Dr. Sproul starts this section out with his recollection of his girlfriend and his planned future wife while in college and his praying for her salvation even though they had been raised in the same church and heard the same messages. From there Dr. Sproul starts the discussion of the passage with the Holy Spirit and relating it to Moses and the Exodus and concluding the section discussing the Holy Spirit as another helper in addition to Jesus.

We will continue with our study of the gospel of John. We will be reading today from John 14:12–18. I ask the congregation to rise for the reading of the gospel:

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 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. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let him hear. I have shortened the passage I planned to read this morning, so we will have to pick up the rest of it next Sabbath, God willing. You may be seated. Let us pray.

Again, our Father and our God, we look to You as the author and foundation of all truth, and to Your Son, who is the truth, and to the Holy Ghost, who is the Spirit of truth. We ask for Your help even now in this hour that we might understand these things that our Lord communicated to His disciples. For we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Holy Spirit’s Ministry

I became a Christian in September of 1957, and on the occasion of my conversion I had a girlfriend with whom I had been “going steady” since 1952. She was attending a different college from mine, so I communicated to her by letter every day. As a result of my conversion, my letters were filled with spiritual matters and references to my newfound faith and to discoveries I was making from Scripture.

Unfortunately, she was not a believer. She really thought that I had taken leave of my senses and that the guy she had been dating for five years had gone off the deep end. A serious tension came into our relationship, and in the winter of 1958, I can remember spending hours, literally on my knees, praying for her redemption.

She was going to our hometown for a weekend. We arranged that she would take a bus from her college, come to my college campus, spend a day there, and then I would drive her home the following morning. The day that she came, I spent the entire morning on my knees. When she arrived, we went to a Bible study that was held regularly on my college campus.

In the midst of the Bible study, the ministry of Christ and the cross was presented to her in a way that the scales were removed from her eyes, and she came to a saving knowledge of Christ. She retired to the girls’ dormitory, and she told me the next day that she would waken every hour on the hour and pinch herself, saying: “Is it still there? Is it still there?” Being assured that it was, she was able to continue with the evening’s slumber.

On the morrow, when I met her and we began our journey to Pittsburgh in the car, with deep excitement she turned to me and said, “R.C., now I know who the Holy Spirit is.” We had both been raised in the same church, and we heard the liturgy, “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” but we had no idea about the person and work of God the Holy Spirit until we were converted under His power and ministry.

I say that for this reason: From the fourteenth chapter of John’s gospel through the seventeenth chapter, we have the longest discourse found anywhere in Scripture with respect to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. As we look at the text in the coming weeks, we want to keep in front of us our goal to deepen our understanding of who the Holy Spirit is. What is His ministry? Why has He been sent to minister among us?

Vested in the Church

We know from weeks past, as we have been looking at these chapters, that Jesus has spoken repeatedly about His imminent departure. He has told His disciples again and again that He was leaving them, and this was confusing and perplexing to them. “Where are you going?” Peter asked. Jesus had said, “Where I am going you can’t come now,” then told them that He was the way, the truth, and the life.

As we come to the portion of the text for today, Jesus makes a statement that I have struggled all my life to understand fully. I think I know what He meant, but I am not sure. In verse 12, Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

I can hardly imagine that you and I would ever be capable of doing the works that Jesus did. It is unthinkable that we could do greater works than He did in His lifetime. But I think that what our Lord is getting at here is extremely important for the church in every age to understand. Remember that when Jesus performed the works He did in His human incarnation, He was endowed in a miraculous way by the Holy Ghost, who came upon Him at His baptism.

We remember in the Old Testament the works of Moses and how mighty they were. When Moses was overwhelmed by the responsibilities he carried for ministering to the people of Israel, his father-in-law came to him and said: “The thing that you are doing is not good, Moses. You’re trying to do too much by yourself.”

You may remember when God commanded Moses to take seventy men whom he knew to be elders over Israel and gather them together. God said, “I’m going to take the Spirit that I have put upon you, Moses, and I am going to distribute it to these seventy others.” So, God did that, and the seventy elders were anointed and empowered by God for ministry. We see Moses, who is the mediator of the old covenant, having the Spirit that is upon him spread out and distributed to those who are his followers. On one occasion, Joshua complained because two of the men had wandered into the camp, speaking in ecstatic words. When Joshua saw them, he said, “My lord Moses, forbid them,” because these people were acting as if they had been endowed with the same Holy Spirit that was upon Moses. Joshua was jealous to protect Moses’ unique authority.

Moses rebuked Joshua. He said: “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them” (Num. 11:29). That was only a wish expressed by Moses, a prayer at best. But when we look later in the Old Testament, to the book of Joel, that wish becomes a prophecy. The prophet says that in the last days, God is going to pour out His Spirit on all flesh—that is, on the whole church, on all who are believers. That happens at Pentecost.

I believe that what Jesus is doing in our text is preparing His disciples to understand the momentous event that is going to take place in the not-too-distant future. God is going to take the Spirit that is upon Jesus, through Christ’s own request, and distribute the Spirit to all who love Him so that the same power that is vested in Him is now going to be vested in His church.

Jesus’ Ministry Extended

I do not think Jesus meant to say that we were all going to be doing miracles for all the ages, but the church is empowered by the Holy Ghost to perform works that go far beyond the local communities of Jerusalem, Judea, or Galilee. The church has been empowered for missionary and ministry work across the globe.

I do not know if this is what is in view in this text, but sometimes we hear about the black eyes that the church has had in history because of the Crusades or because of religious persecution and bigotry at times. People sometimes say, “The track record of the Christian church is abysmal”—but it is not. If you look at the history of Western civilization, you see that the primary impetus for the abolition of slavery in the Western world came through the impact of the Christian church. The institutions of higher learning, universities and colleges, were motivated chiefly by the ministry of Christians. It was the Christian community that moved across the globe, building orphanages for people without hope in the world. Indeed, the hospital movement in Western history was provoked largely by the Christian church.

By the Spirit’s endowment on the church, the church extends the work of Jesus, the benefits of Jesus, and the ministry of Jesus to the ends of the earth. Remember what He will say later about the coming of the Spirit. He tells the disciples to stay in Jerusalem, and after that, the Holy Ghost will come upon them: “You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). He is preparing them for that here, in this text.

Love and Obedience

Let us continue: “Greater works than these he will do”—why? “Because I go to My Father.” There was no announcement that more deeply troubled the disciples of Christ than His announcement that He was leaving. Yet at the same time, our Lord couched that announcement in the words, “It is better for you if I leave than if I stay.” Pentecost does not and cannot happen until Christ ascends to the right hand of the Father. It is only by His departure that the presence of the Spirit comes to the whole church.

What the disciples did not understand at first, they came to understand, I believe, largely through this discourse, so that when they watched Jesus ascend into heaven on the Mount of Ascension, they returned to the city rejoicing. But it took them a long time to move from despair to joy over the departure of Jesus.

Let us go on. Verse 14 is more difficult than the one before: “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Some in the church have come to the conclusion that this statement is a universal absolute. They believe that two Christians can get together, and if they agree on any one thing and tell that to God, God will most certainly do what they ask Him to do.

Jesus seems to give that promise in this text, which is the basis for the “name it and claim it” movement that is throughout the church. All we have to do is agree: “We agree, God, that You will do this. Therefore, we believe that it will be done.”

How many here would like to see the end of cancer? I think we all would like to see cancer eradicated, would we not? We all agree on that. Let us just find two people who agree on that, ask Jesus to get rid of cancer, and that will be the end of cancer.

This statement of Jesus must be understood in the total context of what He teaches regarding prayer. This is not a blank check that He gives to His disciples and says, “Anything you ask for, I will do.” What is presumed in this statement is, “Anything you ask for that is within the parameters of what is legitimate to ask for, according to My words, according to My teaching, you can be sure it will be done.”

This is linked to the next verse. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” There are different ways you can read this statement in the text. Some commentators take it this way: “If you love Me, then you are obligated to keep My commandments”—that is, the condition of love is manifested in obedience. Others interpret this text to mean this: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” It is not simply, “You must keep My commandments,” but it is a certain consequence of affection for Christ that obedience will follow. That is why the Reformers believed that justification is not based on our works. Nevertheless, true justification always carries in its wake a response of obedience.

Sanctification always flows automatically and necessarily out of our justification. If we love Him, we will obey Him. If we do not obey Him, that is proof positive that no matter what we say in terms of our confession of faith, there is no love for Christ in our hearts.

A Second Helper

This next section can be connected to what came before. We can read it as, “If you love Me, I will pray the Father.” Jesus continues: “And He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 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. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

I do not know which version of the English Bible you prefer, but there are various translations of this promise of Jesus when He says, “I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper.” Some say “another Counselor.” Some say “another Comforter.” Some even say “another Advocate.” The word in the New Testament that Jesus uses here is the word paraklētos, or in this case, paraklēton, which is translated “another Paraclete.”

One of the games I play with my seminary students to trick them is this: I will say, “In the New Testament, who is the Paraclete?” They all raise their hands and say: “We know that. That’s easy. The Paraclete is the Holy Spirit.” They say that because one of the common titles that we give to the Holy Ghost in theology is the title Paraclete.

I get a little technical with them, and I say: “That’s right and it’s not right. It’s true that the Holy Ghost is called a Paraclete, but remember that the Holy Ghost is not called simply ‘the Paraclete.’ He’s called ‘another Paraclete,’ and for there to be another Paraclete, there has to be a prior Paraclete. For there to be two, there has to be one before the second. So, the question is, Who is the Paraclete?”

If we go into John’s epistles, I find it strange that in the Old King James Version, the same word that is translated “comforter” in the gospels is translated “advocate” in the letters of John. Why did the translators do that?

It is translated in the letters as “the advocate” because a paraclete, in antiquity, was basically a defense attorney, often linked to the family attorney. If you had problems with the law and needed someone to come stand next to you, the person you called alongside—para means to be alongside or beside, and klētos comes from the verb “to call”—was the paraclete. You had one “telephone call” in antiquity. If you were arrested and could only make one call, who would you call? You would call the paraclete to come stand in your defense.

Again, the Old King James Version translated that word as “comforter,” which nowadays is very misleading. Of course, one of the things the Holy Spirit does is console us. He does comfort us in times of pain and adversity. But the King James Version was written at a time when English was more closely connected with its Latin roots, and the term comfort came from two Latin words that meant “with strength.” The comforter was someone who came to strengthen you. It was not the one who comes to wipe your tears after the battle, but He is the One who comes to give you strength for the battle.

“Counselor” can also be misleading because you might think of your guidance counselor in high school or that sort of thing. No, it is more like the counselor in the courtroom, who will defend your case during a trial. Some translations, to avoid all of these, simply refer to “another Helper,” as this translation does.

The Power of Truth

Jesus is saying, in effect: “I’m not going to leave you helpless. I’m praying to the Father that He will send to you One who comes with strength to help you in the hour of trouble. When you’re called before magistrates and when death is threatening you, you will not stand there in your own naked strength, but you will have the power of God the Holy Spirit with you.” He is preparing them to receive power from the Holy Ghost, which will happen on Pentecost, and He calls Him the Spirit of truth.

What a marvelous title for the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who inspires the Bible. It is the Holy Spirit who illumines the Bible. It is the Holy Spirit who applies the truth of the Word of God, who empowers the truth of the Word of God so that it cuts between bone and marrow, because the Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth who exposes falsehood.

Beloved, this is inseparably related to His power. God’s Spirit is the Spirit of power. We do not say He is the Spirit of power and the Spirit of truth. He is the Spirit of power because He is the Spirit of truth. There is nothing more powerful in this world than the power of the truth of God. That is the truth that cannot be broken. That is the truth that overcomes the deceit and falsehood that is part of our natural existence.

Jesus essentially says: “I’m praying for you to receive this Spirit. The world doesn’t know Him. The world doesn’t see Him. The world doesn’t embrace Him because the world is not of the truth, but I’m praying that the Holy Spirit would be in you and on you and guide you into all truth.”

Passing on the Blessing

Finally, it is a rare consideration, but I’ll give you one theory—and it remains only a theory—as to why so much attention is given to the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room Discourse that Jesus has with His disciples. The theory is that what was going on was a kind of dynastic succession celebration.

Do you realize that, throughout the Old Testament, there was this concept of dynasties? One king would pass on power to the next generation, or the patriarchal blessing would be handed down from father to son. When Moses is about to leave this world, he calls a solemn assembly and, under God’s direction, transfers his authority and leadership into the hands of Joshua.

In similar manner, Jesus is about to leave. He says, in effect: “But I’m not going to leave you like orphans. I’m now turning the leadership of the earthly church over to the One whom I am asking the Father to send into your midst, even the Holy Ghost.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.