Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Jul 02, 2023

The Going is not an Ending

The Going is not an Ending

Passage: John 16:1-15

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: That’s the Spirit: Learning to keep in step with Him who indwells

Keywords: glorify, spirit, guide, convict, depart

If you are fortunate, one day you might have the chance to say final and loving things to those nearest to you before you die. What would you say? What would be what you most wanted them to know following your passing? In this passage Jesus has that on His mind–even though His departing is like no other’s. We’ve already considered a number of ways the Spirit ministers. This morning we consider why what the Spirit does is good–why it is of advantage to us, even in the absence of Jesus himself in the flesh.

Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Psalm 63:1-3
LEADER: O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;

ALL: my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

LEADER: So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.

ALL: Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH/SCRIPTURE READING/CORPORATE PRAYER: Luke 6:32:36, 46-49

LEADER: If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. . . .Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

CENTRAL TEXT: John 16:1-15

John 16:1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 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. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

John 16:12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 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. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

BENEDICTION: 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

LEADER: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

ALL: For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Amen

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Acts 15:22-29
  • Acts 21:10-14
  • 1 John 4:1

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Perhaps it is mainly the stuff of film or literature, but perhaps one or more of you have had the experience of sitting with someone near the end of their life who, with their faculties sufficiently in place, wanted to say some clear and loving things to you or others before they died. If that describes an experience you may have had, would you be willing to share it? Now, let’s get really real: if that is you on the bed, the last you’ll know, what would you want to be able to say to the ones you love? (someone get the Kleenex)
  2. What would you say is the dominant mood of the moment we find in this passage? What would you say is Jesus’s dominant aim in responding to that mood?
  3. If you asked your average person what is most wrong with the world, what answers might you get? For Jesus to say the Spirit will, through His presence in the church, convict the world of sin, how is that answer different–and perhaps more comprehensive–than the average response?
  4. Same idea: now ask people what best describes what is righteous, and also how one ever learns that righteousness deeply–what answers might they share? If through the Spirit in the church, the world is confronted with Jesus as both the picture of righteousness, and the path to it, how is that a unique answer?
  5. What does it mean to glorify someone? How do you think Jesus means the Spirit will glorify Him, as He guides the church into further knowledge of Him? How is glorifying Jesus more than merely reminding them of facts about Him? Why would knowing Jesus’s glory be crucial to following Jesus’s wisdom?

ILLUSTRATIONS:

QUOTES: 

  • I’ve had to conclude that, at bottom, our civilization’s crisis is first and foremost a spiritual crisis. And that the great struggles underlying our present upheavals are really struggles over essentially theological questions. . . . N.S. Lyons
  • I think a sort of revival is coming: a “second religiousness,” renaissance, or recommitment to inherited civilizational principles. History would strongly suggest something like this is now on the horizon. In fact I think it’s already happening, and I find that to be cause for hope. The only question is what direction this energy is going to take, and whether it will be strong enough to induce a more humane future—but that will be up to all of us to shape. N.S. Lyons
  • Christianity is the solution to America’s problems. I am an atheist and even I can see that. (Medical student in the Midwest)
  • . . .any action we take gambles the limited time we have on earth. We wager all other possible actions by choosing one. Whenever we choose a medical treatment or a school for our kids or a career path, we risk something—being wrong, failure, regret, time, poverty, and so on. Whenever we sin, we wager offense against God and the possibility of uncontainable harm to others (sin is never containable). Whenever, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we turn from sin and choose to honor God and love our neighbor, we wager our fleshly desires. Like Paul, it costs us to obey. To deny sin is to die to self. And that, too, testifies to those watching. It is precisely because our actions are wagers that they communicate something about us and our understanding of the world. They may communicate our trust in the medical community or our trust in public schools or the moral imperative of pursuing our dream jobs. But our actions always speak. O. Alan Noble, On Getting out of Bed

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS