HE WILL TESTIFY ABOUT ME

John 15:18-16:4

Key verses 15:26-27

“When the Counselor comes whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

 

Read verses 18-21. Why does the world hate the disciples? (18, 19)  What should the disciples remember when they are persecuted? (20)  How will they treat the disciples and why? (21)

18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.  21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.

 

The world

Several uses in John’s writings

The universe as the object of creation (1:10)

The materialistic order that tempts humans from God (1Jn 2:15- 16)

Mankind in general as the object of God's love (3:16).

Here it refers to the mass of unbelievers who are indifferent or hostile to God and his people. Also it refers to the system of organized society which is under Satan's power (John 14:30).

Friendship with God results in enduring the world's hatred. Conversely, being friends with the world is to be God's enemy (James 4:4).

The world hates you.

Believers might be surprised by this hostility from the world. But they should remember that Jesus was hated from his birth (Matthew 2) to his death on the cross.

Jesus’ choice of the disciples 

They have been chosen (cf. John 15:16) out of the world system by Christ and they now belong to Him. Since they do not belong to the world, the world hates them.

Jesus has set them apart for a different kind of life and for a different purpose.  They now have certainty, truth, and a standard for life. 

The world rejects all who do not conform to its lifestyle. 

Disciples have left the kingdom of darkness and have been transferred into the kingdom of God's Son (Col 1:13)

Disciples have a different joy, purpose, hope, and love.

No servant is greater than his master. 

Previously He was referring to their need to imitate His humble service. (cf. 13:16)

But the principle has other applications. Jesus’ disciples are to identify so closely with Jesus that they share in His sufferings (they will persecute you also). 

The root cause of the world's hatred against the disciples is their identification with Jesus. 

Treat you this way because of my name

Persecution and rejection were inevitable; but they were not really to be feared. The disciples could bear them, because they sprang from ignorance of God.

The world does not have a proper concept of God. Consequently, it cannot evaluate adequately the One whom he sent. 

The disciples proclaimed Christ as being what He had revealed Himself to be, the Christ, the Son of the living God. This was His “name;” and it became the ground of accusation, because the Jews knew not God. 

Read verses 22-25. Why do they have no excuse for their sin? (22)  Whom do those who hate Jesus also hate? (23) Why can’t they excuse themselves from being guilty of sin? (24) What was fulfilled when they hated both Jesus and the Father? (25, Ps. 35:19)

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.  25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

* Ps 35:19 Let not those gloat over me who are my enemies without cause; let not those who hate me without reason maliciously wink the eye.

Jesus came as the revelation of God. 

If Jesus had not come, their sin would not be so great. Before Jesus' coming people might have pleaded ignorance as an excuse for sin (Acts 17:30). 

But now that the Light has come, those who willfully reject it have no excuse. They have nothing which they can even plead in their own defense as in times of ignorance. (Rom 3:25)

He who hates me hates my Father as well.

Hatred of the Son as Son carries with it hatred of the Father, in which character He had revealed God. 

He and the Father belong in the same category; neither can be accepted or rejected without the other.

Now they have seen these miracles 

Jesus' miracles were so distinctive that their import was unmistakable. So far as the works revealed outwardly the majesty and will of God, and of Christ, as the representative of God.

But they rejected both Jesus and the Father because in their sins they loved darkness rather than light (3:19).

Their sin was both deliberate and inexcusable. Accredited by the miracles that he had performed and the words he had spoken, he condemns them (cf. 9:30-33, 39-41). 

They hated me without reason (Psalm 35:19, 69:4)

Their reaction against Jesus cannot be attributed to ignorance of his words or to lack of evidence substantiating them. To further explain his position, Jesus quotes from Ps 35:19.

Their hatred of Jesus was without any rational cause which also fits the pattern of hatred for righteous people, as seen in those who hated David. The same words which David used respecting his enemies would express, also, the conduct of the Jews and their treatment of the Messiah. In both cases it was without cause.

The irony of this quotation is clear: those who posed as the champions of the Law were fulfilling the prophecy concerning the enemies of God's servant. 

Read verses 26-27.  Whom will Jesus send from the Father? (26)  What does His name such as the Counselor, or the Spirit of truth, indicate about His role to Jesus’ disciples? (26) Why would the Spirit come? (26b) What must the disciples do and why? (27) 

26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

The Counselor / The Spirit of truth

The Counselor (John 14:16, 14:26, 16:7) comforts the disciples; to be with them in Jesus’ absence and to supply his place. Also he aids them in their work; to advocate their cause, or to assist them in advocating the cause of religion in the world, and in bringing sinners to repentance.

What He says is true for He is the Spirit of Truth (John 16:13).  Christianity is itself “the Truth.” It is the office of the Spirit to interpret and enforce it. 

He will testify about me. And you also must testify

As the work of Jesus was to promote the Father and not Himself, so the Spirit will witness to Jesus as the Messiah. 

The list of witnesses - the witness of the Holy Spirit, whose ministry he had already partially described (14:16-17, 26), and also the witness of the disciples themselves.  They must "testify" concerning Christ.

In order to witness to Jesus and his message, one must have complete experiential knowledge of his person. The apostles were to bear witness to the facts that they came to know. 

As the apostles witnessed, the Holy Spirit persuaded, and people were saved. Without the testimony of the Spirit, the disciples' witness will be powerless. 

Read verses 16:1-4. Why did Jesus tell his disciples “all this”? (1) Who would persecute the disciples? How? (2a) Why? (2b-3; Ac 8:1-3) Why do they think they are serving God when they persecute Jesus’ disciples? (3) What is the purpose of Jesus’ warning to his disciples about persecutions? (4)

1 All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.  4 I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you.

* Acts 8:1-3 On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.

Jesus reveals to his disciples what they must know to prepare them for their coming mission. 

The disciples may have wondered why Jesus was telling them about the world's hatred and persecution. 

Expecting trouble beforehand would help them remain in the path of God's will.

The disciples will suffer excommunication from the synagogue and even death. 

In the last section the hatred of the world was exhibited in its general character as inevitable and inexcusable, in contrast to the witness to Christ; it is now shown in its intense activity as the expression of a false religious zeal.

The Jews who persecuted the apostles regarded them as blasphemers, and as seeking to overthrow the temple service, and the system of religion which God had established. Thus they supposed they were offering service to God in putting them to death (Acts 6:13, 14; Acts 21:28-31) 

It is no evidence of piety that a man is full of zeal against those whom he supposes to be heretics; and it is one of the best proofs that a man knows nothing of the religion of Jesus when he is eminent for self-conceit in his own views of orthodoxy, and firmly fixed in the opinion that all who differ from him must be wrong.

Remembering that Jesus was excluded and martyred and that he predicted the same for His apostles would help fortify them. 

Because they have not known the Father or me.

The world will persecute Jesus' followers because they have not known the Father or Jesus. They do not recognize the Father at work in the words and deeds of Jesus.

Jesus attributes the action of his foes to ignorance--not the ignorance of intellectual knowledge, but the lack of a personal experience of God and Christ.

Their attitude is determined by who they think Jesus is and by whom they think God is, rather than by actual contact with either. 

“The Father” marks an absolute and universal relation of God to man which Christ came to reveal.

So that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you

Jesus gave this warning to His disciples about coming persecution in order to strengthen their faith. By recognizing His knowledge of the future they would grow in their confidence in Him. 

Jesus did not give them this warning before because the world's hatred was directed against Him. He shielded them with His personal presence. 

Had these calamities come upon them without their having been foretold, their faith might have failed; they might have been tempted to suppose that Jesus was not aware of them, and of course that he was not the Messiah. God does not suffer his people to fall into trials without giving them sufficient warning, and without giving all the grace that is needful to bear them.

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