John 16:5–11
5 “But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: 9 about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11 about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
Pentecost is a Gift that Keeps on Giving
Today is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. He is the One who opens our eyes to see Jesus through the eyes of faith. If you think about it, it takes faith to believe in the Holy Spirit too. We can’t see Him. Throughout history he has appeared in the feathers of a dove and in fire and in water, but never apart from these physical elements.
The Bible doesn’t talk about Him as much, and He doesn’t want the attention in some senses. Jesus compared the work of the Spirit to the blowing of the wind. You can see what it does, but you can’t actually see the wind. So it is with the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we could think of Him as the unsung hero of the Trinity. Without Him we couldn’t have faith and we wouldn’t be Christians. He is integral to our lives as Christians.
Jesus promised the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit, even though they had never seen Him, or much less heard from Him directly either at this point. The disciples would go from a face to face experience with God in the flesh to a behind the scenes verbal experience with God. If we had a choice, our sinful nature would probably say, “No thanks!” We’d prefer the personal relationship with someone who walks with us and eats with us and speaks on our behalf. We are physical creatures. We are visual creatures.
But some might argue that the Holy Spirit is even more visual than seeing Jesus face to face. They think that the Holy Spirit is measured by the excitement in the air, the volume of the song, the emotion of the preacher, or the ability to speak in some strange language that no one can understand.
What about Pentecost? The baptism was an amazing thing for those who were there, with a tongue of fire floating through the air and touching on their heads. There was a sound of wind, but no source from where it came and no trees moving or hair blowing. Those were visual and audible signs of the Holy Spirit. But after that, it was all a matter of speaking for them and for those who came. They spoke in INTELLIGIBLE human languages. They weren’t rolling around in the streets and being healed with fainting spells.
In today’s text, Jesus doesn’t point us to anything like speaking in foreign languages or tongues of fire in His prophecy. In John 14, just prior to this, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would be the great REMINDER. “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” This is how we received the entire Bible. The Holy Spirit is the One who would verbally inspire the Word of God. 2 Peter 1:20–21 says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” So also in chapter 16, our text for today, Jesus only points us to the Holy Spirit as the COUNSELOR, who comes by our side, as One who SAYS what we need to hear and reveals things we could never know.
The disciples were saddened by Jesus’ talk of departure, so saddened that they didn’t even want to talk about it. They ignored it at all cost. It was a tactic that my wife and I used in Mexico. We had to sit through a presentation, so we decided beforehand, “Don’t ask ANY questions.” That way the presentation would get over quicker and we could get back to the beach. It worked! But Jesus didn’t want this conversation to die. He said, Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. There’s a progression here, isn’t there. Jesus has to go for Him to come. It’s the only way He CAN come, if Jesus goes.
Why is that? It wasn’t a matter of two people not being able to be at the same place at the same time. But if Jesus didn’t go, then the Holy Spirit wouldn’t have had anything to talk about. What good would the flames or the wind be but a sideshow magic act if they had no MESSAGE to go with it. If Jesus hadn’t died, their sins wouldn’t have been paid for. If Jesus hadn’t risen, there would be no resurrection from the dead. What good would it be for us to know that Jesus walked on water or healed the sick or raised the dead if we have NO forgiveness and no HOPE for ourselves? Jesus HAD TO go, for the Holy Spirit to come, right?
When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment. First of all, we might note that the Holy Spirit doesn’t come with “opinions” or “thoughts” or “suggestions.” He comes to CONVICT. God’s Word is truth, and there’s no arguing your way out of it, especially on Judgment Day. Either you’re on the side of truth or you’re not. You can’t be wishy washy when it comes to these truths. They aren’t generic types of platitudes that mean basically nothing.
The Holy Spirit was sent to convict about sin, because they do not believe in me. This is an amazing thing if you think about it. What’s the one main sin that the Holy Spirit is being sent to convict people of? It’s not murder. It’s not adultery. All those since have been convicted from the time of Moses, and even before within the human heart. But what’s the ONE sin that the Holy Spirit with condemn? UNBELIEF - specifically those who don’t believe in Jesus. So when Peter preached at Pentecost, he mentioned how they KILLED God in the flesh! But that wasn’t even something that would damn them, in the sense that God WANTED Him to go to the cross. The only thing that would damn them would be if they REJECTED Him after having risen from the dead and offered them a free and full forgiveness. That’s it!
Think about what Jesus says in Mark 3:28–29 , “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” Did you catch the first verse there? ALL SINS AND BLASPHEMIES WILL BE FORGIVEN them. That’s an incredible statement. When Jesus died, He died for EVERY sin. You and I sin every day. We are sinning machines. Even our prayers and lack thereof are filled with sin in some sense. But those are ALL forgiven. Everything is forgiven that we do as Christians too! We need that forgiveness, don’t we? And even the blasphemies that people spoke against Him, calling Him a demon possessed man and a lunatic, those were paid for on the cross too. What a beautiful promise verse 38 is!
There’s only one sin that isn’t forgiven, and that’s the sin against the Holy Spirit. BUT WHAT IS THAT SIN? The Holy Spirit’s role is to enable us to cling to Jesus as our righteousness and our salvation. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to convict the world about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me. The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus in the heavens and says, “Cling to HIM as your Savior. He has accomplished your salvation. He has died for your sins. He has risen from the dead. He is coming to judge the living and the dead. If you do not cling to Him, you will be damned! But if you believe in Him and are baptized, you will be saved!” How do you sin against the Holy Spirit? You say, “I don’t want that! I don’t believe that! I don’t NEED that. If there’s a heaven, I can get there just fine by myself. I’m not going to believe in this Jesus any more than I would believe in a flying spaghetti monster.” Out of ALL of the sins that are so offensive to our holy God, that the ONE sin that ultimately damns people. Unbelief.
As we wait for Jesus to come, the world has been captivated by Satan, and along with him, they have also been captivated by Satan’s idea of JUSTICE and FAIRNESS. How is it just for a policeman to kill a man on the road by putting his knee on his neck and mercilessly letting him choke to death as people are warning him to stop? That’s Satanic justice. How is it just for a crowd of people to go charging into a target store and steal things off the shelf in protest for a murder? How does that solve anything at all? That is Satan’s type of justice.
Satanic type of judgment also questions and challenges God’s judgments at every turn. “Who is God to tell me who I can marry and what gender I should be? I practice tolerance, not hate!” Satan views life with a constant cynicism and anger. Think of how Satan was ANGRY that Job was enjoying life and living with so many blessings. He accused Job of being a fair weather fan of God. He hated to see Job succeed and be blessed, so he got permission to attack Job’s family and Job’s honor. When given the chance, he inflicted Job with boils in order to get him to crack. This was his idea of justice, blind sided attacks and pain without any explanation or reason in simple hope to get Job to curse God and die. Never once did he apologize after the fact for all of the judgments he brought down on Job and all of the death he incurred on his family. This is how Satan is in this world. He’s constantly judging everything and everyone. And why? Not because he wants justice. He just wants vengeance on God. It is just plain Satanic how he is filling people with murder and violence and vengeance. Everyone wants to be his own judge and jury. Everyone wants to sit behind his or her computer and judge everyone and everything else, thinking that he or she is so much better than all of them. It’s a Satanic type of pride and anger that is filling our world. We too need to repent of it.
The Holy Spirit’s role is to remind us of something important. He has been sent to “convict the world . . . about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” Don’t forget who gets the final say. Don’t forget what has already happened to Satan. When Jesus died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead, this is the final say of God. Sin has been paid for . Salvation has been procured. God has declared that the way of salvation is only through faith in Him. No matter what Satan has been saying and how he has been objecting to this truth, he will have nothing to say on Judgment Day. Those who refuse to repent will have their Day in court. When Jesus comes on Judgment Day, He will call us to the pleasures of heaven and give us brand new bodies to live in eternity with Him. Nothing can stop Jesus from doing this, not even the prince of hell. The Holy Spirit has to remind us of this: God’s Word is true. We don’t have to play God. We don’t have to be the judge and jury, because God’s judgments are right. God is the judge. Don’t be intimidated by Satan’s condemnation of the truth. Listen to the Holy Spirit’s convictions, for these are God’s convictions.
So let’s take this back to Pentecost again, and think about this wonderful promise that Jesus gave to His disciples. Think of the old Christmas Vacation movie, where Clark got the jelly of the month club for a Christmas bonus. He was angry about it. But Eddie said, “It’s the gift that keeps on giving!” Clark wasn’t impressed. So with the disciples, it may have seemed so much less to them to receive the Holy Spirit, but it was so much more. It wasn’t either/or. By giving them the Holy Spirit, Jesus was giving them Himself for ETERNITY!
Jesus basically says to us, “I’m giving you an invisible gift, the gift of a Person, the Holy Spirit. You can’t see Him. You can’t touch Him. But He can touch you. He will open your mind, to see Me through the eyes of faith. When I give you HIM, I also give you ME! He will enable you to run behind the cross and find full forgiveness and holiness. He will assure you that I am in control and working all things for your good. He will strengthen you and comfort you in the most trying times of your life. You won’t even let the fear of death consume you! He will continue to be with you, as long as you stay in the Word. He can’t be kept out by jail cells. He can’t be killed with chemotherapy. He won’t go running out when you question Him or doubt Him. He won’t beat you or abuse you. He will never be quiet as long as you keep listening to the Word.” What a precious gift this invisible Person is! It is more precious than gold, this gift of the Holy Spirit, because of what He SAYS to us, how He connects us to Jesus and He KEEPS us connected to Jesus!
About 3,000 people were added to the church that day as they were baptized and believed in the WORDS that Peter and the disciples spoke to them about JESUS. What a gift to them! Through simple words and water the Holy Spirit united them together, people from all over the country, under the blood and righteousness of Jesus. Pentecost still happens today through the same words and the same water, and the Holy Spirit unites us too! What a gift to us too! Without the Holy Spirit, we couldn’t have Jesus, and if we didn’t have Jesus, then we wouldn’t be forgiven, and we wouldn’t be in heaven. But with the Holy Spirit, we have Jesus, forgiveness, faith, peace, hope, and salvation. Some day, when Jesus comes again, we will all be united in heaven. What a wonderful gift, the gift of Pentecost, the gift of the Spirit, the gift that keeps on giving forgiveness, holiness, life and salvation, much more than the jelly of the month. Amen.