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The Gospel of John, Jesus' seventh sign, Part 21

Jesus said in John 14:14, 15,

¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. ¹⁵ If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

The clear implication is that if we are obedient, then we truly love Him. If we are lawless, He does not know us (Matthew 7:23). Because Jesus was not only obedient but also in perfect agreement with His Father, He could ask anything and receive it. So He asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to the disciples after His ascension, and it happened.

Disclosure

Jesus then told His disciples in John 14:21,

²¹ He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.

In other words, being obedient to His commands is evidence of love. Those who claim to love Him and yet remain disobedient or in a state of “lawlessness” (anomia), despising His laws, do not and cannot really know Him, that is, His nature. The law, in fact, reveals the nature of Christ, and He, in turn, manifests the nature of the Father.

Further, Jesus says of those who are obedient, “I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” It appears that the evidence of Christ’s love toward us is that He reveals Himself to us, not only His nature but also His purposes, plans, and ways. Psalm 103:7 says,

⁷ He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.

The Israelites were quite lawless during the wilderness journey, often wanting to stone Moses or to return to Egypt. They saw the “acts” of God, but only Moses knew His “ways.” When we compare the revelation of Moses to the very limited knowledge of the people in general, we can see what Jesus meant when He promised to “disclose” Himself to those He loves.

John 14:22 continues,

²² Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?”

More literally, Judas asked, “how has it happened…” In other words, “what has made the difference between them and us?” John 14:23 says,

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 abode with him.”

Obedience to His word has made the difference. That is the measure of love, as God sees it. Love means He will come to live with the loved one, much like a husband comes to his betrothed to marry her and live together with her. This chapter began with a marriage metaphor, where Jesus said He was going to leave to prepare an abiding place, a “house,” as it were, so that they might live together in intimacy.

These few words set the stage for the revelation of Christ’s second coming many years later at the dawn of the Age of Tabernacles. But it also revealed a more immediate fulfillment when the Holy Spirit, representing Christ Himself, would come to indwell us as His temples. In other words, there are two stages of intimacy with Christ. The first comes through Pentecost; the second through Tabernacles.

False Claims

Conversely, Jesus says in John 14:24,

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.

Many claim to love Jesus, but if they do not keep His words, their love lacks substance. If they do not keep Jesus’ words, or commandments, they also fail to keep the Father’s commandments. Why? Because they are the same. Jesus did not come to contradict His Father, nor did He come to “abolish” or “annul” the law (Matthew 5:17, 19). In this the Apostle Paul is in full agreement, saying in Romans 3:31,

³¹ Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

Faith is commanded in the law. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). The law commands us to hear Him (Deuteronomy 5:1). The Hebrew word shema means both “to hear” and “to obey.” Hearing brings faith, and obedience establishes it by the double witness. As we do this, we become the living word and are able to bring the glory of God into the earth.

Jesus did this, and John’s gospel was written to show that great truth through eight signs.

Jesus concludes His answer to Judas’ question in John 14:25, 26,

²⁵ These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. ²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [i.e., as Jesus’ Agent], He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

Jesus had told them earlier (John 14:16) that the Holy Spirit was “another Helper.” So both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are “Helpers.” This is due to the agent relationship between them. To receive the Holy Spirit is to receive Jesus Himself, because the Holy Spirit represents Jesus. The difference is only in the fact that Jesus was flesh and blood and was “abiding” with the disciples in a visible, tangible manner. The Holy Spirit, by definition, abides with us spiritually, not physically, and yet is manifested in a tangible manner in the earth.

Jesus taught them first; later, the Holy Spirit brought those teachings to their remembrance. The Holy Spirit “will not speak on His own initiative” (John 15:13) any more than Jesus Himself spoke on His own initiative (John 8:28). Jesus was the Agent of His Father and spoke only what His Father said. So also, the Holy Spirit is the Agent of Jesus and speaks only Jesus’ words.

We, on the other hand, are agents as well and ought to speak only what the Holy Spirit says. Only the Father Himself speaks sovereignly on His own initiative. All others are Amen agents who speak what they have heard and go where they are sent.

The Comforting Sigh

The Greek word translated “Helper” (NASB) or “Comforter” (KJV) is parakletos. Strictly speaking, the Greek word speaks of one who aids, assists, or comes along side. In the context of the divine court, we see Him as our Counsellor, defending us in court against the accuser (“devil”), that is, the prosecutor, who is also our courtroom adversary (“satan”).

At some point, however, we must leave the courtroom and build the Kingdom of God. We cannot be constantly defending ourselves in court and still expect to do any building. Life is not “all about me” but about being in a position to assist others, for we are supposed to be agents of the parakletos, doing for others what He does for us.

But that is only one side of the Holy Spirit. The Greek word parakletos is the word handpicked by the rabbis who translated the Hebrew Scriptures from Hebrew to Greek. The Hebrew word is nacham, translated “comfort,” for example, in Isaiah 40:1, “Comfort, O comfort My people.”

Hence, the KJV renders parakletos as the Comforter, linking it to the Hebrew nacham.

Strong’s Concordance says that nacham properly means “to sigh, to breathe strongly, by implication, to be sorry.” Gesenius’ Lexicon says it means “to pant, groan, lament, or grieve.”

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5162&t=KJV

So Paul suggests this definition of nacham by telling us in Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” We are the ones who are supposed to “grieve” or repent, not the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit (as our Advocate in court) comforts us by showing us the laws by which we may obtain mercy and grace through repentance. In particular, these are the laws of sacrifice, under which Jesus came as the Lamb of God to pay the full penalty for our sin. We can then breathe a sigh of relief, as it were, knowing that the sentence of the law was paid at the cross.

The same Holy Spirit then teaches us another truth—the ways of God—so that we may not “continue in sin so that grace may increase” (Romans 6:1). He gives us merciful correction, so that we may embark on the journey from “Egypt” to the “Promised Land,” following Jesus in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. We come to see Jesus as “the way, and the truth, and the life” by experiencing Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.

By following Him, our Comforter breathes strongly into us, inspiring us by His presence to abide in Him and to hear His word. At last, in the end we are given comfort, as a woman in labor who, after giving birth to a son of God, breathes a great sigh of relief, being comforted at the end of her travail and by the satisfaction in delivering the child himself.

Peace Comes

With comfort comes peace, shalom. So Jesus says in John 14:27,

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

It was customary in those days for a visitor to declare peace to the house where he was visiting. If the house was worthy, he left his peace with that house. If not, he took back his blessing of peace. This was how Jesus had instructed His disciples when he sent them out. Matthew 10:13, 14 says,

¹² If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. ¹³ Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.

Jesus’ disciples had received Him and had heeded His words, even though there was much that they did not yet understand. So when Jesus left them, He said, “My peace I give to you.” His shalom was greater than the blessing that the world ordinarily imparted. His blessing of peace was to impart the Holy Spirit to them, the great Comforter, whose presence would represent Jesus Christ Himself.

Christ was the Visitor who left the house physically but yet continued to abide in that house spiritually thereafter. Though He left them physically, He promised, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). This apparent contradiction is resolved by the Spirit, which maintained Christ’s presence with them during His absence in the Pentecostal Age.

Final Words Around the Table

John 14:28, 29 says,

²⁸ You heard that I said to you, “I go away, and I will come to you.” If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.

Here Jesus makes it plain where He was going. He was not going to another country on earth. He was going to the Father. The disciples probably still did not know how He would go to the Father. Three of them had witnessed His transfiguration on the Mount, but no one had seen an ascension. Perhaps if they had known that He would ascend on the 40^th day from His resurrection, they might have related it to the day Elijah ascended in the fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:11). It was commonly known and taught that this was the day of Elijah’s ascension.

Jesus had to return on the 40^th day, because this was the word of His Father, and, as He said, “the Father is greater than I.” In a sense, Jesus did not have a choice in the matter. Nonetheless, He always rejoiced to do the Father’s will, and so He admonished His disciples to rejoice with Him. To rejoice in a situation is to know its good purpose and to be in agreement with that purpose.

Teachings on the Way to Gethsemane

John 14:30, 31 says,

³⁰ I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; ³¹ but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.

 “The ruler of the world” in verse 30 is not a reference to God, who is the rightful Ruler and Owner of all creation. It refers to the one to whom Adam’s estate was sold on account of his debt to sin. Adam lost his right to steward the earth under God, for it was sold to the devil. But the devil’s claim on the people was temporary, because every sentence ultimately comes to an end in the year of Jubilee.

Because Jesus loved His Father, He was willing to “do exactly as the Father commanded.” He was willing to die on the cross. And He was qualified to do so as the spotless Lamb, because “he (the ruler of this world) has nothing in Me.” He had no claim on Jesus, because Jesus had never sinned. He had passed the 40-day test in the wilderness at the start of His ministry, and He would pass the final test in the Garden of Gethsemane and at the cross.

This ended the table-talk at the Last Supper. Jesus then indicated that it was time for them to go to Gethsemane, where He would be arrested. “Get up, let us go from here,” He said.

Yet Jesus was not finished with His teaching. John 15-17 gives us Jesus’ words while on the way to Gethsemane. They may have paused at times along the way. John 18:1 seems to indicate that He finished these last words and His final prayer for the disciples just before crossing the Kidron ravine on the way to the Garden on the Mount of Olives.