Peace on Earth, goodwill towards men John 16:25-33

As those of you who are regulars here have come to realize by now, I do not go out of my way to preach topical messages on holidays.  So, as such, I do not have a “Christmas message” per se for you this morning.  That being said however, I feel that today’s message does speak to the real meaning of Christmas that unfortunately is often obscured by the focus on just the birth of Christ.  The real message of Christmas I feel is that Jesus came to be the Savior of the world.  Not just some sentimental nostalgia about a baby born in a manger, but a dawning of a new covenant, a new age in which God and sinners are reconciled.  That speaks more to the purpose of Christ’s coming  than the manner of His coming.  The manner is important.  But His purpose in coming is the main point.

So as most churches this morning are focusing on the first few hours of Christ’s life, I want to focus on the last few hours before His death.  And in that timeframe, Jesus was detailing His plan and purpose not only for His life, but also His legacy for His disciples.  We have been looking for weeks now at this last evening of Jesus’s life, in the passage known as Christ’s Upper Room  Discourse.  We are now down to the last few sentences.  And Jesus makes five statements in these last 9 verses which we want to look at today.  Each one of them is so pregnant with truth that we might easily spend a sermon on them individually. But in the interest of time, we are only going to look briefly at these statements.  

At first glance, there is little to tie all of them together other than the impending departure of Christ.  So from that perspective, we might surmise that Christ gives them these final principles in order to strengthen them and prepare them for what is to come. 

The first statement Christ makes is found in vs.25, which we could summarize by saying, “the veil is lifted.”  The actual words of Jesus are as follows: “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.”

Now I summarize this statement by saying “the veil is lifted,”  because it refers back to the Old Testament period which the disciples were a part of, but are now transitioning out of.  In Hebrews 9, the author tells us that in the old covenant, there was a tabernacle, and within the tabernacle was the Holy of Holies where the presence of God dwelled. Though God’s presence was there, He was veiled to the people.  And only once a year the high priest offered sacrifices for himself and the people and went in before the presence of God to intercede on their behalf.  

Hebrews tells us that  the sacrifices and the altar and the high priests and the Holy of Holies  separated by the veil were earthly pictures of heavenly realities.   Hebrews 9:11 says, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”  vs.24, “For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

That means according to chapter 10 that we too have full access to God through Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 10:19, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” By faith in Christ, the author is saying, we have entrance through the veil to God, by the blood of Jesus Christ.

So to go back to vs.25, then Jesus is saying, the time has come when I will perform the ultimate sacrifice and make it possible for you to enter into the Holy of Holies.  That which was up to this point figurative and ceremonial, will now be done away with because the One who completes the picture has come.  So that no more will there be need for pictures and symbols and parables and figurative language, but I will now tell you plainly of the Father, because I have offered the supreme sacrifice so that you are not separated from God by this veil, through which you now see dimly, but the veil will be torn in two so that you may draw near to God and be taught of God fully.

Jesus is stating that it was a new age in man’s relationship with God. Where there was once enmity, there is now peace. Where there was once separation, there is now full access. Where there was once pictures and symbols and parables, there is now the truth of God made manifest in Christ, through His word, and in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Thus Christ can say as He did earlier, that it was to our advantage that He went away.  So that’s the first principle; that through Christ as our high priest we now have full access to God.

Secondly, because of this veil being lifted, Jesus says you will know the familial love of the Father.  That’s the second point; to know the familial love of the Father.  Jesus says this in vs.26 and 27, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”

I think the key to understanding this statement is to understand the word love that  Jesus says the Father has towards us.  Contrary to most references in the New Testament, this love is not agape love as we are used to seeing.  But this word for love Jesus uses is  the Greek word “phileo” which means the love of family.  This love speaks of a new relationship we can have with God that is made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  

This love enables us to have a familial relationship with God which had not been possible before the veil was lifted in Christ.  Having been cleansed by the blood of Christ, we are not only able to go directly before the throne of God, but He has also come to us.  He has given us His Spirit to dwell in us.  So that we have now become the Holy of Holies where the Spirit of God dwells. As 1 Cor.3:16 says, “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.”

God no longer dwells in temples made with human hands, but in the hearts of His people.  The sacrifice of Christ on our behalf makes us part of His family.  And God has a special love towards His family.   Romans 8:14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

So that as the Christmas hymn proclaims, “Pleased, as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.”  Emmanuel, “God with us.”  Not just as a baby born to men, but “Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.”

Thirdly, the basis of that relationship that both the disciples and we enjoy with the Father is founded in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This gospel Jesus condenses into four statements, which constitute our creed.  We simply believe this creed, and the blood of Jesus Christ is applied to us, and we receive all these benefits of being sons and daughters of God.  So Jesus states this creed containing four major points in vs.28; “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.”

This statement is tremendous in its simplicity and conciseness. One sentence with four points, and yet it contains the major doctrines of the gospel upon which we base our faith.  Notice, "I have come forth from the Father (that is speaking of His deity). I am come into the world (that is speaking of His incarnation.) I am leaving the world (that speaks of His death by crucifixion). I go to the Father (that speaks of is His resurrection and ascension).”

This illustrates that simply recognizing Jesus as a baby in a manger, or as a good teacher, does not really constitute believing in Him.  We must believe in His deity; that He existed in the beginning with God and He was God. Secondly, we must believe in His incarnation; that He is God who became flesh and dwelt among us yet without sin.  Thirdly, we must believe that His death on the cross was the supreme sacrifice for the sins of mankind, and it was a voluntary act of sovereign grace.  And fourthly, we must believe that God, having found no fault in Christ raised Him from the dead and He ascended to the right hand of the Father after all authority and power had been given to Him.  That is what it means to believe in Him.  And upon confession and faith in this creed and nothing less, the blood of Jesus Christ is made effective for us, cleansing us from sin, and secures us in the family of God, so that we share in the inheritance of Christ.

Fourthly, we see in this passage the faltering faith of the faithful.  Vs.29, His disciples said, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”

I think this statement by the disciples is sincere but it is incomplete in the sense that they have a immature faith at this point.  God gives us trials in order to refine our faith, but also to strengthen our faith and mature it.  Our faith grows in the fires of adversity.  Up to this point, the faith of the disciples was mostly academic.  I mean, they had certainly left all to follow Him, and thus suffered some as a result of that decision.  But the real tests of their faith was yet to come.  Consequently, their faith was still immature.  

Consider Peter’s confession that though all fall away, he would never fall away.  He was sincere, but he had no idea of what it would require of him to stay by the Lord’s side.  They believed up to a point, but it was an untested, and as a result, it was immature faith. And yet all the disciples were in the same boat as Peter.  They all would fall away that night.  They all would desert the Lord. And there is no difference between those first disciples and us.  We come to Christ through faith, but it is not fully developed. As we encounter trials and tribulations, God works in us to strengthen our faith, and to mature us in the image of Christ as we participate in the fellowship of His sufferings.

So to prepare the disciples for this testing what Jesus wants to reiterate was His relationship to the Father.  He says “I am not alone because the Father is with Me.”  This is what their faltering faith needs to rest upon in this hour of trial; that He and the Father were One.  The deity of Christ is essential to their faith, so that though they may stumble, they would not fall headlong.  Because their relationship with God depends upon His relationship with God.  And He and the Father are inseparable.  They need to know that Jesus is Lord, even when circumstances may seem to be declaring it untrue.

Fifthly, Jesus wants to remind the disciples of the peace of God and the good will of God in the face of tribulations.  Vs.33, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  

When Jesus says in verse 33, "These things I have spoken unto you that in my you might have peace, He's not saying that you're not going to have tribulation, or difficulties, or trials and troubles. He's simply saying that in the midst of the difficulties, and trials, and troubles, the hostility of the world, the persecution, perhaps even the loss of life, He will give us peace - a sense of the calm that comes from the assurance of the expiation of our sins and of a heavenly Father whose presence  through the Spirit is with us in all the experiences of life. 

The peace of God is two fold.  On the one hand, we who were at enmity with God now have peace with God.  Our sins have been expiated.  We have been adopted by the Father and indwelled by the Spirit of God, so that we have permanent communion with God.  That relationship we have is the foundation of our peace as we got through the trials and tribulations of this world.  How much more can we ask for than to know that the Creator of all things is with us, and that He loves us and will never leave us.  That He hears us whenever we call upon Him.  That we can come to Him whenever we need Him and He welcomes us and promises to help us.  That is a peace not as the world gives, but as only God can give to those that love Him and whom He loves. 

And notice that He doesn’t say as you might would expect, “you have overcome the world. But that He has overcome the world. He is our victory.  He is our advocate.  He is our strength.  All our resources and blessings come through Him to us.  So our victory is settled because He was victorious over sin and death, and over all principalities and powers.  He is the object of our faith, and He is the source of our victory.  And so in Him, we can know the good will of God towards men, and the peace of God that passes all understanding.  

When the angel proclaimed Christ’s birth to the shepherds in Luke 2:10 he said, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  The fact that Jesus has come from God to be our Savior is the source of great joy to all people.  God has become our Savior.  And because of that fact, we can say with the angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”  Christ has secured our peace, He is the source of our joy, and because He has made it possible for us to be sons and daughters of God. 

Charles Wesley wrote a Christmas hymn in 1739 which states in prose these same principles we have looked at today.  I would like to read them for you, in hope that you will consider them in a new light, and more completely appreciate the peace of God and His good will towards men.

Hark the herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn king"

Peace on earth, and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled

Joyful all ye nations rise

Join the triumph of the skies

With angelic host proclaim

"Christ is born in Bethlehem"

Hark the herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn king”

Christ, by highest heaven adored

Christ the everlasting Lord

Late in time behold him come

Offspring of the favored one

Veiled in flesh, the God head seen

Hail the incarnate deity

Pleased, as man with men to dwell

Jesus, our Emmanuel

Hark the herald angels sing

"Glory to the newborn king”

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Tidings of comfort and joy, John 16:16-24

The Christmas season is supposed to be a season of joy.  It’s supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year.  That’s what we are told, at least, in tradition and song.  And yet I would suggest that for a lot of people, Christmas time is anything but joyful.  For many people that are financially strapped, it is a stressful time.  And for many who have lost loved ones, it is a sorrowful time.  I think our expectations during this holiday are part of the problem.  Perhaps because of the media’s portrayal of what we should be the Christmas experience, we have high expectations when it comes to this holiday in particular.  

However, I do believe that the Bible teaches us to expect joy during this season.  In fact, the angels announced to the shepherds in Luke 2:10, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”  So the Lord’s birth was intended to be something which would bring great joy to all people on earth.  It should be something to celebrate.

One of the Christmas carols we sang earlier was “Joy to the World.”  I didn’t realize that the music for that song was attributed to Handel, of Handel’s Messiah fame.  The words were written in 1719 by Isaac Watts, who based them on the second half of Psalm 98.  The first and second verses are as follows; 

Joy to the world! The Lord is come;

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare him room,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Verse 2

Joy to the earth! the savior reigns;

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

So if joy is supposed to the be the experience of Christmas, then what is the problem?  Why are we not experiencing joy?  Well, I would suggest that the problem is our perspective.  We often have sorrow rather than joy because our perspective is shortened.  We are focused on the wrong things.  We focus on the past, or on our circumstances or compare our situations with what we think others have.   And quite often, we have unrealized expectations.

In the passage of scripture we are looking at today, the disciples had mistaken expectations as well.  Instead of experiencing joy, they were experiencing grief and sorrow.  And Jesus is quite concerned about that.  In fact, practically the whole Upper Room discourse is devoted to Jesus trying to lift the hope of the disciples.  He offers hope, and comfort and peace in the previous verses.  Now in today’s passage He offers joy. 

It’s amazing really that in the midst of the greatest trial and suffering of Christ’s life, He is concerned  about our joy.  That is a lesson for us.  That no matter how dire the circumstances, there is the promise of joy through Christ to those who are His disciples.  But there can be a promise of joy, there can be the gift of joy, and yet it can remain unclaimed, unexperienced.  So let’s look at this section and try to learn what Jesus is telling us, how we can know the joy of Christ. And that is the joy of Christmas.  It’s not going to be found in the commercialization of Christmas, or the kind of joy the world gives.  The joy of Christmas is found in Christ.

Before we expound upon these verses though, we need to remember the context of this passage.  In the directly previous verses, Jesus is speaking of the ministry of Spirit of truth who will disclose the Lord’s words to them and teach them and work through them to be a witness to the world.

So within that context, we might expect that the following verses will be related to the ministry of the Spirit as well.  The first principle then that Jesus teaches is that joy, or the lack of it, is often related to our perspective.  In vs.16, Jesus says, “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”  Now this is a bit of a riddle, and the disciples evidently thought so as well.  The reason teachers sometimes employed these type of riddles in their teaching was to get their students to ask questions.  To get them to think it through.

And we see that’s exactly what happens.  “Some of His disciples then said to one another, ‘What is this thing He is telling us, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?”  So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.”

Now the problem is not that they were asking the question.  Because Jesus certainly phrased the riddle in order to make them ask questions.  But the problem is they are asking the wrong person.  They ask one another.  

Jesus had just finished telling them in vs.15 that the Spirit would disclose to them the things of Christ.  So they heard that, but in practice they weren’t looking to the Spirit.  They were asking one another.  And the result was confusion and ignorance. 

Folks, let this be a lesson to us.  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  He has the answers to life. So when you have questions, ask Jesus.  Don’t come to Him as a last resort after you have exhausted all your natural resources, after you have failed time and time again in your own wisdom.  But ask of God.  James said in James 1:5, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”  

The problem with the disciples perspective was it was short sighted.  Jesus had told them He was going away.  He had told them He was going to be killed.  And so they were upset.  Because they had pinned their hopes upon Him.  And well they should have.  But their hopes were wrong expectations.  They expected Him to establish a physical, immediate Messianic kingdom here on earth, overthrow the Roman government, and seat them on thrones of power as His cabinet ministers within the kingdom.  That was their expectation. And it was ill founded.  Because that wasn’t the plan of God. 

How many times are we discouraged and disappointed in life, especially as we attempt to live out the Christian life, because we have misplaced expectations?  To put it bluntly, we expect to have our cake and eat it too.  We expect to reap the glories of heaven, and yet experience the glories of earth.  And since we are now on the earth, that takes precedence.  We want glory now.  We want prosperity.  We want blessings now. We want worldly success as a benefit for godliness.  But God doesn’t necessarily promise those things. In fact, God promises hardship now, but triumph and joy in the age to come.

So Jesus answers that false expectation with another enigmatic statement.  Vs.20,  “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.”  Now we see the promise of joy.  But note that their joy comes as a consequence of their sorrow. 

I want to point out here that I didn’t write these words.  I didn’t create this principle.  If I were making this up, I would tell you what the false prophets on television tell you; that God doesn’t want you to suffer.  That God never wants you to suffer.  He just wants you to be happy.  And whatever makes you happy makes God happy.  That is the false prophet's message today.  And it’s a popular message.  It’s what people want to hear.  And so they seek out those false prophets who will tickle their ears and tell them what they want to believe.  

But the truth is that Jesus says we will suffer. He said back in vs.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 said in vs.33, “In this world you will have trouble.”  

So I would suggest that the joy of the Christian is not tied to your circumstances.  Our circumstances change from day to day, from sorrow, to grief, from riches to poor, depending on the tides of this world.  But the joy of the Lord carries us through whatever trials we may endure. Maybe it would help to define our terms.  Joy is not necessarily happiness.  Or at least it is not constant happiness.  Switchfoot has a song in which they say that happiness is a yuppie word.  Happiness is the aspiration of a narcissistic world.  Modern man is addicted to the notion of achieving happiness at all costs.  And as such we are doomed to missing out on true joy because constant happiness is unachievable. The Bible never promises us constant happiness. 

However,  Jesus does promise us joy.  Joy that will not be taken from us. So what is joy?  I believe it is an abiding hope, a sense of contentment, the presence of peace that we can have no matter what our present circumstances may be.  It is something that is not focused as much on the present as it is on the future, or the goal.

Jesus illustrates this joy with a analogy, or a parable that is a very familiar figure to all of us.  Vs.21, “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.”

I don’t know this the of pain and grief that a woman feels in childbirth, but I have witnessed it.  As I’m sure you all have some familiarity with childbirth.  And I suppose that it is one of the most painful things a person can endure.  In fact, many women have died giving birth.  But commensurate with the pain is the joy that is produced.  So that you might say that the degree of joy is directly related to the degree of pain.  But that’s not entirely true either.  Because the joy of a child in the long run far outweighs the temporary pain of childbirth.  

So it is with our sorrows and joy.  Ps.30:5 says, “Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.”  For the Christian, our sufferings are temporary, but our joy is eternal.   However, it is important to realize that suffering does not eclipse joy.  In fact, it is turned to joy.  And the way that is achieved is by having a longer range view, a different perspective.  

Consider Jesus Himself as our example.  Hebrews 12:2 says, we should fix our eyes on Jesus, “the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  What that verse tells us is that Jesus went to the suffering of the cross with the view of the joy set before Him, knowing that the result of His suffering would be the joy found at the right hand of God, when He was glorified because of His obedience even unto death.

I am not espousing a false type of piety that claims joy in the midst of a tragedy of some sort.  We aren’t supposed to pretend everything is joyful when it isn’t, and somehow that is construed as faith and that faith results in actualizing joy.  I don’t believe that is what Jesus is teaching.  Obviously, you can’t rejoice in everything that happens in life.  Jesus Himself wept and was greatly disturbed in His Spirit on at least a couple of occasions.  So Jesus isn’t saying that it’s wrong to feel pain, or wrong to grieve. 

On the contrary, Jesus says you will grieve.  There will be times when you will feel pain like a woman in childbirth.  But He also promises that sorrow will be turned to joy.  And though there may be times when circumstances sort themselves out and we find our sorrow turned to joy on a physical level, I think this verse must be considered as relating to spiritual joy.  God can turn our sorrow into joy when we look at it from a spiritual perspective. 

For instance, no one can take the joy of my salvation away.  No matter what I lose on this earth, no one can take that away.  It is reserved in heaven for me, far beyond earthly circumstances.  And nothing can take away God’s love for me.   Romans 8:38, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

So in the security of that knowledge, I know that Romans 8:28 then is true; “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  God will work all things together for good.  

Now how will Christ accomplish His promise of turning the disciples sorrow to joy?  Well, in verse 16 He equates their sorrow and grief stemming from His leaving them.  ““A little while, and you will no longer see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me.”  That statement is paralleled in vs 20; “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned to joy.”  So we see that the fact that they will no longer see Him results in their sorrow and grief.  And in like manner, when they see Him again, their grief will be turned to joy.  

The obvious conclusion is that He is talking about His death producing sorrow and grief.  And then His resurrection will be the occasion for turning their grieving into joy.  And that certainly is true.  But there is evidently a further explanation as well when you consider vs. 22; “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”  That joy that they have when they see Him again, will not be taken away from you.  I believe this statement indicates a more full measure of joy than simply temporal.  He is talking about eternal joy.  

Jesus will be resurrected 3 days after His crucifixion.  And that will be a joyous occasion.  But He is not with them constantly during those next 40 days He is on earth.  He comes and goes.  And many days they don’t know where He is during that time.  And then after 40 days He is taken up into heaven.  So what happens to their joy at that point, if it is dependent upon His physical presence with them?  

Well, I believe as you consider the context of vs.15 and other sayings of Jesus in the Upper Room discourse, He is talking about being with them forever in the presence of the Spirit. He said earlier in vs.6 “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

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.”  

So again Jesus relates His leaving them as producing sorrow, but their advantage will come from the coming of the Holy Spirit.  

And so Jesus speaks of that day, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit would come and be with them forever.  And through the Spirit of Christ, Jesus would be with them always.  His presence in them in the person of the Spirit  would be the source of their joy.  Because He would be their Helper, their Comforter, their constant guide, their source of truth, and their source of hope and peace.  

That helps us understand what He is saying in vs.23; “In that day [what day? the day the Spirit comes to dwell in you forever] you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.”  

That helps us because Jesus has already told us what the Holy Spirit will do for us.  Vs.15, “He takes of mine and discloses it to you.”  So Jesus isn’t saying here that this is like Christmas for adults.  We climb on God’s lap and ask for anything we want and just like Santa Claus, He will give it to us.  We can’t ask for a Porshe 911 and get it.  I have to admit, I find that prospect appealing to my flesh.  But that isn’t what Jesus is saying.

He’s talking about His words, His truth, and His teaching.  And the Holy Spirit will guide us, teach us, bring those words to our remembrance.  He will take of Christ’s words and disclose them to us.  That means He will disclose the truth to us.  Jesus says in that day, you won’t ask me, because I won’t be present physically to ask as you do now.  But I am giving you another Helper, and you will ask in Jesus’s name, and God will give you whatever you need.

I do think that our needs include physical needs.  Phil. 4:19, “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  But there is a difference between our needs and our wants.  But though that is true, I think that the primary emphasis here is on our spiritual needs.   Jesus has said that His words are life.  His truth results in life.  And Jesus has also said that you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.  Not only that, but Jesus calls the Spirit the Spirit of truth, so that we might be more certain that this is His chief ministry to us; to teach us the truth, to lead us in all truth. And when Jesus is gone, and the disciples cannot ask Him to help them, they will have the Spirit of truth to disclose His words to them.  

Finally, in vs.24, Jesus says, “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”  Up until this point, the disciples asked Jesus directly anything that they had questions about or were concerned about.  So Jesus says, now that I am leaving, you are to ask God in my name.  To ask God in the name of Jesus is not just a phrase tacked on to the end of our prayers.  Like some abracadabra and then presto, we get whatever we asked for.  But to ask in Christ’s name is to ask according to His will.  To ask according to His plan and purpose.  To ask consistent with who Jesus is.  

When we ask in His name, consistent with His will, then we will receive, and our joy will be made full.  Literally, it says, our joy will be fulfilled.  That speaks again of the promise of joy in the midst of sorrow.  The promise of joy is fulfilled when we ask according to His will.  That’s how Jesus Himself prayed to God in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Though He was suffering, sweating drops of blood, He prayed, “yet not My will, but Yours be done.”  And though He continued to suffer, He considered the joy set before Him, and endured the cross, until He was exalted on high to the side of the Father’s throne.

The same is true for us as it was for Jesus.   Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  

The next verse, Rom.8:17 also adds, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  That is the key to having joy.  We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and as He considered the joy set before Him, so we must consider the joy set before us; even our inheritance.  

And the way we do that is through the help of the Spirit of truth who will be with us forever.  He is our Comforter, our Helper, and He will take of Christ’s words and disclose them to us, that we might have that joy fulfilled.  Joy is the fruit of walking in the Spirit.  Galatians 5:22 tells us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”  

It was a long time between the birth of Christ in a manger, and the joy that He experienced in glory in the presence of the Father.  Thirty three years He suffered and was tried and tested.  Thirty three years He suffered in all points like we do, yet without sin.  He suffered as no man has ever suffered, leaving the throne of heaven for the life of a pauper, rejected of men whom He came to save.  Yet as a consequence, God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a kingdom which will never end, and to which all knees shall bow.  Consider Him this season.  Consider His example.  And keep the promise of His joy before you.  Walk in the Spirit, and the joy of the Spirit will be with you, whatever the tidings, whatever the season, whatever the circumstances.  

Authentic Christianity, John 16:12-15

Today’s message is entitled “Authentic Christianity.”  This is a subject that I feel very strongly about, and I believe the Lord feels very strongly about it as well.  The meaning of “authentic” is of undisputed origin, genuine, true, the real deal.  And as we study John’s gospel I believe this theme is emphasized over and over again. I believe authentic Christianity is very important to God.  And so it should be very important to us.  

God doesn’t want superficial Christianity.  He is not interested in lip service.  He is not interested in rituals and ceremonies and observing holy days which are supposed to honor the Lord, but in reality act as a facade for carnal hearts. In fact, Jesus said to the church of Laodecia in Revelation 3:15, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”  

Now that’s some pretty harsh talk for a bridegroom to say to His bride, is it not?  And yet this is how the Lord feels about superficial, sanctimonious Christianity that is not truthful with Him.  David said in Psalm 51:6, “Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.”  God cares about the integrity of His people. Truth is important to God. The word truth is used in the Bible 201 times.  And in the book of John it is used 26 times.  

Jesus said in John 3:33 that God is true.  He said in John 14:6 that “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  He calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth in John 14:17, John 15:26, and John 16:13. And He says the word is truth in John 17:17.  I would suggest that God cares about truth.  He cares about authenticity.  And so He cares that we walk in the truth. (2John 1:4)  So without question it is important to God.

And truth is important to me.  It’s the reason that I preach the gospel.  It is because of a desire to know the truth, and that the truth would be known.  Many of you are familiar with my story.  But for those that aren’t - I am a preacher’s kid.  Preacher’s kids have it tough for a whole host of reasons that I won’t elaborate on today.  But be that as it may, as a genre we are notorious for rebelling and going astray.  And I was no exception. My dad had been an Army sergeant in the paratroopers before he got saved, and he brought us up by very strict standards.   So by 21 or so I had decided to leave home and try to find out if the world was as fun as it looked.  Long story short, I ended up getting as far away from my dad’s ministry as I could get.  I ended up in Redondo Beach, California. After many years, I realized one day that I couldn’t remember the last time I had gone to bed sober.  I had explored all of the deviant pleasures that the world had to offer and still ended up unsatisfied and miserable.  And along the way, my love for God had become so cold I wasn’t even sure anymore what I believed.

To add to my problems, I had been dating a girl that was a Seventh Day Adventist.  And in the process of discussing religion with her, I found that many of the things that I thought to be true about Christianity I really did not have any basis for believing, other than that was how I had been raised. Which caused me to have serious doubts about what was really the truth.  And so one day all of this culminated in a bout of some serious soul searching.  I became under conviction of the Holy Spirit.  I knew I needed to get right with God, but I spent all day walking the beach, trying to shake it off. Eventually though, God got me alone in my garage that evening, and I began to pour out my heart to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and express my need to have Him take over my failed life.

Especially though because of the questions I had developed due to the exposure to Seventh Day Adventism, I wanted to  know the truth.  And so I prayed to God that if He would show me the truth, I would do it.  Even if it meant that everything I had been raised to believe was wrong, I wanted to know the truth.  And I asked God to show me.  

I had always heard that when someone comes to the Lord he should read the book of John.  And so after I threw away my drugs and alcohol and cigarettes, I found a Bible which somehow I still hadn’t lost, and began reading the book of John.  And a couple of hours later or so, I came upon this verse we are looking at in our text today.  Verse 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. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”   I believe the Holy Spirit specifically illuminated that phrase, “He will guide you into all the truth…”  And I have been pursuing that truth for 30 years now.

So I believe God wants authentic Christians. Jesus said in John 4:24, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  To that end, God has given us the Spirit of truth, so that we might worship Him as He wants to be worshipped.  

I saw a lady’s bumper sticker the other day in the parking lot of the post office, and it said, God is too big for one religion. But such a definition of God must require that this big God doesn’t care how He is represented.  He must not care how we worship Him.  That He has not declared who He is. But that belief offends the very concept of God.  God has declared who Himself to the world in the person and words of Jesus Christ, who said they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. 

The concept of truth has various dimensions, depending on how it is used.  But as it relates to worshipping God, to being a disciple of Christ, Jesus indicates that truth is progressive.  Jesus said in vs.12, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” 

What Jesus is indicating there is that the disciples had a limited capacity to understand the truth.  They were still struggling with the basic truths of the gospel as He had been teaching them.  The commentator Ellicott said,  “The revelation of Christ is not an imperfect revelation which the Holy Spirit is to supplement. It is a full revelation imperfectly received, and His office is to illumine the heart, and bring home to it the things of Christ.” 

So for the disciples to understand fully the truth of God, God had to give them a Helper to illumine their hearts and lead them to the truth.  And He did that through the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of authenticity.  His ministry in the life of a believer is like the seal that is placed on an item that guarantees it as being authentic, the real deal.   Ephesians 1:13

speaks of that seal, saying, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

So as the disciples come to believe truth of Christ, and trust that truth and act upon it, then they will be capable of receiving more truth which will be administered through the Spirit of truth.

That principle of progressive truth is taught throughout the scriptures.  Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path.”  What that teaches is the nature of truth. A lamp in those days was a oil burning lantern.  It did not shine a beam of light like a flashlight.  But it cast a glow a few feet in front of you.  So that is the nature of truth.  It is revealed as we walk in it.  As we are obedient to the truth revealed at that step, God will reveal the next step.  As so we walk in the truth, step by step.

But He is also indicating that they will receive another teacher of the truth.  As He has been their teacher for 3 years, now has come the time when He is going to be handing off their discipleship to another teacher who will take them to another level of truth.  At this point, Jesus has taken them as far as they can go.  They are not able to bear the next level of truth at that point. And the reason is that they haven’t yet proved, or tested that truth.  

For instance, all that Jesus has taught them concerning Himself, His divinity, His death and resurrection, has not reached the full level of comprehension.  But as the next few days unfold, they will witness His death, they will witness His resurrection, and they will receive the Holy Spirit.  Those events will exponentially increase their level of comprehension.  It’s one thing to believe Christ is God in theory.  But when they see His resurrected body those theories will be proven to be actionable truth that God will build upon through the guidance of the Spirit.

That is the idea that Jesus was expressing in the quote from Revelation to the church at Laodecia I mentioned earlier.  Jesus said, “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich.”  There is  truth that is refined by the fire of experience, or refined by the fire of persecution or trial that proves the truth of the scriptures in a way that enables us to take the Christian walk to the next level.  It is possible to learn a biblical principle, but then God will cause events to transpire in such a way that it tests your faith in that principle, so that you will really come to comprehend it.  And that testing then increases your faith.

But the main point Jesus is making is that He is ending His time with them as a teacher, and He is handing over that responsibility to the Holy Spirit who will continue to lead them and guide them as He had done for the last 3 years.  

Notice how Jesus describes the Spirit.  He calls Him the Spirit of truth.  In fact, three times Jesus refers to the Spirit as the Spirit of truth.  (John 14:7, John 15:26, and of course now in 16:13) Now that’s important because it stresses the principle that the Holy Spirit will always act in accordance to the truth.  Nothing that claims to be of the Spirit should ever be relied upon if it is not in accordance with the truth of God’s word. That is how we can recognize it as of the Spirit. We may have some kind of experience which we think is spiritual, but if it doesn't  agree with the revealed truth of God in scripture, then it must be dismissed as a false spirit.  John said in 1John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  So you can test the spirits by the word of God.  The Bible is the revealed truth of God.

He also is called the Spirit of truth because He is the means of God conveying the truth of scripture.  Peter said in 2Peter 1:20, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” And Paul also in  2Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”  Inspiration means “God breathed.”  And it’s interesting that the word in Greek for spirit is pneuma, which means breath of air.  So the scripture is breathed by God through the Holy Spirit to the agency of human writers.  That is why He is called the Spirit of Truth.  

And in this description of the Spirit’s ministry, once again Jesus refers to this principle we mentioned earlier of progressive revelation.  He says “He will guide you in to all the truth.”  To guide is to lead.  Sort of like leading someone by the hand. It is not a once and done operation.  But continually being filled with the Spirit’s leading, by being yielded to the Spirit’s teaching.

So then it is proper that there is a period of infancy in the Christian walk.  After all, we are first born again by the Spirit.  But then we are to walk in the Spirit, and grow in the Spirit. It is proper to have a time when you feed on the milk of the word, but there should come a time when you begin to eat meat.  When you grow into maturity. 

The disciples were at this point only able to receive milk.  They couldn’t handle the meat because they were not mature.  The same situation was seen in Corinth, and Paul reprimands the church there because they should have graduated by this time to solid food, but they had not.   1Cor. 3:2, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able.”  Why?  Because they were still carnal.  They had not grown into maturity in Christ.

Listen, we are called to grow up in maturity and stature in the Lord.  We are to be conformed to the image of Christ.  That involves being trained in righteousness, learned in sound doctrine, and practiced in godly works.  That is what the Spirit wishes to lead us into, and it is incumbent upon us to yield to His leading.  We need to be obedient to the truth revealed thus far, and as we do that He will guide us into all the truth.  Far too many Christians have accepted the basic truth of Christianity so that they are saved, but that is as far as they have gone.  And as a result the church today is carnal, worldly, and ineffective.  Being filled with the Spirit is being yielded to what the Spirit says through the word.

Now the other way we can authenticate the Spirit of truth,  is because Jesus says “He shall not speak of His own initiative.” In other words, He doesn’t speak of Himself.  He speaks the words of Christ and glorifies Christ in all He does.  Jesus uses the same method to determine the Spirit’s truth just as He validated the truth of His own words.  Jesus said in  John 14:10 “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 initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”  And in the 8th chapter, Jesus says that His words are the words of God, and that He does not glorify Himself but He glorifies God.  

So by the same standard of truth He says the Spirit is true. Because He does not speak on HIs own initiative.  In other words, there is one source for truth and that is God.  And all the trinity is unified because as Jesus speaks the words of the Father, so the Spirit speaks the words of Christ.  They are in harmony with one another..  And I would add that they are in harmony with scripture.  

It’s important to note that Jesus teaches us that truth is not by man’s discovery, but by divine revelation.  Jesus says in vs.14, “He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  We don’t need to go seeking truth on a mountain, or through some guru, or by some vision.  Truth is revealed to us through the revelation of God in the Bible, and the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds for us so that we might understand it as we believe it and are obedient to it.

I would like to make one more comment about vs.13 before we move too far from it.  And that is the truth, or all the truth, as Christ speaks of.  What is this truth?  It is not all truth, as some translators have it.  For the Holy Spirit does not reveal to us the truth of chemistry, or the truth of Algebra, or things of that nature.  We do not become supreme experts on all truth by the power of the Holy Spirit.  But we are guided into all the truth.  All the truth of life, and what pertains to real life from God. 

That is the truth of the gospel.  Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.  So to be guided in all the truth is to be guided to way of life from God.  God is the source of life.  He holds all life in His grasp.  Nothing exists without Him or can exist outside of Him.  And Jesus came to show us the way to God, the way to the source of life.  That way is through coming to believe in the truth of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.  

That’s what I mean by saying authentic Christianity. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”  God’s way is through Jesus Christ.  And His way leads to life.  Abundant life.  Eternal life.  Authentic life.  It doesn’t concern itself with putting on a religious front. 

Authentic life is not a self righteous life.  Authentic life is not religious superficiality.  Authentic life is rooted in the truth.  The truth that mankind is fallen and cannot have fellowship with God.  The truth that Christ came to die for sinners, so that our sins might be forgiven and reconciled to God.  Authentic life believes the truth and have been made free from the penalty of sin and the power of sin.  And so we commit ourselves to the truth. We aren’t concerned about superficial, emotional based, feel good Christianity without regard for the truth.  Authentic Christianity realizes that we are all fallen people and that we need to know the truth to be free from the snares and traps of Satan.  We know we have to stay engaged in the truth to all of our ability.  The devil wants to convince you that you can live life in neutral spiritually.  That is a lie of Satan.  Jesus said I wish you were either hot or cold.  Authentic Christianity requires staying hot.  Staying the course, regardless of the trials.  Persevering.  Even suffering.  But all the while believing that this way is the truth and it requires our daily commitment to it if we are going to succeed as God would have us to. 

I would like to end with a story from Genesis chapter 24 as a way of illustrating this ministry of the Holy Spirit and summing up His purpose for us. You may remember in Genesis 24 there is the story of Abraham obtaining a bride for Isaac his son, and there is an unnamed servant, who is sent far away to Abraham’s distant relatives in order to find a bride for Isaac.  In this story, Abraham allegorically represents the Father, and Isaac of course represents Jesus, and the servant represents the Holy Spirit.  So it says Abraham sends out this unnamed servant who is to find a wife for his son. It’s interesting the servant doesn’t have a name. He has a title, but not a name. So the unnamed Spirit or the unnamed servant goes on this journey and comes to a well where a girl comes and waters his camels.  And there he is led by the Lord to Rebecca, who is the one whom the Lord has chosen to be the wife of Abraham’s son. 

Later that day  they gather around the table as they are getting ready to eat and the servant of Abraham says, “I will not eat anything until I have told you my business.” And with that he begins to tell of the glories of Abraham and the son. He says, “My master is a great man. He’s been made great, and furthermore he has given everything that he has into the hands of his son. And I’m here to obtain a bride for the son.”

Well that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does in his work of glorifying Jesus Christ. He glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and through his ministry He teaches us the truth of Christ, so that we might be joined to Christ as His bride, the church.  As Jesus says in vs.14-15, the Spirit takes the things of Christ and discloses them to us so that we might be a fit bride of Christ.  So that we might be taught the complete knowledge of Christ.  So that we might be conformed to Christ.  So that we might be matured in Christ, so that we might do the works of Christ,  that one day we might be glorified with Christ.  And He does that through leading us and guiding us in all the truth that is necessary for life and godliness.  

Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”  This is the ministry of the Spirit of truth, to present us to Christ, even as Abraham’s servant presented Rebecca to Isaac.  

At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus said in vs.1, “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.”  He has given us a guide to keep us from stumbling.  To present us faultless, without spot or wrinkle, that we might be the glorious church of Christ.  That is the ministry of the Spirit of truth.  To lead us and guide us into all the truth, so that we might not stumble.  So that we might be found a fit bride at Christ’s return.  Let’s pray.