Introduction
1. A blonde goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Christmas cards...
She says to the clerk, "May I have 50 Christmas stamps?"
The clerk says, "What denomination?"
The blonde says, "God help us! Has it come to this?
Give me 6 Catholic,
12 Presbyterian
10 Lutheran
10 Baptist...
and 12 Nazarenes"
2. As we continue to study our ABCs of the Bible…
We come to the letter H…
If it wasn’t for what I preached about on Sunday…
I would talk about HOPE…
The hope we have in Jesus…
The hope we have in heaven…(heaven is another good “h” word)
The hope that Jesus brings to the Christmas season…
And the hope we have in Jesus coming again…
But instead, I would like to talk about the word “help” and different forms of that word.
Read Text: See below
1. Help, helps
A. Help typically means, “to give assistance”…
To lend a hand…
To facilitate…
In one interesting case…
In Acts 27:17, Luke tells us that ropes or cables were wrapped around a ship to hold it together and keep it from being pulled apart in the storm…
The KJV actually uses the word “helps” for these ropes or cables…
In (1 Cor. 12:28), Paul tells us that “helping” is a spiritual gift…
And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.
B. And, sometimes, we just need a little help…
William Schultz tells the story about his daughter Laurie when she was 3 years old…
He says, “one night she requested my aid in getting un dressed…
I was downstairs and she was upstairs, and so I hollered up…
"You know how to undress yourself,"
And she called back…"Yes," she explained, ’but sometimes people need people anyway, even if they do know how to do things by themselves."[1]
I’d say that little Laurie hit the nail right on the head…
Sometimes we do need each other…
C. Never is this more evident than in the work of the church…
We accomplish much more for the Gospel of Jesus Christ when we work together than when we try to do everything our selves…
One of the nice things about being a part of a denomination is that We are able to share resources…
We can work together to spread the Gospel of Jesus to places that you and I could never go by ourselves…
But more than just missions…
Even here in our local church…
We can help one another…
We can work together to decorate the church…
We can help in the various ministries that our church is involved in…
C. When we work together…
And help one another…
It is like putting ropes around this old ship to hold it together in the storm…
And certainly, the “gift of helping” must be one of the most important gifts in the Church!!
2. Not only do we see the words Help and helps…
A. We also see the word “Helper” Gospel of John (14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7)
The NAS translates parakletos, as Helper…
Parakletos is a distinctive title for the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John.
(Holy Spirit is itself another good “H” word)
Other versions translate the term “Comforter” (KJV),
“Advocate” (NEB),
or “Counselor” (RSV, NIV).
parakletos is difficult to translate with any single word,…
some interpreters just use the word “Paraclete”
and allow the context of the Scriptures to provide its meaning.
B. One use of the word for the Holy Spirit is “advocate”…
Advocate gives us the picture of a courtroom scene…
In 1 John 2:1, the Advocate is specified as being Jesus Christ…
“My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”
In this courtroom scene, Jesus Christ, the righteous “Advocate,” intercedes with God “The Judge” on behalf of sinners.
C. In John 16:7, we see that The Helper, who could not come until Jesus Ascended…
It says "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”
And we see that Jesus words are fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost.
D. Not only did the Helper come after Jesus ascended…
The Helper also functions as the continuing, ongoing presence of Jesus among His disciples…
In (John 14:16-18), Jesus says…
16 "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.
18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Nearly everything said about the Helper is also said about Jesus.
In fact, in John 14:16, Jesus says… "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
So, Jesus is the First Helper…
And the Holy Spirit steps in when Jesus ascends…
And becomes ANOTHER Helper…
E. Jesus talks about the function of the Helper, the Holy Spirit…
He tells us that The Helper would be sent by the Father to “teach” the disciples and to bring to help us remember everything that Jesus said (John 14:26)
And in John 16:14-15, Jesus says that the Helper will REVEAL things to us…
It reads "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.
15 "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.
In John 15:26-27, Jesus tells us that the Helper was sent to
Testify or “bear witness” about Jesus…
"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
And I might just add that, in verse 27, we see that the followers of Jesus must also testify about Jesus…
So, in that sense, WE become a type of HELPER too…
When we “testify” about what Jesus is doing in our lives…
We are helping other people…
When we have testimony time during some of our church services…
This isn’t just an idle pursuit just to fill time…
Through our testimonies…
We encourage one another…
We help one another…
And, I should add…Testimony time isn’t just for Church!!!...
We should be testifying about Jesus outside the walls of the church…
When we share the Good News about Jesus with others…
When we tell them what Jesus means to us…
We become a Helper…
Helping people to see Jesus…
F. Another function of the Helper that we see in Scripture is found in John 16:8…”
Jesus says, “When the Helper comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment”
So, we see the Holy Spirit bring conviction…
When we feel guilty about something that we have done…
That is the Holy Spirit “helping” us…
The Holy Spirit helps us to live a life of Holiness and Righteousness…
G. In John 16:13…Jesus says, “
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
So, The Helper will “guide” us into the truth…
And in verse 14, Jesus tells us that the Helper will bring glory to Jesus…
He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.[2]
3. In Genesis 2:18, we see another use of the term “helper”…
A. The Bible says, “The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
This is a reference to a woman…
The KJV uses the word “helpmeet”…
Some people might try to twist this to say that “helper” means “subordinate”…
To imply that to be a woman is inferior to being a man…
But, the word translated as “helper” in Genesis…
Is the same word used elsewhere in the Old Testament for God Himself…
One example is Psalm 30:10 which says,
“Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help."
And Psalm 54:4 says,
Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.
And in other places, it refers to military allies who help a nation against a common enemy… (Jer. 47:4; Nah. 3:9).
The word “helper” or “helpmeet” (at least in our Genesis passage) means that a woman can be truly one with man…,
unlike the animals, who are subordinate to man…
(Gen. 2:20) says, “
So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
So, from the very beginning…
A woman and a man were to enjoy full fellowship and partnership in serving the Lord together…
Conclusion
1. Well, H is for help,helps and helper…
In the church, the work goes much better when we help one another…
It helps hold us together through the storms of life…
The Holy Spirit is also our Helper…
Helping us to know right from wrong…
Helping us to live the holy life…
And testifying about Jesus…
Which is one of the ways that we can be a helper too…
Simply by encouraging others with the story of Jesus…
And finally, God made a woman to be a helper for the man…
Adam was lonely and incomplete…
So God made a woman from Adam’s rib…
To stand by his side…
To help one another…
As we serve the Lord together.
2. During the Christmas season…
There are many gifts that you can give…
Jewelry, perfume…
Toys, and games…
But let me encourage you to add something to your gift giving list this year…
The gift of helping…
What a wonderful gift that you can give to your spouse…
Your friend, your neighbor…
And even your church!!!...
[1] William C. Schultz, Bits & Pieces, December 1990.
[2] Holman Bible Dictionary
