John 14:15-21
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
15 ‘If
you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will
ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for
ever.17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with
you, and he will be in you.
18 ‘I
will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little
while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you
also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my
Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my
commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be
loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’
In substance Wesley's teachings contained nothing new. All
Wesley wished to do was reintroduce what, in his opinion, had been forgotten.
His objective was not to overthrow existing dogmas but to `galvanize them into
life'. Wesley took the body of existing Anglican teachings as found in the
bible, coupled with the liturgical framework, homilies and articles of the
Anglican Book of Common Prayer of 1662 and gave new emphasis to certain old
teachings which had, in his opinion, been ‘sadly neglected’.
The reformers focused on the process of justification – how we
are declared right with God by faith -`Wesley may be said to have focused on
the way of sanctification'. He believed that being `born again' was not simply
the moment of justification, a sudden experience but rather `the whole process
by which the believer becomes transformed from sin to holiness.' Henry
Rack explains that for Wesley the true goal of Christian life was
`sanctification, holiness, even to the point of perfection'. Although the
process of becoming `holy' might have been Wesley's major focus, it does not
mean that `sanctification' or `being made holy' took precedence over
justification. Wesley saw both processes as being possible only through faith
in Jesus Christ.
Wesley arrived at a definition of perfection that was in
itself imperfect `a perfection that was blameless, but not faultless'. In 1759
he described Christian perfection as follows:
The loving God with all your
heart, mind, soul and strength. This implies that no wrong temper, none
contrary to love, remains in the soul; and that all thoughts, words and actions
are governed by pure love.
Hulley adds that `Perhaps the most characteristic Wesleyan
term is`perfect love'. He quotes Wesley as summing up Christian perfection as
follows:
... the sum of Christian
perfection ... is all comprised in that one word, love. The first branch of it
is the love of God; and he that loves God loves his brother also ...
This perfect love, according to Wesley, is a gift from God
which `could be received at any moment and not simply before death'. Once this
gift had been received it could also be lost `if not sustained by constant
vigilance' and even the perfected `depended at every moment, at every stage in
salvation on grace and faith'.
The perfection Wesley was calling for required a continual
process of growing in grace `both before and after "perfection" had
been reached'. Hulley explains that Wesley taught that `Perfection is then seen
merely as a point on a continuum, not a final objective reached'. He explains:
Wesley never regarded perfection
as a state, a position which a believer reaches or achieves. He saw it as a
point in the experience of Christian growth which only took place in those who
had faith, it was in that sense a gift of God not a human achievement. God is
the agent, he does the sanctifying in response to faith ...
Our Gospel reading on this, Aldersgate Sunday, explains how
this love, this faith, this process of being in Christ, being made into the people we are declared to be by
faith, can become a present reality in the lives of Christians – it is
something that we experience as a meaningful reality in our lives, by the
Spirit.
My text this morning is written in
John 14:15-17
15‘If you love me,
you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the
Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you
forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he
abides with you, and he will be in you.
In our reading, Philip asks for a
theophany – a divine disclosure to man: “Lord, show us the father and we will
be satisfied …” – and Jesus repeats the answer that he gave to Thomas because
Philip’s request makes the same sort of presupposition as Thomas’ question: it
assumed that the Father was other than the Son. Philip could not conceive of
the unity of Father and Son which Jesus had spoken of so frequently. Jesus explains
by referring to the two dominant themes of the Gospel: his word and his works.
Neither of these are done on his own: his words are not spoken on his own
authority but with the authenticity of the Father. This is sufficient
theophany. His works are also not his own doing, but those of the Father who
dwells in the Son. What Philip needs to do is recognise this. Jesus says in
verses 10-11: ‘… I am in the Father and the Father is in me …’ and the ultimate
proof of this is in Jesus’ works – in what he did.
For Jesus to ‘… go to the Father …’
does not mean a departure; it means staying with him … abiding with him
forever. Marsh adds: “The metaphor of ‘departure’ must not be pressed to the
point of letting any disciple suppose that there is knowledge of the Father to
be had beyond Jesus himself. In the Son the Father has been pleased to manifest
himself.”
Jesus had made this point many times:
“If you had known me you will have known my Father”; He that has seen me has
seen the Father”; “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” and “The Father
that dwells in me, he does the works …”
J C Ryle writes: “Sayings like these
are full of deep mystery. We have no eyes to see their meaning fully, no line
to fathom it, no language to express it, no mind to take it in.” Bishop John V
Taylor spoke of Jesus reflecting in a human life the being of God. Norman
Pottinger captured the essence of this truth in his book entitled The Human Face of God where he wrote:
“… the Word is made flesh in one of our own
kind, our Brother, without over-riding or denying the humanity which is ours,
but rather crowning and completing all that is implicit in humanity from the
beginning. The divine intention is ‘enmanned’ among us.”
I am also taken with the understanding
of Thomas Merton who said that he underwent two conversions – the first to the
transcendent, awesome God, with whom communion may be enjoyed through worship
and contemplation, the second to the imminent, approachable God, who is present
in his world and its people.
Here Jesus reminds us of another
two-fold experience: the risen and ascended Jesus of history whose
transcendence enables him to be imminent – here with us -in the power of the
Holy Spirit as he dwells within us in the world today. Jesus himself said that
where two or more are gathered, he is there in the midst and Mother Teresa
reminds us of our Lord’s teaching in Matthew 25 that we meet Jesus in the needs
of the most vulnerable people in the world … and this is especially evident
when people respond in faith and continue to do the works of our Lord in the
present.
Jesus
offered a test based on two things: what he said
and what he did. When we read or hear
the words attributed to Jesus, they have the ring of truth and – as Barclay
rightly observes – when we hear them we cannot help saying: “If only the world
would live on these principles, how different it would be!” And of course
Jesus’ deeds does cause one to pause and think; “Who is this?” Barclay
comments:
“Still the way to Christian belief is not to argue about Jesus but to
listen to him and to look at him. If we do that, the sheer personal impact will
compel us to believe.”
Think
also of the limits of the ministry of Jesus. He never left Palestine. The world
was in a mess: in the Roman Empire morality was hardly in existence even
compared to today, things were outrageous. And into this world went the
disciples of Jesus – and this world was transformed. In the days of his flesh
Jesus was limited to Palestine; when he went back to the Father, he was
liberated from these limitations and the Spirit could work mightily everywhere.
The disciples of Jesus achieved greater things than he.
It is all
too easy for us to forget that we are together with Jesus. His Ascension is a
wonderful truth, because it reminds us that Jesus left the constraints of this
earthly existence and so can be with us all – everywhere freed from the limits
of time and space. But more, He is with us now, when we are alone, and
especially when we are together in worship and fellowship with others. What
binds us to our Lord is not an act of intellectual assent; it is a bond of
love. It is because we love Jesus that we willingly accept what he calls us to
do, and this requires obedience to our Lord’s teachings. To those who respond
in obedience to our Lord’s calling, he offers us another counsellor. Jesus had
been the disciple’s counsellor while he was with them, and when he left this
earthly realm he gave them the Holy Spirit who would remain with them forever.
Marsh writes: “So his departure will not leave them unsupported and unguided as
they might have feared. The coming of the Spirit of truth to stay with them
will mark them off from the world; for just as the world cannot see Jesus for
the Son he really is, so it cannot discern the presence of the Spirit of truth,
for the world cannot see him nor know him. But the disciples will know
him, for he will be dwelling in them.”
For the
disciples, the Holy Spirit was not a replacement for Jesus, it is Jesus, but
just in another form. The disciples will see him for – as Marsh explains “…
they together will enter upon a life with quite new conditions.”
All this
is based on love and obedience. Love is not a sentimental emotion; its
expression is always moral and is revealed in obedience. You cannot claim to
love someone, if you bring them hardship and heartbreak. Children and young
people cannot claim that they love their parents and at the same time cause
them grief and anxiety. There are children who claim to love their parents, yet
cause them a great deal of anxiety and grief; there are husbands who claim to
love their wives and yet they are inconsiderate, irritable, thoughtless and
unkind. Real love is not easy – it is shown through obedience to his laws of
love.
But we
are not left to struggle alone – Jesus gives us another helper – the Greek word
used here for the Holy Spirit is parakletos
which is very difficult to translate. The Authorised Version renders it Comforter, Barclay, Helper, NRSV, Advocate.
Probably the best way to translate it is ‘…
someone who is called in …’ but this alone is not enough; what also matters
is why the person is called in. In
Ancient Greece, people were ‘called in’ to give evidence in a court of law in
someone’s favour; an expert called in to give advice in some difficult
situation; to give encouragement to a group of soldiers who had lost heart. The
parakletos was called in to help in
times of trouble or need. This is what the Holy Spirit does for us: “He takes
away our inadequacies and enables us to cope with life.” Barclay suggests that
Jesus is, in effect, saying is: “I am setting you a hard task, and I am sending
you out on a very difficult engagement. But I am going to send you someone, the
parakletos, who will guide you as to
what to do and enable you to do it.”
There is
also another sense: from the prefix para
we get the word parallel, and so
there is the very real image of someone coming alongside us to help us, to
equip us and to enable us. But this is only part of it; Jesus says, that the
Holy Spirit will also be within us, becoming part of who we are.
The world cannot recognise the Holy
Spirit because we can see only what we are equipped to see. An astronomer can
look into the night sky and see much more than the average person; a botanist
can look into a hedgerow and see far more than the average person; someone who
knows art will see far more in a painting than others. What we see or
experience depends on what we bring to the sight or experience. A person who
has dismissed God as impossible will never hear His voice deep within their
lives when he speaks, and will never receive the Holy Spirit unless we wait,
look and prayerfully seek for him to come to us in the depth of our being.
Christian
people ought to be remarkably different; there ought to be something special
about us, something that marks them out from the rest of the world. And when
this happens, it becomes obvious: it was obvious in the lives of Martin Luther,
John Wesley, Oscar Romero, Mother Teresa, but also John Smith of Loughborough
or Gareth Jones from Cardiff or Ian MacKenzie from Glasgow – ordinary
Christians who make a different for good where they are.
People
outside of Christ cannot fathom this. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 2:14: “Those who are unspiritual do not receive
the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are
unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually.”
This
is why it is fruitless to try to convince someone through argument; they have
to experience it. When people experience love, they know it; when they
experience grace, they know it; when they experience selflessness, they to know
it. If we are going to fulfil our calling and thereby come to know what
life is really all about, we need to be prayerful people. As J C Ryle states:
“He that does much for Christ, and leave his mark in the world, will always
prove to be one who prays much.” Those who pray will also be those who are
steeped both in the Scriptures (especially the Gospels) so that we can be
reminded of what Jesus taught and did and thereby received direction as to what
we need to teach and do in His name.
The Holy Spirit is there for all to
receive: but it is not automatic – we need to be obedient, we need to be
faithful in prayer, we need to search for the truth in our own situations, and
we need to ask and then we will be filled and equipped and enabled to live as
we ought. Barclay concludes: “The Holy Spirit gate-crashes no person’s heart:
He waits to be received. So when we think of the wonderful things which the
Holy Spirit can do, surely we will set apart some time amidst the bustle and
rush of life to wait in silence for his coming.”
Jesus put it this way: 15‘If you love me, you will
keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he
will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This
is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees
him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be
in you. Amen
