John 16:5-16
The Work of the Holy Spirit
5"Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' 6Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
16"In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me."
John 3:1-9
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
9"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
Jesus says many things that are hard for me to understand, and many tough things for me to do...When He says it is for your good, that I AM going away; unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go away, I will send Him to you...This to me is one of His most unusual statements...We know that He is resurrected by God...We know that He is still living...We know that He could have stayed on earth, so many other people could see Him over and over...
Why was it good that He goes away?...I would rather have Him here...By staying I could find Him and talk to Him, a real Physical Being...By Him staying on earth, there would be more people to see Him, and thus who believe in Him...Several questions come up because of this statement...Would more or less people follow His teachings if He were still here?...Why can't He stay and bring the Holy Spirit with Him, and we have Both?...
I would have suspected Christianity would have spread much more quickly around the world, had He stayed on earth...But for some reason this was not in God's plan...God wanted the disciples and Paul to spread Christianity around the world, without its Leader...
I think it is true that it was and will be better for all of us to be close and with God...So when Jesus goes away, I see how it is good for Him -He will be back with God...But He says it is for the disciples good...It is probably then good for us that He leaves the earth...Maybe Jesus is tying this all back to Nicodemus and being reborn, and us needing the Holy Spirit to get to heaven...Because unless He goes away, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit will not come to the disciples and to us...When Jesus talks about water, He may be telling us about the physical water breaking when we are born on earth...He may also be referring to our water baptism and our belief in Him...But He may mean, when we recognize the Father and Son, and start believing in them we are born of the Holy Spirit...So unless we are born on earth first and of water, and then reborn (again) of the Holy Spirit, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven may answer why it is good that He goes away...We must have the Holy Spirit to get to heaven, and it is in God's Plan that we cannot have Jesus on earth and the Holy Spirit on earth at the same time...For some reason Jesus must go back to heaven to send us the Holy Spirit...
It was hard for Nicodemus and this is hard for us, but we need God working in our lives through the Holy Spirit to get to the Kingdom of God...