On Line Bible Study - For the Week June 17 - 23, 2013
Lesson 563
John 16:1 All this I have told you so that you will not fall away ...
How much do you want to know about your future? When I was working to prepare myself to ride my bicycle in L'Etap du Tour in France, I knew that we were going to be climbing some mountains. My friend who was helping me get ready for the experience gave me some advice. "When you begin the climb on the mountain, don't look up." Having done the ride the previous year, he knew from experience how discouraging it would be for me to see just how far I had to go and how high I had to climb.
Is that why we aren't allowed to know what tomorrow holds?
As Jesus teaches his disciples in his final hours with them, he reveals to them what is about to happen.
John 16: 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me.
There is a time and place for everything. As long as Jesus was with them the persecution would be aimed at him. Once he was gone, he knew the world's anger ("hatred"? John 15:18.) would be directed at them. They needed to know this in advance.
John 16: 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate (Paraclete) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
Remember in John 14:28 when Jesus told his disciples if they loved him they should be glad he was going away. In John 16 we learn that it is good for the disciples that Jesus is departing.
John 16: 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
Father Raymond Brown says these are some of the most challenging verses in the New Testament to understand. The world was wrong about sin when it refused to believe in Jesus. Earlier in the Gospel Jesus chastises the world, for light had come into the world, but the world preferred darkness (John 3:19.) The world was wrong about righteousness because it wrongly condemned Jesus - who was innocent - to death. Jesus' claim of unity with the Father was not blasphemous; it was true. And the world was wrong about judgment because, in condemning Jesus, the world had condemned itself.
All of this will be proven when the Advocate (Paraclete) arrives.
Jesus is telling his disciples - and us - that the Holy Spirit will perform a kind of "forensic" work, reminding us of what Christ has taught and foretold, helping us disentangle the truth of God from the lies of the world. It is serious work. How is that work being accomplished for you in this season of your life?
John 16:1 All this I have told you so that you will not fall away ...
How much do you want to know about your future? When I was working to prepare myself to ride my bicycle in L'Etap du Tour in France, I knew that we were going to be climbing some mountains. My friend who was helping me get ready for the experience gave me some advice. "When you begin the climb on the mountain, don't look up." Having done the ride the previous year, he knew from experience how discouraging it would be for me to see just how far I had to go and how high I had to climb.
Is that why we aren't allowed to know what tomorrow holds?
As Jesus teaches his disciples in his final hours with them, he reveals to them what is about to happen.
John 16: 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me.
There is a time and place for everything. As long as Jesus was with them the persecution would be aimed at him. Once he was gone, he knew the world's anger ("hatred"? John 15:18.) would be directed at them. They needed to know this in advance.John 16: 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate (Paraclete) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
Remember in John 14:28 when Jesus told his disciples if they loved him they should be glad he was going away. In John 16 we learn that it is good for the disciples that Jesus is departing.
John 16: 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
Father Raymond Brown says these are some of the most challenging verses in the New Testament to understand. The world was wrong about sin when it refused to believe in Jesus. Earlier in the Gospel Jesus chastises the world, for light had come into the world, but the world preferred darkness (John 3:19.) The world was wrong about righteousness because it wrongly condemned Jesus - who was innocent - to death. Jesus' claim of unity with the Father was not blasphemous; it was true. And the world was wrong about judgment because, in condemning Jesus, the world had condemned itself.
All of this will be proven when the Advocate (Paraclete) arrives.
Jesus is telling his disciples - and us - that the Holy Spirit will perform a kind of "forensic" work, reminding us of what Christ has taught and foretold, helping us disentangle the truth of God from the lies of the world. It is serious work. How is that work being accomplished for you in this season of your life?
posted by Mark D at 4:09 AM
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