[8:00 a.m.] It Is To Your Advantage That I Go Away (John 16:1-15, 33)

You all just love each other too much.

If you're able, please stand for the reading of God's Word as we

as we continue our sermon series in John this morning.

Our our passage was really most of chapter 16 of John, which is

a lot. And so Brent and I have decided

to condense our our reading and you'll see it in your bulletin,

verses 4 through 15 and then verse 33 at the end of the

chapter. So please follow along as we

read God's word from John 16. Jesus says, I did not say these

things to you from the beginning because I was with you, 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 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 judgement

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. And verse 33 I've said these

things to you, that in me you may have peace.

In the world you'll have tribulation.

But take heart. I have overcome the world.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Please be seated. Father, we thank you for this

passage of Your word. Lord Jesus, we thank you for

these very words that you spoke to your closest friends.

And we pray, Holy Spirit, that you would do the very work

described here, that you would convict and you would convince

and you would convert us to see all that we have in Jesus.

In his name we pray. Amen.

As a father of two boys, it's not easy for me to leave the

house. And I, my mom is sitting here

this morning. And so I, I think I'm have to be

honest to say I was the same way.

There were some very dramatic moments where I did not want my

parents to leave the house. So Will is 12, John is 8.

So it's actually better than it used to be.

But sometimes when I go on a trip or just go to work or

simply take Anne to dinner, you would think that we were going

off to war and maybe never returning.

So I've seen it all. Big tears, strong complaints,

even fake illnesses. My boys don't want me to go

away. And it makes sense.

Children learn fast that their parents going away is not ideal.

And before we can even talk, as humans, we know physical

presence is better than absence. We want to be with the people we

love. We don't want them to go away,

We don't want them to move to another city, and we certainly

don't want them to die. So many families are devastated

right now after the floods because their loved ones have

gone away. And none of these families would

have chosen this. None of them would say this is

better. This is to our advantage.

It's to our advantage that the people we love stay close.

So knowing this, I want you to feel the strangeness of what

Jesus says in verse 7. I tell you the truth, it's to

your advantage that I go away. And let me remind you, going

away doesn't mean that Jesus is going on a vacation and then

coming back. Going away means Jesus is going

to shock his disciples by dying on the cross.

Going away means Jesus going to thrill them by rising again,

only to shock them again by ascending to heaven, going away

yet again. So why was it to the disciples

advantage for Jesus to go away? That's the big question this

morning. And the first thing I want you

to see is it was to their advantage for him to go away

because of who the Holy Spirit is.

To this point, Jesus been with his disciples in person for

three years. They've spent most of their time

right there with him, and he hasn't shared a lot about his

departure and what happens next. They didn't need to hear it and

they probably wouldn't have understood it.

So, so see what he says in verse 4.

I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I

was with you. We give the disciples a hard,

hard time because they're slow to understand.

They don't seem to get it even when they're in the presence of

the Lord. But if you take this passage

seriously, there's actually another angle to that.

Have we really considered it? I haven't seen many people write

about it. The disciples had the bodily

presence of the Lord Jesus, but they didn't have His Holy Spirit

yet. When do their lives and

ministries change dramatically? It's in Acts 2 at Pentecost when

they're filled with the Holy Spirit.

But in John 16, the disciples don't seem to grasp what's

happening. They have hints, but they can't

put it all together. Look at what Jesus says in verse

5. But now I'm going to him who

sent me, and none of you asked me.

Where are you going? Actually, if you look back at

the last couple chapters, several of the disciples have

asked him where he's going. But I think his point is maybe

they were just more protesting or complaining than having a

genuine interest in what was going on in his life.

Jesus wishes they were more interested in what he's doing,

where he's going. He came from God.

He's going back to God. That's how he describes his

mission. He's the word of God from the

beginning with God, and now he's the only son who's returning to

the Father by way of death and resurrection.

And his closest friends can't even ask what's really

happening. Where are you going?

They're disconnected from the central mission of his life.

Imagine being disconnected from the most important thing in your

spouse's life or your child's life or your friend's life.

That's the disciples. This is the decisive moment in

Jesus life. And it's like the disciples are

like, yawn, look at verse 6. But because I've said these

things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

They don't get it. All they really hear is Jesus is

leaving and they're sad. We've already said it.

Nobody wants to lose someone they love.

A parent, a spouse, a friend, a child.

And the more significant the person, the harder it is to lose

their physical presence. Because when they go away, they

don't come back. We're never ready to lose

someone we love. Now think about the disciples

and their relationship with Jesus.

Think about what they've seen over these years and what

they're facing just at this moment.

Judas has just slipped out the door to go and betray Jesus.

Jesus just predicted that Peter would deny him and that they all

would scatter. And surely they've heard the

whispers around town that the world wants Jesus dead.

They're reeling. They fear they're losing Jesus

and everything that's been built over these last few years.

And it's in this moment that he says, nevertheless, I tell you

the truth, it's 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.

Jesus is saying this is the best thing that could happen to you.

And they probably saw it as the worst thing that could happen to

them. So the word shocked them and it

should shock us. And we say what Jesus, why?

Why is this true? Because they'll lose his

physical presence, but they'll gain his spiritual presence.

Jesus going away was not just a going, it was going to be a

coming as well. He planned to come to them in a

new and amazing way. So it was better for the

disciples for Jesus to go away because of who the Holy Spirit

is. His argument implies and demands

that the Holy Spirit is nothing less than the Spirit of God, the

Spirit of Jesus Christ, the third Person of the Trinity.

Brothers and sisters, do you realize the incomparable gift of

the Holy Spirit? Do you believe what Jesus is

saying, that we're better off with the presence of the Holy

Spirit than the presence of Jesus?

So many of us would have loved to have been there, you know,

sitting by the shores of the Sea of Galilee or walking the dusty

roads of Judea and and walking with Jesus and listening to his

teaching and witnessing his miracles.

But if given the choice, would you choose the physical presence

of Jesus before his ascension or the spiritual presence of the

Holy Spirit after Pentecost? Because Jesus is making a clear

case that we should choose the presence of the Spirit, and

here's why. In the Old Testament, God would

occasionally come upon his people or some of his people or

one of his people by his Spirit. And in the Gospels, God was with

his people in the presence of Jesus Christ.

But after Pentecost, God is actually in his people by the

indwelling of his Spirit. There's an immediacy and an

intimacy to being filled with the Holy Spirit that Jesus

believes is better than anything that came before.

I think most of the time we're walking around like the

disciples with sorrow in our hearts, not realizing the wonder

of what Paul says in Colossians. One Christ in US, the hope of

glory. God being with his people is the

heart of his promise from Genesis to Revelation.

But without the Holy Spirit, how are those promises more than

just wishful thinking? In John 1423, Jesus says if

anyone loves me, he'll keep my word, and my Father will love

him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

But how will the Father and Jesus come to us and make their

home with us? The answer is the Holy Spirit,

because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God.

In John 1416 and 17, Jesus says that this other Helper will be

with us forever. He will dwell with us and be in

us. In John 55155, you know, Jesus

talks about abiding, but how can we abide in a risen and ascended

Lord who's no longer physically present on earth?

How can he abide in us? The answer it's the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew 2820 Jesus says, and behold, I'm with you always to

the end of the age. How can that be true when Jesus

is about to ascend to heaven? The answer is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the reason we can say that God is with us this

morning as we gather to worship him.

So the Holy Spirit is nothing less than the Spirit of Jesus

Christ coming to indwell his followers so that he's not

simply with them, but in them. When we tell someone I'll be

with you in spirit, what do we mean?

We mean I won't be with you. But when Jesus says I'll be with

you in spirit, he means I'll be with you in the fullness of my

presence forever. So, brothers and sisters, do you

realize the advantage of living in this moment of redemptive

history? The Lord Jesus desires to be

with you and in you by his Holy Spirit.

Do you welcome His transforming presence in your life?

We're living in this age that Jesus said was better because of

who the Holy Spirit is. But I also want us to see that

it was to the disciples advantage for Jesus to go away

because of what the Spirit does. Here in John 16, we have really

the most concentrated teaching on the Holy Spirit in the

Gospels. And in these next 8 verses, 8

through 15, Jesus explains the glory of the Spirit's ministry.

So in verses 8 through 11, we learned that the Holy Spirit

will convict the world about sin and righteousness and judgment.

The Holy Spirit will expose all the lies in the world and in US.

And in verses 12 through 15, we learned the Holy Spirit will

convince God's people of the truth in Jesus.

The Spirit will reveal all the truth that's in Jesus.

So I want to talk about what the Spirit does, but hopefully not

theoretically, but practically. Because if we're, if we're

saying this is what the Spirit does and it's so significant

that Jesus said it would be better for him to go away, We're

not just talking theory or philosophy.

We're talking about God's work in real life.

So lean in and consider the Spirit's work and perhaps ask,

Lord, is your Spirit doing this work in me?

So first, Jesus says that the Spirit will convict the world

about sin and righteousness and judgment.

Look at verse 8. And when he comes, he will

convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

The word translated convict in verse 8 should make us think of

the Spirit as a lawyer in a courtroom.

The Spirit presses his case with the world cross, examining

people with the goal of convincing them of the error of

their ways. So what does Jesus mean when he

says the Spirit will convict the world concerning sin?

The Spirit cross examines the world's answers to the great

question, What's wrong with the world?

The world responds politics, economics, the environment,

education, culture, and their problems.

In all these areas we all have a sense of what's wrong, and then

that's what we try to make right.

But the Spirit prosecutes the case until we see that our

godless answers are actually bankrupt.

The Spirit reminds us that we must first deal with God.

And so our first membership. Val asked.

You acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God,

justly deserving his displeasure and without hope saving his

sovereign mercy starts right there with us and God and anyone

could say yes to that question, but only the Holy Spirit can

convict us in a way that brings us to the end of ourselves.

The Spirit opens our eyes to see sin for what it is, an affront

to a holy God. And we know when he works that

for all the wrong in the world, Ground Zero is actually the

wrong in our hearts, the sin in our own hearts.

And how does Jesus summarize the heart of the world sin?

He says in verse 9, they do not believe in me.

The root of the problem is not murder or adultery or stealing

or lying or coveting. The root of the problem is not

believing in God and the one he sent.

We turn to other gods to save us and give us life.

And all the other darkness flows from this dark exchange.

And this aligns with John 2031 where John tells us why he wrote

this gospel. He says so that you may believe

that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by

believing you may have life in his name.

Friend, do you believe that the world's greatest sin is turning

away from God and that your greatest sin would be refusing

to believe in Jesus? The Holy Spirit is the one who

brings this deep conviction, the awareness of our need that

prepares us for His provision. Has he convicted you of that?

What does Jesus mean? The Spirit will convict the

world concerning righteousness. The Spirit also cross examines

the world's answers to the question, what's right in the

world or what would make the world right?

Righteousness means being rightly related to God and other

people in the world. So what is the righteous life?

What's the life of integrity and wholeness?

The world thinks the good life, the righteous life, is life

apart from God. But Jesus is saying that the

Spirit will convict the world concerning righteousness because

he's going to the Father and the disciples will see him no

longer. What does this mean?

Well, Jesus is talking about being the righteous one who came

to die for the unrighteous. In 2nd Corinthians 521, Paul

says for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that

in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If we clarify Paul's pronouns, he's saying for our sake the

Father made Jesus to be sin, Jesus who knew no sin, so that

in Jesus we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus offering himself on the cross, the righteous for the

unrighteous is the greatest event in history.

Here is righteousness, here is goodness, here is integrity.

And when Jesus talks about going to the Father, he means that

he's about to finish his mission, the hour for which is

came, for which he came, the death he came to die.

So when the Father receives his beloved Son back into his

presence, risen and victorious, it's the ultimate vindication of

who Jesus is and what Jesus did. Righteousness.

The Holy Spirit convicts us that everything we've done to try to

make things right just pales in comparison to the righteousness

of God in the gospel. For the Sinner who refuses to

believe in Jesus, there's really no righteousness.

But when we look to Jesus by faith, the Lord is our

righteousness. And there's nothing sweeter than

being restored to a right relationship with God and then

ourselves, and then our neighbor and the world, as the Spirit

convicted you of righteousness. And then what does Jesus mean?

The Spirit will convict the world concerning judgment.

We've already talked about what's wrong, what can be done

to make it right. The idea of judgement sort of

ties it all together. Jesus says the Spirit will

convict the world concerning judgement because the ruler of

this world is judged. In this statement, Jesus

identifies the great conflict in the history of the world.

It's not a geopolitical conflict for supremacy.

It's not an economic conflict for resources.

It's not an environmental conflict for conservation.

It's ultimately a spiritual conflict between God and the

devil are in Genesis 3 terms, between the seed of the woman

and the seed of the serpent. And Jesus, speaking just hours

before the cross and days before the resurrection, speaks with

confidence that in his work that he's about to finish, the ruler

of this world is judged. John says in his letter, first

John 38, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the

works of the devil. And that's what Jesus is about

to do. The Spirit convicts the world

that the judgment of God has broken into history at the

cross. Those who do not believe in

Jesus are still under judgment because they have rejected God's

offering. But those who believe in him

know the joy of his salvation and share in his victory as the

Spirit brought this conviction of sin and righteousness and

judgment in your life. Our sin is the great wrong.

Jesus is the great right, and he has won the battle.

That's the conviction part. And then in verses 12 through

15, what does Jesus tell us about what the Spirit does?

The Spirit reveals God's truth to us.

In verse 12, Jesus suggests a problem.

He has more to tell the disciples, but they can't handle

it right now. And we sort of know it doesn't

seem like they can handle much. So how will Jesus tell them what

they need to know when they need to know it?

So verses 13 through 15 are so precious, we're attempted to

apply them to ourselves first. But these words are precious to

us because they were first. So precious to the disciples.

The promise of the Spirit guiding the apostles into all

the truth. Why does this matter?

Because these men were going to bear witness to all that they'd

seen in Jesus. They were going to write the

gospels and the letters that would become Holy Scripture.

How are they going to do that? By the power of the Holy Spirit.

Pick up your Bible. Thumb through the New Testament.

Why do we have this document? Because the Holy Spirit guided

these men into all the truth. He didn't speak on His own

authority, He only spoke what He heard from the Father and the

Son. We have the New Testament

because the Spirit declared to these men the things that were

to come, and He glorified Jesus by taking what was His and

declaring it to the apostles. The Holy Spirit was essential in

safeguarding the process that gave us the Word of God.

The Spirit took Jesus perfect and precious word and declared

it to the apostles. And the same miracle of

inspiration shines through in John 1426.

He says the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will

send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your

remembrance all that I've said to you.

So, church, don't run ahead in your application of Scripture.

We're here studying John 16 because the Holy Spirit inspired

John to write John 16. God breathed these words out

through His servant John so that we could sit here this morning

and know the wonder of the Spirit's ministry.

And even as we talk about it, He continues His light shining life

giving work in US. So we're standing on the

shoulders of the apostles. The Spirit is guiding us into

all the truth, bringing to our remembrance all that Jesus said

and what it means for us. The Holy Spirit has been called

the shy member of the Trinity. Why is that?

Because he refuses to draw attention to himself.

And you can see it in this passage.

He only wants to glorify Jesus. He only wants to shine a light

on Jesus for all the world to see, Ji Packer writes.

The Spirit's message is never look at me, listen to me, come

to me, get to know me, but always look at Him and see His

glory. Listen to him and hear His word.

Go to him and have life. Get to know Him and taste his

gift of joy and peace. So the Holy Spirit leads us to

look and listen and go to Jesus. And as we do, the Spirit takes

everything that Jesus did for us and makes it real to us.

Here, Christianity is different from every other religion.

We're not studying ancient texts, reflecting on a prophet

who's dead and gone. We're feeding on the living Word

of God, communing with the same Spirit who inspired him.

Jesus is with us. No, he's in us by a spirit.

And that changes everything. If what Jesus did for us is

becoming more real in our lives, we have the Spirit to think.

And if we want what Jesus did for us to become more real in

our lives, we have the Spirit to help.

Now as we close, I want you to see the fulfillment of what

Jesus says in John 16 just weeks later when the Spirit comes in

Acts chapter 2, what happens? We see Peter and the other

Acts 2 · chapter mention

apostles filled with the Spirit. Remember, they were cowards.

Now they're courageous and they were silent.

Now they're unable to stop speaking about what they've seen

in her. And what does the Spirit do when

Peter preaches his first sermon in Acts, the beautiful work of

convicting and convincing and converting the world to Jesus?

Peter proclaims in Acts 222 to 24 Men of Israel, hear these

words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man

attested to you by God, with mighty works and wonders and

signs that God did through him in your midst.

As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to

the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

God raised him up, losing the pangs of death, because it was

not possible for him to be held by it.

Let all the House of Israel therefore know for certain that

God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you

crucify. The Spirit is working as Peter

preaches, and the Spirit is working when he stops preaching,

because we look at Acts 237 through 39.

It says Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the

heart. Hear the conviction.

And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers,

what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent

and be baptized, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for

the forgiveness of your sins. And you'll receive the gift of

the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children,

and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God

calls to himself. And as the Spirit exposed their

sin and revealed the truth in Jesus, around 3000 people that

day repented, turned to Christ, and joined the church.

In John 16, Jesus is promising that through the ministry of His

Spirit, the gospel will go forth with such power that the

spiritually deaf will hear, the spiritually blind will see, and

the spiritually dead will come alive.

If you trust Jesus this morning, that's your story.

The Spirit has done that work in your life.

The Spirit has been doing this work for almost 2000 years.

So truly it was to our advantage that Jesus go away.

We're here because of the Holy Spirit.

We can go to the world with confidence because of the Holy

Spirit. And Jesus says in verse 33, I've

said these things to you, that in me you may have peace in the

world, you'll have tribulation, but take heart, I've overcome

the world. Friends, we can even have peace

with all that we're facing this morning because of the Holy

Spirit. We know that the Spirit will

give us everything we need to glorify Christ until he comes

again. Let's pray.

Father, as we come to this table this morning, we're so grateful

for the work of the Spirit. So, Holy Spirit, we pray that

you would take these words from your gospel and drive them home

to our hearts. Shine your light on Jesus that

we might be drawn to Him yet again.

Lord, for those who may not know Jesus, we pray that he would

seem so beautiful and so believable that they would not

be able to resist, that they would come to Him even now.

And Lord, we thank you for this sacrament, which in in yet

another beautiful way your Spirit takes to make what Jesus

did for us even more real in our lives.

So be with us now as we come to your table at your invitation in

Jesus name, Amen.