that the last time that we were together, we were talking about Jesus as the God that You can know, and the confidence that we can have that Jesus is who He says He is. And you’ll remember we were saying that Jesus is the spoken Word of God that created heaven and earth, that that God made flesh. God’s Word was always with us and was with God and was God, even As John 1 tells us, and yet we didn’t understand Him until He became a man. And we were talking about how all of the Words of Jesus come from God the Father, since Jesus literally is the Word of God.

We were talking about how we can rely on Christ because of His works, how Jesus did things that no one else had ever done or could do unless God was in and behind it. We were talking about the confidence we can have in Christ because of His witnesses, and how the mighty works of God through the followers of Christ and the change that He brings to their lives bear witness to the identity of Christ.

And all of these things were shown to us in the last section of John 14, as Jesus continues to prepare His disciples to continue following Him after He has gone to be with the Father. These things are given to us so that we can walk boldly with Christ, fully believing in Him and in the things that He has taught us as the truth and foundation that we can build our lives around.

So turn with me, if you will to John 14. We’re going to begin this morning right where we left off, in John 14:16. And as is our custom here, I would invite you to stand with me right where you are this morning in honor of the reading of God’s Word:

John 14:16–31 NASB95

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.

>Let’s pray together: Father, we thank you for this day and for another opportunity for us to worship You. We wish that we could be physically together, and yet we praise our God and King who is present with us wherever we may be. We pray, Lord, that You will be with Your church in the places that we are this morning, and as we worship you together now through the study of Your Word, that You would come and be our teacher. Through it, would you show us things that we did not know and use them to change us into better reflections of Your Son, Jesus. It is in His Name we pray, Amen.

Thank you, you may be seated. And as you get comfortable again, let me just say that we as we continue this morning, we are in the midst of a long section of reassurance. Up to this point in following Jesus, the road has been easy. But Jesus knows that He is about to leave them. Jesus knew what was awaiting Him, because God knows everything. And He wanted His disciples to be ready.

He wanted them to be ready for living their lives centered on the Gospel. He wanted them to be ready for this time ahead, when following Jesus was going to get harder because He wasn’t going to be physically with them anymore, and they were going to have to walk by faith, actively seeking Him and doing what He taught them, believing in the hope Jesus had given them. And so, for you and I, this passage of Scripture should get our attention because this is the only life in faith we have ever known.

And Jesus is going to walk His disciples through how they are going to be able to follow after Him, how they are going to know the way once Jesus has gone to the Father. And if you’ve got your listening guide in front of you this morning, what we are going to see this morning is this, that

The Lord is with His children

My kids are snugglers. They always have been. They love physical affection. And one of them, from the time that they were very little, has always wanted to sleep with Mom and Daddy. And when they were little, to help this child to go to sleep in their own bed, we would often lay down with this child in their bed, and stay with them until they were asleep. But this turned into quite the ordeal.

You see, this child would move with you when you moved to maintain that closeness. And if you moved away from the child, they would begin, in their sleep, to frantically feel around them with their arms and legs looking for you, so they’d know which way to roll. And having gotten up, Bethany or I would often find the other standing or sitting beside the bed with a hand or an arm being clung to by the child, because they needed that assurance that we were still there.

Gradually, the child learned that this was true, even when we were in the next room, or down stairs. But children want assurance. They want to know that their parents are with them. And what we have in this passage is exactly that. Jesus is giving His disciples assurance that God is always with us. He is always with us, and He is with us intimately, closer than we could ever imagine. In fact, God is with us in three persons. Let’s look at them one by one. Verse 16:

John 14:16–17 NASB95

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

So, the first person of God that is with us is

The Holy Spirit

As Christians, we believe that their is One God, and that He exists in the form of three distinct persons that are equally God. And while the word, Trinity, never appears in Scripture, the three persons of God most certainly appear here in this passage, and all three are here with us. The first one mentioned is the Holy Spirit. And this passage tells us a lot about Him. And in your listening guide, I’ve given you some things to note about Him.

He is our helper

The word used here is paraclete. He is the One who comes alongside to walk with us. In other words, you never walk alone. That is a comforting thought, isn’t it? You will never walk alone, because God, almighty, the Holy Spirit, your helper always walks with you. He is always beside You. He will always be there to help you, if you lean on Him, we’ll expound on that in a moment, but also,

He is with us forever

There will never be a time when He is not with you. The Holy Spirit is with us forever. In fact, He has been with God’s people since the beginning, even though we didn’t realize it. Verse 17 says He lives with us already. We see Him present all the way back in Genesis 1:2, where it says

Genesis 1:2 NASB95

The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

He has been and will be with us forever. The difference is that now we are aware of His presence. And because we are aware of Him, we can step forward with confidence because we have nothing to fear. You have nothing to fear when God is always at your side!

He is a gift asked for by the Son and given by the Father

Truly, our Father knows how to give good gifts! What greater gift could we receive than the gift of His presence? God gave us His Spirit so that we would never be alone, so that we would always know where to go and what to do. It says here that

He is the Truth that abides with us

The word Spirit is pneuma, which means breath, and to abide means to live and dwell, that is that the breath of God’s truth makes His home with us. That the home of the Holy Spirit is with God’s people. Where God’s people are, there is His Holy Spirit. And more than just living among us, verse 17 tells us here that

He lives in the believer and is known by believers

Do you remember, that what Jesus told Nicodemus? All the way back in John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that He had to be born again. He told him that the only way that a man could enter into the Kingdom of Heaven was to be born again. And in John 3:5 Jesus says this:

John 3:5 NASB95

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Water and Spirit? Does this not point us to conversion? When does the Spirit enter into you? When is it that you die to yourself and become alive in Christ? It is at the moment of conversion. It is in that moment when you first believe, and the old self dies and the new self is born. The Holy Spirit comes and is the life living in you.

Do we not baptize new believers? Is this not the symbol of rebirth? Romans 6:4

Romans 6:4 NASB95

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

If you are in Christ, the Spirit of God lives inside of you! And this has greater ramifications we will talk about a bit later, but this enables you to hear from God constantly in your life. It’s what enables you to grow in Christ and to know Him better. Look at verse 26 of our passage

John 14:26 NASB95

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

In addition to all the things that we have already seen about the Spirit, we see here that because He dwells in and among Christians,

He is our Teacher and Reminder

The Spirit teaches us of the things of God that we did not know. He is with us as we study the Word of God and helps us to understand it. He prays on our behalf in ways we don’t even understand. And He reminds us of the teachings of God along and along as we walk through life.

It never ceases to amaze me how He will call to my memory passages and verses that I have not seen or studied in a long time so that they can sustain me in a moment of temptation, or aid me in sharing the Gospel, or help me to encourage or correct a brother or sister in Christ.

The Holy Spirit is our Teacher and Reminder. Truly He is our helper and is constantly with us. And the Spirit, alone, should be enough for us to never feel alone or abandoned, but to walk in confidence and power as we go forward in following Jesus our whole life long. But that’s not all! No, that just One of the three Persons of God that are with us. Look at verses 18-19

John 14:18–19 NASB95

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.

The second person of God that is with us is

Jesus Christ, the Son of God

Now we’re confused, right? Isn’t Jesus going? Didn’t Jesus just tell us over and over that He is going to the Father? Doesn’t He confirm that for us even in this passage? Yes, He does. But He also is with us. How? there are several ways. Let me show you. First,

He is with us through the Spirit

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are One, and so where One is, there the others are found. Now, they are distinct persons, and yet they are One with each other. And so, because He has asked for the Spirit and the Father has given it to us, in the Spirit Jesus remains with us, for the same Spirit dwells in us now as well. But that’s not all. Jesus also says that

We will see Him

And this is true in two ways. First,

We see Him as the Word

Remember that Jesus is the Word of God, made flesh. Jesus is the Living Word of God. Jesus is the spoken Word of God, through Him all things were made. He is with us. I am preaching Jesus to you this morning, because I am preaching from the Word of God, and the Word of God is the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fullness of the revelation of God. God’s Word endures forever. Jesus endures forever, He is with us forever as the Word of God. Do you want to know Him? Know the Word! Do you want to see His face? Know the Word! Do you want to be changed by Him? Know the Word! This is why we say that those that love Jesus love His Word, because Jesus is the Word of God.

Secondly,

We will see Him when He comes

Jesus promised that He is coming back for us. He is coming back gain. Not only is He with us through the presence of the Holy Spirit, not only is He with as the Word of God, but He is physically, bodily coming back again. And He says in verse 19 that we will live because He is alive. When Christ comes again, you and I will live forever. The Spirit is now with us and will be with us forever. Jesus, the Son, the Living Word of God, is with us now and will come again in the flesh so that we will be alive forever.

God is with His people. We have help! We are not alone. The Spirit is helping us. Jesus is helping us. Look at verses 20-21:

John 14:20–21 NASB95

“In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

How does Jesus help us?

He is our way to the Father

So, let’s break that down and talk about what that means. Well,

Jesus is equal to the Father and how we know Him

We have been talking about this for several weeks now, haven’t we? And so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise to us at this point, but Jesus is One with the Father. If you love Jesus, you love the Father. If you know serve Jesus, you serve the Father. Knowing Jesus is knowing the Father, and following Jesus will lead us to Him.

Look at verses 22-24.

John 14:22–24 NASB95

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

Judas, that’s the other Judas, not the traitor, Judas, he asks a big “why” here. He says isn’t everyone going to see and know you? Aren’t you going to show yourself to everyone.

And Jesus answers that anyone can know the Father, but only if they love Jesus. And the way that we love Jesus is to obey Him. And the difference between those that truly know Him and will see Him and those that don’t is obedience because,

Jesus is the practice of our faith

That is, as we grow in love for Christ, we will do the things He has commanded us to do. And because Jesus is the Word of God, His commands are really the commands of the Father, so that to love and obey Jesus is to love and obey the Father. In other words, you can’t follow Jesus without being in the will of God the Father, and following Jesus will lead us to the Father because,

John 14:28–29 NASB95

“You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.

In other words,

Jesus is with the Father

And I love what Jesus says here. Jesus is equal with the Father, and yet He submits to Him, and to Jesus there is nothing greater than being with the Father, and the same should be true for us. We should rejoice that Christ is with the Father, because we know that this is our own desire and destination, and because we are following Jesus, this is where we will end up. And because we know He is resurrected, because we know He ascended to the Father, we can believe He will come again!

We can believe that the Spirit is with us. We can believe that the Son is with us. And we can have confidence that the third person of God is with us, that is

God the Father

God, the Father, is with us. In verses 16 to 20, Jesus told us that He is One with the Father. We have talked about the Father, the Son and the Spirit being One. Is this not why we are baptize by the command of Jesus in the Name of all three:

Matthew 28:19 NASB95

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

And so it is, that where the Spirit is, there is the Son and the Father. This is why Christ’s death was so painful to Him. Beyond the physical torture, it was the only time in history He was separated from the rest of the God Head. They are united, God, and so the Father is also with us.

Not only is He with us,

The Father loves us

John 14:21 NASB95

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

John 14:23 NASB95

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.

There is that word abode. The Father and the Son, living with those who love Him. The Father loves us. Why did Jesus come to begin with, but that God loves us. Is this not what John 3:16 tells us.

John 3:16 NASB95

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

God the Father loves us. He loves you. He wants you to be in His eternal Kingdom. That is why He sent the Son. Even as Jesus leads us and teaches us, He does so in the direction of the Father:

John 14:24 NASB95

“He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

The words of Jesus are the words of the Father. In other words,

The Father Sent the Son and the Spirit. He leads us through His Word

The Father directs our steps. We wrongly think of the Father as the hand of judgment and the Son as the hand of mercy, when it is the Father that sent the Son. It is the Father that sent the Spirit. It is the Father that leads us as He directs the Son in what to say, that Christ’s Words are the words of the Father.

And so what we see in this passage is that we have help! The follower of God is not doing life on their own. The believer is not living life in isolation. Is it not the most extravagant and humbling thought that you have ever had to think that not only are you not alone, but The God head, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are daily with you, daily attending to you, daily leading you, forever with you, so that you may be forever with Him.

We, who are believers, truly aren’t alone. We, who are believers. We who are believers have nothing to fear. We, who are believers. We, who are believers know God, are with God, and will live with Him forever. We, who are believers...

But what of the unbelieving? What of those whose lives are not centered on the Gospel of Christ? Verse 17

John 14:17 NASB95

that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

Verse 24

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 14

“He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

Verse 30

John 14:30 NASB95

“I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me;

Those that do not know Him, that do not love Him, that do not obey Him, cannot see Him, receive Him, or perceive Him. They know not the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. They do not know Him now, and with their ruler, the One who rules this world, they have no part in our King or His Kingdom.

They have no help in times of trouble. They have no hope of salvation or an eternity of loving the Father. They, beloved, are the orphans. Created for greater things, and yet left in the darkness by their refusal of our great Helper. If you do not know Christ this morning, make no mistake, this is your position. And it is not the doing of the Father that put you there, but the works of your own hands.

All of us were there. All of us have been right where you sit this morning. What is the difference between those who will live and those who will not? Is it not the hope that is only found in Jesus?

Won’t today be the day that you know Him? Won’t today be the day that you are saved by the Son, empowered by the Spirit, and beloved by the Father? Won’t today be the day that you finally surrender and find that you are not condemned, but pardoned, not dead, but alive, not broken, but whole. Won’t today be the day you find yourself in the Help of God. He is here waiting. Help is Here. It is on the way. Won’t today be the day you reach up for it.

Let’s pray together: Lord, Jesus, we come to You, praising our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And today, we want to know You in the fullness of who You are. We want to experience our God in three persons living and moving in our lives. Would you help us, oh God, to surrender to You. Help us to find our salvation in You, Son of God! Would You enrapture us in Your love. May we find Your grace more than we can resist, as You draw us to Yourself and unite us with the Father. Would You be our King, as we never allowed before. Holy Spirit, would you be our power, our encouragement, our teacher, our source of strength. Would You pray for us, and remind us of Your truth. Would You guide us in the footsteps of Jesus. Heavenly Father, thank you for Your great love, and mercy. May we be found in Your love, even as Christ has loved us. Surely You, who has given us His Son, will not hold His love from us. Lord, God, would You hold Your children in Your arms this dark hour, and forevermore be our Helper as You have promised to be. In Jesus’ Name we pray, amen.