John 16: 7-11 10/8/17
If you will turn with me to John chapter 16 once again and we will continue our study in this portion of God’s Word. I want to begin this morning by just reading verses 7-11. “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 and He when He comes will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement. Concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you no longer behold me and concerning judgement because the ruler of this world has been judged.”
Even as children of the Most High God, we can find it at many times difficult to maintain a proper perspective in this dying world. I think each of us has to acknowledge that. There is so much trouble, so much heartache in this world. So much sorrow and sadness, many disappointments, trials, temptations and struggles that every one of us encounter at least some extent. Obviously to varying degrees. Not to mention the inexplicable tragedies that we witness in the world around us and sometimes even in our own lives. You and I as Christians need to be honest with ourselves before the Lord. We are faced with the same kind of fearfulness that all men face. We need to be honest about that. We are not immune to the discouragement and troubled heart that plagues all of mankind to one extent or another. The Lord’s followers, men who had been in close and intimate fellowship with the Lord of glory, were in fact plagued by great fearfulness. Their hearts were troubled in spite of all that they had witnessed in walking with the Lord for three years. The real question when it comes to these difficulties that we face in this world is how we deal with them. How do you and I deal with them? What is our outlook as we said last time? What is our perspective? What do we see when we see the world as a whole around us, and our lives, as we live our lives in the middle of it all? Our overall outlook on this life, and on life in this world particularly, has a very significant impact on the way you and I actually do end up living our lives. As those who have come to faith in Christ for eternal salvation, for deliverance from sin, it seems that it would only be reasonable that our perspective should be greatly affected by our Savior and by His words to us. Right? That seems only reasonable. One thing I want to just remind you of this morning, something that should be obvious I guess, and maybe we don’t think about as we should. When we take the Lord Jesus at His word, inevitably that will demand certain expectations from us. If I take Jesus at His word, inevitably that will demand certain and specific expectations from me. Expectations that are animated by the truth of divine revelation are critical - especially in the realm of walking by faith rather than sight. What are my expectations? This has a huge impact on the way I live, especially in relation to this fact of walking by faith and not by sight. Expectations greatly affect our perspective, and therefore our stability, our contentment, our very attitude, not to mention our effectiveness for the Lord in the midst of this troubled world. Sometimes we get into trouble by embracing Biblical expectations - somewhat selectively. We pick and choose the different expectations, the different passages in God’s word that seem to apply in a particular moment in time or that seem to sort of bolster our feelings at a given moment in time. Many times, we even do this in a very negative way. When you think about this, probably more of us do this then we realize. I think of that verse in Job where Job says, “Man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward.” Have you ever thought of that verse in the middle of some trouble that you are facing? Pulled those words out and sort of commiserated on them? Jesus says in this very upper room discourse, He says, “In this world you have tribulation.” Sometimes we just selectively take those phrases out and we build expectations on those apart from the fact that this isn’t the whole truth, is it? It’s true that in this world we should expect to have tribulation, but the full statement that the Lord makes is that in Him we are to have peace, because He has overcome this world. Many times, our expectations become distorted by the way we habitually mishandle certain portions of God’s word. We selectively highlight one and selectively, or carefully ignore others.
In this passage we are considering, the Lord is saying some very specific things to His disciples. He makes clear to them - as we noted in the first part of this chapter - the reality of the persecution, the severity of persecution that each of us should expect to possibly face. We should be prepared for that, but that’s not all Jesus says in this passage, is it? He doesn’t stop there and for that we can be so very grateful. Jesus doesn’t just talk about persecution and go on and on and on wallowing in that fact. In fact, the Lord doesn’t spend a huge amount of time in speaking in detail. Now the Lord does make clear from the latter portion of chapter 15 and the beginning of chapter 16 that we can expect this, and that it can be severe indeed. But the Lord brings the disciples’ attention once again, in this sixteenth chapter, to His promise of a provision, an enablement of extraordinary proportions. The Lord promises in this passage a provision of such magnitude that it provides an exceptional perspective of His impending departure. When Jesus utters these words to these men they are words to be taken to heart. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus says. “It is to your advantage that I go away.” These are not just words to sort of smooth over what’s going on in your heart, in your minds, these are words of solemn truth - of incredibly uplifting truth. “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.” Like I said last time, it’s difficult for us to imagine what kind of perspective that would be for these men. They had been with Christ. The prospect of losing him was just unthinkable to them, and it’s in that context, in the context of their contemplating His no longer being there. It’s in that context Jesus says, “It is to your advantage that I go away”. You and I can’t possibly understand the full thrust of this statement and this encouragement in the way they did. We didn’t have that privilege, but we can at least consider it carefully - as we think about this context, as we look at it and try to understand it.
Jesus is describing for His disciples an increased ministry and influence of His Spirit that would have a more significant impact on the entire world than anyone then or now could have recognized, could have understood. We talked about this last time - the limited nature of the Lord’s earthly ministry during the days of His flesh on this earth. Three plus years, profound miracles, and teaching, a sinless life to back that up, and yet the multitudes would say on the day at that point in time when it really mattered, they would say “Away with him!” “Crucify him!” Three years of first hand exposure to the eternal Word made flesh, exposure to the living Lord of glory tabernacling among men - and yet the multitudes we are told, were unbelieving. As we said last time, if the disciples were to have continued the Lord’s work apart from this unique provision, apart from the unique power and enablement of this overwhelming outpouring of the Spirit of God that Jesus is promising here, what would have been the outcome? What would have happened to them? What would have become of them? Is there any chance at all that these few men, would have , in their own strength, become a massive spiritual army that would turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ? As we noted last time I want to remind you of several questions that need to come to our mind as we continue now and make progress in this passage. I think they are crucial questions that should be on our minds when we come to a passage like this. First of all, are you and I alert as we should be to the sheer wonder and utterly amazing work that God has been, and is continuing to do, in this otherwise hopelessly depressing world, through this unique outpouring of His Spirit upon mankind? Are we alert to that fact? Is this something that we think about and expect to see evidences of and rejoice when we do see evidences of it? Secondly, another question, have you and I become calloused? Have we become complacent? Are we lacking in a grateful expectancy and appropriate zeal for the Lord in the light of this promise, this specific promise? “I will send the helper to you.” Are we lacking in an appropriate zeal in a grateful expectancy in the light of that kind of promise? That is, in anticipating the fact that when Jesus says something we can count on it. So, this is true. How is it true? How do I partake of this more fully? How can I see it more clearly? Are we alert to the wonder of what the Lord is accomplishing through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit? These are questions that we need to ask ourselves as we consider this passage together.
So, Jesus makes this promise that when He went away, He would send the helper to us. The one who would come along side to provide aid and enablement. After making this promise Jesus then describes the effect that the coming of the Spirit of God, the coming of the helper will have on this world, and on His saints in this world. We want to begin to look at this, this morning. Notice the first thing that Jesus emphasizes will be the effect of the coming of the helper. “When He comes, He will convict the world, concerning sin and righteousness and judgement.” If we hadn’t ever read this passage before and we were reading our way through it and we get to verse 7 would we expect verse 8 to follow? Would we expect this to be where Jesus would begin describing the effects of the Holy Spirit when He sends the helper? You think of the term the Lord uses here. The one who comforts, the one who comes alongside to aid us, our advocate. Would it be, would our first thought be, that the effects of that would be seen in the conviction of the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgement? That’s what Jesus emphasizes first. To me the more I think about this it’s a very fascinating truth. One that often goes unnoticed. Let’s look at it a little together this morning. First of all, what does it mean to convict? The Lord says when He comes He will convict the world. This word convict that is used here has the meaning of exposing or of reproving or even rebuking and it’s translated with a number of those words and similar words because the word is used a number of times in the original Greek in the new testament. It includes the idea of stimulating the pains of conscience, or impressing with a sense of guilt, that’s what this word means, to convict. To impress with a sense of guilt. It’s a strong word and it’s an extremely important word. This word is used and I want to give you just a little bit of a perspective as how this word is used so that we really do have a good grasp of its meaning. In Jude the 15th verse, we read this: “And about these also Enoch and the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying, behold the Lord came with many thousands of His Holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” To convict. That’s what this word means. Jesus uses this same word in John chapter 3. In the New American Standard it’s translated a little differently. In John 3:19 Jesus says, “And this is the judgment that the Light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the Light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light lest His deeds should be exposed.” That word exposed is the exact same word that is translated convict in John 16:8. In Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul uses this word and it’s translated similarly as John 3. When Paul says to the saints at Ephesus in Ephesians 5:11, “And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but instead even expose them,” that word expose is the same word. Verse 12: “For it is disgraceful to even speak of the things which are done by them in secret but all things have become visible when they are exposed by the light” This same word is used in 2 Timothy when Paul is encouraging and admonishing Timothy to be faithful in the proclamation of God’s Word. When Paul says to Timothy in chapter 4 verse 2 of 2nd Timothy, “Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction.” That word reprove is the same word again. This idea of exposing; of convicting; of bringing a sense of guilt upon sinners. Several portions in chapter 1 and chapter 2 of Titus you see this same word. Verse 13: “This testimony is true. For this cause reprove them severely.” This is the same word reprove. The end of the last verse in chapter 2: “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority.” This just gives us a sense of this word that Jesus is using here. This is going to be one of the chief evidences of the outpouring of the Spirit of God on the world after Jesus ascends to the Father. That He will convict the world. He, when He comes (verse 8,) will convict the world.
Secondly, what is it that the Spirit convicts the world of? We want to look at that next. He will convict the world concerning what? Sin, righteousness, and judgement. It’s interesting that Jesus breaks these three down and gives a very brief reason behind each one. We begin with this matter of sin. Concerning sin Jesus says in verse 9 “…because they do not believe in Me.” At the heart of sin is unbelief. Sin is rebellion against God isn’t it? It is the ultimate manifestation of unbelief. Unbelief as we’ve noted in the past on similar occasions is a stubborn refusal to submit ourselves to the Lord by rejecting the truth He has revealed along with its implications. It’s those implications that make such a difference. If the truth could just be set over here to the side and I could acknowledge it and it could leave me alone and untouched that would be one thing. But truth demands certain things. It has implications. Truth cannot be contained in a responseless vacuum. We many times try to do that. It cannot be sealed in a cubicle to simply be admired or gawked at. It cannot be relegated to a set of words on a shelf to be read at opportune times and then sat back on the shelf, literally and figuratively. Truth has implications. It demands an active response. As the writer of Hebrews says, “it is living and active.” And it is living and active in the broadest sense. It encompasses the deepest reality. It is embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Himself made that declaration did He not? “I am the Way and the Truth.” He is the ultimate manifestation of reality. Jesus is the apex of divine revelation. He is Truth, He is the Truth. In an exclusive sense as well. At the heart of all sin is the obstinate refusal to believe in God’s Christ. Even from the perspective of an Old Testament person. God had made a promise for the provision, for His provision for sin even before the appearance of the Word made flesh. Unbelief, ultimately, sin at its core is unbelief of the heart, it’s a refusal to submit myself to that which God has spoken, to that which God has revealed in His truth. That truth is ultimately seen in His Christ, in His provision. Think about this for a moment. The first effect the Lord speaks of here is the Spirit of God at work in this world convicting, convincing sinners of their sin and of their sinfulness. And especially in their relation to the treatment of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is at work in this world in this way. Now we would have to recognize that the Holy Spirit is at work to differing degrees in different places at different times. It’s not one consistent flat line, in regards to His work. There are variations to the extent of that work. And here I trust we would understand that there is a sense in which this ministry of the Holy Spirit is seen as a common grace in recognizing the fact that this work is seen in a general sense upon all of mankind. But it is also seen in a very specific sense in the work that God is accomplishing to bring sinners effectually to Himself through the gospel. One of the things that has impressed me over time is the prominence of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and sometimes in the most unlikely places. And I think in many respects some of this can be explained, not all of it, but some of it can be explained in relation to the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting men of sin. In relation to their unbelief regarding Christ. Does it ever puzzle you that people use the name of Jesus in some of the most inappropriate ways? You find the name of Christ being uttered in blasphemy, in cursing. You find the name of Christ being uttered in literature, in music, in places where it is totally inappropriate. Of course, we also find the name of Jesus being spoken of in cold religion; in cults, almost every cult has some way to deal with Christ. There are other reasons for that as well. There is a convicting work of the Spirit of God in this world. This work encompasses the world as a whole, concerning His Christ. Jesus says when His Spirit comes “…He will convict the world of sin because they do not believe in Me.” As long as the world continues as a whole to reject Christ, there’s going to be a convicting, a gnawing at the conscience of the world as a whole, in a general sense.
A second thing Jesus says, is that the Spirit will convict concerning righteousness. Then Jesus says “…because I go to the Father.” In the days of His flesh on this earth, when Jesus walked and talked in the land of Palestine through the regions of Galilee and Judea He not only exposed wrong but He also taught positively as well, and verified it in His living. He taught much of what is right as well. Did He not? Jesus established in a unique way God’s holy standard of righteousness. It wasn’t just the fact that Jesus was exposing wrong that caused men to get upset with Him. It was also the fact that He was exemplifying in the most powerful ways the Divine standard of righteousness. You recall what Jesus had said in the 15th chapter to His disciples just a few moments prior to this. Verse 22, “If I had not come and spoken to them they would not have sin or guilt, but now they have no excuse for their sin”. Verse 24, “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did they would not have sin or guilt”. Jesus promoted the righteousness of God with a painful consistency. Have you ever thought about it? How would you and I have reacted and responded to listening to Him teach maybe on numerous occasions? Here comes the multitude. They’re coming, not to be taught about righteousness and the exposing of sin, they’re coming for what they can get. To some extent, they are like people today. They are looking for an entertainment value. What will Jesus do this time? Or they’re coming because they want something to eat or they’re coming because they’re sick and they need healing, serious need. But one of the things that we need to stop and think about is this: Jesus promoted the righteousness of God consistently and it had to be exceedingly painful for the natural man. Not only to hear that so consistently, but to hear it coming from someone whose life was pure. What do we do in our society when somebody starts talking about something that is righteous or true? What do men do? The first thing they do is immediately begin to examine their lives. Why? To undermine; to undercut; to diminish what they’ve just said. What they may be saying may be absolutely true and right and good, but if their life is anything but that or has some gaping holes in that, then what they say can be dismissed, as the world looks at it. That’s how we approach things. That couldn’t be done with this man. Just the opposite would be true. Jesus spoke of the righteousness of God; His life proved exactly what He was talking about. It could be evidenced. The God of this world continues to promote a destructive perversion, doesn’t He? Calling evil good and good evil. Jesus clarified evil and good and He did so very consistently. The Holy Spirit is at work promoting righteousness in the world today. Think about this for a moment. How does He do that? Through the sanctifying ministry that He’s accomplishing progressively in His people - in the holy ones of the Highest One. I was thinking about this as I was contemplating and pondering what the Lord says here, this matter of righteousness and I was drawn to the passage in Romans chapter eight verse sixteen. “The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God”. What does that do to me if I do not know the Lord and I am in some kind of close contact with somebody in whose life this ministry of the Spirit is evidenced daily? The Spirit of Almighty God, the Holy Spirit of God is bearing witness with that person’s Spirit that they are a child of the living God. There’s a third thing that Jesus mentioned here in terms of conviction and that is regarding judgement. Jesus says, “…concerning judgement because the ruler of this world has been judged.” If you notice the tense here, it’s very important. Jesus is about to be arrested, to be tortured, to be beaten, to be falsely accused, and put to death and yet Jesus can say before that takes place that the ruler of this world has been judged. There’s a certainty there. In the ongoing and mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God in this world there is an intrinsic implication of the already defeated status of the evil one. In the proclamation of the gospel, there should be the warning of the impending day of judgement, right? Unfortunately, you don’t see that a lot in the gospel proclamation today, but there should be. There certainly is in the New Testament. An impending day of judgement for the devil and all the sons of disobedience who follow after him. The world scoffs at this kind of truth. More and more the world scoffs. When you talk about a coming day of judgement you can in some instances see people literally break out in laughing, mocking, or ridiculing, but one of the things you can’t help but notice is a nervousness in that scoffing. Pay close attention to that sometime. There’s a noticeable nervousness in that scoffing. One of the things that I find very interesting is how many of the greatest scoffers on this earth are also so very busy seeking to attempt, seeking to prove to themselves how good of a person they are. They have no need to worry if there really was a day of judgement. The Spirit of God puts His finger on the hearts of men, women, and children all over this world to varying degrees, to a varying extent, and with varying reactions. Have you ever thought about this? Let’s say you go to the doctor’s office and you have some kind of a problem. Your stomach is bothering you, and the doctor has got you on the table and He’s poking around on your stomach and He’s trying to figure out where it is and He hits the spot. Let’s say it’s an infection, some kind of abscess, or it’s an injury and man does that hurt! When He finds where the source of the problem is you can explode in pain. Now there’s three different ways you can respond to that. One is you can get furious with the doctor for giving you that pain or for exposing that problem and stomp out of there and never come back. A second option would be thanking him for finding it, listen to His prescribed remedy and then going on your merry way and ignoring it. A third way is to investigate a little more carefully. You recognize what He’s saying is likely right, and you submit yourself to His prescribed remedy. Those are your three options. You see those very same basic responses to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the convicting work of the Spirit of God in this world. What do people do with this? How do they respond? These three concepts sin, righteousness, judgement they are a significant part of the gospel. They are a significant part of the gospel proclamation and they are used mightily by the Spirit of God to bring sinners to repentance, to faith in Christ. Is it any wonder that the Holy Spirit is also referred to as the Spirit of grace? This is grace, that God would take it upon himself to spend this kind of effort to explain to us, to expose to us what’s really wrong.
It brings me to another point - that is the necessity of this work. This is an absolutely necessary work. Apart from this convincing ministry of the Holy Spirit lavished upon mankind there could be no effectual proclamation of the gospel of Christ. Think about that for a moment. The gospel could be proclaimed over and over and over again in the most convincing ways imaginable, but not one sinner would repent apart from this work of the Spirit of God. Not one. Much less countless multitudes even to the farthest ends of the earth. That’s what we see, the evidence is overwhelming! It ought to thrill our hearts. You and I don’t come to this knowledge on our own. We never would - we never could. We can’t see ourselves the way God sees us. The very reality of the nature of our condition precludes our understanding of the gospel. Conviction comes from God Himself. I was reminded as I was thinking about this, in the passage in Romans chapter 8. We are told there in verse 7 that “…the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.” It’s not a possibility. Verse 8, “…those who are in the flesh cannot please God”. This passage in Romans chapter 8 conveys great hopelessness. There’s no way to come to Christ apart from this ministry. Even the most pious of people have no capacity whatsoever. There is no hope apart from the convicting work of the Helper of ever coming to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. This is a great mystery is it not? Have you ever thought about what a mystery this is? It’s a mystery in this respect: You know how often we will be talking about someone we love or someone we have been witnessing to, the gospel has been proclaimed to them numerous times, and we talk amongst ourselves, “I just don’t understand why they don’t get it!” It’s been so clearly presented to them and they are in a position right now where you would think they would understand it, and they would see it for themselves, but they don’t. And then there are times where someone will, out of the blue, come to their senses. They see themselves for who they are and they come to Christ and many times in situations and people we would have never expected it. It’s no accident that the song writer penned those words in that one hymn that we sing many times: “I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin.” It’s a mystery. How is it? I could stand there and talk endlessly to a sinner about the glory of Christ, and they could stare blankly. One other person could come along and say one little word or sentence and their eyes could be opened to the truth because it’s the Spirit’s work. It’s not ours, is it? What a marvelous thing, the necessity of this work.
The next time we will continue on, I want to see a little more clearly and specifically how it is this work actually takes place in this world, but just in closing this morning I would remind you of this fact that this is not something to be taken lightly; it is a new covenant phenomenon. By that I am saying this: You and I live in a time in which this has been a reality. In our lives it has never been otherwise. Over two thousand years ago this didn’t exist. It wasn’t real, it didn’t take place. The world as a whole was not experiencing this. This witness didn’t exist. It wasn’t there for the world as a whole. I’m not saying it didn’t exist anywhere. I’m not saying it didn’t exist in small areas and especially amongst God’s chosen people and several other pockets of the Gentile world. But as a whole this wasn’t taking place and it is now. In a massive way. You and I ought to take great encouragement in this. What a gracious work this is. The more we look at this passage, the more it seems to me we ought to come to understand why we have this concept of one who comes to aid, the Helper. It’s the Helper who convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgement. That doesn’t sound like somebody who is helping and yet it is exactly what He is doing. He’s helping us to see Christ, to see our need, our real need and to bring us to Him.
If you will turn with me to John chapter 16 once again and we will continue our study in this portion of God’s Word. I want to begin this morning by just reading verses 7-11. “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 and He when He comes will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement. Concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you no longer behold me and concerning judgement because the ruler of this world has been judged.”
Even as children of the Most High God, we can find it at many times difficult to maintain a proper perspective in this dying world. I think each of us has to acknowledge that. There is so much trouble, so much heartache in this world. So much sorrow and sadness, many disappointments, trials, temptations and struggles that every one of us encounter at least some extent. Obviously to varying degrees. Not to mention the inexplicable tragedies that we witness in the world around us and sometimes even in our own lives. You and I as Christians need to be honest with ourselves before the Lord. We are faced with the same kind of fearfulness that all men face. We need to be honest about that. We are not immune to the discouragement and troubled heart that plagues all of mankind to one extent or another. The Lord’s followers, men who had been in close and intimate fellowship with the Lord of glory, were in fact plagued by great fearfulness. Their hearts were troubled in spite of all that they had witnessed in walking with the Lord for three years. The real question when it comes to these difficulties that we face in this world is how we deal with them. How do you and I deal with them? What is our outlook as we said last time? What is our perspective? What do we see when we see the world as a whole around us, and our lives, as we live our lives in the middle of it all? Our overall outlook on this life, and on life in this world particularly, has a very significant impact on the way you and I actually do end up living our lives. As those who have come to faith in Christ for eternal salvation, for deliverance from sin, it seems that it would only be reasonable that our perspective should be greatly affected by our Savior and by His words to us. Right? That seems only reasonable. One thing I want to just remind you of this morning, something that should be obvious I guess, and maybe we don’t think about as we should. When we take the Lord Jesus at His word, inevitably that will demand certain expectations from us. If I take Jesus at His word, inevitably that will demand certain and specific expectations from me. Expectations that are animated by the truth of divine revelation are critical - especially in the realm of walking by faith rather than sight. What are my expectations? This has a huge impact on the way I live, especially in relation to this fact of walking by faith and not by sight. Expectations greatly affect our perspective, and therefore our stability, our contentment, our very attitude, not to mention our effectiveness for the Lord in the midst of this troubled world. Sometimes we get into trouble by embracing Biblical expectations - somewhat selectively. We pick and choose the different expectations, the different passages in God’s word that seem to apply in a particular moment in time or that seem to sort of bolster our feelings at a given moment in time. Many times, we even do this in a very negative way. When you think about this, probably more of us do this then we realize. I think of that verse in Job where Job says, “Man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward.” Have you ever thought of that verse in the middle of some trouble that you are facing? Pulled those words out and sort of commiserated on them? Jesus says in this very upper room discourse, He says, “In this world you have tribulation.” Sometimes we just selectively take those phrases out and we build expectations on those apart from the fact that this isn’t the whole truth, is it? It’s true that in this world we should expect to have tribulation, but the full statement that the Lord makes is that in Him we are to have peace, because He has overcome this world. Many times, our expectations become distorted by the way we habitually mishandle certain portions of God’s word. We selectively highlight one and selectively, or carefully ignore others.
In this passage we are considering, the Lord is saying some very specific things to His disciples. He makes clear to them - as we noted in the first part of this chapter - the reality of the persecution, the severity of persecution that each of us should expect to possibly face. We should be prepared for that, but that’s not all Jesus says in this passage, is it? He doesn’t stop there and for that we can be so very grateful. Jesus doesn’t just talk about persecution and go on and on and on wallowing in that fact. In fact, the Lord doesn’t spend a huge amount of time in speaking in detail. Now the Lord does make clear from the latter portion of chapter 15 and the beginning of chapter 16 that we can expect this, and that it can be severe indeed. But the Lord brings the disciples’ attention once again, in this sixteenth chapter, to His promise of a provision, an enablement of extraordinary proportions. The Lord promises in this passage a provision of such magnitude that it provides an exceptional perspective of His impending departure. When Jesus utters these words to these men they are words to be taken to heart. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus says. “It is to your advantage that I go away.” These are not just words to sort of smooth over what’s going on in your heart, in your minds, these are words of solemn truth - of incredibly uplifting truth. “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.” Like I said last time, it’s difficult for us to imagine what kind of perspective that would be for these men. They had been with Christ. The prospect of losing him was just unthinkable to them, and it’s in that context, in the context of their contemplating His no longer being there. It’s in that context Jesus says, “It is to your advantage that I go away”. You and I can’t possibly understand the full thrust of this statement and this encouragement in the way they did. We didn’t have that privilege, but we can at least consider it carefully - as we think about this context, as we look at it and try to understand it.
Jesus is describing for His disciples an increased ministry and influence of His Spirit that would have a more significant impact on the entire world than anyone then or now could have recognized, could have understood. We talked about this last time - the limited nature of the Lord’s earthly ministry during the days of His flesh on this earth. Three plus years, profound miracles, and teaching, a sinless life to back that up, and yet the multitudes would say on the day at that point in time when it really mattered, they would say “Away with him!” “Crucify him!” Three years of first hand exposure to the eternal Word made flesh, exposure to the living Lord of glory tabernacling among men - and yet the multitudes we are told, were unbelieving. As we said last time, if the disciples were to have continued the Lord’s work apart from this unique provision, apart from the unique power and enablement of this overwhelming outpouring of the Spirit of God that Jesus is promising here, what would have been the outcome? What would have happened to them? What would have become of them? Is there any chance at all that these few men, would have , in their own strength, become a massive spiritual army that would turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ? As we noted last time I want to remind you of several questions that need to come to our mind as we continue now and make progress in this passage. I think they are crucial questions that should be on our minds when we come to a passage like this. First of all, are you and I alert as we should be to the sheer wonder and utterly amazing work that God has been, and is continuing to do, in this otherwise hopelessly depressing world, through this unique outpouring of His Spirit upon mankind? Are we alert to that fact? Is this something that we think about and expect to see evidences of and rejoice when we do see evidences of it? Secondly, another question, have you and I become calloused? Have we become complacent? Are we lacking in a grateful expectancy and appropriate zeal for the Lord in the light of this promise, this specific promise? “I will send the helper to you.” Are we lacking in an appropriate zeal in a grateful expectancy in the light of that kind of promise? That is, in anticipating the fact that when Jesus says something we can count on it. So, this is true. How is it true? How do I partake of this more fully? How can I see it more clearly? Are we alert to the wonder of what the Lord is accomplishing through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit? These are questions that we need to ask ourselves as we consider this passage together.
So, Jesus makes this promise that when He went away, He would send the helper to us. The one who would come along side to provide aid and enablement. After making this promise Jesus then describes the effect that the coming of the Spirit of God, the coming of the helper will have on this world, and on His saints in this world. We want to begin to look at this, this morning. Notice the first thing that Jesus emphasizes will be the effect of the coming of the helper. “When He comes, He will convict the world, concerning sin and righteousness and judgement.” If we hadn’t ever read this passage before and we were reading our way through it and we get to verse 7 would we expect verse 8 to follow? Would we expect this to be where Jesus would begin describing the effects of the Holy Spirit when He sends the helper? You think of the term the Lord uses here. The one who comforts, the one who comes alongside to aid us, our advocate. Would it be, would our first thought be, that the effects of that would be seen in the conviction of the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgement? That’s what Jesus emphasizes first. To me the more I think about this it’s a very fascinating truth. One that often goes unnoticed. Let’s look at it a little together this morning. First of all, what does it mean to convict? The Lord says when He comes He will convict the world. This word convict that is used here has the meaning of exposing or of reproving or even rebuking and it’s translated with a number of those words and similar words because the word is used a number of times in the original Greek in the new testament. It includes the idea of stimulating the pains of conscience, or impressing with a sense of guilt, that’s what this word means, to convict. To impress with a sense of guilt. It’s a strong word and it’s an extremely important word. This word is used and I want to give you just a little bit of a perspective as how this word is used so that we really do have a good grasp of its meaning. In Jude the 15th verse, we read this: “And about these also Enoch and the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying, behold the Lord came with many thousands of His Holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” To convict. That’s what this word means. Jesus uses this same word in John chapter 3. In the New American Standard it’s translated a little differently. In John 3:19 Jesus says, “And this is the judgment that the Light has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the Light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light lest His deeds should be exposed.” That word exposed is the exact same word that is translated convict in John 16:8. In Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul uses this word and it’s translated similarly as John 3. When Paul says to the saints at Ephesus in Ephesians 5:11, “And do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but instead even expose them,” that word expose is the same word. Verse 12: “For it is disgraceful to even speak of the things which are done by them in secret but all things have become visible when they are exposed by the light” This same word is used in 2 Timothy when Paul is encouraging and admonishing Timothy to be faithful in the proclamation of God’s Word. When Paul says to Timothy in chapter 4 verse 2 of 2nd Timothy, “Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction.” That word reprove is the same word again. This idea of exposing; of convicting; of bringing a sense of guilt upon sinners. Several portions in chapter 1 and chapter 2 of Titus you see this same word. Verse 13: “This testimony is true. For this cause reprove them severely.” This is the same word reprove. The end of the last verse in chapter 2: “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority.” This just gives us a sense of this word that Jesus is using here. This is going to be one of the chief evidences of the outpouring of the Spirit of God on the world after Jesus ascends to the Father. That He will convict the world. He, when He comes (verse 8,) will convict the world.
Secondly, what is it that the Spirit convicts the world of? We want to look at that next. He will convict the world concerning what? Sin, righteousness, and judgement. It’s interesting that Jesus breaks these three down and gives a very brief reason behind each one. We begin with this matter of sin. Concerning sin Jesus says in verse 9 “…because they do not believe in Me.” At the heart of sin is unbelief. Sin is rebellion against God isn’t it? It is the ultimate manifestation of unbelief. Unbelief as we’ve noted in the past on similar occasions is a stubborn refusal to submit ourselves to the Lord by rejecting the truth He has revealed along with its implications. It’s those implications that make such a difference. If the truth could just be set over here to the side and I could acknowledge it and it could leave me alone and untouched that would be one thing. But truth demands certain things. It has implications. Truth cannot be contained in a responseless vacuum. We many times try to do that. It cannot be sealed in a cubicle to simply be admired or gawked at. It cannot be relegated to a set of words on a shelf to be read at opportune times and then sat back on the shelf, literally and figuratively. Truth has implications. It demands an active response. As the writer of Hebrews says, “it is living and active.” And it is living and active in the broadest sense. It encompasses the deepest reality. It is embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Himself made that declaration did He not? “I am the Way and the Truth.” He is the ultimate manifestation of reality. Jesus is the apex of divine revelation. He is Truth, He is the Truth. In an exclusive sense as well. At the heart of all sin is the obstinate refusal to believe in God’s Christ. Even from the perspective of an Old Testament person. God had made a promise for the provision, for His provision for sin even before the appearance of the Word made flesh. Unbelief, ultimately, sin at its core is unbelief of the heart, it’s a refusal to submit myself to that which God has spoken, to that which God has revealed in His truth. That truth is ultimately seen in His Christ, in His provision. Think about this for a moment. The first effect the Lord speaks of here is the Spirit of God at work in this world convicting, convincing sinners of their sin and of their sinfulness. And especially in their relation to the treatment of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is at work in this world in this way. Now we would have to recognize that the Holy Spirit is at work to differing degrees in different places at different times. It’s not one consistent flat line, in regards to His work. There are variations to the extent of that work. And here I trust we would understand that there is a sense in which this ministry of the Holy Spirit is seen as a common grace in recognizing the fact that this work is seen in a general sense upon all of mankind. But it is also seen in a very specific sense in the work that God is accomplishing to bring sinners effectually to Himself through the gospel. One of the things that has impressed me over time is the prominence of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and sometimes in the most unlikely places. And I think in many respects some of this can be explained, not all of it, but some of it can be explained in relation to the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting men of sin. In relation to their unbelief regarding Christ. Does it ever puzzle you that people use the name of Jesus in some of the most inappropriate ways? You find the name of Christ being uttered in blasphemy, in cursing. You find the name of Christ being uttered in literature, in music, in places where it is totally inappropriate. Of course, we also find the name of Jesus being spoken of in cold religion; in cults, almost every cult has some way to deal with Christ. There are other reasons for that as well. There is a convicting work of the Spirit of God in this world. This work encompasses the world as a whole, concerning His Christ. Jesus says when His Spirit comes “…He will convict the world of sin because they do not believe in Me.” As long as the world continues as a whole to reject Christ, there’s going to be a convicting, a gnawing at the conscience of the world as a whole, in a general sense.
A second thing Jesus says, is that the Spirit will convict concerning righteousness. Then Jesus says “…because I go to the Father.” In the days of His flesh on this earth, when Jesus walked and talked in the land of Palestine through the regions of Galilee and Judea He not only exposed wrong but He also taught positively as well, and verified it in His living. He taught much of what is right as well. Did He not? Jesus established in a unique way God’s holy standard of righteousness. It wasn’t just the fact that Jesus was exposing wrong that caused men to get upset with Him. It was also the fact that He was exemplifying in the most powerful ways the Divine standard of righteousness. You recall what Jesus had said in the 15th chapter to His disciples just a few moments prior to this. Verse 22, “If I had not come and spoken to them they would not have sin or guilt, but now they have no excuse for their sin”. Verse 24, “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did they would not have sin or guilt”. Jesus promoted the righteousness of God with a painful consistency. Have you ever thought about it? How would you and I have reacted and responded to listening to Him teach maybe on numerous occasions? Here comes the multitude. They’re coming, not to be taught about righteousness and the exposing of sin, they’re coming for what they can get. To some extent, they are like people today. They are looking for an entertainment value. What will Jesus do this time? Or they’re coming because they want something to eat or they’re coming because they’re sick and they need healing, serious need. But one of the things that we need to stop and think about is this: Jesus promoted the righteousness of God consistently and it had to be exceedingly painful for the natural man. Not only to hear that so consistently, but to hear it coming from someone whose life was pure. What do we do in our society when somebody starts talking about something that is righteous or true? What do men do? The first thing they do is immediately begin to examine their lives. Why? To undermine; to undercut; to diminish what they’ve just said. What they may be saying may be absolutely true and right and good, but if their life is anything but that or has some gaping holes in that, then what they say can be dismissed, as the world looks at it. That’s how we approach things. That couldn’t be done with this man. Just the opposite would be true. Jesus spoke of the righteousness of God; His life proved exactly what He was talking about. It could be evidenced. The God of this world continues to promote a destructive perversion, doesn’t He? Calling evil good and good evil. Jesus clarified evil and good and He did so very consistently. The Holy Spirit is at work promoting righteousness in the world today. Think about this for a moment. How does He do that? Through the sanctifying ministry that He’s accomplishing progressively in His people - in the holy ones of the Highest One. I was thinking about this as I was contemplating and pondering what the Lord says here, this matter of righteousness and I was drawn to the passage in Romans chapter eight verse sixteen. “The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God”. What does that do to me if I do not know the Lord and I am in some kind of close contact with somebody in whose life this ministry of the Spirit is evidenced daily? The Spirit of Almighty God, the Holy Spirit of God is bearing witness with that person’s Spirit that they are a child of the living God. There’s a third thing that Jesus mentioned here in terms of conviction and that is regarding judgement. Jesus says, “…concerning judgement because the ruler of this world has been judged.” If you notice the tense here, it’s very important. Jesus is about to be arrested, to be tortured, to be beaten, to be falsely accused, and put to death and yet Jesus can say before that takes place that the ruler of this world has been judged. There’s a certainty there. In the ongoing and mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God in this world there is an intrinsic implication of the already defeated status of the evil one. In the proclamation of the gospel, there should be the warning of the impending day of judgement, right? Unfortunately, you don’t see that a lot in the gospel proclamation today, but there should be. There certainly is in the New Testament. An impending day of judgement for the devil and all the sons of disobedience who follow after him. The world scoffs at this kind of truth. More and more the world scoffs. When you talk about a coming day of judgement you can in some instances see people literally break out in laughing, mocking, or ridiculing, but one of the things you can’t help but notice is a nervousness in that scoffing. Pay close attention to that sometime. There’s a noticeable nervousness in that scoffing. One of the things that I find very interesting is how many of the greatest scoffers on this earth are also so very busy seeking to attempt, seeking to prove to themselves how good of a person they are. They have no need to worry if there really was a day of judgement. The Spirit of God puts His finger on the hearts of men, women, and children all over this world to varying degrees, to a varying extent, and with varying reactions. Have you ever thought about this? Let’s say you go to the doctor’s office and you have some kind of a problem. Your stomach is bothering you, and the doctor has got you on the table and He’s poking around on your stomach and He’s trying to figure out where it is and He hits the spot. Let’s say it’s an infection, some kind of abscess, or it’s an injury and man does that hurt! When He finds where the source of the problem is you can explode in pain. Now there’s three different ways you can respond to that. One is you can get furious with the doctor for giving you that pain or for exposing that problem and stomp out of there and never come back. A second option would be thanking him for finding it, listen to His prescribed remedy and then going on your merry way and ignoring it. A third way is to investigate a little more carefully. You recognize what He’s saying is likely right, and you submit yourself to His prescribed remedy. Those are your three options. You see those very same basic responses to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the convicting work of the Spirit of God in this world. What do people do with this? How do they respond? These three concepts sin, righteousness, judgement they are a significant part of the gospel. They are a significant part of the gospel proclamation and they are used mightily by the Spirit of God to bring sinners to repentance, to faith in Christ. Is it any wonder that the Holy Spirit is also referred to as the Spirit of grace? This is grace, that God would take it upon himself to spend this kind of effort to explain to us, to expose to us what’s really wrong.
It brings me to another point - that is the necessity of this work. This is an absolutely necessary work. Apart from this convincing ministry of the Holy Spirit lavished upon mankind there could be no effectual proclamation of the gospel of Christ. Think about that for a moment. The gospel could be proclaimed over and over and over again in the most convincing ways imaginable, but not one sinner would repent apart from this work of the Spirit of God. Not one. Much less countless multitudes even to the farthest ends of the earth. That’s what we see, the evidence is overwhelming! It ought to thrill our hearts. You and I don’t come to this knowledge on our own. We never would - we never could. We can’t see ourselves the way God sees us. The very reality of the nature of our condition precludes our understanding of the gospel. Conviction comes from God Himself. I was reminded as I was thinking about this, in the passage in Romans chapter 8. We are told there in verse 7 that “…the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.” It’s not a possibility. Verse 8, “…those who are in the flesh cannot please God”. This passage in Romans chapter 8 conveys great hopelessness. There’s no way to come to Christ apart from this ministry. Even the most pious of people have no capacity whatsoever. There is no hope apart from the convicting work of the Helper of ever coming to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. This is a great mystery is it not? Have you ever thought about what a mystery this is? It’s a mystery in this respect: You know how often we will be talking about someone we love or someone we have been witnessing to, the gospel has been proclaimed to them numerous times, and we talk amongst ourselves, “I just don’t understand why they don’t get it!” It’s been so clearly presented to them and they are in a position right now where you would think they would understand it, and they would see it for themselves, but they don’t. And then there are times where someone will, out of the blue, come to their senses. They see themselves for who they are and they come to Christ and many times in situations and people we would have never expected it. It’s no accident that the song writer penned those words in that one hymn that we sing many times: “I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin.” It’s a mystery. How is it? I could stand there and talk endlessly to a sinner about the glory of Christ, and they could stare blankly. One other person could come along and say one little word or sentence and their eyes could be opened to the truth because it’s the Spirit’s work. It’s not ours, is it? What a marvelous thing, the necessity of this work.
The next time we will continue on, I want to see a little more clearly and specifically how it is this work actually takes place in this world, but just in closing this morning I would remind you of this fact that this is not something to be taken lightly; it is a new covenant phenomenon. By that I am saying this: You and I live in a time in which this has been a reality. In our lives it has never been otherwise. Over two thousand years ago this didn’t exist. It wasn’t real, it didn’t take place. The world as a whole was not experiencing this. This witness didn’t exist. It wasn’t there for the world as a whole. I’m not saying it didn’t exist anywhere. I’m not saying it didn’t exist in small areas and especially amongst God’s chosen people and several other pockets of the Gentile world. But as a whole this wasn’t taking place and it is now. In a massive way. You and I ought to take great encouragement in this. What a gracious work this is. The more we look at this passage, the more it seems to me we ought to come to understand why we have this concept of one who comes to aid, the Helper. It’s the Helper who convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgement. That doesn’t sound like somebody who is helping and yet it is exactly what He is doing. He’s helping us to see Christ, to see our need, our real need and to bring us to Him.
