HOLY SPIRIT CLASS l Chuck Smith l Living Water l "Changes in the Wind" l Utah VidDevo l VidDevoChurch

Changes in the Wind

But by the fourteenth chapter of John, the winds of change have begun to blow.

Jesus is making it plain that He is about to go to the cross to be crucified.

Although His disciples don't understand everything He says, nevertheless they are deeply disturbed by His words. 

They don't want Him to go away, and their hearts quickly fill with fear and turmoil. 

The very fact that Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled," indicates that His men were troubled and they were afraid. 

What will we do without Jesus? they wondered. 

So Jesus answers their unspoken question:

I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:16,17).

This is a pivotal point in the Gospel of John.

 Jesus is saying to His friends, "It's true that I'm going away and that where I'm going you can't come right now.

But don't be worried! I'm going to prepare a place for you, and in time I will come again and receive you unto Myself. 

But in the meanwhile, I will not leave you comfortless.

 I will not leave you without any help. 

I will ask the Father to give to you another to come alongside of you to help you. 

I will not abandon you; I will not leave you comfortless."

The Greek word translated "comfortless" in John 14:18 is orphanous, literally "orphans." 

"I will not leave you as orphans," Jesus promised His friends. 

And to keep that promise, the Master said He would pray to the Father and ask Him to give the disciples another "Comforter."

In Greek, the word translated "Comforter" is parakletos. 

Para is the Greek preposition for "with" or "alongside of," while kletos is the word for "called." 

So Jesus is telling His friends that He will ask the Father to send another Helper who will come alongside of them to help them.

 And the help they will receive would be the Helper Himself!