Provisions for Today

I had the privilege for several years, helping families to work with estate planning and other means of leaving a legacy for those left on this earth after they were gone.  Many families wanted to financially bless Christian colleges, churches, and family members.  They wanted to make certain that as much as possibly could be, would be left from their estates to worthy organizations or to family members.

With each family, I encouraged them to not only consider their financial or material legacy they would leave, but a legacy which was of much more importance.  I wanted them to consider their spiritual legacy they would leave.  After all, the financial and the material, was  really moth and rust and would not last forever.  However, their spiritual legacy was something which would be eternal.  I wasn’t trying to suggest they could pass on their salvation.  Rather, that they needed to be certain they were investing in heavenly things, so that their children and others who observed them would be truly blessed with that legacy.  

I also tried to encourage people to consider that all of this was not just for after they were gone.  They should recognize that this was to be enjoyed even now.  For many of us, we would do well to understand that our spiritual riches are not simply for after we die; we are given them now to enjoy in a different way.  

We need to understand that Jesus has provided us with all we need not just for eternity, but for right now.

We Keep His Commandments Because of Love. - 14:15

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

This verse is almost like a transitional verse.  Jesus had just promised that He would provide for them, not just for eternity, but for right now.  Yet, there is a caveat.  This was not just a blanket statement for all who say the right words or who are busy doing religious stuff.  This is for those who truly love Jesus.  And how do we know who that is?  It is the one who keeps or obeys God’s commandments.  It’s not just the ones which you and I feel comfortable keeping.  It includes all of God’s commandments that are addressed to His people.  John MacArthur stated:  Obedience is a hallmark of genuine saving faith and love for God.

If we claim to belong to Jesus; if we claim to love Jesus, but are doing the opposite of Jesus’ commandents, that sends a very confusing message to anyone observing us.  We would not truly be representing our Savior.  In addition, if we truly belong to Jesus, we cannot help but to love Him.  We want nothing else than to be obedient to Him.  Just as children have similar looks and personalities as their parents, so it is with us and God.  

So, in Jesus’ instructions and encouragement to the eleven disciples and all disciples forward, including us, we might wonder what else might be a reminder that we will be taken care of, even when Jesus is not physically present. 

We need to understand that Jesus has provided us with all we need not just for eternity, but for right now.  So far, we know that we who are saved loves Jesus and are enabled to keep His commandments.

He Takes Away Our Loneliness. - 14:16-17

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 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.

In these verses, we’ve transitioned into the next phase.  Jesus has just described how the disciples’ love would be seen by their obedience to Jesus’ commandments.  In this section, He begins to describe how His love would be seen towards His followers.

Jesus is stating in verse 16, that the disciples are not truly going to be left alone and helpless.  In fact, Jesus is going to ask the Father to send another Helper, who we know as the Holy Spirit.  The word for Helper is actually parakletos.  All the Greek scholars agree on the incredibly deep meaning of this word:  It literally means “one called alongside to help” and has the connotation of a helper, comforter, counselor, exhorter, intercessor, encourager, and advocate (defense attorney).  

The word for another refers to another of the same kind.  Another Greek word for another is heteros, which means another of a completely different nature.  In this verse, the former is used, showing that the Holy Spirit is also God.  In other words, this Helper was just like Jesus.  There was nothing second rate or lower class about the Holy Spirit in comparison to Jesus.  

In addition, Jesus encourages them and us, by sharing that He [will] be with you forever.  After hearing that Jesus was to be soon leaving them, this must have been an encouragement.  For you and me, not knowing when Jesus will return to take us home, this is also an encouragement that we have the Holy Spirit with us forever, doing for us whatever God has promised.  

We also see that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.  One way in which we see this working is how He reveals spiritual truth to the Christian.  It was also seen in how the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles to write the Word of God as they did, along with the writers of the Old Testament.  

He is also rejected by the world, just as Jesus was rejected.  We also know from other places in the New Testament that the world will not comprehend spiritual truth in any manner because they do not have Christ living in them.  We should not be surprised when the world mocks and maligns us.  We should not be amazed when the world ridicules and rips us apart.  There will always be hostility and hatred from the world for no apparent reason.  

We need to understand that Jesus has provided us with all we need not just for eternity, but for right now.  The Holy Spirit can only dwell in those who belong to Jesus.  It becomes obvious who belongs to Jesus, because we live for Jesus.  We also have just seen that we won’t be looking for Jesus in all the wrong places because He has sent His Spirit to live in us.

He Gives Us Life. - 14:18-20

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.  In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

The disciples have heard about Jesus leaving them and are grieving accordingly. In addition, lest someone gets the assumption that they think it’s just a little journey away, Jesus again uses the language of death.  He speaks of His leaving them in the same way a child would feel if the parents were killed or died; as orphans.  

However, here we see a contrast to the normal pattern.  Jesus states that He won’t leave them as if they were orphans, never able to experience life again with their parents, from their minds’ eye.  In fact, Jesus promises that He will come to you.  Though He is leaving; though He is going to die; it will not always be that emptiness.  In fact, rather than for them to go out and look for Him, He states that He is the One who will be coming to them, and to all who are saved.

He becomes a bit more specific as He speaks of the imminence of His death, in verse 19.  It will indeed be a little while, as it will be in a few short hours.  Then He continues to explain why they won’t be left as orphans.  It is because He will live.  As the Gaither’s wrote:   Because He lives, I can face tomorrow . . .  

But when is that day which Jesus describes in verse 20?  When you and I experience salvation through Jesus Christ, we receive the permanent indwelling Holy Spirit and we know that Jesus lives and rules in our lives.  We know that Jesus is in [His] Father, and [we are] in [Jesus], and [Jesus is] in [us].  This is available to all, after Jesus has been resurrected and the Holy Spirit has been sent to indwell those who’ve placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.  

Death will not be the end of the relationship the disciples had with Jesus.  Neither shall our death be the end of our relationship with Jesus Christ.  Remember what Paul stated when He was writing to the Christians in Rome?  Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We need to understand that Jesus has provided us with all we need not just for eternity, but for right now.  So far, we’ve seen that Jesus has provided the ability to keep His commandments, as well as experience His presence even now through His Holy Spirit.  In addition, we’ve just learned that because Jesus lives, we live also; not just for the sweet by and by in the future, but for right now.

He Gives the Ability to Live for God. - 14:21-24

“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.”  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?”  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.  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.

There is so much confusion from the distortions about God’s love.  Humanity has the notion that since God is love, He must show that love in the manner in which the world thinks He should.  There are many who would refuse and reject God because their definition of love doesn’t match with the biblical definition of love which God created.  The type of love which Jesus was describing to His disciples is not available to everyone.  Those who would try to get God to fit their definition and refuse to believe in faith according to God’s way, will not experience salvation.  

However, for the true Christian, we will be a part of that love that will never leave.  If we are truly part of God’s family, those who are genuinely saved, we will want to keep God’s commandments.  MacArthur states:  Such obedient love is the outworking of the love the Holy Spirit pours into the redeemed heart at salvation.  This is evidence that we belong to God.  

Then Judas (the one who was not the traitor) expressed his confusion.  It didn’t make sense to him that if Jesus comes to establish His kingdom how the whole world wouldn’t recognize this.  Jesus’ response is fairly straightforward.  Only the person who is a believer will love Jesus.  Only a person who loves Jesus will do what Jesus says.  That is the person who has the privilege of having God dwell or abide in them.  

The person who does not belong to God has no desire to keep God’s commandments in God’s ways.  They may want good things and similar desires; yet, it’s all in their strength and for their glory and not God’s.  You see, only those who truly belong to God will have God reveal Himself to them.  That is why the world doesn’t get it when we give glory to God.  They cannot see Him or understand Him.  You and I, who have Christ in us, do see God at work and we can understand Him.  And what we don’t understand about Him and what He’s doing, we know we can trust Him.

We need to understand that Jesus has provided us with all we need not just for eternity, but for right now.  We are able to show our love by keeping His commandments; We don’t have to experience loneliness from missing Jesus since the Spirit dwells within us; We are given abundant life right now; plus, the Holy Spirit enables us to live in such a way that we are living like Jesus.

He Gives the Ability to Learn God’s Word. - 14:25-26

“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.  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.

All the truths which the disciples had received had come from Jesus while He was in their midst.  How could they know what truth was if Jesus wasn’t there anymore?  Jesus continues to assure them that He will provide what they need in this area, as well.  He promises to send the Holy Spirit to them.  The Holy Spirit will teach them truth and remind them of what they already know as truth.

This is why nobody is able to understand the spiritual truths contained in the Bible without the Holy Spirit revealing and teaching them.  Those who are not Christians who think they have an understanding of the Bible are merely fooling themselves.  They may understand the words and think they understand the meaning; but their understanding is based upon a faulty world system that has its roots in Satan, who is a liar and a deceiver.

You will recall that the disciples didn’t comprehend everything that Jesus had taught them and explained to them.  In fact, John writes of a few instances where the disciples understood what Jesus had been saying after the resurrection (most likely, after they had received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost).  

Let me take a little time to emphasize some often overlooked truths about the Holy Spirit.  Jesus came in the Father’s Name.  The Holy Spirit came in Jesus’ Name.  The Holy Spirit will behave in the same manner as Jesus did in respect to the Father.  The Holy Spirit will never do anything to draw attention to Himself.  The Holy Spirit will only do what is in alignment and agreement with the Son.  The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to testify about Jesus Christ, as seen in John 15:26, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” Whenever there are things done that are attributed to the Holy Spirit which are not seen as mandates in the Bible, it is not of God.  Whenever there are things that are attributed to the Holy Spirit that draws attention to the activity rather than to Jesus Christ, it is not of God.  

The Holy Spirit will utilize the Bible, God’s Word, to help us as Christians to become mature in our faith.  That is for right now. 

Ponderings

We do not have to wait until leaving this world to experience the presence of Christ and all that he provides. We need to understand that Jesus has provided us with all we need not just for eternity but for right now.

The disciples we're fearful of being on their own without Jesus. Many of us sometimes feel as if we are all alone. However, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to dwell within us forever. We are not alone. We do not have to experience loneliness because of what Jesus has provided for us today.

Being a Christian means that you and I are completely alive today. Though our physical bodies may experience death; because Jesus lives, we live also.

Many times, it seems that it is easier to do what is right and to live in a proper way when we have someone right beside us holding us accountable and helping us along the way. Jesus has provided that for the Christian for today. If we belong to Jesus the Holy Spirit will cause us to live our lives in such a way that the world will know that Christ is in us and God will be glorified.

Finally, we really have no need to wonder if we will ever understand it all before we get to glory. I am not even sure that any of that is even an issue. The Holy Spirit helps us to understand exactly what we need for our time today. The Holy Spirit will help us to grasp the concepts that the Bible is teaching us for our lives today.

You and I do understand that Jesus has provided us with all we need not just for eternity but for right now. He is the one who will cause us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one who will bring us to maturity, causing unity and love to flow within his church.