Jesus' Teaching About the Comforter
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16 “And 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 behold 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.
19 “After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also.
20 “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall 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.
Here we are given the great privilege to hear the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples in the upper room.
Judas Iscariot has officially abandoned Christ. The Lord is counseling and consoling the remaining 11 disciples.
For in a short moment of time, Jesus is to be arrested and taken to stand trial for the fraudulent accusations made against Him, by the Jewish religious leaders.
Jesus, well aware of his impending arrest, is warned His disciples that His departure was soon to occur.
After enjoying the comfort of His presence, the disciples hearts are troubled, at the dread of Jesus leaving them in death.
Jesus promised His troubled disciples that He would not leave them comfortless.
Our Source of Power and Comfort is…The HOLY SPIRIT
In assuring words He says to them...
16 “And 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 behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.
While with them, Jesus came alongside His disciples, teaching, encouraging and comforting them.
His departure is swiftly approaching and He wanted His disciples to know that “another” Helper of the same kind would be coming to them.
This “Helper” would continue to teach, strengthen, and intercede for the disciples and be with them forever.
Jesus clarifies WHO and not the WHAT the Helper is. HE is the third PERSON of the Trinity, He is the Spirit of truth! Why does Jesus refer to Him as the Spirit of truth? Because it is by the Holy Spirit that truth is revealed to believers. It is He, the Holy Spirit, who would reveal the truth of the New Testament to the apostles.
The Holy Spirit would be unknown by the unbelieving world.The world lies in spiritual darkness to this day.
But for those who believe, He would abide with them and in them forever.
In comforting words of encouragement, Jesus says to them...
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
The Lord had assured them earlier in this same chapter, that if He goes and prepares a place for them, that He would come again! And that He would bring them into His presence into His ready made place.
The Lord knows what man is and what they are apart from His presence.
In that upper room, the disciples must have had the pitiful composure of children with a dying father.
It was certain that Jesus was going to die, but death would only be temporary...
He assures them, “I will not leave you as…orphans; I will come to you.”
The disciples would see Him again.
As certain as death is, His resurrection from the dead is certain as well.
19 “After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also.
Only the disciples would have the privilege to see Jesus again, after His resurrection.
The unbelieving world would remain unbelieving and spiritually dead.
Throughout the Book of John, Jesus mentions again and again, that those believing in Him... has eternal life also.
In contrast, those who fail to believe and obey the Son of God, the wrath of God abide on them.
But he who believes Christ, shall live even if he dies.
The rebellious people of the world who hated and rejected Christ and demanded His death, would not see Him in His victoriously, resurrected state.
Being spiritually alive because of Christ’s resurrection and the indwelling of the Spirit, believers are able to perceive Jesus’ presence in this life.
This point is made in...
5 Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
6 so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?”
Jesus’ death is imminent, His resurrection is sure, and the coming of the Spirit is promised. Jesus says to them...
20 “In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
The disciples would come to realize the union that they have into Christ and Christ into them.
This is a profound promise to His disciples and the Elect of God. It has great consequences for our lives and our behavior.
They would know without question that Jesus had defeated death.
All doubts would be removed when they see Jesus in His resurrected glory.
It would be undeniably convincing to them that Jesus was God and that His claims of Deity had been true all along.
Being that we are in Christ and Christ is in us, how should we conduct ourselves? As a new creature, right? Complete in Christ, right?
!It is God’s Spirit which transforms His people to share His moral character and empowers them to fulfill His purposes!
The disciples must know that His death would not end their relationship with Him. Their union with Him was binding and lasting, as is true for all who believe into Him.
21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.”
Who is it that could truthfully claim to have a deep and true love for Christ, except they who obediently hold closely to His commandments and keeps them.
At salvation, the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, transforms a heart of self-will, into a heart desiring to obey God’s will.
Our love for Him is demonstrated by our obedience to Him.
In order to “be loved by the Father” one must love the Son.
Jesus says to them, “he it is who shows his love for Me, by keeping My commandments,…I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.”
A more abundant revelation of Christ is an extraordinary reward of our love for Christ. It is a priceless treasure to posses a deeper knowledge of Christ.
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?”
This was Judas, the son of James, who asked the Lord this question.
It seems that Judas was thinking that Jesus going to return physically to establish His early kingdom. If that were the case, how would He not show himself to the world?
Notice the Lords reply...
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.
It is impossible to claim to love Jesus, yet not love His word.
The relationship between your love for Christ and your love for the Scriptures are inseparable.
We find here, that Jesus and the Father will not manifest themselves to those who are disobedient to His word.
But for those who genuinely love Him, Christ and the Father will abide in the heart of the believer by way of the Holy Spirit.
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.
Just as one must love Christ in order to keep His word, those who do not love Him cannot keep His Word. They do not have a desire to please Him; indeed, they hate Him. In fact, the last thing they want to do is obey Him.
But notice, Jesus finally says to him, “and the word which you hear it not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
They Father gave the Son the message to communicate to men. The Word of Christ had the Father’s full authority behind it. Obedience to His word is required.
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.
The Lord had been the source of truth for the disciples.
But just as He would not leave them without a source of comfort, so also He would not leave the disciples without a source of truth. He would send the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of truth” who would lead, guide, and teach them.
Jesus said the Spirit would both teach the disciples new things and remind them of things Jesus had said. Jesus had taught so much that they could not remember every single detail. So Jesus said, “I’m going to take care of that, so one of the first things that the Holy Spirit is going to take of when He comes to them, is bring all of these things to your remembrance.
Part of the reason why we have so much confidence in the accuracy of the Gospels, is that we know that the Holy Spirit was at work.
The accuracy of the scriptures do not rely simply on the natural ability of the disciples to recall perfectly what Jesus taught them. Rather, their record was super-intended by the Holy Spirit Himself, the Spirit of truth, who Jesus sent to represent Him.