7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
The Advocate, the Counselor, the One who glorifies Jesus as well as supplies for our needs and kindly provides for our wants – is shown in our verse for today, as the good Gift promised by our Lord to His disciples on His departure from this earth. Sent to us from the Father in the name of sweet Jesus – the Counselor teaches us all things. It is His special office to enlighten us – to open the eyes of our understanding – to give us insight - to remind us of what we have learned yet perhaps have forgotten and to empower us to do God’s will. Earlier in John, Jesus describes one of the Holy Spirit’s responsibilities in the following way:
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26 (NIV)
Our Lord’s departure would be necessary and expedient for the coming of the Advocate albeit both painful and difficult for His disciples to comprehend. It would be for their good though they did not recognize it as such. Isn’t that a truism for many things that occur in our lives as well? Jesus is always for that which is most good and beneficial for us. He gives us the medicine we are loath to take, always having our interest at heart – with the full knowledge of what is ultimately for our best. What at first blush appears to be devastation for His guys ends in their delight. His going was necessary for the sending of the Spirit.
“The disciples must be weaned from His bodily presence before they were duly prepared to receive the spiritual aids and comforts of a new dispensation...Though He departs, He sends the Counselor; indeed, He departs on purpose to send Him.” Matthew Henry
They were crushed over the idea of Jesus leaving them. Yet His going would prove to be both profitable and beneficial for them – they had Jesus’ Word on it. If our Lord had not gone away, the Comforter would not have come. They had little notion of the full meaning of His Words believing His departure would leave them as orphans in a cold, unkind, and unfriendly world – a world that would not accept them - their hearts sinking from the thought of life without their Master. Jesus had already promised them that that would not be the case earlier in John:
15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:15-18 (NIV)
“Christ’s bodily presence draws men’s eyes, His Spirit draws their hearts.” Matthew Henry
Jesus comforts them with His Words by showing them His leaving would not be a loss to them but rather a gain – His absence more profitable and useful than His presence. The coming of his Spirit would be a necessity for the carrying forth of our Lord’s interests on earth – the building of His Body, the church. If Christ had not died, risen and ascended into heaven the Holy Ghost would not have come down with special power bestowing His manifold gifts at Pentecost and thereafter to every subsequent believer in the Lord Jesus. Certainly the disciples did far more through the power of the Spirit in Jesus’ absence than they had done when He walked among them. His Word must have come back to them again and again – ringing in their ears – as they accomplished mighty feats in his name through the power of the Holy Spirit:
“It is for your good that I am going away.”
“The true secret to all ministry (and individual lives) is spiritual power. It is not man’s genius, or man’s intellect, or man’s energy; but simply the power of the Spirit of the God of the Gospel. ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts (Zech.iv.6) It is well for all ministers (and believers) to bear this ever in mind. It will sustain the heart and give constant freshness to their ministry (and lives). A ministry (life) which flows from abiding dependence upon the Holy Spirit can never become barren. If a man is drawing on his own resources, he will soon run dry. It matters not what his powers may be, or how extensive his reading, or how vast his stores of information; if the Holy Spirit be not the spring and power of his ministry (life), it must, sooner or later, lose its freshness and its effectiveness. How important then, that all who minister (and live) in the gospel...should lean continually and exclusively on the power of the Holy Spirit. He knows what souls need, and He can supply it. But he must be trusted and used. It will not do to lean partly on self and partly on the Spirit.” C H Macintosh