John
16:5-15
We saw how our Lord began to comfort, strengthen,
and prepare these first disciples for His impending death on the cross at the
hands of sinners by revealing to them that He would leave them His peace for
comfort and His joy for strength. But now He tells them and us that the
Heavenly Helper will be sent by Him to lead us (Romans 8:14) through the many pitfalls of the remainder of our
lives down here as pilgrims and aliens. All of us that know and love our Lord
Jesus Christ and desire to live a godly life down here on this earth as His
redeemed son or daughter will be persecuted because our life serves as a
witness and testimony against those who are still living according to the
course of this world being led not by the Spirit of God, but by the prince of
the power of the air fulfilling the lust of the flesh, the desires of the
flesh, and the desires of the mind and are consequently under the wrath of God.
Our Lord wanted to reassure these early disciples
that He in reality was never going away from them leaving them alone to deal
with the hatred, hostility, and horror of an entire world bent against Him and
these men who followed Him. They needed to know that He would be with them
every moment of every day even if they were not able to fully understand it at
the present moment. They had been eye witnesses of the many times the Jews
would take up stones to kill our Lord because of some truth He spoke that was
considered by them to be blasphemous. The disciples could not imagine walking
in this world teaching and preaching the gospel without the presence of our
Lord right there in the midst of them. It made them extremely afraid and
sorrowful to consider this as a reality (John
16:6).
Our Lord Jesus had already told them earlier that
the Helper (God the Holy Spirit) would not only be sent to them but that He
would live in them (John 14:16-18),
but their minds could not grasp it or lay hold of it to full understanding. One
of the disciples even expressed what was certainly on the minds of them all
when he asked, John 14:22 “Lord, how is
it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” NKJV They
did not understand what would take place on the day of Pentecost (and our Lord
never told them exactly how God the Holy Spirit would come to them), but they
were eager to learn and this is the heart attitude our Lord desires from all of
His disciples. Our Lord wanted them to know that it was the best thing for them
that He would be going away from them as He was then confined in His earthly tent,
flesh, or body (John 16:7) because
He would then send the Helper to come to each one of them to live His life in
them in the face of harsh and cruel opposition to His Name/Nature.
The world then and now hates our Lord Jesus not
because He is cruel to the world (He loves the world), but simply because He
testifies to the world of its evil and all who still love darkness and sin do
not want His truth/light to shine amongst their dark sin and expose it in all
of its ugliness. The Spirit of God is sent to the world to continue this work
of our Lord Jesus of exposing sin and He will convict this world of sin,
righteousness, and judgment (John
16:8-11). We have said it many times in the past and we will continue
repeating it and that is that every person born into this world is a sinner.
Most human beings do not consider themselves to be sinners and in their own
minds believe themselves to be good people. It is the work of God the Holy Spirit
to smash that false belief similarly to when the Prophet Jeremiah speaking to
the people of Israel in the power of the Holy Spirit said, Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And
like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” NKJV It is the Spirit
of God that always uses the Word of God to bring conviction of sin into the
heart of sinners and then regenerating that dead in trespasses and sins heart
making it alive to God the Father through what our Lord Jesus did on the cross.
Every human being is born separated from God by the
virtue of the wall of sin that stands between them and a pure, holy, and
righteous God. Therefore, we human beings need a foreign righteousness that we
ourselves do not have and only God the Holy Spirit can convince the sinner of
this truth. As we said earlier the prince of the power of the air (the devil),
who is the ruler of this world systems philosophy and thinking rules those
still in their sin, but our Lord Jesus Christ has defeated him on the cross and
taken away the keys of death from him and made reservations for him and all of
the fallen angels in the Lake of Fire (Revelation
20:10). It is the Spirit of God that must convince the sinner that only a
place in eternal torments awaits those who follow after satan and sin and
reject or resist what Jesus Christ has done on the cross at Calvary. For the first disciples and for all disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ the Helper has come to us to guide and direct us into all truth as it is He who illuminates the Word of God to each one of us (1 John 2:20-21 & 27) enlightening us and enabling us to live out our lives to the Glory of our Father in Heaven. When we don’t know what or how we should pray to our Father in Heaven it is the Helper (Romans 8:26-27) who breaks in for us bringing words into our hearts and minds that we would never have thought to say and He helps us to hide the Word of God in our hearts to keep us from sins defiling work in our daily lives. It is our Helper that unwraps or opens as it were all of the barriers in our hearts that keep us from seeing all that our Lord Jesus is to us and all that we have in Him now and for all eternity (John 16:12-15). As the Apostle Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. NKJV
“A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never
failing, Our Helper He
amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing.” Martin Luther
“It is impossible for that man to despair who
remembers that his Helper is
omnipotent.” Jeremy Taylor 1613-1667
“The power of the Holy Spirit is completely opposite
to the world’s power. The power of the Holy Spirit gives God’s children the
ability to serve His purpose for our lives. The Holy Spirit’s power is unlike
any other in the world. Only the power of the Holy Spirit can transform us,
relieve our guilt, and heal our souls.” Dr. Michael Youssef
“If the faith whereby I have laid hold on Christ to
be my Savior be altogether wrought in me by the Holy Ghost through grace, then
I defy the devil to take away that which he never gave me or to crush that
which Jehovah Himself created in me. I defy my free will to fling what it never
brought to me. What God has given, created, introduced, and established in the
heart, He will maintain there.” “A man is not saved against his will, but he is
made willing by the operation of the Holy Ghost. A mighty grace which he does
not wish to resist enters into the man, disarms him, makes a new creature of
him, and he is saved.” Charles Spurgeon
“True faith, by a mighty effort of the will, fixes
its gaze on our Divine Helper,
and there finds it possible and wise to lose its fears. It is madness to say, ‘I
will not be afraid;’ it is wisdom and peace to say, ‘I will trust and not be
afraid.’” Alexander MacLaren
If
you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this
from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear
Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I
believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from
the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn
from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control
of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...Sincerely in Christ,
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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