The Purpose of the Holy Spirit
John 16:7-11
June 2, 2013
As you know we are currently studying
The person and work of the Holy Spirit.
It is absolutely necessary that you and I know who He is,
And how to follow His leading.
Very simply put, when we ignore the Holy Spirit,
We ignore God at work in and around us.
In the Old Testament God’s glory dwelled in the temple.
God’s presence was figuratively in the ark.
And what an advantage it was to Israel to have God dwell in their camp.
• We saw what happened when the Ark of the Covenant circled the walls of Jericho.
• We saw what happened when the priests carrying the ark stood in the Jordan River.
• We saw what happened even when the Philistines stole the ark.
There was power in that figurative presence of God.
• And we saw what happened when God’s glory departed from the temple.
Babylon destroyed them.
God’s presence was absolutely essential to life in Israel.
Apart from Him they had no life.
We then came into the New Testament and we studied the gospels and we saw the difference that Christ made as He was on earth.
• He worked miracles
• He healed diseases
• He read the heart of man and spoke piercing truth
He was the difference maker
But today, there is no temple…
Today, Christ is seated in heaven…
WE HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT.
And so it is necessary that you and I get to know Him.
And in saying that, it is necessary that we get to know who Scripture says He is, not who the internet says He is.
And that is what we are doing.
Last Sunday we took our first peak into the upper room.
Jesus really did a great deal of teaching on the Holy Spirit there.
And last week we really just saw sort of the introduction of who He is.
Jesus said:
John 14:16-17 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
Jesus called Him the ALLOS PARKLETOS
“another Helper of the same kind as Me”
And we then saw some very basic concepts as to who He is.
HELPER
• To evangelize
• To teach
• To love
• To have joy
• To have hope
He helps in things that are essential to Christian life and ministry.
He didn’t come to harm, He came to help.
We also briefly examined some of the analogies given to explain Him.
• Water – picturing abundant life
• Fire – picturing His purifying work
• Wind – picturing power
• Oil – picturing anointing
• Dove – picturing innocence and gentleness
• Seal – picturing His securing work
And already we learned a very important basic concept of the Holy Spirit, He is above all else a helper.
He is given to be the answer to ministry without Christ on the earth.
And I want carry that out a little more this morning
And talk about how He helps.
Before we get into the text we are going to study
Let me take you back to John 14 one more time.
John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”
Now that is an interesting statement.
Jesus said that His disciples and all who believe in Him would do “greater works than these”
Now you have heard that verse before, because it is commonly quoted in regard to miracles and wonders and healings and things of that nature.
But obviously Jesus could not have been talking about that.
The miracles Jesus worked were the epitome of greatness.
How could you do one greater than His?
• What is greater than raising someone from the dead?
• Or calming a storm?
• Or feeding 5,000 with two fish and five loaves?
He is talking about ministry work.
When Jesus is talking about greater works,
He is talking about salvation of the lost.
And notice WHY these greater works would occur.
“and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
How does His going to the Father equate to greater works on our behalf?
Now to our text:
(16:7) “But 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.”
There it is again.
You will do greater works because you will have the Helper!
When He comes and dwells in you,
There is no limit to what can be accomplished.
He is absolutely essential to life and ministry.
This is where we begin to talk about
The difference the Holy Spirit makes.
HAVE YOU EVER FELT POWERLESS IN MINISTRY?
Do you know why you felt that way?
BECAUSE YOU ARE POWERLESS
• Ministry is spiritual work.
• And as much as we would like to, we can’t speak to the heart.
• We can’t speak to the soul.
We can’t know the thoughts of a man or how to confront him.
It requires help.
Well that is where the Helper comes in,
And I want you to see some of how He helps.
Now, we are only going to get through the first part of this passage
And we’ll have to continue on the rest of it in the coming weeks,
But hopefully we’ll begin to see just how helpful He really is.
Verse 8 is really the first big help issue.
VERSE 8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness and judgment;”
Of all the things He comes to do, the first is conviction.
“convict” translates ELENCHO
“to convict, confute, refute, usually with the suggestion of putting the convicted person to shame.”
It is not a final conviction, but an informative conviction,
With a view to redemption, not destruction.
It is used other places in the New Testament.
Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.”
2 Timothy 4:2 “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”
Ephesians 5:11 “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;”
That is precisely what the Holy Spirit came to do.
He comes to convict, and refute this world,
With the intention of putting the world to shame.
And you must also remember what we learned earlier,
And that is that He comes to be in you.
He comes to aid you with conviction when you minister in this world.
The Holy Spirit will come to “convict the world”
Was Jesus convicting?
Oh yeah, that is why the religious elite hated Him so much.
He convicted them to the core.
Well, what do you do without Jesus?
We have the Holy Spirit.
When we talk to men, we can address outward issues,
But we have no way of addressing the heart.
We can’t refute the arguments of another person’s heart.
But the Holy Spirit can.
He comes to convict.
Now in addition to His help
We also learn here more about identifying Him.
Jesus is very clear that convicting the world is what He does.
He convicts sin.
And in that, Jesus is specific about three ways He does that.
#1 HE IS A VOICE OF REBUKE
John 16:9
“concerning sin”
We already see one of our first tests we run
In order to determine if what we are experiencing is really the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of God cannot ignore sin, nor does He inspire it.
If holiness is not the result of your experience,
Then it was not the Holy Spirit.
THE BAROMETER BY WHICH WE MEASURE ALL VISIONS, DREAMS, OR LEADINGS WE ASSUME TO HAVE COME FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT IS:
DID IT INSPIRE HOLINESS?
Because you see, in the Holy Spirit we are dealing with Holy God.
When a person is truly confronted in a personal way with Holy God,
It leads to holiness.
Consider Job
Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”
When Isaiah saw God
Isaiah 6:1-5 “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Consider when Peter got a revelation of Jesus’ deity
Luke 5:4-8 “When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
The standard by which we determine if it was the Holy Spirit
Is if He dealt with sin.
HE ALWAYS DOES
Don’t assume to be following the Holy Spirit if holiness is not involved.
BUT BEYOND THAT
We see here that the Holy Spirit comes to your aid
In convicting the world of sin.
More specifically He comes to convict the world of their rejection of Jesus.
“because they do not believe in Me;”
And we have seen Him do it.
Acts 2:37-42 “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized 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 your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
The Bible is clear, there is an UNPARDONABLE sin.
There is a sin so heinous that if you commit it,
You cannot, and will not be forgiven.
It is the sin of rejecting Jesus.
Hebrews 10:26-27 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.”
John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
The Spirit comes to convict the world in regard to this sin.
That is part of His conviction role.
And even simpler than that.
This world has a sin problem.
Jesus is the only answer.
That means that people who sin without Jesus are in trouble.
The Holy Spirit is here specifically to convict those people.
• What do you say to a sinner?
• How do you get him to desire Jesus?
The Holy Spirit does that – let Him help you.
He is a voice of rebuke
#2 HE IS A VOICE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
John 16:9
Here Jesus says He convicts “concerning righteousness”
Now there are two ways you could look at this.
1) He convicts a sinful world for their lack of righteousness
He brings men to an understanding of sin
He then shows them their need for righteousness
And He actually causes them to desire it.
Acts 16:27-30 “When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
2) He convicts a moral world of their self-righteousness.
Certainly this is also true. Remember how the mob responded to Stephen’s sermon against the false righteousness of Israel.
Acts 7:54 “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.”
So He convicts the world concerning righteousness.
WHY IS THIS NEEDED?
“because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;”
When Jesus was here, He was righteousness incarnate.
• He was the One who knew no sin.
• He was the One who fulfilled the Law.
• He was a living embodiment of righteous living.
• He was a continual example.
BUT HE IS GONE.
Who will lift High the standard of righteousness now?
ANSWER: The Holy Spirit
• He convicts the world of righteousness…
• He confronts self-righteousness…
• He confronts the human heart…
We can’t make people desire righteousness, but He does.
(try to get your kids to some time)
He is a tremendous helper!
He is a voice of rebuke
He is a voice of righteousness
#3 HE IS A VOICE OF REALITY
John 16:11
“concerning judgment”
Again, there are a couple of ways you could see this.
In short, He reveals the coming judgment.
Acts 24:24-25 “But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. But as he was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.”
It was the Holy Spirit that somehow applied what Paul was saying directly to the life of Felix, so much so that the reality of judgment frightened him.
And the reason the Holy Spirit convicts in this way is
”because the ruler of this world has been judged.”
Now Jesus uses two different words there.
One is KRISIS “judgment”
“the process of investigation, the act of distinguishing and separating.”
This is what the Holy Spirit does to the world.
He reveals to them where they stand in regard to the coming judgment.
He informs them of their coming fate.
The other word is KRINO “has been judged”
“to select, choose, to determine, and so judge or pronounce judgment.”
This is what Jesus said we should not do to one another.
But it is what has already been done to satan.
Satan has been judged and his judgment is the firstfruit
Of what is coming to all those who don’t believe in Christ.
And the Holy Spirit burns that truth into their heart.
• It is the Holy Spirit who convicts men of sin.
• It is the Holy Spirit who reveals a lack of righteousness.
• It is the Holy Spirit who creates a terror of judgment.
And that is extremely helpful to you and I who can’t do any of this.
• We can preach…
• We can share testimony…
• We can confront people’s sin…
But we can’t get on the inside and apply it to the heart.
But the Holy Spirit sure will.
And He will do it through believers.
• That is why when you listened to Billy Graham that time his words just cut you deep.
• That is why Adrian Rogers seemed to expose your sin like never before.
• That is why the tent preacher terrified you of hell.
It wasn’t those men.
They didn’t even know you.
They may not have even known you were listening.
That was the Holy Spirit helping them in their ministry.
And He will do that for you.
We need His help.
In fact, we can do nothing without Him.
So church begin to recognize the Holy Spirit
And allow Him to work through you.
He is the answer to the absent Jesus.
John 16:7-11 “But 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. “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and 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.”
