The Holy SpiritSeries: John
Speaker: Chris OswaldSunday MorningDate: 6th April 2025-------------------As we move out of Jesus’ farewell discourse, we have at least one topic that we need to cover. Namely, Jesus’ teachings about the Holy Spirit.Salvation (16:1-11)In verses 1-3, Jesus touches on a problem that all people have prior to conversion. They have a broken understanding of who God is and therefore have a broken understanding of what pleases God.“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 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. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.”Here Jesus is speaking specifically about the Jews. For the rest of the New Testament, going all the way into Revelation, the Jews are singled out as the primary antagonist to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The majority of persecution that happens in the New Testament comes at the hand of the Jews. This is because they have what Paul calls, “zeal without knowledge.”Romans 10:1-2, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”And that’s exactly what we see from Jesus in John 16:3, “they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.”So the early, distinctly Jewish opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ is merely an expression of their fundamental ignorance about the nature of God. Paul himself is an example of this. He was of course, a persecutor of the saints. He kept on breathing murderous threats against the church until Jesus showed himself to him. At which time he went from being a leading opponent of the gospel to a leading advocate for it. The change came about simply through the revelation of Jesus Christ.And that is what the Holy Spirit does for us in salvation. 2 Corinthians 4:4-6,In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.That’s the real problem. They do not see Christ. And thus walk around with wrong ideas about God and do wrong things in response to their wrong ideas. The cure? They need to see Christ. And so Paul continues in 2 Corinthians,“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”This is not a problem for the Jews alone. Their situation is especially tragic because God had given them the holy scriptures. And to whom much is given, much is required. But their spiritual condition is not unique at all.We see plenty of instances in the New Testament where the pagans suffer under the same problem.In Acts 17, Paul is walking through the city of Athens, which is absolutely littered with idols to various gods. Paul is stirred up in his spirit over this painful reminder about the problem all people everywhere have. They do bad things thinking they are doing good things. And this error all stems from their ignorance of Christ.In vs.22-28 Paul says,So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.From there he moves on from a general discussion of God to a specific reference to Christ.The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”– Acts 17:30-31The big idea I am trying to communicate is that the main problem with humanity has to do with a lack of understanding the nature of God as revealed in Christ.The Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and even the Satanists all have the same problem. They do not see the truth of God as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.And so they sin, not in spite of their religious beliefs but rather because of their religious beliefs. This is also true of all the people who consider themselves non-religious. That’s a lie. We live in a world of informal and individualistic religions. Where everybody does what is right in their own eyes. These people are, in reality, no less religious than the average Shiite Muslim.Its just that their own sensibilities, thoughts, feelings, and desires serve as a highly individualized kind of Shariah law.Look back at John 16:1-3“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 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. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.”The Jews acted on their ignorance in a particular way. The gentiles acted on their ignorance in another way. The problem is universal. A false view of God will lead to a great confusion whereby people sin greatly against God all the while thinking they are being good people who are pleasing their false god.So that’s one problem. Human beings have wrong ideas about God that lead to wrong actions.And Jesus has another problem in mind. Namely that his disciples are about to be sent into a full of spiritual darkness.Think for a moment about how it would’ve felt to be a very early adoptor to the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Jesus is speaking these words, the number of faithful followers could fit in a single room.They early church was like a little fishing boat set out into a global sea of self-righteousness. How would they ever survive?Well look at vs. 4But 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. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 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. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. “2000 years have passed since the apostles were sent in their little boat into the global sea of self-righteousness. And while we still see plenty of churning ignorance in the world, we can say that the sea is not as troubled as it once was. The promise Habakkuk 2:14 is coming to pass."For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."The knowledge of the glory of the Lord is specifically the knowledge of Christ – who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3)And this is happening because the Holy Spirit was unleashed, to hover above the chaotic waters, convicting the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. See that in John 16:8-11?And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.The sea of people in the world, churning in a storm of self-righteous zeal without knowledge is being stilled by the spirit of the Lord. And this is happening through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.The greek word for convict means to expose. The Holy Spirit is showing people that their self-righteousness is actually just sin; that all their righteousness is as filthy rags.And he is doing that by showing them the true nature of God as revealed in Christ Jesus.When the Spirit shows a Jew the truth about Jesus, he repents of his self-righteousness.When the Spirit shows a Mulim the truth about Jesus, he repents of his self-righteousness.When the Spirit shows a cultural Christian the truth about Jesus, he repents of his self-righteousness.The saving work of the Holy Spirit is simply this: Open blind eyes to the glory of King Jesus.So that’s the first point: The Saving Work of the Holy Spirit. And now we move on to point 2: The Sanctifying Work of the Holy Spirit.II. SanctificationWe see this in vs. 12-15“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.The disciples, though saved, still need to be progressively sanctified. They need to bring their thoughts, attitudes, and actions into conformity to the truth about God. And here we see that the Holy Spirit sanctifies Christians in precisely the same way he saves them. He shows them Christ.
He will take what is Christ’s and declare it to them.2 Corinthians 3:16-18But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.How does the Holy Spirit affect salvation? By showing the sinner the truth about Christ.How does the Holy Spirit affect sanctification? Same thing. By showing them Christ and as they behold the glory of the Lord (that’s Jesus… Hebrews 1:2) and being transformed into what they see from one degree of glory to another.This is what Jesus is talking about when he says, ““I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”Application:What can we do with these truths?Firstly, we can view the brokenness of the world through the eyes of faith.There was a book published in 1995 called The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost Their Sense of Evil by Andrew Delbanco. There he writes,A gulf has opened up in our culture between the visibility of evil and the intellectual resources available for coping with it. Never before have images of horror been so widely disseminated and so appalling–from organized death camps to children starving in famines that might have been averted. Rarely does a week go by without newspaper and television accounts of teenagers performing contract killings for a few dollars, women murdered on the street for their purses or their furs, young men shot in the head for the keys to their jeep–and these are only the domestic bulletins…The repertoire of evil has never been richer. Yet never have our responses been so weak. We have no language for connecting our inner lives with the horrors that pass before our eyes in the outer world…What Delbanco wrote in 1995 is so much more true in 2025.There are still many storms of self-righteousness in the world. Still many dark and despicable actions flowing from a faulty understanding of God, and the true, the good, and the beautiful.How are we to navigate this choppy sea? We need to take our eyes off the waves and see the spirit hovering over these chaotic waters. The power of God has been unleashed upon the world and every day, more and more people are having the scales fall off their eyes so that they can see the glory of God in Christ Jesus.We need to stop looking out at the waves and start looking up at the Spirit’s relentless march through the worlds individuals and institutions. The Spirit is unstoppable. He will not stop working until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth like the waters cover the sea.What started as a little band of believers in a single row boat, has today become a massive Navy conquering the whole earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.“He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”Think of how much that promise has already come to pass. And count the Lord’s past faithfulness as undeniable evidence of his future faithfulness.The Holy Spirit is engaged in a global work we might describe as a kind of merciful militancy. It is militant because the aim is conquest. He will not stop until all of the Lord’s enemies are made his footstool. It is merciful because the primary means of conquest is conversion.In the past 24 hours, it is all but guaranteed that some muslim in the middle east woke up from a dream in which King Jesus visited them and led them to a proper knowledge of God.This morning some young man in America will finally see that Christ is all in all.Some up and coming politician will put his faith in Christ.The merciful militancy of the Spirit is marching on and will not be stopped. People everywhere are, even this weekend, having their eyes opened to behold the “ the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”So again, thanks to technology, we have all these new ways of looking out into the world and seeing the darkness. But faith is the original technology – by which we look up and see that the light has come into the world and the darkness has not overcome it!The second point of application involves the problems we see when we look not out, but in. When gospel light shines on us, we see all sorts of troubling things at work in our spiritual house.We see a tepid love for Jesus.
We see constant temptation to sin.
We do not love God as we know we should.
Nor do we love our neighbor as well as we ought.But remember, the same spirit that is ruthlessly saving sinners is applying that same merciful militancy to our own sanctification. And he is doing that work in exactly the same way he saves.He shows us Christ. Therefore in addition to encouraging you to look up, and not only out, I want to encourage you to look up and not only in.This is the thing that our spiritual fathers were most eager for us to do."Turn your eyes away from your own handiwork, and look simply at Christ. The less you pore over your own heart, and the more you fix your thoughts on Him, the better." – JC Ryle"Therefore, let us not look at our own righteousness or unrighteousness, but let us look at Christ, who is our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." – Martin Luther"Look away from self to Christ. Do not spend your time studying your own heart and character to see whether you are a Christian or not; but get your eye on Christ, the perfect pattern, and leave the results with God." – Charles Spurgeon"Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of Christ, and virtue will proceed from Him to repair all our decays, to renew a right spirit within us, and to cause us to abound in all duties of obedience." – John OwenOh praise God for the tremendous gift of the Holy Spirit. He is curing the world of its self-righteousness by revealing Christ. And he is curing us too, of all sorts of spots, wrinkles, and blemishes – transforming us from one degree of glory to another – as we behold the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.One final point. Look back at John 16:12-15,“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.Here Jesus is restating something he said in chapter 14:25“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”These scriptures show us how the Holy Spirit does his work. Yes, by revealing Christ, but specifically by illuminating the word of Christ.How will he calm the choppy seas of self-righteousness in the world? By sending out Christians who will speak God’s word over it.Romans 10:13-14 says, “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”And how will the Holy Spirit continue to sanctify you and I? By bringing to remembrance all that Jesus taught us.Here is a final and essential takeaway from Jesus’ teaching about the Holy Spirit.The Christian has the opportunity to experience the Holy Spirit’s power in two ways:Firstly, the Christian can experience the power of the Holy Spirit as they share the gospel word with a lost world.Secondly, the Christian can experience the power of the Holy Spirit in their own sanctification as He actively, throughout the day, brings up certain scriptures that offer truth, guidance, and instruction about the various situations we encounter.But understand this, not all Christians will experience the Holy Spirit equally. This is not because God is playing favorites. But rather, it is because the Holy Spirit tends to only use the amount of bible that each believer knows.Again from chapter 14:25“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”The Holy Spirit’s primary power lies in helping you remember the word you have previously read.So your experience with the Holy Spirit is pretty significantly fixed to your time in the Holy Scriptures.Illustration: Many of you know that quarterbacks have little speakers in their helmets. They receive the play call from the offensive coordinator and then run the play. But that system only works if the quarterback knows the plays.A young quarterback, with a limited knowledge of the playbook is going to have a qualitatively inferior experience compared to a seasoned quarterback who has a total mastery of the playbook.Likewise, your experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit is going to practically depend, in large part, on your knowledge of the scriptures.This is a key explanation for the apostle’s unusual effectiveness in the early church. As young boys, they were raised up on a very intense diet of Old Testament scriptures. They knew those scriptures backwards and forwards. So when the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and showed them how all of those things pertained to Christ, their hearts and minds came preloaded with plenty of plays that the Holy Spirit could bring to their remembrance.Quick Summary:Don’t be dismayed by the sea of self-righteousness that seems to cover the world. The Holy Spirit is on the move. He is engaged in the merciful militancy of convicting the world by showing them Christ.Don’t be dismayed by your lack of progress in sanctification. The same spirit who is to this day converting people, is at work to conform you to the image of Christ.Don’t neglect the bible. This is what the Holy Spirit uses to do his work.

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