Gospel of John, 16:1-11
John 16:1-11 · Mike Doyle · Aug 31, 2008
Gospel of John (2008), No. 35
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926110283145

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are at John 15, and John 15, a very famous passage in the Word of God, has to do with the vine and the branches. We talked about what the role of a vine is, what the role of a vine dresser is, what the role of a branch is. We talked about the word take away, which really means to lift up in the first couple of verses. We talked a lot about position and condition. I think these verses, the first two verses anyway, probably could be the poster child for discussing position and condition. If you want to look at some verses that will explain, or I shouldn't say explain, But if you understand position and condition and you read them slowly and plug those words in, you will find that they are perfect for that. And I think we had made it to verse five, which is question ten.

Well, if we didn't, that's where we're going to start. So let's set this up correctly. Let's read, let's see. Did we get through all the way through 28? It shows you where I've been. Oh yeah, we did good in there. I can tell. Sorry about that. So 29, did we even get into 29? I think we just got to the end of 28. Okay. Alright. Everything I said up to this point, never mind. So we got down, if we finished lesson 28, we got down through verse 11. And lesson 29 is from 12 to 27. Maybe just to set this up in context, you know, at the end of chapter 14, the last phrase is, so do, and so I do, arise and let us go from here.

I think what's going on in terms of location, they've left the upper room and they're probably on their way to Gethsemane and this discussion is taking place while they're walking. That's what I think. Maybe they already got to Gethsemane and maybe they're talking.

But this information, I think, is being taught to them, because we're in a very short time span here. We're in the last week of the Lord's earthly life, the last three or four days, and now we're down to only a day or two. And all of this information from 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, all takes place in a day or two. It takes us a long time to get through it, but that's kind of where we are. So they're either walking on the way to Gethsemane, or they got to Gethsemane or they stopped along the way, but they've left the upper room and they're a very short time frame.

So 12, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. So my first question is, to what extent did Jesus love them? Easy question. He laid down his life for them. I think the last time I referred was Romans 5, 5-8.

And hope makes us not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely a righteous man would die A righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commends his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. What's the deal here? Why is he bringing this up?

Why is he saying to them, look guys, if you love me keep my commandments. And here's my commandment, that you love one another. Oh, by the way, the word for love here is not hang out and be brothers. This is the agape word, which means that it's usually the word that is associated with godly love, which means that the person who is doing the loving finds extremely high value in the object that he loves, and he does not take into consideration whether there's a response or not. He just loves. So he says, My commandment is that you love one another as I have loved you.

And their response is, yeah, no problem. I can handle that. What's their response? Back to my first question. Why does he say this to them? Why does he give this to them? Why is this really critical as they're going forward? He has a relationship to the Father in which he's going to bring them into it and the core, the principle of that relationship is to love one another.

That's the relationship. It functions like that. It functions based on this agape love. So he says, you know, you do what I do. The problem you've got here though is, wait a minute, he's God, He has a relationship with the Father and he's telling me, and I'm not God, that I'm to love the Father as he does, and we're to love each other like they do.

Now if there was anybody in that group that had any sense at all, the next question out of their mouth would have been, how can we do that? That's impossible to do. Would that have been an appropriate question? What do you think? How many think it would have been an appropriate question? How many don't think it would have been?

They should have said, oh yeah, we get that. We'll go for it. I've got chickens in the backyard. Courtney says, yeah, no problem. They should have. I mean, I think of all the things about, he's told them, you know, he's walked them through everything about the relationship between he and the Father, and then he was going to give them the Holy Spirit. He's just told them about that. They should have. Especially with the vine and the branches because the light that's in the vine that filters through the branches that creates the fruit on the end is this kind of light that loves. So they should have known, but they didn't know. They didn't get it. How come?

Did Jesus just pick 11 dumb guys? They didn't have the Holy Spirit. They didn't have the Holy Spirit, but what does the Holy Spirit bring? In the context of believers, what does the Holy Spirit bring that makes you and I and them capable of understanding and capable of responding? What does He bring? He draws them out of the world. Drawing them out of the world doesn't give them the capacity or the energy to do what He wants them to do. What does the Holy Spirit bring with Him that would give them the capacity to do what He's telling them to do? In verse 26, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about me. He will testify about the Father and... That's okay. If I've got the testimony, big deal. It doesn't mean I can do it.

What makes me capable of doing what he's telling me to do? I've got to have the life. I have to have the life that can do this. I've got to have the life of the vine in order to function like the vine. So the Spirit of God brings life. That's what he brings. And I think that's what he's really talking about here with the vine and the branches. I am the true vine. I'm the one that has the true life. And so, I'm delineating, the Lord Jesus is delineating kind of how that life functions, but without bringing of the life, it can't function this way.

It can't do it. So, would you say that this love is a gift from God? Just in and of itself? So would the Lord Jesus or the Holy Spirit bring the gift of agape love and give it to somebody all by itself? Answer no. It comes with the life. You see that? It comes with the life. So this is one of those, even though they don't have resurrected life yet, there's logical imperatives being communicated by the Spirit of God to people who are listening even before the life is there.

Verse 14 tells me that you are my friends if you do whatever I command you. What had the commandments been so far? Now think back. In chapter 15, what had the Lord Jesus commanded them to do? All the way back to verse 1. Or verse 2. I shouldn't say that. It should be verse 4.

That's the first command. What's the command? Abide in me. Then there's the command, abide in my love. And then there's the command to love one another. And then he says, you are my friends if you do whatever I command you. So he's given him three things to do. How are they doing so far? They must not be his friends. So does this mean that if they don't do what he commands, they're not his friends? No? Yes? If you don't do what the Lord commands, does that mean you're not his friend? What do you think?

It's not conditional. So if Courtney and I are friends, and I say to him, give me 20 bucks, and we're friends, you know, and we're good friends, would he hesitate to give me 20 dollars? He didn't know me too well. But if he knew me really well, you know, or if I went to Jack, My father-in-law said, Jack, I need $20. You think he'd hesitate? Why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't he hesitate? Because he knows you. Because he knows me. And he knows I wouldn't ask unless I had a legitimate purpose. If he came to me and said, Mike, I need $20. You know, I'd be scrambling without even saying a word. Pulling out my money, 20 bucks. Is it 20 or not?

So here's the point. My question is, is that if they don't do what he commands, are they not his friends? Really, you have to look at it the other way. Because they are his friends, they do what he asks. Do you see that? If you live under a legalistic environment, then you always get the umbrella of, If you do this, you'll somehow demonstrate that you're my friend. Rather than, here we are my friends, you can tell Courtney and I are not friends, but Jack and I are. If he asks me to do something, I don't hesitate. I can't wait to do it. I don't have 20 bucks.

When one is a friend, there is little resistance to the request of one's friend. When the statement is made that they were friends, the friends of the Son of God, then along with it is an understanding that God only has good in store for them. If I'm involved in walking with the Lord and He asks me to do something, I don't have any resistance about that. Especially if I'm a person who has experienced a little bit of His grace.

Do you understand what I mean? Grace being His unlimited and unmerited blessings towards me. If I live in a grace environment under the Lord Jesus Christ, which is unlimited, unmerited blessing towards me, full on all the time, and then he asks me to do something, am I going to think it over? No, I'm not.

So why is the statement in verse 15 important to the disciples? The statement is, no longer do I call you servants, for a servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you. Why is that an important statement to the disciples? Think about where they came from. Where did they come from? What environment are they coming out of? A law-based system, right? Anybody in a law-based system would view God as a friend? No way. No way. And you see that today in contemporary religion. You don't view God as a friend.

He's the one in the White Tower that somehow is a little upset with us and we need to do some spiritual push-ups and some really cool things so he won't hammer us. The Lord Jesus says friends to them which is really important if they understand because they are outside of or about to be outside of a legal system, they are not under it anymore and so they live under grace, they have life and they have love and they are now friends. Imagine If they understand that Jesus is the Son of God, and He is God, and He says, you're my friends. You're my friends.

Trust me, a Pharisee never said that to them. No way. And not a Pharisee alive would look at God as a friend. And if they ever did in the Old Testament, they were a super saint. Understand that? They understood that God is love. But under a Jewish legal system, they didn't understand that. Mike, I said that they now had a relationship with him, is that... Yeah, yeah. Now, that brings up a good point. Do you think that the disciples viewed the Lord Jesus as one of their peers? Probably.

Yeah, I think they, you know, we're all in a club and the Lord's a leader. But I don't think they understood that he was God. That he's a God. Even though Peter pronounces it I don't think they understood that who they were walking around with was the God of the universe, the creator and sustainer of everything. So I think they did kind of look at him as a peer but also their leader and probably the Messiah from the viewpoint of Jewishness that he was going to somehow take over the system and they were going to be part of that.

And so when he said friends, I think you're right, I think they thought, oh ok, no problem, but I don't think they understood the spiritual. Because he said if you're not a friend, I mean friends don't, if you're not a friend of mine, I don't tell you what my plans are.

I don't bring you into my inner circle. I'm not lending you 20 bucks. And that's what he's saying to him, look, you're my friends because all things that I heard from my father I've made known to you. Now that's a very interesting statement because he's saying, look, you're more than just my earthly friends.

Verse 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. and that your fruit should remain, and that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you." Now, you didn't choose me, I chose you. Really? I thought all of you cool Christian people chose Christ. You didn't do that? You mean to tell me that every one of you was chosen by the Lord Jesus? He chose you? You didn't choose my buddy across the street from the White House? What do you think? I chose you, right? And not only did I choose you, I did something else in that process. And what was the other thing I wanted you to do, or I chose you to do?

Bear fruit. To bear fruit. And who determined all of that? You did? No, the Lord did. So, if He has said to us, look, Fellas, I have chosen you and I have appointed you, I have anointed you, I have separated you out, specifically that you should bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. Okay? The Lord Jesus said, I've done all of that. So, rather than being busy, what should you concentrate on as you grow spiritually? See if you understand what I mean. What should you concentrate on? Should you be concentrating on doing as much work for the Lord as you can?

You should be beholding. So what's one of the benefits of beholding? You get conformed to the image of the Lord, right? And you're a friend. What do you find out as being a friend? You start to find out what the appointments are. Understand what I mean? You start to find out what God has specifically called you to do and so you don't act amiss. See that?

He gives you the heart for it. He gives you the energy for it. He gives you the purpose in your heart and your mind to go and do so that the fruit that he's talking about is his fruit and it remains. How long does it remain? All the way to the beam of judgment. All the way to there. And then you get rewarded. That's very cool. The stuff that you decided that you needed to do for God, what happens to that stuff? It's burned up. Yeah, big fire in my case. Huge fire. You guys are all going to get warm.

So, not only are you called, are we called, but we're ordained to the fruit that we are going to bear. Let me ask you this. Is this of such a character that when we show up to the beam of judgment, Courtney's going to show up and say, hey, I've got two extra. I've got two more than you ordained me for. You think that's going to happen? And I'm going to show up and say, I think I missed a couple. Is that going to happen? No, it's not.

So you can relax. and get to know the Lord Jesus and recognize that your blessing, because you live under grace, is way more than you're going to come up with anyway. So trust me, He's going to bless you with foreordained fruit that He's already determined. And it's beyond your capacity anyway, so why sweat it?

Whose responsibility for question 7, whose responsibility for fruit bearing and fruit remaining is it? Who's responsible? You? Mine. How many think it's all of God's responsibility? Nobody raised their hand. How many think it's all of your responsibility? How many think it's a partnership?

Well then what is it? So Ephesians 2.10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. So what's your role in all of this? If that's the premise, then what's your role?

He says to the disciples that they should go forth and bear fruit. And he's appointed it and he's planned it and he knows what they're going to do already. He's already decided. He's got it mapped out. That's wonderful. So I, knowing that, I can react one of two ways. I can go sit on the couch and say, hey, you know, Lord, it's your move. That's not going forward. Or the other thing is that I can do the old salesman number, which is you keep throwing darts on the board and some of them are going to stick. And I've got to put as many up there as possible just to make sure I get the bases all covered. What about that viewpoint? So what's the right viewpoint?

Rest. Rest. And allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life. There you go. See, this life that we have has its own energy and it functions its own way. and it's affectionate for God. And it's Christ-centered, not my-centered. It doesn't think about rewards. It thinks about being pleasing.

Believers who have grown in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus never have to be arm-twisted to do anything. They can't wait to do it, whatever it is. But they also are savvy enough to walk by the work that's been assigned to Erica. I'm not going to get into her work, that's hers, and I walk by to whatever the Lord has called me to do. I don't even know.

So, why is it important for them to love one another considering what he has done for them? What's he done? Why is it important for them to love one another considering everything that he's told them so far? He told them to do it. What's that? He told them to do it. He told them to do it, and why would he do it? So they'd bear witness of him. Okay, but before you get to the witness bearing part, what do they get to do that's really a cool thing?

Fellowship. There you go. They get to fellowship. They get to enter into and experience the love of the Father for the Son. They get to be part of the family. They get to be loved, and they get the love, and from that comes the fruit bearing. See that? It's intimacy first, it's relationship and fellowship first, and then it's fruit. You see that? Imagine you can live the rest of your life on the earth in a position where you have mutual love with the Father and the Son. Read the first six or seven verses of 1 John. It's exactly what he talks about that day. Verse 18.

If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. My question was, what's the logic here? And why? First of all, why does the world hate the Lord Jesus? And this is not just a little bit disappointed. This is vehement. Why do they hate him? Because he's not of the world. Why he's not of the world? What other contrast can you draw?

What does the world live in? Darkness. And what's the Lord Jesus? Light. And what did the Gospel of John tell us about light and darkness and attitudes and opinions about it? The darkness does what to the light? It hates it. It won't come into the light. because his deeds are evil and his deeds will get exposed.

So, very interesting. He says, I love you guys. You're going to bear my fruit, but oh yeah, let me tell you something else. The world hates me. And guess what it's going to do to you? You know, I have to tell you, we in the United States are so immune to this, we don't even know it exists. We are all about getting along. You know, we're all under the Constitution. We all got rights. We all got the freedom. Trust me.

If you function as a believer in a worldly system, you are going to be hated. And you don't have to get the megaphone and irritate people to cause them to hate you. You don't have to be in their face to cause them to hate you. There is a natural principle in play of light and dark, of life and death. The Word of God says that those who are being saved, the ones that are being saved have the smell of death to those that are lost and vice versa.

I didn't come to the Lord until I was 35 years old. I have to tell you, I know what that smell is like. Because if I ever got around Christian environment as a young man, I was really uncomfortable. They all smelled deadly to me. I didn't want to be there. I would find the quickest exit I could. and I never knew why. I just, you know, I could criticize them for being whatever they were, but there was an ingrained thing in me about people that were Christians. I couldn't stand to be around them.

I thought, you know, they were nerdy, they didn't do cool stuff, they certainly weren't worldly, which is really good. But then you get saved and you come into Christ and it isn't long before you discover that I really like hanging around with these nerdy Christian people. They're kind of neat. And those people in the world that I knew, that I valued so much, now I don't feel comfortable with them. Isn't that interesting?

That's what he's talking about here. Only he's doing it on a much higher level than, gee, I feel a little uncomfortable. He's saying specifically, look fellas, if the world hates you, and you know that it hated me before it hated you, And I think, you know, I look at my son at 16 years old and I'm telling you by the time he's my age he may know what this is about in this country. He's 17. That's right, he's 17.

Maybe you were right about others having forgetfulness. So, it's a demonstration of the world according to the satanic rule with all humans with sin natures. It's natural consequence of loving one another in Christ, which means there's hatred for Christ, there's hatred for you. Verse 19, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. Not because you are not of the world, but because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. So the question is, what does it mean How did they become not of the world? How did that happen? Jesus chose them out of it. What, they moved from Arvada to Aurora? They were chosen to be this.

Or the other way around? I don't know. Identification. New creatures in Christ with citizenship in heaven. So, everybody in this room is not of the world. Then why do you pay so much attention to these conventions that are going on? Do you care who becomes president? Yeah, sure you do. It affects your life. Does it matter? Could you say that some believers are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good? You would hope there would be some like that. And some Christians are so earthly minded that they are no heavenly good.

What is it about being taken out of the world? What does that mean? If the Lord Jesus said, I've chosen you out of the world and I've taken you out of the world, then why do we put so much value on it? How come? It's the old man. The old man. Now see, we've got this nature inside of us that belongs to the world.

And it does not like being involved in heavenly things, in the things of Christ. So believers are these schizophrenic people who have two natures vying for expression. One of the tell-tale signs in your own life, if you're walking in the flesh or in the spirit, is that you're really concerned about what's happening in the world. If you're really concerned about that, you're not heavenly minded. Because if you're heavenly minded, what does the world appear to you? How does it appear to you?

Let's see. The one that I love, I think, is in charge. Maybe. You mean all these circumstances and all this smoke and mirrors that's going on, that my Lord has all of that perfectly in control every nanosecond? Yeah, He does. Yes, He does. Like Courtney likes to say, God never says, oops, never says that. I can trust Him with every single circumstance that's going on, no matter how it looks.

Okay, so you're not of the world. That's good. Oh, by the way, is the Lord Jesus of the world? How did he separate himself from the world? Trick question. How did he separate himself from the world? Question, did he ever separate himself from the world? No, he never was part of it. He's a new creation.

See that? Okay. Verse 20. Remember the word that I said unto you. The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. So, is this a blessing for us? Is this a blessing to read a verse like this for a believer and say, alright! What do you think?

I put 1 Corinthians 4.12 down, when we are vile we bless and when we are persecuted we endure. So is this a blessing to us?

Is John 15.20 a blessing? Remember when I said to you that the servant is not greater than his Lord and if they have persecuted me they also persecute you. Is that a blessing? How? How could that possibly be a blessing? If we endure, how about a little before that? How about before you endure? We belong to him, and you know what? If you belong to him, there are certain consequences from that.

When the disciples were arrested, Peter and the boys, and taken into prison and beaten, what was their reaction to that? when the Sanhedrin says, look, you cannot preach this Jesus anymore. And they beat him with rods. What was their reaction to that? They sang praises. And the phrase was, they counted themselves blessed to be able to suffer for the Lord's sake.

We walk around with that attitude, don't we? I don't think so. Do you see what he's saying? If you are of me, then there's going to be certain consequences in your everyday life because you are of me. And when they show up, what does Peter say? Count them all joy! Because it demonstrates you're on the right track. If you're not being persecuted, if you're not at odds with the world all the time, guess what?

You're probably a little too friendly with it. verse 21 but all these things which all these things will they do unto you for my namesake because you know not him because they know not him who sent me so my question is would not the jews claim to know the father so why does he claim this in other words why is the lord jesus say this because the jews going to turn right around and say well we know the father abraham's our father and and jehovah's our father so why does he say this Well he told them in John chapter 8 that they were their father the devil. So even though they claim Jehovah. He also said that if you've seen me you've seen the father. So rejecting him is rejecting the father.

That's right. So if the Messiah came to the earth on their terms and understanding they would not reject him. In other words, if the Messiah came the way they viewed the Messiah, there wouldn't have been a problem. But you know what? He didn't come based on their principles. He came solely, he came and revealed the true character of the Father by his words and his works. And so that's a quite different thing. And so what happens? I mean, think about this.

We start out with John's Gospel that says he came unto his own being the Jewish nation, and this is the nation that God called out from all other nations on the planet and blessed them specifically and only them for 2,500 years. He wasn't in Beijing. He was in Jerusalem dealing with these Jews.

And so when they finally send the Messiah, how do they treat him? They're going to kill him. What's it prove? their hatred and this hatred is the hatred of the natural man the sinful man towards God especially the religious natural man hates God worse than just the guy who doesn't care verse 22 if I had come if I had not come and spoken unto them They would not have had sin. But now they have no cloak or no coat for their sin. So my question is, what is the point here about the world and Israel? Up to this point in history, man's history, how does man live including Israel? How do they live? Man is treated as a fallen creature, right? He's treated, he operates under the mercy and the long suffering of God, right?

But now God shows up. What difference does that make? What does the fact that God shows up in the midst of them, it's like, oops, from man's side of the ledger. He's here, now what? Why is this so devastating? to mankind, to have the Messiah show up, or put it another way, to have God show up. What does that do?

It puts light on their sin and then they have no excuse for it. Is the reason they have no excuse because he puts light on their sin or is it maybe another reason? Just by the fact he's there. Just by the fact that he's there, they've got to make a decision about God. He does put light on their circumstances. He comes because he's righteousness and he's holiness and he's light and he comes into this dark environment and he is who he is. He's God. And what does that force all men in darkness to do?

They have wills. They have volitions. What do they have to do about Christ? They've got to decide about him. Up until this time they don't have to decide. Do they? Because he's not here. He's sending orders through other guys, but he's not here. And now that he's here, decisions have to be made.

I wrote down the world and Israel had up until this point operated under mercy and longsuffering of God. They were being treated as fallen, not as willful creatures. With the Son of God on the scene and they're rejecting him, there was no doubt that their nature preferred sin over God. See, they never had to make that choice before. The sin nature will not have God, and by his coming, this was the proof that the old nature preferred sin to God. See, they had no excuse now.

There was no tap dancing, there was no smoking mirrors. God is standing right in front of them, and now they have to decide. It's like the great question, what do you think of this man? When Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost and he tells the Jews to repent, what does he tell them to change their mind about? Does he tell them to change their mind about their sins? No. They need to change their mind about who this man is. That's the change. Okay. Fourteen. So what makes the Jews guilty before God? Why would a Jew be more guilty than a Gentile in this environment? Because they saw his works. Yeah, they saw his works and they saw him. And he says if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So guess what? Maybe put it this way.

I remember one time years ago, a long time friend of mine, I was going to have the opportunity to tell the gospel to him, but I was fearful to do it. You know why? Because I thought if I told it to him and he heard it, he wouldn't have an excuse. And if he turned him down, and I didn't want to go before the Lord and say, well, I told him and he rejected you. That's a lot of stress. I don't want to have to say, gee, that poor guy, maybe he's lost because I gave him the gospel. I forced him to make a decision. But then I found out later that I don't save anybody. Nobody's saved or lost because of me.

But that's the point here. The point here is that when God comes to man, especially to the Jews, and he lives three and a half years, and he lays out his agenda, and he does what he does, it leaves him without an excuse. They can't hide. You said more guilty than anybody else who rejects them. From God's perspective, oh no, they wouldn't be.

But in Hebrews, there's a very interesting verse in Hebrews. I probably will paraphrase this wrong. But the writer of Hebrews says that, you know, how shall we, who have been given such great grace, if we reject it? We are in much worse shape than if we hadn't. or the Jews who had gotten the law system, and if you reject grace, is that a worse thing than rejecting the law?

Yeah, but anybody, I mean, Jew, Gentile rejection of Christ is, I don't think you're more guilty if you're a Jew. Now you're going to burn just the same. Yeah, I guess when you say they're more guilty, I don't think they're more guilty than the world. You mean God doesn't have his lever on the gas? Yeah, that's what I wanted to clarify. Yeah, that guy gets more gas than you. Once the light has come and God's character is revealed, it causes a natural man to be exposed for what he really is. He's a God-hater.

How many in this room, and you don't have to raise your hand, I want you to think about this. How many in this room are convinced that your natural man, that sin nature in you hates God? What do you think? Think it really does? Or are you really working hard so it will look kind of cool and Christian?

That sin nature that all of us share hates God. Hates Him. I have the same hate in my sin nature as, pick a really bad historical figure. He's a piker compared to me. The hate of my sin nature for God. It's there because it's the nature of the thing to do that. just like it's the nature of the life of the resurrected Christ to love Him. It's the nature of the new life to do those things. It doesn't need to be cranked up. Your sin nature doesn't need to be cranked up to hate God. It does, because it's its nature to do so.

Verse 25, But this comes to pass, that the word might be fulfilled, that it is written in their law they hated me without cause and those of you probably there were two verses that I found Psalm 35 19 says let them not rejoice over me who are wrongfully my enemies nor let them wink with the eye who hate me without cause and the other one I found was Psalm 69 4 those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head They are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully. Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it." Don't you find it interesting that the Lord Jesus is trying to make it clear to these guys the difference between light and dark and the fact that those who are in darkness hate the light and you're in the light and you're going to be in the light. Don't be surprised if they hate you fellas, that's what he's saying to them. And actually after Pentecost, they aren't surprised. They aren't surprised. They know. Okay.

26. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.

So when the Helper comes, who's the Helper? It's the Holy Spirit. And my question is who sends the Holy Spirit and what's his mission? I'm going to ask this question again in a later chapter and the answer is going to be different. But right here, when the Helper comes, who sends him?

He says I'm going to send him. Right? Okay. He says I'm going to send him to you and send him from where? From the Father. Okay. And what's his mission? To testify of Jesus. Now what does that mean? I'm going to send him from the Father and here's his job. We're not going to do all this craziness that some charismatics say I should do, but I'm going to do this specific thing. And what is it?

Point to Christ. How does he do that? If we as believers understand that the Spirit of God has been sent to us and dwells in us, and he's here to do a specific thing, and not anything else than this specific thing, with believers, what is it? He's to reveal Christ to the believer. That's his sole job. Now he corrects the believer in sin and restores them to fellowship, but the thing he's been sent to do and he loves to do is reveal Christ to the believer. That's what he's here to do. How does he do it? He does it in the Word. This is the tool he uses.

So when you read your Bible, and you're studying your Bible, you should be aware of the fact that the Spirit of God is there with you, revealing Christ to you. So that you would have the same prayer that the Apostle Paul has, is that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection. Do you see the intimacy that's in these verses? where the Lord Jesus is telling these guys, look, here's what I want.

You need to love one another. You're my friends. The world's going to hate you. I'm going to send the Spirit for what reason? So that you can have all this stuff I'm telling you about. And we run around trying to be good Christians rather than just hanging out with the Lord Jesus. That's what we're here to do. We're here to behold Him. We are friends. We are in this intimate fellowship, and when we get to 17 it even gets more intense than it is here, that the Spirit of God, that's what he's here to do. He's not here to make us health, wealth, and wisdom Christians. He's not here to do that. He's here to reveal Christ to the believer.

Now, how would you say that this testimony is similar to the life Jesus lived here on the earth? Is this similar to the kind of life that the Lord Jesus lived while he was here? The answer is yes. If you say yes, I'm going to ask you to explain. What's the Lord Jesus been here to do? The will of the Father to reveal the Father. God's character to the world. Now we're the vehicles of the testimony of the revelation of God. That's what we do. And guess what?

As you know Christ, as said in Corinthians 3.18, the more you behold the glory of the Lord, what happens to you? You get conformed to His very image. So guess what? How does that play out in shoe leather when you're walking around every day? How did it play out in shoe leather with the Lord Jesus walking around? What happened? He said, if you've seen me, what? Seen the Father. Is it legitimate for you and I to say to the world, if you've seen me, you've seen the Lord Jesus? Can you say that? Yeah, you can. Yeah, you can.

With trepidation. Why with trepidation? I don't see any trepidation in him. Only he of little faith. Do you see that? Do you see what, in terms of your faith having an object and what God really is up to? If you would just believe what he was up to, you wouldn't be, oh I don't know if I'm up to the task. No, you're not up to the task. But he is. He certainly is. Okay. Alright, we will, I almost got through. I got close. Have I given you 30? And I've got 31 up here. I'm way ahead of you guys. This close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for the fact that you love us, the fact that you've given us your spirit, the fact that you have made us, as you say here, friends, but actually we are sons, Father. And we are entitled to, because of your determination, to have intimacy with you and with the Lord Jesus. We thank you for that. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.