Advocate

Imagine being told you will be killed for what you believe.

‘I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. ‘I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. ‘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, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. - John 16:1-15

Jesus tells the apostles that they will be persecuted and he is going away.  Not good news, right?

If I don't go, he says, the Advocate will not come to them.  Now they know he cannot stay with them forever.  He has to go.  They may not understand how he could be alive after being crucified, but they must understand he cannot stay with them.

So, he is helping to calm their fears in a way.  You will not be alone.  This is good news for us, because we have the presence of the Holy Spirit with us as believers.  We may not have the physical presence of Jesus to seek help from, but we do have this Advocate who can teach us the truth.

They may not believe it is better to have the Holy Spirit with us than to have Jesus to talk to and learn from, but we don't know anything else.  It is our joy that the Holy Spirit dwells within us and can be our strength.

Of course, we can go about life without calling on the Advocate to guide us, and that is a shame.  Unless we trust in God fully, we will not know the Kingdom's power and grace here on earth.

We will have to wait until we see Jesus face to face.  And then we might be sorry we didn't take advantage of all we had available.

More to come...