True Love Looks Like This John 16: 1 - 20
What do you hope for? Remember last week we spoke about the blessings that we have in this country. Imagine if all of that was taken away, imagine if all the blessings that you had vanished. What is your hope, where is your trust? As we come towards Christmas, we obviously come to the end of another year. Has this year been everything that you'd hoped it to be? Have you achieved what you wanted to achieve or have you been thrown some real curveballs? Regardless, has your hope been shaken or has it been made more refined, and do you now have a greater state of resolve in who you are and what you believe and ultimately where you're going?
Jesus was in the final hours of His earthly ministry. He was giving the final instructions to his followers, his disciples. He just told them in John 14 that he was the Way, the Truth and the Life, and he talked about a promise coming and this promise would be the Holy Spirit. He then said that he is the True Vine and we are the branches; they were called to bear fruit. Their hope and trust were in him, but he said the world hates him; if it hates him, it will hate them. There was a change in the dynamic with the way he spoke to them. As we head into this part of the reading in John 16, Jesus was about to tell them that he was going away. All their trust, all their hope was in Him and he was saying that he's about to depart.
Why did He tell them this difficult truth? The reason is found in verse 1. Jesus said, “I've said these things to keep you from falling away,” and then he told them again, this is what is coming; and whoever kills you will think he is offering a service to God. Where's the deliverer? Where's this Saviour that gives them life, hope and liberty?
He said there's going to be a relationship change. In verse four he said, “I didn't say these things from the beginning because I was with you but now I'm going to him who sent me and none of you asked where are you going.” He knew that this was grieving them. Sorrow, he said, has filled your heart. But the relationship change came across that he would no longer be there; their hope and their trust, he's leaving. Do you ever feel like that in your relationship with the Lord? He is not physically present?
But the helper was coming. What better helper can there be than Jesus himself? This helper would take on a new role that even Jesus himself could not have, because Jesus in human form could not be, and was not, everywhere. Verse 8 says this helper will “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”
This helper will convict the world concerning sin because they do not believe in me. Sin is any transgression against the Law of God. This aids our witness; it is the help of the Holy Spirit; a true witness of Christ means that sin must be exposed, it must be described and it must be acted against in the same way that Christ acted against it. They don’t believe in Jesus; therefore, they continue to sin.
The help of the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning righteousness, Jesus said because he goes to the Father and you will not see me any longer. (verse 10) What is righteousness? Righteousness is simply God's goodness. Jesus was the expression, the epitome, of God's goodness, but He could not be everywhere. As He’d just said, He would depart and so the Holy Spirit through us shows the world what righteousness is, what God's goodness is. Jesus said there is no one good, no not one. So, how are we made good? We are only made good by the influence and power of the Holy Spirit. This is by grace; it is by grace that we've been saved through faith; this is not of ourselves; it's a gift of God. (Ephesian 2:8)
Finally, the Holy Spirit helper convinces the world concerning judgment. Jesus said in verse 11 that this is because “the ruler of this world is judged.” How's he judged? Remember the prophecy in Genesis 3:15; God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” But you will bruise his heel - we see this today. This is the conflict between those who have the Holy Spirit and those who do not. This is why the topic of God's judgement, His justice, His goodness, His righteousness, His hatred of sin, is not well tolerated.
You can imagine what these words felt like and how they came across to the disciples who loved Jesus, believed him to be the Messiah: the one that would get rid of all unrighteousness: this unrighteousness within themselves that they didn't fully appreciate was a problem. They felt more the unrighteousness that was being expressed towards them, towards Israel, by the Romans. Yet there is a greater need. This is also true in our day. Especially in Australia, there is a greater need to lift up the truth as it is in Christ: the truth as declared, as shown in his word.
This is why all our conversations, if we are followers of Christ, need to surround something that involves sin, righteousness and judgment. If we are praying about how to live, how to speak in a lost world, then something of this must flow out through our witness. These words were difficult for the disciples to hear and yet he said in verse 12, “I've got many things I need to say to you, but you can't bear them now.” This certainly would have surrounded his arrest in the next few hours, his mock trial, and ultimately his shameful death on a cross. How could they bear it even though they all said, ‘we would willingly and gladly die for you’? We know that they all denied him by running away, not just Peter. Only John the author of this book stayed close to Christ.
The Holy Spirit, the helper, gives us what we need to know. He said the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. Interesting that it says that he doesn't speak on his own authority, but whatever the Holy Spirit hears Jesus speak, that he speaks and he will declare those things that come from the Holy Spirit. He glorifies Christ and He takes what Jesus says and declares it to us. This is our role; this is our job, to declare it to others.
He said these words to comfort them; not because they were easy to hear, but because of what was about to happen to Him. Would you like everything that has happened in this last year to be revealed to you all at once? It might prepare you for a few things, but the truth of it is, more likely a better option would be that we don't know. Jesus knew this, that's why true love looks like this.
It's easy to say we love somebody, isn't it? But true love isn't sentiment; true love involves truth. So, regardless of what has happened over the last year, think about the most important relationships in your life. Think about who has spoken to you, what content was involved. Do you have somebody love you enough to tell you the truth about the righteousness, the goodness of God?
My question to you is, have you loved others like this? Have you given them this true love of Christ? My encouragement is to soak yourself in God's word at least once a day, to fellowship with God's people a couple of times a week, to pray, to seek after God and ask that the Holy Spirit continues to convince you of sin, righteousness and judgment, that you may be a faithful witness, that you may share the love of Christ to a lost world as you become more like him. Amen!