Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

John 14:15-18

Our passage today concerns a promise given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Christian life depends upon this promise being kept – and we are empowered to live in Christ today because it has been kept. Jesus gave this promise to His disciples during what we call “the upper room discourse” – His final words to them just before He left them to die on the cross for our sins. We are going to study John 14:15-18 today, but I want to read this passage in its larger context so let’s read John 14:15-26.

15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever– 17 “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 “At that day you will know that I [am] in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 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 home with him. 24 “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. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 “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 things that I said to you.

This is Jesus’ promise of the present and ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of His followers on earth. What a wonderful promise this is! How important it is that we understand it!

Prior to speaking the words we have just read, Jesus had just told the disciples something that shocked and upset them greatly. He told them that, after three and a half years of being with them – after three and a half years of being their Teacher, and their Guide, and the one for whom they left everything and around whom they wrapped their lives and their hope – He was now about to leave them. Can you imagine how upsetting that piece of news must have been to them?

But during this final meal with them, He taught them some things that would comfort their troubled hearts. He told them, for example,

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

He assured them, in other words, that though He was leaving them, it wasn’t for good. It was only for a while. And He promised that He would return for His people, and that they would live with Him forever.

Last time we looked at the promise Jesus made about what His followers would do in His absence while upon this earth. He makes it clear that though He was gone, He would still be vitally involved and active in their lives. He said,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:12-14).

Think of that! Jesus promises that He will respond to their requests and act on their behalf. And what’s more, He promises that His followers will do the works He did on this earth – and even greater works – though He would be absent from them! As we saw last time, these could not refer to greater miracles, since no one including the apostles has done greater miracles than Jesus did. Besides, to heal a body that is going to die in a few years anyway is not a greater work than to save an eternal soul. Thus, we saw that these greater works must refer to works that we do on the basis of Jesus’ finished work on the cross and in the power of the Holy Spirit, especially the proclamation of the gospel to all the world.

How could we possibly do all this? John 14:13-14 showed us that prayer is one major way that the Lord does those greater works through us. In our passage today Jesus promises another way of helping us, the Holy Spirit.

How helpless we would be, dear brother or sister in Christ, if it were not for this wonderful, faithful Friend and Ally! We need to know about Him and His ministry. That’s why Jesus was sure to tell His followers about Him before He went to the Father.

In these verses we see that Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit . . .

1. In the context of a love relationship (John 14:15).

Jesus began by saying, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Repeatedly in this passage Jesus refers to believers as those who love Him.

• John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep My commandments …”
• John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
• John 14:23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him …”

This whole passage is in the context of love. At least four times Jesus speaks about “he who loves Me.” What does it mean to love Jesus? First we have to remember that our love for God is a response to His love for us. We know from John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Romans 5:8 reminds us, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God didn’t wait for us to love Him before He loved us. John believed that too, because in 1 John 4:19 he writes, “We love Him because He first loved us.” God’s love precedes and enables our love.

When we have beheld and received the love of God in sending His Son to die for us; when we have known the love of Christ who gave up His life for us; when we have experienced the love of the Lord in saving us—we respond by loving Him. John Piper writes that our “love for Him is a response to beauty and greatness and glory. … It’s desiring Him because He is infinitely desirable. It’s admiring Him because He is infinitely admirable. It’s treasuring Him because He is infinitely valuable. It’s enjoying Him because He is infinitely enjoyable. It’s being satisfied with all that He is, because He is infinitely satisfying. It’s the reflex of the awakened and new-born human soul to all that is true and good and beautiful, embodied in Jesus.”

This is love in a relationship with God. It is reciprocal. We love Him because He first loved us, then God also responds to our love and loves with us a unique, personal, intimate, affectionate, caring, committed love that belongs only to those who love His Son. This is not merely the love that God has for the lost world of sinners, this is His special love for those who love Jesus.

So what does it mean to love Jesus? Jesus tells us four times that this love is of such a nature that it results in the keeping of Jesus’s commandments, or, more generally, His word.

• John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
• John 14:21: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.”
• John 14:23: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word… .”
• John 14:24: “He who does not love Me does not keep My words.”

Love for Jesus is shown by keeping His commandments. Our love for Jesus precedes and gives rise to keeping His commandments. Keeping His word is the result of loving Him.

And what are Jesus’ commandments? They certainly include everything that He taught. Jesus summed up all the commandments of the Law with the two great commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40). In John 13:34 Jesus applied the second great commandment to His disciples as His “new commandment”: “that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Jesus will repeat it in John 15:12, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” In fact, the Bible teaches us that the way we are to love one another is by keeping Christ’s commands toward one another. The apostle John wrote, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments . . .” (1 John 5:2-3).

All of this means that the promise of the Holy Spirit is given in the context of a love relationship. The Savior loves us; and that’s why He sent the Holy Spirit to us. And we love Him by keeping His commandments. And to keep His commandments is to love one another just as He loves us. And to love one another as we should is to love with the very love that God Himself gives us, and empowers us for, through the indwelling Holy Spirit – whose very fruit is “love” (Galatians 5:22).

If you see a church boasting of the presence of the Holy Spirit in its midst – but what you see manifested among the church is not obedience to Christ or love among the brethren – then no matter what people may say, you are not seeing the Holy Spirit at work. This is because the ministry of the Holy Spirit is given in the context of love!

That’s why Jesus teaches us – at the very outset – that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. That’s the part of this “promise” that is our part to keep.

Second, notice that the Holy Spirit is given . . .

2. By the Father at the request of Jesus (John 14:16a).

Jesus says that, if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper . . .” We know this helper is the Holy Spirit from John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name…”

The Spirit is sent by the Father; and He is given by the Father because the Son asks. Jesus is the One who John the Baptist says will baptize us “with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Jesus Himself said (John 7:37-38), “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” – and John explains (John 14:39), “this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive“. And after He rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples (John 20:22), “… He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 24:49).

We must know Jesus Christ and enter into a relationship with Him by faith; because it is through Him alone that the Holy Spirit is given. But it also reminds us that this is a wonderful promise that our Savior takes personal responsibility for, and will most certainly see to it that it is kept.

And then, notice that the Holy Spirit is given . . .

3. To be our helper (John 14:16a).

Jesus says, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.”

First, notice the word “another”. The Greek word that is used is allos; and this signifies ‘another in addition’. There is another Greek word for “another”; and it is heteros; and it means ‘another in distinction’. The difference between these two words is significant.

In 2 Corinthians 11:4 Paul warns the church against receiving “he who … preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached.” That is heteros, another of a different kind.

When Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is “another” Helper,; the word “another” is allos; that is, He is another Helper in addition to Jesus and sent in place of Jesus on this earth, who is – to us – another like Jesus was toward His disciples as He walked upon the earth!

Think of that! Jesus is about to return to the Father. While on this earth, He was everything to His disciples that they ever needed. He taught them all that they needed to know. He protected them. He led them. He provided for them. If they needed to know how to pray, He instructed them. If they were confronted with a difficult situation, He solved it for them. If they were fearful, He comforted them. If they were helpless and weak, He empowered them. He was everything to them.

And now, He is about to leave them. But before He goes, He promises to send another Helper in His place who is like Him. And that’s what the Holy Spirit is to the followers of Christ on this earth! He is ‘our Helper like Jesus’; who leads us where we are to go (Rom. 8:14), teaches us what we need to know (1 John 2:26-27), and empowers us for what we need to do (Acts 1:8).

Second, notice that He is called our “Helper” This word is translated “Comforter” in the old King James Version; or “Counselor” in the New International Version. The Greek word here is paraklytos ; and its literal meaning is to ‘call along side’ so it means ‘someone called for’ or ‘sent’ to aid or help. The idea here is that a paraklytos serves as a “helper” or an “intercessor” or an “advocate” or “friend” to the one to whom he is sent.

1 John 2:1 uses this word to describe Jesus, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” The word “Advocate” is paraklytos because Jesus stands at the right hand of the Father – pleading His own blood on our behalf whenever we fall into sin.

But here, we learn that we have two who each serve as our paraklytos. We have one who stands as our Advocate before the Father in heaven; and another – of the same kind – who stands as our Helper during our time on earth.

And look at all the ways He helps us! Jesus tells us about Him throughout this ‘upper room’ discourse in John 14-16. The Helper sustains and strengthens the disciples after Jesus’ departure (John 14:16-17); He teaches them and bring to their remembrance all that Jesus said (John 14:26); He testifies of Jesus (John 15:26); He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:7-11); He guides the disciples into all truth (John 16:13a); He tells them the things to come (John 16:13b); and He glorifies Jesus (John 16:14).

So just think! Our Savior has given us the Great Commission. He has called us to go out into the world and declare Him and make disciples unto Him from every nation. What a humanly impossible task! But we do not do it alone! We have a great divine Helper – another like Himself. He is called “the Spirit of truth”; and He serves as our Advocate on earth in the cause of the truth. He guides Jesus’ followers in truth, and bears witness to Christ on in this world, and convicts the people of this world of their need for the Savior, and reveals Christ’s glory!

Finally, notice that the Holy Spirit is sent . . .

4. As one who dwells in us (John 14:16b-18).

Jesus promises to send this Helper, “that He may abide with you forever“. The Holy Spirit is not just our Helper for a short while; but He is with us eternally. That means God does not take His Spirit away from you when you sin.

Jesus says that this Helper is “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him . . .” The “world” here is the ungodly system of values and priorities that dominate the hearts of unbelieving people. And the Holy Spirit cannot be seen or known through the eyes of the flesh. This ungodly world does not welcome or receive Him, because it does not welcome or receive the one He came to glorify.

But speaking to His disciples Jesus says, “but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” The Spirit dwelt with them in Jesus. But soon, when Jesus goes away to the Father, the Spirit will not only be with them, but in them. In John 7:38, Jesus promised that those who believe in Him would have rivers of living water flowing from their innermost being. Then John explained (John 7:39), “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified.” That great change in spiritual history took place on the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out on the church. Since then, all believers are baptized by the Spirit into the one body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13).

We are never commanded to be baptized by the Spirit or to receive the Spirit as a second work of grace. Romans 8:9 says, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” We receive the Spirit when we hear the gospel and respond in faith to Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38; Gal. 3:2, 5). But we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), and to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16). Both of those metaphors mean that we are to depend constantly on the Holy Spirit so that He controls or governs our lives.

I love John 14:18. Jesus says, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” Jesus says that, because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, “I will not leave you orphans . . .” Jesus has returned to the Father; but as you can see, He has not abandoned us.

Then Jesus say, “I will come to you.” This promise of Jesus probably has a double meaning. First, it refers to Jesus coming to His disciples after His resurrection because the very next verse says (John 14:19), “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.” Second, I think it also refers to the present ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives after His ascension. The Holy Spirit’s ministry of helping us is so perfect and complete, that it’s as if Jesus Himself is with us in the Holy Spirit. That is why He is not only called the Holy Spirit (John 14:26) and the Spirit of God (Matt. 3:16); but also He is called the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9; Phil. 1:19; 1 Pet. 1:11). The Holy Spirit indwells us with the very presence of Christ in such a way that Jesus could say, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), and “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” (Heb. 13:5).

Let me ask you—would you like to have God not just with you but IN you forever? God gives His Holy Spirit to those who love Jesus. So the first step is to believe on His Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If the Spirit is doing His work of convicting you of sin, righteousness and judgment, then don’t wait. The Holy Spiriit has testified to Jesus in your heart. He is drawing you to Christ. He will cause you to be born again. Believe in Jesus Christ today and you will receive the gift of His Holy Spirit.

Christians, if you already have this gift, listen to the Holy Spirit as He has spoken through the word of God to you. He is the Spirit of truth. He is calling you to love Christ by obeying His commandments. He is helping you to love and serve Christ’s church. Let Him have His way in your life. If this involves a public decision, like joining the church or being baptized or being called to vocational ministry, then I invite you to come forward and I will pray with you and encourage you in that step of faith.

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