Daily Bread John 16
Daily Break John 16
The Work of the Holy Spirit
5"Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' 6Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7But 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. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and 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. 13But 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. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All 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."
Observation:
Jesus anticipates His disciples’ grief when He will be taken from them. And then He says something very curious, “It is good for me to go away, for if I don’t the Counselor will not come to you, but if I go I will send Him to you.” Jesus reasons that although the disciples will be sad at his departure, one of the benefits of Him going is that He will send the Holy Spirit, also called Comforter or Counselor. The Greek term for this word is “parakletos”, which is masculine, which is why they say “I will send Him to you”.
This also affirms that the Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity. The term “pneuma” used for Spirit is neuter, whereas the personification of the Spirit as “Paraklete”, or “comforter, counselor” brings in the more personal nature of the Holy Spirit.
But why is it good for Jesus to go? Because as He promised each one of us would be given the Spirit to remind us of what Jesus taught and to walk alongside us as we act in obedience to how Jesus taught us to live. Instead of walking alongside Jesus as the disciples did in His earthly ministry, now they had Jesus walking alongside of them internally by the Spirit’s presence. We will notice as we get to the book of Acts (cf Acts 2) the huge transformation in the disciples’ as they receive the Spirit’s power. Instead of the bumbling disciples that are slow to get it, we see amazing, powerful leaders that start the early church.
Application:
As amazing as it was that Jesus promised this gift to His disciples back then, it is no less important of a promise for us to realize today. Often we wonder why the church is not more transformative in society today. I think a large reason for that is that we too have not realized that it was good for Jesus to go back to His Father, so He could send us the Holy Spirit too!
The Spirit plays many roles in our lives. Again the word for “Paraclete” is often translated as “Comforter or Counselor”. Not to belittle the many fine Christian counselors out there or to diminish their role in bringing healing etc.., but it is important to realize that we have our own built in counselor to guide us into all Truth!
We see this in the New Testament when Paul said a couple of times, “I was going to go to this place, but the Spirit warned me not to go there!” see this excerpt from Acts 21:4 ff:
“Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way. All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6After saying good-by to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.
7We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day. 8Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.' "
There are many other incidents where literally the Holy Spirit guided and counseled Paul where to go and not go. Throughout Paul’s letters we see His insistence on living and be led by the Holy Spirit.
As you face, trials, testing, and temptations in your life, I pray that the Holy Spirit would come along side you and be your counselor and comforter. And often this is not done in isolation. As we pursue community together the Spirit will speak through other believers and give guidance, challenge and encouragement to each of us. In these ways, we will be able to testify that it was “good for Jesus to go” so that we might have this gift of the Third Person of the Trinity!
Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with your love. Guide us into all truth. Encourage our hearts with the joy of the Lord. Help us to rely on Your wisdom for our every day lives. Fill us anew we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
5"Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' 6Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7But 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. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and 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. 13But 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. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All 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."
Observation:
Jesus anticipates His disciples’ grief when He will be taken from them. And then He says something very curious, “It is good for me to go away, for if I don’t the Counselor will not come to you, but if I go I will send Him to you.” Jesus reasons that although the disciples will be sad at his departure, one of the benefits of Him going is that He will send the Holy Spirit, also called Comforter or Counselor. The Greek term for this word is “parakletos”, which is masculine, which is why they say “I will send Him to you”.
This also affirms that the Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity. The term “pneuma” used for Spirit is neuter, whereas the personification of the Spirit as “Paraklete”, or “comforter, counselor” brings in the more personal nature of the Holy Spirit.
But why is it good for Jesus to go? Because as He promised each one of us would be given the Spirit to remind us of what Jesus taught and to walk alongside us as we act in obedience to how Jesus taught us to live. Instead of walking alongside Jesus as the disciples did in His earthly ministry, now they had Jesus walking alongside of them internally by the Spirit’s presence. We will notice as we get to the book of Acts (cf Acts 2) the huge transformation in the disciples’ as they receive the Spirit’s power. Instead of the bumbling disciples that are slow to get it, we see amazing, powerful leaders that start the early church.
Application:
As amazing as it was that Jesus promised this gift to His disciples back then, it is no less important of a promise for us to realize today. Often we wonder why the church is not more transformative in society today. I think a large reason for that is that we too have not realized that it was good for Jesus to go back to His Father, so He could send us the Holy Spirit too!
The Spirit plays many roles in our lives. Again the word for “Paraclete” is often translated as “Comforter or Counselor”. Not to belittle the many fine Christian counselors out there or to diminish their role in bringing healing etc.., but it is important to realize that we have our own built in counselor to guide us into all Truth!
We see this in the New Testament when Paul said a couple of times, “I was going to go to this place, but the Spirit warned me not to go there!” see this excerpt from Acts 21:4 ff:
“Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. 5But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way. All the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6After saying good-by to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.
7We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day. 8Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.' "
There are many other incidents where literally the Holy Spirit guided and counseled Paul where to go and not go. Throughout Paul’s letters we see His insistence on living and be led by the Holy Spirit.
As you face, trials, testing, and temptations in your life, I pray that the Holy Spirit would come along side you and be your counselor and comforter. And often this is not done in isolation. As we pursue community together the Spirit will speak through other believers and give guidance, challenge and encouragement to each of us. In these ways, we will be able to testify that it was “good for Jesus to go” so that we might have this gift of the Third Person of the Trinity!
Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with your love. Guide us into all truth. Encourage our hearts with the joy of the Lord. Help us to rely on Your wisdom for our every day lives. Fill us anew we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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