The Holy Spirit – Who is He and what does He do? (John 16:7-16) [John #55]

ATTN: One of my professor started a class by asking “How is God made real in every age?” The Israelites during Moses’ period knew that God was real because they literally saw God leading them thru pillars of fire and pillars of clouds and they heard God’s voice speaking with Moses. The people in Jesus time knew that God was real because the Son of God was walking among them doing all kinds of miracles. But, now that Jesus is gone and we don’t see pronounced miracles, and we can’t see God, how do we know that God is real? More importantly, how do we make God real to those who don’t believe in God? The answer? By the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit Himself that will make God real to those who are willing to accept Him. (More than anything else, I want you and my family experience God as real. I dedicated my life to it!)  I now know that it was the Holy Spirit that was speaking to me when I originally thought that I was speaking to myself when I was 17 and a friend was witnessing to me and a question came to my mind, “Why won’t you believe? Is it that you can’t believe or you won’t believe.” And I know it was also the Holy Spirit that made me be honest with myself and said, “It’s that I don’t want to believe because I want to do what I want to do and not what Someone else tells me to do even if that person is God.” 

Today, we want to pick up where we left off in the book of John series. The last message in John was preached by Pastor Eldie in April and he spoke about abiding in Christ and being satisfied in it rather in the approval of people. There are about 6 chapters left in the book of John, God willing, we want to finish it this year and start a brand new series in January of 2020. So, this is message #55 on the book of John. 

CONTEXT: By this time, Jesus knew that His time on earth was coming to an end. As a matter of fact, when He made this speech, He was spending the last night with His disciples. The very next event is Jesus being arrested and led away to be crucified. So, Jesus knew that this was the very last night He would be spending with His disciples and the disciples are realizing that as well. And what does He tell them? He tells them that He will send the Holy Spirit to them to be with them forever. 

1. Who is He? II. What does He do? 

NEED: 

1. Who is the Holy Spirit?
2. He is a person.

Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as a He and not an It. v. 7. “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 go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:” 

So, the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal being like the force that they talk about in Star Wars. Obi-Wan Kenobi teaches young Luke Skywalker: “Well, the force is what gives the Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” – Luke Skywalker eventually learns to use this force for good, but then Darth Vader was using that same force for evil! 

So, when we hear of the Holy Spirit, we think of Him as this impersonal force. But Jesus and the Bible does not speak of Him in this way. He is a person and He has a personality and attributes of what it means to be a person. 

ARG: The Holy Spirit has the intellect, emotions, and the will like a person. (1) In Romans 8:27 says, “he (the H.S.) who searches our minds KNOWS the mind of the Spirit…” He has an intellect like a person. (2) Eph. 4:30 says, “Do not GRIEVE” the Holy Spirit. In other words, He has feelings and we can make him sad by what we do. So, He has emotions like a person  (3) 1 Cor 12:11, “the Holy Spirit gives [the spiritual gifts] to each one, just as He DETERMINES. In other words, He has a will like a person. 

–  In fact, He is not only a person but He is what makes God personal. He is how God is made real and personal to us individually and corporately. But more on this on what He does… 

2. He is God.

EX: He is the third Person of the Triune God – Three in One. There’s God the Father. He is fully and completely God. There’s God the Son, He also is fully and completely God. Then, there is God the Holy Spirit. He is also fully and completely God. He is not inferior to other persons of the God-head. He just has a different role. Now, it’s not three Gods, but one God. ILL: When I was talking to a Jehovah’s Witness who doesn’t believe Jesus is God, he was very confused when I told Him that I believe Jesus is God just like the Father is God and the Holy Spirit. And he said, “So, you believe in three gods.” “No.” I said. “I believe in One God.” “Yeah, but 1 plus 1 plus 1 is three and not one”, he said. In my head, I was thinking, “I teach math. I think I know that….” He is absolutely right. 1 plus 1 plus 1 is 3 and not 1. But God is one and there are three persons. How can that be? I don’t think God is illogical, but rather super-logical. What that means is that God does not violate logic, but He transcends it. The nature of God is something our little brains cannot comprehend. And I’m good with that. I would be more worried if I understood everything about God. 

CONC: so, who is the Holy Spirit? He is God, and He is a person with emotions and will.  

TRANS: Then, what does He do? What is His role? There are many, but the main role is what Jesus’ states in this passage. V. 8 “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

The Holy Spirit will “convict” the world concerning three things – sin, righteousness, and judgment. What does that mean? The word convict in greek has the meaning of “to expose.” So, in this case, it can be interpreted, The Holy Spirit will expose the world and show its error regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s role is to expose the fact that the world was wrong to judge and crucify Jesus and therefore wrong about three things it thinks is right. 

1. a) concerning sin. 

The world is wrong about what sin is. And Jesus being crucified will prove it. What is sin? Not believing in Jesus. “Because they do not believe in me,” Sin, in its essence is trusting anything else other than Jesus. It is trusting the self more than Jesus Sin, the world thinks, is what will harm their body and crimp their lifestyle – such as  murder, stealing, lust, drunkness. They are evil, but they are the result of the sin that is root of all sins which is unbelieving Jesus. Or if you will, loving anything more than Jesus. That is the root of all sins. When we prefer anything to Jesus. 

ILL: Pastor, you mean to tell me that my grandma who never hurt anyone but worked herself to the bones all her life for the family is a sinner and deserves to go to hell because she didn’t believe in Jesus? According to Jesus, the answer is yes. And Jesus was so loving that He chose to be crucified to save the very people who were rejecting Him – much more loving than you and I could ever be – and this Jesus is saying without faith, we have nothing to do with Him. 

It is the Holy Spirit that will convict the world of this. Side note: If a church never talks about sin, the Holy Spirit is not in them. 

1. b) concerning righteousness. 

The world is wrong about what is truly good and righteous and the Holy Spirit will expose it. The world decides on their own what is right and good. Right now, it’s “let’s tolerate all lifestyles. Let’s not impose our view on anyone else, but rather let’s accept and love everyone!” That is until someone comes along and says, “I do not agree with that view. I think it leads to more harm and destruction.” Then, they call you a bigot and tries to erase you from the face of the earth! Wait, but I thought you said you accept and love everyone. Shouldn’t that include those who disagree with you? Why was Jesus crucified? Because He told them that their way was wrong! Jesus imposed His view on them. But they  wanted to keep living the way they had always lived – pretending like they were living for God but were really living for themselves. And when Jesus came along to expose their fakery, they wanted to get rid of Him. And Jesus is saying, “You wanna know who is right? I’m going to the Father; they are not. 

The world is perfectly justified in what it does and thinks it’s doing it for the right reasons, but anything that would deny or ignore Jesus as the supreme is the same as crucifying the son of God and diametrically opposing God. 

APP: The Holy Spirit will bring this as a reminder to the world. Prosperity gospel churches will try to make friends with the world, but the true church will always be hated by the world because they hate their Master, Jesus. 

1. regarding judgment. 

The Holy Spirit will expose the world’s error in regards to judgment because it gave a wrong judgement to Jesus. And this would be shown at the cross because that’s when Satan – the ruler of the world – would finally be judged. Ironically, when the world decided to judge Jesus as a criminal, it was judging itself. The ruler, satan, who has been inciting the world to commit this sin against God to reject the only Son of God, he, along with the world is judged at the cross. They were sealing their own fate by pronouncing judgment against the only God who came to rescue the world with his own blood. Like a drowning person who cusses at the lifeguard who came to rescue him, when the world cussed and crucified the only Savior who came to same them, they were sealing their own fate.

– The Holy Spirit’s main work is point to the finished work of Jesus. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (Jn 16:14–15)

CONC: You can think of the work of the Holy Spirit in this way. In the Old testament times, He came UPON selected person and stayed with him for a while. In Jesus time, you can think of the Holy Spirit as dwelling WITH the disciples as Jesus Christ. Another way the Holy Spirit is referred to as is “the Spirit of Christ.” And from the book of Acts on till now, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as being IN the people of God.  

You will hear some Christians say that the Old testament was about the Father, the New Testament about Jesus and now, about the Holy Spirit. We should focus on the Holy Spirit – no. the Holy Spirit’s job was to focus on the finished work of Jesus, to point us and the world to Him. Even after the Pentecost –  the coming of the Holy Spirit – the disciples focused on Jesus and not on the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthians was because they seemed more focused on the sign gifts and miracles than Jesus and His love and grace. 

CONC: How do we know God is real? We know that God is real because we see the work of the Holy Spirit in Christians. How do we know He is working in our hearts? When He reveals the sin in our lives as sin, teaches us that the only righteous being is God and so that we question our own motive, and then we come to not care how the world judges us because the world was wrong about Jesus too.

One of the sure signs of us maturing as Christians is this conviction of sin. It’s realizing to the depth of our being that without Christ, we are helpless sinners worthy of hell. Have you come to a place in your life where you look in the mirror and said, “it’s me O lord, standing in the need of prayer and forgiveness.” Perhaps, you thought you were better. Better than whom? Your parents who weren’t there for you growing up or who mentally or verbally abused you. But now you hear the words coming out of your own mouths to your children and you are in disbelief. And so you think to yourself, “I’m no better.” Have you realized yet evil is not out there? Evil is in here. how would you answer this question: What’s wrong with the world? It is not the republicans or the democrats or rich folks or the homeless folks. What’s wrong with the world is me! I am what’s wrong with the world. It’ because the world of full of people like me, the world is what it is! 

Oh, wretched men and women we are. Who can save us from this body of sin? Jesus Christ, the only Savior of the world. If you felt the power of sin and you have gone to Christ for help, you have experienced the Holy Spirit. May you experience this Holy Spirit more and more….