John 15:26

There is a great deal of speculation about the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives us a clear idea of what the Holy Spirit does in this world. He, the Holy Spirit, bears witness to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the one who enters our hearts and minds and convicts us that the Bible and the Gospel are true. We make the best effort we can to answer the questions of the lost and declare clearly the Good News of Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit who brings people to true belief.

Do you know in your heart that Christianity is real? If you do, it is because God has opened your eyes by the work of the Holy Spirit (John 3)?

John 15:24-25

Christianity is a religion of the heart. Remember that the Pharisees were the “good” people of the day. Yet, when they were exposed to the presence and work of the Son of God, their real heart was exposed. Jesus has turned their own law against them. He quotes it, saying that they have fulfilled their own law because they hate Him without cause.

Where is your heart? Is it submitting in love to our holy God, or is it simply holding on to a cultural Christianity?

John 15:23

J.C. Ryle said that another reason we can have patience under persecution is because it is a proof that we are Christ’s people. Here they are told by Jesus that they will bear witness. In bearing witness they would be exposed to persecution and most would die at the hands of a hateful world. While we should not seek persecution, if we find ourselves persecuted for standing for Christ, it should encourage us. This is because we find ourselves standing where Jesus tells us His people would be standing. It is a mark that we are on the right path. Furthermore, persecution is used of God to bring us closer to Him in prayer and in the Word. He uses it to bring us closer to His people in the church as well.

John 15:26

The Helper is the Holy Spirit. He comes to help us in this world and to live the Christian life. It is by the Holy Spirit we are in Christ. He bears witness about Christ. He does this inside of us. He does this in us and through us as we proclaim the Word of God. How important it is that we have the Holy Spirit! God Himself is in us and with us to help us. Let the World hate us. We have the help of God himself!

John 15:21-25

The Word brings conviction of sin. When the Word is preached there is no excuse for sin. It is one thing for you to be ignorant of a law or command. However, when you are well warned, there is no excuse. Jesus is not saying that they were saved and now they are lost because the Word was preached. God forbid us think this. If this is how it worked, we should never say a word to a non-Christian. No, the truth is they need to hear the Word and see their sin so that they can see the salvation of Jesus Christ.

John 15:20

J.C. Ryle tells us that we should have patience under persecution because this was a cup that Jesus drank of Himself. A servant is not greater than his master. If they will persecute and oppose the very Son of God, then who are we to think that we will avoid persecution. We go into the World and we take the Word of God with us. The World hates us for bringing the Word and proclaiming it to them. Those who are Christ's people will hear it, but the world will reject it.

John 15:19

The problem is that we are different from the World. People who are radically different from us often make us uncomfortable. Think along the lines of race, nationality, or political view. As Christians we have been radically changed by Jesus. He has chosen us out of the world. We are different and we expose the world to the truth of God and their own sin. This causes them to hate us because we remind them of their need for God and to live for Him.

John 15:18

These are uncomfortable words from Jesus, “If the World hates you”. It is hard for many of us who grew up in the Bible Belt to understand why the world would hate us for being Christians. It is because the world is fallen, sinful, and hates Jesus. This is why He reminds us to remember that when the World hates us, the world hated Jesus first. If you are standing for Jesus, take heart but be ready because the world is not always going to like us.

John 15:16-17

God has chosen His friends from the foundation of the earth. He has chosen His people to go and bear fruit. We live in an age of much disbelief, but God has chosen His people that they may bear fruit that may abide. We need to remember and see God working within us and among us. We need to have confidence that God is still moving and working around us. It should be seen in our prayers as we ask God, with confidence, for Him to work. We need to see the love of God, so that we might follow that love in our relationships with each other.

John 15:26

The Helper is the Holy Spirit. He comes to help us in this world and to live the Christian life. It is by the Holy Spirit we are in Christ. He bears witness about Christ. He does this inside of us. He does this in us and through us as we proclaim the Word of God. How important it is that we have the Holy Spirit! God Himself is in us and with us to help us. Let the World hate us. We have the help of God himself!

John 15:14-15

Too many people on the outside of Christianity do not understand the closeness of God to His people. Here Jesus tells His disciples that they are more than servants. They are His friends. You can have friendship with God through His son Jesus Christ. You are not left out of the loop. He has given you the Bible which shares with you what God is doing.

Do you realize and are you experiencing this closeness? Do not be deceived! God is close to His people, His friends, His children. He is close to you!

John 15:13

This verse is often quoted by combat veterans who have seen fellow soldiers, sailors, or Marines willingly die saving the lives of their friends. The USS Ralph Johnson will be commissioned in Charleston later this year. It is named for a Marine who shielded his fellow marines from a grenade blast by jumping between them and the grenade. It is one thing for a fellow soldier to do this, but how about the Son of God? Jesus became man and died for us. He willingly laid down His life to save ours. He did this because He loves us. He want us to love others with the same type of sacrificial love. Loving people costs us time, money, energy, opportunities, heartache, pain, and maybe even our lives.

Are you willing to love as you have been loved by Christ?

John 15:12

This command would be hard enough if it had just been “Love one another”. Jesus qualifies His statement with the addition of “as I have loved you!” When you think about the love of Jesus for His people, this is an amazingly deep command to love. We are to love each other in the church with a Christ-like love. We are to love our neighbors with a Christ-like love. We are even to love our enemies with a Christ-like love. Consider how you are loving those around you. It is to be a mark of who we are as a Christian people.

Are you loving others with the same type of love you have seen in your Savior Jesus Christ?

John 15:11

The keeping of the law brings us joy. As Christians, we have seen the great and wonderful mercy of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our response is to want to please our heavenly Father. It brings us joy to love God and man. It hurts our joy when we fall to love. The way we love God and Man is by keeping the law which is our guide for how to love. The Ten Commandments teach us how to love God and love man.

Do you have a joy in keeping the law of God? Do you see the law as just a burden or is it a joy?

John 15:10

There is a strong connection between Law and Love. Love without law is directionless and just mere words without real action. Law without love is heartless, cruel, and mean. The law tells us how to love. Love motivates us to rightly keep the law. Jesus is saying here that if we keep His commandments, we will abide in His love. That is because the end of the law is love: love for God and love for Man. The great example of this kind of love is Jesus. He loved the Father and kept all His commands.

Are you trying to live the Christians life separating the commands of God from the love of God? Do not do it! They are forever intertwined.

John 15:9

              How much does Jesus love His church? How much does Jesus love you as an individual Christian? Hear what He says in this verse. “As much as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” Jesus Christ loves you with a perfect love. We must learn to abide in Christ. We must abide in his perfect love.

Are you still trying to work your way to God? Are you still trying to earn God's love? If you believe in Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior and Lord of sinners, then live in his perfect love.

John 15:8

              This union with Christ brings glory to the Father because of the fruit you produce in Christ. Here is the proof, or assurance, of salvation. You are dying to the world and living for God. This only happens when you are in Christ. You start producing the Fruit of the Spirit and God answers your prayers for His glory and your good.

     Are you worried about whether or not you are a Christian? It is not a matter of being good enough. Christ has been good enough for you, but does your life reflect Christ and his salvation?

John 15:7

                 There is a danger in taking this verse too far. However, we can also not believe it enough. We need to pray for God to do the good things He has laid on our hearts, the good things He has shown us in His Word. These are the things we should be praying for, expecting God to answer and do. We should be praying for our God to heal the sick, to save the lost, to strengthen our churches, and much more. We need to believe and have faith that He will do this work.

John 15:6

                 Salvation is found in union with Christ. Damnation is found outside the union with Christ. Look at the words of Christ. Those outside of Christ will be gathered up and burned just like dead branches are gathered and burned on a farm or property. Union with Christ is where we are connected by the Holy Spirit. We are empowered by Jesus to live the new life of salvation and we are given all the benefits of Christ by this connection. Without it we are lost.

John 15:4-5

                 We must have union with Christ. It is a key concept to our salvation. The power of justification, sanctification, adoption, and eventually glorification comes from our real union with Christ. The example that He uses is of the vine and the branch. A branch will not grow and produce fruit unless it is united to the main vine. The same is true for us as Christians. To be alive, growing, and producing fruit you must be in union with Christ.

John 15:3

                 We are made clean by the Word of God. The Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. When we read the Bible or hear the Word of God preached, we see the truth of Jesus. We see who He is as the Son of God and we see what He has done as our Savior and Lord. If you have faith in Jesus as He has been presented in the Word, then the Word has made you clean through Jesus Christ.

John 15:2

Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. If we do not produce fruit, we are a dead branch. We may be outwardly connected to Jesus, but there is no life in us. These branches will be taken away. The branches that bear fruit will be pruned so that they can produce more fruit. The old, dead wood is taken away so that new wood and more fruit can be produced. The dead wood is sin and the fruit is that which comes from the Sprit of God. Christian growth takes place because you are connected to Jesus and He is producing fruit in your life.

John 15:1

 Jesus moves to an illustration of a vine. Notice how Jesus uses illustrations that were accessible to everyone. Grapes grew in this area and were cultivated. When Jesus said, “I am the vine and my Father the vinedresser”, people could understand the picture Jesus was painting. Jesus is going to teach us something very special here about our connection to Him and how that changes us.

John 14:31

It is important that Jesus not only show that he is from the Father. He did this by healing the sick, calming the storm, casting out demons, and even raising the dead. This showed that He was from God and was God. He had power over the spiritual world, the physical world, even death itself. Yet, He wants to show honor, glory, and love to the Father. In this section we see the Trinity: the Holy Spirit (26), the speaking Christ , and the Father (29-31). See the love and honor the Trinity has for each other. We see perfect love in the Trinity.

John 14:30

Who is the ruler of this world? It is Satan himself. He is coming and he will strike at Jesus, but Jesus will crush his head by His death and resurrection. This is a fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. This is our great victory, that the sin and death brought by Satan when he tricked Adam and Eve and lead them into committing sin is undone by the work of Jesus. Satan has no claim on Jesus. If you are in Jesus, he has no claim on you either!