030 - It Is To Your Advantage

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. You know, we've been reading through John and we got to this point where Jesus announces to the apostles that he's going away. And now he's going to say it's to their advantage. What? How can it possibly be to their advantage? How can it be to their advantage?

What could be better when he goes away? They love Jesus. They've been walking with him.

Well, we're going to find out what that advantage is today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning. I'm Jim.

And I'm Dorothy. And we are literally sitting here in front of our dining room table. We say that every week.

I know. They know it by now. Well, you have to paint a word picture. So the word picture is we're sitting at our table because that's exactly what we're doing. I should say we have our cups of coffee, but we don't this time.

But if you do, that's okay. But in the interest of the fact that what we're doing is trying to show you how you can just informally sit down and look at the word. For a lot of people who do devotions, you know, who bring up their Bible in the morning and sit down with their cup of coffee, it's a lot like this. But, you know, you do it in dialogue with someone else.

It's awful fun. Well, sometimes when people say they do their devotions, they're depending on a little devotional book. So they're not actually processing the word for themselves. And I'm not speaking down about those kinds of books.

I read them and enjoy them myself. But if that is your primary means of cracking open the bread of God, then maybe you need to explore some other options. And I think a lot of people think they can't do that. Right. But you can.

Unless they have an expert on the page to tell them what they're eating. It's just really, I mean, God's made this successful. And we'll see in a second, which Jesus already brought up, that he says this is actually possible and this is the way, this is the plan. Yeah.

The Holy Spirit will give you guidance into the truth. Yeah. So we'll look at that a little bit more.

He talked about the Holy Spirit in the last chapter that we were in in 15. So that's the case. So you can indeed sit down with the Bible in your lap and start reading and God can speak to your heart. And that's just what we're doing here today. So we're glad that you're with us. Not because we're any experts in any sense, but we just love exploring the Bible just like you do.

So here we go. So we've been going through John, we finished chapter 15, the vine in the branches chapter last week. He's been talking about the Holy Spirit and today, wow, big time Holy Spirit stuff. And this will change your whole view, I think, of the Holy Spirit if you don't know much about the Spirit.

Well, and the reason he's been talking about the Holy Spirit is because he's been saying to them and he's said it a number of ways up to this point. I'm going away, but I'm going to send you somebody. I'm going to send you a helper. Yeah. So physically I'm leaving, but I'm not abandoning you. Right.

I'll still be with you. He's trying to introduce them to the fact that their relationship, their personal relationship with Jesus is not coming to an end, even though physically he won't be around, but it'll actually be better. So that's the brand new news and that's what he's trying to get across to them while they're still struggling with this fact that they feel like they're being abandoned and they're not.

But it's just a radical transformation in relationship. So let's just see what he's talking about. So we're jumping into the front end of John 16 today.

And do you want to read that first section for us? Yeah. These first few verses actually kind of wrap up the thoughts that he had been talking about.

This should have been at the end of 15. Perhaps. Well, you know, the numbers are assigned by almost randomly. But he's been talking about contrasting being in the world and being of the world and the opposition they're going to encounter in the world. So let's just read the first three or four verses. He says, I've said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

They'll put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he's offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me. But I've said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. Let's stop there for a minute.

Yeah, yeah. So he's prefiguring this persecution that's going to be coming up to them, you know. And he gives them some reasons for the things that he's telling them, right? He says, I'm telling you these things to keep you from stumbling or to keep you from falling away.

Right, I don't want it to affect you. I want to circle back to that in a minute. And then he says, I'm telling these things before it happens so you'll remember that I told you. Right, right, which always reassures us of the fact that this is not an accident. Right. This is foreseen by God, so don't freak out.

Because in the chaos of the garden, an hour or some from now, maybe two hours, they're going to forget everything he said until after. Oh, yeah. And that happens to all of us in a panic, in the flash of the chaotic event we forget. Yeah. Yeah, and I think it's fascinating, too, that in this persecution, they're going to think they're doing it for righteous, religious reasons. And that's really disturbing.

I mean, it's easy when you suffer when someone's just a jerk in some way. But when they think they're actually achieving something for God, that's really disturbing. They're doing what God wants them to do.

Right. And clearly, when you look at the history of the church after this point, that's clearly what they think they're doing. And even the apostle Paul, remember, who has the Damascus Road experience, thinks he's actually cleansing the Jewish community.

Right, I thought about that. And Jesus said, they're going to do these things because they have not known me. Right, because if they knew who God was, they would recognize him in Jesus. And that knowing is an experiential knowing. That's fundamentally from walking with and living with and being with Jesus as God in the flesh. They haven't known that kind of relationship with the Father. Yeah, yeah.

But they've been introduced to the relationship with the Father through Jesus. Right. Well, and he's going to amplify on that. But I want to back up a minute to where he says, I've said all these things to you to keep you from falling away, is what the ESV says.

The New American Standard says, to keep you from stumbling. And that's kind of an interesting word. It means to step into ruin. Right. Right, to be wrecked. Because things are going to happen to you that are going to be so unexpected and so horrific that they're going to maybe cause you even to lose faith. Question what you believe. Right. And Peter, actually, when he was writing his first epistle, he said, you know, they stumble because they are disobedient to the word or they're unbelieving to the word. That's when we step into ruin.

When we forget what Jesus had said and we stop believing. Right. And you let the realities of your present over speak the truth of what he's spoken to you already. That's what I like to remind people is that you might be forgetting something in your circumstance. Circumstances scream really loud.

Yeah, they push the more important things out of our view. So we have to do like Jeremiah did in Lamentations 3. So this I recall to mind. And so I have hope. So that's all that Jesus is doing right here. He's telling them what's coming so it won't torpedo them.

And that's kind of cool. In a general sense, if you broaden this to life application, God's word in our life is that thing that shouts against the tyranny of our circumstances. And reassures us that things are actually not a surprise to God and they're going according to plan. Well, God's word tells us what reality really is.

Yeah, exactly. What the real thing is here. Not the mirage, not the illusion, not the deception. God tells us the truth. Yeah, so we need to cling to that.

And it's really a discipline to cling to that. The problem is for the apostles, which I'm thinking they're thinking right now too, is well Jesus if you're going away, how will we remember everything? What will bring this all to mind? Because by the way, they're not carrying little pocket Bibles. They haven't been taking notes, they were just doing life. Exactly. So Jesus is really telling them, you know, you need to realize I'm telling you this so you won't fall away. And my words will kind of be a prescription against what circumstances will tempt you to think is going on that's not.

So that's a really important principle right there. That if we are finding ourselves not believing what Jesus had said, that sets us up for stepping into error, stepping into trouble. And as you make those kinds of one step this way, one step this way, one step this way, well the harder it gets to retrace your steps until you come all the way back to what Jesus, what had Jesus actually said. Yeah. So if you happen to have a red letter Bible which highlights the words of Jesus in red, it's not a bad deal, it's not a bad deal.

The first time I heard this I thought this is kind of silly, but it's not a bad deal that when you're in the midst of an emerging crisis, an emerging circumstance, is just to say, okay, I need to remind myself of what Jesus said. Where can I find it? The red letters. The red words. I'm just going to read the red words. Just going to read the red words. Actually we have a friend who said that's all she did when she first came to Christ. That's all she did.

She just read the red words. That's totally fine. It's really totally fine. So again, the issue when you're talking about crises that are emerging in your life, since they do speak so clearly and they talk in your head while your head's on the pillow and you're trying to go to sleep at night and they always amplify how bad it could become. I mean it's a very loud voice in your head. You need to give equal time to the word of God. Say, okay, God, what did you tell me? What have you told me? And that'll kind of set not only the sense of reality, but it'll remind you that there's hope because God foresaw this coming anyway.

And that's all he's doing here with the apostles. But it's a big all. It's just a gigantic thing. And you knew ahead of time, so you'll know. The role of the word.

So you'll remember. So again, moving forward then, the role of the word is super important. And super important in this relationship as Jesus physically goes away is the role of the Holy Spirit, even when it comes to the word. So it's interesting if you listen to what's coming up next as he talks about the role of the Holy Spirit, this new transformed kind of relationship with God that's going to come through the Holy Spirit. And you'll see how much of the word is involved in this as well. So you want me to start reading into this?

Yeah, go ahead. We're picking it up here kind of in the middle of verse 4. So 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 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 I do not 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.

Let's just stop right there for a second. It's to your advantage. It's to your advantage. Wait, how can it be better than having Jesus himself in the flesh?

I love how straight up and clear Jesus is talking here. This is actually a good deal for you for me to go away, because the relationship will change, and you'll have the Helper, and it will be actually much better. It's better if I go away. And I didn't tell you these things in the beginning, because I was with you. Now I'm physically not, and this is the new plan, and this is good for you. Well, so let's talk about that for a minute. What are the advantages of having the Holy Spirit as opposed to the physical body of Jesus?

Yeah, and physically. I mean, they're going to split up and start going all over the world evangelistically. So Jesus can go with them everywhere they go.

But it's even more than that, because in any place they are, intimately they have a relationship with Jesus. Okay, because when they were with Jesus in the flesh, following him around all over the country, he had to sleep. He got tired.

True, yeah. He had to eat. Physical limitations. He had to have a bath. He had to excuse himself.

I mean, all the things, he was completely subject to the physical body, right? And so he says, but the day is coming when I'm going to be with you in such a way that those disadvantages, you're not going to have to fight for my attention in the crowd, right? Yeah, right.

Because I'm available to all of you all the time in the most intimate way. Yeah, you know, talking about fighting for attention with the crowd, I think about the guy who was, the paralytic was let down from the roof, how people just had crowded in on Jesus. Right. And everyone was looking for time with Jesus, to spend time with Jesus.

I think the apostles all were as well. I mean, here you are kind of rubbing shoulders with 11 other guys all the time, and many, many more people who actually followed around. So this is a great deal. This is an intimate nearness that follows them wherever they go. Inescapable. So this is to your advantage that I go away. But if I don't go away, I can't send him. Right, right. Oh, well that's a big thought. Yeah, right.

And we don't, yeah, yeah, it is. Well, probably the short version of that is Jesus said, I am physically with you, but I'm going to go away by means of the cross, which will accomplish for you the opened Holy of Holies, and the availability of that intimate approach, intimate access to God. If I don't go from here to the cross and to the resurrection, I won't be able to send you the Holy Spirit.

Yeah, exactly. And I think as Jews, if they think back to their Old Testament narratives they know about, I mean, you go back to Moses. Moses had this distinction, basically, of having these face-to-face conversations with God.

And that was really a distinction for him. It's as though God said, I'll talk to you, and then you need to talk to the people. So in a way, what he's saying to them is you're going to be in a position like Moses was, where you will be a friend of God and you'll have this intimate one-to-one relationship through the helper, through the Holy Spirit. And actually, he's going to say that, actually, later in the chapter. The Father regards you as his friends. Exactly. So this is why it's an advantage that I go away. Because I'm going to deal with the problem of your sin, which will remove the barrier between the Father and you.

Yeah, and this is all possible now. When we talk about New Covenant, that's the opening of the New Covenant, is the dealing with sin for real and then opening up this intimate relationship through the Holy Spirit. So now he's going to move on to the next verse and talk about exactly what the role of the Holy Spirit is going to be, in case you're a little fuzzy about it.

So why don't you pick up the chorus. But first of all, let's say, but if I go, I will send him to you. Well, earlier in the evening, just a few minutes before, he'd said, well, the Father will send him in my name. And then he had said, we'll send him.

And we'll all come and make our boat in you. And now he says, I will send him. So, see, the Bible is inconsistent and wrong. It doesn't agree with itself.

But it does. Well, isn't it possible that what we have is Jesus speaking as the son of his father, the intimate oneness that they shared, which he's going to open a little window for us in chapter 17. This is a peek at the Trinity. It's a peek at the Trinity.

Even though that term doesn't show up here. Right. So it's not a grammatical error that someone didn't proof text well enough when they wrote the Bible. It's actually, they're all true simultaneously. And that's the beginning of the wonderful mystery of the Trinity. Okay, verse eight.

Let's pick up verse eight. Oh my gosh, he says, and when he comes, and notice he says when he comes, not when it comes. 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'll see me no more. Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.

I have many things to say to you still, 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'll take what's mine and declare it to you. All that the father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what's mine and declare it to you. What? Wow. That's teacher, teacher, my brain is full. Help, help, yeah.

Okay, back up, back up. Back up to verse eight. And when he comes, he will convict the world.

Yeah, how about that? He'll convict the world concerning sin. Well, those three, sin, righteousness, judgment, and then he explains those three. Yeah, but we need to talk about what is conviction, because sometimes in Christian circles we think conviction is, oh, this terrible feeling that I have, like God is convicting me of something. But really the word means to be profoundly persuaded of the truth of something.

So when we are convicted of our sin, we're suddenly persuaded of the truth of our sin. Right, right. Yeah, a very famous evangelist says, if you ever lied in your life, well, yes, I have. Well, that means you're a liar. Right. Well, that's true. And that's the truth.

And that's the truth. That's the convicting of sin. The Holy Spirit does this with sin because for some reason we are not truthful with ourselves about the nature of our sin. Oh, you think? Yeah. And so the Holy Spirit's going to come and sort of rub your nose in it in a way. And he's so specific, right?

He will put his finger directly on the thing. This is sin. Jesus said that's one of the things that he will do.

He will convict the world concerning sin. Yeah. And we've talked about this before, but the first step in the process of coming to the Lord and being a follower of Jesus is to agree with God about his assessment of your sinful condition.

Right. And you can't be saved if you don't think you need to be saved. So you've got to get past that first hump. Do I need to be saved? Is my condition sinful? And the Holy Spirit himself brings that conviction. And the scripture says it's your sin that separates you from God. Yeah.

And what the Holy Spirit does is he points out to you, you are separated from God by this thing. Yeah. Would you like it done away with?

Yeah. Do you want to have it dealt with? So as soon as you realize that the problem is there, then you start searching for a solution.

And at that point, you ask God and God says, I'm glad you asked. I do have a solution. But you have to start with that sin. Okay.

But the primary sin in view here, he says, of the world concerning sin is because they don't believe in me. Yes. And that is actually the capital S sin. Right. Not believing. The only thing that comes out of that behaviorally is the little S sins that result from that, because you're not willing to say that.

I made a note here. If you go back to John 5, verse 40, he says that the Pharisees searched the scriptures because you're thinking there is eternal life in those. Right. But actually he says, you refuse to come to me and now you're going to die. So really the issue is them understanding who it is.

Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. Right. And that's who Jesus is. Who is Jesus. Believing who he is. And so the fundamental sin is that. Right.

It's the disregard he is. It's the only authoritative representative of the Father. Yeah. And if you don't believe that, you'll die in your sin.

And with Nicodemus, what was the issue? Believe. Mm-hmm. Right. And then you'll escape that destruction that's coming from judgment. Yeah. But it's not just believing any old thing.

Right. It's believing what God has said, right? That's what was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.

He simply believed what God had told him. Well and it's connected to your confession of need because you say I'm a sinner. Is there a solution? Here's the solution. I'll embrace that. So it's not just believing.

It's there. It's actually taking part in it. It's saying yes to that. Owning it.

Owning it, yeah. And then he goes on in verse 10 concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you won't see me anymore. That's an interesting comment because as long as Jesus walked around on the earth, his righteousness was a testimony to who he was and who God was. And that testimony's not going to be there physically, visibly anymore. So now he's saying the Holy Spirit will do that. Concerning righteousness, he'll let you know what that's all about. In fact I think it was in John 8, this has been many weeks ago, but Jesus says okay guys who are around him. Remember that really contentious discussion in John 8? Who convicts me of sin? Anyone?

Anyone? So really he could walk around and it was his righteousness that convicted people of their own sin. So the Holy Spirit now is going to pick up the slack on that because physically Jesus isn't going to be there. And he's going to convict the world concerning judgment. Yes.

Yeah. There's going to be a verdict rendered. So regardless of whether you agree with the assessment of your sin, it doesn't matter. Judgment is coming. Judgment is indeed coming.

Because the ruler of the world, check out the tense of this verse, has been judged. He's judged. It's done with.

Done deal. Yeah, he's done with. So that's been judged. So the trial has taken place and the sentence has been passed, it just hasn't been executed yet. Right.

Right. And you've got to be careful. If you consider yourself a citizen of this world, then you're considering yourself a citizen of the ruler of this world. And Jesus was very clear when he talked to Pharisee again back in John 8. I mean he said to them, he says, you know, you are of your father, the devil. I'm from above, you're from below. So when you talk about judgment right here, if you make yourself a citizen of this world, you're a citizen of the ruler who is the devil himself and it's already judged.

It's a done deal. And also back in chapter 5, Jesus had said, now if you believe in me, you've entered into eternal life and you've passed out of judgment. Out of judgment, yeah. So you know, sometimes the weight of that verse doesn't sink in.

If we believe in Jesus, we bypass the judgment that will fall on the world. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, we just got a couple minutes. Let's hit verse 12 and go on.

I'm going to, you read it, but let me just highlight really quickly. He says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now, but when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into the truth and he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he'll speak and declare to you the things that are to come. So what a wonderful thing that is. There's stuff that Jesus is saying you deliberately can't handle right now.

And I'd love to tell you, but the timing's wrong. Don't worry about it. Holy spirit. He'll take up that slack in terms of giving you understanding of the things that I withheld telling you now, but you will hear them for the first time through the Holy spirit. Yeah. And he uses this word, the new American standard says disclose, which kind of implies it's a secret.

It's a near thing. He'll whisper it in your ear, but the word here in the ESV is he'll declare it. He'll declare it. He'll declare it.

He says it three times. He's going to take the lid off and reveal it to you. What he hears, he'll speak. He'll declare to you the things that are to come. He'll glorify me and he'll take what's mine and declare it to you.

Yeah. So what a wonderful kind of revelatory experiences is in store for the apostles and for us when the Holy spirit is there proclaiming this truth all the time. You know, a lot of us would say, well, it wouldn't be a lot easier if Jesus kind of just came in the front door of the house and sat down in my living room and we talked for a couple of hours or so. Wouldn't that be a lot easier than this whole Holy spirit thing? And it sounds like it would be, but this is actually a whole dimension better in so many ways. You can actually have a better, I'll say conversation with God himself and God can get the message to you across even better than if he physically sat in the room with you with a vocal voice.

I mean, this is not a broken system. Okay, but this is not just a feeling because it's real easy to go astray here. So no, he's saying it's all about the word, right? He says he's going to lead you into the truth is going to speak to you what he hears from the father. So you know, for, if we think we are hearing from the Holy spirit, then we have the written word of God against which we can test what we think we're hearing and that should be consistent.

That should, it should be absolutely consistent. But for those people who are frustrated, if you're listening right now, I'm frustrated trying to hear from God and trying to sort of second guess what he's trying to say to you, you don't have to, you don't have to bear that responsibility. God's an extraordinarily good communicator and with the Holy spirit, it's beyond what you could ever imagine.

I mean, just ever met, it doesn't even have the problems of, of translation into physical vocal words. I mean, God can communicate, he's just, he's just fine at this. And by the way, it could very well be that if he's not communicating to you right now, the things that you want to understand, it could be like verse 12, you can't bear him right now. But many times God withholds that conversation based on your ability to absorb it.

So that's how it goes. I think I want to make one more quick point in this. Isn't it interesting that like Jesus himself, the Holy spirit doesn't speak for himself now. He speaks and Jesus himself says, I don't speak for myself and I don't do things I don't see the father doing. Here's this, here's this Trinity against her poking out into unity of message and action.

Okay. And what is the spirit saying? He's speaking the truth and he is glorifying Jesus. He's shining a light on who is this one, the father sent the only begotten full of grace and truth. As John had said at the beginning of his gospel, he has explained to him, the spirit speaks that.

Exactly. And you know, you get in verse 15, all of the father has is mine. Well if the Trinity isn't the Trinity, that's blasphemous, which Jesus just said. So anyway, we're running, we are out of time again. So we're going to come back to the second half of John 16 starting at verse 16 next time. And uh, and we'll see Jesus basically cap off the entire discussion about his leaving before he enters into chapter 17 in this wonderfully precious prayer that he prays for them and on us, for us. So that's coming after that.

But next week he rounds out this whole discussion about, Hey guys, I'm leaving. And uh, and he just actually pulls it all together in a gigantic summary. He's going to talk about joy and about peace and about asking in his name. Marvelous stuff. And then read the rest of the chapter.

Yeah. We hope you do that. And uh, and we're glad that you're with us and we're glad that you're sitting down. Do what we just mentioned about sitting down quietly with the word and opening up. Just lay in your lap and saying, God, speak to me what's here. And then slowly reading your way through it.

And he will meet you there because you have the Holy Spirit. So we're glad you're with us. I'm Jim and I'm Dorothea and we'll see you next week on More Than Ink. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org.

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