Index

Greek Word Studies 

Advanced Level

Lesson 10

Lesson Title:  Comforter (Parakletos)

 

Text:  John 16:7 ‘Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (parakletos) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.’

 

Introduction:  Meaning of ‘parakletos’.

Parakletos means ‘to call alongside’

‘Para’ - ‘alongside’

‘kletos’ - ‘to call’

 

The Comforter

Yet ‘parakletos’ means more than just standing alongside to help.

Having someone with us to help in times of difficulty is not enough.  We need power to do things ourselves.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter.

A Comforter is someone who comes alongside as a friend in a time of trouble.

A ‘parakletos’ is a comforter who will empower a person to be victorious in difficult times.

The Holy Spirit does this as well.

He comes alongside to help us in our weaknesses and empowers us to overcome.

 

So often people want the Lord to do everything for them but the Christian life is ‘empowerment by the Holy Spirit’.  

The Lord wants His people to be active.

He empowers us for action.

 

Personal Story:

When I was preaching in London the theme for the meeting was ‘Divine Protection’.  Before I got up to speak the Holy Spirit gave me a word that ‘the Lord does not protect His people to stand still.  The Lord protects His people to move forward’. 

The words of Psalm 91:5-7 came into my mind

‘You shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day;  Nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.  A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come nigh you.’

These words describe a people in the heat of the battle; a people going forward against the enemy.

 

Moses at the Red Sea

Moses and the children of Israel appeared trapped - Pharoah and his army behind and the Red Sea ahead. 

Moses was waiting for God to move.  He told the people to stand still but the Lord told him to go forward. 

The position was impossible but the Lord expected Moses to move first then the supernatural began to happen.

Exodus 14:15 ‘Why are you crying out to me, tell the Israelites to move forward’.  

 

The Church will become paralysed by waiting for the Lord to move when the Lord is waiting for us to move.

 

Personal Illustration:  Ice breaker

I was in Holland when it was a very cold winter,

The canals were frozen and the boats in the canal were not able to move.  This was not a problem as most the boats were used as homes.

The ice did not matter to the people who lived on the boats because they were comfortable living on the boats.

Later we went over a big dyke separating the land from the sea, and the sea was also frozen.  As I look out across the ice there was a ship moving through the ice.  It had no problem moving because it was equipped to break the ice.

 

The Holy Spirit empowers us to be icebreakers so that we can change the environment we are in.

Many Christians are like the boats in the canal, unable to move and they just live there and  never do what they were created to do.

They are totally bound by religion and tradition and the Christian life is unattractive to others.

The Lord expects us to move forward like the icebreaker.  To break through the ice so the power of the life of Jesus in us is revealed.

Doors of opportunity will not open until we move into them.

We can spend our lives waiting for a door to open but nothing will happen until we begin to move into it.

 

The Holy Spirit comes alongside to empower us to be like the icebreaker.

The Comforter (parakletos) is our:

(1) advocate; (2)  helper;  (3) guide;  (4) teacher;  (5) co-witness.

 

 

Main Points:

 1.  Advocate - The Holy Spirit empowers with New Life.

1 John 2:1 ‘My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate (parakletos) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:’

 

He is an advocate for the repentant sinner. 

Advocate is someone who pleads anothers case before a judge.

A guilty person who has been given an advocate to plead his case still has a problem.  The advocate must deceive the judge and jury in order to gain the freedom of the defendant.

The Holy Spirit does not try to defend the guilty.

The guilty sinner is justified through the finished work of Christ

The Holy Spirit does not just speak on behalf of the guilty..  

This is not just a declaration of forgiveness.

The Holy Spirit justifies the sinner. 

This is more than words, it is a new creation. 

Justified by faith in Christ.

 

The cross is the door that brings us into new life.

The message of the cross is ‘I am forgiven’

The message of the resurrection is ‘I have new life’.

Jesus did not come just so that we could be forgiven. 

Jesus came to bring ‘new life’ (John 10:10).

 

 

 2.   Helper - empowering us in weakness.

  

 Empowered in prayer

The Holy Spirit does not exclude us because of our weakness; He empowers us.

Romans 8:26 ‘Likewise the Spirit also helps our weaknesses: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.’

  

Cry of the heart - Prayer is more than words. It is the cry of the heart. 

We may not know what to pray, but the Holy Spirit knows. 

Answered prayer is seen when prayer comes from the heart, and is led by the Holy Spirit.

Words are not so important.

The cry of the heart may be expressed in sighing expressed by the words ‘O Lord’.

The Lord sees the heart.

Tremendous answers to prayer will happen when we yearn for the Lord to move with all of our innermost being (our heart and our minds).

 

The realm of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit empowers in prayer when we learn to:

1.  Allow the Holy Spirit to lead.

2.  Rely upon Him to pray through us.   We will not know exactly what we have prayed because the Holy Spirit is in control.

3.  Trust in His plan and purpose.  It is possible that the Holy Spirit has a purpose that we do not understand.

 

The Omniscience of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit can sometimes lead us to do things that appear foolish and we may appear to be a failure,

The Holy Spirit knows all things and our apparent failures and foolishness may be the means of opening doors for others.

 

Spiritual Warfare

There are things that happen in the spiritual realm that we know nothing about.

Daniel 10:12-13.

Daniel prayed and fasted for 21 days for an answer not knowing that there was a great spiritual battle going on to try and stop Daniel’s prayer from being answered. 

Spiritual powers are able to see things that are not apparent to the natural mind.

They will fight to stop the advance of the kingdom of God.

 

The Holy Spirit is our helper who gives power to be victorious in every circumstance and situation.

Romans 8:37 ‘Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.’

 

 

3. Guide – empowering us in the truth.  John 16:13 ‘He will guide you into all truth’. 

 

Guiding into truth is more than acquiring knowledge.

The Holy Spirit guides us into truth as a living experience. 

It is this relationship with truth that brings freedom and abundant life.

  

 Acceptance of truth must become a living experience

 Truth can be accepted without a person ever experiencing the reality of the truth.

 

Personal Testimony:  People in prison receiving Christ

When we preach in the prison in Romania, it is usual for us to ask the prisoners to pray.

We ask them to repeat a prayer to receive Christ.

Many have prayed this prayer on numerous occasions.

But it is those who go beyond acceptance of truth and come into a living experience of truth who have genuinely received Christ.

 

 Testimony:  Some Christians never seem to grow.

A person can live a good life.  Go to meetings.  Enjoy the social life of the Church.  But they never seem to grow spiritually.

Another person is brought out of the world into new life and immediately growth is evident.

The reason is that one has accepted truth; the other has come into the living experience of truth.

  

Truth must be a living experience.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians ‘Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith;’  (2 Corinthians 13:5a)

 

Parable of the Ten Virgins  (Matthew 25:1-13)

Five of the virgins were wise with oil in their lamps.

Five were foolish with no oil.

Those with no oil are those who have never been brought into new life in Christ.

The Holy Spirit must guide into truth so that the life of Christ is in us.

 

 

4. Teacher – comforting us by His Word.  John 14:26 ‘But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.’

 

The Holy Spirit bears witness to the Word of God.

The Holy Spirit not only teaches but He will bear witness.

The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit.

Romans 8:16  ‘The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:’

 

The witness of the Spirit gives full assurance of faith

Hebrews 10:22  ‘Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.’

Full assurance of faith is the assurance we have of the certainty of the Word of God through the witness of the Holy Spirit.

 

The witness of the Spirit comforts us in sorrow

Comforted in sorrow by these words 1 Thessalonians.4:16-18.

The Lord will return.

We know that when the Lord returns we will be changed into His likeness.

We know that those who have died in Christ shall rise again.

How do we know?

 

Personal Testimony: 

Sometimes I have spoken about the Lord’s return to men in prison.

The thought has gone through my mind about how strange this is that I know, without any doubts, the Lord will return and yet this knowledge goes against human reason.

How can we have such certainty?  It is the witness of the Holy Spirit in us to the Word of God.

 

The witness of the Spirit comforts us with the assurance that we are the family of God

Romans 8:15-16 ‘For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.  The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:’

The assurance of faith that we are the family of God.

We know we are the children of God. 1 John 3:1- 2  ‘Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.’

John says ‘we know’.

How do we know?

The Holy Spirit bears witness with our Spirit.

 

 

5.  Co-witness - Empowering us to be witnesses to Christ. 

Acts 1:8 ‘But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’

 

They disciples did not wait for the Holy Spirit after the Day of Pentecost.

The disciples moved with the Holy Spirit.

On the day of Pentecost, they spoke in tongues, worshipping.

They did not know they were speaking in known languages until they heard the response of those around them (Acts 2:7-8).

Then Peter preached and 3000 were baptised (Acts 2:41).

 

The Holy Spirit empowered the disciples to be witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 5:32 ‘And we are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit whom God has given to them that obey Him.’

If the disciples had continued waiting for God to move in the Upper Room nothing would have happened.

 

Receiving the Baptism with the Holy Spirit

It is custom to lay hands on people to receive the Baptism with the Holy Spirit as happened in the book of Acts.

But the Holy Spirit is an experience we move into and it is not something we receive through the laying on of hands.

The baptism with the Holy Spirit is given to those who ‘thirst for Jesus’.

John 7:37-38 ‘In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’

 

The Holy Spirit has been given.

We move into this experience and then we move with the Holy Spirit.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are given so that we move with the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)

 

Story:  Smith Wigglesworth

Smith Wigglesworth was a mighty man of faith.

Stanley Frodsham wrote that Smith Wigglesworth 'Often said "As I start out in the natural, in faith, the Spirit of God always meets me and anoints me, so that although I start in the natural I continue in the Spirit."'

Smith Wigglesworth Apostle of Faith by Stanley Howard Frodsham, Assemblies of God Publishing House: Nottingham, 1949, pp 84-85.

Of course we must move with the Holy Spirit at all times but Smith Wigglesworth learnt the important truth that we must move in the Holy Spirit and not wait for the Holy Spirit to move.

 

 

Summary

The Holy Spirit (parakletos) is One who comes alongside to help but He is more than this.  He gives power to the believer.

The Holy Spirit comes alongside to empower us to be victorious.

The Comforter (parakletos) is our: 

(1) advocate; we stand justified in Christ.  A new creation born again of the Spirit of God.

(2)  helper;  in our weakeness He is our strength.

(3) guide;  He empowers us in to truth

(4) teacher;  He bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God

(5) co-witness; He empowers us to move with the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ.