I have tried to improve my citations, but I am not sure I got everything...
Do you ever wish that Jesus didn’t leave and was still here on earth? Like wouldn’t the world be better if Jesus was here? Our culture loves superheroes with all their strength and superpowers. It seems that if you wanna make another 100 million dollars just crank out a superhero movie and people would lap it up. Their stories spark the imagination of what the world would be like with these saviours walking around on Earth. Of course, for a good superhero story, you also need an over the top powerful villain. But what if this was real life? What if Jesus didn’t leave and stayed on earth? We don’t have any inter-dimensional beings wanting to wipe us out, we don’t have rich mad scientists who want to control the world with their own special army. But we have sickness, we have wars, and what if Jesus was here? He could go on a world tour every year and visit all the hospitals. He could sit and reason with heads of state to bring about peace. People would believe in him a lot easier if they could just see him do his thing.
But in verse 7 of our passage, Jesus says something that seems hard to swallow.
“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.” … and why is this good? Jesus continues “Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
Jesus thinks it is better for his followers that He goes away. This seems strange. But let's see why this is, and what is so good about this Advocate he will send?
But in verse 7 of our passage, Jesus says something that seems hard to swallow.
“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.” … and why is this good? Jesus continues “Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
Jesus thinks it is better for his followers that He goes away. This seems strange. But let's see why this is, and what is so good about this Advocate he will send?
Mission from God
We see first that Jesus will send the Holy Spirit, or Advocate, or Helper or Comforter to His followers. The word here means the “one called alongside” to take Jesus’ place after His physical absence (Hammer, P. L. (2009). Exegetical Perspective on John 15:26‒27; 16:4b‒15. In D. L. Bartlett & B. B. Taylor (Eds.), Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B). This Advocate that is sent by the Father, is the Spirit of truth and He will testify about Jesus. The work of the Spirit is also the work of Jesus’ followers.Verse 27 says “And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.” The Spirit is to testify about Jesus and the disciples are to also testify about Jesus.
I don’t think I have seen the whole Blues Brothers movie, I remember parts of it, but I don’t think I got to the end, I hope this is an appropriate movie to reference in a youth talk. In this movie, the main characters re-formed their band to raise money to save a Catholic orphanage where they grew up. Anyway, the movie is chaotic, lots of hi-jinks ensure. And I think for its time it had the most wrecked cars in a single movie. Throughout the movie, the characters would say, “We were on a mission from God”. It was kinda meant to be humorists as they left a trail of destruction behind, while also trying to avoid the police.
Jesus in this passage is giving his followers a mission from God. God in His plans has included us in on them. You could say, you are on a mission from God. And what is that mission? We are to testify, or witness, or declare or attest about Jesus. This involves some sort of knowledge of Jesus and speaking about Him. This can be a hard task, and this can be a frightening task. The passage just before this one said the world is going to hate you if you follow Jesus because the world hates Jesus.
Jesus warns, that His followers may be kicked out of the synagogue, which is like cutting off your social connections. Disciples of Jesus may be shunned for their alternate lifestyle, and Jesus pretty much says persecution and hardship are certain, but to not cut yourself from the world. In fact, they are to do the opposite. And to know that he knows what he is talking about, He warns them in advance so that when hardship comes they won’t be caught by surprise. And we have a great comfort, that when things do go hard for us, we have the Advocate who will come to us. He will dwell in us.
The world is judged for their sin because they don’t believe in Jesus. If they did, they would be convicted of their guilt (Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John). In their sin, they are choosing another God and refusing to believe in the real one, Jesus.
Jesus in this passage is giving his followers a mission from God. God in His plans has included us in on them. You could say, you are on a mission from God. And what is that mission? We are to testify, or witness, or declare or attest about Jesus. This involves some sort of knowledge of Jesus and speaking about Him. This can be a hard task, and this can be a frightening task. The passage just before this one said the world is going to hate you if you follow Jesus because the world hates Jesus.
Jesus warns, that His followers may be kicked out of the synagogue, which is like cutting off your social connections. Disciples of Jesus may be shunned for their alternate lifestyle, and Jesus pretty much says persecution and hardship are certain, but to not cut yourself from the world. In fact, they are to do the opposite. And to know that he knows what he is talking about, He warns them in advance so that when hardship comes they won’t be caught by surprise. And we have a great comfort, that when things do go hard for us, we have the Advocate who will come to us. He will dwell in us.
Judgement on the world
And we are going to need help. We are going to need confidence and strength. Because this testifying about Jesus is not a message the world wants to hear. Jesus says this Advocate with prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement. The world has its own standards and says things like everyone is good, and our feelings and impulses should always be obeyed. That disagreeing with someone is a personal attack, so we have to affirm everything everyone has ever said, even if it is not consistent. The world’s standards of what it thinks of sin, judgement and righteousness are off. And the Advocate is going to come and do what Jesus was doing.
The world is judged for their sin because they don’t believe in Jesus. If they did, they would be convicted of their guilt (Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John). In their sin, they are choosing another God and refusing to believe in the real one, Jesus.
The world's standard of righteousness is wrong, and they will be convicted of that standard when compared to Jesus who was the only righteous one who is now with God. The world’s standard of judgement is wrong and they are now on the losing side, for Christ’s work on the cross has proven the prince of this world a liar and he stands condemned and so do all who follow that path (Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John).
The world's standard of righteousness is wrong, and they will be convicted of that standard when compared to Jesus who was the only righteous one who is now with God. The world’s standard of judgement is wrong and they are now on the losing side, for Christ’s work on the cross has proven the prince of this world a liar and he stands condemned and so do all who follow that path (Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John).
So this might seem a tough gig, to tell the world that they are wrong, that there is an absolute standard, outside of us, that was met in Jesus and all who are not in him are wrong. If you are not a Christian here tonight I am glad you are here, I hope you had fun tonight and hung out with some cool friends, but I wonder what you do with a message like this? That apart from Christ you are wrong. What is your knee-jerk reaction to someone telling you that? Do you know enough about Jesus to know what He did for you to help fix your wrongness?
And if you are a Christian, if you do follow Jesus, what do you do with a message like this? In this passage, we are told the Advocate is going to testify about Jesus, and that we are to do the same. We have a role in speaking to the world and telling them there is a better way. There are standards to sin, righteousness and judgement that you don’t get to set yourself. That Jesus came to die and make all those who follow him right. We may be tempted to water down that message, as we don’t want to get shunned or cool-shamed by others.
We may have trouble recalling Jesus’ truth, and we may not remember all the sermons and bible talks we have ever heard, but we can take heart, for the Advocate, will help us when we need Him.
And so in one sense, you could say that the Spirit doesn’t bring anything new to us, for the Spirit points back to Jesus. He is like a floodlight pointed at an important national icon like the Opera House or Parliament House. The light is there to show the glory of the building, and people when they see the building aren’t to think what a great light that is, they are to think what a great building. The Holy Spirit is like that light shining on Jesus, He is there to point to, to illuminate us with Jesus’ words. The Advocate is on about Jesus and followers of Jesus are to also do the same task.
The Holy Spirit is sort of like that. The Holy Spirit gives Jesus’ followers power. He comforts them when hardship comes, He helps remind them of Jesus and empowers them to live for Christ.
William Temple said “No one can [be indwelt by] the Spirit of God, and keep that Spirit to himself. Where the Spirit is, he flows forth; if there is no flowing forth, he is not there.” (cited in Stott, J. (2018). The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott)
Followers of Jesus are to witness about Jesus, and this message might not go down well. But followers of Jesus have the Holy Spirit which means God is not far away. God dwells in us, and brings Jesus to us, not as a historical character in the past, but as someone we can know today.
Jesus is not here, He is with the Father, but He did not leave us alone. He sent His Spirit to be with everyone. If it was only Jesus left here on earth, He would only be in one place, but now with His Spirit in all believers, Jesus’ truth and story can be in millions of places at once. We are all on a mission from God, we are to testify about Jesus, but we are not to worry, for the Holy Spirit will help us, He will guide us in all truth and He will help us to worship Jesus. In the absence of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is our comfort, guide and source of empowerment, enabling us to fulfil our mission from God, so we can speak about Jesus to a world that needs to hear about Him.
And if you are a Christian, if you do follow Jesus, what do you do with a message like this? In this passage, we are told the Advocate is going to testify about Jesus, and that we are to do the same. We have a role in speaking to the world and telling them there is a better way. There are standards to sin, righteousness and judgement that you don’t get to set yourself. That Jesus came to die and make all those who follow him right. We may be tempted to water down that message, as we don’t want to get shunned or cool-shamed by others.
Guided by the Holy Spirit
But we can take comfort because Jesus will send the Spirit to help, at the bottom of our text it says in verse 13,“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears... (John 16:13)The Holy Spirit will guide Jesus’ disciples in the truth. This means Jesus is not far away from those who follow Him. It means when we may not know what is the best thing to do, the Holy Spirit can help guide us to the truth. While it may feel like we are all alone and the world is against us, the Holy Spirit means that Jesus is not far away, Jesus promises that the Spirit will guide us in His truth.
We may have trouble recalling Jesus’ truth, and we may not remember all the sermons and bible talks we have ever heard, but we can take heart, for the Advocate, will help us when we need Him.
Empowered
On Tuesday when I got home, my remote garage door didn’t open. I had a power outage. It was a planned one. But when I got out of my car and into the house about 10 seconds inside, all the lights turned on. The power came back. If I was like a minute later I could have parked my car in the garage. we need power in our house for all our mod-cons. Even phones and laptops need to be connected to a power source after awhile.
The Holy Spirit is sort of like that. The Holy Spirit gives Jesus’ followers power. He comforts them when hardship comes, He helps remind them of Jesus and empowers them to live for Christ.
William Temple said “No one can [be indwelt by] the Spirit of God, and keep that Spirit to himself. Where the Spirit is, he flows forth; if there is no flowing forth, he is not there.” (cited in Stott, J. (2018). The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott)
Followers of Jesus are to witness about Jesus, and this message might not go down well. But followers of Jesus have the Holy Spirit which means God is not far away. God dwells in us, and brings Jesus to us, not as a historical character in the past, but as someone we can know today.
Jesus is not here, He is with the Father, but He did not leave us alone. He sent His Spirit to be with everyone. If it was only Jesus left here on earth, He would only be in one place, but now with His Spirit in all believers, Jesus’ truth and story can be in millions of places at once. We are all on a mission from God, we are to testify about Jesus, but we are not to worry, for the Holy Spirit will help us, He will guide us in all truth and He will help us to worship Jesus. In the absence of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is our comfort, guide and source of empowerment, enabling us to fulfil our mission from God, so we can speak about Jesus to a world that needs to hear about Him.
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