John’s Gospel – Lesson 22

This week we will begin in the middle of Jesus instructions and reassurance for the disciples.

John 16:1-4a
“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 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. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.

This was not just an attempt to keep them from falling away but is rather a sure set of hedges. Don’t read that first sentence as if Jesus was saying that He has done all He can and now He is watching to see what will happen. We walk out our salvation with fear and trembling because of the holiness of the Father and His discipline but not because we may ultimately fall and fail if we are truly saved.

John 16:4b-11
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 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. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

We benefit, like the disciples, from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Then through us we see these effects. First, we see conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

The light of the Gospel convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
 1) Conviction is one of the most blessed gifts of the Holy Spirit. It can guide Christians but brings anger to non-Christians,
2) We have a testimony of true righteousness in the life, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and
3) We have a testimony of judgment for evil that begins with the ruler of this world and then comes home to those who refuse the Gospel.


The Helper or Holy Spirit brings the entirety of the Trinity in a sense. Conviction of sin as a ministry of the Holy Spirit, conviction of the virtue, truth, and beauty of Christ’s life to glorify the Son, and conviction of the reality of the judgment that comes from the throne of God the Father.


From “On Christ the Solid Rock” by Mote in the early 1800s


When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Knowledge of conviction for sin, knowledge of righteousness, and knowledge of God’s judgment as things that are virtuous, true, and beautiful are works of the Holy Spirit within our hearts.

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

His purpose is to glorify Christ by explaining, in the revelation that is Scripture by enlivening you, all that pertains to the goodness, truth, and beauty of Christ and God the Father. He will not glorify Himself because that is not His purpose. The disciples did not understand all of these things.

John 16:16-24
“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

God  - prior to salvation - is the one against whom we have committed treason. After Salvation, God is our Father and is attentive to our prayers because we are in Christ.

So, for the disciples, their final condition was to be far superior to what they had known as disciples. They would become, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the children of God.

John 16:25-28
“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

The bottom line was that He was “leaving the world and going to the Father.”

John 16:29-33
His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

“Going to the Father” sounded good. The transfiguration may have provided a model for their conception of Jesus going to the Father. The glory was on the other side of the Cross. All of our sins would make a sea of separation between us and God were it not for the grace that has been bought and paid for on the Cross.


So at this time so near to the Cross, the sheep would scatter but the Shepherd would gather.


Jesus has overcome the fallen nature of creation. His work takes us out of the kingdom of darkness and makes us Children of God. He places our feet upon the rock of His Salvation.

We continue to have difficulties in this fallen world but our peace with God and with our lives is the product of the knowledge that this world is not all there is and that Jesus has overcome our falleness with His perfect sacrifice.


Next, Jesus stops speaking to the disciples and begins to pray. What He prayed is called His high priestly prayer. The disciples had the opportunity to listen to the prayer. This is a portion of Scripture that Jesus prays for you. He says that explicitly in verse 20 of this chapter so keep that in mind as you hear what He prays.

John 17:1-5
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

In a fiduciary relationship, the fiduciary acts on the behalf of the principle. The principle is a person in need and the principle must place confidence, faith, and trust in the fiduciary. Of course you can imagine the courts often must regulate and adjudicate this sort of relationship. This is not something that the principle enters into lightly or without need because property is turned over in trust to the fiduciary because the principle is unable to do what needs to be done the principle’s own good and needs the fiduciary to do what needs to be done.


So the facts are that you have sinned. You have sinned against an infinitely holy and just God who will not tolerate the least sin. His infinite holiness and perfection make your rebellion and treason worthy of eternal punishment. You are wholly unable to remove yourself from this situation by your own works. You can’t remedy your past sins and you’re current obedience is flawed. To think your works are good enough to get you into heaven is simply one more sin strapped on your back dragging you down into the kingdom of darkness.


However, knowing the facts of the Cross and that it was a real true Christ that died for sinners nearly 2000 years ago you can make Christ your fiduciary. He did what you can’t do. He carried the wrath of God for our sins and died in our place. We are baptized as a testimony that we have accepted Him as our fiduciary and that we passed through the wrath of God and the debt is paid by our Savior.


In old Roman law the Fiducia Pledge was a pledge with possession. Ironically, the Emperor Constantine ended this type of pledge with possession. It is ironic because he was the first emperor to convert to Christianity. However, in the first century AD, if you made a Fiducia Pledge then your property was transferred to the fiduciary. It was not just a lien or security. The ownership moved from the principal to the fiduciary. Then the fiduciary could do with it whatever the fiduciary wanted to do with it. The principal might object but the transfer of property to the fiduciary made the property theirs and not the principal’s any more. Of course you only did this when you had no other means of handling a debt.


The book of Romans tells us that we who have Jesus Christ as Savior have entered into a Fiducia Pledge with Him. It is the grounds and basis of our salvation. The property of your life has been transferred to Him. It is His now. When we say that Jesus is Lord then we are affirming that He has control of all that is ours. We are saying that even if we don’t mean that or are ignorant of what it means to say Jesus is Lord. I’m afraid that some hesitate after a knowledge of the facts of the Gospel and even after acknowledging that the facts are true and draw back from the Fiducia Pledge. It is with good reason that a man pulls back because it is a commitment of your life. Listen to what Romans 12:1-2 says.

Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Galatians 2:20-21
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Romans 6:3-4
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Soli Deo Gloria – Glory to God alone. I was lost and now I’m found. I was by nature a child of wrath and my condemnation would have been just but God who is rich in mercy has lifted me up and I am accepted in the Beloved.Our baptism is our testimony or statement of the fact that we were crucified with Christ. He paid the price for our sins. We must jealously protect the integrity of the grace of God in our lives and never let it be in our minds that we have earned God’s favor. To stand before God and indicate that anything other than Christ makes that possible is to say that Christ died for no purpose. We are acceptable and holy because of the Cross and for no other reason. We make our Fiducia Pledge on that basis and on that basis alone.Only in Christ can you present your body as a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God as justified. Only after accepting Christ as your fiduciary can you do that. You can’t be holy or acceptable apart from Him. The transformation and renewal of mind make it possible for us to walk out our lives before God seeking to be increasingly sanctified and to fully realize the transfer of ownership of my life to Him. In another place Paul says, Here is a declaration of purpose. Jesus purpose was to bring glory to the Father by the authority he has to give eternal life to all those that the Father has given Him. This is what eternal life looks like … knowledge of the one true God and Jesus Christ. This knowledge is not like the algebra you “know” from high school. This is “knowing” as you know your immediate family and the word can sometimes be used in Scripture for “knowing in a biblical sense.” Remember that knowing in salvation moves through 1) knowing the facts, 2) knowing the facts are true, and 3) knowing Christ in a fiduciary sense. The disciples did not have the depth of understanding in foresight that we can have in hindsight with the benefit of the rest of Scripture and the Holy Spirit.The reality of the Crucifixion would be revealed later. The atonement was still something that the disciples could struggle with. The necessity of Christ bearing the just punishment for your sins was still hard to hear and it was easier for them to think of it as a “woman giving birth”.Jesus is explaining the change in relationship that we undergo as we experience Salvation.Jesus continues to explain what the Holy Spirit will do. This is also so you can see why the Holy Spirit is so focused on the rest of the Trinity. His ministry is to guide you into what is Christ’s and the Father’s.
Jesus has made provision for our security in salvation and here Jesus is telling the disciples that He had taught and inspired (literally) and would baptize in the Holy Spirit to keep them from falling away. When Jesus said it was better that He go away it was deeply true in the light of the Gospel.