Our scripture reading comes from John's Gospel, chapter 16, beginning at verse 5. John 16, 5. Now I am going to Him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, where are you going? Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth, 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. When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. In regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me. In regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see Me no longer. And in regards to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. I have much more to say to you, more than you can bear now. 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. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. In a little while you will see me no more. And then after a little while you will see me. That's far the reading of God's Word. The schedule at Oxford University follows the church calendar and during my sojourn there for doctoral studies, I used to not look so forward to the season called Trinity, otherwise known as Pentecost. It began with Pentecost Sunday because it was the longest unbroken term. There were no vacations, no time off. It was the time where you really hunkered down and had to actually get work done at the end of it. And it makes some sense because that is exactly the time in which we find ourselves, isn't it? Seems like Christmas and Easter and all of those wonderful times that we remember what Christ has accomplished for us come together in a cluster and then all of a sudden there's this long spell where we're sort of waiting. for the next cycle. We don't have a cycle, do we? We have a history that we're moving toward and yet we feel like at this particular stage in that history it's kind of slowed down quite a bit. We don't see prophets. We don't see the great miracles that are recorded in the Scriptures. We don't see Jesus coming in power and glory on the clouds. It seems very difficult to say that Jesus Christ is reigning, that Jesus Christ is King. Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords in this time between the times. And yet He is. Just before the Passover feast, Jesus preached a sermon to His disciples in the upper room, preparing them for His departure. Now, it's not odd to us because we can look back and see the product of Jesus' ascension, of His departure. But for them, it was the strangest thing in the world. Here they had made great advances, great strides. There were many followers. It looked as though the hope in the breast of every Israelite was finally to be fulfilled. Messiah had come. He was going to march into Jerusalem. He was going to take His throne, He would be crowned, and He would drive out the Romans, institute the proper sacrifices, restore the holiness code of Israel, and it would once again be God's holy hill. As Jesus gets closer to Jerusalem, He's thinking different thoughts. He's thinking of being crowned, alright, but crowned on a cross. Not being hailed as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, but spat upon and ridiculed as the so-called King of the Jews. And so just before that Passover feast that got all of those events rolling, that last week of Jesus' life, Jesus takes His disciples into the upper room and He teaches them what is about to happen. He prepares them for His departure. Jesus had already reminded them several times that his royal march to Jerusalem as king was not what they thought it was. And several times he mentioned as he got closer to Jerusalem, I'm going there to be crucified and then I will be raised after three days. And finally, when Peter couldn't take it anymore, all this negative talk. Would you stop already? Stop all this talk about your being crucified. The people are following us. Things are going well. You're being a pessimist about these things. And Jesus rebuked Peter. In fact, he rebuked him with those stern and horrible words, Get thee behind me, Satan. For your thoughts are not the thoughts of God, but the thoughts of men. And then at the end of chapter 13, when Jesus tells them again that he is leaving, Peter asked, Lord, where are you going? And I'm sure he asked it that way. I'm sure this wasn't a detached, dispassionate. Peter never seems to be very detached and dispassionate. Probably wasn't just a matter of information when he asked Jesus, where are you going? And Jesus replied, Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later. Now again, they were thinking that this was Inauguration Day. Why? We are your closest friends. Even if we can't sit on the platform with you, one on your right and one on your left, we should at least be admitted to the Inauguration Ball. Now Jesus says, I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later. What does this mean? And Peter was confused. Peter asked, Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. And Jesus answered, Will you really lay down your life? For me, I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. There are a lot of things about Christianity that are marks of its authenticity. One is that you never would invent a religion like this. And you certainly wouldn't put someone like Peter in a lead role. And yet he is exactly the proper character for this play. He's exactly the proper person because, like all of us, he has the wrong journey on the mind. He has the wrong idea of where this march we were talking about this morning is going to end up. No one would put someone like Peter in the middle of this story in such a lead role. Now, following this, Jesus comforts the disciples with the promise that he's going to prepare a place for them and then he's going to return to bring them there to be with him forever. So this is not a departure that is forever, but a farewell. And that's why sometimes this upper room discourse is called his farewell address. Not that he will never see them again, but he will go and prepare a place for them so that where he is, they may be also. You know the way to the place where I am going, Jesus said. Isn't that interesting? You know the way to the place where I am going. They were always thinking very literally. Yes, I know the place where you were going. I thought it was Jerusalem. I thought that's where we were headed. I thought that was the map. I thought that's what we agreed on. That's what everyone following us now seems to think. you know the way to the place where I am going. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? We don't even know where you're going. You're expecting us to know how to get there. How to get where? We don't even know where you're going. Where is this march headed? And Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He who has seen me has seen the Father. I and the Father are one. In other words, Jesus was saying, I am the destination. I am the plot. I am not a means to your ends. I am the point. But there's another person whom Jesus draws into this dynamic drama of coming and going, which is our focus this evening, the Holy Spirit, who is introduced in the second half of chapter 14. And I'd like to bring in also Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 20, question 53, which includes two things that are, I think, very explicitly brought out in the passage before us. What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit? The catechism answers, first, He as well as the Father and the Son is eternal God. Second, He has been given to me personally so that by true faith He makes me share in Christ and all His blessings, comforts me, and remains with me forever. So the first point to be made here is that the Spirit is God. And Jesus makes that point very clear in this upper room discourse or farewell discourse. He makes it very clear that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit constitute the Godhead that from all of eternity is engaged in wonderful fellowship and mutual care and concern for each other as they are creating, preserving, redeeming, and consummating the world for their pleasure. So the first point that the Catechism makes, the Holy Spirit as well as the Father and the Son as eternal God, is made clearly in the passage before us. And this is a very important point. You know, sometimes in our systematic theologies we have, because you can't talk about everything at the same time, we have things organized. And so we have the doctrine of creation, and we typically think about God the Father. When we think about creation, we think about God the Father. When we think about redemption, we think about God the Son. And then when we think about the doctrine of the church and the application of redemption, we think of the Holy Spirit. While that may be helpful for organizing the material, it's very important to see that the Holy Spirit is just as much the Creator and Redeemer as He is the one who applies that redemption to us. The Holy Spirit was at work with the Father and the Son in creation. The Holy Spirit was preparing a place for the covenant Lord to dwell with His covenant people. The Holy Spirit was leading by cloud the people of Israel through the wilderness to their appointed place where they would live in the presence of their covenant Lord. The Holy Spirit inspired the Old Testament prophets. The Holy Spirit made the Word Himself flesh. You ever think about that? It's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave us Jesus. It is because of the person and work of the Holy Spirit that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It is because of the Holy Spirit that He was upheld in His ministry as when He was baptized at the beginning of His ministry. And the Holy Spirit descended as a dove above His head, as He did in the first creation, giving His witness that this indeed is God's good creation. The Holy Spirit upheld Him during His temptation, during all of His battles and trials with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Because of the Holy Spirit's upholding him, he was able to fulfill all righteousness, not just because of his deity. He didn't rely on his deity, but because he relied on the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit upheld him in his struggles. It will be the Spirit's work to apply the benefits of Christ's saving life, death and resurrection and to unite us in these last days to our ascended head who is already glorified as the first fruits of the age to come. And that's why Jesus says the very first act in his public ministry to open up the scroll of Isaiah and read the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the captives and I tell you the truth This scripture is now fulfilled, he said, in your hearing. You see, the word of Christ would fall on deaf ears were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus speaks here in this upper room discourse of another advocate. Another advocate. In this section of the farewell address that we're focusing on this evening, Jesus begins by chiding them for not even asking where he is going. They've wondered why he's talking about going and why they can't follow, at least for now. Yet Jesus says, none of you asks me where are you going, but are instead filled with grief. Why don't you ask where I'm going? If you asked where I'm going, you wouldn't be grieving so much. I'm going to prepare a place for you. that's where this march, this procession is leading. And so he says that his absence will be for their good for two reasons. He will prepare a place for us, and he will send his Spirit. The Father sent the Son, and now the Father and the Son will send the Spirit. This will be a surprising comfort. It is for your good that I am going away. Brothers and sisters, we have to think about this. You know, the way sometimes we think of the Holy Spirit reacting against Pentecostalism. Understandably, it saturates our culture. Sometimes we have a tendency to downplay the significance of the Holy Spirit. Whoever the Holy Spirit is, whatever the Holy Spirit does, His person and work are important enough that Jesus would say it is better for him to leave than for this person to not begin his mission in the world. It is for your good that I am going away. How can his departure at this moment in the drama be anything but bad news? Jesus said, it's good. Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. He's not a substitute for Jesus. Rather, he is the one who will unite us here and now to Jesus' ministry of prophet, priest, and king as he reigns in heaven at the Father's right hand. And that's exactly what Jesus says here. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. In regard to sin because men do not believe in me. In regard to righteousness because I am going to my Father where you can see me no longer. And in regard to judgment because the Prince of this world now stands condemned. You see all the legal language here? It's one of the reasons why we have a, I think, a bad translation here of comforter. If you have comforter in there for the Holy Spirit, that's not what parakletos means. Parakletos means, even in the NIV, where it's translated comforter here, it means attorney, defense attorney, advocate. That's what you find in 1 John 2.2, even in the NIV. Translates the same author as John's Gospel. Referring here to the advocate. And that's a very important word. We should treasure that word. The Holy Spirit is not just a caring nurturer. He is that. It's not just that. He gets the job done in the courtroom. And that's what we really need. We need comfort. Yes, absolutely. We need comfort, subjective comfort. But we also need someone to defend us in the courtroom. What Jesus is saying here is that we are going to have, when he departs, an attorney in the heavenly courtroom and an attorney on earth. One witnessing before the Father and the other witnessing in our hearts. This thing is going to get stronger, Jesus says. This storm is going to gather precisely because I am going to the right hand of the Father and the Holy Spirit will be sent among you. And so as the catechism says, second, He has been given to me personally so that by true faith He makes me share in Christ and all His blessings, comforts me and remains with me forever. Jesus had already mentioned in chapter 14, verse 26, this other advocate that He will send, this other attorney. And this is the language of the covenant lawsuit where the Old Testament prophets would bring suit against the people of God on behalf of God and try to turn the people toward God, bring about repentance and conviction of sin. But what the prophets often lacked was this period, this era of the spirits being poured out on all flesh. So that the more they preached, the harder Israel's heart became, in many cases. And that would have happened in Jesus' ministry too, had the Holy Spirit not been sent. Because see, that's the Holy Spirit's role. The Holy Spirit's role is not to bring another word, but to make that one word, Christ, fruitful in us. To bring about within us the proper response of faith and repentance that that word deserves. It's another advocate. The Spirit of Christ is neither the deity nor the soul of Christ. And we've got to say that these days because a lot of times it seems that we're implicitly binatarians. The Father is God. The Son is God. And the Holy Spirit is, well, something else. Often you'll hear the Holy Spirit even referred to as it. As if He were an impersonal force. No, He's another advocate. Another person in His own right. and therefore Pentecost will be another event in its own right, different from the ascension. Only Jesus Christ, only the Son, could have ascended to the Father. The Holy Spirit did not become flesh. The Holy Spirit did not win our redemption through His obedience and atoning death. Only Jesus Christ could do that, but only the Holy Spirit can do what He did and do what He does. bringing about within us the proper answer to what Christ has accomplished outside of us so that what he has accomplished for us outside of us will actually become ours as we are united to Christ through spirit given faith it's one thing to be judicially convicted of a crime and sentenced for it and another to be subjectively convinced of guilt We've all seen reports where a person protests his innocence all the way to the gas chamber when there is evidence to convict this person of the crime. The Holy Spirit comes so that that outward conviction that Jesus Christ brought will be subjectively received and we will come to repentance. We will come to see that we are criminals, that we deserve the death penalty. So that we will turn from our wickedness and live. And in this way, the power that brings about this new order called the age to come, namely the Holy Spirit, is alive and at work even now in this present evil age. which is why the New Testament calls the period we're living in right now these last days. It's still this present evil age. Don't get too excited. Don't think that we're already living in the consummation, the new heavens and the new earth. Doubt that any of you were under that illusion, but in case... There are many Christians who are very triumphalistic about the era in which we're living. But we're also not living at the beginning or in the middle of that history of sin and death because Christ conquered that history of sin and death and was raised at the other end by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the age to come, as the first fruits of the whole harvest. That's your future and mine, even now that we share together as co-heirs of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the down payment, the arabon, the pledge for our future redemption. We have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. And so we are not simply brought to the place where the sentence is read and we are judged and we growl about the sentence and we say, well, if you only knew the circumstances. No, the difference between believers and unbelievers on Judgment Day is not the sins they have committed, but their response to those sins. The Holy Spirit is at work in the elect, bringing them to faith and repentance so that they agree with the verdict. Guilty in Adam, not guilty in Christ. With Christ's glorification, the gates of paradise are open wide, but if He is not to be alone in His exaltation, a head without a body, a vine without its branches, or the firstfruits without its harvest, then a new creation must be attended with more than an external word. There must also be an internal word that quickens and makes alive through that external word that is preached. And that is exactly why Jesus said greater things will you do than I have done. Because as great as it was to say Lazarus come forth and Lazarus came forth it is much greater to be able to share the gospel with someone and it's maybe the third or fourth or fifth time and suddenly this time the scales fall you don't know why but suddenly it happened this time and now this person suddenly has a different attitude toward that message that you're talking about than they did before. Because the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all flesh. Because we live this side of Pentecost and God's word does not return to him void without accomplishing the mission for which it was sent. And this means that the more we receive from the Holy Spirit of the realities of this age to come, In this present evil age, the more restless we become. That's what's kind of, that's the paradox here. I am going and I am coming, Jesus says. He's going in terms of his own bodily presence, but he's coming in the sense of the Holy Spirit, not because the Holy Spirit is his substitute, but because the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ in heaven. Those who are filled with the Spirit are characterized more by struggle, a consciousness of struggle, than a consciousness of victory. Because we're lodged in this in-between time, the last days of this present evil age, and the eternal Sabbath that awaits us. And yet the writer to the Hebrews says, every time the word is preached and the sacraments are administered, we taste of the powers of the age to come. The Spirit's presence in our hearts binds us to the then and there of Christ's work in the past, the here and now of our own justification, sanctification, fellowship and witness in these last days, and then also to the joyful expectation of Christ's return at the end of the age. That's what keeps us longing for Christ's bodily return. that the Spirit cries out in our hearts, Maranatha, Lord Jesus, come quickly. And then finally, from this passage, in fact from the whole sermon, but especially as it comes to a head in this chapter, we see that the Holy Spirit mediates the threefold office of Christ. Now, He doesn't replace Christ as prophet, priest, and king. But he does something different in that ministry than Jesus did. Jesus was the prophet in the sense that he was the Word incarnate. He was the priest, is the priest, in the sense that he is the only mediator between God and man. He is the only king in the sense that there is no other name in heaven or on earth by which we can be saved. But the Holy Spirit makes this ministry of Christ as prophet, priest, and king now in heaven, effectual in and for us today. The God who sovereignly speaks is the same who sovereignly opens our hearts to receive what is spoken. Jesus says, when the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. See, that's what it's all about. You notice in Jesus' ministry, he always said, he reiterated this again and again, I have not come to preach myself, but the Father. I have not come with my own words, but I have come with the words of my Father. I have not come on my own mission, but the mission of him who sent me. And now, Jesus is saying, I will be preached. I will be the center of everyone's attention. I will be the subject of witness. And the Holy Spirit will be the main defense attorney in the courtroom on earth. The apostolic preaching will bring the external word of the gospel, but the Spirit's testimony in human hearts will bring inward conviction, both of our sin and of the righteousness of Christ that is ours through the faith that the Spirit gives us. The Spirit will not bring another word of truth, but will testify concerning Christ who is the word of truth. And the Spirit is sent, says Jesus, not only to announce the coming judgment, but to prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment. We could spend a whole evening just on that sentence alone. We are living at a time and in a place that wants to prove God wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment. You talk about sin the way the Bible talks about sin. You talk about righteousness the way the Bible talks about righteousness. And you talk about the judgment to come the way the Bible talks about it. And you see where the world and the church are in sharpest conflict. Jesus said, it's always been like that. But I've sent the Holy Spirit to prove the world wrong. I've sent the Holy Spirit to tell the world Larry King is wrong about this. Oprah does not have it right. I've come to convict the world. I've come to bring the lawsuit of God. And not just in an external way, but in an internal way, to bring people to conviction, a sense of their sin before a holy God. And we're reminded in Acts 2.37 of the empirical reality that Jesus here foretells. As those who heard Peter's Pentecost sermon, we read, were cut to the heart and said, brothers, what must we do? That's proof. That's evidence. And that's what happened at Pentecost when this was fulfilled. What happened at Pentecost? There wasn't a long healing line. People weren't blown on and they fell over and were just speaking meaningless words. What happened? Peter, this Peter who did not get the story after being told three times and saying, I'll lay my life down for you and denied Jesus three times, this same Peter was standing on the temple steps knowing that the Jewish leaders were listening nearby and preached Jesus Christ from Genesis to Malachi. That's what happens when the Spirit descends on the day of Pentecost. Jesus said, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own, Jesus says, but will speak whatever He hears. Isn't that interesting? Even the Spirit is a hearer of the Word. He just passes on what he hears. The Holy Spirit gossips. There's a positive sense of gossip here. He just passes on what he's heard. Well, it's a very different view than we often hear the Holy Spirit today, where he gives people new revelations. He gives people, perhaps people who don't know Christ or haven't heard the Gospel, he gives them a different way to be saved. he gives people immediate revelations about where they should live or where they should work as if these things were anywhere comparable to the great drama of this lawsuit that is being carried out in the world in this time between the times. The focus of the Spirit's ministry will be on Christ and that's why Jesus says he will glorify me. He will glorify me. He will focus on me. He will put the spotlight on me rather than on himself. J.I. Packer has said, you know where the Holy Spirit is active, where the Holy Spirit is present in power, wherever Christ's person and work is clearly being preached, and wherever He Himself is not central. That's what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit's a preacher. The archetypal preacher. The Holy Spirit proclaims Christ. That is, he has nothing that he would rather do than talk about Jesus Christ. And so Jesus says, You heard that I say to you, I go away and I am coming to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced that I am going to the Father. For the Father is greater than I, and now I have told you before it happens, in order that when it does happen, you will believe me. He is going, yet He is coming. And that's the paradox. That's the paradox we live with. Every Lord's Day and every day in between. We're living in that in-between time where Jesus Christ is absent from us in the body, in the flesh. We long for His appearing at the end of history. And yet He is present among us in a way that is deeper and richer and fuller than He was present among the disciples. A covenant child, listen to this, covenant children who are here, you know Jesus Christ better tonight than Jesus' adult brothers knew Him on the journey to Jerusalem because of the Holy Spirit who was at work in you. Bringing about that recognition not only of what Jesus' favorite foods are, what His favorite colors are, that doubtless His brothers knew, but the mission for which He has come. But if I depart, Jesus says, I will send Him to you. The minute I leave, He comes. And so it is good that I go. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You that You have sent Your Son out of Your great love for the world. You sent Your only begotten Son into the world to save sinners. We thank You that You and the Son have sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we would receive that work which is accomplished for us. And now, You, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, send us out as Your witnesses to the ends of the earth that we might make the glories of Jesus Christ known. Father, if the Holy Spirit lives for no greater hope or joy or privilege than to hymn the praises of Jesus Christ, if His greatest delight and joy is not to speak His own words, but to speak the words that He has overheard about Jesus Christ, the words that He has inspired about Jesus Christ, Help us, Father, to be witnesses of like mind and to rely on the Holy Spirit who probes your inner thoughts and makes them known by your word to us. Help us, Father, to cling to the promises that you've given us in your Son and to do that by your Holy Spirit and to rely on the promise that every time we gather together to hear your word, to receive your sacrament, Every time we gather together to sing your praises and to have fellowship and enjoy worship in your presence, we are once again tasting of the powers of the age to come which can only be ours because your spirit has been sent and is our arabon, our down payment on that wonderful final day. Help us to long for his appearing for we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.