The Promise of the Spirit audio (5MB)
John 14:15-31
It seems to me that there are 2 issues that Christians face today that Jesus addresses here in this passage. The first is the question as to how we’re rating as a Christian. That is are we good enough for God to be happy with us? Are we good enough that God would listen to our prayers? How do you rate as a Christian?
The second issue has to do with how we know what’s the right thing to do; how we decide what we’re to do or say at any one moment.
Last week we saw how John 14 begins with the disciples being faced with just this problem. Jesus has just told them that he’s about to leave them, then he says these words to reassure them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” They’re clearly meant as words of comfort but you can imagine some of them thinking “That’s all very well, but it’s just pie in the sky when you die. I’m worried about what’s going to happen in the next few months when Jesus isn’t here to help us and guide us.” Up until now they’ve hardly done a thing without Jesus being there to direct them, or to correct them. Now they’re going to be on their own. It’s like the first time you’re allowed to take a car out for a drive by yourself; or how I imagine a pilot feels when they’re sent up to fly solo for the first time. The instructor’s not there anymore and everything depends on you.
So Jesus sets out to give them some more reassurance.
“If You Love Me.”
The first bit of reassurance he gives them comes in the form of a proposition: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Notice this isn’t a conditional statement so much as a statement of where they are with him. Those who are worried about how they rate as Christians might well read this as a test. If you keep his commandments you’ll get a good score. But in fact Jesus’ implication is that they do love him. That’s not in question. In the next chapter he’ll point out that he considers them his friends. It’s because they love him that he’s confident they’ll keep his commandments. If you think about it that’s how loving relationships work isn’t it? When we love someone we’re glad to do what pleases them. Our children occasionally need to be disciplined for not doing what they’re told, but mostly they do it, not from fear of punishment but because they love us and they know we love them and so they want to do what we need done.
So there’s the first bit of reassurance. They don’t need Jesus with them physically in order to do what’s right; they’ll do it anyway, just because they love him.
Another Advocate
But then he promises them someone who’ll continue the relationship they have with him. He says “16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
Their hearts don’t need to be troubled at the thought that Jesus is about to leave them, because his presence with them is to be replaced by something far greater. Back in v12 he said: “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” The coming of the Spirit, you see, will empower them in a way that Jesus’ physical presence with them never could. We’ll see how that is in a moment.
But first notice that Jesus says ‘Another’. That is, this will be Jesus’ replacement. And notice how close is the identification of this new advocate with Jesus. Look at v17. He says “You know him, because he abides with you.” Who currently abides with them? It’s Jesus isn’t it? So I think he’s saying that this Spirit who will come to them is actually him but in spiritual form. We need to be careful with our Trinitarian theology here but a few verses on, Jesus explains that both he and the father will come to live within us. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
First notice what the coming of the Spirit will mean for Jesus disciples. First,
He will be in you.
The Spirit’s presence is different from Jesus’ presence in this important way: he dwells within us, forever. And that means that we’ll know him in an intimate way.
Secondly, he says, you will live because Jesus lives. The coming of the Spirit to dwell within us imparts to us in a mystical sense the risen life of Christ. This is why Jesus could say back in Ch12:26 “everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” We’ll all die physically, if Jesus doesn’t return first, but the risen life of Christ that we have through the presence of his Spirit within us can’t be taken away from us. So even though we die, yet will we live.
And thirdly and even more amazingly, the Spirit’s presence within us is in fact the presence of God within us and that presence brings us into the circle of the Trinity. See v23: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” We love Jesus, so the Father loves us, and Jesus loves us. And v20: “20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” This is one of those mind blowing descriptions that John loves. Jesus is in the Father, the Father is in Jesus, we’re in Jesus, Jesus is in us. There’s an intricate interweaving of relationships within the Godhead that we’re drawn into. The Ancient Church fathers described it as the dancing around of the Trinity, three persons, spinning around with such harmony that though you can see there are three involved they appear as a single unit. And here we find that we’re drawn in to that cosmic dance.
It’s like one of those Celtic knot drawings, where everything is interwoven so that what you see is the whole, rather than the individual parts. And it’s like that because with the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, we’re caught up in the mystery of the Godhead. This is one of those things that no-one can ever really explain. How God can be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 3 persons in one God. Yet that’s the mystery into which we’re drawn as God’s Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us.
Notice, by the way, why it is that Jesus says he’ll reveal himself to the disciples in this way, v21. It’s because they love him. There it is again! And the result of them loving him is that they listen to him. They keep his word. There’s a moral element to this, you see, but not as a prerequisite, rather as a result of the love we have for Jesus. A loving child does what their parents ask, not to ingratiate themselves with their parents but out of love for them; because they honour and respect them.
And as a result of the love we have for Jesus, the Father is able to come and dwell within us. On the other hand, those who don’t love Jesus won’t keep his words, and the implication is that the Father won’t come and dwell with them. If you think about it there’s an inherent logic in that isn’t there? How could God possibly dwell in someone who doesn’t love him? Who doesn’t honour him as God?
What about Us?
Well, let’s think about what it means for us that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us?
First of all the Spirit imparts power for God’s service. Back in v12 he says “the one who believes in me will ... do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” What were the works that Jesus did? Well, he healed people, he taught people, he proclaimed the gospel of God’s Kingdom. So presumably, God’s Spirit will empower us too, to do those things. In particular, the Spirit will empower us for the work to which Jesus has called each one of us. For example, telling others about Jesus Christ. When we share the gospel with our friends it’s the Holy Spirit who’ll work in their hearts to convince them of the truth of what we’re telling them.
That’s what he says in v17: the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. In v26 he says: “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.” Later on, in ch16 he’ll talk about how the Holy Spirit will convince the world of sin and righteousness and judgement.
A new way of relating to God
Another thing that the Holy Spirit does is that he reminds us of what Jesus has taught us and so enables us to obey. The Holy Spirit speaks to us, when we need to know what to do and reminds us of God’s words to us. Again, this is the result of that new relationship we just talked about. This is a whole new way of relating to God.
Do you remember how God spoke to people in the Old Testament? There’s Abraham, sitting by his tent and up walk three men. He invites them in and they start giving him a message from God. It turns out they’re angels. Samuel’s asleep in the Temple and he’s woken by what he thinks is Eli, calling his name. But it isn’t Eli. It’s God, speaking to him with a message for Eli and the people of Israel. Gideon’s out threshing wheat in a winepress and up comes an angel to tell him that God wants him to go and rescue Israel. In the Old Testament context, God had to use angels and intermediaries, prophets and priests to warn the people, to instruct them how to live.
But now all that has changed, with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Here’s what God tells us in Jeremiah 31. “34The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”
How is that prophecy fulfilled? By Jesus asking the Father to send the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, to remind us of what Jesus has taught, to bring God’s words back to our minds. We no longer need to wait for a priest to remind us of the law. We no longer have to wait for a prophet to come along and tell us what God wants us to know. We can’t use that excuse any more: “Oh, I didn’t know that was wrong.” No, God now speaks to us directly through his Holy Spirit who dwells within us telling us what he wants us to do.
Peace
And finally, the coming of the Holy Spirit will bring us peace. Not the sort of peace that the world gives. Not a peace that’s transitory or held in place by fear. You know, in Jesus’ day the world was at peace. The so-called pax romana was widely praised, but it was a peace won and maintained at the point of a sword. In our own day, peace is maintained in a shaky sort of way, largely by the force of arms of the USA and NATO, occasionally by Russia or China. But it isn’t a very satisfactory peace is it? As the situation in Syria or Ukraine show, it’s only a limited peace at best. And it certainly doesn’t provide us with peace of mind.
One of the great desires of our day I think is for an inner peace. An inner tranquillity of spirit, not removed from the responsibilities and relationships of the world, but built up and experienced in the midst of it. That’s the sort of peace that Jesus promises us here. It’s a peace born out of a living personal relationship with Jesus himself, deepened through a growing surrender of our lives to the rule of his Holy Spirit, dwelling within.
And it’s a peace based on our faith in Jesus’ promises. How many times has Jesus said something like this in the last few chapters of John?: “29now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.” The faith we have in Jesus’ promises, the peace we have because we believe those promises, is based on solid evidence. Evidence like this, where Jesus warns them beforehand what will happen, so that later they’ll be convinced he’s the real thing.
So, let’s be aware first of all, of how God sees us. That is he sees us as disciples who love Jesus. He sees us as those who have been adopted as his children. From that flows a whole host of consequences. If you’re God’s child, he wants you to speak to him. He wants you to show your dependence on him. He delights in giving you all good things. But it’s more than that even. When God sees us, he sees someone in whom his own Spirit is dwelling. He sees someone who’s truly made in the image of God, in a way that hadn’t been seen since Adam and Eve sinned. He sees his own being reflected in our Spirit.
Secondly we need to be aware that as Christians, prayer is more than just sending a message up to heaven. [This is not like sending an SMS to your kids – never to get a reply!] No, because God’s Holy Spirit dwells within us, when we pray, God is present in our praying. For us, prayer is communicating within the mystery of the Godhead that we talked about earlier. Paul puts it like this: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." (Rom 8:26-27)
The Holy Spirit is given to all who love Jesus Christ, to empower us for his work, to teach us all things, and to give us a real and lasting peace in the knowledge that Jesus has overcome the world. How do you receive that gift of the Holy Spirit? By being one who loves Jesus Christ. How do you know if you’re someone like that? By the way you desire to obey his commands.
Let’s pray now, that God’s Holy Spirit would be present in each of our lives in a real way; that we’d recognise his presence and draw great comfort and peace from it as we enjoy being part of God’s own family.
