The Spirit of Truth
John 16:12-15[1]
Sharing our faith is something that can be
difficult for most of us. In fact, I would say that the vast majority of
Christians in this country never say a word about their faith outside a church
building. There are a variety of reasons for this. We don’t much like to talk
about our faith in public. In fact, I think we’d prefer to do just about
anything other than having to talk about our faith in public. For many of us,
our convictions are something very personal to us, and we hold them dear. For
others, it just seems like there’s so much about our faith that we don’t
understand. And for that reason we don’t think we’re capable of talking about
our faith.
But sharing our faith is something essential. All
of us learned faith in Jesus because of someone who talked to us about him. It
may not have happened in a “public” place. For most of us it probably happened
either in church or at home or both. But sharing our faith remains the primary
means of passing it along from one person to another. More than that, as we saw
last week, the “truth” that Jesus has brought us is the truth of a relationship
with God whereby we experience God’s love and we put into practice God’s ways
and purposes in this world in our daily lives. In order to do that, many of us
may feel like we need to know more about that “truth.”
Our lesson from John’s Gospel for today addresses this
problem. As we’ve seen already, in this section of the Gospel Jesus is
preparing his disciples for his departure. But they are confused. They cannot
fathom the idea that the Messiah would abandon them. In response, Jesus
promises to send them “an Advocate” from the Father (Jn 15:26). The word
“Advocate” here could also be translated “Comforter,” “Counselor,” “Helper,” or
“Friend.” I think the main point is that the one Jesus was sending to them
would be with them in the same way that he had been with them. Of course, he’s
referring to the Spirit of God, the one who makes our relationship with God “real”
for us, and the one who makes Jesus’ presence real in our lives.
Jesus calls this helper “the Spirit of Truth.” As
such, he says that “the Spirit of truth” will guide the disciples “into all
truth” (Jn 16:13). That would consist of “teaching” them “everything,” and
“reminding” them “of all I have said to you.” Jesus goes on to say that the
“helper” will “glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to
you” (Jn. 16:14). It would seem, then, that the role of the “helper” is not
only to enable them to remember Jesus’ teachings, and beyond that to understand
Jesus’ teachings. It would seem that the role of the “helper” was to give them
further “truth” that they had not yet received. I think we find that “further
truth” in the books of the NT, none of which were written when Jesus lived.
But the “Spirit of Truth” has another role in our
lesson for today. I think it’s important for us to see that the main work of
the Spirit would be to enable Jesus’ disciples to “testify” to him. In our lesson for today, Jesus
promises that the Spirit would testify to him, and that would enable his
disciples to testify also (Jn 15:26-27). That follows a pattern in John’s
Gospel: just as Jesus did the work God sent him to do, so they would also do
the work Jesus sent them to do (Jn. 14:12). Just as Jesus taught what God had
given him to teach, so the Spirit would continue to teach them, and in turn
they would teach others (Jn. 16:13).[2] They would discover the “truth” as they put into practice the things Jesus
taught them in their daily lives.[3]
So the “helper,” or the “Spirit of Truth” would not
only lead them into “all truth.” The Spirit would also lead them into all the
truth they would need to carry out their work of testifying to Jesus and to the
new life they had through him. That’s what the Spirit does in our lives: the
Spirit brings the word of Scripture to life so that it calls forth our faith
and service to others in love. The Spirit works in our lives constantly to
shape us into the image of Christ, producing the “fruit” of character traits
that resemble Jesus’ own character. The Spirit empowers every aspect of our
lives as Christians, everything we do both individually and together as the
Body of Christ. The Spirit teaches us, equips us with gifts, calls us, and
perhaps most importantly, pushes us out of our comfortable ruts so that we will
indeed “testify” to Jesus and the new life he has given us.
On this day we commemorate the first Pentecost of
the early church. Before that day, the first Christians typically gathered
behind locked doors out of fear of being caught and arrested. But when the
Spirit came upon them, they seemed to lose their fear and became bold witnesses
to Jesus Christ. This is precisely what Jesus says the Spirit would do for the
disciples in our lesson from John’s Gospel for today. Jesus promises that the
Spirit would testify to him, and that would enable them to testify as well.
That’s how sharing your faith works. It’s not something any of us can do alone.
Even the Apostles affirm time and again in the NT that the only way they were
able to do the amazing things they did was because the Spirit of God empowered
them to do so. The same is true for us. We can only share our faith as the
“Spirit of Truth” “glorifies” Jesus in and through our lives. We can share our
faith as the Spirit reminds us, guides us, teaches us, and empowers us to put
our faith into practice in our daily lives.
[1] © 2021 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan
Brehm, Ph. D. on 5/23/2021 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] cf.
Eugene Peterson, “The Story Behind the Story: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15,” Journal
for Preachers 26 (no. 4 Pentecost) 2003:6-7.
[3] Cf. Gail
R. O’Day, “Gospel of John,” New Interpreters Bible IX:749.
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