Gentle & Lowly - Another Helper | John 14:15–31

Introduction

The heart of Christ is for those who follow him, but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all work together to care for those who believe. A number of miles from the Los Angeles basin there is a river. The river has been damned up, and through the genius and innovation of engineers, scientists, and water experts, they have put together a dam that has, in its process of working, housed electricity—hundreds of thousands of volts that are fed into the Los Angeles basin. And if you were to go to the plant, the source, and follow the lines that come into the city, you would come to various transmission plants along the way that would be marked “Danger. High Voltage.” “No trespassing. Danger.” Hundreds of thousands of volts are available in energy, but who needs a hundred thousand volts, unless he wants to burn up his home? Knowing that, the engineers have built transformers into the system—not transmitters, but transformers. The transformer’s job is to into meaningful units just the electricity that a person needs for their home. The well known pastor and author, Chuck Swindoll shares a story about a transformer he has in his home. One Christmas he gave himself an HO gauge train. He put his son’s name on it, but really it was a gift for him. I’m sure none of us have ever done that with our kids. So Chuck and his son had a great time putting the train together. There was a tiny unit, a transformer, for the train set, which breaks down the 110 volts from the wall to even less. If you plugged into a straight 110 outlet, the train would light up for a second, before being burnt to a crisp. But, the transformer breaks it down to where Chuck’s train, well, his son’t train, whose engine can be held in your fist, can putt putt around the track and entertain them for hours on end. All because of the little transformer that dispenses the energy at the needed level.

This story about Chuck, a train, and a transformer can teach us about our faith as well. When we hear transformer in a sermon, we might think of the word, transformation? After all, Christ is a transformer. He transforms our heart and our souls. In verse 26, Jesus tells us that the Father will send the Holy Spirit. Currently, Christ is in heaven. We are on earth. How does the work of Jesus get applied in our life? We've talked about Jesus, but what about the Holy Spirit? How does the Holy Spirit fit in to the story of the heart of Christ? Today is the next part in our series called, Gentle and Lowly, which is also a book by the same name written by Dane Ortland. In it, he writes, “only as we drink down the kindness of the heart of Christ will we leave in our wake, everywhere we go, the aroma of heaven, and die one day having startled the world with glimpses of a divine kindness too great to be boxed in by what we deserve.” We can only become an aroma from heaven if we experience the heart of Christ. The heart of Christ is at the heart of this series. There are many misconceptions of who Jesus was, what he did, and what he does today. In this series, we’re looking at how the heart of Christ nourishes the worn out and weary souls of those who follow him.

Dane Ortland writes, “the Spirit causes us to actually feel Christ’s heart for us.” The different translations of the Bible translates the original Greek word in verse 26 a few different ways. The King James Version describes the Spirit as “another Comforter.” In our pew Bible, which is the New International Version translates the word, “another Counselor.” The translation that I generally use, the English Standard Version, renders this description as “another Helper.” Just in looking at three different version, we see three different senses in which the Holy Spirit is a part of the process of care and transformation of believers by Jesus. As we continue to dive in to this passage, we learn that the Holy Spirit applies the work and the heart of Christ in the lives of believers.

Here are a few other ways that the Holy Spirit is a part of transformation by Christ. In John 16:8, the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, the Holy Spirit empowers us with spiritual gifts. In Galatains 4:6, we learn that the Holy Spirit testifies in our hearts that we are God’s children, that we have been adopted him him. In Galatians 5:18 and 25, we learn that the Holy Spirit leads us as Christ followers. in Galatians 5:22-23, the Holy Spirit makes us fruitful. Romans 8:11, the Holy Spirit grants and nurtures in us resurrection life. In Romans 8, the Holy Spirit enables us to kill sin. Later in that same chapter, the Holy Spirit enables us to kill, or as the Puritan John Own phrases it, to mortify sin. Again in Romans 8, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know what to pray. Moving back to the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit guides us into truth. in 2 Corinthians 3:18, the Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Christ. So, how does the Holy Spirit apply the work of Christ to us? There are a lot of great answers. Here, we are going to look at three of them.

Christ is present through the indwelling Holy Spirit. (V. 17)

Verse 17 says, “even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” Christ is in heaven, but he Christ is spiritually present with believers. At the tail end of the Great Commission, Matthew 28:20, Jesus says, “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” When Jesus says that he with us to the end of the age, it doesn’t mean that part of his physical body is in us. That’s not only weird to think about, but the book of Hebrews teaches us that today the physical body of Christ is in heaven at the right hand of God the Father praying for those who follow him. Hence, Christ is with us, but he is with us spiritually through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Herschel Hobbes shares the story of a little boy who was asked an important question by his Sunday School teacher. He was asked to define a lie. He replied, “A lie is an abomination to the Lord, and an ever-present help in time of trouble.” Like many, he had his Scriptures as well as his moral values confused. The actual ever-present help in trouble that we have is the power of the Holy Spirit who works in us and through us. As the famed preacher, Charles Spurgeon said, “Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without the wind, branches without sap, and like coals without fire, we are useless.” The first work of the Holy Spirit that we’re looking is that while Christ is in heaven, he is spiritually present and working through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit applies the truth of Christ. (V. 17)

The second one also comes from verse 17. In the first portion of the verse, Christ refers to the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of Truth.” Grasping the role of the Holy Spirit, according to John 14, it’s important to remember that the Greek word for understanding, the word oida, is not restricted to a mere intellectual exercise. The word simply means “to know.” Knowing something doesn’t simply mean that you can regurgitate an answer when asked for it. Rather, John is talking about knowing in a holistic sense. Far more than simple knowledge, this is an experiential knowing in the same way you know the sun is warm when you stand with your face raised to the sky on a cloudless summer day.

Before refrigerators, people used ice-houses to preserve their food. Ice-houses had thick walls, no windows and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the ice-houses and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer. One author shares a story of a man who lost a valuable watch while working in an ice-house. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but as hard as he looked, as long as he looked, he didn’t find it. Then, he asked his fellow workers to look as well, but their efforts also turned up nothing. Then, a small boy who heard about this unsuccessful search slipped into the ice-house during the noon hour when no one was around. Soon, he emerged with the watch that they had looked so hard and so long for. Shocked, the men asked him how he found it. The boy replied, ‘I closed the door, lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. (slowly) Soon I heard the watch ticking.’” Often, we do not hear God speak to us because we do not listen well enough.

Listening to the Holy Spirit can be the place where our understanding of the Spirit can go sideways. We can turn listening to the Holy Spirit into a case of telling people, “God said.” Oftentimes, claiming that “God said” something is really just a way to retake control of a situation and put yourself at the center of the conversation. Generally, the Holy Spirit isn't about flash and show and experiencing Pentecost all over again. Instead, it’s about applying the truth about Jesus into the lives of Jesus' followers. The Holy Spirit takes the Word of God from head to heart, from information to transformation, from words and meaning to impactful and humbling truth.

Thinking back to the story of that tiny transformer on the toy train that Chuck Swindoll bought for his say, he writes, “ When the Holy Spirit, the Transformer, comes, He will take the majestic truth of God and will dispense it just the way you need it, give it to you with handles that you can take and use. It is the Spirit’s delight to take the full truth of God and make one thing meaningful to that woman, something altogether different to that man, and something different again to that fellow down there. That’s the work of the Spirit, and He never makes a mistake. He gives you just what you can handle.”The second work of the Holy Spirit that we get from John 14 is that the Holy Spirit applies the truth of Jesus Christ.

The spirit of peace (Vv. 26-27)

Jesus goes on to say in verses 26-27, “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 have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Christ was centered on his mission for the father with a peace that allowed him to go through torture and a terrible death on the Cross. The heart of Christ was and is a steady heart of peace. He desires this peace for those who follow him. Dane Ortland writes, “the Spirit causes us to actually feel Christ’s heart for us.” In Jesus offering peace to his followers, he is using a common Hebrew salutation used in greeting or farewell. Jesus gives it a new and deeper sense that reappears in the salutations of the letters of the New Testament. Jesus’ peace is true reconciliation with God, purchased by His death. It is the supreme remedy for all fear, and the legacy Jesus has left His heirs.

Back in 1867, Alfred awoke one morning to read his own obituary in the local paper. It said, “Alfred...the inventor of dynamite, who died yesterday, devised a way for more people to be killed in a war than ever before. He died a very rich man.” The paper got it wrong. It was Alfred’s older brother who had died. A reporter had made a mistake. But the account had a deep and profound effect on Alfred. After all, Alfred was a well know inventor. He had invented something that is still used to great effect today. In reading the newspaper though, Alfred decided that he wanted to be known for something other than developing a means to kill people efficiently while amassing a fortune in the process. In other words, Alfred didn’t want to go to his grave for being the famous inventor of dynamite. So he initiated a prize, an award for scientists and writers who foster peace in the world. Alfred later said that, “every man ought to have the chance to correct his epitaph in midstream and write a new one.” You see, Alfred may have created dynamite, but today he’s better known for the Nobel peace, which was started by Alfred Nobel. In that moment of reading the newspaper obituaries, Alfred was shook up. His peace was robbed because he suddenly realized what he was going to be remembered for, and it gave him a new start. What about you? What robs your peace? What is something in your life that the Holy Spirit needs to transform into an avenue for the grace of God? The Holy Spirit brings the peace of Christ, for we are the Lord's.

Conclusion

Christ is an ever present help through the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. Second, the holy Spirit applies the truth of Christ. Finally, the Spirit brings the peace of Christ.

In the book, Love Found a Way, Ron Mehl says that whenever he drives to the east side of Portland over the Marquam Bridge, he is reminded of what it took for God to save us. On the upper deck of that double decker freeway spanning the wide Willamette River, you can catch a glimpse of an exit that drops off into empty space. When the Marquam Bridge was built in the mid-1960s, it was designed to accommodate an east-running freeway still on the drawing boards, known as the Mount Hood Freeway. But the freeway was never built. Oregon voters opted for a light rail line instead, and plans for the highway were scrapped. Even though there is no Mount Hood Freeway, you can certainly see Mount Hood from the top deck of the Marquam Bridge. On clear days it looms on the eastern horizon—a symmetrical, snow-capped beauty. And if you look carefully, you can see how the bridge was built to accommodate a freeway lane veering off to the southeast. It juts out just a bit from the bridge structure and then is cut off as though sliced by a giant knife. The exit, permanently blocked, now goes nowhere—except into the waters of the Willamette far below. You can see Mount Hood in all its beauty, but you could never reach the high slopes of the mighty peak via the Mount Hood Freeway, because the freeway doesn’t exist. Likewise, we might understand there is a God. We might recognize his power and glory, his majesty and goodness, and desire with all our hearts to know him and be with him. But the distance is too great. The gulf is too wide. Only through Jesus Christ can we cross that gulf to God the Father. And that freeway does exist. Then, having declared our faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit applies the work and the heart of Christ in our lives.