Sermon on John 16:8-11, for Pentecost Sunday 2021 (B), "Convicted for Life"

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. A blessed Pentecost! Or should we say, Happy Birthday, Christian church? In a way, Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian church, the day when Jesus poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit, so the church would begin to grow and spread around the world.

What does the word “conviction” mean to you? Do you think of a “man or woman of conviction”, taking a courageous stand on the truth? Or a court room conviction, like someone sentenced to jail? A convict has been convicted of a crime. An ex-convict has “done the time” and is out of prison. Conviction…has someone ever hauled you into court?

Today Jesus uses the word “convict” to describe the work of the Holy Spirit. Before He left, Jesus explained to the disciples that He was sending the Holy Spirit to “convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment”. The Holy Spirit hauls us into court. Are you “convicted” by the Holy Spirit? Do you carry His conviction in your heart?

Convictions can be either good or bad. Usually when we think of a person having strong convictions, we mean that positively. People with convictions “stick to their guns”; they don’t fold under pressure to abandon the truth. But tyrants and authoritarians can also have the huge power of wrong convictions pushing them into great evil. It’s not enough just to “have convictions”—they need to be true, Godly, and just. What’s the power of good convictions—knowing the truth and sticking to it? It is having a powerful impulse for love, goodness, compassion, self-sacrifice, and service—the stuff of everyday heroes! No capes or superpowers required! Being convicted and motivated to do good is a powerful thing. Being convicted to repent; to come to God for life. These are the good convictions we pray the Holy Spirit stir in us.

So back to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. To convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Jesus elaborates: “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.” Courtroom language again. Conviction; sin (i.e. the charge against us); righteousness (a standard by which we’re measured); and judgment (the Judge’s decision). Last week and this week we hear about God and the Spirit testifying. Today we read about the Holy Spirit at work in this Divine Courtroom, convicting the world!

How do we handle being hauled into court by the Holy Spirit? Feels like we’re under the microscope. We’re on trial. We’re the accused. Charges are coming our way. This is the charge of the Holy Spirit: He convicts the world of sin because they do not believe in [Jesus]. Interesting that Jesus sums all sin under one heading: unbelief. The first commandment: “You shall have no other gods”. Really, all other sin stems from breaking that first commandment…. they do not believe in me. Believe in God, we’ll take His commands seriously. When we are convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, we’ll repent of those broken commands. But don’t believe in God, break the commands, and actions speak louder than words. Our actions communicate: “Did God really say…?” If we do not believe in Jesus, we will neither take the commands nor repentance seriously.

So instead of thinking of sin as the sum of our individual wrong actions, the Holy Spirit gets at the root of all sin. Our unbelief. He exposes the “other gods” we put in His place. Sex. Power. Influence. Control. Pride. Love of Money. Pull the weed up by the root, instead of cutting off the leafy greens while the root still grows. In God’s courtroom, the Holy Spirit lays bare our heart. He convicts us of unbelief; we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We should all feel the Holy Spirit’s conviction of our sin, as He roots it out of us.

Perhaps, convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin, righteousness, and judgment—feels adversarial. In the Divine courtroom, God the Father is Judge, and Jesus Christ is our Defense Attorney. He does the unheard of and stands in as our substitute. He takes the punishment and our guilty conviction we deserved and trades us His righteousness and forgiveness. But if the Holy Spirit is convicting us, it sounds like a Prosecutor, doesn’t it? Why would God be adversarial to us? In the prophet Isaiah, God talks about His work of judgment as something unpleasant or unnatural to Him. He calls it His “strange” or “alien” task—bringing us to repentance (Is. 28:21). He lays the heavy weight of the law on us, so we admit our sin and flee from it. God is adversarial to our sin. He must be so because He is holy. That’s His strange work.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t “convict” us to leave us burdened or crushed by the Law and our guilt. Rather, the Holy Spirit blocks our path or sets up warning signs to destruction and self-harm, to corral us toward the narrow gate to life! His “strange” or “alien” task is done so He can lead us to the Gospel, to forgiveness, and life! The “strange” or “alien” task is in service to the Good News, the Gospel task—which is natural, pleasing, and desirable to God. That is, to give life! Unbelief and sin bring death. So, the Spirit aims to stop us! Block our way so we turn around! Road closed! Bridge out ahead!

That relates to the second kind of conviction the Holy Spirit creates. Jesus says He will convict the world of righteousness, “because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer.” Why does the Holy Spirit need to convict us of righteousness because we don’t see Jesus any longer? When Jesus was on earth, He was a walking, flesh and blood reminder and example of righteousness. He walked in God’s righteousness always. Once Jesus applied the word “conviction”, to Himself in John 8:46, “Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?” So, if conviction is “to show someone their sin and call them to repentance,” Jesus says it doesn’t apply to Him because He can’t be convicted of sin. He has no need to repent because He walked in God’s righteousness all the way. But we need that conviction concerning righteousness. We don’t have Jesus visibly walking by our side to see righteousness in action. But Jesus assured the disciples and us it was better that He go and send us the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings everything Jesus did and taught to our memory. He teaches us, convicts us, shows us our sin so we turn to Him in repentance.

Again, as with conviction about sin, the goal of the Holy Spirit is to drive us to the Gospel, to hang on to Christ! Convicted of His righteousness, we’re in awe of the Gospel, that God has transferred our guilt to Jesus, and His innocence to us! In this sense, we are convicted for life! Brought to the knowledge of our sin and Jesus’ righteousness, those who believe in Jesus, who love God’s justice and mercy, are sentenced to life in heaven! We are convicts for life, having been rescued from the penalty of sin and death by Christ our substitute.

Finally, the Holy Spirit convicts the world concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. The Holy Spirit makes the truth evident to our hearts. First about sin, then about righteousness, and finally about judgment. The sinful world, and its ruler, the devil, are going to lose in the end. The failing regime of the devil’s kingdom is powerful, but doomed. It’s got numbers, it’s got influence, it’s got supporters aplenty. But Jesus judged the ruler of the world and cast him out. Hasn’t stopped the devil from trying to recruit us and to steal, kill, and destroy. The devil is still wreaking havoc. But there’s no scenario where sin and unbelief win in the end. And the Holy Spirit is witness. His courtroom testimony is to spotlight Jesus, and to spotlight His victory over the Evil One.

Convicted by the Holy Spirit of the judgment, we don’t give the devil any more power than he’s already lost. We are not blind to his schemes, but have eyes opened by the Holy Spirit. Believe in Jesus and His victory over the Evil One, and you’re on God’s side. You stand in victory with Jesus. On this Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church, we welcome the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Thank God that He stirs in our hearts the true knowledge of our sin, that we may confess it and be cleansed of it. Thank God that His Spirit shows us righteousness, in the life of Christ, and as His gift by faith to us. And thank God that we are convicted of judgement. We don’t naively walk through life with the idea that there’s no accounting to be made for sin and unbelief, but rather we see the judgment of the devil and His kingdom and want no part of that. We want to be convicted for life. We accept the just sentence of God’s Court, that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but are justified freely by faith in Christ Jesus.

And if we are so convicted for life by the Holy Spirit, we can truly live as men and women of conviction. People filled with a strong passion for love, compassion, goodness and justice. And we can put that conviction to good work serving others and being a light to show the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, let’s be convicted for life, by the Holy Spirit, our Comforter! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.