Month: April 2024

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 35

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you” (John 16:12-15).

In Jesus’ sermon in the upper room, we learn that after nearly three years, Christ’s direct speaking and revelation to His disciples is coming to an end.  Enter the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit that Christ is sending, here described as the “Spirit of truth”, will continue Jesus’ ministry of revelation.  The Spirit will guide the disciples, and us, “into all the truth”.

Jesus is the embodiment of truth.  It is part of His three-fold identity; the way, the truth, and the life.  The Spirit’s guidance “into all the truth” will be a further unfolding of all the truth that is found in Jesus.  We learned in John 14:26 that the Spirit will illuminate all that Jesus taught.

Jesus insisted more than once that he did not speak or act on His own initiative.  His words were those that the Father gave Him (John 5:19, 30; 8:28; 12:49).  So when the Spirit of truth comes, “He will not speak on His own initiative.”  He will follow the pattern of Jesus, disclosing what He has heard from the Father.

The message the Spirit discloses never changes.  But by virtue of the Spirit being in us and speaking through us, the message is being proclaimed by the Spirit in the exact way that the Father prescribes for each generation.  The Spirit and His message are moving in time and space upon the earth, illuminating the hearts and minds of Christ’s faithful.

The Spirit will glorify the Son by taking all that the Son has, which in itself has come from the Father, and will disclose it to us.  The Trinity, God in three persons, is clearly on display in this passage.  The Son has appeared and lived into all that the Father had for Him.  The Spirit will carry on the work.

The Spirit glorifies the Son by unfolding clearly the meaning of Jesus’ person and work.  Hear the Spirit.  As you read, worship, and contemplate all that God is revealing to you, you are listening to the Spirit’s voice.

One of the misconceptions sometimes heard in our Bible churches is that God only speaks to us through the Bible.  I don’t believe that that is the only way He “guides us to the truth”.  The direct revelation of the Spirit also reveals the truth to us.  I have seen how this works in someone very close to me.  I will share her Holy Spirit story next time.

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 34

“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7).

“To their advantage” is an awfully bold statement.  There is something better than the physical presence of Jesus?  Something better than Jesus in the flesh?  In my sacred imagination, I am not sure if that is even possible.  But I believe it because Jesus said it, and He emphasized that He is telling the truth.  “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away” (John 16:7).

How can Jesus going away be “to their advantage”?  How is this to our advantage?  The short answer is that the Holy Spirit can only come to us if Jesus goes away.  They are trading places as it were.  But it is not an even trade.  Jesus makes quite clear that the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts is more advantageous to us than Jesus’ physical presence next to us.

Can we extend the thought and say it this way?  The power of the Spirit in us is better for us than the power of the physical Jesus standing next to us.  This can be a difficult concept to grasp and believe.  The power of the Spirit in us sounds almost mystical, kind of an ethereal force that we really don’t know how to capture.

I think one reason we feel this way is that we have been conditioned to receive ALL of our advice and instruction from the person standing next to us; a mentor, a pastor, a parent, a teacher, a coach.  And these are all great people to learn from, no question about it.  But let us never underestimate the active power of the Holy Spirit in us to lead, comfort, empower, guide, encourage, love, and reassure in a way that is different than any person standing beside us can give.

Please understand, this is not to disparage the wonderful influencers that God has given us.  This is not to diminish in any way the community of believers that we grow alongside with.  The body of Christ serving, loving, and instructing each other is a beautiful thing.  But the power behind our growing together comes from the Spirit inside each of us.

Jesus began the sermon in the upper room with an impossible command; to love one another in the same way that Jesus loves us.  But with the power of the Spirit inside, the impossible becomes possible and even desirable.  We want to love each other.  I see this every day in my fellow believers.  The person beside us can teach, give advice, and even explain to us what Jesus said.  But it is the Spirit inside us that gives us the power to go out and do it!

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 33

“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” (John 14:25-26).

Here Jesus gives a reassuring word to His disciples.  “While abiding with you – while living with you, traveling with you, serving with you – I have had a lot to say.  Don’t worry about remembering it all.  Part of the Holy Spirit’s role when He comes will be to teach you all things, and to bring to your mind all that I have said to you.”

This word of reassurance so fits the need of the disciples as they have been processing Jesus’ message that He is going away.  Throughout these chapters in John, Jesus always pairs His going away with the coming of the Helper.  Here the Helper is more specifically identified as the third Person of the Trinity; The Holy Spirit.

Let’s look more closely at the two roles of the Spirit given in this verse.  First, He will teach them all things.  On the day of Pentecost, Peter – full of the Spirit – preached a powerful message of history, challenge, and invitation that came straight from the Spirit’s revelation to Him.  And it is safe to assume that Peter’s subsequent sermons and writings were filled with what the Holy Spirit taught him.  The other apostles also wrote as the Spirit revealed the message to them.

Second, the Spirit will bring to mind the words of Jesus to the disciples.  So much of the New Testament letters are an exposition of what Jesus taught.  Here are just a couple of examples from John’s first letter.  “And this is the promise that He Himself [Jesus] made to us: eternal life” (1 John 2:25).  “And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (1 John 3:23).

The two-part promise of Jesus came true; the Holy Spirit revealed truth to the disciples and reminded them of all that Jesus had said.  By extension to our day, I believe God is now accomplishing this in His followers.  As our minds are being renewed by the Spirit’s presence and power, we will find ourselves more and more hearing the voice of the Spirit and the word of Jesus.

There is a strain of teaching that calls us to be suspicious of our minds.  That treats our minds as suspect and still fraught with sin.  But empowered by the Spirit, your mind is being renewed, transformed, and growing into the likeness of Christ.  Part of the Holy Spirit’s role in your life is to teach you, and to fill your mind with the word that Jesus has for you.  Listen for that message.  It is nearer than you think.

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 32

“And 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 behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you” (John 14:16-17)

One of the promises of Jesus revealed in His upper room message is the promise of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit – here identified as the Helper – is coming to live in us.

We have a hint of the Spirit in us in Jesus’ great proclamation at the feast in John chapter 7, ” ‘He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” ‘  But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:38-39).

Here in the John 14 passage, Jesus begins a fuller revelation of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus promises to petition the Father and also promises that the Father will answer by giving us His Holy Spirit.  What aspects of the Holy Spirit’s presence does Jesus reveal here?

First, the Holy Spirit will be sent to us by the Father in answer to Jesus’ prayer.  Second, the Spirit will be “another” [Greek allos, another of the same sort; not heteros, another that is different] meaning that He will be a “Helper” in the same way that Jesus has been to the disciples.  Third, He will be with us forever.  Fourth, He will be known as the Spirit of truth.  Jesus referred to Himself as “the truth” (John 14:6).  The Spirit, as Jesus’ equal, will also be known as true.  Fifth, the world will not be able to receive God’s Spirit, because the world does not know or recognize Him.  Sixth, the Spirit abides with the disciples at that time through the physical presence of Jesus.

Last, and I think the most radical idea of them all, the “Spirit will be IN you.”  Will be IN you.  Will be IN us.  Will be IN you and me.  At the time of Jesus’ words, God’s Spirit dwelt with the disciples through the physical presence of Jesus, the God-man.  But a future time is coming, after Jesus has physically departed, when the Spirit will literally live IN the disciples.  And by our faith in Christ and His work on the cross to bring us into His family, the Spirit will live IN us as well.