More Words to Come
More Words to Come Finally, Jesus says that the best thing to come from His departure and the coming of the Holy Spirit is the inspiration of a New Revelation that would be: Historical Doctrinal Prophetic The Holy Spirit would develop this tool through the apostles for future generations of believers to teach, reproof, correct, and train.
Jesus sums up all of this teaching by reminding them of a most important biblical concept Joy that comes from sorrow. Psalm 30:1-5
Psalm 30:1-5 (NASB) 1 I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my enemies rejoice over me. 2 O LORD my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me. 3 O LORD, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit. 4 Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name. 5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
Jesus sums up all of this teaching by reminding them of a most important biblical concept Joy that comes from sorrow. Psalm 30:1-5 Jesus says that He will be gone for a little while and then return. This indicates sorrow and then joy. But, His statement is intentionally a little vague, giving this statement three levels of understanding.
1. Death and Resurrection Jesus tells them there will be sorrow in His death but joy in His resurrection. He had begun to prepare them John 13:31-36.
John 13:31-36 (NASB) 31 Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus *said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; 32 if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. 33 Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. 36 Simon Peter *said to Him, Lord, where are You going? Jesus answered, Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.
1. Death and Resurrection Jesus tells them there will be sorrow in His death but joy in His resurrection. He had begun to prepare them John 13:31-36. First, the disciples sorrowed because of their deep personal loss. Second, the disciples sorrowed because of the world s attitude toward Christ s crucifixion. Third, the disciples sorrowed because of their great disappointments Luke 24:21.
Luke 24:21 (NASB) 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.
1. Death and Resurrection contd. The disciples had great sorrow because of their loss, the joy of the world, and disappointment. Then came the resurrection! The resurrection changed their sorrow into joy! This was not that joy followed sorrow. Before the resurrection, the death of Jesus appeared to be a total tragedy. The resurrection changed that tragedy into triumph Galatians 6:14.
Galatians 6:14 (NASB) 14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
2. Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit This was to mark the coming of the church age. The passage suggests this. Earlier, Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit convicting the world of sin (verses 7-11) and being the vehicle in which the apostles would write the New Testament (verses 12-15). These verses tell us that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will not speak of Himself but of Jesus, in order to make Him known!
2. Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit contd. The Holy Spirit comes to make Jesus known spiritually, not physically. We approach knowing Jesus today by the study of the Word of God. This is not only an academic but a personal interaction with Jesus. Hebrews 12:1-3 outlines this for us.
Hebrews 12:1-3 (NASB) 1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing 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. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
2. Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit contd. The Holy Spirit comes to make Jesus known spiritually, not physically. We approach knowing Jesus today by the study of the Word of God. This is not only an academic but a personal interaction with Jesus. Hebrews 12:1-3 outlines this for us. Jesus turns our sorrow into joy through the study of scripture and by turning from anything that will hinder discipleship Philippians 3:8-10, 13-14.
Philippians 3:8-10 (NASB) 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
Philippians 3:13-14 (NASB) 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
3. The Second Coming our Blessed Hope Even with the Holy Spirit s administration, now we have great sorrow, disappointments, personal loss, and sin that keeps us from God. The hope of all hopes is that none of this is permanent. a little while Jesus is coming again! Our present sorrows will be changed to joy!
There is an obvious progression here. There is revelation of the Lord at the time of the resurrection; something that went way beyond anything that the disciples could have even imagined. There is the revelation of Jesus to His people during this church age through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There is the perfect revelation of Jesus that comes when He returns.
Application Do you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you? That can only be if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ! Do you know Jesus better this year than last year? Do you strongly desire a growing relationship with Jesus?