The Spirit’s Work Confirms the Vital Centrality of Jesus – John 16:4–15

PRAY & INTRO: How does it impact our lives when we think we don’t need help but we actually do? And how does it change things to first of all realize our need for help, and then to receive that help?

In a discourse with his disciples on the night of the last supper, just hours before his betrayal and arrest that would lead to his crucifixion, Jesus compassionately prepared his disciples. He prepared them for what was immediately coming, and he prepared them for his impending departure shortly after. In this departure discourse, Jesus commands that they carry on the ministry, and explains the high expectations he has for them, and the difficulties they will face, which could leave them feeling overwhelmed and helpless. But he promises that he will not leave them without help, but will instead be sending another Helper (Paraclete, Counselor), the Spirit of truth, to do in them and for them what they could not do without this divine help.

Why does it matter to us what Jesus said to prepare the Apostles with comfort and strength before his impending death and resurrection and his departure to glory? Everything that he said to these Apostles either directly or yet indirectly applies to us as the successive followers of Jesus, and that is no less true in what he promises about the presence of the Spirit at work in His people.

Specifically today from John 16:4-15, the Holy Scripture emphasizes that..

We need not sorrow in this age of Jesus’ physical absence because he has sent the Spirit, who continues ministry on Christ’s behalf, who brings conviction in the world concerning Christ, and who has ensured the declaration of all truth about Christ through the Apostles.

First, we must not think ourselves less fortunate in this phase of Christ’s kingdom, even though Jesus is physically absent, because…

The Spirit  Continues  to Minister on Christ’s Behalf (vv. 4-7)

John 16:4–7 ESV

⁴ But 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. ⁵ But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷ 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.

In Jesus’ discourse, verse four transitions from the world’s opposition and persecution of the disciples (the world will hate you because it hates me) by now continuing to develop further the role of the Helper, the Spirit of truth, working through them (which he had brought up again in Jn 15:26-27 [read]).

-Jesus tells them these things so that they won’t be surprised by the strong opposition, but can instead expect and prepare for it. He hadn’t told them this until now because he was present to himself bear the brunt of their hatred, and present with them to protect them.

In verses 5&6 Jesus expresses understanding of what is going on in their minds and hearts, and he reassures them again in verse 7 that his ascension into glory will mean the coming of the other Helper he promised, to continue God’s own work through what Christ will have accomplished (by his death and resurrection, and therefore by his ongoing life and lordship and mediation).

See in verse 5 he says that none of you is presently asking me where I am going (none of you keeps asking me), which both Peter (Jn 13:36) and Thomas (Jn 14:5) had done earlier in the evening. But at this later part of the discourse, which seems to no longer be in the upper room but somewhere along the way to Gethsemane (cf. Jn 14:31b), their focus has shifted to their sorrow, verse 6.

Sorrow had apparently overtaken their curiosity. Sorrow for their loss, and concern for their safety, was drowning out their inquisitiveness about where he was actually going. - Jesus will soon be even more clear than he already has been about where he is going, after the cross and resurrection: Jn 16:28 “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

With deep compassion, Jesus works overtime in the following broader section [beginning at v. 16] to explain to them how their sorrow will turn to joy when, after the anguish of his crucifixion, they will witness a great and glorious reversal—his resurrection! Then they will truly know the joy and confidence of the One in whom they have put their faith as God’s Messiah.

Back here in v. 7 of chapter 16, Christ’s comfort to them is the repeated promise of sending the Spirit when he physically departs, confirming emphatically (“I tell you the truth”) that it is to “your benefit,” for your profit… that I go away and send you the Spirit. - Recall what Jesus has already introduced about this coming Helper:

-Jesus had explained, if you have saving belief in me (Jn 14:6-7,11), then Jn 14:16-17…

John 14:16–17 ESV

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

While not every reference to the Spirit’s work in this discourse is directly applicable to all of Christ’s people, this dwelling with and in you is the blessing and privilege of every believer in Jesus. 

There are other aspects of the Spirit’s work that are directly applicable only to these uniquely chosen Apostles (and therefore only indirectly applicable to us, their descendants in Christ).  - Just so, again in v. 25 of chapter 14, Jesus continues…

John 14:25–26 ESV

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. ²⁶ 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.

This remembrance of what Christ had taught them can only refer to these who were physically present with him in his earthly ministry, whom he had specifically chosen for this task of Apostleship. John’s Gospel—indeed, this very discourse—is an example of this promise fulfilled in the Apostle John as one of the 12. So as we shall see further in our text today, even what is accomplished by the Spirit in the Apostles specifically is still a great benefit to us who come after them, for they truly did recall and record that which Christ had said to them.

As we have seen, Jesus comforts them again with clarity that the coming Spirit will continue God’s own work in them and through them. Now he adds a new explanation of how the Spirit’s ministry will work through them on his behalf:

The Spirit  Convicts  the World Concerning Christ (vv. 8-11)

John 16:8–11 ESV

⁸ And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; ¹⁰ concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; ¹¹ concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

This word convict (the Spirit’s convicting work in the world) means to reprove by exposing guilt… so to convince and prove, to show clearly that the world is wrong—wrong about sin, wrong about righteousness, and wrong about judgment.

The Spirit’s convincing evidence is first of all about sin, which is here namely because they do not believe in Jesus. - The Spirit’s conviction concerning Christ pairs well with the teaching from Jesus that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is unforgivable (Mk 3:22-30 & Mt 12:22-32), because the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit is essentially the sin of rejecting Christ. - So while the world wants to view sin in terms of simply “don’t do this” and “don’t be like this,” fundamentally human sin concerns a rebellion against God, a rejection of the glory and goodness of God (and therefore everything he commands that is consistent with himself). We confirm all our wayward sinfulness in rejecting Christ, who is God himself and God’s own gracious means of rescuing us by his own perfection.

Just so, the Spirit of truth’s convincing is secondly proving the world wrong about its righteousness. The testimony of Scripture is that our own efforts at righteousness are in fact not righteous at all because we are permanently stained with guilt before a holy God: Isaiah 64:6a “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” Jesus said, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:20) - Paul explains that even the Hebrews, who received the law of God through Moses, did not get this right: Rom 10:3-4

Romans 10:3–4 NET

³ For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ For Christ is the end of the law, with the result that there is righteousness for everyone who believes.

The Bible is perfectly clear that the world’s righteousness is hopelessly inadequate. So the Spirit continues convincing the world of the inadequacy of our own righteousness apart from Christ’s righteousness. Jesus says the Spirit will do this because he is going to the Father: in the absence of Christ (we will see him no longer) and because of what Christ accomplished to fulfill righteousness in his atoning death, resurrection, and ascension to glory. - Notice the centrality and necessity of Jesus: his righteousness is convincing evidence of our imminently flawed righteousness. 

The third aspect of the Spirit’s conviction is proving the world wrong about its judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

The world judges wrongly because, as a result of the Fall, we are beholden to our sin and under Satan’s influence. Without God’s direction, we therefore adjudicate wrongly; we do not distinguish right from wrong rightly. The world’s judgment is morally perverse in its spiritual blindness, just the way the devil wants it as he twists and lies so that our hearts will continue straying from God in self-destructing self-exaltation.

But now the ruler of this world is judged, condemned, because the Savior came and lived righteously and judged righteously according the Father’s perfect will and declaration of what is just. Jn 5:30b “As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

And Jesus took that righteousness right to the finish line, dying sacrificially for our sin, satisfying God’s true, right justice. And he rose again to vindicate God’s perfect righteousness, just judgment, and saving grace. But Christ’s completion of justice also completes the just condemnation of “the ruler of this world.” So the Spirit is at work to convict the world about judging according to Satan’s schemes.

Although this might all sound like condemnation (and it is for the world system under Satan’s influence), but it is only condemning individually for those who continue to refuse submission to Jesus (Jn 3:18). So here we have the Spirit’s work of exposing sin (and false righteousness and wrong judgment) as a summons to repentance. It is therefore also the world’s hope—our hope—that we can become convinced of these wrong views that are only righted in Jesus, and to repent of sin and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ as our only salvation, our only restoration to God.

And so John himself will say, after communicating these teachings from Jesus, and the vicarious death and vital resurrection of Jesus, that he has written these things “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (Jn 20:31) - This very writer, John the Apostle, received guidance from the Spirit to communicate these truths so that some in the world might still be called out of the world and to Christ.

So the Spirit’s convicting ministry gives us hope and courage as we serve Christ, knowing that God himself is at work to bring people into relationship with him through submission to Jesus.

And lest we should forget the context that the Spirit is coming as a Paraclete (Helper, Counselor) to be at work particularly in and through Christ’s people, Don Carson constructively explains: “Undoubtedly this kind of conviction is driven home to the world primarily through Jesus’ followers who, empowered by the Holy Spirit, live their lives in such growing conformity to Christ that the same impact on the world is observed as when Jesus himself lived out his life before the world.” D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 538.

And then we further bear witness in our proclamation—our speaking to others about Jesus—that we know ourselves to have been dead in sin apart from Christ, and to have no sufficient righteousness of our own apart from Christ. We invite others into the same grace we have received to be restored to God through repentance and faith in Jesus.

And the content that we, and others, need to know about Jesus is through the next, and final, promise Jesus makes to the Apostles concerning the Spirit’s ministry to them, which turns out to be the Spirit’s ministry to all through them.

The Spirit  Communicates  God’s Truth in Christ Through the Apostles (vv. 12-15)

John 16:12–15 ESV

¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Jesus tells them, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now,” the sense of which means that they will not be able to accept them now with full understanding. After his death and resurrection, he would begin explaining to them further how he fulfills the Scriptures.

But Christ also promises, at this point of the last night before his crucifixion, that the Spirit would complete this task of giving them full clarity of understanding the significance of God the Son becoming man… and of his declaring the kingdom to Israel… and his living sinlessly and dying vicariously for the sins of others… and rising again and being exalted to heavenly majesty.

So it is the Spirit who will come and lead them (guide their learning) into all the truth, truth which ties centrally to God’s self-revelation in Christ Jesus, his culminating self-disclosure, his very “Word” (Jn 1:1, 1:14). This becomes abundantly clear when you follow Christ’s line of reasoning that flows from the second half of verse 13 through v. 15.

The Spirit will not be speaking from his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak. This follows the pattern of the Son himself while on earth. Jesus repeatedly emphasized that he was not speaking or doing things on his own authority, but on the authority of the one who sent him, which is the Father (Jn 3:34–35; 5:19–20; 7:16–18; 8:26–29, 42–43; 12:47–50; 14:10).

Jesus (the Son) spoke on behalf of the Father, and the Spirit speaks on behalf of the Son, who in this passage is the one who “sends him to you” (v. 7). - And the mystery of the Triunity of God is partly unveiled for us here, as we see something of the distinctness of the persons within the Godhead, and yet there is elevation/exaltation of each into a Oneness, a Unity of true deity.

This is seen even as Jesus keeps explaining, that He (the Spirit) will glorify me, which would seem misplaced if it were not right to glorify the Son in unison with glorifying the Father. In John 17:1 when Jesus prays to the Father, he will even say “glorify the Son that the Son may glorify you.”

Just so the Spirit’s work glorifies the Son by taking what is Christ’s and declaring it to these Apostles (which is again specifically the Spirit teaching to their full understanding the fullness of truth concerning Christ). And what the Spirit declares is a part of all that the Son has from the Father, which is a totality of their unity, their oneness: “all that the Father has is mine.”

So when we revisit the end of v. 13, which is the Spirit declaring to you “the things that are to come,” it seems best to comprehend this as a full understanding of the things that were soon to come (his death and resurrection), and not presume this to be a reference to “things to come” in an ‘end of days’ sense. Yes, John was inspired in the Spirit to write the Apocalypse (Revelation), but this promise is directed at the group. And more importantly, the context gives every indication that this declaration is the gospel of God’s self-revelation and salvation in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.

So although this promise was given to these Apostles (now minus Judas who had defected fully to complete his betrayal), those who receive greatest advantage (v. 7) of the fulfillment of said promise is us. The great benefit is to us because the Spirit guided these Apostles in declaring all truth concerning Christ, and we therefore have access to their teaching through the completed New Testament writings. God himself ensured by the Spirit that we would receive the completed revelation concerning Christ. How richly blessed we are indeed!

In closing, I would like us to note the vital centrality of Jesus which is further confirmed in the Holy Spirit’s previous and ongoing work.

Conclusion: The Spirit’s Work Confirms the  Vital  Centrality of Jesus

The gospel of Jesus is essential, vital, crucial, indispensible. We cannot whitewash the gospel or dispose of the hard bits, because it is in fact the offensive, hard bits that are most fundamental to the gospel of God’s gracious self-revelation and his gracious saving work in Christ.

Is the gospel of Jesus Christ the central, defining reality of your life? - Your most fundamental need can only be met through saving faith in Christ. And Jesus remains the central figure of our lives for how we are sustained and strengthened to become like him and to be used by him. That’s why Jesus gives images like that of the vine and the branches, and why he gave us the Lord’s Table as an ordinance, to continually bring us back to our need for him.

How are you doing in trusting the help of the Spirit of God to change you and use you for the kingdom?

PRAY

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