Introduction

The Holy Spirit is sadly (at least according to JI Packer) 'the Cinderella of Christian doctrine. Very few seem to be interested in it'. With so much controversy surrounding the Spirit and his work in our culture, what we need is to positively teach what the Spirit is doing. Where better to do that than (as Don Carson puts it), the farewell discourse, [where] the Holy Spirit is repeatedly described as the paraklētos - a pregnant expression that gives as much substance to the Spirit’s work amongst believers as any in the New Testament.” This short introductory talk sets up the methodology of the weekend, does some linguistic work on the term paraklētos and gives a brief Bible overview through the lens of the Spirit to orientate ourselves in the book of John.