TEXT: John 15:12-27
INTRO: Have you ever wanted to give your loved ones a message they needed know and you knew you would not be able to give it to them later? That’s the situation we find Jesus and His disciples in at the time of this biblical account. So He addresses those concerns.
I. JESUS WANTS HIS DISCIPLES TO UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH HE LOVES THEM.
A. We find this message in vss.12-16.
1.) READ vs. 12: And His command here is to “love one another, just as I have loved you.” He is about to show them how to do that and He wants them treat each other the same.
2.) READ vs.13-14. There is no more a person can give for the benefit of someone He loves than to “lay down His life [for them].” a.) He is choosing to die. It is not being forced on Him. and b.) He is dying is necessary for their benefit.
3.) READ vss. 14-15. He confirms that He cares for them more than as students, who might come and go. They are friends who will never be forgotten.
4.) READ vss. 16. Jesus gives them some important information that helps them know His love now and will help them to trust themselves later. HE HAS CHOSEN THEM! Jesus explains that they did not follow Him because they were foolish or didn’t have other things they could have done. They followed because “HE CHOSE THEM.”
II. JESUS WANTED TO LET THEM KNOW WHY THEY WERE ABOUT TO FACE TROUBLE.
A. READ vss. 18-20. The disciples will, very soon, and for the rest of their lives, face persecution. It is not because they are bad people or because God is against them or they are just not likeable folks. It is because they are not “of the world.”
B. READ vss.20-21. Jesus has told them at some time in the past that as a master is treated, so will His slaves be treated. Those who have learned from Jesus and have treasured His teaching, will also treasure the disciples.
C. READ vss. 22-24. They hated Jesus because they felt no guilt or shame in the evil things they had been doing to one another, and Jesus revealed their evil doings. He opened their ‘blind hearts.’ They could still do the evil things, but they could no longer do them and pretend everything was still all right.
D. READ vs. 25. The disciples also need to know that they are literally experiencing what was written about true believers hundreds of years before. Ps. 35:19 and in Ps. 69:4, that a reality of life is that evil people will hate good people for no real cause.
III. JESUS WILL SEND A HELPER SO HIS DISCIPLES CAN CONQUER THEIR ENEMIES.
A. READ vs. 26. The Spirit will “bear witness of [Him].” That means, the Spirit will call to mind all Jesus has told them and empower them to follow His example.
B. READ vs. 27. When the Spirit bears witness to the disciples, He will also bear witness through them to the world, about who Jesus was and what He offered the world.
CONCLUSION