John 14:26 – Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

BIBLE TEXT

John 14:26

SUMMARY

Jesus tells his followers that the Father will send them the Holy Spirit. This “Advocate” will come to teach and remind people about Jesus, for the Spirit comes in Jesus’ name.

ANALYSIS

Jesus tells the disciples that he will send them the Holy Spirit to teach and remind them. The context is the Last Supper, when Jesus is preparing his disciples for the time when he will no longer be with them in a physical sense. His disciples are troubled by what Jesus says, but Jesus assures them that he will not leave them on their own. The Holy Spirit will come to them and remain with them forever. The Spirit will also teach and remind them of what Jesus has said. The Spirit does this by keeping the memory of Jesus’ teachings alive within the Christian community and by disclosing new insights into the meaning of Jesus’ life and actions. For example, the Gospel of John says that after Easter the disciples not only remembered that Jesus cleansed the temple, but came to new insight about what that action meant (John 2:22). Similarly, they later remembered how Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and came to a new understanding of how that fulfilled Old Testament Scripture (John 12:16). The teaching work of the Spirit is anchored in the life and work of Jesus and involves showing the meaning of Jesus to each new generation.