John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 The Holy Spirit
In our calendar, today is the time to celebrate the Pentecost, the historic moment when the Holy Spirit descended onto the believing congregation. At this moment of celebration, perhaps it is also the right moment to think about what exactly is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which He conducts in this world. By all means, there is nothing wrong seeing the Pentecostal event as a time of jubilation, a time of gaining special power and experiencing aspiration. However, we can’t celebrate just for our own enjoyment, and then forget that there is something important for the Holy Spirit to do. Indeed there are some very important tasks in the world awaiting for Him, and not just that, His ministry is very focused. Without the understanding of his ministry, our celebration may be too self-centred, if not ungodly. And to understand His ministry, I think there is no better place than today’s passage, where our Lord Jesus Christ introduced the Holy Spirit to us. It will not be comprehensive, but good enough to let us see the sketch of His ministry. So let’s begin.
V.26: The first point in this verse is that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and He comes down to this world. In a modern mind which is flooded with material things, perhaps we may not be able to perceive the power of this verse. Here saying: like the Son of God, the Holy Spirit also comes from the Father, the almighty and holy Father, He is in the spiritual realm which is totally different with our mortal world. The Holy Spirit is divine; yet in His humility, He comes down to this world to work out His ministry. Then perhaps in this way we can see more about the love of God, because the Holy Spirit also loves us by humbly indwelling in us and helping us to understand and to change. The divine Spirit humbly serves, and this is love.
The second point is that this verse has told us the focus point of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Here Jesus has said very concisely, that the Spirit is to testify Him, i.e., to witness Jesus, to let people draw near to Jesus. While some people in the world may be jubilant about the power from the Holy Spirit, how healing, miracle and transformation are done by Him, those people have to be reminded that there is a focal point in the works of the Holy Spirit, that His ministry is centred at testifying Jesus Christ. He does all the works in order that people may draw near to Christ, not to the Spirit Himself. Jesus Christ is the centre of our faith, not the Holy Spirit. If people forget that Jesus is the focal point of healing, miracle, and other things, then there is a distortion in the understanding of our faith, if not corruption. And on top of that, we can see once again how humble the Holy Spirit is, that He is doing the ministry for the glory of Christ, as said in 16: 14, And again, this is love, love between the Trinity.
In today’s passage, there are some more details about His ministry. In the first part, Jesus gives us a sketch about the Spirit’s ministry in the world. Jesus divided the ministry into three categories: to them, to us and to him. 16:8-11, <8when> The first category is for those who do not or have not yet believe in Jesus Christ. In V.9 Jesus says that when nonbelievers reject Jesus, they will be convicted of their sin as the Holy Spirit works in their hearts. They know the rejection is wrong. Probably this is what I have met in last month when I was with an evangelistic Bible study group. When some of the members converted and wanted to be baptized, one member formally refused to believe. And all in a sudden he ran a bit wild verbally, losing his temper. According to our understanding to his character, his emotion is about a cover up of his misdoing, and this misdoing, a decision to reject Jesus, he was likely informed by the Holy Spirit. The sinful feeling hurt him. However, this painful feeling is a grace rather than a punishment, because he would know what he has done wrong, then there might be a chance of repentance later on.
The second category is to us the believers in V.10. Jesus is our righteousness, only through his death and resurrection can we be righteous. And only in his righteousness can we avoid the wrath of God in the judgment day. But now we can see him no longer, he has ascended to heaven. Then in His absence, the Holy Spirit plays the role as an agent between Christ and us: the Spirit dwells in our hearts that we can still have fellowship with Christ. However, the Spirit enlightens us, gives us a heart longing for the righteousness from Christ. The Spirit enlightens us to look into ourselves, know our own sinful state, and also enlightens us to look upon to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness. This anticipation will surely help us to know more about our own weakness, and also the necessity of trusting and hoping in Christ.
The third category is to him, the prince of this world, or the devil. Recently in other places there are teachings about the spiritual battle between the Holy Spirit and the devil, and V.11 might be used to support those teachings. In fact, the emphasis in this verse is on the effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit. His presence in the world is a demonstration that the devil is condemned. I must talk a little bit more technically about grammar: the verb condemn in Greek is in present perfect tense. The grammatical nuance with the tense is not that the condemnation has been done, nor going to be done, but rather, the condemnation now is effective, and the effect of condemnation is in front of your eyes. Therefore the NIV English version renders the verse correctly by putting it as: “the prince of this world now stands condemned.” Yes, the prince of the world is condemned because of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sin and death has been overcome by our Lord; the cross and the empty tomb are the places where the devil has been condemned. And now the Holy Spirit presents in the world, it is the demonstration of the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has already won the battle.
The last part about the Spirit’s ministry is about the Word of God, which begins from verse 12 to verse 14. And I’ll read only V. 13, <> Clearly, the ministry of the Spirit is about truth, about word (speaking). As what Jesus told us beforehand that the Holy Spirit would inspired the New Testament writers to write down the Word of God, just as what He had done for the Old Testament. And what I have said before, the central message in the whole Bible, the whole Word of God is about Jesus Christ. Once again, we can see how the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to testify Jesus Christ. And I would like to say more: in 2 Tim 3:16 there saying: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The Bible is the product of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And He does not just inspire the writings, but also enlighten us to understand the writings. How many of us have kept the good practice of reading the Bible regularly? How many are constantly benefited by the Word of God? Why not join our Bible study group as a good start?
So far we have gone through the sketch of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now we know that His ministry is focused on testifying Jesus Christ. His ministry is Christ-centred. Even when He tries to renew our lives He renews them to be more like Christ. Our hearts should not be running away with the fascination of the Spirit’s power and forget the centre of our faith, else we are to distort the truth. At last, we are urged to learn from the Holy Spirit, learn from His humility, and His readiness to serve in love.
V.26:
The second point is that this verse has told us the focus point of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Here Jesus has said very concisely, that the Spirit is to testify Him, i.e., to witness Jesus, to let people draw near to Jesus. While some people in the world may be jubilant about the power from the Holy Spirit, how healing, miracle and transformation are done by Him, those people have to be reminded that there is a focal point in the works of the Holy Spirit, that His ministry is centred at testifying Jesus Christ. He does all the works in order that people may draw near to Christ, not to the Spirit Himself. Jesus Christ is the centre of our faith, not the Holy Spirit. If people forget that Jesus is the focal point of healing, miracle, and other things, then there is a distortion in the understanding of our faith, if not corruption. And on top of that, we can see once again how humble the Holy Spirit is, that He is doing the ministry for the glory of Christ, as said in 16: 14,
In today’s passage, there are some more details about His ministry. In the first part, Jesus gives us a sketch about the Spirit’s ministry in the world. Jesus divided the ministry into three categories: to them, to us and to him. 16:8-11, <8when> The first category is for those who do not or have not yet believe in Jesus Christ. In V.9 Jesus says that when nonbelievers reject Jesus, they will be convicted of their sin as the Holy Spirit works in their hearts. They know the rejection is wrong. Probably this is what I have met in last month when I was with an evangelistic Bible study group. When some of the members converted and wanted to be baptized, one member formally refused to believe. And all in a sudden he ran a bit wild verbally, losing his temper. According to our understanding to his character, his emotion is about a cover up of his misdoing, and this misdoing, a decision to reject Jesus, he was likely informed by the Holy Spirit. The sinful feeling hurt him. However, this painful feeling is a grace rather than a punishment, because he would know what he has done wrong, then there might be a chance of repentance later on.
The second category is to us the believers in V.10. Jesus is our righteousness, only through his death and resurrection can we be righteous. And only in his righteousness can we avoid the wrath of God in the judgment day. But now we can see him no longer, he has ascended to heaven. Then in His absence, the Holy Spirit plays the role as an agent between Christ and us: the Spirit dwells in our hearts that we can still have fellowship with Christ. However, the Spirit enlightens us, gives us a heart longing for the righteousness from Christ. The Spirit enlightens us to look into ourselves, know our own sinful state, and also enlightens us to look upon to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness. This anticipation will surely help us to know more about our own weakness, and also the necessity of trusting and hoping in Christ.
The third category is to him, the prince of this world, or the devil. Recently in other places there are teachings about the spiritual battle between the Holy Spirit and the devil, and V.11 might be used to support those teachings. In fact, the emphasis in this verse is on the effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit. His presence in the world is a demonstration that the devil is condemned. I must talk a little bit more technically about grammar: the verb condemn in Greek is in present perfect tense. The grammatical nuance with the tense is not that the condemnation has been done, nor going to be done, but rather, the condemnation now is effective, and the effect of condemnation is in front of your eyes. Therefore the NIV English version renders the verse correctly by putting it as: “the prince of this world now stands condemned.” Yes, the prince of the world is condemned because of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sin and death has been overcome by our Lord; the cross and the empty tomb are the places where the devil has been condemned. And now the Holy Spirit presents in the world, it is the demonstration of the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has already won the battle.
The last part about the Spirit’s ministry is about the Word of God, which begins from verse 12 to verse 14. And I’ll read only V. 13, <> Clearly, the ministry of the Spirit is about truth, about word (speaking). As what Jesus told us beforehand that the Holy Spirit would inspired the New Testament writers to write down the Word of God, just as what He had done for the Old Testament. And what I have said before, the central message in the whole Bible, the whole Word of God is about Jesus Christ. Once again, we can see how the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to testify Jesus Christ. And I would like to say more: in 2 Tim 3:16 there saying: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The Bible is the product of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And He does not just inspire the writings, but also enlighten us to understand the writings. How many of us have kept the good practice of reading the Bible regularly? How many are constantly benefited by the Word of God? Why not join our Bible study group as a good start?
So far we have gone through the sketch of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now we know that His ministry is focused on testifying Jesus Christ. His ministry is Christ-centred. Even when He tries to renew our lives He renews them to be more like Christ. Our hearts should not be running away with the fascination of the Spirit’s power and forget the centre of our faith, else we are to distort the truth. At last, we are urged to learn from the Holy Spirit, learn from His humility, and His readiness to serve in love.
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