Can you explain John 15:26-27?
John 15:26-27 reads, “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” (NKJV). These words from the lips of the Lord Jesus were spoken in the “Upper Room” where He met with His disciples for the last time before His arrest and crucifixion. After His resurrection He would be leaving them and knowing that His disciples would be left in a hostile world that hated Him and hated those who believed on Him, He promised them that the “Helper” (the Holy Spirit) would be sent to them in order to give them the grace to carry on a testimony without Him. This blessed truth was also mentioned in John 14:26 and 16:7, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you….Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
The disciples could hardly comprehend His words, for they failed to believe that He was actually going to be rejected and crucified, and thus the promise of the Holy Spirit fell, for the most part, on deaf ears. Yet the Lord Jesus knew that His going back to the Father and the coming of the Helper would indeed be “to their advantage,” for the Holy Spirit would “testify of Him” in a way that would bring them more understanding that they ever could have had when Jesus was among them. He would “teach them all things” and “bring to their remembrance all things that Jesus had said to them.” We know that prior to Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension back to heaven the disciples were unable, at times, to take in the truth He was presenting to them. For example, in John 13:7 (where we have the account of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet) He said to them, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” There was a “spiritual significance” involved in the washing of feet that they couldn’t understand, but Jesus knew that AFTER THIS (after He was back in heaven and the Holy Spirit was given), they would understand the meaning for the Helper would “teach them all things.”
It is interesting to note that not only will the Spirit “testify of Christ,” but the disciples would too! Verse 27 declares, “And you also will bear witness.” What does this mean? I believe it means that the Holy Spirit would bring the truth of Jesus Christ home to their hearts and then they would go out into the world and bring the truth of Jesus Christ to others. Peter spoke of this in Acts 5:32, “And WE ARE HIS WITNESSES to these things, and SO ALSO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT whom God has given to those who obey Him.” Of course these words also speak of the fact that it is the Holy Spirit who EMPOWERS believers in their witness for the Lord Jesus. When I say “believers” I’m speaking of ALL BELIEVERS, not just the disciples, for the Holy Spirit is given to every believer the moment they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. “In Him you also trusted, after you head the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). (319.5) (DO)