Our gracious heavenly Father, we pray that You would extend Your kingdom and Your Spirit would be at work in this room. We pray that Your Spirit would be at work to anoint the preaching of Your Word and to give to Your people ears to hear. We pray that we would see our sin, be convicted of our sin, and turn to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that we may not be trifling with holy things, and so we pray, Father, together with Your Son, to send Your Spirit to work in a mighty way through the preaching of Your Word for the glory of Your name. We pray in Jesus. Amen.

Please turn in your Bibles to John, chapter 16, the second half of verse 4 through verse 15, page 902 if you’re using one of the pew Bibles. If you don’t have a Bible of your own, you’re welcome to take that home. If you are new to Christ Covenant, we hope that you’ll get in the habit of turning in our Bible or turning on your Bible when we come to the preaching of God’s Word so you can follow along. The authority that I have is in so far as I am speaking from this book, and every week we hope that you understand more of this book and meet Christ in this book.

Follow along then as I read from verses 4 through 15:

“‘I did not say these things,'” Jesus is speaking, “‘ 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.'”

We’ve been working our way for a couple of years through John’s Gospel and this also is the second weekend of our Missions Week, and this passage in John and our thinking together on missions certainly coincide, for the work of mission is nothing less than the work of the Holy Spirit. And the work of the Holy Spirit in the world is in large part that missionary enterprise to convict people of sin and to throw a spotlight upon the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In this upper room discourse, Jesus speaks often of the Trinity and here in chapter 16 in particular of the work of the Holy Spirit. As we’ve noted before, surely there is something significant and surprising for us that as they come to the cataclysmic moment of their lives and in the universe, as they anticipate that Jesus is about to be betrayed, and that the world as they know it is crashing down around them, in this last evening together, what does Jesus feel burdened to speak to them about?

The Trinity.

Is that what you would think? As you have one evening left with your disciples or with your loved ones and you have one last opportunity to set them on a sound footing for the work and for the mission that is to continue, would you think, “Well, surely we want to spend our time talking about the Trinity and the work of the Holy Spirit,” and when Jesus in John 17 prays, it is largely a trinitarian prayer about He and the Father being...