John 14:16-17

Three works of the Trinity

Good evening. Our text is John chapter 14 verses 16 through 17. Before we read our text, I just wanted to set Our text in its context, we're here towards the end of John. It's the upper room discourse where Jesus is now setting the table how life in the new covenant will look. He's showing his disciples right before he heads to his passion what kind of fellowship they will now have with God. He's showing them that they're no longer restricted by the old covenant types and shadows. Jesus is revealing to his disciples that they will no longer be held at arm's length, as it were, but now they're invited into the glorious presence of God. And he sequentially reveals throughout these chapters the type of intimate relationship that they will have with each member of the Trinity. So Jesus is on the eve of going to the cross where he's gonna break down the wall of hostility between God and man that our sin has raised up. And so here in the Upper Room Discourse is Jesus' fullest revelation of the Trinitarian relationship in inner working. And the glorious thing that Christ is now showing us is how we are invited as believers into that Trinitarian fellowship. And here in chapter 14, Jesus is reassuring his disciples that even though he's leaving them, he will return. And he will return imminently after his resurrection, but he's also showing them how this divine plan will come about once he returns and ascends back to the Father. And so it's interesting to see here in John, unlike the synoptics of Mark and Matthew, where Jesus is right before his passion talking about future facing events in the synoptics, and this future in-breaking of divine action, this future eschatology. But here in John, the focus is on the immediate. If you read the Upper Room Discourse, you see that Jesus is zooming in on this imminent in-breaking of the divine will. These realized events have direct import upon our lives. So he's not focusing on future eschatology, but he's focused on realized eschatology. And the awe-striking thing about the Upper Room Discourse is that all this heightened language of our fellowship with God and fellowship in the Trinity is now we get to share through Christ that fellowship because of what Christ has accomplished for us. So tonight in our passage, we're going to see that the spirit of truth indwells us eternally and he unites us to the triune God. So if you read with me, John chapter 14, verses 16 through 17, Jesus says,

and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

So briefly tonight, we're gonna see three works of the Trinity. We're gonna see how the Son intercedes, how the Father imparts, and how the Spirit indwells. So first, the son's intercession. So here we get a glimpse of the divine throne room. Jesus standing before the father. And the son is promising that when he returns to the father, he will intercede for us. And notice what he's asking for. He's asking for the best thing that he could possibly ask for us from the father. If you look down in chapter 16 in verse 7, you see that Jesus says it is actually beneficial for you, speaking to the disciples, that I go back to the Father and that the Holy Spirit then comes to you. So Jesus is saying that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is better than having Jesus walk and talk with us. It's mind boggling. But this is what the Holy Spirit is doing. Second, notice how the Father imparts. The Father is imparting to us the Spirit. He's sending the Spirit to us to accomplish his divine will. Notice what he is sending. He's sending another helper. Well, if this is another, then who's the first helper? And John answers that for us in first John chapter two, where he says,

you have an advocate or a helper with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

And in first John two, it's the same word. It's perically. So Jesus, as the propitiation for our sins, he paid our debt to God fully, as John will say, and now he's here at the Father's side advocating for us. But if this is not enough, here in John 14, the Father is sending another helper to us. In this phrase, another helper, it carries the same, it carries the idea of having the same being, being of the same kind. So the spirit is of the same divine will, and he's applying the same divine mission to us. Thirdly, notice how the spirit indwells. And I want you to see from the text three things about the spirit's indwelling. One, it is in unity with the Godhead. So this another helper, if he's of the same kind, he's extending the ministry of Jesus as our advocate. And then look down in verses 14 and 15 of chapter 16. Here Christ is showing us that the Holy Spirit is taking what is Christ and declaring it to the believers. So all that the Father has here is Christ, And so the Holy Spirit then is declaring the glories of the Father and the Son. He's applying the richness of the Father and the Son to us. So he's not working separately, he's not applying a different divine grace, but he's working inseparably with the Father and the Son. Notice secondly, that the spirit's indwelling is eternal. So this is not like the filling of the Old Testament, where the spirit could be removed. We see such cases where the Holy Spirit came upon a person for a certain divine task, such as prophecy, or as in kingly roles, such as we see in King Saul. But interestingly, where because of his unfaithfulness, the spirit is removed from him. Or we see filling even in people such as Basile and Eliab who constructed the tabernacle. But here in the new covenant, this indwelling is eternal. And so there's nothing you can do to remove the Holy Spirit from you. Thirdly, notice that this indwelling of the Holy Spirit is in you. The spirit was with them so far, the text says, namely because Jesus is the spirit anointed one. So they've experienced the presence of the spirit through him. But now the heightened reality is that he will be in them. If you would turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 36. This is the old covenant promises of God that are being fulfilled in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Here in Ezekiel, God is speaking of a future covenant He will make where He, out of His divine jealousy, will make a covenant that can't be broken. A covenant where true and right worship will take place. So notice in verse 24 of Ezekiel 36, where God says,