Another Helper
TRANSLATION
(12) “Truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I have been doing, and they will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father. (13) I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) Anything you ask in my name I will do.
(15) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (16) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever, (17) even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot accept because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he will remain with you and will be in you. (18) I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. (19) In just a little while, the world will not see me any longer, but you will see me. Because I live you also will live. (20) At that time you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
OBSERVATIONS
In this portion of the Upper Room Discourse Jesus again used word repetitions to make his point. In the first three verses we find “do/doing” (five times in vss. 12 & 13) and “works” (twice in vs. 12), emphasizing how his disciples were to function when he would soon be leaving them. We also find “Father” as his way of referring to God (four times in vss. 12, 13, 16, & 20). In encouraging them to pray for wisdom and enablement, he used the phrase “ask in my name” twice along with a third use of “ask” (vss. 13, 14, & 16). He twice gave specific names to refer to the third person of the Trinity whom the Father would give them, “another helper” (vs. 16) and “the Spirit of truth” (vs. 17). Finally, he employed two simple but powerful verbs, “see(s)” three times and “know(s),” also three times (in vss. 17 & 19) to describe their relationship to the Triune God.
OUTLINE
I. Jesus promised that his disciples would do greater works than he did while on earth. (12-14)
II. Jesus promised to send another helper (enabler), the Spirit of truth, to take his place. (15-20)
IDEA STATEMENT
Jesus promised his disciples that he would send them the Holy Spirit to take his place when he departed so that they would accomplish greater things than he did during his earthly ministry.
APPLICATION
The cause/effect relationship of the two promises Jesus made to his disciples in this segment of the Upper Room Discourse could hardly be clearer. He said that they would do greater works than he had done when he left them [effect]. If this seemed astonishing, he immediately told them how this would take place. He would send them another helper or enabler [cause] to indwell them and empower them [effect], namely, the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the Scriptures, we have repeated indications that our God is one God existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is here in the Upper Room that Jesus provided his disciples with even greater clarity regarding the nature of the Trinity, what relationships within the Godhead are like and how the three persons cooperate to accomplish God’s will. First, we see that the Son brings glory to the Father by carrying out his purposes. We are to pray to the Father in the name of the Son that his will might be done through us so that we might accomplish even “greater works” than the Son accomplished while here on earth. Additionally, we understand that, in response to the Son’s intercession, the Father will send the Holy Spirit, “another helper,” to enable us to do those greater works in the Son’s absence. He will come not only to be with us, but actually to indwell us, so that wherever we go and whatever we do he will be there within us, empowering us and comforting us.