The Holy Spirit
John 15:26-27
Introduction
If there was one thing that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions in the world it is what we believe about the nature of God. Specifically, that God is a Triune God. This is the most controversial, and admittedly, confusing point for an onlooker. It baffles the polytheist who believes in many gods. But, it enrages the non-Christian monotheist who believes in one God.
Because of the uniqueness of this teaching, often times Christians are accused of believing in 3 gods, but, this is not so. The Bible teaches that there is one God and that there is no other God than that one God. The words of Deuteronomy 6:4 say, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” And in the NT, we read in Romans chapter 3, “There is only one God who is the God of the Jew and of the Gentile.” And then again in 1 Tim 2:5 Paul says, “For there is one God”. The Bible emphasizes that God is one God.
And yet, at the same time It declares God to be one, the Bible does not hesitate in teaching that the one God is in fact 3 distinct Persons. Those Persons are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All are distinct, and, all are equally God. All possess the same quality of Deity and Godhood, and none are any less God than the others. This is key: They are the one God. If I could paraphrase one author, “there are 3 equal Persons standing forth as One God, not 3 gods.”
In John’s Gospel we have seen the overwhelming focus on the Son, Jesus Christ. He is the 2nd Person of the Triune God. And as we come to our passage we now see Him, 2nd Person of the Triune God, teaching us about the 3rd Person of the Triune God.
The Holy Spirit is the 3rd Person of the Trinity. He is called by several titles in the Bible, some of which we’ve seen in this Gospel already. He is called, “The Holy Spirit” and “the Counselor” or “Helper” (14:16; 15:26), “the Spirit of Truth” (14:17), “The Spirit of God” (Rom 8:14), “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom 8:9), or simply “the Spirit” (John 16:15).
If there is one thing we must understand it is that the Holy Spirit is a Person. Many mistakes have been made about the Holy Spirit’s nature. He is not an ambiguous cosmic force, or an impersonal spiritual fog. He is not some unidentifiable influence in or on the cosmos. He is not simply a personification of some active force within the world. He is not a virtue or energy flowing from God to man. He is not simply a manifestation of the grace of the Father or the activity of God. He is not the 3rd mode of God.
The Bible teaches that He is a Person. How do we see this? First of all, the Bible uses personal pronouns when referring to the Holy Spirit. The Bible says “He” and “Him”, never “it” or “that”.
Secondly, He has intelligence. He has a mind and knows things and is able to teach what He knows. As God His knowledge is perfect.
Thirdly, He has feelings like a person. He can be grieved by the sinful actions of believers (Eph 4:30).
Fourthly, He has a will. He directs the activities of Christians and chooses which spiritual gifts to give to different Christians.
Fifthly, His actions show He is a person. He guides us into truth, He convicts us of sin, He performs miracles, and He intercedes in prayer to the Father for us.
Sixthly, the way He can be treated shows that He is a person. He can be obeyed or lied to or resisted or blasphemed or insulted. These don’t make sense with an impersonal force.
The Bible clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person, the Divine 3rd Person of the Triune God. To think of Him as anything else is to believe against the Bible.
Now it’s important to note what Jesus was speaking about previously. Jesus is leaving the world. In chapter 15 He was warning His disciples of the hostile, hate-filled world that was going to persecute them after He was gone. We also see that after these two verses in chapter 16, Jesus is going to speak again about the world’s hatred for them. Every time Jesus speaks to the disciples about the Spirit it is always closely tied with His warning them of things to come after He is gone.
[Quote Homer Kent, pg 185]This is significant to notice because we see that Jesus is teaching them the Holy Spirit is the key to living and ministering effectively in the hostile world without Jesus around. The key is to have another just like Him with them. The Holy Spirit is going to pick up where Jesus left off and bring new dimensions to Christian living and ministering.
I want us to divide up these 2 verses into 3 sections: 1) Waiting for the Holy Spirit, 2) the Work of the Holy Spirit, and, 3) The Witness of the Apostles.
Waiting for the Holy Spirit (26a)
First of all, notice Jesus teaches them about Waiting for the Holy Spirit. The first few words of verse 26 says, “WHEN the Counselor comes…”
This waiting meant that the Holy Spirit was coming in the future. At that point while Jesus was teaching them, the Holy Spirit had not yet come to them. Jesus explains in chapter 16:7, “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” As long as Jesus was in the world with His disciples, the Holy Spirit would not come to them.
But, Jesus was only going to be in the world a little longer. The disciples did not have to wait long for the promise of the Holy Spirit to be fulfilled. He was going to be crucified in a matter of hours. Then He would be in the grave for 3 days and afterwards rise from the dead. Then He would spend 40 days on the earth with His disciples before ascending to heaven and sitting down at the right hand of the Father. Then, one week later, 50 days after John 15, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would come as Jesus promised. If you turn over to Acts 2 let’s read the record of that day. (Read Acts 2)
Now, you might ask the question, “If the Holy Spirit is God, and God is everywhere, then how come He wasn’t with the disciples before Pentecost?” That’s a great question. The answer is that the Holy Spirit was always with the disciples. But not in the way that Jesus was speaking of here. He said to the disciples in 14:17, “…you know the Holy Spirit, for He lives with you and He will be in you.” Although the Spirit was currently with them, Jesus said, notice that last part, “He will be in you.” Jesus speaks to the present relationship they have with the Spirit, mainly that the Spirit is with them. But, then He speaks of the future relationship they will have with the Spirit, that He will actually live in them. That’s what they had to look forward to.
What Jesus was talking about was a totally new relationship with the Spirit that no man had ever known before. The Spirit would come and live in them. This was radical. This was entirely unimaginable to a Jew in the OT. In the OT He is said to come upon certain individuals at certain times for special purposes. Occasionally He would even be “in” someone. But all these occurrences were temporary, and, not universal for all of God’s people by any means. Never could a man in the OT expect to receive the Spirit in himself and have the Spirit forever. This is what we have today. “
You have to understand that this is what constitutes the Church. The Church is the community of people in this world who have the Holy Spirit living in them. Illustration: The players are the team, not the stadium, and as players they get a uniform to wear. It’s not people sitting in a building that makes the Church, it’s the Holy Spirit inside of the people that makes the Church. And without being irreverent, you might say the uniform everyone gets when they’re on the team.
Do not mistake me - everyone does not have the Holy Spirit in them. I’ve heard people, even professing believers talk about God living in people. That is false. The Holy Spirit only lives in people who have received Jesus Christ as their Savior. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16 to Christians, “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” A couple chapters later in 6:19 Paul says again, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
In John 15 Jesus told the disciples they had to wait. When do we receive the Spirit today? Do we have to wait? You only have to wait if you haven’t believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. If your sins are not forgiven, and you have not placed your trust in Christ for salvation, then you will have to wait as long as you are unwilling to trust Him. Paul says in Ephesians 1:13, “And you also were included in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit”. We receive the Holy Spirit the moment we put our trust in Jesus for our salvation. When Jesus hears a man call on His Name for the salvation of His soul, Jesus from His seat in Heaven asks the Father and sends the Holy Spirit forth from the Father to come down and begin living in that man forever.
Jesus told the disciple they had to wait for the Spirit. Today, Jesus is waiting to give you the Spirit. He’s waiting for you to put your faith in Him so He can pour His Spirit into you.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
So first there is the Waiting for the Holy Spirit, and second, there is the Work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in verse 26 that the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of truth that goes out from the Father” and “He will testify about me”.
The work Jesus is speaking of here is to testify. The Holy Spirit’s ministry will be to bear witness of Christ. He won’t testify about political reform, social activism, or psychological fulfillment. Jesus says the Spirit will come and testify about ME. The Spirit will testify to the disciples. In John 14:26 Jesus tells them the Spirit “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” But the Spirit will also testify to the world of who Christ is. In Matthew 10:19-20 Jesus says to them again, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not e you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
The Spirit is going to come, and when He comes He is going to testify about Christ. But, the totality of what the Spirit is coming to do is to glorify Christ. Jesus says in 16:14 that the Holy Spirit “will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” The ministry of Christ was to glorify the Father and the ministry of the Spirit is going to be to glorify Christ. All ministry of the Holy Spirit produces Christ-glorifying results. Whether it is in speaking, living, singing, helping, loving, preaching, or teaching, always the ultimate outcome of these is the glory of Christ if the Spirit is at work. Charles Ryrie makes the excellent point that if Christ is not glorified, then the Spirit is not ministering.
The Spirit will lead men to the truth that is in Christ Jesus because He is the Spirit of truth, and He only speaks the truth. The result of His work is proven at the time when a man sees the truth of who Christ is, and gives Christ glory as a result of seeing. When men do not glorify Christ it is because men do not see Christ. There is an absence of the ministry of the Spirit in that man. He remains blind.
Furthermore, men who are already in Christ, He will direct them further into the deeper truths of Christ and mature their character more and more into Christ’s character. Because the aim of the Spirit is the glory of Christ, someone who has the Spirit, then, will also be aiming their life to the glory of Jesus Christ. And over time, the capacity and the measure of glory for Christ that comes from that man grows as the Spirit continues working in Him.
The Witness of the Disciples (27)
Thirdly there is the Holy Spirit and the Disciple’s Witness. Verse 27 says, “And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”
The witness of the Holy Spirit to the disciples for Jesus Christ was going to cause them to witness to the world for Jesus Christ. The in-working of the Holy Spirit in testifying to the disciples will result in the out-workings of their own witness of Christ to the world. The Spirit will remind them of what Christ said, teach them truth, and power them to be witnesses in the face of a world that is going to attack them for their witness.
These 2 verses are sandwiched between 2 sections dealing with the hostility of the world. Jesus warns the disciples that they will be hated in the world in the preceding passage, verses18-25, and then again in the following section, 16:1-11. The disciples were going to be surrounded by the hatred of the world. They would need the Holy Spirit in order to be witnesses and bear witness for Christ to the hostile world around them.
This is another reference to the great commission given to Christ’s disciples. They were to go and testify of Christ. In Acts 1:8 we read the very last words that the disciples heard from Jesus right before He was taken up from the earth “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Then again in Matthew 28:19 we find Jesus saying to them , “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
The course of their lives had changed forever and what they were was long gone. They now existed for the sole purpose of making Christ known to the world. Jesus came and testified of the Father. The Holy Spirit came and testified of Christ. Now they will go and testify of Christ. Their existence was defined by the single purpose of making Christ known.
Notice that little word there, “also”. Jesus says that they must testify about Him ALSO. Let me tell you something, the next time an opportunity arises to tell someone about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, remember that you do not witness alone. You do not stand all by yourself proclaiming Christ. You are one of many witnesses that God has brought to the world that testify of His Son.
First, the Scriptures testify about Christ (Luke 24:44; John 5:39; Heb 1:1-2).
Second, the works Jesus did were actually the Father testifying about Him (10:25; Acts 2:22).
Third, the Father actually spoke and testified on Jesus behalf (Matt. 3:17:17:5; 2 Pet 1:16-18).
Fourthly, Jesus Christ testified about Himself.
Fifthly, John the Baptist testified about Him.
Sixthly, the 12 Apostles testified about Him.
And lastly, as Jesus says here, the Holy Spirit testifies about Him.
Dare we remain silent in light of such towering testimonies as these? What we need to realize is that each of us are one part of the parade of witnesses being ushered through the world giving testimony of the true identity of Jesus Christ. We are one more bulb on the string of lights that runs throughout the world. Will we be that one cursed bulb that doesn’t shine along with the other beaming testimonies? We ought to shine like stars Paul says in Philippians 2:15, “shining like stars in the universe against this dark, crooked world”. Dare we keep quiet for our reputation’s sake? Dare we seek to save ourselves from another man frowning on us for speaking the truth of Christ? Our silence is our distancing ourselves from Christ to avoid sharing in His shame? Are we ashamed of Him?
Barclay’s 3 elements of Believer’s witness pg219-220*****
Conclusion
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who need to be witnessing, and, those who need to be witnessed to. Perhaps you are here today and you are not a witness for Christ because you don’t know Him. You would be someone who needs to be witnessed to. You need to listen today to the word that you are hearing. The Bible says that someone who has the Holy Spirit inside of them has the deposit that God has given to them. That deposit is a guarantee from God. The presence of the Holy Spirit in a man is the pledge from God that God has saved Him and will redeem Him from all His sins.
Acts 2:38 says that the Holy Spirit is God’s gift to Christians. The question is, have you received this gift? Have you received Him who is the deposit from God? Have you received the Spirit who is this guarantee of your salvation?
We began today by pointing out that Jesus was teaching about the Holy Spirit in this passage. But, did you know that the Holy Spirit is the One who teaches us about Christ? The Holy Spirit is the 3rd Person of the Triune God, and as such, His work is to lead you to the 2nd Person of the Triune God. The Holy Spirit is the One who puts you on your way to Jesus Christ. He points you to Christ and enables you to see the glorious truth of Christ and receive Him by faith.
Jesus is the One who can save you from your sins. Jesus is the One you must believe in for the forgiveness of your sins. He and He alone can save you. The Bible says that when you call upon Christ He will save you, and, He will send the Holy Spirit to come and live inside of you forever. He will seal you until the day of redemption. He will baptize you and thus make you a part of the Body of Christ. He will gift you to serve the Body of Christ. He will teach you so you begin to understand spiritual truth in the Bible. He will give you new desires that oppose the old sinful desires within you. He is a gift that you receive when you turn to Christ in faith. Receive Christ today.
John 15:26-27
Introduction
If there was one thing that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions in the world it is what we believe about the nature of God. Specifically, that God is a Triune God. This is the most controversial, and admittedly, confusing point for an onlooker. It baffles the polytheist who believes in many gods. But, it enrages the non-Christian monotheist who believes in one God.
Because of the uniqueness of this teaching, often times Christians are accused of believing in 3 gods, but, this is not so. The Bible teaches that there is one God and that there is no other God than that one God. The words of Deuteronomy 6:4 say, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” And in the NT, we read in Romans chapter 3, “There is only one God who is the God of the Jew and of the Gentile.” And then again in 1 Tim 2:5 Paul says, “For there is one God”. The Bible emphasizes that God is one God.
And yet, at the same time It declares God to be one, the Bible does not hesitate in teaching that the one God is in fact 3 distinct Persons. Those Persons are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All are distinct, and, all are equally God. All possess the same quality of Deity and Godhood, and none are any less God than the others. This is key: They are the one God. If I could paraphrase one author, “there are 3 equal Persons standing forth as One God, not 3 gods.”
In John’s Gospel we have seen the overwhelming focus on the Son, Jesus Christ. He is the 2nd Person of the Triune God. And as we come to our passage we now see Him, 2nd Person of the Triune God, teaching us about the 3rd Person of the Triune God.
The Holy Spirit is the 3rd Person of the Trinity. He is called by several titles in the Bible, some of which we’ve seen in this Gospel already. He is called, “The Holy Spirit” and “the Counselor” or “Helper” (14:16; 15:26), “the Spirit of Truth” (14:17), “The Spirit of God” (Rom 8:14), “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom 8:9), or simply “the Spirit” (John 16:15).
If there is one thing we must understand it is that the Holy Spirit is a Person. Many mistakes have been made about the Holy Spirit’s nature. He is not an ambiguous cosmic force, or an impersonal spiritual fog. He is not some unidentifiable influence in or on the cosmos. He is not simply a personification of some active force within the world. He is not a virtue or energy flowing from God to man. He is not simply a manifestation of the grace of the Father or the activity of God. He is not the 3rd mode of God.
The Bible teaches that He is a Person. How do we see this? First of all, the Bible uses personal pronouns when referring to the Holy Spirit. The Bible says “He” and “Him”, never “it” or “that”.
Secondly, He has intelligence. He has a mind and knows things and is able to teach what He knows. As God His knowledge is perfect.
Thirdly, He has feelings like a person. He can be grieved by the sinful actions of believers (Eph 4:30).
Fourthly, He has a will. He directs the activities of Christians and chooses which spiritual gifts to give to different Christians.
Fifthly, His actions show He is a person. He guides us into truth, He convicts us of sin, He performs miracles, and He intercedes in prayer to the Father for us.
Sixthly, the way He can be treated shows that He is a person. He can be obeyed or lied to or resisted or blasphemed or insulted. These don’t make sense with an impersonal force.
The Bible clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person, the Divine 3rd Person of the Triune God. To think of Him as anything else is to believe against the Bible.
Now it’s important to note what Jesus was speaking about previously. Jesus is leaving the world. In chapter 15 He was warning His disciples of the hostile, hate-filled world that was going to persecute them after He was gone. We also see that after these two verses in chapter 16, Jesus is going to speak again about the world’s hatred for them. Every time Jesus speaks to the disciples about the Spirit it is always closely tied with His warning them of things to come after He is gone.
[Quote Homer Kent, pg 185]This is significant to notice because we see that Jesus is teaching them the Holy Spirit is the key to living and ministering effectively in the hostile world without Jesus around. The key is to have another just like Him with them. The Holy Spirit is going to pick up where Jesus left off and bring new dimensions to Christian living and ministering.
I want us to divide up these 2 verses into 3 sections: 1) Waiting for the Holy Spirit, 2) the Work of the Holy Spirit, and, 3) The Witness of the Apostles.
Waiting for the Holy Spirit (26a)
First of all, notice Jesus teaches them about Waiting for the Holy Spirit. The first few words of verse 26 says, “WHEN the Counselor comes…”
This waiting meant that the Holy Spirit was coming in the future. At that point while Jesus was teaching them, the Holy Spirit had not yet come to them. Jesus explains in chapter 16:7, “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” As long as Jesus was in the world with His disciples, the Holy Spirit would not come to them.
But, Jesus was only going to be in the world a little longer. The disciples did not have to wait long for the promise of the Holy Spirit to be fulfilled. He was going to be crucified in a matter of hours. Then He would be in the grave for 3 days and afterwards rise from the dead. Then He would spend 40 days on the earth with His disciples before ascending to heaven and sitting down at the right hand of the Father. Then, one week later, 50 days after John 15, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would come as Jesus promised. If you turn over to Acts 2 let’s read the record of that day. (Read Acts 2)
Now, you might ask the question, “If the Holy Spirit is God, and God is everywhere, then how come He wasn’t with the disciples before Pentecost?” That’s a great question. The answer is that the Holy Spirit was always with the disciples. But not in the way that Jesus was speaking of here. He said to the disciples in 14:17, “…you know the Holy Spirit, for He lives with you and He will be in you.” Although the Spirit was currently with them, Jesus said, notice that last part, “He will be in you.” Jesus speaks to the present relationship they have with the Spirit, mainly that the Spirit is with them. But, then He speaks of the future relationship they will have with the Spirit, that He will actually live in them. That’s what they had to look forward to.
What Jesus was talking about was a totally new relationship with the Spirit that no man had ever known before. The Spirit would come and live in them. This was radical. This was entirely unimaginable to a Jew in the OT. In the OT He is said to come upon certain individuals at certain times for special purposes. Occasionally He would even be “in” someone. But all these occurrences were temporary, and, not universal for all of God’s people by any means. Never could a man in the OT expect to receive the Spirit in himself and have the Spirit forever. This is what we have today. “
You have to understand that this is what constitutes the Church. The Church is the community of people in this world who have the Holy Spirit living in them. Illustration: The players are the team, not the stadium, and as players they get a uniform to wear. It’s not people sitting in a building that makes the Church, it’s the Holy Spirit inside of the people that makes the Church. And without being irreverent, you might say the uniform everyone gets when they’re on the team.
Do not mistake me - everyone does not have the Holy Spirit in them. I’ve heard people, even professing believers talk about God living in people. That is false. The Holy Spirit only lives in people who have received Jesus Christ as their Savior. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16 to Christians, “Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” A couple chapters later in 6:19 Paul says again, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”
In John 15 Jesus told the disciples they had to wait. When do we receive the Spirit today? Do we have to wait? You only have to wait if you haven’t believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. If your sins are not forgiven, and you have not placed your trust in Christ for salvation, then you will have to wait as long as you are unwilling to trust Him. Paul says in Ephesians 1:13, “And you also were included in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit”. We receive the Holy Spirit the moment we put our trust in Jesus for our salvation. When Jesus hears a man call on His Name for the salvation of His soul, Jesus from His seat in Heaven asks the Father and sends the Holy Spirit forth from the Father to come down and begin living in that man forever.
Jesus told the disciple they had to wait for the Spirit. Today, Jesus is waiting to give you the Spirit. He’s waiting for you to put your faith in Him so He can pour His Spirit into you.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
So first there is the Waiting for the Holy Spirit, and second, there is the Work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in verse 26 that the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of truth that goes out from the Father” and “He will testify about me”.
The work Jesus is speaking of here is to testify. The Holy Spirit’s ministry will be to bear witness of Christ. He won’t testify about political reform, social activism, or psychological fulfillment. Jesus says the Spirit will come and testify about ME. The Spirit will testify to the disciples. In John 14:26 Jesus tells them the Spirit “will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” But the Spirit will also testify to the world of who Christ is. In Matthew 10:19-20 Jesus says to them again, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not e you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
The Spirit is going to come, and when He comes He is going to testify about Christ. But, the totality of what the Spirit is coming to do is to glorify Christ. Jesus says in 16:14 that the Holy Spirit “will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” The ministry of Christ was to glorify the Father and the ministry of the Spirit is going to be to glorify Christ. All ministry of the Holy Spirit produces Christ-glorifying results. Whether it is in speaking, living, singing, helping, loving, preaching, or teaching, always the ultimate outcome of these is the glory of Christ if the Spirit is at work. Charles Ryrie makes the excellent point that if Christ is not glorified, then the Spirit is not ministering.
The Spirit will lead men to the truth that is in Christ Jesus because He is the Spirit of truth, and He only speaks the truth. The result of His work is proven at the time when a man sees the truth of who Christ is, and gives Christ glory as a result of seeing. When men do not glorify Christ it is because men do not see Christ. There is an absence of the ministry of the Spirit in that man. He remains blind.
Furthermore, men who are already in Christ, He will direct them further into the deeper truths of Christ and mature their character more and more into Christ’s character. Because the aim of the Spirit is the glory of Christ, someone who has the Spirit, then, will also be aiming their life to the glory of Jesus Christ. And over time, the capacity and the measure of glory for Christ that comes from that man grows as the Spirit continues working in Him.
The Witness of the Disciples (27)
Thirdly there is the Holy Spirit and the Disciple’s Witness. Verse 27 says, “And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”
The witness of the Holy Spirit to the disciples for Jesus Christ was going to cause them to witness to the world for Jesus Christ. The in-working of the Holy Spirit in testifying to the disciples will result in the out-workings of their own witness of Christ to the world. The Spirit will remind them of what Christ said, teach them truth, and power them to be witnesses in the face of a world that is going to attack them for their witness.
These 2 verses are sandwiched between 2 sections dealing with the hostility of the world. Jesus warns the disciples that they will be hated in the world in the preceding passage, verses18-25, and then again in the following section, 16:1-11. The disciples were going to be surrounded by the hatred of the world. They would need the Holy Spirit in order to be witnesses and bear witness for Christ to the hostile world around them.
This is another reference to the great commission given to Christ’s disciples. They were to go and testify of Christ. In Acts 1:8 we read the very last words that the disciples heard from Jesus right before He was taken up from the earth “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Then again in Matthew 28:19 we find Jesus saying to them , “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
The course of their lives had changed forever and what they were was long gone. They now existed for the sole purpose of making Christ known to the world. Jesus came and testified of the Father. The Holy Spirit came and testified of Christ. Now they will go and testify of Christ. Their existence was defined by the single purpose of making Christ known.
Notice that little word there, “also”. Jesus says that they must testify about Him ALSO. Let me tell you something, the next time an opportunity arises to tell someone about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, remember that you do not witness alone. You do not stand all by yourself proclaiming Christ. You are one of many witnesses that God has brought to the world that testify of His Son.
First, the Scriptures testify about Christ (Luke 24:44; John 5:39; Heb 1:1-2).
Second, the works Jesus did were actually the Father testifying about Him (10:25; Acts 2:22).
Third, the Father actually spoke and testified on Jesus behalf (Matt. 3:17:17:5; 2 Pet 1:16-18).
Fourthly, Jesus Christ testified about Himself.
Fifthly, John the Baptist testified about Him.
Sixthly, the 12 Apostles testified about Him.
And lastly, as Jesus says here, the Holy Spirit testifies about Him.
Dare we remain silent in light of such towering testimonies as these? What we need to realize is that each of us are one part of the parade of witnesses being ushered through the world giving testimony of the true identity of Jesus Christ. We are one more bulb on the string of lights that runs throughout the world. Will we be that one cursed bulb that doesn’t shine along with the other beaming testimonies? We ought to shine like stars Paul says in Philippians 2:15, “shining like stars in the universe against this dark, crooked world”. Dare we keep quiet for our reputation’s sake? Dare we seek to save ourselves from another man frowning on us for speaking the truth of Christ? Our silence is our distancing ourselves from Christ to avoid sharing in His shame? Are we ashamed of Him?
Barclay’s 3 elements of Believer’s witness pg219-220*****
Conclusion
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who need to be witnessing, and, those who need to be witnessed to. Perhaps you are here today and you are not a witness for Christ because you don’t know Him. You would be someone who needs to be witnessed to. You need to listen today to the word that you are hearing. The Bible says that someone who has the Holy Spirit inside of them has the deposit that God has given to them. That deposit is a guarantee from God. The presence of the Holy Spirit in a man is the pledge from God that God has saved Him and will redeem Him from all His sins.
Acts 2:38 says that the Holy Spirit is God’s gift to Christians. The question is, have you received this gift? Have you received Him who is the deposit from God? Have you received the Spirit who is this guarantee of your salvation?
We began today by pointing out that Jesus was teaching about the Holy Spirit in this passage. But, did you know that the Holy Spirit is the One who teaches us about Christ? The Holy Spirit is the 3rd Person of the Triune God, and as such, His work is to lead you to the 2nd Person of the Triune God. The Holy Spirit is the One who puts you on your way to Jesus Christ. He points you to Christ and enables you to see the glorious truth of Christ and receive Him by faith.
Jesus is the One who can save you from your sins. Jesus is the One you must believe in for the forgiveness of your sins. He and He alone can save you. The Bible says that when you call upon Christ He will save you, and, He will send the Holy Spirit to come and live inside of you forever. He will seal you until the day of redemption. He will baptize you and thus make you a part of the Body of Christ. He will gift you to serve the Body of Christ. He will teach you so you begin to understand spiritual truth in the Bible. He will give you new desires that oppose the old sinful desires within you. He is a gift that you receive when you turn to Christ in faith. Receive Christ today.
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