The Great Resignation: Laying Down the Burden of Being the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-11)
Intro
I am the sub this morning.
I did not plan on preaching this morning but God did, in His wisdom. Pastor Michael is suffering under a terrible stomach bug so please be praying for him. I found this out late last night and so only have a few hours of prep under my belt for this sermon; however this message has been prepped for the last few years with a problem that I have seen in our church and especially in my own heart. That was deeply inspired at our Soma National Retreat.
One of the pastors made a statement in one of his sermons that struck my heart and I felt like the Holy Spirit said that we need to preach that sermon to our church. So the initial idea of this came from Hugh Halter but everything else is original to the Gospel of John and to our context.
Why this word?
I love this church family, but let’s be real: being a missional family is flat-out exhausting. When you’re in the trenches of life together—sharing meals and confessing struggles—proximity means you see everything. And when you truly love someone, your "fix-it" mode kicks in the moment you see them making destructive choices. I’ve spent way too many nights thinking, "If I just had a better argument, they’d finally get it". But I was just trying to take on an assignment the Holy Spirit never gave me.
And I know I’m not alone. This is a problem with churches like ours.
The good news is that there is a massive burden many of us are carrying that God never intended us to. I hope this message is freeing for many of us. There are some of us who have no burden and are not participating at all with what the Holy Spirit wants to do in each other and in the world. He wants to put you in the game.
The main point I want the Spirit to impress into our hearts today:
Because it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict and to change, I don't have to. Instead, I can be free of that burden and faithfully partner with Him.
Exposition: What does God Say?
Outline
• Today, we are going to expound John chapter 16.
• Then we will diagnose the hidden idols that make us want to take the Spirit's job or ignore it entirely,
• and we are going to learn how to faithfully partner with Him in our church, our families, and the world.
Context
Jesus is in the Upper Room. He is preparing His disciples for His imminent departure. The disciples are terrified. How will the mission continue without Jesus being there bodily?
To properly understand the Spirit's office of conviction, we must first look at the verse that triggers His arrival. Before we get to the "what," we have to see the "why."
Verse 7: The Necessity of Absence
› "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you."
Jesus starts with a startling claim: His physical absence is actually an advantage for us.
Which seems like the most offensive and absurd statement Jesus could be making to his disciples who are grieving his imminent departure.
But the only way that this statement is a good one is if what comes is better. Jesus not being there means something better for his people. So this helper must be pretty amazing!
What will the helper, who is the Holy Spirit do?
We will look at one piece while the rest of the chapter 16 and 17 will give us more clarity on all the preciousness of the Spirit and all that He will do, but in our passage this morning we're going to look at just one primary function.
› "And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:"
The Spirit will Convict.
This word convict has to do with exposing sin and its guilt.
Theologian D.A. Carson notes that the verb occurs eighteen times in the New Testament, and arguably, in every instance the verb has to do with showing someone his sin, usually as a summons to repentance.
There are three domains the Spirit convicts.
› "concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;"
Who is they?
Probably the world cause the Disciples believe in Jesus.
But what is the relationship Between sin and not believing in Jesus.
If you look at this passage, you would probably assume he would say something like this concerning sin because they are sinners or because they do evil things. What Jesus does is help us get to the heart of sin.
Before sin is judicial or moral, it is relational. When we reject the true King and Savior, we are ultimately rejecting the way to life. The greatest sin is rejecting Jesus and when we reject Jesus all the other sins follow.
True belief throughout the Gospel of John is demonstrated over and over again. It's not just understanding something intellectually but putting the full weight of all your hope and trust in Jesus. With that comes a radical reorientation of everything in your life.
If you are not a Christian in this room, your greatest problem is not that you do bad things (you do and so do I). Your greatest problem is that you are not trusting and surrendering to the rightful King of the universe.
That is the greatest sin.
And may the Holy Spirit, convict you deeply of your unbelief.
Second domain, Verse 10:
› "concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;"
Here, Jesus shifts the subject from "they" (the world) to "I" (Jesus) and "you" (the disciples).
Because Jesus is physically leaving, the Spirit must take over the role of demonstrating what righteousness is.
This is arguably the most complex nuance because "righteousness" is usually a compliment. Here, the Spirit uses it as an indictment.
While Jesus was on earth, He was the visible standard of what a right life looks like. Convicting and showing the religious leaders what true righteousness is.
But if Jesus is not here on the earth physically. How can this righteousness be shown?
The Spirit does it through us!
DA Carson explains, When Christians obey the new commandment, they act as a spotlight that shows the world its own "righteousness" is actually hollow. Our lives, our witness convicts the world.
Third domain, the Final Verdict. Verse 11:
› "concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."
This one is a difficult one to interpret.
Look at the verb tense for "is judged.” It is a perfect-tense verb with the sense of "has been judged and continues in the state resulting from that judgment". The judgment has already happened!
When the world crucified Jesus, it "judged" Him as a criminal. The world thought it was the judge, and Jesus was the defendant. The fundamental idea is that the world has already conducted its trial of Jesus and found him guilty and deserving of death.
But the cross was actually the judgment of the world and its prince, Satan. The "prince of this world" has already lost. He experienced his decisive defeat at the cross—the one that secures and guarantees the final defeat. Satan was stripped of the one weapon that could damn us—the valid accusation of our unforgiven sin. He is disarmed!
Gospel Call
So the Holy Spirit is convicting the world about the coming judgment of Satan and everyone who follows his ways. How do you follow Satan? Most people, unless you are a Satanist Don't actively say that they are following Satan but the way of Satan is rejecting Jesus. Whether you claim it or not, you are following his ways by rejecting Jesus and you will be judged. May the Holy Spirit convict you of this final decisive judgment.
But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus was judged for your rebellion and your rejection. If you put your trust in him and allegiance to him, you will not be rejected on the final day of judgment. You will be claimed as one of God's own. That is a terrible day for many and a joyous day for some.
oh that you would cling to Jesus today and be spared of that judgment!
Repent of your sin, believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ, be baptized, and join this family. We will be baptizing people next Sunday!
How should we now live?
Because it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict and to change, I don't have to. Instead, I can be free of that burden and faithfully partner with Him.
› I want to now address some practical points on why we struggle so much with letting the Holy Spirit do His job.
One of the greatest reasons we struggle with the Holy Spirit's job is our unchecked and unaddressed idolatry.
All of us gravitate towards either trying to take the Holy Spirit's job or not caring about the Holy Spirit's job.
Let's break these down into two categories.
Category 1: Trying to Take the Holy Spirit's Job (Significance & Control)
We lean towards not trusting the Holy Spirit will do the job that we could do, thinking He needs a little extra help from us.
• The Idol of Significance: You feel you must be the ultimate catalyst for someone else's change. If they don't grow, you carry their sin as an indictment of your own worth.
During COVID, God really exposed the idol of significance in me. Though it's still something I have to go to war with on a daily basis. There was a certain member of our church who really struggled with the leadership, and I mean full-on weeping. There was a part of me that felt gratified that I was being a pastor that cared. What I didn't realize at that time was that so many of those tears were for myself; they were self-pity tears because my idol of significance was being challenged. I thought that if I cared enough that I could convince and persuade and help any member if I just had enough meetings, if I just prayed enough. That idol of significance was being challenged because I wasn't enough, and this individual left.
Church, your significance is secured entirely by Christ's finished work, not by your ministry success.
• The Idol of Control: You demand a person's spiritual timeline look exactly the way you think it should. You hover, you become a spiritual micromanager. You treat discipleship like an engineering project rather than farming, where you can water and plant but trust God with the growth.
Category 2: Not Caring About the Holy Spirit's Job (Comfort & Approval)
On the flip side, we often just don't care about other people. We're apathetic. Or we're so fearful of other people that we don't say anything or do anything for others; we're just insular, selfish, never making waves. If you don't care about sin, righteousness, and judgment, then you are not in step with the Spirit. You may be instead worshiping the idol of approval and comfort.
• The Idol of Comfort: You believe true Christian love means keeping the peace at all costs. You watch someone destroy their life and stay silent, masking your passivity with hyper-spiritual language: "I'm just trusting the Spirit".
• The Idol of Approval: You desperately need the person you are confronting to like you. You offer words they want to hear because you want to stay on their good side. You stuff the Spirit’s voice and what you notice happening to them in order to love your self in the name of not hurting them with the truth.
I would also add that sometimes the idol approval can lead us to serve and minister when we shouldn't be in order to get others to approve of us, to like us. It's not done purely out of love but out of seeking approval from others or the community.
Natural objections to all of this:
Objection 1: Doesn't the Spirit use our passionate pleading to convict?
Yes, the Spirit does use our impassioned pleas. But the distinction is in the internal trust of the speaker. Paul persuaded men with great zeal, yet knew that only God gives the growth. We can plead urgently, but we must sleep peacefully.
Objection 2: Paul had "great sorrow and unceasing anguish" for the lost in Romans 9. How can we be non-anxious?
Because there is a profound difference between grieving for someone and trying to control them. Anguish over a brother's sin is a holy, Christ-like sorrow that drives us to intercessory prayer. It only becomes dysfunction when it morphs into a frantic, fleshly attempt to force an outcome.
How do we partner with the Holy Spirit?
How do we practically partner with Him?
Who does he want us to minister to with him?
There are so many needs within the church. So many people to care for and to minister to. There's no shortage of lost people in the world for us to invest into.
Some principles:
Often times this is intuitively answered when it comes to proximity. If you have greater proximity you usually have greater responsibility.
So your biological family and those you live with would get priority and then it builds out from there.
And in our church the way we structured it is that you give your primary focus to your DNA group, then to your missional community, and then to the wider church, in that order. This ensures that nobody falls through the cracks. If everybody does their job within their spheres of proximity, then everyone is cared for, but if we drop the ball on one of these spheres, then other people have to step up.
But there will inevitably be needs in the church that come up. Meal trains, requests for help for serving, moving, discipleship, and counseling.
Before we engage with anyone, we need to ask the Spirit, Is this assignment you have for me or is this for another?
When it comes to non-christians,
Who are the unbelievers you are regularly running into?
And then from that list of people, seek the Holy Spirit for clarity on who you should especially invest and spend time with.
but then, How do we know what to engage in?
we need to pray through three questions regularly, and the more you do, the quicker they will be:
1. Should this be said?
2. Should this be said by me?
3. Should this be said by me right now?
Remember, the Holy Spirit sees all the things that need to be changed in any of us. We tend to prioritize whatever we notice or whatever especially bothers or inconveniences us. Part of the mastery of Christian discipleship and community is learning how to partner with what the Holy Spirit is doing in that season, rather than assuming whatever you want to change is His season.
When you do engage in something, whether that is sharing a word or proclaiming the gospel, i’ve heard it put from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones that we should
Think of ourselves as a postman.
Our duty is to deliver the letter accurately and on time. A mail carrier is not a failure if the recipient reacts poorly to the news inside the envelope.
Similarly, the Christian's job is faithful delivery of the truth. Name the sin clearly and biblically. Once the words are spoken, mentally hand the person over to the Holy Spirit, saying:
"Lord, I have faithfully delivered the mail. Now, I step back so You can work. I am not the Savior.".
Let's apply this freedom to three specific areas of our lives because many of us are carrying burdens we don’t have to!
Three Spheres the Spirit is at work in
1. Trying to be the Holy Spirit in the Church
1. Trying to be the Holy Spirit in the Church In our close-knit family, we have to lay down the idol of control and trust God on the longer journey He takes us all on. We desperately want the quick fix. We want the overnight breakthrough. But we cannot rush His process! Remember, spiritual growth is like farming, not building a house. You can plant the seed, you can water it, but you cannot scream at a seed to make it grow faster. God is the one who builds and grows.
If someone you love is deeply entrenched in their sin and they are simply not ready to hear the truth, you have to trust that God will make them ready in His perfect timing. You cannot push them. You cannot force a spiritual awakening through brute force. And here is the really hard, agonizing pastoral truth: sometimes, they need to hit rock bottom. Sometimes, God’s severe mercy means letting them exhaust their own strength. If you are constantly keeping them from the consequences of their sin because you are anxious, you might actually be getting in the Holy Spirit's way. Sometimes the most loving, faithful thing you can do is deliver the truth clearly, step back, and let them feel the full, crushing weight of their choices.
You let them hit rock bottom, knowing that the Spirit of God is already at the bottom waiting for them.
You trust the long journey, because God is a much better Savior than you are.
1 Corinthians 5:5 ESV
5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
The church establishes the boundary; the Spirit does the saving.
Resign yourself from being the Holy Spirit to the church.
2. Trying to be the Holy Spirit in our Families
Husbands, wives—how often do we try to play the Holy Spirit in our spouse's life?
We subtly, or sometimes not so subtly, try to mold them, critique them, and manage them into the "perfect spouse." But if we are brutally honest with ourselves, our intense, burning desire for them to change usually has very little to do with God's ultimate desires for their holiness, and everything to do with our own convenience.
We want them to be better for us. We want them to communicate differently, help out more, or react the way we want them to, so we use emotional leverage, nagging, the silent treatment, and pressure to force a change. We treat our spouse like a remodeling project instead of a fellow heir of the grace of life.
We forget that the Holy Spirit is the one who does the convicting, convincing, and the changing. We must speak the truth in love to our spouses, yes, but we have to release the exhausting need to control their growth and change.
And parents, we do the exact same thing with our children.
We forget the Holy Spirit is the one that does the convicting, convincing, and the changing.
So often I've tried to accomplish what the Holy Spirit seemed to fail to do by raising my voice or creating intense consequences in order to elicit a change. We use emotional leverage and pressure. But Jesus says, the Spirit alone exposes the heart. Speak the truth, discipline consistently, but release the desperate need to control their growth or change.
Resign yourself from being the Holy Spirit to your family.
3. Trying to be the Holy Spirit to the World
You cannot save anyone! Your job is not to out-debate a skeptic or make a convert. The promise that "He will convict the world" gives us incredible hope that many who are in "the world" and currently opposed to Jesus will not be part of the world forever, but will repent of their sins and believe in Christ!
Your duty is the joyful, unburdened proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. You are a signpost pointing to Jesus. You’re just the mail man!
Resign yourself from being the Holy Spirit to the world in evangelism.
Are you exhausted and overburdened this season?
it is very possible that you have taken on assignments the Holy Spirit never entrusted you with
As it has been famously said by the Missionary Hudson Taylor,
“The Lord's work done in the Lord's way will never lack the Lord's resources.” - Hudson Taylor
The flip side of that is also true….
Trying to do His work in not His ways will lack His resources of energy, joy, and power.
We: Imagine
Church family, imagine what our church would be like if we really believed and applied this passage. Imagine a missional family where we truly Love His Family by speaking the bold truth about sin, but doing it with profound peace and trust.
Imagine being married or parenting without nagging, without anger, without raising our voices or relying on intense consequences.
Imagine an environment where we are radically honest with each other, yet completely non-anxious, because we have handed the heavy lifting back to the Holy Spirit. It wouldn't feel like constant surveillance; it would feel like joyful companionship. We would no longer burn out, because we would finally be carrying the yoke Jesus actually gave us.
Jesus Conclusion: Glory in Christ as the Conclusion
Whenever you feel crushed by the weight of someone else's spiritual journey, look at the ascended Christ. He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is not pacing the floors of heaven wondering if your arguments are going to save your neighbor, your spouse, or your child. He has sent the Helper! He has judged the ruler of this world, He has established eternal righteousness, and He is drawing His people to Himself.
Because it's the Holy Spirit's job to convict and to change, I don't have to. Name your idols, repent of them, hand the heavy lifting back to the Spirit, and return to the joyful, unburdened duty of simply loving people and pointing them to the glorious, finished work of Jesus Christ.
Page . Exported from Logos Bible Study, 2:08 PM March 17, 2026.