This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. If you have your Bible, would you open up to John Chapter 16? The Gospel of John Chapter 16. And we'll be picking up at the second half of verse four and going through verse 15. This is the word of God. I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you, but now I'm going to him who sent me and none of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, 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. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the 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. 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. The reading of God's word. Please have a seat. So we're in John chapter 16. If you close your scriptures, go ahead and open up back to there. You know, while I'm thinking of it, I just think it's worth saying that we are so blessed to have the musicians who minister to us. You know, you often, before the preaching begins, you've heard a sermon that is better than many are hearing across the world and the country. the thoughtfulness and the passion and the truth that our musicians bring to us is just, can't be understated. We are blessed. We are blessed. And I want to encourage you to, I think you hear it in my prayers and in the sermon that's coming this afternoon, I think many of you are staying anyway for Lord's Supper, but I do encourage you stay for the afternoon. It is a time where we just have been suffering particularly together. And the suffering isn't something we delight in, but that's something we're supposed to have together. So I encourage you, that's what we're talking about this afternoon a bit more and encourage you, be here for the fellowship that comes from that and for the blessing of God's word during that. So when we look at this passage, when we're looking at the gospel of John, We see so much of the ministry of the Holy Spirit being promised. Something that's so everyday to us is just this earth-shattering kind of revelation, earth-shattering development in God's plans. See, in the beginning, God set a plan in motion. God set a plan in motion. He created all things, yes, but he creates man and they rebel. And almost immediately, he sets in motion a plan to redeem them. He sets in motion a plan to conquer that lying serpent. And then the course of history from there is just God working that promise, developing that promise, revealing that promise, protecting that promise. And all along God is pointing his people saying, you need a savior. You need a savior. You need a savior. That is the message of the law. That is the message of the prophets. God pointing us to our need. And then finally that savior comes. That savior takes on flesh and he walks among us and he teaches and he ministers. And it's up to this stage in those plans of God that the disciples have any idea what's going on. They might get that. They might understand that, but because of where we are on the other side of the cross, we understand things that they don't. We've been told about things that they just did not understand yet. We know that Christ is going to accomplish his mission by dying. by dying and rising from the grave. That is how Christ is going to have success. That is how he's going to accomplish this gospel. We know that he's going to pass along that mission to the Holy Spirit, who's going to take Christ's work and apply it far and wide. That is how the gospel is going to go marching forward. But his disciples, they haven't understood that. His disciples do not get that yet. So on the cusp of this really big transition from an incarnate savior walking and living among them to the ministry of the Holy Spirit on that cusp, they hear that things are changing and they're unsettled. They're distraught. Are you an optimist? Are you the kind that's positive about what's coming, happy about what's coming? You know, on the one hand, optimism makes no sense. You just look at our world sometimes and you ask yourself, what are we optimistic about? Optimism on, in one way, it just doesn't make sense. In another way though, I would say as Christians, we are required to be optimists. We are required if we believe what Jesus has given us to expect good things. We believe Christ is coming again. Amen. We believe in a new heavens and a new earth coming. Amen. We can be pretty happy about that. We have the certainty of the future of a very good future ahead of us. And we should be optimistic about that. But I ask because in contrast, I don't think the disciples were optimists at this point in their lives. I just don't. You just look at on their side of the cross, hearing that drastic change was about to happen. I don't think they welcomed that one bit. I don't think they had any confidence in the future yet. So Jesus talks about that he is leaving, that everything's changing. and they despair. And I mean, really, I can't really blame them. You look at where have they been? What have they been experiencing? Jesus says, verse four, you know, I've been with you. I've been in the flesh, walking with you, teaching you. You didn't understand that point, let me clarify. I mean, wow, that would have been amazing. It doesn't seem like it gets any better than that. And I think we still, our hearts resonate with that a bit. You got to walk with Jesus? That sounds incredible. That sounds incredible. And see, on top of that, Jesus also says, apparently he's been protecting them this whole time. Apparently he's been sheltering them, allowing them to sort of put down roots in the faith. They're these delicate plants at first, you know, so skittery, and the Lord protects them. And the Lord has been protecting them, but things are about to change. Now with him leaving, there's some sobering truths coming their way. Reality is crashing in in an important and hard to handle way. I mean, for example, we just talked about that. He said, you know what? The world's going to hate you. They hated me. He says, they're going to hate you and they're going to persecute you. And I'm leaving you. You can't blame the disciples for not being thrilled about having to have anything change. And so that brings us to the present for these disciples, where they are at this moment in this story. How would any of us feel about this news? Not that happy. We just wouldn't. We wouldn't be that happy. They are distracted. Their hearts, it says, are full of sorrow. They just don't know what it means that he's leaving. And if you're not an optimist, if you don't have the certainty of God's promises to look forward to, of course this shakes you up. Why should you be happy? And at this point, when you see Jesus walking them through these thoughts, there's this kind of implied rebuke, isn't there? I mean, in verse five, he says, you know, I'm going to him who sent me and none of you asked me, where are you going? I mean, implied here is this is kind of an important question. You should be asking this. This is pretty important to your outlook on the future, where I'm going. But no, they don't ask it. They don't understand it. They feel abandoned. They don't get that he's going to the father on their behalf. They just feel abandoned. And see, it's not like he's just leaving to go on vacation somewhere. Although in their heart of hearts, do they think something like that? Maybe. He's not just going to take a break. He's leaving to go and be their advocate to the father. He is leaving to do a very good work on their behalf, but they don't realize it. They're lost on that point. Even if some of these things he's given them before, he's told them before, but the scriptures often say how they just didn't understand this yet. And so they don't have any understanding on this. They're just lost. And so as Jesus points them to this radically different future coming without him and with the Holy spirit, they don't have a clue what to make of it. None whatsoever. He says verse seven, that he's leaving in order to send them the Holy spirit, the helper as the ESV, the NAS, they translate it that way. And he looks at them. He says, I know you're feeling sorrowful about this. I know where you are on this, but believe me, you just pictured the earnestness. Believe me, this is to your advantage that I go. They must doubt that. It's not like anyone wants to disagree with the savior. They've done that before. And how did that work out? Right? But sometimes people say something, you're just like, I hear what you're saying and I don't think you're lying, but I really have no idea how you think that's true. How is it to our advantage that the Messiah should leave us? We've been walking with him every single day. What could possibly be better? They can't imagine it. They cannot imagine something being better than that. And really that's how God's plans are. God's plans are always better than we can imagine. Literally, God's plans are always better than we can imagine. A God who can work all things together for good, for those who love him, right? Beautiful promise of Romans 8, 28. That kind of God is a God whose plans are always better than we can imagine. We think he's doing something, he's doing something 10 times better than that. Something a hundred times better than that. We think he's doing something terrible. No, he's doing something wonderful. Our God is always doing things better than we can imagine them to be. But you see, for that to be any comfort to us, to the disciples, we actually have to believe him. We actually have to believe him. Those disciples looking at Jesus actually have to trust him. Okay, this sounds terrible, but he says it's better. I'm gonna trust him in that. I'm going to rejoice in that. Only then is this any comfort to them. But as they're figuratively speaking, kicking and screaming and just, you know, digging in their heels where they are, this is no comfort to them. For the disciples, Jesus leaving just feels so unnatural. Jesus's leaving is so unnatural that it just feels like this must be failure. This must be something going wrong. Like I said, here on the other side of the cross, we understand things differently. We understand things more fully than they did. But for them, there's no way that this is success. We know that Jesus departing leads to the next step in redeeming God's people. To them, this just feels like the end of the world. And so he says, I'm sending you the Holy Spirit. But I mean, even then, okay, you're sending the Holy Spirit. So what does that mean? If this is supposed to console us, if this is supposed to encourage us, what does that mean? And that's when you get to verses eight through 11, which are really just, they're kind of poetic, they're so cool sounding. But they also sort of confound commentators. I'll read them again for you, right? So in verse eight, he's talking about the Holy Spirit. And when he comes, the Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. This is the part that gets hard on people, because it's so condensed. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. What you have is Jesus just saying, these are the three things I'm going to talk about, and let me expand these three things that I'm going to talk about. You know, the birth of the three-point sermon, right? But he does it so quickly. He does it just so briefly. And so you're left sometimes saying, so what does that mean? Well, let's go through it bit by bit. He says, the Holy Spirit is going to come and convict the world. All these things he's going to convict them about are sub points of this convicting ministry, right? He's going to convict the world. That word convict, it's really to show someone their sin and in an effort to summon them to repentance. And that's actually, I think, an important part to hold on to because the Holy Spirit's ministry is not just going around pointing the finger. You're wrong. You're wrong. The Holy Spirit's ministry indeed is showing us where we are in sin, where we have fallen short of the glory of God, but it's a ministry that's saying, now come repent, be reconciled. That's an important part to put on there. That's an important part. It seeks reconciliation and repentance. And so the Holy Spirit is going to convict concerning three things then. Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. That's what Jesus says. He will convict the world concerning sin because they do not believe in me. You know, this really is reminiscent of just what we just preached on in the last passage about how the world had rejected Jesus' teachings and their works and their sin was magnified because of it, right? The Holy Spirit is going to come and convict the world that this is not an option to believe in Jesus Christ. He is the son of God. You must accept him. There's no other choice here. The fundamental need of the world is to trust in Christ. That really is what they need. They don't need world peace and financial reform and whatever else as much as they need to trust in Jesus Christ. That is the primary thing that the Holy Spirit is going to go after. They need to believe in the one that all the scriptures have been pointing to. They need to believe in the one about whom these disciples were gonna go forward and bear witness. The Holy Spirit was gonna go and bear witness. The Holy Spirit will convict them concerning that sin. The Holy Spirit will convict them concerning righteousness. He says he will convict them concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will no longer see me. This one is probably the hardest of the three. And commentators have some different views on it. I would say it probably relates to Christ's righteousness. It seems the point to Christ's righteousness. The world rejected him. But now he's going to the father and he stands vindicated. His righteousness stands vindicated. Jesus Christ, the righteous lives. That will be the proclamation of the Holy Spirit. And it's not only that he has been accepted by his father, but he also goes to plead the cause of his people. He also goes to serve as our advocate. as our paraclete, another helper. And that really leads right into the next point. The Holy Spirit's going to convict the world concerning judgment. This, I don't know how to say it. You know how everyone misuses the word epic? This is kind of like, he's going to convict the world concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I mean, oh, that is such a cool thing for Jesus to say. I'm not going to say epic, but I mean, just hearing you say, oh yeah, he's the ruler of this world is judged. And this brings us back to a nuance that actually I left out at the very start, that convicting that the Holy Spirit is doing, that convicting also carries sort of a sense of prosecuting. of prosecuting. See, there's this forensic sense to these passages, a sense that we're kind of, this is taking place in God's divine court. And so we talked about that, that it was hinted a little bit just in the last passage, that the disciples were going to get thrown out of their synagogues. And we said that part of what was going to go into that was they would be hauled before synagogue trials, found guilty of whatever, and then thrown out, right? They would think they were judging God's people, but as they did so, they were bringing judgment upon themselves. But there's also the word. It's another one of those famous Greek words, paraclete, right? That's what we're translating as helper. And that's what other translations might call advocate, comforter. Paraclete is one of these words that has a lot of nuances to it. So it can be tricky to say, just how should we translate this for English? Just how should we do it in this case? Well, the Paraclete has a really strong sense as being a legal counselor, a legal counselor that contributes to this whole sense that this is like a courtroom going on. And so what you have is the Holy Spirit coming, and he doesn't just defend the people of God. He also turns the tables on the world. He also will bring the accusations against them. The world does not just get to throw accusations at the people of God. They also now need to answer to the Holy Spirit. You know, the prophets, they were doing this all through the Old Testament. They would come to the people of God and say, you broke your covenant. This was the covenant you had with God and you stand guilty because of how you have lived, faithlessly lived and broken that covenant. Now we don't just have a prophet. We have the divine prosecutor stepping up and he takes on the chief accuser of them all. And the ruler of this world is judged. Satan, that great liar and accuser of God's people, he has been judged. The ruler of this world has been shown to be a liar and a criminal. And the world who was followed after him, the world who has counted him as their leader and followed after him. Now that conviction is upon them saying, you know, you need to jump ship. You don't want a leader like that. You don't want to follow and trust a leader like that. Why would you want the Prince of Lies when the Holy Spirit is proclaiming to you the way, the truth, and the life? That is the leader that you want. The Holy Spirit's ministry of conviction is a big part of what's next in God's plan of redemption. This is what's going on. The Holy Spirit is convicting the world. The plans of God are marching mightily forward because the Spirit's time has come. Because the Holy Spirit is now doing His work. You see, shortly after Jesus is teaching on this, shortly after this, Jesus's work is going to be done for the moment. He will have accomplished exactly what he came to accomplish. And that's when God, the Holy Spirit arrives to do his part. The son's work was unique. The Holy Spirit's work is unique. He is doing something that Christ was not doing. This ministry of conviction, it is his. because of this ministry of conviction, those who never would have believed before, they will now. Those hard-hearted ones reveling in their wickedness and their opposition to the faith, they will be brought to faith because of the Holy Spirit. The reason we have hope for the people like Saul of Tarsus is not because our message is so good, but it's because the Holy Spirit's ministry is so powerful. That is why we have hope that the gospel will go forward, that people will believe that every day God is bringing in the dead and the dying into his camp, into his flock. It's because the Holy Spirit is working. The Holy Spirit's ministry, you cannot do without it. The plans of God, God's redemption cannot just leave the Holy Spirit off. You ignore the Holy Spirit at your own peril. And it turns out. As if that's not big enough, the Holy Spirit's ministry is even bigger than that. It's even bigger than that. 12 through 15, start describing how the Holy Spirit's job is also going to be to care for the people of God. He is going to guide them in all the truth it says. You know, as an aside, the reason we have a New Testament has everything to do with the Holy Spirit's ministry. It's not like we just had a bunch of entrepreneurial journalists who went and put together some good stuff. We have this because of the Holy Spirit. What we base our lives on, the reason we have any hope for the gospel going forward, it all comes back to that the Holy Spirit is working. And he says, Jesus says, that the Holy Spirit is going to guide God's people, the disciples particularly here, in all truth. You know, Jesus, he looks at them. Verse 12. He says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. I mean, just hear the mercy in that. Hear the compassion in that. Hear the understanding in that. He's like, I still have more to say to you, but now is not the time for it. I mean, you've had those conversations, right? Those conversations where it was deep or dense or emotional or whatever it was. And there's just a point where you say, I just can't do anymore. We need at least a timeout here. We can pick this up later. I cannot process anything more. And that's what Jesus is doing here. He says, I know you can't handle anymore. I have more things to say to you. But you're not ready for it. Christ is so merciful. He is so full of patience, so full of understanding, so full of wisdom. He is the one who's running out of time, right? As always, remember the context. He is the one who's about to die. I imagine my own being on my own deathbed. I have something really important to tell, you know, whoever's there. And they're just struggling to sit through and I say, guys, I'm about to die. So take notes or something. If you can't handle this right now, Jesus is the one who is about to die. And he looks at them and says, you're not ready for this. This can wait. This is what our savior is like. This is what he's like. Yes, he is. Holy. Yes, he is mighty. If we were to see him, we would just hit the floor in a split second. But he is intensely personal. He is intensely concerned with his flock. He knows us like only our creator can know us. And he cares. And the man about to die says to the people who are still going to be around, hey, we can talk about this later. We can talk about this later. Now, if they were at all processing here, they might be able to add one and one and say, wait a minute, you said you're leaving. You say, we'll talk about this later. When are we going to hear the rest of this? When are you going to tell us these things? How are you going to tell us these things? That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He's going to keep talking to them through the Holy Spirit. There's that continuity of ministry. Jesus passing the mission on to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be guiding them from here on. And Jesus says, and he will guide you in all the truth. You might notice small point, but I think important. A lot of your translations probably say he'll guide you into all the truth instead of in all the truth. I just wouldn't say into. I don't think we should translate it that way just because it makes the truth sound like something that they haven't had before. So, I mean, take for example, if I say I'm going to guide you in the house versus I'm going to guide you into the house. I'm going to guide you in the house as I'm going to show you around, you know, show you whatever I've got. I'm going to guide you into the house means you're outside and I, hey, come on in, come on in, right? So saying guide you into the truth, I just don't like how it makes it sound like they had nothing in Jesus. They hadn't heard any truth in Jesus. They had not been given any of that foundational truth in Jesus. I think more what we should be going for here is that the Holy Spirit is going to be guiding them in the depths of Jesus and of his gospel and of that truth. Because when he says all the truth, it's going to be all the truth about Christ. Not every single fact you could ever come up with, all the truth about Jesus Christ. Just in this last chapter, chapter 15, we talked about that the Holy Spirit would bear witness about Christ. That's his role. The focal point of God's revelation to us has been about Christ. The whole history of redemption has been building to the gospel and at the very center of the gospel is Jesus Christ. So you ask yourself, so what's the Holy Spirit going to guide them in? He's going to guide them in the depths of Christ. And he's going to speak what he hears. He will speak what he hears. It's so interesting how the Trinity works. Jesus kept saying, I speak for my father, right? The Holy Spirit speaks for Christ. It's just interesting how they are so unified. That's why we talk about that they are a Trinity. Three persons, one God, totally unified. So there is no wondering then, if the Holy Spirit is speaking what he hears, there is no wondering if the son has a different take on it or something. There's no going to the son or to the father, okay, I heard this from the Holy Spirit, what would you say? No, he said exactly what the triune God intended to say. That is exactly what the people of God have been receiving. The Father has given all things to Christ and the Holy Spirit takes from that store. And that's what he says. And that's what he declares to the people of God. And in this, Jesus Christ is glorified. That is the point of this plan of redemption. Jesus Christ is glorified by the work of the Holy Spirit, by his conviction and by his guiding in the truth. So are you an optimist? When it comes to God's plans, you should be. Because God's plan is marching forward perfectly. The Spirit's ministry of conviction, where we stand, the Spirit's ministry of conviction will continue until that day when every knee will bow at the name of Jesus Christ. And in the meantime, don't let your hearts be troubled that we don't have the Savior walking among us. There's no doubt that was special, but the Savior left us in the very good hands of the Holy Spirit. And we are blessed to be where we are. Let's pray. Oh God, our father, give us confidence in your plans. Give us confidence when we don't know what you're doing. but give us confidence that you lead us to better things. Give us confidence that your plans are always better than our plans. Your thoughts are always better than our thoughts. We rejoice in the Holy Spirit. May we be a people who treasures every gift you have given us. And the Holy Spirit is an amazing one. Please bless us in faith in that. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.