John 14: 15 - 31a

Jesus spoke with solemnity to his disciples before his coming ordeal of the passion - his sufferings for us. Compacted in this speech were the events of his death, his ascension, and his giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  It was going to be a dramatic and disturbing time for his friends and followers.  In the initial stages of this series of occurrences the disciples would be bereft of comfort.  Their beloved Master would undergo extreme humiliation, intense suffering, and a cruel death.

How could the Messiah they were beginning to trust be so hatefully and maliciously murdered?

Panic would grip their despairing hearts.  Where could they find refuge in the ruin of their faith - all hope dashed, future life destroyed of meaning and mission?

Jesus is gently preparing them for an earthquake of the soul.  He foresees their time of deep trouble and terror.  There will be for them a phase of piercing, penetrating fear, of fundamental shock, that will utterly shake their world to pieces, but it will be of short duration.  He provides fortification for their spirits in all that will follow the savage crisis they will endure.

Enormous promises will come to fruition after his severe trials - and theirs.

The disciples will not absorb these truths for the immediate present but they will receive them in joyful actuality in due course.  The impressiveness of their Master will dawn upon them in fresh insights and experiences of his divine glory and generosity.

The world will have no appreciation of what is in store for the people of God.  It will have no sense of what God is doing in, for, and through his people in the new sphere of existence to which he introduces those who know him.

In a spiritual sense the believer, whilst living and working for God in this world, lives on another planet, as it were, or, better still, heaven is his possession on earth.  God has opened up another realm through the Spirit of truth.

Jesus, as the disciples knew him, would go away.  But he has no intention to leave them or abandon them as confused and lonely orphans.  His going to the Father is a change in his relationship to those whom he loves, a transfer, we might say, or “a promotion” for the God-man to a higher and universally effective office that will lead to an enrichment of the divine presence.  Jesus goes away in order to come home to humble and believing hearts as his residence.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of a permanent guest within, and a permanent guide without to accompany us (in the world to go beside and go before).

The Counsellor - the Spirit of God - will introduce us to the special and exalted society of God the Three in One.  He will grant us what Christ has procured for us - life with God and in God forever. Jesus, the risen One says, “Because I live, you also will live” (v19).

From Jesus’ death and mighty resurrection we who trust and obey him gain eternal life in his company, in his home, the Father’s house with many rooms.  He personally has prepared and secured our place.  There will not be one missing lodger.  That is the point of his going away.  “I am going there to prepare a place for you (ch14 v2). 

But he also says, “I am coming back to you (v28).  Yes, that will surely be on the last allotted day of our life, and also the last day of this world’s existence.  He will come to us at death to carry us home, and he will wind-up history on the Day of Judgment.  It is imperative that we be ready for these returns.

But Jesus was also intimating that his coming back would even be sooner.  Through the Spirit’s truth, love, power, and indwelling the glorious Three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, will make their abode in us.  As long as we abide on earth they will abide in us, that is, until we make the transition to the divine dwelling known as heaven.

This is the astounding, amazing, awesome teaching of Jesus who knows all things.  “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 (v23).  It will be “the life of God in the soul of man” as Henry Scougal describes it in the title of his book touching on the Christian’s union with the Divine.  This is the essence and consummation of our salvation.

That is to be the climactic happening for we believers on earth.  Mere earthworms have a royal destiny, a dignity and nobility that will rank them above angels.  It all happens due to “our happy fault” as an ancient liturgy puts it with huge and daring poetic license.

God descends to us, enters us, and dwells in and with us.  God’s home is where the believing heart is.  It is immensely comforting. It is also something that disturbs us.

We are to manifest him as well as host him.  That is truly a fact that is humbling and convicting, and it causes much heart-searching.

God in our poor, broken, and greatly flawed selves?  But the Spirit is the power of our restored and renewed selves.  We must keep close to our Comforter, Counsellor, and everyday Enabler.  The closeness is there if we realize what Jesus is saying:  “My Father and I will make our home with you through the Spirit - God in us.  The tastes and tendencies of the Resident will radiate from the home - to some degree at least.

Our hearts, refashioned and refurbished by God, have replaced the earthly temple that symbolized and facilitated the presence of God to his people.  There he often met them and displayed his glory and dispensed his grace.  The temple as a limited and temporary means of grace for Israel until its Owner would both visit it in dramatic disapproval of its abuse, and remove it in his providence.  Now it is gone.  But the Lord has not gone.  His temple is now established in his people.  Each and all of them, as his elect ones, that make up his true church, are living stones that fit together as the edifice of the eternal habitation.

Paul is in accord with the view that the human heart is now the house of God on earth when he avers that the material temple has been superseded by the soul of man (1 Corinthians 6:19 - 20, against immorality, and his avowal is repeated in 2 Corinthians 6:16).

This intimacy with God, and the indwelling of God, are the abiding consequences of Pentecost in the lives of all the faithful.  We are the folk of the Father, the companions of Christ, and the sanctified of the Spirit.  The force of the indwelling Power causes us to be, in some measure, the living proclamation of his saving truth to a world that does not know him, nor by nature cares to know him, but must, for its own eternal welfare, come to know him.

RJS

It is the Christian historian Luke M.D. who relates the accounts of the ascension of the Lord Jesus.  Luke is a man who is interested in facts and summing up their significance.  He exercises his professional skill in various situations and displays discernment with regard to detail.  He has a great concern for accuracy and as a Greek he relates aptly to the western mind in his Gentile witness to Jesus.  He knows what counts to make information credible.

It is Luke who records the event of the ascension in two versions, the first in the 24th chapter of his gospel culled from eyewitnesses, and the second, derived from similar sources in his tabulation of the experiences of the apostolic and early church beginning in the book Acts (ch1vv1-11).  On the church’s calendar Ascension Day must inevitably fall on a Thursday which is not conducive to maximum observance.  And yet this is a day of the utmost importance in our close concentration on the accomplishment and divine acknowledgement of the Lord Jesus which mark him out as Saviour and King.  The ascension is the summit of the biblical accolades accorded to him.  He now reigns throughout the universe, and, more specifically, rules over the destinies of all humankind.  If the ascension were faithfully proclaimed and earnestly believed every knee would bow to Jesus now rather than await the day of judgment when universal homage will be constrained whether from love or fear.

The day that observes the enthronement of Christ is, for the believer, a day of glorious and exuberant celebration, and a day of colossal comfort.  It brings to mind the exaltation of Jesus and arouses the exultation of his people.  The crucified king ascends to his seat of sovereignty.  The Holy Spirit is pledged to descend upon the Saviour’s chosen throng bestowing divine power.  It is a crucial day on the divine calendar, for we observe the Lord’s well-deserved triumph over his foes and for his elect.  The truth of his divine dignity was disclosed to human view and attested by angels - perhaps the two who spoke of his resurrection from the tomb (24:1-8).

In resurrection and ascension Jesus Christ is endorsed as the mighty Redeemer of sinners whom we may trust with absolute confidence.  His might and majesty are revealed.  His mercy is released into the whole world.  The splendour of the Saviour is shown.  As he departs bestowing blessing he is wrapped in the cloud of divine presence and a new era begins.  Through the promised Spirit of holiness and power his presence is no longer confined to a body and a place, as he indicated to Mary (John 20:17).

The results of his saving achievement are now universally available to all who will call upon him, recognize that he is Lord, and confide in him as Rescuer from evil and the state of alienation from God.  How wonderfully the course of Jesus’ assignment of redemption is crowned with success.  Luke encapsulates it all: his self-abasement, his emergence from the tomb, his many proofs of aliveness, his rising to his reign in heaven.  Jesus Christ is presented to us in all his magnificence, grandeur, sovereignty, and beauty.  His perfection, power, and supremacy as victorious Son of God, through all that he endured and attained, cannot be exaggerated or over-stated.

We can only bow before him and worship, humbly and gratefully, and note the character of kingly rule over all his subjects on earth, and over the vastnesses of the far-flung, infinite cosmos.

His departure meant no desertion of his disciples nor any deprivation for those devoted to him.  The One who so wonderfully ascended from this world also promised to abide with his people until the world’s end (Matthew 28:20).  His infinite concern and royal conquest in the affairs of his kingdom would not cancel his intimate care for his own.  He would indwell their hearts, guide their thoughts, embolden them in courage, and give them foretastes of the communion and safety to be enjoyed in heaven when eternity opens up to receive us.

That marvellous prospect is also, partially, a present possession.  We glimpse something of the glory of Christ now (Ephesians 1: 18-23).  We apprehend, here and now, something of the coming and incomparable glory we shall share in association with him, already commenced in our earthly lives as a guarantee (Ephesians 2:6-7).  The immensity of our privileges is immeasurable when we consider to whom we have constant access, to whom we pray, and the power that is on the side of the children of God for provision, protection, and consolation.

At his ascension Jesus expressed his unfailing compassion to those who gazed wonderingly toward the sky.  As he ascended he was also in the accustomed act of blessing, bestowing grace upon the bewildered spectators.  Benefits pour from his uplifted arms and outstretched hands.  Promises assure them of ceaseless favour.  The Prince of heaven in no way and at no moment forgets his dependent people upon earth.  His lofty height does not mean that they are ever out of sight.  The church in a dangerous, wayward, and unpredictable world has his pledge of a Comforter and Counsellor.

The Holy Spirit has not come to pamper us personally in our private wants and whims, but to enable us to make the judgment and salvation of God known and near to others in their clearest consciousness.

Our welfare is secure but our witness is ongoing.  It is an obligation incumbent upon the whole company of believers.  Our strength and our endeavours are not to be dredged up from any capacity or resources from within ourselves, but from the enabling disposition, competence, and courage of the Holy Spirit.  “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).  All that we are in life, word, and deed, is to replicate Christ and commend him.  We are not to accrue attention and acclaim for ourselves.  We have an onerous and self-denying vocation and we are so frail and fluctuating in intent and behaviour.  Inevitably, we tremble at the task when we realize its dimensions and our desired demeanour and dependence in its performance.

But the church and ourselves are authorized to declare Christ, and, as it were, deputize for him - but only through his aid and ability.  Self-reliance does not enter into our consideration.

We are fixated on Christ to present the facts about him.  Self recedes in the exercise of publishing the truth about him.  The Spirit will not pump up our importance, or display our assumed skills in communication.  His role is to train the spotlight upon Jesus and he does so through weak and unlikely vessels, emphasizing the power of God, and that mostly when we are unaware of his activity.

Our Pentecostal commission is daunting, our struggles daily.  But we are to gaze upon the King in his might and majesty, and to admit, in sincere humility and reliance with Paul, that we accomplish all things through Christ who strengthens us. Our supply is sent from the throne - it is nothing of our own.

John 16: 5 - 15

The person whom God has touched and transformed with his marvellous grace craves a knowledge of Jesus Christ who has brought us to reconciliation with the Father.  There is a hunger, an inner yearning, for intimacy with Christ and an understanding of him.  It is a passion that cannot be quenched, a desire that cannot be quashed.

The attraction of Jesus kindles the aspiration to know him deeply.  The fact of our salvation forces us to search out the full truth concerning Jesus.

This knowledge is by no means something we can gain ourselves – not by reason, nor by our own intellectual acumen and cleverness.  Knowledge of Christ is a divine donation through God-given dependence on his word and the teaching of the Holy Spirit.  God grants a humble disposition, an enquiring and teachable spirit, a tendency to listen carefully and trust entirely as the Spirit of God opens up the Scriptures to our understanding and sheds his light upon their saving truth.

The risen Lord Jesus hands us over, once atonement has been made, to the caring and comprehensive ministry of the Holy Spirit.

“I will send him to you” avers Jesus, “and his role is to explain me to you.  He will be my interpreter and your guide”.  He will vindicate Jesus before a hostile world and reveal his glory to hearts in which he takes up his home.  The assignment of the Spirit is to apprise us of the deep things of Jesus, disclosed from Jesus’ own person, and accomplishment, as our Rescuer and Redeemer.

The secrets of the heart of Jesus are conveyed to us in the closest possible relationship with his Spirit, taking, Jesus says, “What is mine and making it known to you” (v14).

The Spirit is the Agent who expounds Jesus to us in his divine splendour, his human suffering, and his personal power and majesty.  The Spirit is the One who relays divine truth to our minds.  “He will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come” (v13).

Our glorious God is Three in One.  The Father, Son, and Spirit are in perfect harmony in nature, will, and action.

The Son imparts the knowledge of the Father and especially his saving purpose.  The Spirit discloses the Son who carries out God’s purpose.  He instructs and advises us as to all Jesus is and has achieved and, as life goes on, he increases the knowledge and comprehension he has given.

Sent by the Father and the Son the Spirit cannot lie or mislead.  He has inspired Scripture as our guide and touchstone and he brings our mind into alignment with the word.  He is the utterly safe source of the truth about the Lord Jesus – his divinity, dignity, self-abasement, and saving death for our sakes.  The Spirit accuses the world for its enmity towards Jesus, its rejection of him, and its persistent unbelief. 

The Spirit extols the righteousness of Jesus in adhering to the Father’s will and providing a righteousness that covers us, enabling us to come to God without guilt and fear of condemnation.

The Spirit forewarns of judgment according to our assessment of Jesus and our acceptance or non-acceptance of him, - a judgment rendered by Jesus himself.  Such is the honour and glory of Jesus that our fate is in his hands, to recognize us as his, or to confirm our refusal of him, and the prince of evil will be cast away by him and all those allied with him (vv8-11).

The Spirit pronounces the supremacy of Christ and describes the salvation he has wrought for us.  Inside us, the Holy Spirit gives us inside precious information of Jesus and includes us within him.  He, Jesus, dwells in us and we in him, and all his greatness and grandeur as Saviour and Judge is spelt out to us in the most intimate  and moving way.  Our hearts melt and our souls are strengthened.

What is essential to Jesus, who he really is, and what he has surely done, and continues to do is divulged to us in the most convincing and endearing way.  “That is why”, says our Saviour, “I said the Spirit will take from mine and make it known to you” (v15).

The Holy Spirit presents Jesus to us, shines revealing light upon him, as we reflect upon what Scripture says of him from Genesis to John’s Revelation.

Our minds enter into Jesus, our faith grasps him, our understanding is given discernment and insight, and Jesus becomes all-glorious, all-gracious, all-righteousness.  Our recognition of him leads to adoration, adoration strengthens trust, trust twins us to him – we become like him, and live his life of holiness and goodness, insofar as he enables and we obey, to the wellbeing of others in witness and good works.

The Holy Spirit makes Christ our dearest possession just as he possesses us dearly.  Our connection to him is real, as the given Spirit, the Gift, testifies to our hearts.  The contact is close, brushing against us, and is personal, warm, vital, and at times, when we can bear it, electrifying.  We are too brittle to feel the full force of the Holy Spirit’s blazing truth and beautiful love.  Everything here is a foretaste of our foretold full communion with God.  Ecstasies must be limited to curb our greed for gratifying experience alone and whet our appetite for the full enjoyment of God waiting to overwhelm us.  We are still saints in the making and the divine sculptor’s chisel must still chip away until our form is perfect.

We are led by the living God through the choice of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the loving accompaniment and advice of the Spirit of truth.  It is a dear privilege beyond estimation, and a pledge of paradise with God the Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and all his angels and saints forever. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all for ever and ever.  This is bliss begun for us now and to attain to full bloom in heaven.  Our blessings and joys will multiply beyond measure in our society with the Holy Trinity for ever and ever.  There is much merriment ahead.

RJS