THE HOLY SPIRIT’S FIRST WORK
(How He Works in Unbelievers)
Warsaw Christian Church, Pentecost 2025 Richard Bowman, Pastor Emeritus
Primary text: John 16:7-11.
Today, we celebrate Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit was given to the church. He is given to you if you have true faith in Jesus. According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit works in various ways in our lives. I have preached over 25 sermons on the Holy Spirit, so please keep those sermons in mind! Today, however, the focus will be on His first work in us.
It is commonly asserted today in some cults and schools of liberal or progressive theology that the Holy Spirit is accessible to all persons, regardless of their religious beliefs or affiliations. The New Testament presents a very different picture. Listen carefully to these words from John 14:15-18: “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Two things are clear: 1. The Holy Spirit is unknown to the world at large. 2. He is known and received only by those who trust in Jesus.
Here is our text for today: Jesus is speaking: “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned” (John 16:7-11).
Jesus explains to believers two aspects of the Holy Spirit's ministry. First, Jesus repeats that only those who believe in Him will receive the Holy Spirit. Then the emphasis changes to the unbelieving world. The Holy Spirit works in the heart of an unbeliever, but this ministry does not occur directly. Instead, the Spirit has been given to the Christian who has faith in Jesus, and as the Spirit works in the life of the disciple, His presence impacts those who do not believe.
The effect is threefold. The Holy Spirit convicts (convinces, persuades) the unbeliever in three areas: sin, righteousness, and judgment. The implication is that if the unbeliever is to come to faith, he must be persuaded to change his mind in these three areas. The Christian must therefore be aware of these three areas for the Holy Spirit to carry out this convicting ministry. When these three concepts are alive in an unbeliever's heart, he becomes a believer. When he believes in Jesus, he also receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. Without an understanding of these three truths, he remains an unbeliever.
This concept goes against much modern thinking. Today, the idea is popular that the church must appeal to the world. Through contemporary music, drama, and other forms that appeal to the worldly man, the church seeks to attract the lost. While churches using this methodology may attract large numbers of people, we cannot guarantee that the Holy Spirit will work through such means to change the hearts of individuals. Focusing on sin, righteousness, and judgment is difficult to fit into this approach.
The critical question is not, "How many people are attending your church?" but "Are the people attending your church being converted and growing in Christ?" Do we trust in human methods to build the church, or do we trust God's Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit? We do not build the church. Jesus does (Matthew 16:18) through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, who works through the life of a believer.
Our text states that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin in relation to the ministry of Jesus. We used to speak of people being "under conviction" because of their sins, and feelings of overwhelming guilt have gripped the heart. I do not doubt that this takes place. On the other hand, most persons in my acquaintance, including unbelievers, admit they are sinners. If you ask almost anyone if they have ever sinned, they will recognize their sinfulness. Once the Son of God entered the world and suffered at Calvary, our relationship with sin radically changed. The issue to be resolved now is whether or not we sinners will believe in Jesus, who has taken away our sins. There is but one sin that will keep us out of heaven: refusing to believe in Jesus. All our other sins have been judged by the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
When Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment you deserve. The sins of the entire world were taken away. John the Baptist declared, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In 1 John 2:2 the apostle says, "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." Since Jesus has atoned for the sins of the world, the issue between God and the world is now centered on the cross. While humans are guilty of many "sins," our real problem is our failure to believe in Jesus, who has taken away our sins.
It is at this point that the Holy Spirit comes to our aid. As the church lifts the name of Jesus, resolving with Paul to "know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2), the Holy Spirit moves on the unbeliever's heart, drawing Him to Jesus. Failure to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is the mother of all sins. The Holy Spirit is given to believers, and then works in the lives of unbelievers, drawing them to Jesus, as Christians proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The next work of the Spirit is to convince or persuade the unbelieving world regarding righteousness. Jesus told His disciples He would soon depart and return to the Father. What does this departure have to do with convincing the unbeliever of "righteousness?" Once we have faith in Jesus, we must understand how we are acceptable to God. We know that our righteousness will not stand up before the pure holiness of God. Paul understood this; hear his word: Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith (Philippians 3:8,9).
The world needs to be persuaded that the only righteousness acceptable to God is God’s righteousness manifested in the life of Jesus. When we trust in Jesus, two extraordinary things happen. First, all our sins are forgiven. Second, the righteousness of Christ is credited to us. God now sees us as persons cleansed from all sin and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. Since we are conscious of our sins and failures, it takes the persuading power of the Holy Spirit to convince us that God now sees us as having the very righteousness of Christ.
We have two choices as we anticipate standing before God on judgment day. Either we must persuade God that our righteousness obtained through keeping the law—-—through our obedience to God's commands—-—is sufficient to pass divine scrutiny, or we must be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Only a fool would opt for the first choice, rejecting the second choice, which focuses not on us but on what Christ has done for us.
This verse helps us understand the tension we live under as Christians. On the one hand, despite our efforts to live as faithful disciples of the Master, we realize daily how far we fall short of the divine expectation. This awareness can be very depressing. We also recognize that we are "in Christ" and that His righteousness is our righteousness. This causes great joy. We must constantly remind ourselves that we are in Christ, and His righteousness allows us to live in the presence of God.
While this truth was initially evident when we moved from unbelief to faith, we must continually battle the tendency to focus too much on ourselves and too little on Christ. As Jesus is proclaimed in the church in harmony with Scripture, the Holy Spirit works in our minds and hearts to persuade us that we are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. God looks upon us as righteous because the righteousness of Christ is ours through faith.
Thirdly, the Holy Spirit speaks to the unbeliever's heart concerning judgment. Jesus declares that the prince of this world (Satan) has been judged. During the time of my life when I embraced liberal theology, I did not believe Satan existed. I distinctly recall that when I experienced conversion to Jesus Christ, I became aware of the reality of Satan. Just as the Holy Spirit mysteriously works through the gospel to persuade us that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, He also persuades us of other spiritual truths, including the reality of Satan. Then, continuing to work through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit shows us that Satan's power over us has been judged.
Satan is described in Scripture as our accuser (see Rev. 12:10). He accuses human beings of sin against God, and His accusations are accurate since we have all violated God's holy will. Satan, the first to rebel against God, apparently delights in seeing us also rebel against God. He seems to obtain some demented enjoyment in watching us fall into sin, and unceasingly reminds God of the horrible nature of our iniquities. He reminds God that divine justice requires Him to cast us into hell. He is like the prosecuting attorney who points a finger at us and cries, “Guilty, guilty, guilty…”
However, Jesus is our defender, our defense attorney. His blood was shed for the remission of our sins and answers Satan's accusations. It is as if Jesus says to Satan, “Yes, Richard Bowman has sinned and deserves to go to hell, but I have atoned for his sins and now he trusts in me and his sins are forgiven.” Thus, Satan's charges against us cannot stand because of the atonement made on our behalf by the Son of God. Satan has therefore been judged, as our text says. This is spelled out for us in Scripture, but it seems like so much poppycock in our unredeemed state of mind. When we embrace Jesus with true faith, the Holy Spirit makes Him real to our human spirit.
This enlightening, convincing work of the Holy Spirit in the heart moves us from unbelief to faith. Biblical ideas and truths we may have heard about for years suddenly become alive in our minds. It is as if someone turned on the lights. When Paul stated that no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3), he was undoubtedly referring to this "convincing" ministry of the Spirit. One can certainly repeat the words, "Jesus is Lord," without the aid of the Spirit, but one cannot honestly believe those words unless the Holy Spirit has completed His persuading work.
This threefold convincing ministry of the Spirit can be summed up as "conversion" or “new birth.” The Holy Spirit brings us to true faith in Jesus Christ. He does not do this independently of Scripture, but works in and through biblical truth.
Our task as Christians is to lift up these biblical truths. When we proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, the world's Savior, the Holy Spirit works through our testimony to touch the hearts of those with whom we speak. As we speak of Jesus, unbelievers realize that through faith in Him their sins are forgiven; that His righteousness is imputed to them; that Satan has been judged, and we are free! The Holy Spirit works in the heart to convince and persuade that it is all true. If we bypass Jesus and these biblical truths and try to attract unbelievers to Christ in some other way -- modern music, drama, inoffensive sermons -- we are wasting our time. More importantly, we are disobeying and replacing God's way with our ways. Our ways will never succeed. We need to embrace and practice God’s way.
