But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.Nevertheless I tell you the truth; 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.Nevertheless I tell you the truth: 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 go, I will send him unto you.
8 sermons cite this verse
… But we need the Holy Spirit. John chapter 16, verses 7 to 14 cover it all. But listen to this. I'll touch on the front end and I'll finish it off in a moment. John 16, verse 7 announces, Jesus said, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. How could that possibly be good for the disciples that Jesus would leave them? Jesus said, it's better for you that I leave. What could be better than having Jesus right in your midst? Jesus says, the spirit of God. Look at that. For if I do not go away, the helper, and I want to pause right there. Look at the Greek meaning of the word helper. This is a compounded word. Parakletos, parakaleo. Listen, para, you get the word para, parachute, paraglider. That which is alongside you, para. And then kleitos or kleo is the word comforter. The comforter will come alongside you. Jesus, listen, when he was in the flesh, he could only be where he was at. …
… send in my name he will teach you all things and he'll bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. How about chapter 16? 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. And when he has come, he will convict you of sin and righteousness and of judgment. Now how about verse 13? However, when 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 all things to come. He will glorify me and he will not take of what is mine and he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Last one, chapter 15, verse 26. When the advocate comes, whom I send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. The Holy Spirit never makes much of himself. The Holy Spirit lives to point you to Jesus. Have you ever had a friend or you ever been in a conversation and the person somehow turns everything and makes it about themselves? You tell a story, they're like, you think that's good. You wait till my story. Oh, that's what you did? You wait to hear what I did. …
… So they had pressure in life. And look what happens to them in John chapter 16 verse 7. It says, it's best for you that I go away. Because if I don't, the advocate won't come. But if I go away, then I will send him to you. See, this is the point I want to make to everybody is that how do we be able to have peace under pressure? We have to accept the advocate and use his help We have to accept the advocate and use his help now, you know, i'm using bible scripture But I want to help you understand this the disciples wanted the person of jesus, but they really needed the the promise of jesus They needed the Holy Spirit in their lives. Some of you are saying, Pastor Mike, that's a lot. Why are you telling us we need the Holy Spirit? We know we need the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is what I want to let you know, that the pressure of life cannot be picked up by anybody but the Holy Spirit. …
… if you speed up a bit in John's gospel to John chapter 16, we see this again. But very truly, I tell you, it is for your good that I'm going away. Unless I go away, the advocate, can we just say that together? The advocate, the advocate is what he's calling him, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So Jesus Christ, think about this, God in human flesh raises the dead, heals the sick, allows the blind to see, touches the leper, changes the world, walks on water, gives his life for the sins of the world on a cross, is raised out of the tomb by the power of Almighty God, is saying to you to me today, if I go, it's even better for you than if I stay. Now, how can this be so? That if God in human flesh is no longer among us in human flesh, that it could be even better for us than with him here. …
… given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus explained to His disciples, 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. This is not like getting the understudy. I think I had that years ago when I was visiting Tricia in England. We went to see Les Mis, and they announced that it was, I think it was the understudy for Fantine. And you went, wah, wah, wah. Turns out that the understudy in London is still pretty good. So the Holy Spirit is not, I wish we had Jesus, but we get the Spirit. It's the understudy of Christ. No, we have Christ Himself. The Spirit is another helper, another paraclete, as Christ is a paraclete. And so the Spirit is told to be the Spirit of Christ. And it means that when we are joined to Christ, we too are seated in the heavenly places. This is one of the benefits of understanding that Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father. When we are joined by the Spirit to Christ, we are genuinely not citizens ultimately of this world. You have an address which is somewhere else with Jesus, and that will be in the next age when heaven comes to earth. But already now, joined to Christ, we dwell with Him in glory above. …
… who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, the paraclete, 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. when the spirit of truth comes 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 declare to you the things that are to come and he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you there's so much in these passages that deserves our attention look at the unity of the trinity the son will ask the Father. The Father will send the Spirit. God bless you. There's such a happy cooperation that's at work here. As if to say the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all three expressions of the same Godhead, are cooperating to be a helper, to come alongside, to be the paraclete. Did you take note of the pronoun, he will lead you. He will teach you. He will guide you. He will convict you. …
… sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, speaking of the Holy Spirit, will not come to you. but if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. That is, he says, this is the reason I'm sending him, very specifically why I'm sending him. So, if someone were to ask you today, well, you Christians believe in the Holy Spirit, who is he anyway? Could you answer that question? Could you say to them, well, He's the promise of the Father, and He's our seal under the day of redemption. He's our guide, our teacher. He's our helper. He is the divine energy and authority by which we carry out the work that God has called us to do. And if they said to you, then exactly tell me why He's here. We want to answer that question because, you see, He didn't just show up. …
… And some of the most precious things he said to them, he said to them in that discourse. He said to them, it is expedient for you that I go away. If I go not away, the comforter will not come. But if I go away, I'll send him. He'll be in you, with you, and upon you. He says, fear not, I will come unto you. So the next day, Jesus was crucified, gave his life for your sins and my sins, making it possible for us to be saved. Before this time the Holy Spirit worked in people's lives in this manner That is he would come upon someone for a particular work and then he would depart But at Pentecost that is 50 days after the Passover the Bible says in Acts chapter 2 That the Holy Spirit came upon the 120 The sound of a mighty rushing wind Cloven tongues of fire upon their heads And they began to speak in tongues which was the tongue was not an indistinguishable utterance, but it was a different foreign language so that the people who were there began to understand from one group of people all of their different languages and therefore they understood the gospel of Jesus Christ. …