Life when Jesus Leaves

Do you ever open up the pint of ice cream and come face to face with a problem? As you look in the container, there is too much for one bowl, but not quite enough for two.

If you are like me, most of the time, your solution is just to get out a bigger bowl and go for it.

In some ways, this morning’s message is going to be kinda like that. We could definitely do a deep dive and make multiple messages out of this passage, or we could pull back a bit and try to cover more ground in one.

Today, let’s get out the bigger bowl and dive in.

Go ahead and open your Bibles to John 15:26, page 959 in the pew Bible.

As you are turning there, I want to invite you to think back to a time in your life when someone you cared about moved away. The first one I remember was my best friend moving when I was in 5th grade. He lived right here near the big radio antennas, and his family moved to Tennessee. I didn’t have any idea how I was going to make it without him around.

For some of you, the person who left was even more significant than just a best friend. You have watched your kids pull out of the driveway with their car loaded down as they move to college or off to take a job away from home.

Even more painful are the times when someone near you doesn’t just move, but passes away. The loss of a parent, a spouse, or a close friend leaves us reeling and disoriented.

The disciples were about to endure that very thing as Jesus, the one they were staking their entire lives on, was about to die on the cross.

In fact, this chapter records the last explicit teaching Jesus gave his disciples before he died. There are certainly other lessons he modeled for the disciples through his prayer, his time in the garden, and all the events leading up to his death. However, this is the end of the discussion that started in chapter 13.

We have taken several weeks to go through all of this, so you can only imagine what it would have been like to hear it all for the first time in one big chunk.

In fact, in this morning’s passage, Jesus acknowledges the weight of what he has said and that the disciples couldn’t absorb any more.

As he wraps up his teaching, he is going to expand on a couple topics he has already introduced.

Some of what he says in this chapter is aimed at what the disciples would endure over the next few days and weeks, so we will be looking for the principles we can draw out of the encouragement he gave them.

Jesus is preparing them for life after he wraps up this stage of his earthly ministry and returns to heaven, leaving the disciples on earth to carry on without him.

In many ways, we are in a similar place to where the disciples were. We are on the other side of Jesus’s death and resurrection, but we still live on earth, and Jesus is still in heaven.

In that case, we want to rest in the same truths Jesus promised the disciples: Since Jesus left, we have a new Counselor, and we have new comfort.

Let’s start by reading a little bit of a longer passage. Pick up with me in 15:26-16:1, 5-15

As we live life without Jesus physically present on earth, we are not alone...

1) We have a new Counselor.

We talked about the Counselor Jesus is sending back in chapter 14. However, I want us to spend a good bit more time this morning looking at what Jesus is telling us about the Holy Spirit here.

When I use the term “counselor,” what comes to mind?

We likely think of a professional counselor or therapist—someone who helps us work through mental health struggles, trauma, addictions, and other concerns that we can’t work through on our own.

The people God has called into that field do an amazing job and are incredibly helpful, but that isn’t what the Bible means by this term.

Although the Holy Spirit does work in our hearts as we battle mental health issues or struggle with trauma and addiction, he isn’t a counselor in that sense.

In the original language, the word translated “counselor” has the idea of “called alongside to help”. It’s the word “paraclete,” and we don’t have a good English term for this role. That is why it is translated “comforter,” “helper,” “counselor,” and “advocate.”

He isn’t a blanket, so “comforter” isn’t quite right. He isn’t less than us, so “helper” doesn’t quite fit. He isn’t a lawyer, so “advocate” doesn’t really fit either!

The Holy Spirit is the one who comes alongside to help. He is fully God, not just some nebulous force like something from Star Wars.

He comes alongside Jesus’s followers to give life, teach, challenge, empower, encourage, convict, guide, and so much more.

This morning, we are going to focus specifically on the roles of the Holy Spirit that Jesus talks about in our passage.

Some of these roles describe what the Holy Spirit does inside believers, while others focus on what he does in the world at large.

The first role the Spirit fulfills as our helper is that he testifies about Jesus.

This is one of those works that the Spirit does within the world and not just in the life of a believer.

The Holy Spirit is the one who is behind the spread of the message that Jesus has given himself so that people could know God and be right with him, and now Jesus rules and reigns over all of creation.

The Spirit is the one who is working to make that good news, the gospel, known. However, look at the very next verse (verse 27)...

The disciples are also called to testify about Jesus.

Here you have a great picture of the Holy Spirit’s role as Paraclete, one called alongside.

We acknowledge that God is in no way limited to working through people because, as one commentator said, that limits God to human frailty. [1]

Instead, Jesus shows that the Counselor is called alongside to support Christ’s followers as they share the gospel with the world that hates them.

Jesus had already taught them about the Spirit’s role in speaking through the disciples. In Mark 13, he warns the disciples that they will be persecuted, just like he is doing here.

As a part of that, he reminds them:

Mark 13:11 CSB

So when they arrest you and hand you over, don’t worry beforehand what you will say, but say whatever is given to you at that time, for it isn’t you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

This is the Helper, the Counselor, doing exactly what Jesus said he would—he is testifying about Jesus through the disciples.

He also testifies about Jesus through the fruit we bear. Remember how we defined fruit a couple of weeks ago? We looked at Galatians 5:22-23, which describes the fruit of the Spirit—the fruit the Spirit bears through our connection to Christ!

As we live out the radical love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that the Spirit works through us, we testify to the world about the kind of God Jesus is!

Again, Jesus reminds the disciples that this won’t always be well received. Look at verse 2...

As we testify about Christ through our words and our actions, we may well find ourselves persecuted.

However, the Holy Spirit is alongside us the entire time, testifying with us and through us that Jesus is Lord.

Now, jump down to verse 6-7...

The disciples were understandably upset that Jesus was leaving them. However, he made an incredible statement: It was actually better for the disciples that Jesus leave and send them the Holy Spirit than it was for Jesus to continue walking with him on earth.

Have you ever felt like you just wished you could sit down across the table and talk to Jesus, or to have him physically walk with you through something?

That is a natural longing, and one day we will be able to be in his presence like Adam and Eve were, so there is a part of us that will always long for that until we get to heaven or he brings heaven here.

However, based off 16:7, J.D. Greear makes the bold statement that,

“The Spirit inside you is better than Jesus beside you.” (J.D. Greear)

[2]

Isn’t that hard to wrap your mind around? It is better for you that Jesus sent the Spirit to live inside you than it is to have Jesus walking beside you.

Why is that? Well, in part, it’s because as the Holy Spirit works through Jesus’s followers, he broadens the work he was doing in his earthly ministry.

In taking on flesh, Jesus chose to limit himself to one location at a time. However, through the Spirit’s work through the disciples, he can be uniquely present in every prison cell and execution chamber that believers would find themselves in as they were persecuted because he is in every single follower of Christ.

Not only that, he could also spread the gospel across the globe so that now, Christians around the world are proclaiming the Lordship of Christ on every inhabited continent.

That’s what Jesus is getting at in verses 8-11 - The Holy Spirit works through Christians living like Christ to convict the world of their sin and exalt Jesus as their Savior.

Let’s give an example. If you study the history of the early church, their stance on sex as a gift to be shared between one man and one woman within the bounds of a covenant of marriage is part of what the Roman officials hated about them—we even see that in the gospels with John the Baptist. At the same time, their care for orphans and widows and the disenfranchised made them impossible to ignore! Through the Holy Spirit’s power, they reflected the love of Christ and lived out the ethics of Christ with integrity, and it led to both persecution and the transformation of the world.

Thus far, we have focused on how the Holy Spirit would come alongside believers to impact the world.

However, Jesus says his role will also be to work internally in the heart of believers.

Read verses 12-15.

The disciples were physically worn out. Jesus knew that the time was getting late, their hearts were hurting, and they couldn’t absorb any more.

He promised that the Holy Spirit would guide them into an understanding of truths that they couldn’t handle that night.

That reminds us of what he said back in 14:26, where Jesus said that the Spirit would teach and remind the disciples of everything.

One of the main ways the Spirit accomplishes this work is through the Bible, God’s Word.

The Old Testament shows us how God has worked throughout history, giving us instruction, examples, and even hope for the future. The Gospels remind us of many of the things Jesus taught and did. Acts shows us how the early church responded to the teaching and work of Christ. The letters in the remainder of the New Testament flesh out Jesus’s teaching and give us more insight and clarity into many topics he introduced. Revelation is part letter and part prophecy, solidifying the hope we have that Jesus is coming again to finish what he started.

So, does that mean that the Holy Spirit is done and doesn’t have any more to do with guiding us into the truth? Not at all.

You see, we cannot understand the Bible apart from the work of the Spirit helping us see and understand:

1 Corinthians 2:12–14 CSB

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

Yes, the Holy Spirit has inspired the writers of Scripture, and he has preserved it, but we also need him to help us understand what he says!

If you have tried reading your Bible before and always come away frustrated, it may be because you have never really come into a relationship with Christ!

That isn’t to say that when we come to know Jesus, God downloads all the truth we will ever need into our heads. Instead, he works over time to help us grow to understand him better and better throughout the rest of our lives.

We can summarize the Spirit’s role here with verse 14 - the main work of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus both in the hearts of his followers and the rest of the world! That means he helps us and the world see Jesus as he really is, and that leads us to respond to Jesus as we should!

So then, let’s stop and take inventory for a minute:

Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus in your own heart? Are you learning to know him better, love him more, and obey him more rapidly?

Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus through your actions and reactions to those around you? Do you use people, lose your temper, or just keep your head down and not care about others, or are you allowing the Holy Spirit to show Jesus to others through the way you love them?

Don’t just stop with actions, though—are you allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through your words as you tell other people about Jesus and why you do the things you do?

If you are in a relationship with Jesus and walking with him, then you have God living inside you—can you tell a difference in the way you live and talk?

Now, as Jesus winds up his final teaching with his disciples, he knows they are headed down a difficult road.

The next few days are going to completely upend everything they have expected, and all but one of the men he is speaking to is one day going to be killed for following him.

That’s why Jesus concludes by reminding his followers that...

2) We have new comfort.

There is still a lot of chapter left here, and we don’t have time to focus on everything.

However, let’s summarize some of what Jesus is saying and draw out a few passages to look at further.

Remember the context here. Jesus is within hours of being arrested, beaten, and crucified.

The disciples had trusted Jesus for everything, leaving behind jobs and homes to follow him.

Now, he was getting ready to die and leave them alone.

Before he is raised from the dead, the disciples are going to be confused and afraid.

That’s what Jesus is talking about in verse 16. After his death, they wouldn’t see him again until he appeared to them when he had been resurrected several days later.

As we mentioned in the beginning, we have to acknowledge that this is Jesus specifically comforting the original disciples in light of the events they will endure for the next several days—that is the nearest context and meaning.

However, let’s think all the way back to the fall when we talked about why John was writing this book in the first place. He is writing to a group of believers who are being persecuted for their faith.

They too would struggle with sorrow, waiting on Jesus to physically return to earth.

Beyond that, the Holy Spirit knew that believers in 2022 would still be struggling with things that make us sorrowful, and we would still be living life without Jesus physically present on earth.

So, then, we can draw from what Jesus told the disciples and rest in the same hope he gave them.

While he talked about the sorrow they would experience, Jesus gives this incredible statement in verse 23...

We have the same comfort he offered the disciples.

There is so much in this one verse that we could make an entire sermon just from it!

There’s the reality that we will have sorrow in this life. Following Jesus is always going to be difficult and may even lead to persecution and being put to death for following Jesus! Even if it doesn’t, the world has plenty of sorrows of its own.

However, there is a time when we will see Jesus as he comes again! We know that when the time is right, Jesus is coming back to finish what he began during his earthly ministry.

As we saw in January in John 14, he is preparing a place for us, and he will come back.

When he does come back, we will join him forever and experience joy that we cannot imagine and will never be taken away.

Notice the contrast: sorrow now, but joy forever.

While it is true that there is a way we experience joy even in sorrow, there is going to be a time that we won’t have to be joyful in spite of anything; rather, everything will be joyful for us.

He picks that theme back up just a few verses down.

He gives the disciples one last unsettling reminder in verses 31-32...

Then, look at the promise in verse 33...

Jesus bookends chapter 16 with these two statements: “I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling…I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.”

He is about to endure the worst suffering in all of human history as the sinless Son of God takes on the physical pain of the cross and the spiritual pain of the punishment we deserve for sin.

His closest friends are going to run and hide, and yet he speaks these comforting words.

It will get much worse before it gets better. While we are in this life, we will have suffering.

However, even though he had not yet gone to the cross, the events had been set in motion and his victory was assured, which is why he could say, “Be courageous! I have overcome the world.”

For us, we can look back over history and see that he has, in fact, overcome the world as he rose from the dead, victorious over sin and death.

We look forward to the day when he is going to finish out what he started and completely eradicate all trace of sin.

Until then, we have the comfort of knowing that he has overcome. We know what to expect—sorrow now, but joy forever.

Not only that, but we have the comfort of knowing we are not alone. We have a Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, called alongside to help us learn, understand, and glorify Jesus in the power he can give.

Are you resting in his comfort this morning, or are you trying to find it somewhere else?

Endnote:

[1] Gerald L. Borchert, John 12-21, NAC. On John 15:26-27.

[2] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/whats-better-than-jesus-beside-you. Accessed on 8 March 2022.