“All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 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.
5 “Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7 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. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10 in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;11 and in regard to 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 bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 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.
16 “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
Again Jesus tells the disciples that if they truly love Him and serve Him and proclaim His Truth to the world, the world will hate them and they will be killed. Not only that - the world will actually think they're serving God by doing so. They thought they were serving God by killing Jesus! That's how absolutely deceived they were.
When Jesus tells us of the problems He also, thankfully, gives us reassurance.
Yes, they will hate us, persecute us and even kill us because of Him, but He will love us and give us eternal life.
The world will give us trouble, but He will give us peace.
The world will give us sorrow, but He will give us joy,
He has given us the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill all these promises.
And we are commanded to speak the truth - but it is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin. That's not our job. We're commanded to speak the truth, but we're not responsible for how people respond. When the Holy Spirit opens people's eyes to their sin, then they are in the position to embrace Jesus.
V12-15 speak primarily to the disciples - about how they were simply confused and unable to bear any more explanation of the revelation of Jesus, as they were without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But the Spirit would come, and He would guide them in all truth - He would give them the exact words to write the inspired New Testament. He would reveal the truth to them and He would teach them what that truth meant.
And the Holy Spirit continues to do that for us today. The truth was written by the Holy Spirit in order to guide us into truth so that we have everything we need for life and godliness.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 16:17-33
1 comment:
It amazes me sometimes, reading historical accounts of things people have done in the name of God that are so clearly (at least in hindsight) evil. And yet these people have been so deceived that they are incapable of seeing it.
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