John 14:15-21

00:00:00:48 – 00:00:27:58
Clint Loveall
Friends. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate you coming back and working your way through the Gospel of John with us. We are about halfway through the 14th chapter. We won’t be able probably to keep this all together today, but, there is a significant section here, one of, an extremely one of the extremely important parts of John, from a theological standpoint and its impact on the church.

00:00:28:03 – 00:00:50:42
Clint Loveall
So let’s jump in here. Chapter 14, verse 15. Read a few verses. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the father, and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor nor knows him.

00:00:50:47 – 00:01:11:28
Clint Loveall
You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming to you in a little while. The world will no longer see me. But you will see me because I live, and because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my father, and you in me, and I in you.

00:01:11:33 – 00:01:40:52
Clint Loveall
They 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 them to reveal myself to them. May we just stop there for a second, Michael. So, this is a continuation. If you’ve not been with us the last couple days, it would maybe be helpful to go back and catch those, or at least to read back over the this chapter so far.

00:01:42:09 – 00:02:11:46
Clint Loveall
In this language, if you then this is important in John and it’s important in this section. If you love me, you keep my commandments. We just had this idea about leaving a new commandment, the idea of loving one another, etc. the father will give you. And this is this is significant in the Gospel of John. It’s really only John that, helps us with this kind of language.

00:02:11:51 – 00:02:47:56
Clint Loveall
I will give you another advocate to be with you. This is the spirit of truth. And so, we’re going to get to other opportunities to look at that. But as we get to this introductory part, this is what the church is understood to be the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. And Jesus here leaving a promise with the disciples that they’re going to have a guide, they’re going to have a partner, they’re going to have a presence, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ with them as they seek to do these things.

00:02:47:56 – 00:03:10:08
Clint Loveall
Jesus, just in the prior passage, said, you’ll do greater things than I’ve done. You’ll continue to do what I’ve done. Whatever you’ve seen me doing, keep doing in my name. And now Jesus says, I’m going to leave you or send you something. As someone who is going to help you. And there are lots of places we could take that, Michael.

00:03:10:22 – 00:03:35:57
Clint Loveall
And again, we’ll have more opportunities. But theologically, I think this has been a crucial thing for Jesus to say. And again, I, John, tends to give us maybe some of the best material when it comes to interpreting an inferred doctrine like the Trinity. John probably gives us the most footing as we try to do that.

00:03:36:01 – 00:03:59:07
Michael Gewecke
I think that we should just get a little bit of context here as we jump into a text like this. I do think we should remember that we just followed with this very not meandering, but but I feel like wave over wave of Jesus talking about, you know, the fact that he reveals God the Father then ended, as you probably remember yesterday, in my name, you asked me for anything.

00:03:59:07 – 00:04:30:10
Michael Gewecke
I’ll do it. Look how it is. Followed up immediately here in verse 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. So in the event that you missed yesterday and you think of 14 as permission or permissive to ask for the world and to get all of the things that’s immediately countered by Jesus is pointing out that ultimately, one’s love is defined by one’s actions, that one’s commitment to the way will be seen and one’s life actually lived.

00:04:30:10 – 00:04:54:41
Michael Gewecke
Right it. Faith is not just an intellect, a reality. We return to Scripture like we do in these studies, in the hopes and intention and desire and prayer that our imaginations will be shaped and formed, but ultimately that always exists to the ends and the purpose of how we actually live. And so this amazing command here, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

00:04:54:41 – 00:05:18:34
Michael Gewecke
A description of the life that loves Jesus will look like. And then, yeah, there’s this promise that follows Jesus intuiting, knowing that no human can keep the commandments perfectly. There’s this hope that we, when we ask or when Jesus asks rather well, we will be given this advocate, someone who will always be with us, the spirit of truth.

00:05:18:39 – 00:05:46:05
Michael Gewecke
This is a great gift, the promise that there is no moment in the Christian life in which we are doing faith by ourselves, and this has within it some really deep theological implications. Certainly, about what it means to be the kind of people discovering this day again that God will provide for our daily bread. So often faith becomes very moralistic about, you know, did you do the right thing?

00:05:46:05 – 00:06:12:41
Michael Gewecke
Did you say the right thing? What mistakes did you make today? And it becomes very much a sort of scorecard shopping checklist. The way that Jesus presents the gospel claim is always relational. This idea of being with you, being in you, being that it’s just around, it’s all of these prepositions and it’s a reminder to Christians. I think that once again, it’s not exactly where you find yourself today.

00:06:12:55 – 00:06:29:51
Michael Gewecke
It’s the one who’s with you today, right? No matter what the challenges or the joys of this day are, it’s not so much that we seek to always be getting to the place. I think rather, it’s the fact that Jesus promises that there’s an advocate with us in that place.

00:06:30:05 – 00:06:57:32
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and I think the great example of that here is verse 18. I mean, it’s perhaps a little troubling. I will not leave you orphaned. That’s a maybe a tough word in our day in time. But that idea of being abandoned and notice it’s not just being alone, orphaned implies that there are needs that that it’s a child, that someone who isn’t able or ready to take care of themselves.

00:06:57:32 – 00:07:22:53
Clint Loveall
And Jesus says, I won’t do that to you. I won’t leave you on your own. I won’t leave you without enough. I won’t leave you in danger. I’m coming to you. In a little while, the world will no longer see me. But you will see me because I live. You also will live. And I think we’ve. We’ve talked tonight.

00:07:22:53 – 00:07:47:51
Clint Loveall
And I will admit, I have a bias that John can be difficult to read because of the way he phrases things and the sort of repetitiveness of some of his wording, but I think this shouldn’t get missed. I will not leave you orphaned. I suspect most of us have had moments in our life where we felt orphaned, where we felt abandoned, where we wondered if God was with us.

00:07:47:51 – 00:08:16:48
Clint Loveall
And certainly the disciples are on the precipice of going through that very experience as Jesus is drawing near to the cross. And yet, in this we’re in these words, in this discourse that is preparing them for that. Jesus says, I will not do that to you. I will not leave you orphaned, because I live. You also will live.

00:08:16:48 – 00:08:50:18
Clint Loveall
Our lives are found most fully and most completely in Christ, lives in Christ’s life, and Christ leaves us. The spirit sends us the spirit that we will know we have not been abandoned, nor have we been orphaned. When a life is difficult and b it is difficult to see him and I. Just so you could read by that, and I think maybe not get the full impact of it, but it’s a pretty powerful statement.

00:08:50:31 – 00:09:12:24
Michael Gewecke
I don’t think you get any more Johannine than some of these phrases here. Verse 19, in a little while, the world will no longer see me. This is an astonishing statement. Jesus is obviously saying more here than just a sort of cryptic theological speech. Jesus is talking about his own death, right? The fact that he’s going to ascend, he will be gone.

00:09:12:28 – 00:09:37:58
Michael Gewecke
This this book received by the early church, no longer had Jesus walking in their midst. So as they remember his teaching, this promise that though the world might not see him, that those who believe will see him because Jesus lives. And so the same. If that’s true, if Jesus lives, then those who put their hope and their trust in their lives in Jesus, that they will be with him in that eternal life that he has.

00:09:37:58 – 00:10:02:56
Michael Gewecke
And ultimately, that’s the point, is that we will know the truth of who Jesus is, when on that last day we see the father because we are brought up inside his grace to be part of that beautiful relationship. And in case this sounds very theological and heady, I just point out, it’s those who have the commandments. Verse 21 and those that keep them.

00:10:03:05 – 00:10:24:12
Michael Gewecke
And I think those who love me will be loved by my father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them. There’s this beautiful intrinsic circular nature here between loving Jesus. So we do what he says and then being reminded that it’s not what we do, but it’s our relationship and connection to who he is. I think that’s the kind of circular nature of John.

00:10:24:27 – 00:10:45:28
Michael Gewecke
The argument itself is very circular, I think, but the the way that John presents this as a teaching of Jesus is that we both learn something about who Jesus is, which then leads us to an understanding of what our calling is in the world in which we live, which then becomes a witness that comes back around to who Jesus is.

00:10:45:28 – 00:11:06:52
Michael Gewecke
And it just lives in this circular progression. Which is why Clint, it’s not just philosophical or theological. This is why one practices faith over the course of an entire lifetime. Because it’s it’s like in a marriage continuing to deepen your love and your encounter with the person of who God is and what God is doing in the world.

00:11:06:52 – 00:11:26:33
Michael Gewecke
I just think that it’s an incredible kind of both earthly reality. Know that where the rubber meets the road, this is what we do. And then on the other side of it, it’s a very relational and spiritual reality that it’s the one who’s with us in the midst of living. And both of those are in this text in a way that you can’t divide between them.

00:11:26:38 – 00:11:57:25
Clint Loveall
Yeah. John, I think has a way of seamlessly sometimes. Some slight sometimes Michael difficultly weaving things together and for John, I do think we’re in that kind of moment. It is incumbent upon us to love one another. That’s the new commandment. That’s how they’ll know we follow him. That’s the thing that we’re supposed to do. To do the work of Christ.

00:11:57:30 – 00:12:18:50
Clint Loveall
And we are called to do that with all our strength. And yet our strength isn’t enough. So we need this helper. We need this advocate who is going to be with us to lead us in those things. And and we’re not on our own. And, you know, this is a that’s a compelling word to the early church.

00:12:18:50 – 00:12:50:20
Clint Loveall
I think it remains a compelling word, particularly in the moments that Jesus says, you won’t you won’t see me. You won’t. You’ll you’ll be aware of me, but I won’t be here. I’m returning home to the father, and I reveal myself. And again, this. We’ve said it consistent. This word reveal is so important in John. So, certainly a lot happening in a very few texts.

00:12:50:20 – 00:13:07:59
Clint Loveall
Next time we’re together, which be next Monday, we’ll have another opportunity to talk maybe a little bit more in depth about this idea of the advocate, the Holy Spirit. What it seems to mean to John and what Jesus seems to mean by it. And, hope he could be with us when we do that.

00:13:08:04 – 00:13:24:59
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think it gets really practical in a way, and I think that it’s wonderful to find these small little islands in the midst of deep theological text. So I certainly hope you’ll join us. Thanks for being with us for a short stay today. Like this. If it’s been helpful or interesting to you, certainly subscribe so you don’t miss the next study.

00:13:24:59 – 00:13:31:19
Michael Gewecke
As we continue to make our way through John and discover what, we might find together. So until then, be blessed.