Our Fiery Ordeal

if God’s people would once again
take their Bibles and turn, not as expected to John chapter 15, where I promise I will get you
by the end of the day, but I want you to turn back to John 14. And I wanna do so by design.
There’s a reason that I have you turn all the way back there.
This is ground that we’ve obviously covered. But I want you to have a full
sense of the very stark change of direction that Jesus initiates
in verse 18 of chapter 15. You remember the situation. We
have been in this passage for many weeks prior to this. Jesus is answering a series of
questions here in John 14, basically brought on by the fact
that the disciples were quite rattled. Remember, Jesus had
initiated that celebration of the foot washing in the upper
room. And we talked there that Jesus wasn’t so much starting
an actual rite, R-I-T-E, that was supposed to be perpetuated
throughout the Christian church, but what he was doing was showing
them by way of the most menial task. He was reminding them of
their need to serve one another. And so Jesus went around disciple
by disciple and washed their smelly feet. And then even included
in that group of people was a man named Judas. who is even at that
moment already in the act of betraying our Lord. Judas, you
remember, departs and that causes great concern as Jesus suggests
and points out that there is going to be a departure, that
one is going to betray Him. It wasn’t obvious that Judas
was the man. It wasn’t obvious that as the
11 apostles sat They didn’t all turn in Judas’ direction. They
didn’t suspect him. In fact, some even suspected
their own hearts. Judas departs. And as he departs,
Jesus unfolds this new idea that he was going to be betrayed,
that he was going to be arrested, ultimately crucified. And he’s going to depart. He’s
leaving. And that brings nothing but consternation
into the hearts of these followers. And so they begin in John 14
with a series of questions. Peter, always the first one to
speak. Peter is the same one to speak
in this occasion. And he wants to know, where are
you going? Where are you going to go that
we can’t follow you? Jesus responds in verse 1, Do
not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also
in Me. And He tells them that He’s going
to go and prepare a place and that when He goes, He will come
back for them. He’s so gracious in His reply. His goal is to calm, not to stir
them. His goal is to assure them not
to cause them more concern. Nevertheless, Thomas, we call
him rightly doubting Thomas, Thomas has a question of his
own. Jesus has suggested that he’s going and that the apostles
know the way. Thomas immediately asks, how
do we know the way? We don’t even know where you’re
going. How do we know the way? And Jesus is so gracious. Jesus
says, I am the way, verse 6. I am the way and the truth and
the life. No one comes to the Father but
through me.” Jesus so patiently takes Thomas along with the rest
of the apostles to this very simple point that knowledge of Him, knowledge
of Christ is the way and there is no other way. That prompts
Philip. a very rare occasion for Philip
to speak at all, but it prompts even Philip to speak up about
who is the Father. Well, this is a concern. And Jesus treats it as such,
though graciously, very straightforwardly. Have I been so long with you,
Philip, verse 9, and yet you have not come to know Me? And
He goes on to teach about how if you have seen Christ, If you’ve
walked with me, if you know me, you know the Father. I am, Jesus
says, the revelation of the Father. If you have seen me, you have
seen the Father. Jesus goes on to issue a series
of promises. He’s so gracious. Here in the
midst of this great concern, He wants them to hear His promises. Look at verse 12. It’s the promise
of greater works. They’re told that they are going
to do and accomplish even greater things than Jesus accomplished.
They’re going to have a greater impact in the preaching of the
gospel. They may not do more astounding miracles than Jesus
did, but they’re going to have a greater impact in the preaching
of the Word than even Jesus did. This is Jesus acknowledging this. They’re going to have also the
promise of the Spirit. They, by Christ’s own promise
here, are going to enjoy the intimate fellowship with the
Spirit because He’s going to dwell in them. Look at verse
15. If you love Me, you will keep
My commandments. I will ask the Father. He will give you another
Helper that He may be with you forever. That is the spirit of
truth. The Holy Spirit, Jesus says,
is going to come and dwell in you. You are going to be comforted
and led and taught. And then commensurate with that
and really growing out of that, there’s a third promise that
Jesus assures them, the promise of communion with God. Look at
verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.
At verse 19, you will see me. At the end of verse 19, you will
live. In verse 20, he says, you will know that I am in my father. And at the very end of that verse,
he who loves me will be loved by my father. There will be this
intimate communion with God himself. Well, we know that. We know these
promises as believers, do we not? greater works, the privilege
of proclaiming Christ and seeing lives changed by God because
of the gospel. We know the resident of the Holy
Spirit. Whenever we’re convicted, I encourage
people, that is a sign of life. Whenever we see change in our
life, that’s a sign of life. That’s a sign of God at work
in our life. It’s the sign of God doing the
work of sanctification. And then the promise of communion
with God, the very fact that we now, we who were sinners now
saved by God’s grace have the privilege any time we want to
go into God’s presence, to go before the throne of grace and
to bring our prayers and our thanksgiving there at any time,
any time. It’s communion with God. The
questions aren’t finished. that Jesus is so gracious. Jesus
takes even a question from another man named Judas. What happened? I don’t understand what just
happened. This whole program seems to have changed that you’re
not going to disclose yourself to the world as if Jesus was
going to keep all this information hidden. Well, Jesus goes on to
answer so graciously even his question. And then if we would,
we come into chapter 15. And we’ve seen it, but I’m going
to review it. We come into chapter 15 where
almost immediately Jesus, seeking to settle them, brings them into
this image. It’s an incredible image of a
beautiful orchard. The orchard is owned by the wealthiest
man in the kingdom. It’s owned by the king himself.
It’s God’s orchard. There couldn’t be a finer orchard. There couldn’t be a finer product
in all the land. And Jesus begins by saying that
I am the choice vine. I am the true vine. And this
meticulous grower that attends to this vine is none other than
the Father himself, verse 1. And then In looking, we see that
there are barren branches ultimately that are pruned away and there
are prolific branches, branches that are producing incredible
measures of this perfect fruit. And even those branches are pruned.
The meticulous grower comes along and prunes them so that they
can maximize their produce. And then we see the As we continue
to watch peering over the wall, we see this vineyard functioning. We see fruit bearing branches
pruned and bearing more fruit. We see branches that were unfruitful,
damaged, diseased, dead. We see them trimmed off. And
even though that is a sobering reality, the general picture
is one that is so glorious. It’s this beautiful, productive
vineyard. It’s flourishing. And Jesus reminds
seemingly even the apostles what he’s even talking about in verse
7. If you abide in me, if you abide
in me and my words abide in me, ask whatever you wish and it
will be done for you because God is going to be glorified
in this vineyard. God is going to bring through
you an abundant produce. Jesus is still still seeking
to encourage His disciples just like He started in John 13, just
like He carried forth in John 14, just like He did in this
opening illustration of this incredible vineyard in John chapter
15. Then Jesus turns the corner here
in verse 9, essentially giving to us, as
we saw last Lord’s Day, these foundational principles modeled
by Christ that He goes on to tell us are expected of us. There
were three. First of all, Jesus Christ has
loved us. Jesus Christ has loved us in
the most infinitely practical way. He came and He paid for
our sin on the cross. He became flesh, lived His life
in the world that He created and ultimately paid for our sin
on the cross. Practical love. Jesus Christ
has loved us, but He expects us to do likewise, to love one
another. Verse 9, just as the Father loved
me, I have loved you. Abide in my love. The second thing that Jesus modeled
and expects of us is that Jesus Christ has obeyed His Father
And He expects us to do likewise, to obey, verses 10 through 12. There was a third example that
Jesus put forth for us, not only that He loved us and obeyed us,
but He has befriended us. Jesus Christ has befriended us. We didn’t seek Him, He sought
us, John 9. Jesus Christ has befriended us
and he expects us to bear fruit. He expects us to reconcile sinners
to God by the preaching of the word. He expects us to reconcile
sinners to God by taking the gospel and even in simple terms,
telling people about it. Now I have a purpose for doing
all of that. Because all along since John chapter 13, since
he got on his knees and went man to man washing their feet,
Jesus Christ has been seeking to educate and encourage and
bring along these, his disciples. And he turns the corner here
in verse 18. And the contrast is utterly shocking. If the world hates you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. 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. 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. But all these things they will
do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the
One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken
to them, they would have no 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. They have done this to fulfill
the word that is written in their law. They have hated me without
a cause. 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. These things I have spoken to
you that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you
outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone
who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because
they have not known the Father or me. But these things I have
spoken to you so that when their hour comes, you may remember
that I told you of them. These things I did not say to
you at the beginning because I was with you.” Now the reason
that I glided almost effortlessly into chapter 16, you can see
it there plainly, those words belong with the verses 18 through
27 of chapter 15. He’s talking about persecution. He’s talking about what Peter
calls a fiery ordeal that is going to come. It’s not that
it was a possibility. It’s not that if the apostles
misbehaved that the world would lash out at them. This is a fiery
ordeal that the church has always known and should always expect. From time to time there are more
flare-ups more heat than at other times. At times it seems that
we almost belong here, as if this is our home and it’s not. Peter says elsewhere that we
are strangers and aliens. We don’t belong here. And the
moment that we feel like we do is a moment of great danger.
It’s a moment of deceit. where we have either softened
our own perspectives, where we’re not towing the line and living
according to the commands that God has given us. We’re living
in order to fit in. We’re either doing that or the
world is actively and patiently and quietly sharpening its sword
of hatred against us. Jesus does not want his disciples
to be caught off guard. And it was his purpose to encourage
them. But as you read between chapter
13 and all of chapter 14 and the first portion of chapter
15, the whole goal has been to encourage them. And just at that
moment where the disciples may have been tempted to relax, after
all Jesus is talking about love, abiding in His love. At that
very moment, Jesus says, don’t get complacent. The world hates
you. The world is hostile towards
God, hostile toward the things of God. They hate the things
of God and the things of Christ. They hate His Son. And the fact
that you are in union with Him, the fact that you have placed
your faith in Him, the fact that you name Him as your Lord and
Savior makes you their enemy. It’s that simple. The world will hate His followers
just like it hated Him. It has always been the case.
And just because we may be at some low ebb of activity, where
the world is more tolerant of us than in previous times, it
doesn’t change the principle. The principle is still there.
The world hates us and will hate us because it still does hate
Christ. Make no mistake, the world that
unbelieving spiritual system operating outside of any restored
relationship to God through faith in Jesus Christ hates Christians. It hates us because it hates
Christ. That’s what Jesus wanted to tell
his disciples. And if I may, let me just give
you a forecast of where we’ll be these next weeks. I’ve called it our fiery ordeal. Peter speaks of this fiery ordeal,
the persecutions that were coming and did come even in Peter’s
day. This fiery ordeal that never
really dies out. The embers are always glowing
and always ready to burst forth with new vigor. We need to come to grips. We
need to come to grips with the hostilities of the world. They
may be quiet right now. It may be almost a cozy place
to live in our country for Christians. We’ve enjoyed it for many seasons.
But Jesus gives us here in this passage four disclosures about
the church’s expected persecution. It’s not possible. It’s expected. It’s coming. The first disclosure
we find in verse 18, it’s the sobering forecast of this persecution. Jesus says, if the world hates
you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. And by the
way, we have a tendency to misread that if. We tend to read it as
if it’s a possibility. If perchance you ever run askance
and you have to stand on principle and you offend people in the
process and the world lashes out at you and wags their finger
and we call that hatred, we call that persecution. That’s not
persecution. I mean it’s a minor form of it.
But not like the saints throughout history have enjoyed or endured
persecution. If or since. the world hates
you, if or really when the world hates you, or as the world hates
you, just know that it hated me first. You’re in good company. But that also gives us a forecast
to look into Christ’s life and to see, well, was that the case? Did they really hate Christ?
Did they really mistreat and abuse Christ? Were they really
and truly hostile to Christ? If so, Jesus says, they will
hate you as well. That’s the sobering forecast
of persecution. We’ll come back to that point
this morning. The second, and it’s a very lengthy
section, from verse 19 through verse 25, it is the expected
cause of persecution, and Jesus has already alluded to it. The
expected cause of persecution is our alignment with Christ.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. The
world loves it when we behave like them. The world loves it
when we don’t rock the boat. The world loves it when we don’t
stand on principle. The world loves it when we don’t
quote scripture. The world loves it when we live
and act just like them. If you were of the world, the
world would love its own. Because you are not of the world,
but I chose you out of the world. Because of this, the world hates
you. It’s because of our alignment
with Christ. It’s because of our oneness with
Christ, our faith in Christ. The fact that we are Christians
makes us targets of the enemy, namely the devil and his minions,
the world. If they persecuted me, verse
20, they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they will
keep yours also. We’ll come back to that thought
in weeks to come. Jesus says, goes on to say at
the end of that, they hated me without cause. This is not just. This is not right. There was
no sin, as we saw even last Lord’s Day, not one, not even the sin,
a thought sin in Christ’s life. There was not any sin found in
Him. And yet the world hated Him,
and not just hated Him, but condemned Him, and not just condemned Him,
but murdered Him. Totally unjust. Utterly and completely
unjust. I said there were four disclosures
of the church’s expected persecution. Not only the sobering forecast
and the expected cause, but thirdly, the glorious opportunity of persecution. And it’s there. There is always
opportunity. There is always opportunity to
preach the gospel in season and out of season. You think of those scores, countless
scores of martyrs who went to the flame, who went because for
no other reason than the fact that they had named the name
of Christ and that they were preaching the gospel of Christ
and they were taken and burned at the stake. There’s always a glorious opportunity
for persecution. Only this time, And from henceforth,
having the Spirit dwell within us, look at what he says in verse
26, when the Helper comes, whom I will send you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify
about me. That’s what we want. I mean, we all have our favorite
preachers, but can you imagine the Holy Spirit in the pulpit? The Holy Spirit taking the Word? The Holy Spirit testifying of
Christ? There’s no more powerful testimony
than that. But I want you to watch this.
He will testify about me. Look at verse 27. And you will
testify also. You will have your opportunity.
You will have your opportunity for faithfulness to God in the
preaching of the gospel. You will preach. You will testify. Do you realize that every time
that you take communion, you proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ
to any who are in your midst? You’re telling them, I have aligned.
That’s exactly what you do in the waters of baptism. You’re
telling the world that you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ,
that you are aligned and submitted to Him. It’s a testimony. And then all
of your life becomes a testimony. Every opportunity that you have
to tell others about Christ, you will testify also. The fourth. The fourth disclosure
of the church’s expected persecution, not only the forecast and the
cause and the opportunity, but number four, the specific details. And here, Jesus takes such great,
exercises such great patience in walking us through piece by
piece, there are five there, the details of this persecution. He tells them, First and foremost,
because he wants them to keep from stumbling. He doesn’t want
them caught off guard by this. But he also wants them to know,
look at verse 2, the severity. It’s going to get so bad, and
it’s already been this bad. It’s not like we’re still waiting
for this to be fulfilled. Even Saul, remember Saul before
he was called the Apostle Paul? Before he was converted? Saul
fulfilled this one almost immediately. They will make you outcasts from
the synagogue. But an hour is coming for everyone
who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. Jesus
wants us to know how severe it could be, how severe it has been,
and how severe it will be. He wants us to know the reason for
this, the dullness of these individuals They have not known the Father.
They don’t know the Father. They don’t know Christ. They
don’t want to know Him. And so Jesus lays this all out. And we’ll get there. We’ll get there. But I want to
go back to verse 18. I want to go back to the first
point. I want to begin to look at this fiery ordeal. As we begin
to come to grips with the hostilities that are coming. They’re coming. This is a promise of God. And
if we take the good promises, we also have to take the promises
that make us uncomfortable. This is exactly what Jesus wanted. He wanted to catch the disciples
on their heels, and just at the instant that they were beginning
to rest in this idea of abiding comfortably in His love, Jesus
says, by the way, The world hates you. The world hates you and the world
is going to take you and abuse you and even kill you if it has
any chance to do so. Make no mistake. The world, this
unbelieving spiritual system outside of A relationship to
God through faith in Christ hates us. You know what? They hate our view of God. They hate God, but they hate
anybody who believes in Him, really. I mean, a passing acknowledgement
that God exists, that’s about as far as the world is willing
to go. But for us, For us who believe
that God is everything, and that God has provided everything,
and that God gives us our food, He gives us the air that we breathe,
He gives us the Savior that we needed, and He holds us to account. To believe in that God is offensive. It’s offensive to the world.
The world hates us, not only because of our view of God, it
hates us because of our view of salvation. First of all, that
we even need to be saved. The world hates that concept. I was driving along one day and
I came upon a car that had a bumper sticker that said, I was born
well enough the first time, mocking the very idea of the need of
being born again. The world hates the idea of needing
to be saved. The world hates the idea that
there’s only one way of salvation. And all their bumper stickers
proclaim that we are supposed to be tolerant, that all world
religions are good, that any and all world religions lead
to the betterment of mankind. And after all, that’s what it’s
all about, isn’t it? And they hate us because we say,
no. They hate us because of our view
of man. They hate us because we believe, as God’s Word says,
we are sinners. That Adam and Eve’s sin was our
sin. That Adam and Eve’s fall was
our fall. And that on our own, we are inherently
sinful. We can do nothing but sin from
the moment we’re born. We’re spiritually dead. Our relationship
with God has been utterly shattered. We have no way to make it right. No amount of work, no amount
of deeds, no amount of kindness, no amount of benevolence. That’s
the world’s way. And when we eschew that or minimize
that or say, it’s not bad to have a soup kitchen, but the
soup kitchen doesn’t save anybody. The world hates us for that.
How dare we take away their soup kitchen? How dare we minimize
their deeds, their efforts? More and more, we see this, don’t
we? The world hates us because of
our view of marriage. The world hates us because we
believe in one man, according to his gender at birth, is to
be married to one woman according to her gender at birth, and that
that is God’s institution, not man’s. It’s not for us to come
up with all new rules and new ways of understanding or identifying. It’s not biblical. It’s not right.
And because we believe that, the world hates us. And if they
could, if it was legal, They’d be rid of us in an instant. Just
on that one issue. The world hates our priorities. It hates, it doesn’t like to
honor our days of worship and celebration. It doesn’t like
to honor our affections, our things, our affection for God
and the things of God. It hates those things. It hates
our belief in hell. It hates the very idea of hell. It mocks nothing more than that
one doctrine. What kind of a loving God would
conceive and fulfill the idea of hell? They hate us because
we believe in that doctrine. They hate us because we believe
in any of those doctrines of Scripture and that we promote
them. and that we live accordingly.
They hate us because of our view of sin. Our view of sin is a
hatred of sin and they hate that we hate sin. They feel uncomfortable
because we don’t enjoy what they enjoy anymore. And we go and
we spend time with friends that used to be friends. And these
were friends that we used to be friends with and used to do
the things that you do with friends. But now we come and we’re not
comfortable with that anymore and we begin to live a different
way and they’re uncomfortable because we hate sin. We don’t
want to sin anymore. Sin is what sent my Savior to
the cross. I don’t want to do that anymore.
They hate us because of it. They hate us because we’re so
quirky. We have a devotion to a God that
you can’t even see. And so if you can create something,
a Buddha or a statue or some statue of Mary or something,
at least there’s some legitimacy there. But to be devoted and
to live according to someone that doesn’t even physically
exist, they hate us. They’re venomous against us.
They don’t make any mistake. The world is not your friend.
They don’t love what you love. They hate it because we love
righteousness. They hate us because we love
what is good, and they mock us because we love what is pure
and simple and good and right. They hate righteousness, and
they hate those who love it. They hate our politics. They
hate our theology. the very idea that God is sovereign,
that God is in control of all things, they hate that doctrine. And they hate anybody who would
hold to that doctrine, that God is in absolute control. They
hate anybody who believes that God is holy, completely sinless. That’s a mockery to the world.
They don’t even like the word sin. And they absolutely hate that
God is judge, that God will judge them, that God will hold them
to account. They can’t wait to shake their
fist in God’s face. They hate God and they hate His
ways. I quote from time to time, Jonathan
Edwards, one of my heroes in the faith, one who told me the
truth about sin. He tells us the truth about the
world. He said, the strictness of God’s law is a principal cause
of man’s enmity against God. If God were not one that did
not so much hate sin, if He would allow them in gratification of
their lusts in some degree, in other words, if He kind of turned
a blind eye to their deal, and his willful threatenings were
not so awful against all criminal indulgence, if his threatenings
were not so absolute, hell, if his displeasure could be appeased
by a few tears, a little reformation or the like, works, they would
not be so great enemies, nor hate him so much as they do.
But God shows himself to be an implacable enemy to their idols
and has threatened everlasting wrath, infinite calamity for
all that they do in the service of their lusts. And this makes
them irreconcilable enemies to him. The world hates God. The world hates God’s law. The world hates the idea of God. It hates the doctrine of God.
And it hates all of those who even remotely believe those things
about God. The world hates our devotion
to this unseen God. It hates our view of sin. It
hates our hypocrisy. Isn’t that the one they throw
up in our face most frequently? And you know, they’re not completely
inaccurate in that, but we are an unfinished product. We’re
not saying that we laid hold to these things, that we are
better than them by nature or inherently good. Any goodness
that we have, any righteousness that we have is God-given. It’s a work of God and we do
not shy away from that. We’re not ashamed of that. They hate our hypocrisy. They
hate our righteousness. When we are good, truly, genuinely
good, when by God’s grace we’re able to manifest and to live
out some degree of goodness and rightness in this evil fallen
world, they roll their eyes and mock. They don’t even know that the
righteousness that we have is not our own, it’s God-given.
They hate the fact that we bring an abstinence to
their foolishness. They hate our view of abortion. They hate our view of family.
They hate our view, as I’ve already said, of marriage. They hate
everything about us, and if they could do away with us, believe
me, they would. They have in the past, and they
will. They will do this in the future.
Now, they may use some variety of means. Sometimes the world
sits back and lets other people take care of the Christians in
their midst. Islam would be a tool in their
hand. Do you know that the Roman Catholic
Church still has never set aside their curse on Christianity? The Roman Catholic Church pronounces
anathema for all who say that they can be justified by faith.
You know who that is? That’s you and me. For any who
have the audacity to say that simply by placing your faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are anathema, you are cursed. The Roman Catholic Church has
never gotten rid of that. There are many mechanisms available
so that the society itself In all their hatred of Christians,
they wouldn’t even have to do anything. All they would have
to do is stand back and watch the other mechanisms that are
already in place. Watch them do their job. It’s
coming. Jesus said, it’s coming. The world hates us. How do we
know that? Because the world hates Christ.
Briefly this morning, turn if you would to verse 18. That’s the introduction. We’re looking at our fiery ordeal
coming to grips with our coming hostilities. And in the midst
of giving us these four disclosures of the church’s expected persecution,
Jesus starts by saying that there is a… He gives us a sobering
forecast of persecution. It’s coming. It is to be expected. If the world hates you, know
that it hated me before it hated you. The whole reason that we looked
at all of that was to give us a taste of the same thing that
the apostles sensed that evening. It’s much more difficult for
us because we’ve had these passages in front of us for years. They
almost kind of get distilled down But I wanted us to feel
that abrupt transition that the apostles felt from the images
of vineyards and fruit bearing and abiding in Christ to this
stark, cold reality of pending hostility, persecution. And Jesus Christ sets out to
encourage his disciples, and he’s still in that mode. He wants
to encourage them. He wants them to stand firm.
He doesn’t want His flock to be caught off guard, to be surprised,
taken by surprise. And so they have to know and
He must tell them. This isn’t the first time that
Jesus has warned His disciples. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
included it even then, blessed are those who have been persecuted
for the sake of righteousness. He’s told his disciples, even
as they were new disciples, there’s still time to get off the bus.
There’s still time to walk away from this arrangement called
Christianity. There’s still time to get away
from me as far away as you can and need to, because you’re going
to be persecuted. Blessed are those who have been
persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you. and persecute
you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of
me. Rejoice and be glad for your
reward in heaven is great. The same way they persecuted
the prophets who were before you. Jesus says it’s coming. He says that the world stands
in sharp contrast to what the Christians hold to and what the
Christians believe, what Christ is. And He speaks of the world,
this spiritual, or rather, it’s a spiritual portion of mankind,
but they’re ungodly in their spirituality. They don’t believe
in God, they don’t love God, they don’t want to believe in
God. John 1.10, at the outset of John’s Gospel said that Jesus
Christ was in the world, And the world was made through him
and the world did not know him. Distinguishing a number of different
ways in which that word world is used. Here just as the disciples had
begun to recognize their need of being loving towards one another. Almost instantly Jesus lays on
them that while you’re being loving towards one another, abiding
in my love, by the way, the world is going to hate you. The hatred that proceeds from
the world is venomous and vicious and relentless. The disciples
aren’t to expect love from the world. In fact, we know from
the teaching of Scripture when we don’t feel the pinch from
the world, when it seems that the world loves us, is a very
dangerous moment. In his first epistle, the Apostle
John wrote, verse 13, do not be surprised when the world hates
you. I remember beginning to tell
my friends that I’d become a Christian. It’s kind of like telling them
that you sell Amway. Only about a thousand times worse,
right? I remember being uninvited to
parties and things. I remember losing friendships. And the sad thing is that in
time, don’t we, because of that, we kind of begin to mute our
Christianity. We kind of begin to box it in
a little bit and to be more diplomatic about our Christianity and to
pick our opportunities to be bold. And then we end up succumbing
almost completely to that rule. I don’t know who wrote the rule,
but the rule that says that we’re not supposed to discuss religion
or politics Jesus says, if the world hates
this, you know, and may I tell you that that is an
imperative. If the world hates you, know
this. Believe this. If the world hates
you, they hated him first. And I know that this sounds odd.
Even in light of all that we have talked about this morning,
But that is a comfort to us. That when we stand and we are
mistreated, that when we are abused, we stand and we are abused
with Christ. Jesus Christ introduces the subject
of the idea of the world’s enmity against us, and He tells His
apostles that they are going to suffer exactly what Jesus
suffered, and they can’t be surprised by it. The apostles certainly
could look back as it were in the rear view mirror and see
recent opportunities, many of them where Jesus had been mistreated,
misquoted, maligned by the very people to whom he was proclaiming. But the hatred of these people,
the hatred of the world was going to proceed from bad to worse
and it was going to touch even those disciples who sat
at his feet. Friends, we don’t have to go
looking for it. Paul had this perspective of
persecution. I rejoice in my sufferings, he
said in Colossians 124. I rejoice in my sufferings for
your sake. in my flesh I do my share on
behalf of his body which is the church in filling up that which
is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. Did you get that? I can’t imagine
even when you just take the account of the passion that Jesus Christ
was unceremoniously arrested, beaten, abused, imprisoned, treated
as a criminal, ultimately hauled by his hair to be crucified,
and to say that to fill up what was
lacking in Christ’s afflictions. I can’t imagine that there was
any that needed to be added. But this is Scripture, Spirit-inspired
Scripture, and Paul says, we need to take our place. We need
to be ready to take our place. In fact, Luke records Jesus as
saying, woe when all men speak well of you. For their fathers
used to treat the prophets in the same way. In other words,
he says, if things are going really well, if the world doesn’t hate you,
if you don’t feel a bit of a pinch, if your friends aren’t uncomfortable
because you won’t listen to their jokes in the office, If your loved ones aren’t at
odds with you from time to time because you stand on biblical
principle, if your neighbors don’t think you’re a little bit
odd because you get up early on Sunday morning and go and
devote your day and your life to Christ, if there’s nothing for the world
to see to take offense, there’s great cause to be concerned,
isn’t there? It’s a sobering expectation,
this expectation of persecution. It isn’t a pleasant subject,
especially at the holiday season. But this is Christianity. This
is Christ. And all who have placed their
faith in Him will be hated. Would you examine your heart
before the King? Merciful God, We are indeed sobered as even
your own apostles must have been. Perhaps we walked in having heard
these delightful passages these past many weeks of beautiful
vineyards and orchards and Jesus’ example and the grace that is
available to us. Had we not read ahead, maybe
we were even caught off guard like the apostles were. They
didn’t see it coming. They had seen persecution. They
had seen mistreatment. But they had never been the targets
of such. And now to know that they would
be the targets of the world’s hatred and for us to come to
the realization that we will be the targets of the world’s
hatred. This is sobering. And it ought
to be. Lord, grant us the grace as we
begin to delve into these passages. Grant us the grace. to stand
with Christ in any and all circumstance, to take a stand on principle,
to develop firm, solid, biblical convictions, to hold what we
hold to graciously, but firmly, willing to suffer
any. And Lord, we know that we can
do this only because of our relationship with Almighty God, through the
provision of Jesus Christ. So we thank you and praise you
for the salvation that you have granted through faith in Christ. We ask your blessing of direction
these weeks ahead. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen.