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)     

To Joy (part 5) 

The Father’s great plan is a loving, joy filled family. And the means by which he goes about it is through his Son who played his part to perfection in his human lifetime and now continues his perfect work through his disciples. 

His disciples, then, become the means by which the world gets to see what the loving, joy filled family of the Father looks like. And it’s based on one very simple point, summarized by Jesus in John 15:17, “This is my command: Love each other.”

And when his disciples do that they will “bear fruit,” as Jesus promised in verse 16. Bear fruit, that is, in other people’s lives. Because what people see is the key to God’s kingdom, that it’s all based on love. 

Which all sounds very nice and logical, but Jesus also based everything he did on love and he was hated, so he knew his disciples would be hated too (verses 18-19). They could set a magnificent example of love and joy in the hope of people responding, but people would deliberately steel their minds against responding, just as they did with Jesus. 

At our favourite coffee shop there’s a girl serving out the coffee and goodies who’s like that. We’ve tried to be nice to her, ask how busy she’s been and all the usual banter to warm up the relationship and get the girl to at least smile and respond, but she won’t respond at all. She races silently through what we ask for, and makes it very clear she isn’t interested in any kind of connection with us. I wondered why that is.  

To me, Jesus answers that in these verses, because in essence he’s saying (in my words) – “I’ve deliberately chosen you to love and work with difficult people, because if you become gracious, loving, patient, thoughtful and kind with them, you then have the absolute right to ask the Father for the needs of these people and he will begin to move in their lives as well. That’s how it works, my friends.” 

And that’s how we bear fruit that will last: we love and keep on loving, because the Father loves answering the prayers for those who do…(continues Friday) 

To Joy (part 4) 

According to Jesus, the key to joy is being able to love as God loves. And the reason he had disciples was for them to learn and live that love, and not just for the joy it would bring them, but also to bring joy to others. 

He made this clear to them in John 15:16, when he told them, “You did not choose me, I chose you to go and bear fruit.” To begin with, then, it was never the disciples’ initiative to follow him; it was his. And the reason he’d chosen them – or appointed them – was to enable them “to go and bear fruit that will last.” So the reason Jesus spent all night praying for who his disciples would be (Luke 6:12-16), was to have a group of people who would continue and expand his work of permanently impacting people’s lives in a wonderful way.  

And he’d appointed them to do that. This was now their life’s work, appointed by Jesus himself, to have a surefire – guaranteed to succeed – impact in other people’s lives. 

But through the likes of them? How? They weren’t anything special, they were just ordinary folk living very ordinary lives having little to no noticeable or permanent impact of any value on other people’s lives. But in verse 16 Jesus offered the solution to that, because “the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”

You mean, the Father God himself will provide whatever we need to have a wonderful lasting impact on other people’s lives? Well, yes, if it’s asked for in Jesus’ name. And in Jesus’ name was easy for his disciples to understand, because it was Jesus who’d appointed them, so it was in his name, or following his orders, that was their reason for seeking the Father’s help. And if that was their reason, to follow what Jesus had appointed them for, it was absolutely guaranteed the Father would answer. Whatever help they needed to impact people’s lives like Jesus did, was theirs for the asking. 

What a switch, then, from being ordinary folk just doing what ordinary folk do, to a new life in such close contact with God that he would personally give them whatever love and joy they needed to bring love and joy into other people’s lives too…(continued on Wednesday)