27 And you, in addition, will give witness because you have been with me from the first.
And we have seen and give witness that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
That which was from the first, which has come to our ears, and which we have seen with our eyes, looking on it and touching it with our hands, about the Word of life (And the life was made clear to us, and we have seen it and are witnessing to it and giving you word of that eternal life which was with the Father and was seen by us);
And the night after, the Lord came to his side and said, Be of good heart, for as you have been witnessing for me in Jerusalem, so will you be my witness in Rome.
And we are witnesses of all the things which he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem; whom they put to death, hanging him on a tree. On the third day God gave him back to life, and let him be seen, Not by all the people, but by witnesses marked out before by God, even by us, who took food and drink with him after he came back from the dead. And he gave us orders to give news of this to the people, and to give public witness that this is he whom God has made judge of the living and the dead.
For it is not possible for us to keep from saying what we have seen and have knowledge of.
For this reason, of the men who have been with us all the time, while the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Starting from the baptism of John till he went up from us, one will have to be a witness with us of his coming back from death.
As they were handed down to us by those who saw them from the first and were preachers of the word, It seemed good to me, having made observation, with great care, of the direction of events in their order, to put the facts in writing for you, most noble Theophilus;
I who am myself one of the rulers of the church, and a witness of the death of Christ, having my part in the coming glory, send this serious request to the chief men among you:
I, John, your brother, who have a part with you in the trouble and the kingdom and the quiet strength of Jesus, was in the island which is named Patmos, for the word of God and the witness of Jesus.
For when we gave you news of the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, our teaching was not based on stories put together by art, but we were eye-witnesses of his glory. For God the Father gave him honour and glory, when such a voice came to him out of the great glory, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And this voice came from heaven even to our ears, when we were with him on the holy mountain.
I have sent you this short letter by Silvanus, a true brother, in my opinion; comforting you and witnessing that this is the true grace of God; keep to it.
And for a number of days he was seen by those who came with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses before the people.
And with great power the Apostles gave witness of the coming back of the Lord Jesus from the dead; and grace was on them all.
But you will have power, when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
And he who saw it has given witness (and his witness is true; he is certain that what he says is true) so that you may have belief.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on John 15
Commentary on John 15 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 15
It is generally agreed that Christ's discourse in this and the next chapter was at the close of the last supper, the night in which he was betrayed, and it is a continued discourse, not interrupted as that in the foregoing chapter was; and what he chooses to discourse of is very pertinent to the present sad occasion of a farewell sermon. Now that he was about to leave them,
Jhn 15:1-8
Here Christ discourses concerning the fruit, the fruits of the Spirit, which his disciples were to bring forth, under the similitude of a vine. Observe here,
Jhn 15:9-17
Christ, who is love itself, is here discoursing concerning love, a fourfold love.
To induce them to keep his commandments, he urges,
Jhn 15:18-25
Here Christ discourses concerning hatred, which is the character and genius of the devil's kingdom, as love is of the kingdom of Christ. Observe here,
Jhn 15:26-27
Christ having spoken of the great opposition which his gospel was likely to meet with in the world, and the hardships that would be put upon the preachers of it, lest any should fear that they and it would be run down by that violent torrent, he here intimates to all those that were well-wishers to his cause and interest what effectual provision was made for supporting it, both by the principal testimony of the Spirit (v. 26), and the subordinate testimony of the apostles (v. 27), and testimonies are the proper supports of truth.