John 14.16
November 30th 2014
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So we left off last week with Jesus giving his own apostles two ways in coming to believe on Him, saying (in verse 11):
“Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”
And we talked all about this. Bringing our study back into context Jesus is preparing the APOSTLES for His departure.
They were sad, confused and uncertain of where He was going. They had yet to understand the scope of His person and ministry and chapter 14 is a time where He lays out some heavy truths for them to consider.
It is also a chapter where three of the apostles who we rarely hear from in scripture, speak up and reveal their understanding of His person and mission.
First we heard from Thomas (who told Jesus that they did not know where He was going or the way.”) Then Philip (last week) asked Him to “show them the father and they would be satisfied.”
And coming up we will hear from Judas (not Iscariot) who will ask Jesus about how He was going to be with them if He was going to go away.
So sort of woven in and through all of these questions from the apostles Jesus gives insights – some revolutionary and clear others open to a wide range of interpretation.
Now, before we continue with our verse by verse there is something we have to point out here that is not really appreciated by some.
Jesus is teaching and talking to His chosen eleven. This is a record by one of them of what He had to say to them.
Them.
We read these words today but we have to remember the context. There were not the words Jesus spoke to the masses.
Now I am not saying they don’t have any application to us non-apostles in this day and age.
But I would suggest that we have to be really careful when we read Jesus words to the men who were going to go and die for the cause and assign them directly to ourselves. It’s really not fair or reasonable to the text.
Anyway, at this point in His teaching the Lord begins to talks with them about the Holy Spirit and the work he will do. So let’s read:
John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
So let’s go back to verse 12 . In verse 11 Jesus told them to believe on Him because of the words He has said OR due to the miracles they watched Him do and then here at verse 12 He says:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me (apparently regardless of why), the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
In the face of His departure Jesus seems to be telling these men that if they believe on Him they will move out and do greater works than He had done because He was going to the Father.
Now we can understand the word ‘Greater’ in a couple of ways and also the reason they would do greater works than He would too.
Listen again to what He said:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me (apparently regardless of why), the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
Now, would they do greater works because He was not going to be around to do works anymore because He was going to the Father?
Or would they do greater works because by going to the Father He could send the Holy Spirit to empower them.
And what were the greater works?
Did Jesus mean they would do MORE powerful works – like miracles that would trump His?
Or did the greater works mean they would be greater in scope – you know, covering a larger geographical area?
I would suggest this regarding these two points:
First, I think when Jesus said that they would do greater works than He because He was going to the Father it meant because He was going to exit this world and would not be here to do more.
But that is just the beginning of why their works would be greater once He went to the Father.
By going to the Father Jesus goes on here and tells them that He would send them the Holy Spirit, who would magnify their works dozen times over, making the scope of their work far greater than the single labors Jesus did as one man among them.
I mean at the right hand of the Father Jesus, having had all things placed in His power and control would be in a place where He could through these men, reach so many more.
This is sort of what He continues to reassure them of in the rest of the chapter.
He adds
13 “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
This line, based on biblical support can be assigned to two areas.
First, He is obviously speaking to these men as they head out and share the Gospel.
They will do miracles (that will prove they are sent of Him) and bring forth many things in His name.
We have to remember when we try and take what Jesus says here, and then what these specially called apostles did later, that it was all to fulfill scripture, reach the House of Israel as promised, and establish the church.
To take the miracles they did and think we ought to or have to do them too is really a misapplication of scripture.
However, we do know from scripture that the promise can be applied to all Christians as well.
For instance, when it comes to gaining wisdom James 1:5-6 says:
1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
Unfortunately, some have taken these words and put together a formula for getting what we want from God.
They say if we but say what we want, without wavering, we will receive it, forgetting
What JESUS said was to His apostles,
What JAMES says was in reference to “getting wisdom,” not just anything we want, and
They neglect to take other passages of scripture that balance things out for us, like 1st John 5:14 which says:
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing (beat) according to his will, he heareth us.”
In the apostolic days there was a specific purpose for all they did – and with Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to these men He had personally trained He knew that whatever they asked it would be given.
But not . . . always.
We remember Paul prayed three times that the Lord would remove the thorn in his side (whatever that thorn was) but the Lord responded with, (AND THIS IS A DIRECT QUOTE) “NO WAY JAY. My grace is sufficient for you, Paulie boy. You gonna live wid it.”
So the warning would be we cannot take passages like
13 “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,”
And blanketly use them as proof text for name it and claim it rhetoric.
That being said, we can be assured that if we are “on Christ’s errand,” “filled with the Holy Spirit,” and are “acting according to His will” whatever we ask or do in His name will be done.
To do something in His name is to do something on His account or for His sake.
If someone that has money in a bank authorizes another to withdraw it, we are said to do it in his name.
If the owner of a company authorizes us to bid on a job we do it in the name of the owner.
Applying it to what Jesus is saying we have three levels of authority being granted.
It would be like the owner of a company has a Son who hires others and those He employs act on behalf of the owner by virtue of being authorized or hired by the Son.
Because God is well pleased with His Son we do all things in His name – our mediator, which ultimately glorifies the Father or owner of the company.
So while maybe to the owner (God) we are undeserving God loves us on account of his Son, and because he sees in us our love for the Son, his image.
I sense we sometimes lose the reason we do all things in the name of the Son. We do not have direct access to Holy God.
That is why He sent His Son.
And so we look to, trust in, act for, follow the Son, which glorifies the Father who sent Him.
He reiterates the point saying:
14 If ye shall ask any thing “in my name,” I will do it,”
Once again providing the strongest indication that He was going to a place of utter power. “Ask me,” He says to them, “in my name,” he adds, “and I will give it to you.
That’s a bold claim. I mean He’s told them He’s going away to the Father, and now He is telling them that if they ask Him anything in His name He will do it?
Is there any question remaining on the identity of Jesus? God in the flesh who is, in this setting, about to ascend to the right hand of God to reign over the Kingdom.
Now, I have to admit, the placement of verse 15 for me is difficult.
There is a paragraph break in the King James between 14 and 15 signifying a new line of thinking but still, for me, it is an odd one when tied to what He says after.
I honestly don’t know how to explain it other than to say it seems like part of the overall message of verses 15-24.
Because I see it this way let’s read those verses as a block and then proceed.
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of 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 in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 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 I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
Because of the way these 9 passages relate to each other we have some interesting perspectives relative to the the Holy Spirit (and the Father and the Son) dwelling with us.
So let’s go pack to verse 15 and we’ll probable only work up through 17 or so.
Jesus starts off what I believe to be a new teaching and a new direction with:
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
We might suggest that the apostles were mournful and in great perplexity over the Lord’s departure.
Maybe John didn’t record that Thomas or Peter or others were saying to Him amidst all of these teachings:
“We love you Lord, we love you.” And so in response he continues to speak and teach them, and he begins with:
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
In other words, don’t show your love by grief at my departure merely, or by mere profession of words but by following what I have told you to do, commanded you to do.
The best way to read this short passage from the tense of the Greek is really:
“If you keep on loving me,” (because it’s the present active subjunctive form) “you will keep” my injunctions.
The Greek for “you will keep” is NOT in what is called the aorist imperative (meaning YOU MUST) but is in the future active which says, “YOU WILL.”
“If you keep on loving me you will keep my directives.”
This is a completely different line when we understand the tense of the Greek as the King James line sounds quite demanding.
It’s not. It is really gracious and hopeful and full of encouragement and insight.
Now before we talk a bit more about what He was saying we have to remind ourselves what His commandments are.
I realize we speak of this often and the reason is because so much has been assigned to Jesus name in terms of what He commands.
The reason for this is all He said in the four gospels. People read these accounts and the words of Jesus and believe that everything He said must be enforced and demanded of everyone in order for people to believe that they are keeping His commandments.
Add in the fact that many religions add to the words of Jesus through modern revelation and we have a whole truckload of commands that Jesus has supposedly given and that MUST be kept.
So NOT so.
First, His yoke is easy, His burden light. He asks us to believe on Him and the finished work He came to give.
Then He asks us to love – Him and others. That is His command.
In the next chapter (which is the same apparent setting) Jesus says plainly:
“This is my commandment, That ye love one another as I have loved you.”
After centuries under the Law of the Old Commandment, Jesus came along and, like God on Sinai, had the audacity to say (in chapter 13)
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
Of course in 1st John 3 we read:
23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
Coming back to John the Lord is reminding them of the import of His command to them in the face of His departing.
I mean even in the human realm of family any parent or grandparent is going to appreciate the same thing from their children if they were going away, right?
Imagine you have four children and you and your spouse are going away on a month long trip.
What would please a parent more to hear about their children while they were gone than to come back and learn that they really loved each other?
What Jesus is saying to His little children here is, “If you really love me, love one another. This is my injunction for you as my disciples.
It is really the only way we can truly show we love and honor Him.
Words are cheap. Worship can be cheaper (in some cases). Serving can be self-serving or bitter. But agape love, passing out unconditional, longsuffering love from the heart?
That’s a Christian act because in the end it is a selfless act, an act that takes up its cross and denies the SELF (which is antithetical to agape love) and puts God and others ahead of us in line.
What is interesting is Jesus gives them a formula in this verse.
He says:
“If you keep on loving me (continue to love me) you will keep my directives (to love each other).”
Again, not “you must love each other or keep my commandments,” but will.
Get the order? He reminds the disciples that as they really love Him – truly remember Him and what He did and who He was and how He served and sacrificed Himself THEY would (in-turn) love each other.
If they lost or discontinued loving Him, they would lose their love for each other.
“Love me first . . . continue to put me first in your lives . . . and you will love each other as I have commanded you.”
Then Jesus says (verse 16) AND . . .
In other words, in the presence of His departure He describes to them what He expects them to do – “As you continue to love me you will love each other” (in my absence) . . . “AND . . .”
(16) “. . . I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.”
So they were mourning and worried over the passing on of the Lord to the Father.
And so Jesus enters into a discussion of what they could expect in the near future.
“I will pray the Father,” He says, “and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.”
This is HUGE. Another comforter was being promised to these men by the King.
The King James say, “I will pray the Father” which is so difficult to read in our day and age because it sounds like Jesus is going to pray to the Father to send His Spirit.
But the Greek word for pray is erotao and it means to petition or request, and not necessarily say a prayer to.
You love each other and I will ask the Father and He shall give you another “Comforter.”
The word for comforter, as mentioned before, is parakletos, the word the Catholics assign to the Holy Spirit in the term paraklete.
It can also mean “advocate,” “intercessor,” and “consoler.” Other translations have Jesus saying that he would ask the Father to send “the helper,” which is the second most used term in other translations to comforter.
And then He adds, “that He,” this helper, advocate, comforter, “will be with you forever.”
“I am going away. But do not fear. Go to Jerusalem and wait,” He will tell them later, “I will ask the Father to send the Consoler to you, and He will remain with you forever.”
The word for “for ever” is “eis aion” and means into the ages.
Just as Jesus had been to them a “counsellor, a consoler, a guide, a teacher, a helper, and a friend He was going to send them another who would be the same – but, how can I say this – but better.
Not because Jesus was any way deficient but in the realm of the human race the Spirit of God, this comforter, was going to be far more efficacious.
See, in the realm of saving humanity and guiding His church the Lord came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
In and of Himself – in flesh, limited by physical restrictions of time and space and misinterpretation – the Lord could only do so much.
I mean, He was even having trouble getting His eleven chosen ones who had witnessed the miracles and heard with physical ears the teachings that He was God with them.
So with respect to His physical essence the Lord Himself was limited in the works that He could and would do.
Add in that He came to baptize the human heart with the Spirit and with fire we can see that His purposes of exemplary selfless living, atonement, fulfilling prophecy, dying, resurrection, ascension and to return on physical Israel with judgment on the wicked and rewards on the church were His mission and ministry.
But again, while His work is universally effective, it can only be taken into the human heart by the paraklete with whom He came to baptize people.
In time, scope, numbers, miracles – the work the Holy Spirit will do once Jesus physical labors were accomplished are unfathomable.
But the effects and accomplishments of both the Son and the Spirit are all manifestations of God to a world He seeks to save.
In His preparations to go Jesus instructs these men that they would not be alone.
Quite frankly, at His departure and with His sending the Holy Spirit to be with them they were actually going to be stronger in the faith and empowered.
They just didn’t know it yet.
See prior to His ascension if there was a believer, let’s say the woman at the well in Samaria, who had been changed and believed on the Lord, if she was down and out and troubled she would have to travel and find Jesus to experience His love and healing hand, His wisdom and His comfort face to face, right?
Once Jesus overcame the world of sin, and opened the way for Him to be in us – teaching us and comforting us and bringing His presence right into our hearts – we have God with us no matter where we go and no matter how many of us there are!
Isn’t that amazing? This is why when a believer in Zimbabwe meets a believer from Salt Lake City there is an immediate connection, and immediate family established between them – a spiritual common ground.
All because of the Comforter. From this we learn, in part, about the office of the Holy Spirit.
I was having this conversation last week with Danny that since the finished work of Christ by His life, death, resurrection, ascension and return to the House of Israel with reward and judgment, the work of the Holy Spirit is everything to us and in our day and age.
So let me wrap our discussion up today with some talk about the Holy Spirit or Paraklete or comforter.
The topic elements is anything but certain.
Let’s begins with some talk on gender in language – do we call the Holy Spirit – actually, should God be considered male, female or neuter?
Far more pertinent to the questioning is in regard to the Holy Spirit – should we refer to the Holy Spirit as He, she or it.
When we say “gender” we mean “grammatical gender” then the use of the language referring to the “Holy Spirit” must be looked at because it varies depending in the verse in question.
Wild, huh?
For example, in the Latin spirit (“spiritus”) is masculine – so it is in German Geist.
Interestingly enough, in Hebrew (and Aramaic and Syriac) spirit (which is ruach in the Hebrew) is feminine.
When we come to the Greek language, which the New Testament was written it is neuter (“??????”) meaning neither masculine nor feminine but an “it” rather than a he or a she.
There is a difference, we must note, however between grammatical gender and physical gender and when this gets confused there is a tendency to speak of the Holy Spirit as Male, or a man – though not human.
I think this leads to all sorts of confusion and assumption.
Of course we know that in becoming flesh the Word was a male child. But the question remains, Is God male?
To say yes automatically places God in the human arena, and causes us to see a long gray haired and bearded dude sort of like Zeus or something when we think of God.
This is understandable but quite a mistake. And physical gender models don’t help with the quandry.
The Bible reiterates two things about God that defy masculine identification – His is NOT a man and that He is spirit.
Additionally, God is not a sexual being (from what I can tell from scripture) and so we have to toss out anthropomorphic assignments when describing God, tempting as they may be.
See that’s the thing – we use gender in our descriptions of the Almighty because they are so convenient to human understanding.
Truly they are figurative means in which we speak of God but it does not reflect who “He” really is.
This is why we have Numbers 23:19 say:
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.”
And then in Deuteronomy 4 God warns the Nation of Israel to NOT create any graven image to reflect Him –He includes ones that are “male or female.”
This being said there are biblical cases where the pronoun used for the Holy Spirit is masculine, in contradiction to the gender of the word for spirit.[2]
This is typically the case when the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Paraklete (or comforter) as in these passages we are studying now.
Because of this these passages are often used to prove that the Holy Spirit is NOT just a force or the Spirit of God but is an actual person or masculine being separate and distinct of the Father and the Son.
All major English Bible translations have retained the masculine pronoun for the Spirit in these verse even though it has been noted that in the original Greek, in some parts of John’s Gospel and elsewhere, the neuter Greek word for “it” is also used for the Spirit.
Listen – there is a debate between Christian scholars (like William Mounce on the masculine Holy Spirit side and Daniel Wallace on the other) as to the gender specificity of the Holy Spirit – and that alone tells me it remains a disputable matter and not one to part ways upon.
Part of the problem lies in the fact that there are places where the Holy Spirit is deemed masculine but even the King James in (John 1:32; Romans 8:16, 26; 1 Peter 1:11), uses the neuter pronoun it to describe him (or it).
Because in Greek the word pneuma is grammatically neuter a pronoun referring to the Holy Spirit under that name is also grammatically neuter.
However, when the Holy Spirit is referred to by the grammatically masculine word like Parakletos (Counsellor, Comforter), the pronoun is masculine, as in John 16:7-8 where Jesus says:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send “him” unto you.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
My thinking is this – and I may very well be wrong – I don’t know. But my thinking on it is this:
Because the Hebrew the word for Spirit (???) (ruach) is feminine, (as is the word “shekhinah”, which is used in the Hebrew Bible to indicate the presence of God), and because I believe it is a convenience to ascribe gender to God, and because I believe God is one, and because I believe God is NOT in any way limited to gender, I tend to see the Holy Spirit as the spirit of God, which – because we speak of God in masculine terms – we also speak of His Spirit in masculine terms.
In other words if someone threw a party at the beach in my name after I was dead, and those who attended replied to the party by saying that the Spirit of Shawn was alive and well down at that party, IF that spirit had to be assigned a gender it would be male.
So it is with the Spirit of God – masculine because in scripture we speak of God in non-physical masculine grammatical terms.
Not an easy subject – in fact we are not close to being done with it because there is more to consider next week . . . which we will do then.
Q and A
PRAYER
