We have been doing a series of messages from the Gospel of John and today we are in John 14. In the beginning of this chapter, Jesus had just finished telling them that He is the only way, the only truth, and the only life and that the Father has been working through Him to accomplish His work and His will. He had also told them that one day, they would do even greater works to accomplish His Father’s work and will because He was going away to be with the Father.
In these last few hours before He is crucified Jesus is preparing the disciples for the inevitable and in John 14:1-14, the disciples were now filled with fear. Jesus is leaving us and how are we supposed to carry on the work without Him? He’s asking us to do the impossible. But Jesus challenges them to stay close to Him and assures them that He will send someone to help them on their journey after He’s gone. Let's open to Jn 14:15-31.
15“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; 17 the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. 19 After a little while, the world no longer is going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you. 21 The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) *said to Him, “Lord, what has happened that You are going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him. 24 The one who does not love Me does not follow 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 remaining with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you. 27 Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful. 28 You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, 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 regard to Me, 31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let’s go from here.
Jesus promises them here that they will not have to go through life alone, that they would never be alone. If they were going to follow Him and be able to do even greater works, even as times got tougher - they would need the:
Spirit of Truth
Spirit’s Power
Jesus Peace
Let’s look at the first aspect of the Holy Spirit as the:
Spirit of Truth
3 times in this passage in John 14 Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep My commandments. Jesus was going away, and His disciples were freaking out. They are fearful and anxious about being abandoned, left alone to fend for themselves, and try to accomplish the impossible without Him. If they were going to keep His commandments which included washing each other’s feet, loving each other as He had loved them, and for the Father to continue to do His work through them they would need to: 1. Stick together, in community, and 2. Wholly depend upon the Lord for their strength.
Jesus promised them that they would never be alone. When I speak about being alone, I am not referring to having personal time to rest and recharge. There’s nothing wrong with being “alone” where you are physically by yourself. And all of us need downtime, alone-time, but there is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Being “lonely” is an emotional state where you are feeling alone or disconnected from others – and that can happen even when people are right next to you. Jesus promised that the Spirit of Truth would personally and specifically speak what God wanted to say to them. He would be the means of Jesus' presence within them. He would guide them and enable them to find God’s will and teach them how to live according to God’s truth. His Spirit would be in them, comforting and strengthening them not just for a period of time but forever.
That is precisely why Jesus was going to send this other Person to them, a Person of the very same essence of God the Father and God the Son. Who is this Person? He is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. This Advocate, Comforter, Intercessor, Counselor, Strengthener would walk with them and never leave them. He would be with them just as Jesus was but indwell and empower and enable them to fulfill these commandments.
The Spirit of Truth didn’t come to bring any new revelation but to elucidate - clarify, explain, illuminate the truth that Jesus had already spoken to persuade His followers of the truth and bring conviction. The Holy Spirit, or Spirit of Truth is a Person, not a nebulous impersonal force who draws people or points them to Jesus. Jesus is telling them that the Spirit of Truth will not only come and live in their hearts but open up their understanding of the Scriptures and transform their lives. He is the One who will pour the love of God’s into their hearts, He will fill the desolate places. They would recognize Him because His nature is truth, in v. 17, He would be with them and live inside of them.
But this world system or Kosmos won’t recognize Him because this world system is hostile towards God’s truth. This world order can’t receive the Spirit of Truth because it has its own truths and priorities and consists of people whose beliefs, values, and morals are in opposition to and rebellion against God’s ways. The goals and objectives of “the world” are in direct contrast to God’s goals. This world system does not see people as made in the image of God, to glorify God. The world system is god, they think they define ultimate reality, what is right and wrong etc. That is why John warned them not to get caught up in the love of the world, because the things that the world loves are so transient and eventually will all pass away.
There are so many world views how then can we discern which way is right, this would be impossible without the Spirit of truth. They would not only need the spirit of truth but also experience the:
Spirit’s Power
It wasn’t until the book of Acts that the disciples were empowered by the Holy Spirit and then we see the transformation from being fearful, timid, disciples to courageous followers of Christ who were proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection with boldness and great power.
What does it mean to experience the Holy Spirit today? First, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, He makes us conscious of the presence of the Lord and His Word, conscious of God’s love for us and who we are in Him, conscious of our new identity in Christ and our place in the body of Christ. The Spirit of Truth illuminates to our minds what Jesus taught, all that we have in Christ, and how we were designed to live. As we pray and delve into God’s Word and ask Him to continually fill us, we get to know His voice, His nature and His will as He leads us into truth. We learn to discern the difference between what thoughts come from God and what comes from this world, what is right and wrong, life and death. We will have the power to discern the Devil's lies and stand against his schemes.
Acts 1:8 tells us that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes and you will be My witnesses throughout the world. The only way the church can carry out the Lord’s will is by the Spirit’s power. The church is the continuation of the Lord’s presence and ministry in the world. It is within the church that the Spirit’s power is manifested or expressed to one another through the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit.
But there are times when we as Christians do not live Spirit -filled lives, the Spirit is in with us and in us, but we grieve Him. How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? We grieve Him when we speak vulgar or abusive language, when we live in unforgiveness or seek revenge, when we speak behind a friend’s back, when we lie to others or disparage them, when we excuse what we know to be sin. The Spirit will never empower us to live this way, our Christian experience will not be one of joy but sorrow and heaviness of heart. As Charles Spurgeon said, when the Holy Spirit is grieved, He suspends His instruction, suspends His comfort, and suspends His operations. We lose all spiritual power until we repent.
Without the Spirit filling our lives there is no power to overcome temptation, no light to discern right from wrong, no power to love or to forgive, no power to get up when we fall, no power nor desire to follow Him, no love, no peace, no joy to strengthen us. Without the Spirit’s power, ministry becomes ineffective and fruitless, and our relationships and endeavors empty.
So when the Spirit of God speaks truth and brings light and loving conviction and correction to these areas, know that it is to restore our relationship to Him. He wants us to respond. It only takes turning back to the Lord, confessing our sin to Him, allowing Him to cleanse us, and receiving His forgiveness.
The disciples (v. 18) didn’t quite have the understanding of what it meant to have the Spirit within and to experience His power. Despite their fear and anxiety Jesus would not leave the disciples to battle their way through the world alone. There are times when we don’t understand what it means to follow the Lord, times when we struggle in our relationship with Jesus, we don’t grasp His grace or understand the depth of His love – even in those times Jesus will not leave us not forsake us.
We see in v. 22 that Judas is asking Jesus why He would only reveal Himself to them and not to the whole world. But Jesus doesn’t answer Judas directly and instead tells him and the disciples to keep His commands to love and serve each other. In doing so, He will be revealed through them. Are we understanding this? When we truly love God and each other, when we express the same love, patience, and forgiveness to others that we have received, people will see we are His disciples. Jesus’ life will be revealed through us.
These disciples had been through a lot together with Jesus, they had followed Him, they had experienced His love for them and they loved Him. And their love for Him was their motivation to be faithful to Him, to trust and obey Him even when they are going through some difficult times. There was no question about their genuine love for Him.
I have found the more we follow Him, the better we know Him, the better we know Him the more we love Him, and the more we love Him the more we follow Him. How are we to truly manifest the love of God, the Spirit’s power to our families, our friends, and neighbors? By following Him and by being continually filled with and empowered by the Spirit’s power. Jesus is saying - You will manifest the love I have for you to the world when you love one another, when you wash each other's feet. It is through the Spirit’s presence and power you and I will experience, the third point in this passage, the (SL)
Jesus' Peace
Jesus said, (SL)
Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful.
Jesus wanted them to be so connected with Him, to really know and see the heart of the Father that He gave the the Spirit of Truth, who reminds them of all the things Jesus taught, and empower them for His work and to know that He is with them and in them forever, you never have to be disconnected, you never have to be alone, that God is actively involved in Hos creation and in control. Can you imagine Jesus was giving them His peace, the peace that He has within Himself. This same promise is given to us. Jesus wants us to be so connected to Him in this way – that His peace protects our minds and hearts against the invasion of anxiety (Phil. 4:7). His peace comes from the assurance that the Holy Spirit is always with us and in us even in the greatest of storms. No other person, no government, no other religion or philosophical premise, could give us this peace. Later in John 16, Jesus said:
“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect peace. In the world you will have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.
His peace flows in the midst of persecution, trouble, disappointment, confusion, and anxiety. Jesus recognizes that He would not always remove you from the challenging situations of life. He never promised to do that. What he did promise is that in spite of turbulent situations in life, He will be with you and give you His peace.
There was a movie that came out a few years ago based on a true story from 1952, described as the greatest small boat rescue in coast guard history. The storm was of such gale force off the coast of Cape Cod that two oil tankers were actually split in half. In impossible, freezing, hurricane weather conditions, with 60-feet (20 meters high) waves a tiny coast guard boat, equipped with life jackets and a compass was sent out at night with just a small crew of ordinary guys for a search and rescue. Long story short, they lost their compass in the storm but were somehow still able to find the tanker in the dark, and rescue 32 survivors on a boat made for 12 people.
In the real story, coast guard officer, Bernard Webber, viewed the rescue as divine providence. He felt that God had a guiding hand that night, that God’s presence was with them, and that this was the reason why God wanted him in the coast guard. He said that in order to stay focused and to calm their nerves they sang, Rock of Ages, which ends with, “And while I draw my final breath, I’ll rest upon your grace. And when I close my eyes in death, I’ll awake to see your face.” If was God presence, His assurance in the midst of their storm that gave them peace.
The author of the book, wrote in so many words, that when ordinary people give selflessly of themselves to others, God can use them in the most extraordinary way.
How can we, as ordinary people, accomplish any task, great or small? How can we make through any storm, great or small, unless the Spirit of Truth is in us, empowering us, and giving us His peace? How can we live in a way that glorifies God in our present situation, how can we love our spouses and our children the way God called us to? How will we ever accomplish God’s will unless the Holy Spirit fills us, empowers us and guides us? It is impossible. But through the Spirit of God, He makes the impossible possible.
There is no way we can expand our tents, lengthen our cords and strengthen the tent pegs without being filled with the Spirit of God, without His truth, His power and His peace. We were never created to do anything on our own and He calls us to do the impossible because He is the God who makes the impossible possible.
