Introduction
Last week’s passage was really about two things: the vine and its branches and love.
So, the Lord Jesus Christ is the vine and his people are the branches and we receive from him the ability to produce fruit. And the fruit we produce by being united with him by faith is Christlikeness. After all, a branch that is attached to a grapevine will produce grapes. A branch that is attached to an apple tree will produce apples. A branch that is attached to a pear tree will produce pears. And a person who is attached to the Lord Jesus will produce the character and the qualities of the Lord Jesus Christ. We’ll become more and more like him.
And the Lord explained as well that God the Father is like a gardener who prunes the branches to make them more fruitful. And the Father prunes us by means of all the circumstances of life and by means of his word. He uses the troubles and trials of life and his own word to renew us more and more in the image of our Saviour. And then, of course, there was a warning to all those who do not believe: just as branches that are not attached to the vine wither and die and are burned, so all who do not trust in Christ will one day die and they will face eternal punishment away from the presence of God unless they repent and believe in the Saviour.
And in the rest of the passage last week the Lord spoke about love: his love for his friends and their love for one another. He demonstrated his love for his friends by laying down his life for them. So, no one took his life from him, but he willingly gave himself over to death on the cross in order to make peace for us with God. And we demonstrate that we are his friends when we love one another in obedience to his command.
And at the end of last week’s passage he said that his friends did not choose him, but he chose them and appointed them to go and bear fruit. Because of his overflowing love for us, he chose us for salvation and he is presently at work in our lives by his Spirit to bring us to perfection. He is at work to make us more and more like himself. He chose us to bear the fruit of Christlikeness. And that’s what the church needs and it’s what the world needs: more and more men and women and children who will love one another and who will love the people around them as Christ loved us.
You’ll remember that this is all part of the Lord’s farewell speech to his disciples. They’d gathered together in the Upper Room for their Last Supper together. And after Judas Iscariot went out to betray the Lord, the Lord began to teach his disciples. And he taught them that he would soon be leaving them to prepare a place for his people in his Father’s heavenly house. And when everything is ready, he will return for them. And he taught them that he’s the only way to the Father and no one can come to the Father except through him. He taught them that he is in the Father and the Father is in him so that to see him is to see the Father and to know him is to know the Father. He taught them that they will do even greater things than he did, because he’s going to his Father in heaven. And he taught them that he will send them the Holy Spirit to help them after he has left. And not only will we have the Holy Spirit to help us but the Father and the Son will indwell us as well. God and his people will be wrapped up together in love. And we display our love for the Lord Jesus by obeying his command to love one another.
And we’re getting near the end of his farewell speech, which finishes at the end of chapter 16. And in the part we’re studying this evening, he tells us about the world and he tells us about the Holy Spirit. Those are the two big themes in today’s passage.
So, verses 18 to 25 of chapter 15 are all about the world and its hatred towards the Lord’s disciples. Then, in verses 26 and 27, he tells them that he will send them the Holy Spirit to help them bear witness about him. He again talks about the world in verses 1 to 4 of chapter 16. And in the remaining verses he tells them that he’s leaving them, but he’s going to send them the Spirit who will convict the world of its guilt and who will guide them into all truth. So, today’s passage is all about the world and the Spirit.
The world
And we’ll start with what he says about the world. And when he refers to the world, he’s not so much thinking of the earth, but of the people who live on the earth and in particular he’s thinking of unbelievers. He’s talking about the unbelieving world.
God created us to be the objects of his love and he has loved us by giving us our life and by filling the earth with good things for us to enjoy. But instead of giving thanks to God and loving him in return, the people he created rejected him and chose their own way which is a way that leads to death and destruction. But God continues to love the world he made and he loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son to be the Saviour of the world and he promises forgiveness and peace and everlasting life to all who believe in his Son.
And so, God has only ever treated us with love. He has always been loving towards his creation. But an unbelieving world hates him. And an unbelieving world hates the Lord’s disciples. And so, in verse 16 of chapter 15, the Lord tells his disciples that if the world hates them, they should bear in mind that the world hated him first. An unbelieving world hates God their Creator and an unbelieving world hates his Son Jesus Christ. And an unbelieving world will hate the Lord’s disciples as well.
Now, if the Lord’s disciples belonged to the world, or if they were like everyone else in the world, then the world would love the Lord’s disciples. The world would love the disciples if the disciples were just like the world. After all, we like people who are like us. Isn’t that right? When we find someone who is like us — who shares our interests and our outlook in life and so on — we like them. But we’re less inclined to like people who are different from us. And the unbelieving world would love the Lord’s disciples if the disciples were just like the unbelieving world. But the Lord’s disciples are no longer like the world, because the Lord has chosen them for himself and he has, in a sense, taken them out of the world. He has separated them from those who do not believe and who hate him and he has made them his people. He has made them different from the world. They still look the same. They still have the same appearance and the same accent. They’re still wearing the same clothes and they’re eating the same food. But their interests have changed and their behaviour has changed and their attitudes have changed. Their interests have changed because they’re now full of zeal for God and his glory and they’re interested in serving him. And their behaviour has changed because they’re now living holy lives of loving obedience. And their attitudes have changed, because the way they think is shaped by God’s love. They’re not the same as they once were, because the Saviour has chosen them out of the world. And since the Lord has chosen them out of the world, the world now hates them. Since they’re no longer like the unbelieving world, the unbelieving world hates them.
And the Lord’s disciples shouldn’t be surprised, because — look at verse 20 — no servant is greater than his master. So, if an unbelieving world persecuted their master, the Lord Jesus Christ, then they can expect to receive the same treatment, and not better treatment, as their master received. If an unbelieving world obeyed what he taught, then an unbelieving world would obey what they taught. But an unbelieving world didn’t listen to him and they won’t listen to his disciples either. And an unbelieving world will treat his disciples in this way because of the Lord’s name. That is to say, they will treat them in this way because of Christ. Because of their hatred for Christ, they will treat his disciples in the same way.
In verse 22 the Lord says that if he had not come and spoken to the unbelieving world, then they would not be guilty of sin. And when he says they’re guilty of sin, he means they’re guilty of the sin of unbelief. And since he has come and has clearly made known to them by the things he has said and by the miracles he performed that he is the Christ and the Son of God, then they are without excuse. They should’ve believed in him and they are blameworthy for their unbelief.
And not only do they hate the Lord Jesus, who is the only Saviour of the world, but they also hate his Father who sent him into the world. When we love someone, we often love everyone associated with that person. And when we hate someone, we often hate everyone associated with that person. And an unbelieving world not only hates the Lord Jesus, but they hate everyone associated with him, including his Father in heaven.
And in this way they have fulfilled the Old Testament Scripture which predicted that they would hate him without reason. An unbelieving world has no good reason for hating the Saviour, because the Saviour only ever loved them and did good to them. He healed their sick and he gave sight to their blind and he raised their dead and he gave them food to eat and he taught them the truth about God and he offered them forgiveness and peace with God and everlasting life. He only ever did good to them. And so, they had no good reason for hating him.
And if you jump forward to verses 1 to 4 of chapter 16, you’ll see that the Lord has more to say about the world and about how the world will treat his disciples. He wants his disciples to be prepared for this. He wants to forewarn them of what they can expect from an unbelieving world. And he says that an unbelieving world will put them out of the synagogue. The Jews would meet in synagogues for worship the way we meet in church. And so, the Lord is warning his disciples that they will be excommunicated by the Jews. And not only that, but an unbelieving world will kill the Lord’s disciples. And when they kill the Lord’s disciples, they will think that they’re doing God’s will and that they’re serving God. And they will do such things to them, because they don’t know the Lord or his Father in heaven who sent him. Although they claim to know God and to love God and to serve God, their actions demonstrate that they don’t know God.
Application
The Lord Jesus was warning his disciples about what they can expect from an unbelieving world. They can expect to be hated by an unbelieving world and they can expect to be persecuted by an unbelieving world. And sure enough, when you read the book of Acts, you’ll see how the Lord’s apostles were persecuted. The religious authorities warned them not to preach about Christ. And the religious authorities threatened them and flogged them and imprisoned them. And Stephen was stoned to death and many of the early believers had to flee from Jerusalem because of persecution. Paul was often beaten and stoned and imprisoned and he faced mobs of angry people. His enemies plotted to take his life and they made all kinds of false accusations against him. And he was brought at last to Rome in chains and kept under house arrest.
And the hatred and persecution did not stop after the apostles died, because the history of the church is a story not only of evangelism and growth, but of persecution and discrimination and suffering and all for the sake of Christ. Every Wednesday at the prayer meeting, we hear about believers who are suffering for the faith in our day. Some are rejected by their families and their communities. Some face discrimination in the workplace and some are beaten or imprisoned or killed for their faith. Some women are beaten and raped. Single women might be forced into marriage and mothers might be separated from their children. And they are hated for no good reason, because these people are not criminals and they’re not trouble-makers. All they are are people who know and love the Saviour and who have been taught to love their neighbours as themselves. Like their Saviour, their aim is to live a life of love. And yet an unbelieving world hates them.
But though an unbelieving world may hate the Lord and his people, we are not to hate them in return. Just as God so loved the world, so we must love it too. And we must pray to God for the world, asking that he will have mercy on the world and that he will enable men and women and boys and girls to give up their hatred and their unbelief and to trust in the Saviour of the world. God is the only one who can change their hearts and we must pray that he will do it for them as he once did it for us.
The Holy Spirit
And that takes us to the next big theme from today’s passage which is the Holy Spirit.
The Lord refers to the Holy Spirit in verse 26 of chapter 15, where he calls him the Counsellor. I’ve explained before that the Greek word translated Counsellor in the NIV is sometimes translated Comforter or Helper or Advocate. It’s a word which referred in those days to a friend who would help you if you were taken to court. He would help you to face your accuser and he’d speak in your defence and he’d offer advice and encouragement. He’d help you cope in difficult circumstances.
And so, in view of the world’s hatred of his disciples, the Lord will send them the Holy Spirit to help them. And he also calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth. He’s the Spirit of truth because he enables men and women and boys and girls to know and to believe the truth about God and about all things in relation to God.
And he tells us more about the Holy Spirit in verse 26. And this is a very important verse for Christian doctrine about God. And what it says about God may be difficult for us to grasp, but we mustn’t think that these things are unimportant and irrelevant, because God has given us this verse so that we might know what he is. And he’s given us minds to think about these things. In fact, this is what our mind is for. God has given us minds so that we might know the truth about God. And in knowing the truth about God, we’ll find joy and satisfaction.
So, the Lord Jesus says to his disciples in verse 26 that he will send them the Spirit. And we’ve thought about the word ‘send’ before, but in relation to the Father and the Son. The Father sent the Son into the world. And now, here’s the Son saying that he will send the Spirit to his disciples. So, the Father sends the Son and the Son sends the Spirit.
And the word ‘send’ is important because it makes clear to us that there’s a distinction in God. So, God made clear to his Old Testament people that he alone is the one, true and living God. The gods of the nations are false gods. They are only idols made of wood and metal. And he’s the only God. He’s the one, true and living God and there is no other god but him.
However, by sending his Son into the world as one of us and by sending his Spirit to his disciples, God revealed that there’s a distinction in God and that the one, true and living God is also three. And so, the word ‘send’ is important, because it tells us that there’s the Father, who is one divine person, who sent the Son who is another divine person. And it tells us that there’s the Son, who is one divine person, who sends the Spirit, who is yet another divine person. And so, there’s the Father and there’s the Son and there’s the Spirit. They are three distinct divine persons.
The reason we know there’s a Son is because the Father sent him into the world as one of us. And the reason we know there’s a Spirit is because the Son sends him to his people. He sent the Spirit on the apostles on the Day of Pentecost and he sends him into our lives to enable us to believe and to bring us to perfection.
And so, the little word ‘send’ in verse 26 is very important for helping us to understand that the one God we worship is also three.
But verse 26 is important for another reason. After saying he will send the Spirit to his disciples, the Lord goes on to describe the Spirit as one ‘who goes out from the Father’. That is to say, the Holy Spirit is one who proceeds from the Father.
Now we need to distinguish what happens in time and what happens eternally. When the Lord says he will send the Spirit to his disciples, he’s talking about something that will happen in time. The time will come when he will send the Spirit to them. But when he says the Spirit proceeds from the Father, he’s talking about something that happens eternally. From all eternity, the Spirit proceeds from the Father. And to be more precise, I should say that we believe that the Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son.
So, we distinguish what happens in time and what happens eternally. On the Day of Pentecost, the Son sent the Spirit from the Father to his disciples. That happened in time. But from all eternity, the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, so that the one God we worship exists eternally as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God did not become three when the Father sent the Son into the world and when the Son sent the Spirit to his disciples. God did not become three. God has always been three. He is three persons eternally.
And we can say that since the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, then he is not a creature. He was not created by God in time but he proceeds from the Father and Son eternally and possesses one and the same divine being as the Father and the Son. And we can also say that since the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, then he is not another Son. The Son is the Son because he is begotten from the Father, whereas the Spirit is the Spirit because he proceeds from the Father and the Son. And the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son in eternity was sent from the Father through the Son into our world to enable us to believe in the Saviour for salvation and to bring us to perfection.
God has given us the ability to think so that we will know him. And there’s nothing better for us to think about and to know than God himself; and to know him as he is: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God in three persons.
But let’s move on because the Lord goes on to say at the end of verse 26 that the Spirit will testify to the disciples about the Lord Jesus. That is to say, the Holy Spirit will teach them what they need to know and to believe about the Lord Jesus. And they in turn will testify about the Lord Jesus.
And sure enough, when we read the Book of Acts we see how the Holy Spirit enabled the apostles to go into all the world to testify to everyone about the Lord Jesus Christ. Before the coming of the Spirit, they were often puzzled by the things the Lord said to them. And they had no experience of preaching, because they were only fishermen and tax collectors and that kind of thing. They were not preachers. But they received the Holy Spirit who enabled them to understand what the Lord Jesus had taught them and to understand the significance of the Lord’s death and resurrection. And the same Holy Spirit enabled them to preach with great boldness and power.
Furthermore, when the Spirit comes, he will convict the world of guilt. Do you see that in verse 8 of chapter 16? He will act like a prosecuting attorney and he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin, because they do not believe in him; and in regard to righteousness, because he’s going to the Father in heaven; and in regard to judgment, because the devil, who is the prince of this world, now stands condemned. So, the Holy Spirit will convince the world that, by rejecting the Lord Jesus, they have committed a great sin and are guilty of unbelief. And he will convince the world that the Lord Jesus is not an imposter or a deceiver, but he is in fact the Christ and the Son of God, who has now been received into heaven. And he will convince the world that the Lord Jesus has conquered the devil. And all who side with the devil will be destroyed.
And the Holy Spirit carried out this convicting work in the hearts and minds of people in that generation through the apostles as they proclaimed the good news of the gospel and bore witness to God’s abundant love and grace and mercy towards sinners. And the Holy Spirit continues to carry out this convicting work in the hearts and minds of people in every generation through all the preachers God raises up to preach the gospel throughout the world. And the Spirit will also work through the everyday conversations of the Lord’s people as they explain the hope they have and bear witness to the love of the Lord Jesus.
And we ought to pray to God the Father, asking him to send his Spirit through the Son to men and women and boys and girls throughout this district and throughout this city and throughout this island and throughout this world to convict them of their guilt in regard to these things and to enable them to repent and to believe in the Saviour of the world.
John Calvin used to distinguish the external preacher and the internal preacher. The external preacher is the man who stands in a pulpit to announce the good news of the gospel and to summon sinners to repent and believe. And the external preacher addresses the ears of men and women and children. But if anyone is to believe, then we also need the internal preacher — the Holy Spirit — to address their hearts and to bring them to conviction and to saving faith in the Saviour. And so, we must pray for him to do that work whenever the gospel is preached. And if we ourselves are to become holy, then we need the same Holy Spirit to do his work in our hearts. And that’s what we must also pray for as we come to church each Sunday. May God pour out his Spirit upon us so that those who don’t believe will believe and the rest of us will become more and more holy.
