To Joy (part 15)

In John 16:20, Jesus echoes the title of this series, “The Switch to Joy,” in nearly the same words, when he tells his disciples, “You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.”

His disciples would grieve when he was gone, but he promised their grief would switch to joy. What was causing their grief, then, would become a source of joy. But how can grief switch to joy? How is that even possible?

Jesus explains how it’s possible in verse 21, in his analogy of a “woman giving birth” and the pain and anguish she goes through leading up to the birth. “But,” as Jesus continues, “when her baby is born her anguish gives way to joy because she’s brought a new baby into the world.” 

So the cause of her pain is the baby, but so now is the cause of her joy. What was causing her grief, then, had become a source of joy. And it was God who designed it to be this way. He designed the birth of a baby to be tough. But why? Jesus tells us why, that in our present existence as humans there is pain, anguish and grief, yes, but it’s only temporary, just like a woman’s labour pains. And there’s a wonderful purpose to it, unseen and invisible to our eyes at the time of our pain, and that purpose as God intended is joy.

A mother experiences that joy in glorious reality in the birth of her baby. From a sweating, gasping, purple faced, frantic wild person, where it seems like the world will explode if that baby isn’t born soon, a tremendous transformation occurs in the mother, an incredible switch to joy, pride, deep satisfaction and serenity when the baby is in her arms. And Jesus picks up on this amazing transformation in the mother to explain to his disciples that, yes, there will be grief and suffering in their lives, causing as much anguish and “wishing it was over and done with soon” that a mother feels in labour, but it also has joy built into it too. With God and his genius, he’s built them both in together. 

And isn’t that a joy in itself, knowing that whatever is causing us suffering and pain, tucked in with it is joy in waiting? And think how many times we go through this as Jesus’ disciples, when we’re at the end of our rope, but then a joy and peace beyond understanding on discovering that God made our rope a lot tougher and longer than we thought…(continues Monday)  

To Joy (part 14)

A young person told me she has trouble with the Bible because it so often contradicts itself. Which made me think of the confusion the disciples experienced when it seemed Jesus contradicted himself too. 

In John 16:16 he told them: “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” Well, that set them off:“What’s he getting at?” they mumbled to each other in verse 17. “First he says we’re never going to see him again, and then he says we are going to see him again.” Confusion. 

I can understand why people say, “I give up on the Bible; it doesn’t make sense,” but Jesus took that into account with his disciples. He “saw that they wanted to ask him about this,” verse 19, so he took the hint and opened up a conversation. I sensed the same thing with the young person I was talking to. I could tell she was dying to get into her thoughts about the Bible but she was hesitating, so I opened the door to her – just like Jesus now did with his disciples. 

The key point being, that there was an explanation. His disciples may have been confused, but he wasn’t. He knew exactly what he meant by his supposed contradiction. In his death, for instance, they would never see him as a flesh and blood human like that again. But only three days later they’d see him again – but in a different body that could pass through the walls of a locked room. An easy explanation, but in their limited understanding at the time they couldn’t see it. 

And isn’t that how it is for us when we too don’t understand what the Bible says or what’s happening to us personally? We’re stuck with our limited range of insight into what God’s up to, and what we’re supposed to be getting out of whatever’s happening to us, or what he means in some difficult scriptures. But everything God does and says is sourced from a vastly different dimension in which everything is understood and can be explained, witness what happened here in John 16. 

It’s another reason for joy, knowing that with God everything has an explanation, and if we’re confused he knows it. And if Jesus’ example in John 16 is anything to go by, he’ll help us understand as well…(continues Friday) 

To Joy (part 13)

Three things Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do in John 16:13. First of all, “When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” Secondly, that the Holy Spirit “will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears.” And thirdly, “he will tell you what is to come.”

On the first point, it sounds like Jesus’ teaching days are over. And there’s some truth to that, because after he was resurrected he didn’t do much teaching. His main reasons for appearing in person to his disciples, and to others, was to prove he was alive, and secondly, to explain that what had happened to him, his suffering and death, had all been predicted in their Scriptures. 

According to Jesus himself, the real teaching from that point on would be done by the Holy Spirit. Whatever the Spirit taught, then, would be all the truth they’d need. Which simplified life very nicely for his disciples: wait for the Holy Spirit to come and what they were alive for would be explained. Which is exactly what happened, first of all in the book of Acts when the Spirit came, and then in all the other books in the New Testament that came later, in the letters to the churches by Peter, James, Paul, the author of Hebrews and others. 

In the New Testament, then, we have all the truth we need to become what God made humans for. And the same principles apply to all, whether rich or poor, highly intelligent or very ordinary. And what simplifies this still further is knowing there isn’t “more” truth out there that we have to go looking for. Imagine having to read every book written to eventually find out what life is all about. Or that maybe a great philosopher of the past had the secret to life.

No worries on that score, because the Holy Spirit “speaks only what he hears.” The source of all that the Holy Spirit teaches is the mind of God, not some brainy human. The New Testament is a deep dive into God’s thoughts. That’s the truth the Spirit is guiding us into. Not the thoughts of man, but of God.  

And his thoughts include “telling us what is to come.” He details how evil works so we can see trends developing. But the joy too of knowing that, no matter how bad things become, one day God will solve all…(continues Wednesday)  

To Joy (part 12)

Three things the Holy Spirit does for us: First of all, he helps us understand why we humans have problems; it’s because we don’t look to Jesus to solve them. He then helps us understand how Jesus solves our problems, by filling us with Jesus’ righteousness, his nature, his goodness. And then he helps us understand how Jesus’ nature in us frees from all the rotten, twisted attitudes the evil power controlling this world had us stuck with before.  

And what that does is change our behaviour in such a way it’s noticeable, because that’s God’s strategy for the church having an impact in this world. It’s through the transformed, obviously different lives of Jesus’ disciples, and the joy we are clearly experiencing from being free and whole. 

Because as one writer put it, “There is something beautiful about whole people. They attract us, they capture our attention,” because “despite all the failure and weakness and the stumbling folly of their lives, here are people who like themselves have suffered all the hurt and loneliness of life, but have found the secret of calmness, peace, and forgiveness.”

As the world observes what the Spirit does to Jesus’ disciples, therefore, it’s helping people learn what that secret is, that Jesus is the Lord of life. You can’t play the game of life without acknowledging the One who created human life. Where we jump the rails, then, is ignoring the One in charge of life. We can try all we like to “get ourselves together” and become the whole beings God created us to be, but we are being “made the righteousness of God (the wholeness he has) in Jesus,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. It’s the work of the Spirit that makes us whole, not by anything we come up with. 

Jesus wanted “to say much more” to his disciples on this subject, John 16:12, but they’d be learning all they needed to know from the Holy Spirit later. That’s why he said it was “for your good that I am going away,” verse 7, because the Spirit would come and fill his disciples in such a way their lives would have an impact on people – which is exactly what happened when the Spirit came in the book of Acts. 

The joy for Jesus’ disciples in any age, then, is knowing the Holy Spirit will do the same through us…(continues Monday)     

To Joy (part 11)

The second thing the Holy Spirit does to bring glory to Jesus is to fill his disciples with Jesus’ “righteousness,” his nature, transforming them into Jesus’ likeness. 

The purpose of which ties in with Jesus telling his disciples in John 16:8 that “when the Spirit comes he will convict the world,” verse 11, “in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” 

This is the third thing the Spirit does to bring glory to Jesus through his disciples. It’s opening their eyes to the invisible spirit masterminding this world’s unsolvable mess, and the joy of realizing we can be free of it, because through Jesus’ death this evil spirit “stands condemned.” 

First of all, then, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the stark reality that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one,” 1 John 5:19. How awful, that most people have no idea there’s a power behind the scenes influencing and distorting their thinking. But it’s obvious such a power exists, by the weird and destructive attitudes people have, that no amount of time or human brilliance have been able to solve. And so the world stumbles blindly along, year after year, trying one ideology after another, pouring out an endless stream of “new and improved lifestyles,” none of which offer any lasting or effective change in our behaviour. 

What a tragedy, therefore, that people do not know that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work,” 1 John 3:8. Jesus came so we could be free at last from the frustrating futility of never getting mastery over our selfish, destructive nature. The ioy for Jesus’ disciples, therefore, is proving it’s true, that we humans really can be free of the wrong habits and attitudes that rule our lives, because we ourselves are free of them.  

What God intended through Jesus’ disciples, then, was the impact of our transformed lives proving “the prince of this world now stands condemned.” Which in turn brings glory to Jesus, because he is the one who made it possible. 

There are three things (John 16:8-11) the Spirit does in the life of Jesus’ disciples, therefore, that tell of another wonderful power at work…(continues Friday)   

To Joy (part 10)

The first thing the Holy Spirit does to bring glory to Jesus is open the eyes of his disciples to the damage sin does and our utter helplessness as humans to stop it. 

Which leads naturally to the second thing the Holy Spirit does to bring glory to Jesus, as he opens our eyes to how Jesus goes about healing the damage and dealing with our helplessness.

Jesus himself explained the “how” in John 16:8. It’s having our eyes opened to “righteousness.” He explains what he meant by that in verse 10, that “in regard to righteousness I am going to the Father.”

There are two points to note here. First of all, that the solution to sin is righteousness. If righteousness – the qualities of God’s nature – existed all over the world, there’d be no sin and no damage by sin. The problem of sin and our utter helplessness to stop it, therefore, would be solved. 

But Jesus in his human state couldn’t solve it. Even by displaying God’s nature in all that he said and did only made the smallest dent in people’s lives. And dying on the cross didn’t stop the madness either. People kept on being people. The religious leaders were even glad he was dead. 

In Jesus’ short physical life, then, he had little impact on dealing with the damage of sin and bringing in righteousness to replace it. And it shocked his disciples, because they thought the Scriptures said the Messiah would come to conquer evil, not be killed by it. 

But the second point in verse 10 is that the Holy Spirit would open their eyes to Jesus’ statement: “I am going to the Father.” Then it would all become obvious. And of course it was obvious, because if Jesus was with his Father, in all the power and glory that office gave him, he could bring in righteousness any time to the whole world, and by any means he wished too.

But the joy of that for his disciples was Jesus’ choice of means by which he’d bring righteousness and the solution to sin to the whole world. It was them. It was instilling God’s nature, his righteousness, in his disciples. Wherever they went, then, they would be instruments of healing and hope – just like he was…(continues Wednesday)   

To Joy (part 9)

According to Jesus in John 16:7-9, the Holy Spirit was given to his disciples “in regard to sin” so that they – his disciples – would understand what sin is. Because if we understand what sin is, that’s the means by which the Spirit can help others understand what sin is.  

It’s an odd word, “sin,” and it’s open to all kinds of interpretations, but Jesus made it clear in verse 9 what sin is: it’s sin, he said, when “people do not believe in me.” And why that’s such a sin is what the Holy Spirit gets through to Jesus’ disciples, because it’s we who need to understand it first. 

The Spirit’s purpose – as Jesus himself said in verse 14 – is “to bring glory to me.” The Spirit would make Jesus glorious to us. And so believable and so real in his glory, that knowing him and being like him would be the driving force in our lives. The joy of it being, that we don’t have to conjure this up for ourselves; this is entirely in the Spirit’s job description. He does it, because that’s what the Father and Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us for.    

The means by which the Spirit makes Jesus glorious to us is “by taking from what is mine and making it known to you,” verse 14. “What is mine” is quite the statement, because, as Jesus explained, “All that belongs to the Father is mine.” So everything that the Father is and has belongs to Jesus. And the importance of that statement is that the Holy Spirit is now “making this known to us.”  

And that, surely, would make believing in Jesus easy, knowing he has the same power and glory and everything else the Father is and has. But how on earth is the Holy Spirit going to get that through to us? 

He helps us see what not believing in Jesus does to people. We’re watching it, feeling it, and witnessing in brutal reality the enormous damage to people physically, mentally and spiritually. And what a shock to realize we’re living in a world that has no clue what to do about what’s ailing us. 

Understanding sin and the damage it does, therefore, is how the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the glory of Jesus, because included in “What belongs to him” is the power to nail sin to the wall…(continues Monday)

To Joy (part 8) 

Going back to John 16:8, where Jesus talks of the Holy Spirit “convicting the world of guilt in regard to sin, etc.,” how exactly does the Holy Spirit convict people in the world?

Jesus gives the answer in verse 7: “Unless I go away, the Counselor (the Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” It’s to Jesus’ disciples that the Holy Spirit is sent, so it’s through his disciples, therefore, that “the world is convicted in regard to sin, etc.” 

The Spirit is not going directly to the world, because as Jesus pointed out earlier in John 14:17, “The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because it does not know him.” What convicts people, then, is not by the Holy Spirit working directly in their minds, it’s by what the Holy Spirit is doing in our minds. 

It’s through us that the world is convicted in regard to sin, because of what the Holy Spirit has done in our minds regarding sin. We find ourselves hating sin, not only in what it’s done and doing to us personally, but also in what we see it’s done and doing to people all around us. Our conviction about the damage sin does is what stirs us deeply to want to open other people’s eyes to the damage it’s doing. And that’s how the Holy Spirit gets through to people about sin, by getting through to us about sin. 

“Sin” is the destructive force in our world that hides and wrecks the loving, joy filled beautiful beings God created us to be. And the Holy Spirit helps Jesus’ disciples to see that, and so clearly that it presses on our minds to live what God created us to be so people get to see it being lived in us. And if they hate us for it, or steel their minds against it, Jesus said people would hate us, but that too is how the Holy Spirit gets to people through us, by creating a reaction in people’s minds, where a reaction didn’t exist before. 

What a switch to joy it can be, then, realizing the Holy Spirit is doing things in us that will create a reaction. Good reaction or hate filled reaction doesn’t matter. What matters is that people see something different in us that hopefully shakes them awake a bit “in regard to sin” too…(continues Friday) 

To Joy (part 7) 

In John 16:24, Jesus told his disciples, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.” That’s because they didn’t need to; he was there in person with them, so they could simply go up to him and ask him anything they wanted and he would answer. 

And how wonderful would that be? Jesus on hand, in person, any time you needed something sorted out in your mind. But to Jesus something even better would be opened up to his disciples after he was no longer with them in person. There was a switch coming that would increase their joy even more.

The switch was in verse 23, when Jesus told them, “my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” And if they cottoned on to what Jesus meant by that the doors would swing open to verse 24: “Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

It was all about joy. That’s what Jesus wanted his disciples focused on, not on the grief of him leaving them, but on the joy of discovering why he’d left them, which was to fling open the doors to what was going on in the God world. And by using a simple password they could enter that world any time and experience it. So this was quite a switch from the joy of him being with them in their world, to the joy of them being with him in his world. 

The password to that world was “in my name.” So they could knock on the door of the God world any time and say, “I come in Jesus’ name,” and in they could go. And so can we. But for what purpose? Well, to soak up his world, have it fill us so we bring it to our world – like chipmunks finding a food source and filling up their pouches to take as much as they can back to their den.

Because what Jesus is and taught is now our food source. It’s his joy, his love, his teaching that he’s given us access to that we can now bring to our world. All we need do is ask for those things in his name, in recognition that he is the source of them, and both he and the Father go to work through the Holy Spirit in and with us to make them happen, so people get to see God’s world in this world through us. It’s why we’re Jesus’ disciples. This is now our life’s work and joy, just as it was his…(continues Wednesday) 

To Joy (part 6) 

Jesus landed his disciples with an awkward situation. On the one hand, he told them “to go and bear fruit” and have a wonderful impact on people’s lives revealing God’s world of love and joy to them. On the other hand, however, he said people would hate them. So how on earth could they have any impact on people’s lives if people hated them and set their minds against responding to them?

Jesus had two answers to that. First of all, he said the same thing would happen to them that happened to him, which on the positive side meant that “If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also,” John 15:20. So some people would respond, just as they did to Jesus.

But what about all those millions of others who don’t respond, who are so soaked in the ways of this world – and so love them dearly too – that what we say just bounces off them? Even knowing we’re Christians is enough to turn them off. The doors to their minds clamp shut with a clang, and that’s it, no connection at all. 

So now what? If we can’t even mention the name of Jesus, or get the tiniest bit of a toe in the door of their minds to explain who Jesus is and what he taught, what’s the point of being a disciple of Jesus at all? And where’s the joy in it too? 

Ah but, “When the Counsellor comes…” Jesus went on to say in verse 26. Aha. Now it’s a different ballgame. All the odds would be totally stacked against us if it was up to us alone to reach into people’s minds and open them up. But we’re not alone. When Jesus ascended to his Father he got the Father’s OK to send “the Spirit of truth.” And “When he comes,” John 16:8, a new era would begin in which minds would be opened to the three things we humans least want to hear about – sin, righteousness and judgment (verses 8-11).   

That’s the joy of being a disciple, then, because it means that at any time, anywhere, and totally out of the blue, a person might respond. And we have our own lives as proof of it. We responded. Our clamped shut minds were suddenly opened. So who knows what minds are being opened by the Holy Spirit through us now too?…(continues Monday)