This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, I'm Pastor Tom Holliday and I want to welcome you to our look together
through the Gospel of John in Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're looking together
at chapter 16 this week. As we begin this chapter, chapter 16, I want to remind
you that John 16 and 17 occur while the disciples in Jesus are walking between
the upper room where they'd started this discussion in John 13 and 14 and
Gethsemane where Jesus is going to be with his disciples, pray with his
disciples, eventually be betrayed in that garden.

And they're walking in the late evening down dark limestone streets probably
past the temple, past the Roman fortress. They would walk down out through the
city gates, down a ravine into the olive grove that was called Gethsemane. And
it's during this walk that Jesus is talking with his disciples.

He knows it's his final teaching time with his disciples. After this, he's going
to be arrested. He's going to be taken to the cross.

And his next teaching time will be as the resurrected Jesus. Jesus talks in
these final moments with his disciples about resources, supernatural resources.
Not natural, but supernatural.

He talks about how and why and where we get our greatest needs met. Where do you
find your personal energy renewed? How can you find the ability to build and
live a significant, successful, meaningful life in God's eyes?

Where do we find the resources to make up for a lack in our lives, a lack of
energy or a lack of hope or lack of incentive, a lack of fulfillment? And Jesus
talks about those resources. In this chapter, resources like prayer and joy and
peace and the focus is on the greatest resource of all, God's Spirit and how
God's Spirit works in our lives.

Last week, as we ended chapter 15, we looked together at the fact that we will
face rejection for our faith. This week, at the start of chapter 16, Jesus tells
his disciples why this is, and he talks to them about the feelings that they're
facing in that moment as he talks, Jesus talks about going away and some of the
rejection that they're going to have to face. Listen to what Jesus says to his
disciples in verses 1 to 6, "All this I have told you so that you will not go
astray.

They will put you out of the synagogue. In fact, the time is coming when anyone
who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such
things because they have not known the Father or me.

I have told you this so that when the time comes, you will remember that I
warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. Now I'm
going to him who sent me.

And yet none of you asks, where are you going? Because I have said these things,
you're filled with grief. " You see, he's answering the question with his
disciples, "Why am I telling you this right now?

" He's telling them so they won't go astray. He doesn't want any of them to
wander from following him, from living out the life and the ministry that he has
for them. He's telling them this because they didn't understand what was
happening, and he says, "You may not even understand all that's going to happen
in the next few days, but keep following me.

" And then Jesus says, "I'm telling you this because, well, at first I was with
you. " And when Jesus was with them, all the rejection focused on Jesus in the
flesh, not on his disciples. Now he's going away and the rejection is going to
focus on them.

They're going to be put out of the synagogue. They're going to face rejection
from the very people that they'd grown up with. And so Jesus says at the end of
verse 6, "Because of this, you're filled with grief.

" And he begins to talk to them about grief and what God's going to do in their
lives when they face loss and the grief that comes out of that loss. Here's what
he says in verses 7 to 11, "But I tell you the truth, it is for your good that
I'm going away. Unless I go away, the counselor will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the
world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment, in regard to sin
because men do not believe in me, in regard to righteousness because I'm going
to the Father, where you can see me no longer, and in regard to judgment because
the prince of this world now stands condemned. " He's talking to them about the
Holy Spirit.

Throughout John 13 to 17, we've seen again and again and again, or we'll see,
that if we don't understand the power of the Holy Spirit, we live beneath our
privileges and potential and promise as believers. As we've walked through these
chapters, we've seen the three-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit talked about in
John 14 to 16. In John 14, the Spirit is talked about as a counselor who
comforts the believer.

And here in John 16, we hear the Spirit being talked about as a witness who
convicts the unbeliever. And then later in the chapter, we're going to see that
the Spirit is also a guide who convinces the believer. Jesus says, "Why am I
going away so that the Spirit can come?

" And our question is, why does Jesus have to go away so the Spirit can come?
Why can't they just both be here? Well, because God's Spirit came to indwell us,
to live permanently in us as believers through the death and the resurrection of
Jesus.

So Jesus had to die in order for God's Spirit to come in power in our lives. The
Spirit is at work. He's at work in believers.

He's at work in the world. We're going to talk about how he's at work in the
lives of believers tomorrow. We're going to focus today on the fact that he is
at work in the world at large.

God's Spirit has always been at work in the world. You see God's Spirit at work
in the world all through the Old Testament. But somehow, and I admit I don't
totally understand how this works in the spiritual economy of God.

Somehow the work of the Spirit is amplified in the world through the life and
the death and the resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus talked about the work of the
Spirit in the world, now remember last week we talked about the fact that the
world is the world's system, the world's way of thinking about things. When he
talked about the work of the Spirit in this unbelieving way of thinking about
things, he used a strong word.

He said, "The Spirit will convict the world. " Convict the world. The Greek word
is a legal word that means to bring to light, to expose, to refute, to convince.

It could be translated to pronounce the verdict. This Greek word, if you
remember those old Perry Mason shows, seen them in reruns maybe. This is what
Perry Mason would do.

He didn't just cross-examine people on the witness stand. He cross-examined them
to the point where they acknowledged the truth. I did it, they would say.

And that's what the Spirit does in our hearts. He cross-examines us to the point
that we acknowledge the truth. The truth about what?

The truth about sin and righteousness and judgment. That's what Jesus talks
about here. You see, the Spirit indwells believers.

He comes to live in our hearts permanently. He's at home in our hearts the
moment we believe. He indwells believers, but he works in the lives of every
person on this planet.

He doesn't indwell every heart, but he speaks to every heart. And what does he
speak to every heart about? He speaks about sin.

He speaks about righteousness. He speaks about judgment. He speaks about sin.

That's why we have no excuse for our sin. No one ever told me. Yes, the Holy
Spirit told you.

God's Spirit tells us the truth, that we're separated from God, that we're not
perfect, that we're in trouble because of this separation from God, this sin
that's in our lives. The Spirit tells us that, and not in audible words, but we
know it with deep conviction in our hearts because we have been convicted by the
Spirit about what sin is. He also convicts us about righteousness.

Now that one throws some people for a loop because they think righteousness,
that's a good thing. Can you be convicted of a good thing? Well, you better be.

We should be convicted of good things. And he convicts us of the righteousness
of who God is, of who Jesus is, and what he wants to do in our lives. It's the
Holy Spirit that helps us to see the purity and the power and the passion of who
Jesus Christ really is.

And he also convicts the world regarding judgment. The end is already settled.
Satan is already condemned.

Evil will be judged. And there is a sense in all of us that we know that. You
see it everywhere.

I was reading on the internet lyrics to a Pearl Jam song called "Last Exit. " No
time to question, why'd nothing last? Grasp and hold on, we're dying fast.

It's just in the culture. Everybody knows this world's not going to last. Why do
we know that?

The Spirit convicts us. And when Jesus talks here about judgment, he's focusing
on Satan. And he says, "Satan knows his end, and we know our end.

We know where things are headed. " It is the Spirit's job to convict. You know
what's exciting about that?

It's the Spirit's job to convict. And we've seen again and again in the Gospel
of John, it's our job to witness. One of the most refreshing truths you can
discover is that God has called you to communicate the good news, not to convict
the world.

You don't have to convict the world because the Spirit does that. You shall be
my witnesses, the Bible says. Jesus didn't say, "You shall be my prosecuting
attorneys.

" Sometimes, when we think about how we share the faith with other people, we
need to realize that we were to act like witnesses, not judges or prosecuting
attorneys or as if this other person is on trial. That way, they're turned off.
They feel like, "Why would I want to listen to somebody who is judging me and
telling me how wrong I am?

I already know it in my own heart. The Spirit's already told me. They're just
affirming what I already know, and I don't want to hear it.

" That's bad news. What people really need is good news. They need to hear, "You
know that conviction that we all have in our hearts, that none of us is perfect?

God's done something about that. You know that conviction that we all have in
our hearts, that Jesus Christ is different? God put that in your heart because
He wants you to have a relationship with Him.

You know that conviction that we all have in our hearts, that someday this
world's going to end, that it's not going to all keep going on like this? How
could it? Why would I even want it to?

" God understands that. God's going to bring things to an end one day, but He's
got a better eternity for you to live in. You see, when it comes to being
convicted, the Spirit convicts our hearts.

I can depend on that in my heart and in everybody's heart that I talk to. When
it comes to being a witness, we have the privilege of telling the good news.
This is through the work of the Holy Spirit.

As we end today, let's just take a moment to recognize God's Spirit in our
lives. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, His Spirit's in your life. As a
brand new believer, the minute I became a believer almost, somebody taught me
that realizing and recognizing the presence of the Spirit in our lives is
something like breathing.

It's like spiritual breathing. You breathe out and you breathe in. As you
breathe out, you exhale and you realize, "I'm forgiven of my sins.

I'm forgiven of all the things that I have done that would separate me from God.
" As you breathe in, you breathe in and recognize, "God's Spirit is in my life.
" Now, don't do this too fast.

I don't want you to experience spiritual hyperventilation, especially if you're
driving right now. But just in this moment, in a simple way, I encourage you,
breathe out, recognize you are forgiven, and breathe in. Recognize that God has
filled you through His Spirit, will fill you as you trust in Him today.

Just do that throughout the day. Just like breathing's a natural part of your
day, this spiritual breathing is a natural part of your spiritual life.
Throughout the day today, breathe out, breathe in.

God's Spirit, help me to live for you, be a witness for you, be the person you
want me to be. In Jesus' name, we ask for this. Amen.

Be sure to join us tomorrow. We're going to continue to look together through
John chapter 16 and how the Holy Spirit works in the lives of believers.