#DailyDevotion Jesus Fulfills His Promise To Send The Holy Spirit

John 15:26–27; 16:4b–12 ²⁶“When the Comforter comes, Whom I’ll send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He’ll tell the truth about Me. ²⁷And you, too, tell the truth, because you’ve been with Me from the beginning.” . . .⁴…I didn’t tell you this at first, because I was with you. ⁵Now I’m going to Him Who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, Where are You going? ⁶But because I told you this, you are very sad. ⁷But I tell you the truth, it’s good for you that I go away. ⁸If I don’t go away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I go, I’ll send Him to you. ⁹He will come and convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment: of sin because they don’t believe in Me; ¹⁰of righteousness because I’m going to the Father and you won’t see Me anymore; ¹¹of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.

Before Jesus departs from his disciples (and this is before his crucifixion) he comforts them with the witness concerning the Holy Spirit. Jesus is not leaving them alone. He is going to send the Comforter, the Spirit of truth. Now this won’t be for another ten days after his ascension, where he departs visibly from us. Yet the Church places this here in the lectionary for Pentecost Sunday so we may be reminded of what Jesus said here. On this we are reminded that what Jesus had promised it has come to pass.

Now the Nicene Creed we confess the Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son.  Here Jesus says he will send (pempw) the Spirit who proceeds (ekporeuomai) from the Father. Now some may want to make a lot of hay about this, particularly our eastern brothers who only confess the procession from the Father. The Western church added this in the council of Toledo 6^th century whereas the Nicene-Constantinople creed was formed from two councils in the 4^th century. We simply in this short devotion are not going to dive deep into this controversy. Suffice it to say, When we confess the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, we are confessing the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, God of God, Light of Light, one in being and essence with the Father. At least in the Greek New Testament, the terms had not yet taken on technical meaning for Christians or Greeks.

Jesus ascends to the right hand of God and from there he sends to us, his Church, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. He comes to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin because they don’t believe in Jesus. This is the root sin of man from whence all other sins come forth. Whatever sins men may commit, not believing in God’s only begotten son is the worst. He convicts the world of righteousness because Jesus goes to the Father. From the Father Jesus gives us his righteousness which covers up our sin and is credited to us when we believe in him. He convicts the world of judgment because the ruler of this world (Satan) has been judged. Satan has been kicked out of heaven and can no longer accuse us before God anymore. He cannot prevent us from believing in Jesus and receiving Jesus’ life.

So it is good Jesus departs from us visibly so he can send the Holy Spirit who through the word does these things. We are able to repent of our unbelief, believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and stand before our Father in heaven boldly knowing the Father’s great love for us. This is the Spirit’s work and not our own. He makes us through this work one with the Father and the Son.

Heavenly Father, continually send to us the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name so we may repent and believe and his life in his name. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.