Our Calm Confidence
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John Literary Context
After offering himself to the disciples in the previous pericope, in the second of these six statements Jesus offers the Holy Spirit. Jesus begins to articulate the Christian life after his departure and speaks about living in obedience to the commandments of God in a fallen world that opposes God and is ruled by a different ruler. The disciples—and the readers—are exhorted to begin living in Christ by the Spirit, participating in the mission of God after having received from Christ the peace of God.
1. We are not alone, 14:15-17.
1. We are not alone, 14:15-17.
14:15 — The impact of this verse really means that obedience is a test or indication of loving Jesus.
“My commandments” = the entire scope of Jesus’ teaching and revelation, John 8:31
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
“I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”
All that Jesus commands = all that the Father commands. Most recently, John 13:34
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Our obedience is to be modeled on the love of Jesus and his obedience to the Father. We are to love one another in the same way that Jesus has loved us ...
This type of love reveals us as Christ’s disciples and reveals us as the true Body of Christ.
We need divine help to love and keep Jesus’ commands. We are only able to do so because...
14:16 — Jesus initiates by prayer for our benefit and the Father responds by giving again. He gives us “another” parakletos (helper, comforter, intercessor, best would be “advocate”) but who was the first? Jesus! With Jesus returning to the Father we needed another helper. The Father gives us good things; this Helper will be with us forever. The Holy Spirit is not earned by good behavior; He has been provided us to enable us for living in this world.
In this verse the Trinity is not imposed upon the text but springs from it with clarity and force. Here it is where we can see how the Son and Spirit can belong together (as God) and can participate in the same work (the mission of God) and yet be different Persons and have different assignments thus allowing for a distinction in purpose, a unity in function, and an equality in essence. Our relationship among the Trinity is gifted to us by means of the Spirit, for at Jesus’ departure to return to the Father, the enablement for our continuing in the mission/work of God is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is never replaced but incorporates into His work the work of the Spirit and shortly thereafter the work of His disciples. God’s has always intended to dwell intimately with His people, demonstrated by a multifaceted sending of himself, the first and second Paraclete, initiated and established by the work of the Son and appropriated and maintained by the work of the Spirit, guaranteeing what has been officially inaugurated—eternal life.
14:17 — He is characterized by Jesus as the Spirit of truth, the word “truth” emphasizing that which is in accord with what really happens; corresponding to reality, whether historical or eternal. The term “whom” points out the Spirit is not an it, but a Person. Here we have the third person of the Trinity who is the indwelling and eternal presence of God in each believer so we can participate in God and His work through Christ and in the Spirit.
He is with us forever but the world (all people associated with the world system, estranged from God) cannot receive Him or know Him. We can know Him experientially because He presently is with the disciples (in Jesus, the Spirit existed fully) and will soon be in them (at Pentecost). Jesus is going to magnify His presence and work among His disciples through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
2. We are inseparably linked to Christ, 14:18-21.
2. We are inseparably linked to Christ, 14:18-21.
14:18 — Jesus is not abandoning the disciples, leaving them as orphans, those without any who could be of sustaining help. The disciples will not be abandoned; we will not be abandoned. We have the Spirit of truth and the promise of Jesus…
Jesus then tells the disciples “I will come to you;” a promise both fulfilled in the very near future in His post-resurrection appearances as well as that in John 14:3
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
This promise is for us as well.
14:19 — in the context, Jesus is referring to the “hour” when He says, ”after a little while.” The world has rejected Him; therefore the world will no longer “see” Him (they cannot behold Him because He won’t be in the world physically, and they have never known Him by the Spirit) but the disciples will see Him. Jesus states, “I live,” clearly referring to His resurrection. The “life” the disciples experience is rooted in the life only God can provide, life that is itself new, which is before and with God.
14:20 — “On that day,” i. e. resurrection day, the disciples “will know,” the verb in Greek flexible enough to also mean “realize,” “understand,” and even “perceive.” The source of confirmation of this truth is the resurrection of Christ. But the focus of verses 19 and 20 is not to eclipse the Spirit. For not only is God appropriated by the indwelling Holy Spirit but even coming to “know” Christ requires an act “by the Holy Spirit,” 1 Cor 12:3
Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Now we are not just looking forward to the kingdom of God; Jesus speaks here of a new state that will exist between the Father, Son, (Spirit), and the disciples (us). This pictures the closest personal association, a depiction of the kingdom in this life. Jesus’ resurrection inaugurates a new era, so much so that “the day of the resurrection is extended in the experience of all who love the Lord” [Hoskyns, Fourth Gospel, 459]
14:21 — Concluding where it began in verse 15, disciples demonstrate true love for Jesus by obeying His commandments. To love Jesus is to be loved by the Father and Jesus, who also will disclose (or reveal) Himself to to those who love Him. The verb is often used to refer to something “being seen, visible”; yet in context seems to express its other, less physical meaning as well: “Make clear, explain, inform” [BDAG 325]. In light of v. 18, it is best to understand the subject matter of the verb to be inclusive of the Spirit. The love described here is rooted in the very meaning of life, in the Triune God. As the one who has “explained” (1:18) the Father, it is only right that Jesus returns to Himself as the focal point of the revelation of God.
3. We can participate with the Father and the Son in the Spirit, 14:22-24.
3. We can participate with the Father and the Son in the Spirit, 14:22-24.
14:22 — This is a reasonable question by Judas (not Iscariot), a disciple whom we know almost nothing about and named only here in this gospel. In trying to understand the difference in vision between the disciples and the world, Judas asks a more specific question about its source. What has created a distinction between the disciples and the world.: “How will we see you but the world will not?” Why would Jesus intend for this to happen?”
14:23 — The answer to this question returns to the relationship of love already mentioned that is uniquely established between the triune God and His children. It is love within personal relationship, entailing love and obedience on the part of the disciples. The “we is first-person plural, speaking of the Father and the Son, as well implying the Spirit as well, who is described as the “indwelling one” of God. In this case, the term “abode” is used to depict the indwelling presence of God in the individual believer. this is the inauguration of the presence of God in the believer; the consummation is when we will dwell forever with Him, John 14:2
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
14:24 —As deep as the relationship exists between God and a disciple, there is a difference made. The world has not known or seen God (in the Spirit of God) and therefore does not love or obey God. Jesus says that His answer is not just His own but it s source is God the Father. Jesus was sent by the Father to do God’s work; this is not a chance occurence but is a result of the mission of God and has been ordained by God. By this Jesus also gives the negative side of his answer—the grace of life with God is not for all but only for those who love and obey—that is, believe in Jesus Christ, John 20:30-31
Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
The difference in vision Judas noted is speaking of the state of the blindness of the world, the very judgment it suffers, John 9:39
And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”
4. We have One who helps our understanding, 14:25-31.
4. We have One who helps our understanding, 14:25-31.
14:25 — This reminder to the disciples is that Jesus’ presence with them is about to come to an end, transitioning to another “Paraclete” who will continue to mediate God’s presence and personal instruction to them.
14:26 — It is the Holy Spirit sent by the Father in Jesus’ name who will take His place and fulfill the role of teacher and God’s presence for the disciples. Jesus continues to minister to His people as only the Son can do. So there are respective roles of the Son and the Spirit performed harmoniously together in unity.
The Holy Spirit has always been working. Now He is working in a new way, as befitting the newly implemented state of existence for the children of God. The phrase “in My name” explains that the ministry of the Spirit is not technically a replacement of the ministry of Jesus but a continuation, giving insight into the use of the title “Paraclete” for both Jesus and the Spirit.The work of the Spirit is seen within the larger work of Christ, just as the work of Christ is located within the larger mission of the Father.
The role of the Spirit is to teach the disciples and to assist them in their own participation in the mission of God. Jesus says the Spirit teach the disciples “all things”, He is simply saying “all” that they will need. In a similar way, when Jesus says the Spirit will “bring to your remembrance” He is simply referring to what they need to grasp from Christ. The message of the Word was not lacking but fully sufficient, so the Spirit is not adding to the Word but emboldening it as a living representation of all that Jesus had once spoken.
14:27 — The “peace” about which Jesus speaks is the peace of God through Christ and in the Spirit. This is not mere human tranquility—this is receiving the peace of Christ, which is an unbroken union with the Father, even in a world filled with continuous strife, humiliation, and even death. What is described here is the fulfillment of the OT concept of peace, or shalom.
The two related phrases are generally synonymous, yet how they overlap is worthy of note.
The peace given to the disciples is grounded in and belongs to Christ. Received by us, it is a peace rooted not only in His person but also in His work on the cross.
The peace that Christ gives to His disciples may now be rightfully described as belonging also to them. Because of this, the believer participates in the life of the triune God. It is because Christ lives, that we shall live. The world can never provide this peace. We as believers are to live by means of this peace.
14:28 — Jesus has just exhorted His disciples to trust Him in regard to their circumstances, and now He exhorts them to trust Him in regard to His circumstances.
Jesus suggests that His departure should be viewed positively, also asking the disciples to trust in the person and work of God. If God is greater than Christ who therefore submits Himself to the will of God, how much greater is Christ than the disciples? What is greater here? The will of the Father, out of which Christ has been “sent” and to which He has continually been dependent and obedient.
14:29 — By understanding what is to come, the disciples should be firmly grounded in the only appropriate object of belief — God. By telling them these things, Jesus shows them the “way” out of the fear they will experience and the more appropriate object to which they should direct their faith.
14:30 — The impending departure of Jesus not only sets the stage for the coming of the Spirit but also for that of “the ruler of this world.” Satan, though defeated by the Son of God, will also become an opponent of the children of God. But jesus declares that Satan is defeated even before the battle has begun. The idiom “and he has nothing in Me” often occurs in legal contracts and means something like “he has no claim on me” or “he has nothing over me.”
14:31 — Jesus wants the world to know two things:
“I love the Father”
“I do exactly as the Father commanded Me”
These are the two things Jesus expects from the disciples: to love and obey, which are the things Jesus has already been doing.
Jesus’ death is the actual victory; His departure is to provide an even more empowering presence. Nothing has a claim on the mission of God.