John 14:22-31: “Jesus Continues
To Point His Disciples To Look To the Comforter, or Holy Spirit, Who Will
Shortly Be Given To Them”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study we looked at verses 12 to 21 of chapter 14.
1.1.1. Jesus gave
His disciples a startling and incredible promise, that the one who believes in
Him will do even greater works than He has done. We talked about what Jesus meant by this and how
it has been fulfilled in the early church as well as all throughout the history
of the church.
1.1.2. We saw why the disciples were startled by Jesus: they were now going to have to take up the
work that He had begun and that after only 3 ½ years of training not the 15
years typical of those who studied under a rabbi.
1.1.3. Jesus taught
His disciples about how that these great things they will do will be
accomplished by prayer to Him and to the Father in His Name.
1.1.4. Jesus told
His disciples that He would send to them another “comforter” in the Holy
Spirit who will come alongside them and assist them. We talked about the Holy Spirit as the
Christian’s “comforter” as well as the general role of the Holy Spirit
in the Christian’s life.
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to look at verses
22-31 of chapter 14.
1.2.1. We will see Jesus continuing to teach His disciples
about the Holy Spirit and the role that the Holy Spirit will begin to perform
in the lives of believers after Jesus has left the earth and gone to be with
the Father.
1.2.2. Jesus will continue to dodge the questions of His
disciples because He knows that they don’t really understand what is soon to
enfold when He is arrested and crucified and they are left with the mission He
began of going to all the nations and preparing
the way for His kingdom through the preaching of the gospel, teaching the word
of God, and making disciples.
1.2.3. Jesus will explain to His disciples that when the
things that He has been declaring to them prophetically concerning His death
and resurrection come to pass, and the Holy Spirit comes upon them as the “Comforter”
that in that day they will realize that all He has been saying, His very words,
were right on the money.
1.2.4. Andrew Murray
has written the following in a book on the Holy Spirit’s role in the life of
the believer, “The great gift of the Father, through whom He obtained
salvation and brought it near to us, is the Son. On the other hand, the great
gift of the Son--whom He sends to us from the Father to apply to us an inner
and effectual salvation-is the Holy Spirit.
1 As the Son reveals and glorifies the Father, so the Spirit reveals and
glorifies the Son. 2 The Spirit is in us
to transfer to us the life and the
salvation that are prepared in Jesus-- to make them wholly ours. 3 Jesus, who is in heaven, is made present in
us, dwells in us, by the Spirit. We have
seen that in order to partake of Jesus two things are always necessary--the
knowledge of the sin that is in us, and the understanding of the redemption
that is in Him. It is the Holy Spirit
who continually promotes this double work in believers. He reproves and comforts. He convicts of sin and He glorifies Christ.”
1.2.5. Everything
that God does through our lives He does through the person of the Holy
Spirit. After coming to Christ for
salvation, we Christians need to look to the working of the Holy Spirit in all
things in our lives, for instance :
1.2.5.1.The Holy
Spirit convicts people of their sins:
John 16:8, “8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the
world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”
1.2.5.2.The Holy
Spirit causes believers to be born again to new spiritual life within:
John 3:5-6, “5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say
to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the
1.2.5.3.The Holy
Spirit seals the believer for salvation giving him assurance of his salvation,
and also reveals what is the inheritance in Christ that the believer has:
Ephesians 1:13-19, “13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of
truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in
Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view
to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. 15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the
Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of
you in my prayers; 17 that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of
wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes
of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His
calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward
us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength
of His might.”
1.2.5.4.The Holy
Spirit teaches the believer God’s thoughts by revealing the truth of the word
of God to his heart and mind:
1 Corinthians 2:10-16, “10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit;
for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man
except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of
God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but
the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us
by God, 13 which
things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught
by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a
natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
appraised. 15 But he
who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For who has known
the mind of the Lord, that he will
instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”
1 John 2:27, “27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him
abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His
anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just
as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”
1.2.5.5.The Holy
Spirit gives us wisdom and helps us know God’s will for us in the decisions and
choices that we make:
Ephesians 1:17, “17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of
Him.”
2 Timothy 1:7, “7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of
power and love and discipline.”
1.2.5.6.The Holy
Spirit produces fruits in our lives as believers and fills us with the love of
God:
Romans 5:5, “5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has
been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Galatians 5:22-23, “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no
law.”
1.2.5.7.The Holy
Spirit helps us in our praying:
Romans 8:26-27, “26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for
we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us
with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the
Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
1.2.5.8.The Holy
Spirit distributes spiritual gifts to us in the body of Christ and develops
these gifts in us so that God can use us mightily for His work:
Ephesians 4:11, “11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets,
and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.”
Romans 12:6-8, “6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace
given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy,
according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his
teaching; 8 or he
who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads,
with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”
1 Corinthians 12:4-11, “4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.
6 There
are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.
7 But to
each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the
Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts
of healing by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another
prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various
kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things,
distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”
1.2.5.9.We
Christians must learn to listen to the Holy Spirit in all things and
participate with Him in the work that He is performing in our lives so that our
lives glorify God and that we are used in the greatest way by the Lord:
Galatians 5:25, “25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
Ephesians 4:30, “30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were
sealed for the day of redemption.”
1 Thessalonians 5:19, “19 Do not quench the Spirit.”
2.
VS
14:22-24 - “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’.” - Judas (not Iscariot) asks Jesus why He is not
disclosing Himself to the world just to His disciples, and Jesus replies that
if anyone loves Him and keeps His word that He and the Father will come to him
and make their abode with him
2.1.
The Judas of this verse is the brother of James, and the
gospel writer is clear in distinguishing this man apart from Judas the
betrayer. Judas Iscariot is not present
with Jesus and the disciples from the time of his being sent out by Jesus in
John 13:30 until he brings the Roman soldiers to capture Jesus and take Him to
be crucified.
2.2.
This Judas is asking this question because he does not
understand how that he and the other 10 disciples could be so fortunate as to
have Jesus reveal Himself to them and yet Jesus is not going to presently
reveal Himself to the rest of the world?
This questions portrays the fact that the disciples up to this point
were still expecting Jesus to be a political Messiah, one that right then and
there would raise up an army and unite Israel to go and fight off the Romans
and win their freedom, setting the nation up to rule over the world as they
knew that the scriptures promised would happen when Messiah came.
2.3.
As we have often seen in the gospel of John, Jesus
responds to the question He wishes to respond to. To this question Jesus repeats what He had
taught before, that if a person loves Him, He will keep His words (or
commandments), and the Father will love Him.
2.4.
Jesus speaks universally here when He says that if ‘anyone’
loves Him, he will keep His word. Jesus
adds that He and the Father will come and make their residence within that
person who does loves Him and demonstrates this by keeping His
commandments.
2.5.
A true believer will have the Trinity of Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit dwelling permanently within Him until the day he goes to meet
the Lord face to face. Thus, Jesus tells
His disciples that the one who loves Him will have both He and the Father come
and make their dwelling within him.
2.6.
Then, Jesus says that the one who does not love Him
will not keep His words and commandments.
From a logic point of view He says that if A is true, then the opposite
of A cannot also be true. In other
words, if a man loves Him he will keep His word, therefore, it must also be
true that if a man does not love Him he will not keep His word.
2.7.
Finally, Jesus reiterates that His word did not
originate from Himself but rather from the Father who sent Him in the first
place.
2.8.
We Christians should be able to relate to what the
Judas of this verse is asking. Are we
not also blessed beyond comprehension that the Lord has revealed Himself to us
and yet not to the whole world? Should
we not in response constantly thank God for His many and great blessings in
that we have come to know God and the salvation He has procured for us? In Luke 10:21 we see Jesus rejoicing that the
Father did not reveal the great truths and Him and salvation to the wise men of
this world, but unto His disciples, whom He refers to as “babes” :
Luke 10:21, “21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit,
and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent
and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing
in Your sight.”
2.9.
Since we Christians have the Trinity within us, we
should realize the incredible resources that we hold !!! If we are lacking of the fullness of God in
our hearts and experience in order to be whole or fulfilled, then we should
learn to rely upon the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are constantly at our
disposal.
3.
VS
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’.”
- Jesus tells His disciples that He has
been teaching them while He is with them, however the Helper, that is the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in His Name, will teach them all things and
bring to remembrance all that He has said to them
3.1.
Jesus had been His disciples’ teacher to this moment,
having been with them in the flesh...
3.2.
The “Counselor” or “Comforter,” the Holy
Spirit, the third person of the trinity, Jesus promised will become His
disciples’ teacher.
3.3.
Again, as we mentioned about the Holy Spirit in our
last study, personality is a prerequisite of one who teaches, therefore the
Holy Spirit is no mere holy force.
3.4.
Jesus promised that the Father would send the Holy
Spirit in His Name. We saw earlier in this
chapter that to pray “in the Name” of Jesus was to pray to Him as
representing all that He is, and to pray as His representative according to His
will. Now, Jesus promises that the Holy
Spirit will be sent to His disciples “in His name.”
3.5.
Note here that as is consistent throughout the
scripture, the Holy Spirit is not being sent to the disciples to glorify
Himself or any work of His, but rather that Jesus be lifted up and glorified,
and His work encouraged.
3.6.
Jesus promised that even though His disciples had
understood very little that He had said, the Holy Spirit would bring everything
that He had said to their remembrance when it was God’s timing to do that.
3.7.
He is called the “Holy Spirit” because His
primary job is to produce holiness in the lives of God’s people, as He is
always in the process of bringing sanctification in the lives of God’s people
and provides conviction of sin, cleansing from sin, moral regeneration, and
empowerment to have victory over sinful thoughts and actions.
3.8.
We need to look to the Holy Spirit to bring to our
remembrance God’s word when we are testifying and witnessing to others. Jesus told us not to worry about what we
should speak in those instances because the Holy Spirit would give us the words
He wanted us to say. The Holy Spirit is
the Christian’s teacher as I said earlier, and we need to look to the Holy
Spirit to reveal all truth to us each day.
4.
VS
14:27 - “‘Peace I leave with you; My
peace I give to you; not as the world
gives, do I give to you. Let not your
heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful’.” - Jesus tells His disciples that He is leaving
His peace with them, with a peace that is not as the world gives, then He tells
them not to let their hearts be fearful
4.1.
Jesus promised to leave His disciples a most precious
gift before He left, this gift was not just ‘peace,’ but “His peace.” When we look at the life of Jesus in the
gospels we see a man who was always completely at peace, with the only
exception being this last period of life as He faced His crucifixion. Jesus’ peace would always abide in the
disciples’ hearts, and calm all fear of what may happen. This is the same peace all believers can have
in Christ, a peace that Paul later wrote that “surpasses comprehension.” In other words, it is a peace that is
received when their would seem no good reason to have or expect peace in one’s
heart.
4.2.
If death by martyrdom should face a disciple of Jesus,
Jesus’ peace would give that disciple a calm and likewise boldness which would
cause him to be able to bear that most difficult circumstance.
4.3.
Jesus said that He did not give this gift as the world
gives, and there are several things that could have been meant by Jesus,
including:
4.3.1.
That this gift was free and that He didn’t expect
anything in return for giving it.
4.3.2.
That this peace was not a token or inexpensive gift,
but rather was of the utmost of value and procured at the greatest of costs,
His death on the cross.
4.3.3.
It could just refer to the peace in heart that worldly
people have, and the scriptures teach us that there is no peace for the wicked
(Isaiah 48:22; 57:21). The lives of the
people of this world who do not know the Lord are filled with turmoil, and in
fact I believe that one of the reasons that people of this world resort to
alcohol and substance abuse is just so that they can have some semblance of
peace, however short of duration that it might last.
4.4.
Lastly, Jesus repeats the words to His disciples which
began this chapter, He tells them not to let their ‘heart be troubled.’ Now though, Jesus adds that they should also
not let their heart also be ‘fearful.’
Jesus’ peace would in time calm a troubled heart, and it would also
grant boldness to reign where fear had previously dwelt. Trusting in Jesus and His power and might to
protect us calms all of our fears.
4.4.1.
A pastor friend of mine shared the story that he once
was trying to get his young son to sleep in his own room at night but his son
kept getting scared and running into his bedroom every night. One night he tucked his son into his bed and
went and got in his own bed with his wife.
After a little while his son ran into the room and yelled, “I’m
scared!” He took his son back into his
own room, prayed with him and tucked him into bed and went back and got back
into his own bed. After a little while
his son again ran into the room and yelled, “I’m scared!” He again took his son back into his own
room, prayed with him and tucked him into bed and went back and again got back
into his own bed. After a little while
his son again ran into the room and yelled, “I’m scared!” The man then said to his son, “Son, Jesus is
there in your room with you.” The son
replied, “Yeah, and He’s scared too!”
4.5.
On the
cross, Jesus conquered Satan’s power and thus, Jesus is and always will be
victorious over the Devil. When we are
fearful we need to come to Jesus and trust that He is our protection and know
that there is absolutely nothing that we need to be afraid of. Jesus will always be victorious over all when
we trust in Him.
4.6.
‘Peace’ is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, and it
only comes as a disciple is filled with the Holy Spirit.
4.7.
We Christians need to always bring everything to God
in prayer in order to have the peace which Jesus promised, for Paul wrote in
Phil. 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all
comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” His
peace is guaranteed in our life, but only when we are lifting everything
to Him in prayer by faith, trusting His promises to be true.
4.8.
We Christians do not need to know why everything
happens to us in our life (especially the difficult and painful things) in
order to have His peace. If we will pray
about everything, we are guaranteed to have His peace, and that is really all
that we need to get through any crisis.
4.9.
We need to constantly pray and trust God to fill us
with the Holy Spirit in order that we may have His peace in our lives, as ‘peace’
is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
5.
VS
14:28-29 - “‘You heard that I said to you, ‘’I go
away, and I will come to you’’. If you
loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes to
pass, that when it comes to pass, you may believe’.” - Jesus tells His disciples that since He has
told them that He is going away that if they loved Him they would have rejoiced
because He was going to the Father, for the Father is greater than the Son,
and, He has told all of these things to them in advance so that when His words
are fulfilled they will believe
5.1.
True “agape” love does not think of itself or
its selfish interests but only in the interests of the one loved, and therefore
if Jesus’ disciples had loved Him with this kind of love they would have been
happy and rejoiced for Him because He was going to His Father, as He had told
them.
5.2.
It would be better for Jesus to be with the Father,
and not in this present state of humiliation and suffering in the flesh, and
thus He says, “for the Father is greater than I.”
5.3.
Jesus says to His disciples that all of these things
He has told them in chapter 14, especially concerning the coming of the
Comforter, were told to them before His resurrection, so that when His words
came to pass that their faith in Him would become greater.
5.4.
True ‘agape’ love always thinks of the concerns
of the one loved, not of the individual’s interests. Are you o Christians loving in this way
today? Are you really selfless in your
affections and motivations? If not you
ought to repent and think of others as more important than ourselves, and think
of their interests and concerns not just your own.
6.
VS
14:30-31 - “‘I will not speak much more with you,
for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but that the world may know that I love the
Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go from here’.”
- Jesus tells His disciples that the
ruler of the world is coming and that he has nothing in Jesus but that the
world knows that He loves the Father and that the Father has given Him a
commandment, they must arise and get going
6.1.
The Devil had left Christ after the end of the 40 days
of His temptation, and now the tempter was back to tempt and mock Christ. He would also accuse Him falsely before the
Father, however Jesus tells His disciples that the Devil has no hold over His life,
saying, “he has nothing in Me.’
That is to say, Satan had no foothold or leverage with which he could
take advantage of Jesus, and for this reason Jesus will be victorious over the
Devil when He suffers all that He will go through in being beaten and
crucified.
6.1.1.
We Christians would be wise to not allow a foothold or
point of leverage in our lives for which the Devil can take advantage of
us. This is what the author of the book
of Hebrews was exhorting us to do when he wrote Hebrews 12:1-2, “1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses
surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so
easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us, 2 fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God.”
6.2.
Satan will come and cause men to beat and crucify
Jesus, however this will be the very thing that cause the Devil to lose all of
His authority and power to Jesus. Jesus
is going to be victorious over Satan through
6.3.
Jesus tells His disciples that it is time to get going
and continue straight on into the conflict which will He knows will result in
His death upon
6.4.
We Christians need to be encouraged by the obedience
of Christ who was willing to walk straight forward into the fires of hell in
order to die the most horrible of deaths for our sins. If Christ was willing to be obedient and die
for us, are we not also willing to be obedient and live for Him as He would
have us to live? We are to be obedient
to God for Jesus has paid the ultimate price for our life, as Paul said in 1
Cor. 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
7.
CONCLUSIONS:
7.1.
.