Love And Hate

John 15:12-27

As we close in on the arrest, trials, crucifixion and resurrection.......we continue studying Jesus’ discourse, His farewell discourse to His disciples.

We have heard about abiding/remaining in Jesus, the only source, for true existence......abide/remain in His love!

Abiding in Jesus and His love is the theme so far.......

Verse 12........A commandment........to love one another

Loving one another is evidence that we are of Christ.......

1 John 4, John tells us to try the spirits, because there are many false prophets casting the Spirit of error.......A true prophet will confess the Son of God as coming in the flesh and John also tells us of a way to tell along with that right confession....1 John 4:11-16 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

These are sure fire ways to try the spirits....to see if someone dwells in God.

Important, love one another.....as Jesus loved them.......How does Jesus show His love?

Verse 13-15..........There is no greater love than this, that someone would offer His life so that yours would be spared........This Jesus did........We talk about patriots and there truly are some, their lives given for our earthly life to be lengthened and better, but that only takes us so far..........

Jesus laid down His life so that we might be made right before God, even when our lives were not or are not lived for God, enemies with God.

Romans 5:6-8 “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure (perhaps) for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth (demonstrates) His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The consequences of Christ’s death has far greater results than our independence being won in this country.....

I am in no wise minimizing the service of our soldiers, what I am trying to is to maximize the death of our Lord and Savior!

Romans 5:10 “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Jesus calls the disciples His friends, which is marvellous statement in the grand view of reality!

You are my friends if you do what I command. This obedience is not what makes them friends; it is what characterizes his friends.

You know His friends, because of their obedience to Him.....James 2:23 “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.”

Servant-Doulos-which means slave..........They go from simply a slave doing what his master is telling them, to a friend desiring to do the bidding of their Lord.

The change of desire, caused by the love of the Lord and Savior! 1 John 4:19 “We love him, because he first loved us.”

Jesus has shown us everything from the Father and has poured His life out for us! Hence, this is relational, we serve because of our love was produced by His love!

Verse 16........Chosen.......

The implication is that, because of their inferiority to Christ, the disciples could never have initiated a friendship between themselves and Him. Masters may initiate a friendship with their servants, but servants dare not attempt to do so with their masters. Any friendship, therefore, between Jesus and the disciples has necessarily been initiated by Him for His own purposes.

So, we might can conclude that Jesus chose us to die for and open the door to friendship with sinful humans!

In turn, we believe in this new life and bear powerful fruit to the world, that is produced by “abiding in the Source”

Remember, asking of the Father in Jesus Name........ “whatsoever you ask”

Those that are now in a relational service to Jesus Christ will have a change in affections....”In Jesus’ Name” takes on a whole new meaning to us!

It becomes the very essence of Christ’s being, the very purpose of Jesus’ life, all of those things are “In His Name or For His Name Sake.”

So, our asks are different from our “old man” asks!

Verse 17....I don’t know about you but I need help in this matter.....This is the commandment of Christ, said right before His arrest.......”Love One Another”

I like verse 16 and 17 connecting because this is the church’s commandment and it also is evidence of people abiding in Jesus!

Verse 18-19......The world (kosmos)....

World is kosmos. Kosmos is an ordered system. The opposite of kosmos in the Greek is chaos. Chaos is a disordered reality. The world is an ordered system. It is a kosmos. We talk about cosmetology. We even talk about cosmetics, which put order where there’s disorder, as you ladies all understand. So kosmos, kosmos is an ordered system.

Now, the world as an ordered system is an ordered system of evil, fallen and falling. It continues to fall. It is a system of unregenerate people controlled by Satan and demons. It is a system of lies and deception and wrong ideas, and human ingenuity, and human insight, raised up against the knowledge of God: anti-God ideas, anti-God thinking. This is the world. It is a system of satanic lies and deception, and it operates in the moral and spiritual realm.

The ordered system created by the fallen, hates the Truth of Jesus Christ.........It is clear throughout history that system hates Jesus Christ.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.”

This is the reason for the hate!!

The reason for the hate is that they are exposed by Jesus Christ, just as you see politicians demonizing people who are near the truth, because they are about to be exposed!

Jesus is encouraging these men, in this verse....when you preach the Gospel and if the world hates you for it, remember that the world hated Jesus before it hated them.

If you taught about this ordered system then the world will love you.....that could be another dead give away for false teachers.....the world loving someone’s teaching.......

I saw a video where they had a bunch of celebrities sitting in a church, Oprah being one of them, in full agreement with the preacher........that might tip you off there!

Because Jesus has chosen them (they abide in the True Vine) that is the reason for the world’s hate!

Verse 20-21.....Jesus tells them what He told them in John 13:16 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.”

If He suffers persecution, do you think you are not?

If they persecute Jesus most certainly you will be persecuted, but in turn there are some that will keep His Words and they will keep your teaching of Christ too!

What is good or bad for the Goose is good or bad for the gander!

The church is born in the 2nd chapter of Acts; in chapter 3, Peter preaches a sermon; and by chapter 4, the apostles are arrested and put in jail by the Jewish authority. In chapter 5, they’re put in jail again. In chapter 6, we start to meet some of the believers in the early church by name, and one of them is Stephen; and in chapter 7, he is stoned to death by a mob after a false trial before the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin. By chapter 8, general persecution breaks out against all believers spearheaded by a man named Saul.

By chapter 12, the first apostle is murdered. It is James, the brother of John, and he’s killed by Herod. In the same 12th chapter, Herod imprisons Peter, holding him until he would find the appropriate time to execute Peter; but Peter was set free by an angel. Persecution continued so that we know from history that all the apostles were martyred, with the exception of John who was exiled to Patmos after they tried to boil him in a vat of oil.

We come into chapter 9 and we have the conversion of Saul into Paul, and immediately upon his conversion he faces threats and persecution from the very Jews in Damascus where he was converted. Starting in chapter 9, he faces persecution, and that runs all they way to the end of the book of Acts in chapter 28. It’s all about Paul preaching the gospel, planting churches, establishing leaders, and being persecuted. His life was on the line every day, from the plotting of the Jews and the enemies of the cross among the Gentiles.

Jesus is preparing them for their difficult but rewarding devotion to Him after He leaves.

Matthew 5:10-12 “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

All this hate is about the expose on the world by the life of Jesus Christ!

Verse 22-24.......Jesus does not mean, if He hadn’t come folks would be sinless, more like His life exposed the sin to a higher degree and on top of that, by “the world” hating Him, rejecting Him (the Truth), Jesus then exposed the greatest sin.

John 3:19 “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

1 John 2:23 “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”

1 John 2:15-17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

If Jesus had not come the world wouldn’t have the revelation of God amongst them, but He did and hey hated Him.

That was never in question, Jesus was coming, Jesus is just telling them that because He came and the people hated Him, makes it more severe, they hate God too!

Verse 25......Psalm 35:19 “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.”

Psalm 69:4 “They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: Then I restored that which I took not away.”

If they hated David, a man after God’s own heart, so terribly, how much more would they the Son of God!

Verse 26-27...........Help will come, The Comforter, The Counselor, The Encourager, the Mediator......He will come and support you with the Truth, He will testify of Jesus, the truth!

Which they will bear witness of Jesus Christ and in turn be hated, but they have that testimony from their time that they had spent with Him!