The following sermon is by Boyd Johnson, pastor of Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. More information about Treasuring Christ Church can be found at tccathens.org. John 16, we're in the upper room, Thursday night before Jesus died, and the eleven disciples were huddled around Jesus for this final meal. for his final teaching and news about the future grew worse and worse as the night wore on. As marvelous as Jesus' teaching had been, Essentially beginning in chapter 13, going through 16, as marvelous as his teaching had been that night, it was filled with promise, filled with hope. The longer Jesus spoke, the worse the predictions became. When Jesus began His final teaching in chapter 13, verse 33, He said that after three years, He would only be with them for a little while longer. And then in verse 36, he told them that not only was he going away, where he was going, they couldn't come. Worse yet, in chapter 14, verse 30, he said that the ruler of the world, that's the devil, the ruler on the world was on his way to them. Jesus was going away, the devil was coming for them. And not only that, they'd have no allies. In chapter 15, verse 19 and 20, he said that the world hated them and that the world would persecute them. In chapter 16, verse 2, he said that they would be put out of the synagogue, disfellowshipped from their kinsmen, and that they would even be killed. All these things, Jesus said in chapter 16, verse 4, were certain. The hour was upon them. The hour was coming. The time of trouble was appointed. None of these things could be averted. It just got worse and worse and worse as Jesus taught them. And the theme, in one sense, was that for at least a season, injustice would win. Their friend who'd become their master would be arrested without cause, tried without impartiality. Convicted without evidence and killed without justification. All of it injustice. And soon the world would turn on them. They'd be shamed, they'd be ridiculed, they'd be in prison, they'd be beaten, they'd be killed. Why? Because they were criminals? No, because they followed Jesus. None of that was just. None of it was right. None of it was fair. But that was the future for these disciples according to Jesus. And so the disciples were discouraged. They were discouraged of what they heard. And they needed to know what was to come, yet Jesus didn't want them to leave that room without hope. The world was going to serve them in justice, but Jesus wanted them to know that the world wouldn't get away with it. And that's what we want, don't we? When we see injustice or have injustice committed against us, we want to know that there's a time when it'll all work out. that justice will be done. That those who perpetrate injustice won't get away with it. And Jesus tells them here in our passage, the world won't get away with it. And justice would come upon them, but justice would come too. Indeed, justice was on its way just as soon as Jesus returned to the Father. In what would seem the most bleak hour for the disciples, justice would be on the march. In his absence, justice would be done and the world would be convicted of its guilt. So to keep the disciples from debilitating discouragement, he gave them hope. He gave them hope in a person. He gave them hope in the promise of a person, the second person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. When Jesus returned to the Father, He would send the Holy Spirit. And He would send the Holy Spirit, according to this chapter, to do two things. First, the Spirit would convict the world. Second, The Spirit would guide the saints. And it's this first role of the Spirit that He would come to convict the world that Jesus addresses in our passage. John chapter 16, beginning in verse 4, about halfway through at the paragraph break, Jesus says this to His disciples to encourage them. I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going to Him who sent me, and none of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 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. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. In this paragraph, in this section of Jesus's teaching, he encourages the disciples by telling the disciples that although he was going away, the spirit would come and he would come to convict the world and bring justice. Now just to orient yourself to this passage, we see in these verses first the worry of the disciples followed by the work of the Spirit. The worry of the disciples followed by the work of the Spirit. Now to begin with, we see first the worry of the disciples. In order to understand why the Spirit's coming would be good news to them, We need to first understand the emotional state of the disciples. And we see that in verse four. Look again in verse four. He said, I did not say these things to you from the beginning. Because I was with you. Now, the things that he's referring to are all the terrible predictions about the future. that he was leaving, that Satan was on his way, that they would be kicked out of the synagogue, that they would be persecuted, that they would be killed. Those are the things. And he hadn't taught these things to them when they had first started following him in chapter one. He didn't disclose these things until now, for the most part, because their immature faith would have been much too weak to receive these dark predictions about the future. So Jesus and his wisdom didn't tell them in the beginning what they couldn't handle. Naked transparency is rarely wise. And so. In the glory of God. In the wisdom of Jesus. He withheld some information about their future when they first started following him. because they couldn't handle it. Their faith was too weak. Jesus, in His wisdom, doesn't tell us all that will happen in our life either. He tells us that there's trials on its way. If you desire to live a godly life, you'll be persecuted. He tells us that there is hardship for following Jesus. You have to take up your cross. None of that is pleasant. and deny yourself and follow Him. The way of a disciple of Jesus is a difficult path. But aren't you glad that the Lord extends to you and I a similar mercy that He extended to these disciples? How often I've been thankful that I didn't know the trial and tragedies ahead of time that were going to come into my life. Jesus, in his wisdom, knew that my faith would be too weak to handle those, that my faith would flag had I known all that was to come in detail. So many times I've been thankful that the Lord gave the mercy I needed for the day's trouble on the day it was needed and not a moment before. New mercies for new mornings. Every day of your life, Christian. New mercies for new mornings. Our Lord only gives us what our faith can bear in season, but for these disciples, the season was now. In mere hours, Jesus would be taken away from them. And so they needed to know what was going to happen. They needed to know how to trust Christ when He wasn't there. So he says in verse 5, But now I am going to Him who sent me. But now. But now the situation is different. But now there's a change in circumstances. But now the hour is upon us. It was time for His final steps to be taken in His journey to the Father. From incarnation to growing up, being baptized, to ministering on earth. And now an unjust trial, public humiliation. Death by crucifixion, burial in a tomb, rising from the dead and then ascending to the father where he would sit down at the right hand and be with him and reign. The time was now. for those final steps to be taken. It was plain to Jesus the disciples weren't yet ready. And one of the ways you know whether you're up for a challenge is whether you're asking the right questions. They weren't. The disciples weren't asking the right questions, not anymore, Jesus says in verse five, none of you ask me, where are you going? Earlier. Peter had asked him this very question, look over in Chapter 13. Verse 36. Simon, Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Even Thomas had asked the question along these lines, chapter 14, verse 5, Thomas said to him, Lord. We don't know where you're going, how can we know the way? They had asked him this question before. But in chapter 16, verse 5, he reproves them for not asking him the same question now. Why? Why does he softly rebuke the disciples for not asking that question, the very question that they had asked on at least two other occasions? An hour before, perhaps? Sometime earlier that evening. Well, one clue on why they were wrong not to ask the question again is that the word asks in verse five is in the present tense. None of you are presently asking me where I'm going. They may have been asking that question before, but now the answer to that question is not on their mind. The disciples weren't concerned about the answer any longer. They weren't asking that question either out loud or in their hearts. Now, between their asking before chapter 13, chapter 14. And the present, they stopped being concerned about where Jesus was going. So they didn't ask the question. It wasn't on their hearts. Why? What had happened? If they're asking it before, they weren't asking it by chapter 16. What had happened in between that time? Why did they stop caring about the answer over dinner? Well, what happened was that Jesus told them the future. He told them that they were going to suffer. That's what happened. And when they heard that, they cared less about Jesus's destination than they did about Jesus's departure and what that would mean for their well-being. So Jesus was softly rebuking them for losing perspective and focus on what was most important. Where was Jesus going? He had told them. He was going to the Father, His Father in heaven. Going to the Father in heaven. It was supposed to be a massive encouragement to them. It wasn't. They heard that. And rather than thinking about the destination, they thought about His departure and just started to go and close up inside. It should have been a great encouragement to him that he to them that he was going to his father in heaven. If Jesus goes to the father and sits at his right hand. Jesus is vindicated over all the accusations of his oppressors. If Jesus goes to the father, his ministry, his miracle, his message is all proven true. If Jesus goes to the Father, He is the Son of God and He is the Christ. It is the stamp of approval of the Father. That He is who He said He is. And not only is Jesus proved right in everything if He goes to the Father, if He goes to the Father, He has the power to rule. When the Bible talks about that God is in heaven, or that Jesus went to heaven and sat down, the idea is that His seat in heaven is not a lazy boy. His seat in heaven is not for leisure. His seat in heaven is the position of power. From heaven He rules. Our God is in heaven. He does everything He pleases. It's the position of power, not point lookout. It's not an observation deck. It's the place where He rules and reigns and superintends all things for the good of His disciples. But all of this was lost on the 11. They weren't hopeful, they weren't encouraged. Rather, verse six, but because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Upon hearing that they would suffer and that Jesus was leaving, sorrow filled their heart. Their hearts were filled up with sorrow. There was no room for hope because sorrow had been filled to the brim of their heart. No room for hope. In John's Gospel, this word sorrow is used only in this chapter, yet in verse 21 it's compared to a woman's sorrow when in labor. It's the kind of sorrow that cuts deep. It's the kind of sorrow and pain It is all the way down deep into the soul. It's a deep hurt that overwhelms everything else. He says that sorrow has filled their hearts. That's the Greek word filled, the Greek word plerao. It's used all over the New Testament, common word. In its simplest usage, it just means to fill up with content. A glass filled with water. A home filled with the smell of apple pie. If I go to a coffee shop and stay for a long time, usually my clothes and even my bags smell like coffee when I leave. I love it. I spilled coffee in Ingrid's car a couple days ago. Oh, it was yesterday. I go in there and it smelled like a coffee shop. It's great. It just permeates, right? The aroma so fills the air that it permeates everything, including bags and clothing. The word was also used to describe wind filling the sails of a boat and carrying it along, moving it forward, filling the sails, moving it forward. In other words, the wind controlling the boat by filling the sails. Metaphorically, the term came to be used of people, that people could be filled too. And when it applied to people, it meant that the person was characterized by whatever was filling them. They were dominated by whatever was filling them. They were controlled by whatever was filling them. So Paul writes in Ephesians 5, be filled with the Spirit. That's not mysticism, to be filled with the Spirit. It just means to be controlled by the Spirit, to be dominated by the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, to be characterized by the Spirit, yielded to the Spirit. For these disciples, the pain of losing Jesus and all that was to come was so deep that they were filled with sorrow. They were characterized by sorrow. You could see it on their faces and their demeanor. Grief had control over them. Sadness so overwhelmed their hearts that they lost perspective of where Jesus was headed. So they no longer asked the question, nor gave it a concern about where Jesus was headed. They were only concerned over their anguish. They were filled with sorrow. They were spiraling down into depression. One symptom of depression is that you look increasingly inward and lose perspective on what's true. They lost perspective about what was important, and Jesus knew that they'd be tempted to fall away if they were controlled by sorrow. And so the challenge and the cure for their depression Which is always the challenge and the cure in depression is to reverse the spiral downward. The challenge and the cure is to lift their gaze away from their sorrowful self to a sovereign savior. That's what they needed. Depression looks here. Hope looks up. And that's the cure. Simple as that. As challenging as that. This is what they needed. He was going away, but it wasn't going to leave them alone. So he said in verse 7, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. See, they needed truth. They needed truth in this moment. They lost perspective. This is what the depressed need. Perspective. Informed by the truth. I tell you the truth. This has all been hard for you to hear, but nevertheless, I go on and tell you the truth. I know this has been painful and difficult. I know you're sorrowful. Yet in your sorrow, I need you to know the truth. 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." As they look to the future, All they saw were the horrors of what was to come. But Jesus called on them to instead lift their gaze to the promise of what was to come. If he went, the helper, the spirit, would come. If he stayed, the helper would not come. But it was to their advantage, to their benefit, to their profit, does the spirit come. It'd be for their good. How so? Why would it be good for Jesus to go away and the Spirit to come? And that leads us from the worry of the disciples to the work of the Spirit. Jesus says in verse 8, And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. The Spirit would come and now has come. The Spirit comes to convict the world. Previously, in this teaching, in chapters 14 and 15, Jesus focused on the Spirit's coming in order to aid believers, to help us, to supply our spiritual needs, to teach us, help us to understand God's Word. But here, in these verses, And only here, Jesus says that the Spirit has a ministry, just one, but a ministry toward unbelievers. It's the only time where the Spirit is said to have a role with someone other than believers. He has one role as it relates to the world. He has a ministry to the world, and the ministry is to convict the world. Now the word convict has multiple meanings in English. I could say convict or convict, mean two different things. You could be convicted about something and feel ashamed, or you could be convicted in a courtroom and not feel any shame, but nevertheless rendered guilty. Or you could be convicted both in a legal sense and in a subjective sense. You feel guilty about what you did and the courtroom says you're guilty. And in Greek, it has a range of meanings as it does in English. Here, the idea. Is to prove someone guilty. The Holy Spirit comes to prove the world guilty. You might remember in chapter 8, it might be helpful just to look at it so you have a point of reference as a way to define what he means in chapter 16. In chapter 8, verse 46, Jesus responded to the Jews who were accusing him of sin, immorality. Jesus, we weren't born of immorality, they told him. illegitimate children like you were Jesus, that was the accusation. We know the truth about Mary. We know the truth, Jesus. Virgin birth, yeah, right. We know the truth. That's what they're saying. We know you were born in sin because you were born in sin. Their whole theology is if you're born in sin. You are a sinner. You might even be deformed. Remember the man born blind? Who sinned, this man or his parents? That was the theology of the Jews. We know about you, Jesus. You're sinful, you're immoral. And he asks them in chapter 8 verse 46, which one of you convicts me of sin? That's the same word, same idea here in chapter 16. Which one of you has proven that I'm guilty of sin? Well, the answer is no one. No one had proven he was guilty of sin because he wasn't guilty of sin. He had never sinned. None of them could do that. But he confronted them, and they treated him as if he was guilty of sin, as if they had already convicted him of sin. Now in chapter 16, Jesus says that the Spirit comes to convict the world. That is, the Spirit comes to prove the world guilty of sin. In other words, the Holy Spirit comes as a prosecutor of the world. He puts the world on trial. The Holy Spirit comes to make the case, to present the evidence, and to seek the guilty verdict. All along in John's gospel, the world acted as though Jesus were on trial. They questioned him. They tested him. They interrogated him. They counted themselves the judge and Jesus, the presumed criminal, and they didn't believe him. And what they didn't realize is that Jesus wasn't on trial. They were on trial. Light had come into the world and he was exposing their darkness. and the Spirit was coming to prove the guilt of the world on three counts. Count one, count two, count three, verses nine, 10, and 11. He came to convict the world on three counts. First, the Spirit came to convict the world, count one, concerning sin. He says in verse nine concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. The spirit proves the world guilty about its sin. World, you're guilty because of your sin, specifically the sin of unbelief. The world's guilty, he says, because look at it, they do not believe in me. That's why the world's guilty. I've come. And they don't believe me, I've come, they don't receive me. They don't put their trust in me. Remember, in Chapter 3, verse 18. Difficult to know in Chapter 3, verse 18, whether. Jesus is speaking or whether John, the apostle, is just making commentary. But in chapter 3, verse 18, John writes, whoever believes in him and the Son of God is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already. Guilty. You don't have to wait for the verdict. It's been rendered already. The fact of not believing in Jesus renders automatically a directed verdict. You're guilty. Verse continues, because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God. This is the issue for unbelievers. Lack of belief in Jesus, the issue. All other sin can be forgiven, but for this one sin to continue in unbelief, that can't be forgiven. Not if you continue in it. If you obey the Ten Commandments, yet continue in unbelief, you'll be cast into hell. The sin that above all proves the world's guilt is failure to believe in Jesus, in God. That's why our focus in evangelism should always be this. The central issue, the one issue that you want to make sure that unbeliever understands. Comes from this question, do you believe in Christ? If you don't, you're guilty. And that's what matters. It's not necessary to convince people that they're liars or thieves or adulterers or blasphemers. We just need to tell them that they're guilty for the simple reason of failure to believe in Jesus. That's the issue. However you present the gospel, make that the issue. The issue isn't how moral someone is. The issue isn't whether they've sinned in these ways, but not in these ways. The issue isn't whether they're good enough to get into heaven. You can avoid all that by cutting to the chase and getting to the central question. Do you trust in Christ? Do you believe in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? That's all that matters. That's the issue. The other sin's damn. You can be sure of that. All sin is sinful and worthy of punishment. But there can be no salvation without believing in Christ. Many liars come to faith in Christ, many who lust come to faith in Christ, many who take the Lord's name in vain come to faith in Christ, but no one who stays in their unbelief comes to faith in Christ. No one who stays remains in their unbelief comes to Christ. Fundamentally. There has to be a change from unbelief to belief. For salvation, the greatest sin of all is not believing in Christ, therefore, the reason the world is guilty is that they do not believe in him. Count one guilty. Count two, Spirit came to convict the world concerning righteousness. He says in verse 10, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. The Spirit proves the world guilty because not only have they sinned, but they're also not righteous. Lack of sin alone won't get you to heaven. Perfect righteousness is also required. Jesus said. In Matthew 520. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Greater than their righteousness. Unless that happens, no heaven. And in chapter 5, verse 48, still in Matthew, Jesus said the standard is this, you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. That's not just the absence of sin. Righteousness is not just the absence of sin. There's a positive aspect to righteousness. To uphold the holiness and the glory of God, that's righteousness. It's not just refraining from doing something. So many Christians just want to define sin as, I don't do X, Y, and Z. I don't go to these movies. I don't watch this. I don't read that. Therefore, I'm righteous. No! It's not just stop doing, but we've been called to do something positive, namely pursue righteousness. And we need perfect righteousness in order to get into heaven. That's the problem. Paul writes in Romans 3 10. None is righteous. No not one. Not even a Christian. No Christian. Nor unbeliever is righteous in themselves. So perfect righteousness is required for heaven because God is righteous, but the world isn't righteous. Therefore, the world is guilty. Count to guilty. And here, Jesus says, I go to the father and you'll see me no longer. Why does he say that, what does that prove? Well, if he's able to go to the father, that means that the father accepts him. It means that the Father hasn't rejected him. It means the Father has received him, and therefore, Jesus must be perfectly righteous. Otherwise, he'd be rejected. He's going to the Father. He'll be received by the Father. The only way the Father will receive Jesus is if Jesus is perfectly righteous. Not just hasn't sinned, But fulfilled all the law as he was supposed to do. And he did. And that proves something more. Not just that Jesus is righteous. It proves that unless we have his righteousness. We won't be accepted into heaven either. The father won't receive us unless we have his righteousness. We only gain his righteousness if we're found in Christ. And we become found in Christ by believing in Christ. And faith is a gift, it's not a work of righteousness, it's a gift that we're given. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for our sake, He made him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin. That is, Jesus took our sin on the cross. He wasn't sinful, but he took our sin, counted sinful, though he was perfectly righteous, so that in him, in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God. That's how you get clothed in righteousness. That's how you receive the righteousness that you have to have in order to get into heaven. by being found in Him, and you're found in Christ by belief in Christ, the belief which God Himself gave you. But without His righteousness, if you're not clothed with His righteousness, if you're not found in Christ, if you're not believing in Christ, guilty. Count three. The Spirit thirdly came to convict the world concerning judgment. He says in verse 11, concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. The Spirit proves the world guilty because they deserve judgment. If the world is sinful and the world lacks righteousness, there's only one reasonable verdict that holy God can render guilty. And the world deserves everlasting judgment because of treason against the everlasting God. So because the world is sinful and lacks righteousness, they deserve judgment. And the proof of the world deserving judgment is that he says the ruler of this world is judged. Now, the ruler of the world refers to Satan. And the tense of the verb is judged. Perfect, perfect tense indicates he's been condemned and he continues to be condemned. Something has happened in the past with present effects. He's been judged, continues to be judged. And if Satan is condemned already, then those who follow after him will surely be judged as well. The proof of the rightness of their judgment. So the world's prosecutor is the spirit. Who proves the guilt of the world on three counts by its sin? By its lack of righteousness and by its fitness for judgment. And in this way, the spirit convicts the world. Each one, the verdict is guilty. And that was to be an encouragement to the eleven disciples. That the spirit would come and judge, convict the world guilty on those three accounts. That was to be an encouragement to the disciples. How so? They would know, because Jesus told them, that they would face severe injustice shortly, resulting in probably ten of the eleven disciples being martyred. But the world wouldn't get away with it. That's the encouragement. The world wasn't going to get away with it. They would face injustice, but the world wasn't going to get away with it. The verdict from heaven was already on its way in one sense. Once the Spirit arrived, he would prosecute the world and guilt would be proven and the disciples vindicated. So the Spirit's work in this regard was both hope-giving and devastating. It's hope-giving for us in that all who are in Christ, who are unjustly accused, have you ever been unjustly accused as a witness for Christ? All who are unjustly accused, all who are mistreated, all who are persecuted in Christ, will one day see justice be done. Those who mistreat you, those who accuse you wrongly, those who persecute you, they will receive judgment either in eternity or meet it out on the cross. But the verdict of law has already been rendered. And it's also hope giving and that some unbelievers Because of the Holy Spirit's conviction, guilty verdict may even subjectively come under conviction. That they are guilty before God and in need of salvation and they turn to Christ. And that's the work of the Holy Spirit too. We saw that in chapter three where he's the one who gives new birth. And he does that by convicting the world of sin, not only by giving the guilty verdict, but also by working, so working in a person's heart that they come under conviction that they are guilty before God and they need salvation. Those are the ways that it's hope-giving that the Spirit came to convict the world, but it's also devastating. Because it means that if man doesn't come to saving faith in Christ, that his judgment is certain because the verdict has already been rendered. Before they even die, before they even finish the life, there's no hope of trying to have good works outweigh your bad because the verdict is already in. And the spirit has already come. Count one guilty, count two guilty, count three guilty. In the next paragraph. We see a second role, the spirit performs when he comes. And this time in ministry to his saints. And we'll look at that passage next time. Let's pray together. So, Father, we look to your spirit who we know dwells inside of us, all who are in Christ, and. We are glad we are glad that your spirit has come. and works many ways inside our hearts. And we're glad that He has come to convict the world, knowing that as we see injustice done, particularly to Christians, we know that one day that injustice will be made right. And that truly justice, though we can't see it, All the time, justice is on the march because the verdict has been rendered by Your Holy Spirit. We pray for those who are unbelievers in our family and in our friend groups. We pray that as the Holy Spirit prosecutes the world through Your Word, and uses us as instruments to proclaim his word and share the gospel, the great heavenly prosecutor would also so move to convict them personally that they have need of salvation. We pray that you'd use this time of Thanksgiving later on this week where we see more family, we see more friends, we pray that you'd use this time to save many of them. Father, answer the prayers of your saints who especially have been praying for so long to see loved ones come to saving faith. Will you do that? Our only hope is you, not in our persuasive power, but in the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We ask these things in our Savior's name. Thank you for listening to this message from Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not alter the content in any way without permission. Treasuring Christ Church exists to spread a passion for the fame of Christ's name in Athens and around the world. We invite you to visit Treasuring Christ Church online at tccathens.org. There you'll find other resources available to you and information about our upcoming gatherings.