Sermon26-26 Jn14 "The Advocate" Guide

John 14:12-27 theme verse John 14:26

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this twenty first Sunday of the year 2026, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, on the seventh Sunday of Easter season, through 2 Timothy chapter 3, we had a time to think about how the Word of God makes us live in the righteous life. Yet on this Pentecost Sunday, through John chapter 14, we would like to think about the meaning of the coming of the Holy Spirit together.

1)    Today’s text was read from the Lord’s farewell discourse to His disciples in Jn chapter 14 through 16 which was delivered when He realized that the "last times” had finally come. This farewell discourse can be divided into three sections.

I mean, in Chapter 14, Jesus explained to His disciples that His departure would be ultimately more beneficial for His disciples, explaining five reasons. And in Chapter 15, Jesus addressed that through the parable of the vine and the branches, He exhorted His disciples to "abide" in Him, emphasizing to love one another. Furthermore, in Chapter 15, Jesus warned His disciples that the world will hate them because He chose them, yet exhorted them not to fear rather to overcome, trusting that God will sustain them through the Holy Spirit. Finally, in Chapter 16, Jesus assured His disciples that even though He was leaving, He would send the Holy Spirit to transform their sorrow into joy and to guarantee their ultimate victory, even in the midst of tribulation.

2)    To look at five reasons why Jesus’ departure would be even more beneficial for His disciples,

first, in verses 1–4, because He would prepare a dwelling place for them and then He will return to welcome them.

And then in verses 5–7, second, because He could show the sole path leading to the Father as He is the way, the truth, and the life.

And third, in verses 8–11, because His departure would enable the disciples to abide in God the Father and to enjoy a deeper intimacy in their relationship with Him.

And fourth, in verses 12–14, because His departure would result in the empowerment of the disciples to perform even greater works than Jesus Himself did.

And finally, in verses 15–31, because He would send the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, Today, we would like to  meditate together on the fourth and fifth points, in which the coming of the Holy Spirit is promised.

3)    Cornelius Plantinga said in his book “Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be” that spiritually healthy Christian is the one who seeks and enjoys “shalom” or “wholeness” in their relationships with God, humanity, nature, and even with themselves. Specifically, in their relationship with God, he said that such a person yearns for God and His beauty, for Christ and the likeness of Him, and for spiritual maturity accompanied by the gifts of the Holy Spirit in addition to love their neighbors and to care for nature, while possessing integrity within their own character.

Just as he described, today text also portrays the Holy Spirit as the One who guides us into maturity and also shares His gifts with us through which we can work for God’s kingdom.

As such, the Holy Spirit is the One who initiates and completes our personal salvation, enables His church to minister, and cultivates and maintains the morality of the society, and governs the universe in His providential care.

Therefore, from the perspective of God’s redemptive history, we can see a distinct historical progression in the way the Holy Spirit works for the humanity. I mean, originally, when God created humanity, the Holy Spirit dwelt within all the human beings and from their consciences, He spoke to them and persuaded them to live in accordance with God’s laws. However, after the Fall of Adam and Eve, humanity ceased to live according to God’s will and began to judge good and evil for themselves and act according to their own will, thereby grieving the Holy Spirit. Therefore, as we can see in Genesis Chapter 6, God decided that the Holy Spirit would no longer dwell within human beings after the flood judgment so that the Holy Spirit departed from the hearts of humanity.

From that point onward, as we can see throughout the era of the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would descend upon few kings, prophets, and priests to guide and empower them; yet, fundamentally, this constituted a “work from without”, I mean, an external working from outside.

However, after the Pentecost in the New Testament era when the Holy Spirit descended to His church, the Holy Spirit now came to each believer and indwells in them, working from within and will continue to dwell within them forever, as God already prophesied in Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31.

4)    So, in today’s text, the Lord explained who the Holy Spirit is and what He will do.

First, He said that the Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of Truth," so that the world is not able to receive Him, yet His people know Him. Here, the term "Spirit of Truth" signifies that the Holy Spirit is the One who bears witness to Jesus who is the truth, as John 15:26 says "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” and also, the One who guides His people into the truth as John 16:13 says "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come." Furthermore, He will glorify Him since He will declare what is Jesus’ as today’s verse 14 and 15 say "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you." And this Spirit of truth, the Lord said remain with us forever.

5)    Thus, when the Gospel is proclaimed to the elect, the Holy Spirit enters their hearts, preparing them to comprehend the Gospel, regenerating their inner beings, and enabling them to respond to the Gospel with faith by recognizing their sin and repenting.

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit leads them to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord, thereby ensuring that each individual receives the forgiveness of sins and justification. And also through the Word, the Holy Spirit unites them with Christ, enabling them to become children of God.

Yet, the work of the Holy Spirit does not end there, I mean, He continues to transform the believer which is known as sanctification. That’s why the Holy Spirit is named as the Spirit of Sanctification too.

6)    In addition to that, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Upper Room of Mark on the day of Pentecost, He gave birth to the Lord's church and abundantly pouring out spiritual gifts upon it. This enabled believers to testify to Jesus Christ as the Lord in all the languages ​​of the world and also empowered them to carry out God's ministry. Regarding this point, the Lord stated in verse 12 that we would not only perform the works He Himself did but would even be able to do greater works than those.

Yet, regarding the gift of the Holy Spirit, we have to keep in mind that even though the gifts of the Holy Spirit are bestowed upon individuals, yet they are given to the member of the church community, not for the benefit of the individual, but rather for the benefit of the community as a whole. I mean, by distributing diverse gifts among the members of the church community, the Spirit enables the church through these gifts to work in mutual cooperation to serve and build up God's community, and to empower the church to fulfill God's ministry.

Moreover, as one of the three persons of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit has been involved in the work of creation since the very beginning, as Genesis 1:1–2 says "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

Furthermore, even after creation, He continues to reign the entire universe with providential care so that first, as indicated in Genesis 1:2, He establishes the boundaries between the cosmic chaos and the order, thereby preventing chaos from encroaching upon order. And additionally, as stated in Psalm 104:29–30, He governs life and death and also sustains life as stated in Acts 17:28. And also as stated in Jeremiah 33:25, He reigns and maintains over the heavens and the earth by utilizing the natural laws of the universe.

In addition, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commandment not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and fell into sin, causing the entire earth to become filled with wickedness and ultimately incur God’s judgment through the Great Flood, God greatly extended His "common grace" to ensure that human society would be sustained by moral law even after the Fall.

As such it is the Holy Spirit who is the One who carries out all these very works.

7)    Yet the reason why God chooses some among humanity, regenerates them through the Holy Spirit, grants them faith to forgive their sins, declaring them righteous, and bringing about their sanctification is so that we may live in accordance with God's will.

In other words, as seen in Ezekiel 36:24–28, when God brought the people of Judah—who had been held captive in the land of Babylon—out of their captivity, He said “I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove from your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you.”

And the reason He made this promise was, to make them live in His will as He said “And I will cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

As such, the reason God decided to place His Spirit within the hearts of His chosen ones was to enable them to live in accordance with God’s law, that is, God’s will.

That’s why in verse 26, the Lord said “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

In other words, even though we have received salvation, because we do not have the power to do what is good as Romans 7:18 says "I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out," God placed the Holy Spirit within us so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us as Romans 8:4 said, as God works in us to desire and do the pleasing will of God, as Philippians 2:13 says.

The One who accomplishes this work is none other than the Holy Spirit.

And that’s also why, in John 14:15, He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

8)    God, in His boundless love, chose and predestined us and sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to be crucified, thereby opening the path to the forgiveness of sins. And then when the time comes, He sent the Holy Spirit to those who believe in the name of His Son and through whom, He applies all the benefits which Jesus earned for them and brought about salvation and also has been working out the sanctification. All of these were God’s grace which made us follow God’s will and live in His pleasing will. Therefore, I pray that on this Pentecost Sunday, reminding the Holy Spirit who came down and abides in us forever and made us live to obey in the will of God so that when the Holy Spirit reminds and teaches us the Word of our Lord, we may help us to obey to that Word to enjoy the intimate fellowship with Triune God.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that the reason why God sent His Spirit to us is to make us live in His will. So after reflecting our life and checking whether we became to live in His pleasing will after the Holy Spirit indwells in us by His grace, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also, we became to know that the Holy Spirit reminds us His Word and also teaches us the meaning of God’s Word. So after reflecting our life and checking whether we obey to the leading of the Holy Spirit, I hope we can share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.