John 15:22-27 Bible Teaching

John 16.11
January 25th 2015
Okay, let’s pray.

PRAYER
MUSIC
REFLECTION

Okay, let’s move on and not only wrap up chapter 15 of John this morning but move into 16 as well.

We left off last week with Jesus telling His eleven that they were going to be persecuted and hated as He was persecuted and hated first.

He added (at verse 21)

John 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.

Isn’t that probably the case with everything we do that is stupid, or arrogant or sinful – its because we don’t KNOW God . . . that if we really, truly, genuinely understood Him we would be far more inclined toward love?

We talked about verse 21 and what it means. Jesus continues and carries the theme of being hated by saying:

22 If I had not come and spoken unto them (those who had hated and persecuted Jesus and who would hate and persecute the eleven) “If I had NOT come and spoken unto them they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

Alright back to verse 22 where Jesus says:

“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.

Now, Jesus has been talking about being hated and persecuted and so when He says:

“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin,” He is speaking of their sin for hating and killing Him and them – this specific sin.

Obviously they had sin prior to Jesus coming and speaking to them so we know in context He is referring to their sin of hate against His person.

If He hadn’t come to the house of Israel and declared unto them the will of God and proved that He was the promised one they never would have been guilty for hating and killing Him in the first place, is what I think He’s saying.

“But now,” He says, or in other words, “Since I have come and spoke plainly to them” . . . “they now have no cloak for their sin.”

It’s one of the properties of the person of Jesus Christ – His presence does NOT allow for neutrality.

As light He is either making disciples of people who bask in His warmth or He is making enemies by the fact that He exposes them for their darkness and they love the dark more than the light.

Prior to His coming to earth these religious leaders were comfortable in their cloaks of fig leaves and were able to escape detection.

But since the advent of Christ to the earth, and His shining the light of God in to their hearts with His perfectly clear message of truth, they could hide no longer – and their hearts of envy and pride and hate were made manifest by His very presence and words. And so Jesus says:

“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.

And then He reiterates a point we covered last week, saying:

23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

This line emphatically says that to hate Jesus is to hate God, to love Jesus is to love God, therefore the gravity of their sin was no small matter.

In other words their hatred for Jesus was not any different from the fact that they really hated God, the Father of lights.

Again, He repeats His general point but adds a slightly different twist to it by saying (at verse 24):

24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

In verse 22 He says

“if I had not come and SPOKEN to them” and then here in verse 24 He adds, “If I had not come and done the works I have done” . . . (the miracles).

We’ve talked about this concept before, how Jesus gave two options for conversion – even to His own disciples – He spoke Words and He did Miracles.

In chapter 14 we noted that when these very same chosen disciples were still uncertain as to Jesus identity and relation to the invisible God He said to them:

(John 14:11) “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”

In other words He said you can believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me because I say such things OR you can believe this by the miracles I have done.

Here He uses the very same two witnesses here to convict the Jews who were about to put Him to death – the Word’s He has spoken to them and the miracles He has done.

24 If I had not come and spoken to them and done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin,” He says, “ but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.”

Verse 25 Jesus says

25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

Here the Lord is citing Psalm 35:19. And He says, relative to the words He is citing and applying to himself, that all the words of the law will be fulfilled in Him.

As I said the passage He is pulling from is in Psalm 35:19 and it has David saying (in the King James) AND RELATIVE TO HIS OWN LIFE:

“Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.”

Now, in the face of this we need to point something out that is SUPER important in our understanding of the Bible.

Here Jesus takes some words that David wrote and when David wrote them He was speaking of himself.

There are a number of passages in the New Testament where the writers take passages from the Old and apply them to Jesus and their Old Testament context has NOTHING at all to do with Him.

For example in the New Testament we will find writers like Matthew pulling from the Old Testament narrative and assigning the passages to Jesus.

Many critics today will take the passages that Matthew uses and lambast him for making the passages “fit to the Lord and His life.”

But we can excuse Matthew because Jesus does the very same thing here with the Words of David.

I can suggest a few responses.

First we can say it was all fabricated.

“Jesus and His apostles did and said whatever they could to concoct a scheme that made Him look like the promised one.”

Obviously I don’t accept this response but more and more people will if they don’t think the situation through.

Secondly we could say . . .

The Old Testament writers were in fact writing prophetically in all these areas but were not aware of it and were only thinking they were writing about their time and place when they write their inspirations.

To me this is more plausible an answer.

OR we could say . . .

Because Jesus is creator of heaven and earth, because He is the Word, because He is the Author and Finisher of our faith, because He is the judge of ALL things – EVERYTHING – then EVERYTHING that is ever said or done ultimately will, does or can point to Him, boomerang back to Him, and reflect Him whether it was intended by those speaking or writing the things or or not.

I strongly suggest this latter view. I strongly suggest that when we take a line or event from scripture (like the donkey talking) and don’t understand how or where this event reflects on Christ it’s only because we lack understanding and comprehension.

So when David was writing of his own life and said:

“Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.”

We can rest assured that Jesus taking these words and applying them to His fulfilling the Law, it’s legit.

And then when we consider the words themselves and how they apply to Jesus we really do have to admit that they certainly did “hate Him without a cause.”

By looking at the Greek the word for “without a cause” is DOREAN and instead of meaning “without a purpose or reason” it means “freely.”

The word is perhaps best translated “gratuitously” and it really means that they hated the Lord without ANY justification to substantiate their hatred.

Their hatred was freely delivered to Him, unencumbered by anything – free of support.

Jesus had broken no law, which to a Jew would have allowed them to hate Him or at least separate company with Him or stone Him to death.

He had done no injury to his country or to any individual.

And even though we know that they delivered Him over to death because of envy . . .

(Matthew 27:18 says) “. . . that for envy they had delivered him.”

. . . it was still hatred that was freely given and unsupported because envy is no justifiable cause.

Today, when or if people hate Jesus it has to be (for the most part) that what they are really hating are His followers and/or what WE have said and done in His name.

I suppose some could hate Him who love the dark, but a personal invective against the Lord, in my opinion, seems rather baseless, right?

Hate the Prince of Peace? Hate the one who judged no man? Hate the one who gave His life for everyone?

It’s just odd.

In Jesus day they HATED Him . . . and would hate His apostles and future followers.

In our day the hatred is based more on principles and misinterpretation of His person.

I think this is important to make clear because I am of the opinion that when almost anyone comes to see Jesus for who He truly is . . . they will love Him.

After making this statement Jesus continues to speak. He has said that He was hated freely then adds:

26 But . . when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

I was hated freely by these men. In fact, (He could have added), “you are gonna see their hatred spill over on my head within 24 hours.”

26 But . . when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

In other words even though I was hated the Holy Spirit will testify of me!

Then speaking of “testifying of Him,” Jesus adds (verse 27)

27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

In verse 26 Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will “TESTIFY” of Him and then in verse 27 Jesus says that the apostles shall also “bear witness.”

The Greek word in verse 26 and 2 are the same. The King James translators chose to translated the word in verse 26 to “testify” and in verse 27 to “bear witness.”

I point this out to show how the translators of the King James often took liberties as a means to make the scripture flow better, and – as in the case here – chose to take the same Greek word but to use different English words depending on flow and purpose.

Literal translations use the English term TESTIFY twice and while repetitive makes comprehension much easier.

Another reason I point this out is due to years of hearing supposed teachers of the word reading English only translations of the Word and making mountains out of these differences . . . (Mock) Now, now, now WHYYYYYYYY do you suppose that John says Testify here in verse 26 an then “Bear Witness” here in 27?

UGGGGGHHHH

In any case Jesus has told these men that the Holy Spirit will be testifying of Him and that they would too.

What qualifies them to testify of Him? Jesus tells them, adding:

“Because you have been with me from the beginning.”

Beginning of what? His ministry – apparently seeing all He had done and hearing all He had said – this was what qualified them to testify of Him to the world.

Speaking of the import of this apostolic witness Luke wrote at the introduction of his gospel:

(Luke 1:2) “we . . . which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word.”

Prior to ascending into the clouds Jesus said to the apostles in Acts 1:8:

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

As witnesses, they bore truths in word, deed, and by doing miracles (another attestation of apostolic authority) and in authoring scripture.

In the opener of his epistles John the Beloved emphasizes the importance of what these men did, saying:

1st John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

When it came to choosing a twelfth apostle (errantly, I would suggest, by the way) and ultimately picking Mathias through the archaic manner of casting lots, Peter said the qualifications of the candidates must be that . . .

(Acts 1:21-22) . . . the men . . . (must come from those) “which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, (and) must one be called to be a witness with us of his resurrection.

And so this is what the apostles did – witnessed of Him – just as the Holy Spirit did.

Now this brings us to chapter 16 and the first eleven verses where Jesus just continues talking.

Here in 16 He is going to tell us about three things the Holy Spirit is going to do. And so He continues to say:

John 16:1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
4 But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.
5 But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?
6 But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

Okay, back to verse 1 where Jesus continues to speak to the eleven and says

John 16:1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.

All that I have told you has been said to keep you from (the King James says) “being offended.”

The word here directly means “stumble or fall” and not so much as directly insulted or offended and this is important because what I think He is telling them is He has instructed them in this way so they won’t apostatize (stumble or fall).

So they won’t fall from the faith they possess.

We might find this strange – I mean these were the apostles – but not long ago Judas, who too had seen and been with them, walked away so it obviously possible.

So much so that Jesus tells them here He is teaching them all of these things so they won’t.

He has told them He is going away. That they are going to be tried and hated too.

I am warning you of all of these things so when they come about “you won’t stumble.”

It seems that if they were not made aware of these things before hand, and Jesus would have been killed unexpectedly, and they would have also been hated without expecting it, the situation would have been too great and they may have fallen or stumbled in their witness.

He is also going to remind them of the coming of the Holy Spirit which would go A LONG way in keeping them going.

From this example of the apostles we can see that if Christians were left to themselves they would fall away and perish.

We also learn that once again God has provided for all of us means to keep us abiding . . . and that apostasy of genuine believers is possible.

Continuing His warnings He tells them – actually prophesies to them (verse 2)

2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

This passage supports something we talked about last week – the model we have provided for us as believers today which is the people who made life MOST difficult for Jesus were the most religious, the most orthodox, the outwardly most devout to the apparent THINGS of God.

And that these same people, Jesus says, would do the same things to His apostles.

Put them OUT of the synogogues . . . and even kill them.

This is the model and the same religious people have for centuries upon centuries been doing the very same things to the most honest souls for Jesus.

In other words, if you know the Father, and you have the heart of Jesus beating in your chest, and you let that light of love shine to all people you can bet your bottom dollar that the people who will be the HARDEST on you and will hate you the most will be the most religiously orthodox.

Jesus tells these men that they will not only be cast out of the synagogues but that the people who do such things will do them FULLY CONVINCED that they are doing God’s will in killing them!

Interestingly enough, one of the greatest persecutors of the apostles and followers of Christ was a man named Saul, who earnestly believed he was doing God’s will in brutalizing the Saints.

We read in Acts 9:1 that

“. . . Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest . . .”

In Galatians 1:13 Paul himself wrote:

“For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.”

In Acts 26:9-11 Paul says:

“I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.”

Was Paul committed to the tenets of his former faith? Absolutely. He was devout. Zealous. A Pharisee of Pharisees. So much so that he even felt it his duty to persecute and even kill Christians.

That’s commitment, right. Can’t question Paul’s devotion.

Thomas Fuller said:

“Zeal without knowledge is fire without light.”

It’s a great quote from a church historian because what reason does Jesus give for men of misguided devotion taking such action? (Verse three):

3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

In other words they had ZEAL without knowledge. And all who do such things are in the same boat.

Under the law it was customary for Jews to want to destroying those who did not believe or behave the way they thought they should.

I mean they actually stoned people to death for such diversions.

In Luke chapter 9 we read about this attitude still abiding in the hearts of the apostles as it says:

Luke 9:51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

“Life eternal,” Jesus says in John 17:3 is to

“know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

Miss knowing them and we are sure to miss knowing how they really view and see all things, and then we become capable of actually thinking we are justified in doing all sorts of things in His name and cause . . . when we are really just acting out from our own diseased minds.

To a Jew, a blasphemer was deserving of death. In the case of Jesus and His apostles they, in all honestly believed they were worthy of death – and a blasphemer UNDER THE LAW would have been.

But lacking a real knowledge of the invisible God (and His Son whom He sent into to the world to save) they missed the whole point and thrust and purpose of God – they missed His true identity – which is utter unlove –
and ended up saying and doing the OPPOSITE of what God and Christ would sanction.

And these responses have thrived in the hearts of religious men and women ever since.

I do not speak theoretically. The Crusades were not the first in a long history of Christians thinking they do God’s will of killing (or calling down fire from heaven) to wipe people out who disagree with them.

Heretics have long been subject to the Christian rack, witches and suspected witches too. Of course there have been doctrinal wars where tens of thousands have been tortured and killed in God’s name just for thinking differently.

And the killing today has NOT stopped – instead its more about killing the character than the body.

Again, what is the cause? Jesus tells us plainly right here:

3 And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

We might think we are far removed from such barbarous thoughts and actions – that we, as humble believers could never be included in the ranks of those who kill, “thinking they do God’s service.”

But I would suggest – and I have to look in the mirror long and hard when I say this having been more guilty of than most people alive – but I would suggest that ANYTIME . . . we justify hatred, evil, revenge, controlling, or punishing people for who they are, what they do, or how they believe and we use God as our justification we only prove that we don’t know Him or His Son.

(long, long, long beat)

Jesus continues in His last training words to the apostles and says (in verses 4-5)

4 But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.
5 But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?

While I’ve been with you there was no need to give you all these details but now that I am going it’s important you are fortified by them.

“I am going away,” He says, “to Him that sent me,” and then He adds:

“But none of you have asked me, where are you going?”

For quite a while now, going all the way back to chapter 13, Jesus has been talking about leaving them and their response has been grieving.

He is trying to help them to respond in another way – a better way. And instead of grieving He wanted to supply them with information to offset such a response.

So He sort of prods them and says, “I am going away but none of you have asked me where.”

All you done is grieve over the fact that I am leaving.” Or, as He says in verse 6

6 But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.

And so at this point He reveals to them a truth He has yet to teach them . . . and it’s an important one. (verse 7)

7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth (HE says)
It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Now, this passage has caused a lot of consternation and discussion as most people have concluded from it that Jesus had to leave BEFORE the Holy Spirit could come to the earth.

And this thinking has led to a lot of ideas that say things like:

Jesus could NOT be on the same planet at the SAME time AS the Holy Spirit.

OR Jesus became the Holy Spirit when He ascended and so He HAD to leave before He could come back.

HOGWASH

How can I say hogwash? And what IS hogwash? I use all these agrarian terms and I don’t even know what they are? Hogwash?

First of all, God is one and wherever God is manifesting Himself around the globe He remains one. Not two or three but one.

So if Jesus appears in the sky in Jerusalem at 70 AD (or is yet to appear as many still maintain) does this mean the Holy Spirit was not (or could not have been present at that time (or in the time to come)? Hardly.

The holy spirit was or will be here when Jesus returns.

Secondly, after Jesus rises from the grave He will return and speak with the apostles. And we read about one of His visits to them in John chapter 20 and this is what it says:
John 20:21-22 “Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”

We won’t go into why or what Jesus actually did here but according to what we read it seems He gave them the Holy Spirit by simply breathing on them – breaking the notion to pieces that He could not be on earth at the same time as the Holy Spirit or that He was the Holy Spirit.

But perhaps the biggest defense against this idea is a reasonable understanding of what the Lord says here in verse 7.

First, what did He mean?

In the context of the passage Jesus has been telling these men of his coming persecution, His passion, His death.

This is all He is saying – “in order for the Holy Spirit to come and do its work in the hearts of humanity, He would have to first do His work – which included Him going away (or dying on the cross and resurrecting) which work would clear the human heart of sin (by faith) and make it possible for the Holy Spirit to indwell fallen human beings.

Jesus puts it this way –

“It is expedient for you that I go away” (die, go to the Father) for if I go not away (If I don’t die) the Comforter will not come unto you (He can’t come to you and guide and comfort you UNLESS I die); but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”

Trinitarians use these words to suggest the three special arrangements the Father made with the Son and the Holy Spirit before the foundations of the world – that the Father would send the Son, that the Son, taking on a body of flesh would die on the cross, and that the Holy Spirit would draw all men to the Son’s salvivic work for the world.

It’s a tidy little story and appeals to our need for order and understanding and maybe it’s even correct.

But I simply see it as Jesus wiping away sin the making the way for the breath of God to take that work into the Spirit and heart of God.

However you want to see it – there’s no dogma. Why? We don’t know. And equally devout believers in Jesus stand on both sides of the fence.

But none get tossed out of the synagogue as a result, right?

Jesus then gives perhaps the best definition of the work the Holy Spirit will do among human beings and says:

8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

We are going to discuss these fascinating passages next week.

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