(Audio)
I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
Jesus doesn't overload us with more truth than we can handle. This is a great blessing but we often experience it as difficult. We imagine that we can in fact handle the truth and therefore feel slighted when it isn't given all at once. The truth is fundamentally good. God knows the plans he has for us, to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us a future and a hope (see Jeremiah 29:11). Yet not every intermediate end is a pleasant one. They are not all things we would choose for their own sake. Knowing too much at once would cause us to assess our ability to rise to meet the challenge according to what we currently of our abilities or at best according to our current level of faith.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
Jesus does want to lead us into all truth. He wants to form us into disciples who can handle the bad for the sake of the good that lies in store for us.
For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God (see Hebrews 12:2).
By his Spirit Jesus forms us into a people who don't fixate on the negative but instead setting our minds on things above (see Colossians 3:2). We learn that our readiness to face the future does not depend on our abilities. It does not depend on our current level of grace and faith. It depends on God who himself makes ready those who are not ready and gives them the grace they need at the moment they need it. He doesn't do so in advance so that we can comfortably rely on ourselves. He does so at the time we need it so that we learn to walk with him and rely on him. The truth into which we are led does not end in darkness, but culminates instead in the revelation of the glory of Jesus.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Paul was led by the Spirit. He himself experienced a progressive revelation until he could say, "I know him in whom I have believed" (see Second Timothy 1:12). This enabled him to not overload those to whom he preached with too much at once. Rather, he started with where they were and with things they already understood, and planted seeds.
For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines,
I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’
What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.
Many of us would stop at the similarities between our faith and those of others and go no further. We would, in fact, be so patient with the process as to not progress. But this is to fail to allow the Spirit to lead into all truth.
God has overlooked the times of ignorance,
but now he demands that all people everywhere repent
because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world
with justice’ through a man he has appointed,
and he has provided confirmation for all
by raising him from the dead.
Remember, God does not leave us in a state where we can't handle the truth. The truth is fundamentally good. Once we let God have his way in us we will be more effective tools in his hand to open the hearts of others.
Praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
His majesty is above earth and heaven.
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