What can you do greater than Jesus? Stay tuned, Renewing Your Mind Weekend Edition is next. Welcome to this weekend edition of Renewing Your Mind with author and teacher Dr. R.C. Sproul. Dr. Sproul is also the Senior Minister of Preaching and Teaching at St. Andrews, a Reformed congregation in Sanford, Florida. In Jesus' farewell discourse, recorded for us in the 14th chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus gives his lengthiest teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. But before he delves into that discussion, Jesus said that whoever believes in him will do greater works than what Jesus himself was doing. How is that possible? Why must Jesus go away in order for that to happen? Today on Renewing Your Mind, as we continue our study of the Gospel of John, Dr. Sproul will teach us about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of all who believe. Here now is Dr. Sproul with today's message, Another Helper. We'll continue now with the study of the Gospel of John, where we'll be reading today again from the 14th chapter, beginning at verse 12. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also. And greater works than these he will do. because I go to my Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments, and 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. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear. Beginning in the 14th chapter of John's Gospel through the 17th chapter of this same Gospel, we have the longest discourse that is found anywhere in Scripture with respect to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. And so, as we look at the texts in the following weeks, we want to keep in front of us our goal to deepen our understanding of who the Holy Spirit is. What is his ministry? Why has he been sent to minister among us? Now we know from weeks past as we've been looking at these chapters that Jesus has spoken repeatedly about his imminent departure. He has told his disciples again and again that he was leaving them. And this was confusing and perplexing to them. Where are you going, Peter said. And Jesus had said, you know, where I'm going you can't come now. Then told them that he was the way and the truth and the life as we have seen. But now as we come to the portion of the text that we looked at today, Jesus makes a statement that I have to tell you, I've struggled with all my life in terms of a full understanding of it. I think I know what he meant, but I'm not sure even yet. In verse 12, he said, most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also. and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father." What? I can hardly imagine that you and I would ever be capable of doing the works that Jesus did, and certainly it's unthinkable that we would do greater works than he did in his lifetime. But I think that what our Lord is getting at here is something that is extremely important for the church in every age to understand. Remember that when Jesus performed the works that he performed in his human incarnation, he did basically because he was endowed in a miraculous way by the Holy Ghost, which Holy Ghost came upon him at his baptism. And we remember in the Old Testament, the works of Moses, how mighty they were. and how when Moses was being overwhelmed by the responsibilities that he carried for ministering to the people of Israel, his father-in-law came to him and said, the thing that you're doing is not good, Moses. You're trying to do too much by yourself. And you remember that experience where God commanded Moses to take 70 men who he knew to be elders over Israel, gather them together because God said, I'm going to take the spirit that I've put upon you, Moses, and I'm going to distribute it to these 70 others. And so God did that. And these 70 elders were anointed and empowered by God for ministry. And so we see Moses, who's the mediator of the old covenant, having the spirit that is upon him then spread out and distributed to those who are his followers. And on that occasion, remember, Joshua complained because two of the men had wandered in the camp speaking in ecstatic words. And when Joshua said that, he said, my Lord Moses, forbid them. Because these people were acting as if they had been endowed with the same Holy Spirit that had been upon Moses. And Joshua was jealous to protect Moses' unique authority. And Moses rebuked him. He said, are you jealous for my sake, Joshua? I would to God that all of the Lord's people were prophets and that he would put his Spirit upon all of them. Now that was only a wish expressed by Moses, a prayer at best. When we look later on in the Old Testament to the book of Joel, that wish becomes a prophecy, where the prophet says in the last days, God was going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. That is, on the whole church, on all of those who were believers. And that happens at Pentecost. And I believe that what Jesus is doing here is preparing His disciples to understand that momentous event that is going to take place in the not distant future where God is going to take the Spirit that is upon Jesus through Christ's own request of the Father and distribute it to all who love Him. So that the same power that is invested in Him is now going to be invested in His church. I don't think that he meant to say that we were all going to be doing miracles for all the ages or anything like that, but that the church is empowered by the Holy Ghost to perform works that go far beyond the local community of Jerusalem or Judea or Galilee, but the church has been empowered for missionary and ministry work across the globe. I don't know if this is what's in view here, but sometimes we hear about the black eyes that the church has had in history because of the Crusades or because of religious persecution and bigotry here and there and so on. And people say, well, the track record of the Christian church is abysmal, but it isn't. If you look at the history of Western civilization, you see that the primary impetus for the abolition of slavery in the Western world came largely through the impact of the Christian church. The very institutions of higher learning, universities and colleges, were motivated chiefly by the ministry of Christians. It was the Christian community that moved across the globe building orphanages for people who were without hope in the world. And indeed the hospital movement in Western history was again provoked and stimulated largely by the Christian church. And so by the Spirit's endowment on the church, the church extends the work of Jesus, extends the benefits of Jesus, extends the ministry of Jesus to the very ends of the earth. Remember, he will say later about the coming of the Spirit. He tells them to stay in Jerusalem. After that, the Holy Ghost would come upon them. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Galilee, Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. And he's preparing them for this here in this text. Greater works than these he will do, why? Because I'm going to the Father. There was no announcement that more deeply troubled the disciples of Christ than his announcement that he was leaving. And yet at the same time, our Lord couched that announcement in the words that it is better for you if I leave than if I stay. Because Pentecost does not happen and cannot happen until Christ ascends to the right hand of the Father. And it is only by his departure that the presence of the Spirit comes to the whole church. And what the disciples didn't understand at first, they came to understand, I believe, largely through this discourse, so that when they watched Jesus ascend into heaven on the Mount of Ascension, they turned and returned to the city rejoicing. And it took them a long time to move from despair to joy over the departure of Jesus, but let's go on. Verse 14 is more difficult than the one before. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. There are those in the church who have come to the conclusion that this statement is a universal absolute. and that two Christians can get together, and if any two of them agree on any one thing, and they tell that to God, God will most certainly do what we ask Him to do. Jesus seems to give that promise here. This is the basis for the whole name it and claim it movement that has throughout the church. All we have to do is agree. We agree that, God, you would do this, therefore, we believe it will be done. Well, now, wait a minute. How many here would like to see the end of cancer? Let me see. Yeah, I think we all would like to see cancer eradicated, wouldn't we? We all agree on that. Well, let's just find two people who agree on that, ask Jesus to get rid of cancer, that'll be the end of cancer. This statement of Jesus must be understood in the total context of what our Lord teaches regarding prayer. This is not a blank check that He gives to His disciples and say, anything you ask for, I will do. What's presumed in this is anything that you ask for that is within the parameters of what is legitimate to ask for according to my words, according to my teaching, then you can be sure it will be done. But I think that this is linked to the next verse if you read as follows. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Now, there are different ways that you can read this statement in the text. Some commentators take it this way, that if you love me, then you are obligated to keep my commandments, that that is that the condition of love that is manifested is obedience. Others interpret this text to mean this, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Not simply you must keep my commandments, But it is a certain consequence of affection for Christ that obedience will flow. That's why the Reformers believe, for example, that justification is not based on our works. Nevertheless, true justification always carries in its wake a response of obedience, sanctification always and ever. flows automatically and necessarily out of our justification. If we love Him, we will obey Him. If we do not obey Him, that's proof positive that no matter what we say in terms of our confession of faith, that there is no love of Christ in our hearts. And this next section can be connected to that. We could say, and if you love me, 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. I will not leave you orphans. I will come for you." Now, I don't know what version of the English Bible you're reading. But there are various translations of this promise of Jesus when he says, I will pray to the Father and he will give you another helper. Some say another counselor, some say another comforter, some even say another advocate. And the word here, in the New Testament that Jesus uses is the word parakletos, or in this case, parakleton, which is translated another paraclete. Now, one of the games I play with my seminary students to trick them and trap them and ensnare them, I'll say, okay, in the New Testament, who is the paraclete? They all raise their hands and say, oh, we know that, that's easy. The paraclete is the Holy Spirit. Well, they say that because one of the common titles that we give to the Holy Ghost in theology is the title paraclete. But I get a little technical with them and I say, Well, that's right and it's not right. It's true that the Holy Ghost is called the Paraclete, but remember that the Holy Ghost is not simply called the Paraclete. He's called what? Another Paraclete. And for there to be another Paraclete, there has to be a prior Paraclete. For there to be two, there has to be at least one before the second one. And so the question is, Who is the paraclete? I find it strange, for example, in the Old King James, that the same word that is translated comforter in the Gospels is translated advocate in the letters of John. Same word. Why do they do that? Well, it's translated in the letters as the advocate because what a paraclete was in antiquity was an attorney. and basically a defense attorney, often linked to the family attorney, where if you had problems with the law and you needed somebody to come and stand next to you, the person that you called alongside, para, means to be alongside or beside, and kleitos comes from the verb to call. You had one telephone call in antiquity, you got arrested, you could only make one call, who'd you call? You called a paraclete to come and stand in your defense. Again, the old King James translated that word by the term comforter. which nowadays is very misleading, because we do know that one of the things that the Holy Spirit does is He consoles us. He does comfort us in times of pain and in times of adversity. But the King James was written at a time when English was more closely connected with its Latin roots, and the term comfort came from two Latin words that meant with strength. so that the comforter was somebody who came to strengthen you. It wasn't the one who comes to wipe your tears after the battle, but he's the one who comes to give you strength for the battle. And so, Again, counselor can be misleading because you think of your guidance counselor in high school and that sort of thing. No, it's more like the counselor, again, in the courtroom who will defend your case during a time of trial. And so something to avoid all of these, as this translation does, simply refers to another helper. Because what Jesus is saying is, I'm not going to leave you helpless. I'm praying to the Father that He will come to you with one who comes with strength to help you in that hour of trouble when you're called before magistrates and when death is threatening you, that you will not stand there on your own naked strength, but you will have the very power of God the Holy Spirit with you. So again, he's preparing them for receiving power from the Holy Ghost, which will happen on Pentecost, and he calls him the Spirit of Truth. What a marvelous title for the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit who inspires the Bible. It's the Holy Spirit who illumines the Bible. It is the Holy Spirit who applies the truth of the Word of God, empowers the truth of the Word of God so that it cuts between bone and marrow, because the Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth that exposes falsehood. And, beloved, this is inseparably related to His power. God's Spirit is the Spirit of power But we don't say he's the spirit of power and the spirit of truth. He's the spirit of power because he's the spirit of truth. Because there is nothing more powerful in this world, ladies and gentlemen, than the power of the truth of God. That is the truth that cannot be broken. That is the truth that overcomes deceit, falsehood that is part of our natural existence. But Jesus said, I'm praying for you to receive this Spirit. The world doesn't know it. The world doesn't see it. The world doesn't embrace it. Because the world is not of the truth. But I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will be in you and on you and will guide you. into all truth. How do you understand Jesus' words when He promised to return within this generation? Does the word generation mean something different than a 40-year period? To help us understand the difficult and controversial passages in the Olivet Discourse, Dr. Sproul takes a hard and unpopular look at Scripture to see what Jesus has to say about His return. If you'd like to get a copy of The Last Days According to Jesus DVD series, we're offering it for a donation of any amount today. And to make this an extra special offer, we're including a book written by Dr. Sproul entitled When Worlds Collide. In this book, Dr. Sproul explains what happens when opposing worldviews collide, such as we saw September 11, 2001, and where God was in the midst of it all. To take advantage of this special offer, give us a call using our toll-free number, 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 800-435-4343. Or you can go online to rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind, and the word offer.com. And that web address is for this week's special offer only. What did Jesus mean when he said to his disciples that some of them would not taste death until they saw the Son of Man coming in his kingdom? Responding to the voices of skepticism, Dr. Sproul examines the various time references associated with the Olivet Discourse in the Book of Revelation, demonstrating that when properly understood, there are actually strong evidence for the credibility of Jesus' own words and reliability of all of Scripture. Again, the 12-part DVD series, The Last Days According to Jesus, and the book When Worlds Collide by Dr. Sproul is available for a gift of any amount today. So give us a call at 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 800-435-4343. Or you can go online to rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind. And the word offer dot com. That'll bring a close to this weekend edition of Renewing Your Mind. Thank you for being with us. Join us again next weekend as Dr. Sproul continues to take us through the Gospel of John. Until then, you can keep up with us on Facebook at Facebook.com slash Ligonier. Ligonier is spelled L-I-G-I-N-I-E-R. O-N-I-E-R. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind, Weekend Edition, the listener-supported radio outreach of Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida.