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Jesus told the disciples to abide in Him for fruit (15:1-10) and then He said, “These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full” (verse 11). He summarizes His purpose for them. Then Jesus told the disciples about love laying down its life (verses 12-16) and summarizes His desire for them, “These things I command you, so that you will love one another” (verse 17). Then Jesus told the disciples about the reaction they should expect from the world when the fruit of sacrificial love grows: the world will hate them just as the world hated Jesus (verses 18-25). Now Jesus summarizes His concern, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away” (16:1).

These things for joyificiation, these things to love one another, and these things for not quitting. Jesus tells them things about His aim for them, His will for them, and His burden for them: they will be threatened to fall away. “These things” are crucial to remember.

Certainly some “things” apply uniquely to the eleven disciples. The Holy Spirit, mentioned (15:26) for the third time this night, had not been sent yet. The disciples heard and saw and touched things that we only hear and read about; they had been with Him from the beginning (verse 27). We are not Jews concerned with synagogue membership (16:2). Nor are we usually in grave danger of going to the grave for our witness (also verse 2).

Yet much does apply to us even a couple millennia miles down the river. We do have the Spirit, we are witnesses, we are threatened by various forms of hate and trouble, and we are susceptible to the pressure to quit. Our reasons for wanting to quit may not be as noble, but they are real. Heading into battle Jesus tell us these things so that we won’t run away.

Jesus Himself endured, and loved, to the end. Verses 21-25 describe the general rejection Jesus Himself faced as part of His reminder to them that servants shouldn’t expect different, let alone better, treatment than their master. The world hated Jesus without a cause, hated the very one who offered them life, light, freedom, joy, and love.

When the world hates Jesus and those who show fruit like Jesus, what should we do? We should keep witnessing to the world about Jesus. He remains the only hope even if they refuse to acknowledge it, even if their refusal becomes an attack in the name of truth, or even in the name of God. We must continue to witness, and we have a very present Helper. There are two things we need for lovingly engaging the world of hate: 1) Authoritative Witness (15:26-27) and 2) Steadfast Service (16:1-4a).

Authoritative Witness (15:26-27)

The world has no good reason to hate Jesus and the disciples had every good reason to go into the world as witnesses to Jesus. Here is the first thing they need: Spiritual authority.

“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. (John 15:26–27, ESV)

Not a few men suppose that verses 26-27 were added later, that they are not original to Jesus’ words a couple hours before His betrayal. Yet no textual evidence suggests tinkering, nor does the flow of the passage itself indicate that this is out of place.

Jesus already referred to the coming of the Helper (14:16, 26) and described Him as the Spirit of truth (14:17). The Paraclete would be with and in the disciples. He would teach the disciples and bring to their remembrance all that Jesus said. Now He will bear witness about me , that is, make much of the Son in a world that loved darkness.

What kind of witness will the Spirit be? He will be a true witness. He is the spirit of truth ; truth characterizes Him as much as holiness (imagine if we’d come to call the Third Person of the Trinity the True Spirit instead of the Holy Spirit). The Spirit’s witness is definitive because He can be trusted.

His witness is also divine. He is sent by the Son from the Father. The Father who is God sends the Spirit. The Son who is God sends the Spirit. The Spirit is authorized by both Father and Son. What’s more, the Spirit proceeds from the Father .

I believe that the Spirit’s authority belongs with His mission: He was sent by Father and Son. But His authority also belongs with His nature: He proceeds from the Father. “As the ray is like the sun, the stream like the source, so the Spirit is of the same essence with the Father because he proceeds from him” (Lenski, 1070). The eternal procession of the Spirit is language used to describe the Spirit’s divinity. Though He hasn’t received as much attention in John’s Gospel, the Spirit is an equal part of the Godhead.

As early as the 4th century the Eastern Church argued based on this verse that the Spirit only proceeds from the Father, and the first Nicene Creed reflected that belief. The Western Church added the Latin word filioque to the creed meaning that the Spirit proceeds from the Father “and from the Son,” arguing that from the Son can be seen clearly in other passages. The Spirit’s work of revelation and redemption is just as divine and the Son’s work of revelation and redemption. His witness is true, divine, direct, and authoritative.

The Spirit’s witness is true, divine, and often mediated through the disciples. Their testimony was authoritative as it was led by the Spirit and as it related to the things which they saw for themselves. You also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning . They were eyewitnesses from the start of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Their witness had firsthand authority. We weren’t there, but we have their testimony recorded for us in the New Testament.

Steadfast Service (16:1-4a)

Some of the disciples would have opportunity to witness in the sharpest teeth of hostility. Jesus has been telling them all these things in order that they would stay firm. This is the second thing they need: steadfastness.

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. (John 16:1–4, ESV)

The these things are at least all the things since chapter 15 verse 18. Not being prepared for resistance opens one to the likelihood of being overcome by resistance. Being hated is hard. We are not, most of us, built to love as battle. We battle or we love, we don’t battle by love. When we love we anticipate being loved back. To love and be hated makes us want to run. That’s why Jesus says, I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away .

Falling away or “stumbling” (NRSV), “going astray” (NIV), apostasy, is the big concern, and it is a real concern. The same idea was found in John 6:61 when disciples were grumbling and then turned away. Two levels of hostility might provoke it: exclusion and execution.

First, exclusion: They will put you out of the synagogues . They will shun you from the community. This is what already happened to the man born blind when he wouldn’t stop giving credit to Jesus. His parents feared being blackballed. They were right to realize the threat even though they should have embraced it on behalf of their son.

As a Jew living in Israel there was really no other place to go. To be put out of the synagogue was to be cut off from virtually everything meaningful in the culture. Israel wasn’t a melting pot of various cultures so that leaving one group just meant joining another. This would be like being blocked from a Facebook group and now you can’t buy groceries or gas, not to mention being the subject of conversation among former friends and family.

The second level of hostility is execution: Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God . Being killed is just the final step of excommunication, an irreversible one.

The immediate application to the eleven disciples did not concern the Romans. These killers are fellow Jews. Romans weren’t kicking people out of the synagogue and they didn’t claim killing disciples was worship. This isn’t to say that unbelievers have not painfully isolated or attacked Christians, or that idol worshippers have never murdered anyone as part of their service to a false god. But these are men in John 16 who claim that truth is on their side. These are men who sincerely believed that God was on their side.

Most of the hatred Jesus and His disciples encountered was religious hatred, hatred coming from their own camp. It’s tricky when the plaintiff and the defendant claim God is on their side. Yet claiming to honor God and sincerely believing it doesn’t make it so.

And they will do these things because they have not know the Father, nor me . Jesus repeatedlyconnects Himself with His Father; receiving or rejecting one is receiving or rejecting the other. Everything comes back to worship, even when worship is wrong. Worshipping the right God on paper, reading from the right book, calling Him by the right name, does not mean that a man won’t hate Him.

Jesus summarizes: But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you . Revelation informs experience. Not that we don’t learn from experience, but we may learn the wrong lesson from experience if we don’t know what the object is supposed to be.

Their hour was the hour of hate, of opposition and persecution. In their hour the haters appear to win. When it came time to clock in, the disciples should expect to be hated. They should be ready to stay steadfast in service even when viciously attacked by men claiming that the attacks were part of serving God.

Conclusion

History records that eight of the eleven disciples were martyred; some traditions claim more. Jesus’ plan was not ruined by their killings, His plan was proven.

We have trouble with a passage like this because so many disciples before us have died, or at least crossed oceans or plains or faced cold shoulders so that we don’t have to. We ought to be thankful that in large part we do not have to pay for our faith in blood.

We do, though, have ongoing need for boldness. We do have need to stay steadfast, to not quit, to know the hazards of witnessing about Jesus to a world who hate Him even if they think they are honoring God by hating us. May He help us by His Spirit to bear fruit and bear witness. Let us not waver in love for Jesus.