Pentecost Sunday, the last day of Eastertide, is considered to be the Church’s birthday.

I hope that everyone reading this had a happy and blessed one! We are now in the season of Pentecost. In churches where the clergy wear vestments, the colour will change from the white of the Easter season — worn once more on Trinity Sunday next week — and the red of Pentecost Sunday to green. In some denominations, the remaining months of the church year are called Ordinary Time. Others call them the Sundays after Pentecost or the Sundays after Trinity.

We had an important Gospel reading for Pentecost Sunday in the current church year, Year B, in the three-year Lectionary.

Part 1 of my exegesis on it covers the last two verses of John 15 and the first seven from John 16; the full set of Year B readings can be found there, too.

Part 2 covers John 15:8-11.

This third and concluding instalment covers verses 12 through 15.

The Gospel is as follows (emphases mine):

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

15:26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.

15:27 You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

16:4b “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.

16:5 But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’

16:6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.

16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

16:8 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:

16:9 about sin, because they do not believe in me;

16:10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer;

16:11 about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

16:12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

16:14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

16:15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

Jesus told the eleven remaining Apostles — having banished Judas from further participation in the Last Supper, where this took place — that He had many things to say to them but they could not bear them at that time (verse 12).

He knew that His faithful companions were bereft with sorrow at His departure, even though they had no idea that He would be scourged and crucified the following day. Nor did they fully comprehend that He would rise again on the third day, which we celebrate as Easter Day. They also thought that He would bring about a temporal kingdom of Israel.

Matthew Henry says that Jesus knew the Apostles’ limits of understanding at the time:

See what a teacher Christ is. (1.) None like him for copiousness; when he has said much, he has still many things more to say; treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him, if we be not straitened in ourselves. (2.) None like him for compassion; he would have told them more of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, particularly of the rejection of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles, but they could not bear it, it would have confounded and stumbled them, rather than have given them any satisfaction. When, after his resurrection, they spoke to him of restoring the kingdom to Israel, he referred them to the coming of the Holy Ghost, by which they should receive power to bear those discoveries which were so contrary to the notions they had received that they could not bear them now.

John MacArthur explains the significance of John 16:13-15 and the Holy Spirit’s involvement in Scripture:

Now, before I look at these verses in particular, let me just say this: whatever view of Scripture Jesus has is the right one. Would you agree to that? Whatever Jesus thinks of the Scripture is correct. We know what He thinks of the Old Testament, that it can’t be broken, and not one stroke or one letter can ever be removed from it until it’s all fulfilled. Here we find out what He thinks about the New Testament, that it is all the product of the Holy Spirit, just as Paul says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, God-breathed,” just as Peter says, “Men moved by the Holy Spirit wrote.” That is our Lord’s view laid out in verses 12 to 15.

Now, there’s another element of this. As I read that, did you notice that it refers to the Father, it refers to the Father down in verse 15, it refers to the Spirit in verse 13, and then Jesus speaking refers to Me and Mine. So you have in these few verses the entire Trinity involved in the revelation of the New Testament. It’s an amazing portion of Scripture.

What we could say is this: here is our Lord Jesus providing pre-authentication of the, as yet, unwritten New Testament. This is pre-authentication of the New Testament which is yet to come. He even speaks of it at the end of verse 13: “He will disclose to you what is to come.” Not all the revelation was done in the Old Testament, there is more to come.

Jesus told the Eleven that, when the Spirit of truth comes, He (the Holy Spirit) will guide them into all the truth; He will not speak on His own but will speak whatever He hears and will declare to them the things that are to come (verse 13).

Matthew Henry gives us this analysis:

He will take care,

[1.] That they do not miss their way: He will guide you; as the camp of Israel was guided through the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and fire. The Spirit guided their tongues in speaking, and their pens in writing, to secure them from mistakes. The Spirit is given us to be our guide (Rom 8 14), not only to show us the way, but to go along with us, by his continued aids and influences.

[2.] That they do not come short of their end: He will guide them into all truth, as the skilful pilot guides the ship into the port it is bound for. To be led into a truth is more than barely to know it; it is to be intimately and experimentally acquainted with it; to be piously and strongly affected with it; not only to have the notion of it in our heads, but the relish and savour and power of it in our hearts; it denotes a gradual discovery of truth shining more and more: “He shall lead you by those truths that are plain and easy to those that are more difficult.” But how into all truth? The meaning is,

First, Into the whole truth relating to their embassy; whatever was needful or useful for them to know, in order to the due discharge of their office, they should be fully instructed in it; what truths they were to teach others the Spirit would teach them, would give them the understanding of, and enable them both to explain and to defend.

Secondly, Into nothing but the truth. All that he shall guide you into shall be truth (1 John 2 27); the anointing is truth. In the following words he proves both these:—1. “The Spirit shall teach nothing but the truth, for he shall not speak of himself any doctrine distinct from mine, but whatsoever he shall hear, and knows to be the mind of the Father, that, and that only, shall he speak.” This intimates, (1.) That the testimony of the Spirit, in the word and by the apostles, is what we may rely upon. The Spirit knows and searches all things, even the deep things of God, and the apostles received that Spirit (1 Cor 2 10, 11), so that we may venture our souls upon the Spirit’s word. (2.) That the testimony of the Spirit always concurs with the word of Christ, for he does not speak of himself, has no separate interest or intention of his own, but, as in essence so in records, he is one with the Father and the Son, 1 John 5 7. Men’s word and spirit often disagree, but the eternal Word and the eternal Spirit never do. 2. “He shall teach you all truth, and keep back nothing that is profitable for you, for he will show you things to come.” The Spirit was in the apostles a Spirit of prophecy; it was foretold that he should be so (Joel 2 28), and he was so. The Spirit showed them things to come, as Acts 11 28; 20 23; 21 11. The Spirit spoke of the apostasy of the latter times, 1 Tim 4 1. John, when he was in the Spirit had things to come shown him in vision. Now this was a great satisfaction to their own minds, and of use to them in their conduct, and was also a great confirmation of their mission. Jansenius has a pious note upon this: We should not grudge that the Spirit does not show us things to come in this world, as he did to the apostles; let it suffice that the Spirit in the word hath shown us things to come in the other world, which are our chief concern.

MacArthur gives several examples of how the Apostles came to understand Jesus better through the Holy Spirit and why Jesus could not tell them more after the Last Supper. Here are two of them:

He says, “You can’t bear it now.”  Bastaz is the word. It’s a word that simply means to pick up a stone with your hand, to lift up a stone. “You can’t handle it. It’s too much for you; it’s too weighty.” By the way, that same verb is used in John 10:31 referring to the Jews lifting up stones to stone Jesus. “This truth is more than you can handle. What I have yet to say to you, you can’t handle it.”

There are a couple of reasons why they couldn’t handle it. Reason Number One, back in verse 6, their judgment is completely clouded by sorrow. They can’t get past the sorrow that He’s leaving. But there’s more reason than that. They’re muddied because – and we’ve kind of looked at this – they had an idea of Messiah that doesn’t fit what’s going on. They thought He would come, conquer the Romans, throw them out, and establish the supremacy, the world supremacy of Israel; there would be a spiritual revival, salvation would come to the nation; all the promises to David and Abraham, all the old covenant promises would be sort of renewed in the new covenant; and none of it happened.

He didn’t overthrow the Romans, the leaders of Israel hated Him, there was no revival in the nation, and now He’s talking about dying, He’s talking about being executed. “Where’s the kingdom? Where’s the glory?” They wanted that. And whenever Jesus spoke about suffering, they didn’t get it. They were so, so hard and fast locked down to a triumphalistic view of Messiah’s first coming that they couldn’t even receive what He said when He talked about dying.

Listen to John 2. Go all the way back to John 2 early in His ministry, verse 19: “He says, ‘Destroy this temple; in three days I’ll raise it up.’ And the Jews then said, ‘It took 46 years to build this temple – ’ they’re referring to the Herodian temple ‘ – and You’ll raise it in three days?’ But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” So He’s talking about dying and rising from the dead.

But look at the next verse: “So when He was raised from the dead – ” much later “ – His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken,” which means when He said it, they didn’t believe it, they didn’t believe it. It was just not the plan. It wasn’t what they expected or anticipated. And they never did believe it until after the resurrection.

If you go to chapter 12, just a couple of other illustrations. Chapter 12 of John, Jesus enters Jerusalem. In verse 12, large crowd. They’re all saying, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” Jesus finds a donkey and sat on it to fulfill Zachariah 9:9, “Fear not, daughter of Zion! Behold your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

Wait a minute; it’s supposed to be a white horse. He’s supposed to ride in triumphantly. Verse 16: “These things His disciples did not understand at the first. But when Jesus was glorified after the resurrection, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.” The point is, up until the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, they didn’t get it. There was a lot more Jesus wanted to say to them, but they were not in any position to receive it …

It wasn’t until after the cross, after the resurrection that they began to grasp it. And they didn’t fully grasp it until He instructed them out of the Old Testament, “And then spent 40 days – ” Acts 1 says, “ – speaking to them of things concerning the kingdom. And then the Spirit came and really illuminated their minds.” So He says, “Look, I have so much more to say, a whole New Testament worth, everything from Matthew to Revelation. But you can’t handle it. You can’t handle it. I can’t even get you up to where you should be, let alone the things that are beyond that.”

MacArthur then explains how the Holy Spirit worked through the New Testament writers to transmit ‘all the truth’ to us:

There is a profound need for the New Testament, profound need for the New Testament, the rest of the story, right? So that’s the need.

Secondly, the extent. What is the extent of this Holy Spirit revelation? Well, it’s in verse 13: “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” There it is: “All the truth.” You can underline that or remember it in your mind: not some of the truth, all of it, all the truth.

May I be so bold as to say the simple interpretation of that with a definite article “all the truth” is that all the truth which God wanted to reveal is contained in the Scripture. Regarding the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 4:2 and Deuteronomy 12:32 says, “Don’t add anything to this and don’t take anything away.” And Revelation, regarding the New Testament – the last book, the last chapter, the last few verses – the Bible ends there, “Don’t add anything to this and don’t take anything away, or it shall be added to you the plagues that are written in the book.”

Wow. All the truth is here. “The Spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. He will bring things to your remembrance; that is, He will allow you supernaturally to remember everything Jesus did and everything Jesus said to write it down in the four gospels.” The apostles and those who were associated with Him, who wrote the gospels, will have Holy Spirit-inspired remembrance. And then He will inspire the story of the church in the book of Acts, and then He will inspire the theology of the gospel in the Epistles, and then He will inspire the great book of Revelation – all the truth, all the truth: from the virgin birth to the eternal state; from Matthew, chapter 1 all the way to Revelation, chapter 22. The Holy Spirit will give you all the truth, all the truth. Just those little words “all the truth,” so important …

Let’s look thirdly at the source, the source just briefly; it’s a brief passage. Where does this come from? The Spirit comes, He guides you into all the truth. We’ll follow verse 13: “He will not speak on His own initiative. He will not speak on His own initiative. Whatever He hears, He will speak and disclose to you what is to come.”

He’s going to give you the rest of the revelation to come, but He’s not going to be the source of it. The source of it is God. He’s going to speak what He hears from God; not only from God, but from Christ as well: “He will take of Mine, disclose it to you.” “He will take of Mine,” He says it again in verse 15.

So this is the source: God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, all saying the very same thing. He doesn’t speak on His own initiative; He doesn’t act independently. Now, they would understand that because that’s exactly what Jesus said to them constantly. When Jesus was their teacher, He would tell them repeatedly, “What I’m teaching you is not My own word, not My own.”

Furthermore, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would glorify Him, because the Spirit would take what is our Lord’s and declare it to the Apostles (verse 14).

MacArthur says that this is the divine purpose of the New Testament:

A final word: The purpose of the revelation. We saw the need for it, there’s much more to say. The extent of it, all truth. The source of it, Father and the Son. The purpose of the revelation, verse 14, here it comes, “He will glorify Me. He will glorify Me. He will glorify Me.”

… every passage is not about Christ, not in the Old Testament. But when you get to the New Testament, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and show it to you.”

What are the four gospels? Who’s the main person in the four gospels? Jesus Christ. Who’s the main person in the book of Acts preaching the gospel by the apostles to establish the church and becomes the head of the church? Christ. Who’s the main person in all the Epistles that explain the meaning of the gospel? Christ. Who’s the main person in Revelation? Christ.

He is not everywhere in the Old Testament, He is many places: Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, many others. But He is everywhere in the New Testament. The writers of the New Testament write to explain either the history of His life, the significance of the gospel as He builds His church, or an explanation of the theology of the gospel and the Epistles, or the glory of the revelation. “These are written about Christ that you might believe – ” as John says, “ – and believing in Him, have life in His name.”

The gospels record His birth, His life, His ministry, His death, His ascension. The Acts record the preaching about His death and resurrection, suffering, and glory, and establishment of His church, which He is the head. The Epistles explain the doctrinal significance and application of His life and work. Revelation presents Him as the coming Judge who will set up His kingdom on earth and rule forever in eternity.

The New Testament is about Him. “The Spirit will come take of Mine and show it to you.” So we preach the New Testament; it’s about Christ. And then we go back and we compare it with the Old Testament; and that’s what we should be doing.

Finally, Jesus said that all that the Father has is His; for this reason, Jesus said that He (the Holy Spirit) will take what is our Lord’s and declare it to them (verse 15).

About verses 14 and 15, Matthew Henry says:

The Spirit undertook to glorify Christ, v. 14, 15. [1.] Even the sending of the Spirit was the glorifying of Christ. God the Father glorified him in heaven, and the Spirit glorified him on earth. It was the honour of the Redeemer that the Spirit was both sent in his name and sent on his errand, to carry on and perfect his undertaking. All the gifts and graces of the Spirit, all the preaching and all the writing of the apostles, under the influence of the Spirit, the tongues, and miracles, were to glorify Christ. [2.] The Spirit glorified Christ by leading his followers into the truth as it is in Jesus, Eph 4 21. He assures them, First, that the Spirit should communicate the things of Christ to them: He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. As in essence he proceeded from the Son, so in influence and operation he derived from him. He shall take ek tou emou—of that which is mine. All that the Spirit shows us, that is, applies to us, for our instruction and comfort, all that he gives us for our strength and quickening, and all that he secures and seals to us, did all belong to Christ, and was had and received from him. All was his, for he bought it, and paid dearly for it, and therefore he had reason to call it his own; his, for he first received it; it was given him as the head of the church, to be communicated by him to all his members. The Spirit came not to erect a new kingdom, but to advance and establish the same kingdom that Christ had erected, to maintain the same interest and pursue the same design; those therefore that pretend to the Spirit, and vilify Christ, give themselves the lie, for he came to glorify Christ. Secondly, That herein the things of God should be communicated to us. Lest any should think that the receiving of this would not make them much the richer, he adds, All things that the Father hath are mine. As God, all that self-existent light and self-sufficient happiness which the Father has, he has; as Mediator, all things are delivered to him of the Father (Matt 11 27); all that grace and truth which God designed to show us he lodged in the hands of the Lord Jesus, Col 1 19. Spiritual blessings in heavenly things are given by the Father to the Son for us, and the Son entrusts the Spirit to convey them to us. Some apply it to that which goes just before: He shall show you things to come, and so it is explained by Rev 1 1. God gave it to Christ, and he signified it to John, who wrote what the Spirit said, Rev 1 1.

Ultimately, MacArthur tells us why we must believe in the triune God:

If you reject the Scripture, you reject the Spirit. If you reject the Spirit, you reject the Son. If you reject the Son, you reject the Father.

Next Sunday is Trinity Sunday, so this Gospel reading is even more apposite as is MacArthur’s conclusion.

May everyone reading this have a blessed week ahead.