The Holy Spirit and the World

“When the Holy Spirit Comes”

(John 16:8-11, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 13, 2009)

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.

What will the Holy Spirit do when He comes?

A: “He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” (John 16:8)

He will convict the world (8)

Jesus, the Messiah, is in the process of giving His final instructions to His disciples as He goes to the cross. He has been with them for three years, but now, He is going to the Father. Naturally they are very concerned about this, particularly since He has been telling them that they will face much persecution after He is gone. Yet He has told them that it is good news that He is going to the Father. When He has returned to the Father, He will send the Holy Spirit to them.

The Holy Spirit has a rich and varied ministry among believers, but what many people do not realize is that He is vitally active in the world more generally, since it is only by the Holy Spirit that true conviction comes to those who have stood against God. It is this ministry of conviction that is the focus of these brief verses in John 16. Before we examine the threefold conviction that comes to the world by the Holy Spirit, we need to have a better understanding of what it means to be convicted. When we talk about someone being convicted, we are often talking about a legal proceeding before a judge or a jury, when someone is officially pronounced guilty in a court of law. But there is another courtroom in every man’s heart. For a man to be convicted in that courtroom by God is for him to become convinced in his own conscience about certain things, whether he is willing to change or not, as he is made to see that God is right, and that he has been wrong about some important issue of faith and life. This is the conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to people in the world, and it is a vital step in the pathway to a new spiritual life.

Jesus says here that the Holy Spirit is coming. It is not as if the Holy Spirit has been absent throughout the centuries prior to this point. We hear of His work from the first moments of creation where we read that “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Yet there is something very new that is about to happen with the turning of the ages from the Old Testament days to the New Covenant era. The Holy Spirit will do a work not in just a few special prophets and holy people in Israel. He will be poured out even on the Gentiles as well as the Jews, as the Word of Israel’s God will now be brought by the church to the whole world.

This is what Jesus is talking about when He says, “And when He comes.” This coming of the Holy Spirit begins at Pentecost and is written about in the opening chapters of the Book of Acts. But that experience in Jerusalem was only a beginning. The Holy Spirit is still coming to the world, to places that have never heard of the Savior’s dying love. When the Holy Spirit does His work today among a people group in Southeast Asia, He does the very same things that He did so long ago in Jerusalem. He convicts the world; He convinces those who have not known of at least three very important truths.

Concerning sin (9)

First in the courtroom of a man’s unbelieving heart, the Holy Spirit convicts a man concerning sin. Sin is any violation of God’s Law. If you have had a true spiritual consideration of any of the Ten Commandments, then you have experienced this work of the Holy Spirit convicting you of sin. Jesus says that this convicting of the world concerning sin, is necessary “because they do not believe in me.” Unbelief is sin, and it necessitates divine rescue.

God is calling all of the world to believe in Jesus and to rest in the Lord’s only provision to truly take away our sin. It is a horrible weight on the unbelieving heart to live without an answer to the sin problem. Our consciences do accuse us, but if we have no solution to the problem of guilt, which is naturally felt by all, we protect ourselves from these feelings of guilt by attempting to deny our sin. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they suddenly became aware of their nakedness. Did they cry out to God, “Rescue me, O God! I have done the wrong thing. I ate of the tree that you told me not to eat of.” No, they set about a different kind of work. It was an ineffectual cover-up. They tried to make their own clothes out of leaves, and to cover their nakedness. This is what the man of the world does, by his sinful nature, when he senses his sin. If he is very good at this cover up, he gets to the point where his conscience does not even work any more. He does not feel his own sin.

Enter the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can convict a man concerning sin. He has ways of bringing a man to a point of insufficiency. He begins to think, “I cannot fix this problem. I cannot make my life work. I have been hiding from the truth. There is such a thing as sin, and I have sinned, and I am in need.” This may be quite a struggle, and it may take place over many years. It is a very necessary work. The people of the world do not naturally admit the truth about sin, because they do not believe in the only answer for sin. Yet the Holy Spirit, according to His sovereign and mysterious motions in the hearts of so very many people can convict the world concerning sin.

Concerning righteousness (10)

But it is not enough for a man to be convinced that he is a sinner. In the courtroom of a man’s unbelieving heart, the Holy Spirit must also convict him concerning righteousness. There is no true answer to the world’s broken relationship with the Almighty Creator unless there is someone who can be truly seen to be righteous. Sin is any violation of God’s law, but true righteousness is the perfect upholding and keeping of God’s Law.

If a man is convicted of sin in His heart, but is not convicted of the existence of righteousness, He is a creature who is trapped in the worst despair. When Jesus came among men, He was the expected Messiah. In Jeremiah we read of One who would come with this name, “the Lord our righteousness.” Jesus is righteousness in person. Many were convicted of the existence of righteousness because they heard the words of Jesus of Nazareth and saw His great deeds. Some would rightly conclude that He was a man who was truly righteous before God, like a fountain of righteousness, a source from which righteousness might come for others. The cross is all about the righteous One becoming the Sin-bearer for us. His resurrection and ascension is righteousness on display.

But with that resurrection and ascension to the Father Jesus is going away. If the message of truth is to go to the world, how will the world become convicted of righteousness? Enter the Holy Spirit sent from the Father and the Son to the world. The Holy Spirit can convict a man concerning the righteousness of the Son of God, by pressing upon that man the fact of the truth of the accounts of Jesus Christ, both in the Old and the New Testaments. Through that convicting work a man of the world can come to believe not only in his own sin, but in the righteousness of another, of one who becomes for him the source of all righteousness.

Concerning judgment (11)

Finally, it is necessary for the world to see that the world and its spiritual powers in high places cannot possibly provide some other alternative to the one that God has given us in Jesus Christ. Jesus has said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The world, though convicted of sin, and convicted of righteousness, will search to see if there is some other way to have the trouble of sin removed, and to have righteousness credited to it, without bowing the knee to God.

God says to the world, “Worship Me. I am your life.” The world says, “Is there some other way?” God says, “Be honest in all that you say and do, and trust Me with everything. I can take care of you best.” The world says, “Is there some other way?” God says, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow Me to heaven.” The world says, “Isn’t there anyone else up there with a different way than the cross?”

Chief among the possible imposters is the one fallen angel who is the leader of fallen angels, the one who is called here “the ruler of this world.” This Satan is surely under the control of the Father Almighty, and he must ultimately serve the purposes of the Lord of lords, yet until he is cast finally into a lake of fire, he does cause a lot of trouble. Yet something decisive has happened at the cross that is very definitive. Not only is sin shown to be a heavy burden, not only is righteousness shown to be accomplished in the greatest act of obedient love ever contemplated, but the judgment of God is shown to be very real as the Son takes the wrath of His loving and holy Father which we deserved, and somehow the ruler of this world, who is against God’s eternal purpose, is defeated. When the Holy Spirit does His work of convicting, the reality of God’s judgment is convincingly displayed to the world. Any thought of another way of life apart from Jesus Christ is demolished, and Christ is shown to be the only way to life.

The Holy Spirit points to Jesus and the cross, and many in the world hear Him, and they come. Here we see and believe that sin is real and that Christ is our Sin-bearer. Here we see and believe that perfect righteousness is real, and that Christ is the Lord our righteousness. Here we see and believe in the judgment of God, and we kiss the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no place on earth that is so dark, no ground so hard, and no people so post-Christian that the Holy Spirit cannot convict and even save. Jesus has ascended to the Father. He is sending forth the Holy Spirit. He is convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

1. What is the coming of the Holy Spirit referred to here?

2. What is meant by the conviction of the world?

3. Why would the Holy Spirit convict the world of these three things?

4. Who is the ruler of this world who is judged?