15 "If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and 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. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. Anyone who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them."This pericope is problematic for me because it has so many sermons in it. I think you could spend at least 3 months on this single section. It has so many complex theological and practical issues in it, so the question for me is which to choose. Do you preach on the parakletos (advocate/holy spirit), keeping commandments, what does love mean, what does it mean that we have the spirit in us?, etc...but I think I'm going to pass by these to preach on verse 17 and the spirit of truth. I want to look at what it means to refer to truth as a person; The spirit of truth and what it means to have a relational idea of truth.
What do you think? What does this passage mean to you?
