Page 101 - The Gospel of John - Student textbook

witnesses the child of God being controlled by the Spirit, the world observes a life undergoing transformation.
The world is confronted by the Holy Spirit via His activity in believers.

“But now I am going away to Him who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ Yet,
6
5
because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

They were focused only on their loss – there Master and Teacher was going away. They had not yet grasped the
glory and grandeur of what was about to happen to Jesus, and the implications of that for the church. That
prompted Jesus to make the astonishing statement recorded for us in verse 7.

Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the
Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you.

We often say, “If only I could have been in earthly eyewitness disciple of Jesus, my Christian life would be so
much better than it now is.” Yet our Lord said our situation now is better than that of His disciples when He was
walking on the earth. I think that is one of the most difficult statements of Christ to embrace. At this point I want
to ask you a probing question. Do you consider your connection to the Holy Spirit so strong and real that you
regard His presence in you to be better and even a greater benefit than having Jesus Himself beside you? Be
honest. Seriously. The whole thrust of verse 7 expresses the truth that God wants to be vitally present in and
through his people. Not just some of us, but all of us. According to James 4:5 the Spirit who lives in us yearns
jealously. He longs for us to enter into greater grace (verse 6). He wants us to understand that growth in grace is
a lifelong process. (2 Peter 3:18)
nd

At the ascension Jesus did not become an absent God

Remember the promise that our Lord gave to us in John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to
you.” At the ascension Jesus did not become an absent God. He, as God, simply came to His disciples as a
different Person. The mystery of the Trinity is that one God exist in 3 Persons. Each Person is distinct from the
other 2, but in experiencing one, you experience the one God who is them all. (If your mind feels as if it just
exploded, that’s okay. Christian theologians have been wrestling with that for centuries!) Remember he has
already told his followers, “if you have seen me, you have seen the father,” so it would be true for Him to say,
“When you hear from the Spirit, you hear from me.” And remarkably, he told his disciples that His presence in
them would be even better than His presence beside them. Wow! Think about that. (Jesus could not be
omnipresent, but the Holy Spirit is omnipresent) the Holy Spirit would bring to their minds all that He had said
and taught. In other words, He would make the Word of God come alive in their hearts, applying that Word to
their questions and doubts. The Spirit would lead them through the Word, and they would gain the ability to
obey the Word by His power. (John 14:26, 15:5; 26, 16:8; 14) Paul began to expound the gospel in great detail in
the first three chapters of Ephesians, he stopped explaining in chapter 3 and began to pray that the Spirit would
enable the Ephesian believers “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ… That
surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18 – 19). Did you catch his play on words? He prays that they would
understand something that is beyond all knowledge. Isn’t that a contradiction? Not at all when we understand
the fullness of the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 3:18 – 21) The Spirit of God takes the word of God and consumes our
hearts with it, so that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts” and we overflow with it (Romans 5:5), our
hearts are burning with its warmth.

8 When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: about sin, because they
9
10
do not believe in Me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me;
11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

100