The Promise of The Holy Spirit
(A Night Like No Other – Part 5)
#141 in Series: “The Life of Christ – in a Harmony of The Gospels”
We are studying the life and ministry of our Lord, and we have come to the night leading up to the cross… It is a long night.
Jesus is still in the Upper Room with the eleven disciples, and He says to His them … and us –
John 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, 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.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. 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.
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. Do not let 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 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 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 us go from here.
Pastor:“This is the Word of the Lord”
Congregation:“Thanks be to God”
There is a lot in what Jesus is saying in our passage today…
We begin with –
1. Our love for Christ
Jesus says –
John 14:15
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Who is it that loves Christ? It is the believer… Why do we love Him?...
We love, because He first loved us.
Our’s is a responsive love!
The non-believer, people of the world don’t love Christ… This passage – these chapters, chapters 13 through the High Priestly Prayer in John 17 – are all about the believer and our relationship with Christ! That’s why we are thinking about this verse in light of “our” love for Christ…
Jesus says; “If you love Me”...
John 14:15
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
That’s a question you can answer right now! Do you love Jesus?... If you do – it will be evident in … how you live.
Jesus says; “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” It is interesting that He doesn’t say; “If you love Me, you should keep My commandments” – but “you will keep”... It is only fair at that point that we address the question; what does it mean to “keep”... Let’s think about it…
The idea of “keeping” has layers of meaning… This first is obvious to the English speaking world. To “keep His commandments” is to observe and heed them. It is to follow and obey them!
But, there is a nuance in the word keep that is often missed, and this is important to understand… To “keep” also has the idea of cherishing! It is to appreciate, value,to revere and preserve…
[Keepsakes, are those things you keep, because you … value them.]
Christians … cherish the commands of Jesus!
With that in mind, listen to several passages that speaks to our “keeping” Christ’s commands –
John 15:10
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
1 John 2:3-5
3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
1 John 3:22
and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
1 John 3:24
The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
1 John 5:3
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
2 John 6
And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.
The evidence that one loves Jesus, is not only a love for God’s Word, but the desire to live according to it!... May the Lord cultivate in us a greater love for Him and His Word…
What follows are –
2. Christ’s Assurances for us
What … assurances does the Lord give His disciples in this passage? What does He promise them, and all disciples that come after them?...
Let’s think about them. First –
John 14:16a
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper…
Notice right up front that Jesus is talking about … praying. He will ask the Father… When will He do this? In the garden? We have His High Priestly Prayer in John 17, and we don’t see Him asking for this then… Rather, Jesus will ask this of the Father after He ascends to heaven! This is a “face-to-face” conversation Jesus will have with the Father…
You do know that Jesus has an ongoing ministry – right now – of intercessory prayer. Listen dear Christian, Jesus is representing you and your needs before the Father right now!
who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Jesus just said that to love Him is to keep His commandments… What happens when we … mess up and sin? What happens when we willfully, purposefully, deliberately sin?... We need to come to Him in repentance and confession – 1 John 1:9, but we also have an Advocate, representing us before the Father! It’s not Mary! It’s Jesus!
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
The writer of Hebrews tells us –
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
So, what did Jesus ask the Father to do – in behalf of His Own?
John 14:16a
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper…
He knows we need help … to follow Him – and help is coming!… Jesus also knows that His disciples are still experiencing no small amount of stress. So, He begins here to explain the coming of the Holy Spirit after He departs… Notice specifically the terms Jesus uses to describe Who is coming – “another Helper”...
Both of these terms are vitally important for us to understand. First, the term “another”... There are two different words in the Greek that are translated into the one English word; “another”.
The first is the word; ἕτερος (heteros) – means another of a different kind… Jesus doesn’t use this word here… Rather, He uses the word ἄλλος (allos) – which means another of the same kind! Jesus promises to send another – another Who is “just like Him”. Another Who will … help them, like He has helped them…
This leads us to think about the second term here in what Jesus will ask the Father to do… The term is “Helper”...
Some translations use the word; “Comforter” instead of “Helper”... The original term is the word; παράκλητος(parakletos) – literally “the called alongside one”... That’s what the word means, somebody called alongside us…
The Holy Spirit is “called alongside” us to provide, from the Father, exactly what we need! He is our Helper, Comforter, and Guide! He is our Intercessor, Teacher, and Encourager… He is our Convictor, Counselor, and Provider of wisdom! The list goes on! He is the Provider of what we need!
As the Psalmist says –
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Again, our text –
John 14:16-17
16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; [The Trinity is clearly identified right here in this one verse!] 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.
Notice several truths about the “Called Alongside One” in this passage:
Again, some of this is repeated. Jump done to verse :25 –
John 14:25-26
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.
A question that needs to be answered is; When does the Holy Spirit come to abide in the believer?... He comes the moment you are regenerated – the moment the Lord saves you!
Let me offer a couple of passages of Scripture that will help you understand this –
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
In fact, Paul says –
Romans 8:9b
But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Be careful… There is a false teaching out there that says that you are saved at one point, and receive the Holy Spirit at a different point…
Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit – and He has!...
The Lord has designed the Christian life to be lived in the power of the Holy Spirit! It is His desire that we are filled with The Spirit, and live life in The Spirit!
17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
We are to live life under the control of the Holy Spirit. What does that look like?
Write down this passage – it is one of many that helps us understand what living life in the power of the Holy Spirit looks like –
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Fruit is the produced by the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian who is living life in the power of the Holy Spirit!
Wayne Grudem says – “Being filled with the Spirit means to be filled with the immediate presence of God to the extent that you are feeling what God Himself feels, desiring what God desires, doing what God wants, speaking by God’s power, praying and ministering in God’s strength, and knowing with the knowledge that God Himself gives.”
I like the pointed, and practical perspective A.W. Tozer brought to the conversation –
A.W. Tozer – “The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people.”
Well… we could spend all day thinking about the gift of the Holy Spirit and how He affects our lives… But we must continue on –
Now, there are several more “assurances” Jesus is giving in this passage, and we are not going to take a great deal of time with the rest… Let’s consider the truth that –
Listen carefully to what Jesus said next –
John 14:18a
“I will not leave you as orphans…
I read that it was common for a disciple of a particular teacher in Judaism to refer to their teacher as; father… That particular teacher would often refer to his scholars as his children, and when the teacher died… they would be considered as orphans…
Jesus often called His disciples children, and here He is declaring that He will not leave them orphans!
John 14:18b
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
This is the second time Jesus says in this very night – the He will “come again”! The first time was in John 14:3… Here Jesus is referring to … His resurrection, the sending of the Spirit, and His bodily return to this earth one day!
A Christian can rest in the security that Jesus rose from the dead – and provided the Holy Spirit – and is one-day going to return!
He goes on to say –
John 14:19
After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.
This theme of security is also seen a little later. Jump down to verse :28 –
John 14:28-31
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 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 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 us go from here.
There are six more “assurances” in our passage, and we will look at these quickly, so stay close…
The next assurance Jesus promises is –
John 14:20
In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
Jesus, by means of the Holy Spirit, lives in every true Christian!...
Not only do we have the Son –
John 14:23
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.
All of God – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – is involved in redeeming you. And all of God – Father, Son, Holy Spirit … abides in His Temple – YOU!
You don’t get One, without the Other. Write this passage down –
Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
Do you remember what we read earlier?
Romans 8:9b
But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
We are elected by the Father, redeemed by the Son, regenerated by the Holy Spirit – and indwelt by them all – One God, three Persons…
Notice also –
This is a repeated theme –
John 14:21a, 23a, 24
21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me;... [jump to verse :23] 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word;... [now verse :24] 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.
God’s Word is vital for the Christian! You need to saturate your mind with His Word in order for it to saturate your heart! As we “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord” (2 Peter 3:18), we grow in His wisdom and this is the fruit of spending a lifetime in His Word!
It is interesting how these themes often go together… John understood that. Later he wrote…
Write this passage down as well –
2 John 1:9
Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.
Again, this is a repeated theme –
Look at the middle of verses :21 and :23 –
John 14:21b, 23b
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 … 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him...
We will discuss this theme more, but listen … the Christian life is marked by the love of God! A love for God, that comes about because of the love of God! This love is central to our relationship with God and one another!
Notice also –
Jesus explicitly said –
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
Shalom / Peace … is promised by Christ – is produced in and through us by the Holy Spirit! (Galatians 5:22)
John MacArthur says – “He offers peace from God (Romans 1:7) to all who are the recipients of His grace. He makes peace with God (Romans 5:1) for those who surrender to Him in faith. And He brings the peace of God (Philippians 4:7) to those who walk with Him.”
We are in constant need of the peace of Christ… It has noted by many that Jesus doesn’t promise immunity from life’s storms, but He is perfect security in them!
Let’s focus on one more theme for a moment… It is subtle, but it is important –
Listen, Jesus is more than our example – but He is … our example!
So… what is there in our text where Jesus demonstrates an example we should follow?... There may be others, but there is certainly one in the middle of verse :31 –
John 14:31b
… I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.
That is the desire of a Christian’s heart. We stumble, but hate it when we do… If it’s in your heart to love and follow Christ – thank Him for His gracious work in you to give you that heart…
If you have no desire to love and follow the Lord – fall on your face today! Repent of your sin and self, and call upon Christ to forgive, cleanse, and change you!
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Questions to Consider in Community Group:
Wayne Grudem – “Being filled with the Spirit means to be filled with the immediate presence of God to the extent that you are feeling what God Himself feels, desiring what God desires, doing what God wants, speaking by God’s power, praying and ministering in God’s strength, and knowing with the knowledge that God Himself gives.”
A.W. Tozer – “The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people.”
John MacArthur – “He offers peace from God (Romans 1:7) to all who are the recipients of His grace. He makes peace with God (Romans 5:1) for those who surrender to Him in faith. And He brings the peace of God (Philippians 4:7) to those who walk with Him.”
