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The Work of the Holy Spirit - John 15:5-15

By Steve Jeantet | March 29, 2007

As a child I, like many of you I would guess, was raised on Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Those two shows dominated my TV watching when I was young. But one thing that always baffled me was why Big Bird could see Snuffalufagus, but no one else could. None of the other muppets. None of the humans. Just Big Bird. Everyone just came to assume that Snuffalufagus was Big Bird’s imaginary friend.

That is, I think, how many of us treat the Holy Spirit. From the time we are kids we learn to say that “Jesus lives in my heart”. And if we are to get technical about it, we would say that isn’t really Jesus but the Holy Spirit who lives in us. But we treat the Holy Spirit as this imaginary friend who is there, but functionally irrelevant. Because we don’t know how to interact with the Holy Spirit or how to live in light of the Holy Spirit, we just act as if He isn’t there. The Holy Spirit gets demoted to status as “God, Jr.” because we don’t really know what else to do. We know so little about the Holy Spirit – about His person and His work – that we just pretend He isn’t there.

And then, on top of our lack of knowledge and experience with the Holy Spirit, we hear stories about what is happening around the world. A person regrows a lost arm in Africa or someone rises from the dead in Asia. Could that really be the Holy Spirit? And if so, then why haven’t we ever experienced anything like that? Our lack of knowledge and dependence on the person and work of the Holy Spirit have limited our ability to grasp the ways that the Holy Spirit is at work in our world. We don’t know what to do with the Holy Spirit because we don’t really know who He is or what He does. As we come to our text, let us do so anxious to see how the Holy Spirit is at work in our world. Turn with me if you will to John 16:5-15 (Read text).

If the Holy Spirit is at work in our world, we need to know how. But before we go any further, let’s pause for a moment to pray and God to send His Spirit to be with us and to speak with us this morning.

“Precious God, we believe that you are 3 in 1. Father, Son and Spirit. But we confess we know so little about the Spirit. Send Him to us now that as we study your Scripture, we might come to know your Spirit in new and deeper ways and honor Him as God as we ought. Amen.”

In our text today we see three ways the Holy Spirit is at work in our world. The first is that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness to judgment. That’s what is says in verse 8. Almost as if anticipating our question as to what that even means, John goes on to explain himself on each of those three.

First, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of guilt in regard to sin. In verse 9 he explains, “in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me”. If you study the gospel of John, you will see that the primary passion of the book is to call people to believe in Jesus. It’s not that the Holy Spirit does not convict people of other sins as well. He does. But the Holy Spirit convicts people of sin specifically for the purpose of calling them to believe in Jesus.

That the Holy Spirit convicts of sin isn’t what surprises us in this passage though. It’s the other two that are a little more confusing to us. What does it mean that the Holy Spirit convicts the world or guilt in regard to righteousness? Here John is speaking about Jesus’ righteousness. The world rejected Jesus as unrighteous and crucified Him. But after His resurrection, Jesus was welcomed home by His Father as righteous. Now His righteousness condemns the world for rejecting Him. But His righteousness also is our only hope that Father will welcome us home as He did Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts the world of its unrighteousness and the righteousness of Jesus.

The final conviction of the Holy Spirit of which our text speaks is of guilt in regard to judgment. Verse 11 says that “in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned”. Satan has been condemned for rejecting the One whom the Father has accepted. But all those who are deceived by him will follow him to where he is headed. Revelation 20:10 says, “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur” where he “will be tormented day and night for ever and ever”. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of guilt in regard to judgment because those who follow the prince of this world will share in his punishment for eternity.

The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin that we might come before Him who is righteous and avoid the judgment of the evil one. Today, let us ask the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts that we might seek forgiveness and gain acceptance before the Father.

So as we have seen, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of guilt. But that is not the only aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit we see in our text. Look at verse 13. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth”. The Holy Spirit guides the church into all truth. In this context, to “guide” is to “lead the way”. The Holy Spirit leads the way to the truth. He does so in three primary ways…by reminding us of the past, instructing us for the present and reveal things to come.

He guides us into the truth by reminding us of the past. Listen to Jesus’ words about the Holy Spirit in John 14:26. The Holy Spirit “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”. The Holy Spirit reminds us of Scripture and of the person and work of Jesus to lead the way to truth. Because, as John 14:6 states, Jesus is the truth, the Holy Spirit leads us to truth by taking us back to Jesus.

The Holy Spirit also guides us into the truth by instructing us for the present. The Scriptures don’t cover every aspect of the life you and I live today. The Bible just doesn’t talk about computers or the internet. It doesn’t comment on every question we have. Scripture may present some principles for us to apply to our circumstances or questions, but doesn’t always directly address our concerns. It doesn’t tell you what job to take or tell you God’s exact position on stem cell research or even theological and doctrinal issues like the ordination of women. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us. The Holy Spirit takes those guiding principles from Scripture and give us the discernment that we might find truth in the present. Before moving on, I do want to interject that the Holy Spirit’s witness will NEVER contradict Scripture. The Bible is God’s written word and the Spirit will help us use it for life today, but never contradict it.

The Holy Spirit also guides us into the truth by revealing things to come. That’s what verse 13 says. “He will tell you what is yet to come”. The future is a primary preoccupation for most of us. We think more about and worry more about the future than anything else in our life. And here is the truth of our passage. The Holy Spirit will guide us into the future and reveal the truth we need to engage the future with confidence.

I would like to take just a moment to consider how the Holy Spirit guides us into truth with respect to the past, present and future by looking at the question of what job to take. This is my last year of seminary. I think a lot about what’s next…the future. When looking for a job, the Holy Spirit will guide us. First, by looking at the past. He will take us to Scripture. The Bible won’t tell me what job to take, but does lay out some important principles. Work is good. A workman deserves his wages. I can’t take a job that would require me to violate Biblical morality. The Holy Spirit will take me to principles and teachings from Scripture to guide me. He will also guide me in the present over discernment of issues. In our question of a job, the Holy Spirit reveals gifts and abilities and whether they fit with the church and position they have available. It would be a terrible fit for me to take a job as a worship pastor. I just don’t have those gifts. The Holy Spirit reveals to me what gifts I have that I might find a place to use them. And with respect to the future, I want to get a PhD. Do I do that right away? Simultaneous with working at a church? I need the Holy Spirit to guide me into the future.

The Holy Spirit is at work in the world convicting it of guilt and guiding the church into truth. Finally, the Holy Spirit is at work in the world bringing glory to Christ. Verse 14 says, “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you”. The Holy Spirit is bringing glory and honor to Christ here on earth. We’ve heard over and over again that we need to bring glory to Christ. But it is only through the Holy Spirit that we can ever do that. Dale Bruner, one of my favorite theologians today (he’s now retired from teaching), calls the Holy Spirit the “shy member of the Trinity”. The Holy Spirit is not bringing attention to himself, but pointing people to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is revealing the person and work of Christ to us that we might come to him in faith. And few things bring glory to Christ like people believing in Jesus for life. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not Snuffalufagus. He is not just some imaginary friend. He is fully God, sent by the Father in the name of Jesus, to indwell us, His children. We sing hymns like “Holy, Holy, Holy” where we declare that “God in three persons. Blessed Trinity”. Yet we know so little about the Trinity because we know so little about the Holy Spirit. But He is at work in our world convicting the work of guilt, guiding the church into truth and bringing glory to Christ. Let us commit ourselves to studying and learning about and knowing the Holy Spirit that He would not only be at work in our world, but also in our own lives.

Let me pray. “God, thank you for the Holy Spirit. Thank you that He is at work in the world today. Forgive us for how we have ignored the Holy Spirit in the past and we ask that this week we would understand how know the Holy Spirit that we might, with the Spirit, bring glory to Christ. Amen.”

Topics: John |

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