Fresh Revelation Never Spoken in History
By: Frank G. Tunstall, D. Min.
“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth (John 14:15-17).
Many believers today have a very minimal understanding of who the Holy Spirit is. The same was true in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus had to teach the disciples who the Holy Spirit is and the Spirit’s role in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus did this in the Upper Room in the context of His transition from being with the disciples bodily around the clock, to His departure and replacement by the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle John is the Gospel writer who presents Jesus’ final hours of teaching, associated with the Last Supper. Jesus was such a master teacher, and here He shows the leadership principle of impartation. The Holy Spirit would be His Father’s gift to the apostles. If this had not happened, Jesus’ prophecy that He would build His Church would not have occurred and would have been proven false. So please, see the scene and listen with the disciples who were hearing fresh revelation never spoken in history. The lesson was about the Holy Spirit who would take Jesus’ place.
This study will include six categories; they each help set the stage for the death and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit as a Counselor.
“I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever” (John 14:16).
Jesus described the Spirit as “another Counselor,” and the sense of the statement is another Counselor like Jesus, who would come to them and remain with them “forever.” Counselor is one of the most important elements of the job description of the Holy Spirit. Counselor communicates such concepts as a consoler, intercessor, and advocate.
A consoler is a person who comes alongside with a ray of sunshine when your heart is broken with disappointment and pain.
An intercessor is the go-between who mediates between two or more parties to bring them into unity.
An advocate is an attorney who speaks for you when you cannot make your own defense.
In a matter of days, Jesus would go to His Father and the Spirit would take His place. The Holy Spirit has fulfilled the same mission for all Spirit-filled believers from that day to this.
- The Holy Spirit as the Eternal Presence.
Jesus also promised the disciples the Holy Spirit would be with them “forever” (John 14:16; Psalm 139:7). This means our relationship with the Spirit does not end with death; instead, it goes with us into eternity. This is an exciting promise that opens a whole new horizon of blessedness. For as long as eternity rolls, God the Holy Spirit will be with us.
We surely need the guidance of the Spirit in this life. But will you, dear reader, let yourself see and feel that the relationship never ends?
Jesus prophesied:
- The Holy Spirit will quench the spiritual thirst for relationship with God of anyone who is thirsty, anywhere in the world.
- The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit will continue around the clock, day after day.
- The Spirit’s presence will remain as long as time exists, and when time gives way to eternity, the Spirit will continue as companion and teacher “forever” (John 7:37; 14:15).
- The Holy Spirit as the Unchanging Spirit of Truth.
“If you love me then act in my best interests,” Jesus said, by “doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father and He’ll provide you another Friend so that you will never be alone. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you and will even be in you! I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back” (John 14:16-18, MSG).
Are you letting yourself imagine the emotions the disciples’ experienced hearing this for the first time? What are you feeling, dear reader? Are you trying to absorb “I’m coming back” and “counselor forever?”
Jesus continued His teaching by describing the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth.” For truth to be lasting truth, it must have an unchanging anchor. Jesus Christ is the constant Word of Truth, the Holy Spirit is the unchanging Spirit of Truth, and the Bible is the written revelation of Truth. This teaching is another affirmation of the Holy Spirit as Jesus’ equal essence in the Tri-Unity of God. It also affirms another role of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth.
If truth is relative, however, it needs no anchor, and in time people can be made to believe anything. Even today a massive public exists that has no concept of who the Holy Spirit is. It is a sad indictment of man’s fallen condition and the anemic condition of so many of the Lord’s followers.
A word of caution is also appropriate. The body of Christ must be careful how it writes people off as beyond hope. Only God knows who is truly unredeemable. Would anyone have perceived that Saul of Tarsus, for example, would have converted and become an apostle of Jesus Christ? Or the woman at Jacob’s Well?
- The new dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told His disciples, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). John heard the Lord say, “You know Him [the Holy Spirit] for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). With these statements, Jesus laid the foundation for the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Without question the disciples had witnessed the power of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry (see Luke 4:1, 18; 10:21; John 1:32-33). They knew what it was like for the Holy Spirit to dwell with them. It remained for them to experience the Spirit dwelling in them. This would certainly blossom on the day of Pentecost.
- “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching…”
What a blessed promise, anchored in a person’s obedience. It surely paves the way for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. God will come “and make our home with him” (John 14:23).
- The Inspiration of the Holy Spirit in writing the New Testament.
Jesus made a sweeping claim that explains how the Holy Spirit would make it possible for the New Testament to be written: “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,” Jesus said, “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).
It was the job description of the Holy Spirit to choose the writers and inspire them to write and preserve the Scriptures. A student of the Bible can easily understand that the disciples, highly intelligent men though they all were, would not have been able to remember word for word everything Jesus said during His ministry, exactly as Jesus said it.
This reality opens a whole new window of understanding regarding the inspiration of Scripture. The disciples were gifted men with very sharp memories, but not that smart. We know the words attributed to Jesus in the Bible are His exact words because the Holy Spirit brought to the writers’ memories precisely what Jesus said, reminding them of “everything” the Lord spoke (John 14:26).
- The Peace of God.
“Peace I leave with you,” Jesus said, “my peace I give you” (John 14:27). The word, peace, derives from a Greek word and one of its definitions is setting things right, or in order.
Peace follows in a home, or a church, or on a job, when everything is in order.
This is exactly what Jesus was continuing to do. He was going away, but He would not leave until He had set in order. The disciples could rest in Jesus because He would leave no unfinished business.
We choose to be afraid, because in large part we have not fully absorbed that Jesus has everything in control and always sets things right.
Jesus knew it was time for them to leave the Upper Room and head toward Gethsemane (14:30-31).
Much more teaching would follow along the way.
