The Unfinished Sentence (John 16:5-15)
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jeremy_1_04-23-2026_090625: [00:00:00] If you're here, you probably have questions. You might have some doubts. You might be in that uncomfortable in-between space where the faith you grew up with doesn't quite fit anymore, but you're not ready to walk away from Jesus either. That's exactly who the Rebuilding Faith online community is for members.
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Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith. These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts,
and today we're gonna look at one of my all time favorite [00:01:00] passages in the Bible. Something that seriously we have been sleeping on. This verse has game changing implications for us. If we really look at it and we explore what does this mean? And I'm gonna try to show you that today.
And so we're in John chapter 16. We're gonna begin reading in verse five. Jesus says this, but now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I'm going. Instead, you grieve because of what I've told you, but in fact, it is best for you that I go away because if I don't, the advocate won't come.
If I do go away, then I will send him to you, and when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. The world's sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the father and you will see me. No more judgment will come [00:02:00] because the ruler of this world has already been judged.
So Jesus giving, this is kinda like his final speech here. We've been looking at this for the last few weeks, and as he prepares to leave his disciples, he's spending a lot of time setting their expectations on the Holy Spirit. And it's interesting that he says that he needs to go, so the advocate will come.
Which seems to imply that Jesus will be directing the Holy Spirit to further the work that he has begun when he was with them. Then we're gonna get to a verse that many people overlook, or I would suggest at a minimum. Don't fully appreciate what this implies. John 16, verse 12. Jesus says, there is so much more I want to tell you, but you can't bear it.
Now when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you [00:03:00] into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. Woo. What's going on here? What did Jesus want to tell them that the disciples couldn't handle? This statement would have driven me nuts.
I mean, if I was one of the early disciples I was in this moment, I would've been like, what are you talking about? What are we not? Ready for Jesus then implies that the Holy Spirit will lead them into the things in which they aren't currently able to handle. So, hey, you can't handle everything now, but you're gonna have the Holy Spirit that will guide you into this journey.
Now I think it's important. Jesus isn't saying they're not smart enough. What he's saying is that they don't have the capacity to hold what it is that [00:04:00] he wants to give them right now, that it would be a crushing weight to them. And so he is like, Hey, you're not ready for this yet. But it implies a capacity to grow.
It indicates that, hey, there, there is gonna be this ability you'll have in the future with the help. Of the Holy Spirit, and so it's kind of bad news now. You can't really hold it, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, you'll be able to take on more, which sets up a premise. We don't just consider what the Bible says.
We should also consider where the Bible points us. Where is the Bible taking us? Today. I think too often what we do is we use the Bible as a cage. And a lot of people, when I say an idea that maybe seems less than traditional, when it comes to theology, they'll be like, give me a chapter and a verse.
And this idea is like, Hey, we're going to be able to fit all of God into this limited text that we [00:05:00] have. And for all time, God has to fit with inside that what, which is really putting God inside. Of a cage. Rather, we should be asking, where is the trajectory of the text taking us? If we apply this, if we understand this and we keep going, where would it lead us?
What patterns do we see emerging? Now, the theologian, William J. Webb, offered a framework in which to read the Bible with this idea in mind. He calls it the X, Y, Z. Framework. So X is the original culture, Y is the Bible, and then Z is the ultimate ethic in which the Bible is pointing us, which means the Bible moves beyond the original culture, but it doesn't always reach the ultimate.
Ethic. Our job today is to follow the trajectory toward Z toward that [00:06:00] ultimate ethic in which the text is trying to lead us Now. I think this is a beautiful way of reading the text with an openness, with an expectation that God is taking us somewhere and this applies. Wherever you're at theologically Now, it's interesting, if you read what, Webb has written, he lands in a much more conservative place than I would in a lot of these things.
So even where he sees the ultimate ethic going is very different than where I see the ultimate ethic going. But we can all agree whether you're conservative, progressive, wherever you land on this, we can all agree that there is something here. That is inviting us to keep going and then we can try to discern where is that ultimate ethic taking us.
Then we get to verse 14. Jesus says, he will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me, all that belongs to the father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will tell you whatever he [00:07:00] receives from me. the Holy Spirit points us. To Jesus, and Jesus is doing everything that the Father told him to do.
In fact, everything of the Father is now what Jesus has as well. But when you see the Holy Spirit, you realize the Holy Spirit is pointing us to Jesus. So if you follow the movement of the Holy Spirit, you don't end up with the Holy Spirit. You end up with Jesus because the Holy Spirit is leading us to Jesus.
Now as we close today, I want to ask this question. This is the provocative question that I would encourage every person who wants to follow God, who wants to be a disciple of Jesus, who wants to read the Bible and understand what it means. I think this is the question we should wrestle with. What does the Holy Spirit want to show us today that these disciples wouldn't have been ready for?[00:08:00]
Right, and that's just a logical application from the text. Jesus says to them, there are things he wants to tell them that they can't yet handle. So what are those things? What does the Holy Spirit wanna show us today that maybe we can handle because of how much time we've had to catch up that they wouldn't have been able to handle?
Which means there aren't explicit verses to lay these out for them because they weren't ready for them yet. Would it change our views on what healthy sexuality looks like? Would it change our views on hell? Would it change our views on how we've allowed fear to shape so much of our theology? Would it change our views on who we think God is and the way in which God works and interacts with the world?
However we answer that question, the point is there are more things than we [00:09:00] find in the text, and this is according to Jesus, because Jesus acknowledged there were things they were not yet ready for, which means you and I should be looking for those things today as we follow Jesus, as we allow the Spirit.
To lead us to even greater understandings of who Jesus is. I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
