John Chapter 16:12-17

God wants to speak to you. God wants to teach you. How twisted we've gotten that we think we're chasing God around, tugging on his coattails, going, please teach me something.

Please show me something. Oh, there's chasing going on. But God's chasing you, seeking to reveal things to you, and how he longs to get quiet moments in your busy days where he can do just that. And if we'll sit and be still for long enough, I guarantee you, he will speak. What an awesome thing that our teacher is God. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is a senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. One of David Magee's associate pastors is D.A.

Brown, and he's here with us on the program today. Welcome. Bob, this is a powerful teaching.

I'm excited to be here. Did you know that God desires to teach you? He'll use the Bible, his Holy Spirit, and others to share his word and to lead us in life. Today, Pastor David describes how God can teach us each and every day as he continues in the Gospel of John chapter 16. Sounds wonderful, brother.

Can't wait. Here's David Magee with part three of the teaching, The Helper. Turn with me to John 16. In verse 12, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Understand, there's a lot of things that Jesus wanted to say to them that they couldn't understand, they couldn't grasp until after the crucifixion, after the resurrection. Our knowledge of God is progressive, is progressive. Just as he's being very patient, very kind with the disciples, he's that same way with us. Verse 13, however, when he, 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. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. What a blessing.

What a blessing. He's saying again that the Holy Spirit will declare biblical truth to us. Take Jesus' words. Now, and keep in mind, at this point, the Bible that they had was the Old Testament, was Hebrew Scriptures. Now, the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, were illuminating the New Testament and were the foundation of the New Testament.

The Book of Revelation, you have over 800 Old Testament references, and you have Deuteronomy being the most quoted book in the gospels. And so, again, the Holy Spirit is going to take these words that we're reading this morning, and he's gonna declare it to you. Now, that's an awesome thing, because over and over again, the Holy Spirit does this.

I don't know how many people here have had this experience, but you're going through something, you're struggling with something, and you're like, man, I just, I don't know what to do. And then you crack open the Bible in the morning for your devotional, and you go to read the passage, and right there is the verse that speaks right to your situation. That's not happenstance. That's not, the rabbis say coincidence is not a kosher word. That's God speaking to you, giving you what you need when you need it.

It's a glorious thing that he cares that much about you to speak to your heart and your life situation. Jesus is saying he will glorify Jesus. The Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus. The Holy Spirit does not glorify the Holy Spirit.

And that's an important thing, because we all should have a sense of discernment, discerning what is right and wrong, what is flesh, what is spirit. And look at this and understand the Holy Spirit wants to do this. And so the first life lesson here is the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. If there is a gift of the Holy Spirit that's in operation, is it pointing to Jesus? If it's not, it's not the Holy Spirit. It's an easy thing to see. It's an easy thing to see.

So use that litmus test when you're looking at these things. Now verse 15, all things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. Again, we have here in our laps in these Bibles, the fulfillment of what Jesus was saying.

Jesus says, the Father, the Holy Spirit will take my words and will declare it to you. And so even in the reading of this, yeah, I've studied the Bible for many years. And for a few years, every time before I studied the Bible, I would actually read these few verses, because it reassured me that God wanted to reveal these things to me.

You see, we get this twisted notion. And actually it's sometimes reinforced by society, sometimes even reinforced by ministry, where we say, well, you know, you can't really understand this book. So, you know, God put me here to kind of put me between you and God so I can explain these things to you. I'm sorry, that's not true when you look at the Bible.

The Bible says God wants to declare these things to you. Oh yeah, I'm a Bible teacher and I'm here this morning and I'm wanting to communicate biblical truth. But you know what I always remember? The story of Balaam. The story of Balaam when God spoke to Balaam through a donkey. And so that's kind of a humbling story that God often brings to my mind, if I'd ever attempt to take any pride in what God is doing here, to remember, yeah, God's speaking through me, but you know what? He'll use anybody.

He'll even use a donkey. God wants to speak to you. God wants to teach you. And how twisted we've gotten that we think we're chasing God around tugging on his coattails going, please teach me something.

Please show me something. Oh, there's chasing going on. But God's chasing you, seeking to reveal things to you and how he longs to get quiet moments in your busy days where he can do just that. And if we'll sit and be still for long enough, I guarantee you he will speak. What an awesome thing that our teacher is God. That's who is revealing biblical truth to us. And as you see Jesus interacting with these disciples who a lot of this stuff they didn't get it and he had to explain over and over, understand that's God's heart towards you. If you don't understand something, pray about it.

God, I don't understand this. Will you show me? Will you explain it to me? Will you show me a passage of scripture? God desires to teach you.

And it's not a pass or fail thing. He's not sitting there looking at your answers and going, uh-oh, 68. You're going to have to take this all over again. He's not doing that.

If anything, he's going, yeah, you got two thirds right. First Corinthians chapter 2 verses 9 and 10. We hear verse 9 a lot, but a lot of people quote this verse and they stop. But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard nor entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. We use that passage and we go, oh, look at that.

That's a beautiful verse. It's talking about heaven. It means we can't begin to understand it.

But wait, don't stop. Read the next verse. But God has revealed to them to us through his spirit for the spirit searches all things, just the deep things of God. God wants to reveal these things to us.

That's his desire. And we're actually told a few verses later in first Corinthians 2 14, but the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. There's so many examples of this scripture. If you've ever tried to sit and talk to somebody that wasn't following Jesus, that didn't know Jesus and you're talking to them about scriptural, spiritual, biblical things and many times they don't get it. You ever tried to explain to an unbeliever about tithing? They're not going to get it. How that when you honor God with your first fruits, somehow you're more blessed that they're not going to get it.

And see that reminds us of the point from last week, keep the main thing the main thing. The thing that an unbeliever needs to be convinced of is none of this other stuff. It's simply this Jesus Christ died for your sins so that you can be forgiven and be in right restored relationship with him. Now understand, according to this, whenever you understand biblical truth, that's a God thing. God has shown you that God has revealed that to you through the Holy Spirit. God showed you. Now let me say something that may be obvious, but let's, let's make sure we understand this. God revealed it to you. Any spiritual truth that you have, any spiritual truth that I have at this moment in this place, God has revealed to me. What does that mean? Well, that means at some point I didn't know it. I didn't understand it, but God revealed it to me.

Why is that important? There's people in your life, there's people in my life, they're not getting it. They're not understanding it. And I have to be honest, every now and again I get impatient with that. Be even more honest, the closer they are to me, the more frustrated I get that they're not getting it. Isn't that amazing? Because at one time I didn't understand it, God revealed it to me, but now in turn I'm going to get frustrated with somebody else that doesn't get it.

Kind of twisted in it. So when you look at people around you, the temptation is there. Oh, maybe y'all are just much stronger than me spiritually and y'all never get frustrated at the fact that somebody else doesn't get it. But if that's true, just sympathize with me for a moment, if you will.

I get frustrated even though God is the one that revealed it to me and God will be the one to reveal it to others. Oh, He may use you. He may not. He may use others. He may use the Word.

He may use the internet, television, radio. Oh, I know those things have been used for all kinds of ungodly purposes, but the awesome thing is God is using those things for His purpose as well. And God will communicate to those people and when they get it, well, it won't be you. It'll be God. See, this is so liberating because when y'all get biblical truth, when you grab a hold of something, I understand it's not me. I may be the vehicle God used to communicate that truth, but it's God that did it.

And in your life as people understand it, it's not going to be you. You may be the vehicle that He uses, but it's going to be God who communicates to that person. The life lesson here, God desires to teach us. God desires to teach us. God is not playing some shell game with us. God's going, okay, I'll show you this. Oh, but you can't see.

Oh, which one is it? You know, we think spiritually God's playing a shell game with us sometimes. Oh, He's not going to tell us this. He's not going to tell us that. As a matter of fact, there's a whole lot we don't know. No, God's wanting to reveal His truth, His word to us. No shell game to it.

No shell game to it. He desires to use the Bible, use the Holy Spirit, uses Bible teachers, uses people, uses situation, uses experience. He teaches us about life and death and heaven and sin and joy and love. He wants to teach us about all these things. What an awesome, awesome thing.

And again, let's understand His nature. I'm a father. I have three children. When they were first walking, as a parent, it's just a beautiful experience. It's an awesome thing. They've been walking a while now, but now they're driving. But looking at them and watching them and watching them when they begin to walk, I was so for them. They didn't like take a couple of steps and them fall down and me go, oh, what are you doing?

You're not trying. Get up from there. Hopefully you didn't do that. If you did, we offer biblical counseling here. Just call. We'll talk to you.

No, I was like, oh, come on, let's get up. Let's try again. I'm an earthly, sinful father.

If I as an earthly father am looking at my children like that, how much more God the Father is looking at you going, oh, come on, you fell, but let's get up again. Here, let me help you. Let me show you here. Kind of balance yourself.

Go one leg, go one foot at a time. That's what He wants to do in your life. And anything that you have in your mind and your heart or in your experiences that tells you something else, friend, loved one, you got to let go of that because that's not God. The reality is many of us grow up and we get misconceptions about who God is.

And a lot of it has to do with this. And this is one of the reasons we emphasize the Bible here is because you can know God through knowing the Bible. We want to help you to know God. We want to help you to apply these biblical truths. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment, but I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as Savior. You need people to pray for them. You need someone to present God's word to them. Every day we're presenting God's word to them here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the Pray for the Lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior, click on submit, and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones. What an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from Associate Pastor D. A.

Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for seven cities in our listening audience. Raymond and Waynesboro, Mississippi, Branson, Chillicothe, Festus, Joplin, and Nevada, Missouri. Lord, thank you for everyone listening in these cities. Lord, we know that you're at work in their hearts because they're tuning in now. Lord, I pray that you would remind them of that, that you're at work.

You have a good plan. You're going to protect them. Lord, give them wisdom and discernment. Help them to not fear during these tumultuous times that we live in. Lord, help them to constantly be in prayer for their family, for their loved ones, and for their co-workers, and use them as divine ambassadors in the cities that they live in. Lord, anyone who doesn't yet know you in these cities, we pray that you would encourage them to put their trust in you. Use us, Father, to be a blessing to them with your good news. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. Now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. So verse 16. A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me because I go to the Father. What is Jesus talking about here? Well, he's talking about his death and his resurrection. And he's saying, you're going to see this stuff.

You're going to not see me, and then you're going to see me. You're going to see the resurrection. These 11 men, something changed them. You see, they went from a scattered bunch of people to people who were willing to die.

They went from men who were hiding because their leader had been taken to men who would boldly stand in a synagogue and proclaim Jesus Christ to the point that 10 of them died martyrs' death, never once recanting the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were witnesses to these things, witnesses to these things. What is a witness?

Well, we have a definition in Webster's dictionary. A witness is a person who has seen or knows something and is therefore competent to give evidence concerning it. Person who has seen or knows something and is therefore competent to give evidence concerning it. Now, let me ask you a question. What does a witness do in a courtroom setting?

It's kind of interesting. The Greek word for witness is martus. It's where we get our word for martyr. But what does a witness do in a courtroom setting? It's a good question because we're supposed to be witnesses. Acts 1.8 tells us that we receive power to be witnesses.

We're supposed to be witnesses. What does a witness do? A witness stands or sits and tells what they know.

But remember the courtroom setting. What is a witness not? A witness is not the judge. A witness is not the jury.

A witness is not an attorney in the courtroom. Why is that important? Because when we begin to play those roles, we cease to play the role of the witness. See, the Bible tells us in the book of Romans that it's the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.

It's the goodness of God. And as witnesses, that's what we need to be sharing. We need to be sharing the goodness of God and we need to be witnesses. Not jury, not judge, not an attorney, but witnesses.

Witnesses. These disciples, they saw a lot of stuff, didn't they? In verse 17, then some of his disciples said among themselves, what is this that he says to us a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me because I go to the Father?

Again. We think of the disciples as these huge superheroes of faith and so they were later in life, but they were men. And here we see them basically saying to Jesus, I don't get it. I don't understand. God bless them in their humility of saying, I don't get it.

I don't understand. Because there was things that were getting ready to happen that were incredible. The thing is, we're so familiar with these events, we lose some of the wonder of it all. And what I mean by that is the resurrection. Jesus Christ died and didn't stay dead. Let that sink in for a second. Maybe you're one of those who are kind of skeptical and yeah, I don't know about if he really was resurrected.

Let me offer this to you. There is more literary proof that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead than Julius Caesar ever lived. And I'm not just talking about the Bible.

Outside documents. Josephus, a Jewish historian who was not a Christian, who was not a follower of Jesus, notes in his history that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. And in other places refers to it.

Why is that important? Because that's the central theme of our faith. If Jesus was not resurrected from the dead, what are we doing here?

What is all this about? Paul said we were most miserable of all men. If Jesus didn't, if he wasn't resurrected.

And I think because we just, we're so familiar with these details that we just gloss over it. But imagine if you will, if I sat here this morning and said, hey guys, listen, you know, it's Sunday. I'm going to be out on the highway tomorrow and I'm going to have a car accident or my heart's going to give out or whatever and I'm going to die, but don't be worried. I'm still going to be here next Sunday morning. Would I have your attention?

You betcha. This was the exchange that was going on with these disciples. If you can imagine the discussion with Joseph of Arimathea, hey Joseph, we need a tomb. We need a place where nobody has ever been buried so that we can bury Jesus who's going to be crucified.

And Joseph says, okay, I guess so. And okay, so when do you need it? Well, we're not sure of the exact detail of when we'll need it, but you know, as far as the tomb goes, we're only going to need it for the weekend. What, what?

Only going to need it for the weekend. What do you mean? The person, you're going to put a person that has died in there. Yeah, but he's not going to stay dead. Death can't hold him. Sin has not won over him.

He is perfect. And though he will die, he will die because he gives up his spirit is what we're told and any resurrected and the hope of our faith is in that. Imagine if you will, being one of those disciples, seeing Jesus crucified, dead and buried and what you would have felt, what you would have felt during that time, hiding in the upper room, scattered going, I can't believe it ended like this. But then, then somebody comes to you, a woman, let me point out, comes to the disciples. And if you remember the exchange, she goes, Jesus, he's not in there. And they were like, oh, be quiet. You're babbling.

It's too good to be true. And then they ran to the tomb and it was empty. And because of that day, this day, you and I can have hope. We can know that our sins can be forgiven. We can be in right relationship with God.

We can be restored in that relationship and then be taught how to live, how to love, how to walk in the fullness and the joy of life and the abundant life and be patiently talked, not by just a good teacher, but by God the creator, friend, loved one. That's good news. That is good news. And it could be that there's some here this morning, well, you've not yet asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins. I want you to understand something. If you're here to explore the claims of Christ or you've never asked him to forgive you of your sins, you are our honored guest. We are so pleased and happy that you're here. And the fact that you came here not necessarily to worship God, but to hear about God and see and discover more about the Lord is a powerful thing.

But friend, you don't have to walk out the way you walked in. You see, Jesus Christ, even this morning, has revealed himself to you. He wants you to understand he died so that you can be forgiven of your sins. And it's time to quit holding on to your goodness and your righteousness and you trying to make it happen and you trying to do it right and say, God, I can't do it. I ask you to forgive me of my sins.

Life without God is dark and dismal and leads to condemnation. But you can be forgiven this morning if you will turn to him and follow him. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at PO Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life.

You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.