JOHN 14:25-31 (ESV) HOLY SPIRIT, REJOICE, SATAN


25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still 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 have said to you.”

Can you imagine spending three years listening to Jesus teach and then trying to recall just the most important details? If you have ever taken notes in a class or during a sermon and then went back to try to understand the main point but couldn’t read your own handwriting, then you are in good company. Maybe you could read it, but it just didn’t make sense. The Gospels were not the notes of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John while Jesus taught them. Mark was not even in the inner circle of the disciples. Luke was a Greek and didn’t even know Jesus in the flesh though he may have been one of the Greeks who wanted to see him in John 12:20-22 (just speculation). The earliest estimates believe Mathew was the first Gospel and it was written in AD 41. That is eight years after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. Now, try to imagine going back eight years or more and trying to piece together the major points of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth.

I’ve been told that in those days, a Rabbi would speak as they walked along with his disciples following him. They were required to memorize everything he said. Try taking notes and walk too! Regardless of what they were supposed to be able to do, God wasn’t going to entrust the words of Christ to the memories of fallen people. That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. He is going to help the disciples. He isn’t just going to help them just remember, but he will lead them in telling us the things Jesus said which are of the greatest importance. This should be obvious because three years of Jesus’ teaching certainly isn’t completely recoded in the Gospels.

What is even more important is that there is one Apostle, Judas, who is now missing. Was Jesus’ disciple, Matthias present at all the teaching? No, and as matter of fact, neither was Matthew. Several times, Jesus took Peter, John, and James aside such as on the mountain of transfiguration. Even more striking is the testimony of Paul, the Apostle chosen by Jesus himself. “For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:11-12 ESV). This just points out that the Holy Spirit does so much more than helping the disciples remember what Jesus taught but he also teaches and reveals God’s word through Jesus Christ to the writers of the New Testament.

Some even say that the Holy Spirit continues to teach us new revelations. To that I say, revelations from God have ceased! Let me explain from Scripture. You see, Hebrews 1:1-2 says, "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" (ESV). Long ago, the prophets spoke the very words of God especially when they said, "Thus says the Lord." Then there was nothing for about 400 years. Then Jesus came and said in John 12:49, "For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak" (ESV). The book of Revelation is Jesus' last verbal and visual revelations. Now, the Bible is finished. There is nothing to add. And that's what I mean by saying revelations have ceased. There is no more revelation from God about how we must be saved. There is no more revelation concerning the sinfulness of people and our need for a Savior. There is no more to say about Jesus' return and eternity. It is all in the Bible. We don't need new prophets or Popes or anyone else to add to the Bible. Deuteronomy 4:2, Proverbs 30:6, and Revelation 22:18 all warn us not to add to God's Word. Yes, we need people who can preach the Word, encourage, and rebuke. But no one or no thing must add to the Word.

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 hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

The world has its expectations of what peace means. The United Nations has an inscription on one of its walls from Isaiah 2:4, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” This is the concept of the world’s peace. No more war. Unfortunately, they didn’t include the first half of the verse, “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and …” There can be no peace until our God returns and brings his judgment upon the earth to rebuke and enable no more war.

What Jesus gives us is peace with God, first and foremost. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1 ESV). Whatever the world does, it can never give us peace with God. All religions promise something beyond this world and sometimes peace in our souls only if we are good at doing what they say. Other religions’ peace can never be truly achieved because you will never know for sure that you have done enough. Jesus’ peace with God is based on Jesus’ promise and his work on the cross. It has nothing to do with how much we work at it.

The peace that we have through Jesus Christ is beyond understanding. When circumstances say we should not have peace, we can still have Jesus’ peace. We are told in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (NIV). This peace does have a condition. That condition is to pray, and those prayers are to include thanksgiving.

In the same way that we have a condition on the peace that comes from prayer, we also need do something to experience the peace of Christ. We already have his peace with God, but we don’t always experience it because we let our hearts continue to be troubled. This also applies to the peace that passes understanding. We can pray and still be anxious because we are letting our hearts stay troubled. We are not making a choice to not be afraid.

28 “You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”

When a loved one says he is going away for a good reason, for his benefit, it suddenly becomes all about us. We are going to be lonely. We are going to have to do things without him. How will I manage when you are gone? We may rejoice but it is usually a grudging rejoicing. If we really love this person, we should have an unrestrained joy for his great fortune.

When we see a loved one at the point of death, we should rejoice if he knows the Lord because he will be going to be with Jesus and the Father. We often see people who have a terminal illness and are rip roaring and ready to go to be with Jesus. Among their family members we also find some who just know that God is going to heal them. They are insisting that they go to this specialist or know of a miracle treatment that will save them. This happens because they are not sure of their own salvation or the promises of God. It happens out of sheer selfishness; they don’t want to be away from this person. We should carefully consider why we act this way.

Someone could look at Jesus’ statement that the Father is greater than him and conclude that Jesus is a lesser being than the Father. However, to do that is to take this out of context. The greater context is that Jesus has expressed the way the Trinity has worked together. The Father sends Jesus and in Hebrew thought, the one sending is greater than the one sent. This greaterness is in the authority structure of the Trinity, not in the power or wisdom or any other attributes of God since all members of the Trinity have the attributes of God.

29 “And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.”

Jesus has explained all this including several announcements of his pending death, burial, and resurrection. Yet, his disciples have never gained a meaningful understanding of any of it. Yet he is so considerate of their feelings that he tries to help them understand. They didn’t believe when he was arrested, they didn’t believe when he was crucified, and they didn’t believe when he was resurrected until he appeared directly to them. They still didn’t get it just before his ascension when they wanted to know if he would restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6). The great thing is that Jesus didn’t give up and eventually, they did believe. It’s the same with many of us. Jesus is patient and knows exactly when and where to save us.

30 “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.”

Jesus’ short talk spans three chapters in John’s Gospel. What is coming is some of Jesus’ most important teaching as well as his prayer for all believers down through history. But this is only a short time compared to his previous three years of ministry. There isn’t much time and the ruler of this world, Satan, is coming to make his last-ditch attempt to prevent Jesus from completing his mission. So Jesus is going to talk quickly and as some preachers say, we need to listen quicker.

Jesus has now lived for about thirty-three years on earth and has never sinned. The devil can’t accuse him of any violations of God’s law. Plain and simple, Jesus has obeyed all that the Father has had him do up to this point. If Satan could mess him up at this last time, then it would be game over for Jesus and our salvation would have been lost. But Jesus’ love for the Father is going to be stronger than Satan’s desire to destroy Jesus. It is now time for Jesus to make sure the final confrontation with Satan occurs at the time provided. So, he leaves the upper room to take the journey to Gethsemane and all that follows.

JOHN 14:15-24 (NASU) HELPER, KEEP JESUS’ COMMANDMENTS


15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

The NASU sets the verse apart from the previous passage and the following passage as if it were a standalone statement. It also provides a paragraph heading after the verse which makes it appear to be part of the previous passage where Jesus says, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” (NASU). Most other versions connect it with the following verses with the word, “and” preceding verse 16 . If indeed this verse belongs to the previous passage, then it would be a qualifier for asking for things in Jesus’ name. We wouldn’t make any requests that are outside of his commands or our love for him. That doesn’t bode well for many of our prayers. We are generally too involved in self-love and not very conversant with his commands.

However, if the verse belongs to the following verses, then it must speak in some way of the Holy Spirit coming to us. Indeed, the better translation is to include the word “and” because the word, kago, is translate in other verses as either “and I” or “I also.”[1]

 This now implies that sending the Holy Spirit is conditional. If this is true, then loving Jesus and keeping his commandments must be an essential demonstration of true salvation. If we were to examine many who claim to love Jesus and find that their lives don’t live up to his commands, then it would be an indicate that they are not truly saved. On the other hand, if we see someone who meticulously obeys Jesus’ commands but doesn’t show any outward signs of love of Jesus, we can expect that they would fall under Jesus’s condemnation written to the Ephesian church, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Rev 2:4 ESV). One without the other is a sure sign that something is wrong in one who claims to be a Christian.

In fact, Jesus will clarify and expand on this topic. Loving Jesus and obedience to his commands are the subject of rest of this passage.

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 see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” (And is not in the NASU.)

The Holy Spirit is called in this passage another Helper. Other versions call him Advocate, Comforter, or Counselor. The Greek word is parakletos, which is defined as, “called to one's aid in a judicial cause … an advocate, pleader, intercessor; a friend of the accused person, called to speak to his character, or otherwise enlist sympathy in his favour.”[2]

When we are in trouble, when we are attacked by temptations or trials, the Holy Spirit is with us. The Greek word comes from two words, para, which is to come along side, as is used for paramedics. Kletos, is to be called or appointed. This is a fitting way to describe the Holy Spirit as Jesus will call him to come alongside of us. The best part of this is that he will be with us forever.

As we look back at the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit didn’t reside in people. He rushed upon Samson (Judg 14:6, 19, 15:14). But he didn’t even realize it when the Holy Spirit left him (Judg 16:20). The Holy Spirit also rushed on Saul in 1 Samuel 10:10, 11:6. Then, an evil spirit rushed on Saul in 1 Samuel 18:10 and the Lord departed from him (1 Sam 18:12). Both men had tasted the goodness of the Lord by the Holy Spirit, but their disobedience and arrogance cost them the very presence of the Lord. I cautiously say they both tasted of the goodness of the Lord because the Holy Spirit didn’t reside in them permanently. People today can “taste” of the goodness of God, but not be saved.

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (Heb 6:4-6 ESV)

This certainly describes Saul. To his dying day, he didn’t express any repentance for his sinful attitudes and behavior that he exhibited during his reign. It describes churchgoers who live seemingly good lives but have never yielded their lives to the lordship of Jesus. In contrast to this Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever. Paul expressed this in this promise to us:

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory (Eph 1:13-14 ESV).

The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of truth. When he comes into our lives at salvation, we are given the truth of who God is, who Jesus is, and that our salvation is in Jesus alone. He also guides us into all other biblical truths, but I’m afraid to say that not everyone continues to let the Holy Spirit guide them in truth. They resist and fight to maintain their own person beliefs and biases. It would be a wonderful if we would be so in tune with the Holy Spirit that we would also allow him to reveal other truth to us as well. We wouldn’t have all the crazy conspiracy theories and heresies that divert so many Christians from godly living. It seems that this was also a problem for the early church as Paul wanted Timothy to make sure people stayed away from myths, genealogies, irreverent and silly myths which promote controversies and speculations (1 Tim 1:4, 4:7).

But then, this only leads into what Jesus said about the world and that it cannot receive him. While believers can still resist the Holy Spirit, the world doesn’t have him in way shape or form. It is a fundamental truth of Christianity, if you have the Spirit, you are a Christian. If you don’t have the Spirit, you are not a Christian. The key is knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus explained it by letting the disciples know that the Holy Spirit is in Jesus and in the same way that they had seen the Father through him, they have seen the Holy Spirit through Jesus. He has been there all along but when Jesus leaves, the Holy Spirit will be with them, and he is with us and in us now.

18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  19 After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.”

I try to look at these words without knowing the whole story and they just don’t make a lot of sense. The disciples’ heads must have been spinning. What’s this about not being orphans. They don’t know that when the Holy Spirit comes, they will receive, “the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (ESV). While Jesus taught to them to pray to the Father, they haven’t received the understanding that God is our Abba, Father.

They still don’t understand the resurrection or the fact that Jesus will appear to as many as five hundred people after he has been killed and brought back to life (1 Cor 15:6). Jesus appeared to many of his disciples, but we have no record of his appearance to this large number of disciples between his resurrection and ascension. He clearly explains that the world can’t see him unless the Holy Spirit regenerates and opens their eyes.

Jesus says that because he lives, we will also live. In stating this, it becomes clear that the Son of God never died. God didn’t die. The human body of Jesus died, but the divine nature of the Son continued to live. That is why we live. Had the Son of God died, the second person of the Trinity, then it would have been game over. Jesus holds all things together (Col 1:17, Heb 1:3). Had God died, then the universe would have disappeared.

20 "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will 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.”

 

Again, how did the disciples understand this? Jesus has been telling them clearly about his union with the Father, but they still don’t understand as is evident by Judas’ question. Jesus doesn’t stop when he explains his relationship with the Father but continues to associate that to our relationship with him. It is just as easy for us to read too quickly and not understand in the same way Judas didn’t grasp the immensity of what Jesus was explaining.

Jesus includes that in some future day, the disciples will be in him. However, there is a condition to this. This isn’t for everyone, but it is for everyone who keeps Jesus’ commandments. That can lead to confusion because it now sounds like salvation has a works requirement. Rather than trying to unwrap this completely, we only have to look at Jesus’ word about salvation coming through faith, that is, believing in him in John 3:16, 3:18, 3:36, 6:40, 6:47, 11:26, and 20:31. Paul also says in Rom 10:9-10 "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (ESV). This is super important because it clarifies that once you believe you are justified, i.e., declared or made righteous in the sight of God. This happens before keeping any of Jesus’ commandments. Quite frankly, we can’t keep any of his commandments until we are saved.

What Jesus is talking about here is the relationship with God after we believe. We obey because we love Jesus. Jesus and the Father love us and lets us know we are in them. God lives in us. When we are saved, we don’t just have the Holy Spirit living in us, we have all of God. I have heard some people deny that Jesus lives in us because he has a physical body. I have heard some people claim that you have to receive the Father before you can be saved. These just plain ignore what Jesus has said which is good theology. All the attributes of God belong to all three persons of the Trinity. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t be God. God is omnipresent. How can he not be in us? Yet it is more than that because we become his residence after we come to Christ. We can rightfully say that he does not reside in unbelievers.

If we don’t obey, then it simply shows that we are not saved. It shows, just as Jesus says, we don’t really love him. James clarified this when he wrote, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17 NIV). The most basic action is loving and obeying Jesus. We will have a lot of actions that demonstrate our love and obedience including loving and taking care of each other as James used as an example in James 2:14-16.



[1]Thayer, “NT:2504.”

[2]Abbott-Smith, “NT:3875.”

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