Lesson 4 - John 15:26-27; 16:1-15 - THE HOLY SPIRIT PROMISED
INTRODUCTION: Last week, in John 15:1-17, we heard Jesus teach His disciples one of the best known allegories in the NT, in a metaphor depicting God as the vinedresser (i.e., the boss), Jesus as the true vine, and Christian believers as the branches. As the vinedresser works in His vineyard, completely unproductive branches are cut away and burned, while fruitful branches are pruned from time to time to cut away the parts that prevent growth in order to make the branch more fruitful. We learned that abiding in Christ isn't a feeling or belief but actions we purposely do to further God's kingdom, with the understanding that believers who truly abide (lit. to stay or remain in Christ) will produce much fruit. We also learned that as long as we keep Christ's commandments, we're abiding in His love (agapē), which means an unconditional, unselfish type of love that is a decision rather than a feeling. Lastly, Jesus taught that we become His "friends" when we do what His word commands us to do, and as modern Christians, we are very fortunate have a complete NT to use as our handbook.
This week, in John 15:26-27; 16:1-15, a section known as the Upper Room Discourse, we'll hear Jesus issue a warning to His disciples about the hatred from the world they should expect to face and encourage them with an explanation of what to expect in the future when a "helper" in the form of the Holy Spirit (Gk. Paráklētos) would be sent to empower and guide them in the face of this opposition. We know that this event actually transpired on the Day of Pentecost as reported in Acts 2:1-31, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the 120 believers in the upper room.
Synopsis of John 15:18-25: In these verses, Jesus warns His disciples that they should expect to be confronted by opposition in a world (Gk. kosmos) that is opposed to God, where people will hate them because they are not of the world and will also hate the Son for exposing them to the true light that makes them accountable for their sins. This is the same world we live in today-our ministry.
Read John 15:26-27 - WHEN THE HELPER (Paráklētos) HAS COME
26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
vv. 26-27: Even though the world rejected Jesus, the Holy Spirit, characterized by truth, would bear witness that Jesus was the Son of God (John 14:16-17, 26). He, the Holy Spirit, would do this on the Day of Pentecost, so that afterward, the disciples would also testify by the power of the Spirit. The Spirit's empowerment of their testimony would be based upon their long association with and intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ. This text will explain how the conflict between Jesus and the world will continue after He returned to heaven to be with the Father; and the essence of this conflict will continue to focus on the question of who Jesus is? The verses that follow also contain a strong testimony about the deity of the Holy Spirit which proceeds from the Father. It refers to all three members of the Trinity and reveals details about their functional relationships to one another.
Read John 16:1-3 - THAT YOU MAY BE KEPT FROM STUMBLING
1 "These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. 2 They will make you outcasts from 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 have not known 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.
v. 1: "These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling." - The phrase "these things" emphasizes this section of Jesus' discourse and cites the reason for it: He did not want His disciples to 'stumble'-to be taken by surprise-by the events that would follow His departure. Even though they didn't understand everything Jesus was telling them at this juncture, they would more fully understand later, after His resurrection and ascension.
v. 2: "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God." - Jesus announced that these 'disciples' (which included the apostles plus the 100+ other believers in Christ), would be excommunicated from their Jewish synagogues. As church history indicates, many would be severely persecuted for their faith and some would even be put to death as martyrs (see Acts 7-12 generally).
v. 3: "These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me." - The irony in this statement is that the very people-the Jewish religious leaders-who persecuted and even martyred these disciples wrongly saw themselves as serving God as they perpetrated these evil deeds! And their self-centered spiritual ignorance-not knowing "the Father or Me"-did not excuse them.
v. 4a: But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. - "their hour" came when Jesus' persecutors condemned Him to death on a cross. To them, it seemed to be their greatest victory, but, in fact, it was their greatest defeat, for God reversed their victory when He resurrected Jesus from the dead.
v. 4b: These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. - Jesus did not reveal the extent of opposition that His disciples could expect to face, because while He was still with them, all of the religious leaders' hatred and hostility was focused on Jesus, not his disciples.
Read John 16:5-11 - HE ("the helper") WILL CONVICT THE WORLD CONCERNING SIN
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 Helper 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.
v. 5: ""But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'" - The disciples were not only going to face severe opposition; they would face it without Jesus. Peter and Thomas had previously asked Jesus where He was going, but their questions seemed to have more concern over their own fears rather than Jesus' imminent departure (John 13:36; 14:5). Jesus' question here is a puzzle that has provoked many pages of scholarly speculation.
v. 6: "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart." - These disciples, who had walked closely with Jesus for three years were understandably grief stricken that He getting ready to leave them. And they were scared, too: Jesus' predictions of the persecution they could expect to face would have been made them anxious and fearful about their future without Him. Despite His assurances, they are afraid.
v. 7: But 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." - At this point, Jesus' disciples could not grasp how beneficial to them it would be when the Holy Spirit came to indwell them. In truth, it was to their considerable advantage that Jesus should leave them.
v. 8: "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;" - The Spirit's coming would result in heightened conviction among unbelievers concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Spirit does this-points out sin-in order to bring about repentance. In legal terminology, conviction means proving facts in evidence. In this scenario, Christian believers are the witnesses, the Holy Spirit is the prosecuting attorney, and the lost are the guilty sinners.
v. 9: "concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;" - The world's sin is to reject Christ in favor of the ruler of the world (kosmos)-Satan. As Christians, we typically think of "sin" in terms of some kind of moral misconduct like adultery, theft, or murder; however, in this verse, Jesus defines sin as unbelief, rather than immorality. It is the most deadly and ultimately, fatal sin. If people believe in Jesus, they will believe what He said about their guilt, and turn to Him in faith for repentance. An unbelieving person can clean up his or her life morally and still go to hell.
v. 10: and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;" - This is a complex verse. This is the righteousness brought about by Jesus' sacrificial death. Jesus' reference to His disciples' inability to "see" Him pointed to the need for them to become the instruments through whom the Spirit would continue Jesus' ministry. While the world judged Jesus guilty and condemned Him to a sinner's death, His death resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Father testified that his righteousness was the standard for divine acceptance-salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
v. 11: "and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged." - The coming of the Spirit would convict the world of the coming judgment for its sins, which culminated in the rejection of Jesus. The common Jews of Jesus day, together with their religious leaders, generally judged Him to be a false pretender to the Messiah's throne, and that judgment was manifestly wrong, and the coming of the Spirit would bring conviction that would change the minds of many. There can be no conversion without conviction; and there can be no conviction apart from the Spirit.
Read John 16: 12-15 - THE SPIRIT WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH
12 "I 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 on His own initiative, 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.
Note: These verses present the fifth and final Holy Spirit (Paráklētos) passages of Jesus' upper room discourse and focuses on the completion of revelation that Jesus brought from the Father.
v. 12: "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." - At this point in time, Jesus has pointed to the cross, but the disciples haven't been able to fully comprehend it. Like other Jews, they envision the Messiah as a warrior king like David and can't picture Him as a suffering servant. But they will be forced to walk the walk-to make a journey through darkness-before the light will break through. Jesus will ascend to the Father after the resurrection, following which the Holy Spirit will assume further responsibility for the disciple's enlightenment.
v. 13: "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come." - Jesus has thus far spoken what He heard from the Father, and after His ascension, "the Spirit of truth" will speak what He hears. Jesus never acted on His own initiative but only in obedience to the Father; and the Holy Spirit who reveals the truth would do the same. After the ascension, the Spirit would continue what Jesus had started during His earthly ministry.
v. 14: "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you." - The Holy Spirit would "glorify" the Son by revealing Him in the same way that the Son had glorified the Father by revealing Him to the world. The Spirit would in essence be 'unpacking' what the Father gave the Son in order to reveal its meaning to the disciples. In short, the Spirit would work in the disciple's minds so that they could perceive, understand, and teach the truth about Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
v. 15: "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you." - Earlier, Jesus had declared that His teaching was not His own but was from the Father who had sent Him. Just as Jesus had been faithful in glorifying the Father, the Spirit would be faithful in glorifying the Son. Notice that the Spirit's function is not to attract attention to Himself or promote Himself but to elevate and glorify Jesus Christ as the Son and Savior of a lost world, so that belief in Jesus is the only way to salvation. Later, Peter, while under arrest before the Sanhedrin, under the power of the Holy Spirit, boldly proclaimed that in Jesus "there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
APPLICATION-Witnessing to a Hostile World:
1. To witness in a hostile world without stumbling, you must be prepared to face the difficulty of the task. The key to enduring persecution is to trust in the Lord Jesus. In verses 1-4 of our text, He gives us solid reasons to trust Him: He knows the future. He knows the trials that we will face as we serve Him and He warns us in advance, so that we must trust in Him. When Jesus was with the disciples, He was the lightning rod for persecution. But after He returned to the Father, they would suffer the impact of the opposition. So the Lord speaks these prophetic words so that we will be forewarned and thus forearmed. It's not be easy to be a faithful witness to Christ in this hostile world.
2. To witness to a hostile world, you must focus on the Lord's glory, not on your own needs (vv. 5-6). The application for us is, to be effective witnesses in this hostile world, we need to take our focus off of our feelings and needs and focus instead on the saving power of the Lord's glory through the spreading of the gospel to people everywhere. Even if we are persecuted, His glory should be our focus. And we must admit that we can't accomplish that task in our own strength.
3. To effectively witness to a hostile world, you must draw on the power of the Holy Spirit in His witness concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment (vv. 7-11). These verses reflect a major change in the ministry of the Holy Spirit as it's to be exercised through believers like us. That change went into effect on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the church. As the risen Lord made clear, a major role for the Spirit is to empower us to bear witness of Him (Acts 1:8): "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
4. The ministry of the Holy Spirit develops in us progressively (vv. 12-15). Jesus knew that the disciples were not ready at that point to bear all that He could teach them. This may have been due to their slowness to believe all that the prophets had spoken, especially the truths related to Messiah's suffering (Luke 24:25-26). Jesus had repeatedly told the disciples that He was going to die and be raised from the dead, but they didn't get it until after His resurrection (Luke 9:22, 44-45; 24:45-46). And there were other truths that they could not comprehend until the Holy Spirit came to dwell in them permanently. Here Jesus promises that the Spirit would guide them into all the truth. The point in our text is that the Lord doesn't dump the whole thing on us at once. As a loving Father, He knows how much His children can bear, and so He patiently teaches us what we need for the stage of growth that we are in. The Holy Spirit does that with us spiritually. A young believer needs the milk of the Word: to understand what salvation means, who God is, how to live by faith, how to read and study the Bible, how to pray, etc. Later, he can begin to digest the strong meat (1 Cor. 3:1-3; Heb. 5:11-14; 1 Pet. 2:2).
5. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is personal (vv. 14-15). The comforting truth is, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in you and tailors His ministry to you personally. He knows what you're feeling and ministers His comfort to you through the Word or through other believers or sometimes through your unique circumstances. As Jesus says here, the Spirit guides you in the truth, but He does that as you study the Word of truth. He knows what you need to know and when you need to know it. His aim is to make you holy in thought, word, and deed. When you don't know how to pray as you should, the Spirit prays for you in ways that you don't understand (Rom. 8:26). So it's important that we don't grieve or quench the Spirit through sin, but rather yield every area of our lives to the Spirit's control.
