In this passage, Jesus’ first substantial teaching on the Holy Spirit, He shows us the Holy Spirit as His presence, the truth, the guardian, the life-giver, and the revealer. May the Lord make us into a church that proclaims and upholds His truth so that we may be a Spirit-filled people, always heeding the voice of our Shepherd and living in the fullness of His Holy Spirit.

Jesus promises His own presence with His people in the person of the Holy Spirit. He first identifies the recipients of this promise by two traits: Love for Him and Obedience to His commandments. Jesus’ presence through His Spirit abides with His people forever. The Lord Jesus is with His people. Praise Him for His everlasting presence with us!

It is the will of God that His people bear much fruit. Jesus described this in terms of the greater works (v 12). But how are we to bear much fruit and do the greater works? Were the disciples strong enough and godly enough to do these things? Are we strong enough and godly enough to do the same? Jesus shows us in this discourse that we are not. The one resource we need to do what we are incapable of doing on our own is Jesus Himself. He is our greatest resource to be and to make disciples (do the greater works), and we tap into this tremendous Christological resource by means of prayer (vv. 13-14). Prayer, in this sense, enables the greater works, because through prayer, we witness Jesus doing through us the remarkable works of God. Furthermore, prayer is worship, because in prayer, we affirm and uphold the revealed will of God as supreme and wise and righteous. Prayer is also worship because God is glorified in its effects. May we learn to pray in Jesus’ name and may we, through His doing in us, do the greater works for which God has saved us.

Jesus promises answered prayer for His people. His promise brings up many questions. Is His promise a blank check or a magical formula for getting whatever we want? Is this just another version of the pagan idea of prayer? What does it mean to pray in Jesus’ name? How does this passage reconcile with the rest of the biblical teaching on prayer? The teaching of our Lord regarding prayer is this: We pray in accordance to His likeness and His will. We pray as those who abide in Him and His words abide in us (John 15:7). In short, we pray Christian prayers. We pray to seek the purposes of God to be advanced in this His world. May the Lord evermore teach us to pray as we should: in His name!

Jesus promises for His people provisions for the time of His physical absence from them. In John 14:12-20, Jesus assures His people that they will experience the greater works, answered prayer, and His Holy Spirit. The first of these is the focus of this study. What are the greater works? How should we respond if we are not seeing the greater works being carried out in our lives?

Jesus possesses a perfect overlap with the Father in His divine nature. He is truly God. But this familiar and orthodox doctrine has ramifications. Jesus first points out the implications of this doctrine to show that the disciples actually had failed to believe the doctrine. There is an important lesson for us in this. If Jesus is God, then certainly, that doctrine must flesh itself out in our lives also. That belief should be evident in our perspective, lifestyle, worship, and obedience to the Lord. May the Holy Spirit, our Helper, give us the grace to embrace Jesus as Lord and God more fully and deeply as we should.