22nd May 2026

The question that was surely in the minds of the disciples in those final hours before the Lord’s departure was: ‘How will it be possible for the gospel work to continue without the physical presence, divine authority and dynamic leadership of Jesus?’ The disciples were to be sent out into a hostile world to witness on behalf of a Saviour already scorned (John 15:18-19). Without Jesus, this small band of disciples would be like a tender plant, unprotected and exposed to the relentless winds of a violent and ruinous storm.

After Jesus had forewarned his disciples concerning the inevitable persecution they would face after his departure from them (John 16:1-4), he told them the reason their persecutors would feel justified and emboldened: it is simply because they don’t know the Father or Jesus, the Son he has sent into the world (v. 3).  But if Jesus is now going to depart from them, how will the work of the gospel and the reign of God that Jesus has inaugurated progress?  Was it possible for the remaining eleven apostles to continue as a committed and united band, could they ever hope to speak with the same authority as Jesus, knowing and perfectly executing the Father’s will?  Who will be Jesus’ voice in the world after he has gone?

The Father, Jesus explains, will send ‘another Comforter’, by the mediation of the risen and ascended Son (vv. 6-7). The coming Comforter, like Jesus, is divine, distinct from the Father and the Son but one with them. The same God who entered the world as the incarnate Word will come to them again in the person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus refers to the Spirit in the ‘masculine’: “When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8 NIV emphasis mine). He will be all to the disciples that Jesus was to them when he was with them physically. As with the bodily ministry of Jesus, the work of God remains in God’s own hands, yet the Spirit freely chooses not to by-pass men and women, but rather to enlist them as Spirit-led participants in his work and ministry (v.27). 

The effect on the apostles and the other disciples of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, in, through, and among them, will be such that the progress of the gospel, and the expansion of the Kingdom through the growth of the church, will be ensured. Jesus has much to say to them in the final hours before his imminent departure, but the disciples are, as yet, unprepared for the harrowing events that are about to transpire in Jerusalem. And unprepared for the revelation that will begin to unfold over the coming months and years, to prise open the evangelistic door to the scandalising, groundbreaking, all-inclusive Gentile mission (v.12). The Spirit will glorify Jesus and carry on the work that Christ has begun, because all that the Father has, he has given to the Son. This power and authority the Holy Spirit will take to himself and complete the fullness of the revelation of Jesus Christ (vv.13-15), through the apostolic witness he will inspire.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion Peterborough
Farcet Village Hall
Main Street
Farcet
Peterborough
PE7 3AN

Meeting time:
Sunday 11.00 am

Local congregational contact:
Richard Dempsey
Email:  richard.dempsey@btinternet.com
Local church website: GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH PETERBOROUGH – Landing Page

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church