Posted by: dhkrause | May 12, 2022

Redeemer, Comforter and Lord

In John chapter 3, Jesus declared one of the best-known verses in the Bible:

John 3 (NKJV)

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

1 John 4 further describes this amazing gift of God.

1 John 4 (NKJV)

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

19 We love Him because He first loved us.

Christ went through great pain and died for us, that we might be spiritually born again. He is risen and alive forevermore. He is the resurrected Lord, who by the presence of the Holy Spirit, lives in those who believe in Him. By faith we are born again, transformed from glory to glory, and able to walk in His light, joy and power. God makes all things work together for good in our lives.

Romans 8 (NKJV)

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

The Father sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, and He sent the Holy Spirit in his name to bring guidance, discipline, comfort, joy and blessings, just as a loving mother or father would do. Jesus describes the Person and work of the Holy Spirit in John 14 and 16.

John 14 (NKJV)

Jesus Promises Another Helper

15 “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— 17 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. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

The Gift of His Peace

25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 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. 27 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.

John 16 (NKJV)

The Work of the Holy Spirit

“But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

Led by the Holy Spirit, Paul encouraged his fellow believers to rejoice in the Lord even in the midst of stressful trials.

Philippians 4 (NKJV)

Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.

Be United, Joyful, and in Prayer

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

In Psalm 33, David similarly exhorts God’s people to rejoice in the Lord, especially giving thanks for the goodness of God, His word, and the wonder of His creation.

Psalm 33 (NKJV)
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous!
For praise from the upright is beautiful.

Praise the Lord with the harp;
Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth
.
He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord
.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.

Prophesying of the coming Messiah and Savior, Isaiah declared:

Isaiah 53 (NKJV)

All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Jesus Christ declared the fulfillment of this prophecy in John 10:10-11.

10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”


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