Abide (Part 2)
Notes
Transcript
Call to Worship: John 15:27 “27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
Kids Takeaway: “Remember Jesus”
Pastoral Prayer: God, throughout each season of life, we are yours. Would you teach us ever more clearly what it means to follow you. We know that this world of darkness has rejected you. So too, we know that the world who rejected you will also reject your disciples.
Introduction
What does the word “persecution” mean to you? What thoughts does it ellicit? Do think of oppressed people groups throughout history? Is there something in your life that comes to mind as an experience where you were treated poorly because of your faith? As this word, persecution”, relates to our faith, what does our faith cost us? Are we in danger of prison and death for being a Christian? This is not usually the case within the U.S. today.
Story of Perpetua (Early Christian Martyr Stories, Litfin, pp. 92-94)
22 yrs old, from a wealthy family in Carthage, North Africa. Her father was a pagan aristocrat and we have a record of Perpetua’s road of persecution alongside her pregnant slave Felicity in 203 AD.
She was placed under house arrest for her Christianity. During that time her pagan father sought to dissuade her from holding on to her faith. Perpetua simply pointed to a pitcher and said this is a pitcher can you call it something other than it is? This this he replied, “No.” Perpetua said, “Its the same with me. I can’t be called anything other than what I am: A Christian.”
Later she was thrown into the dungeons and her father further pleaded with her to turn away. She replied, “Everything that happenns at my trial will be God’s will…Rest assured that we are upheld not by our own strength in that moment but God’s.”
Perpetua, her slave Felicity, and the other imprisoned Christians sentenced to death because they would not offer a sacrifice to a pagan deity. They were specially saved for death on the august occassion of the gladiator games for Caesar Geta’s birthday.
Their faithfulness was such that during this time that the head jailer even became a believer. On the day before the games many came to gawk at them while they celebrated the Lord’s Supper and some were thus astonished that they became believers.
When the day came, it is said that Perpetua’s expression was of such an intensity that onlookers could not hold her gaze. The same 30,000 people had come with morbid curiousity and bloodlust to revel in the murder of these people. How ironic that they could watch that but not the eyes of this woman of God.
Perpetua, Felicity, and each of their companions were killed solely because they would not renounce their faith. They followed in the footsteps of Christ and shared in his sufferings (2 Cor 1:5, 4:10; Phil 3:10; Col 1:24; 1 Peter 4:13).
Let us remember that just as Perpetua was accompanied by a band of other believers so too are we seeking to follow Jesus together. When you face hardship for the sake of your faith remember that just as the world rejects you, so does it do so to your brothers and sisters in Christ. You are not alone.
While not all of us will be called to martyrdom and in our current moment in the US this seems like a distant reality it does happen often to brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world. So also, even if we are not called to be martyrs for Christ, we are called to be a light in this world of darkness come what may.
Imagine with me that you are university student who has placed your faith in Jesus. Your friends come to your home hearing about your faith and they are anything other than excited for you. They demand that you recant within the next 24hrs or you will be executed. During this time you are given one phone call. Who do you call? You call your pastor who assures you this is your decision to make, prays with you, and reminds you that there is an eternal hope for all followers of Jesus. You decide to share the Gospel with your friends. Your former friends, now your captors, keep good on their promise and kill you because of your faith in Jesus.
Throughout history and the world there is a high price to being a follower of Jesus. Is Jesus surprised by the world’s response? Is he taken off guard or is this precisely what he has called his followers to for millenia?
Transition: We will now look to the words of Jesus as he illuminates how the world responds to the mission he has bestowed upon his disciples, and how his disciples are to respond.
Passage
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.
Context
Last week we encountered the imagery that Christ is the true vine and we are the branches. His father is the vinedresser cutting off dead branches and pruning all that bear fruit. We are to abide in Christ’s love, obeying his commands just as he obeys the Father and abides in his love. And what is Christ commandment? That we love one another because of his great love for us shown in his crucifixion.
Now we are encountering the world’s response to this commissioned community
“But the world does not easily accept such a community or its theses commitments. Therefore in the next section the world’s reaction is discussed.” (NAC, Borchert, p. 152)
The point in this passage seems to be: when the world persecutes, persevere.
Transition: Beginning in v. 18-27 we will see the world’s overarching response is negative and the cause for this negative response to Christians.
vv. 15:18-27 (Cause of persecution)
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
v. 18
If the world hates you, (and the assumption is that it will)
the intent is to prepare his disciples so they are not taking off guard when perseuction occurs (1 Jn 3:13)
the world has not always hated Christians. There are moments in history in particular places when it has been advantageous to ascribe to Christianity regardless of genuine faith
Constantine’s rule
Protestants in US, etc.
Although for these times and places there are as many or more where it has lead to a martyrs death
North Korean Christians
there are 2 reasons for this hatred
1) Because the world first hated Jesus
Not only was Jesus rejected by the world writ large, he was specifically rejected by his own people who had been waiting for him (John 1:10–11 “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”)
“When the church is facing persecution, it is especially important for prospective converts to have some idea what conversion will let them in for.” [1]
v. 19
second, these disciples belong to another world and are not of this one
this other world is described as being from above where Jesus descends from (Jn 3:31, 8:23, 18:36-37)
Short excursus on “world” / kosmos in John
although some John’s use as sometimes ranging from positive, neutral, to negative, it appears more likely that there is a decidely negative overtone to its use. We see the world’s rejection of Jesus spoken of seeing as he is the light of the world and the world rejected him thus showing they are in and of the darkness.
1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”
“closer inspection shows that although a handful of passages preserve a neutral emphasis the vast majority are decidedly negative.”[2] Carson
Although we were once of the world we, being saints of God, have been chosen out of it (Jn 15:16)
There is hope for those who are in the world, but it requires the grace of God and responding to it. There is salvation in no other name under heaven by which men must be saved.(Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”” )
“Former rebels who have by the grace of the king been won back to loving allegiance to their rightful monarch are not likely to prove popular with those who persist in rebellion. Christians cannot think of themselves as intrinsically superior. They are ever conscious that by nature they are, with all others, ‘objects of wrath’ (Eph. 2:3). But having been chosen out of the world, having been drawn by the Messiah’s love into the group referred to as the Messiah’s ‘own’ who are still in the world (13:1), their newly found alien status makes them pariahs in that world, the world of rebels.”[1] Carson
v. 20
Jesus says, if they persecuted me (and many did)
they will persecute you
if they obeyed me ( and some did)
then they will obey you
evidenced by the fact that John has an audience to write to in the first place
If we take Jesus’s point here as a bit sardonic and defeated it feels depressing that the world is without hope. But the point is not to make a statement of utter impossibility towards conversion considering the disicples he is speaking to those who have been chosen out of it (Jn 15:19). All who believe in Christ are chosen out of the world and are children of God above.
rather Jesus is saying do not expect to be treated any differently by the world. What it did to me it will do to you. We are not greater than Jesus. We will not have greater success than he. We are his disciples not his snobbish progressives who can hope to be greater than their master. We the sheep are not greater than our Good Shepherd.
v. 21
BUT let us be clear, do not expect the natural response will be positive
And this is precisely because we follow Jesus
Persecution is not being hated and a Christian. Rather, it is being hated because you are a Christian.
If it is genuine persecution, the world will hate Christians for the same reason(s) it hated Jesus
and they do not submit to Jesus because they do not know God the Father
there is no other means to God the Father than but by Jesus Christ (John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”)
In 16:2 we will find out the extent people will go to persecuting followers of Jesus believing they are doing so in God’s name.
v. 22-24 Rejection of Jesus = Rejection of God
V. 22 hearing Jesus’s words and rejecting him is the deepest and most profound rejection. Jesus is not here saying there was no sin before his incarnation but that their rejection is most profound because he was revealed to them, they heard him, then they rejected in rebellion preferring the darkness of the world to the one who is the light of the world
v. 23 God the son is the full and perfect image of God the Father to such an extent that whatever one thinks or feels about Jesus they also think and feel about the Father whom Jesus reveals.
v. 24 Further, seeing the work that Jesus has done and still rejecting him is the most evil of sins.
a reiteration of v. 23, to hate Jesus is to hate God the Father and to hate God the Father is to hate Jesus.
“Rejection of Jesus’ words (v. 22) and works (v. 24) is thus the rejection of the clearest light, the fullest revelation; and therefore it incurs the most central, deep-stained guilt...This revelation simultaneously exposes sin and provides its remedy (a theme further developed in 16:8–11); the world that rejects it hates the exposure (3:19–21) and thus denies any need for a remedy.”[3] Carson
v. 25 (cf. Ps 69:9, maybe Ps 35:19)
their law” is not Jesus disassociating himself from the law of God but highlighting that while they revel in the glory of the law being “theirs” they still stand condemned by it
they pride themselves in the law but the one whom all the law and prophets was pointing to is before them and they reject him
this is pointing to the height of Jesus’s followers being cast out of their assembly (Jn 16:2)
even in their rejection of God, they still fulfill his word of which Jesus is the full embodiment as he is the Word incarnate
v. 26-27 the role of the paraclete
V. 26 the Holy Spirit will come when Jesus ascends to the Father
The spirit with and through the disciples makes known who the Jesus is and the content of his Gospel
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate and bring clarity to the Gospel that his disicples might communicate it with conviction and clarity
Whether we think of the Spirit’s help in the crisis of acute persecution (Mk. 13:11) or in the context of sustained, faithful witness (Acts 5:32), the community’s witness is to be empowered by the Paraclete himself.[5] Carson
The witness of the Spirit, conjoined with that of the disciples, is to bring to light the truth of the revelation of Jesus in his word and deed, and death and resurrection; it takes place with and through the witness of the disciples to Jesus in the Gospel. [6] Murray
v. 27
the beginning as Carson sees it refers to the first disciples in a historic sense of what has come before and does not even necessarily apply to the 1st Century readers.
Murray sees beginning as potentionally referring to Christ as the beginning (1 Jn 1:1, 2:13) and the beginning being one’s conversion ( 1 Jn 2:24, 3:11)
Yet, the truth still bears necessity, we must bear witness to Christ
Transition: As we have looked a the cause of persecution we will now shift to Jesus’s instruction of how disciples are to respond.
vv. 16:1-4a (Response to Persecution)
1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.
V. 1
“The greatest danger…is not death but apostasy” (PNTC, Carson, p.530)
The point is not to discourage or dismay his followers but for the express purpose that they do not fall away.
Jesus is intent on aiding and preparing you for what it means to abide in him.
There are certain things we can expect when we follow jesus and we need to count the costs of following him so that we are clear eyed about the realities of being his disciple.
If you are tempted to give up your faith you are not alone. We gather in the presence of God individually, familially, and corporately of the body of Christ for the express purpose of reorienting ourselves to the truth of who we are in christ. We need each other, to be the heart, hands, and feet of christ that we may support each other and bear one another’s burdens. You are not alone in your struggle whether it is external from the world for following Christ as described here or something else entirely.
I believe Jesus’s words in v. 1 are not a threat or cold hearted demand but the words of our loving savior who does not want to be without us,choosing us out of the world of darkness and sin transferring us to the kingdom of the beloved son.
v. 2
“put out of the synagogue” likely refers to the birkath ha-minim
“It has become almost a critical sententia recepta that the statement, “they will put you out of the synagogue,” reflects the birkath ha-minim, the twelfth of the Eighteen Benedictions of the Jews, which is believed to have been formulated toward the end of the first century of our era in order to exclude Jewish Christians from the Synagogue. (The benediction reads: “For the apostates let there be no hope, and let the arrogant government [= Rome] be speedily uprooted in our days. Let the Nazarenes and the Minim [= heretics] be destroyed in a moment and let them be blotted out of the Book of Life and not be inscribed with the righteous. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who humblest the arrogant.”[7]
to be cast out from the synagogue is not merely to find a new synagogue that is more accepting, rather it is the center of Jewish community life and to be cast out is to be cut off from community, from worship, seemingly from the very people of God, and would have been an utterly devestating consequence of following Jesus for Jewish Christians. What was meant to be the fulfillment of God’s law is perceived by the unbelieving as heresy and a rejection of the very same law
there are real life consequences to following God communally, culturally, familially, etc. depending on situation and location
It is not far off that there will be Jewish people who actively seek to murder Christians thinking they are glorifying God in doing so
What Jesus came to accomplish in his flesh to bring redemption, he also set his disciples on this course of persecution with his betrayal, torture, crucifixion, death, and resurrection.
religous zealots have been some of the most henious persecutors of Christians throughout history which has been done in the name of Allah, Marx, and Jesus.
(2) On the other hand, such religious motives do not ameliorate the problem, but make it worse. Whether in the first century or in the twentieth, Christians have often discovered that the most dangerous oppression comes not from careless pagans but from zealous adherents to religious faith, and from other ideologues. A sermon was preached when Cranmer was burned at the stake. Christians have faced severe persecution performed in the name of Yahweh, in the name of Allah, in the name of Marx—and in the name of Jesus.[8]
v. 3
Here is one last implication that those who do not know God, reject Jesus, and thereby his disciples. To reject one is to reject the others.
To know jesus is to know eternal life and to rebel against God is to have hostility towards those who do (PNTC)
v. 4
the point of Jesus saying these things is to prepare a resilience in his disciples that they will remain and abide in him
not only this, that in his sovereign will there might be a strengthening in them that comes from utter dependence and God when the world turns its fangs against God’s people
while the persecutors of Jesus’s disciples seem to be defeating God’s people they are instead working out their own defeat just as those who crucified Jesus ensured that the curse of sin might be broken. As we persevere in the midst of persecution.
Transition: Now, let us consider some options for how we might put these truths into practice this week.
Application
Jesus is not surprised by the world’s hatred towards his disciples neither should you be.
Do not fall away. (16:1) In other words, abide.
Bear witness as the Holy Spirit gives ability and works through you.
Do not take the knowledge of hardship as a means to be a combative Christian stirring up strife and chaos. Let the truth of God’s word be offensive to nonbelievers not our actions and words.
Conclusion
Recap
All weather tires
If you feel rejected by the world, take heart, Jesus has overcome the world.
John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.””
Pray
Benediction
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
[1]D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 530.
[2] Ibid. 525.
[3] Ibid. 122.
[4] Ibid. 526.
[5] Ibid. 530.
[6] George R. Beasley-Murray, John, vol. 36, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1999), 277.
[7] Ibid. 277.
[8] Ibid. 531.