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Peter Moore said, “There is no smaller package than a person all wrapped up in himself.” Jesus sought to keep His disciples from such parochial thinking. We read in John Chapter 16 that his disciples were sad because he was about to leave them and return to heaven. Of course, after three years of being together, sadness was natural. Jesus alerted them to the long-term greater benefit of his going away. He told them, “It is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate [meaning the Holy Spirit] will not come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.” Jesus conveyed God’s bigger purpose in His going away—to prepare for the Holy Spirit’s coming and the outcomes that would follow. If we focus totally on our self-centered agenda, we may miss God’s main purpose for us, which is to fulfill Christ’s mission in the world. God counts on all His children to communicate the Good News of the Gospel—by the way we live, by what we say and do. God’s Spirit lives in us to help us accomplish that.
