The Holy Spirit is truly Amazing. The Holy Spirit is God and has all the attributes of God, but the way He interacts with our life is in such a deeply personal and “pouring into” fashion, that He truly reshapes our lives to make us into something and someone we could not be otherwise.
Our passage today discusses the special job that the Holy Spirit holds to “prove the world to be wrong.” Furthermore, it goes on to explain this is specifically in the areas of sin, righteousness and judgment. But what does mean?
In this regard, I think of the Holy Spirit as our perfect coach. First He convicts us and teaches us about doing the right thing. What is the right thing? It is the opposite of the wrong thing. The wrong thing is sin. It is “doing” in all ways, in actions, in words, in thoughts. He not only shows us what is sin, but more vitally, He teaches and coaches us to not sin, to do the right things.
Doing the right things is a good step, but it is not enough. Every coach knows, it is not practice that improves, it is proper practice that improves. Doing the right thing the wrong way is not going to make you better at a sport, at life or at eternal life. The Holy Spirit shows us that our “righteousness”, the way we think we are doing right and that right is “good enough”, is wrong. He coaches us to put our trust not in our own wits and strengths and talents, but in “the Word.”
In football, a player who trains hard, runs the perfect pattern, catches the perfect pass, perfectly dodges the tacklers and remains on his feet while running at top speed finds that it is all for nothing if he is not also going the correct direction. The Holy Spirit coaches us not only in the areas of sin (right things), righteousness (right way), but also judgment (right path). We are all on a path to judgment, just as a football player is on a path to an end-zone, whichever direction he goes.
In the chaos of life, it can become challenging to know which path is the right path. We can easily get focused on just doing right things. We can lock ourselves away to attempt to avoid temptation. We can also easily get focused just on doing things the right way. We can dedicate day and night to our own spiritual feeding, to taking in the word and memorizing it. Neither of these things are bad or wrong at times, but we need the Holy Spirit to remind and guide us to the finish line. That finish line may not be all about us. Our goal line may be about bringing someone else to faith. Our goal line may be about strengthening the faith of another. Our goal line may not involve words, but the kind act that we did to show someone the love of Jesus. Every day we may have the opportunity to cross another goal line, not for our glory but for His.
My Answers:
3.
a.
He would send the Holy Spirit to them (also, they would be saved from the consequences of sin through His redemptive sacrifice)
b.
As today because He is fully glorified through the sacrifice that He made. I have Jesus in me and He is simultaneously in millions of others, where at that time He was physically bound to one place and time.
4.
Sin: Convicts the world of the darkness of sin – all have sinned despite denial
Righteousness: To convict that our “righteous acts” are insufficient and incomplete
Judgment: A call to repent and open eyes to the path on which we tread – a path of sin
The Notes are Good 