John 15:26-27

26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me, 27 and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

 

All of Jesus’ talk about persecution was set in the context of comforting His disciples. And the primary way that Jesus would comfort His disciples would be through the presence of the Holy Spirit, who would teach them and remind them of what Jesus taught them. So they would always have a relationship with Jesus, because they would always depend on Jesus’ teachings. Because they proclaimed Jesus’ teachings and did His work, they should expect persecution.

 

But here, Jesus returns to the main theme of this discussion and talks again about the Helper, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Jesus will send the Holy Spirit to His disciples from the Father. When He does, two results will occur.

 

First, the Holy Spirit will bear witness about Jesus. We know for sure that He will teach the disciples (John 14:26), but Jesus seems to be saying here that the Spirit will bear witness to the world about Jesus. Jesus will clarify this soon (John 16:8).

 

Second, the disciples will bear witness. This is, after all, what brings persecution to them. They will bear witness, Jesus says, because they have been with Jesus from the beginning.

 

I find the phrase “from the beginning” to be interesting. John begins this gospel with the words “In the beginning (John 1:1),” and it really seems as though He is describing a beginning even before the creation of the world, which takes place in 1:3. But here Jesus says that the disciples have been with Him from the beginning. In some ways, I think these two beginnings are pointing to the same truth. God – the Spirit – can testify about Jesus because He has been with Him from the beginning of all things; the good news has been clear since before the Creation of the world. At the same time, the disciples will testify about Jesus because they have been with Him from the beginning of His earthly ministry; again, the good news has been proclaimed from the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. It seems that we have two perspectives on the gospel here in John – an eternal perspective and an earthly perspective. So we have two beginnings – an eternal beginning and an earthly beginning. And in the Scriptures, we have the words of both the Spirit and of the apostles – of both the One who is a witness to the eternal beginning of the gospel and of the witnesses of the earthly beginning. All the witnesses testify about the same one: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the good news!

 

Father, thank You for sending Your Spirit to testify about Jesus. And thank You for having the disciples testify about Jesus. Thank You for combining these two testimonies in the Bible, so that I can read or hear and understand Your good news, that Jesus Christ has come to defeat sin and death on our behalf. May I point others to the testimony of those who witness about Jesus! May I bring others to the recorded words of the Spirit and the apostles, so that many more may receive the testimony about Jesus and trust Him.