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The Holy Spirit and Our Joy - John 16:1 - 33

 Thursday, November 12 –

We are working our way through the Gospel of John and today our reading is from John 16:1 – 15.  After you have finished the reading, please come back and we’ll look at it together.


Most people I know want to be happy.  We live our lives arranging things so that happiness will occur more often than the opposite.  One of the biblical distinctions is that happiness is temporary, depending upon the circumstances, while Joy is sustained peacefulness in the interior of our being – even when the circumstances are not so good.  It is Joy that the angel proclaimed at Jesus’ birth, and, now near his death, it is Joy that Jesus tells his disciples that he wants them to have even though things are not what they wanted, or expected.

Jesus walked with his disciples through the Temple on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane.  It was late on the Thursday evening and they had celebrated Passover in an Upper Room in Jerusalem.  Jesus shocked them when he said there was a betrayer among them, and also that he would soon be leaving.  Now, as they walk out of the city, he returns to the two crucial things they needed to be aware of – and the first was that they should be aware that they will suffer intensely for their commitment to Him.

 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away.  They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.  They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.  I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you” (16:1-4).

He had begun this conversation at the end of chapter 15, saying “If the world hates you, you know that they hated me also…if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you…” (15:18, 20).  The opposition from those who will not accept Jesus as both Savior and Lord is inevitable.  “God has called you to Christ’s side, and the wind is now in Christ’s face in this land; and since you are with him you cannot expect the sheltered or the sunny side of the hill.” [1] He wanted them to understand that even their families will turn against them if they do not believe.  What is it about Jesus that causes the reaction?  It isn’t because he was a good teacher, or because he healed people, and did good things.  The reaction to Jesus is because of his exclusive claim that “I am the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6).  The main source of their expected opposition will come from religious Jews who will force them out of the synagogue, and when killing them, will believe they are doing God’s will.  There have been martyrs for the faith in every century since Jesus established the church.  Jesus does not hide the truth from them. 

The promised Holy Spirit was new to the disciples.  All of this must have struck them in a confusing way.  He talked about leaving, suffering, their love for one another, and the helper who would come alongside of them.  Could they hear it all?  Probably not.  Yet Jesus reinforces the work of the Holy Spirit to encourage them and give them hope. 

“But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks 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 if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (16:5-7)

The Spirit will come even as they face their apprehensions and fears.  They thought of nothing else except that he was going away, but they also didn’t know what the future would hold for them once Jesus is gone.  The truth Jesus conveys about the Spirit who would come to them from Jesus’ own command.

And 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 will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (16:8-11)

The Spirit has a work to the world that does not yet believe.  Some will believe as the Holy Spirit enlivens their heart and mind to believe.  The Holy Spirit – Jesus says – will do three specific things to make the unbeliever believer:  First, make “sin” known – for it is for our Sin that Jesus died.  Second, make “righteousness” known – for the Father receives all that are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and only in his righteousness can we be made righteous.  Lastly, He will make “judgment” known – for it is in Christ alone that our eternal future is secured, but without Christ, judgment awaits to condemn.  Our sin makes us guilty, our righteousness from Christ makes us forgiven, and Christ’s death took the judgment of our Sin upon himself at the cross.  How does the Holy Spirit do this work?  In and through the proclamation of the Gospel.  It is the message of the Church – inside and out.

 “I still have many things to say to you, 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 will take what is mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is mine; therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (16:12-15).

It seems so overwhelming at times to think about all God has planned for his church.  Martin Luther had a great concept of the power of the Gospel in the heart of the church’s leaders and members.  He knew that there was no internal power within himself to do the work of God.  It was the Holy Spirit that would work through the people of God.  The Holy Spirit will remind us of what the truth is, and he will speak the truth in and through us as we yield to Him.  The Holy Spirit has one goal in mind – to work in the believer so that Father and Son are glorified.  It is the power of the Holy Spirit that empowers us to do the work of God.

In the midst of all this information, Jesus returns to the initial shocking news – he’s leaving them (16:16-17) and he’s returning to the Father.  They are still confused (16:18) and so Jesus begins to alleviate their concerns by telling them that at the end of this all, instead of sadness, they will experience Joy.  I doubt they thought that possible.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.  When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.  So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.  In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.  Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (16:20-24).

The metaphor is helpful.  As a husband I could only watch my wife go through the pain of labor, but the pain turned to joy as each of our children emerged.  So also, the pain the disciples felt would not last, and they would see that Jesus knew all would be changed.  “In that day” refers to the fulfillment that would come from the resurrected Christ, and after the resurrection, the Ascended Christ who would send the Spirit on Pentecost.  Now they didn’t see it, then they would! 

Jesus concludes this last piece of teaching with reminders that what they don’t know now, they soon will know, and understand that it is all coming from the Father’s love.

 “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.  In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.  I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father” (16:25-28).

As he ends, they speak up – “now we get it, and we do believe you come from God” (16:29-30).  Yet with a mixture of speaking about the truth of their humanity (you will be scattered), he reminds them that the Father knows, and all will eventually be changed, and God’s peace would return to them.

“Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?  Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.  I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (16:31-33).

The Divine mixture is the promise to the disciples – and down through the ages, to us also.  Love, Joy, Peace are outcomes of honest faith.  It is not because the circumstances are always good – in fact, at times they can be tragic.  It is God who speaks these into us as we learn to trust in Him.  He says to them what we also need to hear – “take heart” – be strong, have courage, trust, don’t doubt or despair, because “I have overcome the world”.  Take God’s “love” with assurance and let him turn your troubles into “Joy”, and experience the “peace” that passes all understanding.

Peace



[1] Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ (Bagster), p. 18

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