In Lesson 136 we looked at John 14:26, when Jesus began to talk to His disciples about the coming Holy Spirit. I’m going to jump to John 15:26 here and look at something else He says about the Spirit, then go to 16:7-13 for even more about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
This is John 15:26. But when the Comforter comes, Whom I will send to you, He is the Spirit of Truth, Who comes from the Father, and He will testify concerning Me.” I have always liked this verse, because it mentions the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, all joined together in a common purpose – to reveal truth. The Son will send the Spirit to believers. The Spirit of Truth comes from the Father to testify concerning His Son. “Testify” is from martureo, a legal term that means, to give information based on personal knowledge and experience. Now, let’s jump to John 16:7-13 that tells us more about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I’ll just go ahead and quote the whole passage.
7. Nevertheless, I’m telling you the truth when I say it’s good for you if I go away: because if I don’t go away, the Helper will not come. But if I go, I’ll send Him to you.
8. And when He comes, He will convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment:
9. Of sin, because they have not believed in Me;
10. Of righteousness, because I’m going to My Father, and you won’t see Me;
11. And of judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged already and his punishment is set.
12. I still have many things to tell you, but you’re not able to understand them yet.
13. And when the Spirit of Truth comes, He’ll guide you into all the truth you’ll need. He won’t speak on His own, but will tell you only what He hears from the Father, and will tell you what you need to know in the Father’s timing.
Now, if you’re at all familiar with the Book of John, then you know that Jesus has been talking to His disciples for several chapters now about the fact that He was going to go away (John 12:8, 35, 13:33, 36, 14:1-2, 18-19, 28, 16:5, 7). When you read chapter 15, you should recognize that everything Jesus says about abiding in the Vine and the persecution of believers is in the context of what He says earlier about going away. The disciples are sad, confused and worried. In fact, everything Jesus says about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in John 14, 15 and 16 is spoken in the context of Him going away. He was trying to encourage the disciples with the fact that the Holy Spirit would come to take His place on the earth.
And in verse 7 of the passage quoted above, Jesus tells them it is to their advantage to see Him go away so the Holy Spirit could come. This is, no doubt, due to the fact that Jesus was somewhat restricted in His physical form to being in only one place at a time. The Holy Spirit has no such restriction. Jesus speaks of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in terms of the Spirit being able to act as helper to do different tasks or facets of His ministry to any or all simultaneously, with no regard to time or space.
Paul speaks in Romans 8:9, 11 (and in many other places, as well) of the ability of the Holy Spirit to "dwell" (the Greek oikeo, meaning, "to inhabit") in the life of believers to direct and guide them. You need only to go down to Romans 8:14 to see this illustrated when he says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God." The Holy Spirit can lead us all at the same time.
And while I’m on the subject, let me quickly show you another verse that reinforces this and what we were saying earlier about the Holy Spirit coming to take Jesus’ place on the earth. Ephesians 3:17 says, "May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith." This doesn’t say Christ dwells in our hearts in the same way the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Look at it. It says that Christ dwells in our hearts through our faith. You need only go up to Ephesians 3:16 to see how Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. "May He grant you out of the riches of His glory to be strengthened in the innermost part of your being through the ministry of the Holy Spirit." It’s the ministry of the Holy Spirit that reveals Jesus to us and makes Him a reality in our lives!
But for now, we need to get back to this passage in John 16. In verse 8, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Then, in verses 9, 10 and 11 He explains each point. In verse 9 Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin "because they have not believed in Me." The most basic, foundational sin of mankind that leads to his eventual destruction, and all the chaos that precedes it, is unbelief.
When you read the red letters, one of the recurring themes is Jesus’ frustration over the fact that men would not believe in Him. He marveled at their unbelief (Mark 6:6) and most of the confrontations you see between Jesus and the religious establishment were because of their unbelief and the opposition that came out of it (John 5:30-47).
Then in verse 10 Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit convicting the world of righteousness. The word "righteousness" in this verse is translated from the Greek dikaiosune and describes the result of a man recognizing the authority of God over his life and the acceptance of God that comes when one is submissive and obedient to that authority. It is the right standing with God that can only come by faith. And again, you have to apply the right definition of faith or you’re going to get messed up. Faith is not what you believe in your head. Faith is the result of your submission and obedience to God. It’s never defined by what you know about God; it’s defined by your real experiences with Him.
In verse 9 the Holy Spirit exposes the sin of unbelief, which is the root cause of man’s failure to take God up on His gracious offer of relationship and deliverance. In verse 10 the Holy Spirit reproves man for his failure to submit to God's authority, conform to His character and nature and gain His approval. The key to understanding this is what He says at the end of the verse "because I’m going to My Father, and you won’t see Me." It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to reveal the character and nature of God to man in the absence of the Son of God Who has gone back to the Father.
And finally, in verse 11 Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of judgment "because the ruler of this world (Satan) has been judged already and his punishment is set." In other words, it is part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to let the world know that God will not tolerate lawlessness. He demonstrated that when He judged Satan for his rebellion and reminds us that all who rebel against His authority and reject His grace would suffer the same consequences. The world may choose to believe God is a benevolent God and will not punish those who refuse Him (or accept Him only on their own false, religious terms, which is the same thing). But they’re wrong. That’s what Galatians 6:7-8 is all about (if you want to read a more detailed version of the principle of sowing and reaping, look at what David says in Proverbs 1:20-33).
In verse 12 Jesus tells His disciples there are “many things” He still has to tell them, but they’re not ready to understand them yet. We’ll see the principle of progressive revelation (as Jesus explains in the parable of the New Cloth and New Wine) unfold in the Book of Acts.
In verse 13 Jesus reveals 3 aspects of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The first is that He will guide us into "all" truth. Pantos, when used without a negative describes something that is whole or complete. Here, Jesus is describing the ability of the Holy Spirit to guide believers into all the truth they need to fulfill the Father’s plan and purpose. Next, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit doesn’t have His own message, but will speak only what He hears from the Father. In other words, like Jesus (John 5:30), the Holy Spirit is submitted to the will of the Father. So, the second aspect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit described in these two verses is that He will reveal the heart and mind of the Father.
Then in the last part of verse 13 Jesus says the Holy Spirit will announce or declare things that are to "come". The word used here in the original text is erchomai, a term used primarily to describe motion from one place to another, or, in this context, from one event to another. In the paraphrase above, this is taken into consideration where the translation reads "and will tell you what you need to know in the Father’s timing." This is a description of the part of the ministry of the Spirit that helps us understand the circumstances and situations in our lives and what God may be trying to accomplish in them. The emphasis is on the present.