Heyyy all!!!

It’s a super summary all the way until John 16: 5-15. J

Feel free to cut the lesson short to spend time praying with the youths (the lesson is quite long. I apologize). I can imagine their stress and worry levels to be TOO DARN HIGH right about now.

In fact, let them list down their goals and hopes on a piece of paper and pray with each of them for each and every individual subject if possible. We should support them with prayer, as I firmly believe that grades are really God’s grace (seriously). Teaching them to entrust everything to God and really let go is something I hope the youths will learn during this time.


Key point of today’s lesson (John 16:5-15) -
3 Ministries of the Spirit
(Conviction of the world, Enlightenment, Glorification of Jesus)
Lesson adapted and paraphrased from Dr Constable’s notes


John 15:18-26

Recap + Summary of John 15

Jesus had discussed the Father’s unity with the Son, the Son’s unity with His disciples, and the disciples unity with one another earlier.

In v18-26, He addresses the disciples’ relationship to the world. In sum-

1) He warns the disciples that they will be hated by the world. Why? Because the world is evil (John 7:7) and because they choose to follow Jesus, who is not of this world and whom the world rejects. The disciples have been called to live out God’s will and purpose and not live for themselves.

2) Jesus promises the Spirit of truth, which will bear witness that Jesus is the Son of God (which came on the day of Pentecost). This spirit empowers the disciples to testify their long association and intimate knowledge of Jesus. And we are called to do likewise.
John 16

v1-4

Understand that John 15, especially towards the end was kind of like a warning to prepare His disciples. Jesus then explains in v1-4 the reasons why He was telling the disciples these things.

1) To keep us strong in the Faith, that the events won’t take us by surprise (v1)
2) Rejection from the world, even among those who “love God” but never really knew God or Jesus (v2-3)
3) Though the disciples might not understand it now, but when the time comes, they will remember and take heart.

John 16: 5-15
Finally we move out of super summary and head to our focus =D It might help to read the whole thing through once, then read the chunks of verses again as we go through them.

V5-7

The disciples were sad that Jesus was leaving them. Jesus was actually telling them that they don’t know how “good” it would be that He leaves. Well you know the story after that. Plus His death (John 3:16) would also mean the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit (Jer 31:33-34)

V8-9

Here Jesus describes the conviction of the Holy Spirit of sin, God’s righteousness and judgement. Before Pentecost, this conviction comes from the OT and John the Baptist and Jesus and his disciples.


What does “convict” mean?
- Showing someone his or her sin with a view to securing repentance


The Spirit does not just accuse people of sin, but stresses the need for God upon them. This acknowledgement of our sinful nature and understanding of our need for God and Jesus is a prerequisite for salvation (John 3:16). This sin of unbelief is what separates the Christians from the Non-Christians, separates belief in Jesus and the unbelievers.

V10

Righteousness here refers to truly righteous conduct and standing before God, hence “God’s”. Once again, it is different from the inferior standard the world has. The Spirit would convict the world of its false “righteousness” and move them to instead seek out the true righteousness that Jesus provides- the standard for God’s acceptance.

V11

Satan had been judged at the Cross (John 12:31). Since the ruler of the world stands condemned, his children can expect the same treatment unless they believe in Jesus.

V12-13

Well, just understand that the Spirit of Truth is our guide. His words come from the Father, just like Jesus.

V14-15

Interestingly here the Spirit is revealed as the one who will “unpack” the significances of what Jesus had taught and done. Thus the Spirit is the one that reveals the secrets of Jesus’ word and the Bible to us. He convicts us of our sins, guides us on the paths we should walk and also teaches and works in our minds to perceive, understand and teach about the Savior. Think this way- the Spirit is like our tuition teacher, bringing us more indepth into the lessons that our teacher (Jesus) taught and going beyond the syllabus (what is plainly written) to help us understand the subject better. (what a painful analogy. Haha..) But also, the Spirit glorifies Jesus and points people to Jesus.

Therefore, in summary, the Spirit has 3 ministries-
1) Convict the world (v8-11), enlighten the disciples (and also us) (v12-13), and to glorify Jesus (v14-15).