John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
“Better Now”
May 27, 2012 - Pentecost

         In the prelude to his famous giant chicken heart story, Bill Cosby talks about how his parents would leave him home alone. Those were the days, he tells us, before babysitters. His father would say, “What! Let some stranger look after my kid? I’d just as soon leave him home by himself!”

         Fortunately, Jesus knew better than Bill Cosby’s father. As He prepared His disciples for His death, resurrection and then ascension into Heaven, our Lord was very careful to assure His followers they were not being left by themselves. One of the main themes of Jesus’ talk with His disciples in the upper room beginning in John 13 and contining through our text in chapter 16 is that Someone will come to them and be with them. That Someone is the Holy Spirit.

         Here in verse 26 of chapter 15 Jesus gives the Spirit a name that goes back to chapter 14 verse 16. The Holy Spirit is the “Advocate.” If you survey English Bible versions you will find a whole range of translations for the actual word: “Advocate,” “Comforter,” “Encourager,” “Counselor,” “Helper,” “Friend,” and the list goes on. Bible scholars tend to just make an English word out of the Greek word and call Him the “Paraclete.”

         “Paraclete” literally means “one who is called alongside.” Technically, it can mean someone like a lawyer. So we get the translation “Advocate.” But for Jesus here it is such a personal and loving presence that the other, more intimate meanings, like “Comforter” and “Friend,” make good sense. Jesus assured them like we assure children that they will not be left alone. He was sending them a wonderful Babysitter.

         In this part of Jesus’ brief on the Holy Spirit, He talked about how the Advocate would “testify on his behalf.” Part of the Spirit’s work would be to instruct the disciples of Jesus, like a good babysitter who helps kids with their homework. The purpose, in verse 27, is so that the disciples themselves may testify to Jesus. The Holy Spirit teaches them, so that they will be able to teach others.

         All this talk of the Holy Spirit coming at the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth is new. In Luke and Acts, Jesus only promised that rushing wind of the Spirit we heard about in Acts 2 as He prepared to ascend into heaven. Here in John’s Gospel, He instructs them about the Spirit as He’s preparing to die on the Cross. Where our text picks up again in chapter 16 at the end of verse 4, He explains why: “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.”

         As long as Jesus was with the disciples, He was their teacher, their guide, their help and comfort. Now as He makes ready to leave them, He provides for the Holy Spirit to take His place in that ministry. And He realized that His disciples were not going to understand this, anymore than a little child will completely understand what’s happening when she’s left with a babysitter.

         Verse 5 points out to the disciples that they’ve failed to even ask the right question about what Jesus is up to, “I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’” This is a spot where folks who like to find contradictions in the Bible have a heyday. Turn over to chapter 13, verse 36 and there you will find Peter asking the question plain as day, “Lord, where are you going?” Then just a little further along in chapter 14, verse 5, Thomas says, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

         So how is it that now in chapter 16 Jesus says they haven’t asked where He’s going? Let’s assume the writer of John was not stupid. He knew that what Jesus says here doesn’t seem to match what the disciples say earlier. John wouldn’t have written it like this unless it was clear to him that Jesus was referring to a deeper and more meaningful question than just the literal words, “Where are you going?”

         Go back to Bill Cosby. In the story of another time his parents were going out, he tells how he and his brother would cling to their legs as they were getting ready, crying, “Mommy, you going out? Daddy, you going out?” That’s the spirit in which Peter and Thomas asked their questions. They weren’t really after a literal answer. They weren’t trying to find out just what the Father was doing with Jesus. Instead, they were just expressing their fear and dismay that He was leaving them.

         Peter wasn’t sincerely asking for Jesus’ destination anymore than when you leave your toddler in the nursery and he cries, “Where are you going?” Your child doesn’t want to know the literal answer to his question. He doesn’t really care exactly where you are headed. He just wants you to stay with him. And that’s how the disciples were feeling about Jesus. That’s why in verse 6, He acknowledges their feeling saying, “because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.”

         Yet once again, like we do with children, Jesus comforts His disciples by telling them how much fun they’re going to have with their new babysitter. You know how it is, when you go out. “She’ll play your favorite game with you. She’ll let you watch television. She will feed you ice cream.” You say what you can to make them happy and excited about the prospect of being left with someone else.

         Jesus puts it this way in verse 7, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away…” You know how it is. If you hire a really good babysitter, then after the first couple times, your children may actually look forward to your departure and her arrival. They know they’re going to have fun, that the sitter will come with a bag full of books or games or videos they will truly enjoy. But it can’t happen until you leave.

         That’s what Jesus is trying to tell His disciples is true of the Holy Spirit. They’re actually going to have a great time with the Spirit, but as He goes on in verse 7, “if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” That’s exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost which we celebrate this morning. That forlorn group of disciples, missing Jesus as Jim talked about last week, suddenly found themselves having the time of their lives when they received the Holy Spirit.

         Yet it couldn’t happen until Jesus went away. Sometimes we wax nostalgic about how wonderful and glorious and better it would be if we could only have walked with Jesus like those disciples did. If we could only have sat at His feet and heard Him teach. If we could only have watched as He put His hands on people and healed them. Wouldn’t our faith, wouldn’t our spiritual lives be so much stronger, so much better? But right here Jesus is telling us it’s not so. The Holy Spirit things would be better for them. For us, they are better now.

         How is it better that Jesus is gone and the Holy Spirit is here? Jesus explains in verses 8-11 by laying out what the Holy Spirit would do, and why. Verse 8 summarizes it as “proving the world wrong” in three respects, “about sin and righteousness and judgment.”

         Here’s where that legal sense of “Paraclete,” comes in. But rather than an advocate,  the Spirit is a kind of prosecuting attorney, arguing to convict the world. And His case against the world, says Jesus, is to the disciples’ advantage, to our advantage, because the day of Pentecost, the work of the Holy Spirit, has made this world a better place, has given us hope and joy we would never have otherwise.

         That first work of the Spirit, convicting the world of sin, was at first focused on the demonstration that they had sinned in not believing in Him, as it says in verse 9. Yet out of that has come a broader and deeper conviction of sin that has changed the way human beings live. The Holy Spirit has made a difference in history.

         At the beginning of the month we sat and heard Kay Strom and Ruth Hill talk to us about the evil of modern-day slavery, of human trafficking. But it’s only because of the Spirit’s work of spreading the Christian faith that the world today finally understands that slavery is wrong, is sin. Without that, we would still be where the ancient world was, with slavery accepted as a normal part of life. We’re better off now.

         As Christians in this country, we deplore the fact that unborn children are killed every day in abortions. But without the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in the world, we would still be where the ancient Romans were, believing it perfectly all right to murder unwanted infants even after they are born. It may be bad, but it’s better than it would have been.

         It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the world that convicted human beings with a decent sense of sin and shame for evils like war and poverty and racism. It’s the Spirit whom Jesus gave to us who has taught everyone to see those things as sin and to want to remove them from our lives. We still do all those things, but at least we see them for what they are. It’s better now.

         Verse 10 says the Holy Spirit convicts the world about righteousness, because Jesus was going to the Father. Jesus taught the good news of new life in Him to at most a few thousand people in His ministry on earth. In the power and strength of the Holy Spirit, Christian missionaries have carried that good news around the world. The world has had the opportunity to hear about a righteousness that comes from God.

         Again, Jesus encountered perhaps a few hundred people that He could personally touch and heal. But led by the Holy Spirit, His followers not only did their own miracles of healings, they cared for the sick, invented the idea of a hospital, and brought health and wholeness to millions of people throughout the earth. We still have disease and cancer and birth defects, but there is a righteous desire to help everyone we can. We are healthier now.

         Jesus went away from us so that He could come to us in the person of the Holy Spirit and extend His ministry in ways that simply were not possible when limited to His bodily presence here. As nice as it might seem to still have Jesus walking among us, our lives are better because Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit out into the world among us.

         That’s even true in the third convicting work of the Spirit, the conviction of judgment in verse 11. By the Spirit we are taught to hope in a final, righteous judgment of this world. However incomplete the conviction of sin is, whatever evil and hatred persists, however lacking in righteousness we are, whatever pain and poverty remains, we have been given the promise that Jesus Christ will return to judge the world and set it all right.

         In fact, we might say that work of the Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment is summed up in that mystery of faith we proclaim as we receive Communion: “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” Christ has died. There’s the conviction of our sin, enough to cost the Son of God His life. Christ has risen. There’s the conviction of Jesus’ righteousness, that He was an innocent victim and the Father raised Him up in vindication. Christ will come again. There’s the conviction of a just judgment on our lives and on this world.

         The message of Pentecost is that Jesus has left, but He has not left us alone. In fact, in a deep and mysterious way, in and through the Holy Spirit, He is still with us. That’s what He was saying in the remaining verses of our text. In verse 12 He spoke about “many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” So in verse 13, “When the Spirit comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own…”

         What Jesus meant is that the divine Holy Spirit babysitter is way better than any human babysitter. When we go out and leave our children with a sitter we wish for the impossible. We want someone who will do everything the way we would, someone who will watch our kids with the same care we would give, who will put them to bed at the right time, feed them the sort of food we cook, discipline them with the same firmness and gentleness we offer. In other words, if we could clone ourselves to be their caregivers, we would do it. We can’t, but because of the mystery of God, Jesus could.

         The Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all share one heart and mind. What one knows the others know. What one cares about, the others care about. What one would do, the others would do. So in verse 14 Jesus says about the Holy Spirit, “He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” And verse 15 just shows us this mystery of the Trinity in its wholeness, “All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

         Jesus brought us all the blessing of God the Father. And now, because what belongs to one person of the Trinity belongs to all, the Spirit brings us what belongs to Jesus, all His grace, all His healing, all His love. And because the Spirit brings us all that, it’s better now.

         It isn’t just about the world being a better place because of the Holy Spirit. That’s true, but it’s also true for each us, true for you. I invite you to think on that today, on the Day of Pentecost. You may be feeling terribly confused. Things you thought you understood seem murky and hopeless. You may be suffering pain, whether it’s physical or agonizing emotion. You may be horribly ashamed of some sin you’ve committed against people you love. You may be in deep despair, wondering if your Christian faith makes any real difference. In and through the Holy Spirit, Jesus says the answer is yes. By the Spirit, your life is better than it would have been without His presence.

         Let the Holy Spirit be the Paraclete for you today. Let Him draw alongside you as He takes the love of God the Father and the grace of Jesus Christ and declares them to you. You are God’s child. He has not left you alone. He’s left you with the help and comfort and hope of His own self in the person of His Spirit.

         And if you feel that presence of the Holy Spirit near you today. If you experience what John Wesley called having your heart “strangely warmed,” then do what Jesus asked us to at the beginning of this lesson. Testify about it to someone else. Let a friend or a family member know that they are not alone, that the Paraclete, the Comforter is alongside them as well. Let the presence of the Holy Spirit, which is the continuing presence of Christ our Lord, which is the love of the Father, continue in and through you.

         We are not by ourselves. Our Lord left us with His Spirit, and because of that, it’s better now.

         Amen.

         Valley Covenant Church
         Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
         Copyright © 2012 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj