The Helper (All-Age Talk)

[0:00] Alan, thank you. So, adults and children this morning, with these verses open in front of us, and some of us might like to look at the outline on the back of the sheet that you've got on your chair.

[0:12] I wonder whether you think you need help. I wonder whether you feel you need help in talking to your friends about Jesus.

[0:24] I mean, when you become a Christian, when you understand that God has forgiven you, and he loves you, and with Jesus you have life to the full. Very quickly, Christians say, I want my friends to know this.

[0:37] A Samaritan woman who Jesus met ran straight back to the town and she said, come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ? She wanted her friends to know about Jesus.

[0:50] That is what happens when you become a Christian. You meet a friend, you would like to talk to them about Jesus. Or maybe there's a boy in your class that you like, or lots of people in your class, and you think, I really want them to follow Jesus too.

[1:07] We want our friends to know Jesus and follow him. In fact, we must tell them. When Jesus is talking here in the upper room to his first apostles, he says in verse 27, you must testify, for you've been with me from the beginning.

[1:27] That was his word to them, and through them, to Christians down the centuries, we must talk to people about Jesus. Because we want them to be saved and be forgiven.

[1:37] That's why Jesus, the Holy Lamb Church, go into the Punjab and seek to meet people and look at the Bible and talk about Jesus. That's why we as a church, from time to time, we want to say boldly, listen to things about Jesus.

[1:52] We must testify about him. I think if you're like me, we need help for that. I need help. One of the reasons we really, really need help is, well, Jesus has just said to his disciples that the world will hate you.

[2:12] My guess is you know this. If you're a Christian and you've tried to talk to someone about Jesus and how good he is and how wonderful it is to have him as your saviour, not everybody goes, I really want to hear about that.

[2:24] In fact, Jesus says to his disciples, the world may hate you as you seek to talk about Jesus. I mean, that's true. Because Christians around the world who talk openly about Jesus and say, come and listen to him, get put in prison.

[2:42] And sometimes in your school, if you say that I follow Jesus and I'd like to talk to him about you, people may look at you and laugh at you. The world might hate us.

[2:54] We need help. Like I need help. Because I want to and we must talk to people about Jesus.

[3:05] Well, that's what we're thinking about this morning. What I'd like, I think I'm going to need about four or five, at least five people to come and help me. I would love someone, I'll tell you what to do first. It could be adults or children. I'd love someone to come and sit here and to be someone who is part of the world.

[3:19] Just someone who's not yet a Christian. Would anybody like to come and, you have to sit on the table. That's what we need to do. Sit on the table and we're going to help you. Is that Thomas?

[3:29] You want to come and help me do that? Great. Brill. Happy just to come and sit on the table. So here's Thomas here. And I need someone to be an apostle. So anyone would like to be an apostle?

[3:40] You get to wear this on your front. I'm just looking around. Charlotte, if you would like to be an apostle, you can be. Right, come on out. So let's set things up here. So Thomas, you're...

[3:51] There we go. I'm just pushing you forward a bit. Do you want to come and put yourself on here? Hups. Hup, hup. Oh, come on. Do you want to wear this on your front? Move your hair out of the way.

[4:03] Great. So here we are. This is what's going on in John's Gospel. Here is someone in the world. We'll call him Thomas because his name is Thomas. And here are the apostles.

[4:14] And they've been commanded to testify to someone here. But it's hard. Who is going to help? Who can help us as we seek to talk to people about Jesus?

[4:27] Well, here's the answer in this passage. Did you notice, mentioned time and time again, in verse 26, when the advocate comes. In verse 7, the advocate will come to you.

[4:40] Verse 13, the Holy Spirit. This is who our helper is for the apostles here. The Holy Spirit.

[4:51] The word advocate, it's like someone who is called alongside to help. So I need someone who's going to be, have the spirit on their front. You're going to be the Holy Spirit. Emily, thanks for volunteering.

[5:03] So come on out. You come and stand here next to Charlotte. Charlotte. See, Charlotte is one of the apostles and following her, all Christians, through time.

[5:14] But she's not alone as she seeks to talk about Jesus because she has alongside her the spirit, called alongside to be her, or counsellor, comforter, her helper.

[5:27] So this is what's going on in the upper room. Here's a person here, just part of the world. And here's one of the apostles and the command to testify, but not by themselves because they have the Holy Spirit.

[5:43] How will the Holy Spirit help? How can the Holy Spirit be our helper as we want to speak about Jesus with people who don't yet know him? There's two things in this passage for adults and children I'd love us to see.

[5:57] Here's the first. When the Holy Spirit comes, like it's good that the Holy Spirit comes. Did you notice that? So Jesus says in verse 7, Very truly I tell you, it's for your good that I'm going away.

[6:11] Unless I go, the advocate helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So this is where we're up to. The Holy Spirit sent to be the helper of the apostles.

[6:23] And what will the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit will convict the world. Let me just read this in verse 8 onwards.

[6:34] When the Holy Spirit comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.

[6:46] Prove to be in the wrong is half or three quarters of I think what John means when he says what the Holy Spirit will do when he comes. You know if you're, I don't know, if you're in court or something like that, there might be someone who's like a barrister or a lawyer and their job is to show someone that they are in the wrong, to expose their sin and their guilt.

[7:16] Thank you Emily. Do you want to put this on? Yes. This is what they wear in court, so let's just put this on. Can you do it yourself so I don't mess up your hair? Okay. This is the role of the Holy Spirit.

[7:30] So here's an apostle who speaks to someone here about Jesus and says, Jesus is the way, you need to turn to him or you will perish. And here's this man here, how will he know?

[7:42] What will he understand? What will get into his heart and turn him to Jesus? The answer is the Holy Spirit will. He will prove you to be in the wrong.

[7:57] This is the work of the Holy Spirit to work in someone and show them that they have turned from Jesus and that that's not good.

[8:10] This is the work of the Holy Spirit to show someone that they're not righteous by themselves. This is the work of the Holy Spirit to this joint person in the world now over here.

[8:24] The work of the Holy Spirit to show someone that they are under judgment. Because when a person doesn't turn to Jesus, doesn't belong to Jesus, they are sinful and guilty and under the judgment of God.

[8:40] How will someone ever know that? See what it says in these verses? When the Holy Spirit comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong.

[8:53] Not prove the world to be in the wrong so that they have no hope. But he will show up their sin so that they turn to Jesus. Here's our apostle.

[9:08] She speaks about Jesus, about how good it is to know him, how if you perish apart from him, that's terrible, but turn to him and have eternal life. And the Holy Spirit works in the heart and life of a person to show them their sins so that they then turn to Jesus.

[9:30] Let me say one thing about this and then we'll look at the second thing. This is wonderful. It's not the apostle's job to try their very hardest to convince and persuade this person here, Dave Thomas, that they need to turn to Jesus.

[9:48] It's the work of the Holy Spirit to do that. That's wonderful. That's what's happened for so many of us, we would say, isn't it? When I was 18, I was here, if you like, and my friend talked to me about Jesus.

[10:05] And almost suddenly for me, I had a realisation that to not believe in Jesus was terrible. And I mustn't do that.

[10:16] It wasn't because my friend was clever. It wasn't because I was clever to work it out. But the Holy Spirit was working in me, opening me up and showing me my sin.

[10:30] And I said, I must turn to Jesus. This is such a wonderful thing. As we seek to speak to the world about Jesus, there is a helper who will convict the world and turn them to Jesus.

[10:45] There's a second thing, though, in these verses. Did you notice? When the Spirit comes, this is what he'll do. Firstly, he will convict the world. He will do it, secondly, in these verses, through the truth that he makes known to the apostles.

[11:05] Let me read the second bit. Verse 12. We'll all need to stay here because there's more things that are going to happen. Jesus says to his apostles, I have more to say to you now, more than you can bear.

[11:18] 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.

[11:28] He will tell you what's yet to come. He will glorify me because it's from me that he will receive what he'll make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine.

[11:39] That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you. Did that make sense as we read through? There's lots of little phrases in there, aren't there?

[11:51] What will the Holy Spirit do when he comes? Verse 13. He says to the apostles, he will guide you into all the truth. So, Holy Spirit, come around here and just sit there a moment.

[12:02] So, here's our apostle and she wants to speak about Jesus, the Jesus who's no longer here. The Holy Spirit will guide her and pass on to her all the truth.

[12:18] All the truth that the apostles need to know about God, what he's like, what he offers, what he will do. All the apostles need to know about Jesus so that this apostle here can speak truth to this little boy over here.

[12:34] The Holy Spirit will guide you into all the truth. How does the Holy Spirit know all this? Look, verse 13. He will not speak on his own.

[12:45] He'll speak only what he hears. He will, what he receives from me, he will make known to you. So, here is the Holy Spirit who passes all the truth on to the apostles, who receives that truth from the Son.

[13:01] So, he can be the Son. God the Son, who reveals all truth to the Holy Spirit.

[13:12] And God the Son here, well, verse 15, all that belongs to the Father is mine. So, Adam, you're going to have to come out and be the Father over here. Do you see that in verse 15?

[13:25] All that belongs to the Father is mine. So, here's a little boy over here who belongs to the world. And that boy, well, the Lord wants him to come to Jesus and know him forever.

[13:38] And the Father, who has the truth in himself, the Son has the truth, who sends it and reveals it, makes it known to the Holy Spirit.

[13:50] And then the Holy Spirit leads the apostles, hold on to that, into all the truth. And so, this apostle here is now able to testify, can speak truth about Jesus from God to this boy over here.

[14:11] This is what we're talking about this morning. There's lots going on in these verses. We need help. This apostle here needs help if she's to testify to the world.

[14:25] What help does this apostle get? Look, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and all truth from the Spirit to this apostle so that she can then speak about Jesus to someone over here.

[14:40] And it is the Holy Spirit who then takes the Spirit's words spoken by the apostles and works in the heart and the life of someone over here.

[14:52] So that this person over here will say, I believe in Jesus. There's one more step.

[15:05] Because where are you and I? We're not in this. Here's this apostle being led into all the truth. But this apostle wrote down everything that they had in here.

[15:20] Can you hold that as well? And so here in these words we have truth from the Spirit, from the Son, from the Father. Truth and words of life.

[15:33] And here am, well, I'll be us. And I come along 2,000 years later and I take these words which have the apostles' words written in them.

[15:43] And you see, what I can do now is I can turn to my friend next to me and I can say, listen to this truth about Jesus. This is a life-giving truth.

[15:55] It's come from the apostles, from the Spirit, from the Son, from the Father. And as I share this truth with people around me, what will happen? The Holy Spirit will be at work and be at work in the life of a boy like this so that they turn and they trust in Jesus Christ.

[16:18] We're talking about help this morning in these words from John 16. This is what these verses would say to us. Share the truth and trust the Spirit.

[16:31] My guess is you need help. I need help to be a boy, a man, who will speak about Jesus Christ to those around me.

[16:44] So that my friends come to know Jesus for all eternity. This is what I must do. When I take the words of truth and I share them with a friend, God can be so powerfully at work.

[16:58] They take all truth, which the Spirit takes into the life of a person. And they become a Christian believer. My guess is if we stopped and paused and put our hands up and said, many of us, in fact all of us, would say, this is what has happened for us.

[17:17] Through our parents or through a friend or through something like that. With all the circumstances of life, at some point, somebody spoke to me truth about Jesus from these words here.

[17:29] And then miraculously, I was convicted of my sins. And I said, I need this Saviour. And I turned to him. That's what's happened to us.

[17:41] Not because we're clever or wonderful, but because God is powerfully at work. And so the message of John 16 to us is, do this.

[17:53] Share the truth. And trust the Spirit. You could say to someone at school, please can I show you what I've discovered about Jesus?

[18:04] Can I tell you? Can I show you in my children's Bible? You could say to someone, come to church with me. I would love to invite you along and you will meet Christians and you will hear what the God says about Jesus.

[18:22] Come to church with me. Can I sit with you? And you ask me about Jesus and I show you in here what it says about him. There's all sorts of different ways we can do that.

[18:36] But here's the truth of it. This is where the help is. Share the truth, the truth that comes through the apostles and trust the Spirit to do his work.

[18:51] Well, I'm going to pray and ask our Father to help us to be a church that does this more and more. Almighty God, thank you that you have not left us in this world alone.

[19:05] We thank you that your Son sent the Holy Spirit who led the apostles into all the truth, the Spirit who convicts the world and draws people to Christ.

[19:22] Thank you for the powerful work of your Spirit in the lives of so many of us. would you help us to testify? Help us to share news about Jesus from the Bible and we pray and trust that your Spirit will be powerfully at work and miraculously bring people to Jesus.

[19:43] We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.