John 14, Part 3

John 14:15–16 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

if a person loves Jesus, he will keep the commandments of Jesus. Note two things.

a. Obedience is not optional for believers. Jesus stated a simple fact that must be clearly understood: “If you love me you will keep [teresete] my commandments.” He is saying that the man who truly loves Him will keep His commandments. To the believer, there is no option.

b. What it means to love Jesus must be clearly understood.

1) To love Jesus is not an emotional thing. It involves emotions, but it is not based upon emotions. It is not feelings: not feeling good today and loving Jesus, and feeling bad tomorrow and not loving Jesus. Loving Jesus is not a fluctuating experience, not an up and down emotion. It is not an emotional love that changes with feelings.

2) To love Jesus is not a rational or mental commitment. Of course it involves the mind, but it is not just deciding that Jesus is the Son of God and adopting His teachings and morality as one’s standard in life. It is not just living by His teachings and doing the best a person can. It is not a matter of the mind alone, not a matter of disciplining one’s life to keep the law and its rules and regulations.

3) To love Jesus is a matter of the heart and of the spirit: a matter of man’s most vital part, man’s innermost being, all that a man is. The heart is the seat of man’s affection and will (devotion). The heart attaches and focuses our affection and will and devotion to an object or a person.

Jesus went on to say that if a person loves Him and keeps His commandments, He will pray to God, His Father, and ask Him to send a Comforter to the believer. The Comforter is the Holy Spirit, the other Helper. Note three points.

1. The receiving of the Holy Spirit is conditional. Note the conjunction “and.” It is the person who loves Jesus who is given the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is our Mediator—our Intercessor—the One who makes it possible for us to receive the Spirit. If a person truly loves Jesus, that person is given the Holy Spirit.

2. The source of the Holy Spirit is “the Father.” It is the Father who gave the Son, and it is the Father who gives the Holy Spirit. The picture is touching in that God is seen longing ever so deeply …

• to give the Holy Spirit to those who love His only Son

• to do everything He can for the person who loves His Son, and of course the greatest thing God can do is to put His Spirit into a person

3. The Holy Spirit abides forever with the believer. His presence continues and never ends. The idea is that He never withdraws His presence.

John 14:17 ESV

17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, the very same Truth that Christ is. He is the Embodiment, the Communicator, and the Liberator of truth.

The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Note the word “cannot.” It is impossible for the world to receive the Holy Spirit because the world of unbelievers does not “see” or “know” the Holy Spirit. The world lives only for what it can see and know, only for the physical and material, only for what it can touch and feel, taste and consume, think and use.

The point is this: unbelievers reject Jesus. They do not love Him, and they care little if anything about Him. They are not interested in seeing or knowing Jesus. The result is natural:

⇒ They do not see the spiritual world or know it; therefore, they do not see or know the Spirit of that world.

⇒ They are unaware of the spiritual world; therefore, they are unaware of the Spirit of that world.

⇒ They do not know and love Jesus; therefore, they do not “know” the Spirit of Christ.

The believer does know the Holy Spirit. The believer knows the Spirit both by experience and by His presence.

⇒ The Holy Spirit “dwells with” the believer: giving assurance, looking after, caring, guiding, and teaching.

⇒ The Holy Spirit is in the believer: communing, fellowshipping, sharing, and conforming the believer to the image of Christ.

John 14:18–20 ESV

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

The Holy Spirit is the personal presence of Christ.

a. Jesus said, “I will come to you.” He meant that He would return after He had gone away, that is, died. He would come back to give believers His personal presence. He would not leave them comfortless (orphanous); the word means to be orphaned, to be without parental help, to be helpless. Jesus would not leave them to struggle through the trials of life alone.

Jesus’ presence with His followers began with His resurrection and with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was saying that He would come to the believer in the person of the Holy Spirit.

b. The world lost its opportunity to see Jesus. He said so. He said that He would be present for only a short time longer, then the world would see Him “no more.” (The next time the world sees Him, He will be coming in judgment.)

c. The presence of Jesus is a living, eternal presence. He died, but He did not stay dead. He arose and conquered death. He arose to live forever. Now think: if Jesus Christ is living forever and He dwells within the believer, then the believer lives eternally. Christ the Eternal Presence lives within the believer; therefore, the believer becomes eternal. He never dies. The believer is made eternal by the eternal presence of Christ within him.

In fact, when Jesus says “I live,” He means He lives abundantly and eternally: He lives life in all of its full meaning. Therefore, by living within the believer, Christ imparts the same kind of life to the believer, a life that is both abundant and eternal.

d. The presence of Christ is a living union, a mutual indwelling between God, Christ, and the believer. “At that day” refers to Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Now note: when Jesus arose from the dead, believers knew something. His claim was true in an absolute sense. Jesus really was “in” God. God is eternal, so by being “in” God, Jesus was bound to live forever; He was bound to arise from the dead.

Something else was known. All that Jesus had said was true. He was placing all believers “in” Himself and Himself “in” them; or to say it another way, when the Holy Spirit came, believers were placed “in” His Spirit and His Spirit “in” them.

John 14:21–22 ESV

21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”

The Holy Spirit is the very special manifestation of Christ within the believer. Apparently, this refers to very special manifestations of the Lord to the heart of the believer, those very special times when there is a deep consciousness of love between the Lord and His dear follower. This is bound to be what Christ means, for He has already spoken about His personal presence within the believer (v.18–20). When believers go through terrible trials and experience severe crises, God knows and He loves and cares; so He moves to meet the need of His dear children. He moves within the believer’s heart, manifesting His presence and giving a deep sense of His love and care, helping and giving confidence, forgiveness, and assurance—giving whatever the believer needs. The depth of the experience and the intensity and emotion of the special manifestation depends upon the need of the believer. God knows and loves His dear child perfectly, so He gives whatever experience and depth of emotion are needed to meet the need of His child. We must always remember that God loves each one of us so much He will do whatever is needed …

• to lift us up

• to strengthen us

• to conform us to the image of His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ

Note that the special manifestations of the Lord’s presence are given only to the believer who does two things.

⇒ The believer who has Jesus’ commandments receives the special manifestations of the Holy Spirit. To have His commandments means that the believer has searched and possesses the commandments of Jesus Christ. He has them in his heart, knows them, has made them his own.

⇒ The believer who keeps the commandments of Jesus.

The believer who does these two things shows that he truly loves the Lord Jesus, and he that loves the Lord Jesus shall be loved of the Father and the Lord will love him as well. In fact, the Lord will manifest Himself to the believer who hides His commandments in his heart.

Note an important fact: the special manifestation is questioned. Judas asked the question for the first time, but the special manifestation of Christ’s presence has been questioned and doubted by thousands ever since. Judas was thinking like all men think—in terms of a physical manifestation, a visible appearance.

John 14:23–24 ESV

23 Jesus answered 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 home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

The Holy Spirit is the abiding presence of the Trinity. Note the words, “My Father … we will come … and make our abode with him [the believer].” Both the Father and Christ come to abide in the believer in the person of the Holy Spirit (vv.16–17, 26). All three dwell within the believer. Note four simple but profound facts.

a. The abiding presence of the Trinity is conditional: one must obey Christ, that is, love and keep His words.

b. The abiding presence of the Trinity is the love and presence of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit—all three dwelling within the life of the believer.

c. The abiding presence of the Trinity is not “in” the man who does not love and obey Jesus.

d. The abiding presence of the Trinity is assured by God Himself. Note what Jesus said: His words are the words of the Father who sent Him

John 14:25–26 ESV

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.

The Holy Spirit is the Teacher. He teaches “all things” which Jesus taught. “All things” means all the things which Jesus taught including the presence of the Comforter (Holy Spirit), who is given to help the believer through the trials of life, and the indwelling presence and love of the Father and Son.

However, a crucial point must be heeded. The Comforter comes only from the Father “in the name” of Jesus.

⇒ In calling God “the Father,” a Father-child relationship is stressed. One must become a child of God, that is, of the Father, in order to be given the Father’s Comforter.

⇒ The words “in the name” of Christ mean that one must approach the Father “in” the name of Christ, that is, recognizing that Jesus alone is acceptable to God (see DEEPER STUDY # 3—Jn. 14:13–14 for discussion).

The purpose of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life is twofold.

a. To teach all things: both the words and the life of Christ, both the Truth and the Life, both the Word and how to live the Word, both the theory and the practice, both the principles and the conduct, both the morality and the behavior.

b. To help remember: to help remember all that has been taught in the Word of God, to help especially in the moments of trial when the truth is needed. In a moment of trial the Holy Spirit either infuses the believer with the strength to endure or flashes across his mind the way to escape

John 14:27 ESV

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.

Peace (eirene) means to bind together, to join, to weave together. It means that a person is bound, woven and joined together with himself and with God and others.

The Hebrew word is shalom. It means freedom from trouble and much more. It means experiencing the highest good, enjoying the very best, possessing all the inner good possible. It means wholeness and soundness. It means prosperity in the widest sense, especially prosperity in the spiritual sense of having a soul that blossoms and flourishes. Peace is always born out of reconciliation. Its source is found only in the reconciliation wrought by Jesus Christ. Peace always has to do with personal relationships: a man’s relationship to himself, to God, and to his fellow men.

John 14:28–29 ESV

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

Joy (chara) and rejoicing (echarete, the same root word as joy) mean an inner gladness and a deep seated pleasure. It is a depth of assurance and confidence that ignites a cheerful heart. It is a cheerful heart that leads to cheerful behavior.

The return of Jesus to the Father causes believers to joy and rejoice. “I go away, and come again unto you” is a reference to His death, resurrection, and ascension.

The Father’s greatness causes believers to joy and rejoice. The Father demonstrated His great love and power by releasing Jesus …

• from the flesh: in all its limitations and weaknesses

• from the world: in all its trials and tensions

• from the devil: in all his oppressions and attacks

• from the pressure of men: in all their needful demands and in some cases terrible threats and attacks

The Father took Jesus home, back from where He had come; and He restored Him to His seat of glory, exalting Him above every name that is named (Ph. 2:9–11). The believer joys and rejoices in the phenomenal power of the Father’s greatness.

John 14:30–31 ESV

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.

The believer’s security comes from two sources.

Security comes from Jesus’ victory over Satan.

1) “Satan cometh”: he was using men (Judas and the religionists) to make a last ditch effort to destroy Jesus. But Satan had nothing in Jesus; there was nothing which he could use to attract Jesus to sin. There was no lust, no greed, no selfishness—nothing in Jesus that Satan could use to destroy Him.

2) Jesus was predicting that He would be completely victorious and triumphant over Satan.

Security comes from Jesus’ obedience to the Father. The Father’s great commandment was for Jesus to die for the sins of the world. His death was the supreme act of obedience.

LEADERSHIP MINISTRIES WORLDWIDE: The Gospel according to John, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN : Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2004