From Notes on John 14, John 15, John 16.
W. H. Westcott.
Extracted from Scripture Truth, Volume 36, 1950, page 214.
In the fourteenth chapter of this Gospel, we have recorded for us the beginning of the Lord's last discourse with His own, before He went to the Cross.
So soon as He refers to His returning to the Father, He announces the coming of the Holy Ghost — the Spirit of Truth — in His office of a Comforter who will abide with His own forever. Throughout the discourse given to us in chapters 14, 15 and 16, the Lord opens up the various activities of the Holy Spirit amongst His own, when He is come.
He, the Holy Spirit, is one with the Father and the Son. He is God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, and He has come to:-
"Teach you all things."
"Bring all things to your remembrance."
"Testify of Me." "Guide you into all Truth." "Show you things to come." "He shall glorify Me."
And He adds that He will not speak of or from Himself.
In John 16:12, the Lord says, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Because of the limitations of the understanding of His disciples, the Lord was shut up, in His teaching, to making known that which was really only partial, but — in contrast — when the Spirit is come there would be full revelation; no longer partial teaching, but unreserved communications from the Father and the Son, through the Spirit and hence, unlimited fulness for us. As the Lord said, He does not come to speak of Himself, but as He receives from the Father and the Son, that which He hears, He will speak and guide us into all truth. He has indited the Holy Scriptures, and He remains to guide us into an understanding of that which is therein recorded.
He will show us things to come, opening up to us that which is coming on this earth, and that which will be established in the heavens. These things we have particularly unfolded to us in the Book of Revelation, as also the Epistles. The reading of the Revelation, prayerfully and carefully, would liberate our hearts from the ensnaring effect of present things, for we should see all in the light of God's judgment of them.
From John 16:14, we learn that He will show us the things of Christ. "He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and show it unto you." He comes from a living Man in the glory of God and delights to bring Him and all He has, before our hearts, thus delivering us from the allurements of man's glory and the men of the earth. The bosom of the natural man swells as he hears of the prowess of his fellows here. The bosom of the Christian swells as he learns of Christ's incomparable virtues and glories, which have been opened up for us in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. What a joy it is to the heart and how stabilising to our souls, when we read Scripture as bringing before us, by the Spirit, the glories of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Father's beloved Son, rather than merely dwelling on our own blessings. Much as we have to praise and give thanks for, we lose so much, if we fail to see the things of Christ and His glory.
In verse 15 of the same chapter, the Lord states "all things the Father hath are Mine," indicating that the whole sphere in which He lives and moves embraces the plans for the Father's glory. We know that in those plans the Son has the central place by His — the Father's — will. The Holy Spirit delights to take us back in spirit into that beginning, before anything was that has been made, and to open to our wondering and worshipping hearts the counsels and plans of the Godhead, in which the Son does all for the glory of the Father and the Father does all for the glory of the Son.
When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come He will guide you into all truth. He IS come, and He ever delights to open up to us the truth as it is in the Father and the Son, and if we follow where He leads our hearts will go out in praise and worship to the Father and the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
He will also enable us to read in all the Old Testament Scriptures; in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets and in the Psalms, the things concerning our Lord Jesus Christ — the Son of God — for this is included in the truth.
It is to be noted, He will not speak of Himself. He will not primarily occupy our minds and thoughts with Himself, but with that which comes from and concerns the Father and the Son. May our hearts ever be open to receive His blessed communications, so that there might be with us that true worship "in Spirit and in truth" so precious to the Father and His beloved Son.