Lesson 44

The Comforter Is Coming!

John 16:4-15

The Comforter is coming! The Comforter is coming! The Comforter is coming! That's what Jesus told His disciples in the upper room on the night before His crucifixion. "I am leaving, going away," He said. "You cannot follow me. But I am sending someone in my place. A Comforter. The Comforter is coming." The truth about Jesus' departure was sure to make the disciples sad, 16:6. But even though the truth would hurt, Jesus told them the truth. He wanted them to understand that it was expedient, it was necessary, that He depart, in order for the Comforter to come, 16:7. Jesus is going away but the Comforter is coming!

Who is this Comforter? In John 14:26, Jesus said that "the Comforter is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in Jesus name." The departure of Jesus would mean the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

And that is exactly what happened. Jesus Christ went to cross. He died, was buried and on the third day, He rose from the grave. The redemptive work of Jesus Christ was accomplished on the death. burial and resurrection of Christ. I Corinthians 15 says that this is the gospel. The gospel is defined as the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, for our sins and according to the scriptures. Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus went away. He ascended back to heaven. And ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit arrived. On that day, the church was baptized in and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

One of the most unique aspects of this age in which we live - the church age- as some call it, has to do with our possession of and our empowerment by the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful blessing the Holy Spirit is to us.

In some ways, I think that we Baptists in particular have been reluctant to speak about the Holy Spirit. The Charismatic Movement and Pentecostalism has caused us to de-emphasize the work of the Spirit. Often, when people speak of the Holy Spirit, their language sounds mystical and makes us a little uncomfortable. When someone says to me, "God told me to do whatever", I get a little uncomfortable. That is a very mystical kind of explanation. It is impossible to question that kind of response. I have heard people use that as an explanation for every possible kind of behavior. A Christian woman told me that God told them to marry an unbeliever. God later told her to divorce him.

This guy I knew in college, told me that he never set an alarm, that the Holy Spirit woke him up at exactly the right time every morning. I asked him if he was ever late for class or for work. Never, he told me. He and I both worked at the college library. We had the terrible job of opening the library on Saturday mornings at 8:00. Nobody every came to the library at 8:00 on Saturday morning. No one on a college campus is awake at 8:00 on Saturday mornings. They are people who are awake at 3:00 a.m. but no one is awake on Saturday morning at 8:00 on a college campus. And if someone happened to be awake, he or she would not be at the Library studying at such an hour. One Saturday, Matthew didn't arrive until after 10:00, with sleep still in his eyes. I couldn't resist. I said, "The Lord forgot to wake you up this morning." Totally undaunted, he shrugged and said with total sincerity, "I guess the Lord wanted me to sleep in today." How do you argue with that kind of logic?

The whole matter of making the Spirit's ministry to us a mystical thing is something which we Baptists resist. We cringe when we hear an abortion clinic bomber claim that God told him to blow the place up. We reject the explanation that God told a Christian to marry an unbeliever and then to divorce him. We know that this things are contrary to the revealed word of God. This mystical method gives more authority to some subjective inner voice than to the objective, inspired scripture. At times, it is our commitment to the word of God that causes us to downplay the working of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures work together, in complete harmony, never in opposition to each other. The Spirit will never "tell" you to do something which the Bible forbids.

Throughout the discourse of Jesus to His disciples in the upper room, Jesus interjected truths about the Holy Spirit's ministry. They are not all grouped together in one section, one passage. There are several places in John 14-16 where Jesus refers to the Spirit's ministry. Nor is this comprehensive about all the Spirit does. The epistles tell us more about the work of the Spirit in producing unity in the church and empowering us with strength and with spiritual gifts for service. But I want you to notice six things that the Holy Spirit does during this age. I want you to understand and appreciate the wonderful blessing and powerful resource that the Holy Spirit is to us. We need not fear or shrink back from the speaking of the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

I have arranged these six things that Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would do, not in the order in which they come in the text, but in the order in which they happen in the course of life. Let's read for a text John 16:4-15.

The Spirit Convicts The World, 16:8-11.

What does "reprove" mean? In a Sunday School class, the teacher asked that question and one little fellow said, "Well. God proved it in the Old Testament and then He reproved it in the New Testament." The word "reprove" means to convict, to convince, to rebuke.

Jesus says that this conviction happens to the world - that is, to the unbelieving world, those who do not know the Father, nor Christ the Son, see 15:18; 16:3.

He brings conviction regarding the nature of sin. Please notice, that Jesus does not refer here to "sins" plural but to "sin" singular, and the sin that He has in mind is unbelief, v. 9. They refuse to believe in Christ and it this sin that the Holy Spirit convicts unbelievers about. He brings conviction regarding the need for righteousness, v. 10. The Spirit shows us how bad we are and how good Christ is. He is good enough to be able to "go to the Father." He also brings conviction regarding the nearness of judgment, v. 11. The word "judgment" is a judicial word having to do with a guilty verdict being rendered and a condemnation of the guilty one. Satan, the prince of this world, was judged at the cross of Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts the unbeliever.

The Spirit Witnesses About Christ, 15:26-27.

The word testifies in verse 26 is the exact same Greek word that is translated "bears witness" in verse 27. While we give a audible witness about Christ to the unbelieving, the Holy Spirit gives an inaudible inner witness to the unbeliever about who Christ is and what He has done. Men are convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit and men are drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit Indwells The Believer Forever, 14:16-17.

In the Old Testament the Spirit was with the people of God. But in the New Testament in Holy Spirit resides within the people of God. And according to verse 16, His residence within us is forever.

The indwelling of the Spirit is a classic dispensational statement which marks out a change in the Holy Spirit's mode of operation from the Old Testament dispensation. So the disciples, who were living at the end of the Old Testament age and the beginning of the New Testament age, were to see the difference between the Spirit's presence and the Spirit's indwelling. It was a marvelous thing to see the one working in Christ now dwelling in them. The Old Testament predicted this would happen. Ezekiel 36:27 - "I will put my Spirit within you ". The New Testament makes it clear that it has happened. I Corinthians 6:19 - "Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you..." I John 3:24 - "And by this we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit whom He hath given us."

The Holy Spirit lives within us! Oh how marvelous - that God would plant His very essence in us. We have a supernatural helper, someone always to comfort us, to help us, not just nearby, but in us. Every moment of our lives as believers, the presence of the Holy Spirit is within us. What a tremendous resource of resident power.

Let's put the next two together ...

The Spirit Teaches And Guides The Believer Into Truth.

Three times in scripture the Holy Spirit is referred to as the "Spirit of truth", 14:17; 15:26; 16:13.

In 14:26, Jesus says that the Spirit will teach us all things. He is our resident teacher. And in 16:12-13, Jesus says that the Spirit will guide is into all truth. He is our resident guide. In fact, Jesus tells His disciples in verse 12 that they have more to learn from Christ. His teaching ministry was not comprehensive. It is the Spirit who will finish their education even after Christ has gone.

Sometimes I think that we try to be the Holy Spirit in other people's lives. For example, there may be something that I observe that you need to do in order to be obedient to Christ. You may need to publicly confess Christ as your Savior and Lord, or you may need to submit yourself to scriptural baptism. You may need to unite with the church in membership. And if I see that these are things that you need to do, it is easy for me to try to convict you or to convince you to do it. But what is better is for me to simply teach the Bible to you and then to trust the Holy Spirit to teach and to guide you into all truth. If I try to do the work of the Spirit, I may just mess up the work of the Spirit in your heart.

Or here is another example. There may be some personal conviction that I have about my Christian life. It is not a clear commandment in the scripture but it is based on something that the Bible does command or on some Biblical principle. From this command or principle, I have a particular conviction that I believe has come from the Holy Spirit. It is easy for me to want you to also have the same conviction. Maybe it's on how I educate my children. I have a conviction. I get to thinking that you should also have that conviction. If I'm not careful, I can usurp the place of the Holy Spirit and start making my convictions something that I expect from you. But if it is the Holy Spirit who convicted me about some certain aspect of the Christian life, I must trust that the Holy Spirit will also work in your heart as you yield to Him to bring you to place of convictions.

Sometimes I have a hard time waiting on the Holy Spirit. I want you to change now. But I am learning that if I will be faithful to do my job, to simply teach the scriptures, the Spirit also does His work. He teaches and guides us into all truth. We must not try to force our convictions on someone else. We should not, cannot, and must not usurp the place of the Holy Spirit in teaching and guiding someone into all truth.

The Spirit Glorifies Jesus Christ, 16:13b-14.

The Holy Spirit is more of the "behind the scenes" member of the trinity. Jesus said that "he does not speak of himself." That is one reason why I am alarmed by the modern-day emphasis that puts the Spirit on display. The Spirit wants our attention not on Himself but on Christ. The Holy Spirit always glorifies Christ.

An so there you have six ministries of the Holy Spirit - Convicting the unbelieving world of sin, Witnessing to the human heart about Christ, Indwelling those who believe, Teaching and Guiding believers and Glorifying Christ.

Are you cooperating with the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The scriptures tells us not to grieve nor quench the Spirit but to walk in the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to live in obedience to the Spirit.