When the
spirit comes - John 16:5-15
Basil Howlett -
The disciples of Jesus were scared. Jesus had warned them that one of them would betray him, another would deny all knowledge of him, he himself would be taken away from them and they would be left to carry on his work in this world. That was daunting enough, but then, as we saw last week, he told them that they would be persecuted (15:20, 16:2). Then came the stunning statement. He told then (16:7) that it was for their good that he was going! Jesus meant that if he went back to the Father, then the Holy Spirit would come to help them with their task of preaching the gospel to a hostile world.
A. What does Jesus mean by ‘The Coming of the Holy Spirit’?
He cannot mean that up until that moment the saints of God knew nothing about the Holy Spirit. Some Christians take that view, but Psalm 51:11 tells us that David had the Holy Spirit(Ps 51:11), Isaiah 63:10 refers to the way the people in the time of Moses grieved the Spirit. 1 Peter 1:11 tells us that the Holy Spirit was in the OT prophets and Jesus has said in John 14:17 that his disciples already have the Holy Spirit with them.
What Jesus is saying here in John 16:8 is that these disciples would know more of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit than they had ever known before. That promise was fulfilled in their experience on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1). The Holy Spirit came in a powerful way to help them with this awesome task of proclaiming the gospel to a hostile world.
B.
How would the Holy Spirit help these disciples, and
us?
We
have seen some of the ways on previous Sundays (e.g. The Holy Spirit gives us a
sense of his presence and also gives us the words to speak in difficult
situations, Matthew 10:19). But here in John 16:8-15 Jesus tells his disciples,
and us, of two particular ways in which the Holy Spirit would help them, By convicting the world and
by guiding his disciples into truth.
1. By convicting the world (verse 8)
He will convict the world of sin and guilt. We live in a society which does blatant, outrageous things, yet there is no sense of sin. Worst of all, men and women openly spurn the Lord Jesus Christ (verse 9). No preacher can instil a sense of sin into their hearts. Only the Holy Spirit can do that and he does do it. There’s a perfect example of this is Acts 2:27 and it was predicted in Zechariah 12:10. How we need the Holy Spirit to do that in a big way today.
He will convict of righteousness. The
Holy Spirit will not only convince men and women of their unrighteousness, he
will show them that they can never make themselves righteous, but that they are
in desperate need of the righteousness of Christ to be imputed to them. How is
it that this righteousness is available? Because of the finished, completed work of
Christ on the cross. Verse 10 ‘The
Holy Spirit will convict the world of righteousness because I am going to the
Father where you can see me no longer.’
He will convict the world of judgment
He will convince men and women that if they continue in their sin and spurn the righteousness that Christ alone can give, then they will most certainly face the judgment of God. Jesus says (verse 11 ), ‘The prince of this world is about to be condemned by my death and resurrection and that’s a sure sign that all who reject me will be judged one day by almighty God.’ How we need him to do that at the present time. So many today treat the judgment of God as a joke.
But now the crucial question. Why do we see so few men and women these days convicted of their sin and guilt, of their need of the righteousness of Christ, and of the certainty and reality of judgment? Obviously there is nothing wrong with the Holy Spirit. He hasn’t lost his power. He is still God and all powerful. He is still working in an amazing way in some countries. Could it be that we have grieved the Holy Spirit?
2. By guiding the disciples into all truth (verse 13).
In the first instance Jesus meant that the Holy Spirit would guide and lead these disciples as they wrote the Scriptures. He would reveal to them what they were to write and that is what happened. We must never say of any Bible verse (e.g. 1 Timothy 2:12) ‘That was just Paul’s opinion!’
1st deduction. All that these men said and wrote in Scripture IS the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is divine, so what he guided these men to write must be the Word of God, Every word of Scripture bears the imprimatur of all the persons of the Trinity (verses 13-15).
2nd deduction. If the Spirit of truth (verse 13) guided these men into all truth with all the authority of God the Father and the Son then every Word of Scripture is true. There are no errors or lies in the Bible.
3rd deduction. If the Holy Spirit guided these apostle into all truth and told them what to write in Scripture then we must never add to Scripture. He led these men into all truth. That does not mean that these apostle knew all there is no know about God, but the Spirit revealed to them all that God wants us to know while we are in this world.
4th deduction. If the Holy Spirit guided these disciple into all truth and helped them to write the inerrant Scriptures, then we can be confident that the same Holy Spirit will guide us into an understanding of all truth. He won’t give us any additional revelations of divine truth but he will guide us into an understanding of the truth already given.
To help his fearful disciples evangelise a hostile, persecuting world Jesus promised them that the Holy Spirit would be with them, to convict the world and to guide them into truth.