It Is Best for You That I Go Away First B Jackson 2022-01-18 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- No. It's not. It's just right. Hey, everybody. How are you? It's fun. It's funny to be up here because everybody is on this side of the room, which is great. I think that's fine. But just know there's room over there if you want. Welcome, welcome. Thank you, Scotty, for help tonight, and Mike and Cisco for putting food on the table. We're grateful, grateful. Been going through the book of John on Monday night and I just want you to know if this is your first time visiting, hey. It's more conversation style. So I'll read the text, share some thoughts and then open it up for conversation. Just know that you don't have to share, but if there's a word of encouragement or something that jumps off the page, we could all benefit from it. But before we get into the conversation, I'd love to worship and song together. So I stand amazed and we can stand for it. Yep. If we ever grow tired of hearing John three sixteen, something's probably wrong. For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son, whoever believes in him won't perish but will have eternal life. That message really shouldn't grow old for us. That should always be one that we go, wow. God, truly, you would love me. I fall short every single day, and yet you still care. You still care enough. God, thank you for your love, truly. And thank you that for the we can sing about it. We can stand here truly amazed at that your love. It's not that we loved you, but you first loved us. Thank you for that love, God, that pursuit of your love, taking it all the way to your death and resurrection and ascension. Thank you, God. Amen. Well, I'm not afraid to show you my weaknesses. My failures and flaws you've seen them all. You still call me friend. We sing it because it's true. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34. Taste and see. God, that we would taste and see, that we would seek, that we would find. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You can have a seat. It feels lively in here tonight. Yes. Yeah. Was it something in the food, or is it the Holy Spirit? Up to John chapter 16 tonight. This is so good. Jesus teaches about the Holy Spirit. So I'm gonna just highlight real quick from chapter 15. Jesus had told his disciples, he goes, guys, I have chosen you. Isn't that just amazing? He's chosen. He's choosing. He's choosing his disciples. He goes, I've called you out of the world and into my kingdom to have an impact on the world. Now remain in me. That was just a huge part of John 15. Hold on to my teaching. Love one another. But know know this, disciples. This is what Jesus is telling telling his disciples. Know this. It doesn't guarantee that the world will love you back. So in fact, it it would be the opposite, and that's what we're getting into tonight. Jesus warned them, hey, guys. You'll be persecuted. You'll be persecuted because of your faith. But his encouragement here is the Holy Spirit, the advocate, the comforter, helper who would be with them so they could testify or bear witness to all they saw and heard. And what's what's cool, what's encouraging to me is we're reading this gospel right now because the Holy Spirit did exactly that. And just think about that for a second. The the the spirit empowered those disciples to testify about Jesus so that we would eventually hear the good news of the gospel. The Holy Spirit works. Amen? Amen. I just love it. That being said, let's get into chapter 16. I wanna cover verses one through 15 tonight. I'll read it through, share a few thoughts, and then we'll open it up for a conversation. But let's let's hear it. God bless the reading of your word in Jesus' name. Jesus said, I've told you these things so that you won't abandon your faith. Oh, verse two. You'll be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you think they are doing a holy service for God. Wow. This is because they have never known the father or me. Yes. I'm telling you these things now so that when they happen, you'll remember my warning. I didn't tell you earlier because I was going to be with you for a while longer, but now I am going away to the one who sent me. And not one of you is asking where I'm going. Instead, you grieve because of what I've told you. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away because if I don't, the advocate won't come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, here's the role of the Holy Spirit. Let's listen. He will convict the world of his sin and God's righteousness, end of the coming judgment. The world's sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will be will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged. There's so much more that I want to tell you, but you can't bear it now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the father is mine. This is why I said, the spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me. I'm gonna stop right there, pray first, and we'll we'll keep keep going. Lord, thank you for your word to us tonight, truly. Your words are life. You say, I've told you these things so that you will not abandon your faith. Holy Spirit, thank you for your work in us. Thank you that you teach and guide and convict and convince and remind us of everything that you have said, Jesus, so that we would hold fast to this faith that you've birthed into us. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. I love it. John's just getting richer and richer for me. I I think that you can really feel the weight of of Jesus going to the cross as you keep going in John, especially this chapter. He's going to the cross. He's loving his disciples to the very end. That's what it said in John 13. He he showed the full extent of his love. He's gonna love his disciples to the very end. And I and he's sharing everything with those disciples that the father has shared with him, with Jesus. To me, it's just this. It's it's overflow. It's the overflow of of his love for his disciples, teaching them absolutely everything. They had a hard road ahead, but a worthwhile road ahead. Are are you with me? We can have a hard road right now and a hard road ahead, but also a worthwhile road right now and a worthwhile road ahead. And the Holy Spirit is here to do what the Holy Spirit does. I wanna read more about it. But chapter one verse 60 or, chapter 16 verse one starts with, I've told you these things so that you won't abandon your faith. Naturally, we go, what things? Okay. What what things? What's he talk? We could go on and on and on. Here's a few. Alright? From this is just from chapter 13 to to chapter 16. Look at these. You could close your eyes, but let's hear them. Jesus says this, disciples, followers of him, he says, do as I have done for you. Love one another. Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. There's more than enough room in my father's home. I am the way and the truth and the life. Anyone who has seen me has seen the father. Ask anything in my name and I will do it. I'll give you another advocate. He will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit. Since I live, you also will live. I'm leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart. Don't be troubled or afraid. Remain in me, and I'll remain in you. You didn't choose me. I chose you, and I appointed you to produce lasting fruit. You must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry. I mean, seriously, friends, we could go on and on and on about how rich these things were that Jesus is telling his disciples so they wouldn't abandon their faith. This right here, I mean, man, what if we just had this as a note card, put it in our back pocket, and looked at it every, you know, every once in a while, every day? Could it change things? I think it could. These disciples would need the power of the Holy Spirit to remind them of the words of Jesus. They would need it. Hard things were coming. Verse two. You'll be expelled from the synagogues. The time's coming when those who kill you think they're doing a holy service for God. Wow. That's still happening today, isn't it? That's a terrible, awful thing. And here's why why does this happen, we ask. Why does this happen? Verse three. Because they have never known the father or me, Jesus says. Why would they persecute persecute Christians? Why would they kill them? Why would they expel them out of the the synagogues? Because they didn't know the father. They didn't recognize so they didn't recognize Jesus. To this really is the heartbreaking part of of the gospel that some will believe and receive it, and others will will reject it and even be hostile toward it. We can't Christians, listen. We can't make anybody believe. We we really can't. This text shows us that's the Holy Spirit's job. That's the Holy Spirit's job to convict and convince. What what what do we do? Well, we can present we can present the good news of the gospel, live it out in word and deed to the very best of our ability even though we're flawed. Right? We can sincerely pray that Jesus would be known, but we're not twisting anybody's arm, are we? It's not how Jesus did it. He presented the truth. Those who received it received. Those who rejected rejected it. Jesus warns his disciples, this it's gonna get hard ahead. In verse five, he says, I I'm going to the one who sent me. But it's not it's not like, well, guys, it's been real. Out. I'm peace out. You know? And then never hear from them again. No. No. No. No. Look at verse seven. It is best for you. Highlight and underline. It is best for you that I go away because if I don't, the advocate, the comforter, the helper won't come. To me, this is huge because they had Jesus in person. In person, God in the flesh, dwelling among them. We think, what could possibly what could possibly be better than being physically present with Jesus? I think that Jesus is telling them and us, the Holy Spirit is even better than that. They didn't know it yet, but they it truly would be better. It truly would be better because having the Holy Spirit would be like having Jesus speak to them wherever they went wherever they went. Jesus was limited to time and and and and space, not in power. I mean, we know that he did miracles. You know, go and your son would be healed, and and that happened. But he could be only in one physical spot at each time and his disciples, the Holy Spirit's like, this is a game changer. Huge. In fact, one of the roles of the Holy Spirit in John 14 says, the Holy Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of everything that I've told you. So even though Jesus wouldn't physically be present with them anymore, the Holy Spirit would be with them, teaching them, and reminding them of everything that Jesus said. Isn't that awesome? No matter where they were, the spirit of Christ was with them. I what could be better than that? Real life application. No matter where we are, the spirit of Christ is with us. Holy Spirit is doing the same work today that he did then. So what else does the Holy Spirit do? Alright. Well, verse eight. He will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness. I bet if we were just to ask any believer in the room right now, right, I think we would have very similar stories. I received salvation when I recognized, oh, wow. I really have fallen short. Like, I'm I'm a I'm a sinner that the Bible describes. That's me. And God is righteous. He truly is holy and righteous, and I'm not. And he's not only willing to forgive me, he is able to forgive me. And so in faith, I I repent. I did a u-turn. I turned for me and I turned to him. How is this even revealed to us, church? How can this even be revealed to it? Yes. It's revealed through the word. Sure. I'm proclaiming it right now. The Bible is teaching us that. But also, it's revealed to us through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is working, convicting of sin. Can I can I share something? I know. I'm going off script. But well, guys, this is crazy. But I was I was reading I was reading in Acts. Right? In Acts chapter two, and Peter is giving the message to the people. I'll start in verse 32. He says, God raised Jesus from the dead, and we're all witnesses of this because they were. Now he's exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven at God's right hand. And the father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us just as you see and hear today. For David himself never ascended into heaven, yet it said, the Lord, send to my lord, place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet. This is Peter. He had denied Jesus. Now he's speaking incredibly boldly in front of these people. So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified to be both lord and messiah. Now he gave the message he proclaimed. Now check this out. It says, Peter's words pierced their hearts and they said to him and the other apostles, brothers, what do we do? Friends, this is more than just a a great speech. This is the Holy Spirit convicting and convincing. And so what does Peter say? Each of you, repent. Repent. Make a u-turn. Turn from your sins. Turn to God. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it spread like wildfire. So good. But what made these guys testify so boldly, so incredibly boldly in front of all these people? They they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Guiding, teaching, convicting, convincing, guiding into truth. And those who listen caught the message and were like, woah. They were pierced to the heart. It's not such a bad thing. It's not such a bad thing to be cut to the heart, cut so deeply that it's a wow. I I reckon I've fallen short. I need I need a holy God to save me. Okay. It goes on to say, and the coming judgment, which is to say, God's judgment is a real thing. It really is. It's it's going to happen. Look at verse 11. Satan's already been judged. His fate's been determined. Jesus is coming again. He'll judge the world. We'll stand before him. There's no doubt about it. That's biblical. There there's there's just too much evidence for it. Christ is coming back, and we'll stand before him. The question will be, did we trust in his righteousness, or do we trust in our own? To trust in our own is not a good thing because we fall short of God's glorious standard. That's just the truth of the matter. Verse nine and ten. The world sin is that it refuses to believe in me. By nature and choice, we're opposed. It's it's how it is. You know? 10 is the good news. Righteousness is available because I go to the father, and you'll see me no more. In other words, righteousness is isn't found here. It's not found in us. It's found in Jesus. He was here. He was and is the righteousness of God. His message was what? Believe in me. What's our job? To believe in him. He would die. He would rise. He would ascend to heaven. And although that seemed sad to his disciples, it was the best thing that could have happened. The best thing that could have happened because now we have the promised Holy Spirit. And it's and here's more about what the Holy Spirit does. Says he will guide you into all truth. Meaning this, if it is God's divine truth, the Holy Spirit will guide you there. He will lead you there. He will point you there. He doesn't speak on his own. He only tells what he has heard. He's not sharing anything new or anything other than what Jesus tells him to share. That part really was good because it's like having the spirit of Christ with us all the time. He's telling the Holy Spirit what to say to us. He will tell you about the future. He'll share about what's to come. Verse 14, the Holy Spirit will bring Jesus glory by telling whatever he received from Jesus. So the spirit glorifies Christ. Great. Christ ought to be glorified. And then one with verse 15. All that belongs to the father's mind, and this is why I said the spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me. I'll end there. But I keep coming back to this. Those disciples would need the power of the Holy Spirit to remind them of the words of Jesus because hard things were coming. The Holy Spirit would teach and guide and convict and convince and show the way and comfort them and give his disciples courage so they could testify about what they saw and heard in the most difficult times so they wouldn't abandon their faith. Real Life Application, our church today. The Holy Spirit then is the Holy Spirit now. He's still teaching, guiding, convicting, convincing, showing the way, comforting, giving us courage in the most difficult times. That was one of the main takeaways for me today. But that's what I've got. That's that's, John sixteen one through 15, and, I'll open it up. If there was a verse, a word of encouragement from that text, or maybe just a question. We've got a scholar in the room, Ray. And I I'm not as great at questions, but I I do wanna give you an opportunity to share or ask or comment on what was read. So would anybody like to share? I think it's in four, but Just use your use your dad voice. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, I just wanna say, first of all, I'm thankful to be here. I'm thankful to you. Right. Isn't that so good? Righteousness is available for if you're listening at home and you couldn't hear. The synagogues, and a time is coming when you will be put to death by misguided ones who are presumed to be doing a great service by putting you to death. And, yeah, I just since we were talking earlier at our table just how this third year of COVID or pandemic or just life in general seems, like, harder or just more wearisome or and I just hear in this like a warning to like for our hearts not to be disillusioned with the Lord. You know, to yeah. Just to really know His word and what it says and what it promises us and what it maybe doesn't. You know, like our ideas that maybe what this Christian life is gonna look like or what we deserve or those kind of things. Yes. Yeah. Remain in me. They all remain in you. Amen. Yes. Yep. Yeah. I think, you know, just the part before that, he's, you know, he's describing himself going to the cross. And then in that second verse, he's saying, like, a time is coming when you'll be put to death. Like, that's not very That is At least for me, my question That's very, very difficult to comprehend and understand. Yeah. But that is happening around the world. That's his very, very moment. Yeah. And it it happened to each and every one. You know, all all the disciples. The parallel in Acts 16 of 40 people while Paul's in jail. Mhmm. He's awaiting on the trial. He's waiting on a hearing, and there are 40 people who plotted against him to kill him. And it's it's basically exactly like and they thought they were doing God a great favor to get rid of this guy who's spreading all this heresy. I I love what you did with the slide where just from the upper room discourse, from chapter 13 forward, and then it hit the that verse that you're talking about. These things I have told you. Jesus. And all of those things. Put that in your back pocket. Seriously, that's I I took a picture of that slide. Think that is that's a game changer. Mhmm. Because that is what we can expect from Christ. All of those things. Yep. And if you are holding on to those promises, you you don't stumble. My version says stumble. Yours says goes into confusion. Yours says lose their faith. Mhmm. All of those things are a possib you know, it's all a possibility. We can get disillusioned and and confused and and wanna chuck it. You know? Yeah. It's good. Yeah. That they held on. Because they had to help. Help the Holy Spirit. As do we. As we. Thank you. Advocate. Helper. Intercessor. Amen. Any others? I I like that he's he's talking to the disciples there, but when he says he chose them for this, it's heartening for me too because I just don't feel good enough a lot of the time. And and he picked them. They're flawed people Yeah. To do his will, and that always just gives me a lot of courage. They're like, alright. If you chose me to do this, Lord, you must have given me whatever I need to do it. Right. And it's just it gives me a lot of courage because there's just those days where, like, I don't know why this is me. Yeah. Exactly. There should be somebody other where's the adult in the room? Yeah. And all their unique personalities too. Yeah. You know, just hearing from from Peter there and his tattooist character, and then, you know, Matthew and Mark. And then we get all this out in the gospels because they testified because of the work of the Holy Spirit. This is why we have the word today. It's amazing. Yep. Stands out what stands out to me is talking about the the Holy Spirit. You said it a couple of times, the Holy Spirit it's not our job to convict people or to convert people. It's the job of the Holy Spirit. And so I think about what that means and what the Holy Spirit is. Like, I don't think of it as, like, the Holy Spirit coming and changing someone's mind. I think of the Holy Spirit as, like, an objective set of truths that is it's kinda like math. Two plus two equals four. And it's an objective thing, and people come to a realization that can be a welding realization and up that oh my goodness. I get it. Two plus two is four. So there's this objective truth that's the Holy Spirit. And when I try and talk to people that are not Christians and try and convince them not convince them because it's, again, not my job, but to talk about God, basically. The beginning of a mere Christianity, which is doing just that, the first three chapters is talking about a moral standard or a moral law that you somehow adhere to or that you both know whether you're a Christian or from this culture or that culture. And it's an objective truth that the Holy Spirit is, and that's it's inside all of us, which is great and amazing. And that's the number one way we can get to know God. Sure. There's creation. You can look around and see what God has created, and that's amazing. There's blessings which come from Jesus' sacrifice, atonement, and the grace that we all have from it. But if you're unaware to look at the creation or where see where these blessings come from, you can look inside yourself whether you're a Christian or not and see this moral standard that is somehow there through and through people whether you're Christian or not. It's an objective it's an objective standard that tells us what's right and wrong. Also, like, being a father, you can see when I talk to my four year old, I'm like, did you know that that was wrong? Did you just kinda feel that that was the wrong choice? She's like, yeah. It's like, well, how does she know that that's just a wrong choice? I I haven't pounded that in her head. You know? It's just sometimes she does it anyways. It's like, well, you can know that that feeling of knowing right from wrong is the Holy Spirit guiding you or leading you, and we can let us let ourselves be convicted or not. All said. All said. Hi. Thank you for having me. My favorite part was from verse 13, which talks about the life giving the spirit of truth is gonna reveal all things. And it just really stood out to me that how beautiful that is, that it's like that we can, like before the spirit came, before Holy Spirit came, you know, they were following Moses through the desert looking for one man, giving him an answer. They were following Jesus, you know, and they had they had to follow people. Mhmm. And here, the Holy Spirit's gonna be here with us and reveal truths, not only just about the Bible, but also, like, in our lives. Like, that there's great there's great peace to be had to know that even when we're, like, gonna walk through this tribulation, walk through these hard times that are so difficult, the Holy Spirit's walking with us, giving us the answer of which step to the left or which step to the right, and that we could have so so much peace knowing that he's with us Amen. To reveal things. Amen. Thank you for sharing that. Yep. Thanks for your I I like it. Think it really builds up body too just to hear from one another how the word is speaking and saying the same thing, but we we get to hear this and edify Edified by one another too. What about that? Shall we sing again? Yes. Let's do Ray lost his shoes. He's practicing for poster. Who do you who do you say I am? From Romans eight, if God is for us, who can be against us? Who you say I am? God, that's what we want to know is who do you say we we are. Amen. Amen. Oh, here's a benediction from Romans here before we part. It's I pray that God, the source of hope will fill you completely with joy and peace. Would you receive this? Because you trust in him. That's how those things happen. By trusting in him. Not abandoning our faith, remaining in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through what? The power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.