Another Helper: The Promise of the Holy Spirit

Introduction

On Pentecost Sunday, the Church remembers a promise kept : Jesus asked the Father to send another Helper, the Spirit of truth. In John 14:15-26, before his Passion, Jesus prepares his disciples for his death and departure by announcing a coming. This message from Stéphane Guillet starts from an almost naive question asked by Judas (not Iscariot), and traces Jesus's reasoning until you understand what the Holy Spirit comes to do in you : unite you to the risen Christ, let you taste the presence of the Father and the Son, and become in you that “inner teacher” who makes real witness possible.

Outline of the message

1. Judas's question (not Iscariot)

• In the middle of the farewell discourse, one of the disciples asks a question : “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”
• This is Judas the son of James (Luke 6:16), not Iscariot.
• It's not a foolish question : it expresses a genuine, entirely praiseworthy missionary concern.
• What's surprising is that Jesus doesn't seem to answer it directly. He seems to pick up where Judas interrupted him. By the end, you'll see that two things first needed to be laid down.

2. Another Helper : the meaning of the word

• In the farewell discourse (John 14 to 16), Jesus announces the coming of the Holy Spirit five times.
• Each time he uses the same Greek term : paraclete, rendered here as “Helper,” elsewhere as “Comforter” or “Advocate.”
• In 1 John 2:1, the same word refers to Jesus himself : an advocate with the Father, the one who stands at our side to defend us.
• More broadly, the paraclete is someone who comes alongside us to support us, encourage us, and, if needed, defend us.
• For three years, Jesus was this paraclete for his disciples : he taught them, saved them in the storm, encouraged them, protected them. As he leaves them, he announces “another Helper” (the Spirit of truth), who will remain with them forever.

3. What the Holy Spirit comes to do in you

• He unites you to the risen Christ. “Because I live, you will live also” (v. 19). The Holy Spirit first comes to accomplish a miracle : grafting you onto the risen Christ as a branch onto the vine. This isn't something you can do on your own.
• He brings you into new life. This is the new birth Jesus was already speaking of earlier in this Gospel, the new creation Paul will later describe.
• He applies the realities of salvation to your life. Christian doctrine has long called the Holy Spirit “the applier” : he applies to you what Christ secured for you at the cross.
• He gives rise to the Church. All those united to Christ form one body, one family of brothers and sisters.

4. The Father and the Son come to make their home with you

• “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (v. 23).
• At the start of chapter 14, Jesus said there are many rooms in his Father's house and that he was going to prepare a place for us. Here he uses the same term again, a word that appears only in these two passages of the New Testament.
• While you wait for that heavenly home, it is the Father and the Son who come to make their home with you. They come to live next door to you like neighbors, neighbors you can actually know, chat with over the fence, invite into your home.
• Through the Holy Spirit, you can live out a real relationship of closeness and neighborliness with the Father and the Son.

5. The Holy Spirit, that “inner teacher” (John Calvin)

• In the second announcement of the Holy Spirit (v. 25-26), Jesus specifies : “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.”
• John Calvin, in his commentary on the Gospel of John, calls him the inner teacher, teacher in the sense of the one who instructs from within us.
• It is by the Spirit, and by him alone, that you can call God “Father” and confess Jesus as Lord.
• This inner teacher teaches you how to live out that neighborliness with the Father and the Son : how to visit them, how to invite them into your life.
• The knowledge he gives isn't merely intellectual. It's also experiential : an encounter, an intimacy with the Father and the Son.

6. The real answer to Judas's question

• If Jesus takes his time answering Judas's missionary concern, it's because two things first needed to be established.
• First : the manifestation of Christ to the world is the joint work of the Holy Spirit and believers. In the third announcement (John 15:26-27), Jesus says : “He will testify about me. You will also testify.” The book of Acts says nothing different : it's as much the Acts of the Holy Spirit as the Acts of the Apostles.
• In the fourth announcement (John 16:7-11), Jesus adds that it is the Spirit himself who will convict the world concerning sin. That part isn't yours to carry, it's his.
• Second : there is no credible witness without first having deeply received the teaching of this inner teacher. The witness you're called to isn't just about saying words about God, anyone can do that. It's about testifying to a lived closeness with this God who has come to dwell near you like a neighbor whose good presence you experience.

Key takeaways

• The Holy Spirit is “another Helper” : someone who stands at your side to support you, encourage you, teach you, defend you, forever.
• His first miracle is to unite you to the risen Christ and to make the life of the Risen One live in you.
• Through him, the Father and the Son come to make their home with you, not only in heaven one day, but even now, like neighbors you can actually know.
• The Holy Spirit is the “inner teacher” who teaches you to know the Father and the Son, not only through doctrine, but through an encounter.
• Mission in the world is the joint work of the Spirit and believers, and it begins with what the inner teacher has first done in you.

Personal application

• Do you see the Holy Spirit as “someone standing at your side,” or as an impersonal force?
• Where are you at with this “experiential knowledge” of the Father and the Son, beyond the truths you can recite?
• What would it look like, very concretely, to invite the Father and the Son into your home, into your daily life, your decisions, your conversations?
• What witness do you bear around you? A witness of doctrine, or a witness of lived closeness?
• Are you letting the inner teacher teach you, or are you trying to carry the weight of the mission on your own?

Verses cited

• John 14:15-26 · main text of the sermon.
• Luke 6:16 · Judas the son of James, the apostle who asks the question.
• 1 John 2:1 · Jesus, our advocate with the Father.
• Acts 1:8 · “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you… you will be my witnesses.”
• Acts 2 · Pentecost, the sending of the Holy Spirit to the Church.
• John 15:26-27 · third announcement : the joint witness of the Spirit and believers.
• John 16:7-11 · fourth announcement : the Spirit convicts the world concerning sin.

Frequently asked questions

What does the word “paraclete” mean?

The Greek word paraclete, used five times by Jesus in the farewell discourse (John 14 to 16), refers to someone who comes to stand at our side to support us, encourage us, teach us, and, if needed, defend us. It's translated sometimes as “Helper,” sometimes as “Comforter,” sometimes as “Advocate.” In 1 John 2:1, it refers to Jesus himself, our advocate with the Father; in John 14, it refers to the Holy Spirit, “another Helper” whom Jesus promises to his disciples.

Why does John Calvin call the Holy Spirit the “inner teacher”?

In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Calvin uses this expression to stress that the Holy Spirit isn't an outside instructor handing you truths from without, but the one who teaches from within you. It is by him, and by him alone, that you can truly call God “Father” and confess Jesus as “Lord.” The knowledge he gives isn't merely intellectual : it's also experiential, an encounter, an intimacy with the Father and the Son.

How do we reconcile the promise of the Holy Spirit to the disciples with the mission to the world?

Judas's question (“why reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”), finds its answer further on in the farewell discourse. The manifestation of Christ to the world is the joint work of the Holy Spirit and believers (John 15:26-27). But it first assumes that the Spirit, this inner teacher, has worked in you the life of the Risen One and let you live out closeness with the Father and the Son. Without that, there is no credible witness to bear.