A Wonderful Trade-Off

A WONDERFUL TRADE-OFF

John 16.5-15

S: Holy Spirit

C: Jesus will send the Holy Spirit

Pr: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR FRIEND.

?: How? How does He act as our friend?

KW: Responsibility

TS: We will find in our study of John 16.5-15 three responsibilities taken up by the Holy Spirit that shows us He is our friend.

Type: Propositional

The ____ responsibility is…

I. CONVICTION

II. DIRECTION

III. REVELATION

PA: How is the change to be observed?

Version: ESV

RMBC 04 February 07 AM

INTRODUCTION:

Sometimes, we just need help.

ILL Help (H)

Did you hear about the teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put his boots on? He asked for help and she could see why. With her pulling and him pushing, the boots still didn’t want to go on. When the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost whimpered when the little boy said, "Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet." She looked, and sure enough, they were.

It wasn’t any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on – this time on the right feet.

He then announced, "These aren’t my boots." She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn’t you say so?" like she wanted to.

Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. He then said, "They’re my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear them."

She didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. She mustered up the grace to wrestle the boots on his feet again. She said, "Now, where are your mittens?"

He said,” I stuffed them in the toes of my boots..."

Sometimes, we just need help.

TRANSITION:

We are returning to our series on John that started in December 2000.

We have been doing some studying in it every year since (though last year there was only one message out of John).

Lord willing, we will finish it this May.

And as we continue over the next several weeks, the passages will line up nicely with Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

Today, we return to chapter 16.

We are coming in at the end of a section that started in chapter 14.

It is in these chapters…

1. Jesus is giving His final teaching before the cross.

He knows there is a painful parting ahead.

He is leaving them.

And it is going to be difficult.

They are going to behave poorly in the crisis that is looming before them.

Yet, in the big picture of things…

2. It is going to be better when He leaves.

Jesus, in fact, says that it is necessary.

No doubt, this announcement that He was leaving seemed disastrous to them.

In three years, they had learned to depend on Him for their very lives.

The thought of being separated had to strain them emotionally and mentally.

Have you ever thought that it would be so good just to be with Jesus, like the disciples, just to sit and talk and ask questions?

I am sure many of us have thought that from time to time.

His departure, though was for their profit, as it is for us.

For Jesus could only be in one place.

Whom He was sending, the Spirit, could be everywhere, always available.

The disciples would come to realize that God’s concern was to bring about the full salvation for all people.

Jesus was going to have to die.

The atonement was needed.

And when that occurred, the Holy Spirit could come.

This being so, I want us to realize today this simple truth, that…

3. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR FRIEND.

The Greek word that is used by John here you may have heard before.

It is paraclete.

It basically means “to be called to one’s side.”

And many good words are used to translate it…

…Comforter

…Helper

…Advocate

…Intercessor, and even

…Companion.

These translations are powerful descriptions of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to us.

ILL Holy Spirit (S)

Jurgen Moltmann in describing the Holy Spirit says He “is the loving, self-communicating, out-fanning and out-pouring presence of the eternal divine life of the triune God. By the Spirit, God draws near to the creature and mediates a knowledge of divinity in a hundred thousand ways.”

That description sets up the question we are asking today which is how?

How does the Holy Spirit act as our friend?

Well…

4. We will find in our study of John 16.5-15 three responsibilities taken up by the Holy Spirit that shows us He is our friend.

(5) But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” (6) But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. (7) Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is 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 will send him to you. (8) And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: (9) concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; (10) concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; (11) concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.