(Based on John 15:26-16:15)
Have you ever been to court? Perhaps Jury duty or as a witness or perhaps as a defendant? Maybe you watch all the crime dramas – I was a big Perry Mason fan back in the day and wanted to be a lawyer. Didn’t have the smarts for that! Or are you into Judge Rinder or Judge Judy or some other ‘reality’ tv court?
I have only been to court once as a witness against a man accused of crimes against children. So it was a serious situation and I was a very nervous individual and not very good at the ‘your honour’ part. The judge, attempting to help me find my voice, commented on the fact I was at university. He asked me how long I had been there? My response was a very honest ‘two days!’ which made the court laugh including himself. Despite all my court room television nothing prepared me for the reality of sitting in Glasgow High Court.
There is a risk in our faith that we think we know it all. We have been through Sunday School, through more sermons than some have had cooked dinners, and read our Bibles front to back. We can believe that our faith is deep but then we find ourselves in the court of secularism and suddenly we are not as prepared as we thought we were. Christian discipleship as Richard Burridge puts it is a journey of life long learning in the guidance of the Spirit of truth.
As I said last week there are a number of words used to describe the Holy Spirit. Paraclete is a common one and is used for legal counsel or advocate. And in this passage we had from John’s Gospel we are in the land of the High Court – not of Glasgow but God’s court. In this passage the Spirit’s role is to prove wrong, convict, reprove – in a manner of speaking to do the work of the cross-examination in a trial.
The question is who are the defendants?
We are. The world. We are the ones being convicted of sin. John always has a spiritual dimension to his text so when he says we are being convicted of a mistake or crime it is sin he is talking about.
The primary role of the Holy Spirit is to convince men and women of their sin and lack of faith in Jesus Christ. It is not about breaking some set of laws but about rejecting Jesus.
If we believe that God sent his Son for us then to reject him is to reject God himself. The theme of this is repeated throughout Scripture, and in particular the following parable came to mind. If you want to read it you can in Luke 20:9 onwards… The parable of the tenants:
In the story it is the religious leaders who walk away crushed – not the ordinary people. We have a choice – do we embrace Jesus or do we reject him? We have to be careful that we don’t use this text to beat up people. Rather it is directed at us because we know Jesus and yet we readily reject him with our selfishness, greed, envy and ignorance. We all have a choice to choose Jesus, but folks have to hear about him first…
Often people believe that God can’t love them for who they are, because they are not good enough.
So secondly, John tells us that the Spirit convicts us of justice or righteousness using once a word Paul uses numerously – dikaisoune. Jesus’ death was not a just condemnation but through it God has his ‘righteousness’ and it is no longer about our ‘worthiness’ or ‘goodness’.
Remember Jesus came into the world – not to condemn it but to save it. We are guilty, we are guilty of condemning an innocent man to death. But through his death all righteousness has been fulfilled. That ultimate rejection of Jesus has been turned around and now the Spirit convinces the world that Jesus’ death is actually judgement against the ruler of this world. Jesus defeats Satan. Only God could do that, and he did that for us. So the Spirit comes to convince the world of the truth of Jesus death and resurrection.
And he does that through us. There is so much that Jesus wants to teach his disciples but they are not ready for it yet. If anything they will learn as they live, and the lives they lead will not be easy. They will miss Jesus and in their grief and sorrow at this they are not able to process any more learning. But the Spirit will guide them, teaching them everything that Jesus and the Father shares. Spirit of truth, indeed the Spirit of wisdom thereby connecting the Old and the New Covenants.
Jesus knew that the disciples would struggle when he left them. All the hatred he had faced would be directed at them. They would be ostracised, put out of the synagogue, seen as trouble makers. And whilst the Spirit convinces the world of its sin and rejection of Christ, the Spirit guides and leads the disciples, and thereby us, to stand firm under hostile questioning and to testify faithfully about Jesus to their persecutors. The Spirit’s ministry to believers is help them not give up their faith when everything around them makes them want to.
The Spirit’s conviction of the world will only happen through us – through our testimony in the course of our mission, which is God’s mission, which is to go into all the world making disciples, teaching to obey everything Jesus gave us, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And so we go full cycle…in order to make disciples, we need to become disciples. And to be disciples we need to accept the Spirit of truth and wisdom, and allow the Spirit to direct our faith. The teaching ministry of the Spirit builds on and develops is the teaching ministry of Jesus himself.
We must accept the fact that at times, this will put us on a collision course with the world. We may be persecuted or shunned, people might think we are goody two shoes or boring, or indeed in some places put us in prison or torture us. There are Christians who face great trouble for their faith.
I suspect the Spirit is convicting the church of her apathy and being lukewarm. Are we still proclaiming Jesus is Lord and able to testify to our faith in word and action..? If the Church was to stand before the Lord with the Holy Spirit as paraclete – advocate, lawyer – what would be said? And remember Revelation is full of churches held to account…let’s grow spiritually. Let’s be disciples. Please.
Jesus said: Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
The Spirit challenges us today not with condemnation but offers us the Spirit of life that will breathe new life in dry old bones. Are you ready?
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