John 15:26-27
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 bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
How do we go out and share the gospel with a world who will hate us for doing so? There is only one way. We need a helper. We need the Helper. And, thanks to God, he sends us the very one we need.
Here Jesus again describes another facet of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit proceeds from God the Father, sent out on a mission. He will come to this earth as a helper for believers. And what will he do? He will bear witness about Jesus.
Then, in the next verse, Jesus adds that, through the Holy Spirit, his followers will tell the world about him too. The disciples, who were with Jesus from the beginning, will tell the world about him. Even though the world will put Jesus to death. Even though the world will murder disciple after disciple, they will keep on telling the world about Jesus because of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
And, though you and I are not part of the original twelve disciples, we have that very same Holy Spirit present in our lives if we truly know Jesus. Every Christian has God’s Holy Spirit present in his or her life. Because of this, every last one of us has the ability, in the Spirit, to tell the lost world that they need God’s Son to be saved.
Christians, it is our duty and our delight to tell the world about the glorious Son of God. Though it is frightening to bring this message to a hostile world, we can do so with confidence, because we have the Spirit of God as our Helper. Some who hear will be saved. Others will hate us, hating the very Spirit of God inside us. But we will continue to share in the power of God’s Spirit for the sake of God’s glory. So don’t back down. Don’t let fear defeat you. Share the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Travis Peterson 