Have you ever been on a spiral staircase? When we lived in Lancaster we would often visit Prospect Mountain where there was a stone tower about 45-50 feet high. You could go in a door at the bottom of the tower and climb up a spiral stair to the top and look out on a panoramic view of the mountains. It was spectacular. The climb up was interesting too. You would go around and around but at every circle you are higher even though everything looked the same. Each circle would take you to a new level.
John’s gospel is written like that too. Jesus says things over and over that sound alike, but each statement brings you to a new level of understanding as the words take you deeper into the mind of Christ.
In chapters 13-16 of John certain themes reoccur: Love, obedience, the Holy Spirit, Jesus relationship to the disciples and to the Father. Each time we meet these themes we are at a deeper level.
John 14 ends where Jesus and his disciples have finished the Passover feast and are leaving to go to the Mount of Olives where Jesus will pray and be betrayed by Judas. John shares what Jesus told them on the way in chapters 15-16. Lets sum up this section that began in chapter 13. Back in 13, Jesus washed their feet and invited them to imitate his example by serving each other. Jesus gives them a new command and tells them that loving one another will be the benchmark of their discipleship. Then Jesus tells them that one of them is a betrayer. Judas is indicated as the betrayer when Jesus gives him a piece of bread. He leaves and goes out to betray Jesus. Jesus knows the time is short.
Jesus tells them he will go away and they can’t follow him. Peter objects. He declares his loyalty and willingness to die for Jesus. Jesus replies, “Peter, you will deny that you know me three times before morning.”
Chapter 14: Jesus immediately offers comforting words. He is going to prepare a place for his disciples in the house of God, the Father. Here Jesus makes 2 outstanding claims:
1. I am the way the truth and the life, the only way to God, and
2. If you have seen me you have seen the Father.
Then he makes 2 promises:
1. Jesus promises not to leave them as orphans.
2. He promises to send the Holy Spirit.
In Chapter 14 Jesus instructions involve responses to 3 disciples, Thomas, Philip, and Judas, (not Iscariot). Who is this Judas? Luke 6:16 calls him Judas son of James. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddaeus.
Anyone who reads the gospel accounts sees the similarity between Matthew, Mark and Luke. Then comes John with a totally different style. He tells brand new things about Jesus. Even the wording when Jesus speaks is different. John seems less concerned about exact words and more concerned with the impact of the message.
This reveals something about inspiration of scripture. Even the style of scripture is inspired by God.
I remember going to an art museum with a friend in Memphis, TN in 1977. I’m not an artist, but this guy was incredible with oil and canvas. We were walking through looking at the art works there and Ken would walk up and stick his face so close to the paintings it looked like his nose would almost touch it. I asked him if he had eye problems and he laughed and invited me to look closer at the paint. He said, when you look closely you will see the way the artist applied the paint. I just thought you got a brush and a few colored paints and went at it. Ken noticed that sometimes for effect the artist would do all kinds of things. Scrape with a stylus, scratch with a knife, sometimes twisting the brush or jabbing it straight on… Some even take the handle of their brush and make marks with it. Ken said, “This is not just a picture, it’s a work of art where the artist leaves some of himself in the work.”
How true this is about God’s word! He leaves some of himself in the very words and style.
Lets look at the end of John 14 now. I want us to start with verse 15:
15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.
18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 "After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also.
20 "In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him."
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?"
23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.
24 "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
25 "These things I have spoken to you, while abiding 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 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, nor let it be fearful.
28 "You heard that I said to you, ’I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.
29 "And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it comes to pass, you may believe.
30 "I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me;
31 but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
Jesus talks about loving him and being obedient, then he speaks about the Holy Spirit and again speaks about love and obedience. Judas or Thaddeaus asks Jesus a question and again we have Jesus speaking on love and obeying, the Holy Spirit, and love and obedience again.
Loving Jesus and obeying his commands are inseparable. Even Jesus practiced this rule. There is also a connection between love, obedience and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. They are of one cloth. In John’s gospel Jesus commands us to do two great things:
1. To believe in His name: The word of God who gives life and light to the world, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the Holy Spirit anointed Son of God who is the promised Messiah and seed of David, the Bread of Life who satisfies our spiritual hunger, the Light of the world who opens our eyes and shows us God’s grace and truth, the Gate who protects us from the enemy, the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for us, the Resurrection and the Life who defeats death, the Way, the Truth, and the Life who is the only way to God the Father… and we will see more later in John’s gospel.
2. To love each other: Just as he has loved us, by sacrificial service and directing each other to God.
He reminds us again that these words are not his but God’s words. Anyone who loves Jesus is going to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and is going to demonstrate that faith in love for others. The Holy Spirit comes and dwells in the disciples. He brings with Him the presence of the Father and Jesus. Anyone who does not love Jesus is not going to do what he says, and forfeits the blessing of the Holy Spirit’s work in his life.
Next Jesus tells us how the Holy Spirit works in the disciples to bring to mind the teachings of Jesus. Again this is conditioned by love and obedience.
So what is Jesus teaching here about the Holy Spirit?
What is he teaching us about love?
What about obeying his words?
Can you see that all these are woven together here?
Jesus closes with his own obedience as an example. The words, the works, and the Holy Spirit’s presence, these are all like the spiral staircase of John or the marks on the canvas of his gospel.
We need to apply these words to ourselves. Do you have the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life. Peter said in Acts 5:32 "And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him."
God gives us his Spirit as a gift when we love Jesus and obey his words. Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39
"For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself."
I know I have skipped from John to Acts here. But the message is the same and the Author or the Book leads us up the stairway to glory. You are invited to come.
