Salvation Provides the Holy Spirit Who Helps Us Fulfill Our Mission

Salvation Provides the Holy Spirit Who Helps Us Fulfill Our Mission

John 15:26-16:11

 The last several weeks we have been looking at the results of God’s work of salvation. The last few weeks have developed into a mini-series within a larger series. The overall theme we have been studying since the first of the year is the gospel and the work of salvation. In the last several months of this larger series we have been looking at what the work of salvation produces in those who are truly saved. In the last few weeks, we have been learning of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit who has been given to every true believer.

We have been looking at the words of promise from Jesus to His disciples in John’s gospel. I have been cherry picking verses from chapters 14-16. We have been here because this is the record of the words of Jesus given to His disciples on the night of His arrest. He has told them He is going away. Their world is being turned upside-down. He has been sharing truth that is designed to comfort and encourage them because this is what they need to know. Jesus is sharing the truth about the promise of the Holy Spirit because in their time of greatest distress, they need the greatest encouragement.

This is the third message of this mini-series about the provision of the Holy Spirit. In the first message we saw in John 14:16-18 that Jesus was leaving, but that He would ask the Father and He will give another Helper. This Helper is another of the same kind as Jesus. He is the Spirit of truth. They know Him because He abides with them. In other words, they had seen Him at work in the life of Jesus because Jesus was with them. When He would be sent from the Father He would be in them. Jesus would not leave them as orphans. In verse 23 Jesus said that He and the Father would come to the believer and make their abode with him. From that passage we learned that the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer is none other than the presence of God Himself living in us.

Last week we started learning what the Holy Spirit does. We learned from verses 24-26 that He is our Teacher. The Holy Spirit teaches us all things. The greatest gift God has given other than our salvation is the treasure of His truth. The Bible is God’s truth and the Holy Spirit is our resident Teacher of this truth. Nothing is more important than knowing God’s truth and abiding in God’s truth. We cannot do this without the presence of God dwelling in us teaching us His truth.

This morning we need to see the next thing the Holy Spirit does for us. We will see this from John 15:26-16:11. As we read this text we will be reading about the work of the Holy Spirit as He helps us carry out our mission to the world. Stand with me as we read these verses.

Several weeks ago we saw that the work of salvation makes us witnesses. Those who are born again and transformed by the miraculous work of salvation become those who are commissioned with the task of going and making disciples of the nations, baptizing and teaching others to observe the things taught by our Lord. When Jesus gave the Great Commission He also gave the promise that He would be with us even to the end of the age. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of Christ, came on Pentecost and He is the presence of Christ with His church today as we carry out the Great Commission.

This passage we are looking at today gives insight into what the Holy Spirit does to help us carry out our mission. The first thing the Holy Spirit does to help us carry out our mission in the world is to testify about Christ as we testify about Christ. Look at verses 26-27 of chapter 15. Everything in verse 26, up to the last phrase, we have already understood from previous studies. The Holy Spirit is our Helper. He will be sent from the Father. He is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. Then we have the statement of what the Holy Spirit is going to do. “He will testify about Me…” 

Understand that the verse designation was not in the original text so we can keep reading. We find the word “and” connecting the activity of the Holy Spirit with the activity of these to whom Jesus speaks. The Holy Spirit will testify about Jesus “and you will testify also…” These are together because Jesus wanted us to know that we are not going about this mission of testifying about Christ alone. The Holy Spirit will testify and we will testify also.

Look at the context of these words. Look back at verses 18-25. These verses make one thing clear. The world will hate those who belong to Christ. We are His slaves and the world hated Him so it will hate us also. The world will love it’s own but we are not of this world. We belong to Christ. We have been bought with the precious blood of our Lord. As evidence that we belong to Him, His Spirit abides in us and we abide in Christ. Therefore, the world will hate us.

How can our testimony have any impact on those who hate us? Well, we can’t make our testimony about Christ have any impact on those who hate us. But God can, and God does. As we testify about Jesus Christ, and the impact He has had on us by saving us from our sin, the Holy Spirit also testifies about Christ. The Holy Spirit isn’t speaking His testimony audibly. That is our job. We speak to the ears of those who are lost in sin and the Holy Spirit speaks to the heart. We speak of our conversion and the Holy Spirit does the work of conviction.

Those disciples, verse 27 says, would testify about Christ because they had been with Him from the beginning. They had much to share about Christ. They had seen so many remarkable miracles and heard so much life-transforming truth from His lips. These would be the things the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance, as we saw in the last message.

The greatest testimony was regarding the death of the sinless Christ and His burial and resurrection. All these things the disciples would testify about Christ because they had been with Him from the beginning. They would continue to be with Him until the day of His ascension. They would have much to say by way of testimony regarding Christ.

But it would be the Holy Spirit who would also testify about Jesus. The Holy Spirit came with power on the Day of Pentecost. Peter stood before the city of Jerusalem and gave His testimony about Jesus. He preached Christ crucified and resurrected from the dead and pointed his finger at those who had killed God’s Son.

Then the Holy Spirit took over. These men were pierced to the heart. Peter had spoken his testimony into their ears. The Holy Spirit spoke His testimony to their heart and they were convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and they cried out, “What must we do to be saved?” The Holy Spirit testifies with us as we testify about Christ.

We too are called to continue the mission. We are ambassadors of Christ. If you have been saved you too have a testimony about Christ. If we open our mouths and give our testimony, the Holy Spirit will also testify. We speak to the ears, and the Holy Spirit speaks to the heart. The response will be varied, but the response and the results are not up to us. A few will hear and believe and the Holy Spirit will do His work and testify to their hearts and they will believe and be saved. Others will respond with hatred. They too will hear the testimony of the Holy Spirit in their hearts but they will reject the truth because they love their sin. They will respond with anger and hatred because their sin will be exposed.

This brings us to the second thing the Holy Spirit will do to help us carry out our mission as ambassadors of Christ. The Holy Spirit will help us endure the opposition that will come because of our testimony. Look at 16:1-4. 

The chapter designation was not in the original text. This is a continuing record of the account of this conversation between Jesus and His disciples. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.” “These things” include all the promises that Jesus began to share back in the beginning of chapter 14. “If I go I will come again…you will do greater works…you will have prayer answered…you will have another Helper…My Father and I will abide with you…the Holy Spirit will be your Teacher and bring to your remembrance all I have said…you will abide in Me and bear much fruit…and the Holy Spirit will testify of Me as you testify.

These are the kinds of encouragements the disciples would need in light of the warnings that the world would hate them. But this is the world in which faithful followers of Christ have always lived. The most common response to the testimony about Christ is rejection. Sometimes that rejection involves violent hatred. Because Satan is the god of this world he hates God, and Christ, and the truth of Scripture, and the gospel, and those who share the gospel. Because those who are in darkness dwell under the domain of the evil one, they will reject the truth and they will respond with anger, animosity, hatred, and violence.

Peter, James, Andrew, and Bartholomew were all crucified. James the son of Zebedee and the Apostle Paul were beheaded. Mark, the author of the gospel bearing his name, was dragged through the streets of Alexandria until he was dead. James, the half brother of Jesus, was stoned, as were Stephen and Philip. This is not surprising. Jesus forewarned of this response so they would be ready for it.

It was important to forewarn them so they would not stumble. The word “stumble” is “skandalizo” in the Greek. It means to cause to stumble, or to become a stumbling block for someone else. Jesus didn’t want the persecution they would face because of Him to be the reason they stumbled.

Jesus goes on in verses 2-4 to tell them some of what they would face. “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue…” The synagogue was the “local assembly” for the Jews. To be cast out of the synagogue was to be completely ostracized from the community. Your family rejected you. Your employer would fire you. If you had a business your customers would stop doing business with you. Your friends would walk away from you. The economic system and the religious system had no distinctions between them. This would be devastating.

Jesus also warned that “an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” You will be killed and those who kill you will believe they are doing service to God. One of the best examples of this is the Apostle Paul before his conversion. Saul of Tarsus was seeking to wipe out the entire sect of Christianity until he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. The Jewish leaders who had Jesus killed believed they were putting to death a blasphemer.

This was not only true for the disciples but it has also been true throughout the history of the church. Christians have died at the hands of those who believed they were offering service to God. The Jews who sought to kill Christians believed they were offering service to God. Following them the Romans took up the task of killing Christians. They were offering service to their god who was Caesar. Next came the Roman Catholics. During the Middle Ages they ruthlessly slaughtered anyone who did not follow their unbiblical religious system.

Is anyone still killing Christians today, and still doing so believing they are offering service to God? Radical Islamists kill Christians and all infidels and they do so believing they are doing so in service to Allah. Satan uses false religions to accomplish his objectives.

This is the world in which we are to carry out our mission. We testify of Jesus Christ to a world ruled by the prince of darkness. His people include all who are not followers of Christ. This world will hate us, oppose us, oppress us, reject us, and even kill us. Verse 3 tells us why. “These things they will do because thy have not known the Father or Me.”

What hope do we have of ever accomplishing our mission? The Holy Spirit is our hope. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus Christ. Some will hear and repent and believe. There is another reason for hope found in verse 4. Jesus says, “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you remember that I told you of them.” There is a ray of hope in that statement.

“When their hour comes…” What does this tell us? “Hour” does not mean a 60 minute period of time. The Greek word “hora” means “a season, or a defined span of time.” Those who persecute have a defined span of time. They will have their season. This tells us a couple of things. One, God grants them this season. God is sovereign in everything. If these things come it is because He has granted them the season. Two, God sets the limit. It is God, not the persecuting enemy who decides what will happen or how long it will be allowed.

Why would God allow the enemy to have this hour? We tend to think of persecution as a bad thing. But from God’s perspective it always serves His purpose. Persecution protects and preserves the purity of the church. No half-hearted “believers” will stick around when things get dangerous. Something else happens. When persecution increases, so does the church. There is something profoundly powerful about the testimony of Christians who are willing to die for their faith. This is something the Holy Spirit uses, testifying to the testimony of the believer.

This is why Jesus said that we are blessed when we are persecuted for His name. He stated this several times. The nature of this blessing is the supernatural presence of the Holy Spirit of God who abides with us and is working during those times. This is one of the reasons that it is to our advantage to have the Holy Spirit with us and in us rather than having Christ personally in our presence. When Jesus was arrested, those disciples who were with Him scattered in fear. After the Holy Spirit came to dwell in them, they had the courage necessary to face the threat boldly. In Acts 5 we read of the arrest of Peter and John. They were beaten and ordered to stop preaching the name of Jesus. What did they do the next day after this happened? They went right back into the Temple teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. They were sharing the testimony about Christ. The Holy Spirit was testifying also. We know this because the church was growing like crazy in the midst of persecution. The Holy Spirit helps us to be courageous in the face of the opposition we will face as we carry out our mission as a church.

There is one more quick insight offered in this text. Not only does the Holy Spirit help us be courageous in the face of persecution, He also helps us overcome a crippling self-focus. It makes sense that if we were to try to deal with persecution in our own strength, we would tend to focus on what was happening to us, and how the difficulties were affecting us. Look at verses 5-6.

Because Jesus had told His disciples of His departure, sorrow had filled their heart. Jesus said, “None of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’” In other words, the disciples were not focused on the blessing Jesus would experience when He was restored to the presence of His Father. They were focused on themselves and how His leaving was going to impact them. Without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in us, we all would fall into the trap of a crippling self-focus. We focus on self because we are naturally inclined to interpret things that happen to us in light of how we are affected. Rather, we should be interpreting things in light of whether or not God is being glorified. A self-focus will always put us at odds with a God focus.

The advantage Jesus speaks of in verse 7 when He says, “But 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.” The coming of the Holy Spirit was to their advantage because He helped them understand what God was doing. His coming turned their sorrow into joy, their fear into courage, their doubts into faith, and their focus off of themselves and on what God was doing to build the kingdom of Christ.

The Holy Spirit testifies about Christ as we testify about Christ. He does the work in the heart as we speak in the hearing of those who need to hear the gospel. The Holy Spirit helps us to face the opposition that will inevitably come from those who oppose the gospel and resist our mission. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit does the work necessary for our mission to succeed. We find this in verses 8-11. Read these verses.

The Holy Spirit does the actual work in the lives of the lost that ultimately makes our mission successful. Listen, we cannot accomplish the work of salvation. Redemption is the supernatural work of God in the heart of the sinner. The sinner is awakened to their desperate need. The sinner is graciously granted faith and believes. The sinner is granted repentance to turn from sin and to trust in Christ. God makes the spiritually dead sinner to be born again. The work of salvation is God’s work. We are the messengers who share the truth of the gospel. God does the work of saving.

In verses 8 and beyond Jesus describes the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing the sinner face to face with his or her need. Because the Holy Spirit must do these things, it is to our advantage that Jesus went away and sent the Helper to do His work. These things the Holy Spirit does.

The Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. Let’s begin with what it means to “convict.” The word means “to expose or convince, to prove wrong and thus to shame. The word is sometimes translated in other ways. In Titus 1:9 Paul told Titus to “hold fast to the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that you will be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to “refute” those who contradict.” The idea of refuting is to prove someone wrong who contradicts that which is sound doctrine. It carries the idea of proving them to be wrong.

The objective of the Holy Spirit’s conviction regarding sin is to prove the guilt of the sinner. The word is a legal term. The Holy Spirit indicts the sinner with the evidence. When a criminal is “convicted” this means that the criminal is proven to be guilty. This is because the evidence has been presented and it has proven the indictment as true. It is case closed. This is what the Holy Spirit does as He convicts of sin.

Sometimes when we say we are “convicted” of something we mean that we feel bad about what we have said or done. The saving work of the Holy Spirit goes beyond simply making the sinner feel bad, or feel sorry because they have sinned. The conviction of the Holy Spirit brings the sinner to the point of understanding his/her guilt before God.

Salvation will not occur unless the sinner is convicted of his or her guilt before the Righteous Judge of the universe. This is why I love to use the Ten Commandments in a gospel presentation. These commandments, when properly understood, show us just how far we fall short of keeping God’s righteous requirements. Look intently into those commandments and we are all convicted as guilty of idolatry, blasphemy, adultery, lying, murder, theft, and covetousness. I left a few out.

The Holy Spirit convicts of sin because the sinner will not understand the need for a Savior until they are convicted of their crimes before holy God. Unless the sinner is convicted as a sinner, convinced of guilt, proven guilty, he lacks the proper motivation to turn to Christ and cry out to God for mercy.

Verse 9 says, “concerning sin because they do not believe in Me.” Look at John 3:16-18. What does it mean to believe in Jesus? It doesn’t mean that we simply acknowledge intellectually the historical facts of His life. To believe in Jesus is to embrace Him as the only solution to our sin problem. It is to trust in His finished work at the Cross to pay the penalty for our sins. It is to trust Him and commit to Him as Savior and Lord of our life. This happens by the power of the Holy Spirit who opens blind eyes and leads us to faith. The Holy Spirit is the Agent of the new birth. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ.

Next, the Holy Spirit convicts of righteousness. We will not stand before God based on our goodness. We must be righteous. Because we are sinners we cannot achieve that righteousness on our own. We must stand before God perfectly righteous, or we won’t stand there at all. The sinner, when convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, is then convicted of the lack of righteousness necessary to avoid God’s judgment. The Holy Spirit creates a hunger and thirst for righteousness. God provides that righteousness graciously. God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21)

The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, proving the sinner guilty. He convicts of righteousness and the need for a righteousness that will be required to stand before Holy God. Finally, the Holy Spirit convicts of judgment. The certainty of this judgment is that the ruler of this world has been judged. Satan’s doom has been pronounced. It is a done deal. His time is limited and he knows it.

The sinner must be brought to the place where he or she knows that as a sinner, who lacks the righteousness necessary to stand before a holy God, he or she will be condemned under the judgment of God. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. His judgment is eternal. It results in an eternity in hell.

The only way to avoid this is to be born again. Jesus Christ rescues us from the wrath of God. God rescues sinners from God’s own wrath. This is the good news of the gospel. Our mission is to take that good news to a lost and dying world and the Holy Spirit does God’s work to make that message produce the results.

We have an important mission. We are to carry out our Lord’s Great Commission.  To accomplish this we testify of Jesus and the Holy Spirit testifies. We speak to the hearing, He speaks to the heart. The Holy Spirit empowers and enables us to endure the persecution that will come from those who reject the truth. The Holy Spirit does the work to make the gospel effective.

Let’s pray.