The Comforter Is Coming, Part 3
John 14:25-26
Turn in your Bibles now to the 14th chapter of John and we will continue our study of John. We've been having a great time for a long time now, in the gospel of John. Our hearts have been enriched and we've been a long time in the 14th chapter. It keeps getting longer and longer. It started out as one message on these verses, and this is the third one. This is really the third part of the same message. But these are tremendous truths.
And this morning we're going to talk about a subject, eventually, that is really the key to everything in the Word of God. Very, very basic and very, very strategic, and we'll see that in reference particularly to verse 26 as we come to it in a few moments.
Now this then is the third and final part of this message, "The Comforter is Coming." It deals with the legacy of the dying Christ to His beloved eleven disciples and to all those who love Him through all the church age. You'll remember that this is the night before the death of Christ; He is, at this point, comforting His sorrowing disciples who are baffled and bewildered by all of the events that are going on. They don't understand the denial of Peter that is about to take place. They don't understand the betrayal on the part of one of their own. They don't understand how Jesus can be the Messiah of the world and be killed. They don't understand how He can be the Christ of God and suffer at the hands of ungodly men. And so they're confused. And they're lonely already in anticipating His leaving.
In view of this, from verses 15 to 27, He gives them five supernatural promises to comfort them in their sorrow. Now these are promises that are the possession of everybeliever by faith in Jesus Christ. They are great and precious promises. They belonged, not only to these eleven who received them, incidentally, not until the day of Pentecost, but they also belong to all of us as well. And they are ours now, this is not the inheritance that is laid up for us, this is the inheritance that is given us at the moment of salvation. It is the richest legacy in the universe and it is all theirs and it is all ours by the promise of Jesus Christ.
Now we've seen already in chapter 14 that the whole chapter is a comfort chapter. He is endeavoring to comfort them by telling them He'll soon come back to get them. He's only going to prepare a place for them. He's endeavoring to ... to comfort them also by telling them that even when He's gone they'll do greater things than even He did. Not only that, anything they need they can ask in His name and they will receive it. And then He goes into these five supernatural promises. And you'll remember that we said that these promises are given to those who love Jesus Christ. Verse 15 indicates that. Verse 21 repeats it. And verse 23 repeats it for a third time. Three times this passage tells us that these promises are for those who love Christ and whose love is visible by obedience. And we've tried to stress that the only genuine test of love is obedience ... obedience.
Now what were these five supernatural promises? And we're still reviewing for the first three of them, the first one, as you remember, was He promised them a supernatural Helper in verses 16 and 17. Verse 16: "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever." The problem with Jesus Christ who was the first Comforter was that He was only there for a few years. And Christ says ‑ I'm going to go away and send you a Comforterwho will abide with you forever. And you'll remember that I told you that the two words that are the key are the words another and Comforter. Comforter ... paraklētŏs, a helper, one called along side to help. He says ‑ I'm going to send you a Helper. Then He uses the word another, and the word another is the word allōs and it means another of the exact, identical kind as Myself. So He says ‑ I'm going away but I'm going to send you one exactly like Me to do for you exactly what I did only this time it will not be done with you it will be done in you, and that's in verse 17: "Even the Spirit of truth," so‑called because He leads them into truth, "whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him for He dwelleth with you and shall be ... what? ... in you."
Now He says ‑ I'm going to send you another Helper, a supernatural Helper exactly like I am. My own Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, all the same. And He will dwell in you and He will help you and He will be a forever helper. And so the first supernatural promise is of a supernatural Helper, one to live in them and to do everything in them that Jesus Christ could do with them, to fulfill every ... every single need, to empower them for every kind of work, to minister to them in every possible way, and He will dwell within them. A tremendous promise.
Then, secondly, He promises to them, not only a supernatural Helper, but we saw, He promised them a supernatural life, verse 18: "I will not leave you orphanos, comfortless orphans, I will come to you." Verse 19: "Yet a little while and the world seeth Me no more but ye see Me, because I live, ye shall live also."
Now Jesus says in verse 18 - Not only am I going to send the Spirit but when the Spirit comes it will be Me coming as well. I will come to you. And on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came into the hearts of that group of believers in Jerusalem, and later on in the book of Acts into Gentile believers and then finally every believer the moment you're born into salvation, experiences the presence of the Holy Spirit at a forever basis. Well, when that finally happened that was not just the Holy Spirit isolated, that was Christ coming into the life as well. And it is accurate to say the Spirit dwells within me, it is just as accurate to say Christ dwells within me, for both of them are there. And so, Jesus says ‑ One step further than sending you another Helper ‑ I will come to you. And the world, He had said, in verse 17 won't know it, they won't see it, they have no organ to perceive this.
Verse 19, it says, again repeating almost the same thought as verse 17: "Yet a little while and the world seeth Me no more." And once Christ left this world physically, the world then stopped perceiving Christ. And the unsaved individual, the world as such, cannot see Christ. They cannot see the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They cannot discern what Christ is doing. They have no way to understand the dimension in which God operates. We, however, do know that. You see Me why? Because I live, ye shall live also. What does that mean? It is because we have been given spiritual life that we see God's work and we see Him move. Jesus says ‑ I'm going to make you alive spiritually, and when you're spiritually alive you'll be sensitive to God's operations, you'll be living in God's dimension. And the world won't. And you know, that's the truth. We sense God, we see Him move, we evaluate things on the basis of what the Lord is doing whereas the natural world has no concept of such things. We live in a totally different sphere all together. And so He says the world's not going to know what's going on, they're not going to have the faintest idea, they're not going to see Me move, they're not going to see the Spirit of God move, but you will because you have spiritual life, you're alive to the supernatural dimension.
So He promised them a supernatural Helper, and a supernatural life, and we've seen these in great detail.
Thirdly, He promised them a supernatural union. Not only wouldthe Spirit of God dwell in them, not only would He come to dwell in them but they would be united together as one in mystical kind of union. Not just two objects existing together but blended together into one, so that my life is no more mine but it's His that lives in me, Galatians 2:20. So that the things I do, I do not do on my own for I have the mind of Christ. I am inextricably woven together with Christ Himself in a union.
Verse 20 introduces that to us: "At that day," that is at the day of Pentecost when the Spirit comes, "ye shall know that I am in My Father and ye in Me and I in you." And there's a classic dispensational statement that deciphers for us the distinction of the church age, which is Christ in us, and us in Him. That's the mystery of our union. So, He says ‑ You're not going to understand that until the day of Pentecost when the Spirit comes within you, you get instant understanding, and you'll know that you're in Me and I'm in you.
We're in union with Christ. You remember I showed you Revelation 3:21, to show you how we are together with Jesus Christ? ‑ Christ says in Revelation 3:21, that to us who overcome, that is to those who love Christ, we shall sit with Him on His throne as He sits with the Father on His throne. That's how we're united with Christ. So much so that we sit on the same throne with Him for eternity. We're one with Christ.
Verse 21, again reminds us of how this union is possible. How do you come into such a union with Christ? "He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me, and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father and it is to him that I will love and manifest Myself." See? How is it that you come into a union with Christ? To whom does He manifest Himself in such a union? To the one who loves Him, and obeys His commandments.
In verse 22 Judas asks the question ‑"Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us and not unto the world?" He's thinking about a physical manifestation. How is it that You're going to come back, show Yourself to the wor ... to ... to us, but the world won't see You? But he doesn't understand. He doesn't understand that this is a spiritual manifestation. I've never seen Christ but He's manifested Himself to me and He lives with me. Judas thought He was talking about returning physically. Christ wasn't talking about that at all. And Judas also couldn't figure out why it was, this is Thaddaeus incidentally, another name for him, or Lebbaeus, he couldn't figure out why it was that Jesus, if He was going to be the Savior of the world, wouldn't want to manifest Himself to the world. Jesus gives the answer in verse 23: "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me he'll keep My words, and My Father will love him and We will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings."
Now you know what He's saying there? He's saying ‑ If a man loves Me and obeys My word that is the requirement for Me to manifest Myself. Verse 24, ‑ If he doesn't love Me and doesn't keep My sayings then I can't manifest Myself to him. And the reason the world will never perceive Me and the reason the world does not know Christ is because they do not love Him and they do not keep His sayings. Consequently, He cannot manifest Himself to them.
You'll notice in verse 23 He adds the fact, also, that the Father will be manifest as well and make His abode. So by the time you come to verse 23 the Holy Spirit is in you, the Son is in you, and the Father is in you as well. The whole trinity resides within the believer. And it's all predicated on the fact of loving Christ and the validity of that love indicated by obedience. And Christ says ‑ I can't come to those who don't love Me and keep My words. And incidentally, He adds at the endof verse 24, "The word which you hear is not really Mine, it's the Father's who sent Me." I speak God's truth.
What an indictment that was of the Jewish population. Because they prided themselves on the fact that they were the ones who possessed the oracles of God, Romans 9. They were the ones, in Romans 3 also, they were the ones who held on to the truthof God, supposedly adhering to it legalistically. And yet He says ‑ They don't hear My word, and it's really the Father's word, they're deaf to that. And so they rejected both.
So we see then that Christ promises to those who love Him that He will personally bring about a union with Himself and the Father in their lives. What a tremendous thing that is to realize. And we talked last week, you remember, about if we are one with Christ and one with the Father that lays some heavy, heavy responsibility on us, doesn't it?
All right, now number 4 ... the fourth supernatural promise is a supernatural Instructor, or a supernatural Teacher. Now this is tremendous and we'll just consider this in verse ... well, verse ... really verse 25 through 27, this morning. And that will be it. But He promises, fourthly, to give them a supernatural Instructor, or a supernatural Teacher. Now this is a tremendous promise. And it really involves again the Holy Spirit. He says
Since the Holy Spirit is living in you, you have a resident teacher of truth. Now there's so much in this and I want you to really stay with me this morning, 'cause I want you to get this. This is absolutely basic.
Now in the Old Testament time the men of God, at that point, did not have the resident Holy Spirit. The Jews in Israel did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit. That belongs to the church. He was with them, He is in us. That's the distinction of the Old age and the New ... the old dispensation and the new. And because they did not have a resident teacher of truth, all kinds of problems took place.
Hosea said in chapter 4, "Hear the Word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land because there's no truth, nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land."
Verse 6: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."
Israel had a problem remembering the truth. And they vacillated back and forth. In the church age the Spirit of God lives within us, to constantly remind us of the truth. Apart from the Holy Spirit there is no way to know spiritual truth. Paul says the world by wisdom knew not God. He didn't say the world by ignorance knew notGod, he said the world at its best doesn't know God. The world at its brilliance doesn't know God. God is revealed by the Holy Spirit. And the world, no matter how wise it is, does not know spiritual truth apart from Christ. For apart from Christ the Spirit is not given and the Spirit is the teacher of truth. Without Jesus Christ a man has not the Holy Spirit and without the Holy Spirit man has no truth. The Holy Spirit is the teacher of truth. And Paul told Timothy that men are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth. The wisest of them cannot perceive spiritual truth. Godless men on a quest for spiritual truth come up with zero every time. They have no resource to know spiritual truth. And there are people who come looking for truth in this and they try it in Buddhism or they try it in some kind of a ... a yoga, or they try it in an Eastern meditation thing or they try it some kind of cult or occult and they never find it and they never will find it for they have no capacity for it and they have no teacher of truth.
John chapter 8, verse 30, listen to this: "As He spoke these words many believed on Him," Jesus, "then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in My word then are you My disciples indeed and you shall know the truth." Only those who knowChrist know the truth.
In I Timothy 2:4, Paul said, "God, our Savior," watch it, "who will have all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth." You don't come to the knowledge of the truth until salvation. And we Christians have the indwelling truth teacher, the supernatural Holy Spirit.
Now, with that in mind, look at verse 24, let's back up to there, just reading it: "He that loveth Me not keepth not My sayings, and the word which he hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me." Jesus says ‑ All along I've been telling you the Father's word. Verse 25: "These things have I spoken unto you, being present with you." All these three years that I've been with you I've been telling you God's truth. I've been telling you right out of the mind of God the absolute truth of God.
In John, for example, chapter 7, let me read this to you. Verse 15: "The Jews marveled saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" How does He know anything when He hasn't been to our schools. "Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not Mine but His that sent Me, and if any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether 1 speak of Myself." Jesus said ‑ I got it straight from God. And it always annoys me when people say that you can know God even if you don't know Christ. That's not so. There is no access to God apart from Christ. And religious people may think they're talking to God but apart from Christ they are not talking to God. You cannot know God apart from Christ. And to reject Christ is to reject God for Christ said everything that God wanted said.
Now all along, according to verse 25, Jesus says ‑ I've been speaking to you since I've been present with you, and everything that I've been saying is the Father's truth. I've been saying to you not My own thoughts, not My own words, not My own ideas, not My own attitudes, but He says, I've been giving you the Father's absolute truth since I've been with you.
Now it's kind of an interesting thing that even these disciples, who were to some degree pretty sharp, didn't really get it. And you go backin John's gospel, for example, let me show you the kind of a problem that Jesus was having with them, just reading you a couple of verses here, John 2:22, don't try to follow: "When therefore He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said." Now on this occasion He had talked about the temple, and so forth and so on, and being destroyed and He would raise it again in three days, and all of this. And they didn't get it at all. They didn't get it till post‑resurrection.
Over in chapter 12 we run into the very same thing again. He really had a problem because they couldn't grab these truths. Verse 16: "These things understood not His disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified then remembered they these things that were written of Him and that they had done these things unto Him.
Then you go to chapter 16, and probably the most interesting one of all is verse 12: Jesus says to them this, "I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now."
They had had so much trouble with what He had already said that He had to call a halt to it. And He turned over the continuing teaching to the Holy Spirit who would dwell in them. And so all these three years since Jesus was present with them He had been telling them the Father's truth. But the never really got it all. It was hard to understand, difficult to bear. They couldn't figure all of it out, it was mysterious to their minds. But Jesus says I'm going to send to you a resident teacher whose going to dwell within you and when He gets inside of you on the day of Pentecost, from then on, you're going to have opened up to you all these truths and many more.
Now verse 25 kind of carries the tone of somebody who is sad about leaving. You almost get the idea of He's kind of lingering there. But in verse 26 He gives them this tremendous promise, listen to it. "But, the Comforter, or the Helper, who is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you."
Now He says ‑ I know you haven't gotten it all, three years I've been speaking God's truth, your minds are still jumbled, you haven't gotten it all in the right place but I can't tell you anymore, chapter 16, you can't handle it, I'm going to leave now, let the Spirit come get inside of you and reveal all things to you and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I've said unto you. And so Jesus promises to them a resident teacher of truth.
Now I want you to see some things in this verse that are