JOHN 16:5-15
5 Now I am going to Him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.8 When He comes, He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:9 about sin, because people do not believe in Me;10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.14 He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you.15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from Me what He will make known to you.”
JOHN 16:5-15 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDES INTO ALL TRUTH
Springford Baptist Church: May 29, 2022.
There are various events reported in the news, like this most recent shooting at the elementary school in Texas, and personal experiences that we endure that cause us to shake our heads and to say, “I just don’t know what to think anymore.”
We struggle to even find words to express our response to what happens in our world and what happens to us and to people whom we love.
Our faith in God is the constant in the midst of the pain and sorrow that we know in our lifetimes.
We can know God when we know deep distress and anguish. God does not remove Himself from us when life is unspeakably difficult and complicated.
We can expect that God wants to be with us in what we face because, as we discover in today’s Scripture, when Jesus would be returning to heaven, He was assuring His followers that the plan was already in place for them to continue to have divine accompaniment.
This would come in the Person of God’s Holy Spirit. God never intended that any of us would face the extreme challenges of day to day living by ourselves. God longs to be available to guide us and to help us and so He arranged for the Holy Spirit to be available to all who trust God and look to know Him more.
Every day and in every circumstance we can ask God’s Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.
As Jesus is explaining what to expect to His disciples, He says clearly, “Now I am going to Him Who sent me.” (John 16:5a)
Jesus is well aware that this is all part of God’s plan that He return to the Father Who sent Him. His disciples resist the plan. They want to hold on to Jesus. We can understand this. We too want to hold on to those we love. We do not ever want to say goodbye.
Jesus understands the way His disciples are feeling when He says, “Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief.” (John 16:6) Jesus does not overlook their response, but acknowledges it and names it. Our Lord Jesus recognizes how hard it is for His disciples to confront the truth that He must leave them. This is not a time to pretend that this will be easy.
We can know with certainty that Jesus understands and is compassionate toward us in the life experiences that fill us with grief.
He wanted His disciples to know and He wants us to know that there is a plan for us to know God by knowing the Holy Spirit. As He explained to His disciples, “Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you”. (John 16:7b) The Holy Spirit will be the means of them continuing to encounter and continuing to know God.
And what is the purpose and work of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, “guides into all truth” (John 16:13a)
Jesus says, “ 8When He comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:9 about sin, because people do not believe in Me;10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. (John 16:8-11)
The world is in the wrong because it has rejected God and the truth of Who is God. This is sin and sin causes those who refuse to believe to stay stuck in sin and to reject the truth that could open their eyes to know God. As long as people refuse to believe in Jesus, they have refused to believe the truth and to be guided into all truth.
The attitude of the world is also wrong when it comes to righteousness. No one but the Holy Spirit can make it clear to each person that right standing before God does not depend on good works but on Christ’s death on the cross that has provided redemption for all who believe.
When Jesus says, “because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer,” (John 16:10) it confirms that after His death and resurrection His ascension to the Father will indicate that His work of providing redemption is complete.
Jesus also makes reference here to the truth that Satan (the prince of this world) is defeated. He “now stands condemned”(John 16:11)
Satan is always trying to lead people away from the truth and away from knowing God.
The Holy Spirit by contrast guides into all truth and that is a place where God can be known.
The prince of this world would want us to believe that God is not present in the chaos of this world and in the painful realities of life here.
This is absolutely not true. You and I know different. God is with us always just as He promised.
What the disciples were about to experience when they saw Jesus go to the cross would test their faith in God to the extreme.
They would need the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth and away from the lies of Satan that would suggest to them that God had abandoned them and could not be trusted.
Jesus confirms of the Holy Spirit, “He will not speak on his own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.14 He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you.15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from Me what He will make known to you.” (John 16:13b-16)
These words of Jesus confirm the close relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. None of them act alone. In “guiding into all truth” the Holy Spirit will speak only what He hears and that truth will be dependable.
Jesus will continue to speak truth to the disciples through the Holy Spirit.
This teaching of the Holy Spirit guiding into all truth can be applied whenever we find ourselves wondering what to think or what to believe.
When we are shaken by the latest news reports or the really hard things that we face, we can retreat to a quiet place and turn to God.
We can pray, “God, through Your Holy Spirit please guide me into all truth. What do You want me to see and to know here”?
Our faith in God has shown us that God will respond and when our desire is to have God guide us into all truth, God the Holy Spirit will do exactly that!