John 16, Part 2

Scripture: John 16:4b-15

Observation: Jesus goes into detail about the coming of the Counselor. Jesus has been preparing His disciples for ministry without Him, and now the time has come for His departure. Jesus explains that it is necessary for Him to return to the Father before the disciples can receive the blessing of the Spirit. It is to their advantage (and ours as well) that Jesus complete the task that awaits Him, for their salvation and also so that the Counselor can lead them into a more complete understanding of Christ's glorification. There is another three-fold purpose for the coming of the Holy Spirit: to convict the world of their sin of disbelief in Jesus, to show that the world is wrong about righteousness (or justice) as they condemn Him, and that the world is wrong about judgment, since the evil one is condemned by Jesus' glorification.

Application: Timing is everything. Many of the things Jesus spoke of made no sense to the disciples at this point, but in time the full truth would be revealed, through the Holy Spirit. Today, life has all kinds of twists and turns, and we await a promise without fully knowing all that will happen. Just as the disciples chose to believe and have faith in Jesus even though they didn't know what He was talking about, so we also must trust in the Lord and in His Word even when the answers seem unclear.

Prayer: Father, trust is a very important part of my relationship with You. I can't see into the future, nor can I say what will happen tomorrow, or next week, month or year. But You know all, and You're in control. When the world says I'm crazy for believing, I must still trust in You. When I don't understand and can't explain what's going on, I will still trust in You. In Christ Jesus' name I pray, Amen.