The video above will remind you of your ultimate purpose as a follower of Jesus and it will tell you one thing you desperately need in order to live it out.
“Again, Jesus in John 15:26 says, “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. And you also will testify also, because you have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27 NASB).
Notice now again. The Holy Spirit will bring glory to Jesus in his work—his activity—and he will testify about Jesus. And we will testify also.
And what Jesus reveals here is something very important for the church. That there is a partnership between the Christian and the Spirit of God. There’s a shared work, there’s a common goal, between the Spirit of God and the people of God—which is to see the Son of God glorified among all the nations.
We are called to testify, and the Holy Spirit testifies, and it’s a partnership. It’s a work of the Spirit through us to testify, witness of, and glorify Jesus Christ.
And this is the substance of Christianity—to witness about and to glorify Jesus. This is what it’s all about. We make it about all sorts of other things. But it’s about Jesus and his glory.
We exist for his glory. We were created for his glory. We are called out of the world to be the church for his glory and we are sent into the world to represent him for his glory. This is the sum and the substance of Christianity—to witness about and to glorify Jesus Christ.
And we do this through, sort of, a two-pronged approach. We do this by what we say and what we do. That’s how we witness about Jesus and glorify Jesus. What we say, and what we do. Proclamation and demonstration. It’s not an either-or; it’s a both-and. We need to proclaim who Christ is and we need to demonstrate who Christ is. That’s the call upon the church.
And that’s the partnership that we have with the Holy Spirit. He reveals truth—he’s a teacher of all things—who guides into truth. And he’s the one who empowers us to be witnesses and to live according to the truth of Jesus Christ. Proclamation and demonstration.
After Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church (Acts 2), Peter preached but it was also said of him by others, “He’s been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). There was something heard, and there was something seen. He talked about Jesus, and he patterned his life after Jesus.
And what Jesus says about this proclamation and this demonstration—that we see in the book of Acts and the history of the church—is that it is impossible to do without the power or the person of the Holy Spirit because it is the job of the Holy Spirit. To try to proclaim or demonstrate, to witness for and to glorify Jesus apart from the daily filling of the Holy Spirit is useless because it is the work of the Spirit. It is not ours alone. We are called into a partnership. But it is the work of the Spirit.
In fact, Jesus forbade the church from trying to do mission or ministry without the empowering of the Spirit. You’re familiar with it in Acts chapter 1, starting in verse 4. It says, “Gathering them to him, Jesus commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ he said, ‘you heard from me; John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now…And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth’” (Acts 1:4-5, 8 NASB).
Now, don’t miss this.
These disciples, to whom Jesus is speaking, had been with him now for about three years. They had done some ministry with him, they had been commissioned by him (Matthew 28:16-20). They’d seen the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:3). Thomas had touched the wounds (John 20:27). And yet Jesus commands them not to even attempt mission, or ministry, or Christian living until they’ve got the power.
And the bummer is that so many Christians are living apart from the daily power and person of the Holy Spirit and wondering why our lives are fruitless, wondering why getting on mission and being used for the glory of God, by the grace of God, through the person of the Holy Spirit seems so foreign to us.
Christ commanded them to wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them and then he said, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8 NIV). And remember, to witness means to proclaim and to demonstrate—proclamation and demonstration.
We talked about last week that we witness for Jesus when we do relationships like Jesus.
That’s a huge part of what it means to be a witness. What is clear now is that we need the power of the Holy Spirit.”