24 Series Devotionals - Day 50
The Five-Fold Function of the Holy Spirit (Cont.)
1. The Holy Spirit Glorifies Jesus
“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 bear witness of Me, and you will bear witness also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” (John 15:26-27)
The Holy Spirit bears witness of the Son of God; He bears witness to what God has done. As we do today in news reports and our courts, John placed a great deal of importance on the idea of witnesses. The events he recorded, for the purpose of leading us to believe, use witnesses to verify what he says really happened. He didn’t use clever stories nor stories made up of fables, but real events people had witnessed.
Consider these examples:
- John 1:7 - John the Baptist came as a witness of Jesus.
- John 4:39 - The Samarian Woman bore witness of Jesus and many believed.
- John 5:36 - “…the works I do bear witness of me.”
- John 5:37 - “The Father who sent me bears witness of me.”
- John 5:39 - The scriptures bear witness of the Son.
- John 8:14, 18 - “The Son bears witness of Himself along with the Father."
- John 12:17 - The multitude who watched as Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb bore witness of Jesus.
John makes it clear that he is telling us actual events verified by witnesses. The human witnesses are important but not nearly as important as the Divine Witness. When we go forward to tell others about Jesus, we are witnessing what we know to be true, but it is the witness of the Spirit that reaches the depths of the heart and brings about change.
Our basic task as believers is not to do some great feat for the Lord, but to simply to witness to what God has done.
The basic task of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness of the Son.
- He never contradicts Jesus.
- He never competes with Jesus.
- He never conceals Jesus.
Perhaps we should take a few moments to be sure we are never doing any of those three.