City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

 5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

Exegesis

For the disciples it must have been pretty hard to imagine how Jesus going away could possibly be a good thing. He performed miracles, taught the disciples, and ministered to them. Yet, Jesus clearly said to them, “it is to your advantage that I go away.” Fortunately, Jesus did not leave us to guess why it was better He go away. Jesus identified three specific things the Holy Spirit would do that was to the disciples’ advantage. But to understand the significance of those three things one must first understand something else.

Jesus’ last words to His disciples may have been His most important because those words commissioned the disciples to go and change the world by persuading others to follow Him. See Matthew 28:19-20. That is a daunting task. As a trial lawyer, I am required to persuade people for a living. Fortunately, the law requires I be provided twelve unbiased people to attempt to persuade. But to carry out the Great Commission, Christians are required to persuade people who are in rebellion against God to lay down their arms, repent, and become obedient to Him. In trial lawyer terms we are given hostile witnesses to persuade. 

Jesus said it was to the disciples’ advantage if He went away because if He did, He would send the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit would do three things (1) convict people regarding their sin, (2) convict people regarding God’s righteousness, and (3) convict people that if they do not repent they will ultimately be judged. John 16:8-11. Can you imagine what an advantage it is to have the Holy Spirit secretly persuading a person of their sin, God’s holiness, God’s coming judgment while you are sharing the gospel with them? The Holy Spirit does this; we do not have to do this. We speak; He convinces. We share; He convicts.

But here is the rub: unless you share the gospel with others you will not experience these advantages Jesus went away to provide. We don’t have to be consumed with trying to convince or convict—the Holy Spirit is working to do that. We only need to be obedient and speak, but we must speak.