JOHN 16:7-11
THE [CONVICTING] MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
[1 John 4: 1-6]
There was much disappointment among the Apostles when Jesus disclosed that He must return to the Father. Jesus’ great work of redemption required His death so that through His resurrection from the dead death could be defeated. But Jesus assures His followers that He would not leave them alone, but would send His substitute, the third member of the God-head. Jesus had to leave so that the Holy Spirit might come and empower the church for life and witness (CIT).
Our Lord had been telling His disciples that they were being equipped to be more than conquerors in their battles for the soul of man. The Divine Spirit was to come and bring about a probing of the eternal nature of man so that their consciousness might be awaken to sin, righteousness and judgment. This Spirit of God works in and through the redeemed. Just as Christ used a human body to do His redemptive work, the Holy Spirit uses yielded churches and yielded members of the body of Christ to glorify Jesus and to witness to a lost world.
I. HIS NECESSARY REPLACEMENT, 7.
II. HIS VITAL MINISTRY, 8.
III. HIS CONVICTING MINISTRY EXPLAINED, 9-11.
Verse 7 begins the fourth teaching on the Holy Spirit in John. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
In spite of the sorrow and grief over Jesus’ leaving, it must occur to secure the great blessing of God. Through the strong pronouncement formula of I tell you the truth Jesus says that it is an advantage for them and for us that He departs. The basic reason why Christ's departure means triumph and not tragedy, the reason why it is a help and not a hindrance for these men (and for the Church in general) is this, that otherwise the Helper, namely, the Holy Spirit, will not come to them.
This helper comes to take the place of the absent Lord Jesus and He serves in Jesus’ place as His substitute. (Paraclete, translated helper, advocate, or comforter, literally translated is call along side). He is the official representative of Jesus and God Almighty on earth.
Jesus explains that if He stays the Holy Spirit cannot come. Jesus could only be in one place at a time. The Holy Spirit is not so limited. Jesus does not explain why the Spirit cannot come unless the Son departs from the earth and returns to His home above, but it probably has to do with His work on the cross.
Because of Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross man can now have the Spirit of God dwell within his heart, his soul, after a new nature, a spiritual nature, has been reborn in man by the power of this same Spirit. Until Christ died for man’s sins, man was still under the law, where the wages of sin are death. Saving grace allows the recipient to die to the old man by the power of the Cross and live to the new man by the power of the resurrection. This power was not yet available and thus the Holy Spirit could not apply it to their lives.
Jesus went away so that He could send His replacement, or representative, the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ first century departure from earth could easily have demoralized His followers, but it didn’t. Although Jesus was no longer with them in body, Christians soon had a power that could help them overcome any foe. The energizing conquering presence of the Holy Spirit was with them.
II. HIS VITAL MINISTRY, 8.
The Spirit has been revealed as a legal advocate who confirms the truth (14:16-17), a defender (15:26f) and in the following verse the Holy Spirit is the prosecutor bring conviction to the guilty. This absolutely vital and necessary ministry of the Spirit is stated in verse 8. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness and judgment.
These three facts are the enabling and drawing power that brings listening people to Jesus Christ. Now the world will not realize it is the Spirit of God doing this working since the world cannot receive the Spirit (14:17). When the Spirit establishes His residence in the hearts of believers He will convict the world through their life, words, and deeds.
Convict or reprove (åëåã̔æåé, elencho) is the key word. It is a legal word that means “to bring to light, to expose, to refute, to convict and convince, to press home a charge.” It could even signify “to pronounce the verdict”or state their guilt. [John Tenney, Expositor’s Bible Com. Vol. 9, p 157] To convict the world is to expose its sin and judge it as wrong. The Holy Spirit is portrayed as Christ’s prosecuting advocate with the world.
This conviction is the most needed task today for our complacent and unbelieving age. It is not that the world does not know about Jesus Christ. They simply chose not to act on that truth. The Spirit deals with people concerning the truth of Jesus Christ and their lives.
The Spirit comes to men in different circumstances and in different places. He has come to some of you in this house in the singing of a hymn, the reading of the Word, in some delivered message, in a holy time of silence you have become conscious of The Holy Spirit's dealings. When the Spirit has exercised His convicting power in the heart of man, man surrenders or rebels.
This is what leads us to rebel so much against the moving of God. Our Helper, or Comforter, comes to clean us up, to make us more presentable to God. But we don't want God involved in our life. That's why The Bible frequently warns us of sins against the Holy Spirit. We can resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51), quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thes. 5:19), grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30), insult the Holy Spirit (Heb. 10:29) and blaspheme the Holy Spirit (Mt. 12:31; MK. 3:29; LK. 12:10). God does not take lightly these sins against Himself and His revealed will. He will not always strive with those who refuse to be moved by His Spirit.
[Better Resolution] When the new technology of high-definition television came on the scene, it had an immediate effect on how things were done in the studio. Low-tech television had such poor picture resolution that the visual details of a studio did not show up on the screen. Actors and newscasters wore thick pancake makeup to hide wrinkles, moles, and blemishes, but the makeup was invisible to the relatively crude camera. Fake books rested on shelves, and cardboard backdrops with painted wood grain stood as walls. Still, with low-tech television, the viewer was none the wiser. Says Jim Fenhagan, a set designer who works for the major networks, "With the old TV, you can get away with murder."
But high-definition television, using high-resolution digital technology, changed all that. The studio camera picks up everything from scratches on the desk to blemishes on the skin. That has forced a change in how things are done.
Like television personalities facing an unforgiving high-definition camera, when we come to God, we come to the one who sees us as we really are. We must be completely truthful with Him. Seeing our life as we are means the HS is dealing with us and that He is ready to help us change.
[In 16:6–11 the words “sin and righteousness and judgment” possess no article and may indicate that the Spirit unveils the truth about these ideas.]
III. HIS CONVICTING MINISTRY EXPLAINED, 9-11.
The three clauses given in verses 9–11 offer important descriptions of the errors of the world and the bases of its conviction. The first error in verse 9 is the refusal to believe. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.
The Chinese philosopher, Confucius, has been quoted as saying, “I have not yet seen one who could perceive his fault and inwardly accuse himself.” We have trouble admitting we have sinned against God and stand guilty before Him. According to Jesus, not believing in Him is sin, the Impardonable Sin. (See G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminister Pulpit. Vol. I. p 157ff). The essence of sin is unbelief in God’s Messenger and message.
Therefore the first work of the Spirit is listed as convicting man of sin. Sin is the rejection of God or the rebellion against God. The Holy Spirit can lay bare sin in the hope of awakening the consciousness to mourning and repentance. Those so awaken could flee to the Savior and find refuge and pardon if they would only believe. The conviction is not simply to get a person to clean up their life and quit his or her bad habits, for they would still be lost and go to hell. It is a witness to them that they are rejecting Jesus and His sacrifice for their salvation.
The world is full of all manner of wickedness and unrighteousness, lust, immorality, hatred, cruelty, and sorcery. There are all matter of deceiving evils that stink and sting around us. Jesus Christ passes them all by and points to one negative thing, to an inward thing, to the attitude of men toward Himself and says do you want to know what vile sin is like look at that! That one thing is unbelief in Jesus.
Some would think unbelief so small that it is not really sin, but it is not. The Bible indicates that unbelief is at the root of all sin. Unbelief is turning your back on the loveliest life ever lived. It is turning away from a miracle of self-sacrificing love which endured the brokeness of the Cross and willingly embraced agony, shame and death for the sake of those who inflicted it upon Him. It is a turning away from the most precious and needful blessing that a soul can expect to receive. How can one stand in the presence of light and see no light? Of love and feel no love? Of perfection and experience no attraction? In turning away from Jesus a definitive sin is perpetrated--living to/for myself rather than for the Giver of every good and perfect gift.
As a young man, AUGUSTINE packed a lot of life into a few years. He was a brilliant professor on the fast track with powerful Roman politicians. Yet despite his success and pursuit of pleasure, his soul was restless. His mother was a devout Christian, but Augustine wasn't interested in Christianity, although he seriously looked into other religions. All the while, his conscience increasingly troubled him as he realized that there was more to life than drinking, carousing, and philosophing.
One day, Augustine was in the garden, thoroughly miserable. As he lay on the ground weeping, he kept hearing a child's voice say, "Pick it up and read." Not knowing what else to do, Augustine picked up the Bible, and randomly opened it. His eyes fell on Romans 13:13: "Let us behave decently . . . not in orgies and drunkenness . . ." At that very moment, Augustine was pierced to the core over His unbelief and gave his life to Christ.
What a dramatic illustration of the Spirit’s ministry of convicting the unbelievers conscience! He troubles the conscience so that a person might turn to God in faith.
The second error seen in verse 10 is that the world lacks true righteousness. And concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me.
The Spirit also convicts the sinner of righteousness. Righteousness is internal and external obedience to God. More than that, it is the conviction that Jesus Christ is righteous, sinless in thought, word, and deed. Jesus perfectly carried out the will of the Father. Jesus perfectly followed the straight and narrow way God called Him to walk. On earth they accused Him of blasphemy, because He declared Himself God. They said He was demonic and that His power was of the devil. But the Spirit of God reveals Jesus as the One who truly obeyed and followed God all the way to the Cross where the Just died for the unjust, the Righteous died for the unrighteous.
The proof of Jesus’ righteousness is the resurrection. If Christ had not risen from the grave, He would be a sinner like all the rest of us. The teaching, preaching, and believing of Jesus as risen, as the Living Lord of Life has tremendous Holy Spirit power because God is bearing witness to Jesus’ righteousness. We may not be able to look at the complete record of His life, but the inner conviction of His righteousness is real.
When the world sees one filled with the Spirit of God following the will of God, the Spirit bears witness that it is in the righteousness of Jesus that they walk. Because Jesus was altogether righteous, the Father could raise Him from the dead because no sin was found in Him.
My dear friend, accept Jesus, and His righteousness becomes yours, and you will be found in Him without spot or wrinkle, blameless, washed in the blood and clothed in a white garment purchased for you the righteousness of Christ.
The third area of conviction is that thoughts, words, and actions have been judge and will be judge by God’s absolute standard. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged
The world’s ability to judge has been distorted and become perverse (7:24; 8:16), and therefore it is incapable of making correct decisions about God or His Word. The source of this darkness is the “prince of this world” (12:31; 14:30). So the world has accepted the argument of Satan against God and Jesus. But the false perspective and false standards of Satan were judged on the Cross of Calvary. The trial as to whether the views and ways of Satan would prevail and win was held in the life Jesus lived and in the death Jesus died on the Cross.
Satan is the prince of darkness, the prince of this world, but he and his world system were defeated by Jesus' death for us, for our sin, on the Cross. Satan has been judged at the Cross. The judgment was passed down by Jesus when He went to the grave and to the captives it held. This judgment was announced to the angelic world when Jesus ascended into glory. This judgment has been rendered and stands fix as eternally irrevocable. All that must take place is the executing of the sentence and that will take place when Jesus returns.
Lord God we praise you for our great deliverance from this blinding, manipulative prince of darkness and deception. Shine your light and send your truth that our hearts might leap for joy and be set free from the clutches of this monstrous foe, and let us loath the sin the devil once led us to commit.
CONCLUSION
When a lost sinner is truly under conviction, he will see the folly and evil of unbelief in Jesus and he will confess that he does not measure up to the righteousness of Christ; and he will also realize that he is under condemnation because he belongs to the world and the devil (Eph. 2:1-3). The only person who can rescue him from such a horrible situation is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There can be no conversion without conviction, and that conviction comes from the Spirit of God using the Word of God and the witness of the child of God.
Witnessing is a great privilege, but it is also a serious responsibility. It is a matter of life or death! How we need to depend on the Holy Spirit to guide us to the right persons and give us the right words, but it is most certainly the work of the convicting HS that brings others to faith in Christ.
