Who is the promised comforter

If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.

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. There are a number of things that require to be emphasized. First of all, we have the promise of the Comforter. That word Comforter is interesting. It is used to translate a Greek word, Parakletos, which is a compound word meaning one who comes to the side of another that is a helper in time of need.

In 1 John we have advocate, which is exactly the same word in the original. There is a sweetness and preciousness about that word Comforter that appeals to the heart. After all, we cannot use any other word in our language that would so adequately represent the Greek word, for the Paraclete is in very truth the Comforter. Our English word Comforter is also a compound. I also will love him and will reveal Myself to him. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

The word that you hear is not Mine but is from the Father who sent Me. The basics of our faith brings us to grips with a dichotomy between what we as Christians are responsible to do and what God has already done on our behalf. We are told in Scripture how we are to live, act, think, and speak.

We are informed of what we are to do, what we are to separate from, and to what we are to be committed. All of which are essential to our Christian faith. But the NT emphasizes much what Christ has already done for us. If God is for us, who is against us? Romans Have you noticed that most of what our Lord has given in this Upper Room Discourse has been promises, not commandments.

He spent the evening telling them what he would do for them rather than giving them a bunch of rules and instructions to obey. This section begins with a statement of the importance of obeying His commands, but then He quickly shifts to promising mode.

This is a staggering promise that begins a series of related promises. Who are these promises for? At first glance, we might immediately say they are to His disciples. But look at verse If anyone loves Me … Anyone! Did you see that? That goes right back to what He said initially. Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? Many unbelievers profess to know God, but they actually deny Him by their works.

They are detestable, disobedient, and disqualified for any good work. Jesus said,. Love for Christ is not Lip Service. Real love for Christ, true faith in Christ, love for God is obedience to His commands. And every single promise is tied to the coming of the Holy Spirit — the Comforter. The Promise of Another Counselor. The Greek language is a very precise language.

The disciples would have caught this immediately. He had helped them, taught them, comforted them, walked along side them. Now the Holy Spirit would come and be a Helper just like Christ was to them to minister to them as He had. He is a person much like Jesus the Son of God. He is not a Ghost. He is Spirit. He is a person. This is essential to understand. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

This is actually from the same Greek word 'parakletos' which is translated as 'Comforter' in John This helps us now to understand- 2. This means that The Spirit would be acting on behalf of Jesus to take over His work on earth - He is the same kind of Comforter as Jesus because He would be everything that Jesus was to the disciples.

That was the best comfort they could have at that moment. Jesus had been abiding with them for 3. He had been their Comforter. But now He was giving His 'farewell' message to them. And if you look at v. From the words of v. In a few moments Jesus would say, 'Arise, let us go hence. There Jesus, their beloved Comforter, would be arrested by the Jews, bound and led away to be tried and crucified. Then what will become of His disciples after that?

Who will take care of them? Will they be left 'comfortless'? Will they become like poor orphans who are bereaved of their parents? Jesus will not leave them 'comfortless'. He tells them that another Comforter who is like Him will come to abide with them forever. But this Comforter will go one extra step further than what the Lord Jesus had done for them. Jesus had been dwelling WITH the disciples. But according to v. This means that they will always have the Comforter with them everywhere they went.

Even when the disciples were scattered far away from each other to distant corners of the earth later on in disseminating the Gospel message, each of them would not be left comfortless, but they would have all the comfort and help they needed through the Holy Spirit abiding in their hearts all the time. This is true now of every born-again Christian - We have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us forever v. He never leaves us at any time. This debunks the idea that one must be baptized or anointed with the Spirit many times in one's life.

It is once and for all. In addition to that, the Holy Spirit would do a special work in these original disciples of Christ: He would enable them to remember everything that Jesus had taught them throughout the 3. We see this in vv. 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.

Sometimes we wonder how these 4 gospels could capture all the exact words that Jesus spoke at each occasion. It is as if someone had brought along an electronic voice recorder wherever Jesus went and painstakingly transcribed everything He said into writing, including His 3-chapter long Sermon on the Mount. But the accuracy of all the material in the 4 gospels depended purely on the memory of the disciples who were first-hand witnesses of what Jesus said and did during His time with them on earth.

How would they be able to remember everything accurately as the gospel accounts were actually written years later? Our human brain is marvelous organ. It is capable of storing up everything we have heard, seen and experienced in our lifetime like some people who have 'photographic memory'. But most of us often can't remember every little detail because the data retrieval system of our minds is underdeveloped and inefficient.

And even those who have exceptionally good memories would not be able to match what the disciples remembered. It was the Holy Spirit did that to the disciples' minds. He enabled them to remember exactly what they had seen and heard accurately as if it was an instant replay of the event. Now, this supernatural ability was not meant for us.

It was only for the original disciples because they were the key eye-witnesses for the rest of humanity, of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God's revelation of His Son to this world for all generations to come depended on them. If they had a vague memory of what Jesus said and did, their eye-witness testimony would no longer be trustworthy. John Evidence of your love is total surrender of yourself, will, soul and everything to the Lord, and then you pledge your willingness to really obey the Lord; that is the way the Father and Jesus recognize love.

Dedication to the Word is evidence of real love of God. This is the measure of our love for Him — obedience to His commandments; and no Word, demand or will God will pass away.

His Word is valid through any generation, Matthew Everything Jesus taught and laid down for them are to be taught every disciple of Christ in all generations until the end of the world, Matthew The commandments of the Lord are still for today because Jesus is ever the same; they are not redundant, old fashioned, archaic or to push behind, they are the same every time.

He commanded repentance, restitution, purity, salvation, sanctification, evangelism, water baptism, monogamy in marriage, occupy till He comes, and all these are still necessary, and we shall obey to the end.

Let the commandments, word and demand of Christ dwell in you richly. Whatever we do and say, wherever we go, all should be in obedience to the Word of God which is for every area of our lives. The Word is not just for Sundays but must have impact on our everyday life at home, workplace, market place. If you are born again, the word of God will abide in you everywhere and every time.

God calls us to be holy in all manner of conduct, lifestyle, character, and everywhere you go and every time 1 Peter , To enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, you must be holy, not because of your denomination nor church name, but because everything about God, His nature, heaven, angels, word and streets in heaven are holy.

You will not add nor diminish from The Word of God, but obey in totality. The Lord Jesus Christ wants us to make right our lives, correct all your past wrongs and make restitution. You will not take this doctrine away from your life. God circumcises our hearts to enable us obey the commandments joyfully, promptly, urgently and heartily; the rapture can happen at any time! Deuteronomy ,8; Psalms Professing to love and not obeying or keeping His commandments, makes us liars.

You are dead to sin and to the world because Jesus died for you. Pray that this evidence of death to the things of the world will be in your life in Jesus Name 2 Corinthians John ; ; ; Job ; Psalms ,21; 1 Corinthians ,12; 1 Peter ; 1 John Jesus said, I will, making a promise unto them.