Every once in a while, in world history a powerful personality comes along whose influence and presence in life so impacts life during his time on earth that the people who are associated with him actually wonder how they will get on in life without him—whose departure from life leaves such a huge hole that, at lest in some quarters and among some people, it is hard to imagine how their lives will go on without them.
For instance, imagine the nation of Israel, as it pondered its direction and future after Moses. What a loss his departure must have been for them. They had prayed for 400 years for a man who would deliver them from oppressive Egyptian slavery, and it seemed like nothing happened. And all of a sudden, the deliverer that they had prayed for showed up, and God showed up with Him and they were delivered by incredibly great miracles, and they had a spiritual leader par excellence who had an “in” with God, and then He was gone as they faced another great challenge, conquering the Promised Land. How would they go on without him?
And perhaps in our own nation’s history, we might think of Abraham Lincoln, and Life after Lincoln. He had guided the nation through a horrendous Civil War, seemed to have a great sense of righteousness and a wisdom not often heard—his words from the Gettysburg Address are still hallowed in our nation’s history, and now it was time to heal and reconcile, but someone wouldn’t let that happen, and that assassin’s bullet removed this incredible man from the scene just as the nation seemed to need him the most. How could we possibly get on without Lincoln?
And perhaps there’s someone within your family, your extended or immediate family that you personally feel that same way about, a patriarch, or maybe a matriarch, who is so incredibly important to your own direction and security in life. What would life be like after they were gone?
And so you can perhaps imagine how the 11 disciples were feeling as the last moments with Jesus Christ wound down. They were facing the prospect of life after Christ. They had lived with the greatest and most influential personality of all time, man of unparalleled wisdom, knowledge and power, love and character, then any other person in all of history, and now, in a moment of time, with one violent thrust of his enemies, He would be gone. And what in the world would they do without Him. How would they continue to follow Him without His personal, physical, visible or even verbal presence?
Or perhaps a better question at this point was this: Would they continue to follow Him in any respect after His departure.
And so that’s also a question for us, though we are not accustomed to the physical and visible presence of Christ this morning. Whatever would encourage and enable these disciples to continue following Christ after his departure would likely also be of help to us as we seek to follow Christ. How can we not only survive and thrive in following Jesus when we don’t have His visible specter to guide us?
Well, in John 16, Jesus speaks of three specific expectations we must have if we would follow Him fully, as He desires these immediate 11 disciples of His to do. The first had to do with persecution, the second with supernatural help in the matter of witnessing, and the third with guidance, how we might find further guidance and revelation apart from His physical presence.
Now as we’ve been in John 15, Jesus spoke of three relationships we must necessarily have in the course of following Him. The first was, of course, our personal relationship with Him. And his command was to Abide—to abide and obey. To abide as a branch does in the vine to bear fruit. The second was the relationship we would have with each other—and His command was to love, to love one another even unto death, even as He was an example of that for us. And the third relationship would be the with the world—the world of unbelievers. And the command with respect to that was to testify—to witness. We, in order to fully follow Jesus, must witness to the world, must testify to the world of the truth and reality and eternal significance of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, just as He did.
But in the course of encouraging us to testify to the world, Jesus made it also clear that there would be a reaction, and the reaction would not generally be positive. In fact, he did not hesitate to characterize that reaction with the very strong verb hate. The world would hate us, just as it hated Jesus, and without a good cause. It would hate us because our deeds were good and its deeds were evil, and so he prepared us for something we might not otherwise expect.
And He continues in that same vein at the outset of chapter 16. Basically what He urges us to do is to count on being severely persecuted or count on severe disillusionment. Count on, or expect, severe persecution, or count on being severely disillusioned. And this is the force of what he begins to say in verse one. “These things, about how the world will hate you, I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble.” Now Jesus and the Bible often characterize our Christian life as though it’s a walk, a walk with God, or a walk characterized by following Jesus. So it’s not surprising here that Jesus speaks of any interruption or cessation of that walk as a matter of stumbling, stumbling so as to not continue to walk with Jesus or to walk after Jesus, or follow Jesus. And Jesus here does what he told the disciples He would do with them as friends, rather than as mere servants. He explains to them exactly why he has done what he has done. He has forewarned these disciples so that they would not be so disillusioned by what happens to them that they would be tempted to quit, giving up on following Jesus. If Jesus had not warned them of what awaited them in response to their witnessing for Jesus, when terrible things happened to them because of following Jesus they might have said to themselves, “Well, I didn’t bargain on this. I wasn’t expecting anything like this. Perhaps God is not really with me if he’s allowed this to happen to me. Maybe He’s not blessing me because He doesn’t care what happens to me, or maybe I’m not really pleasing Him. I can’t imagine that He would have sent me out into the world to experience this without warning me in advance. And as a result, their walk and witness for Christ would have ceased.
And that’s exactly what Jesus is saying to you and me this morning. No, don’t expect the American Dream to be your experience. Don’t expect a Rose Garden. Don’t expect everything to go your way if you’re truly walking with Jesus and witnessing for Him as He has called you to do. No, quite the opposite. Some really bad things can and will likely happen precisely because you are following me, precisely because you are doing the very kinds of things I did and have now called you to do. And so you are you getting His drift? If you have dedicated your life to Christ, don’t expect everything to go your way by any means. Expect the world to hate you, don’t be surprised if you’re persecuted because you are a Godly person, because that’s exactly what happened to your Master, and if it happened to your Master, you ought to expect that it will in some shape or form also happen to you.
And just to give these disciples and you and me a concrete picture of what might actually come to pass, He gives them a couple of examples—things that actually did happen to each and every one of these 11 disciples, with the minor exception of John Himself. They will put you out of the synagogues, they will de-synagogue you, disfellowship you, because you follow me. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. That’s just how confusing and awful it will be for these 11. And I’m certain that the de-synagoging happened for all eleven, and all eleven were intended to be martyred, and of course, John did not experience that only because God miraculously delivered Him despite his being boiled in oil for his testimony for Christ.
Verse 4: “But these things I have told you that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.” So the wisdom here is to remember. Don’t forget what Jesus has said. Stick it in your brain and keep it there for the day when it comes to pass. Because it may well come to pass for you as well. “And these things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you.” Jesus had been there to take brunt of the persecution. Now, that He would be gone, they would be on the front line, and they would take the brunt of the persecution just as He had. So, remember—count on persecution, or count on being severely disillusioned.
And then with this matter of their responsibility to testify to the world of Christ, help would be provided there as well, supernatural help, in the person of the Holy Spirit. And in verses 7-11 Jesus gives these 11 and us something else to count on, not trouble, but big help this time. Count on the Holy Spirit to convince the world of what it needs to know about Jesus. Count on the Holy Spirit to convince the world of what it needs to know about Jesus.
Now Jesus is apparently at this juncture in his monologue expecting a dialogue. He’s expecting a response from the disciples, some questions. Perhaps he paused at this point, and He apparently is met with silence, a silence characterized by overwhelming sadness.
I can identify with this in my own experience when I stood here about three years ago and presented to you all the diagnosis with regard to my cancer. It was rare, chronic, incurable, and most likely fatal, within a couple of years. And even though I was upbeat, there was a stunned silence, kind of like “well, what do you say to that?” These were heavy things, and all of this is reflected by the very description of Jesus Himself in verses 5 and 6: “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.”
And my thought is, “Well, yeah!” And Jesus makes this statement that none of them have asked him where He is going. And this is hard to explain because the fact is that Peter had asked him precisely that back in John 13:36, and Phillip had asked something similar in John 14:5. And for most of the time they had had together, Jesus had dominated their conversation ever since, and had answered the question literally several times, and even here in the midst of verse 5. He was going to the Father. So it seems like a contradiction, and I’ve read about 15 different attempts to explain this seeming contradiction and have to admit that I’m not entirely satisfied with any of the explanations. And so my answer to your question about this this morning is that I simply don’t know the answer to it for sure. I would just simply say that Jesus expects some question from them here, which He fails to get. And judging from what He says next, he expects their questions to lead to his answer in verses 7-11. So the question He’s expecting is not only where He is going, but why He’s going there right now.
You see, these disciples had come to believe that He was the Son of God, and therefore God. They recognized that He had sovereign control over all events, and that this matter of His departure, though it would happen at the hands of His enemies, was not something that He had no control over. So somehow this very sad departure of His, which seemed like a very bad thing, was something that Jesus was choosing to do. And all of these assumptions were correct. And they must have wondered why, and why now, but were so overwhelmed in their sadness about the situation, none of them even had the heart to ask. So Jesus was going to answer their unspoken questions anyway. And the answer was that His departure would ultimately be a good thing. Not a bad thing. A good thing. Because without His departure, the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the one called along side to help them in every way, but especially in their witness and testimony to the world, would not come.
Verse 7: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you: but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
Now, can you even imagine this? I would think the ideal situation for each and every one of us would be the personal, physical presence of Jesus Christ all the time. Then people could see for themselves that He’s the Son of God. They could see for themselves the miracles He would do and hear for themselves the wisdom that comes from His mouth and the promises of eternal life He has for all who would believe. So, if it’s better for this Holy Spirit to come, better than Jesus’ personal presence, this Holy Spirit must really be someone special. And of course, He is. And of course, as Jesus has already spoken of, the advantage of the Spirit coming in Christ’s stead is that the Spirit would distribute the power of Christ and the wisdom of Christ to and through every one of His disciples, especially as they witnessed for Christ.
And that’s exactly what the Holy Spirit would do, and believe it or not, it is better than Christ being here, limited to one place, and one time, and whatever group of people might be in His presence at that moment.
And exactly what benefit would the Holy Spirit provide in this matter of testifying to Jesus to an unbelieving world. Well, Jesus is very specific as to what those benefits would include.
Verse 8: And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment: of sin because they do not believe in Me, of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
So, there are three specific things the Helper, the Holy Spirit, would do for us as we testify to the world about Christ. All of them involve convicting. And so convicting here is a key word, one we must pay special attention to this morning, to understand this great benefit of the Holy Spirit’s presence with us.
The Greek word for convict is the word elengxo. It almost always means to show someone his sin, or where he’s wrong, and to call him to repentance, to show him what’s right. It is translated variously as to convict, to convince, to reprove, to expose or even as “to show someone his fault.” And it appears in what for me are some very important passages. For instance, it’s found in Matthew 18:15 when Jesus tells us what we should do when we have a problem with someone: If your brother sins, go and show Him his fault just the between the two of you. Here it’s translated as “show him his fault,” or convince him of his sin. It also appears in II Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” It’s translated her as reproof. What is the Word of God good for? It’s good for reproving someone, convincing him of his sin and pointing him toward righteousness. And then what about the job of a pastor or elder? What does it involve? II Timothy 4:2: Preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction.” It’s part of what I do using the Word of God—I reprove, that is convince people of their sins, prove to them what is wrong and point them toward repentance, point them toward what is right.
And that’s the Holy Spirit’s role as well; that’s His miraculous activity in the heart of unbelievers as they hear us witness about Christ. They will be convinced of; they will find what we say proven to them and they will be pointed to what is right as we proclaim the Word of God and the Gospel to them.
And they will be reproved, or convicted of the matters of sin, righteousness and judgment.
Now the next verses, in verses 9-11, have always largely been a mystery to me. That’s because it doesn’t seem like the results are logically related to the causes.
First. John 16:9: “Of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Now what I would expect as a cause for conviction of sin would be their sins. I would have expected Jesus to say, “Of sin, because of their many and great sins of every kind.” But instead He, the Holy Spirit, will convict them of their sin because of their unbelief in Jesus. I think what’s going on here is that Jesus is saying that a refusal to believe in Jesus is, in effect, the epitome of sin, the ultimate result and proof of our sinful nature. If we are disinclined to believe in and trust on Jesus, who is completely righteous, then why in the world do we prefer not to believe in Him? Why? Because we prefer our sin. We love our sin. We love darkness rather than light, and so we find ourselves rejecting Him whom we know is the ultimate in righteousness only because we are so devoted to our self-serving sin. Our rejection of faith in Jesus is the ultimate proof used by the Spirit to demonstrate to unbelievers just how sinful they ultimately reprobate they are, and how devoted they are to their sin.
In verse 10 Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world “of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you see Me no more.” Again, I would expect Jesus to say something like, because of the Ten Commandments. Or because of the Bible. But instead, He speaks of Himself, and in particular His ascension. And what He’s saying is that there is something about the fact of His ascension to His Father, even after His death and resurrection that ultimately the Holy Spirit will use to prove that there is something unique about Jesus Christ. What it ultimately proves is that among all the world’s men, only He, in and of His own absolutely righteous character, only He deserved to be brought into the Father’s presence. Everyone else deserves to die. Everyone else does die, on the basis of His own sins. But only Christ both bodily arose from the grave and only Christ physically and visibly ascended into the Father’s presence. For only Christ was perfectly righteous. And so when we witness about Christ, and people know the life that Christ lived and that He ascended to the Father, the Holy Spirit gives us a huge assist. They know, in their heart of hearts, whether they will admit it or not, that Christ was perfect, that He embodied righteousness as no other man who ever lived. And so supernaturally when we teach and witness about Christ, the Holy Spirit convinces and proves to every man these two things—that they are sinful, and Christ alone was righteous, and he is the standard by which their works are judged, and they fall short. What an assist! This is huge. No wonder Jesus made such a big thing about it and said that in effect, it was more important for us each to have the Holy Spirit with us than to have Christ’s personal, visible and physical presence here in the world with us!
And then there’s a third thing. The Holy Spirit will convict the world “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” Now this one is even a little more difficult to explain in some ways. Part of the reason it’s more difficult to explain is that a lot of people don’t actually even believe in the devil, who clearly is the ruler of the world that Jesus is talking about here. And, therefore, they are not convinced that the devil has been judged. But note, Jesus doesn’t say here they will be convinced that the ruler of this world is judged, only that they will be convinced that there is a coming judgment, and I suspect that they will be judged in it. Back in John 12:31, if you’ll remember, as Jesus anticipates his immediate crucifixion and resurrection, he says, “Now is the ruler of this world judged.” Somehow through Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, through his death for our sins and the fact that God raised Him from the dead, God delivered a sentence against Satan. He demonstrated that the ruler of this world who initiated all of mankind’s sin, was demonstrated to be judged, or sentenced to judgment, because Christ was judged for our sins, but not His, and clearly was victorious and that moment, and declared victorious over that judgment by His resurrection from the dead. It demonstrated that God would deal with sins, and that He has dealt with the sins of those who will receive His sacrifice for their sins. It is a sign that judgment awaits all those who don’t receive His payment for their sins, as well as all those who can’t receive his forgiveness for their sins—and those who can’t receive his forgiveness for their sins are the devil and his angels. For it was a man who died on the cross, a God-Man, not a God-angel. But in all that happened there on the cross, a clear statement was made, a clear sentence delivered, that God will judge all mankind for its sins, and all fallen angels including the devil for his sins. And so Jesus could say in John 12:31, Now is the ruler of this world judged.” He’s not judged in the sense that He’s paying for his sins yet. He’s not completing the sentence, but the sentence is delivered. And the fact that His sentence has been pronounced and delivered is a fact that the Holy Spirit somehow seizes on
and convinces unbelievers of—that there will be a judgment and their sins will be judged there by God, unless, of course, they by faith receive the forgiveness offered by Christ’s death for their sins.
Now, these are huge advantages for us whenever we witness. I mean, we have this miraculous helper that ultimately convinces every single unbeliever we might ever witness to of these incredible facts which ought to drive any and every one of them to do what we’re calling them to do—to put their faith in Christ and his death for their sins and resurrection, and believe, and then follow Jesus.
And the Holy Spirit, being God Himself, albeit the third person of the Godhead, cannot fail in anything he attempts to do. As Job 42 puts, “No purpose of thine, God, can be thwarted.” And so this will ultimately happen to every single person we witness to.
And that, of course, brings up a question. When then, doesn’t everyone we witness to become a believer. It can’t be that they’re unconvinced, according to this promise, can it?
And the fact is that their continuing unbelief is not because they are unconvinced. I believe that every single person who hears and understands the Gospel is absolutely convinced of Christ’s identity in their heart of hearts, and yet they still have the freedom to choose not to believe. And that’s exactly what happens with them when they are no longer ignorant. As Jesus said in John 3:19: They loved darkness and hated the light, because their deeds were evil. As Jesus said of the Pharisees and the Scribes in John 5:40, “But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life.” In other words, it’s not that people in the world are unable to come to Christ, it’s that they are unwilling to come to Christ because of their love of sin, even though they were ultimately convinced of who Christ is and what He’s done for them. And that’s why Christ could say to even those who crucified Him that at the cross they would know exactly who He was, their Messiah, God and Savior, even though they would never admit it.
This is an incredible benefit, a source of confidence that we ought to have, whenever we witness to the world—the Holy Spirit is convincing everyone who hears us of the truth. Miraculously. And some will believe, though many will be unwilling, not unable, but unwilling. And all of this would begin for the disciples when the Holy Spirit would come upon them, as Christ said in Acts 1:8, and they would become His witnesses via the power of the Holy Spirit in all Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and even the uttermost parts of the earth. And so should we.
Now one more essential benefit for these disciples and for us, which they had thought they would lose upon Christ’s departure. Guidance. How can you follow Jesus unless you can see Him? By the Holy Spirit’s guidance in bringing us the New Testament, the Word of God.
Third point this morning: Count on the Holy Spirit to guide you into all God’s truth—and especially to that found in the New Testament. Now this is where we find the first truths with regard to the inspiration of the Scriptures and in particular the New Testament.
For Jesus here says, in verse 12: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” So Jesus has a whole bunch more to say to these 11 disciples, but they have plenty to ponder from what He’s already said. And there is so much to instruct them about at this point—about the church, and about how it’s supposed to be run, and the second coming, and more about false prophets and all of this, that it’s impossible for them to be able to digest all that He wants to say at this point. And He’s leaving. He’s not only going out of town, but He’s also going out of this world. So what’s the solution? They desperately need to hear what He has to say, but there’s no more time, and there’s no more capacity for comprehension. They have plenty to chew on already.
The solution: Once again, it’s the Holy Spirit. Verse 13: However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth for he will speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears he will speak; and he will tell you think to come (the Book of Revelation).
And I think what He’s predicting here is that what more He has to say will come through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit working through these apostles and their close associates in the first century to create the New Testament. Now I’m not saying that the Holy Spirit cannot speak today, but I am saying that the vital truths that the Spirit of Truth wished to speak which would complete the New Testament canon are exactly what Jesus is referring to here. And here He promises the Holy Spirit will provide the guidance that these disciples are concerned that they will lack apart from Christ’s physical presence. And he has, in these 27 books which we call the New Testament, the inspired, God-breathed word of God, the Word of Christ which we are to allow to richly dwell within us.
And what will characterize these inspired books? What will they be all about? What will the Holy Spirit’s ministry be all about? The glory as well as the Word of Christ, and therefore the glory and the Word of God the Father. Verses 14-15: “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you”
So you want not only to survive but to thrive in your relationship with Christ? Count on the Holy Spirit to guide you into all God’s Truth. And let Him do so by being in God’s Truth—especially the New Testament.
How did it work out for these 11 disillusioned, frightened and saddened men? They heeded Jesus. They counted on persecution, but they counted on the Holy Spirit to be there as a confirming supernatural witness and guide. He showed up in Acts 2. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, got up and preached the Gospel and 3,000 were saved that day. 2,000 another day. They were persecuted and ultimately killed, but there were others to take on the message, who did so successfully and ultimately, 2,000 year later the message came to us, and we received it all because there were others who did what Jesus and the disciples said and did. They counted the cost and counted on the Holy Spirit to convict and to guide as only He can.
Is there life after Christ? You better believe it! It comes when you are prepared for persecution and absolutely positive about the Holy Spirit’s power to convict and to guide!
