The Spirit of Truth, the Scriptures, and God's Guidance of You

“The Spirit of Truth”

(John 16:12-15, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 27, 2009)

John 16:12-15 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.

Q: What did Jesus promise His disciples concerning the Holy Spirit and the truth of the faith?

A: "He will guide you into all the truth." (John 16:13)

Many things to say (12)

The central truths of the Christian faith are contained in the Old Testament. When Peter, Paul, and the other apostles preached the message of Christ to the world, they did so with many quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures in order to prove their point. Yet the Old Testament was not enough for the Christian faith to be embraced and to flourish. Not that there was anything wrong in it, or even lacking in it, but there was something lacking in us. Even the words spoken by Jesus were apparently not enough. Not that there was any falsehood in what Jesus said, and not that He did not reveal to His disciples many things, but there was something else that was necessary for us.

We needed to receive the Holy Spirit, called here the Spirit of truth, so that we could see the glory of Christ in the Old Testament, and take in the wonder of the heavenly kingdom that He was establishing. Jesus said in John 16, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." If the knowledge that we needed from God was just a matter of words, the Lord could have said the words that would answer any reasonable question that anyone could have asked. There are two reasons why this did not happen. It has never been God's goal to reveal all of His knowledge to man, and secondly, we are not ready for everything that we perhaps should already know. The Lord is kind to us, and He knows that there is so much truth that we simply could not bear right now.

He will guide you into all the truth (13)

The work of impressing the truth of Christ and the kingdom of heaven upon the hearts and minds of men will be accomplished by the Spirit of Truth. Each person is different, and the pathway of Christian growth in our lives, that combination of the teaching we receive, our readiness to hear it and obey it, and the events that the Lord plans for our eyes to make us ready to hear and obey His Word, varies between individuals who are seated here today or who are reading these words. We do know that only the Holy Spirit can somehow make this real for us. It is a fair and important question to ask someone who wants to learn and to grow in the Christian faith, "What is the Spirit of Truth teaching you now?"

He will guide you into all the truth of Jesus Christ, but not all in one sitting. There may be other things that have to happen in your life before you are ready and able to hear certain matters of faith more fully. The Spirit of God is not inventing new truth just for you that only you can comprehend. That would be a horrible individualism that would destroy our unity. There is one body of truth for the church, and it is contained in the inspired documents that form the Old and New Testaments. This truth is God’s property, and He is giving it to you, and doing this in the most wise and loving way possible, with the most sensitive attention to who you are and what you have been through. The Holy Spirit is taking the body of established truth that belongs to the Father and the Son and enlightening your mind in the knowledge of Christ at just the right moments and at the right pace for you to hear the truth, understand it, struggle with it, embrace it, love it, have some awareness of what the Lord wants you to do with it, and finally, hopefully, to obey Him concerning all this truth and its life implications. (Read Acts 8:31 and Rev 7:17 on “guide”.)

As important as this work of the Spirit is, and though the Holy Ghost was surely doing something like this with the apostles as worshipers of God, He was also doing something else for them as apostles that is what these verses are more specifically concerned with. The teaching of the apostles was to be foundational for the life of the church in a way that would not be the case for future generations of worshipers and church leaders. There were many things that these men needed to know and to teach, and they were not ready yet to grasp all of that accurately. The Holy Spirit would guide them into all the truth of Christ in such a way that they and others they were with could teach and write the inspired revelation that would eventually become the New Testament. While the truth of Christ was already in the Old Testament, it would be the New Testament writings that would give the church the correct interpretations of the Law, the Prophets, and the other writings of the Hebrew Bible. This was from the Father and the Son, and came to the apostles and other inspired associates through the Holy Spirit.

…Things that are to come (13)

There are two things that Jesus tells His disciples here about the truth that will come to them from the Spirit of truth. The first is that He will declare to them what He calls here "the things that are to come." When Jesus and the Father send forth the Spirit of truth to the disciples, the cross will be an event of the past, and even the resurrection and ascension will be great milestones that have already occurred. Yet there is so much more to come. The message of Jesus Christ must be taken to the ends of the earth, and then what the Bible in one place calls “the end” will come with the return of Christ with all the heavenly host. Yet it is so clear from the Scriptures that this end is not so much a definitive end as it is a much larger beginning. There is so much yet to come. In fact, the word that is often translated “end” also means outcome, result, goal, aim, or fulfillment. That end is not the cessation of life but the goal and fulfillment of life for those who have life in Christ.

It is a very common error for people to think that everything is over in life, when life has barely begun for those who are in Christ. If you and I have eternity in heavenly realms ahead of us together with the Lord, all His angels, and with those who have gone before us, why do we so easily imagine that our lives end with death? There is so much yet to come. For the apostles, the Holy Spirit would guide them into and through their future days, and even beyond their earthly lives. As they became more aware of the things that were to come, they would be able to lay before the church the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. As we examine the letters of the New Testament the importance of this theme of the reality of the life that is coming is very striking. Here is just one example of this: Isn’t it amazing that every chapter in First Thessalonians ends with a reference to our future hope?

…Things that glorify Jesus (14-15)

The second thing that Jesus teaches about the truth that will come from the Spirit of Truth is that this truth will glorify Jesus. To glorify someone is to make sure that the person shines in whatever you say and do. Once again, it is striking how this is the case in all of the New Testament letters. If we are brought to a deeper understanding of the good life that is coming for us, there can be no doubt that this good life is ours in Jesus Christ.

Someone needed to supply all the righteousness necessary for my justification. The Spirit of Truth tells me where that came from. Jesus is my righteousness. Someone needed to take my penalty and clear my debt that I had before the Father. Jesus is my atoning sacrifice. Someone needed to show me the life to come. Jesus is my resurrection. Someone needed to prepare the way for me to have a heavenly home. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for me. Someone needs to bring God's plan for justice and mercy to a perfect conclusion. Jesus is coming again to judge and to rescue us for eternity together in the glory of His Kingdom.

Do you have anything of lasting good that is worth talking about, anything that will go beyond the grave? It is in Jesus Christ. Is there something of use before you in the week ahead where you can serve and love someone else on this broken planet? Jesus has prepared it for you and given it to you, so that you have something to do for him in the next few days. Is there anything good anywhere that is worth shouting about? Is there any promise that makes life worth living, even in a day of the deepest disappointment? Is there any consolation that would allow us to count a deep trial as somehow a true joy because someone is able to turn it into heavenly gold? If so, it is all because of the Someone who can do this, Jesus Christ, our King.

Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. He has all truth in His hands. He and the Father give it to the Spirit, and the Spirit brings it to you for a purpose; that Jesus might be glorified. He has secured for you all that is yet to come, He is guiding you into all truth, and He is glorifying Your Savior. We receive His true testimony, and follow where He would lead. This is how we glorify Jesus Christ, now and forever.

In light of the fact that the Spirit guides the church into the truth of Christ, I leave you with two brief applications:

1. Concerning the apostolic meaning of this passage, glorify Jesus Christ by receiving the apostolic testimony in the New Testament for what it truly is, the work of the Holy Spirit Himself, and therefore, the Word of God.

2. Concerning the non-apostolic extension of this text, remember this guiding work of the Spirit of truth in your own life. Hear the truth, understand it, struggle with it, embrace it, love it, seek some true awareness of what the Lord wants you to do with it, and finally, obey Him concerning all this truth and its life implications. Let this be the way that you glorify Jesus; not only that you acknowledge the role of the Spirit of truth in giving us the Bible, but that you would also glorify Him by eagerly expecting that this same Spirit would use His inspired Word in both the Old and New Testaments to guide you personally into all the truth of Christ.

1. Why could the disciples not bear many aspects of the truth?

2. How are we to understand the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in revealing truth to the disciples?

3. What are some of the things to come that Jesus refers to here?

4. In what sense does all truth from the Holy Spirit belong to Jesus and glorify Jesus?