John: Questioned By the Spirit

So we're making our way through John.

We've been there for about a year.

We're getting toward the end.

This morning is another passage on the Holy Spirit.

Maybe it's a month ago, six weeks ago, I'm not sure at what point.

A while ago, it was another passage in John 14 about the Holy Spirit.

So we're again around the Holy Spirit.

And so Cesar sort of mentioned that.

If you haven't been around church, even the mention of Holy Spirit says, Yeah, I'm not quite sure that.

I drove by church one time and a sign out front said something about Holy Ghost fire, and I'm not sure why I'd want to go in a place where there's ghosts and fire, not sure about that.

Or maybe you grew up in a church where the Holy Spirit's talked about all the time.

And that maybe, maybe even talked about healings, and maybe some healings happened.

And you're going, yes, I've been waiting.

I've been waiting for this Sunday to happen.

And what we even talked about a few weeks ago when we talked about the Holy Spirit.

A lot of us were going, the Father, God the Father, okay, kind of getting my mind around that.

Kind of creator, Jesus, God to earth, lived, taught, died, resurrected.

Holy Spirit, I don't Holy Spirit, I'm not quite sure how to interact with the Holy Spirit.

So this morning is sort of another get to know you to the Holy Spirit.

And the word that we see John using for the Holy Spirit is paraclete.

In John 14, we talked about that this word, the strongest meaning of this word in that context was probably advocate.

Do you remember this?

We talked about this and what we said.

I even mentioned this story when Christy was an advocate for a family who had a child with a disability, and they didn't know how to handle taking a child with disability into a school system, and Christie's background was in that.

And so they hired Christy to be their advocate, to review it, to teach them.

But not just that, but to go to the powers that be and to be their voice, that she would speak for them.

And this is what an advocate is.

An advocate speaks for you.

And so in this court before God, a just God and an unrighteous us, it's not us speaking for ourselves, but we have an advocate.

The ultimate advocate was Christ, and now the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is speaking for you, even now, speaking for you, so that you don't have to speak for yourself.

So you don't have to prove your righteousness to God.

You don't have to prove your righteousness to me.

You don't have to prove it to your spouse.

You don't have to prove it to your friend.

That you have an advocate speaking for you.

And maybe you maybe you watched the OJ case a long time ago.

Maybe you've watched some of this Marietta case with the child dying that's playing out.

Maybe you're watching some of that.

Maybe you maybe you watch Judge Judy.

If you watch Judge Judy, don't tell anybody.

You watch Judge Judy.

Actually, tell me, because I have stuff you can do at my house.

You can come folder laundry.

If you're watching Judge Judy, you have nothing else to do.

And so if you're watching Judge Judy, come tell me.

I have some stuff you can do around my house to feel more productive with your life.

I'd love to help give that purpose to you.

So in court, from Judge Judy or or from the OJ case or whatever you've watched, or maybe you've been in court, you have the defendant, right?

The one on trial.

This is you and I, this is us, this is somebody not living as they should, and then you have the defense attorney, you have the advocate arguing for the defendant, and then we learn something here in John 16, which is uh unsettling at first, and then really good news.

Okay, so we're gonna jump into verse 7.

But very truly I tell you, so it's Jesus talking to his disciples, it is for your good I'm going away.

Unless I go away, the advocate, the Holy Spirit, will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

So I'm gonna go and die.

They don't know this yet.

The weekend's coming up.

So he's gonna die, he's gonna resurrect, he's gonna ascend to heaven, he's going away, but the spirit will remain here with believers.

And when he comes, when the spirit comes, the spirit will prove the world to be in the wrong.

And maybe your Bible says convict the world about sin and righteousness and judgment.

So uh prove the world to be in the wrong means convict.

And so this idea of uh convict the world, we we're all in the world, uh, we were under the lordship of the world, and still we're affected by the world, and we talked about that last week, what the system of the world is and what the system of God's grace is, and you can listen back to that.

Um, the word convict, this was uh the way I grew up, um, this was like the key term to throw around to show you were a serious Christian.

And maybe you didn't grow up that way, and so maybe this is kind of news to you, but but you would you would sort of, this is how you proved your maturity, um, your depth as a Christian, is is uh the Lord was convicting you usually over some behavioral sin that was debatable anyways, but you made it not debatable so you could be more mature than somebody else.

And so it was, you know, I usually had to do with like throwing out music and listening to certain music that other people have deemed okay.

And so you would sort of or or the Lord convicted you of um waking up even earlier than your other friends to have longer quiet times than your other friends, uh, so that, not really because of good motive, just so you felt more spiritual than your other friends.

And some of you know exactly what I'm talking about, some of you have no idea, and you're looking at me, and so bless you that you didn't grow up in that.

But this was kind of a word we threw around.

And in the in the in the process of that, sort of like, what does the word even mean?

Like, what does it what does it mean to be convicted?

What does this really mean?

And what it means is it means to be cross-examined.

So the Holy Spirit's gonna cross-examine you to show you you're in the wrong.

And sometimes this has to do with behaviors, sometimes it does have to do with, you know what, like you, you don't, you're not interested in the scriptures at all, and you fill yourself with other truth or other what things you think are true, and you do need to get the scripture.

You do need to wake up early.

So sometimes it is those things.

But but what it what it primarily is about is showing you there are holes in your story.

This is what a prosecutor does.

In court, the prosecutor starts to ask the defendant questions to show the judge or to show the jury there are holes in that guy's story.

And we all have a story, we have a story that we're telling ourselves, we're living out, we have a story we're presenting to each other, we're presenting to the world, and this story, if it's conceived from within us, without the grace of God, this story has huge holes in it, and the Holy Spirit's coming alongside, and he's gonna convict of behaviors that are destructive.

He's gonna do that, and then he's gonna start cross-examining you to show you you have some major holes in the story you're presenting, or you're you're believing.

And so you're in court, and you have this advocate arguing for your innocence and purity to the judge because it's been finished for you on the cross, and so you're the defendant and you're guilty, and but the advocate's arguing to the judge, you know what, he's yours, he's he's righteous, and he doesn't have to add anything to it because of what you did for him, and so he's a child of God, and we're going, yes, you know, yes, I love that.

And then and then he he he turns and he he looks you in the eye, and he starts to ask you questions.

And you're going, I know, I thought that you were you were you're my defense attorney, like you were my advocate.

What's going on now?

And he starts to ask you questions to show you there's some holes in your story, and he'll ask you questions like, why are you why are you using performance to feel more valid before God?

Why are you using performance to feel more valid in front of anybody?

Why do you why are you judging that person, belittling that person to feel more important?

Why are you looking to yourself to control everything and thinking that if you can control everything then your life is gonna be okay?

That thing, that pursuit, that object, that person, why do you think you need that to matter?

Right?

I mean, that's usually the question that comes to me.

Right?

I mean he's advocating for me, and I'm I'm behind it, and I'm celebrating, and then he turns and looks me in the eye, and there's this resistance in me and my human nature to go, no, no, no, I thought you were advocating for me, but then he's gonna come back and cross-examine because he wants me to see reality, and that I really do need Christ on the cross, which is what he's advocating for, but I don't see that unless he cross-examines me, and I come to a realization there's holes in my story, and what he's trying to get to, he's trying to get to the heart, right, the core of your being.

And these questions come in.

Let's jump back in and verse 8.

When he comes, when the Spirit comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.

And then and then Jesus breaks this down, about sin because people do not believe in me, about righteousness because I am going to the Father where you can see me no longer, and about judgment because the prince of this world, which is Satan or the devil, or the liar, I just like to call him the liar, because that's what the devil means.

He's just he just lies to people, so the liar, because the liar now stands condemned.

So you years ago, uh, Christian and a group of friends, we went to New York City and and it was over uh New Year's Eve leading up to it, and and we got a hotel room as two rooms, and we like slammed way too many people than you're supposed to have a two-room hotel room.

And and one day we went to the NBC studios for the tour.

And so we went through a couple studios, and then we got to the Saturday Live studio.

For me, I'm going like, this is this is where Church Lady happened.

I mean, this is Wayne's world, and I know everybody has their own like generation of SNL.

You're like, well, nobody was better than Belushi, or nobody was better than Murray, or you know, and we all have nobody's better than Kristen Wig.

Everybody has their own sort of generation of SNL that was the best, and nobody comes close to it.

But for me, it's like this is where cheerleader happened.

Like, you know, this is where Will Farrell did cheerleader, and I'm like, this is incredible.

And then and then we went on to the um nightly news, which is the at the time I didn't care much about.

Now I watch Brian every night, NBC Nightly News, me and Brian, it's like 23 minutes, fast forward through the commercials, it's just a nightly ritual.

And and Brian sits up at the table, and all the lights and everything, and then you have all the cameras, and we're walking around, and we're seeing everything, and it's real small.

You think it's gonna be big, it's real small, and and then you go into the you go into the control room, right?

And there's all the knobs and the buttons and screens, and and this is where everything is rooted, this is where everything comes from.

This is where everything is controlled.

This is the power hub.

And so um, here's what I'm talking about.

Talking about, and we'll repeat this every week if we have to, because we need to.

All our behaviors, which the Holy Spirit will convict, and he's gonna deal with us, he's just cross-examine us about our behaviors, and we're gonna we're gonna have to deal with that, we're gonna have let go of stuff.

Um, but he's he's going deeper, he's going into the control room, and we could call these idol structures, like the things in our hearts, ways that we try to get unmet needs fulfilled outside of Christ, and so we go to other avenues, and it might be in a secular pursuit or a pleasure-seeking pursuit, or it could be in a religious or moralistic pursuit, but it's it's any any way that we're trying to get something satisfied outside of Christ, and so we have these idol structures in this control room.

This is this is sin.

Like that's what sin is is going to anything outside of Christ for your needs to be met.

So verses eight through eleven, he mentioned sin first.

This is the first one he breaks down, and we're gonna break them down.

So in verse nine, he says the Holy Spirit will convict of sin.

So if we were, if we're just gonna like list sins, like let's let's just like sit down and maybe I give you a pencil and you just say, okay, let's um let's just write down uh the sins that are the woe of society, like the downfall of American society.

And and you'd have your list, I'd have my list, and uh maybe we populate this list by what's hot on Fox News, or maybe you you saw somebody on preaching on TV, or maybe it's kind of your self uh list of your soapboxes, and we're all gonna have our own soapbox sins.

Let's just be honest, we're gonna all have our soapbox sins that are the woe of society.

And if we compiled all our lists together, and probably most of them uh would would be sins, you know, we're gonna all be sins on a big master list.

Underneath all of this, underneath all of it, is disbelief in Jesus.

That's the woe of society.

It's disbelief, and so I have to go somewhere else.

It's disbelief that God is enough for you and the incarnate love of God is enough for you.

And so it's us saying back to God, God, I I have it.

Have it.

Like this lust and this greed, this inadequacy, uh, you know, I I have it.

I have it under control.

Don't need you.

Don't need you.

That's what sin is.

And so he's gonna convict of sin.

I don't need to believe in Christ to be my righteousness, I'll secure that myself.

I was this week reading, just learning and just rethinking even the word righteousness, that we become righteous because Christ's righteousness to us.

I've always sort of thought of that word as us being righteous toward God, primarily, it's the best way to think about it.

But we even do this to each other, right?

Like it's righteousness means right standing.

And so I want to be righteous in front of you.

I want to be in right standing in front of you.

And so, just as much as we perform for righteousness to God, it's so easy for us to do that same mistake in front of each other.

And we want to do that, we don't look right to our friends, we don't look right to Billy Bob and Randy and Susie and the people at the club, and so we feel the pressure, and maybe this pressure puts us on a path of destruction.

Or maybe you want to feel in right standing when you come to church.

Right?

You want to look right in front of the pastor, can't be honest, right?

Can't be nominal.

I gotta look right, and so I'm gonna kind of put it up.

I'm gonna put up that performance, I'm gonna pretend just a little bit.

And what we know is what happens, is then you just try to try harder, pretend a little more.

And what I know about you is and I know about me, you're not getting any better.

You're not.

I'm not getting any better.

And you say, hold on, hold on, hold on.

What about sanctification?

You know, what about you know some behaviors are cleaning up and the Lord is refining things in us.

But we're discovering whole nother levels of motives we didn't even know about.

So we're getting better at the same time, we're not, and so it you're not getting better.

Maybe you're becoming more reliant upon the Lord.

So um the other week when Christy and I went on our trip to Colorado during our sabbatical, uh the last day I got sick.

So I got a bad headache, and I got real nauseous, and stomach was cramping, and I was miserable.

I just got in bed and I was in bed and I was I whined like a baby, and I'm like, baby, go can you go get me ginger ale?

You know, I'm I'm I'm horrible.

It's horrible, it's disgusting, it is it's bad.

And you know, and I'm I'm so I get so grateful, right?

Like I'm uh I'm I'm some families are like, hey, stick it out for yourself, kiddo.

I come from the family of if you're sick, you get babied.

And so I'm looking for somebody to baby me.

And so she's she's she's doing as much as she comes from the stick it out family, but she's doing a good job.

And I'm like, oh, I love you, baby.

Thank you.

Because I'm sick, I'm hurting, I need somebody to bring me ginger ale, I need somebody.

Now, the next day I was fine, right?

Next day I was fine.

If she tried the same treatment on me the next day, I'd be like, what are you what are you doing?

Like, leave me alone.

Like, give me some s give me some space.

Right?

Like, I might think she's nice, but I don't I don't need you to save me today.

I'm I'm I'm good.

Stop stop bothering me.

Right?

I mean that's kind of how we feel.

Um so here's my point.

You're getting better in some ways, but in some ways you're not.

Um you know it, or or you're arrogant and prideful, and you'll you'll know about this soon.

Uh but rescue and and belief in Jesus is about being in touch with this brokenness.

I like the sick day.

Where you're just like, thank you, thank you, thank you for that drink of water, thank you for that grace, thank you for my sufficiency, thank you for that forgiveness, thank you enough to live out of this shame.

Thank you for and it that that's that's that's what that's what being a Christian is like.

Verse 10, the Holy Spirit will convict us of righteousness.

That sounds weird, right?

The Holy Spirit's gonna convict us of righteousness.

In that verse, he goes on to talk about his own life and where he's headed and what's going on.

And so he's talking about his own life.

Jesus is saying, I will convict the world of righteousness, I will convict you of your life, and I will convict you of my life.

The righteousness secured for you.

I'm gonna show you holes in your life, and I'm gonna show you there were no holes in my life.

This week I was listening to a sermon, and uh the preacher said, A religious moralist.

Okay, so somebody who's their pursuit in life is to get better and better and better, and they're gonna present that to God, and if I get good enough, and then God's gonna approve of me, and all of a sudden I'm feel valid as a human being.

A religious moralist will repent of their sins to get better.

A Christian repents of their sins and their righteousness because they know that no level of getting better is enough.

And maybe you're here and you go, well, I thought that was the point.

Like I thought that was the point that you become a Christian to get better.

Well, not really.

I mean, the essence of Christianity is not what we do, it's a totally different way of life.

It's a life of being led by the Spirit.

And in that, some stuff will get better, and you're gonna start to learn about some stuff that's not so good that you even know about.

But it's a living in the life of the Lordship of Christ, led by the Spirit, where the Spirit of God comes into that control room and starts picking apart your idol structures, and you realize what's going on, and it's not just clean up the behaviors, and all of a sudden I'm on cruise control.

He's getting in there and he's asking you about power, he's asking you about control, he's asking you about how you present yourself to people and how you grew up, and the spirit is in there.

He is cross-examining you.

Lastly, uh, verse 11.

Third way that the Spirit convicts us, the Holy Spirit will convict us of the judgment.

I mean, I as soon as I read the judgment, I always think of one thing.

I think of like outside the sporting event, you know, the guys wearing the signs.

Right?

And you know, you'll be judged.

And I have one response to this judgment back.

I don't know, like you're judging me.

I'm gonna judge you.

I don't I don't I really don't, I think based on your sign and and how you're speaking, I don't even like you.

And I'm like, well, that's not good.

I shouldn't be like that, and then I'm thinking, God, I think I actually have hatred toward this person.

I maybe I am going to hell.

This is bad, and no, I'm not going to hell.

Christ was enough.

And there's kind of like this cycle going on.

Um here's what's clear: the judgment.

The judgment's over.

So you're gonna be convicted about the judgment.

In Christ, we already won.

You don't have to fight for judgment.

You don't have to fight to be judged better.

It doesn't feel like that.

The liar, the prince of the world, is so it says the prince of the world.

He's still here, he's messing stuff up, and I don't know, call him the serpent, liar, the devil, the evil.

He's still roaming around, but see, he's the one that's condemned.

So when the advocate turns, right, he's been the advocate's arguing for you and your righteousness, your value, and your beauty, and your goodness, he said, he's going to the judge, and this is who this person is, and then and then he turns and he turns back, he starts to ask you these questions.

He's he's not doing this to condemn you, right?

The serpent, the liar, who's using the same stuff to lie to you, see these questions coming back at you, the cross-examining, they can produce condemnation.

The liar wants to get in there and start to produce condemnation out of the same answers that the spirit wants to create love and draw you in.

But see, you've got to draw that distinction.

The liar's the one condemned, you're the one convicted.

And conviction is the process of coming to reality.

There are holes in my story that don't hold up.

In court.

And I really need the ultimate advocate.

I really need Jesus, and I really need the Spirit to be advocating for me.

Final few verses, verse 12.

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak on his own.

He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

He will glorify me, because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

That's what he wants to do.

He wants to guide you into truth.

What is true?

What brings life?

All that belongs to the Father is mine.

That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.

And so it's easy, I think, always at the end of a sermon, like, what do I do?

Russ, what do I do?

What am I supposed to do?

Pray and read your Bible.

That's what you should do.

Like that's the good advice.

That's what I grew up hearing.

Still good advice.

Still great advice.

Pray and be filling yourself with what's true.

And I'm podcasts, sermons, uh, reading on your own, a devotional book, a commentary, uh BSF, a men's study.

I don't that you are getting in front of faithful presentations of what is true.

And you need the truth about you and you need the truth about Christ.

But at the end of all of it, at the end of all of that, what has to be there is there has to be this honest, worn out, tired, broken heart.

That's saying, Spirit of God, speak to me, because if you if you if you don't speak to me, I don't have life.

But if you speak to me, I have life.

This week we we went up to the mountains with Christie's family for one night, and we got there and lots of cousins and we're unpacking.

You know, and the kids are running to dinner, went at the dinner, come back, baths.

Like we're doing the routine.

We're in the routine.

And I'd been reading, preparing for the sermons.

I've been reading, I read commentaries, listening to sermons, I've been reading the passage over and over again.

And so I'm doing all that work, but but none of it's really kind of sinking in yet.

And it was just turning dark, and the kids were starting to get settled down and read some books, and I had to walk back out to the car to get something.

And I walk back out, and it was cool.

You look up and you could actually see stars.

That's kind of an amazing thing.

You just see stars.

And all these competing factors that are vying for my heart constantly, are sort of quiet for a moment.

And just hear, and I could hear the Spirit of God.

So not audible in the core of my being, past moral conscience into the core of my being, and it's just this little voice that says, you know what, you're you're doing it again.

Russ, you love to find ways to look righteous in front of people.

When am I enough for you?

See, you get worn out by the competing factors, vying for your heart, the cross-examining question comes, and it breaks you, and you remember again.

There is a fountain I drink from that has no end.

And that even when I have forgotten him, he doesn't forgive me.

And this looks like a thousand moments.

What do you do?

You pray and read your Bible, you feed yourself with truth, but the reality of the Spirit speaking to you might come in those moments, or it might come in a thousand moments.

It could come in the moment where you walk out to your car to get something out of your car, and boom, the advocate asks you a question.

Or you're driving to work, or you're at work, or you're washing the dishes, or you're watching Charles Stanley, or you're watching the Karate Kid.

Right?

You're listening to Chris Tomlin or you're listening to Bob Dylan.

I don't know.

It's a thousand moments where the Spirit of God will take that truth.

You've been feeding yourself, and all of a sudden the question comes, and he comes back and he cross-examines you.

And it is the most loving questions you can receive if you're willing to receive them out of brokenness.

And what we're doing, what we're doing as believers, is that we're just saying and we're realizing it over and over and over again, I need you.

Convict me of my sin.

Convict me of my behaviors that are destructive, convict me of my idol structures that are producing these behaviors, lead me to freedom, convict me of my righteousness.

Convict me of the judgment, lead me to truth.

And see, what all of this is, what all of this is, is it's not just a moralistic journey, right?

It sort of like redefines what spirituality is, not just a moralistic journey, it's actually a life led by the Spirit.

Where you're taking a broken heart that's at the end of itself and the other ways didn't work out, and finally you're realizing it.

And you're coming before God and you're saying, if you don't speak, I don't have life.

And maybe you're here, you've been trying to what I would call self-deliver.

Work your way out of shame, work your way out of forgiveness, trying to get forgiveness, uh, work your way into being valued.

And I'll just tell you, well, I'll ask you, how's it working?

It's not, it's not working.

And you have to shift your faith from yourself delivering yourself to Christ being enough for you.

The incarnate love of God being enough for you.

And maybe you're here this morning, the Spirit of God is speaking to you, to that hidden secret, to that behavior, to that addiction.

The Spirit of God saying, No more.

You're headed in the wrong direction.

I mean, maybe the Spirit of God speaking to you, and you don't even think it's a big deal, but you're perfectionistic.

Get it all under control.

The Spirit of God saying, There's no end.

Won't work out.

See, there are holes in our story, but there was no hole in his story.

He lived the perfect life we did not live.

And what we see when we see Christ on the cross is we see holes in his wrists and his feet.

And we see those holes and realize those holes are there because we have holes.

And he is enough for us.

He says to us, I was strong for you, I was perfect for you, I'm enough for you.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that you were enough for us.

We come before you and we know we have holes in our story.

But we want to live under your lordship and not faith in ourselves.

We want to hear you in the core of our being.

We need to hear you in the core of our being.

And so we ask, would you break us?

Would you give us courage?

And would you speak?

In Jesus' name.

Amen.