John 16:8-18
Notes
Transcript
vv 8-11) The Holy Spirit’s work in the world
vv 8-11) The Holy Spirit’s work in the world
[8] The Holy Spirit would convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement.
This is generally taken to mean that He creates an inward awareness of these things in the life of the individual sinner. While this is true, it is not exactly the teaching in this portion.
The Holy Spirit condemns the world by the very fact that He is here. He should not be here, because the Lord Jesus should be here, because Jesus should be here, reigning over the world. But the world rejected Him and He went back to heaven.
The Holy Spirit is here in place of a rejected Christ, and this demonstrates the world’s guilt.
[9] The Spirit convicts the world of the sin of failing to believe on Christ. He was worthy of belief. There was nothing about Him that made it impossible for men to believe on Him. But they refused. And the Holy Spirit’s presence in the world is witness to their crime.
In the great awakening of 1860-61 in Great Britain, a high-ranking army officer described the conviction of sin in his Scottish town:
“Those of you who are ease heave little conception of how terrifying a sight it is when the Holy Spirit is pleased to open a man’s eyes to see the real state of heart. Men who were thought to be, and who thought themselves to be good, religious people… have been led to search into the foundation upon which they were resting, and have found all rotten, that they were self-satisfied, resting on their own goodness, and not upon Christ. Many turned from open sin to lives of holiness, some weeping for joy for sins forgiven.” - J. Edwin Orr
[10] the Savior claimed to be righteous, but men said He had a demon. God spoke the final word. he said, in effect, “My Son is righteous, and I will prove it by raising Him from the dead and taking Him back to heaven.”
The Holy Spirit witnesses to the fact that Christ was right and the world was wrong.
[11] The presence of the Holy Spirit also convicts the world of coming judgement. The fact that He is here means that the devil has already been condemned at the cross and that all who refuse the Savior will share in his awful judgement in a day yet future.
The world, the prince of it, is “judged.” To adhere to it rather than Christ is to cling to a doomed cause, a sinking ship.
vv 12-15) The Holy Spirit’s work in the disciples
vv 12-15) The Holy Spirit’s work in the disciples
[12] There were still many other things the Lord had to tell the disciples, but they could not take them in. This is an important principle of teaching.
There must be a certain progress in learning before advanced truths can be recieved. The Lord never overwhelmed His disciples with Teaching.
He gave it to them “line upon line, precept upon precept.”
[13] The work which the Lord began was to be continued by the Spirit of truth. He would guide them into all truth. There is a sense in which all truth was committed to the apostles in their lifetime.
They, in turn, committed it to writing, and we have it today in our NT. This added to the OT, completed God’s written revelation to man. But it is, of course true in all ages that the Spirit guides God’s people into all the truth.
He does it through the Scriptures. He will only speak the things that are given to Him to say by the Father and the Son.
“He will tell you things to come.” This, of course, is done in the NT, and particularly in the book of Revelation where the future is unveiled.
[14] His principal work will be to glorify Christ. By this we can test all teaching and preaching.If it has the effect of magnifying the Savior, then it is of the Holy Spirit.
vv 16-18) Jesus’s brief departure
vv 16-18) Jesus’s brief departure
[16] The precise time-frame of verse 16 is uncertain. It may mean the Lord would be away from them for three days, and then He would reappear to them after His resurrection. Or it may mean that He would go back to His Father in heaven, then after a little while (this present Age), He would come back to them (His second Coming). Or it may mean that for a little while they would not see Him with their physical eyes, but after the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, they would perceive Him by faith in a way they had never seen Him before.
Despite Jesus telling them that they would see Him again, the disciples lost their faith and spiritual vision. This can be true of us too. When things get brutally tough, we start to doubt God.
There is always that promise of, “you will see Me.” The greek gives us a little insight to what that might entail. You will understand through perceiving, through experience, or through learning about.
[17] The disciples were confused. The reason for the confusion was that in:
10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;
And now in:
17 So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?”
They couldn’t reconcile these statements. They were likely thinking that Jesus spoke with unnecessary mystery about where He was going and what He would do. They didn’t realize what He meant about not seeing Him and then see Him.
Where for us, all is clear, for them all was mysterious. If Jesus wished to found the Messianic kingdom, why go away? If He doesn’t wish it, why return?
[18] They asked each other the meaning of the words, “A little while.” Strangely enough we have the same problem today don’t we?
We do not know whether it refers to the three days before His resurrection, the forty days before Pentecost, or the more than 1,900 years prior to His Coming again.
24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.