John 15:18-27
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Illustration: Thrill Rides- Getting Stuck on a ride.
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
Rmember our context here.
Jesus is still hours away from His death.
Really from chapter 11 up until chapter 18, Jesus is preparing His disciples for what is about to take place. (Die, Resurrect, Ascend)
He has commanded them with regard to their treasuring of Jesus while he is with them. They need to cherish the time,
and spend it in worship. (Mary’s anointing of him)
He has encouraged them through his service. (washing his disciples feet). they should be following his example.
He has encouraged them with regard to their future with him. he is going to prepare a place for them. This is supposed to be comforting to them. They are to see that they have a future with Christ and that makes all the difference in the world in the present.
He has encouraged them to abide in him and to love each other in chapter 15 so far.
Now he moves beyond their relationship with each other tot their relationship with the world in which they live.
He is going to answer our questions about the world. T
What should we expect as believers and followers of Christ in this world?
What should we expect as believers and followers of Christ in this world?
Keep in mind what I just said there.
“As followers of Christ”
The first thing that is true of us as believers is that we are not of this world.
We are not of this world.
We are not of this world.
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
john
Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.
Jesus doesn’t want his disciples to be caught off guard when they are hated, but he does want them to understand why.
Why cant we just expect people to like us as believers?
Why do people hate Christians?
Why does it seems that our country is moving more and more toward looking like the rest of the world when it comes to being hated?
For the past few months, we have been looking at other countries that are experiencing persecution, and it almost seems normal across the world for Christians to be hated and persecuted.
Why is that the case?
Verse 19 gives us a few reasons.
If the world loves
Principle 1
The world has no problem accepting those who are its own.
Those associated with the world because of their worldly action, they will be treated just fine.
The recognizes its own.
It accepts its own.
it loves its own. Why wouldn’t it?
and Here’s where we have to take a step back and make the observation that if the world loves you, its probably because we are worldly.
If the world has no problem with you, its probably because you have no problem with the world.
The world loves its own. It accepts it own.
But continue on with me in verse 19.
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
But you are not of this world, but I chose you out of the world.
In other words, if Christ, in his grace, has chosen you and set his affection on you, and has given you salvation! You are no longer apart of this world!
If you are saved, it is because God chose to save you and He did this for a purpose.
Paul says it this way:
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
We have been chosen to be holy.
Holy means set apart, different than that which is common to the world.
Jesus’s disciples were chosen to be different than the world around them.
We have been chosen, to be different than the world around us.
I love the way the KJV translates 1 peter 2:9
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
A peculiar people. A people that this world will not recognize, and a people that the world certainly will not accept.
This is why he ends verse 19 the way he does.
Because of this, the world hates you.
This aspect of the Gospel and what it means to follow Christ is painfully absent in much of preaching today.
Its painfully absent in “Easy Believeism.”
Its painfully absent in the prosperity gospel.
Following Christ doesn’t necessarily mean that your life gets easier. In fact, It should mean, according to Jesus, that you will go from being loved and accepted by the world to being hated and no longer accepted by the world.
This is what Jesus is saying we should expect!
And This has to be apart of the Gospel we proclaim.
Why Should we expect this?
Why Should we expect this?
The World Hated Jesus.
The World Hated Jesus.
Look back with me in verse 18
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
Jesus here again is informing the disciples of the hatred that they will experience because of their following of Christ.
Jesus basically says to them. Don’t be surprised, They hated me too.
You say well I’m not Jesus… Why would they hate me like they hated him?
And here is where our theology of salvation is important in the every day walking out of our faith.
If you have been saved, you are in Christ.
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
1 Cor
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
The Bible says you are in Christ, of Christ, and Christ is in you. Therefore, don’t be surprised if you are hated like Christ was when you are faithful to walk in the Spirit that has been placed within you.
The first reason we should expect to be hated is that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. And we are not any greater than our master.
We shouldnt expect better than what Jesus got.
Look at verse 20
“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
Jesus reminds them of a previous statement he made in
tIf we do what Christ did, we can expect to receive what Christ received.
Our position in Christ gets us a favorable position in the sight of God, but it will most certainly be an unfavorable position in the eyes of the world, and Jesus is a prime example of this.
Perfectly pleasing to the Father and yet despised and rejected by the world.
So we follow his example to be faithful despite injustice and despite the hatred.
Why else should we expect this?
The World Hates the Father who sent Christ.
The World Hates the Father who sent Christ.
Look in verse 21
“But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
John 15:21
They hate him because they do not know Him.
This does not mean that they are ignorant that there is a God.
Everyone knows by through creation that there is a God.
Its that they choose to embrace ignorance rather than intimate knowledge of God that comes through Christ.
But hear me out here:
Embracing ignorance whenever God has extended knowledge of Christ to you is inexcusable and results in damnation.
People like this have no excuse.
Look in the next 3 verses
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. “He who hates Me hates My Father also. “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
John 15:22
Jesus’s coming and the truth hold them even more accountable now.
Jesus is not implying that these people would be perfect and sinless if he had not have come.
What he is saying is that His coming holds them doubly accountable now.
It is not that they aren’t ignorant and don’t believe.
They have rejected Christ and he has come and clearly identified himself to them.
Think about the people involved here.
1. People who have access to the Gospel.
2. People who have been closely associate with Christ and the things of God.
3. People who remain in rejection, willingly standing in rejection towards God.
The people he has in mind here are Pharisees, who were known for their hypocrisy and their hatred of Jesus.
And isn’t it interesting that the very people who hated Jesus most was the people most familiar with the Old Testament.
Adrian Rogers, “Have you ever wondered what a church full of Pharisees would be like?
1. They would all attend every service.
2. They would all tithe.
3. They would all work in the church.
4. They would all go to Hell!”
This sounds really familiar.
Here is where we have to be careful, because We live in the middle of this context.
People have access to the Gospel. They have grown up in Sunday School, VBS, youth group.
Mama went to church. Daddy went to church, but they have rejected God.
They wouldn’t say this, but their lives show no mark of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
God will hold people like that accountable.
These people are not sinning and rejecting in ignorance.
These people are sinning and rejecting with a wealth of knowledge.
And they reject Christ, because knowledge of Christ is what exposes their sin.
Essentially, these people are of the world.
They hate Jesus and virtue of who Jesus is they hate God the Father as well.
According to verse 24, they have seen the works of Christ, and they hate him for it. And they have done this without cause.
1. They would all attend every service.
“But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
John 15:25
2. They would all tithe.
And again, remember the context, this is going to happen to you as well.
3. They would all work in the church.
They hated Christ without cause. And they will hate genuine believers without cause.
4. They would all go to Hell!”
Have you wondered recently:
Why are things the way that they are?
Why does there seem like there is so much bent up hatred toward believers and Christians?
It seems that they hate without cause.
They do. They will.
The Pharisees hated Christ because His character and his own personal holiness challenged who they were.
Christ was hated because he called sin out. Now while he was calling sin out, he also pointed those to the way out of sin, but they only heard his rebuke, and they hated him for it and rejected his way of salvation.
We shouldn’t be surprised when this happens to us.
We will be hated. Without cause, but they hate cannot and will not silence the genuine believer.
What does God expect from us?
What does God expect from us?
“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 testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
The Spirit will come.
The Spirit’s job is to testify of Christ.
You know how I know that much of what is attributed to the Holy Spirit is not actually Him.
Because it has no mark of Christ.
People think that the Holy Spirit today is producing all kinds of actions that bear no mark of Christ. Please understand, we have a litmus test to truly understand if something is of the Spirit of God.
Does it speak of Christ? Does it glorify Christ?
If not, it may be of a spirit, but it is not the Holy Spirit.
The Helper that God is sending will testify about Christ.
and he will lead you to do the same thing.
So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Thats why the Spirit is given. To empower us to be His witnesses.
We, by the power of the Spirit of God, will speak and bear testimony of Christ in a world that hates us without cause.
This is what we should expect from the world.
This is why we should expect this.
And this is what God expects from us.
