One of the most painful experiences in life is the loss of someone we love, trust, and have come to depend on. A child loses their parents, or a young person loses a key mentor in their life, it can create disorientation, fear, and apprehension about what tomorrow holds. The emotional pain is one thing, but the deeper question is how to survive moving forward in their absence. It is in this context that we need to look at the words of Jesus here in John 15 and 16. Jesus has been telling the disciples that he is about to leave. Part of the apprehension in their situation was the confusion over their messianic expectations. Why would Jesus be leaving? If Jesus left what would happen to them? How would the kingdom of God come? How would the work happen or continue? Human effort alone would not be able to accomplish so great a task. The spiritual opposition to the work of God would now be faced alone in Jesus’ absence. Jesus had been their advocate. He had protected them from the antagonism that had come from the hostile religious community. But now He would not be there to defend them.
Jesus now explains how God’s kingdom work would be empowered and effective. He explains that another advocate, the Holy Spirit, would come and enable them to deal with all the challenges that they would experience in this life. What was true for them is equally true today for us who are followers of Jesus. So, what is the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer according to Jesus here in His upper room discourse?
FIRST, WE DISCOVER THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN MOMENTS OF HOSTILITY AND PERSECUTION
How do we handle those moments when we are sharing our faith and we experience negative and even hostile responses? Last week, I pointed out that one of the identity markers of a follower of Jesus would be the experience of persecution. The apostle Paul stated that very clearly in his letter to Timothy.
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.[i]
A. Many people are silenced to avoid negative responses.
We are often afraid to alienate people, so we remain silent, but the problem is that people are then not hearing the good news. We are so often concerned about not offending people in life, that by our silence, we may be dooming them to an awful eternity without Christ. It is one thing for people to choose to reject Jesus, it is another for us not to give them any opportunity to choose. The primary ministry of the Holy Spirit is to testify to the good news about the person and work of Jesus Christ.
‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.[ii]
Merrill Tenney explains the impact of the witness both of the Holy Spirit and the apostles.
The witness of the Spirit is powerful because He comes with supernatural insight and conviction to demonstrate the reality of the unseen Father. The witness of the disciples is also potent because it presents the unanswerable argument of transformed lives. Everyone knew what these men had been, and could see what they became through their contact with Jesus.[iii]
The witness of the Advocate and the witness of the apostles are in effect a single witness.[iv]
The idea here is that this is not two distinctly different witnesses of Jesus, but actually the work of God’s Spirit in the life of the believer that is empowering believers and working through them to reveal Christ to others. Gerald Borchert explains this intertwining of ministry of the Holy Spirit and the followers of Jesus.
The basic message of the gospel is available, and both the Spirit and the disciples are together agents of communicating the same gospel. The role of the Spirit here, then, is likened to that of a supporter for the disciples in witnessing to a hostile world. This statement, of course, does not mean that where there are no disciples present the Spirit is unable to work. Such a suggestion would mean that God is bound totally by human frailty. Rather, the meaning of these verses points to the intended harmony of humans and the Spirit working in mission.[v]
This is the reason that Jesus told the disciples before He ascended into heaven that they needed to first be filled with Holy Spirit before they could be effective witnesses.
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.[vi]
B. The greatest witness is a transformed life.
This is also true of our lives. Jesus changes lives. What we once were, we are no longer. Paul describes the believer as a “new creation”.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here![vii]
It was certainly evident in the transformation of the early followers of Jesus. The presentation of Peter and John to the Sanhedrin was both compelling and courageous. Luke records for us the assessment of the religious leaders as a result of their presentation.
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.[viii]
As we are growing and being conformed into the image of Christ, others will notice the changes in our lives. Our lives as well as our words will be a witness of Christ.
C. The challenges of sharing our faith.
Jesus now explains beforehand the possible negative responses that will occur simply because we are His witnesses in our world. For the early church, which was comprised of Jewish adherents, they were ex-communicated from the synagogues, which had huge social ramifications as it pertains to employment and acceptance in the community.
All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.[ix]
Don Carson explains the challenge they were about to face.
The greatest danger the disciples will confront from the opposition of the world is not death but apostasy.[x]
The pressure to conform to the mores and values of society in order to fit in is the greatest challenge that we are faced with. The challenge is for us to stand out and be counted for Christ and be willing, if necessary, to be mocked, ridiculed, and rejected as the price we must pay in order to be true to God.
Jesus explained that those who were and often are doing such things think they are serving God. Carson relates the irony of their actions.
In any case, John treats the persecution with intense irony. These religious persecutors think they are offering a service (latreia, “worship”, “spiritual service”) to God. They are profoundly deluded–yet at the same time the death of Christians by persecution is an offering to God.[xi]
We know that Paul’s life before Christ was as a persecutor of the church. He explains his wrong thinking previous to his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus:
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.[xii]
D. Jesus explains what was motivating such drastic measures in which martyrdom occurred at times.
They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,[xiii]
Jesus explains the reason for the persecution is that they don’t really know God at all, because if they did, they would have accepted Jesus. Now, Jesus is warning them of the coming persecution because He is about to leave.
but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’[xiv]
E. The response of the disciples to Jesus’ warnings of persecution and leaving them.
Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.[xv]
Jesus’ valuation of what is for his disciples’ good, indeed, for our good, ought to temper longings of the ‘Oh-if-only-I-could-have-been-in-Galilee-when-Jesus-was-there!’ sort. That same Jesus insists it is better to be alive now, after the coming of the Spirit. Before the triumphant in-breaking of God’s saving reign, before the inauguration of the new covenant, millions ignored the claims of the true God. Pentecost transformed that limitation, and millions have been brought to happy submission to the Lord Jesus Christ and to growing obedience by the power of the Spirit whom he bequeathed.[xvi]
SECOND, WE DISCOVER THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT REGARDING SIN, RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUDGMENT
Is there any wonder that this address will produce defensiveness and animosity toward the messengers? The role of the Holy Spirit reveals to our world that it is guilty in regard to its sin, its righteousness and its judgment.
A. Holy Spirit speaks to the error of humanity in relationship to sin.
When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me;[xvii]
The Holy Spirit begins by making a person realize that they are struggling with sin.
He will expose the naked truth that the root of sin lies in the desire of men to live their lives in self-centered independence, disowning any allegiance to Jesus.[xviii]
This is the primary reason why people hate Jesus. They do not want to be told that they are wrong, and it is one of the reasons why people are so offended by Jesus and, in due course, offended by us as His followers. Our lives are exposing the darkness in their lives. Jesus explained that his teaching had this kind of an impact.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.[xix]
The work of God’s Spirit in relationship to the world or non-believers is conviction of sin.
Don Carson explains why people just cannot see their need or why they are blinded to the fact of sin in their lives.
He convicts the world of its sin because the people who constitute the world do not believe in Jesus (v. 9). If they did believe in Jesus, they would believe his statements about their guilt and turn to him. As it is, their unbelief brings not only condemnation (3:18, 36) but willful ignorance of their need. The world’s unbelief not only ensures that it will not receive life, it ensures that it cannot perceive that it walks in death and needs life.[xx]
This is probably the greatest challenge we see–the lack of concern people have about their souls. They do not see that they are the “walking dead,” and need life.
B. The Holy Spirit reveals what is considered right in the eyes of God.
about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;[xxi]
Who determines what is right?
Humanity is not in control either of the future or of setting the standards for life. That is the work of God.[xxii]
Carson explains that when Jesus came into the world, He revealed the empty and often false notions of what was righteousness.
One of Jesus’ most startling roles with respect to the world was to show up the emptiness of its pretensions, to expose by his light the darkness of the world for what it is.[xxiii]
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.[xxiv]
This work of exposing darkness is now the domain of the Holy Spirit which reveals to people their true state and need for Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts of the pretense and the empty righteousness of society. All of humanity endeavors to be in right relationship with God but apart from God’s provision of Christ, it is, as Isaiah wrote, like a filthy cloth and can only produce a false sense of security and a hollow arrogance and pride.
C. The Holy Spirit also explains how the work of Christ is a judgment on the prince of this world.
and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.[xxv]
The world’s judgments is profoundly wrong and morally perverse. And now, the Paraclete [Holy Spirit] convicts the world of its false judgement, because in the impending triumph of Christ the prince of this world stands condemned. All false judgment is related to him who was a liar from the beginning, whose children we are if we echo his values (8:42-47). If he stands condemned by the triumph of the cross, the false judgment of those who follow in his train is doubly exposed. The need for conviction of this false judgment is all the more urgent; the world is condemned already (3:36) and in desperate need to learn of its plight.[xxvi]
THE THIRD ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS TO BRING PEOPLE INTO THE TRUTH
While we have just seen the exposure of lies, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and will guide people into that realm. Jesus now assures the disciples that even though he is leaving, the Spirit will continue the work in and then through them. What they need to know, He will instruct them.
I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.[xxvii]
While the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the unbeliever brings conviction and then judgment for persistent rebellion, for the believer the work of the Holy Spirit is one of guidance.
Guide implies leadership for a person who is interested in traveling on the right path, but who needs help in finding it. …The believer may not have progressed far along the way of truth, but is desirous of going on in the right direction, and needs the good offices of the Spirit to conduct him on his way.[xxviii]
It is obvious from reading the gospel accounts that the disciples were overwhelmed, confused, and stunned by the ensuing events of Jesus’ crucifixion. They were wondering, what went wrong? Then after the crucifixion comes the resurrection of Jesus, that certainly brought immense joy, but new levels of perplexity as Jesus was now preparing to once again leave them responsible for bringing the gospel to the nations. Jesus told them to wait for the Holy Spirit to be given to them, and we see that happening on the day of Pentecost.
Jesus also told them that not only would the Holy Spirit guide them and remind them of what He had taught them, but would also explain what was to come. This expression has obviously created confusion among us as followers today. Gerald Borchert makes this insightful observation.
One does not have to be a brilliant interpreter to guess that this last clause has led to a great deal of speculation concerning its intended meaning. Is the role of the Spirit to provide predictions concerning future events? Or is the role one of simply providing perspective for the future in light of the already revealed message of the Gospel? These two poles of opinion reflect the two sides of the way people speak of prophecy in terms of Aforetelling and Aforthtelling. The former can be as radically expansive and lacking in controlled guidelines as the latter can be restrictive.
The appropriate meaning is undoubtedly to be found in a synthesis of both, wherein wide-ranging speculation is eliminated by remembering that these words were written as a Farewell message to anxious disciples who feared the imminent loss of Jesus, their physical companion and guide. But the future was also an unknown page for them, since these Paraclete passages indicate that the coming times would be traumatic for them and that in such times the disciples would need the truthful and authentic Spirit to guide them through their forthcoming wilderness. It is in this combination of farewell and hope of guidance that contemporary readers can find this passage to be of great significance for their lives of discipleship.[xxix]
So, what was the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the early followers and how does that apply to us? He comes to convince us of who Jesus is and why we need him in order to be in a right relationship with God, the Father. We are then empowered and enable to become the person God designed for us to become. We become a new creation, a transformed person, who in word and deed reveal Christ to others. We need to anticipate that we will experience some measure of rejection from the values of our society. Gerald Borchert summarizes the meaning of the coming of the Holy Spirit to us as Christ’s followers.
The divine resource of the Spirit is the gift Jesus sent from the Father to Christian disciples in a hostile world so that they could cope effectively with the anxiety that is inherent in living in a life-context that openly resists the proclamation of the Gospel.[xxx]
In other words, we are called to be witnesses, both in what we say and do.
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[i] 2 Timothy 3:12, The New International Version of the Bible, Zondervan, 2011.
[ii] John 15:26-27.
[iii] Merrill C. Tenney, John: The Gospel of Belief, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1975), 232.
[iv] R. V. G. Tasker, John, TNTC, (Grand Rapids, Mi: William Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1960), 179.
[v] Gerald Borchert, John 1B11 Vol. 25B, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996), 160.
[vi] Acts 1:4-5, 8.
[vii] 2 Corinthians 5:17.
[viii] Acts 4:13.
[ix] John 16:1-2.
[x] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Mi: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), 530.
[xi] Ibid, 531.
[xii] 1 Timothy 1:12-14.
[xiii] John 16:3-4.
[xiv] John 16:5.
[xv] John 16:6-7.
[xvi] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 534.
[xvii] John 16:8-9.
[xviii] R. V. G. Tasker, John, 179-80.
[xix] John 15:22.
[xx] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 537.
[xxi] John 16:10.
[xxii] Gerald Borchert, John 1B11 Vol. 25B, 167.
[xxiii] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 538.
[xxiv] John 3:19-20.
[xxv] John 16:11.
[xxvi] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 538-39.
[xxvii] John 16:12-15.
[xxviii] Merrill C. Tenney, John: The Gospel of Belief, 235.
[xxix] Gerald Borchert, John 1B11 Vol. 25B, 169-70.
[xxx] Ibid, 171.
