Another Helper—Just Like Jesus
David W Palmer
(John 14:15–16 NKJV) “If you love Me, keep My commandments. {16} And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.”
Yesterday, we looked at Jesus’s first statement from this passage: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Or, it could be translated and expanded to mean: “If you keep on loving me, you will keep my authoritative prescriptions—the instructions I prescribe for you to keep you safe, eternally.”
Then we see that his next statement follows on with the word, “and”—implying that if we keep the first condition, he will add the second—a promised outcome or consequence: “… and I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper.”
If Jesus promises “another” Helper, naturally we wonder, “Who is the first Helper?” In the original language, it means another Helper of the same kind. Is Jesus the first Helper, implying that the one Father will send will be just like Jesus? In his first letter, John clarified this for us; he said that Jesus was, and indeed still is, our helper, or advocate:
(1 John 2:1 BSB) “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”
The word, “advocate,” comes from the Greek word, paraclete; it means helper, advocate with the Father, stand-by, intercessor. So Jesus describes both the Holy Spirit and himself with this word.
Jesus spent his time on earth—as described in the gospels—in a body that had only two legs and two arms. But now, because Father has sent the Holy Spirit at Jesus’s request; he can operate in a physical body that has millions of legs, arms, hands, and feet. How? Because the Holy Spirit can be in all places at the one time; he can fill limitless people, and operate in unending ways and power.
This explains how Jesus was able to multiply his life, character, calling, and ministry on earth through his twelve apprentices; and then through all of those who would follow him through their ministries. The Holy Spirit would operate in and through them in the same way Jesus had operated when he was with them prior to his ascension.
This spiritual empowerment was prefigured and illustrated through Moses and his ministry. After leading God’s people out of Egypt, Moses encountered his father-in-law, Jethro. When Jethro witnessed all the counseling and ministry work that Moses was undertaking, he suggested that doing it alone would wear out Moses as well as the people he was leading. That was true. However, Jethro then gave Moses some advice:
(Exodus 18:21–24 NKJV) “Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. {22} And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. {23} If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.” {24} So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
Jethro suggested choosing men who were “able”—in other words, they were chosen on ability not heart—and making them “rulers”—not shepherds, fathers, or even leaders. What would Moses do? Jethro did add, “If … God so commands you.” But we don’t read that God was commanding Moses to do this; it simply says, “So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.” We don’t read that Moses checked this with God; he simply took the managerial advice of his father-in-law, not God. What was the result? Some time after implementing this, we read Moses prayer to God:
(Numbers 11:14–15 NKJV)
