The Spirit Is Not A Substitute Teacher Filling In For Christ — Tim Conway

Christ's Departure Is to the Disciples' Advantage

John 16, 7, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away. You see what Jesus is saying here? It's not just like, well, I'm going away, and that's just necessary because of the way that my Father has designed this whole thing and kind of as a by-product or a little aside here.

Yeah, we did figure out that you're probably going to need to have the hole that's going to be left by my departure somehow filled here. And so, we decided to try to help out with the situation. We know this isn't the perfect situation that you're going to be losing Me, the Messiah, but we've got a substitute coming in and we know just like a substitute teacher really doesn't measure up to how the main teacher...

The Holy Spirit Is Not a Substitute for Christ

It's nothing like that! Jesus is saying look, what you need to recognize is no matter how great you think it might be to have Christ the Messiah with you specifically physically walking at your side, as great as that would be, He's saying to these guys, look, this is one of the things I'm telling you guys so that you won't fall away.

You need to recognize it is actually to your advantage that I go away. Get that word. Advantage. If I don't go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I'll send Him to you. You see what He's saying?

If I don't go away, He's not coming to you. In other words, guys, if you really understood this thing properly, you would want Me to go away because this is no secondary kind of thing. It's not like you're getting the substitute.

It's not like you're getting the second best. You guys, this is going to be great. So that's what we need to remember here. This coming of the... What we have is one called to assist us, one called to come and aid us.

The Spirit's Greater Aid and the Call to Trust Christ

And what He's saying is this Spirit is going to aid you in a greater way than what you've experienced while you've had Me walking with you. That's basically what we're coming to. Now think with me here.

This is the gist. And if you think about what it really means, and I talked about Jonathan charging up there and taking out the garrison. Why? Because he trusted God. You see what happens when you trust Christ?

It actually looks like something impressive, folks. And so this is what He's calling us to. And He says, if you love Me, you're going to do those kinds of things. And if you do that, you know what's going to happen?

I'm going to ask My Father to dispatch a helper to you that's actually going to be to your advantage. More of an advantage to you than if I were to stay with you. Would you rather walk with Jesus where you saw things like He touched a blind man?

Or you were able to actually watch Him look up in that tree at Zacchaeus? And you were able to sit around the fire at night and have His wisdom? I mean, you talk about what it would have been like to be in Solomon's court.

Can you imagine if you sat with Christ every single night around the fire just talking with Him? The things you would have heard? I mean, you were... Wisdom and knowledge just poured out of Him. And you know what?

He loved His own to the end. He had One with you that loved you like no one else ever loved you. Would you rather have that? Remember, teach us how to pray. They were watching Him. They watched Him pray.

They heard Him pray. I mean, would you rather have that? Watching Him, you hear the tones in His voice. You see the expressions on His face. You can see just the look of compassion when the leper says, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.

And you're standing there watching. And would you rather have that? Or would you rather have the Holy Spirit in you? Which would you rather have? Jesus says, guys, if you really know things like I know, you'll prefer the second.

The Spirit's Presence Changes from With You to In You

That's what He's saying. So here's a question. Here's a question that I would ask. Obviously, something is about to change. Something with regards to the Spirit that is really advantageous is about to happen.

And so I would ask this, what is about to happen that didn't happen before that? What is new with the Spirit? In fact, He says that up till now, the Spirit has been with you. But in the future, the Spirit's going to be in you.

So how has the Spirit been with them up to that point and not in them? And look, maybe you could suggest other answers to that. But I know one. I know one way that's true, that the Spirit was with them.

The Spirit was with them in as much as they were with Christ. And now what's being said is this, they've got another Comforter, one like Christ, and He's not going to just be external. He's going to come in.

The Triune God Dwelling Within Believers

And what Jesus is saying is this, what you guys don't realize is I've been with you just like the Spirit in Me has been with you. But you know what's going to happen when I'm taken away from you? The Spirit is going to come in you.

And when the Spirit comes in, inside, I and the Father in that Spirit are going to come in. Thus far, our relationship, I've been external to you. But now, guys, my Father and I are going to come make our home with you, inside you, by way of the Spirit.

You're going to have the triune God dwelling inside you. The disciples are troubled because Jesus is about to leave. It seems like their relationship with Him is about to come to an end. But you know what Jesus is teaching is actually the reverse is about to take place.

That's the advantage, that He'd go. And it's going to result in this internalizing of Christ. They're going to lose their Teacher, their Helper, their Comforter, but they're going to gain Him in altogether a new way.

And that's what verses 18 through 25 are all about. It's not just a phenomenal gift that we've been given Christ, who is this treasure. It's also so glorious that He gives us eyes to actually see the treasure for the preciousness and the worth.

Seeing Christ's Beauty Leads to Worship and Praise

I mean, to see the beauty of Christ. It's like it's worship culminates the whole thing. It's one thing to have the treasure. It's another thing when you find worth in it, where it fills you with joy and glory and song and praise, and you just want to shout because that treasure is yours.

This excerpt is from the full sermon, Another Helper from Tim Conway Series, The Upper Room Discourse, Part 16. Listen to the full sermon on illbehonest .com or on our Spotify.