The Holy Spirit Testifies About Christ

John 15:26-27

Turn in your Bible this morning to the fifteenth chapter of John.  We come for our message this morning to this most important area.  And some months ago when we began a series on the body of Christ in connection with our Ephesian series, we covered the two verses that we're going to cover this morning from a little bit different angle.  The Holy Spirit has brought them again to our attention in our verse‑by‑verse series in the gospel of John.  For you that are visiting, we might say that on Sunday nights we've been studying the book of Ephesians and Sunday morning the gospel of John.  And we're pushing two years in John and we finally made it to chapter 15.  We're really learning a lot of things.  It's exciting.  And we come this morning to these two verses, verses 26 and 27, in the gospel of John chapter 15.

And this is the first in what is a little section here in John dealing with the ministries of the Holy Spirit.  Now Christ presented to His disciples in this little passage really beginning here in verse 26 and running through verse 15 of chapter 16, several of the ministries of the Holy Spirit.  And we come to that little section this morning, beginning in verse 26.

Now to put you in perspective, it is the night before the death of Jesus Christ.  His final night with His disciples before His crucifixion.  And on this particular night He is well aware of the fact that they are indeed sorrowing.  They have displayed that.  They've even said rather wishfully that they would die with Him and for Him, if it need be.  It doesn't turn out that way.  They scattered when the time really came.  But they were almost convinced in their minds that they'd rather die with Him than be without Him.  And so at this point, Jesus is giving them these last promises to comfort their sorrow.  And beginning in chapter 13, He began to comfort them.

The first thing He did was tell them of His love for them.

He spelled it out so clearly because He washed their feet.  And then He told them this was the show of love.  This was the display of love.  And then He told them to do the same thing because the servant is not greater than his lord, they should be concerned with showing love in the same kind of humble service.

And so, He convinced them of His love for them.

Then in chapter 14 He began to detail some fantastic promises that were going to be theirs because He would go away.

So that rather than sorrowing about His leaving, they should rejoice about it because it was going to enable them to do things that they had been unable to do even when He was there.

Then to kind of wrap this whole area up, He begins to talk about the Holy Spirit.  And I want to show you why.  The Holy Spirit, and you have to get this cause it's the key to this whole section, the Holy Spirit makes possible all the promises of Jesus.  Christ gives them these promises and He says, "Now, the Holy Spirit will come, dwell within you in order that all these promises can really operate."  None of them could even happen apart from Him.  So the Holy Spirit is the key to the whole thing.  Christ could give all the promises that He gave and if He never gave them the Holy Spirit, they would never be able to make those promises happen.  There would be no energy.  There would be no power.  There would be no resource to make those promises operative.  And so He says, "Now on top of all of this, the Holy Spirit shall be yours and He'll make it all happen."  And this, of course, then is the classic promise, the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Let me show you what I mean.  In chapter 14, for example, verses 1 through 6, He promises them basically that He's going to go away in order that He might come back.  I'm just going to go away, I've got some dwelling places in My Father's house and I'm getting ready for you.  I'm going to come back and take you to be with Me when I get the Father's house ready.

Now that's the promise.  Do you know who in the Bible is the guarantee of that promise?  It is the Holy Spirit.  For example, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we read the Holy Spirit being...we read of the Holy Spirit being the guarantee, 2 Corinthians 5:1, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens."

Now what's the guarantee of that?  Verse 5, "We have the earnest of the Spirit."  Now the word "earnest"  is the word in the Greek arrabon and it means engagement ring or firstfruits or down payment.  God says through Jesus Christ, I'm preparing a place for you, I'm going to come and get you to take you to be with Me, the guarantee of that's the Holy Spirit.  The one who makes it happen is the Holy Spirit.

In chapter 14 in John's gospel and in verse 12, Jesus promised them that they would have power to do things that they didn't even have power to do when He was there.  They would do greater things than He had done.  That's a fantastic promise, John 14:12.

Now where are they going to get that kind of power?  Acts 1:8, "Ye shall receive power after...what?...the Holy Spirit has come upon you."  And once the Holy Spirit has come upon you, Ephesians 3:20, "You're able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think, according to the power that works within you."  So Jesus made the promise of power and made it happen and made it possible by the coming of the Holy Spirit.

In John 14 verses 13 and 14, He promised them that He would hear and answer their prayers and supply all their needs when they asked in His name.  And then in Romans 8 he says the Holy Spirit has been sent to dwell within you to help your prayers because you don't know what to pray for as you ought so the Holy Spirit makes intercession for you with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And the result is all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.

In other words, the promise of answered prayer is made ours, is made possible by the direct prayer ministry of the Holy Spirit within us.  Again, the Holy Spirit's the key to that promise.  In John 14 verses 18 to 23, we saw that Jesus promised them a very unique thing, He promised them that He would come and abide within them and the Father would also come and abide within them.

Now who is the presence of God and the presence of Christ within us?  It's the Holy Spirit called in Peter the Spirit of God, called in Romans the Spirit of Christ, called in other places the Holy Spirit.

So, He makes the promise of divine indwelling and it becomes activated in the Holy Spirit.  In John 14 verse 27, we saw another promise.  He promised them that He would leave His peace with them...His peace.  In chapter 13, He promised them love.  In chapter 15 verse 11 He promised them joy.  Love, peace and joy, those are all listed in Galatians 5:22 as fruits of what?  Of the Spirit.

You see, then, the Holy Spirit's promise makes active or possible every other promise that Jesus Christ ever gave.  And thus the Holy Spirit is the key to everything.

Now to give you a little insight into this, I think the Holy Spirit placed delicately John 16:14 where He did so that we could understand this.  Notice verse 14 of chapter 16...we're still in the introduction.  Here is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  "He shall glorify...what's the next word?...Me,"  and to whom does that refer?  Jesus Christ.  "For He shall receive of Mine and shall manifest it to you."  In other words, the Holy Spirit's ministry is to take the promises of Christ and make them operative in the life of a Christian.  You see, all of the promises of Christ if they were ours apart from the Holy Spirit would be worthless.  He's the only one who can activate them.

And so it's a fantastic thing to realize what Jesus is saying to these disciples.  He's saying, "Men, I'm not only laying out a whole bag of promises, but I'm giving you the energy and the power to make them all operate, to make them all realistic, to make them all functional in your life.  I'm going to not only give it to you, I'm going to give it to you so you can make it happen."  So, He gives them not only the promises but He gives them the indwelling Holy Spirit to energize the promises and make them operative in their lives.

Now there's one other thing that Jesus has promised and this brings us into chapter 15.  The next thing that Jesus promises them is not a positive but it's a negative.  He's given them a lot of positives and, you know, it's not all good.  You've got to have a little bad in there to make the good good.  And so, in chapter 15 He says, "Now there's one other thing I want to tell you, men, the world is going to despise you."  Which must have come as some sort of a contrast in reference to the other promises.  At the end of all those other promises, they must began to feel a...must have began to feel a little invincible, you know.  "Boy, we've got it knocked, guys, this is going to be a real deal, you know, this is going to be great.  We'll just move into the world with all this stuff and away we go."  And Jesus says, "Just one other thing, fellas, the world is going to hate you, despise you, persecute you and kill you and think they're doing God favors when they do it,"  chapter 16 verses 1 and 2 tell about that.

Now in reference to that, you say, "Was that a promise that's going to be to every disciple?"  Yes, I believe it is.

And we talked about that now for two Sundays so we'll...we won't belabor the point.  But I do believe that the hatred of the world is part of the system of the world, that the world is at odds with Jesus Christ and with all those who follow Him.  They hate us because we don't belong to the system.  They hate us because they hated our Lord and He lives within us.  They hate us because they don't know God.  That's what Jesus said, those three things are the reason the world hates us.  And if you're not too sure they hate you, then maybe they don't know you belong to Jesus.

So, with all of these good promises energized by the Spirit, He drops this bomb on them about the hatred of the world.  And it perhaps at that point would have been very easy for them to collapse.  But then He introduces the ministry of the Holy Spirit in relation to the hatred of the world.  And that's in verses 26 and 27.  You see, the Holy Spirit then has reference to every promise that Jesus made.

You say, "What's the Holy Spirit have to do with the hatred of the world?"  Simple answer, He's the only one that can break that hatred.  He's the only one that can break it.

Notice verse 26, "But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me."  In other words, it's going to be the testimony of the Holy Spirit that's going to confront the world.  Verse 27, "And ye also shall bear witness because you've been with Me from the beginning."

In other words, the Holy Spirit's ministry then is toward the hostile world to communicate the truth of Jesus Christ.  And really it involves two things.  Over in chapter 16 verses 7 through 11 it involves the ministry of conviction.  The Holy Spirit has to convict of sin.  It also involves a clear witness to the person of Jesus Christ, that's the two‑fold ministry of the Holy Spirit toward the world.  Number one, convict the world of sin...number two, present the world, Jesus Christ in all of His purity.

So, the Holy Spirit then moves into this promise as well.

He is the only one who is able to confront the hatred of the world and do something about it.  We would have absolutely no hope.  I mean, we'd be a wipe out in this world, we would have no way that we would ever be able to reach the world if it were not for the presence of the Spirit of God who is able to penetrate a man's heart and break down the barriers.  We would be hopeless.

So, these words in verses 26 and 27, now mark it well, detail for us the character of the Holy Spirit's witness to the world.  The world may hate us.  The world may kill us.  But in the Spirit's power and conviction, we can face the world with the gospel.  We don't have to run and hide.  We don't have to crawl in a monastery.  We don't have to put our head under the covers.

We can face the world boldly because in the energy of the Holy Spirit we can meet this world, present the gospel of Jesus Christ with success.

Now do you see that every basic promise of Jesus then becomes possible in connection with the ministry of the Holy Spirit?  The promises of Jesus are yours and mine because the Spirit is ours and the hatred of the world can be reversed because of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

Let me give you a verse just to kind of wrap it up.  This is a very important verse.  First Corinthians 2:12, listen to it, "Now we have received,"  talking about believers, a very important verse, get this one, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world,"  now watch this, "but the Spirit who is of God."  Why do we receive the Holy Spirit?  Why?  Here it comes, "In order that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."

Now did you get that?  Do you know why you and I have the believer...have the Holy Spirit within us?  In order that we might what?  Know the things that are freely given us of God.

The Holy Spirit is ours to reveal to us and to energize in us the promises of God.  Do you see it?  All these promises that Jesus laid out would be worthless if the Spirit of God wasn't there to energize them.  And even in facing a hostile world, we can claim the promise of God that we can go into the world with success because of the Spirit of God, not because of our own abilities.

So, as we come to these two verses, verses 26 and 27, then we're going to see that the Holy Spirit's testimony to the world is powerful.  And incidentally, it's through you and me that He testifies.  The same power that makes the promises of Christ ours can empower us to confront a hating world with success to the glory of God.

Now you'll notice in verse 26, still in the introduction, short introduction, isn't it?...you'll notice the word "witness"

in verse 27 and the idea of testify in verse 26.  Those are both legal words.  In other words, they take us into the law courts.

We see the judge on the bench and the judge evidently is the world, we see the prisoner who is Jesus Christ, Satan is the prosecutor and the Holy Spirit is the parakletos which in Greek means counsel for the defense.  And you and I are called into the court as witnesses.  That's the scene.  The world is judging Jesus Christ, Satan is prosecuting, the Holy Spirit is the counsel for the defense and we are the witnesses whom He calls into the court to testify concerning Jesus Christ.  And the fantastic thing to realize is...just get this...we are so well briefed by the counsel for the defense that our testimony when given in His energy is absolutely potent.  And you know something?  We don't even need to plan anything, the counsel for the defense will give us the testimony to confront the world.

In Matthew chapter 10, and I think it begins in verse 16 or around there, yes, He says, "Behold I...Jesus talking...I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves."  Now watch this.  "But beware of men."  Don't you like that?  Watch out for people, they'll get you.  "Beware of men for they will deliver you up to the counsels and they will scourge you in their synagogues and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles."

Now watch this.  "But when they deliver you up, be not anxious...don't worry about it, relax, everything's under control...don't worry about how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak."

You say, "Now where are you going to get that stuff?  Where is it going to come from?"  Verse 20, "For it is not ye that speak...watch this one...but the Spirit of your Father who does...what?...speaketh in you."  Did you get that?  Is that fantastic?

When you go out to share with the world, when you confront a hating world, it's not you that speak, it's the Spirit of God within you.  Now there you have the testimony of the Holy Spirit to the world through the Christian.  We're the vessels to carry the testimony.  And so it is as in every other promise that Jesus ever gave, it becomes energized by the Holy Spirit.  And praise the Lord, when you think about the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in your body, that means all the things that God has freely given, every promise of Christ, every single thing God ever asked you to do can be done in total power and total energy provided by the Holy Spirit.  You're so adequate, it's unbelievable.  We can confront the Christ‑hating world boldly.

Let me show you some people who did in Acts 17 verse...well, we'll look at verse 6, I think.  Here are some people who hit the world with an effect.  "And when they had found them not, they drew Jason and