The Feast of Pentecost
He Will Convict the World Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about God the Holy Spirit, Whom He calls “the Helper.” Jesus says here that God the Spirit will not only work INSIDE the Church—“guiding you into all truth”—but Jesus also says that God the Holy Spirit will continually work OUTSIDE the Church, in the unbelieving world of sin, rebellion, condemnation and death: “When the Spirit comes,” says the Lord, “He will convict the world.” This is good news for you and good news for me. Dear Christian friends, When God the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 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. These are very difficult Words of Jesus, and I will be the first to admit that I do not fully understand them. I cannot see the Sprit’s work in the world, “convicting the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment,” and that causes me to pause and wonder whether the Holy Spirit is actually doing His job. But the Scriptures declare that the Work of the Holy Spirit is an unseen, invisible work (John 3:8). The Scriptures also declare that the things of the Spirit are hidden things, covered things, veiled things (1 Corinthians 2:15). When a child is born or when a bird is hatched or when a flower blooms, it does NOT come with a label that states, “Made by the Holy Spirit.” Yet what did we pray in today’s Introit Psalm? “When You send forth Your Spirit, O Lord, they are created” (Psalm 104:30). So we must believe the Spirit’s Work because the Spirit’s Work cannot be felt or smelled or heard or seen. We must believe the Spirit’s Work because the Spirit’s Work is perceived only by faith (1 Corinthians 2:14) and the Scriptures declare that faith remains convinced of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). We must believe that God the Spirit is at work in this world because Jesus promised that God the Spirit would be at work in this world. When God the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 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. This is good news for us because the unbelieving world is headed to hell in a handbasket. You see it as well as I do. Our parents saw it, too, as did their parents before them. Every other generation in history has seen it, too. Every human being since Adam and Eve has added to it—including you, including me. The entire mass of humanity is a madly rushing river. There is a waterfall up ahead. We have nothing in our power to stop it, to prevent it, or even to slow the pace. That is the work of the Spirit. Today is Pentecost. Stated another way, today is the day we rejoice that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to do what He promised the Holy Spirit would do. “When He comes,” promised Jesus, “He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” What do these Words mean for you and for me? These Words mean that: 1. Your salvation is not about you any more than my salvation is about me. We have been drawn out of the unbelieving world and placed safely into the life of the Church solely by the Work of God the Holy Spirit, and not by our own efforts or doing. God the Spirit did NOT make us His Christians because we are cleaner or holier or more “savable” than others. God the Holy Spirit graciously made us His Christians by plucking us out of the river. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). “God shows His love for us in that, while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). 2. “When the Holy Spirit comes,” says Jesus, “He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” With these Words, Jesus is speaking comfort and peace to you because He knows you feel frustrated and afraid about your unbelieving loved ones. With these Words, Jesus wants you to know that it is not your job to save your unbelieving father; it is not your job to convince your hard-headed brother-in-law; it is not your job to change the mind of your rebellious cousin. Changes of heart and mind in your loved ones are the work of the Holy Spirit through His Word. So take a breath and stop trying to squeeze water out of a stone. Simply speak the divine Word to your unbelieving loved ones—patiently repeat the Christian faith to them—and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work. “He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment,” just as He will create faith and life when and where He wills. 3. And what about this world in which we live, where everything seems to go continually from bad to worse? In our nation alone, strong forces have committed themselves to turning evil things into virtues. Even now, the Supreme Court is trying to decide whether marriage in the United States should redefined, and thus, turned on its ear. We Christians must speak the faith into this dying world. We must, by both our words and our deeds, show our neighbors a better way. But we must also trust God the Holy Spirit to do the heavy lifting, so to speak. Jesus promises in today’s Gospel that the Holy Spirit “will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” I do not know and understand every implication of these Words. At the very least, we may trust these Words to mean that nothing in our God’s creation will move too quickly for our God; nothing will extend beyond our Lord’s ability to seek and to save; nothing will prevent the Spirit’s work. Even if it takes until the Last Day, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 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. Today is Pentecost. Today we rejoice in the Holy Spirit’s Work within the Christian Church on earth, bringing us the forgiveness of sins that Jesus created for us and sustaining us by His powerful Word in the one true faith. Jesus in today’s Gospel wants us to know that the Work of the Spirit is not merely inside the Church. Jesus promises us today that God the Holy Spirit will continually work OUTSIDE the Church as well, convicting the unbelieving world “concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” This, too, is God’s grace. This is good reason for us to hope in God’s mercy through Christ Jesus our Lord. This is reason for us to trust and believe that, even in the decaying world of unbelief, the good and gracious will of God shall be done. We cannot see it because the Spirit’s Work is unseen. Nevertheless, our God always gets His job done. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
