The Comforter.

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34). Lord please touch all my senses, fill this room with the fragrance of the Rrose of Sharon, with the warmth of your love. Cause all my senses to come alive to you so that I can worship you with all of me.

”Yes, I am all around you and want you to know that, not only by faith but also experientially. That is why you have been given all your senses so that you can experience Me in all My fullness. Maybe you can’t see Me physically but you can see Me spiritually as you close your eyes and allow Me to illuminate your imagination. I am always present with you, in the beauty and fragrance of the flowers, in the warmth of the touch of a loved one, in the sunset My glory sets your eyes aglow. Allow yourself to truly taste and see and experience Me in My person not just in the words on a page. I am here in all My glory ready to make your senses come alive and be receptive to Me so that you can fully worship Me.”

As we come to the end of John’s teaching from Jesus on the full understanding of what the disciples (and our) continuing relationship with Jesus is going to consist of we reach the conclusion of this teaching as we read John 16:2-16, ending with the the words which must have been like an arctic wind to them in vs 16: In a little while you won’t see me. Yet the vs ends with the strange promise: after a little while you will see me. This introduces the next section as He reveals what this was to meant to them.

So way back in the last part of vs 3 He introduces this thought: I was still with you. And then in vs 4 Now I am going to go to Him who sent Me. This must have been devastating to these men. Put yourselves in their shoes. They had left everything to follow Jesus. He had promised them, and they believed Him when He said that He was going to introduce God’s kingdom and in fact, He was going to be the ultimate King. Now He is speaking of leaving them apparently with very little to show for His time with them. Little did they realize that the climax of Jesus’ life and in fact the whole of history was on the verge of taking place. The main reason He came – to die for our sins and open the way to the Father was about to happen.

From our perspective we can now understand what He was telling them and we can appreciate the provision God had planned from the beginning for when Jesus would leave the earth. Obviously Jesus in His humanity could only be in one place at a time and therefore His ministry would always be limited to where He was. So God’s plan was to send the Holy Spirit to replace and continue Jesus’ ministry. He would be able to be everywhere and minister in multiple places at the same time. In fact the world would discover after Pentecost that He would not only be present everywhere, but that He would actually indwell every born again believer enabling him/her to live their Christian life.

So in a very compact way John gathers together the teaching on main ways that the Counselor would work fro then on. Why don’t you read this paragraph and see all the ways He is depicted as going to be working?

Let us look if we can pick up the teaching: Three things mentioned in vs 8 He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement.

His first great work would be to convict the world of the importance of their culpability of sin. And notice the very basic and all pervading cause of sin is “unbelief”. It is because we don’t believe in the triune God that all other wrongdoing flows. So the Holy Spirit convicts each sinner with the knowledge of the need to come to faith in God so that their sin can be dealt with.

Then righteousness. Jesus’ departure means He is going to be removed from the scene and the Spirit must take over in directing every believer on true righteousness. How to live and behave correctly .

Then lastly judgment. He reminds us that we are being held responsible for our behaviour because there is one who judges every move, every thought we have, we will be culpable for. all the wrong that is done. He brings the Devil in here because he is the ultimate deceiver.

Furthermore the Spirit is going to carry on teaching where Jesus has left off. Today we have God’s word in writing but it is only as the Holy Spirit interprets it to us that it truly comes alive and has the power to change us. And the purpose of all this? Vs 14 to bring Jesus all the glory. So the Spirit does not seek glory for Himself but opens the door so that all the glory is poured out for Jesus and the Father.

The paragraph ends with the most beautiful summary of the trinity in vs15.

Well, welcome to the Holy Spirit the most import companion we all have representing Jesus to us continually in our lives. I was once again convicted as to how seldom I was aware of this on a moment by moment basis. How do you personally experience Him and the work He is doing in your lives?

God bless till next week dear loved ones.