In vv.12-14 that we looked at last week, Jesus promised his disciples that they would do what he had done; indeed that they would do even greater things and that they could ask for anything in his name and he would do it.
We noticed that his promises were conditional: the doing of greater things would be based on his return to the Father and the disciples’ faith in Jesus; the answering of prayers would be for the glory of God and in accord with the character and will of the Son (his name).
The verses we’re looking at today continue that theme and advance it in significant ways.
1. Comings & Goings: Fellowship with God
Jesus has revealed himself as the exclusive way to God; in these verses, he reveals that he is also the giver of the Spirit. But what he says here about the coming of the Spirit and his Father’s coming to the disciples needs to worked through. When will Jesus come to his disciples (v.18) and in what way will both he and the Father come to the disciples and make their home with them?
I think that v.18 has the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus partly in view but the full picture can only really be understood to refer to the ministry of the Spirit.
The Spirit will be given by the Father in answer to the request of Jesus but we should note that scripture can also speak of the Son giving the Spirit; he proceeds from both the Father and the Son. And when he comes, his work will be to reveal the Father and the Son to his people. It is in that way pre-eminently that the Father and the Son will come to their own (v.21 is not restricted to the disciples as such but extends to ‘whoever’, that is to all believers in all ages).
Having noted that, we need to pay close attention to how Jesus described the Spirit and what he envisages him doing. He refers to the Spirit as “another Counsellor” (‘helper’; ‘paraclete’).
Jesus has been just that to his disciples. And he will continue to do those things is his exalted reign (as 1 Jn. 2:1 makes clear). But there was a great need for another helper who would be able to do what Jesus could not.
Jesus could not be with his people for ever; for his work to be completed he had to return to the Father. That prospect was filling his disciples with grief but their grief would be turned to joy for they would see Jesus again. That occurred after his resurrection but his promise is not to leave them as orphans and the outworking of that promise is in the giving of the Spirit.
• He is the one called alongside to help us; he will speak up for us; he will comfort us;
• He is the Spirit of truth: he reveals the truth about Jesus to us; he is the true one, the genuine article who alone can bring us to know God and Jesus his Son;
• He will witness to our spirits that we are the children of God (and so we will not be left as orphans);
• He will be the means by which we will experience the Father and the Son making their home with us, making us a spiritual temple in the Lord.
The ministry of the Spirit is absolutely necessary and wonderfully real. These are not empty words but a reality to know and to live.
2. Love and obedience
But we have skipped over v.15 which opens up this paragraph and the connection of that verse to the coming of the Spirit is very important. At first sight, it might seem that Jesus is saying that if we prove our love for him through our obedience then – and only then – will he ask the Father to send the Spirit to us.
But that is not the case. Jesus has plainly shown that the coming of the Spirit is conditioned only by his dying, rising and being exalted to the Father. It was never to be conditional upon the disciples’ faith – but, having said that, there is a distinct connection between the two made by Jesus here and we need to pay attention to it. First, though, we need to work through the relationship of love to obedience that Jesus speaks of here.
At the very start of this section in 13:1, John told us that having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them to the finish. In his teaching, praying and self-giving, Jesus was demonstrating divine love for his own.
In v.15, Jesus turns to the issue of the disciples’ love for him. God’s love for us calls forth our love for him (as John elsewhere says, “We love him because he first loved us”). But that isn’t Jesus’ emphasis here; he doesn’t exhort his disciples to love God but simply asserts that if we love him we will obey his commands.
This is a point that Jesus emphasises here - it recurs in vv.21,23,24. But what is the connection between love and obedience? Quite simply, Jesus is saying that our love for him will be demonstrated by our obedience to his word. That love will of course involve emotions but that is not to be the measure of whether we love God or not; rather, it is our obedience to the word of Jesus – to follow him as Lord and to love his people as he has loved us (see 13:34).
In his first letter, John tells us the marks of genuine Christians: what we believe about Jesus, how we live our lives and whether we love God’s people in deed and in truth. If we love him (as a response to his love for us) we will obey the word of Jesus.
Genuine love for God is not a matter primarily of the emotions but of doing his word. Do you love God?
Now to the connection between loving Jesus and his giving of the Spirit: it is as we show our love for him that we will discover more of the Spirit’s ministry and be conscious of the warm fellowship of Father and Son as they make their dwelling among us and in us (“I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you” v.20). That, surely, is something we would desire personally and corporately – to know the Father and his Son through fellowship with the Spirit.
But it will be ours only if we do the words of Jesus, taking seriously the call to faith and the life that proceeds from it – right belief, right conduct and genuine love for each other. Where those things are present, as concrete signs of our love for God, we can be sure that our enjoyment of fellowship with God will be heightened.
3. Jesus & the world
But isn’t this all rather insular? Isn’t it encouraging an inward looking Christianity – the Spirit will be in us and we will know the Father and his Son. What about the world? That, at least in part, seems to have been in the mind of the other Judas who asks Jesus, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
He seems to have a point, doesn’t he? If Jesus has come from God and is the way, the truth and the life, the exclusive way to God, why wrap that up and hide it away? Why stop with a few disciples? Why not reveal himself to the world? Two things need to be said.
Firstly, Jesus tells Judas that the way is not closed, that anyone and everyone can know him and the Father and can have the Spirit dwelling within them: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
Anyone who hears Jesus’ call to repent and believe and responds to it, who shows the obedience of faith, will be welcomed into the family of God. The way is not barred but it is a narrow way – it is the way of faith in Jesus, the one who is the way, the truth and the life.
Secondly, remember the whole context of the Upper Room teaching. Jesus is going away and is equipping his disciples to take up his mission – to even do greater things than he has done. Heightened fellowship with God is not for purely personal enjoyment but it is essential equipping for going into the world with the gospel of grace.
Jesus will show himself to the world – in and through his disciples. If we love him, we will obey his word – and he will make his home in us. When that happens, it cannot be hidden – just look back at Jesus’ words in 13:35.
All of which leaves us with the most winsome invitation and the most exacting commission: invited to know ever deeper fellowship with God and commissioned to show the reality of that life to a world that is lost and in terrible darkness.
If we love him, we will obey what he commands.
