The Holy Spirit (2) The Advocate

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (Jn 14:16-18)
 
Review
Last Sunday, we started to talk about the Holy Spirit since it was Pentecost Sunday. We looked into the meaning of Pentecost itself. Pentecost, derived from the Greek word Pentēkostē (Πεντηκοστή), means “fiftieth.”
 
The origin of Pentecost is found in the Old Testament festival Shavuot, or the Festival of Weeks. Leviticus 23 outlines seven feasts the Israelites were to observe. Among them, three were spring feasts: Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Firstfruits.
 
Passover commemorates how God protected the Israelites from the last plague of the death of the firstborn and delivered them from Egypt. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began with Passover and lasted for a week, during which the Israelites ate unleavened bread to remember the hardship and suffering they endured during the Exodus. This feast was kept from the Sabbath of Passover until the next Sabbath
 
And the following day—Sunday—was celebrated as the Feast of Firstfruits, when the Israelites offered the first harvest to God in gratitude.
 
What’s important is that these feasts all foreshadow the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus was crucified on Friday, the day of preparation for Passover, when the Passover lambs were slaughtered. This is why Paul refers to Jesus as our Passover lamb.
 
Before His arrest, Jesus shared the Last Supper with His disciples and broke the unleavened bread. The bread symbolizes His body, the bread of life from heaven, given for all mankind. He then rose from the dead on Sunday when the Festival of Firstfruits was celebrated and became the firstfruits of the resurrection. Therefore, the Feast of Firstfruits in the Old Testament becomes Easter in the New Testament.
 
But it doesn’t end there. God commanded the Israelites to count seven weeks from the Feast of Firstfruits and to present an offering of new grain on the fiftieth day. The day was called the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost in the New Testament. This was the day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and the spiritual harvest began as a result.
 
This is why Pentecost is so significant and worth commemorating. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples, granting them peace and the hope of resurrection, and entrusted them with the mission of proclaiming the gospel. He said:
 
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (Jn 20:21)
 
After saying this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:21).
 
God sent Jesus Christ to this world to complete our salvation. Jesus fulfilled this mission by dying on the cross and rising again. But this good news of salvation hasn’t yet reached the ends of the earth. So now, Jesus sends us into the world to proclaim this good news.
 
This mission cannot be accomplished unless we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Without the wisdom, power, and boldness given by the Holy Spirit, we cannot testify to the gospel of Jesus Christ or live as witnesses of His death and resurrection. Therefore, we must continually seek and ask for the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
 
Peter once denied Jesus three times and fled at His arrest. Yet less than two months later, he boldly preached the gospel, unafraid of persecution or death. The Holy Spirit made this transformation possible.
 
This same work can and must happen in our lives today, because the Holy Spirit Jesus promised is still effective not just on the day of Pentecost 2000 years ago, but for everyone who believes in Him even today.
 
On Pentecost, Peter said to those who were convicted by his sermon, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call." (Acts 2:38-39)
 
This is the promise of the Holy Spirit we must cling to today. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you… If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:9, 13)
 
The Lord desires to give us the Holy Spirit. He wants us to be filled with the Spirit. But He does not force it. He waits for us to ask, seek, and knock. As we pray and seek the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will surely fulfill His promise and fill us.
 
The Advocate
That’s what we talked about last Sunday. Today, let’s continue on talking about the Holy Spirit.  Jesus promised His disciples before His arrest that He would send the Holy Spirit, saying,
 
"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth... You know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you." (John 14:16)
 
By saying this, Jesus implies that He Himself is our Advocate, and the Holy Spirit, being another Advocate, will perform the same role. Then, what does the word "Advocate" mean here?
 
The Greek term for advocate is paraklētos (παράκλητος), which can be translated as helper, mediator, intercessor, or comforter.
 
The apostle John used this term to describe Jesus. 1 John 2:1 says, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." (1 Jn 2:1)
 
So what does it mean for Jesus to be our Advocate? This illustration may help you understand better.
 
Imagine a courtroom. God is the Judge. We sit in the defendant’s seat. Satan stands in the prosecutor’s place, accusing us of our sin. We have nothing to say, because the accusations are true. We have sinned, and we cannot pay the penalty.
 
But there we have a Lawyer: Jesus Christ. He stands by our side, defending us and pleading for our forgiveness, so that we are not condemned for our sins and do not suffer eternal death or fall into the eternal fire prepared for the devil.
 
His defense is based on His own blood and death. He’s saying, “Yes, this person has committed the sins the devil is accusing them of. But that doesn’t mean they deserve eternal punishment, because the price of their sin has already been fully paid.”
 
Jesus bore our sins and died on the cross to defend us. That is why there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. He paid the price with His life and stands boldly as our Advocate before God.
 
The Apostle Paul said in Romans 8, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death." (Rom 8:1–2)
 
He also said, "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." (Rom 8:33–34)
 
This is what it means for Jesus Christ to be our Parakletos. He stands by us to defend us and intercedes on our behalf. Hebrews 7:25 says, "Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them." (Heb 7:25)
 
Jesus is our Mediator between us and God, our Defender for our sins, our Comforter in times of suffering, and our Teacher who reveals the truth of heaven.
 
But, He no longer dwells with us physically because He ascended into heaven after His resurrection. But this doesn’t mean He has left us alone in this world because He has sent us another Advocate—another Helper, Comforter, and Guide into all truth, the Holy Spirit.
 
Jesus even said it would be to our advantage that He goes. He said, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you… the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." (Jn 16:7, 14:26)
 
When Jesus told His disciples that His departure would benefit them, they likely found it hard to understand. Life without Jesus would have been unimaginable. But they came to understand it when the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost—they personally experienced the benefit Jesus had talked about.
 
The Holy Spirit opened their eyes to the truth and filled them with His power. As a result, they accomplished greater works after Jesus ascended than they did when He was physically present. This was possible only through the help of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate.
 
The same Holy Spirit is still with us today. Though Jesus is not physically with us, we need not worry or fear, because the Holy Spirit, our Advocate, dwells with us and within us forever to help us. Our role is to give the Holy Spirit space to work freely in us by seeking, asking, and knocking. When we do so, we will be filled with the Spirit as promised, and live by His wisdom and power.
 
The Need of the Holy Spirit
We need the Holy Spirit because our sinful nature and weakness keep preventing us from fully obeying God’s word.
 
Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, is famous for the Latin phrase 'Simul Justus et Peccator'.
 
Simul means at the same time, Justus means righteous and Peccator means sinner. So this phrase can be translated as “Simultaneously righteous and a sinner.”
 
This expression describes who Christians are. We are righteous, yet at the same time we are sinners. We are righteous because when we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, His precious blood cleanses us of all our sins and justifies us.
 
As Paul said, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus… For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." (Rom 3:23–24, 28)
 
Our righteousness is not based on ourselves, but on the grace and love of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross.
 
Yet, we are still sinners. Although we are justified through the salvation of Christ, sin still lives in us and influences us powerfully. Just as God's grace towards us is renewed daily, so too is the sin within us, which affects us daily.
 
Paul confessed, “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing… Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me." (Rom 7:19–21)
 
This is our daily reality. As Christians, we desire to do good and live according to God’s will. We long to build a relationship with God through Scripture and prayer, to live sacrificially like Jesus, and to share the gospel.
 
Yet sadly, we often find ourselves doing things we don't want to do. We often hurt others including our loved ones with our words and actions. We are often selfish rather than selfless. Instead of loving and worshipping God, we often disregard His presence and live our lives without Him. As Paul said, we are by nature slaves to sin.
 
This is why we constantly need the Holy Spirit’s help. Only through His power can we overcome our weakness and sinful nature.
 
After saying that there is no condemnation for Christians, Paul continued,
 
"For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Rom 8:3–4)
 
This passage is essential for understanding how we can live a holy life as Christians. Paul said that the law was powerless to save us because it was weakened. It doesn’t mean that there was a problem with the law itself.  “The law is holy, righteous and good.” (Rm 7:12) But our sinful nature and weakness make it impossible for us to keep the law fully.
 
To solve this problem, God did two things. First, He sent Jesus Christ in the likeness of our sinful flesh to bear our sins and die for them. Second, He sent us the Holy Spirit, so that we no longer live according to the desires of the flesh, but according to the Spirit—by His power.
 
This is how God saves us from sin and weakness and enables us to fully obey His word. They are two Advocates God has sent us to save us, justify us, help us, sanctify us and complete us.
 
Jesus’ command, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48), can be understood only in light of the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who come to us as Parakletos—our Advocate.
 
When Martin Luther said “Simul Justus Et Peccator”—"simultaneously righteous and a sinner"— he was affirming that every Christian is someone who desperately needs help. We cannot stand on our own, nor can we transform our lives by our own willpower.
 
We don’t have the ability within ourselves to do what we desire. We lack the strength to obey God’s Word. It is only when we admit this that we begin to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. This realization humbles us before God and compels us to earnestly seek the Holy Spirit. Humility and dependence—these are the true marks of a Christian. When we acknowledge our weakness and lean on the Holy Spirit, He will work in us, help us, and strengthen us.
 
Paul wrote in Romans 8:26–27, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God." (Rom 8:26–27)
 
Just as Jesus, our great High Priest, eternally intercedes for us before God, so the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and prays for us. When we’ve fallen and don’t even know what to pray for, the Spirit intercedes for us with wordless groans and gives us strength to rise again.
 
So, let’s continue to draw near to the Holy Spirit through prayer today. Let’s earnestly seek the power of the blood of Jesus Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit so that we can overcome our sinful nature and weaknesses and live in victory.
 
Let’s humbly admit our inability to live righteously on our own and choose to wholly rely on the Holy Spirit, who strengthens and empowers us. May our lives be filled daily with the fullness of the Holy Spirit so that we can live holy lives by His power. Let’s pray.
 
<Closing prayer>
Heavenly Father, at this moment we once again invite the Holy Spirit into our lives. Fill us now with the power of the Holy Spirit—the Advocate You promised us—so that, by the power of Jesus Christ’s blood and the Spirit, we may overcome our sinful nature and weakness and live in victory, following the good, holy, and blessed life You desire for us.
 
We are weak, and so we rely on You, Lord; You are strong in our weakness. Though we are still sinners, we trust in You all the more. Help us to recognize how desperately we need the Holy Spirit. Teach us to seek, ask, and knock in humility, so that we may experience the grace of being filled with the Spirit whom You have promised.
 
Thank You for helping us and interceding for us. Continue to guide us on the true path, and may You alone be glorified through our lives.
 
We thank You, Lord. We pray all these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
  
[Reflection Questions]
1. What new insights did you gain about the meaning of the word Advocate (Parakletos)? In what ways do Jesus and the Holy Spirit act as advocates for you?
 
2. Why do you think you need advocates? What are some areas in your life where your sinful nature still has an influence?
 
3. Have you ever tried to obey God's Word and do good, only to fail? What caused you to fail? How can you overcome it?