Sermon Tone Analysis

(NKJV)

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

15 All things that the Father has are Mine.

Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

1. Jesus wanted to tell the Disciples more but they couldn’t handle it.

v.12

Jesus has told them information that would be difficult to accept—such as His coming suffering and death and the fact that He won’t be physically present with them after His ascension.

He also likely means that they are not yet ready to accept how difficult following Him will be.

He has spoken about these challenges in general, but the specifics may be too difficult to hear.

2. The Holy Spirit will lead the disciples into all truth v.13A

16:13.

For Spirit of truth, cf.

notes on 14:16.

The Paraclete will guide you in (Gk.

en is the best reading; eis, ‘into’, as in niv, is secondary: cf.

Metzger, p. 247) all truth.

If there is a distinction between ‘in all truth’ and ‘into all truth’, it is that the latter hints at truth the disciples have not yet in any sense penetrated, while ‘in all truth’ suggests an exploration of truth already principally disclosed.

Jesus himself is the truth (14:6); now the Spirit of truth leads the disciples into all the implications of the truth, the revelation, intrinsically bound up with Jesus Christ.

There is no other locus of truth; this is all truth.

The notion of ‘guidance’ (the Gk. verb is hodēgeō) in all truth has nothing to do with privileged information pertaining to one’s choice of vocation or mate, but with understanding God as he has revealed himself.

3. The Holy Spirit speaks on the fathers authority V13B.

Just as Jesus was in such intimate dependence on his Father that his words were to be considered God’s words, so the Spirit has a similar relationship, through which his revelation is also to be seen as deriving from the Father.

4. The Holy Spirit speaks prophetically V13C.

Jesus did not deliver a portion of His truth to His disciples, but all of it: “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (15:15b).

The Spirit’s role, rather than revealing new truth, would consist primarily in reminding the disciples of the truth Jesus already had revealed to them: “[The Spirit] will remind you of everything I have said to you” (14:26b; see also 2:22).

Jesus had given His disciples God’s Word (17:14), a gift which seemed at that time to be sufficient and complete.

But would not the Spirit teach about the future, about what is yet to come (16:13)?

Would this not constitute a clear expansion beyond the content of Jesus’ earthly teaching?

Not necessarily.

If we scan the Fourth Gospel’s account of Jesus’ ministry, we find that Jesus himself had indeed instructed His disciples about “things to come”: about a new worship without temples (4:21–24); a great evangelistic harvest (4:35–37); an ingathering of Gentiles together with Jews into His fold (10:16); highly effective prayer (15:16); persecution and hatred, possibly involving death or excommunication from synagogues (15:18–16:2); His final coming (21:22–23); a twofold resurrection (5:25–29); and the final judgment (5:25–29).

What picture of the Spirit’s ministry then emerges?

The Spirit would assist the disciples in remembering, understanding, interpreting and applying the truth taught them by Jesus.

The Spirit would guide them into all truth, but not “new” truth.

Or to put it differently, the Spirit’s truth would be “new” insofar as He would unpack the “old” truth within new and ever-changing situations.1

5.

The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus V14A.

The Spirit does not glorify his own personality; rather, he glorifies the Son’s.

The Spirit takes what the Son is and reveals it to believers.

In so doing, he individualizes the teaching of Christ and calls people to obey.

The Holy Spirit makes us want to apply, teaches us to apply, and then helps us apply Christ’s words!

Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit works in complete submission to, and in harmony with, the Son and the Father.

The Spirit reveals the Son to the believers.

Yet as he reveals the Son, the Spirit is also revealing the Father because all the attributes of the Son are the attributes of the Father: “All that the Father has is mine.”

Thus the Spirit reveals to believers whatever he receives from the Son, who, in turn, expresses the Father.

This verbal picture of what cannot be fully seen by finite humans helps us understand the profound unity of God.

6.

All that belongs to the father, belongs to also to Jesus

Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit works in complete submission to and in harmony with the Son and the Father.

The Spirit reveals the Son (in all his true splendor) to the believers.

Yet as he reveals the Son, the Spirit is also revealing the Father because all the attributes of the Son are the attributes of the Father.

Thus the Spirit reveals the Son, who, in turn, expresses the Father.

This verbal picture of what cannot be fully seen by finite humans helps us understand the profound unity of God