John 16:4b-15
June 6, 2004
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
On the minds of many of us at this time of the year is graduation. If you are graduating, you have worked hard: staying in school, surviving the challenges, completing all of the requirements, and finally getting the permission to “walk” at graduation. It’s a happy time to recognize that you have learned all the knowledge of a major to get a bachelor’s degree or a high school diploma. Congratulations!
As a senior, you are on the top of the world. Do you know why, “sophomores” are not ready to graduate? How many of you are sophomores? Do you know what “sophomore” means? The name means “wise fool.” Whether it’s fair or not to actual sophomores, the designation means the one who knows just enough to be dangerous having learned a great deal his freshman year and now thinks he knows everything. That’s why sophomores are not graduating yet!
I noticed in the paper this past week about how there’s a significant increase of anxious sophomore students signing up for tutorial courses on taking the new SAT tests that will be introduced next March. This year’s sophomores will be next year’s juniors applying for colleges. Parents believe that with a little extra help and lots of money, you can amass enough knowledge to be able to score the new total of 2400 points on the SATs! Then you can say, “I made it! I know the answers.”
Still Many Things to Learn
After accompanying Jesus and his ministry for the past three years, you would think that they would have learned enough from Jesus to graduate. But we see in John 16 that as Jesus is preparing for his farewell, he was still teaching them. They were not ready to walk at commencement yet.
For many long passages Jesus has been explaining his mission to his followers. He has used a rich array of images, delved into a number of heavy ideas. Jesus taught them about the new commandment, that he is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through me, that the Holy Spirit is coming, that he is the True Vine, and that the sorrow that they will soon experience will eventually turn into joy.
Then in the middle of this long teaching lesson, Jesus says that he still has lots to tell them, but he won’t. There are aspects of who he is and what he is about that they cannot yet bear to hear, so he is saving that for later. Some time later, the Holy Spirit will be the one to share what this all means to them.
This is an odd comment for Jesus to make considering all those places in this gospel where Jesus tells his disciples that “he has made known everything” that is to be known from the Father (15:15). John, the gospel writer had depicted Jesus as the full, complete revelation of God. When we look at Jesus, we see as much of God as there is to see.
Or do we? Have we got, in the New Testament, in all these words about Jesus, all there is to know about Jesus or are we supposed to expect further revelation? Jesus says that there are things about him that the disciples “cannot bear” at the moment (16:12). What could he mean by that?
Some say what Jesus meant was that they could not bear to know what he must go through on the cross and his suffering and death. The first-century Jews were looking for a Messiah who is a God-like-Warrior to wrestle the occupation of the Romans from their country. Against this background, the death of Jesus the Messiah at the hands of the Romans was unthinkable. By definition, the Messiah had to be a winner. For Jesus to die at the hands of the occupiers would prove that he was not the Messiah. This twist in the concept of the Messiah, according to the Gospel of John, is what the disciples could not understand on their own and perhaps not even be able to bear during their lifetime. But in time, the Holy Spirit would enable the disciples to understand all of this.
Yet others say that Jesus must be asserting that revelation is a continuing process, an ongoing process that will continue even after the first century Christians. That “Spirit of Truth,” the Holy Spirit that Jesus promises them, will be their guide into all truth.
Earlier (14:6), Jesus had called himself “Truth.” So this “Spirit of Truth” will continue to unfold the significance of Jesus, “The Truth.” This “Spirit of Truth will not tell us anything secret that was not known until later, but will rather continue to unpack, unfold, disclose, and disburse more of the significance of Mr. Truth, Jesus. It’s continuing education! We may think that we have learned enough about Jesus, but he has sent us the Holy Spirit so that we may continue to learn more of God’s revelation of truth.
Beginners
When I was a high school sophomore, most of my friends were getting baptized. I felt that I wasn’t ready—that I needed more knowledge and understanding about who Jesus is. So I waited.
When baptism classes were offered again, my cousin and I joined. We were baptized later that year. But for whatever the expectations that I had, I felt that I was still not an adequate Christian. I was thinking that I would not have any more sinful thoughts. I thought I would only think about Jesus all the time. I was also expecting to be walking a few inches off the ground. None of those things happened.
I contacted my pastor and asked for more classes. I thought I must have missed something I should have learned. He graciously met with me as long as I wanted—there was no clear ending when I would have met all of the requirements to finally graduate with honors. I met with him until I discovered that to be a disciple is to participate in continuing education for the rest of my life.
The great theologian, Karl Barth once wrote that all of us Christians must continually cultivate among ourselves the “spirit of amateur.” There are no “professional Christians.” All of us must guard against the conceit that we have arrived in our faith, as if there is no more growing, learning, and converting for us to do, as if the work of the Spirit of Truth in us has been accomplished.
One of Dr. Chuck’s favorite saying from Samuel Shoemaker, an evangelical Episcopal minister, is a “Christian is a person who gives as much of himself as he can to as much as Christ as he knows.” or a “Christian is a person who gives as much of herself as she can to as much as Christ as she knows.” We are giving as much of ourselves to Christ as we know now but the meaning of discipleship is that throughout the rest of our lives, we will continue to give more and more of our lives until at the final end of life, we are able to give all of it to God.
None of us can get a Master’s Degree in discipleship, implying that we have somehow mastered the art of following Jesus. We are all beginners.
The oldest name for Christians, in the Acts of the Apostles, is “The Way.” To be a Christian means to be part of “The Way,” that is, on the journey with Jesus that goes on for the rest of our lives.
Today’s gospel implies that the Spirit of truth is busy, in your life and mine, in our congregation, in our worship, in our life together, unfolding more and more of the great mystery of God in the flesh, the Christ. God is still working on us—we are not finished with our continuing education!
Still Learning
There are beliefs that are central to the Christian faith that we could not lay on you during your first days as a Christian. You couldn’t bear them, in the words of today’s gospel. One of these beliefs is the Trinity. Like the disciples, we have come to know God through Jesus Christ. But last Sunday, we heard that Jesus and his Father are one—when we see Jesus, we have seen the Father. When we hear Jesus, we have also heard from God. Today, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit reveals the Son who is the revelation of the Father. We call this the Trinity—it’s not an easy belief to understand.
The Spirit of Truth is not telling us something other than what is present in Christ. The Spirit of Truth is none other than the very Spirit of the Christ, the very same Spirit of Jesus, not some other or additional deity, but the same God in three. We don’t teach you this when you just become a Christian.
That’s why we have you worship every week, 52 Sundays a year, so we can gradually, week in and week out, let the Spirit of Truth work on you to show you wonderful new insights, mysteries and revelations. Coming to worship is like taking continuing educational classes.
Some of you have emerged from Sunday worship saying to me, “Where on earth did you get this? I’ve been a church member all my life and never heard of this before!” I ought to say, “Congratulations. You are living proof of the truth of John 16:13: “When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and will declare to you the things that are to come.” The Spirit of truth is working on you. God is not done with you yet.
Thank God that we don’t have to work out everything about Christianity from the very first day we are a Christian. When you are a civil engineer, they make you take a long, involved exam, demonstrating that you know absolutely everything that you need to know about engineering before they would let you get near a construction project.
Discipleship is not like that. Paul says to one of his churches that when he first taught them, he fed them, baby food—soft, easy to chew, appealing nourishment before he dared give them more substantial and demanding food.
The Spirit of truth is like that. So don’t be surprised when you grow in your faith. Don’t feel bad when you encounter things that you have not known before or that you disagree with. The Spirit of Truth knows enough about Jesus to reveal to you just what you need to know, and when you need to know it. The Spirit of Truth knows enough about you to not tell you more than you can bear at the moment.
To be a Christian is always to be willing to grow, to change, to be proven wrong, to be shocked and surprised by the work of the Spirit of truth among us.
If I ask you to find the Psalms, almost all of you would simply open to the middle of the Bible and behold, you have found the Psalms. But how many of you have read them? For many Christians who have experienced some years of living would confess, “I have discovered the psalms.” This is a rather odd thing to say when for most of us, we can easily locate the psalms in the Bible.
Yet what we mean when we say, “I have discovered the psalms” is that after living life for 40 years, you have discovered in the psalms a deep life of faith. You began reading the psalms and heard them for the first time. They seemed to be calling your name, seemed to lay hold of you, embrace you, show you things about God that you have never seen before. It wasn’t that the psalms were new; it was your appreciation for and application of the psalms in your life that was new.
Jesus was telling the truth when in John 16:12, he told you that he wouldn’t lay more truth on you than you could bear. He would wait, until just the right time for the Spirit of Truth to tell you more of the truth.
Go ahead to celebrate and congratulate each other on completing your requirements to graduate. But when it comes to majoring in Christian discipleship, be prepared to be opened to the Spirit of Truth to continually educate us to the truth about Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior until that time comes when we are called home to God. It is only then when we will receive the permission to “walk” at the graduation to eternal life.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, do not leave us without revealing your full will to us. Keep speaking to us, keep showing us your glory, keep changing us for the better. Keep telling us the truth, even when it may hurt us to hear it. Keep believing in us so that we might believe in ourselves. Keep calling us to learn about your wisdom so that we may become faithful, lively, courageous followers that you deserve. Amen.