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Author: Stephen Weller
643 words, 3 minutes read time

Truth, Future, Glorify

Scripture: John 16:12-15

In the previous lesson we looked at the role of the Holy Spirit. In this lesson we will look at three things the Holy Spirit will do when he comes.

^{Jn 16:12} “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine; therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Jesus knows that his disciples are under much stress about the uncertainty of coming events and mentions to them that he has more to say but it will have to wait until they process some of which has already been said. He does try to encourage them with a positive note about the coming of the Holy Spirit by explaining that when he comes he will guide them into all the truth.

This promise is directed especially to these eleven disciples who will have the responsibility of ministry when Jesus leaves and the responsibility of writing and overseeing the writing of the books of the New Testament. It will be the Holy Spirit that will provide them with the truth that is to be written. That truth that he delivers to these disciples is not just from him or his own authority but is what has been told him. Jesus claims to be the truth; the living Word. He is the source of that truth which the Spirit hears and passes on to the disciples. This promise does have a broader application to us as believers but not in the sense of adding to the Scriptures. For example, in Romans 8:14 and Galatians 5:18, we are led by the Spirit.

The ability of the Spirit to declare things to come indicates that the Spirit is God because only God can know the future. For example, God knew that before he created man that he would disobey him and bring sin and death into creation, but he created man anyways and provided a plan for his salvation. The word “declare” before “the things to come” suggest that it is God alone who knows the future. This suggestion is seen in Isaiah 48:14 in the statement “Who among them has declared these things?” It is only God who knows what will be done to Babylon and to the Chaldeans. In Isaiah 42:9 ESV: “Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

The purpose of the Spirit is to bring glory to Jesus Christ, and he will do that by taking truth that belongs to Jesus and declaring it first to the eleven disciples to form the New Testament and to us in understanding what they wrote. Jesus then claims that all that belongs to the Father also belongs to him and thus he is free to give it to the Spirit to declare to the disciples.

Conclusion       

There were many things Jesus wanted to tell the disciples, but the time was not right. I am sure there are things we would like to know also, but the time is not right. The time was right for the disciples after Pentecost after receiving the Spirit, then through the Spirit he would speak to them. In our case, God may have some work to do in our lives before we are ready to hear and understand.