Gifts That Profit All
Sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:7-11
January 29, 2012

Intro

I’d like to share two stories. I recently heard the testimony of a young man named Michael who told the story about a mission’s trip he and several others went on to Kenya. One day, Michael and another fellow had been in a village and were ministering to the people there. Some of the people in the village were Christians, but had never seen any signs and wonders. He recounts how they had a friend in that village, and so they went for a visit.

While there, the friend’s mother, who was about seventy, invited them into their home. This elderly woman it turns out, had broken her arm, and every time she moved she winced in pain. The arm was wrapped in a sort of cast, but there was no sling to support the arm, so the slightest movement caused her all sorts of pain. Michael and his friend asked if they could pray for the woman and her arm. They prayed once and asked how her arm felt. She held it up and said, “My fingers are dancing. I couldn’t do this before.”

They asked if they could pray again, and when they were done, she was able to move her whole arm without any pain. The woman told Michael and his friend that it felt like tingles leaving her arm. And then she spent the next twenty minutes walking back and forth in the pouring rain outside saying, “Praise Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. My fingers are dancing.”

The second story is about a man whom God had gifted with speaking in tongues. While he was at a park one day, he was leaning over the railing watching people in the court below while praying in tongues. He was praying quietly but a man walking by had heard a little bit. This second man being an immigrant, stopped and told the man it was wonderful to hear someone praying in his native tongue, and asked when he had learned it. The first man explained that he didn’t know the language, but that he was praying in tongues. As they continued talking, the second man interpreted for the first man the things he had been praying. He had been exalting Jesus and glorifying the Father in heaven.

Two weeks ago, Pastor Abe began a series on the gifts of the Spirit and the text was drawn out of 1 Corinthians 12, and so I invite you to turn there with me. Pastor Abe challenged us to think about our gifts and how we can use them to serve others. Before we go any further this morning I would like to give a brief explanation for this morning. In our culture we acknowledge that gifts come in many different forms, like singing or playing an instrument, or even the ability to organize and maintain a library. We all have various gifts. For our purposes here this morning though, I would like to make a distinction between what we normally talk about when we say gifts, and what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12: the gifts of the Spirit. So this morning, when I use the word gifts, I am speaking about those things that we’ll look at in just a few minutes in 1 Corinthians 12 and not the things that our minds normally think of when we talk about gifts.

Pray

We’ll be looking at verses seven to eleven of 1 Corinthians 12 this morning. Before we do that though, and so there is no confusion, I’ll just add a brief word. When Pastor Abe scheduled everything for this series he was originally going to be speaking on verses four to six last week, but with the guest speaker here last week that didn’t happen, so he will be speaking on verses four to six next week. So then, if you have your Bibles, follow with me as we read verses seven to eleven:

7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

So far the reading of God’s Word.

When Pastor Abe first asked me to speak today, he showed me the way he had laid out the passages for these sermons and I sighed a sigh of relief because this was not originally the passage he had written down. I was excited that we were going through this series, but I was happy that I didn’t have to address these gifts. Then he altered the schedule. But as I worked over the passage and studied it closely I came to realize something important: The emphasis of this passage should not be verses eight through ten, but rather on verse seven. Reading what commentators had to say on this passage revealed that most of the emphasis was on the gifts themselves, and not on the giver of the gifts. Many commentators had very little to say about verse seven altogether.

But it is verse seven that truly should be the focus. You may have noticed by the sermon title where my heart was drawn in studying this passage. Paul begins verse seven by telling us that it the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. It is not the manifestation of the gifts he lists, that are the profit of all, it is the manifestation of the Spirit. The dictionary defines manifestation as, “outward or perceptible indication”. The Greek word used here means “the act of disclosure”. In other words, God’s presence is evident in your life in an outward indication. We can see from this verse is that there should be a definite outward indication of the fact that the Holy Spirit is living in us.

Paul goes on and tells us that every believer has this manifestation, and that that presence, that outward indication, is there to profit everyone. One of the things I like about Christmas time is how different organizations have set up the “Living Gift” programs and the “Water Well” initiatives, like the one we took part in this past Christmas. We can buy a gift for someone half-way around the world and they profit from it. If we buy chickens, the family that receives them can collect some eggs for themselves and sell the rest in the market as a way to earn an income for their family. Not only that, but people that buy the eggs can hatch a set, and start doing the same thing. One gift starts to multiply greatly and so many people are touched, including you for giving it. The same way that we gift these people which helps so many others, God through the power of the Holy Spirit gives you gifts so that you can help profit each other.

There is an idea in our culture that makes this idea of gifts that profit each other less than desirable. William Barclay says, “The fault of the Church… is that it has interpreted the idea of special gifts far too narrowly… to consist of things like speaking, praying, teaching, and writing – the more or less intellectual gifts.” It’s been ingrained in us that we should get all the education we can get and then use what we know. We need to be able to rationalize and be able to explain what is happening or we simply don’t believe that it can happen.

How is it possible that a group of people can gather around someone and pray for them, and their leg is instantly healed? How is it possible that someone can meet a total stranger and know the heart of that person and know what God thinks of that person?

We have grown to accept a view of God that is so unlike who he is that the list Paul gives us in verses eight through ten scare the pants off of us. Every one of the gifts Paul lists are so completely unexplainable that we don’t want to go near them. We don’t want to have anything to do with them. But in doing so, we go against the very nature of who God is. We go against the very things that God is trying to enact in our lives.

How would we react in our context, if young Adlai suddenly started prophesying, would we stop him? If Mary began speaking in tongues and Cliff interpreted what she said, would we stop them? The God that we worship every Sunday is the very God who makes these things possible. Are we going to shut Him up, just because we can’t explain what is happening in our rational mind? We’ve become so consumed with intellectual ideals that we miss out on what God is doing and how He is doing it.

But the emphasis is still not on the gifts. The NLT words verse seven as “A spiritual gift is given to each one of us so we can help each other,” and several translations used, “for the common good of everyone.” The Greek word used here, “sum-pha-ron” means advantageous or profitable, and it refers more to the ‘ultimate good’ as opposed to the ‘good of a present situation’. Paul says the manifestation of the Spirit is all for the highest good and not for temporary powers or favors. He tells us that when we embrace these things, we are profiting each other. We are building each other up in our faith and through the use of the gifts Paul mentions. When I embrace the gift of wisdom and knowledge God has given me and use them, you benefit from it. This isn’t about any sort of jealousy or rivalry about who got which gift, but when we embrace and use them we glorify God and build each other up.

So what is the opposite of this then? When we don’t embrace these things through the manifestation of the Spirit, we are actually hurting each other’s faith. We are diminishing each other’s faith. And in the process we are actually stopping, or hindering, the profit that God wants to pour out on us. Paul is actually given us a warning here. As Christians, when we don’t embrace these gifts through the manifestation of the Spirit, we are hindering God’s work from being accomplished in this world. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to be the one to go against how God has decided that He wants to do things, even if I can’t explain it.

So once Paul has established that it is the manifestation of the Spirit to each one for the profit of all, as we see in verse seven, he then lists nine different ways in which the manifestation of the Spirit might occur. Notice that the gifts really are a means to an end, and not the end themselves. Paul doesn’t say it is the manifestation of gifts through the Spirit, but rather it is the manifestation of the Spirit, and these nine things are ways in which you will see that Spirit evident.

For our benefit this morning, I will avoid getting into all the Greek wording in these verses, but I will offer definitions for each of the gifts in the hopes that we can better understand what Paul is referring to.

In verse eight we see the first two of the gifts: wisdom and knowledge. In Scripture, these two are almost like tag-team partners, where you find one, you usually find the other, although they might also be interpreted as wisdom and understanding. The wisdom Paul is talking about deals with the aspect of skill or intelligence. In speaking about wisdom, Aristotle said it is, “Striving after the best ends using the best means.” Morris refers to the idea of the ‘highest mental excellence.’

If you were here for the prayer meeting during Sunday school this morning you would have heard a bit of a situation that John Hiebert had asked prayer for. Without getting into details, the teachers at Steinreich school were confronted with a situation involving spiritual warfare this past week and the measures taken by the leaders there showed how God has blessed the teachers there with wisdom.

And followed closely with wisdom is knowledge. The word used here simply refers to knowing what to do in any given situation, specifically in dealing with the truth. By understanding these words separate from each other it is easy to see why Paul put them together. One almost seems to rely on the other, and vice-versa.

Then in verse nine Paul moves on to the gift of faith. But Jason, you say, “Don’t we all get faith when we become a Christian?” I’m glad you asked. Yes, when you become a Christian you get a certain measure of faith. It seems as though what Paul is suggesting is that some Christians get a greater measure of faith as a gift of the Spirit. The Greek word used means trust or confidence or belief. Barclay says that this faith, “really produces results,” and that it is the type of faith that “makes someone spend all that they are and have on their belief in God.”

Next on Paul’s list is gifts of healings. Just an interesting note here that Paul pluralizes the gifts of healings. It is not the “gift of healing” or any variation of that, but “gifts of healings.” One commentator notes that this could either mean different kinds of healings, or, different gifts for the healing of each individual sick person. I’m sure if you would ask our local doctor, he would argue that he has been given different gifts for healings, so that he can treat many different illnesses.

But this does not mean that God will not act in a supernatural way and allow gifts of healings such as we heard with the old woman at the beginning of the message. We should be careful here though. Too often people involved in healing begin to think that they have done something that caused the healing to occur. We shouldn’t make that mistake. It is the power of God at work through the believer, and not the believer themselves that causes the healing. This would draw all of the attention onto the person who has been gifted and not on God, the one who gives the gifts for healings.

We should be careful to separate the gifts of healings from the working of miracles that Paul mentions next. When we read accounts of Jesus and his work, we see that he did works of miracles as well as healings, so there should be some distinction between the two. A quick look at some of the miracles Jesus did would include casting out evil spirits, walking on water, or even raising someone from the dead. Jesus himself said in John 14:12, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father.” Jesus is saying that we know the things he has done, and that if we believe in Him, we will do greater things than he has. Not for our benefit, but so that God will be glorified. I’ll leave you with a hanging question as we move on which is: Have you walked on water, or fed 5,000 people with a few fish and a couple of loaves? Because Jesus declares that you will do greater things than that.

Moving on, Paul lists a few more things in quick succession that evidence the manifestation of the Spirit. The next gift on his list is prophecy. We have an idea of what prophecy is because we read the OT prophets, but what prophecy really is is inspired speech. At times there might be an emphasis on foretelling the future, as we see in the book of The Revelation, but more often than not, prophecy is simply a ‘message inspired by the Spirit and given in a present situation’.

On our trip to the IHOP Conference in December a number of us took the opportunity to be prophesied over, so I went and these strangers began to affirm in me the direction of my calling. One even went so far as to mention something that I had only shared with one person, on how my leadership of the youth was going.  There was no prediction of the future or anything like that, just words of encouragement and affirmation.

Paul moves on to the discerning of spirits, or the distinction of spirits. The emphasis here is on being able to tell the difference between spirits that are God sent or ones that Satan has sent. It is understanding the difference in good and evil spirits. One commentator argues the reason for this gift is so that, “in our context, it is… to detect and expose satanic strategies and activities.”

In times of war, countries like to have someone in place inside the ranks of the enemy camp as a spy so they can learn how the enemy plans to attack. Once they have the information, they can plan their own attacks that will spoil the original plans of the enemy. In the same way, God gives us the discernment of spirits so we can know how Satan plans to attack and prepare ourselves and defend ourselves from those attacks.

And finally in this list, Paul talks about the gift of speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. While they are separate gifts, these two are very closely linked. The Greek word used here means tongue or language. Part of the purpose for speaking in tongues is that it is a “sign” that God is speaking. And the interpretation of tongues is the gift to be able to translate what has been said. The word used in the Greek does carry with it more than simply the ability to translate what has been spoken. It seems to imply also that in the interpretation there is also an explanation of what has been said.

Finally, in verse eleven of our text, Paul concludes by bringing the focus back to what verse seven says. The same Spirit, the Spirit of God, gives each one of these gifts. These verses show us how God wants to make His presence known and affirmed in the body of believers. He gives these gifts as He sees fit, and as Pastor Abe reminded us two weeks ago, we have all been given at least one gift.

Conclusion

I’d like to conclude with a personal story followed by a few questions to challenge you. I grew up in the C.M.C. church just down the street, which is quite possibly a stricter Mennonite background than here. The idea of operating in the gifts of the Spirit terrified me. Things like miraculous healings were foreign to me – just go to the doctor if you want to be healed.

A few years ago I began to be challenged with this entire subject in my heart. In my prayers I prayed to God, “God, you say in the Bible that you never change; that you are the same today as you were in the beginning and the time of Jesus, and you will be the same in eternity. If you’re the same, then the same Spirit that filled the disciples on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit that gave Paul the ability to perform miracles, is the same Spirit living in me. I don’t want to be one who goes against how you operate. Reveal to me in some way that you operate this way. Give me the wisdom to not try to understand how you operate, but to live my life in this way regardless.”
I began to search God out in the area of the gifts of the Spirit, and it was about a year later that God revealed a great breakthrough. I was driving the work truck on a trip up to Gillam, where we would be for a week. I was going to exercise my faith in healing, so I began to pray. I didn’t know how to pray these things, but I prayed. I almost lost my voice praying I was praying so hard. I didn’t know if God answered my prayer, so a week later when we got back I visited this person in the hospital that I was praying for and asked a few general questions about their health. I was told that the previous Sunday, in the afternoon around 2:30, right when I was praying, Peter Loeppky wiggled his toe for the first time after his operation and stroke.

I can’t begin to describe what that did for my love for God; for my faith; for my worship. I began to worship God in a whole new way. It was all I needed to chase after the things that 1 Corinthians 12 talks about. Not because I wanted to heal people or speak in tongues, but because God is awesome, and I can use those gifts to help you by using them. I can’t begin to explain the journey God has taken me on since then. I’ve prayed over people and they get physically healed on the spot. God has blessed me with prophesies for people, given me visions and dreams about this church and the community. I can say truthfully that there is not a gift that Paul lists in our passage today that God has not blessed me with. But it’s not for me. It’s for His glory. I praise him daily for gifting me the way that He has. And I use those gifts to pour out onto you and others in the community.

Here’s the thing, I am confident that God has gifted all of you in the various ways we’ve looked at today. Some of you have had prophecies, or maybe you speak in tongues. Some of you have the gift of healings, or discernment of spirits. The problem is that all of this is too scary. It’s outside our grid of understanding. We can’t explain it so we avoid it at all costs.

Questions:

Let me ask you a few closing questions and then I’ll pray.

1. Are you too scared to use the gifts God gave you because of what people might say, or how they might react to you?
2. Are you too scared to use your gifts because you can’t explain how they work?
3. Are you going to be the one who withholds the profit of all because you won’t use your God given gifts?
4. Or are you going to be the one to embrace the fact that there are things in the heavenly realm that you will never be able to explain, and embrace the manifestation of the Spirit so that your gifts can glorify God and profit the body of Christ?

Pray

Did God create everything that exists?

Does evil exist?

Did God create evil?

A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question. “Did God create everything that exists?”

A student bravely replied, “Yes he did!”

“God created everything?” The professor asked.

“Yes sir, he certainly did,” the student replied.

The professor answered, “If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil.”

The student became quiet and did not answer the professor’s hypothetical definition.

The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, “May I ask you a question, professor?”

“Of course”, replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?”

“What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The other students snickered at the young man’s question.

The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.”

The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?”

The professor responded, “Of course it does.”

The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?”

Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man’s Inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.

To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”

The professor sat down.

The young man’s name – Albert Einstein

On the album is this song Society, as i mentioned above. But before i get into the song itself, let me say this: I have never been much of a fan of Christmas music (except for Bob Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart, i may be biased here, but…). I don’t sing Frosty the Snowman or any of that kind of music. I am however partial to the old Christmas hymns that should be sung all year round, as our reminder of the Christ event throughout the year.

It may only be my take on where people in general are at now-a-days (and be sure i am not including everyone in this generalization) but in this Christmas season, i find it odd that the one song i can’t get out of my head is the song Society. Does this song describe “us” more than we think or know? Maybe not around the world, but in North America? Is this “our” attitude in general? Perhaps the most telling question: Do “we” need to repent for this attitude?

Song Lyrics:

hmmm ooh hooo hooo

It’s a mistery to me
we have a greed
with which we have agreed

You think you have to want
more than you need
until you have it all you won’t be free

society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me

When you want more than you have
you think you need
and when you think more than you want
your thoughts begin to bleed

I think I need to find a bigger place
‘cos when you have more than you think
you need more space

society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
society, crazy and deep
I hope you’re not lonely without me

there’s those thinking more or less less is more
but if less is more how you’re keeping score?
Means for every point you make
your level drops
kinda like its starting from the top
you can’t do that…

society, you’re a crazy breed
I hope you’re not lonely without me
society, crazy and deep
I hope you’re not lonely without me

society, have mercy on me
I hope you’re not angry if I disagree
society, crazy and deep
I hope you’re not lonely without me

On the other side, we will exhange both our “Trivial Pursuit” moral agenda and our “new morality” nonaganda for a rediscovery of basic, time-tested Christian morality.

We who have lived through the last three decades of the transition zone should have learned at least three things:
a: Societies and individuals alike need healthy families. Two-parent, heterosexual families, whenever possible, are a pretty good idea after all.
b: Such families depend on solvent marriages, and, we have discovered, staying the course “till death do us part” is tough under the best of circumstances. Therefore, we are finding that tolerating infidelity and sexual indiscretions is like running a marathon with wine cooler in our water bottle or bathroom slippers on our feet – they possess a certain adolescent appeal perhaps, but they are patently stupid in the long run if we intend to finish the race.
c: If we want to have a good life, we sooner of later have to surrender to the remarkable concept of being – surprise of surprises – a good person.

In contrast, many of us grew up in the old-world church where the moral sun rose and set on what now seems trivial: Should women wear headcoverings over their hair? Can they have short hair, and men long? Can guitars be used in worship? Drums? Can one watch television on Sunday? Eat red meat on Friday? Can a man worship without a tie? Can a woman speak in a public service, and if so, when, where, and how? [Meanwhile, Mr. Jones hasn't spoken to Mr. Nelson since their wives had that spat seventeen years ago. And meanwhile, when blacks showed up at our all-white church, they were referred to a "colored" church in our denomination downtown. And meanwhile...]

In the new church, we won’t have the luxury of these kinds of moral mousehunts. I believe we will be a little more basic: Can we please stay out of bed with people we aren’t married to? Can the Christians of the world agree to stop killing each other over petty political issues? Could our faiht by chance overcome our racism? Might we actually make friends with a needy neighbor of another cultural or demographic background, Good-Samaritan style? Husbands, will you stop beating [or browbeating] your wives – now? And parents… And about forgiveness…

True, between here and the other side we have a few huge moral issues to face, including abortion and homosexuality. But even these difficult areas [difficult to resolves in practice, even if we think they're clear in theory] may fall into place. Seeing our moral struggles, two very unlikely forces have graciously stepped in to help us deal with them: the media and lawyers.

The media have helped us by uncovering our sexual and financial scandals, by shining their flashlights under our covers, leafing through our IRS returns, publicizing our behind-closed-door deals, and broadcasting our hypocrisies. Some of us used to think we could indulge in private immoralities [alcohol or drug abuse, sexual misconduct, financial malfeasance] as long as we took a strong stand on public issues [ poverty, racism, war]. Some of us thought the reverse – that a little racism or sexism was no big deal as long as we stayed in the right bed. Too many of us thought we could do just about anything as long as we said the right things and didn’t get exposed.

But the media have virtually fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy about things said and done in secret being broadcast from the housetops [see Matthew 10:26-27]. They have taught us what we had ignored in our great Christian moral tradition: that we need to integrate both public morality and private morality to have something called “integrity.”

The lawyers then stopped by to help us in a second way. As lawsuits were filed dealing with clergy pedophilia and clergy sexual harassment [whether hetero- or homosexual in orientation], churches had no choice but to get serious about at least their leaders returning to Ten Commandments-style morality, for legal and public-relations reasons if not for moral conviction. And if the leaders must become more traditionally moral, the people in their congregations probably will, too. Isn’t it interesting how history has a way of being self-correcting? And think of it: the media and the lawyers, like a rewriting of the Balaam story!

So in the new church, in spite of the unsolved dilemmas of abortion, homosexuality, and the like, we may just find ourselves united as never before in trying to help our people toward moral living, in public and in private. We will realize what wonderful assets we had in the Christian tradition all along: the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Love Chapter [1 Corinthians 13]. And maybe, we’ll accept this modest proposal: that for, say, the next twenty-five years we will dedicate 95 percent of our moral effort toward living these basic, unarguable elements of our moral tradition. Then we can reevaluate and see whether the other issues – the trivial questions and the big dilemmas alike – have taken care of themselves. Even if the haven’t, with twenty-five years of moral exercise we will be better equipped to address them with… integrity.

Hmmm!

You Need Help! John 16:5-15
Sermon for Sunday, November 6, 2011

Pray

          It might depend on who you speak to, but for some people, the 1960’s were a tumultuous time. The Cold War was at the highest state it had ever been. There was the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. If that was not enough, there was of course the Vietnam War that simply would not end. These events and others were what eventually sparked the “Flower Power” generation. People just wanted to live in peace and harmony, leading to events like Woodstock in 1969 and other festivals. Leading the charge for peace were musicians, who had the ability and the platform to put into words what people were feeling. Artists like Neil Young and his song “Ohio,” and so many other artists voicing their opinions on the events going on.

          Perhaps, The Beatles release of the song “Help!” in 1970 sums people’s attitudes best. “Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody. Help, you know I need someone. Help!” It was a song that encapsulated the disparity felt by people the world over.

          Fast-forward to 2011. Worldwide there are natural disasters that are occurring at a pace never before seen. The war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close after 10 years. The economy continues to spin in a downward spiral. Entire nations are claiming bankruptcy and the most powerful nation in the world, the United States, is in economic disarray. Not really knowing what else to do, people are organizing marches like “Occupy Wall Street” and “Occupy Toronto” with no real direction. You can’t really call them protests because the people don’t even know what they are protesting. The people just know that something is wrong and that it needs to change. They need help.

          We’ve been going through our series in John, and so I invite you to turn in your Bibles to John 16, and our passage today will focus on verses five to fifteen. This passage is picked up in the middle of the conversation that Jesus is having with his disciples just hours before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. John’s records of the events leading up to the crucifixion is quite striking. He doesn’t concern himself with details about the Last Supper or events that the other gospels record. Rather, John continually focusses on the “last-minute” teachings and instructions of Jesus, if you will permit me to call them that. So when we get to chapter sixteen there are only a few things left that Jesus tells them. In chapter fourteen Jesus mentions the Holy Spirit briefly and then in our passage today, He describes the job, or the work that the Holy Spirit will be doing. Join me as I read from John sixteen, starting at verse five:

John 16: 5-15

5 “But now I go away 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 depart, I will send Him to you. 8 “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 “of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 “of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 “All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

So far the reading of God’s word.

At the start of this passage we see a familiar phrase that Jesus has repeated in some form or another throughout the book of John, “I will be leaving you.” The statement however, is never simply, “I am going away.” These phrases are prefaced with a, “Soon,” as in, “Soon I will go to my Father,” or, “A little while longer,” as in, “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more,” as we see in chapter fourteen verse nineteen.

Here in chapter sixteen and verse five Jesus prefaces his statement with the words, “But now.” His departure is no longer a distant thing. It is no longer an event “down the road” so to speak. Further striking is that up to this point there is no indication that the disciples were ever distressed about Jesus leaving, but as soon as He adds the words, “But now,” sorrow has filled their hearts. They recognize that something is taking place.

Even at this time, it might be fair to say that the disciples did not really understand the events that will take place in the next hours. They are filled with sorrow because they are losing one of their closest friends. Remember that the disciples had spent almost every waking hour for the past three years with Jesus. Of course they would be sorrowful when He says He’s leaving.

I can almost see Jesus’ reaction to their sorrow though. In John 14:28 Jesus tells the disciples, “If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father.’” Here in John 16:7 Jesus says, “It is to your advantage that I go away.” Have you ever thought of this before: It is a good thing Jesus is in heaven right now? That it is a good thing that he left earth? For many people this might not make sense. Commentators are in general agreement that the reason for this is because even after his resurrection, Jesus is still a man. He has a resurrected body, but it is a body none-the-less. And this limitation would mean that Jesus cannot be in all places at all times. That is why the disciples are to rejoice; why it is an advantage that Jesus goes to heaven to be with His Father. Because the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the third part of the Trinity, who is not limited by a body, will come.

And what will the Holy Spirit do? What is His work? Verse eight reads, “When the Holy Spirit has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” Now, before we go further we should look at this word convict. The Greek word used here is evlevgcw, and carries with it the meaning of reproof or of cross-examination, but also, and more importantly, carries with it the meaning of convincing. So we might read this verse as follows, “When the Holy Spirit has come, He will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

In reading verse eight this way, verses nine through eleven are perhaps a little easier to understand. The Holy Spirit will convict, or convince, the world of sin, because they do not believe in Jesus, as we read in verse nine. In Acts 2:37-38 we see an application of this principle. The Jewish people did not think that they were sinning when they crucified Jesus, yet when Peter is preaching in Acts 2 these same people were “cut to the heart.”

The story is told of a missionary in an Indian village who was “telling the story of Christ using lantern slides on the white-washed wall of a village house. When the picture of the Cross was shown, one of the Indian people stepped forward, almost as if he could not help it, and cried, “Come down! I should be hanging there – not you.”” How is it that a picture of Jesus on a cross two thousand years ago would tear at the heart of anyone throughout the centuries and even today? Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin because they do not know Him.

You will see as we continue on that there is actually a compounding effect of the work of the Holy Spirit found in these verses. The first job is to convict or convince the world of sin, which leads directly into the second step of this work. We read in verse ten, “The Holy Spirit will convict, or convince, the world of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.” The righteousness spoken of by Jesus here is His own righteousness. He is going back to the Father; back to heaven.  Jesus is declaring that once the Holy Spirit has convicted someone of sin He will point that person to the saving work of Jesus and His righteousness. The disciples would not have known what this meant at the time, but as soon as Jesus was resurrected, and when he went to heaven, they would have been reminded of this statement.

Knowing Jesus’ righteousness then, the Holy Spirit takes his convincing one step further, as we see in verse eleven, “The Holy Spirit will convict, or convince, the world of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” In short Jesus is saying that if Satan, the ruler of this world, is judged, no one will be exempt from the coming judgment. Jesus is declaring that He is and always will be more powerful than Satan. He is going to judge Satan. The third part of this compounding work of the Holy Spirit is to prove to the world that judgment is coming, and the only way to escape that judgment is through Christ’s righteousness.

And once Jesus has established this compounding work of the Holy Spirit, he concludes our passage today with one final statement about the work that the Holy Spirit will do. Jesus declares in verse twelve, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” To be clear, Jesus is not saying this simply about our passage here today. He is referring to all that He’s been telling the disciples during the Last Supper, from at least half-way through chapter thirteen.

Jesus recognizes that the disciples are in information overload, so he finishes in verses thirteen to fifteen, “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. “All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” William Barclay says of this passage, “To Jesus the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, whose great work is to bring God’s truth to men. We have a special name for this bringing of God’s truth to men; we call it revelation, and no passage in the New Testament shows us what we might call the principles of revelation better than this one.” End quote.

Yesterday a few of us went to the council of representatives for the Manitoba MB conference and the discussion was on church membership. I am not sure how the others felt, but by noon there had been so much information to think over that I did not want any more. Tell me more tomorrow or another day, but not today. I need to process this. That is what Jesus is declaring here in the revelation the Holy Spirit will bring. Jesus is declaring that no one can handle the fullness of truth in one moment, so the Holy Spirit will reveal a little bit more as the individual person is able to handle it. This truth is not something you barely know or grasp. It is an intimate knowledge and being experimentally acquainted with that Truth. Matthew Henry says it is “whatever is needful or useful for them to know to teach others.”

Not only that, we see in these verses how intimately the three persons of the Trinity are actively working with each other. Jesus receives from the Father and gives to the Holy Spirit, who in turn takes what is received and guides, instructs, and teaches people. Again Jesus, in being glorified, points all of the glory to the Father.

So what does all of this mean for our life? We live in a world where the post-modern way of thinking is becoming more and more attractive to people. This idea that, “You believe what you believe and I will believe what I believe, and in the end we can all just get along.” But that way of thinking leads to an exclusion of the work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus describes in this passage. There is no conviction of sin or righteousness or judgment. Truth is relative based on human thinking.

It is not a question: “Do you need help?” Jesus is making a matter-of-fact statement to the disciples and to us, “You need help. Help is coming.”

In our world we do not want to talk about sin or judgment. Christian people are running from church to church because a pastor said something that caused a conviction. They blame the pastor for saying something wrong. They don’t want to acknowledge that it is in fact the Holy Spirit doing the work that the Holy Spirit does to make mature disciples of Christ. And so they run from congregation to congregation avoiding the conviction. Intentionally not listening to the Holy Spirit, who is seeking to help them grow.

In their humanness, they ignore the righteousness of Christ for this, “Jesus is my boyfriend” sort of mentality. And in doing so they ignore the reality of the coming judgment, the one that their “Jesus boyfriend” will be bringing. They want the revelation the Holy Spirit will give, but the Holy Spirit won’t give that revelation until the other work is first done in their lives. There is a very clear process of the work of the Holy Spirit laid out in this passage. Conviction of sin, conviction of righteousness, conviction of judgment, and then the outpouring of revelation.

May we not be so. If the Holy Spirit is working in your life right now in one of these aspects, don’t push it aside or ignore it. I personally believe that when we are living out our lives by allowing the Holy Spirit to work continually in the conviction of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, and we keep the slate clean, God will pour out His revelation in our lives.

When we do this, there will be no measure to how much He will pour out the Spirit. God tells the prophet Joel, “It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and daughters shall prophesy; Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” Friends this is the revelation Jesus is talking about in John 16. Dreams and visions and prophesies. A fulfillment of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

 Conclusion

           Last week pastor Abe talked briefly about how much we don’t like “different”. Different unsettles us. It takes us to an uncomfortable place. In our hearts we like to say things like, “That’s not how we’ve done it in the past,” or “We’ve never done things that way.” We like to make sure that we stay in the comfortable. The disciples felt the same way and it was etched on their faces. Sorrow had filled their hearts. Remember, these were men who had spent almost every waking hour for three years with Jesus.

          Jesus tells them point blank, “You need help.”

          Maybe this is the first time you have ever heard of the person Jesus, his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave. Maybe this is the first time you have ever heard of the Holy Spirit, who as we’ve just heard has work to do, as the Helper. Maybe this is the first time that you have ever heard of the love that God has for you. If you have questions or want to know more about the love of God I invite you to talk to myself or pastor Abe, or one of the lead team members. You do not have to go through life alone. God wants to help you.

          Looking around the room though, I recognize that most of us have accepted Jesus as our Savior. But sometimes talking about the work of the Holy Spirit is too “different”. We do not mind talking about how the Holy Spirit has gifted us with the ability to play an instrument or to teach. That is okay. But we get uncomfortable when we talk about conviction of sins and righteousness and judgment. We don’t like to hear about how we have sinned, and if I asked you to remember the last time you heard a preacher talk about the coming judgment, you might have to strain to remember.

          We have a hard time talking about visions and prophecies and dreams, and the other “different” works of the Holy Spirit like healings and speaking in tongues or interpretation of tongues because we cannot explain them. They go beyond the realm of our understanding and we cannot contain them, or control them.

          Are you going to let the Holy Spirit work in your life? Are you going to accept that God operates in ways you can’t explain, and rather than dismiss it as unnatural, accept those things God does and allow him to work in and through you in those ways?

          The Holy Spirit working in us today is the same Holy Spirit that was working in the disciples lives over two thousand years ago. It is the same work of the Holy Spirit that gave John the vision in the book of Revelation. It is the same work that gave Peter and John the ability to heal the lame man in Acts chapter three.

          Are you going to limit what the Holy Spirit does and how He works simply because it might be a little uncomfortable? Or are you going to step out in a new measure of faith and begin to allow God to work through you in the power of the Holy Spirit?

You need help!

But unlike The Beatles who didn’t really know where to turn, we know where to turn.

Let us pray!

Jesus, we plead your blood over our sins and the sins of this nation. God, send revival to Niverville.

Shalom.

When is a statement a judgment as opposed to a call to accountability?

I would appreciate any scripture references you have to offer, as well as insight from the opinions of authors that you hold in high regard. If you do use references, please include them in your comments so i and other readers have the option of looking them up.