41 min
When The Helper Comes, More Help Comes Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN
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- Christianity
John 15:26 – 16:4 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
16:1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
INTRODUCTION
We had a modified staycation last week. Thanks for sending us away and thanks for welcoming us back.
I was able to listen to John’s sermon on Tuesday morning. Well done, John. There is much we can all learn from John’s grasp of biblical theology. I especially appreciated John’s description of God’s nature and its implications for our lives.
To quickly bring you up to speed, we’ve made our way, passage by passage, through the fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel. In his Gospel, John recounts much of the life and ministry of Jesus, and all for the primary purpose of convincing his readers (original and continually) that Jesus is the Christ/Messiah that God promised to send. And that, in order that his readers might believe in Jesus and be saved from our sins and reconciled to God and His creation. May that be the effect among us today and until Jesus returns!
To zoom in a bit, the words Jesus spoke in chapters thirteen through seventeen were all said on the night before His crucifixion. They were spoken to His disciples (minus Judas).
To zoom in one more time, in my last sermon (on 15:18-25) we read of Jesus’ promise that His followers would be hated by the world around them to the degree that the world around them hates Jesus and they lived as Jesus commanded and modeled.
That’s rough news and Jesus knew it. That’s why our passage begins with the word “but.” Jesus told His followers that while He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, living in light of that in this fallen world would be hard…BUT when the Helper comes, more help will come.
Two sermons ago in John, Jesus described one means of God’s grace to defend against and heal from the sting of the world’s hatred: The love and friendship of other Christians. In our passage for this morning, we find a second significant means of God’s grace to protect and heal His people from the world’s persecution: The Helper whom Jesus promised to send.
Do you live among a people who hate the idea of Jesus being the Son of God? If so, life will be hard for you if you truly follow Jesus. At the same time, however, it will be much more bearable if you are surrounded by other Christians who love you well and if you have the Spirit dwelling in you.
The big idea of this passage is that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, will help us when honoring God is costly. And the main takeaway is to courageously live godly lives in complete confidence that the Spirit makes every righteous risk right.
Let’s pray.
WHEN THE HELPER COMES, MORE HELP COMES
Our passage records the third time (of four) that Jesus has mentioned “The Helper” in John’s Gospel. All four occur during His final, upper room discourse.
In the first, John 14:16, Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…” in that context, Jesus promised the Spirit to help His followers keep His commandmen...
John 15:26 – 16:4 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
16:1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
INTRODUCTION
We had a modified staycation last week. Thanks for sending us away and thanks for welcoming us back.
I was able to listen to John’s sermon on Tuesday morning. Well done, John. There is much we can all learn from John’s grasp of biblical theology. I especially appreciated John’s description of God’s nature and its implications for our lives.
To quickly bring you up to speed, we’ve made our way, passage by passage, through the fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel. In his Gospel, John recounts much of the life and ministry of Jesus, and all for the primary purpose of convincing his readers (original and continually) that Jesus is the Christ/Messiah that God promised to send. And that, in order that his readers might believe in Jesus and be saved from our sins and reconciled to God and His creation. May that be the effect among us today and until Jesus returns!
To zoom in a bit, the words Jesus spoke in chapters thirteen through seventeen were all said on the night before His crucifixion. They were spoken to His disciples (minus Judas).
To zoom in one more time, in my last sermon (on 15:18-25) we read of Jesus’ promise that His followers would be hated by the world around them to the degree that the world around them hates Jesus and they lived as Jesus commanded and modeled.
That’s rough news and Jesus knew it. That’s why our passage begins with the word “but.” Jesus told His followers that while He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, living in light of that in this fallen world would be hard…BUT when the Helper comes, more help will come.
Two sermons ago in John, Jesus described one means of God’s grace to defend against and heal from the sting of the world’s hatred: The love and friendship of other Christians. In our passage for this morning, we find a second significant means of God’s grace to protect and heal His people from the world’s persecution: The Helper whom Jesus promised to send.
Do you live among a people who hate the idea of Jesus being the Son of God? If so, life will be hard for you if you truly follow Jesus. At the same time, however, it will be much more bearable if you are surrounded by other Christians who love you well and if you have the Spirit dwelling in you.
The big idea of this passage is that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, will help us when honoring God is costly. And the main takeaway is to courageously live godly lives in complete confidence that the Spirit makes every righteous risk right.
Let’s pray.
WHEN THE HELPER COMES, MORE HELP COMES
Our passage records the third time (of four) that Jesus has mentioned “The Helper” in John’s Gospel. All four occur during His final, upper room discourse.
In the first, John 14:16, Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…” in that context, Jesus promised the Spirit to help His followers keep His commandmen...
41 min