A. I will never forget my one-car accident. It was in the middle of the day, I was on my way to a shut-in visit. I didn’t hit a tree, but it felt like I did. I was driving along, and all of a sudden I heard a grinding sound, then felt a pulsing, and then a wheel fell off my car. You don’t get very far when that happens. I got out, looked at the wheel. I knew I couldn’t fix it myself. I was out in the country—eight miles from town and three miles from home and no cell phone. A helpless feeling—so I decided to walk. There was nothing else to do. I got about thirty feet when someone I knew drove up and shouted, “Hey, Pastor, do you need a ride?” Ah! Help arrived! I had a ride home, I could call to reschedule my visit, call a tow truck and mechanic and deal with the problem. It was no fun standing there looking at a mess not being able to do anything. It was a great relief when help came!
B. What does that have to do with Pentecost? Pentecost is the day we think about the sending of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit that Jesus called “the Advocate.” The Greek word is parakletos, which means “someone sent to be at your side,” a helper. It’s a word translators have struggled with since people have been translating the Bible. English Bibles have translated that as “Comforter,” “Counselor,” “Advocate” and “Helper.”[1] The Holy Spirit is all of those, really—a helper who gives us what we need—kind of like my friends who picked me up when my car broke—to cheer us when we’re sad—to give us the strength of God’s promise when we’re weak—to guide us in truth.
I. Sent by Father and Son
A. Someone once called this Holy Spirit “the shy member of the Trinity.”[2] Think of the Spirit-breathed Word of the Scriptures. Who do we read about on page 1? We read about the creating work of the Father, making all things and setting his world in order. We then read about the Father’s grace in promising to send a Savior. The rest of the Old Testament is the account of this God, as a Father, tending Israel not just as the people of the promise, but as his own children, disciplining, guiding and protecting—along with repeated promises of Jesus, a prophet like Moses, the Son of David, the suffering servant, the Holy One of Israel in the midst of his people. Then in the New Testament, who do we read about? The birth, life, death and resurrection of that promised Savior. No longer spoken about in promise and prophecy but here, living, acting, working, healing, triumphing over sin and temptation, and finally triumphing over death. That’s what the work and the Word of the Holy Spirit is. He points us to the Gospel of the Father’s love. He points us to the life and work of Jesus. That is his work as Comforter, Counselor, Advocate and Helper.
B. In the Nicene Creed we say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. That isn’t just words of a creed, but the words of Jesus himself. He 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” (John 14:25-26) “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” (John 15:26-27). This Comforter, Counselor, Advocate and Helper is God, sent by God himself, to meet our needs. Without the Scriptures, we would have no idea who God is. The Spirit breathed the thoughts into the prophets and apostles and they wrote down what you and I need to know. We lack wisdom, we lack true faith in God and true fear of God. So the Spirit gives wisdom through the Word—the law to guide and the Gospel to empower us. Like willful toddlers we sometimes think “I can do it myself.” But what happens when toddlers try to do everything by themselves? Sometimes they make great messes that someone else has to clean up. Like energetic teens we sometimes think “I have all the wisdom I will ever need.” But what happens then? The teens learn some very hard lessons about what they don’t know. The Bible tells us that our human nature is “dead in transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Unable to come to God—unable to truly live, tangled and enslaved by our own weak flesh and by the world we live in. That’s why God sends us his Spirit. To touch us with water and the Word. To fill our ears, our hearts, our minds with the truth of God: the truth about evil in the world and evil in us (See today’s Gospel, v. 8 , 9 and 11), and about what God set about to do to fix it, giving us grace and truth and righteousness in Jesus Christ (See John 1:17, John 16:10)… giving us what we need to live and believe as our Comforter, Counselor, Advocate and Helper.
II. Always at Our Side
A. That Greek word parakletos means “someone called to be at your side.” It means “Comforter,” “Counselor,” “Advocate” and “Helper.” And Jesus promised this Comforter, Counselor, Advocate and Helper as one who would take his place. “Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you.” And just as Jesus was the teacher of the disciples, the Spirit would continue, “he will guide you into all the truth.” Never giving a different message than Jesus himself gave, “not speaking on his own.” And that’s what happened on Pentecost.It was really the first experience the disciples had on their own out in the world. There was the rushing wind, the tongues of fire, the speaking of other languages they hadn’t learned—but there was something else, just as miraculous. Peter went out—I think he must have gone out into the street. He faced a crowd of thousands and he spoke boldly. What had Peter done 53 days earlier? That Thursday night in front of three or four or five other people he was afraid to talk about Jesus and lied that he didn’t know Jesus. But now, Peter speaks boldly—he speaks about Jesus boldly. Instead of Jesus the teacher standing out in front of the disciples and in front of the crowd, the Holy Spirit was in Peter’s heart and mind, reminding him what he had seen and heard, giving him boldness to share it, driving away the fear and making Peter the teacher, standing there in front of the crowd. Instead of one teacher, Jesus, there would now be eleven—and then twelve with Matthias—thirteen with Paul—and many more as the Spirit continued to do his work as Comforter, Counselor, Advocate and Helper.
B. I think of how the Holy Spirit spoke directly to the prophets of old. Samuel went to the house of Jesse to anoint the new king. He saw one of the sons of Jesse and thought, “Surely this is the one,” and the Holy Spirit whispered into Samuel’s ear, “Not this one. I have rejected him. You look at the outward appearance. I look at the heart” (1 Samuel 16). Elijah was at the end of his ministry, and he ran away because he was discouraged. But that voice was in his ear, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” “Go back and anoint Elisha” (1 Kings 19). We have something very much like that. It’s the way the Holy Spirit continues to use his Word. Many of us learned Scripture as children—but it doesn’t just remain something you learned long ago. Don’t those passages come to mind—sometimes just when you need them? Or a line from a hymn that’s based on Scripture? “The Lord is my shepherd.” “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give your rest.” “Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.” “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, not one of them falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father… you are worth more than many sparrows.” It’s more than just memory. It’s the Holy Spirit taking what he has already given you and putting it to work. Jesus said, “He will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14: 26). This is the living and active Word of God (Hebrews 4:12), which is not just ink on paper, not just words spoken, but the Word of God, living and active in your mind. Always at our side—never letting us go. Sometimes warning and accusing and correcting—sometimes comforting, counseling, advocating and helping.
Conclusion: There’s a fault with some of the current thinking of the Holy Spirit—people look for some new revelation from God—some guidance for us individually or some specific guidance for the times we live in. But didn’t that same Spirit say, “The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:7-8). Didn’t he move the prophets and the apostles to say “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it”? (Deuteronomy 4:2, Revelation 22:18-19). He won’t tell you anything different than he already said in the Bible. What’s there in the written Word is guidance for you, personally. The problem isn’t with the Word but with you and me not taking it to heart. The problem isn’t with the Word being out of step with today’s world, but with today’s world being out of step with the Word. St. Paul said, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). Stay connected with his tools of Word and Sacrament. Don’t silence the voice of the Spirit, the voice of the living Word of Scripture in your heart and mind—because that is the Spirit, your Comforter, Counselor, Advocate and helper, sent by God himself to always be at your side.
Amen.
[1] “Comforter” was used by the King James Version, most likely borrowing the idea from Luther’s German translation in which he used the word Tröster, meaning “Comforter.” NIV 1984 used the word “Counselor,” hoping to bring to mind an attorney, there at your side, speaking for you or telling you what to say. NIV 2011 uses “Advocate,” with the same idea. ESV and NKJV use “Helper.” It’s hard to find a single word that expresses parakletos.
[2] There is also a book with that title, The Holy Spirit – Shy Member of the Trinity by Frederick Dale Bruner and William Horden. I haven’t read the book, but a summary states “the Spirit points us to Christ – not simply to greater spiritual experiences.”
John 16:5-15
5 but now I am going to him who sent me.None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness,because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about 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 the 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 glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Pastor Paul Stratman's Blog 