In Jason Dohm's sermon titled 'The Helper’s Help,' he explores John 14:25-28, focusing on Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit as a helper for believers. The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in Jesus' name, acts as a teacher and reminder, ensuring the continuation of Jesus' teachings after his physical departure. This spiritual guidance alleviates reliance on human memory and intellect, offering divine insight and understanding. Dohm stresses the peace Jesus leaves, which surpasses worldly peace and remains steadfast even amidst turmoil. This peace, grounded in reconciliation with God through Jesus' sacrifice, extends to interpersonal harmony and inner tranquility. The sermon emphasizes not letting hearts be troubled or afraid, highlighting a life of ongoing repentance and reliance on the Holy Spirit. Dohm also notes Jesus' return to the Father as a cause for rejoicing, as it marks the completion of his earthly mission and exaltation. He encourages believers to focus on what pleases Christ and to let the Holy Spirit guide their understanding and actions.

A sermon text this week is John chapter 14 verses 25 through 28. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you love me, you would rejoice because I said, I am going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. The title of the sermon this morning is The Helper's Help. Verse 26 lets us know that the Helper is the Holy Spirit. So Jesus continues speaking on the Holy Spirit, the sending of the Holy Spirit, and what the work of the Holy Spirit will be among us.

He is going to help us in specific ways. I don't think we are given a comprehensive list of the help of the Holy Spirit this week, but Jesus certainly speaks of ways in which we as His people can expect to be helped by the Holy Spirit. Last week the title of the sermon was The Unsearchable Riches of Christ. I was pulling that out of what Paul says in Ephesians 3 verse 8 where he marvels that he would be given the great privilege of preaching what he calls the unsearchable riches of Christ to the Gentiles. The reason I titled it that was that we are right there.

Christ is speaking of His treasures in these chapters. So one of the things I said last week was, I really don't want to preach this like an engineer. My mind thinks so systematically, sometimes in a rigidly disciplined way. And I definitely preach outlines, 123ABC. But I want to be able to preach these things like a poet and a songwriter, not as an engineer, because these are things that should really inflame our hearts.

So again, just the exhortation. Let your heart be inflamed, even though you're being preached to by a guy who has the mind of an engineer. By the way, I didn't have the grades of an engineer. I was too lazy of a student to be an engineer. But my mind works that way, and so I often preach that way.

But I want to preach like a poet and a songwriter here on these things. These things should make our hearts soar. And I pray that they would. This week Jesus continues to speak of the Holy Spirit who He calls the Helper. The Greek word literally means one who comes alongside to help.

And he speaks of the ways in which he helped those disciples that he was speaking to, but also to us. There are promises for us to claim in this text. So as we come to the text, let's pray and ask for the Lord's help. Our God, I thank you for the promise of your Holy Spirit to indwell the believer. I thank you that on the day of Pentecost, and every day since, that promise has been kept.

I pray that the work of your Holy Spirit in our hearts. All who have repented and believed, your work would be a subject that we are very sensitive to now. That it would awaken a sensitivity to all the help that we do receive and awaken an appetite, a hunger and a thirst for more of the work of your Spirit in our lives. We really do want to be taught by you. We really do want to be reminded of all the things that the Lord Jesus you have said.

These wouldn't be far from our thoughts, but they would be in every one of our thoughts. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Again, subdividing the text, we'll break off the first two verses of the text. Hopefully your thumb is still in John 14. I'd like to reread verses 25 and 26 and then we'll consider them.

John 14, 25 and 26. Jesus says, These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." In these verses we have the helper as teacher and reminder. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, teacher, reminder, fill in the blanks. The helper or the Holy Spirit as teacher and reminder.

The point is this, the end of Jesus' physical presence is not the end of their discipleship. Amen, hallelujah. Thank heavens that the end of Jesus on the earth isn't the end of Jesus' teaching of his students. Of course, disciples is just a word that means student, or pupil, or learner. The learning didn't end When Jesus died and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, it continued.

Is Jesus going to teach them face to face? Well not after 40 days. He will die, he will rise on the third day, He will be with them for 40 days after his resurrection. Acts says that he was with them 40 days, speaking to them of the Kingdom of Heaven. But then he won't be teaching them face to face anymore.

Are they done being taught? No. Will they be left to the mercy of their human memories? Thank God, no. Do you want to be left at the mercy of your memory?

Or your brain? The capacity of your brain or your memory? Do you want to be at the mercy of those things? I can tell you, I do not, you do not either, the disciples didn't, and they weren't, and we aren't. At the mercy of our mental capacity, or at the mercy of our memories, God has sent a helper.

Not the force, the force be with you, a person to indwell you, he who helps us. So the disciples were not left to say, did he say this or was it that? How exactly did he say that again? No, Jesus promised that he would ask the Father and that the Father would send a helper to continue with their discipleship, to continue teaching them, and to remind them of the things that they actually heard him say. How will He help?

Well again, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but we are given specific ways in which the helper, the one who comes alongside to help, helps. The Holy Spirit will teach the disciples all things. So the disciples became all knowing because He taught them all things. No, I don't think that's what it's saying. You know that's not what it's saying.

Consider what Peter says in 2 Peter 1 verse 3. 2 Peter 1 verse 3, Peter says that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I think that's exactly what Jesus is teaching here. That we, through the ministry of the Spirit, had been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. Everything that the disciples needed to know, the Holy Spirit came and taught them everything that the disciples needed to remember.

The Holy Spirit came and reminded them of. And not just them, but it is a promise for us too. The continuation of Jesus' teaching happens inside the believer, not an outside helper. I in some ways am an outside helper. I come and I hopefully, faithfully unfold the Scriptures to you.

That's nothing like the benefit of having an internal tutor that comes along with this great book that teaches and reminds you of the things that are said. Both have a place in the Word of God. Clearly one is more valuable. The Holy Spirit never leaves us. He is inside of us, teaching us.

And the Holy Spirit brought to remembrance all the things that Jesus taught them when He was present. If you have repented and believed the gospel, if you are really saved, you have true, authentic, saving faith, you believe that Jesus fulfilled this promise to his disciples. And I can prove it to you that you believe it. Think of the many instances in the gospels where Jesus was talking about one thing but The disciples thought he was talking about something completely different. Was that one time?

No way. Was it two times? No way. I don't know. I haven't counted them up.

It was a lot of times in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where Jesus was teaching one thing and they completely missed the point. They had no idea what he was talking about. Often they thought he was talking about a physical thing when he was actually using something physical to teach them about a spiritual reality. Now, do you trust those fellows to deliver to you a reliable gospel. So you've seen them.

Jesus, what's all this about water? What's all this about food? Well, I'm not actually talking about physical water. I'm talking about a spiritual reality. I'm not talking about physical food.

I'm talking about spiritual food and many many other examples of the same. You're trusting those guys to deliver you a reliable gospel that will either save or damn your soul. You've not heard Jesus from his own lips preach the gospel to you. It was Matthew or Mark or Luke or John. Matthew and John being two that were actually listening to Jesus teach in person.

Well, yes, I actually do believe that these men have delivered to me a reliable gospel that I can bet my life on, heaven or hell. Why? Why, with all the failures of clarity and understanding that they demonstrate in the Gospel, why do you believe that they can deliver to you a Gospel you can bet your life on? Because the men in Acts are transformed men. They are very different men in clarity and understanding.

They are fundamentally different than the fellows in the Gospels. What in the world happened? This happened. Jesus said, when my body is not here, my teachings not done. I'll send the Spirit.

He will teach you all things that pertain to life and godliness. He will remind you of all the things that I said." So we have Matthew, so we have John, so we have 1 and 2 Peter, so we have 1, 2, and 3 So we have Matthew, John, Peter, John, Revelation, all those are New Testament books, reliable books written by disciples, apostles. Why? Because the Holy Spirit came, taught them, and brought to their remembrance the things that Jesus had taught when he was physically present with them. So clearly, they continued to be taught after the ascension.

Now listen to these two verses. John 2.22. John 2.22, Jesus has just said that he would raise up the temple in three days. You remember that? They thought, how is he going to do that?

It's taken 46 years to get the temple to this point. How will he raise it up in three days? Here's what we read in John 2, 22. Therefore, when he, Jesus, had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them, and they believed the scriptures and the word which Jesus had said. When Jesus said that, in John 2.22, by the way, John 2 is a low number, meaning there are 20 chapters in John.

This is really early in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus said something that they didn't understand at all then, but after he was resurrected they remembered. He said that. That's what this is about. This is actually the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the lives of the disciples and apostles on display.

Here's another verse. John 12 verse 16. In John 12 verse 16, this is the triumphal entry passage Jesus has just read into Jerusalem on a donkey. And It is in fulfillment of Zechariah 9, but his disciples had no idea that this was the fulfillment of prophecy at the time. Here is what we read in John 12 verse 16.

His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Then they remembered after Jesus had been glorified. So built into the Gospels, sprinkled into the Gospels is proof that what Jesus is teaching in our text, that though he would leave them bodily, his teaching ministry to them would continue through the work of the Holy Spirit, and that they would actually be reminded of the things that He was saying and the things that were happening in His life. We actually see that fulfilled in the writings of one of these men who it was fulfilled in. Does that make sense?

Meaning John is our Gospel writer. John is the one who is recording this. Jesus said this. We didn't understand it at the time. But after he was raised from the dead, then we got it.

It's fulfilled in his life. So there is a very specific, narrow sense in which this is true in the lives of the eleven faithful disciples who were present hearing Jesus say the words of our text. But there is also a broader sense in which this is true. It includes me, because I've repented and believe the gospel. It includes you, if you've repented and believe the gospel.

I turn to 1 Corinthians 2. This was a text we were in a couple of weeks ago, maybe last week, but anyway, we're back. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, where Paul takes up this subject. 1 Corinthians 2, I'm going to read 9-12, follow along. Paul writes, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him." So far, Paul is quoting a scripture that says God is preparing things for people who love Him, but you can't know about them through your senses.

Your eyes haven't seen these things and your ears haven't heard these things. Then Paul says this starting in verse 10, but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. God has been busy preparing treasures for His people. How do you know about these things? The Spirit of God reveals them to you. Consider the words Paul uses in this passage, to us, that we might know.

So Paul is making it very clear that this is not a special apostolic inspiration that authors of books of the Bible enjoyed that believers have no claim to. In what Paul is speaking of in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, is the ongoing teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, not just for disciples and apostles, but for believers. Paul says we, Paul says us, we have a claim to them, not just apostles. So I think we would make a mistake to say there isn't a narrow sense in which our text is true that the disciples, some of them as authors of scripture, had an inspiration that is beyond anything we will experience, but it would also be a mistake to say there is not a broader sense as well that we have a claim to. We should never despair at how little we know or how little we remember.

If you were alone, you might despair that you didn't know very much and that you didn't remember very much. But if you have a promise that you're not alone, that you're actually indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God and that He has been given a charge to teach you and to bring to your mind the things that Jesus has taught you won't despair. This is the helper and the help that He provides to His people. God is not at the mercy of our brains and our memories. So take this away from our text.

God is not at the mercy of our brains or our memories. To that we say praise the Lord hallelujah. Verse 17 of our text, Jesus called him the Spirit of Truth. I said last week the Holy Spirit is in the truth business. He has a teaching ministry in the hearts of all of his people.

And he has a reminding ministry in the hearts of all of his people. Internal teaching, internal reminding. There will be more of this in chapter 15 and chapter 16. The reason I say that is I'm not going to spend time drawing parameters around that. I think it's really important in our day and age in the evangelical environment that we say when we talk about these things, we are not talking about new truth, private revelation.

I don't think Jesus is teaching that. When we get into chapter 15 and chapter 16, Jesus will speak more comprehensively of what he is touching on here, and it will become clear that this is not new truth and private revelation. This is throwing light on the teachings of Jesus and helping us remember the teachings of Jesus. In the day and age in which the Holy Spirit whispers new things into your ear, you're not going to find Jesus teaching that in these chapters. Finally for these two verses, the Father sends the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name, in my name, in response to Jesus' request.

Verse 16 from this same chapter, and I will pray, or I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper. So when Jesus says that the Spirit is sent in His name, definitely part of that is that it's a response of the Father to Jesus' request. The Holy Spirit is sent in His name, and to carry on Jesus' work of revelation. Who is Jesus? John 1, 1.

Who is Jesus? The Word. Jesus is fundamentally about revealing God to man, So much so that before he was ever called Jesus in the Scriptures, he is the Word. The Word in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus is the Word who became flesh. In summary, there's a narrow sense in which the Holy Spirit came, taught these faithful eleven disciples, and reminded these faithful eleven disciples of all the things that Jesus had said. And so we have a trustworthy Gospel. And there is a broad sense in which we also have a claim to promises here. We have a helper that helps us.

Matthew Henry sums it up. Listen to Matthew Henry. The apostles were all of them to preach and some of them to write the things that Jesus did and taught. To transmit them to distant nations and future ages. Now if they had been left to themselves herein, some needful things might have been forgotten.

Others misrepresented through the treachery of their memories. Therefore the Spirit is promised to enable them to truly relate and record what Christ said unto them. And to all the saints, the Spirit of grace is given to be a remembrancer. And to Him by faith and prayer we should commit the keeping of what we hear and know. Exactly right.

Matthew Henry gets right to the narrow sense in which this is true, which gives us a trustworthy gospel, and the broad sense in which this is true that tells us that we should expect the Holy Spirit to be teaching us and to remind us as well what Jesus said. Moving on to the next verse, verse 27, chapter 14 verse 27, Read along. Jesus says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. In this verse we have the gift of Jesus' peace. So if you're taking notes on the handout, by filling in blanks, gift fills in the blank. The gift of Jesus' peace. Jesus is going away but he is leaving something as a gift.

It's his peace. My peace, Jesus says. You know the Hebrew, Shalom. This is actually just the Greek equivalent. In fact, in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, this is the Greek word that's used anywhere where you would see shalom in the Old Testament.

There are three elements to this word in the Hebrew and in the Greek and actually in the English. In other words, peace as a word to render this is a really good word. It really, very few times do you find a Hebrew word that has a really close Greek equivalent and a really close English equivalent. So we have one of those times we should enjoy it. There are three elements to the word peace in Hebrew and in Greek and in English.

One, absence of conflict. That's part of peace. You're not at war. Two, harmony between individuals. Unity and harmony between people.

That's part of peace. Three, a sense of tranquility. Inner calm. A feeling of security or goodwill. That's part of peace.

So all these things are baked in to the word peace in Hebrew, in Greek, and in English. Absence of conflict, harmony between individuals, and a sense of tranquility and inner calm. Isaiah 9 is messianic prophecy, foretelling about the Messiah. Isaiah 9 verse 6 says that the Messiah is the Prince of Peace. So, we shouldn't be surprised at all to find Jesus leaving His peace behind as a gift for His people.

After all, He is the Prince of it. He is the Prince of people. So it is His and it is His to give and He gives it to His people. In Luke Chapter 2, a birth of Jesus passage in Luke chapter 2 verse 14, a multitude of the heavenly hosts show up to the shepherds and they say this, Glory to God in the highest and on earth. Peace, good will toward men.

So when Jesus was born, something was happening in heaven. God was being praised in the highest and something was happening on earth, peace and goodwill were being expressed to mankind. So again, all these things make it not a surprise that Jesus leaves behind peace as a gift for his people. The world has a counterfeit, fool's gold, that it calls peace. But it's not at all what Jesus is talking about.

The peace that Jesus gives starts with the peace with God that Jesus purchases with His own blood. So it's not a cheap peace, it's actually a very costly peace. What was the price of it? The blood of the Son of God. Romans 5.1, peace.

Listen to Romans 5.1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, having been declared just, declared pardoned by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's His blood. He buys peace for us. He allows a just God to justify the ungodly because of shed blood.

It brings peace where there was war. You in your insanity had declared war against God because you would not have Him as God. You wanted to be God. So you thought you would throw Him off of the throne and take the throne yourself. Wrong again.

But God offered terms of peace because His blood was shed on the cross as a substitutionary, taking the place of sinners who would repent and believe the Gospel. Ephesians 2, Robert read this right before our prayer time, He Himself is our peace. Blood bought peace. He Himself is our peace. He's not just one to talk about peace.

He actually purchases our peace. He is our peace. He's the one who breaks down the barriers between us and each other and us and God. He Himself is our peace. Christ is peace.

The false prophets of the world and of the world in the church, meaning sometimes the world is in here, The people who preach from these pulpits can actually be the world. They can be wolves in sheep's clothing. But the false prophets of the world, both inside and outside the church, say what? Peace! Peace!

There's no peace. There is no peace. That comes from Jeremiah 6. Actually, there are a number of places in the prophets where almost word for word it's the same thing. God condemning false prophets for saying, Peace!

Peace! There is no peace! It's not the peace that Jesus is talking about. It's not blood bought peace. It's not peace with God who actually will render a judgment at the end.

We should never say peace when there's war with God in heaven. The fundamental peace, meaning it's foundational, any other piece has to be built on it, is peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. This has everything to do with the help of the helper. So don't isolate this out and say, Jesus conceptually left us with peace. This has everything to do with Jesus sending the Holy Spirit.

Peace with God And a sense of it, an inner calm that comes with peace with God is a work of the Holy Spirit. So this has everything to do with the verse that came before, the sending of the Spirit. Peace, the sense of peace is imparted by the Holy Spirit. How do I know that for sure? Well, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.

It's number three on the list of the things that the Spirit produces in the hearts and lives of believers. Love, Joy, Peace, Galatians 5 22. So it starts with peace with God through the blood of Jesus and it extends to harmony between people. And certainly harmony among believers. What is the basis for our being in unity in one accord together?

It's blood-bought peace with God. That is the foundation. But it extends to us. We have a tremendous peace with one another because Jesus left it behind as a gift when He sent the Holy Spirit. And even with unbelievers, meaning do you hate unbelievers?

Do you have reasons to hate unbelievers? They give us reasons sometimes. We don't hate unbelievers. Why? As much as it depends on us, we are at peace with all men.

This again is a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So we have this multi-level peace, level one, ground floor, peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ, but then Peace with people built on that foundation and a sense of tranquility, a calmness of soul. We have that even in turbulent circumstances. When Jesus says, not as the world gives, give I, this is where the world's peace starts to break down. The world's peace falls apart when circumstances fall apart.

Real peace, the blood-bought peace, doesn't break down even in turbulent circumstances. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 4.7. Philippians 4.7, Paul says, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So start at the end. This is through Christ Jesus.

This is because of Jesus. This is built on Jesus. We have a peace that doesn't make sense. Meaning, it's not very logical. My life is falling apart, but I still have a sense that it is well with my soul.

How can that be? The wheels are coming off circumstantially. And yet, I feel that it is well with my soul. I have a peace that doesn't make sense. It surpasses understanding.

There's something guarding my heart and mind from everything falling apart when circumstances fall apart. Listen to what Matthew Henry says, The smiles of the world cannot give it, and the frowns of the world cannot take it away. That's great. This is why we quote Matthew Henry, because he thinks of stuff we don't think of, but it's brilliant. The smiles of the world cannot give it.

The smiles of the world cannot give it. The smiles of the world cannot give you the peace that Jesus is describing in John chapter 14. And the frowns of the world can't take it away. So not only can the world not give it, the world can't deprive you of it either. It just doesn't depend on the world from start to finish.

Then Jesus says this, let not your heart be troubled. He's saying it again. What do I mean by that? Well, that exact quote started the chapter. Look back in verse 1.

Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. So what we have here is actually bookends. So to keep your books from falling down on the shelf, you put something on one end and you put something on the other end to hold them up. Here we have bookends of an instruction by the Lord Jesus Christ that we not let our hearts be troubled.

These eleven faithful disciples are about to witness very troubling things. What does Jesus say to them? Let not your heart be troubled. Individually. Not guys, plural.

Let not your hearts, plural, be troubled. But Let not your heart be troubled. Now, in the plural it all makes sense and it's all true. It would have been fine for Jesus to say that, but that's not what Jesus said. He said, you don't let your heart be troubled.

And you don't let your heart be troubled. And you Don't let your heart be troubled. And you don't let your heart be troubled. He's not speaking to the group. He's speaking to me.

Jason, do not let your heart be troubled. You're about to witness very troubling things. But I give a piece that surpasses understanding, the piece that doesn't make sense. It transcends logic. It will sustain you even in the middle of the troubling events of the next day and week.

Now, between the bookends of verse 1 and here in verse 27, between those bookends, we have a list of consolations. We have a list of blessings that console the heavy heart. What are they? In my Father's house are many dwellings. I'm going to make a place.

I'm going to carve out a place in the heavenly home where you'll come and dwell. And then I'll come and get you to bring you back for the place that I've reserved, prepared, carved out for you in my Father's house. I am the way, the truth, and the life. God can be known, and you can be at peace with God, and I am that way, and in knowing me you know God. The unseeable God you can see in me, the unknowable God because of your sins, you can know because of my work.

I'm going to continue my works through you, so I'm leaving, but the work of the Messiah continues on planet earth because I'm going to come and work through you by my Spirit, and even greater works than I did, you'll be doing. In fact, ask anything in my name and I'll do it." And then he says it again, ask anything in my name and I will do it. I'm going to ask my Father, and He's going to give you another helper to replace my ministry in your life. He'll indwell you and He's the Spirit of Truth. He'll be teaching you.

He'll be reminding you. He will dwell in you. And I and my Father will come and dwell with you and we will make our home with you and I'm leaving my peace with you as a gift." This is a piling up of the unsearchable riches of Christ. It's a piling up of consolations, blessings to console the heavy heart. So Jesus is speaking to heavy hearted men because of all the heavy things he's been laying on them about what's about to happen the next day.

Well he gives them a pile of treasures to console them. These are consolations that snuff out the peace killers. Friends, we're living in a world with peace killers, meaning there's a lot of things that would rob you of an inner sense of well-being, of it being well with your soul. In this world, you could totally lose sight that it is well with your soul for eternity. So you can have this tunnel vision that has you freaked out about current circumstances in life.

If you could just zoom out for a minute and see all eternity, you would see that these momentary afflictions are light and they are just lasting a minute. That eternity is eternal joy and Well-being with God and you wouldn't be freaked out anymore. Living in a world of peace killers, Jesus piles up a heap of blessings that console the heavy heart. The things that trouble our hearts and cause us to fear, recede in the shadow of the blessings that he has heaped up. Jesus adds this to verse 1, Verse 1, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Trouble of heart, inner turmoil, anxiety are certainly related to fear, but they are not exactly the same thing as fear. So Jesus continues after saying, do not, let not your heart be troubled. He says, neither let it be afraid. Don't be anxious and don't be fearful. Church history tells us that 10 of the 11 faithful disciples were martyred, plus Stephen was martyred, plus Paul was martyred.

There were many, many martyrs. With Paul, of the ten of eleven that were martyred, Church history says John, our Gospel writer, was not martyred. He died of old age, although that's a separate topic. But he died at the end of a long life and not a violent death. The ten of the eleven disciples held their testimony of Christ unto death.

Testimony of Christ unto death." Meaning faced with the opportunity to renounce Christ and live, they said, no thanks. So they didn't live as fearful men. We know they made it to the end with their confession. With Paul, we actually get insight into his life leading up to his martyrdom. He's writing letters as he's going to Jerusalem, and as he's imprisoned in Jerusalem, and as he is imprisoned in Rome.

In fact, in Acts chapter 21 we learn that Agabus the prophet says, prison in chains is your future. And the people who are there hearing Agabus saying this beg him not to go to Jerusalem. And he says, why are you breaking my heart? I'm ready not only to be imprisoned, but to die for the faith. Paul knew exactly what was coming.

And so this gives us insight as we watch him write letters on the trail to his martyrdom, knowing that he knew what was coming. In Paul's writings we get to see the reality of our text in Paul's life. He doesn't let his heart be troubled and he doesn't let his heart be afraid. It comes through so clearly in the prison letters. Are those the letters of an anxious man?

No way! Are those the letters of a fearful man? No way! We say, you can do that? You can boss your heart around like that so that you don't let it be troubled and you don't let it be afraid.

Yes, because of the help of the helper, a person who indwells you, And the consolations of the believer, the pile of blessings, of treasures that console the heavy hearted, you cannot let your heart be troubled and you cannot let your heart be afraid. So what should I do when I am anxious and when I am afraid? So I've been living in the faith 37 years now. I'm anxious sometimes. What should I do about that?

I am afraid sometimes. So I know I've let my heart be anxious and let my heart be afraid. What should I do? I should repent and I should ask for help. I should call out for help as if there's a helper because there's a helper.

It really is a helper. We have promised help. So we should repent of our anxiety and our fear, and we should ask for help. Isn't there cleansing from sin? Of course there is cleansing from sin in Christ.

Isn't there a helper? Of course there is help in the Holy Spirit. Now, It's become impossible in our world to say that anxiety is sin and fear is sin. Friends, I don't write the mail, I just deliver it. All I know is we have commands, imperatives.

These are not suggestions, these are imperatives, which is just a gentle way to say we are being commanded by Christ not to let our hearts be anxious, not to let our hearts Be afraid. I don't know what else to call it when you break a command other than sin. It's sin. We should repent. Now if I went to you and said, I find self-centeredness so firmly embedded in my heart, I really don't have a choice but to be selfish or Lust is just so much a part of my history and so deeply embedded in my thought process that I really don't have any...

Lest as part of being me you would say, brother, you need to repent and call out for help. And then, I know these things are embedded in us. It's called indwelling sin. It is embedded in us. It is a reality in the life of the Christian until we die.

So we are all going to be struggling with sin until we die. So What do we do? We keep repenting. We keep crying out for help. Because there is cleansing from sin.

And there is a helper who helps us. Listen to what Paul says in Colossians 3.15. Paul says this in Colossians 3.15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts. There's that word again.

So Jesus on one side of the coin is saying, do not let your heart be anxious, do not let your heart be afraid. Paul is coming at it from exactly the other way and he is saying, let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Let the Spirit help you. God in His Word is saying that His helper and his consolations are in abundance. His helper and his consolations are in abundance.

I was going to say are enough. That would be right. Maybe that's a more accurate way to say it. It's sufficient. It is sufficient to overwhelm the peace killers in life.

But it's more than sufficient. We have God living in our hearts. We have this mound of treasures. So if we can just zoom out and see eternity, we see light momentary afflictions. When you're up close, they don't feel light and they don't feel momentary.

They feel like the weight of the world and it feels like they will last forever. But that's just lack of perspective, brethren. Zoom out. See eternity. And your afflictions, they're that on the scale of a thousand miles from here.

They're that. Verse 28. And miles from here, they are that. Verse 28. By the way, I have anxieties, I have fears.

I think what the Bible says to me is, repent of your anxieties and repent of your fears. Well, but I'm going to have more anxieties and more fears tomorrow. Well, then you should repent tomorrow. The Christian life is an ongoing life of repentance. We are never done repenting.

So there are people who don't struggle with anxiety or fear very much at all, a little, and then there are those who actually struggle with anxiety and fear a lot. And There are different reasons for that. I'm not saying that the things behind anxieties and fears aren't true. I'm not saying we should just paint a smile on it and act like those things aren't real. I'm saying the counsel of Scripture is that we keep repenting and we keep fixing our eyes on Christ because that gives us the perspective.

So don't let what the Bible says about anxiety and fear give you more anxiety and fear. Imagine how counterproductive that would be. God is a merciful God, and when we come to Him and repent of anxiety and fear, He cleanses us, and He might have to cleanse us again tomorrow. Well, okay! We'll come for cleansing again tomorrow.

So if you struggle mightily with anxiety and fear, I pray that my preaching doesn't increase your anxiety and fear. So now I put another thing on the mound. Now I'm not supposed to be anxious or fear. I'm just trying to say what the text says. Run to Christ is the message for all of us.

Verse 28. Our last verse. Jesus says, you have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, I am going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. In this verse, we have Jesus speaking of returning to the greater.

So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, greater fills in the blanks. Returning to the greater. I believe this is the basic point. If the disciples understood better and loved Jesus more, they would rejoice for Him instead of being troubled or afraid. I'll say that again.

If the disciples understood better what was really happening, and loved Jesus more than they love Him, they would rejoice instead of being troubled or afraid. Now, I want to offer two verses, or two texts, two passages, as lenses through which to see this verse. So I'm getting ready to hand you a pair of glasses. A lens here, which is one passage, and a lens here, which is another passage. And I'm saying, if you want to understand this verse rightly, look through these two texts because I believe they provide explanations that help us.

Arius and his followers, the Arians, use this verse and others that are somewhat like it to argue that Jesus was less than God in the 300s. And that's false teaching, That's heresy that makes the rounds every hundred years. I unceremoniously dismissed a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses from my porch this past week because they're peddling the same false doctrine. Now you say, well you should be polite to them. Well that has its limits.

They want to drag me and my family and my neighbors to hell with them and I don't think I should be overly happy about that, do you? So we should be gentle with the deceived, but your gentleness has to have limits with deceivers. People who come and knock on your door and say, will you go to hell with me?" We have an obligation to warn these people about their souls. So when I say dismiss them unceremoniously, that's all that I mean. I didn't yell at them.

I said, Do you know what it means to be a false teacher? You cannot go to heaven as a false teacher. Okay, where was I? Wow. Two lenses through which to see this verse.

The first is Philippians 2. Turn to Philippians 2. We've been here many times, so we're back here. It's for a different reason this time. Philippians 2 verses 5 through 8 where Paul says, where Paul says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

So arm yourself with Christ Jesus' thinking. Verse 6. Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. So Jesus was in the form of God but he didn't consider it robbery to be equal with God. NASB and ESV render it, did not consider it, did not count equality with God to be a thing to be grasped.

So they render it a little different. Jesus did not consider, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. In other words, though He was God, He was in the form of God, He didn't consider equality something to be held onto at all costs. Paul is getting ready to make the argument that he willingly relinquished that equality in order to take on the form of a servant to die for sinners so that you could be saved. Verse 7, But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." So, Paul here is arguing that Jesus was in the form of God, but He took on the form of a bond servant. He was God, but He took on flesh for a very specific purpose that he would go to the cross and die for sinners so that you didn't have to die in your sins. Rather than holding on what was rightfully his, rather than counting equality with God, a thing to be grasped and held onto, he willingly relinquished the equality of God that was rightfully His in order to save sinners by taking on the form of a bondservant. He willingly submitted himself to the incarnation. So that's lens number one.

Jesus rather than grasping a hold of his equality with God, he relinquished it in order to take on the form of a bond servant so that he could be a man to die for men. The God man to die for men. Now John 17 is the second lens. John 17 is the high priestly prayer, same night, same discourse as we are in. John 17 verse 5, he prays to God.

Excuse me, yes. John 17 verse 5, he prays to his Father. He praised his Father, and now, O Father, glorify me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was." I'll read that again. And now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. Jesus is saying here exactly what Paul was saying in Philippians chapter 2, that he left glory to come do his work.

Now in John chapter 17, he's hours away from going to the cross, he says, now Father, I'm coming home to my glory, to the glory that I shared with you before the world was. Now read verse 28 again. You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said I am going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I." I think the thrust of what Jesus is saying here is that His saving work is done and He is about to resume His rightful place beside His Father in glory. He is in His place of humility, the incarnation, and in humiliating circumstances, even the death of the cross.

All that is about to be over. He is about to resume his rightful place at his Father's side. Now, is there more about the eternal relationship between the father and son in this verse? Possibly, but not certainly. And I don't have the time to develop it, and I don't believe I have the expertise to develop it.

But in any case, I believe it's beside the main point. The main point is that if his disciples loved him, they would be glad that his time of humiliation is over and that his time of exultation has returned. That is the main point. Applications. I have three and twenty seconds to do them in.

Application number one. Act like the Holy Spirit will help you by teaching you and reminding you. Act like the Holy Spirit will help you by teaching you and reminding you. Act like the Holy Spirit will help you by teaching you and reminding you. Why?

Because the Holy Spirit will help you by teaching you and reminding you. It is a promise of Jesus that His Father will send the Holy Spirit in His name to teach us and remind us. What would that look like? That would look like me hovering over my Bible with a conscious expectation that I'll get help in the understanding of His Word. Do you hover over your Bible that way?

I want to encourage you to hover over your Bibles with a conscious expectation, meaning thinking about, God, you promised to help me. Here I am. I'm hovering over my Bible. I'm looking at these words. I don't understand a lot of what I'm reading, you promised help teaching and reminding I need it.

It would look like entering into conversations with confidence. Have you ever had that feeling? Knowing that you should speak with this person about Christ but just feeling so inadequate. I never remember what I need to remember. Well, let's have confidence that Jesus will fulfill His promise, that He indwells the believer, and that He'll put the words in our mouths that we need to say.

He'll teach us, even in that moment, what we need to say. He will remind us of the things that Jesus has said that we need to say to that person. Number two, act like Jesus left us his peace as a gift. Act like Jesus left his peace with us as a gift. Because Jesus left his peace with us as a gift.

Don't let your heart be troubled. You have a helper. Go to the helper. Plead for help. You have a mound of consolations to cheer the heavy heart.

Remind yourself of the treasures, the unsearchable riches of Christ. They are yours. Zoom out so that you can see that these afflictions which look never ending and so heavy are really light momentary afflictions. Number three. Listen to this quote by D.A.

Carson and then number three will be obvious. D.A. Carson says this, to this point the disciples have responded emotionally entirely according to their perception of their own gain or loss. Meaning they're thinking about Jesus' departure in terms of what they will gain or lose. That's why their hearts are so troubled and they are afraid.

If they had loved Jesus, they would have perceived that his departure to his own home was his gain and rejoiced with him at this prospect. As it is, their grief is an index of their self-centeredness. The failure of these first disciples has often been repeated in the history of the Church, and in the history of this preacher, where Christians have been far more alert to their own griefs and sorrows than to the things that bring their master joy. Aha! The disciples say, Don't leave us!

But if I leave you, my work is finished and I resume my place of exaltation. But what about me? What does that mean for me? I know the feeling. Fix your eyes on things above where Christ is.

What brings Him honor? Love those things. What brings Him grief? Be troubled and afraid of those things. The things that trouble Christ's heart.

That grieve Christ's heart. What things bring him joy. Pursue those things. God, thank you for your Word. You know who we are, and we know at least a little of who we are, how prone we are to fix our eyes on ourselves, and to have the source of our joy or grief be so self-centered.

God, I pray that you would help us to break free of that and to find our pleasure in the things that bring you pleasure, bring you joy, and to be grieved by the things that trouble your heart when you look on this sin sick world. I pray that you would help us in Jesus name, Amen.