THE HOLY SPIRIT IS: Your Counselor (John 14 16)

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1 THE HOLY SPIRIT IS: Your Counselor (John 14 16) INTRODUCTION: Larry Smith is one of my old friends from my days on Long Island. Larry preached at the neighboring Nesconset Church of Christ. Larry was either the best pastoral counselor I ever knew, or the worst. I could never really decide which. Larry never learned non-directive counseling techniques. When people came to Larry, he d listen to them tell about their problems then he would tell them what to do. When they came back the next week, he d ask them if they had done what he told them to do and if they had not, he d tell them to go home and call him when they had and then he would be willing to meet with them again. Couples of marriage counseling? Larry would tell them what to do and send them on their way. Parents with child-rearing issues? Larry would tell them what to do and send them out the door. People with low self-esteem or anger management issues or anything else, Larry would tell them what to do, send them out the door and not meet with them again until they did what he told them to do. If someone wanted to quit smoking, Larry would tell them to throw their cigarettes in his wastebasket and never light up another. Come see me next week and tell me how it s going. When they came back, if they had smoked, he d ask them to leave and call again when they had gone a week without smoking. As I say, Larry was either the best counselor or the worst I never knew which. Larry figured that if you weren t going to do what he told you to do, it was a waste of his time and yours for you to come see him again. I do wonder why people will go to a counselor and then not pay any attention to him. Before Jesus left this earth, he said that he was going to give us the Holy Spirit precisely to be our counselor. Listen to these words from the Gospel of John: 15 If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17) 25 All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:25-26) 5 Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, Where are you going? 6 Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7 But I tell you Page 1 of 6

2 the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12 I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 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. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. (John 16: 5-14) Jesus identified the Holy Spirit as the Counselor. If our Counselor is going to do us any good at all, we have to listen to him and do what he says. With that in mind, we ought to look at what Jesus said the Counselor is to do for us. I. HE WILL TEACH (John 14:26) You know, I don t do a lot of counseling. I m not trained as a counselor and I m not very good at it. But one thing I have often done in the counseling process is to teach. When I do premarital counseling, I teach. I teach about issues like Realistic Expectations, Personality Traits, Communication, Financial Management, Sexual Relationship, Children and Parenting, The Role of the Church in their Lives. There are about a dozen areas I cover in premarital counseling and, in each of those areas, there is a lot of teaching that goes on. There is a lot of teaching but not always a lot of learning. Sometimes couples think they know all about love and marriage because they ve listened to some songs on the radio. I want to help them learn but some folk are information-resistant: they just won t learn. As the Counselor that Jesus left for us, the Holy Spirit is to teach us. Jesus said that was to be part of his function. I have no doubt that he teaches. I have some doubts that we learn. We do not learn from The Counselor for the same reason that couples don t learn much from the premarital counselor: we ve heard some songs. Too many people have a theology based on songs. They don t read the Bible much and they do not spend much time listening to the Spirit but they sure know what those songs say. Their opinions are fixed, minds are made up, their hearts are closed and the Holy Spirit can t teach them a thing because they refuse to learn. While Jesus was discipling his apostles, he warned them that the religious leaders of their day would not be very tolerant of them. He said, 11 When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend Page 2 of 6

3 yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say (Luke 12:11-12). Guys, in the time of testing, the Holy Spirit will teach you if you will learn from him. Jesus left so that we could receive the Holy Spirit as a teacher. Open your mind and let him do his job. II. HE WILL REMIND (John 14:26) Jesus said, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. You cannot be reminded of something you have never learned but what you have learned is of little use if you cannot recall it. It certainly was that way when I was in class and had to take tests. It certainly is that way with the Holy Spirit, too. When our faith is tested, the Holy Spirit will stir up memory of what Jesus taught, how he lived and what God would have us to do. I also know that the Holy Spirit reminds at times other than in the hour of testing. Sometimes when I worship, the Holy Spirit reminds me of why I love the Lord. Sometimes when I am reading my Bible, the Holy Spirit reminds me of something I have experienced that illustrates the truth I have just read. Sometimes when I am praying, the Holy Spirit lays someone on my heart and I am reminded to pray for that person. The Holy Spirit will call to memory the teachings of Jesus and the needs of people. I like that. I enjoy that and rejoice in it. But the Holy Spirit will also call to memory my sin, my unforgiving spirit, my hasty words and bitter thoughts. I don t enjoy that so much. Had you ever thought about the fact that your guilty conscience might very well be the work of the Holy Spirit? Satan loves for you to sin and then forget it. God wants you to remember your sin, recognize it for what it is, confess it and then receive forgiveness from it. That cannot happen until we remember. There is one part of our worship when we are specifically and explicitly told to remember; that is during the Lord s Supper. It is written in your Bible and it is written on our communion table: THIS DO IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME. We sing a hymn of remembrance. We hear a communion meditation to remind us. We touch and taste the unleavened bread and the grape juice to help us recall. But ultimately, these are just mnemonic devices the Holy Spirit uses to remind us of what the Lord has said. The Holy Spirit teaches and he reminds. And he convicts. III. HE WILL CONVICT (John 16:8-11) Someone has noted that the Lord loves you just as you are but that he loves you too much to leave you just as you are. He will change you and one of the ways he Page 3 of 6

4 changes you is to give you a sense of conviction when you are out of step or out of harmony with him. The Holy Spirit will not sit quietly by and let you continue your life of sin. It is the Spirit of God that first convicted you of your sin and led you to accept Jesus as your savior. It is the same Spirit of God who continues to convict us of our sin so we can become more like Jesus as we walk with him. The Spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. SIN because unless we see the ugliness or our own sin, we can t see our need to leave it and to follow Jesus. RIGHTEOUSNESS because it is not enough for a Christian to stop sinning. We must replace sin with right living. The Holy Spirit helps us to see Jesus as righteousness personified and then become like him. JUDGMENT because God s Spirit gives us confidence that no matter what happens today, good wins in the end because God wins in the end. God alone has the final word. IV. HE WILL GUIDE (John 16:13) In John 16:13, Jesus said, 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. The word that Jesus used for to guide was technically a travel term. In an age before GPS devices and road maps and, in some cases, even well-marked roads, people often needed a guide to lead them from one place to another. They could not rely on highway department signage. Roads were often little more than paths that livestock had worn into the ground. Mountain passes could be difficult to find. Bandits and murderers lurked in the hills. In a harsh and hostile environment like that, guides were indispensable. Our journey through life is a trip in a harsh and hostile environment. The risks are real and the stakes are high. We do not want to end up lost for eternity. We need a guide. We have a guide. The Holy Spirit is the one whom God has given us to guide us away from all that is false and to guide us into all truth. If we discipline ourselves to follow the Holy Spirit, in the end, he will guide us all the way home. V. HE WILL GLORIFY JESUS (John 16:14) It is very important to realize that the Holy Spirit brings glory to Jesus. He was not given to us to bring glory to us. That is one of the ways you can tell those who are spiritual frauds: they claim to use the power of the Holy Spirit but they are trying to draw attention to themselves and claim glory for themselves. Even if they talk about the Holy Spirit, it is in such a way as to shine the light on self instead of on Jesus. Page 4 of 6

5 Frederick Dale Bruner has described the Holy Spirit as the shy member of the Trinity. His point is that the Holy Spirit does not seek to be the center of attention; he is always bringing the glory back to Jesus. There is a story from the life of the great orchestra conductor Arturo Toscanini which illustrates this. One day Toscanini was rehearsing Beethoven s magnificent Ninth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic orchestra. He did such a brilliant job of direction that when the rehearsal ended, the musicians rose as a man and cheered him. Desperately, Toscanini tried to stop their ovation, wildly waving his arms, crying to them to desist. When there was a lull in the ovation, Toscanini s broken voice could be heard: It isn t me. It s Beethoven! Toscanini is nothing. Beethoven is everything! And so, I think that the Holy Spirit would speak to us today and say, The Holy Spirit is nothing. JESUS CHRIST IS EVERYTHING! CONCLUSION: And so, my friends, pay careful attention to the Counselor that Jesus has given you. He will teach you. He will remind you. He will convict you and guide you. But always he will point to Jesus who, alone, will save you. INVITATION SONG: #481 Come Just As You Are In a small town in the middle of America, a family counselor set up an office. He bought furniture that was appropriately profession yet comfortable. He arranged it in such a way as to invite clients to feel safe so they would relax and open up to him. He carefully and thoughtfully selected lamps, plants and wall-art to enhance the ambience of his office. The counselor put a large yet tasteful sign in front of his practice so people would know he was there for them. He established office hours that would make him available at the times that would be most convenient for the people. He advertised and announced his hours. The local paper featured him in a front page story that highlighted his training, experience and credentials. The article praised him for bringing his services to the community. The entire town was glad that they had a counselor in their midst. When people passed him in the post office and the grocery store, they all welcomed him and told him they were so pleased he had made himself available to them. They assured him that they all really needed him. After quite some time, people noticed that the sign was gone from in front of the office. The doors were locked. The counselor had moved on because no one ever made use of him. The people of the town were very sad. They all agreed that Main Street looked so much better with a sign in front of that building so they went together and Page 5 of 6

6 purchased a new sign and had it erected where the old one had been. Then they felt much better. Sometimes I think it is that way with the Holy Spirit. We want the signs but we don t want the services. We appreciate the promises Jesus made about the Holy Spirit he was going to give us. We like reading in the Bible about the signs of the Holy Spirit. But we don t really want the Holy Spirit to be our counselor. We don t want to admit that we need him and we do not want him to tell us what to do. Page 6 of 6