You’ll turn with me in your Bibles, please, to John chapter 16, beginning at verse 5. John writes and Jesus speaks:
‘But now I am going 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. 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 go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you’ve given us your word. teach us to show us examples of how we should rightly live and how we should respond in faith alongside examples of how we should not be responding or we should not act. Help us to hear you speak. Help us to listen and receive the words of your spirit that are spoken to us through the inspiration of scripture. We pray that you fill us and help us to bear the things that you have revealed even now. Pray this all in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So Jesus has spent the past while discussing and explaining our union with him as Christians, as the elect, and as regenerate believers, as those who are given past faith, trust, and reliant confidence in him as our Lord and King, and as our Savior, and as our friend and as our elder brother. Being a Christian means that we have a personal and direct relationship with Jesus. So having that relationship means we also have everything else that we should ordinarily expect to have with and to have from and to have for anybody else that we might ever be in a relationship with.
This means that Jesus is in a relationship with us and we are in a relationship with him. And so we have all of the relational baggage that comes with it naturally; all of the blessed baggage that really none of us would want to be without. This means that we should grieve for all the things that grieve Jesus. Grieving for injustice, for violence against the innocent, for desired destruction, and all forms of sin and wickedness. This also means that Jesus grieves for the things that grieve us, for the things that grieve you. All of our sorrows and hurts, our worries and fears, the injuries that we suffer, whether they’re on our account or on his. And he grieves the latent sin that we are continuing to mortify as we slowly become more and more sanctified.
Now, back in the story of Lazarus, we saw just how well acquainted with grief Jesus actually is. I mean, we could have just assumed it naturally, assuming that his father Joseph had passed earlier and assumed the deaths of close family and friends or other relations. But John showed it to us specifically in that story so that we know that Jesus has experienced and that he knows the tragedy of human sorrow because Jesus wept. We know that he understands the effect and the impact that sorrow has on us.
So moving on from explaining our union, Jesus confronted his disciples with their sorrow, confronting them for their sorrow so as to teach them the difference between godly sorrow and sinful sorrow. He wanted to teach them why and how Christians, how we are able to mourn loss with hope. See, Jesus told them, ‘But now I’m going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, where are you going?’ But because I’ve said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
See, he’s returning to a thread that he has been weaving in throughout this entire conversation. You recall that back in chapter 13, Jesus told them, ‘Little children, yet a while I am with you. You will seek me. And just as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.’ But Peter at that time actually did respond, asking Jesus, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ To which Jesus replied, ‘Where I’m going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterward,’ before he explained to them that he was going to go to be with the Father there in chapter 14.
And so while they had asked Jesus in the past, ‘Where are you going?’ they didn’t ask him it now because they were finally beginning to understand, at least something of the truth about what was to come. A point that is made obviously clear through Jesus’s announcement to them that sorrow has filled their heart. But really, why did they not ask? Has it really been made so very clear? What might they have been thinking here? How were they interpreting Jesus’s words? Did they understand really that Jesus was preparing to go to heaven? That he was preparing to go there bodily and physically? That he was going to go there to live and to reign?
Or were they understanding Jesus’s leaving to mean his death? That he was preparing to die and go to heaven or paradise, perhaps to be with God spiritually? That he was going to go and go to some form of eternal heavenly rest? Disappointingly, the second option seems to be the most probable. I mean, the Gospels in the New Testament only really tell us three things about first-century Jewish views concerning the afterlife. We know that the Sadducees completely denied the fact of a future resurrection. And so they also probably denied any kind of post-life spiritual existence. Considering that that view was held primarily by the religious leadership and culturally Hellenized ethnic Jews, it was probably not the majority expectation.
But we may assume that when Jesus taught his parable about the unnamed rich man and the beggar named Lazarus, he was using a commonly accepted, understood, and believed expectation where he described Abraham’s bosom as a place of blessed peace, of rest and refreshment, contrasting it against the Greek expression of Hades as a waiting place for the dead or as a place of torment for the wicked, as with Sheol. Meanwhile, the Pharisees affirmed the fact of a future resurrection of the dead, a resurrection that was possibly limited to only the just, not both the just and the wicked, but only the just, and that they affirmed a person’s continuing spiritual existence.
So considering Jesus’s parable and the view of the Pharisees, we can reasonably assume that there was some kind of post-life spiritual existence as the majority expectation for first-century Jews. And we know that Jesus has, before this point, repeatedly prophesied his forthcoming death and resurrection. But it’s apparent that the disciples never understood what it was that he actually meant by it, at least in advance. I mean, their response and their reaction to him after the resurrection, you know, after the crucifixion, demonstrated that they didn’t expect him to be resurrected bodily like Lazarus had been.
So it is more likely that they were now expecting that Jesus would be soon dying and probably expecting him to spiritually go to paradise. And so they were probably starting to prepare themselves to die along with him. So it really is not surprising to hear that now sorrow had filled their heart. But then Jesus reminds them of the most important point related to him leaving that they were so obviously missing. Telling them, ‘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.’
See, they were missing the point that Jesus’s leaving would benefit them. I mean, having a bird in hand is better than having two birds in a bush. So, having the Jesus that they knew, the Jesus whom they had seen perform countless miracles and repeatedly thumb his nose at the religious establishment, that surely seemed far better to them than Jesus’s promise to send them another paraclete. They didn’t want another paraclete; they wanted the paraclete they already had. They wanted Jesus, not the Holy Spirit. This is more evidence that they were really not understanding what was going on; more evidence that they were still not yet understanding why Jesus was doing everything that he was.
But the reason that Jesus calls them out now is for their sinful selfishness. See, Jesus’s opening statement here saying, ‘But now I’m going to him who sent me and none of you asked me where are you going? But because I’ve said these things, sorrow fills your heart,’ that was not merely an observation. That was an emotional indictment against them. I mean, yes, they had a personal relationship with Jesus. And yes, it is right and good and proper that they should feel sad hearing that he would soon die. I mean, that kind of response is natural and normal.
But there’s also a sense here of incredulity and disappointment in Jesus’s statement because Jesus was preparing to leave them to go to the Father, and his disciples were sorrowful but they were not sad for him. They were sad for themselves because earlier, Jesus had already told them, ‘If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father.’ And so see, rather than rejoicing for him, they were grieving for themselves. That’s how I suggest they were being sinfully selfish in this moment. They were not caring about where Jesus was going or why. They cared more about the fact that Jesus was leaving them, caring more about that than where he was going. They were more concerned with their loss than they were concerned about the person whom they were losing.
This point demonstrates and emphasizes a very important difference between Christians and worldly people—a difference in how we grieve and mourn. Remember at this moment the disciples were technically not yet Christians. Yes, they were Jesus followers, but they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. They had not yet received understanding from him. They had not yet received the fullness of assurance and confidence of faith in Jesus. So in that moment, they were mourning Jesus like those without hope. They were mourning Jesus while he was still with them. So, it’s no wonder that he was upset or depressed over them because really, who mourns the loss of something or someone while they still have them? Only those whom sorrow fills their heart.
See, sorrow and sadness fill the heart of the worldly. Sorrow and sadness are part of their identity. It is who they are. They are joyless and they are miserable people. They neither know nor love God. They do not love Jesus. They are hopeless because from their perspective, this present life is all that there is. They believe that nothing really comes after this and so they expect nothing better than this.
But Christians, when we mourn, we grieve differently because we are confident in our sure hope, our faith and trust in Jesus, in all of God’s covenant promises. The Apostle Paul, he reminds us that we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep because he does not want us to be uninformed. So we do not grieve like those who have no hope. We are confident that those whom we love that die in the faith, they will be restored and we will be reunited on the day of resurrection when Jesus returns in glory.
As Christians, when those whom we love die in the faith, we do not say goodbye, but instead we say, ‘See you later.’ As Christians, when those whom we love die in the faith, we are sad because of their absence. But we are also joyful for them, since being absent from us, they are now present with the Lord. Far better. Far, far better. As Christians, when those whom we love die in the faith, we celebrate the successful completion of their race, knowing that they are now free from all their sorrow and pain, free from all doubt or fear because they are now walking by sight and not just by faith alone.
So as Christians, when those whom we love die in the faith, being sad at their loss is not necessarily sinful because their absence is a grievous wound that’s caused by our sin. Our sadness is tempered by our joy for them when we rejoice knowing that they have gone to be with Jesus, their Savior, their King, and their God. So although Jesus was indicting his disciples for their selfishness, he was not condemning. He was teaching them and correcting them and us about how we should rightly view death—not as a hopeless finality of ending, but as a restorative transition away from the world’s corruption into the blessed and beneficent presence of the Lord.
Then Jesus returns to another subordinate reason for why they should be rejoicing at the thought of his leaving. He reminded them of the great benefit that his absence would bring to them, the gift of the Holy Spirit. They should have been joyful and joy-filled for Jesus because he was leaving them to go to be with the Father. Who wouldn’t want that? But they should also have been joyful for themselves because only by his leaving could Jesus send the Holy Spirit to dwell with and within them.
Since only by leaving would Christ receive the eternal inheritance for us. But Jesus’s sending of the Holy Spirit was not just for us and our immediate benefit. The Holy Spirit is sent for another purpose and reason. He has another role as well, one we don’t often think about. Jesus explained that he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment—that the Holy Spirit would convict the world. But the term convict may not be the best English word for us to really understand what the Holy Spirit is doing. Usually when we hear the term convict, we think of someone that’s been found or proven guilty, right? That understanding is true and that is what the Holy Spirit’s doing.
But what does it mean? What does it actually mean for the Spirit to be convicting in this way? The Greek word translated here is generally interpreted as meaning to bring something to light or to expose guilt or wrongdoing—an interpretation that does suit the general understanding of conviction. Because when a person is convicted of a crime, the evidence of their wrongdoing will have been brought to light and it will have been exposed and proven.
So the other reason that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit into the world was to expose and illuminate the total corruption of the fallen cosmos. The Holy Spirit was sent into the world to convict it concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. And then Jesus explained what the world would be convicted for and how this conviction would be made known: concerning sin because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.
So how did and how does the Holy Spirit convict the world concerning sin? The Holy Spirit, he will expose it through the reprobate and unregenerate’s lack of faith in Jesus. The Spirit shall regenerate the elect by giving us the faith to believe. And he shall give the reprobate over to their sinfulness.
The gulf of disparity between the elect and the reprobate, between believers and non-believers, between Christians and non-Christians will continue to widen and grow more evident because our moral standard will continue to diverge from one another. Our response to social issues will continue to become more and more different. Our world views will move further apart, moving into direct opposition. And those who belong to Jesus will become more and more obedient to God’s law and his revealed will. They will live in closer conformity to his ideal image, while those who belong to the world and to Satan will become more and more obviously opposed to God’s law and will live contrary to his will for humanity.
Everything that is wrong, wicked, and evil will become more visibly obvious in contrast to God’s goodness. Everything that is false and untrue will become more plainly evident and even more unbelievable in contrast to God’s revealed truth—his truth revealed in scripture and his truth as revealed by nature. All of sin and sinfulness will be exposed in the brilliant light of his righteousness.
Concerning righteousness, the Holy Spirit exposed it when Jesus was raised from the dead. The Holy Spirit exposed it through our belief in the truth of Christ’s resurrection, believing the factual truth about his brutal execution by the Romans, his physical burial, the guarding of his tomb by Roman soldiers, and his physical bodily resurrection. The Spirit has exposed it through Jesus’s bodily ascension into heaven. And the Spirit exposes it by Jesus’s enthronement at the right hand of God the Father.
Jesus’s bodily resurrection, his triumph over the grave was a conviction of his perfect righteousness and sinlessness because he could not justly remain subject to the penalty for sin or sinfulness that he was not personally guilty of. Jesus’s public ascension was a conviction of both his righteousness and the world’s unrighteousness. Only twice before in redemptive history had the righteous living ascended into heaven: Enoch, who by faith was taken up so that he should not see death, and before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God; and Elijah, who went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
These men were described as pleasing God with their faith and through their obedience to his commandments and will. They were convicted for their righteousness of faith by being removed from the fallen world, by not being forced to suffer the ignominious penalty of death for sin. So too, Jesus, after his triumph over sin and death, could not remain within the world among all of its unrighteousness. So he had to be removed from it. Jesus’s ascension was also a conviction of his righteous authority.
Right? Just immediately before he ascended, Jesus claimed that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So his ascension validated and confirmed his claim, validating his claim to the title Son of Man. As Jesus had told Nicodemus earlier that no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, thereby completing the heavenly event witnessed by Daniel who wrote, ‘I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man; and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him; and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His kingdom is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.’
Concerning judgment, the Spirit exposes God’s judgment against the ruler of this world, Satan, the devil, Lucifer, or just simply the serpent through his ever-shrinking power, might, and authority over the elect. The Spirit exposes God’s judgment against the devil by pulling his teeth while still leaving him the ability to fecklessly roar, by leaving him unable to actually harm God’s chosen people. Even though he is still able to frighten us and be a tempter whom we should flee, the Spirit exposes God’s judgment against Satan through the ever-increasing presence of the Holy Spirit in the world, dwelling within the heart of every believer as faith in Christ continues to spread throughout the whole known world. And even where faith might seem to wane, it still remains because we know and we believe that God has promised to always preserve for himself a remnant.
The Holy Spirit exposes God’s judgment against the ruler of this world by giving the elect the confident knowledge and belief that Satan is our defeated foe. Confidence that his ultimate doom is certain, sure, and it is coming soon. So the Holy Spirit, the another paraclete, he is sent by Jesus Christ from the Father to be our helper, to be our teacher and our God. He is sent to regenerate and to sanctify us, to prepare us and transform us into living vessels wherein the Lord God shall dwell.
The Holy Spirit is sent to convict the world. But there’s still three more purposes that he is sent to do: to declare the things that are to come, to glorify Jesus Christ, and to declare to us all that is Christ.
First, the Holy Spirit would speak prophecy to us both as forthtelling and foretelling. And he’s done so externally through his inspiration of sacred scripture that we can read and hear and internally by his confirmation of the truth of God’s word—his spoken, written and expounded word—whenever we encounter it.
Second, the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ through his ministry to us by regenerating the elect and giving us living hearts that love him, by encouraging us in our faith through the assurance of God’s love for us, by soothing our consciences and helping us to believe that by Jesus’s blood, our sins have been atoned for and are forgiven, by filling us with his joy, the joy we feel as we rest in God’s love, and also the joy that God has in us by giving us the courage and the ability to speak God’s truth and to tell others about the joy we feel having received this blessed gospel.
Lastly, the Holy Spirit declares to us and announces to us everything that belongs to Jesus Christ. And it is this last declarative purpose which ties everything together because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through him. And when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide us into all the truth.
See, the Holy Spirit leads us to Christ. He will lead us to believe and to trust the truth. The Holy Spirit brings us to our Father in heaven through faith in Christ. And the Holy Spirit leads us to and he preserves us within Christ’s eternal life.
And just as Jesus did not speak on his own authority, but with the Father’s authority and with the Father’s words, so too the Holy Spirit will not speak on his own authority. But whatever he hears, he will speak. So the Holy Spirit, he speaks Jesus’s words to us, speaking as Christ spoke with all of the Father’s authority behind it. The Holy Spirit reminds us and he brings to our remembrance the words that Jesus spoke—scripture—thereby preserving his authoritative word and command.
But most importantly, the Holy Spirit, he is Jesus’s herald. He is the one who goes before him, announcing his coming, proclaiming his power and majesty, proclaiming his authority and his sovereignty. So that night when Jesus told his disciples, ‘All that the Father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you,’ Jesus was leaving no doubt about who or what he claimed to be: the Lord God.
Jesus claimed to have total equality with God the Father. He claimed the same sovereign authority and power equal with God the Father. He claimed the same right of possession to all of creation equal with God the Father. He claimed the same right of judgment equal with God the Father. And the Holy Spirit would be sent to announce this fact to us for the whole world to know and believe.
Jesus claimed all that the Father has is mine, and he was going to go ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to confirm this fact for us. So if you wonder about your own personal salvation, wondering whether you actually are saved or not, then I encourage you to consider what it is that you earnestly and truly believe about Jesus. Seriously, I truly mean that because what you believe about him defines how you relate to him personally and it also affects how you shall respond to him as you live.
If Jesus is your Lord, your King, and God, then you admit that he is sovereign over your life and that all of his rules and commandments have been established and are given for your good benefit. And then disobedience and rebellion cease to be valid options or choices for you. And then you must admit that you have broken his holy and perfect law, confessing that you are a sinner deserving his judgment and wrath. And then you must realize and you must admit that your only hope for salvation is in his free offer of grace and mercy given in love.
And then to receive and accept that grace, you must confess your sin. You must abhor and hate your sin, and then repent truly by ceasing that sin—by earnestly trying to cease and then from now on sin no more. Then Jesus is and Jesus shall be your Savior. And then you must move forward with life, and you must begin to obey him out of love, out of a holy and reverent fear of his awesomeness, loving God first and loving your neighbor as yourself second.
But if Jesus is merely your friend, then his commandments will just seem like good and wise advice that you may or may not choose to accept, and you will affirm them as being a suggestion only. And then you are reserving for yourself the freedom to choose whether or not obedience to God seems right or best for you. And then Jesus may be freely ignored and disregarded as you lean upon and trust your own understanding to determine what is right and good and best.
And then you shall be wise in your own eyes, and you will certainly go astray, perhaps slowly and gradually, or perhaps quickly and immediately, and then you will continue to live as Lord over your own life until Christ returns and forcibly asserts his sovereign authority over you, justly judging you for each of your sins without mercy.
Or if Jesus is maybe just a good person in your opinion, someone who’s simply a good example that you think people should be following, then you will face even greater condemnation because Jesus is the perfect example of obedience and love for neighbor as he performed it from his love for God. And nobody can follow his example perfectly. So you condemn yourself by affirming him.
And finally, the last word on this for now: know that Jesus claimed that all that the Father has is mine. So if you do belong to him, he claimed you for himself. And then he sent the Holy Spirit to give you the assurance that you are his and he is yours. Then he sent the Holy Spirit to preserve you and to persevere you in faith up through and beyond the end, to carry you over that final finish line and bring you to him to live and to be with him forever.
So know and believe that all that the Father has also belongs to Jesus. Know and believe that that surely includes you through God’s grace, mercy, and love for you, his chosen and adopted child.
Amen. Please stand and let us say what we believe using the words of the Apostles’ Creed.