PRESS ON AS CHRIST'S WITNESSES

JOHN 15:26-16:4a

MARCH 17, 1996

 

We have an almost strange mixture in our text, strange at least until we begin to dig into it.  To glance at the context shows us that the heart of what our Lord was saying in these verses deals with the whole realm of persecution which Christians face.  We saw in our last study (15:18-25) that our Lord warned His followers that persecution would follow them.  In the same way that the world hated Christ because it does not know Him, it will hate those who have embraced the cross and followed after Jesus Christ.  Christians are not to be caught off guard by the attacks of persecution. Paul told Timothy, "But all that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." But I believe our text points to an even more important truth.  Christians are not to be pre-occupied with persecution.  Instead, we are to give ourselves to being witnesses of Jesus Christ and His power to save sinners!

 

No one would dispute that one of the foremost tasks confronting the first generation of Christians was that of witnessing concerning Jesus Christ.  This meant declaring their faith in Christ and proclaiming the truth of the gospel in a hostile environment.  The very ones who wanted Jesus Christ killed would now become the object of the disciples' gospel witness.  How could they witness for Christ in the face of strong opposition?

 

Surely that is a question which we need answered!  I think we sometimes have a rather dreamy view of first century Christians.  We consider that they had such great privileges in seeing Jesus Christ, observing firsthand His miracles, hearing Him speak.  Certainly, these were privileges!  But they also bore the reproach of Jesus Christ.  The attacks that had been leveled at Christ were now focused in even broader dimension upon this small, weak band of followers.  In the face of such persecution, Jesus gave the disciples what we call the Great Commission, to go and make disciples of all nations.  The task they undertook had to be carried out in the direst of circumstances.  This was no easy life!  They understood the words of Jesus when He said, "If any man wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me."  They understood this self-denial and the cross as they fanned out of Jerusalem to carry the gospel to the nations.

 

We may not have the same sort of opposition the disciples faced, but we can identify with them to some degree concerning the difficulty of witnessing in a hostile world.  Their task seemed to be impossible, yet through the provision of our Lord, the disciples spread the gospel.  We may be facing an uphill battle in trying to get the gospel to 5 billion people in the world!  Yet, the same Lord has given us the provisions to press on as His witnesses in the midst of a hostile world.

 

We must hear the words of Christ to His disciples, "And you will bear witness also...."  They had a very special witness of Christ since they walked with Him and witnessed His death and resurrection on behalf of sinners.  By the same token, it is true that every person who has experienced the saving power of the gospel now has the commission to "bear witness also."  The 'apostolic mantle' has fallen upon us to go forth as Christ's witnesses.  We must not see ourselves as simply salesmen, managers, homemakers, and students.  We must see ourselves as witnesses of Jesus Christ and His power to save sinners, who just happen to be salesmen, managers, homemakers, and students.  Our vocation is that of Christian witnesses, while the other things we are involved in are merely avocations.

 

Let's see why we can press on as Christ's witnesses.

 

I.  Press on as Christ's witness because the Spirit has come

 

The Greek word for witness is MARTUREO, from which we get the English term martyr.  We think of a martyr as someone who dies for what they believe.  There have been people who died for political causes and have been called 'martyrs' (e.g., Tienamen Square massacre in Bejing, China).  Others have died for some ideology and they too have been called martyrs.  More than likely, you and I think of Christians dying for their faith in Christ as being martyrs.  The pages of history are filled with thousands of examples of Christians of all ages, from every strata of society, from all walks of life, dying at the hand of executioners or persecutors for their faith in Christ.

 

When we consider the etymology of the word 'witness' we cannot take the responsibility lightly!  A true witness is one who is 100% committed to the One of whom he is testifying.  He believes Him to the point that he is willing to lay his life down for the cause of the gospel.

 

That is precisely where we find these disciples.  Yes, they struggled with facing certain persecution and possible death.  We see this in the way they scattered at the arrest of Christ.  But they persevered and pressed on as witnesses of Jesus Christ and His power to save sinners.  How could they do this?  They lived in dependence upon the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  And so must we, if we are going to press on as witnesses of Jesus Christ.

 

1.  Know Who He is

 

If we are to depend upon the Holy Spirit, we must know Who He is.  Jesus identifies Him in the same way He has already done in John 14:16-17.  He is called "the Helper" and "the Spirit of truth."  There is great significance in both these titles or designations of the Holy Spirit.

 

What are the biggest obstacles we face in witnessing of Christ Jesus?  First, is probably that old matter of "I'm just not sure what to say."  We are concerned that we may not be able to answer someone's question or be able to speak clearly and authoritatively about the Gospel.  So, we need help in what to speak!

 

A second obstacle is that we are afraid of what others might say to us or even do to us for telling them about Christ.  This is most unfortunate and certainly something the devil exaggerates in our minds to keep us silent in the matter of witnessing.  So, we need help here too.

 

I am convinced that the two titles Jesus used at this point concerning the Spirit are of especial help to us in the matter of witnessing.  In his book, Names of the Holy Spirit, Ray Pritchard states that there are 87 names or designations of the Holy Spirit in the Bible.  Yet the two our Lord uses in our text point us to how the Spirit enables us to press on as witnesses of Jesus Christ.

 

The word Helper is the Greek word PARACLETOS, which means 'one called along side to help'.  It is also translated as Counselor, Comforter, and Advocate.  The implication is that we are in need, so therefore we need Someone of mighty power to come alongside us in our need.  Jesus had been speaking of the persecution that follows Christians like a shadow.  With persecution comes trials of varying degrees, but always difficult to handle.  Now, added to this certain persecution, is the command that Christians are to be witnesses of Christ.  So, the Holy Spirit comes right into our lives, focuses upon the point of our need, and brings to us divine consolation, encouragement, comfort, strength, and direction.

 

So you are afraid to witness because of what others might say or do to you?  Do not fear, the Holy Spirit is your Helper or Counselor or Comforter.  That is why Jesus told the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were endued with the Spirit's power before bearing witness of Him.  In light of the work of the Spirit we see once fearful disciples boldly proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.  The whole book of Acts gives us an amazing record of the Holy Spirit's power at work in believers to stand boldly before an antagonistic world and proclaim the gospel of Christ!  What God did through the Spirit for those brethren, He will do for you, too, as you witness of the good news of Jesus Christ.    

 

We also see the Holy Spirit revealed as "the Spirit of truth."  So you are not sure of what to say when witnessing?  The Holy Spirit specializes in giving to us just the right 'word of truth' when we are dependent upon Him in witnessing situations.  With all of the false teaching and errors of our day, it is important that Christians speak the truth with clarity and power!  The Holy Spirit is the author of truth, the One who has given us the Word of God.  He can dispel our ignorance by opening our eyes to the wonderful truths of God's Word.  He can assure us in the truth and can bring truth to our remembrance as we offer testimony of the gospel of Christ.

 

So often in occasions of witnessing I have had a sudden flash of biblical truth come to mind that is pertinent to the occasion.  That truth came from the Spirit of truth!  That Spirit enlivened truth would help to penetrate the heart and mind of an unbeliever to point them to Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord.

 

2.  Know how He came

 

Without any further explanation, our Lord tells us how the Spirit came to us as believers.  He states that on one hand, after He ascended to the Father He would send the Spirit, and on the other hand, the Spirit would proceed from the Father.  This area has been one of great theological debate in ancient church history.  The Eastern and Western churches are still divided over this issue.  The Eastern Orthodox churches declare that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, not the Son.  The Western tradition, of which we are a part, states that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son.  Over this issue, at least on the surface, the Eastern and Western church traditions have divided and battled.

 

Frankly, the real issue to see is that Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit as a living Person who is part of the Godhead and fully God Himself.  The old Athanasian Creed states it succinctly:

 

       The Father is made of none: neither created, nor begotten.

       The Son is of the Father alone: not made, nor created: but begotten.

       The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten: but proceeding.

       So there is one Father, not three Fathers: one Son, not three Sons: one Holy Ghost, not three Holy  

       Ghosts.

       And in this Trinity none is afore, or after another: none is greater, nor less than another.

       But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal.

 

Jesus does not leave us without an Advocate upon this earth, He sent the Spirit, God Himself, to indwell us that we might live for Him and testify of His power to save.  The Father, Who sent the Son, is the One of Whom our Lord says the Spirit proceeds.  For any being to proceed from God, that being would have to be God Himself.

 

God is not divisible.  God does not sluff-off a little bit of God and pass it along.  That is impossible for it would violate personhood.  The Spirit is God Himself come to man, just as Jesus Christ is God Incarnate come to man.  Now, if you grasp all of that please explain it to me!  My friend, we are speaking of the Infinite God!  The point we must see is that the Spirit is God and He has come as the third person of the Godhead to apply the divine plan of redemption in this world.  He comes, as pointed out here and in other passages, to enable us to live and speak as witnesses of Jesus Christ.

 

3.  Know what He will do

 

After that theological-mind-boggler, Jesus tells us in simple fashion that the Spirit will bear witness of Jesus Christ.  I believe this is done in a three-fold fashion.

 

First, the Holy Spirit will bear witness to Christ for the individual believer.  This is called the 'witness of the Spirit', which Paul speaks so beautifully on in Romans 8:16-17.  This is that supernatural experience of the Holy Spirit coming to us and assuring us that we are Christ's and that Christ is ours.  For us to be effective witnesses of Christ, we certainly need this assurance!

 

Second, the Holy Spirit also bears witness of Christ through the Scripture.  We know that the Bible is very clear that it is a Spirit-inspired book.  Paul calls it 'God breathed', while Peter speaks of Holy men of old being 'moved by the Holy Spirit' to write what we call the Word of God.  The chief message of the Bible is its testimony concerning Jesus Christ and Him crucified for sinners.  The Holy Spirit Himself has given us the Word of God which in turn tells us everything we will ever need to know or understand concerning Christ and His redemptive work.

 

But a third aspect of this witness of the Spirit actually combines both of the previous aspects.  This is the work of the Spirit in taking the Word of God and speaking it strongly to our hearts so that we know it is indeed truth and we in turn speak this word in witness to others.  Now if this sounds difficult to understand, let's look at a passage in Acts that really explains it much better by way of illustration.  Note especially the last sentence of this passage.

But Peter and the apostles answered and said, "We must obey God rather than men.  The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross.  He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.  And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him." (Acts 5:29-32)


Peter and the apostles gave strong testimony of Jesus Christ and His saving work, but how did they do this?  They were enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit who pressed upon their minds the truth of God.  In this fashion the witness of the Spirit took on both a divine and human side.  The Spirit witnessed of Christ silently in the hearts and minds of the apostles, while the apostles witnessed verbally of Christ to the Jewish Council.

 

Can we press on as witnesses of Jesus Christ and His power to save?  Only if we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit who has come to bear witness to Christ.  He can give us the counsel and wisdom we need to speak boldly of Jesus Christ.  Perhaps our greatest hindrance in witnessing is not the fear of the world, but lack of dependence upon the Spirit.  Let us seek His power to enable us in witnessing.  Let us ask Him to open our eyes to understand the truths of God's Word.  Let us plead for Him to testify through us of the wondrous truth of Jesus Christ.

 

II. Press on as Christ's witness because the Savior has spoken

 

We are given courage and strength to press on as Christ's witnesses because the Holy Spirit has come to indwell us as believers.  But Jesus offers another encouragement to press on as His witnesses.  You will note the repetition of "these things I have spoken" in verses 1 and 4.  He is telling the disciples ahead of time what is going to happen to them at the hand of ungodly persecutors.  His reason for doing this is to enable them to be spiritually armed for what they face and press on courageously with the knowledge that they are walking in the will of Jesus Christ.

 

1.  To prevent apostasy

 

"These things I have spoken to you, that you may be kept from stumbling."  The word for 'stumbling' can be translated as 'go astray'.  It is the Greek word SKANDALIZO, from which we get the English word, scandalize.  The implication is that Christ is speaking this word so that they might be kept from apostasy.  Don Carson comments, "The greatest danger the disciples will confront from the opposition of the world is not death but apostasy" (The Gospel According to John, 530).

 

One who apostatizes is a person who gives every outward appearance of being a Christian, yet the time comes when the darkness of his heart is revealed by his falling away from Christ.  This is not the loss of salvation.  This is the revelation that such a person never had salvation.  I have referred on several occasions to that passage in John 6 where some who claimed to be disciples of Christ 'fell away' at His teaching on the demands of the gospel.  Their true heart was exposed.  John picks up on this same theme in his first epistle:  "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us" (I John 2:19).

 

There is a marvelous divine/human tension involved in this verse.  On the one hand we see God's promises that 'no one can pluck us out of His hand' and that 'we are kept by the power of God unto salvation'; while on the other hand we are exhorted to persevere or endure to the end.  Does this mean that we keep ourselves?  Certainly not, for that would mean that some aspect of our salvation would not be of grace alone.  Does it mean that God cannot quite hold on to us for eternity?  Certainly not, for the One who began a good work in us will continue it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6). 

 

So what does this mean?  All that are truly regenerate will persevere in the faith until the end.  That is, true believers keep on keeping on in their relationship to Christ.  They are not presumptuous, thinking that since they are saved they can live in sin without worry.  They realize that those who are truly saved must go on with God.

 

Don't you think that when the disciples were fleeing after the arrest of Christ and Peter was denying that he even knew Christ, that this word from Christ was ringing assurance in their ears?  "These things I have spoken to you, that you may be kept from stumbling."  In spite of their low level of falling, Christ assured them that apostasy was prevented because of what He had spoken to them, giving them the assurance that they were His.

 

Does that encourage you to press on as a witness for Christ?  You may face strong opposition for your faith in Christ, but be assured that as a true believer, no one can cut you off from Christ!

 

2.  To instill courage

 

Now Christ tells the disciples what they will face:  "They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.  And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me."

 

Brethren, Jesus was not describing a Sunday School picnic for the disciples!  He let them know that they would be rejected, opposed, and killed by religious zealots.  What a way to recruit followers, you might think!  Yet the very fact that Christ has saved us and then warned us of what is to follow ought to give us courage to go on with Him as His witnesses.

 

I saw one of those old war movies quite a while ago in which a group of crack soldiers were brought into a room, given a secret assignment, and pretty much assured that they would be killed or captured and tortured by the enemy.  In Hollywood fashion, the soldiers all looked steely-eyed and resolutely accepted the challenge before them.  Sure enough, all but one of the men died in their assignment.  Why did they press on in the face of certain death?  They did it out of a sense of duty and love for their country.

 

Can we do less who have been redeemed from the hand of the enemy by the blood of Jesus Christ?  Can we cower in fear, withdraw sheepishly from the world, and try to keep our lips sealed when the Lord has called us as His witnesses?  Take courage, my brethren, the world may oppose you and attack you and persecute you, but there is a crown of righteousness awaiting you in the presence of Jesus Christ.  Perhaps the apostle Paul had this very teaching in mind when he wrote those immortal words of II Timothy 4:5-8.

But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.  For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;  in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.


 3.  To give explanation

 

Why does the world do what they do?  "And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, or Me."  We can press on as Christ's witnesses because He has told us how and why the world acts and thinks as it does toward believers. 

 

The world does not know God nor His Son, our Savior.  Are we to get angry at the world for the way they treat Christians?  I believe that our Lord is calling us instead to have pity upon them for their ignorance and unbelief.  I love the way Isaac Watts puts it in that great old hymn, How Sweet and Awful Is the Place.

 

Pity the nations, O our God,

Constrain the earth to come;

Send Thy victorious Word abroad,

And bring the strangers home

(5th stanza).

 

Upon the cross as the cruelest treatment that could be dished out by humans was handed to the Son of God, He did not revile, but prayed, "Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing."  Were they still responsible?  Indeed they were.  Was their treatment of Christ excusable due to ignorance?  Absolutely not, for God will judge them.  Yet we cannot help but see the pity and mercy of Christ shown toward even those who crucified Him.

 

Maybe you have someone on the job who is ridiculing you for being a Christian.  Are you steeped in anger toward that person?  Why not try pitying them and praying for them without malice in your heart?  They do not know the Father nor the Son.  They are heading for eternal destruction unless the mercy of God falls upon them to save them from their sins.  Will you show that mercy toward those who wrong you and oppose you?  Do it for Jesus' sake and for the sake of the gospel.

 

4.  To remind us of His faithfulness

 

In 16:4, Jesus gives a simple little statement that when all these things happen He wanted the disciples to remember that He told them these things would happen.  Why did He do this?  To remind us that His word is faithful and truthful.  If He says it, count on it!  Jesus Christ is true to His Word for His Word is true to His character. 

 

This can give us confidence to press on as witnesses of Jesus Christ, first, because the promises of His presence and power are true and available for us to lay hold of.  The trailing promise of the Great Commission is 'and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age'.  What a promise to lay claim upon!  If you are going with the gospel then Christ is present!  You can believe it!  And I promise you, there will be times as a witness for Jesus Christ that the truthfulness of that little promise will keep you going!

 

But there is a second reminder of faithfulness in these words:  the gospel that Jesus Christ gave us is true and we can be confident when we witness of this gospel that we are speaking truth.  Are you convinced of this?  Do you realize that when you open your mouth and begin to speak the truths of the gospel to a poor, hell-bound sinner, that you are speaking to him the only words, yes, the only words that can deliver him from his lost condition?  Think of the power of God's truth that you have the privilege of delivering to some lost soul in need.  My friend, if it is the gospel then it is true and you can count on it.

 

Conclusion

 

All of us would agree that we need to be better witnesses for Christ.  Why don't we all, with one heart and mind, consecrate ourselves afresh to boldly witness of Jesus Christ and His power to save?  We can press on as Christ's witnesses because the Spirit has come to empower and enable us to proclaim the eternal message of the gospel.  You are not alone!  The Spirit abides in you and will speak through you.  We can also press on as Christ's witnesses because our Savior has spoken.  He has assured us of His keeping power in the midst of persecution.  He reminds us that we are speaking His truth, which alone can bring sinners to the liberty of eternal salvation. 

 

Let's press on as witnesses for Jesus Christ!

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