“These Four Things”
“These Four Things” - Four Things About the Holy Spirit from John 14-16 by Robert Marshall
Jesus taught the disciples very little concerning the Holy Spirit during His 3 ½ years of ministry.
When we look in the book of John we see Jesus tell Nicodemus, That . . . which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6), and we see Him tell the crowds who were offended by His teachings, It is the Spirit who gives life. . . (John 6:63), but apart from these references, it is only in hindsight that John realizes Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit in John 7:39 when He said: Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.
Jesus does not give any detailed teaching concerning the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John, until the night before His crucifixion.
Why in the world would He wait so long to explain one whole third of the Godhead? He had mentioned the Father over 100 times in John, but why wait until the credits are about to roll to introduce an entirely new character to this story line?
The reason is simple: because as long as the disciples had Jesus with them, they did not need to know about the Holy Spirit.
But on that last night, over (His last) supper, and after Judas had left to do his evil deed, Jesus, like a parent about to send a child off to college, gives His disciples some last minute teaching they will, desperately, need to know. One thing that is fascinating about this section is that, even while teaching His disciples about the Holy Spirit, Jesus is still so captured by the beauty of the Father that, even in this passage, He mentions the Father more times (51 times) than the Holy Spirit (25 times).
How frustrated would you be by this?
“It’s my birthday party, but the Father gets first billing.”
“It’s my graduation, but the Father gets the most pictures.”
“When do I get to be the sole center of attention?!?”
But the Holy Spirit is not self-seeking, He is not self-serving, He is not seeking the spot-light. It is as if the members of the Godhead are constantly tripping over one another to tell us about the other members.
Jesus, from the presence of the Father, will send the Holy Spirit, who is the essence of the Father, to direct people to Jesus, who is the only means of access to the Father (John 15:26, John 14:6).
The Father draws us to Jesus (John 6:44).
The goal of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus and point us to Him (John 16:14).
The work of Jesus is to provide us the only path to the presence of the Father (John 14:6).
It truly is as if each member of the Godhead, knowing the glory of the other members of the Godhead, invests all their energies into inviting us into this eternal relationship they share.
The revelation of the Holy Spirit is going to begin a whole new type of relationship between us and God.
The disciples were grieved when Jesus told them He was going to be leaving and wanted to know why they could not go with Him (John 14:5, 14:8, 14:22, 16:17, 16:18).
In fact, the disciples became so completely flummoxed by what they were hearing that they finally stated, quite categorically, “We do not know what he is talking about” (John 16:18).
Then Jesus said, “. . . it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7).
I don’t know about you, but, to me, that sounds similar to, “it’s not you. It’s me.” Or, “this hurts me more than it hurts you.” Or, “you’ll find someone even better than me.”
But Jesus was able to tell them this because He knew the shift which was about to take place in the relationship between the human and the Divine.
While the Holy Spirit “has been with you,” from this point forward He, “will be in you” (John 14:17).
And while the Father “. . . will give you another Helper,” who will, BTW, “. . . be with you forever,” (John 14:16), He will not be “OTHER.”
A linguistic contortionist can make another language fit into just about any position they desire, (and I assure you I am neither a linguist, nor a contortionist), so we need to be very careful, but many scholars do draw an important difference between the words used for “another” and “other” in the New Testament.
“Allos” means, “another of the same kind. Another in the sense of quantity, not quality.”
While “heteros” means, “another of a different kind. A Rolls Royce carries and a burro carries, but they are extremely different in the sense of quality.” (And aren’t we thankful for “another of a different kind” when it comes to “hetero-sexual?”)
When Jesus said the Father, “. . . will give you another Helper,” He used the word “Allos,” meaning, “another of the exact same kind.”
In other words, “you will be getting a ‘substitute teacher,’ but this substitute will be of the exact same nature, character, interactivity as me. If you know Me, you will know this coming Helper.”
The great preacher, G. Campbell Morgan, went so far as to refer to the Holy Spirit as, “The Other Jesus.”
Jesus, knowing the identical nature between Himself and the Holy Spirit, knowing the movement of Holy Spirit residence from “with you” to “in you,” knowing it truly is “. . .
to your advantage that I go away. . .,” (John 16:7) was able to begin this entire discourse with the encouragement to, “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1).
It is as if Jesus was preparing them for, “I’ve got some bad news, and I’ve got some good news. Bad news first. . .”
And then, having set the stage, Jesus tells them four things the Holy Spirit is going to do.
The first of the four functions of the Holy Spirit we will discuss from John 14-16 is:
1) 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 have said to you (John 14:26).
Let’s focus our attention on, “. . . he will teach you all things.”
The word “teach” in this verse is the word from which we derive our word “didactic,” and refers to a “teacher-centered approach to teaching where the instructor directly presents information to students, typically through lectures and structured lessons” (thank you, AI).
The Holy Spirit is going to teach us. He is going to sit next to us on the sofa, open the Bible on our laps and, as we read it together, He is going to highlight a passage and cause us to see it like we never have before.
He is going to give application of a passage into our lives and expect us to respond to His teaching with obedience.
The Psalmist prayed, Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law (Ps 119:18).
The work of the Holy Spirit to cause us to understand is one in which we are totally dependant upon Him. This is why you may have read a certain passage dozens of times before, but when you read it this morning it had a whole new, clearer, enlightening effect on you. The deep things of God truly are hidden from the unbeliever but revealed to us (2 Cor 3:15, 1 Cor 2:6-15 (be sure to read verse 10 several times!!!)).
We approach God’s Word with the request that He open our eyes, remove the veil, cause His Word to be the light in our lives He promised it would be. And yet, there is a personal responsibility as well.
While the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, we are, at the same time, commanded, “He who has ears, let him hear” (Matt 13:9).
Fifteen times the New Testament records this sentiment, and fourteen of those times those words are spoken by Jesus Himself.
While there is a work of revelation of His Word which only the Holy Spirit can open our eyes to, which only the Holy Spirit can teach us, there is, equally, a responsibility placed on us to hear, and respond to, what we hear.
As the Holy Spirit teaches us we might be tempted to ask, “why are you requiring this of me but those people over there don’t live by this at all.” It is in those times we need to hear Him say, “How I deal with them is none of your business. This is Me talking to you in your personal time of instruction.” And we respond, “Yes Sir.”
The Holy Spirit will teach us the Word far more effectively than any other teacher we might ever have. He will use the Word to teach the Word, and then challenge us to allow Him to live the Word through us because of His indwelling.
Are you seeing and hearing wonderful things from God’s Word?
The second of the four functions of the Holy Spirit we will look at in John 14-16 is:
2) “But when the Helper comes, . . . the Spirit of truth, . . . he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26).
The Holy Spirit cannot tell us enough about Jesus. He is as enamored with Jesus as Jesus is with the Father, as the Father is with the Son, etc, etc.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is going to focus, not on Himself, not on the gifts He brings, as amazing and empowering as those gifts are, but on Jesus.
Hebrews tells us, “. . . the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. . .”. And what does He bear witness concerning? The fact that,
1) “. . . by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified:”
2) There is a covenant by which He, “. . . will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds. . .:”
3) Because of which He will, “. . . remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more” (Heb 10:14-17).
Friends, all these things have to do with the ministry of Jesus and it is Jesus the Holy Spirit constantly points us toward!
It is the Holy Spirit who “testifies” (the same Greek word as “bears witness”) that Jesus Christ is the One, “. . . who came by water and blood. . .” (1 John 5:6).
And then, as if for a bonus, the Holy Spirit points to the Father and, while looking at us, cries, “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:6).
He is saying, “There’s your Daddy!! Who’s your Daddy?!?! HE’S your Daddy!!”
And He continues to point us to the Father until such time as we cry, “Abba! Father!” while, at the same time, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, . . . heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:15-17).
Even in reminding us of our adoption as the very children of God, the Holy Spirit is pointing us to Christ and our being co-inheritors with Him.
It is the Holy Spirit who reminds you that Jesus provided that job, that spouse, that child, that parking spot.
It is the Holy Spirit who teaches you to see Jesus in your every day.
It is the Holy Spirit who reminds us, “Jesus loves me, this I know” when no one else seems to be in a loving mood.
It is the Holy Spirit who, having been with the Father and with the Son in eternal union, watched Jesus consider His identity so secure that He did not need to wave a flag to prove His own divinity (Phil 2:6).
It is the Holy Spirit who bears witness that Jesus set aside the security and glory of His throne to step into our blinding darkness and crippling poverty, to share with us the riches of His glory (2 Cor 8:9).
It is the Holy Spirit who, “Bears witness of, JESUS!!”
The third of the four functions of the Holy Spirit for us to consider in John 14-16 is:
3) And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged (John 16:8-11).
The Holy Spirit convicts which leads to repentance.
Satan accuses which leads to condemnation.
You might want to read those two sentences again.
If, when you are considering a sin, you are compelled to repent, you are being addressed by the Holy Spirit.
If, when you are considering a sin, particularly a sin from your past which has already been dealt with, and you feel personal condemnation, you are being harassed by the enemy.
The Holy Spirit speaks to those things in our lives and points us to the gift of repentance which God has extended to us.
Repentance is not a bad thing. Repentance is not something to shy away from or cower beneath.
Repentance is the means by which God offers us access back into His presence.
Our sin has separated us from God; has built a wall between us and Him (Isaiah 59:1).
But, in His mercy, the Father sent Jesus as the price which must be paid to tear that wall down. And by the removal of that wall of separation a pathway back to the presence of the Father was revealed: and that pathway is called “Repentance Way.”
Repentance is not something to beat people over the head with: it is the gift of God, extended through the Holy Spirit, which grants us access back into the presence of the Father.
Repentance is the means by which the sacrifice of Jesus is made real in our lives and our sins are forgiven.
But make no mistake: repentance is an absolute requirement. There is no avoiding the way of repentance.
The repentance required of us includes not only a genuine sorrow for our sin, but it also requires a determination to turn away from that sin and walk in obedience to Jesus. And the turning away from sin is included in God’s requirement that we confess Jesus as Lord.
We are eager to believe, “. . . the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10), but when we assume we can have Jesus as Savior while holding on to our own way of life, we are living in absolute delusion.
There must be a turning away from our sin, for the express purpose of being able to follow the way of the Master: and it is the conviction the Holy Spirit brings which guides us on this journey.
To be freed from sin without turning toward and being bound to Jesus is a like a boat in a slip with no moorings.
The goal is not limited to being free from sin. The invitation of the Holy Spirit is to turn away from sin, FOR THE PURPOSE OF turning toward Jesus.
The Holy Spirit frees us from sin, FOR THE PURPOSE OF our being bound to Jesus.
We love, and claim, Romans 8:1 when it says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And praise God for the freedom from condemnation we have because of Jesus! But the freedom He provides does not leave us adrift in a sea of ambiguity. The very next verse states: “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2).
Thank God we are freed from the law which revealed our sin and sealed our sentence (Rom 7:7). But that freedom is given SO THAT we can be bound to the law of the Spirit of life found only in Christ Jesus.
It truly is like a boat in a slip which is moored on the one side but the ropes will not reach to the other side. In order to reach the other side, the moorings must first be released from the one side. Repentance is the means by which we are freed from the condemnation of our sin (“the law of sin and death”), and become bound to Christ (“the law of the Spirit of life”).
“Wait a minute!! Law?!? I thought I was free from law!!! What is this “law of the Spirit of life” thing you’re talking about?!?”
There is, absolutely, a law of the Spirit. There is, absolutely, a command we are bound to. But His promise is that His law is not burdensome (1 John 5:3).
“And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us” (1 John 3:23).
There you have it! This is the commandment: to believe in Jesus, and to love one another.
Friends, the salvation God offers is free and cannot be earned: but salvation is the by-product, the outflow, of a life of surrender and belief. Here is what He said: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9).
The first requirement is confession that Jesus is Lord: Jesus is in charge: we will do what Jesus tells us to do. . . period!
The second requirement is belief that God has raised Jesus from the dead.
And the outflow of that confession and belief will be salvation.
There is no salvation apart from Lordship.
This is the roadmap for “Repentance Way:”
1) Confession that Jesus is your Lord
2) Belief that God has raised Him from the dead.
And the result of those will be:
3) You will be saved.
The fourth function of the Holy Spirit we will look at is:
4) When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, (John 16:13).
You will recall the first function we looked at was that the Holy Spirit would, “. . . teach you all things. . .” (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit is going to, as it were, open a book across our laps and explain scripture to us as we read it.
The last time I saw my granddad he told me what he had said so many times before: “I have been looking at that book for over 50 years and haven’t gotten started on it yet.”
Isn’t that the truth about the Bible? There is no limit, there is no end, there is no exhausting the depths of meaning, application, and life the Bible provides.
How many times have you read that verse which, today, leapt from the page in a new way? What a glorious, bottomless book entrusted, and taught, to us.
But there comes a time when every good teacher closes the book and, looking us in the eye, says, “Now, let’s go for a walk.”
How many times have you been reading/learning something from the Word and then experience a situation which needed the very thing you were just taught?
How many times has it felt like what you were reading in the Bible last week was in preparation for the very things you are going through this week?
Friends, it is not an accident. It is absolutely by the sovereign and loving design of our eternally loving God through the person of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit does not teach us something so we can add one more piece of informational ammunition to the stockpile of proof our trembling egos desire.
When He teaches us something, we are now accountable; and accountability is validated by experience.
Would you take violin lessons from someone who has never touched a violin?
Would you take drivers ed from a 3 year old?
If you desire reputability in the intersection of eternal truth applied to temporal experience, you are going to have to go through some difficulty to gain credibility.
Wisdom is not the result of theory.
Wisdom is not the result of information.
Wisdom is the result of theoretical information having been galvanized in the furnace of life experience.
For this reason, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”
This function of the Holy Spirit is particularly troublesome if you thought becoming a Christian would free you from a life of difficulty and stress.
Jesus made some promises strangely not displayed on our refrigerator magnets.
Here are just a few of the inconvenient promises of Jesus:
"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you (John 15:18). “Thank you Jesus!!”
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you (John 15:20). “Someone shout ‘Hallelujah’!!”
They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God (John 16:2). “Jesus, make it so!!”
There are, however, some promises of Jesus we are glad to hang on our refrigerators, even though we display only a portion of the verse in which they are found. Here is a good example: “. . . Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world” (John 16:33c).
Isn’t that a wonderful promise?!? Jesus has overcome the world! And that truly is a marvelous promise: but to separate it from its context is to rob it of its greater power. The clause prior to this passage is also given in “promise” form, when it says: “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33b).
There are far fewer closed eyes and raised hands at the recitation of that portion of the verse!
And yet it is in the tribulation, as we are guided by the Holy Spirit, those things He has taught us are given life and practical application.
There is no graduation apart from the practicum of the laboratory: and the lab experience, under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, can be extremely intense. But just as there is a reason for the lab, there is a reason for the comfort which flows from affliction: and that reason is greater than ourselves alone.
Paul reminds us that God, “. . . comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:4).
Do you want to receive comfort from the Father? As Jesus received comfort from the Father, do you want to “. . . share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor 1:5b)?
Then we must also, “. . . share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. . .” (2 Cor 1:5a).
We are called to bring Christ to a hurting world and we are not qualified to bring Him to the hurts the world faces until we have met Him in the midst of our own afflictions, as guided by the Holy Spirit.
“But I don’t want affliction!!!”
Friends, here is a sad reality: there is no comfort apart from a need to be comforted.
The affliction you have experienced, the comfort you have received, is not for you to stockpile in a locked vault. You have been entrusted with the comfort which can only come from God (2 Cor 2:4) for the express purpose of equipping you, “. . . so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. . ..”
The Holy Spirit is guiding.
Are you being comforted in the journey?
Are you making the comfort you receive available to those around you who are experiencing the same afflictions?
I do not mean to imply, by any means, that these are the only four things Jesus told the disciples that night concerning the Holy Spirit.
There are certainly other things, such as, He will, “. . . bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).
I am not going to address that in this discussion because there are some who will argue, understandably, that that particular verse applies only to the disciples He was addressing that night. While there are others who disagree with that conclusion, also for understandable reasons, I want to focus on those aspects which are very clear cut.
1) “But . . . the Holy Spirit, . . . will teach you all things. . .” (John 14:26).
2) “But when the Helper comes, . . . the Spirit of truth, . . . he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26).
3) “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8).
4) “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth,. . .” (John 16:13).
The work of the Holy Spirit is so far beyond anything that can be contained in these nine sessions, but these four promises have been enormously helpful for me in my walk with Christ.
The Holy Spirit uses every moment possible as a teaching moment, to point us to Christ, to bring greater cleansing and conviction, and to walk with us as theoretical teaching becomes life-proven truth made shareable with a hurting world.
I cannot conceive how these can be separated from one another. The flow together, falling in on one another, just as the members of the Godhead eternally work together as One.
Listen as He teaches: marvel as He points to Christ: respond as He convicts: and follow as He guides, because there is a world just beyond your next footstep in desperate need of the comfort you are going to receive.
As a minister, I have been called upon to point people toward comfort countless times over the decades. But how many times have I had to call upon the experience of another to minister comfort because the person in front of me is experiencing an affliction I have never experienced?
Friends, He has made us able ministers (2 Cor. 3:6) because of the practical application of the teaching we have received as we are taught, pointed to Jesus, convicted and guided into truth by the ever present Holy Spirit.
What has He taught you?
In what experiences has He pointed you to Jesus?
Where has He brought conviction and helped you walk in a new kind of life (Ro 6:4)?
What truth is He guiding you into right now?
Are you willing to allow God to transform your affliction into comfort for another and be the actual hands and feet of Jesus to a world which needs the comfort only He can provide?