John 16:5-15

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

The disciples are sad because Jesus has told them that He is going away to the Father who sent Him.  The disciples had spent years of their life together learning from Him and being with Him.  So it’s not surprising that sorrow and confusion now fills their hearts.  They don’t understand what’s going on and what Jesus is doing.  Perhaps you’ve felt that way sometimes yourself about the way the Lord works.

But Christ comforts His followers, both then and now, by assuring them that He will never abandon them.  He says, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”  Christ comes to you by sending you His Spirit, the Helper, the Counselor.  Just as God the Father made Himself known to mankind through the sending of His Son, so now God the Son makes Himself known to you through the sending of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus comes to be with you by His Word and Spirit.

That is why Jesus says, “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 depart, I will send Him to you.”  By going away through death to rise bodily to His throne above, Jesus completed His work of redeeming you.  Therefore, it is indeed to your advantage that Christ went away to the right hand of the Father and poured out His Spirit on His people.  For the work of Christ and of the Holy Spirit are both essential to your obtaining eternal life.  First, Christ saves you by His cross and resurrection.  And then, the Holy Spirit brings you that salvation and makes it your own through the Word and the Sacraments.  If the Spirit were never sent, then you would never hear rightly of Jesus or be brought to the faith.  But by sending the Helper, Christ delivers to you the fullness of His mercy and love and redemption.  Jesus is no longer visible by sight as He once was, so that He might become visible by faith wherever His people are gathered in His name, wherever the Spirit is delivering Him in words and water and bread and wine.  What an advantage it truly is for the church that Jesus’ voice is now multiplied thousands upon thousands of times in the preaching of the Gospel throughout the world.

And here specifically is what the Holy Spirit has come to do.  Jesus says, “When (the Helper) has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”  The first way that the Holy Spirit helps you is to give you a proper diagnosis of your condition.  He convicts you of sin.  That may not be pleasant, but it’s absolutely necessary so that you seek the right remedy and cure.  In particular Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will do this “because they do not believe in Me.”  Apart from faith in Jesus, we don’t truly understand the gravity of our situation.  So blinded are we that we can’t even see how bad things are with us.  The Holy Spirit has to the teach us how deeply the cancer of sin has penetrated.  Because we close our eyes to the truth, it’s only when the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to Christ that we can fully bear to see what He’s saved us from.

And note here that the most damnable sin that a person can commit is not to believe in Jesus.  There is nothing worse than that.  It’s not simply that people are sexually immoral or dishonest or greedy.  Those are but symptoms of our problem.  The real issue, the heart of the situation is that the our old Adam doesn’t love God or trust in Him or have faith in His Son whom He has sent.  Fallen man doesn’t receive Jesus as the only Savior from sin or rely on His all-atoning death on the cross.  Instead, people believe in themselves and look within for the answers and rely on their own wisdom.  They trust in the fact that they’ve done more good than bad to earn some eternal reward.  They may be religious, but their spirituality is self-reliant.  God is just one piece of their formula.  They’ve got no real need for a Jesus who is a Savior from sin, just an advice-giver so that they can make a better life for themselves.  And there is no greater insult to God than to treat Him like that.  Those who love their own lives in this world, who have justified themselves and their behavior, in their hearts are rejecting Jesus.  We all must repent of where this worldly attitude has crept in to our thinking.

Secondly, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convince the world of righteousness; He will make true righteousness known.  And Jesus says that the Spirit will do that “because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.”  That’s a very clear signal to you of where true righteousness is to be found.  Usually, righteousness is thought of as our own good and moral living, something within us.  But the Holy Spirit says in the Scriptures, “No one is righteous; no, not even one.”  The source of your righteousness, then, is not found within, but outside of yourself in Christ, in Him who is seated at the right hand of the Father.  That’s why the Holy Spirit must make this righteousness of Christ known.  For He is presently hidden from your eyes.

The Holy Spirit, then, is the real preacher in the Church.  He is the One who preaches the Gospel to you so that you may be led into all truth.  St. Paul declares, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. . .  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed.”  Through the words of the Gospel, the Spirit makes known and gives to you Christ’s righteousness.  He declares you righteous for the sake of what Jesus has done for you.  Though you stand guilty before the court of God’s justice, Jesus steps in and says, “I have already paid the penalty.  I have already served the sentence.  I was executed on the cross for you and for all people so that you would not be condemned but go free and have everlasting life.  It is finished.  It is done.  Case closed.”  And God commutes your sentence; He acquits you fully.  In the Gospel, the Holy Spirit reads you the verdict: “Not guilty.  You are forgiven. You are righteous and holy in Jesus.  He took your place so that you would take His place as children of God.  Do not be afraid.  All is well with you before God–not by your own works, but by the works of Christ, by His grace and mercy and love toward you.”  It is written, “Having been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And finally, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will reveal judgment to the world.  However, it is not your judgment that He makes known but the judgment of the devil.  For Jesus declares, “The ruler of this world is judged.”  The ruler of the world in its fallen state is Satan.  He governs the world with lies and deception that turn people away from God.  He lures mankind away from Christ and into false religion and artificial spirituality.  But although Satan is the prince of this world, his fall from power has already been secured.  For the Scriptures say, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.”  Jesus took on your flesh, your human nature, in order to release you from Satan’s power.  He defeated the devil in the wilderness for you.  He crushed Satan’s head by the cross and brought down his kingdom.  The resurrected Christ has now opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.  Believe these words of Christ and know that they are true: “The ruler of this world is judged.”

This is how the Spirit brings glory to Jesus, by leading you into the truth of sin and the righteousness of Christ and His judgment of Satan.  The Helper preaches into you Christ’s forgiveness and life and salvation, that you may never be separated from your Lord and His love.  God grant you to know ever more fully and deeply this help and comfort of the Holy Spirit, to whom with the Father and the Son belongs all glory, honor, and praise, now and forever.  Amen.