"I Go" Sermon: John 16:5-15

“I Go”
[John 16:5-15]
June 19, 2011 Second Reformed Church

Today is Trinity Sunday. Although the word “trinity” is not used in the Bible, we recognize the word as expressing a doctrine – a teaching – that is found throughout the Bible: there is One and Only One God, and God exists in Three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We do not believe there are three gods, but Only One. We do not believe that God changes from the Father into the Son and into the Holy Spirit at different times, but that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. That is what the Bible teaches – that is what God has revealed to us – and it is what everyone who believes the Bible believes; it is what every Christian believes.

This morning’s text is one of many places throughout the Bible where we see – among other things – that the One God is Three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And it continues from the same conversation Jesus had with the disciples that we looked at last week.

Jesus tells them again that He is going back to the Father – “to Him Who sent Him” – but now, they know He is returning to the Throne of the Son at the Right Hand of the Father. They know He is going to be taken from them and put to death.

Jesus understands that they are sorrowful about this, because they will be losing Him.

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.” Jesus tells them to listen to Him – as the One Who loves them – as the One Who is going to lay down His Life for them – He tells them to listen.

“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.”

Why would it be to their advantage for Jesus to go? Wouldn’t it be better for them to have Him there so He could continue to teach them? We see that the disciples were concerned about themselves and their future – they were not focused on Jesus and the work He came to do. But Jesus knew it was to their advantage that He leave – He was thinking of them, as well as the Will of God.

It was to their advantage that Jesus leave them for two reasons:

It was to their advantage that Jesus go, for, unless Jesus was put to death, His coming would be in vain. If Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies about the Savior being put to death, He could not be the Savior.

Second, it was to their advantage that He go, for, if He did not, there would be no reason to send another Helper – Comforter – Advocate. And, like Jesus, the Holy Spirit needed to come to fulfill the prophecy and Will of God.

Then Jesus said, “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement.” The “world” in this verse refers to those who are not disciples – to those who will not believe in Jesus Alone for Salvation – to those who deny that Jesus is God the Savior.

What does it mean that “he will convict the world”? We often look at the word “convict” and understand it to mean that someone will make a case to persuade, as though this sentence read, “he will persuade the world” or “he will make a case to the world,” but that cannot be what the word means here, because that would mean the verse could be expounded, “he will persuade the world that they are sinners, so they will repent, knowing that Jesus is righteous, so they will believe in Him for salvation, and they are judged and damned to Hell, and there is nothing that they can do about it.” That makes no sense: how could the Holy Spirit persuade the world to repent of their sin, believe in Jesus, yet they still be damned to Hell? It is not possible.

What this text – and this word – must mean here, is not that the Holy Spirit will do these things to persuade, but, as a consequence of His coming, these things will be objective realities – facts – testimony that will condemn. The Holy Spirit will not try to persuade the world – Jesus already said – as we saw last week, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him” (John 14:16-17a, ESV). No, what Jesus is saying is that the coming of the Holy Spirit will be objective evidence – evidence that would hold up in court – that the world did not receive Jesus.

Jesus tells them that the coming of the Holy Spirit will bring objective evidence against the world – condemning the world – convicting the world – passing judgment against the world: The difference between the two understandings of the word is the difference between trying to explain why something is true and passing judgment. What the Holy Spirit is doing here is passing judgment.

“Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.” The Holy Spirit only indwells Christians – those who have believed savingly in Jesus and repented of their sin. So, He is evidence against the world, by their not being indwelt by Him, and they are condemned.

“Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer.” The Holy Spirit would not have come to indwell believers if Jesus were not God the Savior and if He had not returned to the Father. So the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus as a witness to His having returned to the Father. The fact of the Holy Spirit being on earth is objective evidence against the world who now stands guilty of not receiving Christ.

“And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” The fact that the Holy Spirit indwells believers is objective evidence that Satan lost – that Jesus rose victorious from the grave – so that the devil and all his angels and anyone who follows them is condemned to Hell.

The fact that the Holy Spirit brings objective evidence against the world is also an objective assurance to we who believe that Jesus is God the Savior, and our believing in Him is not in vain. We will be received into the Kingdom in all its fullness when Jesus returns.

Jesus continues, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” Why not? Jesus was telling the disciples that they both would not understand all of what He had to say to them if He told them now, and they would not have the spiritual strength to understand and believe if He told them now. But, in this sentence is the promise that He would tell them another time. When?

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all 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.”

When the Holy Spirit indwells a believer, He does not give them information that we have not already been given by God in the Bible, but He leads us to understand the Truth – He leads us in interpreting the Bible and understanding what God has said and what it means for us. The Holy Spirit does not speak independently from the Godhead – from the Trinity – but He speaks what He hears.

In last weeks’ text, we saw Jesus say, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (John 14:10, ESV).

So, Jesus gets His Authority from the Father, and the Holy Spirit gets His Authority from the Father and the Son. Don’t get confused. This does not mean that the Father is the greatest God and the Son and the Holy Spirit are lesser gods; there is only One God. The One God is also Three Persons and the Three Persons are co-equal, co-eternal, equal in worth and ability and glory. However, within the One God, the Three Persons are ordered, such that the Father sends the Son, and the Father and the Son send the Spirit.

It’s like on our Consistory: the Consistory is made up of the pastor, elders, and deacons. We have parity – that is, we have equal authority – but the pastor primarily teaches and preaches and studies and prays, the elders primarily teach and discipline, and the deacons primarily care for the well-being of the physical. (Of course the analogy breaks down because we are not one being, like God is One Being.)

Even if that is a bit difficult to wrap our heads around, we see that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all the One God. They have One Authority. One Mind. One Will.

Jesus ends this section saying, “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.”

God the Father is the Sovereign God over all Creation. Everything is His. The Father has given everything to the Son. And the Father has given everything of the Son’s to the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit would declare Jesus to us and glorify Jesus by directing our attention to Jesus.

There is One God and God works through the Persons to glorify Himself and to get us to glorify Him. The point of the book we gave out for Easter, God is the Gospel, is that the greatest and primary gift of the Gospel – the Good News – is not salvation or any other blessing we might receive – it’s God. So, God created everything that is to bring glory to Himself, and God sent Jesus to be our Savior to bring glory to Himself, and the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to indwell all those who will believe to glorify Himself. So, the greatest joy we can have is to know God and to glorify Him – to show to the whole world – to direct everyone to the greatness and majesty and awesomeness of God as He is known through His Creation – including us – and through His Work in and through believers, and through the testimony of the Word of God.

So, what do we see:

Jesus’ leaving the disciples was for their benefit – and ours – because in going, Jesus attained and assured salvation for all those who will believe, and the Holy Spirit came and indwells all believers.

Jesus explained that one of the things the Holy Spirit would be is a witness against the world – against all those who will never believe, because they did not repent of their sin, and they did not receive Jesus as God the Savior, and they are, subsequently, condemned with the devil.

Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit would also explain to them – and us – the things that they could not bear in mind or spirit without the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit came to glorify Jesus. In part, that means that the Holy Spirit would give all those who believe understanding of God’s Word so we would also glorify Jesus.

We also noticed that since there is only One God, and the Father is God and the Son is God and the Spirit is God, though They are Three distinct Persons Who work orderly in the Godhead, They are completely equal as the One God.

The Trinity is not an easy concept. We can only go so far with it, and then we just have to affirm that this is what is taught in God’s Word: God is Three in One – One God and Three Persons. Our minds are not capable of fully understanding how the Trinity “works,” but it is important to affirm that it is true, because God has said it is true in His Word.

So let us pray:
Almighty God, our Father, we thank You that You have told us what we can comprehend, and for the Gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Who teaches us and reminds us of all You have said. We ask that Holy Spirit would help us to understand, and that, as we understand, we would, all the more, glorify Jesus. For it is in His Name we pray, Amen.