Sermon Title: a Promised Helper

A Promised Helper (3.13.14) 1

Sermon Title: A Promised Helper

First Reading, John 14:15-21

15 “If you love me, you will keep[f] my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,[g] to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in[h] you.

18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

Second Reading, John 16:1-11

“I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. 3 And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. 4 But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.

“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate[a] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.8 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about[b] sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11 about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

My dad was a lawyer by trade. Do we have any folks who practice law here? That's great, I always asked my dad what was he practicing for, was there some kind of big law Olympics coming up?
While I respect the profession of law, and individual lawyers, sadly it has been become a marred profession, has it not? My dad was fond of telling people that he had stopped telling lawyer jokes because lawyers don't think their funny and other people don't think they are jokes! Why is this? The role of a lawyer, in its purest form, is to be an advocate, helper, or counselor. In its purest form, lawyers are supposed to let people know the reality of the situation they are in and the best way forward from a legal stand point. But many lawyers, certainly not all but many, do not operate this way.
Labeled the 'ambulance chasers' lawyers that give the profession a bad name care very little about reality and very little about the people they represent. Instead, they only care about their pay day. I have a fraternity brother that went into law and he told me that one of his greatest frustrations was that it seemed like the only people winning in the work he did were the lawyers. He got into law to help people, to be an advocate, not to make money for himself and his firm.
However, this is not just true of the people who have the title of 'lawyer.' Often politicians, sadly, pastors, or the media come to us with a slick presentation and the message, "I'm here for you," or "I'm here so you can get what you deserve." Only upon closer examination, we realize they do not really care for us, they just care for what they can get out of us, our money, votes, or loyalty. This dichotomy between what earthly advocates are supposed to be and what, sometimes, they are occurred to me as I prepared for this sermon about our great Advocate, the Holy Spirit.
We are continuing our series on the gospel of John this morning with what is known as Jesus' farewell discourse found in chapters 14-16.
These are Jesus' final teachings before He is betrayed, arrested, and crucified. During these final teachings, Jesus promises the coming of the Holy Spirit. John recalls Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit in a very unique way. In John's gospel we find a word not used by any other writer of the New Testament. It is the Greek word paraclete and it literally means helper, advocate, counselor, or one who comes alongside. In the Greek world it was a term used to describe a lawyer who came along side of you and defended, or advocated for you.
In chapter 14, Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit as an advocate for us by assuring us that He is the Spirit of truth and that, through Him, we will not be left as orphans. As Jesus teaches us about the 'Advocate' we discover His role. It is to come alongside us and to teach us, and to advocate for us when the unbelieving world comes against us for trusting in Christ.
This comfort, and help that the Holy Spirit offers is not like the help, advocacy, or comfort the world gives. That advocacy is, often, like the ambulance chasers, promising us comfort but motivated by self interest. In contrast, the Holy Spirit comes to us with some hard truths. Truths that seem to be terrifying at first, but lead to a deep down peace this world knows nothing of. Put shortly, the advocates of this world promise peace but only take from us whereas the Holy Spirit's advocacy comes to us with hard truth that we have to wrestle with but leads to abundant and eternal life, it leads to true peace.
In chapter 16 Jesus tells us that the Advocate will come along side us by proving the world wrong, or convicting it, of three things. They are sin, what to walk away from, righteousness, what to walk toward, and judgment, a roadmap to navigate from one to the other. For the rest of our time this morning we are going to focus on what the Holy Spirit teaches us about these three things and how that brings us true comfort. This true comfort may start with some uncomfortable realizations but, unlike the world's advocates, the Holy Spirit's ultimate goal is to lead us into abundant, eternal, life, not destruction.
Sin is not a word we use a lot outside of church is it?
However, the idea of sin is alive and well, everywhere. All you have to do is let something politically incorrect slip out of your mouth and the tolerance police will become very intolerant of you. In other words, they will label you, a sinner. The Advocate that Christ sends us and the advocates of this world, however, teach very different things about sin. First, they have us start in different places. Second, they have different motivations.
Whether it is a politician talking about his or her opponent, an ambulance chasing lawyer's commercial, or water cooler gossip, the unbelieving world starts and says with sin being an external problem. We have all seen and participated in this. "Oh things would be so much better if it weren't for so and so doing such and such." "Well have you, lovingly but firmly, approached that person about it?" "Well no, I just like blaming things on other people." Tell me I'm not alone in this. The motivation, is to destroy the other person to look better. The problem is, this never helps and never brings true comfort.
The Holy Spirit, our true advocate, calls us to start within then, with love and humility, address the sin from without. It is not that the Holy Spirit never has us address sin outside of us, but He reminds us of what Jesus said, "First, worry about the huge plank in your own eye, then address the speck in your brother's eye." When considering sin, and the pain it causes, the Holy Spirit calls us to start with ourselves. A further difference is that when the Advocate calls us to convict others of sin it is not to destroy them but to build them up. In our reading, Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin because they do not trust in Him. After teaching us of the sin within, our true advocate points us to the cross.
E. Stanley Jones was a great missionary. He once said that the cross is humanities big NO to God. It is us saying to God "I do not want you in my life, I want to be captain of my own ship, I'll do it, as Sinatra tells us, my way!" Who among us has not participated in that big no? Who here has not said to God, I do not want to live into Your design?! At this point we might look at the Holy Spirit and say, what kind of advocate are you, this isn't comforting? However, Jones' quote, and the story, does not stop there. The cross is humanities big no to God but God turned into His big yes to humanity! No matter how loud our no is, God's yes is louder! After surviving the horrors of the holocaust, Carrie Ten Boom said "No matter how deep of a pit you are in, God's love is deeper!" Whether it is the pit of our own sin, or the pits created by sins of others, God's love is deeper. That is true comfort!
If the world starts with the wrong idea of what to walk away from, it is no surprise that the Advocate also teaches us that the unbelieving world is wrong about what to walk toward, wrong about righteousness.
If I were to take a survey of folks at the mall about righteousness what do we think the counselor, or advocates of this world would have taught them about righteousness? If I asked, "Are you self righteous?" What would most people say? Exactly, "No of course not, I'm not like all those other people who are so self righteous! I mean Christians, who are all self-righteous, they are all down here, but I am way up here because I'm not self-righteous!" If I were to then ask them, "Are you a good person?" What would they say? "Yes I am!" Then many would go on to list all the things that they do to make themselves righteous!
Did you catch that? What makes them self-righteous. The advocates of this world encourage us to be self referenced when it comes to righteousness. Messages like "you deserve it," "you've earned it," "get what you deserve," roll off their tongues all too easily. Think about advertisements, political ads, and the messages we get from movies and TV shows. Self-righteousness and only wanting to look at the sin in others is part of what has caused our political discourse to devolve into "He or she is a Meany head and I'm better, vote for me."
However, it is interesting to think about how the more things change the more they really stay the same. As we read through John's gospel, and the New Testament in general, we find Jesus, and the early church fighting against this kind of self referenced righteousness. In the church today, we call it works righteousness. This is the idea that by our works, we can make ourselves righteous. The works may have changed, but the concept is the same. It is no longer religious duties that make one righteous but how 'tolerant' you are. It is no longer saying the right words in a prayer but having politically correct speech that makes you righteous. The righteous acts have changed but the concept is exactly the same, self referenced righteousness.
In chapter 15 verse 26 Jesus says that when the true Advocate comes He is the Spirit of truth and He will testify, not about us but, about Him. Just like we saw with sin, this initially doesn't seem very comforting. The Holy Spirit points us, not to ourselves but, to Christ as our reference for righteousness. Initially this is terrifying because we think there is no way I can live up to that. However, by the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit we realize that that's part of the point. We are to base our righteousness, not in ourselves, but in Christ. That is comforting! I no longer have to be right, or the example of moral perfection. Instead, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the more I trust in Christ, and abide in Him, the more His righteousness begins to dwell in me.
It is so comforting and freeing to look people in the eye and say "Your right, I'm a work in progress. I can be a jerk sometimes." If my wife Brittany were not so sanctified you'd hear a loud "Amen" at this point, but, mercifully, she is further along in mirroring Christ's likeness than me. The question is not how much can what I am doing change my being, or who I am. Instead the question is how much can the Holy Spirit change my being to mirror Christ to change what I am doing. We no longer have to fight and strive to be good, instead we simply have to submit to Christ's righteousness and the Holy Spirit's power.
So I wonder, what are those places in our hearts where the Advocate is calling us to examine ourselves? Where are we being called to judge the sin and righteousness in ourselves and our surroundings? What is the road map from sin to righteousness?
Where is He calling out the sin within us so that we can take it to the cross? Growing to fear nothing but sin. John Wesley said that, not the consequences of sin but, fear sin itself. We grow to fear sin because we do not want to offend our great lover, Jesus Christ. One of my seminary professors put it well when he said that we will never hate our sin enough to leave it, but, when brought to the cross of Christ, we can be loved away from it!
As we are loved away from it, we will begin to move away from self-righteousness to Christ's righteousness. That's quite a journey, amen?! The good news is that we have an advocate, helper, and counselor to guide us in our judgment. The advocates of this world say one thing but do another when it comes to judgment. They say don't judge but then encourage us to be the most judgmental people on earth. Think about this statement, "I don't like Christians because they are all so judgmental." What is the logical problem with that? The person saying this is being judgmental toward the 2 billion person people group that claim the name Christian. I cannot think of a more bigoted and uninformed attitude. Making judgments is inescapable. I hope on the way home today everyone here makes a judgment to drive on the right had side of the road. I pray that we are all discriminators in that? The question is not judgment verses non-judgment but are our judgments the right ones.
It is so comforting to know that we have the Holy Spirit as an advocate for us in that! The advocates of this world, and perhaps our proclivities, make us want to judge by seeing who's side everyone is on. If we are not careful, we can worry about God being on our side instead of worrying about whether we are on God's side! When we think about God coming into our lives, when we think about God coming into the world, we are tempted to ask, what side is He going to take? Our advocate reminds us that when God shows up He is not here to take sides, He is here to take over! We sang it this morning, "Spirit of the living God, Fall afresh on me. (You) Melt me, (You) mold me, (You) fill me, (You) use me."
As we leave here today let's ask our great Advocate, Helper, and Comforter to come alongside us. Where does God want to take over in your life and in mine? When we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He will come along side us, guide us, and empower us in what to walk away from, sin, walk toward, righteousness, and how to navigate that, judgment. Sin that drives us, not to despair, but to the cross. Righteousness that calls us away from a self reference and toward Christ reference. Judgment that calls us to stop asking God to take our side so that He may take over in our lives!
Let us pray: Heavenly Father, in Jesus name, send the Holy Spirit to us so that You may shape us, mold us, and use us for Your kingdom coming and Your will being done through us!
Receive this blessing and benediction: Let us go forth, a people who have not been orphaned but have a guiding, empowering, and loving Advocate in the Holy Spirit !