We’re returning to John’s gospel at an amazing moment, where you can see something of what it is to experience Christ in you. The scene is Christ’s last supper, the night before his crucifixion. He’s told his disciples how they are to serve one another, and that they must love one another so that people will know that they are his disciples (love with gospel intent). And he’s told them that he is the only way anyone can come to God the Father – even though Jesus is about to leave them!
They’re confused. They don’t really understand what Jesus is telling them.
But for anyone feeling overwhelmed or confused, Jesus has some profound words of comfort here in these verses.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church in May 2026. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
The work of the Holy Spirit in you
In the previous chapter, Jesus told his disciples some news and gave them a command: Read John 13:33-35. He’s about to leave them to return to heaven. And they’re to remain and love one other so that other people will see and come to Jesus for themselves.
But the disciples are absorbed with the news that Jesus is leaving. They don’t seem to hear the command to love!
So these chapters are all about consolation and commission.
Jesus consoles them with deeper understanding about God, before commissioning them again by experiencing Christ.
Read John 14:15-16.
If you have a different English translation, you might see a different word there: “Advocate” (NLT, NIV – good); “Helper” (ESV – weak); “Comforter” (KJV – dated). “Counsellor” is good, but not in the sense of a marriage guidance counsellor, or therapist. The word has the sense of a legal counsel. Someone who will go into court with you, ready to support you, encourage you, speak up for you. He brings strength to you, and advocates for you.
You feel much better going to court with someone speaking alongside you like that than if you were to go alone.
Up to that point, the disciples had had Jesus with them! He spoke divine truth to worldly power. Jesus had no fear of any man, and even had authority over demons, nature, and death itself! You’d feel stronger when you were with him than when you were on your own.
In other words, Jesus had been a Counsellor to them as he’d been preparing them for ministry, for establishing the church.
But now he’s leaving, so he promises them “another Counsellor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of Truth” – the Holy Spirit of God (v16).
How is the Holy Spirit a Counsellor?
- He brings strength to you. He does that because he is God, perfectly “communicating a sense of divine love, with delight and joy, to the souls of believers” (John Owen).
- And he advocates for the church. He’s not an advocate before God (because he’s not a man – Jesus is that advocate). The Spirit is an “advocate for the church, in, with, and against the world” (John Owen).
His advocating work into the world comes to us in various ways: He empowers and enables believers to speak about Jesus; And he gives spiritual gifts to enable gospel witness in the church; And, of course, it’s the Spirit’s work to go ahead of that witness and to convict people of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. He prepares the way ahead of you.
This is encouraging for every Christian:
- Firstly, simply because if you are a Christian then you have the Holy Spirit in you, doing this work.
- Second, the Spirit remains in you forever. Old Testament believers were strengthened for specific tasks by the Spirit: Saul, David, Samson.
- Third, when you witness for Christ in any way, you’re never alone. In fact, the Holy Spirit is an advocate ahead of you.
- So: Pray for opportunity; pray for his help.
All of which should make it obvious that this is for Christians only. We’re speaking about the Spirit of Truth. These are truths you can’t weigh, or measure, or put in a spreadsheet. You’re called to trust the words of the Son of God who knows what he’s talking about!
The person of the Holy Spirit in you
It’s worth saying that there’s nowhere near enough understanding of the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the church generally today.
So it’s also worth saying that he is a person: God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each is co-eternal, divine, equal to one another. Each is God, worthy of worship and adoration. And as persons, they communicate and love one another perfectly, delighting in the love of each other.
In fact, God is so spectacularly glorious we can do no better than to meditate on him in his holy beauty and perfections.
But we’re not very good at it. So there’s a tendency for churches to substitute some kind of physical experience instead of a spiritual one. So there might be an emphasis on architecture, or worship style, or coffee. You kid yourself you’ve had an experience of God when really you’ve experienced something beautiful but manmade. It’s easy to worship worship! It’s better by far to gaze on the glory of Christ as revealed to you by the Holy Spirit of Truth in the Bible.
The Holy Spirit has what might be called a ‘floodlight ministry’. If you see a beautiful castle lit up at night, you don’t say, “Wow, what great lights!” Your attention is drawn to the castle.
The Spirit delights to have that ministry, to show you Jesus, so that you say, “Wow, what a Saviour.”
In fact, he actually brings Jesus to you: Read John 14:18. Obviously, Jesus came to his disciples after his resurrection. And he’ll come again at his return. But the context here is how Jesus comes to believers because of the work of the Holy Spirit in you.
If you have repented of your sin, and asked God for forgiveness, then he has forgiven you. (If not, you’re still hell-bound.)
More, the risen Jesus has sent his Holy Spirit into you. As God, the Spirit is obviously omnipresent, everywhere. But he inhabits you personally, particularly. He dwells in you, and you are united to Christ by the Spirit (not united to the Spirit himself). And so the Spirit in you mediates the presence of Christ to you.
Now, there are no prayers to the Spirit in the Bible. And yet he is a person, and it’s certainly appropriate to ask him to help you in the things he delights in (at the very least): Ask him for help to see more of Jesus, to be more aware of your sin, to grow in holiness, to understand the Bible.
But there’s even more. Read John 14:19-20. When we say you have union with Christ, it’s shorthand for the Bible language that you are in Christ and Christ is in you. You are in him where he is, seated in the heavenly realms. And by his Spirit in you, he is in you where you are. But (v20) he is in the Father, so you are also brought into union with the Father in Christ!
We’re on holy ground here. You and I, being finite creatures and unexceptional human beings, are brought into spiritual union with God the Father, in Christ, by the work of the Spirit who dwells in you.
Now notice the emphasis on obedience to commands in these verses:
- V15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands”
- V21 “The one who has my commands and keeps them…”
- V23 “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.”
Read John 14:23 in full. You might think that God’s love for you is somehow conditional on your obedience. Let me tell you: It’s not.
The obedience you’re reading of here is relational, not conditional. It’s the natural outworking of your love for God, not some kind of payment to earn love from God. When you love someone, you want to do what pleases them. And as you do what pleases them, you come to know and love them more.
In relation to God, that means a growing relationship as you come to know him more and more: In v23 Jesus says that the Father and the Son will make their home in the heart of obedient believers.
As the Spirit is in you (Christian), Christ is in you already. But as you move into a new house and slowly redecorate and reshape it to reflect its new owners, so that work goes on in you as God claims more and more of your heart and desires. As that happens, you will grow in experience of God and in obedience to him: You’ll become more like Christ from the inside out. So there’s a growing cycle of holiness, love, and experience of God as he makes his home in you! You serve him, he changes you, you love him more, so you serve him more.
So step into that cycle: Be deliberate and consistent in understanding what God wants of you, and then in obedience:
- Choose to love this church. Order your Sunday and week around it. Be deliberate and visible in loving this church so that others will see Christ at work. It’s a command.
- Spend time with the Lord. That’s time in the Bible, time in prayer, in meditation. Read the word with the Lord.
- Put sin to death; choose the path of holiness.
- Pray for the Spirit’s help in everything.
Really get hold of this cycle of change as God makes his home in you, growing in him, becoming more like him.
- Do you feel a need of help in teaching your children or grandchildren about the Lord?
- Or do you need help witnessing at work?
- Maybe you need help putting sin to death, resisting temptation?
You have the Holy Spirit in you, mediating Christ to you, and in Christ the Father also is in you; God making himself at home.
Lean right into that truth, grow in obedience and experience, and you will find strength for every day.
Know the peace of Christ
As Jesus continues his promise of consolation and commission, he says (John 14:27), “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.”
“Peace I leave with you” is like in a will, bequeathed. But how can he say, “My peace I give to you”? What’s his peace? Where does it come from?
By peace we mean the Hebrew sense of shalom, a wholeness and sense of content well-being. How can you receive Christ’s own sense of content wellbeing?
His peace is his eternal love and fellowship with the Father, bound up and demonstrated in loving obedience. Think of all that Jesus went through. He was at peace in his inner being because whatever happened he knew two things:
- His Father loved him unchangeably, infinitely, perfectly.
- As Jesus was perfectly obedient even to death, his life was pleasing to the Father he loved.
See how his peace is rooted in his relationship with the Father? You receive that peace from Christ when you become a Christian: You realise that the Father has loved you from before the foundation of the world. And you’re credited with righteousness from God so that you actually look utterly pleasing to him; you’re his child.
So it’s no surprise that Jesus was very much looking forward to returning to the Father! Read John 14:28.
What did Jesus mean about the Father being greater? It’s not a statement about whether one person of the Trinity is somehow greater than another. No, it’s the obvious point that Jesus in his incarnated state as the man from Nazareth – with his glory very much veiled – is looking forward to being in the presence of his glorious, spectacular Father above.
The way forward for Jesus was the way of cruelty and injustice, the way of the cross: Read John 14:29.
It would appear to be Satan’s hour. But “He has no power over me” – lit. “He has nothing in me.” Satan had no grip, no finger to point at Jesus, no guilt or shame to highlight. And again, that clear conscience before the Father was part of Jesus’ peace. Peace given to you as your sins are forgiven, conscience cleansed.
And so he closes this part: Read John 14:31.
Notice that: He is obedient in every way to the Father so that the world might know that he loves the Father. The Father loves the Son, and the Son is obedient to the Father in love, and his love is a deliberate public statement.
Now read John 14:15 again. The Son loves you, and you are to be obedient to the Son in love, and your obedience to him is a deliberate public statement. “I give you a new command: Love one another… By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:14-15.)
Summary
So the Holy Spirit is your Counsellor – strengthening and encouraging you, while advocating for Christ’s church to the world.
And he is God in you – mediating the presence of Christ to you, so that you have union with the Father and the Son through the Spirit. So grow in the cycle of holiness, love, and obedience to God within you.
And as you do that, you will know the peace of Christ himself within you – experiencing the Father’s joy and blessing, as you express your love for him in joyful obedience. Even in pain.