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John Chapter Sixteen: A Godly Vision
By: Deji Yesufu
The writing of these series of exposition of the chapters of the book of John has gone hand in hand with the teaching series that I have been taking at Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan, the local church I pastor here in Ibadan. The real blessing of teaching these texts is seeing how God brings them alive in our day-to-day walk with the Lord. We see how God uses the text to challenge us to faithfulness as we face life challenges and, in some cases, these texts have become useful tools for apologetics. In the past few days, a song has become the rave of the moment in the Nigerian Christian music scene. However, the challenge with music ministry in Nigeria is that it is often difficult to draw a line between secular music and religious worship. The fact that what Nigerian music ministers produce is a hybrid of worldly music and religious worship, renders the whole thing offensive to anyone who has any degree of spiritual discernment. It was in the middle of this debate, that I must now do an exposition of John 16 – and I find that the words of Jesus in this chapter are relevant not just to the debate but to the overall tenure of how Christians must live in a world that is averse to any real biblical Christianity.
I will regard John 16 as a mish-mash of ideas from our Lord Jesus Christ. His time on earth is winding to an end. The disciples have faithfully followed him. And here he must share with them his final thoughts. Like a dying man, Jesus tells the disciples the things that are most relevant for their missions on earth. All of scripture is God’s breadth, and all of the words of Jesus are sound theology. But, perhaps, John 16 is even more important than others.
Christ opens his discussion in John 16 by introducing another Person to his disciples. There is a sense that these men, who had walked with Jesus for three years, had become quite dependent on him. Jesus shows them that “it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you…” (John 16:7). Jesus is saying essentially that the coming of the Holy Spirit is better for the disciples. When Christ walked the earth, Jesus ministered to all of the disciples and all the people by himself alone. Now the Spirit will minister to all of us at once. The Spirit will reach all of us one-on-one, and his fellowship with us will be like having Jesus with you one-on-one. Jesus goes further to explain that the Spirit will convict the world of sin; of righteousness; and of judgment. That the Spirit will show the nations their sins. Then the Spirit will show the nations true righteousness. And, finally, those who reject the counsel of the Spirit will know judgment. But the most important lesson here is that Jesus’ leaving is not all tragic; we will have in his place the blessing of the Holy Spirit. The Christian life is therefore a faithful walking with the Holy Spirit.
In the next four verses, Jesus tells his listeners some of the things the Holy Spirit will do. Chief among them is “he will guide you into all truth… he will show you things to come…” (John 16:13). The traditional interpretation of these texts is that Jesus Christ was speaking to an immediate audience and that these were the Apostles. Therefore, the truths that will make for the New Testament- canon will be revealed to the Apostles in the future, and they will pen those truths down as scripture. This is the gospel and this is biblical fact. However, we will be unfaithful to the text of that scripture if we limit its application to the Apostles alone. The reason is that the correct biblical hermeneutics is that Jesus gives his Spirit to all believers. Therefore, if the Apostles will be guided into all truth, so should all believers. And, if the Spirit will show the Apostles things to come, so should all believers. This means that some of the core tenets of Cessationism will not hold in the light of this scripture. It also means that while God gave the Apostles revelation, he also illuminates scriptures for believers today. Also, it will not be far-fetched if a Christian affirms that he believes God has shown him things to come. In fact, one of the things we take away from our study of the book of John as a church is that where Christ operates freely, he will show God’s people things in the future. Some may call this prophecy, but we rest content with what scripture affirms “…he will show you things to come.”
We then entered a section of this chapter that was quite elusive for me to bring to the congregation any relevant lesson. I had to resort to preceptausting.org to know what others had taught in that text. Somehow, I saw something that I think was relevant for the church and that is Jesus’ veiled counsel to the disciples to wait upon the Lord. Here is how I reached that conclusion. Verses 20 to 22 talk about a very familiar reality in the Christian life: sorrow. Jesus appears to say that when the Holy Spirit gives a Christian a vision or a calling, the world almost never recognizes it. They will persecute God’s people; they will make nonsense of the vision; they will tear at it; everything will appear to be working against it; sorrow will be the common theme in the pursuit of the vision; etc. But Jesus then shows his disciples the picture of a woman in labour (John 16:21). Why is it that women who are in labour do not despair? Why is it that in spite of the pain, the woman continues to press forward to birth that child? It is because “a man is about to be born into the world”. The Christian’s vision is a man – in a way. The vision to reach the world with the gospel is a living being; it is an idea that will outlive even the visionaire. It is this reality that makes you and I press through the sorrow that ministry brings. I must also mention here that the vision that the Holy Spirit births in a Christian may not necessarily be Christian ministry; it could be a political movement. It could be a vision to help humanity. In fact, the Holy Spirit may give this idea to someone who is not a Christian. Hopefully, Christians who have discernment will recognize God in that vision and rally around that person to actualize the vision. Here is the fact of life though: God is the owner of visions, and he gives it to whomever he wills. God is also the actualizer of visions, and he will use different vessels to bring them to pass. My prayer is that you and I will recognize God in a movement, and join him to actualize that reality. May it not be said that when God was doing a thing in the land, you and I joined those who were working against its fulfilment.
The last thing that Jesus talks to the disciples about, as he leaves them is his introducing the first Person of the Trinity to his disciples: The Father. It is only fitting that after Christ has shown the disciples that he as Son of God, is the second person in the Trinity; and has taken time to tell them of the coming of the third Person in the Trinity, he must now end his discussion by telling them about God the Father. There is very little Jesus might wish to say about God the Father since all of the Old Testament speaks of him in the first Person. However, Christ must still tell his disciples about the Father. First, he tells them that the Father is approachable. They may not have many resources on earth, but they will have the blessing of prayer (John 16:26). Jesus invites the disciples to pray and receive from God. It means that when we pray and it appears that we have not received our object of prayer, it is all in God’s plan. The chapter ends with Jesus telling his disciples that the Christian life will consist of tribulation. He however invites us to see these trials in a different light: Christians have overcome the world. With the power of the Holy Spirit, and the backing of the God who made the heavens and the earth, there is nothing that will stand as a mountain before the believer. If we have grace in our hearts to wait, God’s good purposes will come to pass.
One such purpose in our day and time is that God wishes that Christians will worship him in spirit and in truth. What goes by Christian music in many instances today is not genuine biblical worship. People may hide behind the word “inspiration”, and claim that the music they are producing is a vision from God and that our criticism of it is the devil’s means of thwarting the vision – producing sorrow in them. This however is the deception of the devil. God’s vision has a pattern: it is birth by the Holy Spirit; it is nurtured in holiness; it has a strong influence of a faithful church life in it; and it is governed by an overall biblical worldview. In the final analysis, whatever vision God has in us, he will ensure it has a godly and fulfilling end. If a vision is birth in the flesh, one can be sure that it will require the flesh to run with it, and it will not have a lasting influence on the people and the society. The reason why we have the message of the gospel propagated in every nation with every tongue today is because the gospel message is a vision birth by God through Jesus Christ. Our hope and prayer is that whatever the Lord births in our hearts will have a similar end in view.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]
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