Turn now our Bibles for our New Testament reading to John chapter 16, John 16. We’re reading the first half, or the first part of this chapter, verses 1 to 15. John 16, starting in verse 1. And I’ll read 15 to 33 before the sermon. John 16 will be the sermon text. But for right now, John 16, starting in verse 1. Please give your attention once more. This is the word of God.

I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They’ll put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, where are you going? Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer, concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you. but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. Therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The word of the Lord. Amen. Let us pray now in the last of the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching and the hearing of that word this morning. Let’s pray once more, would you?

Oh, Father, we come once again before you. Lord, we pray that you would help us indeed to come earnestly, Lord, with integrity, with honesty, Lord, never mechanistically, never just performatively, Lord, that we come Lord, with our hearts in faith, trusting, believing you, believing in you, and we’re believing in your leading and your guidance towards us. And so, Lord, we pray and we confess that we sit and bask in knowing the glory and privilege of your presence as we do so, as we worship together now. And we do thank you that you indeed are all that you declare yourself to be holy, Lord, and good and true, and that you indeed purge out from us all those things that are opposite of you, that is unholy, that you purge from us all that is unclean, and that you are gracious, Lord, and able to deal with us in our sin, and indeed in the blackness and dirtiness of our own hearts, in the sin that remains and lingers and clings so close to us. And we thank you, our gracious Heavenly Father. that you were merciful to us, that you were able to lift us up in our weakness and in our frailty and even in our foolishness, and that you’re strong and good and true and gracious to us, your people. And Lord, we pray as we turn to you once again now into your word, and as we listen to every word that comes forth from your mouth, that you would place that word into our hearts That again, we may there begin to love you in new ways. We ask that you would place it in our minds. That you would place it in our minds that we would understand your ways better and more fully and truly, or touch our wills by it, that we may submit our wills gladly to your perfect wisdom and your sovereign holy will. And that all of our life, we may learn how to Indeed, do that which we were created for, to glorify you and to enjoy you forevermore. So, Father, we come to you once more and we ask, speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. All this we pray in Jesus’ name and all God’s people said together, amen, amen.

Please remain standing as I finish this chapter. John 16 verses 16 to the end of the chapter. John 16, 16, once more let’s hear from the Lord.

A little while and you will see me no longer and again a little while and you will see me. Some of his disciples said to one another, what is this that he says to us a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me and because I am going to the father. So they were saying, what does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he is talking about. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him. So he said to them, is this what you’re asking yourselves? What I mean by saying, a little while and you will not see me again, and a little while and you will see me. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So you also have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. In that day, you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask in the Father, ask of the Father in my name. He will give it to you. Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day, you will ask in my name, And I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father. And his disciples said, ah, now you’re speaking plainly and not using figure of speech. Now we know that you know all things, and do not need anyone to question you. This is why we believe that you came from God. And Jesus answered, do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming. Indeed, it has come. And you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

May the Lord indeed add his blessing upon the word as preached at this time. You may be seated.

I’m glad for those of you who are here and who are not ill and not traveling and otherwise absent from us this day, as sometimes is the case during these seasons of the year. But this is the last Lord’s Day of 2024. And for most of us, in some ways, we’re happy to be moving on to 2025. This is a sense that we get often at the end of the year that we can move on in our lives to new things and a new calendar. There are many painful and difficult circumstances about which possibly we are happy to turn the page on and to begin anew. I don’t think I’m alone in that experience and that sentiment having really messed up a relationship, for instance, or the real sense of being on the losing side of the battle with sin and the damage that my black heart has caused myself and others. And sometimes we just want it to be over. to move on to better things, to move on and to begin anew in the grace of the peace provider, of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. And on the other hand, we are sad when good things come to an end. If you ever experienced that, that kind of time when you felt sad when something is coming to an end that is a good thing, peace with loved ones, visiting with those loved ones, reconciled and restored relationships, or maybe again, visiting loved ones far away. The time comes when it has to end and we lament in some way, or if you’re a parent, there’s that time when your children leave home, right? When our children left home, I know Mrs. Garbarino and I were While we were proud and happy at the adults that our children had become, we were just devastated that they were leaving our home. I remember driving to our daughter’s wedding rehearsal the day before her actual wedding, and on the drive there, I turned to Ms. Garbarino, and I could barely contain myself, and I realized she’s not coming home again. That time of our children in the nest, right, of being with us has gone, and they’re moving on to other things. And it kind of sneaks up on you, and if you’re not paying attention, and events like this come upon us, and you realize this is it, right? This is it. And so when was the last time you encountered something that was good that was coming to an end, coming to a close? Well, I usually take the end of the calendar year to revisit or to remind us all of some grounding truths from God’s Word for God’s people, to reset our way of thinking, to reframe ourselves going into a new year. And often I’ll spend some time preaching from passages that deal with basic principles or basic distinctives about what we believe, about what Scripture teaches, about things like the sacraments or worship, and the glorious reality of the peace which comes alone from our Savior Christ Jesus. We see in our text this morning, John 16, the end of something good, something good that’s coming to a close, and that’s the end of Christ’s face-to-face teaching of his disciples, right? This is the upper room discourse it’s referred to as. And Jesus will go on in chapter 17 in prayer with his father, which is a glorious chapter indeed. But in chapter 16, it’s the end of his discourse with his disciples. And he tells them about his end and about his leaving them and his going away. And he tells them that though he is going away and though this time with him is ending, they are not to remain sorrowful, but rather their sorrow will turn to joy. And he tells them the main point in verse 33, where he says, I have said these things to you, that in me, you may have peace. In me you may have peace. I’ve said these things to you that in me, so that in me you may have peace. And this is what we’re gonna focus on this morning mostly. I don’t know if we’ll get through it all. We probably won’t for the sake of time. But that peace, that true peace that comes through the ministries of the second and third person of the Trinity. That is the ministry of the spirits in verses 4 to 15, and then in verses 16 to 33, we see the ministry of the Savior. We’ll probably look at that next week. But verses 4 to 15, we see the ministry of the spirits. And, of course, we begin in these verses, and Jesus here brings this amazing teaching that he’s been giving them, right, about the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and he brings us to a close. And he says in verse four, I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. Jesus had been teaching on this since the end of chapter 13. And he continues in verse five of chapter 16. He says, and none of you asked me, where are you going? Right, they’ve asked him some questions, but they haven’t really got it. They haven’t really asked. that which he tells them that they’ve missed. In verse six, rather, but because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. These things that he said to them are about his going away and about their imminent persecution. And he said earlier on in chapter 14, he said in verse one, let not your hearts be troubled. Then 14, verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans. And then verse 27 of that same chapter, let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. And then again, in 16, seven, he goes on. Even though I told you those things earlier, now you are filled with sorrow because I have said I’m going away. Nevertheless, he says, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. We see in many ways how His absence is advantageous. We wouldn’t think so. Our reflex is not that it’s advantageous. Our reflex is, no, I want to be with Christ. I don’t want to be those who are not with Him, but who are with Him. But we see that His absence for them indeed is advantageous. And this is all summed up in the second half of verse 7, where He says this, If I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And there it is. You know, and you probably all are familiar with the word helper there. It’s that word parakletos or paracletes. We transliterate it. It’s the advocate or the helper. I have to remind, when I was teaching junior high school students, it’s not parakeet, it’s the paraclete, right, the advocate, the helper. Jesus is our advocate. He has become, in his absence, means that another advocate, the Holy Spirit, is present. And he told them this two chapters ago in John 14, where he says again, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. So let’s look closer at this time, at this ministry of the Spirit, and we’ll see that it’s a twofold ministry. First, we see in verses 8 to 11, we see the Spirit’s ministry to the world. And then in verses 12 to 15, we see the Spirit’s ministry to the disciples, right? So His ministry to the world and His ministry to the disciples. But first, His ministry to the world. In John 16, 8, we read this. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. And that word convict there is significant. It’s used almost 20 times in the New Testament about exposing sin and guilt and shame so that people would not only feel sinful or guilty or shameful, but that they would repent of those things. The conviction that comes by the Spirit’s work in them. So it’s the conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment. And Jesus fleshes this out in verses nine to 11. And we don’t need to go into great detail here. It’s kind of a surface level reading of verse eight is pretty clear. He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. And so brothers and sisters, we indeed are to be a praying people, or to be people of the book and people of prayer. And one of the things we need to be in prayer for is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, particularly the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the world, right? Certainly in our own hearts, in our own lives and in life of the church, but also ministry of the Holy Spirit in the world, right? And what of peace, right? What does this have to do with peace? Does peace come through prayer? Well, yes, of course it does. Peace does come through prayer. We can’t know all of the ways and workings of God, but we can and need to be in prayer, even about those things that we don’t, maybe especially about those things that we don’t know, that we can’t comprehend, that he’s not revealed to us. And so that’s his ministry in the world. It’s kind of surface level. And the second way, the second part of the ministry of the Spirit, and that is to the disciples. And we see this in verses 12 to 15. Jesus goes on to say that when the Spirit comes, he will also have a ministry to the disciples. And we see this in verse 12, where he says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. These teachings would come, however, through another advocate. who would indeed communicate that truth. And he says, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. And we talked about this, and we dealt with this in some detail when we were going through 1 John. But what is meant here? What is he talking about? What does this mean? Which truth is this about which he speaks? This is an important theme here in this whole section of Scripture. And remember what Jesus said way back in verse 8 of John. He says, if you abide, this is John 8, 31, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will, what? You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And then, of course, in verse 14, as we’ve looked at, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so the truth being led into is the truth of Jesus Christ, the truth about Christ, and all that that entails, the truth of Jesus as the Savior. And then Jesus gives them assurance that he will indeed do this in chapter 16, where he says in verse 13, for only he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. And so if you’re familiar with John and John’s pattern throughout the gospel, you see that this is familiar, right? Listen to some verses throughout this gospel that John says. In John 3, 32, where Jesus says about himself this, he bears witness to what he has seen and heard, okay? He bears witness about what he has seen and heard. And then in chapter 8, he says, I declare to the world what I have heard from him, that is, the Father. And then in verse 40, you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. And then John 15, 15, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. And so you see this pattern, what’s going on. The Son has seen and heard from the Father what he’s declared to the world. And now here in our passage, we read that the Holy Spirit, right? The he there, the Holy Spirit will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. Whatever he hears, he speaks, he will declare. And from where does he hear this? Who does he hear it from? Well, listen to verses 14 and 15 and listen to how incredible this is, right? John 16, 14 and 15. He will glorify me. How? For he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. Therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Do you see that? How incredible this is. This connection, this relationship between this inter Trinitarian ongoing, the relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father sends the Son, the Son comes, He acts, He does, and He speaks. And the Son returns to the Father, and He sends the Spirit, and the Spirit does and speaks the things that He saw and He heard. From where? from that relationship between the persons of the Trinity, that relationship in and within the Trinity, within the persons of the Godhead, that relationship that has existed eternally, and that glorious harmony and agreements, perfect harmony and agreement, the perfect interplay in execution and acting between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in perfection, in wonder, in majesty, I don’t know if you’ve ever realized or noticed this before. Jesus is about to leave, and their hearts are about to be filled with sorrow. And what does Jesus talk with them about? What’s the big macro view? What’s the big kind of big takeaway? Have you ever noticed what that is that he’s encouraging them with? They’re full of sorrow, and he talks with them about the trinity. He talks with them about the Godhead. There are many who think that theology is boring or irrelevant. I know a lot of you think that. Many people think that theology is only for people who like to read too much, or theology just causes divisions. But those thoughts are oh so misguided. They’re oh so unwise. And notice Jesus’ teaching. It’s not a lesson in philosophy or boring theology. And again, I would contend that theology should never be boring. But his teaching here is not boring. It indeed is exhilarating. It’s incredible. It’s for their good and their hope and their encouragement and assurance and for their peace, ultimately, for their peace in this troublesome world. It’s about the relationship between the persons of the Trinity, about the essence of who God is. He’s not an impersonal force. He’s not a disinterested, disconnected entity looking at how his creation is unwinding, waiting to see what will happen, right? Waiting to learn how it will all fall out. This is not what happens. This is not the sovereign God of the universe. He’s personal. He cares. He speaks. He acts. And the one true wonderful God, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so the Spirit is going to speak to the disciples, right, who become the apostles. What is it that he’s going to speak to them? The things of Christ, which are the things of the Father, right? But what about you, right? What about us? We always wanna be careful when we’re reading passages, especially like this one, when we read and we’re applying, trying to apply what we read in God’s Word. We want to be careful, right? We’re not apostles. We can’t forget that. We should never put our place in the place of the apostles. But how do we know the things of God? Well, the same Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and He applies them to us, right? The same Spirit who is the author of your life, of our souls, is the author of this Word. and he applies them to us. The things the Son has taken from the Father to speak to us. But where do we find this? Where do we find these things? Well, again, you know where it is. We have it in the words of the apostles. We have it in this word made sure, this sure word preserved for us. And literally, these things came true in the lives of the apostles in their understanding of the scriptures, in their preaching, in their writings. But for us, What we need, we have. And where is it? It’s in our Bibles, of course. It’s in our Bibles. And the things that the Spirit of God wants us to know are inscripturated. They are written down for us in his word, preserved in his word for the preservation of that truth, for the protection of his church. Isn’t that awesome? It’s an incredible thing. We should reflect upon that. Spend some time reflecting and praying about that later this Lord’s Day. The preservation of God’s Word. You know, it never ceases to amaze me in listening to a podcast or listening to people talk and they dip into topics of religion or things having to do with God’s Word. And it’s the same silly beliefs that people have unchallenged all their lives, the same silly assertions God does not just give his word and walk away. You know, we’re often given this analogy of the telephone game. We can’t be so arrogant to think that God’s word is what it was, been copied and blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s the wrong analogy, right? It’s the wrong analogy. As if I told the first person here, and then he told the same thing to the next. That’s not the way Scripture works. It’s as if I told him, and then I went with him and made sure he said it right every step of the way. God’s Spirit preserves his Word with integrity, with precision, with accuracy. Therefore, it is authoritative. It is sufficient. It is necessary. It is for our good. And that is awesome. It’s an awesome thing that you should be amazed by. Is God powerful enough to do this? Is God powerful enough to preserve his word through the ages, even down to us today? Well, you better believe that he is. That’s exactly what he does. And he did, and he continues to do. You have the same truth preserved from the Lord. And that spirit attends that word. The spirit goes with that word in power whenever it is read, whenever it is preached. We have the same spirit of God as they. Word and spirit, they go together. This is something that was so important, especially at the time of the Protestant Reformation. They go together. They’re never separated. Word and spirit. And so we’re to read it, we’re to study it, we’re to live it out and long for it. We’re to read it and pray it and read it again and again for our lives, to have our brainwashed minds washed with the truth of God’s word, our perspective corrected by the truth of God’s word. We’re to seek to live it out. We’re to get into this word and get this word into us. Because it’s only in doing that that the Spirit will continue to put to death the sin within us and draw us close. And we don’t veer away from God by veering away from his word. It’s God’s means of grace to you, dear Christian. His means of grace for all of us. This is a way of challenging and exposing the sin in our lives, of growing us, of comforting us, of teaching us, of equipping you, and of indeed, again, killing your sin. And you know what else it will do, this Word, this Word of God? You know what else the Spirit will provide through it? What’s peace? The blessed peace that comes only through the truth of this Word, the proclamation of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. And so, brothers and sisters, give praise to the Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Again, we’ll have to look at this next section, the ministry of the Savior. next week in verses 16 to 33, but for today, give praise to God. Reflect upon this God, this triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the Father, you know, who decrees whom will be His, those upon whom He set His saving love. It is the Son who gives His perfect living and dying for them in their place to accomplish their redemption for sure. And it’s the Holy Spirit who applies that salvation won by Jesus to us as individuals in time and draws us to Christ and gives us faith in a new heart that beats for Him increasingly throughout our lives. Once you praise Him that you belong to Him today, once you give Him praise, once you commit yourselves anew to Him, If you’ve not given yourself to Jesus, if you’ve not received the peace promised to those who answer his call to believe in him for life, today is that day. Today is the day of salvation. Believe for yourself this very day, right now. We’ll not cast away any who come to him in faith. Receive the peace, true peace that comes from him alone. And for all of us, Let us live our lives in faith, truly believing all that he has promised. Truly believing and truly trusting him that he will indeed, as hard as it is for us to imagine, he will use people like you and people like me, people like us, with dirty hearts, with crooked and darkened sin stained hearts, but who’ve received that same spirit who’s working within us to change us and to tell the truth of the gospel through us and to tell the truth of the one who’s given all so that we would have everything, including peace with the Father for all eternity. Let us praise him, brothers and sisters, every moment of every day, increasingly with passion, boldly with your whole hearts. for he indeed will make our paths straight. He will have his way, even with really needy people like us, as we seek forgiveness and extend grace and receive mercy and live boldly, passionately for him, for our great Savior and King, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the peace provider. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for the truth that you tell us in your word, for the truth that you preserve for us and given to us. Lord, we so often are overwhelmed with the magnitude and variety of all that you have for us. Lord, we confess our inability to take it all in. Lord, it’s impossible for us as finite creatures to comprehend fully the infinite truth that comes from you, Lord, but we do praise you that we can know and that you have given us the clear things and the main things and the plain things for which we can give you praise and for which we can rejoice in, indeed, for which we can have life. Father, we pray that we would believe what you have told us concerning your Spirit, concerning your Son, and concerning our salvation and our lives. Father, we do pray for this church. We pray that you would continue to bless us, continue to give us a spirit of peace and love, one with another, Lord, and pray that you would continue to challenge us. Lord, prick our hearts in ways that we can live for you, ways that we can move forward in this life, not merely having our faith as an add-on to all the rest that we are, Lord, but that our faith would permeate who we are, that Christ and our love for him and our union for him would be our all in all and that it would reflect and manifest itself in all that we do. Lord, we pray that we would, in the quietness of our hearts, and that we would long to walk with Jesus, Lord, more and more. Lord, it is a true thing, right, that old saying that you have filled our cup and we lift it up for more, more of you, more of you, Christ. Lord, we pray that you would protect us, Lord, in this world, that you would be a wall of fire around us, and Lord, even in our suffering and our struggles, that you would be the glory in our midst. and that in our weakness, your strength would shine through as a beacon of light to a dead and dying world that is in such need of the gospel. Father, we pray that we would indeed be surrendered to your will and your way, to your spirit as it works in our lives. Father, we pray for those who are under particular stresses and strains and hardships, whether it’s physical or otherwise, Lord, you know the various ways in which we are harassed and plagued in this world, in our relationships, Lord, in our spirit, Lord, in our minds. Father, we are so fragile, but we pray, Lord, that you would protect us, that you would be with us, that we would know afresh and anew with the resolve that you are the God of the resurrection of the dead, and that you are good, and that you truly are working all things for your glory, Lord, and for our good. We pray, Lord, be with us even now as we continue this service, as we continue to worship you and to receive from you, Lord. Lord, we thank you and praise you for the sacrament of bread and wine that we’re about to receive, Lord, and even with that, we pray that we would have faith, that we would indeed exercise faith as we receive into ourselves the spiritual reality of Christ’s body and blood. Lord, sustain us, we pray, not only for eternity, but for every moment of our lives, Lord, and we ask all of this in the mighty name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen.