John 16 - Part B

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Chapter 14, verse 28. You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said I am going to the Father for the Father is greater than I.

Now, look at verse five. But now I go away to him who sent me and none of you asked me, where are you going? They really weren't asking where. They didn't care where. What they cared about was why. Why are you leaving us?

Why would you do this to us? How could you love us if you said you're going to leave us? But none of them cared where he was going. He's going back home. He's going to the Father. He has left heaven.

In the incarnation, he has come to the earth. But their focus was on their loss rather than their focus being on what Jesus would gain. And by the way, they were focused on what they would lose rather than what they would gain because Jesus is about to say, I need to go. It's for your benefit.

It's expedient that I go because when I go, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit who's going to abide with you forever. They're focused on why, how, how could this be instead of where. Wrong focus. I've discovered that unbelievers also have the wrong focus when you tell them about Christ and you try to persuade them to commit their lives to Christ. You know, you ought to give yourself to Jesus Christ and you ought to enjoy his forgiveness and have a relationship with him. They focus often on the wrong things.

They focus on their loss. What about all my friends that won't like me anymore or that will forsake me? I'm going to lose my friends. Ah, but you'll gain a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Oh, but I'm going to lose popularity on earth, but not in heaven. Oh, but I'm going to lose my old life perhaps, but you're going to gain a whole new one.

You're going to gain an eternal one. There was a missionary who was killed by the Alka Indians named Jim Elliott. Many of you know of him and you know his story. Very famous missionary. He gave his life to preach the gospel to the Alka Indians. One of the most famous things Elliott ever said is, he is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

I love that. Focus on the right stuff, not the wrong stuff, on the eternal, not the temporary. But because I have said these things, sorrow has filled your heart. He knew his men. It was still written on their faces.

All of the promises he gave them in this speech, they're still kind of like walking along going, oh man, this is a bummer. What a drag. I hate this. Nevertheless, verse seven, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away.

Now, I just got to know that these disciples at this point were going, are you kidding? It's better that you go away? No, I have a different idea. I think it's better that you stay with us. I think we're going to take a vote and you just hang around with us.

We like that plan better. Nevertheless, I tell you it's to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, that's the Holy Spirit mentioned, he's called the helper four times in this upper room discourse. You need help. You need all the help you can get.

And so do I. And I'm so glad Jesus said you have it. In fact, you don't just have help, you have the helper. He's not just going to give you resources.

He's going to live inside you to pull it off. You have the helper. I'm going to send the helper.

He will come to you, but if I, the helper will not come to you unless I do, but if I depart, I will send him to you. Here's the deal. And you don't have to give me a show of hands because this is a rhetorical question. Have you found that the Christian life is sometimes very difficult to live?

Of course. We all have. How often have we doubted and wondered, am I going to make it through this? This is more than I can bear or I'm struggling in this area.

I don't know if I could ever conquer it. That's why you need a helper. And he'll live inside of you and he knows your weaknesses, but he still is with you and he's not going to leave you and he's always going to hang around. I love an illustration that D.L. Moody, the evangelist from Chicago, gave when he was alive. He was a simple preacher and he loved simple illustrations and explanations. He held up a glass, an empty glass, and he said to his congregation, now how am I going to get the air out of this glass? He goes, I suppose I could get a pump and pump it out, get some device to pump out all the air, but then I will create a vacuum and shatter the glass. So how will I get the air out of the glass? Then what he did is he took a pitcher of water and he poured it in the glass until it filled up and he said, problem solved.

I get the air out by having it filled with water. And he said that is the Christian life. That is the victory that is offered to you by the helper. The key to your success isn't trying to suck out one sin, one problem at a time, but just being filled with the Holy Spirit. Be filled with so much of him that there's nothing left of you. Oh, but there's so much air in there, just keep being filled. In fact, it is in the present tense in the book of Ephesians when Paul says, be filled with the Spirit. It's be being filled, be constantly being filled with the Spirit. The helper.

If I depart, I will send him to you. Now remember, just to jog your memory, Jesus called the Holy Spirit another helper. And I told you, just want to refresh your memory. I know you've memorized this by now.

If you haven't, I'm going to tell you a second time. There's two words Jesus could have used for another helper. He could have used the word heteros, which means another of a different kind.

But he used the word allos, which means another of exactly the same kind. And the illustration that I gave you was, let's say you pick up a CD that somebody says you ought to listen to this band and you listen and you go, this is horrible. I never want to listen to another song of this band in my life. So you're about to throw it away or give it to somebody who you think might like bad music. And then you say, I'm going to go buy another CD. You don't mean I'm going to get another one just like that one. No, you're going to get a heteros CD, one that's completely different from that band. But if you were to say to a friend, I'm giving you this CD and they go, oh, I love it. And you go, go ahead and keep it.

I love it too. I'm going to buy another one. Now you're going to use the word allos.

I'm going to buy another CD just like the one that I gave to you. So when Jesus said, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit. He is another helper. It was the word allos, another one, just like the one I've been to you all these years. It's not going to be me. It's going to be him, but he's going to provide for you the same kind of help. You've called on me.

You've asked things from me and I've been there for you. Holy Spirit will be another one just like I am. And when he has come, verse eight, that is the spirit, the helper. When he, notice not it, the Holy Spirit is not a force. It's a person, not an impersonal force of electricity who I'll feel the spirit.

It's a, it's a person, a divine person. He, 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. Three things Jesus promised the Holy Spirit will do. He's going to convict or convince, you could translate, he's going to convince the world, the unbelieving world. He's going to convince them, first of all, of sin, because they do not believe in me. A person will never be open to receiving Jesus as their Savior unless they realize they need saving. If they don't need a Savior, they won't ask Jesus to save them.

If they don't see their need, they won't act to receive the solution for their problem. So the first work of the Holy Spirit is to convince people you really need help. You really are unsaved. You really won't go to heaven without Jesus. Holy Spirit, his job is to convict the world.

Now I like this. It's not my job to convince them. It's not your job. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, starting the year with a structured Bible study can shape your spiritual journey for the months ahead and help align your life with God's truth. We want to help you do that with Pastor Skip's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet and Companion Workbook. Journey through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, gaining a deep panoramic understanding of God's word that helps you understand the big picture of scripture with greater clarity. These resources are our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copies when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Don't you love that? I got to go out and save people.

No, you can't. I've had people come and he goes, man, you saved me. And I put my arm around him. I know what you're saying, but I didn't save you. I might've told you where to find help or I threw out the rope, but God pulled you in. He's the one that saved you.

So it's not your job to convince people or to convince people. You know, I had friends trying to talk me into following Jesus for weeks and weeks and finally I got so sick of it I thought I'm moving, I'm leaving. And I moved.

I moved way up north, 400 miles away. And I was watching television one afternoon all alone. And I'm watching Billy Graham on television. And I'm listening, but it wasn't really what he was saying. I don't even remember what he was saying, but I felt a conviction. I felt convinced that I needed something.

My friends had been trying to, you know, push me over the edge, sign on the dotted line, but I'd have none of it. But that afternoon, completely caught off guard, the Holy Spirit used what I heard on that television broadcast to draw me in. He convinced me.

I was a sinner. He convinced me that I needed a Savior. By the way, how else do you explain the results of Peter at Pentecost? Peter preaches the gospel on the day of Pentecost. Yes, the same Peter who denied that he even knew Jesus. That Peter. The same Peter who said a lot of stupid things during Jesus' ministry.

Same dude. Now he's preaching a gospel in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 people respond to Peter. And it says they were cut to the heart. They were convicted in their heart. Not by Peter's mastery of the text, but the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Notice the second thing. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see me no more. When Jesus died and then rose again from the dead and then ascended to the right hand of the Father, having completed the transaction, it's as if God the Father was saying, this is the righteousness that I will accept in my presence, the righteousness of this one. That's why you need to be in Christ, clothed with the merits of Jesus Christ, not your own. You know, I have noticed that by and large, when it comes to righteousness or goodness, the world is sort of like they carry around a scale in their head. They may not articulate it like this, but it's as if they have like a little thermometer and from cold to hot. And so a criminal might be like 10%, 20% good, righteous.

And then there's other people who are a little warmer. You know, they do a few good things or 30, 40%. Then there's other people who are really good and they're even religious. They may be 50, 60, even 70%. God's a hundred percent.

And so they kind of measure on a sliding scale. Whereas the Bible says about all mankind, none are righteous, none are good. Even Jesus said, why do you call me good? There's only one who is good. That is God. That's God's standard of righteousness. He is perfect.

No one else is. Now, religious people think that they can raise the temperature of their thermometer. Work a little harder, get a little hotter. If I get up to this level, then God will accept me.

He has to. I've earned it. And their righteousness is like the Avis Reticar motto. We try harder.

I try harder. My church tries harder. Yet God said to the prophet Isaiah, all of our righteousness is filthy rags. So the righteousness that God will accept as seen by the ascension of Jesus to the Father is that kind and that kind alone. So that's why we are clothed in him.

Our trust is in him. And then finally, verse 11, of judgment. So he'll convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment because the ruler of this world, and we discovered last time in our study that that is Satan, the ruler of this world, is judged. When he convinces a person that not only are they sinners in need of a Savior, not only are they not righteous in their own merit and their own religious works, but that there is a consequence to it all, and that's called judgment.

There really is a final judgment. And if left to themselves, they will face the certain judgment of God. That's a work of the Holy Spirit. It's a work he does.

And again, it's his job, not yours. Oh, there's a sinner, man. I'm going to dangle him over the fires of hell. Right now, he has his coffee latte.

I'm going to go over there right now and I'm going to make him sweat it out. The Holy Spirit will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and judgment. And by the way, I find it healthy when a person begins to think of the future and think if I stand before, if everything that they are telling me is true about Jesus Christ from the Bible, if I stand before this God, I am ill-prepared to face that judgment.

I think it's a healthy thing to think along those lines because that takes you back to the first one. He convinces the world of sin, and that's where you seek a Savior. Verse 12, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When I was a week old in the Lord, two weeks old in the Lord, three weeks, the first month, etc., there were many things I didn't know that I know now. The Lord has revealed them to me over the years. I mean, if you knew how ridiculously rudimentary I was in my relationship with God, it's laughable. I mean, I remember reading my Bible and smoking marijuana and taking other substances thinking, hey man, it's natural God gave them to us.

In fact, I kind of feel like I really get in touch with God when I, I mean, I think I've seen God perhaps on that substance. I had received Christ, and it was two weeks later that my friend said, you know, I don't think that's a good idea, and I wasn't convinced. But again, one day I was alone, and I was reading the Gospel of Matthew, and the Holy Spirit convinced me, you need to get rid of those drugs, and I'm thinking, man, that's a lot of money. I could sell them, and I could get, you know, I could use it for the Lord, the money, and I felt like the Lord was telling me, no, you need to flush those things down the toilet. But I had received Christ, and that's how ignorant I still was.

I had a lot of growing up to do. So listen, I was saved, and the Lord was very patient with me, and he had a lot of things to tell me. I just couldn't bear them, but the next week I could bear a little more, and a little more, and a little more, and the more you put into practice what he tells you, he has more to tell you. He's got a lot more stuff to tell you when you say, I'll do that. But if you just say, I won't do that, but Lord, tell me more, show me more, you know, reveal more of yourself.

He's thinking, why should I? You didn't do what I revealed to you first few weeks. Why don't you just start there and obey that, and I'll give you more.

So I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. I think of my perfect, precious little granddaughter, Cadence Joy. If I were to give her a set of encyclopedias, she wouldn't appreciate it. She might look at the pictures, tear a few out that she likes. If I were to give her a box of gold that would carry her through the rest of her life, don't worry, I don't have one, but if I did and I gave it to her, too much. She would know what it means, she would know what to do with it, she would know how to invest it, it's just shiny, I'll play with it.

She would much rather have an ice cream from Baskin-Robbins than a box of gold. That's what she can handle right now. Jesus said, I have a lot more to tell you, but you just can't bear it yet. However, he said, if that's going to come, you'll be able to bear it.

Here's when. However, when the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will tell you things to come.

Now there is a couple of words in that sentence that most translations do not carry in a way in English. Notice it says to you in verse 13, when the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into, what are the next few words? All truth. There's an article that should be there. All the truth.

Teis alatheos. The truth. It's not just, whatever you feel to be true at the moment, man. It's a specific, not a generic truth.

The truth. It's the truth about the message of Jesus Christ. That's the truth the Holy Spirit leads a person into. It's the same idea when in that little book of Jude, that little one chapter book of Jude toward the book of Revelation, when the apostles said that we should contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Not just for faith in general. You have your faith, I have my faith.

Just believe strong enough and long enough and have your best day now. But it's the particular kind of faith and the particular kind of truth that centers on Jesus. It's New Testament truth.

So that's very important. He will guide you into all specifically the truth. And notice he amplifies that. Verse 14, he will glorify me, Jesus said. 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. Now he is telling us, he's informing us what it looks like in the life of a believer filled with the Holy Spirit. Influenced by the Holy Spirit, controlled by the Holy Spirit. Now there's a couple of verses I want you to tie together because remember Jesus introduces the subject, leaves them, comes back to them, leaves them, comes back to them and he's done that already. So go back with me to chapter 15 and look at verse 25 or verse 26. It says when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of who?

Me. He'll testify of Jesus, right? Then chapter 16, look at verse nine. He says the Holy Spirit will convince people of sin because they do not believe in me.

And then in verse 14 he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program.

Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you gain a deeper understanding of the sweeping story of scripture. Pastor Skip's book, The Bible from 30,000 Feet and the companion workbook are our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copies when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.