Ticket for Two: The World’s Worst Problem (Jn 16:7-11) Chris Altrock – April 24, 2016

The World’s Worst Problem

What is the most important problem facing the United States? I’d like you to take a few seconds to think about that question. Do you have an answer in mind? It doesn’t necessarily have to be “the most important” problem. It can just be “an important” problem facing the U. S. Do you have an answer in mind? Take a second and share your answer with someone near you…

Near the beginning of 2016, Americans were polled by Gallup regarding that question.^[1] Here’s what we said:

Those items may mirror some of the items you came up with this morning. And these are significant issues today. And, in fact, some of these are problems which churches like ours spend a great deal of money and volunteer hours tackling–especially problems like race relations, poverty, immigration, and unemployment.

This morning we want to listen to Jesus answer what amounts to the same question. It comes up in Jesus’ “Sermon on the Holy Spirit,” which John has recorded it for us in John 14-16. We’ve been paying attention to the places where Jesus uses the word parakletos to talk about the Holy Spirit. In the text this morning in which Jesus uses parakletos, he addresses this issue of what he believes is the worst problem facing not just the United States but the whole world:

 7 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. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:7-11 ESV)

The word translated “Helper” is our word parakletos. And notice what Jesus says this Spirit will do:

1. Convict the world
2. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me
3. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father
4. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged

Notice that, just as with our text last week, so with this text, Jesus describes the role of the Holy Spirit in terms of the Spirit’s work in the world. We may be used to only thinking of the Holy Spirit’s work in the church or in ourselves–the Spirit’s work of giving us strength to live right, to make good decisions, to know God better, etc. But in his Sermon on the Spirit, Jesus often speaks of the Spirit’s role out in the world. Jesus speaks of the Spirit’s mission in the world. Thus Jesus expands our horizons regarding what the Spirit does. The Spirit doesn’t just exist for me personally or even just for the church. The Spirit has a mission to the world.

The Spirit, Jesus says, will convict the world. The word “convict” can mean “correct.” The Holy Spirit is going to work in order to correct the world, because the world has gotten things all wrong.  In particular, Jesus mentions three things the Holy Spirit is going to correct the world about.

First, the Holy Spirit is going to correct the world when it comes to sin; not sin in general, but one specific sin. That must mean this is a very important sin; the most important sin. After all, this is the only sin, according to this text, that the Holy Spirit has been sent into the world to address. Scholar Frederick Dale Bruner writes that the must be the very worst problem in the world since it’s the one sin the Spirit has been sent to correct. I’ll put it this way: The mission of the Holy Spirit is to correct the world’s worst problem: people who don’t believe in Jesus.

Let that soak in. For the Holy Spirit, the world’s worst problem is not terrorism. It’s not the economy. It is not unemployment. It’s not crime. Those are all terrible problems. But for the Holy Spirit the worst problem, the only sin that’s on his agenda in this text, is the sin of people not believing in Jesus.

That doesn’t mean we don’t pay attention to those other sins. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about those other problems. But that means that for the Holy Spirit this problem is problem #1. And thus it means for the church that is problem #1. People’s belief in and relationship with Jesus is problem #1. The one thing the Holy Spirit invests himself most in, and the one thing the church invests ourselves most in is helping people enter into and grow in a relationship with Jesus.

That’s what makes us such an odd group. While we are still involved in unemployment and poverty and race relations and marriage and parent issues, we are the only group of people on earth who say, “The primary problem, the most important problem in the world has to do with people’s relationship with Jesus.” That means we can never ever be satisfied with only getting someone a job. Never ever be satisfied with only helping resolve racial issues in a community. Never be satisfied with only feeding hungry people. Never be satisfied with only helping parents be better parents. Our mission, just as is the Holy Spirit’s mission, is only fulfilled when we have addressed the need for people to enter into and grow in a relationship with Jesus. That is the one sin, the one problem for which the Holy Spirit has come into the world to resolve.

 

His Vindication from Heaven

Why? Why is this the Spirit’s primary mission? Why is this the world’s worst problem? This text builds upon itself. Let’s look at it again:

1. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me
2. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father
3. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged

In the second line and the third line Jesus spells out why it is so important for people to believe in him and to have relationship with him. In the second line Jesus says it has something to do with his righteousness and with his going to the Father. When he says he is going to the Father, he is referring to what’s about to happen–his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his Ascension to the right hand of the Father. The word “righteous” doesn’t necessarily refer to Jesus’ holiness. It can also be translated “vindication.” Jesus is referring to the way in which his death, resurrection and Ascension are the divine vindication of all he stood for and all he did during his time on earth. They are the divine stamp of approval upon Jesus. The cross, the tomb and the Ascension are heaven’s way of proving that Jesus was righteous or right all along.

In other words, belief in Jesus matters most because of Jesus’ vindication from heaven. By the cross, the tomb, and the Ascension, heaven has proven Jesus and his way right. That’s why it is so important for people everywhere to believe in him. Because his way has been proven right. It’s been vindicated.

And the Holy Spirit’s mission is to correct the world on this critical issue. The worst problem in the word is to not believe in Jesus, to believe for some reason that Jesus is wrong, or that his teaching or his way of life is wrong.  Because Jesus’ way has been validated by heaven itself. It has been proven right and true.

John Ortberg (Who Is This Man?) writes about the many aspects of the way of Jesus that have been validated throughout history.  Consider, Ortberg writes, just how right Jesus’ teaching and ways have been proven when it comes to his perspective on children, women, education, the sick and the poor:

 

Jesus’ Way Proven Right Regarding CHILDREN: “Children would be thought of differently because of Jesus. Historian O. M. Bakke wrote a study called When Children Became People: The Birth of Childhood in Early Christianity , in which he noted that in the ancient world, children usually didn’t get named until the eighth day or so. Up until then there was a chance that the infant would be killed or left to die of exposure—particularly if it was deformed or of the unpreferred gender. This custom changed because of a group of people who remembered that they were followers of a man who said,’Let the little children come to me.’” (John Orberg Who Is This Man?)

 

Jesus’ Way Proven Right Regarding WOMEN ”Jesus never married. But his treatment of women led to the formation of a community that was so congenial to women that they would join it in record numbers. In fact, the church was disparaged by its opponents for precisely that reason. Jesus’ teachings about sexuality would lead to the dissolution of a sexual double standard that was actually encoded in Roman law.” (John Ortberg Who Is This Man?)

 

Jesus’ Way Proven Right Regarding EDUCATION “Jesus never wrote a book. Yet his call to love God with all one’s mind would lead to a community with such a reverence for learning that when the classical world was destroyed in what are sometimes called the Dark Ages, that little community would preserve what was left of its learning. In time, the movement he started would give rise to libraries and then guilds of learning. Eventually Oxford and Cambridge and Harvard and Yale and virtually the entire Western system of education and scholarship would arise because of his followers.” (John Ortberg Who Is This Man?)

 

Jesus’ Way Proven Right Regarding THE SICK AND THE POOR “Sociologist Rodney Stark argued that one of the primary reasons for the spread of Jesus’ movement was the way his followers responded to sick people. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius around AD 165, an epidemic of what may have been smallpox killed somewhere between a third and a fourth of the population, including Marcus Aurelius himself. A little less than a century later came a second epidemic, in which at its height five thousand people were reported dying daily in the city of Rome alone…But there was in that world a community that remembered they followed a man who would touch lepers while they were unclean; who told his disciples to go heal the sick…Dionysius, a third-century bishop of Alexandria, wrote about their actions during the plagues:’Heedless of the danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need, and ministering to them in Christ. And with them departed this life serenely happy, for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors, and cheerfully accepting their pains.’ A church father named Basil had an idea:’What if we build a place to love and care for lepers? …That was the beginning of what would come to be known as hospitals.”  (John Ortberg Who Is This Man?)

 

The Holy Spirit has been busy for two thousand years showing that Jesus and his way are right. Believing in Jesus is the most pressing matter today because of Jesus’ vindication from heaven. Heaven has affirmed that Jesus’ person and path are right and true. And if we truly hope to address all those other problems which exist upon the earth, they will best be addressed by a world that comes to live by the virtues taught by Jesus and by the way taught by Jesus. Jesus has already presented a solution to every ill that infects the world. And if every person became his follower and lived by his way, there would be no unemployment, no hunger, no crime, no terrorism. This is why belief in Jesus matters most.

 

His Victory over Evil

Let’s return once more to Jesus’ words about the Holy Spirit:

1. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me
2. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father
3. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged

The great sin which the Holy Spirit is on a mission to address is people’s lack of belief in Jesus. Why is that the problem that matters most? As we’ve seen, it matters most, as the second line states, because of Jesus’ vindication from heaven. But the third line builds the case in an even stronger way.

Jesus speaks about “the ruler of this world.” Jesus is not talking about any human president, human king or human dictator. This is Jesus’ language for the devil. Jesus is saying that the Holy Spirit is on a mission to correct the world’s understanding of the ultimate source of the evil–the devil. Most of the world has got it wrong when it comes to evil. Either they don’t understand that evil comes from an ultimate source like the devil. Or they don’t understand that this ultimate source will finally and fully be overcome only in Jesus. But the truth is that there is a supernatural source of evil whom Jesus calls the “ruler of the this world.” And he’s been judged. Jesus has hauled him into court. His trial has already been held. The sentence has already been handed down. It’s already been read aloud. And soon–very, very soon–it’s going to be carried out once and for all. The Holy Spirit’s on a mission to help the world understand all of this.

This third line is about Jesus’ victory over evil. That’s why belief in Jesus is so important. Belief in Jesus matters most because of Jesus’ victory over evil. The Gospel says that the ultimate source behind all of those troubles we listed at the beginning is the devil himself. So if you want to do more than just attack symptoms, if you want to do more than just get at the surface, if you want to get deep down and treat the root cause of the worst problems in the world, belief in Jesus is necessary. Because Jesus alone has the power to gain victory over evil.

Carolyn Arends writes about a Mission Sunday in the church she attended when she was young. Some missionaries from some steamy jungle came. She doesn’t remember anything except their story about a snake. One day, they said, an enormous snake slithered through their front door and into the kitchen. They ran outside and searched for a local who might know what to do. A machete-wielding neighbor came to the rescue and decapitated the snake with one chop. But he warned it was going to take a while for the snake to realize it was dead. For the next several hours, the missionaries were forced to wait outside while the snake thrashed about, smashing furniture and flailing against walls and windows, wreaking havoc until its body finally understood that it no longer had a head. Sweating in the heat, they had felt frustrated but also grateful that the snake’s rampage wouldn’t last forever. And at some point in their waiting, they had a mutual epiphany. Arends writes, “I leaned in with the rest of the congregation, queasy and fascinated.’Do you see it?’ asked the husband.’Satan is a lot like that big old snake. He’s already been defeated. He just doesn’t know it yet. In the meantime, he’s going to do some damage. But never forget that he’s a goner.’”^[2]

That’s why belief in Jesus matters so much. Because of Jesus’ victory over evil. Jesus has already placed the death blow. He’s already judged him. Satan’s still thrashing about. Still causing plenty of damage. But never forget that he’s a goner. And only by believing in Jesus do we get to experience the full force of that.

 

The Better Absence

And that’s why, according to Jesus, life with the Spirit is better than life with Jesus.

 7 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.

Jesus makes an important statement: A life with the Spirit is a life of advantage. Unbelievably, Jesus says it is actually better, more advantageous, to have a life with the Spirit and without Jesus than to have a life with Jesus and without the Spirit. That’s how advantageous the Spirit is. We often look at the lives of people who were alive at the time of Jesus and envy them. But Jesus says they look at us and envy us. Because we are alive during the time of the Spirit.

And this Spirit has an amazing mission. His mission is to correct the world’s worst problem: people who do not believe in Jesus. This is the Spirit’s Mission–to lead people to believe in Jesus so they can experience that vindicated way and victory over evil. It’s a mission he’s engaged in everywhere we turn. All over the world.

 

Spirit’s Mission, Our Mission

But it is also our mission as well. Consider this. Consider the week in front of you and complete this sentence: Because unbelief in Jesus is the world’s worst problem, I will _______.

Maybe it starts with you and your unbelief. Maybe it’s time to believe. Maybe the Holy Spirit has been at work on you. And it’s finally time to believe. Time to be baptized. Time to start experiencing that vindicated way and that victory over evil. We’re prepared to help you take that step this morning.

Maybe it starts with someone at school, at home, at work or in your neighborhood. Maybe it starts by inviting them to church next Sunday. By inviting them to read through a Gospel with you. By inviting them to attend your Reach Group, Village, or Huddle. Or maybe it starts by simply getting to know them. Spend some time considering that sentence.