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John 16:5-15
Our lesson points out the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul Fritz recounts a story that H.A. Ironside tells about the work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life:
“On the Lord’s day a group of missionaries and believers in New Guinea were gathered together to observe the Lord’s Supper. After one young man sat down, a missionary recognized that a sudden tremor had passed through the young man’s body that indicated he was under a great nervous strain. Then in a moment all was quiet again.
“The missionary whispered, ‘What was it that troubled you?’ ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘but the man who just came in killed and ate the body of my father. And now he has come in to remember the Lord with us. At first I didn’t know whether I could endure it. But it is all right now. He is washed in the same precious blood.’ And so together they had communion. It is a marvelous thing, the work of the Holy Spirit of God. Does the world know anything of this?”
The Holy Spirit not only brings people to know Jesus Christ as their Savior, but He also helps us to live like Him. Whether we realize it or not, all people need to be set free from sin. Christ has done all the work necessary for our salvation. Many believers see salvation as something that only Jesus does for us, so they do not understand the role of the Holy Spirit in our salvation. In John 16:5-15, we see the truth in Christ Jesus and the role the Holy Spirit plays in revealing the truth about Him.
In John 16:5-7, we see that the Counselor is sent. On the night of His arrest, Jesus told His disciples that it was to their benefit that He leave because He would send the Counselor to them. As followers of Jesus, we need to understand that even though we do not have Jesus with us physically, we are not at a disadvantage. Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to be with us all the time.
John 16:8-11 points out that, without the Holy Spirit, we would not know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The Holy Spirit leads the believer to live rightly before God. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin so we can be set free from the guilt of sin. We don’t have to live under guilt any longer.
In John 16:12-15, the Holy Spirit guides us to see and understand the truth, and He always points us to Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who leads us to understand the work of God, and He points us to Jesus as our only Savior.
Jesus explained that He must leave and go to the Father so the Holy Spirit would come to dwell in the lives of His followers. It was good for Jesus to leave so we would always have the Holy Spirit with us on into eternity.
Dinkins– Lessons in the BSL series for the summer quarter are being written by David Dinkins, pastor of First Baptist Church, Kingstree, and former director of missions.