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of the truth Israel were laid aside in unbelief (Acts 28:), the coming (parousia) of the
Lord faded as a near possibility.
John, conscious of the change of dispensation, and writing his Gospel partly to explain
that change, would find it necessary to clarify the position with regard to his demise,
which was now certain to his mind. So he wrote:
"Yet Jesus said not unto him (Peter), he (John) shall not die; but if I will that he tarry
till I come, what is that to thee?" (21: 23).
The destruction of the Temple and overthrow of Jerusalem (the Temple is standing at
the Lord's return--Matt. 24: 15-30) was the evidence that the Second Coming had been
put off indefinitely, and hence there was now no "if" attached to John's death.
Further to the "coming" of the Lord, the reader should note how John, in his Gospel,
although he makes reference to the literal coming (14: 3), records how the Lord
promised His presence in another way:
"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you . . . . . If a man love Me . . . . .
My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him"
(14: 18, 23).
Add to the above promise the words of verse 16, and it will be seen that the presence
of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are here promised. Here is an aspect of the "coming" of
the Lord which the other Evangelists barely touch (but compare Matt. 28: 20 and
Mark 16: 20), but which John seems to emphasize because of the postponement of the
parousia.
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The presentation of the Holy Spirit's ministry.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit during the Acts period was intimately connected with
"spiritual gifts" (tongues, healing, etc.). The "promise of the Father" was to be "endued
with power from on high" (Luke 24: 49; Acts 1: 8).
The aspect of the Holy Spirit's ministry which John emphasizes in his Gospel is
different, and is in keeping with a dispensation during which "spiritual gifts", such as are
observed in Acts, do not obtain:
"The Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have
said unto you" (14: 26).
"When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth . . . . . He shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you" (16: 13, 14).
To sum up the emphasis of John on the `coming' of the Lord and the Holy Spirit's
ministry, the words of B. F. Westcott on the last discourses of the Lord (recorded only
by John in chapters 14:-16: of his Gospel) are to the point:
"At first they (the last discourses) could not have been intelligible in their full bearing.
The fall of Jerusalem at length placed them in their proper light, and then they were
recorded" (Gospel of John).