John 15:18-27 (Teaching)

[0:00] Last thing. Morning. Back to the Gospel of John, John 15. The Lord's help. We should be able to wrap this chapter up today.

[0:15] Last week we covered pretty much our relationship to the world as disciples of Jesus Christ, but not so much to the world, but to each other.

[0:35] But Jesus kind of switches gears here in the last part of this chapter, verses 18 through 27, and begins to talk about our relationship with the world.

[0:53] And a lot of people see this as very negative scripture, for some reason, me personally. I think that John 15, 18 through 27 is very good scripture, in particularly considering the aspect of evangelism.

[1:15] I think it's very good scripture for that. I think it needs to be studied. I think it needs to be read. I think it needs to be memorized. And it needs to be strongly considered, especially when we're with the subject of evangelism.

[1:34] Because essentially that's what's being gotten at here. It's our relationship toward the world and the world's relationship toward us. And again, it comes across as negative, depending on what lot you're reading it in.

[1:51] But anyway, with that being said, we'll pick up in verse 18 of John 15, verse 18. Well, let's back up for just a second.

[2:02] To verse 17, the very last thing we read last week. Christ says in verse 17, these things I command you that you love one another. Again, He's talking about one another.

[2:13] He's talking to the 11 that are present there, which by extension would apply to us. Now, does that mean that we don't love the rest of the world? Absolutely not. If we didn't love the rest of the world, we wouldn't strive to present the gospel to them.

[2:28] We'd say, I'm going to heaven, you're not, so be it. That's on you. But folks, because we love God, and because we love our neighbor, is why we go out and we present the gospel to the world.

[2:41] But Christ again in verse 17, these things I command you that you love one another. So in verse 18, He says, if the world hates you, so immediately there's a contrast that happens here from 17 into 18.

[2:55] These things I command you that you love one another. Then He says in verse 18, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

[3:06] If the world hates you, folks, I got news for you. We as disciples of Jesus Christ, there's not much if to it. Christ here is painting the picture that the world is going to hate us, and we'll see that throughout the rest of this passage through the end of chapter 15.

[3:24] The world will hate us. The world will despise us. The world despises God. It despises Jesus Christ. It despises the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[3:36] And different people will give you different reasons as to why they might despise God or why they might despise the Bible for those that follow Christ or whatever the case is.

[3:47] But Christ Himself gives us the reason for it within this passage of Scripture, and we'll get to it just a little bit later. But He says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

[4:00] And y'all have heard me say this time and time again that when the world shows hostility towards us, when the world shows hatred towards us, when the world spits at us, when the world curses us, it's not because of who we are.

[4:17] It's because of who we are identified with. The world hates Christ. And therefore, again by extension, the world hates the followers of Christ.

[4:28] It's not because I'm anything special. It's not because you're anything special. It's because of Jesus Christ that the world hates us because I promise you, if you go out into the world and you do as the world does and you disobey the commandments of God, you lay down your Bible, you quit going to church, you quit gathering with the saints, you quit your prayer life, you quit these things, you do as the world does, the world will love you for it.

[4:55] Therefore, if we're doing the things that Christ says, if we're following His commandments, we've read several times just in the past few weeks, several weeks, that if we love Christ, we will obey His commandments.

[5:09] So if we're obeying the commandments of Christ and we are following Christ, the world will hate our guts. But if we do the things that the world does, the world will love us for it.

[5:22] Reminds me of 1 John, those of you that were here when we were going through the 1 John, 1 John chapter 4. John writes that the world, that they speak of the world, speaking of the world, he says, they speak of the world and the world heareth them.

[5:38] But those of us who are disciples of Christ in the very next verse there in the 4th chapter of 1 John, he says, we don't speak of the world.

[5:49] Therefore, the world can't stand us. That's not the way John puts it, that's what he's getting at. But they speak of the world and the world heareth them, if we spoke of the world and spoke of it in a positive light, the world would hear us, but we don't speak of the world.

[6:06] We testify of Christ, we testify of the gospel, and we show the world the transformation that the gospel made in our own lives, and the world cannot stand that.

[6:17] And once again, they've got their reasons, but Christ will give us the reason here just a little bit. If the world hated you, you know that it hated me before, it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own.

[6:30] Going back to what I just said at 1 John chapter 4, the world would love his own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.

[6:44] Because you are not of the world, this is the reason that the world hates you. And folks, the world can hate me all that it wants to, and it will. According to the Bible, the world will hate me.

[6:57] And it has ever been that way. It wasn't just when Jesus Christ came and walked this earth and performed his miracles and taught and preached. It was long before this. You look over in the Old Testament, how they treated the Old Testament prophets.

[7:13] They couldn't stand Isaiah. They couldn't stand Amos. They couldn't stand any of those prophets over there in the Old Testament. But why was that? It's because they came and they spoke the message from God, and that message was truth.

[7:29] This is what the world hates. It's the truth. It's the truth that man is a sinner. Nobody wants to hear that they're a sinner. I don't want to hear that I'm a sinner, but I need to be reminded that I'm a sinner.

[7:42] That doesn't necessarily mean that I like being told or being reminded that I'm a sinner. But folks, I've got to be reminded of that. You all need to be reminded that we are sinners.

[7:53] It is not in us. It is not of us. Why we sit here is saved, born again, children of God. It is all of God, and it is the power of the gospel why we are sitting here saved.

[8:07] But no one wants to be reminded of their sin. No one wants to be told that they're a sinner. You go out and evangelize. You go out, whether it be in your own home, or in a grocery store, on the sidewalk, whatever the case is, and you bring up sin, that's where most of the opposition is going to come in.

[8:27] That's where most of the hostility is going to come from, is when you're telling people that they are sinners. There's two things that will trigger people, as far as evangelism goes.

[8:38] One, telling them they're a sinner. Two, bringing up the name of Jesus Christ. You can talk about God all day long, and most people won't have a whole lot to say about it. But once you bring up that name of Jesus Christ, that's where a line is drawn in the sand with many people.

[8:54] Here again, Christ says, if you were of the world, thank God we're not. But if you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.

[9:13] Folks, we are not called of God, and we are not chosen of God. And we are not set apart and sanctified for the service of God, and for the service of the Kingdom, to gain the world's approval.

[9:26] It will never happen, but that's not the reason. We are called, we are set aside, we are chosen, we are elected, to do one thing, that is to glorify Jesus Christ.

[9:38] That's the reason. So if we're out here trying to gain the world's approval, there's a lot of churches that go that route. They go that route, they try to appeal to the world, to get the world in supposedly to hear the gospel.

[9:56] But more often than not, when that happens, the gospel is never truly preached to. They're not told that they're sinners, they're not told that they need to be saved. But that is trying to gain the world's approval.

[10:08] But Brother Vernon and I were actually just talking about this a few days ago, if that's how you get people into the church, by doing worldly things, by appealing to them with worldly desires, one of the cases, that's how you have got to keep them in church.

[10:26] Let them come to church, let them be out on the street and hear the gospel, whatever the case is, but let them be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, and let them be kept by the Holy Spirit of God.

[10:40] That's the only way it's going to amount to anything as far as eternity goes. We might get big crowds if we do worldly things, or if we appeal to worldly desires and worldly lust.

[10:52] We might have 100, 120 people in here or anywhere else, any given Sunday, or any given Wednesday for that matter, whatever the case is, if we're using worldly methods to do it.

[11:04] But the gospel has never been popular. It has never been popular. The good news of Jesus Christ coming to earth to save sinners is not popular.

[11:15] Look at Christ. Christ came. The Bible says the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He came, He preached, He performed miracles, and the Pharisees still plotted against Him.

[11:32] He showed grace. People will say about the Christians. I've had it said to me, maybe if you had a little different approach, maybe if you showed grace, Jesus Christ showed grace and they crucified Him for it.

[11:48] So I'm not surprised when the world hates me. I'm not surprised when the world wants to crucify me. I'm not surprised when they curse at me, when they do all manner of other things that we won't get into this morning.

[12:04] It doesn't surprise me because Christ said it would be like that. Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, all that live godly and Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Shall.

[12:15] Not might. Not it may come their way, it may not. All that live godly and Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Whether it's from our family or friends, whether it's from coworkers, whether it's from people that we've never met, whatever the case is.

[12:32] If we are living godly and we're living in Christ Jesus, we will and we shall suffer persecution. I've chosen you, therefore the world hateeth you.

[12:46] The world hates us because Christ has chosen us and because we love Christ and we are obeying His commandments, doing what He wants us to.

[12:57] 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.

[13:11] So Christ here says, remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. Notice, that's not a question that he's asking. He's commanding them, he's telling them, remember the word that I spoke to you and he spoke this to them over in chapter 13.

[13:27] When he said the servant is not greater than his Lord and he goes on to say, if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Folks, if Christ suffered the way that he did, if Christ, and I'm not just talking about the crucifixion, I'm not just talking about the flogging that he took.

[13:49] I'm talking about the entire course of his life here on earth, Christ was persecuted. It started when he was a baby. It started when he was a young and Joseph had to take him and marry down into Egypt because there was a decree made that every kid two years and younger in the kingdom needed to be killed.

[14:13] It started then and it went all throughout his life that he was persecuted, all throughout his life that he was rejected, all throughout his life. People hated him.

[14:25] Not everybody prays God. You've got 11 people here that followed along with him right here in this farewell discourse that we've been in for the past several weeks.

[14:38] But even then, though, even though they recognized Christ as a Messiah, they recognized him as Savior, they recognized him as the one that was promised and they believed these things.

[14:52] Even so, they still didn't love him with a perfect love, no more than you and I, you or I, love him with a perfect love. But he tells them, remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord.

[15:05] If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Folks, if Christ put up with what he did and Christ suffered the way he did, we must certainly expect to suffer some sort of persecution.

[15:21] And Verne said, I believe it was just last week, that we here in the United States, we haven't seen true persecution and we haven't. We might see a little bit of ridicule. We might have some names thrown at us.

[15:33] We might, you know, God forbid somebody call us a Bible thumper. That's not persecution, folks. That is not persecution. Persecution is folks kicking in the doors of the church house or going into wherever you've set up an underground church somewhere and forcing guns against your head and dragging you out, throwing you in prison two, three days later, executing you all because of your faith.

[16:07] That's persecution. We here in America haven't seen that yet. It's on its way. It is on its way. If they have kept it, I'm sorry, if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

[16:23] If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they have kept my saying, in other words, if they're my disciples, then they will keep your sayings as well because you are my disciples.

[16:39] Folks, we should not necessarily mirror, I think, God that we've all got different personalities about. What a bland world it would be in if we were all exactly the same.

[16:51] But as far as the gospel goes, we should very much mirror one another. We shouldn't believe any different as far as the gospel goes than any other believer.

[17:06] That Christ came, he came to safe centers, he shed his blood, that Christ was truly God and was truly man and is truly God. We should believe all these things and some other core things about the gospel and about the Bible in general.

[17:25] The Christ says, if they believe my sayings, then they'll believe yours as well. So he says, if they persecute you, or persecute me, they're going to persecute you.

[17:36] If they believe my sayings, they're going to believe yours as well. Verse 21, But all those things will they do unto you for my name's sake because they know not him that sent me.

[17:48] This is the verse I was talking about earlier. This tells us why the world hates us. It tells us why the world hated Christ. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, again, not because you're anybody special and not because you or I either want or much account.

[18:07] Now people will say, I'm to die for according to Jesus Christ and I understand where they're coming from as far as that goes. But again, they don't hate us.

[18:18] They don't hate me because I'm Spencer Baumgartner. They hate me because Spencer Baumgartner is associated and affiliated with a man named Jesus Christ. That's why they hate me.

[18:29] And for no other reason, they'll do it for his name's sake. They will hate him for his name's sake. But he tells us why, because they know not him that sent me.

[18:42] This is why they hate us. This is why they hated Jesus. They know not him that sent me. They never knew the Father. We've seen that throughout the Gospel of John. Jesus himself told the people that.

[18:55] He told the hierarchy of the Jews. You say these things and you think these things because you know not the Father. You don't know him who sent me.

[19:06] And therefore you don't understand the Scriptures because you don't know God. And folks, this is what I've run into as far as evangelism goes.

[19:17] I'm sure Vern could say the same thing. People hate Christians. People hate the Bible. People hate belief in Jesus Christ. Mainly because they are ignorant of what the Scripture says.

[19:30] They're ignorant of the Bible. Ignorance is a horrible thing. It is a horrible thing. There's some things I'm ignorant about.

[19:41] I'll be the first to admit that. You don't want me performing any type of surgery on you. I'm ignorant as far as I go. I've never done it. Outside of me and my brothers used to cut BBs out from each other's skin before we go home.

[19:57] So mama wouldn't take our BB guns away from us. That's minor surgery I guess. But all in all though I'm ignorant as far as surgery goes.

[20:08] There's just certain things I don't know about. What Christ is getting at here is the world hates him. The world will hate disciples of his. They hate the truth because they are ignorant of it.

[20:23] They're ignorant of it. And therefore the world will throw some of the craziest, most outlandish stains out our way. It reminds me of being a kid.

[20:36] I mean I grew up with three older brothers. They knew more insults than I did. They would insult me. Just absolutely roast me with something. I would have nothing to come back with.

[20:48] So I'd say something like, oh yeah, well you're a dumb dumb. Or you're a stupid head. Or something along the end lines. Something really wasn't insulting. That's the best I had though. Why? Because I was ignorant.

[20:59] The world does the same thing. I go out street preaching. And I've heard some of the craziest things thrown my way. And it's because they are ignorant of the Word of God.

[21:13] Now there's some people out there with a great amount of intellect. And they know a great amount of the Bible. They know about biblical history. They know all about the Israelites. They know about the Hittites and the Parasites and all these other things.

[21:27] And they know that some of them will even admit there was a man named Jesus Christ that roamed this earth. Most professing atheists will tell you that.

[21:38] But they are still ignorant of the Bible and of the truth of the Bible. Therefore the things that they say in argument against the Bible are in ignorance.

[21:49] They know not him who sent Christ. That's why they say the things they do. That's why they believe the things that they do. It's because they know not him.

[22:01] And I've done the same thing before I was a believer. I've done the exact same thing. So this speaks volumes to me. These verses here.

[22:12] All these things will they do under you for my name sake? Because they know not him to send me. Verse 22. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin.

[22:23] But now they have no cloak for their sin. If I had not come and spoken unto them, if I hadn't come and actually taught them.

[22:34] Folks, when Christ came into the world, the very gospel that is the power of God and the salvation came into the world. Christ brought the gospel with him because Christ is the gospel.

[22:50] Christ is the power of God and the salvation. He says if I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. In other words, if I hadn't come and I hadn't brought the good news that although they were sinners, they could be saved.

[23:06] Had I not brought the gospel light with me, that light would have never shown into the dark nooks and crannies of their heart and their soul and their lives. It would not have exposed their sin and they would still be running around in their religion.

[23:21] They would be running around in their tradition thinking that they were fine. But the teachings that Christ gave, which many of those teachings were given in the Old Testament, Christ was just shining light on them because people did not understand them.

[23:40] Go back to the previous verse. They didn't know him who sent Christ. Therefore they didn't understand the scriptures either. But when the light, when the gospel light itself came into the world, we know from John chapter 1 the light shown in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it.

[23:58] Not, but that light shines in the darkness. That's what happened with me when I got saved. That's what happened with you before you got saved. The light of God shown into your life and shown into your heart and showed you what you were.

[24:14] It exposed that. But what does that exposure do? That exposure forces a choice. It forces a choice.

[24:26] There's no getting out of that. You either choose to accept that this light has shown you that you are a sinner and that God is a wonderful, almighty, and powerful savior.

[24:38] And you repent of your sin. You believe the gospel that you've heard or you reject it. It forces the exposure of that light into the darkness.

[24:50] It forces a choice. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin.

[25:01] Why do they have no cloak? Because Christ came and talked. Christ came and talked the ways of God. Christ came and talked the things of God. Christ came and revealed God to the people.

[25:16] Not only physical, as far as Christ being God in the flesh, but he revealed God to the people even more so spiritually by teaching them the things of God.

[25:29] He talked them the things of God, talked them the nature of God. He talked them all these things about God. Therefore, they have no cloak for their sin. Just like in Romans in chapter one, it talks about the creation.

[25:41] Paul was writing about the creation and how the creation speaks of a creator. Therefore, we are without excuse because it is so obvious that this world is created and it didn't just happen.

[25:57] Verse 23, he that hatheth me, hatheth my father also. Strong words. Christ hasn't said before, he has brought that up a couple of times throughout the Gospel of John.

[26:11] If you hate him, you hate the father. Remember in John 14-1 how that chapter begins. He said, you believe in God, believe also in me.

[26:23] You are doing the right thing by believing in God. Once again, he is speaking to the 11 there. Speaking to the 11 that were left, you believe in God, believe also in me. Folks, it does no good to believe in the father without the son.

[26:36] And it does no good to believe in the son without the father. They are inseparable. And it does no good to believe in either one of those, those two without the spirit. Because the spirit, he is just as inseparable as the father and the son are.

[26:50] If we hate one, we hate the other. Plain and simple. And that's not my words, that's the words of Jesus Christ himself. He that hateeth me, hateeth my father also.

[27:04] They don't understand the one that sent him, the one that sent Christ. And if they hate Christ, and they did, many of them, just like the world today.

[27:16] If they hate Christ, they hate the father also. This speaks volumes against these people that say, you know, you all probably heard the same thing that I am.

[27:27] Well, I'm not really, I'm not a Christian, I'm not this, I'm not this, but I'm spiritual. I'm a big whoop. Big whoop that somebody's spiritual. That won't gain them an ounce of merit in heaven.

[27:40] It won't gain them an ounce of merit with God, or with Christ, or salvation, or anything else. But people think that that's exactly what that's going to do.

[27:51] It's going to earn them some sort of check mark somewhere out there in the cosmos. That's not how this works, folks. It's not how it works. He that hateeth me, hateeth my father also.

[28:02] If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now have they both sinned and hated both me and my father.

[28:14] So it goes back to the works, and like I said a little while ago, these people in particular, in particularly the Pharisees and the scribes.

[28:25] Again, the hierarchy of Jews and Judaism really, they had seen the miracles. And what they hadn't seen, they had heard about. They had, I mean, as far as Christ's opening blind eyes, which is something that Messiah was promised to do in the Old Testament.

[28:41] And opening deaf ears, and the lame would walk. And all these other things that Christ did, lepers had been healed. I mean, all these things, people that were withered, people that had withered limbs and appendages.

[28:56] I mean, Christ done all these things, and they saw these miracles. And some of them even recognized that only one that was sent from God would be able to do these things. And so, David and David Demas did that in John chapter 3.

[29:11] And don't you think for one second that many of the rest of them didn't have the same thought, but they still rejected him? And Christ here says, if I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sinned.

[29:26] If they hadn't seen these things, they would not realize their sin. They know, this is the scary part, this is what Christ is getting at here, because they've seen their sins and because they've seen my works.

[29:41] They know who I am, and they still plotted to have him crucified and have him killed. Verse 25, but this comeeth the past, that the world might be, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law.

[29:58] They hated me without a cause. But this comeeth the past, so Christ here saying, all these things have happened for one purpose.

[30:09] Well, really for two purposes. One was to glorify God. But the other purpose that is brought up here is to fulfill scripture. Folks, if I'll quote it again, Paul wrote to Timothy, all that live godly and Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

[30:29] When we're persecuted, all this is a fulfillment of scripture. And honestly, we should rejoice in that. We should rejoice in that. I'm not saying go out and hunt for persecution. I promise you, if you live godly and Christ Jesus, it will find you.

[30:42] It will find you. There's no reason to go out and provoke it. There's no reason to hunt it down. But Christ here says, but this comeeth the past, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law.

[30:53] They hated me without a cause. And folks, again, I've done quoted from John chapter one that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

[31:08] That's without a cause. Cross showed grace. And you might see some of the things that he said to the Pharisees and say that wasn't very graceful. Folks, if the very creator of this world and the very creator of this universe was standing amongst these people, and they were spitting at him, and they were cursing at him, and they were taking up stones to kill him, knowing that he is omnipotent, knowing that he has all power, and he could have disintegrated them on the spot.

[31:36] But he chose to teach them and to preach to them. That is grace. That is grace the same way he didn't destroy me before giving me an opportunity to repent and believe the gospel.

[31:48] It was of grace, and it is of grace now. But they hated him without a cause. And folks, the world now hates him and hates us without a cause.

[32:02] He came in his own words to seek and to save that which was lost, and the world hates him for it. Why does the world have that hatred? We know because they're ignorant of the word of God, they're ignorant of God, period. We know that from the words of Christ here.

[32:20] They also hate it because they want something to do with it. They don't want someone saving them. They don't want anyone else to have anything to do with it. They want to say, I did this myself.

[32:34] They want to say, I was good enough. I was good enough to get in. I wouldn't like this one over here, and I wouldn't like that one over there, folks. We got to be careful with that type of attitude.

[32:46] Jesus spoke about a public and a Pharisee that went into the temple to worship. And the Pharisees the one who said, God, I thank you that I'm not like this publican that's over here.

[32:58] And he starts bragging about everything that he done. I do this, I do that. But the publican wouldn't even lift up his head towards the heaven. And he smote his breath.

[33:10] He said, Lord, forgive me a sinner. And he's the one that went out justified. It's not of our works. It's not of our doings. It's not of our merit. It's not of anything that we do.

[33:24] It is of the grace of God that we are saved. And because of that grace, honestly, because of that grace, the world hates it. The world hates it.

[33:37] Verse 26, But when the comforters come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which precedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. This is very important. This is extremely important.

[33:51] When the comforter comes that he has already promised in recent weeks going through the Gospel of John, he promises again the coming chapters that we haven't even gotten to yet. In fact, in the next chapter, he promises this comforter come.

[34:06] Now give some specifics. When the comforters come, whom I will send to you from my Father, we know that because he said that. Even the spirit of truth, we know that which precedeth from the Father, we know that he shall testify of me.

[34:22] So these folks out there in the church world that say the Spirit told me this and the Spirit told me that, has nothing to do with the Bible. That's a wrong spirit.

[34:38] It might have been a spirit that told them that. I promise you it wasn't the spirit of truth, it wasn't the spirit of Christ, it wasn't the spirit of God, it wasn't the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. However you want to phrase that, if it goes against the Bible, the Spirit testifies of Christ.

[34:54] The Spirit testifies of Christ. I'm not going to say that's all the Spirit does because that's not all the Spirit does. And Christ gets into that in the next chapter as well. But the Holy Spirit, he testifies of Jesus Christ, but he is promised of Christ from the Father.

[35:15] Remember, he said, I will pray to the Father and he will send you another comforter. And we talked about that. At that time, Christ was the comforter. He was the one here on earth. That's why he said another comforter. But going to the last verse here, he shall testify of me, verse 27, and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning.

[35:39] So in verse 26, Christ promises the comforter, and I will send you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which proceeded from the Father, he shall testify of me, then he says, and ye also shall bear witness.

[35:52] So he's promising the comforter, he's promising the Spirit, he says the Spirit is going to testify of me. He says, and ye shall also bear witness. We cannot bear witness of Jesus Christ outside of the Spirit of God.

[36:08] If the Spirit is the one bearing witness, and we have the Spirit within us, and we do if we're born again, we should be bearing testimony of Jesus Christ to this world.

[36:22] And really and truly, going back to evangelism, that's all evangelism is, is testifying of Jesus Christ to the world, to a lost world, to a dying world, to a world that is in love with their sin, to a world that is in love with itself, to a world that is full of idolatry, and full of hatred, and full of all kinds of other things.

[36:44] We testify of the goodness of Jesus Christ to that world, but folks, if we go outside of the Spirit, it's not going to do them or us any good to do so, but he promises the Spirit.

[36:59] Think about Acts, think about Acts in chapter 2. All them people, about 120 of them were gathered there in that upper room, and I understand they were there because they were told to, but folks, they were scared, they were afraid there was already persecution happening, they were being hunted, all kinds of things were going on, they were afraid, then God dumps out the Holy Spirit on them, and it's not very long before you see them boldly proclaiming and testifying of Jesus Christ.

[37:28] Therefore, because we have the Spirit, we should also boldly proclaim the name and testify of the goodness of Jesus Christ. That's the only way we're going to be able to do that is through the Spirit of God.

[37:45] You shall also bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. One more thing and I'll be done. The words bear witness is one word in Greek, marterale, which is where we get our word murder from.

[38:01] We've seen it several times, many times actually, from the first chapter of John all the way through. We see words like he testified, he witnessed all these words are rooted from a Greek word called marterale, which is exactly where we get our word murder from.

[38:21] We all know what a martyr is, a martyr is someone who dies for a cause, and the Bible dies for the cause of God, but you can be martyred for all kinds of things and it had nothing to do with scripture or God or anything along those lines.

[38:38] But I found that very interesting that bearing witness is in the Greek word marterale, which is where we get the word murder from.

[38:52] Keep that in mind, keep that in mind that we will suffer persecution. Christ has promised it that Paul wrote about it to Timothy and that's not the only places in scripture you find in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 11, we see all the great heroes of faith and see some names there, we see the names Abraham and Sarah and Moses and David and all kinds of other people, Gideons brought up, people that we know from the Old Testament scriptures, then down there towards the end of that chapter we read about these others that are not named, but we read about the persecution that they suffered.

[39:32] That's me and that's you, if we suffer persecution. I'm not a great, greatly known person like King David, I'm not greatly known like Moses, so if persecution comes my way I'll be in that other group, that one that's listed as others.

[39:49] But anyway, God bless y'all, I appreciate your attention that wraps up John 15, anybody got any questions or comments? Alright, God bless y'all, I appreciate you.