This passage seems to be something of a bookend to 14:1 (Jesus repeats his exhortation not to be troubled). In the larger passage, Jesus has confirmed to his disciples that he is going away to prepare the way for them to come to God. He alone can do that but he is also sending them into the world to continue his mission. To enable them to do that, he is going to will confer on them the gift of the Spirit who will be with them for ever.
The verses before us this morning continue to deal with the situation facing the disciples after Jesus has left them and his provision for them in that situation.
1. The Paraclete from Jesus
Because Jesus is going away, he is instructing his disciples; “All this I have spoken to you while still with you” (v.25). But with the disciples’ hearts clouded by grief and their minds so slow to take in what Jesus has been saying, there is a real probability that their recollection of his words will be slender and their understanding of them very slight.
“But,” says Jesus, “the Counsellor, 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.” (v.26) Their need is great but that need will be met by the Triune God: the Son will ask and the Father will send the Spirit of Truth to minister to the disciples.
Now, we should notice that this promise is quite specific to the disciples and relates to their role as the authoritative messengers of Jesus, those who will record and pass on the truth about Jesus. They need to be able to recall his words and deeds and they need to be able to correctly understand the significance of them. Jesus is here promising that God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – will see that they get that help.
This is why we have the 4 gospels and why we have the epistles and, indeed, the whole of the NT. The Holy Spirit was at work in and through Jesus’ apostles, just as he here said he would be.
If the ministry of Jesus is to be continued in and through his disciples, this is invaluable and utterly essential ministry.
But even though we can’t responsibly say that this promise is directly for us today, there are 2 things that we can say with confidence:
i) Because the Holy Spirit led the disciples into all truth, we can trust what the scriptures tell us about Jesus, both in terms of the gospels themselves and the rest of the NT. The Spirit of Truth instructed them and helped them to reflect on the meaning of Jesus and his work and so we have solid ground on which to base our faith and live our lives as Christians.
ii) The same ministry of the Spirit’s illumination is both needed by us and given to us. As we’ve said, this context is directly concerned with the Spirit’s work in the disciples but we can have every confidence that, as we ask for his help in understanding the truth, he will be pleased to give it to us.
Both those points have a real part to play in strengthening us in our life as the Lord’s people. We need to gratefully receive their help and work it through in our engagement with God’s Word because it is through his Word that the Lord equips us for our calling in this world.
2. The Peace from Jesus
The disciples need the Paraclete to instruct them, to teach them. But they also stand in need of peace in a world that is disturbed and disturbing – and that is exactly what Jesus now goes on to promise them (and, this time, by extension all believers).
The disciples lived in the days when the empire promised its own version of peace, the Pax Romana. But that was a pale imitation of peace – it was peace obtained and maintained by the edge of the sword; it was peace that relied on fear and oppression for its ‘success’. It was peace as the world gives it, the only peace this world can give.
But Jesus deliberately says that the peace he is going to give to his people is not like the world’s peace. His is not a peace that is enforced through fear, nor is it won by brute force.
The peace that Jesus has (“My peace”) and which he bequeaths to all his own is the peace of the risen Messiah, the peace that is one of the central marks of God’s Kingdom (cf. Is. 52:7; 53:5; 54:10,13).
It is the peace that speaks of reconciliation with God, that flows from forgiveness and mercy. It is peace that speaks of a better world and an unshakable confidence and hope in the resurrection of the dead. It is the peace of God’s certain victory over all sin and evil and the dawning of a new heavens and earth, where righteousness dwells.
It is peace that comes to us directly from Jesus himself – it is peace he himself has won. And his victory was not through superior military force or cunning but by his laying down his own life for our sins upon the cross. The peace the world gives is often costly for those it is imposed upon; this peace is a free gift from God but at the greatest cost to the one who gives it.
Peace in this world is very fragile and will not last. But the peace that Jesus gives as the Messiah is solid and permanent; it isn’t like the world’s peace. It cannot be taken away – our sin may disrupt our enjoyment of this peace but it cannot erase it; suffering may threaten to overwhelm it yet ultimately it cannot and will not because this peace was forged in the furnace of Messiah’s afflictions.
And Jesus has given this peace to every Christian. No exceptions. Every Christian has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; every believer experiences the peace of God that passes all understanding. You can’t adequately explain it; you can’t quantify or bottle it but all who have put their trust in Jesus know it and have it.
This is a peace that is given by Jesus as a gift and yet at the same time we are encouraged in scripture to live in such a way as to allow this peace to truly be our experience. As someone has said, “It is a peace born from a living personal relationship with Jesus, and deepened through a growing surrender of life to his gracious rule. This the Holy Spirit makes available to the troubled hearts of the disciples, and to ours.” (Milne p.217)
3. Neither troubled nor afraid
Both the Holy Spirit and this matchless peace are gifts of Jesus but in both cases we need to make sure we do what we can to receive the blessings of those gifts. In particular, Jesus here exhorts his disciples, in the light of his promise of peace, not to let their hearts to be troubled and not to be afraid.
Both trouble and fear are unwelcome guests in our hearts and minds; we would far rather be without them and Jesus is saying here that, under normal circumstances, that is possible – if it wasn’t, he would hardly be urging his disciples in these terms.
But much of the onus rests on us – we need to believe the promise and rest in the peace that Jesus alone gives us. Like the disciples, we face a hostile and unbelieving world, a world that will bamboozle us with its philosophies and shock us with its blatant disregard for the Lord and his ways. But Jesus has given us his peace, which means that much of our distress in the Christian life is needless; instead of fretting, we need to take Jesus at his word.
Yes, the work is hard and the world is a difficult place in which to hold out the word of life but in the midst of the conflict we have been given the peace of the risen Saviour. Do you believe that? Do you believe him? He doesn’t lie, does he? Then if he can be believed, we have been given peace and are to live in the beautiful rest this peace – his peace – breathes into our souls.
And that peace, along with the ministry of the Spirit of Truth, is to further equip us for our lives in his service. The calling is high and holy; its demands are costly but the provision of Jesus is full and complete. That’s the best of all foundations to work from.
