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Have
you ever been in a car with a navigation system?
The
navigation system has a map inside it, and the system communicates with
satellites to determine where the car is on the map — then the system
tells you when to turn, how far to drive, and how to get to your
destination.
Would
you need a navigation system if someone in the car knew exactly where
you were going? No, you wouldn’t.
This
was true with Jesus and the disciples — as long as Jesus was alive on
earth, the disciples didn’t need a navigation system, but once Jesus
went to heaven, they started to get lost.
Jesus
gave them the Holy Spirit, “the
Spirit of truth,” a navigation
system from God that “will guide
you into all the truth” (John
16:13).
This
was Jesus’ last evening with his disciples before his arrest and
crucifixion. Jesus knew that his time with them was about to come to an
abrupt end. Jesus is not trying to stuff a lot of final instructions
into the conversation. In fact, Jesus quite calmly tells them as much:
“I still have many things to say
to you, but you cannot bear them now.”
Jesus
knew that there would be encounters ahead for them where there are
things they will need to know, but that from their present viewpoint,
they can’t even imagine what those things are.
Have
you ever encountered a situation where you wished you could ask the
advice of a loved one who has died? If, while that loved one was alive,
you could’ve anticipated that you were going to need his or her counsel
for the particular problem or situation you now face, you would’ve
asked, but back then, you had no way of knowing you’d be in the pickle
you are now, and so it never occurred to you to ask.
That,
in essence, is what Jesus is saying to his followers:
“There are some things I need to tell
you, but you are not yet in a position to comprehend them.”
Jesus
would leave them with what they’d been able to grasp so far, and as they
needed more and were able to receive it. As Jesus explained it,
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will
guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own ... He
will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to
you” (16:13-14).
To
us who follow Jesus today, there’s great value in hearing these words
about the role of the Holy Spirit. They remind us of two critical
things:
First,
they remind us that Jesus continues to speak to us, and not just with
things he already taught 2,000 years ago and are recorded in Scripture.
He speaks to us with new revelations that help us navigate a world that
is quite different from the world the original disciples knew.
The
Bible is all that we need for salvation: to understand our relationship
with God and to discover how to be in that relationship. Period. End of
story.
Thus we should look to the Bible as God’s Word for our lives, but our
surface understanding of the Bible is not necessarily his last word on
everything. The Spirit takes the things that Jesus wants us to know
today, and communicates those to us through many channels. Sometimes
it’s through new insight on the Scriptures we thought we already knew,
but the Spirit also speaks through the power of inspiration, insight,
revelation and personal experience, especially as we seek to listen
prayerfully.
A
caveat: If what the Holy Spirit is saying to you is in conflict with the
teachings of Jesus, it’s not the Holy Spirit speaking. The Spirit is not
in conflict with the Son.
The
second valuable thing that Jesus’ words about the role of the Spirit
tell us is that no one of us understands all at once all that Christ has
for us.
It’s
simply impossible to anticipate all that we will need from Jesus as we
mature and encounter the twists and turns of life. But the Holy Spirit,
operating by the primary rule of usability, declares to us what is
Christ’s, as we need it, as our experience of people, places, actions,
touch, sight, sound, victories, failures, sleeplessness, devotion, love,
faith and reverence makes us capable of hearing it.
Our
responsibility is to listen for it faithfully.
Amen
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for the Hymn