God's Redemptive Plan
September 2, 2023

John 16.5-11

Introduction

Jesus was the solution to the sin of humanity. In Genesis 3, we find the story of the fall of man through sin. However, it is also in Genesis 3 that we see God’s redemptive plan for Jesus as our Savior (Gen. 3:15). God saw the sin of humanity and all the trouble it would bring, yet His love for us refused to let our sin ruin His plan to form a great family of children. He wanted to fellowship with His children for eternity. So even though He knew we would misuse the freedom He gave us, He also knew there was a way to save those who would choose to use that freedom to repent of their rebellion and return to Him. God’s plan would be very costly to Himself and His Son. It would require His Son to leave Heaven and be joined to humanity.
God’s plan contained another element as well. Jesus’ cross would cleanse the guilt of sin from the physical bodies of those who believe in Him, and that act would make possible a new relationship between humans and the Holy Spirit. And because their bodies would be considered holy, He could send the Holy Spirit to dwell in each one, empowering believers to serve Him in ways that would have been unimaginable before those events took place. Now, Jesus’ disciples could go out into the world with a new power and a new message. They could minister to lost and broken people just like Jesus, and they would proclaim a new message. They would declare that Jesus had come and died, and that God had raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. They would proclaim that Jesus has become Lord of all creation, that His cross and resurrection had defeated the ruler of this world, allowing humans to escape Satan’s grip. Jesus knew that if His disciples understood God’s plan, even though they would face opposition in the future, they would be able to remain joyful. And He knew that if we believed in Him through that new message, we would understand God’s redemptive plan and remain joyful, as well

A New Power (Jn. 16:5-7)

• Jesus wanted the disciples to understand that it was to their benefit that He return to Heaven. He wanted them to have joy because they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit only after He returned to Heaven.
• When the Spirit came, He would turn them into witnesses who would be able to continue Jesus’ ministry.
• Jesus was the first human who functioned in this new power. Before Jesus, sin had always made it impossible for the Holy Spirit to indwell a person’s body.
• For the Holy Spirit to inhabit a person’s body, God’s judgment on the physical flesh of that body for the evil things it had done had to be removed. That couldn’t happen until a very particular sacrifice had been made on our behalf.
• The Son of God had to put on our sinful flesh, be crucified, resurrected, and then ascend to Heaven. His death had to redeem our flesh as well as our spirits.
• By ascending to the Father’s right hand, He can now intercede for us each time we fail and, by doing so, allow our bodies to become a suitable dwelling place for the Holy Spirit (Ro 8:34; 1 Co 6:19; Heb 7:25; 1Jn 2:1-2).
• This means Jesus’ death redeemed not only our spirits but also our bodies. So even though the flesh of our body still has a sinful nature and is dying, from God’s perspective, it has been cleansed spiritually, allowing Him to place the Holy Spirit inside us, making us living temples (Ro 8:3-4).
• Jesus knew the plan. Therefore, Jesus felt joy even though He knew what was ahead of Him. He wanted the disciples to have that same joy rather than sorrow.
• If the disciples understood what was about to happen, it would be even more challenging for them to believe.
- It is for your benefit that Jesus is arrested.
- It is for your benefit that Jesus’ physical ministry is stopped.
- It is for your benefit that Jesus is beaten, mocked, and sentenced to death.
- It is for your benefit that Jesus is nailed to a cross with criminals.
- It is for your benefit that His lifeless body is laid in a grave.
• This would be difficult to grasp at that moment. We would all struggle with this.
• However, there is no denying the benefit of Jesus going to Heaven and the Holy Spirit coming.
• The disciples are a perfect example of the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. Before Jesus left, they were confused, hardheaded, afraid, and self-centered. After Jesus left and the Holy Spirit had come, they were wise, surrendered, bold, and giving. Indeed, it was to our benefit that Jesus left.

A New Message (Jn. 16:8-11)

•Jesus explained that the declaration of God’s Kingdom would change once He ascended to the Father’s right hand.
• He told them He would send the Holy Spirit to them, and the Holy Spirit would empower them to preach in a way that they would convict the world of three essential truths: sin, righteousness, and judgment. Then, He quickly explained the new revelation associated with each one.
• Sin is the truth about man. Righteousness is the truth about God. Judgment is the inescapable blend of these two truths.
• Sin: In the past, God’s message concerning sin focused on repenting and receiving His mercy through the atoning sacrifices in the temple. In the future, it would focus on His atoning sacrifice on the cross. To reject Jesus would be to reject God’s offer of salvation.
• Righteousness: In the past, God’s message concerning righteousness (right standing with God) was based on a person’s faith that God would be merciful to those who repented, trusting that someday He would provide a sacrifice that would wash away their sins forever. In the future, the message concerning righteousness would focus on believers becoming righteous by placing their faith in Jesus. The Father’s acceptance of His Son’s sacrifice for our sins would be proven by Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into Heaven.
• Judgment: In the past, God’s message concerning judgment had focused on the hope that Satan, the ruler of this world, would be defeated when the Messiah set up God’s kingdom on earth. But Jesus explained that in the future, the moment of Satan’s defeat would be understood to be the cross, not His glorious return to earth. So, when dealing with “the ruler of this world,” future believers would look back to the fact that Jesus’ death broke the power of sin by removing all condemnation and giving them the ability to stand in Jesus’ authority against the works of the devil. The cross and resurrection have guaranteed Satan’s future judgment and doom.

Receiving The Plan

• Do you see God’s plan? Does it give us joy?
• We can see times in history when something went wrong with the plan. We can even see it in our own lives.
• The problem isn’t with the plan. It’s with those who failed to receive it and proclaim it.
• This same reality was true in biblical times: within a generation or so after those original disciples died, many people had stopped following God’s plan and had come up with a new plan of their own.
• When we look back at the history of the Church, we discover behaviors and attitudes that are difficult or even impossible to explain. How could anyone allegedly following God’s plan act the way some people did or say what they said?
• At times, what was done by people who claimed to be followers of Jesus Christ was not even recognizable as something related to what He said should happen, which tells us that it is possible to spoil His plan.

Conclusion

There is good news! We still have the Bible, so we can join the disciples bunched together in the moonlight and listen to Jesus explain God’s redemptive plan again. And regardless of what other generations may have done, this generation can believe this plan and allow God to do through us the great work of salvation in His heart. If we do, He will indwell us with new power and fill our mouths with a new message.

Discussion Questions

  1. Have you received the baptism with the Holy Spirit? If so, in what new ways have you seen the power of God at work through you?
  2. Was there a part of “God’s plan” that you heard today that was new to you, or impacted you in a new way? Please share that insight with a friend.
  3. Have you ever used the authority Jesus gave you to break the power of Satan off a person or cast him out of a situation? Please explain.