#1527 John 16 Part 1 An Hour Is Coming

 

“These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. 3 These things they will do because they did not know the Father or Me. 4 But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

The Spirit Is Promised Again

5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

12 “I still have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you. John 16: 1-15 LSB

John 16: 1-15

So that you may be kept from stumbling - Jesus knows what will happen, and as humans we can sometimes put it off in our minds, but it is to be anticipated from the history of our reactions, that we will stumble if not prepared to stand. Even being warned is not the same as the actual hour of testing, but if Jesus is saying it then we need to take heed, and faith is too often associated with an internal resolve or stoicism. People will say they are unbreakable or have a high tolerance for pain, they don't need other people so they are not afraid of being ostracized. The reality of the Christian faith is not in your resolve, but in Who Christ is. Is this the Messiah, is He really God with us (Immanuel)? Did He really come and live a sinless life so that He could die an unfair death in my place? Is He really coming back, is eternity a thing? Faith in Him is actually a denial of self, ability, stoicism, human resolve, any works of the flesh. It is actually acknowledging my insufficiency and Him replacing it with His sufficiency. Peter is still cocky at this point, but the cock is yet to crow. What are you banking on?

…9But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. 10That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 11I have become a fool, but you drove me to it. In fact, you should have commended me, since I am in no way inferior to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.… 2 Corinthians 12: 9-11

V. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue - It's hard for those outside of this to understand the immensity of such a declaration. This is a people with a connection to the God of Israel, a people that are under Rome, yet many still follow a separate diet, dictated by their religion. They came from a Theocracy originally, theirs are the law and the prophets, they are, by a large majority, the genetic descendants of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The synagogue is like the local church, and it has suffered from bad teaching and additions to the law, becoming a perversion of it's true origins. It is much like Roman Catholicism, using the same vocabulary as many real Christians, but teaching the doctrine of demons, saying Christ, yet being of antichrist. When the reformers stood up to Rome and wanted to return to the Word of God as the authority for the church, the Reformers were called anathema (cursed, excommunicated). The synagogue is that for these Jews, a place of worship, but also where they go to hear the daily reading from the Scriptures and teaching from the scribes. What is read there is now being fulfilled before their eyes, the Messiah is here, but they reject Him as a heretic when they are actually the ones guilty of heresy. Jesus warning is strong because this is going to shake them, and they will suffer a sort of pariah, being rejected by the communities they were born into, rejected for believing in the Messiah that God provided, and cut off from their normal places of worship. 

42Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue. 43For they loved praise from men more than praise from God. 44Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in Me does not believe in Me alone, but in the One who sent Me.… John 12: 42-44

…28A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. 29No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God. Romans 2: 28-29

V. 3 These things they will do because they did not know the Father or Me - It is interesting that they think they are doing service to God, but they do not actually know the Father or the Son. They had access to religion, to the right literature, but they bastardized it to the extent that they no longer knew the Author or His intent. Paul, as Saul, really fulfilled this right away. He set out to persecute Christians, even making Steven a martyr.

…4So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened. But they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.” 5You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the LORD: “Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of My name have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified that we may see your joy!’ But they will be put to shame.” 6Hear the uproar from the city; listen to the voice from the temple! It is the voice of the LORD, repaying His enemies what they deserve!… Isaiah 66: 4-6

…28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29At that time, however, the son born by the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit. It is the same now. 30But what does the Scripture say? “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”… Galatians 4: 28-30

…12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. 13For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.… Galatians 1: 12-14

V. 4 Because I was with you - He was there to protect them. It is like this with our children, and I would give my life for my wife and kids, but I can't always be present with them physically. So before and when we send them out, we teach them the reality of what they could possibly run into in the world. We sadly teach them that there are predators, both animal and human, that there are people who steal, who kill, who drive drunk, who hate without any legitimate cause. The world is full of people who don't have your best interest at heart, and they will pretend to be your friend even, but they have no true comprehension of such things. Many situations that would drive them to panic, Christ has been there to fix, to tell the sea to be still, to cast out demons that they could not, to answer their opponents. 

V. 5 And none of you ask Me, "where are You going" - They are too self absorbed, caught up in their own sorrows, to even wonder at what this means to Jesus. He is headed to Calvary, but He will also be completing His mission and returning to His Father. He, Who has taken on human flesh, been tested, been rejected, will return to His rightful place of glory with the Father. He will be with His holy angels, removed from this filth that they are quite acclimated to, but He has remained opposed to at the level of His Holy and eternal nature. Not that I understand this so much better than them, but it is sad, we can only ever seem to think, "what does this mean for me?" 

…5For to which of the angels did God ever say: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father”? Or again: “I will be His Father, and He will be My Son”? 6And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.” 7Now about the angels He says: “He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire.”… Hebrews 1: 5-7

…10And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”… Revelation 7: 10-12

V. 8 Will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment - This is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and this is the work He does. He does not come to bring incoherent speech, for our God is not a God of confusion. He does not come as the puppet of so called "super apostles", nor to cause mass convulsions, but to convict men of sin to draw those who are being saved to repentance. 

iv. “The Spirit does not merely accuse men of sin, he brings to them an inescapable sense of guilt so that they realize their shame and helplessness before God.” (Tenney)

v. “The Spirit is the ‘advocate’ or helper of those who believe in Jesus, their counsel for the defence. But in relation to unbelievers, to the godless world, he acts as counsel for the prosecution.” (Bruce) It’s important to have the Spirit of God to defend rather than to convict.

vi. In the great awakening of 1860-61 in Great Britain, a high-ranking army officer described the conviction of sin in his Scottish town: “Those of you who are ease have little conception of how terrifying a sight it is when the Holy Spirit is pleased to open a man’s eyes to see the real state of heart. Men who were thought to be, and who thought themselves to be good, religious people… have been led to search into the foundation upon which they were resting, and have found all rotten, that they were self-satisfied, resting on their own goodness, and not upon Christ. Many turned from open sin to lives of holiness, some weeping for joy for sins forgiven.” (J. Edwin Orr, The Second Evangelical Awakening in Britain) - E Word

…25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’ 26When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father— the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father— He will testify about Me. 27And you also must testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.… John 15: 25-27

V. 9 Because they do not believe in Me - This is a sin, unbelief, and it even goes to not believing in sin as well, or that they are sinners, or picking and choosing which sins they would treat as such, like the Pharisees. If you can't acknowledge your sin then you call God a liar, for He has said that all are sinners, and therefore need a Savior. You reject the remedy and deny the sickness. 

…7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.… 1 John 1: 7-9

9What then? Are we any better? Not at all. For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. 10As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one. 11There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.… Romans 3: 9-11

V. 10 Concerning righteousness, because you no longer see Me - He goes to be with the Father, to a place where only the righteous can come, and it is His righteousness that we rely upon to approach the Father, to have communion. 

“Whereas righteousness had previously been defined by precepts, it now has been revealed in the incarnate Son, who exemplified it perfectly in all his relationships.” (Tenney)

…29so that no one may boast in His presence. 30It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”… 1 Corinthians 1: 29-31

V. 11 Because the ruler of this world has been judged - The original lying rebel has been served notice, and Christ has come to accomplish all righteousness. He has broken Satan's power at the cross and regained the deed to the earth. There is a final reckoning coming, who will you stand with?

“The world, the prince of it, is ‘judged’. To adhere to it rather than to Christ is to cling to a doomed cause, a sinking ship.” (Dods)

V. 12 You cannot bear them now - They were not ready for all of it yet, their hearts were troubled, just like I should melt under the knowledge of all my sin at once, be crushed under the comprehension of the vast void that is between me and righteousness. The disciples struggled with concepts that they had the pictures of, ie the sacrificial system was known to them, they participated in it, read the Word, but object to Christ fulfilling it. 

V. 13 He will guide you into all the truth - The Holy Spirit, not feelings, not what you want to be true, but Him as your guide to understanding the truth that God speaks through His word. 

V. 14 He will glorify Me - The Father calls from eternity, the Son is Him through Whom He calls, His life, His death, the atonement, and the Spirit gives life to this, bringing conviction of sin and pointing to Jesus as the cure. They are so intertwined that salvation cannot be confused as anything other than a Trinitarian work.