John 15:26, 27
Testify!
1.      Testify, Holy Spirit!
2.      Testify, Believers!
Pentecost
May 30, 2004
 
When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth 
who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you 
have been with me from the beginning.
 
	What do you think of when you think of the Holy Spirit? A shadowy figure, 
somewhat devoid of shape and personality when compared with God the Father and God 
the Son? What do you think of when you think of the work of the Holy Spirit? A TV 
preacher shouting “Demons be gone!” and pushing someone back so violently that if the 
demons have been driven out, they have almost surely been replaced with back pain? Or 
maybe your idea of the Holy Spirit’s work is taken from Pentecost—fire, a rushing wind, 
speaking in tongues. Either way, the Holy Spirit’s work appears to be the sort of 
impressive-looking and impressive-sounding stuff that happens to other people. Even in 
our text, we hear Jesus promising to send his Holy Spirit to “other people”—in this case, 
his disciples. And sure enough, the cool, impressive, powerful stuff happened shortly 
thereafter on Pentecost and every time the disciples healed someone.
	But in fact the Holy Spirit’s work is considerably less impressive to the eyes and 
ears than that. Look at our text again. Jesus does not say, “When the Force comes, whom 
I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of miracles who goes out from the Father, he 
will do some really cool tricks.” No, Jesus instead says, “When the Counselor comes [If 
you had a guidance counselor in high school, you know that there’s nothing too 
impressive about counselors, is there? I mean, they may be nice people, but finally their 
job is basically to give advice], whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of 
truth [truth is nice, but it doesn’t attract and impress the viewing audience the way a 
healing does], he will testify about me.” And that’s the work of the Holy Spirit—to 
testify about the truth. 
	Now people might argue that the truth about God isn’t exactly a secret. That is, 
it’s not exactly the sort of thing we need the Holy Spirit to testify to us about. People will 
say that they learn about God simply from walking in nature. And I can’t argue with 
them. In fact, I would agree with them. Snorkeling among the kaleidoscope of colors that 
make up the fish in the Red Sea, one learns of the beauty and wisdom of God. Sitting in 
the Swiss Alps, sitting as a speck in the enormity of God’s creation, one may certainly 
learn of and ponder the even greater enormity of God. Watching some of these recent 
rainstorms has reminded me of the awesome power of God. Surely the psalmwriter was 
correct when he spoke of the way in which nature testifies concerning God. He says, 
“The heavens declare the glory of God…Day after day they pour forth speech; night after 
night they display knowledge…Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the 
ends of the world” (Psalm 19). The earth testifies loud and clear about God’s beauty, 
God’s wisdom, God’s enormity, and God’s power. And its testimony is the truth.
	But it’s not the whole truth. For more of the truth, we listen to the testimony of 
our conscience—or, as people often refer to it, “that little voice inside of us.” Our 
conscience testifies about God, and it testifies pretty clearly and pretty truthfully. It tells 
us that God has demands about how we are to live our life, that he has set standards for 
our actions, and that if we don’t measure up to those standards, we will incur his just 
wrath—wrath that, when we consider his enormity and power as testified to by nature, is 
pretty intimidating. People sometimes try to silence this testimony, try to drown it out 
with excuses, exceptions to the rules, and so on, but the testimony of our conscience 
speaks too loudly to be easily silenced. And the testimony of our conscience is the truth.
	There’s no doubt about it. We don’t really need the Holy Spirit of truth to testify 
to us concerning the truth of God’s wisdom, enormity, power, justice, or wrath.
	But that’s not the whole truth. At least we’d better hope it isn’t. If it is, we’re 
doomed to live our lives in fear of God, hoping somehow that the testimony of nature and 
our conscience is not the truth—even as we know very well that it is the truth—hoping 
somehow that God’s justice and holiness and our sinfulness aren’t going to combine to 
result in God’s wrath—even as we know very well that that is the inescapable conclusion. 
We had better hope that there is some more truth, that there is another witness besides 
nature and our conscience, that someone or something else can testify and bring us more 
truth, a truth that can comfort us in the face of the truth we have already heard.
	We need the Holy Spirit to testify about Jesus. Stare at nature all you want, and 
listen to your conscience all you want, but in the end while they will certainly testify to 
the truth, they will never testify about Jesus. They’ll never testify about God sending his 
Son Jesus to this earth to meet God’s holy demands, to obey God’s holy laws in your 
place, and then to suffer God’s holy wrath by dying on a cross in your place.
	Who would come up with that sort of truth unless the Holy Spirit had testified to 
it through the Word of God? No one. In fact, even when it’s in the Word of God, no one 
would believe it without the Holy Spirit working that belief, working that faith in him. 
The Bible says that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” 
(1 Corinthians 1:18) and that “Christ crucified” is “a stumbling block…and foolishness” 
(1 Corinthians 1:23). 
	Because of this, because of man’s stubborn desire to win his own salvation, to 
enter heaven on his own merits, because of man’s reluctance to believe that a God who is 
this holy could also be this loving towards unholy sinners, the Holy Spirit has done more 
than testify the truth to you. He has convinced you of, he has brought you to faith in that 
truth. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. It was the work of the Holy Spirit on the first 
Pentecost. The rushing wind, the tongues of fire, the ability to speak different languages? 
We’ll give the Holy Spirit credit for all of them—but they weren’t in and of themselves 
the main work of the Holy Spirit. They did not in and of themselves testify about Jesus. 
And therefore they were not the most impressive thing the Holy Spirit did on Pentecost.
	The most impressive thing he did on Pentecost is seen in leading 3000 souls to 
repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. 
	Don’t let anyone make you doubt that the Holy Spirit has worked powerfully and 
impressively in you—more powerfully and more impressively than any act of physical 
healing or any tongue-speaking—for the Holy Spirit has healed your soul and caused 
your tongue to confess that Jesus is your Lord and Savior.
	There is still more proof that the Holy Spirit has come to us and is working in us, 
and that proof is found not only in our confession but in our lives. How so? After all, 
none of us speak in tongues, none of us have performed any healings, none of us have 
had any amazing visions in which the Holy Spirit has instructed us to build a $10 million 
church just as soon as we can get people to send in enough donations. None of us have 
the outward proofs of the Spirit’s presence.
	Perhaps not—but we do have the “fruits of the Spirit.” Paul describes the fruits of 
the Spirit—and of course you can’t produce the fruits of the Spirit unless you first have 
the Spirit—as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness 
and self-control” (Galatians 5:22,23). Every time those things show themselves in our 
lives, they do so because the Spirit has testified in us and is living in us. Yes, we may 
pray “Come, Holy Spirit, come”—but the fact is that he’s already here! 
	Are these fruits of the Spirit stunning-looking or extraordinary things? 
Considering that they are coming out of hearts that were formerly dead in sin, formerly 
unable to produce any fruits other than “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, 
dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21)—
considering that those hearts are now producing love, joy, peace, and so on—yeah, I’d 
say that the Spirit has done some stunning and extraordinary work.
	Oh, the way in which the Holy Spirit does his work, the way in which he testifies 
isn’t much to look at. There’s nothing stunning-looking about a guy in a black robe doing 
a mediocre job of public speaking. There’s nothing extraordinary-sounding about a parent 
groping a bit for the right words to teach their child about Jesus. But what it truly is is the 
power of the Holy Spirit at work. What it truly is is the powerful testimony of the Holy 
Spirit about the one who gives us hope, heaven, and eternal life.
	Thank God that the Holy Spirit has come to you in such an “ordinary” way, 
testified to you in such a powerful way, and worked faith in you. 
	And may you now also testify about Jesus. Jesus says to his disciples in our text, 
“And you also must testify.” Is this a command? I suppose it is. Testifying about Jesus is 
not something we have the option of declining without incurring God’s wrath.
	But there is another way to understand “You also must testify”—and that’s that 
we “must” testify in the sense that we are unable to keep ourselves from doing so.	Think 
of the disciples in the Book of Acts saying—even though they were facing imprisonment 
or even worse, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 
4:20). Even in the face of death, they couldn’t help but speak about Jesus because the 
news about Jesus, the news about his forgiveness was so good that they couldn’t help but 
testify concerning it. Jesus has taken away the sins of the world. Is this something that 
you can really keep to yourself, or is it instead something to which you cannot help but 
testify?
	And do consider what it means to testify. It means to open your mouth. Someone 
who is called to testify in court may not merely sit there silently and impress the socks off 
the jurors by their demeanor, their way of carrying themselves, and so on. No, they need 
to speak the truth. 
	I mention this because I think we can fall into feeling as though our testimony is 
the life we lead. The fact that we don’t swear, get drunk, cheat on our spouse, the fact that 
we mow our neighbor’s lawn when they’re sick, the fact that we greet them with a cheery 
wave whenever we see them—those things are our testimony. 
	They really aren’t. Or they’re at the very least terrifically incomplete. Oh, I know 
that you’ve maybe heard people say, “The way you live your life may be the only sermon 
your neighbor may ever hear.” It had better not be! Because unless you have figured out 
some way to silently and wordlessly communicate the sacrificial death of Jesus as an 
atonement for sin, that sermon is going to fall short—and so as a result is your neighbor.
	Testifying about Jesus does not mean merely attempting to imitate his life, but 
also to speak about his life, about his suffering, about his payment for our sins, about his 
defeat of death by his resurrection. As Paul wrote in Romans, “How, then, can they call 
on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they 
have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 
10:14) Yes, to testify concerning Jesus means to speak concerning him.
	What does this mean for you? I don’t know—but I can tell you what it means for 
me. When I realize that Jesus has called me not merely to live like him but also to testify 
about him, I realize that I need to stop just being friendly to my neighbors and that I need 
to start testifying to my neighbors. I need to stop pretending that just because Jeff is a 
pretty good guy he will somehow be accepted into heaven even without faith in Jesus. I 
need to stop fooling myself into believing that because I live a pretty good life in the 
presence of Kelly, she will somehow come to believe in Jesus as her Savior from sin. It 
means that the next time Jeff asks me, “How are things going at the church?” I need to 
give him an answer other than “Pretty good. Busy, but good.” I need to tell him that 
they’re going really great because each Sunday there are 110 people there to rejoice in 
the forgiveness of their sins. I need to tell him that he should stop by some Sunday and 
see for himself. I need to ask him how things are going at his church and see if his answer 
gives me an opportunity to testify about Jesus. 
	To whom must you testify, to whom must you speak? Pray that God would give 
you the strength and the wisdom not only to answer that question, but to act upon the 
answer to that question.
	But who’s going to listen to you? Maybe you feel like Moses when God called 
him to testify, called him to speak. Maybe you feel that you truly don’t know how to 
speak, don’t know how to preach a sermon, don’t know how to persuade, don’t know 
how to get someone to believe.
	Hold on there.
	Don’t try to do the Holy Spirit’s job for him. Your job is to testify, to simply 
speak. Look at Peter’s sermon on Pentecost—it certainly proclaims the truth, but I don’t 
know that there is anything particularly eloquent about it. And yet the Holy Spirit took 
that sermon and used it to work faith in the hearts of 3000 people who heard it.
	Testifying to the truth works. You’re proof of it. Some probably not particularly 
eloquent soul testified to you concerning your Savior, and the Holy Spirit took the truth 
that they spoke and used it to work faith in you. 
	Testifying to the truth works. I’m proof of it. Each Sunday I testify to you about 
Jesus, and each Sunday the Holy Spirit uses it to nourish and strengthen your faith. I’m 
not surprised by it. In fact, I expect it—not because of the brilliance of my testifying but 
because of the brilliance—and the truth—of the material I have, because of the brilliance 
and the truth of the Word of God that I use, and because of the Spirit who is there as I 
speak it.
	So keep testifying, brothers and sisters. You have God’s Word, so therefore you 
have the truth. And you have the Holy Spirit. Amen.