The Spirit of Truth: The way of Jesus is the best way to live. But the uncomfortable truth is that life doesn’t automatically get easier when you become a Christian. How can this be? And how might we endure when mild difficulties become outright (or even violent) persecution? We need the Spirit of truth. Recorded on Mar 3, 2024, on John 15:18-16:15 by Pastor David Parks.
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Finding Life in Jesus’ Name is a sermon series on the gospel according to John in the Bible. Have you ever felt unsatisfied with your life? Or, even when things were going well, something was still missing? Many people sense there must be something more. But what?? John, one of the closest friends of Jesus, believed that Jesus came into the world so that we may have life and have it to the full. Jesus turned John’s life upside down, and John claims this new life — marked by God’s power, presence, and purpose — is available for all who believe.
Sermon Transcript
All year, we’re working through The Gospel According to John in a series called Finding Life in Jesus’ Name. Today, as we finish John 15 and work into chapter 16, we’ll consider the uncomfortable truth that life doesn’t automatically get easier when you become a Christian. I’m sure you’ve seen examples of this on social media or in the news, but have you ever experienced this? Have you ever lost a friendship or family relationship because you were a Christian? I have. I know the pain and confusion this can bring. Or have you ever had someone call you out for your beliefs as a Christian in school, at work, or somewhere else? It can be so hard to know what to say in those moments. Thankfully, we don’t often experience violent persecution in our country today. Of course, that’s not true for Christians everywhere in the world. There are places where you would be killed for your faith in Jesus. We do believe that following Jesus is the best way to live. He is the way, the truth, and the life. So why is it that life doesn’t automatically get easier when we follow his way? In fact, sometimes, it gets way more difficult. Does Jesus have anything to say about this? He does. If you have a Bible/app, please take it and open it to John 15:18.
John 15:18–25 (NIV), “18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’” Ok, let’s pause here. So the minutes are ticking away and before long Jesus would be falsely arrested, tried, condemned, and crucified. So, in the shadow of the violence and humiliation of the cross, Jesus says to his disciples, essentially, “If they do this to me, don’t be surprised if they do this to you.” He says, “A servant is not greater than his master.” repeating what he said to them back in chapter 13. This is a consistent theme in John’s gospel. Back in chapter 7, Jesus said that the world “hates me because I testify that its works are evil.” (Jn 7:7). Later, as we’ll see in chapter 17, Jesus will pray for his disciples, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world,” and then prays that God would protect them from the devil and that he would sanctify them by the word of God. But here, Jesus tells the disciples why they will experience these hardships: because in his saving work, Jesus chose/delivered his disciples out of the world. Remember, last week, we saw Jesus say, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last…” (v. 16). They are still in the world but no longer belong to the world. So, disciples of Jesus will no longer be loved by the world. And our beliefs will not be welcomed/promoted/celebrated by the world because our beliefs come from Jesus. The reason is (and I can’t emphasize this enough) because it is Jesus the world has rejected. v. 21 is the key to understanding why the world responds to Christians with hostility. “They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.” He says that during his earthly ministry, the world heard his words, and they saw his works, but they responded with hatred and not with love because they don’t know God. They have no excuse because he didn’t say/do these things in secret. But sadly, by rejecting the Son, they have rejected the Father as well. You can’t believe in God and not believe in Jesus. However, none of this was a surprise for Jesus or the Father. In v. 25, Jesus quoted Psalm 69, indicating that this psalm was about him. The rejection of Jesus by some of the people who saw and heard him fulfilled Psalm 69. But if God knew this would happen to his Son, and by extension to the followers of his Son, did he promise anything to help us endure this hatred? The wonderful answer is, yes, God promised to send the best resource possible. Let’s continue with v. 26.
John 15:26-27 (NIV), “26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.” Let’s pause again. We’ll see a pattern in this passage. First, a teaching on persecution, then a teaching on the Holy Spirit. This pattern is repeated twice in our text. But we see that God’s answer to the persecution and opposition he knew his people would face in this broken world because of the name of Jesus was to send his own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, God’s own personal power and presence to be with us. Jesus had a longer teaching on the Spirit back in chapter 14, here again in chapter 15, and as we’ll see, on into chapter 16. This was one of the most important things the disciples of Jesus needed to hear the night before the cross. Again, Jesus refers to the Spirit as the Advocate or counselor, helper, or comforter, as it says in different Bible translations. As we saw two weeks ago, the underlying Greek for the Advocate combines the ideas of coming alongside and calling out. The Holy Spirit comes alongside the disciples of Jesus and calls us forward to follow him. Here, Jesus promises that the Father will send the Spirit and, being the Spirit of truth, he will testify about Jesus — not the lies the world believes about Jesus, but the truth about the person and work of Jesus. For the disciples, who were all Jewish at this time, what Jesus was saying about the Holy Spirit shouldn’t have come as a surprise. The Hebrew Bible, what we call the OT today, is full of passages where God promised to send his Spirit as part of a new age that he would establish. Let’s look at just one of these passages. Ezekiel 36:24–28 (NIV), “24 “ ‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” Now, think about everything God promises here. God promises his people would be in the world but no longer belong to the world (being gathered from the nations). We see that God would provide cleansing for sin, a new and living heart, the gift of the Spirit to know and obey God’s word, and a new relationship with God. Does any of this sound familiar? This is pretty much the whole gospel found almost 600 years before Jesus. The only detail missing was how God would accomplish all this. Jesus says everything that was promised in Ezekiel 36 is about to come to pass. The disciples of Jesus are about to live through a change in the ages. In the first section, Jesus teaches why life can sometimes get more difficult when you become a Christian, followed by a reminder of the gift of the Spirit. The second section on persecution, starting with chapter 16, will focus on how we can endure this opposition.
John 16:1-6 (NIV), “1 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are 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 their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.” Let’s pause one more time. Ok, so Jesus says that as much as they have been harassed and threatened by the religious leaders in Jerusalem, things will actually get worse. And the disciples will not have Jesus physically present with them to protect them or guide them in the same way they have enjoyed him for the last three years or so. We know that after the resurrection and the Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, a great persecution broke out against the early Christian church in Jerusalem. In Acts 8, the believers were scattered by an effort led by Saul of Tarsus who later became the Apostle Paul. But here, Jesus warns his disciples of these things yet to come so they will not be surprised, so they will not lose faith, but so that they will endure. Now, one difficult aspect of this text to interpret is that Jesus says that none of them are asking him where he is going. However, we know that during this last supper, Peter and Thomas had already asked him where he was going. There are several theories about this, but perhaps what Jesus was saying is that though they had both asked about his departure, neither of them was really concerned about where Jesus was going — only that they were scared and filled with grief about what would happen to them. This would explain why, to combat this fear/grief, starting with v. 7, Jesus reminds them a second time of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
John 16:7-15 (NIV), “7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about 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 the 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 glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” This is God’s word. So again, Jesus reassures his disciples in their fear, confusion, and grief, that it is for their good that he is going away because then the Spirit will come. Now, it’s not that Jesus and the Spirit are like Clark Kent and Superman, like neither of them can be in the room at the same time. This relates to the start of this new age God had promised, which is dependent on, first, the exaltation of the risen Jesus and then the gift of the Spirit. Jesus promises to send the Spirit, which might seem strange because he just said that the Spirit goes out from the Father. But this is just a function of the unique relationship between the Father and Son that is a major theme of John’s gospel. Jesus says the Spirit will prove the world wrong about three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment. Remember, two weeks ago, I said that the work of the Spirit, the Counselor, is sometimes like a defense attorney, reminding us of what’s true about ourselves, about who God is, and what he has done for us in Jesus to strengthen our faith when we are weak. At other times, he’s like a prosecuting attorney, reminding us of what’s true to provide needed conviction or correction. But the work of the Spirit, and also through the lives of Christians who are filled with the Spirit, will prove just how wrong the world is. Sin and righteousness refer to what the world believes to be right and wrong. This is why the world so often believes that what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right. Why? Because they don’t believe in Jesus. They don’t believe/heed God’s word. They aren’t humbly submitting their lives in joyful obedience to God or sacrificially loving one another. They believe they can do whatever makes them happy and, therefore, are justified in doing whatever they want. As a result, they don’t see their own condemnation, their own need for a savior, or that their way is darkness and not light. The ways of the world don’t lead to more life, love, joy, and peace. They lead only to dysfunction, destruction, and death. But they judge themselves to be in the right. But for the believer, the Holy Spirit will guide us, protect us, empower us, and reveal to us in greater depths who Jesus is, how great his love is for us, and what will come to pass in him. Because of the person and work of Jesus and because of the gift of the Spirit, we have all the resources of heaven to help us endure, to hold fast to our faith, and to overcome.
Of course, this is just as true for us today as it was for the disciples all those years ago. On this side of the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus back into heaven, and the day of Pentecost, we’re living in the last days, the age of the Holy Spirit. And yes, sometimes, when you become a Christian, it might seem as if life gets harder. But the alternative isn’t any better. Commentator Don Carson writes, “Following Jesus costs something…and may cost life itself. Yet not following Jesus means one is siding with a lost and hateful world.” (PNTC, p. 524). Now, one of the implications of this teaching ought to be the death of the thinking that if only we could just be cool enough or smart enough or accomplished enough or whatever enough, then the world would love/accept us. If we bear the name of Jesus, and if we represent him and his kingdom as ambassadors for Christ, even if we aren’t overtly persecuted (though there might be times when we are), then to some degree, we’ll always be on the outside in this world. But we have the gospel. We have the promises of God. We have the Spirit of Truth. We have the example of the saints who have gone before us. And we have each other here in the church. And some of the people who belong to this broken world will hear and believe the gospel and be saved out of it. This is why we’re here. This is our great purpose. And this is why we must endure/overcome. If Jesus was willing to endure for us, through the cross and the grave, then we can endure a difficult conversation or a lose of friendship or even losing our own life for others in his name. May this be true of us and for this church until the Lord finally calls us to our true home to be with him. Let us pray.
