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Last week I was using some legal terms. I'm going to do it again. Why? Because I can. What makes a witness credible? If you're sitting on a jury and a witness takes the stand, what makes he or she credible?
Well, of course, I went to lawyers .com, not liars .com, but lawyers .com. There is a difference, at least in the spelling. There are certain factors that they list here that tend to increase a witness's credibility.
And these include accuracy. If you're listening to a witness and they describe things accurately, well, you give them more credibility. Their demeanor. How they behave. You know, how serious and sober they strike you.
A lack of bias. Whether or not they have a particular prejudice against one or another party. And also, and this is pretty key, whether they have a motivation for testifying. In other words, if a witness is up there and he was offered a deal, let's say he was facing life without possibility of parole, and then you find out that he's going to get six months probation and no jail time for his testimony, you think, okay, this guy has some motive, right?
And then I continued my research and I found out that family court, you know what they call, what lawyers call family court, like divorce court and child custody court, you know what they call it? Liar's court.
They actually call it that. You know why? Because everybody lies. And I thought, that's what it says. And I go, everybody lies in family court? It's pretty shocking. They said some people have good motives.
They're concerned for the welfare of children that are involved in a particular case. Some people, though, lie for personal gain. And we all have seen, sadly, during the course of our lives, divorces that get out of hand, right?
So if somebody's up there testifying and you realize that they have a financial gain, by virtue of what they're saying up there in the state, you tend to discount that. So what a witness is motivated by, their accuracy, their demeanor, and their bias or lack of bias, these all affect their credibility.
And this morning we're going to look at 12 witnesses and we're going to have a look at their credibility, whether or not they're believable. We're also going to study their commissioning, as it were. Let's look at John chapter 15, and I'm going to read beginning in verse 18.
John chapter 15, verse 18. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.
But now they have seen and hated both me and my father. But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without a cause. 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.
And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. Now we are in the Upper Room Discourse, the Last Supper. Jesus is basically giving the 11 disciples, Judas is gone, their last bit of instruction before he is arrested and put to death.
In Chapter 14, the predominant theme was comfort. And we are going to be looking more at Chapter 14 in a moment here. Chapter 15 has been more challenging than comforting. We started with the metaphor of Jesus as the true vine, the Father as the vine dresser, the believer as fruit-bearing branches, and unbelievers as those who do not and cannot bear fruit.
Then Jesus challenges his disciples to obedience and to loving one another. Throughout Chapter 15, there is an undercurrent of the sovereignty of God intertwined with the responsibility of man. Both are true.
God is sovereign, man is responsible. And Jesus also told the disciples that persecution was coming. After all, they should not expect to be treated any better than Jesus himself. And last week we looked at the prejudiced jury, the jury that had fixed their minds in hating Jesus and hating the Father.
They were not spiritually neutral at all. They did not believe the words of Jesus, nor did they give his works any credibility, the miracles that he did. They had, as I said, a fixed attitude towards the Father and the Son, and here was their attitude.
We hate them. And now it's in that context that we're going to, this morning, see Jesus give these 11 disciples their mission statement, as it were. Even though they would not fully understand it at the time that it was given, in the face of persecution, the face of rejection, these 11 men and the Holy Spirit were going to be the 12 witnesses of Jesus.
Not only were they going to face persecution, but think about what they're being asked to do. They are going to step in front of, as it were, this jury that's already made up their mind. They already hate Jesus, and they hate Jesus so much they put him to death.
And these 11 men are told to go before this same jury. That sounds pretty daunting. But what we're going to see this morning is nothing less, I think, than really the foundation of the Great Commission.
Our first witness, and here's the outline, it's pretty simple. We have one witness, then we have 11 witnesses clumped together, and then we're going to see an illustration of these witnesses working in tandem, working together.
Our first witness is the Holy Spirit. Verse 26, Now that is a reference to the Holy Spirit. And in this section of John, Jesus teaches about, I mean, in this whole upper room discourse, he teaches about the Holy Spirit frequently.
Let's briefly look back, turn back to John 14, verses 16 and 17. 14, verses 16 and 17. Jesus writes this, And I will ask the Father, or Jesus said this, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, same word, comforter, counselor.
The Greek word is paraclete. Paraclete. To be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
And again, Jesus knows his departure's near. He knows that this is having a negative effect on, we could say, the morale, the mentality, the esprit of the disciples. Look back to verse 1. He says, He didn't say that in a vacuum.
He looks out at their faces. He can see that they're despondent, that they're discouraged. Why? Because he's leaving. They had followed him. They had thrown in entirely with him. They'd left everything behind, their businesses, their lives, everything, their family, everything.
And now he says, I'm leaving you. Well, who wouldn't be discouraged? Who wouldn't be worried? Who wouldn't be even depressed? And in response, Jesus promises to send them another helper, one who comes alongside, and he is going to be of the same kind as Jesus.
You guys think you're losing me, but the truth is I'm going to send someone else. And this someone else isn't just anybody else. He's like me. What does that mean? Well, first, it necessarily means that he's a person.
Because no impersonal force, as some people like to cast the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force, but no impersonal force could comfort. No impersonal force could teach. No impersonal force could be grieved or determine which gifts to give each believer, as Scripture describes the Holy Spirit.
He is frequently called the spirit of truth. Why? Well, clearly because he leads believers into truth by convicting them of their sin and by being the divine author of Scripture. And notice again in chapter 14, verse 17, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him or knows him.
Again and again, we see Jesus make this division between believers, disciples, followers, and the world. There are only two groups of people in the world, those people who are saved and those people who need to get saved, right?
This is our mission field. That's when we leave here. It is our mission field. We're going out into the world. And the only part of the world, or the only part the world has with the Holy Spirit is that of rejection.
They reject him wholly, just as they reject the Son and the Father. Additionally, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would never leave them. Now, there's comfort. Jesus had to leave. He had a mission to fulfill, and once he fulfilled that mission, he was going to intercede for them.
But the Holy Spirit, once he takes up residence in you, he never leaves. From the moment of salvation forever, the Holy Spirit resides in you. You are never alone, which is a great comfort to people who are afraid of being alone.
Jesus speaks again of the Holy Spirit in chapter 14, verses 25 and 26. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, again, 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 that I have said to you.
And if you recall, when we talked about this before, what a blessing to think, as they're sitting there and they're not really absorbing all this, a whole lot, because they're upset. They're discouraged.
They're thinking this is all coming to an end. I don't even know how much value they were putting into what he said. But he says, Jesus tells them, the Holy Spirit, when he comes, he's going to bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
As I said when I talked through it, I think verse 26 is the greatest single statement in all of Scripture about the Holy Spirit because it is the second person of the Trinity telling us about the third person of the Trinity at the direction of the first person of the Trinity as brought to John's remembrance years later by the third person of the Trinity.
Jesus was telling them of the Holy Spirit because the Father wanted him to. Teaching the disciples of the Holy Spirit would ensure that they remembered all that he was teaching them. And it is because of the work of the Holy Spirit that we can rely upon Scripture.
We don't have to worry whether or not they got this accurately. It wasn't dependent upon their memory. It was dependent upon the Holy Spirit. As Peter wrote in 2 Peter chapter 1, he wrote this, men spoke from God as they were carried along, as they were born along by the Holy Spirit.
So now back to chapter 15. And again, but when the helper comes. Again, this idea that he's a helper. That really doesn't do it total justice, does it? Because it's not just like he's a nice little add-on.
This is God helping. When he comes, well, when is it? When is it that he's going to come? It's about six weeks from now. He doesn't tell them that. It's about six weeks or so into the future. On the day of Pentecost, well, why?
Why is he coming? And why is he telling them this? He's just finishing telling them how the world hated them. He hated the world hates Jesus, hates God, and is going to treat them with the same hatred.
How the world had rejected even Jesus' words and works, so they needed to be reminded that divine help was on its way. He, the Holy Spirit, is in effect a replacement for Jesus. The Son ascends and intercedes for us, and the Holy Spirit descends and indwells, sanctifies, and conforms us into the image of Christ.
Now, this next phrase in verse 26 really caused some historic controversy, a lot of historic controversy, and I'm not going to cover all of it, but I'll just mention it briefly. In verse 26, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth.
And the problem with that, well, I'll get to it in a second, but this is clear enough. Jesus is going to send the Holy Spirit by the agency of the Father. This is the man, Christ Jesus, deferring to his Father.
In other words, he's in his human form, and he's saying, it's my Father who's going to send the Holy Spirit. But Jesus is not passive. In fact, in the Greek, he includes the word ego. He's trying to emphasize his personal involvement in the sending of the Holy Spirit.
So he says, I myself will send. But the Eastern Orthodox Church holds that this is an indication of a strict hierarchy. Here you have the Father, and only the Father sends the Holy Spirit. The Son really has nothing to do with it.
And the problem with that is, it separates the Trinity and sort of indicates that Jesus is sort of passively watching the Father do things, and that's not the picture we see in Scripture at all. What this actually shows is the persons of the Trinity work very closely together.
Now let's talk about the function of the Holy Spirit as we look again at verse 26, the end of the verse. Who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about Jesus, about me. Hendrickson writes in his commentary that the Holy Spirit will testify against the world, that he will comfort the church, and that he will work through believers to draw some to Christ.
That's what it means that he's going to bear witness, that he's going to testify about Jesus. So what is he testifying about? What is he speaking about when he says that he's going to testify about Jesus?
First it means that he, the Spirit of truth, will present the truth about Jesus, who he really is. And if you think about it, it's a pretty vital issue today. If you say, who is Jesus to someone, what kind of answers do you get?
And you get a lot of different answers. People are confused, unbelievers are confused, and frankly, believers are confused. You can go to a lot of churches. I watch sermons like this online. You can go to a lot of churches and hear how Jesus is really a good example, that like Jesus elevated other people and that he put other people in front of himself, we need to put other people in front of ourselves.
So are we being more Christ-like? What is that? It's not the gospel. It's interesting because Andrew was talking about it this morning in Sunday school, a little plug for the Sunday school here. We need to understand the difference between gospel, which is good news, and law, which is requirements.
And if you say, here, the reason you're here this morning is because I want to tell you how to put other people first. I want to tell you how to be a better you, in other words. That's not good news. It's important.
It may be an application, but if it's the thrust of the message, week after week after week, be a better neighbor, be a better husband, be a better, be a better, better, better, better, better. Well, what about Jesus?
What did he do? I want to hear about Jesus. You refine me by teaching me about Jesus, my life will change. But if you just say, be a better person, maybe I never even get saved at all. I could be a great person.
People are lauded all the time for their wonderful lives, but they never know Christ Jesus. But the Holy Spirit bears witness about who he really is. Now, here's another common myth out there. Did Jesus just hang out with sinners?
I hear that one all the time, and I'm like, okay, that is not born of the Holy Spirit. Jesus just didn't hang out with sinners. He wasn't just reclining, you know, at table with sinners. Like he was somehow indifferent to sin, like he didn't care that there were adulterers or whatever sitting at the table.
Certainly he did. What is the answer to all these kind of false myths out there? And the Holy Spirit would testify two ways to us about Jesus Christ, two main ways anyway. Firstly is the Word of God. We have the Word of God from, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, and that reveals the truth about Jesus.
Secondly, if you think about this, how about this for the testimony of the Holy Spirit? Your own conscience, right? When you hear blasphemy spoken about Jesus, what do you think? I like that. I enjoy that.
If you're a child of God, you respond viscerally. I mean, it bothers you to hear Jesus' name dragged through the mud or to hear him misrepresented or to hear some blasphemy about him. Now, we expect that because the world hates Jesus.
But when we hear it, we respond like, I really don't like that. Well, that's the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, in the context, Jesus talking, and again, I'm using this kind of trial language. In this context of the world hating Jesus without cause, it is a miracle literally that anyone would believe in Christ.
If we think about verses 23, 24, and 25, I think the word hated or hate is there like three or four times because it's hate, hate, hate. These people are fixated on hating Jesus and hating the Father.
But people come to Christ anyway. Well, why is that? Because of the work of the Holy Spirit. And this encourages us. Why? Because my best efforts, your best efforts at presenting the gospel to someone who hates Jesus and hates the Father, ultimately, the best salesmanship case that we can make is going to have no effect because the jury's already decided.
But we have a witness, and that witness is the Holy Spirit. That witness is going to tell the truth. That witness, when he speaks to people, they listen. They believe. He has credibility. He has expertise.
It's not us who's testifying. It's the Holy Spirit who's testifying. He may use you. He may speak through you. And I don't mean like take you over in some kind of odd way. Use your words to convict someone of their sin and their need for Christ.
But if he causes a person to be born again, there's really nothing that you did, essentially, other than be faithful to cause it, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. No matter how bad your gospel presentation is, if you tell the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit can use that.
I mean, you know, like if I were grading and I were to say, okay, that was probably a D minus. It doesn't matter. The Holy Spirit can use that. So don't listen to me and my grades. When the Holy Spirit communicates Christ to someone, someone that you're talking to, the hatred that they previously had vanishes.
The scales are removed from their eyes. Their ears are unstopped. And instead of resisting what you are saying, there is an irrepressible joy that grips him or her. And it's not mystical. If we look through Romans 10, we're not going to, but if we look at Romans 10, somebody needs to hear the truth.
They need to hear the truth from someone. They need to hear the truth of God about Christ from someone, and then the Holy Spirit presses that truth to their heart. He converts them. He changes them. He gives them new desires.
That person has been turned from an enemy, a devoted enemy of the cross. They hate Jesus to what? A servant of Christ. There are plenty of examples, and we can even think of our own lives. But, I mean, you could talk about Saul to Paul.
There's never been a more dramatic conversion than that. But every single conversion is a miracle in the sense that it is God, the Holy Spirit, taking someone who is devoted to hating Jesus and causing them to love Jesus, giving them a new heart and new affections.
So that's our first witness, the witness of the Holy Spirit. Our second witness, our second group of witnesses, the disciples. And they're soon going to be commissioned as apostles. And when you think about this, this really is kind of the foundational kind of teaching for the great commission.
Look at verse 27. And here he's talking to the 11 who remain. Also, just like the Holy Spirit, you also will bear witness. And it's fitting, again, to just think about who Jesus is talking to. He's talking to these 11 depressed disciples.
And they're the ones who are going to bear witness. They're the ones who are going to tell the truth about Jesus. Peter is about to deny Jesus three times. And he's the leader. He's the spokesman of the group.
This is the best candidate there is. If we looked at these men from a worldly perspective, if we were interviewing them to be our pastor, if we were interviewing them to be a CEO, if we were interviewing them to lead anything, we wouldn't hire them.
We think these guys can't get it done. They're afraid. They're timid. But the witness of the disciples is inextricably linked to the witness of the Holy Spirit. They're not going out by themselves. They have a helper.
He's coming alongside them. He's in them, and he will not leave them. They're testifying about the same Savior. The disciples will testify vocally while the Holy Spirit is convicting unbelievers and saving them.
I want to just turn for a moment to 1 Corinthians 2. I think it was one of the first passages that Pastor Mike had me memorize way back when. And I do mean way back when. I think it was, you know, we were probably in nursery together.
1 Corinthians 2, verse 1. Now, this is essentially him recounting how he came to the Corinthians when they were unbelievers, right? And here's his sophisticated evangelism program. Chapter 2. Listen. He was afraid.
We could say that he's even like the disciples on that night. And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
I didn't want to talk you guys into believing. I wanted to just give you the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit and let him convict you. Why? So you wouldn't think, you know, it was Paul that just did this kind of mind trick on us.
No. So that we know that we were converted by the power of the Holy Spirit. So that we'd know that it was the power of God that transformed them into Christians. That made them believers. That took their hearts of stone, gave them hearts of flesh.
Back to John chapter 15. Why these men? And again, I just think you just hear like parts of different scripture. In fact, here I just think, when you hear this part, I couldn't help but think of Acts chapter 1.
When they're replacing Judas and they eventually settle on Matthias. Now just listen to John 27, or 1527. Because you have been with me from the beginning. What did they want? You know, when they're replacing Judas.
It had to be somebody who had been with them from the beginning. It's like they remembered these things, right? The Holy Spirit brought these things to their minds. They remembered them. They couldn't have somebody be one of the 12 who hadn't been there from the beginning.
So, why is that important that they were there from the beginning of the ministry? Credibility. They're going to be witnesses. They have to be credible witnesses. They had to be there for the whole ministry of Jesus.
Furthermore, when these men were persecuted, when they were tried, and even when they were put to death, they would not and they could not deny what they had seen and heard, right? They've been there from the beginning.
It wasn't just something they had heard or something they've been told about. They watched it. They were good witnesses because they were credible. Now, I have to go to what I'm calling Day 1. The Day of Pentecost.
Let's go to Acts 2. Acts chapter 2. And really, I think what we're about to see is Jesus' words in action. Him talking about these witnesses and how the Holy Spirit's going to testify and you are going to testify.
And how are they going to testify? They were going to testify by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, I think we have the beginning of this. Pentecost is when the church is visited in a special way by the Holy Spirit.
Let's read. I'm going to read all of it and I'm going to stop and make some comments along the way. Acts chapter 2. When the Day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place talking about all the believers.
And there were obviously people from all over the place as we'll see in a moment. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all, listen, filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
God is not a God of confusion. He did not give them babble language. He gave them actual languages, known languages. That's what that word means. Now just think about what Jesus had said. I will send from the Father the Holy Spirit, a helper, a comforter.
The Spirit of truth. He's here now. Verse 5, Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, when they heard this spectacular sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language, not in unknown languages, in his own language.
And they were amazed and astonished saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? In other words, these are not sophisticated people. How are they doing this? They didn't go to university. They don't have advanced degrees.
They should not know these languages. And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Persia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians.
We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, What does this mean? But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine. There are still people who what?
Hate Jesus, hate the father. And guess what? They hate the Holy Spirit too. And they hate all the believers. Verse 14. But Peter, standing with the 11, Lifted up his voice and addressed the men of Judea.
And all who dwell in Jerusalem, Let this be known to you and give ear to my words. Listen, for these people are not drunk as you suppose, Since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.
And in the last days it shall be, God declares, That I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions. And your old men shall dream dreams.
Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit. And they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above And signs on the earth below, Blood and fire and smoke and vapor of smoke.
Sorry, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness And the moon to blood. Before the day of the Lord comes, The great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass That everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord Shall be saved.
Now, here we really get to the sermon. This is the heart of it. How do they call upon the name of the Lord? They have to know who he is. He gets to it right here, Peter. Men of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus of Nazareth. A man attested you by God With mighty works and wonders and signs That God did through him in your midst And which you rejected. You rejected all of his works. As you yourselves know, This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan And foreknowledge of God.
You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But look at verse 24. God raised him up. Resurrection. Loosing the pangs of death Because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me.
For he is at my right hand That I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad And my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades Or let your Holy One see corruption.
Raised him before his body started to be corrupted by death. Verse 28. You have made known to me the paths of life. You make me full of gladness with your presence. Peter again, Now that he's done quoting scripture, He says, Brothers, I may say to you with confidence About the patriarch David That he both died and was buried And his tomb is with us to this day.
In other words, He's not the one who didn't undergo decay. He decayed. Being therefore a prophet, David was a prophet. And knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, To David, That he would set one of his descendants on his throne.
He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ. That he was not abandoned to Hades Nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up. And of that, We all are witnesses. We have credibility because we saw him after his resurrection.
Verse 33, Before or being, Therefore, Exalted at the right hand of God And having received from the father, The promise of the Holy Spirit. He has poured out. This that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
This demonstration of the power of God. For David did not ascend into heaven, Into the heavens, But he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
In other words, He foresees Jesus being told by the father, To sit at my right hand. Verse 36, Let all the house of Israel, Therefore know for certain, That God has made him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus whom you crucified.
Listen to the response. He's preached now this sermon. Verse 37, Here's the response. Now when they heard this, They were cut to the hearts. And said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, What shall we do?
What was it? What must we do to be saved? We, We recognize our guiltiness. We're sorrowful. We know that we've put the Lord of glory to death. What do we do now? And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized.
Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. For the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the action of the divine witnesses. These, The Holy Spirit and the 11 human witnesses.
Both testifying about Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit being a witness. The apostles being witnesses. Credible witnesses. Accurate witnesses. They didn't have, Well, they, I guess you could say they had a bias.
But their motivation for testifying was what? It was the well-being of everybody else. They didn't want them to go to hell. They'd been charged by Jesus Christ. To testify of him. Now let's just talk about you here today.
What makes you a credible witness for the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it your lifestyle? Well, it could be. Is it the fact that you put others first? Is it the fact that you do all these nice things? Is it the fact that you're a better neighbor than other people?
Well, it could be. But what makes you a credible witness for the Lord Jesus Christ? Is your reliance upon the Holy Spirit? How do you rely upon the Holy Spirit? The same way the disciples did. You apply scripture.
We think about the testimony of Paul. What did he say? I didn't want your salvation in any way to rest upon me. My sophistication. My wisdom. My wit. The clever way I put this gospel presentation together.
I wanted to rest on the power of God. Well, how do I do that? It can only be via the word. Peter. Telling them facts that they knew, but filtering them through the lens of scripture. You are his witnesses.
You are Jesus' witnesses today. It's just you. The words that these men and their associates wrote. If we think about the New Testament, what is it? It's the words of the apostles and their close associates.
Inspired by the Holy Scripture. Or by the Holy Spirit. So all you have is the words of these men. And the God of the universe who has taken up residence in you. The Holy Spirit. That's all you have. Really, that's all you need.
When you go out and you present Jesus Christ. When you testify about Jesus Christ. What do you do? You're repeating what these men, by the power of the Holy Spirit, wrote. You don't have to be clever.
You don't have to be inventive. You don't even have to be nervous. You just have to go, okay. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. Well, I'm going to tell you about the Bible. I'm going to tell you about Jesus as he is in scripture.
That's our charge. We are to testify. To witness. To tell the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, it is a remarkable strategy that you have for Christianity. As we think about all the factors that went into it.
We can talk about the political situation where you have the Roman Empire. Rule a vast swath of land. The Greek culture and language also inhabit that same land. And then the lack of humidity, the climate that preserved so many of these writings that we might even have them to this day.
You sovereignly arranged for all these details. And then you took these 11 men and you put them through three and a half years of training. You gave them the words of Jesus. You sent the Spirit, your Spirit, to be with them and to remind them of what he had said.
And then you gave them this charge to go out and testify of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is amazing to think that from these 11 men shaking in their boots, afraid of what was going to happen next, that the gospel of Jesus Christ can go across the globe.
Lord Jesus, would you remind us that is our responsibility too. That we don't have to reinvent the wheel. We don't have to talk in sophisticated ways. We don't have to understand all the theological concepts.
We just have to study the word and repeat what's there. It's already been done for us. We have all the resources we need. We thank you and praise you for these truths in Jesus name. Amen.