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John 16.8-11 STUDY GUIDE

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John 16.8-11 STUDY GUIDE THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Small Group Discussion Guide Text: John 16:8-11 Theme/ Big Idea: The witness of the Holy Spirit to those who do not believe. Context/ Background Information: In John 15:26, Jesus promised to request and send the Holy Spirit to the disciples. When the Spirit arrived, Jesus said the Holy Spirit would witness to them. In John 16:4-7 and 12-15, Jesus explained the characteristics of the Holy Spirit's witness to believers in greater detail. In addition to witnessing to the disciples, Jesus also said the Spirit would come as a witness through the disciples to the unbelieving world (John 15:27). Jesus explains in greater detail what the Spirit's witness to the world would entail in John 16:8-11. Jesus said the Spirit would come to convict, and then Jesus outlined three specific areas the Spirit would bring conviction. He would convict concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. CONVICTION In John 16:8, Jesus makes a general statement about the role of the Holy Spirit in witnessing to an unbelieving world. Jesus said, "And when [the Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment." The Greek word for "convict" in this context is "elencho." It is a legal term always used in personal contexts. It is used in Matt 18:15 when Jesus said, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone." "Tell him his fault" is the same Greek word "elencho." It means to unmask a wrong, to point out a fault, to poke holes in a story, to expose, to present to view, to disclose something previously unknown, or to prove to be guilty. Generally, it means "to show someone his sin and to summon him to repentance." (1) Notice that the purpose of "unmasking" or "pointing out fault" has a purpose. The aim is not simply to shame or prove wrong; it is to point out a wrong and lead a person to repent and change. Jesus used the same word, "elencho" in John 3:20, where it is translated as "expose." This is the sense in which it is used in John 16:8. Jesus is saying the role and witness of the Holy Spirit in the life of the unbeliever is to expose what is false. By implication and by context, this means the Holy Spirit also points to what is true and better. What is the Spirit going to elencho? What does he expose and unmask? What stories does he poke holes in? In John 16:9-11, Jesus expounds on verse 8, giving three specific things the Spirit exposes and unmasks: "sin, righteousness, and judgment." In other words, the Spirit witnesses to an unbelieving world by confronting, dismantling, exposing, and poking holes in the world's false understanding of sin, righteousness, and judgment. First, he confronts our false understanding of sin, showing the depth and pervasiveness of our desire to overthrow God and substitute ourselves on his throne. Then, he unmasks the false and insufficient righteousness we trust in, pointing us to the righteous One that comes from God. And finally, he dismantles our false system of judgment by overthrowing the source of that false system. At each point, he shines the spotlight of faith on an all-sufficient Savior who willingly substituted himself in our place, offering his righteousness in exchange for our sin and punishment. SIN Jesus first says the Spirit convicts the world of "sin, because they do not believe in me" (John 16:9). Though not a message we want to hear, it is the truth we need and where the Spirit always begins. Generally, most people think of themselves as relatively good (or at least not as bad as other people). If the unbelieving world even acknowledges sin, it generally sees it as a minor offense or non-issue using words like "struggle" or "mistake." But the Spirit comes to poke holes in that story and to unmask the depth and pervasiveness of our sin. The word Jesus uses for sin in verse 9 is "hamartia." It does not simply mean "missing the mark" but to "willfully miss the mark." Hamartia is willful and blatant rebellion against a holy God and his commands. John describes it as "lawlessness," which means to live without reference or regard for God (1 John 3:4). Hamartia captures well the attitude and action of Adam and Eve in the Garden in Genesis 3. They were given clear instructions with clear consequences and invited to trust God (Genesis 2:17). Rather than trusting God and his commands, they rebelled against God and substituted themselves in the place of God. This heart attitude was handed down to us from our first parents, who willfully and blatantly disobeyed God (Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 5:12). The consequences were catastrophic and tragic. What was once life, friendship, and peace with God became death, alienation, and chaos (Gen 3:23-24; Rom 5:18-19; Eph 2:1-12; Gen 3:12-19; Rom 8:20-23). As a result of sin, Adam's descendants are born spiritually dead, objects of God's wrath, and without hope (Eph 2:1, 3, and 12). Now, every action, whether good or bad, overflows from a dead, rebellious, and sinful heart. If we lose sight of the depth of our sinfulness and our condition before God, then we will be tempted to think we can contribute something to our salvation. If we understand sin simply as sickness, then all we need is some medicine, and we will be on our way. If we understand sin simply as the need for moral reform (or mistakes), then all we need is behavior modification. If sin is simply being uninformed, then all we need is instruction and a good example. The Holy Spirit says something different. He pokes holes in our false notions of sin, taking us to rock bottom in order to point us to our only hope and rescue. In other words, we never fully appreciate, nor hope in, nor cling to the remedy of Jesus if we misdiagnosis the problem and pervasiveness of sin. Therefore, it is against the dark backdrop of the diagnosis of sin that the bright light of the good news of the gospel shines brightest. The Spirit graciously points to our root issue and like a floodlight redirects our attention to our chief solution. (2) RIGHTEOUSNESS The Spirit comes to convict the unbelieving world of sin. But he does not leave us there. No, he points us to hope and to the remedy and location of our righteousness. In verse 10, Jesus says the Spirit will convict the world "concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer." Righteousness means "standard" or "right standing before God." What Jesus is saying is that the Spirit comes to unmask the false substitutes for righteousness that we trust in proving them to be incomplete and insufficient. Because the world minimizes sin, it necessarily minimizes the remedy. Because the world misdiagnosis the problem, it also misprescribes the cure. The world appeals to a standard of righteousness within itself, believing righteousness is something we develop and bring to God. The Bible, however, points us to a standard beyond us and something God gives. Paul says, the "righteousness of God" that we desperately need comes "from God" and is "revealed" and "made known" in the gospel (Rom 1:17; 3:21; Phil 3:6-9). That righteousness is not something we muster up and give to God but something God gives to us (Rom 10:3). Namely, it is his Son, Jesus Christ, who reveals the righteousness of God and through whom we receive the righteousness of God. Paul says God "made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:20). By spotlighting Jesus, the Spirit urges, implores, and nudges us to despair of our own self-righteousness and look to the righteous One come from God. Jesus came to reveal and make known God's standard of righteousness, to cause all men to despair of their own righteousness, and to offer the hope of right standing with God. Because he is returning to the Father, Jesus says the Spirit will come and continue that ministry in the world. The Spirit does this in leading us to salvation and does this in daily sanctification. JUDGMENT Finally, Jesus says the Spirit will convict the world "concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged" (John 16:11). The words "judgment" and "judged" are the same root words and mean "final analysis or decision." As we have seen, the world's understanding of sin and righteousness is wrong. The world minimizes sin as well as the solution. The reason the world does either of these things is because its system of judgment is fatally flawed. It is a flawed system of thinking because it is based on a flawed and corrupt source. According to Jesus, that source is the father of lies, Satan (John 8:44-47). Remember the context. The flawed judgment of the world will be on full display just a few short hours after Jesus gives this instruction to his disciples. The Jewish leaders will put Jesus on trial, render a judgment, and then crucify him believing they are exposing Jesus as unrighteous and therefore doing a service to God. Yet, in reality, they will prove how upside down and backward the world's system of judgment is.
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