The Prosecution’s Case John16:5-11
In our last study at the end of John 15 and John 16:1-4 we considered the privilege of serving as witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw that the Holy Spirit stands as a trustworthy witness and testimony of all that Jesus’ is and all that He taught from the Father. The Holy Spirit’s work as the “Parakletos” is similar to that of a legal representative, standing to testify concerning the words and works of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit would come to represent the Gospel proclaimed in the Life, Words and Work our Lord Jesus Christ, and He would equip true disciples of Jesus to also testify to the One who is full of grace and truth, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at John 16:5-11 with me; this is the Word of God as spoken by the Word Incarnate to His disciples and to all believers: "But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
Did you ever have a loved one who was very ill and you knew that it was just a matter of time and your life would be so empty without this person. This is what the disciples are experiencing as Jesus tells them that He will be leaving and returning to Heaven.
“Where are You going?”
In verse 5 we read: “None of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?” Jesus isn’t ill at the time, and so they wouldn’t think that He was going to die. As a matter of fact, they had asked the question two times before. In John 13:36, Peter said, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward." 7 Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake." 38 Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.”
Here the question and the answer by Peter was premature because Peter had much to learn. God uses us differently when we are first saved than after we have grown in the Spirit and the Word. Peter would first have to deny even knowing Jesus, watch Him be crucified, and come to the empty grave and later see Jesus in the flesh that Resurrection Sunday. He would have to walk the road of the suffering Savior before he would go where Jesus would be going. Believers continue to grow and learn for their lifetimes, and often our life experiences turn out to be foundational springboards to our witness.
Thomas had also asked the question in John 14:5: "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus clearly states that “THE WAY” is a person and not some place and that He is the exclusive “way” to the Father’s Heaven. Jesus has taught His disciples the Truth about salvation because He has shared with them all that the Father had given Him to share, the Words of truth and life.
When you first receive very sad news, the news can engulf expectations for hope in the future. As Jesus again shares the news of his departure, the shock of grief and the question of “where are you going?” hardly seems important since the question has been temporarily swallowed up by sorrow. At the moment of deep sorrow, the reality of “a better future” can certainly be clouded. We don’t know why the Holy Spirit would not come until Jesus had returned to the Father, but it was clear that Jesus would have to give Himself on the cross as the propitiation, the exact payment for sin and ascend to the Father before the Holy Spirit would be sent from the Father. This was the word and will of God for the arrival of the Holy Spirit, and it occurred according to His timetable.
Look at verses 8-11: “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
Conviction of Sin
In our legal system, a prosecutor brings charges against those believed to be guilty. Here, Jesus tells His disciples of the imminent arrival of the Holy Spirit and He includes three functions of the Holy Spirit in salvation. The first role of the Holy Spirit will be to convict the world of Sin. The Bible teaches that there is no one who is righteous before God; that ALL have sinned and fallen short of His Glory, and so ALL are guilty in God’s Holy eyes.
Normally the word for “world” in the NT refers to those who are lost, but here I think it would refer to those who are chosen and called out of the world and to saving faith in the Lord Jesus: It is those who are BEING SAVING. The Holy Spirit would convict those whom God has chosen before the foundations of the world (Eph 1:4-5) and convince them of their sin and need of a Savior.
On the first Pentecost day the Holy Spirit came to the early believers and Peter preached his first message. Toward the end of that sermon, Acts 2:36-41 says: "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.(There is the Gospel in its simplest: Christ crucified)" 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”
They were cut to the heart and responded to Peter’s words because the Holy Spirit used those words to convict and convince them of their horrible sin; if not, none of them would have been saved that day. It was not Peter’s eloquence but the fact that no man makes a move toward God unless the Holy Spirit first moves, calls to account and convicts that person of their own horrible sinfulness and guilt and their individual need for a Savior.
The first sin of which the Spirit convicts a person is the sin of unbelief. Without this conviction by the Holy Spirit, a person will continue to be dead in sin. The sin of unbelief is actually the one single severe sin which will lead to eternal judgment. It only takes one sin to send a person to eternal punishment but Unbelief is the sin of pride against God which denies Jesus as God and Savior. Jesus alone is the Savior who restores sinners to their Creator. If man rejects Christ as the Anointed One of God, He rejects God and so remains an enemy of God. But when the Holy Spirit convicts a person of his prideful unbelief, he no longer looks upon himself with intellectual superiority but with spiritual and moral bankruptcy before the One Holy Sovereign God…and collapses in guilty need before God.
Remember Isaiah’s experience in Isaiah 6:5: “Woe is me! for I am undone; (I am destroyed) because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” Sinful man cannot live in the presence of THE HOLY ONE; Only the Righteous can exist.
Convincing and convicting the world of righteousness.
The second part of the Holy Spirit’s case is that He convicts the world “of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.” The world has no concept of the righteousness of God. The world fashions and designs its own set of moral and ethical requirements and “invents” its own standards that fall entirely short of God’s. Their standards are compared to God’s righteousness in Romans 3:10-11: "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD.” The world has no knowledge of or allegiance to God’s standard and actually hates God’s standard.
Jesus was God’s standard of righteousness, appearing in the Flesh from Heaven and the world crucified God’s standard. He is no longer here, but His Word and His Spirit remain, as well as the witness of convicted, convinced, converted sinners. When sinners are convinced of their own sin, they also perceive the standard of God’s righteousness in Jesus, and recognize that His standard is unattainable to us. It is unattainable because we are sinful, not only from birth, but sinful to the heart and core of our being. “There is none who is righteous. None who understands or seeks for God.” Apart from Christ, we are utterly polluted with sin.
Since the only righteousness that is acceptable to God is the righteousness of Christ—our righteousness must be THAT righteousness which can only be imputed to us through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us: “For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be (or to become) sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” It is Christ’s righteousness that is imputed to us. His righteousness is applied to our heart and lives by God’s decree so that God looks at us just as if we never sinned and just as if we had been born without sin and did everything right. (justification by God’s decree: not guilty by reason of Jesus payment.) What a gift! The gift of His righteousness is received by faith, which is the theme of the book of Romans.
So we are convinced and convicted by the Holy Spirit of two things concerning righteousness: We are convicted that it is perfect righteousness which is unattainable, and that it is only found and imputed to us by God in Christ alone by faith.
Convicted of Judgment
The third charge by the Holy Spirit concerns judgment: “And when He (the Holy Spirit) has come, He will convict the world of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (vs. 8 & 11) The world under Satan’s control exercises judgments that are blind, faulty and evil as seen in their verdict of the Lord Jesus. The unsaved world lies and deceives concerning sin and righteousness, so much so, that the world is unable to make one single righteous judgment being under the control of the ruler of this world, Satan. No one in the world wants to believe that there is a judgment because judgment automatically infers guilt. The sinful world wants to think that they can do whatever they want with impunity and the world may even be encouraged with this thinking because God does not immediately punish.
Only God judges rightly and when Jesus died on the cross it appeared that Satan achieved a victory but Christ’s resurrection proved that righteousness had won and that Christ’s death was actually Satan’s destruction. God’s judgment for sin fell on the Righteous One so that those who place their faith in Jesus receive His Righteousness. God’s judgment upon Jesus broke the Devil’s bondage and hold for anyone who believes in Jesus’ substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
The point is clear: God DOES judge and the only way to be free of His judgment is, by the conviction of God’s Spirit and Word, to recognize your own desperate sinful self, to repent and believe in Jesus as your only righteousness, and so escape judgment. Listen closely to 2 Peter 2:4-9: “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)-- 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.”
“Love wins” for those who repent, believe, and follow Jesus, but those who reject His love will spend eternity without grace because that is what they chose in their lifetimes; in the end, God grants everyone their heart’s desires. Are you a channel of God’s grace, bringing the saving Gospel message to others? Draw near to Him and accept His love in Christ now, so that you will be His forever.
Consider Jesus own words from John 3:18-21: “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
The Holy Spirit convicts those whom God will save with the testimony, words and works of Jesus. The Spirit convinces people of their own sin, of their need for righteousness which can only be gifted to them in order to escape the judgment that they rightly deserve. Praise God for the gift of Grace in Christ and the working of His Spirit and Word to bring us to saving faith! To God alone be the Glory. Amen.
Outline:
I. The unasked question: “Where are You going?” (5-7)
A. They had asked the question two times before:
1. The question and answer by Peter was premature. (13:36)
2. The response to Thomas (14:5) revealed Jesus as the Way.
B. The news of Jesus’ departure has filled them with grief and now the question of “where are you going?” has been swallowed by sorrow.
II. The Holy Spirit as God’s Prosecutor
A. Convicts the world of sin because of unbelief.
1. The Holy Spirit convicts those whom God has chosen and called and convinces them of their sin and need of a Savior.
2. Without the Holy Spirit, the entire world would stay in denial and unbelief.
B. Convincing and convicting the world of righteousness.
1. Jesus is God’s standard of righteousness and the world crucified God’s standard when they crucified the Lord Jesus.
2. This righteousness is unattainable and only available by faith in Jesus.
C. Convicts the world of judgment.
1. No one in the world wants to believe that there is a judgment because judgment automatically infers guilt.
2. God judges rightly and when Jesus died on the cross it appeared that Satan achieved a victory but Christ’s resurrection proved that righteousness had won and that Christ’s death was actually Satan’s destruction.
3. God DOES judge and the only way to be free of His judgment is, by the conviction of God’s Spirit and Word, to recognize your own desperate sinful self, to repent and believe in Jesus as your only righteousness, and so escape judgment.
