John 14:15-31 | mysite

Jesus will give you the Spirit of Truth

John 14:15-31

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

“Come now; let us leave.

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What was last week’s lesson about?

Jesus reaffirms his promise that he will prepare a place in heaven for his followers.
Seeing Jesus is the same as seeing the Father.
- The Trinity is one God with three persons.
- Just like the angel can have 4 faces, the One God has 3 persons.They are all the persons of God.
- At the atomic level, it takes 3 particles to make matter, an electron, a proton, and a neutron.
- Even at the quark level, it would take 3 quarks to make matter.Two quarks to pull in opposite directions and one quark to be pulled on making it expand and split apart.
- If the nature of matter has to come in 3’s, why can’t the nature of God be in 3’s?
Using science, everyone can see that Jesus rose from the dead.
- Does seeing this miracle always result in belief?
- Does God do miracles for unbelievers?
  - When Jesus healed the 10 lepers, how many healed lepers thanked him?
  - When Jesus did the miracle of feeding the 5,000, did all of them become believers?
- Is it necessary to see a miracle to believe in Jesus.
- Is the working of a miracle in your life a proof of your salvation?
- Is it necessary for one to have a miracle to be saved?

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Jesus tells us to keep his commands. What are his commands?

Love God with all your heart.
Do not murder – do not even be angry at others.
Do not commit adultery – do not even lust.
Do not swear an oath.
Do not return evil for evil.
Love your neighbor and your enemy.
Do not practice righteousness for your own glory.
Do not worry.
Do not judge.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no – do not lie.
Don’t waste your effort on those that despise it.
If you have a need, ask and pray.
Watch out for false prophets, which you will know by their deeds.
Live innocent lives, but don’t be naïve.
Don’t have evil thoughts.
Be humble.
Do not cause others to sin.
Deal with the wrongs of others carefully.
Forgive each other from the heart.
Do not divorce, except for adultery.
Honor your father and mother.
Pay your taxes and your tithe.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
You must believe that Jesus is God and be born again to go to heaven.
Love fellow believers as Jesus loved you.

Now, Jesus has previously told his disciples that he is going away and that he is going to the Father. In last week’s section, he told his disciples, “do not let your hearts be troubled.” He is going to repeat that in the section we will cover today. He is also going to give them a promise of his plan to help them when he is away.

This is his plan: Jesus says,

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Jesus is going to give his followers another advocate – the Spirit of Truth. Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit. The world cannot accept the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit will not dwell in an unbeliever. One cannot take part in the promises of Jesus if he does not believe in Jesus.

What are Jesus’ promises in this paragraph?

Another Advocate – the Spirit of Truth, who lives in you and will be in you,.
Jesus will come to his followers.
Jesus will be in his followers.
Jesus will love his followers.
The Father will love Jesus’ followers.
Jesus will show himself to his followers.

We see here in this paragraph that Jesus equates himself with both the Father and the Spirit of Truth.

How did Jesus show himself to his disciples after his death and resurrection?

His appearances to the disciples and apostles.
His revelation to John.

How is it that Jesus shows himself to his followers today?

In other Christians.Is it any wonder that the followers of Jesus Christ are called Christians, which means “Christ-like?”
Sometimes, Jesus does appear to other Christians.Many people in the last few years have become Christians because they saw Jesus in a vision.
Answer to prayer. In the previous section, we saw that Jesus promised that we could ask him anything and he would do it for us.

Now, Judas asks why does Jesus intend to show himself to just the disciples and not to the world?

The world cannot accept Jesus. Jesus cannot be fully revealed without faith in Jesus. We have the shroud of Jesus when he was buried, and that serves as a photograph of the moment Jesus rose from the dead. But, the worldly person will still not believe in Jesus. The worldly person will not enter into a relationship with Jesus. The worldly person will not know Jesus. Therefore, the worldly person cannot be shown all that Jesus is. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cannot make their home with the person that does not obey Jesus’ teaching. For the person that does obey Jesus’ teaching, the Father, Son,, and Holy Spirit can make their home with.

Jesus continues to give them comfort for the things that are about to happen.

“All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Notice that Jesus tells them that the Holy Spirit will teach them all things and remind them of everything that He has said to them. This is a common theme in the gospels.

John 2:20-22,

“They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”

John 20:9,

“They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”

Even Jesus’ enemies remembered that Jesus said that he will rise again on the third day.

Matthew 27:62-64,

“The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

So, why didn’t the disciples remember this?

It wasn’t so much that they didn’t remember that he said this, but rather that they did not understand from the scriptures that this was part of God’s plan and they did not believe that this was going to actually happen.

So, the disciples had some doubt about the resurrection. How is Jesus going to fulfill his promises of answering their prayers if he was lying in the grave? How could they preach that Jesus is the Messiah if he was lying in the grave? Maybe they doubted not because they didn’t think Jesus could rise from the dead. Maybe they doubted like we doubted. Maybe they doubted if he would, or doubted when he would.

Would you have doubted at this time? I think I would have doubted. It is typical to have doubts in the Christian life. When Jesus rose from the dead, no one actually saw Jesus rise from the dead. Do you think that some people doubted then because there was no eyewitness of this occurrence?

Yet today, we have an eyewitness to the very moment of Jesus’ resurrection – the shroud of Turin. In the time just after the resurrection, the shroud was a relic, and to them, it only proved that Jesus died. Science has shown that the shroud proves that Jesus rose from the dead. Everyone that sees the shroud, or an image of it is an eyewitness of the very moment of Jesus’ resurrection.

So, knowing what the disciples are going to go through, Jesus gives them assurance.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Then Jesus said:

“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’”

This is an assurance, not just for the fact of the resurrection, but also for the fact that Jesus is going to the Father. He will return from that one day as well.

In chapter one, we learned that Jesus was not just next to the Father, but in the very bosom of the Father.

Then Jesus says, “If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”

Does the fact that the Father is greater than Jesus mean that Jesus is not God?

Why is the Father greater than Jesus?

The previous part of the sentence tells us why. The disciples should be glad that Jesus is going to the Father. Jesus was with the Father in close relationship from the beginning of time till he was incarnated. Jesus was in the very bosom of the Father. How can that Not be greater?

"If Jesus was God, why did He say "The Father is greater than I" in John 14:28?"

Answer: The phrase “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28) was spoken by Jesus during the upper room discourse, and the greater context is the promising of the Holy Spirit to the disciples after Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus says repeatedly that He is doing the Father’s will, thereby implying that He is somehow subservient to the Father. The question then becomes how can Jesus be equal to God when by His own admission He is subservient to the will of God? The answer to this question lies within the nature of the incarnation.

During the incarnation, Jesus was temporarily “made lower than the angels” (Hebrews 2:9), which refers to Jesus’ status. The doctrine of the incarnation says that the second Person of the Trinity took on human flesh. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, Jesus was fully human and “made lower than the angels.” However, Jesus is fully divine, too. By taking on human nature, Jesus did not relinquish His divine nature—God cannot stop being God. How do we reconcile the fact that the second Person of the Trinity is fully divine yet fully human and by definition “lower than the angels”? The answer to that question can be found in Philippians 2:5-11. When the second Person of the Trinity took on human form, something amazing occurred. Christ “made himself nothing.” This phrase has generated more ink than almost any other phrase in the Bible. In essence, what it means is that Jesus voluntarily relinquished the prerogative of freely exercising His divine attributes and subjected Himself to the will of the Father while on earth.

Another thing to consider is the fact that subservience in role does not equate to subservience in essence. For example, consider an employer/employee relationship. The employer has the right to make demands of the employee, and the employee has the obligation to serve the employer. The roles clearly define a subservient relationship. However, both people are still human beings and share in the same human nature. There is no difference between the two as to their essence; they stand as equals. The fact that one is an employer and the other is an employee does nothing to alter the essential equality of these two individuals as human beings. The same can be said of the members of the Trinity. All three members (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are essentially equal; i.e., they are all divine in nature. However, in the grand plan of redemption, they play certain roles, and these roles define authority and subservience. The Father commands the Son, and the Father and the Son command the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, the fact that the Son took on a human nature and made Himself subservient to the Father in no way denies the deity of the Son, nor does it diminish His essential equality with the Father. The “greatness” spoken of in this verse, then, relates to role, not to essence.

Once again, Jesus tells us why he tells his disciples these things:

“I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.”

Jesus tells his disciples this, not just once, but 3 times in chapter 14. Previously, he said in John 14:2,

“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”

So that is another way that Jesus going to the Father is greater. He is preparing a place for us there.

He says in John 14:12,

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

So with Jesus going to the Father, this will enable the disciples to do even greater works than Jesus. This is another way in which his going to the Father is greater.

Jesus concludes this teaching by saying:

“I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.”

“Come now; let us leave.”

Satan is coming to try to put his evil deeds into effect and thwart God’s plan – so he thinks. But God is using Satan to fulfill His Own Plan.

Remember back when Jesus said that he lays down his life for the sheep? He also said this:

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

This is what he meant by the world will learn that Jesus does exactly what the Father commands him. It is time for Jesus to lay down his life for the sheep. That is what he came for all along. Jesus addresses the disciples’ doubts every step of the way. Do you see how much he loves them by doing this? Do you see how much Jesus loves YOU by doing this?

The next step to fulfilling that command is the garden of Gethsemane, and Jesus says, “Come now; let us leave.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD-3skMDcJI

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