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The Work of the Holy Spirit
John 15:26-27 and 16:4-15
Good News Translation (GNT)
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26 "The Helper will come-the Spirit, who reveals
the truth about God and who comes from the
Father. I will send him to you from the Father,
and he will speak about me.
27 And you, too, will speak about me, because
you have been with me from the very
beginning.
John 16.4b-15
4 "I did not tell you these things at the beginning,
for I was with you.
5 But now I am going to him who sent me, yet
none of you asks me where I am going.
6 And now that I have told you, your hearts are
full of sadness.
7 But I am telling you the truth: it is better for
you that I go away, because if I do not go,
the Helper will not come to you.
But if I do go away, then I will send him to you.
8 And when he comes, he will prove to the
people of the world that they are wrong about
sin and about what is right and about God's
judgment.
9 They are wrong about sin, because they do
not believe in me;
10 they are wrong about what is right, because I
am going to the Father and you will not see
me any more;
11 and they are wrong about judgment, because
the ruler of this world has already been
judged.
12 "I have much more to tell you, but now it
would be too much for you to bear.
13 When, however, the Spirit comes, who
reveals the truth about God, he will lead you
into all the truth.
He will not speak on his own authority, but he
will speak of what he hears and will tell you of
things to come.
14 He will give me glory, because he will take
what I say and tell it to you.
15 All that my Father has is mine; that is why I
said that the Spirit will take what I give him
and tell it to you.
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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)
The Work of the Holy Spirit
John 15:26-27 and John 16.4b-15
Jesus again mentioned the Counsellor,
the Holy Spirit.
Earlier He had said that God would send the Spirit.
This time Jesus said that He Himself would send the Spirit.
It's saying the same thing.
Man's testimony alone is never enough;
in order for anyone to believe in Jesus,
the testimony of the Holy Spirit is essential.
People are only converted by the Holy Spirit.
The disciples had been with Jesus from the beginning.
They were eyewitnesses.
In the same way, the testimony of Christians today
is also necessary.
We must testify to other people about Jesus.
Our testimony reaches their ears;
the Holy Spirit then carries it to their hearts.
Now, Jesus was about to leave them, and then,
all the hatred of the world would fall on them.
Therefore, it was necessary to
prepare them for that time.
True, Peter had asked once where He was going
but he had not been thinking about Jesus' destination;
he had only been thinking about
going with Jesus wherever He went.
The disciples were filled with grief,
but they still did not fully realise that
He was talking about His death.
Jesus Himself could be in only one place at a time,
but the Holy Spirit could be everywhere!
Indeed, it proved true that it was better to have
the Holy Spirit inside them
than to have Jesus with them.
Before Jesus' death they were weak and
wavering and fearful men.
After Jesus' death the Holy Spirit came upon them
and transformed them into powerful,
steady, and courageous men.
Jesus had already explained some things
about the Holy Spirit.
He says that the Holy Spirit will reveal
the guilt of worldly men in regard to sin
and righteousness and judgment.
Man's basic sin is that he makes himself
the master of his own life.
This is self-centeredness, or selfishness.
Everything natural man does is ultimately for himself.
The Holy Spirit comes to convict men for this attitude,
because only when the Holy Spirit convicts
a man's conscience can that man fully realise
his selfishness and turn to God in repentance.
Second, in regard to righteousness,
the Holy Spirit shows men that Jesus is righteous,
because He rose from the dead and
went to His Father in heaven.
The Holy Spirit shows men that they can never be
righteous by their own efforts.
Third, in regard to judgment,
the Holy Spirit shows men that judgment has
already fallen upon Satan,
the prince of this world.
Jesus did not hide anything but
He could not explain everything to the disciples
before He died.
They could not have understood it or accepted it.
They would need the help of the Holy Spirit
to understand the deeper lessons
they had yet to learn.
He would prepare them for the great work of
establishing the church of Jesus,
throughout the world and would also
prepare them to face suffering and death.
He helped them write the New Testament.
The Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit,
guided their minds and pens as they wrote.
The Holy Spirit does not speak on his own.
He speaks only what he hears from God.
The Holy Spirit always glorifies Jesus.
This is an important way to test whether or not
we are really being led by the Spirit in
any particular endeavour:
Will what we are doing bring glory to Jesus?
If so, then we can be sure it is the
Holy Spirit who is leading us.
He does for us what Jesus would have done
if He had remained on earth.
Whatever belongs to God belongs also to Jesus.
And all these things will be made known to us
through the Holy Spirit.
We shall not only know of Christ's righteousness,
power, and glory; we shall share in them!
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