​The Spirit as Reprover Witnesses through the Church (16:5–11)

The Spirit as Reprover Witnesses through the Church (16:5–11)

For three years, Jesus had protected them from attack, but now He was about to leave. He had told them this earlier in the evening (John 13:33), and Peter had asked Him where He was going (John 13:36). However, Peter’s question revealed more concern about himself than about the Lord Jesus! Furthermore, his question centered on the immediate, not the ultimate. It was necessary for Jesus to explain why it was important for them that He return to the Father.

The major reason, of course, is that the Holy Spirit might come to empower the church for life and witness. Furthermore, the ascended Savior would be able to intercede for His people at the heavenly throne of grace. Despite their faults, the disciples loved their Master and struggled to grasp these new truths.

It is important to note that the Spirit comes to the church and not to the world. This means that He works in and through the church. The Holy Spirit does not minister in a vacuum. Just as the Son of God had to be embodied to do His work on earth, so the Spirit of God needs a body to accomplish His ministries, and that body is the church. Our bodies are His tools and temples, and He wants to use us to glorify Christ and to witness to a lost world.

Occasionally we hear people pray, “Lord, send Your Spirit to speak to the lost! May the Spirit go from heart to heart.” Such praying is no doubt sincere, but is it biblical? The Spirit does not “float” in some ghostly way up and down the rows of a church building, seeking to win the lost. The Holy Spirit works through the people in whom He lives. When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He empowered Peter to preach, and the preaching of the Word brought conviction to those who heard.

The key word here is "reprove" (John 16:8). It is a legal word that means “to bring to light, to expose, to refute, to convict and convince.” It could be thought of as "pronouncing the verdict.” The world may think it is judging Christians, but Christians are judging the world as they witness to Jesus Christ! Believers are the witnesses, the Holy Spirit is the “prosecuting attorney,” and the unsaved are the guilty prisoners. However, the purpose of this indictment is not to condemn but to bring salvation.

The Holy Spirit convicts the world of one particular sin, the sin of unbelief. The law of God and man's conscience convict the sinner of his sins, but the Spirit, through believers' witness, exposes the lost world's unbelief. After all, it is unbelief that condemns the lost sinner (John 3:18–21), not the committing of individual sins. A person could “clean up his life” and quit his or her negative habits and still be lost and go to hell.

The Spirit also convicts the sinner of righteousness, not unrighteousness. Whose righteousness? The righteousness of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God. The world would not receive the Son of God (John 1:10), so He has returned to the Father. When He was here on earth, men accused Him of being a blasphemer, a lawbreaker, a deceiver, and even a demoniac. The Spirit of God reveals the Savior in the Word and in this way glorifies Him (John 16:13–14). The Spirit also reveals Christ in the lives of believers. The world cannot receive or see the Spirit of God, but they can see what He does as they watch the lives of dedicated believers.

The Spirit convicts the lost sinner of judgment. Do not confuse this statement with Acts 24:25 (“of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come”). Jesus referred to His judgment of Satan, which His death on the cross effected (John 12:31). Satan is the prince of this world, but he is a defeated prince. Satan has already been judged, and the verdict announced. All that must take place is the executing of the sentence, and that will occur when Jesus returns.

When a lost sinner is truly under conviction, he will see the folly and evil of unbelief; he will confess that he does not measure up to the righteousness of Christ, and he will realize that he is under condemnation because he belongs to the world and the devil (Eph. 2:1–3). The only person who can rescue him from such a horrible situation is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There can be no conversion without conviction, and there can be no conviction apart from the Spirit of God using the Word of God and the witness of the child of God.

​Witnessing is a profound privilege, but it is also a serious responsibility. It is a matter of life or death! We need to depend on the Holy Spirit to guide us to the right people, give us the right words, and enable us to patiently glorify Jesus Christ.