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.