When The Spirit Comes

Well, good morning, church.

It's good to be here with you as you're settling in.

If you would go ahead and turn with me in your copy of God's Word to the 15th chapter of the Gospel of John as we look at Jesus' last words as he speaks to the disciples on the night before his crucifixion.

Disciples are troubled because he has just warned them of the hatred and the persecution that would come to them upon their departure.

Now you can imagine for a moment with me, for the past three years, you have been with Jesus.

You've forsaken all things to follow Jesus, the Son of God.

You've left behind all things that you've known, your workplace, you've left behind your family, your loved ones, your comforts, all the things that you've had, and you've followed Jesus for three years.

And now for three years, you have witnessed some pretty amazing things along the way, right?

You saw water turned into wine.

You've seen the healing of a nobleman's son who was 20 miles away.

He wasn't even present, but Jesus healed him.

Then you saw the healing of the paralyzed man at the gates.

Then we see the feeding of the 5,000, which we know is probably closer to 20,000.

And then you saw Jesus walk on water, his power over nature to calm the storms, to walk on the water.

You saw him heal the man born blind.

And then you saw him raise his friend and your friend, Lazarus from the dead.

And all these things are building into the greatest miracle, the resurrection of himself, which he prophesied of, and also the prophets from old.

And so you could imagine that your faith has grown, even though there are some things you're still kind of like, I'm not too sure about.

I've seen some great things, but there's something going on with this guy.

But you continue to trust.

You continue to trust Jesus, you continue to follow him, though you have this sort of feeling of maybe possible abandonment.

Jesus is leaving.

What's he talking about?

Where is he going?

And this seems to be the current state of the disciples here in chapter 15, moving into chapter 16, and Jesus senses this, and we see it in verse 6 of chapter 16.

But because of Christ, because of this, Christ encourages his disciples with a promise and with a truth.

He comforts them not by promising them ease, but by promising them the Holy Spirit.

Now, because this has been taught wrong, this is one of the biggest misconceptions about the surrounding, about uh surrendering one's life to Christ, a life of ease.

It's been taught wrong.

It's not.

It's not the life of ease.

It's a difficult life, but it's filled with great hope, with great joy, with great peace and great love, knowing that Christ would not leave us alone.

He would not leave us by himself, but he would promise us a helper.

And not only would he promise us a helper, but he would also promise his great return for his people, for his church.

And so there's great love.

Christ did not abandon his church, he did not leave us defenseless versus this hostile world.

He sends his spirit, the spirit of truth, to testify of him, to strengthen his witness and to expose the world's unbelief and their need for the gospel.

And so here's the truth the church's mission will advance, but not by human power, not by our ability to persuade people, not by our popularity amongst the culture, but by the Spirit's witness through Christ and through his word and through his people.

And this is where we find ourselves this morning in the 15th chapter, towards the end, when Jesus says he will send us a helper.

And so if you would pick up with me in chapter 15, starting in verse 26, and we'll read into chapter 16 to verse 11.

It says this when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me, and you will testify also, because you have been with me from the beginning.

These things I have spoken to you, so that you may be brought may be kept from stumbling.

They will make you outcast from the synagogue.

But an hour is coming for everyone who will kill you to think that he is offering service to God.

These things they will do because they have not known the Father or me.

But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them.

These things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you.

But now I am going to him who sent me.

And none of you have asked me where are you going?

But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart, but I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I will 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, and when he and he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

And so the first thing that we see here, beginning in verse 26 and 27, we see a unified testimony, a unified testimony that the Father sends, the Spirit testifies, and the church bears witness.

The church's testimony is not just merely a human persuasion, it is joined to the Spirit's work of making Christ known.

And so there's a joint effort here, there's a unified testimony.

And so in verse 26, when he says, The helper will come, whom I will send from the Father, the Father sends his church a helper.

This is what he's doing for us.

He's not abandoning us, he's not leaving us, though the disciples in that moment would have felt some sort of abandonment or some sort of like, what's going on?

He's not leaving them.

He sends them these words.

And so Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit as the helper, as the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father and is sent by the Son.

And throughout the scriptures, we see titles like this that bring us great comfort as followers of Christ, right?

We see words of the Holy Spirit like helper, like comforter, like advocate, counselor, spirit of truth.

These are things that bring great comfort to us, knowing that we're not alone in this hostile world, in this world that what we just learned in chapter 15 hates us and will do anything to stop us from bearing witness of Christ.

And so, Jesus, what is doing here?

He's really restating what he has already promised to them.

Why would he do that?

Well, to comfort them, to remind them.

We often need reminders, every one of us, we need to be reminded time and time again when hardship comes, when suffering comes, that we are not alone.

And so Jesus does this.

He reminds them, he's comforted them as they're approaching this war that's coming that they have no idea about.

They don't really understand the depths of the persecution, the weight of that's coming towards them in their boldness to stand for Christ, to follow Christ.

And so what does he do?

Well, he's already reminded them, he's gonna remind them again.

Listen to how what he reminded them in chapter 14.

He says this in verse 16, he says, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper.

We see this again, another helper to be with you forever.

Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, but it neither sees him nor or nor me.

You know him, for he dwells with you and you and will be in you.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, this is beautiful at the end of 26.

He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you.

What a promise.

What a promise.

If you think to yourself, I just can't remember scripture, then you need to pray more.

Because we have a promise right here.

We have a promise that he will bring to remembrance.

It may take a little work, it may take time, it may take time, but he's promises right here that he will bring to remembrance all the things that he's taught you, all the things that you will remember.

And this is a beautiful promise.

Now, I don't know if you notice, but here at the end, the role of the Holy Spirit.

Look at the end of verse 26.

Here's the role.

So we see the role.

It says, When the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, this is this is the Spirit of truth who receives from the Father, and this is his role.

It says, He will testify about me.

This is the role, right?

Which moves us into the next point.

The Father sends his church a helper.

And not only that, the role of the Spirit is to testify of Jesus.

So the job of the Spirit is not to draw attention to himself, but to give a testimony concerning Jesus Christ.

He's not drawing attention to himself.

It's not the charismatic chaos that we see in the church today.

It's not about how much entertainment we can do or how much we can so-called summon the Holy Spirit to make us feel like we have Christ.

Instead, it's about what can the Spirit do to draw attention to Jesus Christ?

How can he work in the believer's life to draw attention to it?

How can he work in the scriptures to draw attention to Christ?

This is the job of the Holy Spirit.

It's not what we've seen in the charismatic world.

And so at the end of verse 26, we see it clearly.

If you look, it says this that this the Spirit's ministry, it's Christ-centered.

It's always Christ-centered.

It says, He will testify about me, or some of your translations may say, He will bear witness about me.

And that's the job of the Holy Spirit, then, and it's the job of the Holy Spirit today.

So the question is, well, how does how does the Spirit testify of Jesus?

Well, the Spirit testifies of Jesus by by shining the light on Christ through his word, through the apostles' witness, through the church, proclamation of him, and through the convicting work to the world.

And so here's a few scriptures that just kind of tie all this together.

And so he testifies through scripture.

We see this in 2 Timothy 3:16, where the Holy Spirit inspires the written word.

2 Timothy 3:16

This is the job of the Holy Spirit, inspires the scriptures so that we can bear witness of Christ.

Not only that, he testifies through the apostles' witness.

We see this in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, where their testimony becomes really the foundation of the New Testament church.

Acts 1:8

All the apostles are doing.

It's building the foundation through the power of the Spirit.

Not only does he testify through the apostles, but he testifies by bringing Christ's words to remembrance.

We just read about that, right?

In chapter 14, verse 26, that he promises to teach us, to bring to remembrance, so that we can teach the world.

Not only that, you see in Acts chapter 4 that he testifies through the preaching and the witnessing of the church.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

So Acts 4.31, that the Spirit-empowered believer is to proclaim Christ with boldness, with clarity, and with dependence upon Christ.

Also, we see he testifies by convicting the world.

We see this in chapter 16.

We'll get to it in a minute, verses 8 through 11.

But the spirit exposes the world's unbelief.

It reveals Christ's righteousness, and it declares judgment on the falling ruler of this world.

And then he also testifies by glorifying Christ and not himself.

The Spirit's ministry is always Christ-centered.

It does not draw attention away from Jesus, but it magnifies him as Savior, as Lord, as the Son of God.

Listen to verse 16, chapter 16, if you want to look there, starting in verse 14 through 15, it reads like this: It says, He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

All that the Father has is mine.

Therefore I say that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

This is the Spirit testifying of God, testifying of Jesus, bearing witness of him, and not drawing attention to himself.

And so the Spirit testifies of Jesus by taking the truth of Christ and pressing upon men's hearts through the word, through the witness of the church, through conviction, so that sinners, here's the idea, so that sinners may see Christ as the crucified, risen, and reigning Savior.

This is the job.

This is the role of the Spirit, to testify of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Then the third thing we see is this the church is called.

The church is called to bear witness to the unbelieving world.

We see this in verse 27.

It says, And you will testify also because you have been with me from the beginning.

So not just the spirit will testify of Jesus, but here Jesus gives a prophetic promise, right?

They don't have the spirit yet.

God hasn't sent, but when the spirit comes, he's telling them that you will be able to bear witness because I'm going to bring to remembrance all that I have taught you, and you will be able to bear witness.

And so here Jesus gives this prophetic promise to his followers that they will testify about him.

Those who trust him, those who believe in him, can't help but bear witness about the life of Jesus Christ.

And so once the Spirit comes, he will bring to remembrance to them the things that he has taught them.

He will empower them, he will encourage them, he will give them boldness in their pursuit to make him known, to make the truths of Jesus known as the Son of God while establishing the foundation of the New Testament church.

Now Jesus first spoke this to his disciples, but the call, the call applies to every one of us, to all who follow.

So the question is, are you bearing witness to him before others?

Does your life bear witness?

Are you empowered?

Are you encouraged by the Spirit?

Do you stand boldly and speak clearly of the promises and truth that God has given us?

Remember, the Christ-like life is strengthened.

Your testimony is strengthened by your obedience to God's law.

Right?

It brings strength when we're obedience, meaning we don't just say it, we do it.

We don't just speak how much we know.

It's not the intellectual scent of how much I know about God, but it's how much am I doing as well.

Right?

James 1, be doers of the word.

This is what we're called to do.

Do we just know a lot about Jesus?

If we just know a lot about Jesus and we live the life we want to live, we contradict ourselves.

And then our witness is what?

It's dim.

It's being dimmed by our hypocrisy.

Because the world looks at you and they don't they don't bear weight in your witness.

They're not worried about your testimony because you live one life and you speak another one.

And so are we bearing witness to him before others?

This is why it's not enough for us just to claim to know God.

We must follow the commands and teachings of Jesus.

Pursuing obedience is pursuing obedience to please God is not the goal.

It's not the goal.

Pursuing obedience is the desire of a heart filled with gratitude, knowing that this life is dead and empty without Christ.

That's the goal.

I want to pursue Christ.

If I'm pursuing Christ, obedience will flow from me.

It will.

Because I have a heart of gratitude that I was once dead and now in Christ I'm alive.

I have life.

I have life.

And so knowing God is much more than the intellectual ascent.

It means trusting Jesus as a center of our lives now and forever.

So this is the unified testimony.

The Father sends the Holy Spirit, the Spirit testifies of Jesus, and the church bears witness of Jesus.

We, the people of God, the church, must not replace the Spirit's testimony with entertainment, with manipulation, and with mere practice.

Meaning rituals, religion, tradition.

We're not replacing that.

Instead, our preaching, our evangelism, our discipleship must be aimed to make Christ known through the word, relying fully on the Spirit as our helper.

This is the unified testimony.

Second thing we see here as we move into chapter 16 is that Christ warns his people so they will not stumble.

There's some evil things that will come.

Mankind will do all kinds of things to you if you're living boldly.

If you're living boldly for Christ, standing for truth, mankind will attack you.

But guess what?

The Lord is not surprised.

He's not surprised.

So therefore, we trust in his sovereign purpose of suffering.

We trust in that.

That's odd to say.

The world wouldn't say that, right?

The world would think we're crazy to enjoy and push through the suffering.

But for us, we're trusting that.

We're trusting the process that he's cultivating us, he's creating in us him, right?

That we look like him, that we bear his witness.

And he's doing that through suffering.

And so he says these things in verse one.

He says, These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.

These things.

What are these things?

Well, first of all, when you read scripture, anytime you see these things or words repeated, I just want to ask you to pause and think and consider.

Why is this phrase being repeated time and time again?

Here in four verses, we see it repeated.

These things one, two, three, four, four times.

Four times we see it.

And so we have to ask ourselves, why is this being said?

Well, in the Gospel of John, if you've noticed, if you've been with us from the beginning, you've heard this again, right?

It's been 41 times in the Gospel of John, Jesus says to his disciples, hey, these things I have spoken to you.

And so we take note of these things.

Jesus' warning about the world's hatred, the coming persecution, the rejection by the religious authorities and the promise of the Holy Spirit to the disciples.

Like he's testifying to them.

So the followers would not what?

Stumble, that they would not be uh walk or their witness wouldn't be dim because of the persecution of the world.

When they when opposition comes, they won't shrink back, but they will stand firm in what they believe.

So let me give you some verses that kind of connect this phrase for us.

These things.

John 13, 34 says, A new command I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love, that you also love one another.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

And so Jesus begins to establish in the believers their need to trust Christ as he has loved them, that they need to love one another.

So he's building into them this community of believers that can keep each other accountable, that can encourage one another, so that when opposition comes, when the world will hate them, which we see in chapter 15, they will be able to stand firm on the truth.

And so here Jesus is building into the church.

He's trying to connect this love, this love for one another.

And then we get to verse 15 or chapter 15 and verse 18, which um Keith did a great job for us last week connecting these points.

It's verse 18, it says this if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Jesus is warning them that the hatred from the world is expected, right?

It's coming.

Don't be surprised.

It's coming.

Then verse 19, he says, Because you are not of the world, the world hates you.

That your identity is no longer in the world.

Your identity is now in Christ.

And because your identity is in Christ, the world will hate you.

And then in verse 20, it says, If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

Jesus is preparing them for persecution.

He's saying, if you follow me, it's coming.

Don't be surprised.

Continuing in verse 21, he says, All these things they will do to you for my name's sake.

The persecution comes because they belong to Jesus.

And then we get to verse 22 through 24, and Jesus explains that the world's rejection of him leaves them without no excuse.

Like their hatred is ignorance only.

It's a rejection of the Father and the Son.

And then verse 25 of chapter 15, he says, They hated me without a cause.

Jesus connects their hatred to the fulfillment of Scripture.

Jesus spoke these things to prepare his disciples.

This is what he's talking about.

He's preparing his disciples and trying to keep them from stumbling.

Another word for this, it may, it means to not be tripped up or not to fall into a trap.

And so Jesus is not setting them up for failure.

He's not setting them up for failure.

He's not saying to them, hey, if you come follow me, everything's gonna be perfect.

I'm gonna take care of you.

Life's great, right?

You'll be blessed, you'll have, you'll have all the riches of the world, and you'll have a life of ease.

This is not what Jesus is saying to them.

He's saying actually the opposite on this side of heaven.

He's like, on this side of heaven, it's gonna be a strenuous life.

It's gonna be a tough life.

It's gonna be tough if you're bold in your faith.

And so this isn't a south.

Salvation issue.

Sometimes people have made this.

It's not the salvation issue.

It's not that, oh, they stumbled and they fell away from their faith.

He's not warning them of that here.

It's to hinder their conduct, right?

It's the idea that when one stumbles in their actions and word, the issue is that their witness or their testimony will become dim, right?

The world will see them as like, I don't know if I trust what they say because they live one life and they say another thing.

So he's not trying to say that.

He's saying, hey, when this persecution comes, if you start to stumble because you resort and because you're like, hey, I'm not fighting this battle, it's not worth it.

Well, then your testimony is not bearing weight to the world.

And so he's trying to prepare them for that.

Hey, it's coming.

Be ready.

Be ready.

So when it hits you, you're ready.

You can stand firm on the truth of God.

This is why Jesus tells his disciples beforehand that persecution will come.

He's preparing them.

He's preparing them for when it will come.

And here's the thing: it's coming from the religious people.

This is who it's coming from, the religious people, those who believe, they are serving God.

Look at verse 2.

It says this they will make you outcast from the synagogues.

But an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

And so just like the fear of the family, I don't know if you remember the family with the born blind man.

When the Pharisees went to him, they were like, hey, hey, can you bear witness that this that your son was actually born blind?

And they're like, oh, no, no, no, no, no.

Like, hey, you know, that says that fear came upon him.

They said, no, no, he can speak for himself.

Why don't you go ask him?

Because there was a great fear of them being excommunicated from the Jewish community, being kicked out of the synagogue.

And so there was this deep fear that came upon them.

And they said, no, no, no.

He's able to speak for himself.

Go, go speak with him.

We don't want to be, we don't want to be excommunicated.

And if excommunication is not enough, look what the scripture says in verse 2.

It says that they won't stop at that.

They're not going to stop at just kicking you out.

It says they will kill you, right?

Death will soon follow.

Verse 2, it says coming to, and they think that they're doing a service to God, that they've removed you.

And so this is a warning from Jesus as a pastoral warning.

He's preparing his people so that suffering will not surprise them or overthrow their faith.

And as your pastor, I want you to hear the words of Jesus this morning and prepare you that when you are bold in your faith, when you stand firm on your faith and you proclaim the truth of Christ, you will be persecuted.

You will be.

Because you're going against everything that the world believes.

And so may you find encouragement here as well.

May you find encouragement that we have a helper.

Those who believe, who trust in God, those who have surrendered their life to God, you have a helper.

You are not alone.

Jesus has promised this to you.

And so be bold in your witness.

And for doing so, you will bring glory to God.

And God is doing something glorious in you as well.

Don't forget that.

God is doing something good in you.

He's shaping you, He's conforming you into the image of who?

His Son, Christ.

This is a glorious and beautiful thing.

And so we must trust in Him.

Peter expands on this truth.

I love him.

1 Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

He says, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trials when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Paul's saying the same thing.

He's like, hey, don't think this is strange.

You might actually think the opposite.

If you're not being persecuted, you might be like, what's going on here?

Right?

But he's saying, hey, don't think that it's strange when it's happening to you.

In verse 13, he says, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's suffering, that you also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

And if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

What an encouragement.

The truth is, opposition to the church ultimately reveals the ignorance of those who do not know the Father and the Son.

And we see this in verse 3.

Verse 3 says this these things they will do because they have not known the Father or me.

So, in short, the disciples would be persecuted by religious unbelievers.

And most of the world is religious.

But few in the world have a genuine relationship with Jesus that is abiding, that remains under the authority of Jesus.

We see this in John chapter 15, right?

John 15 · chapter mention

The vine, the true vine.

Unfortunately, we see most of the world sees Jesus, or few in the world, I'm sorry, see Jesus as Lord.

But they all want to see him as Savior.

They all want him as Savior.

We want Jesus to save us.

We want the blessings and the riches and eternal life.

We don't want his lordship.

We don't want to follow him.

We just want the good things or what we think may be good.

Warren Whisby says it this way.

He says, religious world today claims to know God, but it does not want to bow the knee to Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the only Savior of the world.

Satan has blinded their minds and sin has blinded their hearts.

And so Jesus, continuing in verse 4, he says this to his disciples.

He says, But these things I have spoken to you, so that when the hour comes, like you remember that term?

You ever heard you remember that phrase?

The hour?

This goes all the way back to chapter 2 in the wedding.

What did Jesus say to when he's to Mary?

He's like, hold up, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I can't do that yet.

The hour has not come.

And so here's again, we pause, we think about these things.

The hour has not come that you may remember, continue in verse 4, you may remember that I've told you of these.

These things I did not not say, or I'm sorry, these things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you.

And so one of the most, one of the most treasures gifts that we can receive from the helper is remembrance.

It's remembrance.

And he will help you remember the warnings and the promises that will fuel your faith for his glory and for your good.

Listen, fellow believers, we should expect opposition without becoming skeptical, without feel feeling fearful or bitterness towards God.

Christ's warnings are not meant to paralyze the church, but to steady her in the storms.

This is the truth.

They're not paralyzing us, they're steadying us in the midst of the storm, in the midst of everything that's coming.

When the waves are hitting and crashing on us.

These truths, they steady us.

And so when faithfulness becomes rejection, remember that the Lord told us beforehand, He remains sovereign over it.

Third thing we see this morning is that Christ's departure secures the Spirit's coming.

Christ's departure secures the Spirit's coming.

This means Jesus leaving his disciples was not a loss, but part of God's plan to bless them.

Now, as we come to verse 5, we are faced with an interesting statement from Jesus to the disciples.

And he says this in verse 5.

He says, None of you ask me, where are you going?

This is interesting because we know that in John chapter 13, in verse 36, that Peter he asked Jesus this very question.

John 13 · chapter mention

He's where are you going?

And then Thomas in 14 kind of asked a similar question.

And so what is Jesus applying here?

What is Jesus saying?

We know that scripture doesn't contradict itself.

So what is Jesus saying here?

Their concern was centered on themselves rather than the Savior.

So Peter and Thomas, they were less interested in like where Jesus was actually going, but the fact that he was leaving.

D.A.

Carson helps us understand this.

He says this, he tells a story like this.

He says, the little boy was disappointed that his father is suddenly called away for an emergency meeting when the boy and his dad had planned to go fishing.

The boy says, Oh, Dad, where are you going?

But he really wasn't interested where his dad was going as much as he is focused on his own disappointment of not going fishing.

So although the disciples have asked about where Jesus is going, they really are just self-absorbed in their own loss at his leaving them.

They didn't have the big picture of the Lord's returning to the right hand of the Father and of sending the Holy Spirit to empower them for the task of the Great Commission.

And so Jesus, knowing his disciples are grieving at his loss in verse 6, he teaches them that his departure is for their advantage in verse 7.

So he says, right?

He says, but I tell you the truth, verse 7, that it's to your advantage that I go away.

That I go away.

Jesus is saying that through my death, resurrection, ascension, my heavenly accession, my redemption is completed, and the Father is able now to pour out his spirit upon his people to give you a helper, to help the church.

And so the point is, Jesus had to go.

He had to go so that the helper would come, that the Holy Spirit would come.

His departure secured the Spirit's presence in the church.

And so the disciples would no longer have Jesus physically beside them, but they would have their spirit indwelling them.

So for a minute, the disciples, they would have felt sorrow and loss, but actually there was a spiritual gain that was happening.

There was a gain that was happening.

And so simply said, like Jesus was going away, he wasn't abandoning.

Therefore, the promise, if you want to highlight this in John 14, 12, would come to pass.

It would come to pass.

He says this, John 14, 12.

Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father.

There's greater work that will be done through the people, through the church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, because Jesus is going to the Father.

Greater works, not in power, but in number, right?

That there's more of us, that the Spirit of God indwells millions of believers today to accomplish the mission.

And so this is a beautiful picture that we are now united with Christ by his spirit.

And so believers share in the benefits of Christ's accomplishment redemption.

This is this is to their advantage that Jesus would leave.

And so for us, sometimes we measure Christ's care by what we can see, right?

Sometimes we measure that, like, oh, what's God doing for us?

What am I seeing?

The disciples, through though there was a visible loss, there was a spiritual advantage.

And so Christ's ascension brought greater blessing to them.

And we must keep our eyes focused on that.

God's working, even though we can't see it.

I love John 7.37 says this on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come and drink come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture says, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Now this he said about the Spirit, living water, that the Spirit of God will flow from his people.

He's promising them the Spirit, whom the believer in verse 39, from those who believe in him will receive.

And as far as yet the Spirit had not been grieved, because Jesus had not been glorified yet.

And so, church, today we live by faith in the enthroned Christ, the one who sends his spirit to dwell with his people.

The fourth thing we see, the last thing we see is the spirit convicts the world.

The spirit convicts the world.

The desire of the spirit is to move the unregenerate heart of man towards the cross of Christ.

This is the desire.

It's the desire of the Spirit.

Hopefully, this is the desire of the church.

That we see the lost people, the broken people, that their heart is healed and that they move towards the cross.

And so how does the spirit accomplish this drawing, this drawing of man to God?

Well, by three convictions.

That's what Scripture says by sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Now, before we move through these three convictions by the Spirit, I believe that it's important for us to properly define what the word convict in our passage means so that we can have a clear understanding of the Spirit's role and the church's role.

So this word convict, it's a legal term when an attorney presents a case in such light that the truth of his client's position becomes obvious.

So he's trying to bring clarity to their situation, to the unbelieving world.

This is the job of the Holy Spirit when it says that he convicts.

And so Wearsby, once again, he helps us define this.

He says the world may think that it is judging Christians, but that is the Christian who are passing judgment on the world as they witness to Jesus Christ.

Believers are the witness, the Holy Spirit is the prosecuting attorney, and the unsaved are the guilty prisoners.

Therefore, the truth is that the Holy Spirit convicts the world or makes clear about sin, righteousness, and judgment.

This is what he's doing.

He's bringing clarity to these things.

Like he exposes sin because the world refuses to believe Jesus.

In verse 9, right?

It says that the world refuses to believe says concerning sin because they do not believe in me.

And so the root of sin is unbelief towards Christ.

This is the root of all sin for which all other rebellion flows.

When we don't believe in Christ, we run to other things.

When we have a desire that is greater than Christ, we follow that desire.

Whether it's greed, money, sex, whatever it may be, we follow that desire because it's a greater desire than Christ.

And this is what he's saying.

The Spirit exposes this, that you don't believe Jesus fills your desire.

You believe it's something else.

Whatever it may be, success in a job, keeping up with the Joneses, social media, your threads, or whatever.

I don't know all those things, but whatever it may be, you're trying to somehow feel this desire, and you're saying that God can't.

And so he exposes a sin to the world.

Then he reveals righteousness because Christ goes, verse 10 it says, because Christ goes to the Father.

This vindicates Jesus as the righteous one.

This is showing Jesus as the righteous one, the one to whom he said would come and satisfy the wrath of God, would take the punishment upon us, who would ascend to the Father, or who would die and resurrect and ascend.

So he's exposing to us in verse 10 that this validates everything that Jesus has said and done, that he is the righteous one.

And the Spirit comes and he exposes that to the unbelieving world.

He makes it known, and they are without excuse that he is the victor over death, over sin and death.

Jesus is the righteous one.

And so he reveals that.

Not only does he reveal that, but he declares judgment because the ruler of this world in verse 11 has been judged through Christ's cross and resurrection.

Satan's dominion is broken.

It's been broken.

And the cross is not defeat, but it's triumph.

It's triumph.

And it proves that in Christ Satan is powerless, and in Christ alone will judgment pass over those who believe.

So the Holy Spirit, through the witness of the church, has and will continue to clearly present the truth about sin, about the righteousness of Christ alone, and about judgment until Christ returns for those who believe.

All others will stand judgment, damnation, fooled by Satan and his evil ways.

Jesus in John 3 18, he clearly defines this for us as he taught uh teaches Nicodemus.

He says this in verse 18 of chapter 3.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, right?

In their unbelief.

Remember, this is the he's exposing sin here.

In their unbelief, they're already condemned.

Because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And this is the judgment.

In light, uh, the light has come into the world, and the people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light, but does not come into the light, least his works should be exposed.

But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out by God.

Jesus clearly defines to us, to the unbelieving world, that in Christ alone, that he is the righteous one.

And apart from him, there is no other way.

And that this world truly desires, apart from Christ, the darkness.

They truly desire their own evil ways.

And so our evangelism depends on the Spirit's convicting work.

Not on us, but on the Spirit's convicting works.

We cannot open blind hearts, we cannot awaken dead hearts, we cannot grant repentance.

So the question is, what can we do?

What do we do?

What's our job?

Well, we can proclaim Christ clearly to the world, we can pray earnestly for God to draw the hearts of the wicked men to evil men, to come to Himself, and we can trust the Spirit to expose unbelief, displaying Christ's righteousness and warning the judgment of the world.

And so here's the main idea that the Spirit of God equips true believers to serve with faithfulness, testify with boldness, and labor for the advance of God's kingdom.

This is the Spirit of God.

He's empowering us.

We're trusting in Him.

We're trusting, we're being obedient to proclaim truth.

We're trusting Him to do the work.

We're being obedient to serve faithfully by loving one another and trusting that the Spirit, through that, will reveal to the lost world a greater love than they've experienced in this world.

And then we labor, we labor for the advancement of the kingdom.

Because there's something greater than who we are.

There's something greater than us.

And so we must continue to trust in the Spirit who has equipped us to be God's people for his glory.

As the band comes back up, the church is never, the church is never alone.

The same Christ who went to the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father, has poured out his spirit on his church.

Therefore, we must bear witness with humility.

We must bear witness with humility, meaning we must depend upon Christ.

We must bear witness with courage, meaning we must be bold in the midst of a world that will hate us, a world that will persecute us.

We must stand boldly as we ought, as Paul says, as we ought to proclaim the gospel, and we must pray for the lost, longing to build God's kingdom.

I hope you have a heart for the lost.

I hope you have a heart for the sins of the world.

I hope that it breaks you.

Because if it doesn't, then your evangelism will suffer.

When you look at the world, you don't look at them and go, I'm better than them.

You look at them and you go, I wish they knew the cure, right?

I wish they saw Jesus as the righteous one.

And so our heart breaks and we pray for them.

And then we trust that through the spirit-filled witness, that the unbelieving world will hear the spirit's verdict.

And this is the verdict sin is unbelief, righteousness is found in Christ alone, and judgment has already fallen on the ruler of this world.

So flee to Christ, the righteous, the victor savor, knowing that the Spirit of God, our helper, our comforter, our counselor, our advocate has come.

And so here's the question as we respond today.

How far are you willing to go in testifying to the goodness of God before others, knowing that persecution will come?

How far are you willing to go?

How far are you willing to stand on God's truth?

Let us pray.

Father.

Father, thank you for your encouragement to the disciples.

As we look back at your letter that John wrote, we are encouraged as they were encouraged in the midst of times when they felt maybe alone or felt like they were going to be abandoned.

Father, may this passage encourage us that you have sent a helper to those who will believe and trust to your saints, God, that we are empowered by the gift of the helper, the Spirit, and that we trust that He will bring to remembrance all things that we need to do.

To bear witness before this world that Christ is our Lord and that he is Savior.

Father, use us all in a mighty way.

Use us in ways that we don't even know right now, Father.

We trust that you have walked before us.

Your Spirit is guiding and leading us.

Just as the disciples, Father.

There's a lot of unknowns in our lives.

What's next?

What's going on with my job and my family and my marriage?

My kids.

I don't know.

I don't see a way out.

Father, help us find comfort in your spirit, your sovereign control over all things that in the midst of tough times, in the midst of sufferings, you are doing something glorious in your people.

For God's glory and for our good.

Show us how to trust in that.

Show us how to be faithful people to your word, to your commands.

And let us not be a people that just know you from an intellect side, God.

But let us know you with such depth that it compels us to live for you, God.

Teach us how to be doers of your word.

Amen.