Hatred and Comfort
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro: Frodo returning to the shire
People didn’t really like him as much as the others
The world felt hollow
He didn’t belong there anymore.
When you don’t belong, it’s very clear.
John 15:18-16:15.
Suffering is Promised.
Suffering is Promised.
18-25
We are told that the world will hate the followers of Jesus
One important thing to as in this is What does “the world” mean here?
Everyone? The systems we live in? The actual ground?
The world hates what it doesn’t own.
Jesus tells us in v. 19, we don’t belong to the world, so the world must hate you!
That means 2 things.
A Christian must belong fully to Jesus.
If the world hates Christians because they belong to Jesus instead of the world, that means we need to really belong to Him!
We can’t belong to Jesus but still love whatever the world has to offer.
If we love anything more than Jesus, then we belong to that, not to Him.
We’re not hated because we’re jerks.
Some Christians are hated in the world because they suck, not because they follow Jesus.
We need to be like Jesus, who wasn’t hated because He was mean, He was hated because He loved people and hated sin.
He attacked organized religion because it was holding people down, but He loved the woman in John 4 because she needed the love of God.
People will hate you “on account of my name,” we’re supposed to be so defined by Jesus that peole look at us and don’t get it.
A Helper is Promised.
A Helper is Promised.
26-16:11
The picture we’re given is bleak! We’re going to be hated y the world in some way, and then Jesus even says that people will think that they are helping by hating Christians.
But Jesus promises a Helper, the Holy Spirit.
We have comfort in the suffering.
Jesus promised that it’s actually better that He leaves and sends the Holy Spirit
With the Holy Spirit, we have the power to get through the suffering we experience.
The Holy Spirit convicts the world.
Remember how Jesus tells us that the world will hate u? Well then He tells us that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin. That means that God teh Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin.
That means that God the Holy Spirit wants to draw people close to Him.
So it’s not like everyone who hates Christians forever stays that way, because God calls them, just like in John 4, to have a relationship with Him.
God Reveals Himself to us.
God Reveals Himself to us.
12-15
Jesus tells us that there’s only so much He can tell us, but that it’s ok because the Holy Spirit will do the rest/
He will show us the truth (13)
What does it mean that He will “Declare it to you?”
The Holy Spirit reveals God to us.
The “Declaration” Means that he explains or reveals God to us!
God is impossible to know, but not with the Holy Spirit
Through the Bible and the work of the Holy Spirit, we can begin to know God.
Why does this matter?
If you aren’t a Christian.
God wants to be known by you
He loves you, and promises to help in times of doubt and difficulty
If you are a Christian
Do we really belong with Jesus, or do we look like the world?
Are we trusting in God in our suffering, or running away?
Questions
Would you rather never be able to taste sweet or salty?
Read vs. 22. How can they not be “guilty of sin” if Jesus didn’t sin?
What is the difference between being owned by the world and being owned by Jesus?
How is the Holy Spirit a “Helper” when we’re in trouble?