A Sermon by Dr. Bob Griffin, Teaching Elder at Sovereign Grace Church (very slow to upload; please be patient)
I. REMEMBRANCE OF TRUTH
A. CAUSE
1. SHOCKING
Jn 16:1 I have said all these things to you to prevent your faltering.
also Mt 26:56 “Then all the disciples left Him and fled”
2. SUFFERING
Jn 16:2-3 They will expel you from synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is giving religious duty to god. Also they will do these things since they do not know the Father or Me.
also Acts 26:9-11 “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.”
B. EFFECT
1. STRESSING
Jn 16:4a But I have told you these things so that when the hour arrives you might remember what I told you.
also II Tim 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”
also II Cor 11:22-27 “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
also I Peter 4:12-13 “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”
2. SPECIFYING
Jn 16:4b I didn’t tell you this from the start, because I was with you.
II. REMINDER OF TRUTH
A. CAUSE
1. SEARCHING
Jn 16:5 But now I am going to Him who sent Me, yet none of you even asks Me, ‘Where are you going?’
2. SORROWING
Jn 16:6 Yet because I’ve told you this, grief has filled your hearts.
B. EFFECT
1. SUPPORTING
Jn 16:7a Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it’s for your advantage that I go away.
also Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
2. SUPPLYING
Jn 16:7b For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.
also II Corinthians 5:16 Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
III. RECKONING OF TRUTH
A. CAUSE
1. SHOWING
Jn 16:8a And when He comes:
2. SENTENCING
Jn 16:8b He will convince the world regarding sin and righteousness and judgment:
B. EFFECT
1. SPURNING
Jn 16:9 regarding sin, because they do not believe on Me;
also Jn 8:24 “Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins”
also Jn 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God”
2. SINNING
Jn 16:10 regarding righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer;
3. SCRUTINIZING
Jn 16:11 regarding judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
IV. REVELATION OF TRUTH
A. CAUSE
1. SYMPATHIZING
Jn 16:12 I still have much to say to you, but you can’t handle it just now.
also Luke 18:34 “But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said:
2. SORTING
Jn 16:13a When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth
also I Cor 2:9-10 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God
B. EFFECT
1. SPEAKING
Jn 16:13b for He will not speak of His initiative, but will say only what He hears, and He’ll disclose to you things still to come.
also II Peter 1:3 “everything pertaining to life and godliness”
2. SANCTIFYING
Jn 16:14-15 He will glorify Me, for He will receive from Me and announce it to you. (Because all that the Father has is Mine I can say ‘He will receive from Me and announce it to you’.)