Michael's Abbey Bible Study - Gospel of John Chapter 15

1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. This is the start of a different teaching session than the one in chapter 14. Jesus has used a lot of different analogies to explain Himself. Using a vine analogy here is to explain the difference between a pretender and a real disciple. This is another way of presenting the teaching from 14:15, 21, 23-24.
Jesus is the true vine. This is not that He is different than other vines, but that He is the embodiment of what it means to be a vine. All others are an imitation. This illustrates that He is the true way to the Father, salvation, and eternal life. Anything else is a fake. The Father is the vinedresser, that is the farmer who is maintaining the vineyard. The goal of a farmer is to produce fruit, and as much as possible.
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. "He" in this verse is God the Father, the vinedresser in this analogy. Those who claim to be disciples of Jesus but bear no fruit are not true disciples. So the vinedresser takes them away, which is to cut them off and remove them.
Conversely, vines that bear fruit He prunes, kathairei in Greek which literally means to clean the branch. This is done so that it will produce more fruit. Real disciples produce fruit. Thus the Father disciplines them to make them clean and more fruitful. This is very important. If we are not being disciplined, then we are not Jesus' disciples. To avoid or run away from discipline is to reject God.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. The word Jesus taught made them clean, as in they have been pruned. The word for clean here is katharoi, which means pure, as in having been cleaned completely. Thus they were already pruned by His word and ready to bear fruit. We are also made clean by His word that for us is in scripture. This is Jesus' word that prunes us and makes us fruitful.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. This starts with the command to abide in Jesus. If we follow that command He will abide in us. That is conditional on us following the command. The implication in Greek is that we remain continuously in Jesus. And the analogy fits as a branch must remain in the vine to live, let alone produce fruit. Such a mutual living in each other is an intimate relationship that began when we became disciples of Christ.
Another condition of the command is that we will only bear fruit if we follow the command and remain in Christ. And this stands to reason as our sinful nature separates us from Him and pulls us away from righteousness.
Romans 7:19 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. This is a concise summary of the analogy up to this point. The essential point is that in order to bear fruit, we must abide in Jesus. And we are incapable of producing fruit without Jesus.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. This is the result when the first half of verse 2 takes place. The fruitless branch is taken away from the vine. Then it dries up, is gathered up with the other fruitless branches, and they are burned in the fire. This is judgement day where those not in Jesus are sent to hell.
Matthew 13:49-50 So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This is where they choose to go. Some will regret their choice, weeping in regret. Others will continue to shake their fists at God, and gnash their teeth in anger. Even in hell they will still choose hell over Jesus.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This verse is misused as a proof text for a false prosperity gospel and the name-it-and-claim-it false doctrine. Those teaching these falsehoods must totally ignore the context of this verse and the rest of the teachings of Jesus. Even taken out of context those false teaching violate the condition within this verse that Jesus' words abide in us. Ignoring the parts we don't like or disagree with is the exact opposite of His words abiding in us. If we are asking for our own selfish gain then the words of Jesus are not abiding in us.
James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
In John 8:31-47 Jesus taught that to be His disciple we must continue in His word. But those who commit sin are slaves of sin, and are sons and disciples of the devil. Those cannot even hear Jesus' word, let alone abide in it. Those who do not hear God, believe God, and bear fruit are not Jesus' disciples. It does not matter that they go to church, claim to be Christians, or even if they are in leadership in a church. Anyone who follows their own beliefs and/or disregards scripture or any part of it are disciples of satan.
8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Here one of the purposes of bearing much fruit is that it glorifies the Father. And part of that is the reflection on Him that our fruit brings in the eyes of others. Thus our lives are a living testimony pointing to God. The verb translated correctly as prove here is genesthe in Greek, which means become without doubt. In other words, bear much fruit and become undoubtably Jesus' disciple.
9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. The love from the Father to the Son is the love the Son has for us. We are commanded to abide in Jesus' love. This is to live in his love. And the way we live in his love is that we live in Him and in His word. This is explained in the next verse
10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. Keeping Jesus' commandments is how we abide in Jesus' love, emulating Jesus' relationship with the Father. This is bearing fruit. In order to keep Jesus' commandments we must know what they are. And we know what they are by studying scripture and getting it in us.
The greatest commandment is to love the Father with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. These are documented in Luke 10:25-28 and Mark 12:28-34. They are commandments in the Old Testament that are the basis of the law of Moses. And Jesus confirmed we are to continue to obey these commandments. In John 13:34 Jesus gave us a new commandment that fits between those two, or could be viewed as a corollary to the second. This one is that in the Christian community we are to love each other at a higher level than we love our neighbor, which is to love as Jesus loved the disciples, and as He loves us as well. The difference between how we love our neighbor and how we love our Christian brothers and sisters is in how this is expressed. True Christian love is the love the Father shows us back in verse 2 when He prunes and cleans us.
Proverbs 3:12 For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
This is real love, the love we are supposed to abide in and have for one another as Christians. True love does not leave another Christian in sin and error. Permissive love that allows anything is fake love and is being selfish. To correct a Christian brother or sister is to take a risk. To refuse to take the risk is selfish. The standard we use for this is scripture. A Christian ought to know what scripture says is right and wrong, and thus it is appropriate to point out scripture a brother or sister is ignoring or violating.
Loving a neighbor is different. We still maintain the standard of scripture as to what is right and wrong. However, we cannot hold them to the standard of Christian behavior when they aren't Christians. It makes no sense to hold them to account for not going to church, not giving to the church, not showing the fruit of the Spirit, or any of the things that are for Christians. That makes as little sense as criticizing someone for not paying Italian taxes when they don't live in Italy and aren't even a citizen of Italy. There are moral failures they are responsible for. For example, God didn't judge other nations for not following the law of Moses because that was for the Israelites. But there were things God judged and punished other nations for. These are basic morality. Regardless, correcting non-Christians on even those things is not loving our neighbor. Loving our neighbor is helping them get saved. And a patient will not take the unpleasant chemotherapy until the doctor convinces them they have cancer. Thus loving our neighbor is convincing them they need Jesus. How that is done depends on the person. And knowing how requires wisdom. It absolutely never is affirming their sin, condoning their sin, accepting their lies, nor denying that sin is sin. But it is not condemnation, but is a rescue.
Unfortunately, too many Christians get neighbor and Christian mixed up. They try to hold non-Christian neighbors to Christian standards of behavior and are totally and wrongly permissive towards Christians who violate even basic morality.
11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. All of the the things in this teaching are for our benefit. Following Jesus' commands, abiding in His love, loving one another, all of it is so that the joy of Jesus will be in us. And it will be so much that we will be completely full of joy.
The meaning of joy is great happiness. In the secular world, this is dependent on immediate circumstances. In the Christian faith, joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit. That is, the Spirit indwelling us produces joy among the other fruits of the Spirit. Thus for Christians, joy is not dependent on immediate circumstances, but is based in the sure knowledge of the true reality that this life is temporary. Thus in circumstances that would bring an unbeliever to despair we can be full of joy. James 1:2-3 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus endured the cross for the joy of being our salvation. In like manner, we should view the temporary trials of this life to be a joy.
12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Jesus was repeating the new commandment he gave us in 13:34. This command is regarding the relationship between Christians. We are to love each other as Jesus loved the disciples and loves us. Thus we are to emulate Jesus as he walked the earth. He taught the truth of God, not His own will. He was forgiving, but not permissive. When He forgave, He admonished to not do the sin anymore. He corrected error, sometimes with patience, sometimes harshly. He took the approach that was needed. He was always absolutely and completely against people who taught the false doctrines of man as if they were of God, publicly calling them vipers and the sons of satan. And he drove out sacrilege and the scams cheating the people in the temple with a whip. He cared about the wellbeing of the disciples, but that was in the context of this life being temporary, and eternity being what was important.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. This verse is in the context of the command to love other Christians as Christ loves us. One of the ways Jesus demonstrated His love was by voluntarily going to the cross and dying for our salvation.
Some pastors mistake higher for greater in this verse. "Greater" in this verse is meizona in Greek, the same as in 14:12. This does not mean it is a higher form of love. It is greater as in larger. There is no larger amount of love a person can have for a friend than this.
This is not a proof text for a doctrine of limited atonement. This is talking about dying for a friend, not a requirement of being a friend in order for Jesus to die for us. It is a backdrop for the following verses.
14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. The condition to being a friend of Jesus is to do what He commands. Conditional friendship is normal and right. Someone who violates our conditions, like don't destroy my property or don't harm or insult my family, is someone we cut off from friendship. Jesus' commands are right, good, and for our benefit as much as for His kingdom. Regardless, on Judgement Day when Jesus is on the bema seat, (the judgement seat,) we will all stand and be judged for what we did. It would certainly be better for us if the judge calls us His friends. Some will have their sins forgiven and the slate wiped clean because they were the disciples and friends of Jesus. They will only be judged for what they did right for their reward. The others will be judged for their sins.
15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. While Jesus never expressly called the disciples slaves in the gospels, he was called Lord and used slave metaphors for their relationship. The meaning here is that they were elevated from the slave-master relationship to friend-friend relationship. It was still human-God, but they were elevated by the actions of God the Son, and the will of God the Father.
Implied is that they soon will take His role as teacher to make others disciples of Jesus, and elevate them to be friends of God by sharing the knowledge they were given. Thus the same elevation in relationship is available to us, and by the same means. Jesus elevated them by sharing the knowledge from the Father as a friend to a friend. And the disciples accepted that role by listening and taking it in. We can do the same by reading His word and taking it in us.
16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This is referring to Jesus' choosing the 12, not a doctrine of divine election where they had no choice themselves. It is that Jesus chose and they responded, as Jesus stands at the door and knocks on the door of all humanity in Revelation 3:20. Those who open the door to Jesus are the ones who will dine with Him.
The purpose of their being chosen is to bear lasting fruit. For this to be they must remain in the vine of Jesus continuously. The branch that separates from the vine withers and its fruit shrivels and rots.
As discussed in chapter 14, asking in the name of Jesus does not mean that all we have to do is ask for what we want and put "in the name of Jesus" on the end. This means operating in the will of the one whose name we operate in, whether it be Jesus, a king, a president, an owner, a manager, or a friend. It's like a limited power of attorney where we can act in the name of another person or organization, but only as allowed. Any attempt to represent them in a way not specified by the power of attorney is not valid and is a fraud. But if we are remaining in Jesus, then the Father will give us what we ask.
James 4:3-4 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
We have a choice to be a friend of God or the world. The two are not compatible. We need to be very, very careful here. Satan allows prosperity for those that oppose God. Adversity often leads the fallen to turn to God. So Satan and his minions take great care to avoid that when people are on the wrong path. Second, many are self-deceived that their prosperity is "for God" by declaring God gave it to them for the purpose of "ministry". However, it really was Satan protecting a person following his false gospel. It is very easy to fall into a trap and very difficult to navigate this rightly. A sign that a brother is in the wrong is that they keep talking about their possessions, even if they say it's "for God". This is a sign of a self-centered heart. Those following Jesus talk about Him, not their circumstances. A sign for ourselves is our attitude. If it was taken away today, what would our reaction be? What if God required we chose to give it up? What if we were required to walk away from everything except what we could fit into two suitcases to go where God wants us to go? If you'd go without hesitation and no looking back it's a good sign. That is not to say you wouldn't miss the situation you have now. It's about what it more important to us, Jesus or the world. It's easy to say it's Jesus in the abstract. But think about losing what you care most about in this world. If there is any hesitation in our thoughts of walking away, we are in the wrong.
17 This I command you, that you love one another. Jesus repeats the command from verse 12 and 13:34. There are no practical descriptions of what this looks like in any of the verses. The only guidance is to emulate Jesus. He gave us two obvious examples. First, we are never to think any task is beneath us, and be willing to do the most demeaning thing in the eyes of the world without hesitation. This is humility in our dealings with each other as Jesus washed feet. The second is to correct each other when we violate His word which is scripture, and being willing to accept correction. These two work hand in hand in our love for each other.
This is difficult for people from prideful cultures and families. There are those who cannot accept their own faults and responsibility for offenses against others. I've had leaders in churches deny the fact that they were yelling five minutes earlier, not to mention denying the words they used. If they cannot own up to their bad behavior to their brothers they can see, how can they take responsibility and ask for forgiveness to the God they can't see? It's not that we need to ask God's forgiveness for each and every sin. It is that we must accept that we are sinners. When we deny sin is a sin, then we are in extreme danger. This is the trap of arrogant pride. The worst part of the trap is the biggest offenders are the ones who think they are the most humble. You'd think the contradiction of being proud of being humble would clue them in, but it has the opposite effect. They feel even more reassured in their sin. The only thing real Christians have to feel good and confident about is Jesus being in them. It is never in ourselves.
18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. There are two ways to translate this verse. It could be "you know that" as the NASB chose, meaning this is something you are already aware of. Or it could be "know that", as in you should recognize this is the situation. In Greek one can be ambiguous on this minor point where English cannot. It does not really change the meaning either way.
That the world hates us is a statement of fact, as is that the world hated God first. The why is in the following verses.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. The disciples were of the world, but Jesus chose the disciples taking them out of the world and into His kingdom. Therefore they were no longer of the world. This pagan, a.k.a. secular, world loves its own. But those who are disciples of Jesus are the mortal enemy of the world. Thus the reason the world hated the disciples is because they became disciples of Jesus.
When we become disciples of Jesus the secular world views us as an enemy. Just the fact that we follow Jesus shines a light on their darkness. Thus they will accuse a Christian of being judgmental or condemning when they haven't said or done anything remotely like that. It is the conscience of the unbeliever that condemns them because it sees how they should be in us. However, if the world does not view us as an enemy, that should be a giant red flag to ourselves that we are not living right. If the world welcomes us it is a bad sign that we are on the wrong side and deluding ourselves that we belong to Christ.
The world views us as its enemy. And the intentions, goals, and actions of the world are enemy actions to us. We seek to undermine the world by winning people in the world to our side. The world is our enemy. And the people of the world are enemy soldiers, yet potential allies. However, until they are won over their views, values and actions are against us and we must always be on our guard walking in enemy territory.
20 Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. This is not a contradiction of verse 15. Jesus is referring to His teaching in 13:16 where He was not calling them slaves, but using the metaphors of master and slave, or sender and the one sent to warn against becoming arrogant. All that we are is because of Him and not of ourselves. Therefore, since Jesus was persecuted and we are His disciples we should expect to be persecuted as well. While we will reign in triumph one day, that will not happen until the second coming when Jesus returns in triumph. It is beyond arrogance to think we can achieve that triumph today when Jesus has not yet conquered the world.
This verse ends with a test to determine who is of Jesus and who is of the enemy. If they persecute us, they are of the world and our enemy. If they keep Jesus' commandments, His word, then they are allies and fellow disciples of Jesus. A lack of persecution is absolutely not confirmation of being disciples of Jesus. That is a test of us, not them. If the world does not persecute us, we are on the world's side, not Jesus. The test of them is that they keep Jesus' word, and the true word we teach as well. If our word is not in alignment with His, then they ought to not keep our word if they are of Jesus.
21 But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. The world will persecute Christians because of the name of Jesus. In fact, the term Christian was coined in Antioch as a derogatory comment. But it was taken as a point of pride.
The root cause for the world viewing and treating us as enemies is because they do not know God the Father. This includes the Jewish leaders of that time and leaders of Churches today.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Jesus was not saying the Jewish leaders and people would have had no sin at all if He had not spoken to them. They were guilty of plenty of sins, such as teaching the doctrines of man as if they were from God, or even greater than God's doctrine. Jesus was saying that they heard God's word directly from God and rejected it and Him. They were sinners against God regardless, but because they had the truth and rejected it they are judged harsher.
Luke 12:47-48 And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.
Thus people are judged according to what they know. If they know the gospel and reject it, they are judged and punished more harshly. This does not mean those who haven't heard the gospel are blameless.
Romans 1:18-20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Thus even those who do not hear the gospel know the truth of God, right and wrong within them because God put it in the heart of every man. And the evidence for God is there for all to see. Creation reveals God as well. Those that reject God are doing so against what they know to be true and the evidence of creation tells them. It's just that they will be judged less harshly than those who heard the gospel and rejected it. What this looks like at judgement day we don't really know. But we know that we don't want to be in either of those two groups.
23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. This is continuing the condemnation from verse 22 of the Jewish leaders and people who rejected Jesus. They claimed to worship God the Father, but rejected and hated Jesus. However, this was nonsense. Jesus was God the Son. To reject one was to reject the other. The scriptures they had all pointed to the Messiah, and they knew it. But they denied Jesus was the Messiah despite all the evidence that should have been obvious. They did it because they didn't want to let go of their wrong beliefs.
24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. Jesus did miracles that no one had ever done before. This should have been all the evidence they needed to realize God was doing something here. And the fulfilled prophecies in the scriptures should have been enough on their own as well. All of this piled up evidence and they still rejected Jesus in favor of their own nonsense. Therefore, they also rejected the Father who they falsely claimed to serve. The reality is they served themselves and set up their own thoughts as if they were scripture.
25 But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, 'They hated Me without a cause.' The quote in this verse is from Psalms 35 and 69, both of which are asking for God's deliverance from adversity. Considering what Jesus was about to go through it is a doubly appropriate quotation. The meaning in this context is that since the world hates God for no reason, they will hate us for no reason as well.
The phrasing of this verse and others like it seem to imply something that they do not mean. Prophecy does not cause an event. It is merely reporting it. When an event that was prophesied happens, from the perspective of the people at the time is seems that the event is happening for the purpose of fulfilling the prophecy. From the perspective of the prophet they are merely reporting on the event like they were present when it happens. They are sharing what they saw no differently than if it was happening at that moment or if they were seeing something that would happen in the future. The point is the prophecy didn't cause the event. It merely reported it before it happened as if telling the story after the event. This appears to us to be a chicken and egg dilemma as we exist in time. From God's perspective it is all the same as He is outside time.
The sciences of physics and astrophysics prove the existence of God. Here is the CliffsNotes version: Physics shows that time, space and matter are all connected and make up the universe. The Big Bang theory shows that all three had a beginning. The Kalam cosmological argument details several inarguable points. Everything that has a beginning has a cause. And the root cause of time, space and matter cannot be part of any of them. Therefore, the beginning of the universe had to be caused by something that is timeless, spaceless, and immaterial. It also must not have a cause itself or it is not the root cause. The only possible thing that fits all of those is God.
26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, We should be careful not to read too much into this verse. There are some details that are interesting and informative. However, this is not the full detail of the workings of the trinity. And we are not capable of fully understanding that. Therefore we should not make hard and fast doctrines about things only partly revealed and even less understood.
What is said here is an assurance that the Spirit will come. Jesus will sent the Spirit. The Spirit comes from the Father. The Spirit is the Spirit of truth. The Spirit proceeds from the Father. And the Spirit will testify about Jesus. From that we can safely conclude that this reinforces the trinity in that they are three separate persons. And the Spirit comes from the Father. That the Son comes from the Father we learned from repeated teachings in earlier chapters.
What it means that the Spirit proceeds from the Father is a matter of philosophical debate. There may be a difference between proceeding from and being from the Father, or this may just be repetition with rewording for emphasis.
Another point that is not absolutely clear here is who the Spirit is testifying to. From other scriptures we know the Spirit will do this for believers, both for their own edification and so they can be witnesses to others. And the Spirit also moves in unbelievers to help them be open to the gospel. (Although they do not say the Spirit will always be successful.) It could be any or all three of these meanings.
The word for Helper here is Paracletos, which is literally one who is called to help in Greek. Many footnotes in Bibles are written by third-rate scholars who wrongly identify the etymology as being "one who comes along side to help". But that is bad Greek scholarship that sounds good but is not the real root of the word. Etymology is not informative anyway. The meaning of a word is not changed by its roots, and can mean something different at a later time. It is only the meaning at the time of its writing that matters. In this case both the real etymology and the meaning as it was written clearly and only mean one who is called to help.
The Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches split over a variety of disputes in 1054 AD. The primary reason was the Pope claimed authority over the Eastern Orthodox bishops and they rejected that view and believed that they were a brotherhood of equals. But the point of contention that was focused on was the Filioque Clause of the Nicene Creed, which doesn't appear to be the straw that broke the camel's back as the split was inevitable at that point. It is likely because this was the last argument between them when they excommunicated each other and declared the other to be heretical. This controversy was that the Western church's version of the Nicene Creed matched John 15:26 stating that the Spirit proceeds from the Father. The Eastern church's version of added that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son which does not appear in scripture. Filioque is Latin for "from the Son". In reality both sides were wrong as they were treating their own thoughts and philosophy as if they were absolutely correct on a concept that is only partly revealed and even less understood. Insisting their view was gospel, especially to the point of labeling those who disagree as heretics is beyond arrogant. In reality, both sides espoused heretical views on other subjects. But this one didn't rise to that level. They both held themselves too highly and did not subject themselves to the truth of scripture, which is ironic since that actually is the province of the Spirit.
27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning. The implication from the previous verse is that the Spirit would assist them in testifying about Jesus. And that is consistent with scriptures about the Spirit operating in the writing of scripture and in witnessing. However, what is explicitly stated is they would be able to testify about Jesus because they were eyewitnesses to Jesus' entire ministry.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.

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