Nicene Creed: Article 3, The Holy Spirit

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
John 14:15-31
November 23, 2025

At the beginning of worship: 

Just before the battle of Palo Alto in the Mexican-American War, Captain Jack Hayes supposedly prayed:

      O Lord, we are about to join battle with vastly superior numbers of the enemy, and Heavenly Father, we would mightily like you to be on our side and help us.  But if you can’t do it, for Christ’s sake, don’t go over to the Mexicans, just lie low and keep in the dark, and you will see one the of the dangest fights you’ve ever seen on this earth. Amen.^[1]

We should remember we’re called to be on God’s side, not to win God over to our side! And God is by our side (maybe not in the way Captain Hayes desired), but God is there as an advocate and friend. And God can remain on both sides.^[2] The Almighty is larger than earthly conflicts.

Before reading the Scripture:

Today I’ll finish my series on the Nicene Creed. When the Council of Nicene broke up in 325 AD, the third article of the creed simply said, “We believe in the Holy Spirit.” As I have indicated, the primary conflict 1700 years ago centered around Jesus and if he was God. Future councils felt that just as Jesus Christ is God, so is the Spirit. They expanded the third article to indicate that the Spirit is also God. 

God’s Spirit gives us life. We see this in the garden when Adam was created. The spirit gives us the breath of life. It also provides life to the church. In line with this, the third article of the Creed addresses the church as well as our hope in the future. 

I have made a point through the sermons to highlight how the Creed serves as the unifying document of all Christianity: Protestants and Roman Catholics as well as Orthodox and Coptic Christians. However, there is one slight difference between those of us in the West (Protestant and Roman Catholics) and those in the East. It has to do with one line where we say that the Spirit descends from the Father and the Son. Eastern Churches say he only descends from the Father. 

This change occurred in a Council in Toledo in the 6^th Century. Unlike the Council of Nicaea and Constantinople in the 4^thCentury, this Council didn’t include all Christendom, which is why it’s not accepted by the Eastern Churches.^[3]

Today, we’re following the passage from which I preached on two weeks ago, which if you remember took place around the table on the last night Jesus was with his disciples before the crucifixion. Here, Jesus builds on what he has already covered. Two weeks ago, we learned of Christ’s co-eternal existence with the Father. Last week, we focused on God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ. In this week’s text, we see that Jesus sweetens the deal with the promise that he’ll also be with us, here, on earth 

This week, we’ll learn that the disciples (and this includes all of us) are to be incarnational witnesses to the world as we too are brought into this relationship. God, through the Spirit, comes from the Father at the request of the Son, and resides in believers. This incarnation—God being with us—allows us to be about the work of Christ.  

Finally, this passage that I’m about to read provides the underpinnings for the doctrine of the Trinity, with the teachings of the Spirit which proceeds from the Father and the Son.^[4] Within this passage, we’ll also hear the first two of five teachings from Jesus on the coming on the Spirit as told by John in his gospel.^[5]This is an important promise, as John emphasizes by quoting Jesus in numerous places speaking about it. Without God’s Spirit, we’d be lost! 

Read John 14:15-31

A true friend is one who sticks with us, regardless of our hair-brained ideas. Most of us, at best, have only a few such friends. But thankfully, when others fail us, Jesus promises us his presence. The promise expands Jesus implies this mystical union in which God is with us, by us, and in us. This presence we’re promised is the kind of friend who will never abandon us. It is also the kind of presence which offers us advice if we are willing to ask and listen, which will hopefully keep us from participating in hair-brained ideas.

“I will not leave you orphaned,” Jesus says. In the ancient world (and in many places today without government safety nets), to be orphaned is to be extremely vulnerable. Orphaned children in places like Southeast Asia often end up in horrific situations such as prostitution. To be orphaned is a scary proposition. This is why the Old Testament repeatedly demands the nation of Israel to care for the orphan, widow, and foreigner in their midst.^[6] And when they don’t care for the orphan, they’re condemned.^[7] To be orphan leaves you with no advocate. 

God insists his people watch out for those who are vulnerable. It is scary to be alone. Being an orphan isn’t just something experienced by children whose parents have died. Middle aged men who have lost their jobs as factories close and are too old to be retrained in a new field are like orphans. Those abandoned by their spouse or lover and left with young children are like orphans. The elderly, when their spouse dies and their children all live on the other side of the country or globe are like orphans.^[8]

We identify with the pain of each situation. Thankfully, Jesus promises his presence. At the same time, we should befriend the orphans around us because we know what God has done for us!

Now let’s go to the beginning of our text today. Jesus starts out with a promise that if we keep his commandments, he will send us a companion. What commandment is he referring to, we might wonder? Is it the commandment to love? Or is it the Ten Commandments. Elsewhere in Scripture, the term translated as “to keep” or “to fulfill the commandments” is used for the Ten Commandments and the word here for commandment is plural, indicating there are more than one of them.^[9]  

However, Jesus spent this evening encouraging the disciples to let themselves be loved by God. If you remember, before dinner, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet as a visual example of his devotion and love.^[10] Because they are loved by God, they should love one another and to share that love with those who do not yet know the Father.^[11] Jesus isn’t saying we must follow a bunch of rules. Instead, he invites us into a community of love.  

If we love Jesus, he promises the Father will send us an Advocate, a companion, a friend, someone to always be with us. The Greek word here, translated as the Advocate, literally means “the One Called Alongside.” Other translations use “the Helper,” the Counselor” or “the Comforter,” all which capture a part of the meaning. This one who comes alongside is like a true friend, who will be there in an emergency, who will help us and vouch for our character.^[12]

In verse 17, Jesus identifies this companion as the “Spirit of Truth.” Earlier in this chapter, in verse 6, Jesus referred to himself as the “Truth.” This is an example of how this passage is referring to the interworking of the Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Spirit, works together in a unity beyond our comprehension. 

We see this line of thought continue in verse 18, which we’ve already looked at when I referred to us not being orphaned. Jesus promises to come back, but not in the way the disciples (and we) may desire. This isn’t a passage about the end times, but about the ongoing life of a Christ’s followers. Instead, Jesus continues in verse 19 to hint that the world may not see him, but those who love him and keep his commandments will. This will result in our knowing for sure that he and the Father exist in each other. In addition, and in an incarnational way, they also remain within the faithful. 

This is way too much for the good Judas… I wonder if he changed his name after the bad Judas betrayed Jesus? John distinguished the good Judas from Judas Iscariot. The latter had already left the table to arrange Jesus’ betrayal.^[13] Understandably, this Judas doesn’t understand Jesus. Attempting to explain in detail, Jesus speaks of how we, through love, are brought into an intimate working relationship with God. God loves us and we receive such love by obeying Jesus and sharing his love.

We’re to be true to our Savior, to follow him. But let me go off a bit from our text and remind us that although we’re to obey Christ and to do Christ’s work in the world, we need to remember we’re not in charge of the world. If we forget this, we take on too much of a burden and will quickly burn ourselves out. Yes, we love the world, but we’re not here to save it. We’re here to follow Jesus and to show his love and be grateful. Saving the world is God’s business.

In The World is not Ours to Save, the author, who worked for nuclear disarmament, speaks about the time he heard God speak to him. He attended a major disarmament conference at a hotel in San Francisco. There was a lot going on and he stepped into a stairwell to escape, to think, and to catch his breath. There he heard God’s calming voice: “The world is not yours, not to save or to damn. Only serve the one whose it is.”^[14] We, too, have such a calling.

Jesus closes our passage anxious about what will happen soon. He’s going to meet the “ruler of this world. And it’ll look like Jesus lost on Friday afternoon, but come resurrection Sunday, we learn of God’s true love for the world. Jesus’ words given on the night of his betrayal continue to provide us hope and encouragement. But more importantly, it’s through the promised Spirit, we experience God’s presence.  Amen. 

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^[1] This was from a speech by Marjorie Thompson as the Montreat Spirituality Conference, as retold by John Salmon of Portland, OR.  

^[2] Abraham Lincoln made this point in his second inaugural address: “The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”

^[3] There is more behind this “filioque” clause. See Phillip Cary, The Nicene Creed: An Introduction (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2023), 185f. 

^[4] Presbyterian Church (USA) Book of Confessions, “The Nicene Creed” 1.3

^[5] See John 15:26, 16:7-11 and 16:12-15.

^[6] Examples:  Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18,  24:17-21, 27:19; Psalm 10:18, 82:3, 146:9; Isaiah 1:17, 1:23; Jeremiah 5:28, 7:6, 22:3; Ezekiel 22:7; Zechariah 7:10; Malachi 3:5

^[7] See Isiaah 1:23, 102 and Jeremiah 7:6. 

^[8]The expanded meaning of orphans came from a sermon by Less Griess, “Always With Us”  from Sermons On the Gospel Readings, Series II, Cycle A,  found at http://www.sermonsuite.com/freebk.php?i=788036753&key=shtqt1bmwEFq5zne in October 2014.

^[9] Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XII-XXI (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970), 638.

^[10] John 13:1-11

^[11] Frederick Dale Bruner,  The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 836

^[12] Bruner, 834.

^[13] John 13:30

^[14] Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, The World is Not Ours to Save: Finding the Freedom to Do Good (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2013), 18.