Sermons

 

Let’s turn to John 16.  If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring one to you.  John 16 is on page 902 in the Bibles we are passing out.

Have you ever had a close friend who had to move away?  It’s painful.  I remember the first time I met Tom Steller, outside a classroom at Fuller Seminary.  Tom and his wife Julie moved to Southern California the same time I was starting at Fuller.  And Tom and Julie and Jan and I spent a lot of time together.  Tom and I would wrestle with what different verses meant, and the four of us would to out for frozen yogurt together.  That went on for three years.

But then the day came that Tom and Julie needed to move back to Minnesota, where Tom was joining the staff of John Piper’s church.  And I will never forget one Sunday night, when our young marrieds group prayed for Tom and Julie and sent them off.  It was a tearful time.  I felt a deep sadness.

But as sad as I felt, that’s nothing compared to what it would have felt like to have been one of Jesus’ disciples, to have lived with him for three years, and then hear that He was going to be leaving them.

Imagine how this would have felt.  Jesus was the perfect friend, as well as Creator of the universe, Lord of everything, Savior of your soul, God in the flesh.  To be with Jesus was to be with God Himself.  Jesus miraculously provided you with food.  Jesus healed the sick.  Jesus raised the dead.  Jesus calmed the storms.  In Jesus’ presence you experienced comfort, joy, strength, encouragement.  For three years while Jesus was on earth you were able to be in His very presence.  But then one day Jesus says He has to leave.

Think of the sadness, the fear, the emptiness.  But then Jesus said something shocking.  He said his leaving would be to their advantage.  He said that his leaving would be better for them than his staying.

How is that possible?  How could it be better to have Jesus go, than to have Him stay?  Look at what Jesus says in John 16:7-11 –

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.

So how can it be better to have Jesus leave?  Jesus explains in v.7.  Let’s read it again –

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.

The reason it’s better to have Jesus leave is because when Jesus leaves, the Helper comes.  The Helper is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.  And the Helper, the Holy Spirit, could not be poured out upon the disciples unless Jesus left the disciples.

Why not?  Because God wanted to make it clear that the only reason any of us could receive the Holy Spirit was because Jesus paid for our sins on the Cross.  And so in His infinite wisdom God planned to have the Cross happen first, and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 

First Jesus goes to the Cross and pays for the sins of men and women from every nation, tongue, and tribe.  Then He rises from the dead, showing that God has accepted His death on our behalf.  Then He ascends to heaven where God gives Him the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And then He pours out His Spirit on all the believers on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, on the Samaritan believers in Acts 8, on Cornelius and his household in Acts 10, and for the last 2,000 years on everyone who repents of sin and trusts his or her life to Jesus.

So it’s better that Jesus leave, because when Jesus leaves, the Spirit comes.  But this must mean that it’s better for us to have the Spirit here on earth than to have Jesus here on earth.  But how is that better? 

One reason is because the Holy Spirit makes the presence of Jesus more accessible to more people than was possible when Jesus was limited to one location on earth.  Because the Holy Spirit is here on earth, you have immediate access to the presence of Jesus – and so do Raj and Scout in Central Asia, and so do the Keeners in southeast China.  Right now this second every believer in Jesus on earth has immediate access to Jesus by the Holy Spirit; that’s an awesome reason.

But that’s not the reason Jesus gives here.  What reason does Jesus give here?  What advantage do we have from the Spirit’s presence?  Look at what Jesus says in v.8.  Read vv.7 and 8 together to get the flow of thought:

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:

The advantage is that we now have the Holy Spirit on earth, convicting people of sin and righteousness and judgment.  This is another way of talking about the Holy Spirit saving people.  Because of our sin, we won’t own up to the reality of sin, righteousness, and judgment; left to ourselves, we won’t be saved.  But the Holy Spirit saves us by convicting us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, so that we repent of our sin and put our trust in Jesus.

Now what do each of these mean?  Let’s take them one at a time.  What does it mean for the Spirit to convict the world concerning sin?  Jesus elaborates on that in v.9 –

9              …concerning sin, because they do not believe in me…

Sin means not believing in Jesus, not trusting in Jesus.  God revealed Himself clearly in Jesus.  Jesus was like a huge billboard on the freeway – where God is saying: “Here I am!  Look at my power in turning 180 gallons of water into wine.  Look at my love in healing this paralyzed man.  Look at my wisdom in blowing away the religious leaders’ questions.  Here I am!  Trust me!  Trust me to satisfy your heart completely in myself; trust me to guide you perfectly through my commands; trust me to provide for you through all my promises.  Trust me!”

But we all turned our backs on God as He is revealed in Jesus.  We would not believe in Him; we would not trust Him.  And left to ourselves, we’d never admit that sinfulness of our unbelief.  But when God saves us, He sends His Spirit to convict of us sin, so we see our sinfulness, feel our sinfulness, so we repented of our sin and cast ourselves upon Jesus to save us.

What does it mean for the Spirit to convict the world concerning righteousness?  Jesus explains that in v.10 --

10            concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;

Commentators explain this one lots of ways.  Here’s my thoughts.  Jesus must be talking about His own righteousness, because He says His departure means the disciples will no longer be able to see Him – which must mean see His righteousness.  Jesus is perfectly loving, good, powerful, just, wise.  But our sin doesn’t want to own up to that about Jesus.

So left to ourselves, we would have continued in denial about Jesus.  But when God saves us, He sends the Holy Spirit who convicts us of Jesus’ righteousness – He shows us Jesus’ love, goodness, power, justice, wisdom – so now we trust Jesus and follow Jesus.

What does it mean for the Spirit to convict the world concerning judgment?  Jesus elaborates on that in v.11 --

11            concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

The ruler of this world is Satan.  He does not rule absolutely; but he rules this world under God’s sovereignty.  And Satan will be judged by God.  At the end of history God will cast Satan and his demons and everyone who is not trusting Jesus into hell forever.  But before God saved us we wouldn’t go there.  We wouldn’t think about future judgment.

But when God saved us, He sent the Holy Spirit who convicted us of future judgment.  He opened our eyes to see that we face future judgment.  And then, because we saw the reality of future judgment, we repented of our sins, trusted Jesus, and received His complete forgiveness.

That’s why it’s better to have Jesus leave, because now the Holy Spirit is here with the power to convict people, which is the power to save people.  Before Jesus left the Spirit did this on a smaller scale; mostly on the nation of Israel, and just a remnant of them.  But now that Jesus has died on the Cross and been raised from the dead and went away to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit who is now convicting and saving a vast multitude that no one can count from every nation, tongue, and tribe.

Let me give you some examples.  Take a look at Acts 2 (page 910).  A few weeks ago Jerusalem had cried for Jesus to be crucified.  But now on the day of Pentecost, they hear Peter telling them that Jesus was God’s Messiah, which means they had crucified God’s Messiah.  You can see Peter’s exact words in v.36 –

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

Here Peter is telling them of their sin.  And as Peter is saying these words, the Holy Spirit convicts them of their sin.  You can see that from their response in v.37 –

37  Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"  38  And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Then skip down to v.41 –

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Never before had three thousand people been saved at one time.  But because Jesus left, and poured out the Holy Spirit, three thousand people were convicted of their sin and saved.

And this happens today as well.  Two weeks ago I was at the Starbucks over in Los Gatos talking to a young man who works as a chef.  We had been talking about sin, about Jesus, and about judgment.  And at one point I stopped and asked what he was thinking about all of this.  He said that it was all starting to feel true to him.  Then I asked him if he was feeling the reality of his guilt before God.  He said that was growing on him. 

It’s better for us today that Jesus is gone, because now the Holy Spirit is here with power to convict people; power to save people.  The Holy Spirit is here in San Jose, with power to save people.  The Holy Spirit is in your neighborhood, with power to save people.  The Holy Spirit is at your workplace, with power to save people.

But now this raises a crucial question:  How does the Holy Spirit do this?  The answer is – through us.  Here’s why I say this.  There’s something strange about what Jesus says in vv.7-8 --

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…

What’s strange is the Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to us – but what the Holy Spirit does it convict the world.  You’d think that if the Spirit was going to convict the world, that Jesus would send the Spirit to the world.  But Jesus sends the Spirit to us.

Why?  Because the Spirit brings His convicting work to the world through us.  As we talk to people about how we’ve all sinned, as we talk to people about Jesus’ righteous love and wisdom and goodness and power, as we talk to people about future judgment – the Holy Spirit who has been given to us will work through our words to convict them of these truths.

That’s what happened with Peter in Acts 2.  Peter preached to all of Jerusalem about their sin of killing Jesus, and the Holy Spirit worked through Peter’s words to convict them of their sin. 

This is so encouraging.  Picture yourself in your neighborhood.  If you are trusting Jesus, then Jesus has given you His Spirit.  And His Spirit has the power to convict your neighbors concerning their sin, Jesus’ righteousness, and future judgment.  So when you tell your neighbors about Jesus, it’s not just you talking with your neighbors.  No, the Holy Spirit is there – the One who can convict your neighbors, save your neighbors. 

Picture yourself at your workplace.  If you are trusting Jesus, then Jesus has given you His Spirit.  And His Spirit has the power to convict your fellow-workers concerning their sin, Jesus’ righteousness, future judgment.  So when you tell people at the workplace about Jesus, it’s not just you talking with your neighbors.  No, the Holy Spirit is there – the One who can convict your fellow-workers, save your fellow-workers.

A few years ago a team of us were in Morocco, at a seaside marketplace.  And as I was talking to some English-speaking college students about Jesus, I noticed an older man standing off to the side, listening.  And when the college students had to leave, he walked up and asked if he could treat me to coffee and talk with us more.

So we walked to a café, sat down, ordered our coffee, and kept talking.  I heard this man’s story.  And then I told me story.  I told him that we have all sinned against God; that God is so great that not only does He judge all sin, but that He has made a way for us to be forgiven for all of our sin – through His Son Jesus – who is Himself fully God.  We talked for quite a while, and then he had to leave to go back to work.

A few hours later, as we were preparing to drive an hour back to our hotel, this man walked up to me.  He said he was hoping to find me before we left, because he wanted to tell me that while we were talking about God and sin and Jesus, that he felt something in his heart he had never felt before – he felt that these things were true – he felt that this was real.

If you are trusting Jesus, then He has given His Holy Spirit to you – the Holy Spirit who has the power to convict people of their sin, Jesus’ righteousness, and future judgment.  And so as you talk to people about the gospel, it’s not just you talking.  No, the Holy Spirit is there – the One who has the power to convict them and save them.

So be encouraged.  Understand who is with you.  And talk to people about Jesus.