Scripture referenced 10 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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John 16:5-11 main text for the sermon, Jesus speaking about the Holy Spirit convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment
5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
6 But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he has come, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment;
9 about sin, because they don’t believe in me;
10 about righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you won’t see me any more;
11 about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
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Keep this verse
Isaiah 40:8
quoted in the opening prayer: the grass withers, the flowers fall, but God's word stands forever
8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.”
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Acts 2:36-37
Peter filled with the Holy Spirit tells the crowd God made Jesus both Lord and Christ, people are cut to the heart and ask what to do
36 “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
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John 8:23
Jesus says you are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not
23 He said to them, “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.
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John 8:46
Jesus asks the Pharisees if any of them can prove him guilty of sin
46 Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
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1 Peter 3:18
Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God
18 Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
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Matthew 16
Peter's confession: you are the Christ, the Son of the living God
1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
2 But he answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’
3 In the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can’t discern the signs of the times!
4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will be no sign given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” He left them, and departed.
5 The disciples came to the other side and had forgotten to take bread.
6 Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 They reasoned among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.”
8 Jesus, perceiving it, said, “Why do you reason among yourselves, you of little faith, ‘because you have brought no bread?’
9 Don’t you yet perceive, neither remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up?
10 Nor the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up?
11 How is it that you don’t perceive that I didn’t speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
12 Then they understood that he didn’t tell them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
13 Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 They said, “Some say John the Baptizer, some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
18 I also tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
19 I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.”
20 Then he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.
21 From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.
22 Peter took him aside, and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This will never be done to you.”
23 But he turned, and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.”
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.
26 For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?
27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds.
28 Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste of death, until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”
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John 8:44
Jesus calls Satan a murderer from the beginning, a liar and the father of lies
44 You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
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Romans 8:1
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
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1 Corinthians 11
Paul's account of the Lord's Supper, used to introduce communion
1 Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.
3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.
5 But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved.
6 For if a woman is not covered, let her hair also be cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or be shaved, let her be covered.
7 For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.
8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man;
9 for man wasn’t created for the woman, but woman for the man.
10 For this cause the woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels.
11 Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord.
12 For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God.
13 Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled?
14 Doesn’t even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?
15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.
16 But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God’s assemblies.
17 But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.
18 For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it.
19 For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.
20 When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
21 For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.
22 What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.
23 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.
24 When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.”
25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.
29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.
30 For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.
31 For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged.
32 But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
33 Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The pastor opened in John 16:5-11, where Jesus tells his grieving disciples that his departure is actually for their benefit, because it makes way for the Holy Spirit to come and live inside them. He focused on three specific convictions the Holy Spirit produces: conviction of sin, conviction of Christ's righteousness, and conviction of judgment. Those three convictions, he argued, are the marks of a genuine work of the Spirit in a person's life.
What was said
Jesus is speaking to disciples who are simply sad. They know their teacher and Lord is leaving, and they cannot see past the loss. The pastor pointed to verse seven, where Jesus tells them plainly that his going away is for their good, because only then will the Holy Spirit come, not to be with them but to live inside them. That, he said, is actually a closer presence than the disciples had enjoyed walking alongside Jesus.
The first conviction the Spirit produces is conviction of sin. The pastor was direct about this: yes, the Spirit came so that we would feel the weight of our guilt. He read from Acts 2, where Peter's Spirit-filled preaching cut the crowd to the heart and they cried out, asking what they should do. The pain of that conviction, he said, is not the end of the story. It is what prompts us to confess and repent, to get out from under a weight we cannot carry ourselves.
The second conviction is conviction of righteousness, and he was careful to name whose righteousness is in view. It is not ours. The Spirit presses on us the truth that Christ is genuinely from heaven, that he was without sin, and that he died, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. Peter's confession in Matthew 16, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," was held up as an example of the Spirit revealing that truth to a person.
The third conviction is conviction of judgment. Jesus identifies the prince of this world, Satan, as one who now stands condemned. The pastor used John 8:44 to fill in who that figure is and what he does: he is a liar and the father of lies, and one of his chief lies is that there is no coming judgment. The Spirit's work is to make the reality of that future judgment known to us.
He then brought Romans 8:1 to bear on all three points. Satan stands condemned, but those who are in Christ Jesus do not. The same Spirit who convicts us of sin and shows us Christ's righteousness also assures us that we share no condemnation with the enemy. That assurance, he said, is not gloomy news but good news, because it is an invitation to respond.
The service moved into communion at that point, which the pastor framed as the natural response to everything the text had laid out. Taking the bread and the cup together is a way of acknowledging the Spirit's conviction of sin, receiving the truth of Christ's righteousness, and proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes again. He invited people to use that time to examine themselves honestly before God, asking whether these three convictions have truly taken hold in their lives.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Scott described the Holy Spirit's conviction of sin as painful but necessary, comparing it to the weight of a heavy backpack on a hard climb. Have you experienced that kind of conviction, and what did it feel like to get out from under that weight?
- Pastor Scott said there cannot be conversion without conviction of sin, and he challenged everyone to ask whether that conviction was genuinely part of their own conversion experience. How would you describe that part of your story?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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