The Preaching of the Holy Spirit
Cantate Sunday (Confirmation)| John 16:5-15| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| May 18, 2025
It is common for people to speak about God without specifying which god they mean. But not all gods are the same. The god worshipped in Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism did not send Jesus Christ to die for our sins. These religions deny that Jesus is God and that He died to take away our sins and rose again. Yet, our Lord Jesus tells us that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) And St. Peter confesses of Jesus, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) And so, if we are to talk about the one true God, we must talk of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who is equal to the Father in divinity, and who suffered and died for our sins and rose again on the third day.
Yet, there is another person in the Holy Trinity whose name is even more neglected than Jesus’ name. And that is the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus calls, the Paraclete, that is, the Comforter or Helper, the very Spirit of Truth, who leads us into all truth. The Holy Spirit is true God along with the Father and the Son. As you cannot come to the Father without going through the Son Jesus Christ, so you cannot come to Christ without the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus says that it is to our advantage that He go away, because if He goes away, He will send us the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit will give us everything Jesus intends to give us. Indeed, the Holy Spirit will bring us to Jesus.
St. James says that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17). Every good thing the Father gives us is for Jesus’ sake. And everything God gives us, He gives us through the Holy Spirit. So, if you want that which is good from God, you need the Holy Spirit! But how does the Holy Spirit come to us? The Holy Spirit comes to us through the Word of God. The Holy Spirit uses God’s Word to give us all good things. St. James says that God brought us forth by the Word of Truth. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth. And St. Paul says that the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). And this is very important to understand. There is no salvation apart from faith in Jesus Christ. And there is no faith in Jesus Christ apart from the Holy Spirit; no new birth, no forgiveness, no salvation. And the Holy Spirit works through God’s Word.
November will soon make a vow to continue steadfast in this faith, by the grace of God, even to death. How will she do that? Through the work of the Holy Spirit, who works through God’s Word. Like a carpenter working with tools, so the Holy Spirit works through God’s Word and Sacraments to create and preserve faith in Jesus Christ in our hearts. If you want to be close to God the Father, you must go through Jesus Christ. And if you are to go through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit must guide you. And the Holy Spirit guides us through God’s Word.
When we speak of God’s Word, we speak of the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God. The Holy Spirit caused the holy prophets and apostles to write the Bible (2 Peter 1:21), so that St. Paul calls the Bible God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), and Jesus says that Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35), and that it teaches the way of eternal life (John 5:39). The Holy Spirit caused Holy Scripture to be written, so that we might know Jesus Christ. To know Jesus Christ is to have eternal life.
So, when Jesus tells us that the Spirit of Truth will guide us in all truth, He means that the Holy Spirit would cause the Apostles to write the Scriptures of the New Testament and that He would continue to guide His Church through the preaching of God’s Word based on Holy Scripture. Any preaching that is not based on Holy Scripture cannot be trusted. But when preaching is founded on the Bible, we trust that the Holy Spirit is working through that Word to create faith, forgive sins, and give us everything Christ has won for us.
This is why we pledge in our Confirmation to faithfully hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper, because through these means the Holy Spirit guides us in all truth. If we do not hear the preaching of the Holy Spirit, then Satan, the world, and our sinful flesh will preach to us. It is not a matter of listening to preaching or not listening to preaching. You will listen to preaching. It is a matter of which preaching you will listen to. Satan is a preacher. The world is his pulpit. And your sinful flesh has itching ears to hear him. This is why the Holy Spirit preaches to the whole world and convicts it of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He preaches to every soul to combat Satan’s lies. When the Holy Spirit preaches about sin, righteousness, and judgment, He is correcting the false preaching of Satan in this world.
Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, because they do not believe in Him. This is a direct refutation of what the world thinks sin is. Now, the world has launched a full-on assault against the Ten Commandments. There is not a single commandment that the world does not justify breaking. The murder of unborn babies breaks the Fifth Commandment. Sex outside of marriage and other forms of sexual immorality break the sixth. Theft is defended as long as it appears right. Slander is defended if you think its true. And the list goes on. Yet, Jesus doesn’t mention these sins, but rather says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, because they do not believe in Him. How is that? Because Christ Jesus died for all the sins of the whole world. Everyone’s sins were laid upon Him and He paid for them, so that whoever believes in Jesus is freed from guilt and sin. The only damnable sin has become unbelief, because Jesus died for all sins.
This infuriates the world. The world hates it when Christians point out its sins for which Jesus died. Yet, the world and Satan hate nothing more than saying that refusing to believe in Christ is a sin. “But I’m a good person! Are you saying that if I’m a good person, but I don’t believe in Jesus, I’m going to hell?” To say that not believing in Jesus is the worst sin offends them, because they think it is a little thing to disbelieve in Jesus. And what is worse, many liberal protestant churches as well as the Roman Catholic Church have given in to this protest from the world. They now teach that if a person is a good person, if he does his best, he can be saved even if he does not believe in Jesus. And so, many who call themselves Christians say that one does not need to believe in Jesus to be saved.
Yet, the Holy Spirit calls this the only damnable sin! Christ has taken away all other sins. And this shows how the world does not understand righteousness. Righteousness means to be good and right before God. The world thinks that its works make it righteous. So much so, that every religion invented by man teaches that we are saved by our works. But Scripture says that our righteous works are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). And everything done without faith is sin (Hebrews 11:6; Romans 14:23). So, the world thinks that it can be righteous by its works, but if its works are sins, then it thinks it can be righteous by sinning! That is like trying to clean up mud by spreading it around! It won’t work!
Yet, Jesus says that that Holy Spirit will convict the world of righteousness, because He goes to the Father, that is, because Christ Jesus will suffer and die for the sins of the whole world and ascend to sit at the right hand of the Father. This shows us what true righteousness is. Righteousness is not found in our sinful works, but in Christ Jesus. Jesus was perfectly obedient under the Law. Jesus perfectly paid for our sins. So, now righteousness is not found here on earth through our works, but at the right hand of God the Father, where Christ pleads for us. This is why St. Paul says of his own righteous works that he counts them all as rubbish, that he might gain Christ, and be found in Him not having a righteousness of his own that comes from the law, but that righteousness which comes through faith in Christ (Philippians 3:8-9).
And so, the only sin is unbelief, because Christ Jesus has taken all sins away. And faith in Jesus is righteousness, because Christ gives us His righteousness as a gift. Unbelief is not the only sin because faith is a great good work. Unbelief is the only sin, because only through faith can we receive Christ’s righteousness as a gift.
Finally, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. The ruler of this world is Satan, who preaches wrongly about sin and righteousness to this world. Because Christ is true and Satan is a liar, the Holy Spirit condemns Satan and his false preaching. Everyone in league with Satan, that is, everyone who believes Satan’s lies and rejects Christ will be judged with Satan. However, those who believe in Jesus will not be judged for their sins, but rather will be declared righteous for Christ’s sake, who has gone to the Father having paid for all sins with His blood.
The Holy Spirit is a preacher. He will be preaching and convicting the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment until Christ returns to judge the living and the dead. The Holy Spirit carries out this convicting of the world through the preaching of Christ. Jesus said that whoever confesses Him before man, He too will confess before His Father in heaven. And St. Paul says that with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Romans 10:10). And so, when the Holy Spirit convicts the world, we who believe in Christ do not remain silent. Rather, the Holy Spirit convicts the world through our voices too!
To convict the world sounds harsh. And for those who refuse to believe, it is harsh. As Jesus says in John 12, “The one who rejects Me and does not receive My words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” (vs. 48) Yet, to convict the world is also a wonderful joy! Because when we confess Christ, we convict the world of righteousness. The only way you can be a Christian and be saved is if the Holy Spirit convicts you of righteousness by proclaiming that Jesus went to the Father by way of the cross for your sake. And so, everyone whom the Holy Spirit convicts of righteousness and who believes it has everlasting life!
And so, as the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth, so we confess the truth with hope that others will be convicted of righteousness through Christ, so that they too may be saved. May God the Holy Spirit convict us always of Christ’s righteousness, and may He speak through us to others, so that many may be saved. Amen.