https://app.dropwave.io/episode/1f209f33-2ff2-4c74-b2b7-afef12deac05/cantate-domino-fourth-sunday-after-easter-ad-2025.mp3

note: transcribed by turboscribe.ai

Alleluia, Christ is risen. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. Now I'm sure these words were not the words that the disciples wanted to hear. They are certainly not the words that we want to hear either.

They're not the words that anybody rather relishes, that the one that they love is going to depart from them. Now there are so many problems in our own world and in our own lives that they could be solved if only Jesus would hear. If only Jesus were here, these problems wouldn't be problems at all.

And so we think the same thing as the disciples. If only Jesus was here. Imagine it.

There would be no disputes over doctrine. There would be no disputes over denominations of which one is right. There would be no Pope.

There would be no synodical presidents. There would be no bishops. Or maybe there would be no need for any of those offices.

We could simply come to Jesus if we needed to be healed. We can simply consult Jesus for his political and social opinions about things. We could simply sit at our master's feet and ask him personally, well what does this mean? It would be a very different world if Jesus was here with us right now.

But he tells us, no it's to your advantage that I go away. Because even if you were here, sin being what it is, there would still be dissent. There would still be those who think, well Jesus got it all wrong.

There would be those who would quote Jesus only in parts, or they would take his words and they would twist them so that they would mean something else. But again, Jesus tells us, it's to our advantage that he would send the helper. In his state of humiliation, Jesus would only be located where his person is.

He could only be at one place at one time. But in his state of exaltation, once he ascends into heaven, Jesus is omnipresent. He's everywhere at the same time.

But then he goes on to tell us exactly what this Holy Spirit will do. He says, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.

Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. He goes on further to explain that the Holy Spirit will not speak on his own authority.

The Holy Spirit will glorify Christ. He will only take what is Christ and declare it to us. In other words, if you wonder what wonder if your thoughts or feelings are from God, if you get that little voice in the back of your your mind saying do this or do that, or you hear somebody say, well the Lord told me, stop right there and search the scriptures.

If they are not in line with what we read in the Bible, then it's not from God. This is why it's right for us to question anytime somebody says, well the Lord told me, we need to stop and read the scriptures to see what they say. I know there have been many examples in our day of those televangelists who say, well God told me that you need to buy me a jet plane, or you need to donate money for this cause or that cause.

God told me these things. And that's time for us to say, really did God say that to you or is that your own sinful nature talking to yourself? But before we go much further, we need to stop and take a look at this term that Jesus uses. We see it translated as helper.

In the Greek, that word is the paracletos. And in some translations of the Bible, they don't even bother to translate that term. They leave it as the paraclete.

You've probably heard that in your King James Bibles, where it talks about the coming of the paraclete. And they do that for a specific reason. Because this word is hard to nail down exactly what it means.

It has several meanings. In the very strictest sense of this word, it means a legal advocate. So all of our law students would like that word.