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by Charlie Wolcott

Last week, I emphasized Jesus’ final teachings from what’s known as the Upper Room discourse, and today, I’ll finish that by emphasizing John 16-17, which is a final teaching on the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ great prayer, the longest recorded single prayer in Scripture.

Jesus spoke of all these things so His disciples would not stumble. The world would come after them because they were associated with Jesus. The authorities would arrest them, beat them, slander them, and seek to do all they could to destroy them. And understand this: the authorities and the church were synonymous in those days. If applied today, the government would be arresting us, but some of the very people we think we should trust are those who will turn us in. The biggest enemies of the Church have been the counterfeits in the Church.

But Jesus said we are not to fear these things, but to know that when they happen, do not be surprised. When Peter and John were arrested in Acts 4 for preaching the name of Jesus after healing a lame man, they sang for joy because they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ. But this joy can only come from the Holy Spirit. It will never come from the flesh. It also must be practiced and prepared before you can actually do this. Richard Wurmbrand told people in the West that we need to practice suffering. One way he would do that was to go through an American grocery store and say, “I can go without that.” And would end up leaving and getting nothing. Yes, he would get food to eat, but 14 years of prison in Communist Romania teaches you to cherish what you have, but also not to indulge in things even when you can. Jesus told us we would suffer, and the US church is the only one so far to not have gone through actual persecution in the way the rest of the world has. Even when the Church had moments of peace from Roman emperors, it was short-lived. So if Jesus says we will suffer, guess what, if we are living the Christian life, we will suffer, and people won’t like us. We need to get used to that.

However, in this promise is another promise of help: the Holy Spirit. The reason why the world is going to hate us so much is not merely because of Christ in us. They will hate us because the Holy Spirit has a primary job of convicting the world of sin, and you don’t even have to say anything for this to happen. Why? Because the Holy Spirit will convict you of sin and warn you against sin, and when you don’t engage in sin when the world seeks to, that action will tell them, “Oh, you are one of those Christians.” Understand that these reactions are actually a cover for their FEAR of God because they know that God is real and that judgment is coming. They don’t just want you to know that this is what is going on. But when this happens, the Holy Spirit will guide us to all truth and even what to say and what not to say.

Then Jesus warns of His death and resurrection again. There will be great sorrow within 24 hours, but great rejoicing just a couple of days later. And when that happens, the disciples won’t need to question what God is saying due to a lack of understanding, because when they ask what they need, they’ll get what they need in prayer. Yet tribulation is imminent.

From there, Jesus goes to His epic prayer of John 17, first praying for Himself, then praying for His disciples, and then for all believers. Jesus prays for Himself for the moment He was about to go through, and that He would be glorified in receiving the judgment of God for the sin of the world. He prays for His disciples that they would be able to endure the trials to come and to be kept and protected. He prays for the rest of the believers for endurance and protection during the times of persecution that they may be good witnesses. And Jesus ended it with the knowledge of God and that the love of God would be on full display among the church.

With this, Jesus finished teaching His disciples and headed for the Garden of Gethsemane, where He would have the battle for His life: the internal battle about whether He would go to the Cross or seek another way.

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