Our scripture reading this night comes from John chapter 16. John chapter 16 where Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure. Beginning at verse 1, All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he's offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this so that when the time comes, you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. 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 regard 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. This is part of a complex, rich complex of passages where the disciples are being prepared for our Savior for the cross. Now, that's not exactly what the disciples were looking for. They were looking for excitement at the end of the road, and Jesus knew that the cross was the end of the road. of course followed by the resurrection but certainly all that he could see in his immediate horizon was suffering was grief and ultimately not the grief of men but the grief that would come as a result of the father's wrath and because of this Jesus constantly prepares his disciples and they are constantly perplexed as they get closer to Jerusalem why is he talking about the crucifixion all the time. Why is he constantly bringing up the cross? And Peter, in fact, takes Jesus aside at one point, as we get later in the Gospel of John, and says, would you stop talking about this? It's frustrating people. You know, we're getting a lot of people interested in what we're all about here. The miracles are bringing a lot of people in. There's a lot of excitement. You keep raining on the parade with all this talk about the cross, about suffering. And now Jesus is talking about his departure. What a time to talk about departure. This is the time when he should be celebrating, really, the culmination of all of the Jewish hopes for the Messiah in Jerusalem, for a physical temple sparkling in all of its glory, for the liberation of Jerusalem from the Romans and the end of the Gentile rule. But they had a kingdom in mind that was very different from the kingdom that Jesus not only was offering, but was actually bringing and in his own person had brought and would bring in its fullness by the sending of the Spirit. So Peter asks, Lord, where are you going? In the text immediately previous to this. Where are you going? All this talk about leaving. All this talk about the cross. Where are you going? Jesus replies, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward. Of course, Jesus there was thinking about the cross that would be prepared for them as well. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for your sake. Jesus answered him, you'll lay down your life for my sake. Most assuredly, I tell you the truth, the rooster shall not crow till you've denied me three times. Thomas also asked, Lord, we don't know where you're going and how can we know the way? Now, part of this, of course, is in faith because Jesus had led them and he had led them so clearly by the light of God's word, which he himself was, that they had reason to despair. What will happen to us after he's gone? Jesus, if you go, we will not have a master. We will have no one to lead us. We will not know the way. We will not know the truth. We will not know the life. You give that to us every day. You explain the Word of God to us. And Jesus answered Thomas, Thomas, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. You see, they were all thinking that Jesus gave them something Instead of thinking, as we heard proclaimed this morning, that they were to see Jesus as the treasure. Jesus himself as that priceless treasure, as we were singing just a moment ago. Philip, in this text, immediately prior to our text tonight, says, now show us the Father. See, once again, Jesus is just a means to an end. Show us the Father. And Jesus, again, frustrated apparently with Philip, says, Philip, has it been so long that I've been with you and you don't realize it? I and the Father are one. He who has seen me has seen the Father. They have Jesus right in front of them and yet still what becomes apparent already in this story is they need someone else right in front of them. Not only in front of them, but within them to understand who it is who was standing right before them. Now they're already clean, Jesus says, because they belong to him. They're already fruit-bearing branches because they belong to the vine. They are, Jesus says, no longer to be called servants, as John the Baptist was, but friends, those who belong. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give to you. And then he calls them to love one another, to form a new humanity around this new family of apostles, this new family of disciples. And you'd think, on the surface of this, that a family of love, a community of love, would receive the approbation of the world. Doesn't the world talk about that all the time today? All we need is love. And yet, of course, they didn't like love when he came into the world. He came into the world, he came to his own, and his own received him not. And they put him on the cross. That's what they did to love. The world doesn't really love love. And if they didn't love the family of love, they certainly, if they didn't love the head of the family of love, they certainly won't love the family itself. And so Jesus is saying, if you are a part of me, if you belong to me, if you are loved by me and love me in return, then you will be hated by the world. But they are not to fear because he will send the paraclete. He will send the paraclete. And as we'll see in a moment, the paraclete is the Holy Spirit. And so the paraclete is the answer to the question first posed in chapter 13. Lord, where are you going? That's first posed several chapters earlier and it is answered now. Why would Jesus desert them in this hour where they're on the brink of establishing the Messiah on the throne of his father David in Jerusalem? Where is he going? It's easy for us to ask the very same question, this side of the cross, why hasn't he returned? And so the question that Peter asks here isn't too unfamiliar to us. How long, O Lord? It's the same question, it's the same answer. Peter didn't have it yet, but he would, as we'll see at the end of it all. It's broken into two parts, the world's judgment of the church and the Spirit's judgment of the world. We see, first of all, Jesus' explanation of how the world will judge the church. This is a very important point because, of course, the world prides itself on not being judgmental. Yet the world has always been hostile to the kingdom of God. What's especially tragic in this passage is that the world, however, is identified with the former church. The world here is identified with the nation, Israel. All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he's offering a service to God. This judgment of the world upon the church comes first from Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth just as the gospel goes. And so he identifies the world at this stage in the persecution with Israel. You will be cast out of the synagogues. The Holy Spirit uses John in Revelation chapter 2 to the same purpose. and to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things says the first and the last who was dead and came to life. I know your works, tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. He came to his own and his own received him not. But to those who did receive him, Jew and Gentile, he gave the right to become the children of God. Wherever the faithful preaching of the Messiah is rejected, even if it's called a synagogue or a church, it is an assembly of Satan, not a church of God. Notice here, too, right out of the gate in verse 1, Jesus doesn't see the persecution itself as the primary danger. All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. It is apostasy here. Scandalistite. That's the real danger that is posed. Hebrews deals with this. 1 Peter 4.12 is a warning not to give up the faith simply because of persecution. The world hates the church because of and to the extent that the church is the witness to Christ. It may be one of the reasons why there is little persecution of Christians in some parts of the world where Jesus Christ isn't as faithfully proclaimed. You know, you go to many other parts of the world where persecution is great and you see there not only great strength in the face of persecution, great resolve, but you see a great witness, often a faltering, trembling, nevertheless faithful proclamation of Jesus Christ in his office. as prophet, priest, and king. A church that doesn't live each moment from its proclamation of Christ won't have to worry about the world's persecution. But in its opposition to the prophetic witness to Christ, the world is being judged by God. And that's the paradox. It's the table that's turned here in this passage. This isn't merely a future reality, but will become partially realized, Jesus says, When the paraclete comes to the church from which center he will execute the prophetic role of a prosecuting attorney. Point I'll return to in a moment. And so this Holy Spirit who will come, this paraclete, will be the anticipation of the great and final judgment. Only then people will be convicted of their sin but will not have opportunity to repent and to believe the gospel. Now is the time when the paraclete will convict of sin and turn people to a saving knowledge of Christ. And because of this, in a sense, the future has already arrived. That last judgment has interrupted this present evil age so that even now God's wrath is being poured out in a sense by the proclamation of God's law, the conviction of sin that the Holy Spirit brings and the proclamation of righteousness, the justifying work of Christ for sinners. In that sense, the future will have arrived, said Jesus, but not until I leave. And that's the paradox. That's the difficulty the disciples are having. Jesus paraclete, Jesus paraclete. A master to guide us in the Christian life now or an advocate in heaven and an advocate on earth to bring us safely into the harbor and to lead us and to guide us, but much more. Verse 3, he says, They, the world, those of the false synagogue, will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. They will consider it, Jesus says, an act of religious devotion to persecute the church. This is what is so insidious about religious idolatry, The opposition to Christ that is carried out from religious motives. It's even more insidious in many cases than secular persecution by a secular state. Think of Saul of Tarsus. We heard this morning from Philippians 3. His boast, if I have something to brag about, if you have something to brag about, I much more. A Pharisee of Pharisees. As to the legalistic standards of the law, blameless. as to zeal a persecutor of the church. Latreia. It's the same word that's used here. It's the service of God. People would consider it. And Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul of Tarsus, certainly did regard it as a matter of zeal to persecute the Christians. In one of the intertestamental documents, that is before the coming of the New Testament writings. Sanhedrin 9.6, it is recorded, If a man stole a sacred vessel or cursed by Cosim or made an Aramaean woman his paramour, the zealots may fall upon him. If a priest served at the altar in a state of uncleanness, his brethren the priests did not bring him to the court, but the young men among the priests took him outside the temple court and split open his brains with clubs. And it is, says Sanhedrin 9.6, to be treated as an act of latreia. It is to be treated as an act of service. Not that people just sort of lost their heads. Saul of Tarsus wasn't just losing his head when he was leading people to stone the Christians. It was regarded as an act of worship. Jesus' hour means his defeat. And he speaks of this again and again throughout the Gospels and especially in John. he's thinking of this hour of crucifixion. It means his defeat, of course, in the eyes of the world, but again the paradox, victory in the eyes of God. God's weakness triumphing over man's strength. And not even the disciples understand this now, but they will when the Spirit brings Jesus' words to mind. Furthermore, it's clear from this text that the apostles didn't have to worry when Jesus was with them because they had the sense that he sort of had the times in his hand. He wouldn't allow himself to be taken until it was time for him to be taken. But now is the hour for himself and then afterward for them. They're not only afraid of losing their friend and their master and afraid of losing their way in the world. They're afraid of losing their own lives when he leaves, as we see in Peter's response that Jesus here predicted. The disciples typically found reason for grief in what actually was a matter of joy and a matter of joy in what was, in truth, a matter of grief. They were always missing the cues. When Jesus was expecting them to be eager and excited to ask theological questions, they were uninterested. And this happens again here where he says, Now I'm going to him who sent me. 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. Even though you don't want to know this apparently, even though I keep talking about going away and you just don't want me to talk about going away, ask me why I'm going away. Get to the heart of the matter. Ask me why. For therein lies the purpose of my mission. And then he turns the tables from the world's judgment of the church to the spirit's judgment of the world. When the paraclete comes, there's this anticipation of a new day dawning when the paraclete comes. Paracletos is a very rare word in the New Testament. And it's translated in the NIV, among other translations, comforter. which is not an entirely helpful word in my estimation, not a helpful translation. You find all kinds of things comforting. Certainly Jesus comforts, certainly the Holy Spirit comforts, but parakletos really shouldn't be translated in my estimation comforter. I give a couple of reasons for that. First of all, in chapter 14, verse 16, where he introduces this theme. Jesus says, And I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another paraclete that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be, future tense, in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. You see, I am not going to leave you. I am going to come to you, but I'm going to come to you in the person of my spirit, the Holy Spirit. Why can't the world receive the Spirit of truth now before the Spirit comes? Because this ministry of the Spirit takes place in the church. And the church is yet to be gathered and commissioned for this ministry. But here in chapter 14, we see that Jesus is the first paraclete, and there is another paraclete who will be sent. Now, John uses this in one other place in 1 John 2, 1 and 2. where he is spoken of there as, in our translations, and as an advocate. Parakletos means advocate. He's the advocate for sinners before the Father. And I don't know why, if that's what parakletos means in 1 John, it's not what it means here in the Gospel of John, because it certainly is closer to the purpose of this passage. It makes much more sense of the context. This parakletos is an attorney, another attorney. If you will, he's another prophet because that was the role of the prophets in the Old Testament, right? They were covenant attorneys bringing suit from God against the people and then pleading for the people before God, the covenant Lord. That's what he has in mind here. He's thinking in terms of the Old Testament prophet. That Old Testament prophet who, again and again we read, was in the Spirit. Or, we read, the Spirit was upon him so that he could be taken into the counsel of God himself. He could be the counselor in that legal sense. The counselor representing God to the people and the people to God. And in that capacity, Jesus says, he will preach Christ. Jesus is very clear about this. This will be the focus of his ministry. In chapter 15, verse 26, But when the paraclete comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. See, there's that courtroom language. He's going to testify in court concerning me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. The apostles also will be, in a sense, an apostle is a paraclete, right? He's a prophet in that sense. He is coming, bearing the authority of God to proclaim the law and the gospel. But here, this paraclete will be none other than God himself. He will speak through us as paracletes. And in this ministry, he will convict the world of sin. This is what Jesus says. He will convict the world of sin. And here again, the legal terminology, conviction. It usually has only negative connotations, right? When we speak of a conviction in court, it usually is something that brings to our mind things we'd rather not happen to us. And yet this conviction here brings about good results because until we are convicted of our sin, we cannot also be convicted, as Jesus says here, of righteousness and of the good news of the gospel. And so that is what this paraclete does. In the past, these covenant attorneys had the Spirit, were in the Spirit, had the Spirit upon them. And that's why the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Prophecy. That's why Peter says, For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. That's why John says in the Revelation, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. But now, the Spirit himself will come. He will inspire the apostles and their writings. And he will inspire their witness so that their proclamation of Christ, even down to this day, would be effective around the world and bring the nations into Zion. In Luke 4, it is recorded that Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, And when he'd opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he announced, today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. That same Spirit who was upon Christ that qualified Him for His mission is the Spirit, Jesus says, the very same Spirit He will send to be not only upon but within all of us gathered here this evening. It's the same preaching in the church that Paul says in 1 Corinthians brings conviction upon all. And we need both paracletes, but the earthly ministry of Jesus was about to be concluded. What we need beyond this is His heavenly ministry. It's not that if Jesus goes away, He will cease to be the first paraclete. But rather, if He goes away, He will be in the presence of the Eternal Father in the archetypal courtroom. And there, with His own blood, He will plead our case before the Father. So that we will have two paracletes, one in heaven and one on the earth. Why wouldn't the apostles ring out in joy at that good news? Calvin says, We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us and we are separated from Him, all that He has, all that He has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. All that Christ possesses is nothing until we are made one body with Him by the Spirit. and that's the point that Jesus is making. The disciples don't quite get yet, but they will understand when the Spirit does come and makes it known to them. See, the Spirit is waiting for the cry, It is finished. The Spirit is waiting for that curtain in the temple he has long since abandoned to be torn in two. And then he will come with rushing wind and power and set his candle above the heads of everyone gathered in the upper room to spread the gospel far and wide. He will, Jesus says, convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Dikaiosunes here, righteousness is opposite hamartia, sinfulness, leading at least some interpreters to suggest that this is the law and the gospel. This is the righteousness that God is and the righteousness which God gives, which Paul, of course, talks about very clearly in Romans chapter 3. You know, where he says, not only is there a righteousness of God that we've been talking about in Romans 1 and 2 that condemns us all, but a righteousness from God apart from the law which comes by Christ through faith alone. And so the Spirit will have a ministry as the prophets did, but with greater effect of law and gospel. Not only will he speak of judgment and justification, he will judge and justify through the word of Christ that will be preached by his church. One brief parenthesis here. You know, remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. One of the things that I found so remarkable about that story is that there were two, there were three, and then there were two bringing judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. You remember the story? It's easy to miss this in Genesis chapter 8, but you have the three angels who come to Abraham, and he fixes the meal and everything, and then the Lord, and it's capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Yahweh, the Lord, one of these angels, a pre-incarnate theophany, a theophany of the pre-incarnate Christ. That angel of the Lord theophany that you find so much, especially in the prophets. That third angel, the Lord himself, says, shouldn't I tell Abraham what is about to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah? And so he tells him, and he explains what's going to happen. And Abraham intercedes. If there are 50, will you not destroy? Yes, if there are 50. How about 45? All right, if there are 45. 40. Right here, 35. 30, 30, 25. And he gets him all the way down to 10. There is no one righteous. No, not even one. But God in his mercy saves Lot and his family. Though Lot's wife didn't quite make it. And why do we have the two angels executing judgment on earth? And the absence of the other angel? Because the other angel went back to heaven. The Lord himself went back to heaven to execute the judgment in heaven through the angels who were executing the judgment on earth. His will was done in heaven, on earth as it is in heaven. And that is what Jesus is saying He's doing here, only it's not a one-sided judgment. It's a judgment that hopefully, not hopefully, but will certainly bring conviction of sin to sinners and turn them in repentance toward Christ so that they will believe on His name and flee the wrath to come. Satan is already judged, Jesus says. In regard to righteousness, because I'm going to the Father where you can see me no longer, and in regard to judgment, because the Prince of this world now stands condemned. There's the courtroom again. He's announcing that Satan is already defeated. He has already crushed his head as he anticipates the cross. Remember what he says to his disciples. I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. And then finally, in verse 12, I have much more to say to you, much more than you can bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He won't 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. You notice that the Spirit's ministry here is not at all to add something to Jesus' work. It's an important point to make. Jesus here stresses the vital Trinitarian unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Very important for our day because a lot of people think today you get one set of goodies from Jesus and another set of goodies from the Holy Spirit. Sure, you're saved, but are you perfectly sanctified? Sure, you're adopted and in union with Christ, but are you filled with the Spirit? This separation of the work of the Son and the Spirit is simply disallowed by this text. The Spirit doesn't add something to Jesus' work. Rather, he reminds believers of what Jesus has said of himself and the testimony of all the law and the prophets to Jesus. And Jesus didn't speak on his own authority. Jesus says he spoke what the Father told him. So now the Spirit will speak the word of Christ and keep the church in the truth. So you have the Father preaching Christ, the Spirit preaching Christ, so shouldn't we? That's Jesus' point. This is the Trinitarian Fellowship. Father testifying to the Son whom He loves and the Spirit proclaiming Him and shedding a spotlight on Him, on His person and His work. J.I. Packer uses this illustration. He says, In Vancouver, there's a beautiful cathedral that lights up at night. And it's these huge spotlights that you would never pull over in your car and walk over and stare into the spotlights. You'd go blind. Rather, the purpose of the spotlights is to look at the beautiful cathedral. Brothers and sisters, you can be absolutely certain where the Holy Spirit is present in power today. The Holy Spirit is present in power wherever Christ is clearly preached in His saving office. And you can be absolutely clear where the Holy Spirit is not present, even if there are signs and wonders, apparent signs and wonders. Even if it looks as if there's a lot more excitement. Even if it looks like people are living in victory, you don't see them the night after. Even if people proclaim that they're living above all known sin, you can be absolutely certain where He is not present. He is not present where he himself is central. The Holy Spirit delights to be present, to make Christ known. Well, we're happy to know Peter finally did get it because the Spirit did come. Everything Jesus said was right. Peter didn't get it until the Spirit came. And boy, when the Spirit came at Pentecost, what's the first thing that happened? A healing line? No. this guy, this misfit, this person who couldn't put together a respectable sermon, this person who didn't really understand very much along the way as Jesus was telling them about the cross and the resurrection and everything to follow, was so clearly proclaiming Christ from the Old Testament that people broke out. Brothers, what must we do to be saved? And many were baptized that day. At Pentecost, the Spirit came and made witnesses of all of His people. And we are now all prophets and attorneys in that broader sense, as ministers are in a narrower sense. The tongues that came down upon the people were tongues so that, as the text itself says four times in Acts 2, people could understand the gospel in their own language. They weren't inexpressible tongues. It wasn't gibberish. It wasn't a spiritual language. The Spirit was giving an ability for these Galileans to be able to proclaim the gospel at the Feast of Pentecost where nations were gathered. And so to add remarkably to the growth of God's kingdom on that day. And then Peter preached that marvelous sermon. Lord, where are you going? And Lord, when are you coming back? Peter knew the answer to that. Now, after the Spirit had come, as he says, and I conclude with these words. First of all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, where is this coming, he promised. Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. But they deliberately forget that long ago, by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget this one thing dear friends. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise. As some understand slowness. He is patient with you. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending your Son to die for our sins, to raise him up to your throne where he pleads for us, and by sending another paraclete, another advocate, who defends our cause even here with groanings too deep to be uttered so that even when we don't know what to pray, he prays for us. Father, we do look around us and see very little empirical, statistical justification for being Christians. So much around us looks as if evil has triumphed, looks as if things are out of control and we sometimes are tempted to despair And yet, Father, we know your promise that even though the summer is past, the harvest has ended, and we are still not saved, that we are already saved by the coming of Christ and the coming of the Spirit. And that all that we have already is now ours and that he is a deposit guaranteeing that down payment. And so we look with hope to that future world which you, with your Son and Spirit, are creating for us even now. Please make us witnesses. Help us, Father, to go out of here tonight with a new appreciation for that great gift that you have given us, not only in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin, but in the Holy Spirit who makes us witnesses to Christ and his saving work. And help us, Father, to be agents of that paracletic work of your spirit, to bring conviction of sin to a world that needs to hear the bad news so that it can appreciate with deep respect the good news as it is in Jesus Christ. For all of this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.