John 15:16-27

The Work of the trinity:

As we have gone through 1,2,3 John and now the Gospel of John an important doctrine of our faith is the Trinity.

The word “Trinity” doesn’t appear in the Bible. This gospel gives us the raw material on which this doctrine is based, presenting the Father, Son, and Spirit all doing what no one else ever could.

Give life:

Proclaim the future:

Indwell believers:

Teach:

Testify to Jesus:

Glorify Jesus:

Actions common to Father and Son:

Glorify the Father:

Give the Spirit:

Send the Spirit:

Actions common to the Son and Spirit:

Be given by the Father:

Be sent by the Father:

Speak not from Himself:

Speak only what He hears:

Convict:

Be received :

Disclose what belongs to God:

vv 16-17) Chosen to bear fruit and to love one another

[16] There would be a tendency for these men to become discouraged and give up. Jesus reminded them that he was the One who chose them. This probably means for eternal salvation, to discipleship, and to fruitfulness.

He had appointed the disciple to the work which lay before them. We should go and bear fruit.

What does that mean though?

The graces of the Christian life, such as found in Gal 5. Or it may mean souls won for Jesus Christ. There is a close link between the two. It is only as we are manifesting the first kind of fruit that we will ever be able to bring forth the second.

God also chose the disciple so they would bear fruit that would remain, to the glory of God the Father.

Again Jesus connected fruit bearing with answered prayer. When He departed from them their experience of asking and receiving would not end but would change, and Jesus prepared His disciples for this.

[17] The Lord was about to warn the disciples about the enmity of the world. He began by telling them to love one another, to stick together, and to stand unitedly against the foe.

We too need to have each other’s backs. No lone wolf-ing

vv 18-20) Rejection of the disciples

[18-19] The disciples were not to be surprised or disheartened if the world hated them.

This doesn’t suggested any doubt that this would happen; and it certainly did.

The world hates the Lord, and it will hate all who resemble Him.

The disciples Jesus spoke to that night would know the hatred of the world. They were persecuted and all of them died as martyrs in Jesus’ name. except for John - whom they tried to kill, but he miraculously wouldn’t die at their hands.

[example] How did they die?

Peter: Crucified upside-down

Andrew: Crucified

James: Sword recorded in Acts 12:1

Acts 12:1 ESV

1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.

John: Old age but was boiled in oil

Philip: Beheaded, crucified upside-down, stoned, or of natural causes.

Bartholomew: Flayed then beheaded, crucified, beaten unconscious and drowned

Thomas: Speared

Matthew: Natural causes, burned, stoned, stabbed, or beheaded

James son of Alphaeus: Pushed from the pinnacle of the temple then beat with a club if he is James the Just, or was crucified.

Jude: was martyred in Syria with Simon the Zealot. With an axe.

Simon: claimed to have been sawed in half

Matthias: Stoned outside of Jerusalem

Paul: Beheaded

The earliest Christians would know the hatred of the world too. Tacitus spoke of people “hated for their crimes, whom the mob call Christians.”

Suetonius had spoken of “a race of men who belong to a new and evil superstition.”

Christians through the centuries have known the hatred of the world, and millions have died for Jesus. It is said that more died as martyrs for Jesus in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined.

Which begs the question does the world hate you?

often times we can gage the health of our walk by the way the world treats us.

Men and women of the world love those who live as they do- those who use vile language and indulge in the lusts of the flesh, or people who are cultured but live only for themselves.

Christians condemn them by their holy lives, therefore the world hates them.

Do not be surprised that unbelievers would hate you. It follows a pattern seen in the world since Cain murdered Abel, and it is seen in the world’s reaction to Christ himself in verse 18.

[20] A disciple should not expect any better treatment from the world than his maters recieved. He will be persecuted just as Jesus was.

vv 21-25) The world may reject us because of who Jesus is

[21] If people do not know God as He really is, they often attack and persecute those who represent God in some way. There is a hatred and persecution on account of His Name. Ultimately due too the believers link to Christ.

Because they have been separated from the world by Christ, also because they bear Christ’s name and likeness. The world is ignorant of God. They do not know that the Father sent the Lord into the world to be the savior… But ignorance is no excuse.

At the end of the day this should produce sympathy in the persecuted for their persecutors.

[22] Does this mean that if Jesus didn’t come no one would be guilty of sin?

That kind of thinking contradicts other scripture:

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Jesus isn’t teaching that at all. From the time of Adam, all men had been sinners. But their sin would not have been nearly so great as it now was. These men and women had seen the Son of God and heard His wonderful words. They could find no fault in Him whatever. And still rejected Him. It was this that made their sin so great.

So what Jesus is doing is a matter of comparison. Compared with their terrible sin or rejecting the Lord of glory, their own sins were as nothing. Now they had no excuse for their sin. They had rejected the Light of the world!

They are specifically rejecting the supreme revelation of God that came in Christ Himself, a sin that is particularly manifested in hating Christ.

[23] In hating Christ, they hate the Father too. The Two are One. They could not say that they loved God, for if they had, they would have loved the One God sent too.

[24] They were not only responsible for having heard the teaching of Christ; they also saw His miracles. this added to their condemnation. They saw works which no one else had ever performed. To reject Christ in face of this evidence was inexcusable.

The Lord compared all their other sins to this one sin, and said that the former were was nothing when placed alongside the latter. Because they hated the Son, they hated His Father, and this was their terrible condemnation.

[25] Jesus quotes this line from:

Psalm 69:4 ESV

4 More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore?

Or possibly:

Psalm 35:19 ESV

19 Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.

He did this to show the Scriptural precedent and prophetic fulfillment that there was no just cause for the world to hate Jesus and His Father as they did.

The irony of his quotation is clear: the men who posted as the champions of the Law were fulfilling the prophecy concerning the enemies of God’s servant.

As the disciples of Jesus, we are expected of some hatred and rejection from the world. Yet we are required to live in such a way that such hatred is uncalled for. Peter communicated some of this in his letter:

1 Peter 4:14–16 ESV

14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

vv 26-27) The witness of the Holy Spirit and the disciples

[26] What encouragement do you find in verse 26?

In spite of man’s rejection, there would be a continued testimony to Christ. It would be carried on by the Helper- the Holy Spirit.

Here the Lord said that He would send the Spirit from the Father. In John 14:16:

John 14:16 ESV

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

the Father was the One who sent the Spirit. Is this not another proof of the equality of the Son and the Father? Who but God could send One who is God?

“The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father.” This means that He is constantly being sent forth by God, and His day of Pentecost was a special instance of this. The Spirit testifies concerning Christ. This is His great mission. He does not seek to occupy men with Himself, though He is one of the members of the Trinity. But He directs the attention of both sinner and saint to the Lord’s glory.

[27] Then we have the Spirit testifying directly through the disciples. They had been with the Lord from the beginning of His public ministry and were especially qualified to tell of His Person and His work.

If anyone could have found any imperfection in the Lord, those who had been with Him the most could have. But they never knew Him to commit a sin of any kind. They could testify to the fact that He was the sinless Son of God and Savior of the world.

For us today this applies to us too, but not to the degree of the apostles. We too have been given testimonies of the work of God in our lives. We have been equipped with the Holy Spirit to testify of the greatness of God, to bring glory to Him, to worship Him.

After all that is why we were created.

“The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.” -Piper

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.