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.
“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.
Comment: The Bible gives us a seies of pictures all of which are true but overlap and we need to look at the whole series of ‘snap shots’. Jesus says that He will be with us until the end of the age (Matt 28v20), but in this snap shot we have Him ascending into heaven and in that sense leaving them. They had walked on the same paths, eaten at the same board, sleep in the same house with Him. Here he promises an unseen but very real and extremely capable Person (the third person of the Triune God) to live in and with them. And what would His, the Spirit’s work be?
- Personally to each follower of Jesus and to the group, to give understanding and depth to Jesus’ teaching.
- In the world the Spirit had several responsibilities. 1. Conviction of the greatest sin, that is failure to believe in Jesus. 2. To show the extreme of righteousness, which is having been crucified, dead and buried, the Righteous God raised Jesus from the dead and took Him to Heaven to sit at God’s right hand. 3. Judgement, because the devil’s power over death had been destroyed when God judged Satan in the Cross. 4. The Holy Spirit would glorify Jesus.
Prayer: May my ears hear, my mind understand, my heart be turned to loving and obedience shown in all my actions, Lord God.
As I read it! 