What could you go without and have the lack of it prove to be an advantage for you?
Well, let's see, if you're a child you really couldn't go without Moms or Dads because they provide you with everything you've got. That's why we celebrate days like today, Mother's Day, to remind us of the blessings God gives us through parents whom He sends to care for us in this life. So, we're thankful to Him today for our moms because, Moms, we couldn't do without you. The lack of your presence in our lives wouldn't prove an advantage for us.
What could we go without and have the lack of it prove to be an advantage for us? This time let's think from a parent's standpoint. If you're a Mom, could you get along just fine without your children? Ooooo! Now there's an interesting question! Moms, could you do without your children?
Sometimes with all the work and hassles that we cause you, you Moms must be tempted to say, “Boy, it would be an advantage to not have you around!” When I think of some of the things I did or got into as a child, I wouldn't blame Mom at all for thinking that way. Fortunately for me she wouldn't have thought that anyway because she understood what God means when He says, “Sons are a heritage from the Lord; children a reward from Him” (Ps.122:3). Moms, although we can be a pain at times, the lack of our presence as your children in life wouldn't prove to be an advantage for you.
What could we go without and have the lack of it prove to be to our advantage? How about the presence of the Lord Jesus! Now who of us would ever think that would be to our advantage? Yet, that is exactly what Jesus meant in our text when He said, “I am going to Him who sent me….You are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away.” It's An Advantage to be without the Lord Jesus' presence.
I. With Jesus gone, the Counselor is sent to help us.
Now, that's a startling revelation to every Christian. How can a person ever say that we are better off without Jesus? After all, He's the most important person in our lives. He created us, He cares for us, He provides His angels to guard and protect us, and, most of all, He died to take away our sin and open the door of heaven to us. Which Christian, in His right mind, would dare to say, “It's good that my Savior is gone”? I know that there is that side of me that would never want to say that. Would you? But it's true when you understand what Jesus meant and how God works out your salvation for you.
Yes, we needed the Lord Jesus; yes, we are happy for all the things He does for us; yes, we know that we couldn't do without Him. But with Jesus gone, now the Counselor is sent to help us. We needed that to happen also, if we were to get any benefit out of what Jesus did for us. The Savior put it this way in our text: “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor (that's the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”
You see, dear friends, the Lord's physical presence had brought untold blessings to these disciples. Nevertheless, His going away was necessary so that even greater blessings could come.
Jesus' work is that of redemption – not faith. The imparting of faith is the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus doesn't work faith; the Holy Spirit does through the Word. So, without Jesus finishing His work, leaving, and sending the Holy Spirit to do His, whatever blessings the Lord Jesus won in your behalf would be of no benefit to you because there was no way to make it yours. Faith is the hand that receives the gift of salvation that Christ prepared. And faith is the working of the Holy Spirit within us for a man can only say that Jesus is Lord and Savior by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is God's plan for salvation: God the Father loved the world when it was unlovable and unworthy of Him in its sin. He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus to pay the price for sin and to perfect the righteousness for us that was needed. And when the Lord Jesus was done with His work, He sent the Holy Spirit to counsel, guide, and comfort us in the truth of what God had done so that we might believe it and thus receive it as our own. With Jesus gone, the Holy Spirit's work would go forward. It's An Advantage that Jesus left, for with Jesus gone the Counselor is sent to help us.
In a way you could say it was time to move on to the next phase, a difficult phase, a life changing phase, but a necessary phase. Perhaps you could think of a time in your life that called for such a change – not necessarily one you desired, but one that you needed because it would be to your advantage - a time to move forward.
For example, when I finished my schooling at the Seminary, I was called to serve a new mission church in Ft. Worth , TX . I was excited at the chance to serve my Lord and put what I had learned to use as a pastor in His Church. But it also meant that I would leave my family and friends and the surroundings that I had called home for 20 years. It was the way the Lord had chosen for me to put to use the things He had taught me in order to bring the Gospel to others. It was time to move on, a time to move ahead, a time that would be to His glory and my advantage. He sent me to Texas .
Surely, you could come up with a similar example. A step had to be made in your life for things to work out for your advantage. Think of Jesus' departure and sending of the Holy Spirit in a similar way. You are not harmed by the lack of Jesus' physical presence. It actually serves for Your Advantage because now you have the Holy Spirit whom He sent.
So it is that when Jesus went away, a new age was inaugurated as He sent the Holy Spirit to help us. He poured Him out on His disciples at Pentecost, and every day since then is still Pentecost for us since God is forever giving us His Holy Spirit through His Word. Up until time ends, the Spirit will continue to do His part in the work of salvation by bestowing on us the blessings Jesus won.
What an amazing truth! What An Advantage It Is! Because the Counselor has come to show us these saving truths and to create faith in our hearts in them, we have blessings as great – yes, if you understand it correctly, even greater than having Jesus physically with us, for now the blessings of salvation are yours by faith, faith that only the Holy Spirit could work within you.
II. And there's more. It's not just about you and your advantage - it's for others. With Jesus gone, the Counselor helps us with the world, everyone. How?
Jesus continued, “When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”
Convicting of sin, convincing of the righteousness that was needed so that people might escape the judgment because Jesus won the victory over the devil, that's the help we needed. Why do we need the Holy Spirit's help in this way? Because we can't do any of this on our own. Think of what lay ahead for the Church! When Jesus left and returned to the Father, His mission became ours as we are now to carry His witness to the ends of the earth. If the world raised such resistance to Christ that it even crucified Him, and He was God's Son, how could we ever hope to have any affect upon the world in our mission endeavors? Enter the Holy Spirit, sent from God to help us with the world. This is what He does.
Our text says that He convicts them. Think of Him here acting as God's prosecuting attorney, presenting God's case for sin against all humanity. All have sinned, all fall short of God's perfect righteousness; all will be punished for that if something doesn't change. Working through the Law, the Holy Spirit convicts us. His function here is like that of Nathan the prophet.
When King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then had her husband Uriah murdered in battle to cover up his sin, God sent the prophet to David with a simple message. Pointing at him, Nathan convicted David saying, “You are the man [who did this]” (2 Sam.12:7). Such an accusation served for David's good because it led him to acknowledge his sin and go to God for help.
That's exactly what the Holy Spirit is to the whole world. “He will convict the world,” Jesus said.
Convicting is cutting a person to the heart. It happens as the Word of God, like a sharp sword, penetrates, “judging the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hb.4:12). He makes us realize and lament our sin against God. But convicting is no advantage if the working of a cure does not take place. That's part of the Holy Spirit work, too, as He shows us Christ's righteousness.
Think of Him like a surgeon's knife. In open heart surgery, the scalpel must cut into the heart and expose the bad. Then the doctor goes to work to get rid of the bad and uses the scalpel again to close up the wound so that healing takes place.
Jesus doesn't do that; nor do we; but the Spirit does. He's a skilled surgeon, helping us in our witness of salvation to the world.
Convicter, convincer, converter, changer of hearts, comforter -that's who the Spirit is and what He does to help us. What An Advantage He proves to be for us. We may lack Jesus' physical presence, but that lack works for our benefit, for with Jesus gone the Counselor is sent to help us; He helps us with our work in the world. May we rejoice in His gifts to us now and forever. Amen.