THE GOSPEL OF JOHN: Peace in the Holy Spirit
Pastor Steven Osborne
Transcribed by Davinci Resolve 18.6
Transcription cleaned by ChatGPT3.5
Key Point
A lot of us are very comfortable with God. We have some concepts and understanding when we read God’s Word. We are very comfortable with Jesus, but we miss out on so much when it comes to the Holy Spirit in our lives. Satan has done a lot of damage over the years, telling us that we don’t have the Holy Spirit, it’s not part of our lives. But I said, we bring different presuppositions. If you grew up Catholic, you probably have a certain view of the Holy Spirit. If you grew up in the Lutheran church, you have a different view. If you grew up in Dutch Reform—like I did, right?—we never talked about the Holy Spirit.
And so somehow we have these different things, and then we can argue. Those ideas sometimes look so different. But it is truly important that on this topic that we actually look at scripture and study the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Because I can honestly say we miss out as believers when we don’t walk with that keen awareness of the Spirit working inside of us, and how He wants to work through us. It is truly then when the church becomes powerless, and our lives become powerless, and we’re not effective in ministry, when we’re just staying… give a deaf ear to the work of the Spirit. We cannot avoid the work of the Spirit. It is too important. It was important for the disciples, and it still needs to be important in our lives as well.
Introduction
Well, if you’re new maybe this morning, we are studying the book of John. This morning we are in John chapter 14. And last week we worked through 1 to verse 14, and today we’ll pick up in John chapter 15. Now, I just want to remind you as we look at these incredible words of Jesus Christ, Martin Luther, looking at this chapter, he said, “The best and most comforting sermon that the Lord Christ delivered on earth, a treasure and a jewel not to be purchased with the world’s goods.” So he just felt very passionate about this particular chapter and this sermon, and with good reason. It is a wonderful passage with many, many great truths. And this morning I want you to know that the goal of this whole discourse—fancy word for “sermon” or “talk”—is to encourage and to comfort. To encourage and to comfort.
Just again, I want to remind you when you think about the previous passages, they’re in this upper room, Jesus with his disciples. And they have experienced a lot of things already in this evening. You can imagine their concerns; you can imagine their confusion. They’ve heard what they saw that Jesus was washing their feet. He told the group, “Somebody’s gonna betray me.” And then he told Peter, he’s like, “Hey, you’re gonna deny me.” And then on top of all of that, he’s like, “Hey, and I’m gonna leave you.”
So a lot of things to process over one meal. And so no wonder that their hearts are troubled. And so he’s bringing now, he’s gonna share with them really these incredible words of encouragement and of comfort to them. And I believe that all of these words still apply to us as believers. So I do pray that you will go back to this passage and just find some encouragement.
My Box
The way I see it… I went to a conference (I think it was a conference), and the pastor said, “If you want to make it in ministry, you gotta find a box.” So I got my box. I’m not a sentimental type of guy, right? And so it is hard for me to keep stuff, so this was even hard for me. My wife is amazed that I have a box because I throw everything away. And the pastor said, “Whenever you get a really meaningful card or letter that is encouraging you, put it in your box. That when you’re going through life and you’re discouraged in ministry, that you can go and look back and read through some of this stuff so that you don’t quit ministry.” Because a lot of times in ministry you want to quit every other Monday.
And so I started this too late in ministry. I threw a lot of good stuff away, which I was just foolish. But this was one of my students in Minnesota Teen Challenge, and he went to ministry and he made this cross for me just to say thank you. And so just different notes. There’s some of the cards and notes in here from you as well. And so this is my box that now and again, if I’m discouraged, and it’s like, “Ugh, I’m just gonna work at Best Buy,” then I read some of this.
And I can imagine that this chapter, as the disciples were dealing with hardship and challenges, that this is kind of their go-to box. And it’s our go-to box too, when we’re discouraged in life and different things to just go, “Man, I’m gonna study John 14.” There is so many incredible truths in here. So if you have your Bible, please turn to John 14 and we will start in verse 15.
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, [but] because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, [and] you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, [how] do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words [that] you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of [the] world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.”
There is some incredible truths in this passage for every believer. I’m gonna just share with you some of the main topics and love for you to take a photo or write this down and to go and study. We probably need about a month at least in this passage with all of the stuff that’s in there for us. But it talks, verse 15, the foundation of love, the promise of another helper, the abiding presence of the Spirit, the gift of peace, and the unity of the Trinity. So just incredible truths for us as followers of Jesus. And it will be really important for us to get a good handle on some of these things.
Now, I want us to just look at that verse 15. It says, “If you love me, keep my commands and I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate.” Now, really strong words here from Jesus himself. Where it’s like, “Hey, if you love me, then you gotta live these commands out.” Now, I don’t always think that we do a really good job with this, but it doesn’t dismiss the fact that we are not supposed to do it. We are reading all of these commands, and I think that there’s so much truth locked into these words—what Jesus is trying to communicate—because they’ve been doing all this ministry with Him over the last three, three and a half years, and so all of the things He’s teaching them. Now He’s saying, “Okay, I’m leaving you and I’m gonna give you the Holy Spirit.” But just kind of… here’s the opening statement, at least in this chapter for us here, is to say, “If you love me, you gotta obey me.”
Now, it is hard because it talks about submission and obedience. Easy for us to do all the fun things and easy things, but can we do the hard things? And yet, even if it’s hard, we still have to do it. We don’t have the excuse not to do the commandments of Jesus Christ. And so there’s really a call to obedience for all of us that we actually take God’s Word and say, “Let me look at some of these things that God is calling me to: to forgive, to love…” you go through the list. And then to say, “Now I gotta go and do it. I gotta live it.” And God gives us the help of the Holy Spirit, and so we can do it.
We don’t do it out of guilt, and we don’t do it out of a theology that says, “Oh, I gotta do all these things so then I can get saved.” It has nothing to do with that. But it’s a call to obedience. We do it because we love God, amen? And that’s why we do it. And maybe just every morning when we wake up to start there with a prayer and to say, “Help me today as I ponder some of your commandments to actually live this out. How am I gonna work with my family? How am I gonna love my family? How am I gonna love all my neighbors?”
And like I said, there’s a variety of topics that I think was on the mind of Jesus, but at least within this passage, some of the immediate things that he was talking about—just think about him washing the feet of his disciples, and he was teaching them to serve people. And I believe that one of the commandments is like, “Hey, how do we get out of our comfort zones?” And we say, “Okay, as a believer, I get to serve and love on people.” And then the other call was to love one another, right?
Our Advocate
A lot of times we want to save the whole world and we want to get involved with all of the other stuff, but there’s absolutely no love in our lives and for just our neighbors or people that we are worshiping with. And so, first of all, he’s just like, “Hey, if you love me, keep my commands.” Right? And then he says, “And I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate.”
I want you to write down—because this is really important—or highlight the word “another.” It comes from an ancient Greek word, allen, meaning “another of the same kind.” Now this is really meaningful and very important because what he’s trying to communicate, what Jesus is communicating to them, to say, “You are, in a sense, receiving me in a different form. So you will be receiving the Holy Spirit. It is a different form, but it’s still the same thing. I’ve been walking with you as my disciples on this earth and we’ve been doing ministry. I’m gonna go away and it’s a good thing that I’m gonna go away. And I know you guys are all freaking out right now about me going away and you don’t understand all of this, but when I leave you, I’m gonna intercede, and I’m gonna ask the Father to give you the Holy Spirit to be your advocate. And this is actually gonna be way better because now it’s not just me coming and walking next to you, but now the Holy Spirit gets to live inside of you.” Can I hear an amen? And so what a gift we have. And so in a sense—and this is a great passage when we start to think about the Trinity—the same Jesus living inside of us, of the Holy Spirit, right? And so this is what he’s trying to communicate.
And so the Greek word here for “advocate” is parakletos, right? And so what it means is this, it’s “to call alongside.” And so what it’s meaning is that we have the Holy Spirit—just in the same way as Jesus was walking alongside and doing life with his disciples—now we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, but he’s coming alongside of us. And he becomes a legal counselor. This word “advocate” is a legal term.
And when you think about just some attributes or names of Satan, one of the biggest jobs in Satan’s will is he is the accuser of the brethren, right? And so he accuses us and he reminds us of our sin. And the Holy Spirit just comes and he is working on our behalf as our advocate and say, “No, no, no, no. You can’t put all of this on my child anymore. He is blood-washed. He is the righteousness of God.” Can I hear an amen?”
And so this is some of the aspects that’s going on when we just think about the work of the Holy Spirit. So at this point, they haven’t received the Holy Spirit. We gotta wait all the way to Acts for that to happen. And so in these last moments, Jesus is now trying to teach them. And like I said, I don’t know that they’re getting hold of everything and have a clear understanding of everything, but he’s gonna just teach them now about the Holy Spirit that’s coming.
And so just look again at 14:16, it says, “And I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.”
Look at verse 26, “But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things in my name.”
And then look at chapter 15, verse 26, “When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”
And then 16 verse 7, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I’m going away. Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
And then 16 verse 12, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”
So he’s just hammering and really trying to bring his point across about the one that is coming, the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now church, I want you to hear me. This is really important. Just as we think about the Holy Spirit, we all have different presuppositions when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit. A lot of us are very comfortable with God. We have some concepts and understanding when we read God’s Word. We are very comfortable with Jesus, but we miss out on so much when it comes to the Holy Spirit in our lives. And the devil has done, or… I’ll just say Satan has done a lot of damage over the years, one either telling us that we don’t have the Holy Spirit, it’s not part of our lives. We have seen some wacky things in churches and different continents when it comes to the Holy Spirit, and some of those things are not from the Lord, right?
But I said, we bring different presuppositions. If you grew up Catholic, you probably have a certain view of the Holy Spirit. If you grew up in the Lutheran church, you have a different view. If you grew up in Dutch Reform—like I did, right?—we never talked about the Holy Spirit. And then Pentecostal churches, you’re gonna have a different view there. And so somehow we have these different things, and then we can argue because those ideas sometimes look so different. But it is truly important that on this topic that we actually look at scripture and study the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Because I can honestly say we miss out as believers when we don’t walk with that keen awareness of the Spirit working inside of us, and how He wants to work through us. It is truly then when the church becomes powerless, and our lives become powerless, and we’re not effective in ministry, when we’re just staying… give a deaf ear to the work of the Spirit. We cannot avoid the work of the Spirit. It is too important. It was important for the disciples, and it still needs to be important in our lives as well.
And so forget about all the wacky stuff about what you think you know about the Holy Spirit—what he is and what he isn’t. Study God’s Word and allow the Holy Spirit to bring you revelation of who he is and what he’s doing in your life. And that is truly my prayer for us. And I couldn’t believe it when I switched to a different denomination. And here was a whole other angle and understanding of the Holy Spirit that I’ve missed out. And it was so rich when I was able to live into a better understanding of the work of the Spirit in my life. But it is going back to God’s Word. Don’t just stop with God. Don’t just stop with Jesus. We gotta learn and become more sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Is that OK?
All right, and I’ll share more with you on the practical things here within this passage. But let’s just continue.
Spurgeon’s Considerations of Orphans
I want to just show you verse 18, “And I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you before long. The world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.”
Interesting, it was normal language in their culture for a rabbi to see himself as a father figure. And we actually see in the previous chapter where Jesus is addressing His disciples as children. And so a lot of times in this culture, the rabbi would see him as the father figure and then his students as his children. And so again, this is where this language is coming up and Jesus is saying, “Okay, I’m leaving you.” And so obviously, whatever picture that creates in their minds, now they’re worried. It’s like, “Okay, where’s Jesus going? Is He now leaving us as an orphan?” And obviously, that is not true.
And so some things from Spurgeon here, Spurgeon considered several ways that the followers of Jesus are not like orphans. And so, remember, this is all part of the encouragement package for us.
An orphan has parents who are dead; the Spirit shows us Jesus is alive. Amen? And so just as believers, we don’t do life. We don’t live this life out like that our daddy is dead. Jesus is alive. The Holy Spirit works inside of us. We are not orphans. We’re not doing this life on our own power.
An orphan is left alone; the Spirit draws us close to God’s presence. I don’t know if you have experienced that sometimes, in just moments when you’re worshiping, you’re at your house, or even in the car, and suddenly, just there’s a sweet manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and He just draws you into the presence of God. And you’re like, “Oh, this is so sweet.” You just… you have that sense of God’s presence.
And it continues, an orphan has lost their provider; the Spirit provides all things.
An orphan is left without instruction; the Spirit teaches us all things.
The Holy Spirit as an Intercessor
Now I want to just stay on this topic of the Holy Spirit, the parakletos, right? And so several things for us to consider in areas that we can grow in, where we can be more intentional about.
The Holy Spirit is an intercessor in prayer. Romans 8:26, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
Now, it is such a sweet gift a lot of times—I don’t know if you’ve experienced this: you’re praying, and then you’re just like, “I don’t even know what to pray anymore.” Right? And we have the Holy Spirit that we can lean into and say, “Okay, Holy Spirit, show me.” Sometimes it might be a picture or just kind of something in your heart that the Holy Spirit is ministering to you to pray for and to intercede. And so we have this wonderful prayer partner. And again, God knows everything. And we have a limited view on who to pray for, what to pray for. But if we lean into the Holy Spirit in these moments, we will know what to pray for. And it’s gonna make your prayer life so much more effective and so much sweeter than you to just come up with, “Okay, what do I pray for next?”
I was talking to a friend—we had lunch last week—and we were talking through how the Holy Spirit sometimes will remind us to maybe call somebody with a word of encouragement. Maybe you’ve had that, just, you keep thinking about somebody and it’s like, “Okay, I gotta call, I gotta call.” And those are a lot of times promptings of the Holy Spirit. And we can either be obedient or we can just ignore it. And as believers, we want to learn how to listen and just say, “Okay, maybe this isn’t me. I’m gonna step out in faith and I’m gonna pick up the phone and I’m gonna make that call.” And we’re having this conversation about how he has been really good in the past to be obedient to those things. And I was just celebrating that with him. And I was telling him, “Man, I’m so grateful for this conversation because this whole week I’ve been thinking about a couple,” (that’s not in our church, different town), “and they’ve been on my heart the whole time. And I’ve kind of been putting it off. I’ve just been busy, busy, busy the whole time and didn’t call them.” And so in this, I said, “Man, I’m so grateful that you’re sharing that right now. I believe even the Holy Spirit is using you right now for me to be obedient to make that phone call.” And I said, “As soon as we’re done with lunch, I’m gonna go to my office and I’m gonna call them.”
So I just had this sense that something was a little off in their marriage, that they were struggling. And so I called the guy and I said, “Man, this is gonna sound maybe weird, and if everything is good, that’s okay. I just want to let you know I’ve just got this drive that I’m supposed to call you guys and ask, ‘how’s your marriage doing?’” And he immediately just opened up. Not crazy, but it was just like, “Hey, we’re struggling in some of these areas,” and so things that I was able to pray with them and encourage them. And I was just, “Holy Spirit, you are so good. You are so good,” right? And all it cost me was to just pick up the phone. It was a little awkward to just kind of jump right into the marriage type of deal and ask the hard question. But even if I bombed and I missed it, it was still okay. They would have said, “Hey, thank you for thinking of us,” and I got to pray with them. But it was a needed phone conversation in their lives, in this season in their lives. And so easily for me, it was just, “Oh, I’m just gonna ignore that.” And so even in that lunch appointment, the Holy Spirit was working and reminding me I need to make that phone call.
And so it is beautiful when we actually just become still and we listen to the Holy Spirit and ask Him and say, “okay God, Holy Spirit, show me, who do I need to pray for? What do I need to pray for today?” Okay?
Teacher and Reminder
Number two, as the work of the Holy Spirit, He is our teacher and reminder. John 14:26 (we already read that this morning), “But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
It is wonderful over the years doing ministry or counseling and stuff, how the Holy Spirit will just remind me of a scripture. You know, it’s like, I can’t even, you know, you’re in that moment, and then suddenly the Holy Spirit just brings up a passage that’s relevant in that moment. And so he just reminds you of some of the teachings and the things that you have learned and he teaches us. There’s a lot of things when we read scripture—and things might not be clear—that we can lean and say, “Okay, Holy Spirit, I’m reading this. Please teach me what this means.” And the Holy Spirit wants to teach us. Can you see a little bit just how the Holy Spirit becomes… wants to be part of our lives and our spiritual journey?
One of the affirmations with the Covenant Church is this (we have six affirmations, one of it is this): a conscience dependence on the Holy Spirit. A conscience dependence on the Holy Spirit. And so it is that waking up in the morning and just, “Man, I’m gonna follow the Spirit today.” Now, again, we’re all human. Some days it’s hard, some days it’s easy. And there’s a lot of grace. But I don’t want us to just ignore this aspect of the Holy Spirit. It needs to be part of our lives because we miss out. We miss out when we’re not leaning into some of that.
Empowerment for Ministry
Empowerment for ministry, Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” And praise the Lord that the Holy Spirit empowers us to do ministry, right, and to be a blessing to this world.
And we’ve seen the difference even in the life of Peter before the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. He was kind of a wimp and scared when he was standing in front of some of the higher government officials. But then in Acts, we see he’s got the Holy Spirit and now there’s a boldness, and he’s preaching, and now there’s thousands of people that is coming to know the Lord.
And true for us too, a lot of times we are so scared to share the gospel or we’re so scared to share our testimonies. And it’s like, “Well, what if this and what if that?” Who cares? Allow the Holy Spirit… you don’t want to do that in your own power. A lot of times when I’m in those situations and I get to do outreach or whatever it might be, I’ll just pray. I say, “Holy Spirit, help me.” Even these sermons, believe me, especially on Sunday mornings. Just when I’m standing here and it’s like, you’ve worked on sermons and it just doesn’t feel like it’s coming together. I’ll just stand there, and worship time—a lot of times I can’t even worship. I’m just praying. I say, “God, man, I need you. Holy Spirit, help these words because at least in my mind, this is a mess. I don’t know how I’m gonna do it.” But then just trusting the Holy Spirit for Him to speak to you.
Conviction of Sin
Conviction of sin, John 16:8. I’m not gonna read that this morning, but this is such a profound role of the Holy Spirit. And I want to encourage you, when you’re wrestling with sin or something that you should not be doing, and you feel that sense that the Holy Spirit is convicting you and you feel uncomfortable, listen to that piece. Listen to the Holy Spirit, so… because the Holy Spirit knows better, and when we listen to that conviction of sin, that’s really gonna be helpful. But a lot of times we kind of just close our eyes and our ears and we do it in any case, even with that conviction. And then, you know, you have a whole heap of trouble in any case because you didn’t listen. And so listen in all of those little decisions too.
Again, if you have messed up and the Holy Spirit is calling you to conviction of sin, go on your knees and repent. Right? That’s why we have the Holy Spirit. Don’t just ignore it.
Fruit of the Spirit
And then, Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5. You can go and read through all of that when you think about peace and joy and long-suffering, right? We can’t come up with those fruits in our own flesh, in our own nature. It is the Holy Spirit that develops those things. Believe me, I’ve seen that with peace over the years, right? It’s like, “Man, there’s truly gotta be the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit is available to every believer. Can I hear an amen? Okay, that was weak. The Holy Spirit is available to every believer. It’s not about good looks; it’s not about intelligence; it’s not about which nation—when you do Ancestry.com, only if you’re from Sweden. I know some of you think that way. Alright? The Holy Spirit is for every believer. It is such a gift to experience that. And so for us to just to live that way, that “Man, we have the helper, the advocate that is inside of me. So how now do I tap into that?” The Holy Spirit wants to help you, right? And He wants to guide you and He wants to teach you. We just gotta become more obedient, a little bit more sensitive to create that moment.
And even just the fruit of the Spirit. Last week, or yesterday, I woke up with a challenge, just something that kind of came way out of the blue. I didn’t see it coming and just challenging conversation, and so just praying through that. And usually those types of things would totally derail me, right? And it’s like how you just think about a situation and just it’s throwing you off. And so it’s Saturday, I want to be with my family. And in the past, a lot of times I would kind of think about that the whole time. Vanessa actually complimented and then I was thinking about it. She’s like, “Wow, that thing didn’t derail you your whole day.”
And, you know, just going back to the words of Jesus here, where He’s saying, “Hey, don’t let your hearts be troubled, and don’t be afraid.” Right? He’s calling them into this moment to say, “Be intentional. Lean into the Holy Spirit, and you can be in control of your emotions here,” which is a great thing to say, “Don’t… hey, boys, you’re hearing this stuff, but don’t let all of this bad news and stuff derail you. Believe in me. Have faith in me that I’m in control of this situation.” And so that was just so helpful, even. I was just pondering that yesterday and I made that decision to say, “God, this is a tough thing, but I’m not gonna allow this to trouble my heart all day. I want to be fully present with my family, right? And I’m not gonna let fear and anxiety rob me from this day.” And those are really sweet moments. And I believe that was the work of the Holy Spirit that helped me to just have peace throughout that, to have wisdom in some of the conversations that happened. And I just could do life.
Now, maybe tomorrow, it’s Monday—who knows? Right? I’m gonna have to rely on the Holy Spirit again, and it might go well and I might bomb. I don’t know. But hopefully I can see that I’m changing. I’m growing. I’m maturing in the spiritual things of God. And all of that is available for us. We can rely on Him. And so today, just words, find your… use chapter 14 as your box of encouragement.
You’re not orphans and you have the Holy Spirit. And it’s a good deal. Can we celebrate that?
Let’s pray.
Quotes for Reflection
“Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are ships without wind. We are useless.” - Charles Spurgeon.
“The Holy Spirit’s main ministry is not to give you thrills, but to creating us a Christ-like character.” - J.I. Becker
