26 But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
1 I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to Him who sent me, and none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 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. 12 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The Greek word for witness is martureo, which translated into English is martyr, and this is no coincidence. To be a faithful witness for Christ in our hostile world means that we will suffer persecution and hatred, and as we well know, many throughout the history of the Christian Church have paid the ultimate price for their faith. The second century Church father Tertullian wrote, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
This is basically what Jesus was preparing His disciples for at the end of His Farewell Discourse. He prepared His disciples for martyrdom, which is why He once again emphasised the role the Holy Spirit would play as they became powerful and effective witnesses of the Gospel, a role He continues to play in the life of the Church today.
In John 16:1 He said, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.” They would suffer tremendously for their faith, and as we know from the Gospel accounts, they were unsure of themselves, and often argued amongst each other. The dramatic transformation we see in these men in the early days of the Church was a direct result of the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit continues to empower the preaching of the Gospel as lost souls are brought to salvation today.
As we have worked our way through chapters 14 and 15, Jesus has been very honest with His disciples. The blessings given to those who follow Him are beyond measure, but He did not hide the fact that their discipleship would come at a cost, which is why they and we need encouragement and reassurance of the Spirit’s presence within us. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 Paul wrote, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” If we are going to take seriously the privilege and honour we have of being ambassadors for Jesus Christ, we need to know that we are not in this spiritual battle alone, because without the power of the Spirit, we would fail, but here we are, 2000 years later, and the Gospel is still being proclaimed, and people are still coming to genuine, saving faith in Jesus Christ.
In verse 26 Jesus said, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.” The last phrase in this verse is key. The Holy Spirit’s mission through the Church is to witness Jesus Christ to the world. It is Christ alone who can save, and it is because of the exclusivity of the Gospel of Christ that He and His followers are so hated by the non-believing world. The reformer John Calvin wrote: “Christ now, in opposition to the wicked fury of those men, produces the testimony of the Spirit, and if their consciences rest on this testimony, they will never be shaken.”
Most world religions are tolerated because generally speaking, they are non-confrontational, and their common message is that the world would be a much better place if we were all nicer people. No one would argue with that. It’s just common sense. It’s not an offensive message, but the Christian faith, when presented Biblically, is immediately ostracised and attacked, because it bears witness about Jesus Christ, and He has always been the most divisive person in human history, and part of the reason is what He teaches about the witness of the Holy Spirit.
A true Christian witness is always a witness to Jesus Christ. That’s what Jesus said in verse 26. “He will bear witness about me.” The disciples were qualified as witnesses because of what they had seen and heard about Jesus. We may not have seen Jesus physically, but our task is no different to the first disciples. Our witness is to be a testimony to the person of Christ, the glory of Christ and the saving work of Christ on the cross. As John wrote in chapter 20, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31)
Whenever we hear in Christian circles of someone “sharing their testimony,” we almost always think of that person sharing the story of how they came to faith, and how Jesus has changed their life. Absolutely, there are times when it is appropriate to share your own story, but look at what John writes in 1 John 5:9-12, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning His Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning His Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Notice that John doesn’t say our personal testimonies are invalid, because they aren’t. There is a time and a place to “share your own story,” but John does say in verse 19 that the testimony of God is greater, as he testifies about the saving work of Jesus on the cross.
So the testimony we are to prioritise is the good news that Jesus Christ, through His atoning death on the cross, offers sinners salvation by believing in His name. Our witness, just like the first Christians we read about in the book of Acts, is to be Christocentric.
Christianity is the faith that was witnessed to us through the apostles, which is recorded in the pages of the New Testament. Our faith is what is known as an apostolic faith. Christian truth comes from the Bible, because that is where the apostles recorded their witness or testimony. John 20:31 again: “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”
The apostles are long gone (there are no modern day apostles, by the way), but the Holy Spirit continues to witness through the testimony of the Church today. The theologian William Hendriksen wrote, “Whenever a true servant of God bears witness against the world, this witness is the work of the Spirit. Whenever a simple believer, by word and example, draws others to Christ, this too is the work of the Spirit.”
So the first thing that Jesus promises about the work of the Spirit is that He (the Holy Spirit) would testify about Jesus. Then in John 16:8 He says the Spirit will “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”
We need to break this down in order to better understand what Jesus meant here. The Holy Spirit will convict the world in the sense of making it see that it is wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment, and God is right about these things. The Spirit convicts the world of its error concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment, so much so that people become convinced of the truth of who Jesus is so that many repent, believe, and are saved.
The best example we have of this is the apostle Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. As soon as Peter was empowered by the Holy Spirit, he preached the first recorded sermon of the Christian Church in Acts 2. He said in verses 22-24, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know - this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” And he concludes his sermon in verse 36 by saying, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
In the following verses we read about the reaction of those who heard Peter, and about the results of the Spirit’s conviction: “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.’ And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’ So those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:37-41)
They were cut to the heart. They were convicted of their sin by the power of the Holy Spirit, and they repented and were saved. And this is exactly how the Spirit continues His work today. He performs the work of conviction that is essential to any sinner’s salvation. While on earth, Jesus accomplished our salvation by dying for our sins, but since His ascension and return to Heaven, it is the Holy Spirit who applies what Jesus achieved to repentant sinners through the gift of faith.
Remember, in and of ourselves we would never seek God. The Bible teaches about the total depravity of the human heart, so until such time as the Spirit convicts us of the awful reality of our sin and the wrath of God that is coming as a result of that sin, no one will ever believe and be saved. This is yet another reason that we take no credit whatsoever for our salvation. As Jonathan Edwards put it, the only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary.
The first work of the Spirit in the life of a sinner is the work of conviction for sin. Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a Church of Scotland minister in the early 19th century. He described the conviction of the Holy Spirit by writing, “He gives him a sense of the dreadfulness of his sins, and to make him feel how surely he is a lost sinner.”
The great problem of the human race is, of course, sin. Everything that is wrong in our lives and in the world is a direct result of sin. Sin is our greatest problem, and salvation from the condemnation that sin brings, is our greatest need. As the angel said to Mary when she was told she was going to have a child, “He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)
However, for the vast majority of people, the sin problem is the last thing to keep them awake at night. Money and power (or the lack thereof), family problems and problems at work are the cause of all sorts of stress and heartache, but sin? No, that’s just an old fashioned concept which is completely irrelevant in the modern world. You hardly hear the word being used outside the Church today, which is why so many people are indifferent to the Christian faith, because it addresses an issue which is irrelevant to them. Which is why it takes a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to convict people of the sin problem.
J. C. Ryle wrote, “Christ is never fully valued until sin is clearly seen. We must know the depth and malignity of our disease, in order to appreciate the Great Physician,” and the American pastor Tom Buck wrote on Twitter recently, “Some people talk about sin like it’s a traffic ticket violation instead of a full blown insurrection against a holy God. You’ll never come to Jesus in a saving way until you first see yourself as a sinner who deserves God’s wrath. When we see our sin for what it truly is and our utter lack of righteousness, only then will we run to Jesus for the righteousness He alone can give us for our salvation.”
The great problem with the sin problem is that most people believe they are basically good, that God is generally pleased with them, and they all have vague hopes of some kind of heaven when they die, but the Bible teaches the exact opposite.
Most would agree that God should be upset about evil, but what they really mean is that He should be doing something about the evil “out there”, rather than recognising and confessing the wickedness in their own hearts, which is the point Paul addresses in the opening chapters of the book of Romans. 1:18, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” 2:5, “Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”
This is the harsh reality that awaits all those who refuse to repent and turn to Christ to be saved, which is why it is the convicting work of the Holy Spirit alone who convicts the lost. As the Church and as individual believers, we are to proclaim the Gospel to the lost, but it is God, through His Spirit, who saves.
Jesus gives a chilling warning in John 16:9. “Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.” There is no greater sin than unbelief. That is the one sin for which there is no forgiveness and from which there is no escape. To see Jesus, to hear the Gospel message, to reject it out of hand and remain indifferent or hostile to Jesus Christ is the greatest act of depravity. Reject Jesus, and you have chosen sin over salvation, and all that awaits you is eternal torment in a very real place called hell.
1 John 5:11-12. “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
There is no conversion without conviction, and there is no conviction apart from the Spirit of God using the Word of God and the witness of the Church.
However, while conviction of sin is necessary for salvation, but does not itself save. Conviction is only the first step, as Jesus teaches in verse 8. The Spirit’s second ministry to the world follows the first. “He will convict the world concerning righteousness.”
As sinners repent and turn to God through Christ for forgiveness, we receive the righteousness of Jesus. The theological term for this is imputation. As Jesus bears our sins, we are clothed in His righteousness. On the cross this great exchange took place: our sin is imputed to Christ, and His righteousness is imputed to us, and this is what makes it possible for sinners to come into the presence of a holy God. It is because we bear His Son’s righteousness.
As the Spirit convicts us of our guilt before God, we are granted the gift of faith to believe, and we receive Jesus’ righteousness through faith. It’s vital that we understand that it is only the righteousness of Jesus that will suffice. Cleaning up our act and doing all kinds of good deeds, as wonderful as they might be, is not sufficient for us to be reconciled to God. We need the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. Isaiah 64:6 says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Outside of Christ, there is no forgiveness, and no righteousness, and this is what the Holy Spirit convicts us of - our need for the righteousness of Jesus.
The final convicting work of the Spirit Jesus refers to in verses 8 and 11 is judgment. “He will convict the world concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
The apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 2:15 that Jesus nailed our sins to the cross as “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.” In Jesus’ death and resurrection, Satan is judged and condemned. Satan and the powers of darkness are defeated enemies.
So the promised Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, but His ministry to believers doesn’t end there as Jesus continues in verse 13. “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.”
Earlier that evening, both Peter and Thomas had said to Jesus that they didn’t know where He was going, so it was necessary for Jesus once again to tell them that it was for their own good that He was leaving them. The major reason is that the Holy Spirit would come and empower the Church to be faithful in sharing the Gospel.
It’s also important for us to understand that the Spirit comes to the Church and not to the world. He works in and through the Church. Just as Jesus took on a physical body during His earthly ministry, the Spirit indwells the body of the Church and those within the Church to continue His ministry of reaching the lost.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” And in 2 Corinthians 6:16-17, “We are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them,’ says the Lord.”
And as the Spirit guides us, He leads us into all truth. He will reveal the truth to us, as we faithfully proclaim the truth by witnessing to the lost the hope of salvation through Jesus Christ.
The work and ministry of the Holy Spirit is always Christocentric. Jesus said of the Spirit in John 15:26, “He will bear witness about me,” and in 16:14, “He will glorify me.” There are some who claim that the Spirit has lead them to do things which contradict the example of Jesus or the clear teaching of Scripture. That is a huge red flag, because the Holy Spirit will never contradict the truth as revealed in the Bible. Whenever you hear someone say that, know that someone is not telling the truth. The Word is truth and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, so He is always in perfect harmony with what Jesus taught and did. Where the Holy Spirit is at work, there will always be truth.
Finally, we don’t study the Word of God and deepen our knowledge of the Bible in order to get into religious arguments with non-believers. Everyone who has tried that will tell you just how exhausting that can be. Our task is not to argue people into the Kingdom. Warren Wiersbe wrote, “We study the Word to see Jesus Christ, to know God better, and to glorify Him in our lives. As we witness in this hostile world, the Spirit uses the Word He has taught us; and we share Jesus Christ with the lost. It is our job to witness; it is the Spirit’s job to convict.”
As we saw last week, and as history has proven, if you love Jesus Christ, the world will hate you for that, but we are not in this battle alone. It is the Holy Spirit Himself who indwells, equips and empowers His Church, and we are privileged to be part of that story.