Pentecost
Sunday is celebrated 50 days after Christ’s resurrection and 10 days after the
Ascension. It is the Sunday on which the church remembers that the Holy Spirit
came upon the believers who were gathered in an upper room (Acts 1:13)
waiting for what Jesus called “the
promise of the Father” - the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4). Acts Chapter 2 reflects the
historical account of that occasion, when the Holy Spirit came upon those
disciples, transforming them from timid, fearful followers to bold and powerful
servants of Christ. The Spirit of God who came to dwell in them made all the
difference. Compare for instance
pre – Pentecost Peter in Luke 22:54ff
with post- Pentecost Peter in Acts
2:14ff.
Now if the Holy Spirit is sent to empower us, then how does He do that? Most people immediately think of power manifestations: tongues… miracles … casting out demons. I want to show you with the help of our text in John 16: 5-14 that this is not the primary reason why God has sent the Holy Spirit – but first for some introductory comments:
Jesus reminds the disciples that when He goes, the Holy Spirit must come. He promises that He will not leave them as orphans (Jn.14:18). The disciples are understandably anxious at this time (Jn.14:1-6). They are uncertain about the future without Jesus and therefore Jesus comforts them with the promise of sending them the Holy Spirit to be with them and in them (14:17). But what exactly is it that the Holy Spirit will do in them and among them? Notice that Jesus says nothing here about the Holy Spirit in terms of spiritual gifts or speaking in tongues.These phenomena is what the Pentecostal and charismatic movement have commonly associated with the person and work of the Holy Spirit, BUT these are not the principal reasons given by Jesus as to why the Holy Spirit is sent. Jesus says that the main reason why the Holy Spirit would come was to bring glory to Himself - by making Jesus and His saving work for fallen sinners known! This is clearly stated in 16:14,15 and this is entirely in keeping with the central message of John’s gospel (see John 20:31). Everything else we learn about the work and the person of the Holy Spirit flows from this grand truth, and is subject to this principle.
John 16:8-11 HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT DRAWS OUR ATTENTION TO CHRIST.
We begin by considering some of the unusual names which Jesus gives to the Holy Spirit. Besides His proper name, “the Holy Spirit”, Jesus calls Him here the also the Paraclete - the Helper (ESV) Counsellor (NIV) [1] (16:7), and also the Spirit of Truth[2] (16:12).
In terms of
His activity we note that the Holy Spirit does the work of conviction: "When He (the Helper/Counsellor) comes, He will convict[3] the world concerning sin and righteousness
and judgment…" (16:8). The Holy Spirit, the Counsellor, the
Spirit of Truth has a convicting ministry. Alongside his helping/counselling ministry He
has a convicting ministry. A convicting Helper/Counsellor? Is this not a contradiction? No!
Why?
He is both!
He helps and counsels us by convicting us. In fact, the Holy Spirit in order to
help and counsel, He must first convict us of that which stands against
us – our sinful nature! He does the same
work as a surgeon, who in in
order to truly help us, must first cut away that which causes us trouble, in
order to heal us.
This is the primary
role which the Holy Spirit fulfills in the whole world. “He will
convict the world...” Since He is the Spirit, He is not limited by a
physical body, and therefore He can do this work globally. He can be everywhere
at the same time. He is omnipresent.
THE HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTS PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD IN THREE WAYS: concerning sin, and righteousness and judgment
Again we are reminded that all people in this world are by nature sinners. We are by nature rebels against God and His design.
· Genesis 3 explains the origin of sin in man.
· The sin manifests itself not only in the fact that (i) all people do sin (Rom. 3:23) and thereby incur God’s wrath, but also in the fact that (ii) all people refuse to accept God’s gracious offer –Jesus, the Lamb of God - God’s atoning sacrifice.
· The truth about us is that we are so hardened, so self-righteous, that without help we will never see the truth about ourselves. We are dead in our sins and transgressions (Eph.2:1)
· Jesus says that we need the convicting work of the Holy Spirit to pierce our spiritual deadness and our spiritual hardness. This He does by awakening in us, the people of this world a consciousness of true guilt, leading us to true repentance, trusting in Jesus alone for our righteousness and salvation, restoring us to fellowship with our heavenly Father.
We have a wonderful example in the book of Acts 2. The Holy Spirit came in response to God’s promise at Pentecost - the Hebrew Shavuot – The Feast of Weeks, (a feast of thanksgiving for the ingathering of the wheat harvest), which we have seen is 50 days after the Passover (Easter). On this day the Holy Spirit starts a remarkable work of ingathering from many nations that have come to Jerusalem for this feast. He uses Peter to preach a sermon in which 3000 people from among the nations are convicted of sin. They cry out, "What must we do?" (Acts 2:38). The answer is given: "repent and be baptised, every one of you…”. Now, why do they cry out, ”What must we do“? This is not simply Peter’s sermon that does it! The primary power at work here is the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, acting upon the preaching of His Word. The 3000 have been helped by the Holy Spirit to see their sin! Their hearts are exposed by the preaching of the Word. They now beg for a remedy! What does the preacher used here by the Holy Spirit do? He helps them to repent, and in doing so to look to Jesus – “repent and be baptised, every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…”.
Understand
then that the preacher cannot preach effectively, he cannot bring about true
heartfelt repentance or conviction, unless the Holy Spirit convicts the hearers of guilt. So, let us remember then in the first place that
the Holy Spirit is given to convict
the world of its sin, so that those who see, hear and believe may be
helped and counselled to 'stop being the
world'.
So then,
thank God for sending the Holy Spirit to help us to understand the nature of
sin and to convict us of our sin. Brothers and sisters, pray that the Spirit of conviction will rest
upon us!
2.
The Holy
Spirit convicts the world of
righteousness because Jesus is going to the Father. (16:10)
We have seen then that the Holy Spirit convicts the
world in regard to sin because the world does not believe in Jesus. But, what
about this one, “He will convict the
world about righteousness because I go to the Father”?
Here is the answer: The religious leaders in
particular, and the nation of Israel in general did not regard themselves as
sinful, but as righteous - one
might say, self - righteous, and all this because they possessed the Law of Moses
and they thought that they had Abraham as their father. And on those grounds they felt righteous.
The same is true for the world we live in. When you
speak to a person about their sinfulness and their need for a Saviour, people are quick to respond, "But I am basically a good person” i.e. “I am
righteous…. I am self-righteous.”
Now you will remember that Jesus
frequently challenged this superficial
view of righteousness e.g. the
story of the rich young ruler [4]. The truth is that all of us by nature are self- righteous, and all of us need to be
helped by the Holy Spirit to see this
that our self- righteousness will not stand before God.
Now, the reason
why the Holy Spirit convicts the world of its ‘righteousness’ is because Jesus is going to the Father
where they will see Him no longer (16:10). So, we see that the Holy Spirit continues the convicting work of Jesus - but now on a
global level! How does He do that? The
Holy Spirit, through the Word of God Jesus, as it is proclaimed by preachers of the Word[5] in the whole world (even to you today) , being the
omnipresent Spirit, convicts the entire world of its self- righteousness. God’s word – God’s righteous standard, when
preached to self –righteous people,
and with the conviction
of the Holy Spirit helps
people to see that they fall short of
the righteous life that God requires.
The result is that they call out, “What
must we do to be saved?” The preacher,
by the Holy Spirit then points them to Christ, whom they must embrace
by faith. When anybody comes to Jesus in that manner , He will truly justify them on account of His
finished work on the cross, and declare then
to be truly righteous. Thank
God the Holy Spirit for helping us to embrace a true godly righteousness that reconciles us to our heavenly Father! Thank God for the global work of the Holy
Spirit!
3.
The Holy
Spirit convicts the world concerning judgment, because the ruler of this
world is judged. (16:11)
How do we understand this? The world, because of its sinfulness, has distorted
standards of judgment. At one point in John
7:24 Jesus needed to reprimand the Jews (i.e. the world of His day) to “stop judging by mere appearances, and to
make a right judgment.”
The grossest misjudgement that our world is guilty
of is that it has judged Jesus to be a criminal and sent Him to the
cross for that. What a gross, faulty judgment! This shows us how the world's
judgment can be so profoundly wrong and so morally perverse.
And now the Holy Spirit has come to convict the
world of its false judgments, which essentially are inspired by Satan and his
demons. Satan is the originator of all false judgment, for he is the father of
all lies. He is the father of those who echo His values (Jn.8:44). But now because of Christ's triumph on the cross, the ruler of
this world who governs the faulty
thoughts of this world is defeated! He
is judged!
The Holy Spirit has come to convict the world for
following false judgment, following bad and
unreliable guides- all inspired by
Satan, who is now condemned and
defeated.
The Holy Spirit teaches us that the only true
judgment and infallible authority comes from the Word of God – from Jesus the
living Word. Thank God that the Holy Spirit who is in us and with us, helps us
to discern the lies of Satan when we turn to
the truth of God’s Word.
Can you now see why we need to be thankful for
Pentecost? And why we have a duty to remember this event in our church calendar?
Can you now see why we ought to be thankful for the
intervening and convicting work of the Holy Spirit?
Despite all this persistent hardness found in our
world the merciful voice of God empowered by the Holy Spirit goes out into the
entire world and entire generations. God's patience and God's grace are truly
marvellous.
[1]
Gr. parakletos. The Greek word
translated as "counsellor” is a
compound word i.e. consisting of two words, “para" - 'beside' and 'kaleo'
- "to call”; the counsellor is one who "calls beside" – hence
also, “The Comforter”.
[2]
Gr. pneuma
teis aleitheias
[3]
Gr. elencho [lit. shaming a convicted person]
[4] Mark
10:17ff
[5]
Not just professional preachers – but
all who preach Christ to the
world
No comments:
Post a Comment