John 16:12-15

       Jesus is coming to the end of His words of encouragement and direction for His disciples.  He has called them to humbly live and serve out of the resources He provides.  Then He has called them to three great relationships:  to abide in Him, to love one another, and to testify to the world.

            He now tells them there is much more to say but they are unable to bear it.  Perhaps he means their minds can only absorb so much.  Or more likely He is acknowledging their difficult emotional state given what He has told them.  In any case, there is more they need to know but now is not the time.

            But if Christ is leaving how will they find out what He desires to tell them?  The answer to that question unlocks two deep and marvelous truths.

            – The perfect unity of the One God revealed in three persons (the Godhead).

            Jesus refers to the Spirit of truth promised before (14:16-18).  He will guide them into all truth.

            How can they know that the Spirit will tell them what Christ desires them to know?  Because the Holy Spirit has a specific roll in the Trinity.  He glorifies Christ.  He never honors Himself.  He speaks not of His own authority but of Christ’s.

            This perfect oneness of the Son and the Spirit was evident in 14:18.  The coming of the Spirit to the believer was equivalent to Christ Himself coming to them.  So here:  the words of the Spirit will be the words of Christ.

            In verse 15 the Father is seen in this perfect oneness.  What is Christ seeking to give to his disciples but that which has been given to Him by the Father?  The pattern is consistent within the Godhead:  the Father’s will carried out by the Son and applied to the believer by the Holy Spirit.  One God in a perfect union of three persons.

            This truly is mysterious and beyond comprehension.  Don’t be bothered by this.  It is Gods’ incomprehensibility that makes Him God and us His creation.  But do give thanks for it.  This is how believers today have a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ their Lord.

            The inspiration of the New Testament Scriptures.

            All Scripture is inspired by God or God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16).  It is the word of God.  We are aware that Jesus Himself recognized the Old Testament as God’s word (e.g. Matt. 5:17-18).  But what about the New Testament?  Can these books and letters, written by the apostles or those who wrote for them, be considered the word of God?  Does it have the same authority as the Old Testament?

            This passage emphatically affirms the apostles as recipients of God’s very word.  Thus Peter was not proud or lying when he put himself and the other apostles on a par with the Old Testament prophets (2 Peter3:2).  They were eyewitnesses of God’s revelation and thus among those holy men of God (who) spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:16-21).

            Do you recognize the authority of Scripture?  God has spoken through Christ by the Holy Spirit to holy men whose words are the word of God.