Rose Hill Presbyterian John 16: 4b-15 Rev. Brian North April 6 th, 2014 Not a Fan Kirkland, WA Fans of the Holy Spirit This morning we continue the series we ve been in the last few weeks, titled, Not a Fan and loosely based on the book of the same name by Kyle Idleman. This morning s message ties in with chapter 6. Now, for those of you reading the book, the next two Sundays Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday will each come from several chapters. Chapters 8-11 will lay the groundwork for next week (Palm Sunday), and chapters 12-14 will lay the groundwork for Resurrection Day. I want to start this morning by doing something I ve never asked a congregation to do in a sermon. So if you don t like this little exercise, then you can take solace in the fact that it probably won t happen again for another 12 years. I d like you to turn to a neighbor and in 10 seconds or less, share with each other your answer to this question: When saying goodbye to someone, is it harder for you to be the one leaving, or the one left behind? Got it? Ready, set, go! Every situation is potentially different, but generally I would definitely prefer to be the one going. A few years ago, when we were living in Salt Lake City, we had three kids 4 and under, and I remember going to a three-day conference in San Diego in late October. It was definitely easier for me to be the one leaving, than it was for Gwen to be staying, as we said good-bye. I bring this up because here in John 16, and really it starts in John 14 and goes through chapter 17, Jesus is in the process of saying good-bye to the 12 disciples. And if you read through these chapters and we get a taste of it in this morning s passage you ll see that it was much harder for them to say good-bye than it was for Jesus. Their grief is weighing heavily upon them, while Jesus is telling them how it s good that he s leaving them. It was much harder to be the ones who were left behind, than to be the one heading off to something new. That s not to say it was easy for Jesus he knew he had a date with the cross and that was going to be a real killer experience but in terms of the relationship between Jesus and the twelve, it was much more difficult for them. 1
2 This is important to note because it explains, at least in part, why they had such a hard time understanding what Jesus was saying to them as he said his good-byes: Their emotions got in the way because this wasn t just any ordinary Teacher/student kind of relationship. They believed that Jesus was their Messiah, but they had an earthly understanding of that what that meant: That the Messiah would lead a revolt and conquer the Romans and rule over Israel. That was the widely-held belief among Jews about what the Messiah would do. They only saw the possibility of a new earthly Kingdom, not an eternal one. And as Jesus is saying good-bye, their thinking and ability to understand what Jesus is saying, is completely clouded by their immense disappointment and belief that the last three years of following Jesus have become a complete waste. As a result, their grieving is heavy, and it clouds their ability to think, process information, and so forth. Maybe you ve said good-bye to someone knowing you wouldn t see them again in this life and it s hard to do. It can cloud our thinking, causing us to live in a fog, just sort of dead to the world. That s where the disciples are. But Jesus is trying to get through to them that his leaving is actually a good thing. So what is good about his leaving? He says it s good because the Holy Spirit will come in his place. He puts it like this in verse 7: But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you (John 16:7). Advocate is the Greek word paraclete. It means one who pleads another s cause an intercessor an advocate an assistant. i Clearly, Jesus is referring to what we more commonly call the Holy Spirit. And in the language of our series: Fans question the Spirit, while followers of Jesus welcome the Spirit. That s not to criticize the Disciples here, but just to make a statement that differentiates between fans and followers of Jesus. There are three reasons Jesus gives for why the coming of the Spirit is good and we should welcome the spirit as His followers. And all three have to do with what the Spirit does. The Spirit is going to prove the world to be in the wrong in regards to sin, righteousness, and judgment, Jesus says. Many Bibles translate the Greek here to say that the Holy Spirit will convict the
world of these things. The idea here is that people s eyes will be opened to these things We think of being convicted in a negative sense someone being convicted of a crime and there s an element of that in the Spirit s work but the point is that the Spirit would convict us so as to be moved into a deeper relationship with Jesus, which is a good thing. So first, Jesus says that the world will be proved to be wrong (convicted) about sin, because people do not believe in him. What does he mean by this? He means that without recognizing the sin in our lives, we have no need for Jesus. Who needs a savior if there s nothing to be saved from? Who needs a healer if there s no sickness? Who needs a redeemer if there s nothing from which to be redeemed? Who needs a ransom to be paid if we re not held hostage by something? When we don t recognize our sin, we see no need to believe in Jesus and put our trust in Him. And Jesus is saying that it is the Holy Spirit who opens people s eyes up to the sin in their lives and their need for Jesus. Secondly, Jesus says that the world will be proved to be wrong (convicted) about righteousness, because Jesus is going to the Father. What Jesus means here is that people will be convicted about Jesus righteousness not ours. This stands in stark contrast to the fist point. The Spirit opens our eyes up to our sin, and at the same time opens our eyes up to the sinlessness the righteousness of Jesus. The majority of the people of Jesus day especially the movers and shakers of the world did not see Jesus as a righteous man of God. If they had, he wouldn t have been crucified as a criminal. He wouldn t have gone on trial, he wouldn t have been found guilty, he wouldn t have been considered a religious heretic by the Jews and a subversive threat to the government by the Romans. So Jesus was seen by many as anything but righteous, and they expected Jesus following to go away as soon as he was put to death. But what happened instead was that the seed was planted for a world-wide movement of God that was fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit. Humanity s perception of Jesus changed. The apostle Paul is a great example. In his own words, Paul tells of persecuting the church when it was in its infancy and then when the Holy Spirit gets a hold of him, he realizes who 3
Jesus really is, and becomes the greatest church planter and evangelist the world has ever known. Luke tells us of a Roman centurion who, upon Jesus death, exclaimed, This was a righteous man. And it s all because the Spirit moves to prove the righteousness of Jesus. Lastly, Jesus says that the world will be proved to be wrong (convicted) about judgment, because the prince of this world (Satan) now stands condemned. In other words, there is a judgment coming, even though most of the world doesn t believe that. People tend to think we can live however we want, and that there is no judgment and no consequences now or on the other side of the grave: We can live without conviction of our sin, without conviction of Jesus righteousness, and it s no big deal. And Jesus is saying here that that simply is not true. It is a big deal, there is a judgment about our living and that the one who one who leads us to believe we aren t judged is in fact in judgment himself, and is even condemned. One commentary I read this week put it like this, While the evil one continues to thrash around and the struggle goes on, his power has been destroyed. ii So the prince of this world leads people to believe there s no judgment, even as he has been judged and condemned. And so what Jesus is saying here, is that the Advocate, the Paraclete, is the one that moves in such a way that people will be convinced of these three things (our sin, Jesus righteousness, and judgment). And in verse 14 Jesus says the result of the Spirit s work is that Jesus will be glorified. Now, I don t know about you, but I have an observation about the Spirit s work in my life, and it is this: I m not always as open to the Spirit s convictions as I should be. I m more fan than follower more often than I care to admit. Let me give you an example from this past week. A few weeks ago Gwen signed me up to go to my daughter s second grade class for a jobfair, which meant I was to sit in her class room while kids came to me to find out what a pastor does. Quite frankly, it wasn t what I really wanted to do I could think of a million other things I d rather do with an hour or so of my time. And about the only reason I really went along with it is because Brooke was excited to have her dad come to class, and let s be honest that isn t likely to last too much longer. So I said I d go. I didn t give it even two 4
moments of thought until this last Tuesday night, because the job fair was the next morning. One thing I thought of that night was that I should bring a Bible actually, that was Gwen s suggestion. I can t take credit for much of anything good in this illustration. So on Wednesday morning I went to her class with Bible in hand and almost no idea of what I was going to say to these second graders, and an attitude that was so-so about the whole thing. There were eight other parents who had signed up to do this. We were spread around the room, and all the kids came to us in pairs, rotating every six minutes from one parent to the next, so that by the end of the hour, all the kids in the class had spent 6 or 7 minutes hearing about each one of the jobs. It made for a bit of a chaotic environment as all of us adults were speaking at the same time to whatever pair of kids was in front of us at that moment. And the conviction I had was about my attitude. And it came very quickly as I realized that the opportunity I had to tell each of these kids about what I do really was an opportunity to simply do what I do as a pastor and to tell then about Jesus. So, I asked each pair of kids some questions to get a sense of what they knew about pastors and church and so forth. Based on those answers and the questions they asked me, I told them that my main job as a pastor is to let people know that God loves them. Then, I proceeded to show them what it is a pastor does: I told these kids that God loves them, that the world and their lives are not an accident, that God created everything we see and who we are, that just as we do things that make people sad and aren t very loving, we do things that make God sad and aren t loving, but because of God s great love for us, he fixes that by coming to us in the person of Jesus and dying on the cross as an expression of His love for us (they all agreed that that was a huge expression of love, something they wouldn t be able to do to die for someone so that they might live) and I told them how Easter, which is just a couple weeks away isn t really about Easter bunnies and eggs they aren t in the Bible but is about Jesus being resurrected and going back to heaven and that He wants us there with him and that that can happen when we believe in him I told them about the church that I pastor, the good things that churches do in the world 5
like feed the hungry and so forth It was amazing. And this was all in a public school classroom that invited me, as a pastor, to share with kids what it is I do. I was convicted by the Holy Spirit about my crummy attitude toward this job fair. And because the Spirit convicted me, Jesus was glorified. But the conviction goes on, and I believe that the conviction of the Holy Spirit is continuing to move, and it impacts us all. Because here s the thing I learned after sharing the gospel with 18 kids over the course of an hour: out of the 18 kids that I spoke to, less than half knew anything about churches and pastors. Less than half knew what a worship service was. Less than half had set foot in a church. Less than half knew anything about Jesus. Less than half knew what Easter was really about. Of course, all but two of them knew where Costco is. Two of them knew where the church was with one of those two being my daughter. But less than half knew even just the very basics of the Christian faith, what churches are about, or anything else related to Christianity until I sat down and talked with them. And I don t know about you, but that convicts me, that we have got to move from being fans of Jesus and fans of His Spirit, and be followers that allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, and then through us, so that people outside the walls of our church, and who aren t a part of any church, would hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Because clearly: There is a huge need to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don t live in a society that is Christian even in a cultural sort of way. We can t make any assumptions that people have heard of Jesus and have at least a seed planted in their lives. I ve known that intellectually for some time that we live in a post-christian world probably many of you do too but the Spirit really opened up my eyes and convicted of it this week as I interacted with those kids. How is God s Spirit convicting you? What sin in your life is he opening your eyes up to so that you d realize your need for a savior? How is the Spirit proving to you that Jesus is more righteous than you ever even dreamed was possible? How is the Spirit showing you that the prince of this world is under judgment? And how is the Spirit moving in our lives so that we could come alongside God and help others be convicted of the same thing? Jesus is 6
letting us know that it s good that he said good-bye, because it means that the Holy Spirit is here. So let s move beyond being fans of Jesus and fans of His Spirit. Let s rejoice that the Spirit is here with us, and then follow where the Spirit leads us as He convicts us of our sin, of Jesus righteousness, and of judgment, so that Jesus would be glorified all over Kirkland and around the world. Let s pray Amen. i Strong s Lexicon at Blue Letter Bible: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=g3875&t=niv ii Roger Fredrickson, The Preacher s Commentary, p. 235. 7