To Leave In Order To Send???

In the weeks leading up to Easter, we are looking at the final conversation that Jesus had with His closest followers before His death, which is recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in our Bibles called the gospel of John. This week I would like for us to jump back into the final conversation that Jesus had with His followers. And to do that, we are going to look at Jesus words to His disciples beginning in John 16:5.

However, before we look at Jesus words in John chapter 16, we first need to spend a few minutes looking at what Jesus explained to His disciples in the rest of John chapter 15. In John 15:11, Jesus reminds His closest followers of His final command to love one another. Jesus commands His followers to love one another just as He had loved them: selflessly, sacrificially.

Then a few verses later, Jesus explains that while they were to love one another, those in the world who were opposed to Jesus and His message and teachings would have a far different response. Jesus basically tells His disciples “Hey, just understand that if the world hates, you, then hated Me first. If you were like the rest of the world who rejected Me, they would love you. But since you love Me, they will hate you. Because I chose to rescue you, they will hate you. And if they persecuted Me; if the harassed Me because of what I believed, said, and did, they are definitely going to persecute, harass, and hate you.”

Now, imagine yourself as a disciple; how would you react to Jesus words here? After you have left everything to follow Him; at the very moment you thought that He was going to kick out the Romans, Jesus tells you that He is leaving and that everyone that is opposed to Jesus is going to hate you. So Jesus is leaving and leaving you to deal with the wake of hate that He is leaving behind.

Then, in the beginning of John chapter 16, Jesus has the audacity to say that He is telling you all this in order to keep you from stumbling. Jesus is letting you know, in advance, that you are going to become outcasts. Jesus is letting you know in advance that people will think that persecuting and killing you will result in them receiving spiritual brownie points from God. And He just wants you to know all this in advance so that you will not bail on Him, even though it seems that He is bailing on you. 

So place yourself in this story. You are a disciple. The story is not going how you expected it to, is it? What would you be thinking? How would you be feeling? How would you respond? Now, with the context in which Jesus words will take place in mind, let’s jump back into Jesus final conversation with His disciples, beginning in John 16:5:

"But now I am 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.

To which the disciples were probably thinking “Of course sorrow has filled our heart; of course we are distressed at what You have said. You are leaving and we are going to be left to be outcasts and harassed because we have left everything to follow You. How should we feel?” Jesus continues:

"But 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.

Now imagine yourself as a disciple: what would you be thinking? I don’t know about you, but here is what I would be thinking at this point: “Jesus, I have a question: How is it to our advantage that You are going away? How is it better for us that You are bailing on us? And who is this Helper anyways? And what is He going to help us with?” You see, the disciples, at this point in the story, do not know how this story is going to end. They are not reading the story thousands of years later. Instead, they are in the middle of the story.

What would make this all the more confusing is that Jesus was going to send a Helper. Now the word Helper, in the language that this letter was originally written in, was a legal term that referred to one who appears on behalf of another. This word conveys the sense of one that provides legal counsel, which is why some of your Bibles refer to the Helper as the Counselor.

Jesus is explaining to the disciples that His departure from them would result in Him sending someone else to them. But before Jesus could send this someone to them, He would have to depart from them. Can you see how the disciples could be confused here? “Why do You have to go before the Helper can come? Can’t You stay and the Helper come?” Jesus here is revealing the reality that after His departure from the earth, He would send this Helper, this Counselor to earth. And this Helper, this counselor, would be the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

You see, the Bible teaches us that there is One God who exists in a loving unity of three equally divine persons. The First member of the Trinity is God the Father. The second member of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is God in a bod, who entered into humanity in order to reveal and explain God the Father, and to provide humanity the opportunity to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting, and following Him as Lord and Leader.

While Jesus Christ is the expression of God, the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, as a different role and function than God the Father and Jesus Christ. This morning, the Holy Spirit is a person; the Holy Spirit as we will see, is a He. The Holy Spirit is not a force; the Holy Spirit is not an “it”. While God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit and all equally God in their nature and essence, they are distinct in their personhood. Thus, they are distinct, but inseparably related.

Tomorrow, we will see Jesus reveal exactly what the Holy Spirit as Helper and Counselor, would do upon His arrival on earth…