John 16:1–15 – “It is to our advantage“
(Josiah Hall)
John 16:1–15 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 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 go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 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. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
—————————————————————
In the Farewell Discourse, Jesus not only prepares his disciples for his absence, but also alerts them that opposition is coming. Jesus recognizes that both suffering and his absence will amplify the disciples’ sorrow (v. 6), but then he says something startling: “it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you” (v. 7). We should linger on these words and reckon with their shocking claim. How can it be better for us that Jesus not be here?!
Today’s passage is the third and final time in John’s Gospel where Jesus clarifies that the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, will come and dwell in God’s people in Jesus’s physical absence (see also 14:25–31; 15:26–27). In this passage, John highlights two ways that the Holy Spirit comforts and helps us in times of opposition.
First, the Holy Spirit dwells in believers to reassure them that they have rightly understood God’s message by accepting Jesus. When persecution and opposition are increasing, it is natural to wonder if you have gotten it right and are believing the right thing. Jesus here tells us that the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church should reassure us that we are God’s people. The Holy Spirit exposes the world’s sin in their rejection of Jesus, confirms believers’ righteousness by dwelling among them in Jesus’s absence, and testifies that the unbelieving world will experience judgment (16:9–11).
While in our modern context, judgment often makes us uncomfortable, for those who are experiencing unjust persecution the promise that God will judge is enormously comforting, for one day God will confirm that his people got it right and the world got it wrong. Thus, in moments when we’re tempted to doubt because we feel that believers are in an ever-shrinking minority, we can take heart, for the Holy Spirit’s presence confirms that God is at work.
Second, the Holy Spirit plays a vital role in maintaining our connection to God. The Holy Spirit keeps us linked to Jesus and to the Father. Jesus fully revealed the Father to us, telling us everything the Father told him to say, and demonstrating the Father’s life-giving power through his works. The Father and Son are so unified that Jesus tells Judas (not Iscariot) that to see Jesus is to see the Father (14:9–11). Yet it is not only the Father and Son who are so unified, but the Father, Son, and Spirit.
Just as the Son reveals the Father, so the Spirit points believers back to the Son, telling us everything the Son gives him to say (16:13). In this way, we come into and stay in relationship with the Triune God. The Son comes into our darkness, reveals the Father, and brings us into the Family of God (1:12), and the Spirit maintains and deepens that connection by drawing us ever deeper in our knowledge and love for the Triune God.
Today’s passage begins with a prediction of coming opposition. Jesus’s words here preempt the natural questions that persecution raises of whether God cares. Though Jesus is absent, he is not inactive. Rather he has sent the Spirit to help us. God the Spirit is not an add-on or a second-string substitute for Jesus. Instead, if the Holy Spirit is indeed God and if he indeed dwells among us, then he provides us with an astoundingly intimate and secure relationship with the Triune God. The Holy Spirit reminds us of what Jesus said (14:26), provides an understanding of Jesus’s words that the disciples previously misunderstood (16:12) and enables our faithful representation of Jesus, even in response to opposition (15:26–27). The coming of the Holy Spirit really is to our great advantage.
Weekly Prayer Focus: Capital Campaign & Fundraising
Daily Prayer Request: “A Broad Base of Support.” While we anticipate that the primary base of support for new building finances would come from our own congregation, City Reformed has ministered to a lot of people over the years. Let’s pray that we could find support among this broader base of support and that people who believe in our mission would be led to find ways to help us move forward.