DYING WORDS TO DESTROY DOUBT AND DESPAIR

"YOU WILL BE HATED"

JOHN 15: - 16:4

INTRODUCTION

I became a Christian in my junior year of college. My senior year I lived in the residence hall and spent a lot of time talking to other students about Christ. There was a freshman who lived on my floor that year, I’ll call him Joe. His roommate, who I’ll call Pete, became a Christian during the first semester of that year. Pete came to a Bible study I led and got involved in the student Christian group I was a part of. At the beginning of the second semester Joe began to join Pete at our Bible study and coming to our large group meetings. Sometime during the early part of that semester Joe told me and others in our group that he was now trusting in Christ as his Savior. He got involved in every aspect of our group’s life together. In March a busload of us went to Daytona Beach, FL where we spent the week sharing Christ with the thousands of other college students who were there to party. Joe came along and enthusiastically joined us in sharing the gospel on the beaches and in the hotels. He came back from that trip excited about Christ and his relationship with Him.

The weekend after we returned, without telling anyone, Joe went home, armed with an audio tape of Josh McDowell giving the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He went home with the express purpose of sharing his new faith with his parents. He sat down with them on that Friday night and shared with them that he had become a Christian and then played the tape for his parents. At the end of the tape Joe’s dad told him to leave the house and to never come back again. You see Joe’s family was Jewish. After an emotionally charged and tearful argument with his dad, Joe left home and drove around the streets of his hometown all night. The next day he went home and told his dad that he did not believe in Christ and would have nothing to do with Christ or Christians anymore. When he returned to school on the following Monday he threw away his Bible and all of the Christian material in his room and told his roommate to never mention Christ to him again. Many of us tried to talk with him but he would either avoid us or not say anything when we talked with him. He went back to his old lifestyle of partying and the next year transferred to another college.

Joe is an example of a person that Jesus said we should expect to see. In Matthew 13, when he was explaining the parable of the farmer planting his seed he said this about the seed that fell on rocky soil, "This is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away." At the same time he is also an example of a person who was not told the whole truth about being a follower of Christ. No one ever told Joe about the costs of following Jesus. The church in America has a strong tendency to only talk about the benefits of being a Christian and rarely talks about the cost. We are so eager to tell lost and broken people all the benefits that they can have as a free gift that we neglect to tell them of the cost. There is a cost. Paul says, "I consider everything a loss." He says, "For we are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake." Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow after me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for me will save it." The whole argument of the gospel is that what I must "lose" in order to gain Christ is nothing compared to the value of having Christ. However, you cannot be a Christian without losing your life. We are not telling people the truth if we do not also tell them the cost of being a Christian.

In the first half of John 15 Jesus has described the benefits of being a Christian. He has described the intimacy we have with him and his Father, the meaning and fruitfulness that He gives to our lives. He has talked about the answers to prayer we will experience, the security of eternal life and the joy of being in loving relationships with other Christians. But, Jesus does not stop with a description of the benefits only, he goes on to tell his disciples and us about one of the costs of being his disciple. He wants us to know that when we follow him, we are going to be hated by the world. Look at 16:1 & 4 (read them). Jesus tells us to expect to be hated so that we will not do what Joe did when he experienced the hatred of the world through his father. He wants us to persist in our faith and so he tells us that…

MAIN POINT

First of all we need to be clear about what Jesus means when he uses the term, "world". He is not talking about the earth and the sky and the stars and the trees. He is not emphasizing how big the world is. Rather, this term is referring to the world of men as it is in rebellion to God. "World," especially in John is not referring to "bigness" but rather to "badness". This word is used 78 times in the gospel of John. If you were to look up every reference you will discover that the world is the society of human beings who were created by God the Father through God the Son and who love evil and do evil and therefore hate Christ. John 3: 19-20 says, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." In John 7:7 Jesus says to his brothers, "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil."

It is this world that hates Christians. Now, it is not obvious why this should be the case. In the first half of this chapter Jesus described what Christians are like. Christians live in vital union with Jesus. Their minds are filled with his word and they ask him to do what he promises to do. They delight in obeying his commands. The chief of those commands is that they love one another. In fact, v. 17 says, "these things I have commanded you so that you love one another." How can people who are known chiefly for their love for one another excite such hatred?

The answer that Jesus gives is that the non-Christian world hates Christians because it hates Christ and it hates his Father. This is the most emphasized fact in these verses. V. 18: "Keep in mind that it hated me first." V. 19: "I have chosen you out of the world, that is why the world hates you." V. 20: "If they persecuted me they will persecute you also." V. 21: "They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me." V. 23: "He who hates me hates my Father as well." V. 24: "Yet they have hated both me and my Father." V. 16:3: "They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me."

There are many factions in the world. There are many things that human beings disagree about and hate each other over. There are political divisions and racial divisions and cultural divisions and divisions over sports teams. But there is one thing that unites all of humanity and it is their opposition and hatred for God the Father and his Son Jesus and all those who belong to him. The Nazi and the Communist are at opposite ends of the political spectrum and they hate each other. But they both hate Christians and seek to make Christians submit to their will and when they do not, they kill them. The Jewish leaders and Roman authorities, who were enemies, were united in their opposition to Jesus and so killed him.

We can understand how this works. It’s like when a friend of mine would get me tickets to go watch the U of IL football team play. Invariably the tickets would be in the midst of the visiting team’s fans. There was a friendly camaraderie as everyone settled into their seats prior to the start of the game. But the friendliness evaporated when the game began and I was cheering for the Illini while sitting in the midst of the "enemy." When we have an enemy, we are at the least suspicious of those who are affiliated with our enemy. When we discover they love our enemy our suspicion will turn to animosity. So it is with human beings. All humans are naturally enemies of God and so are enemies of all who truly love the true God.

We are going to talk in a moment about why it is that humans hate God but first I want you to notice a very important thing that Jesus says. If all of humanity is in rebellion to God and therefore part of the world, then how is it that anyone escapes from the world and becomes attached to Jesus and thus the focus of the world’s hatred? In v. 19 Jesus tells the disciples they are not from the world and then quickly adds, "but I chose you out of the world". In other words, every Christian used to be a part of the world and thus hated God and Jesus. People leave the world and become followers of Jesus because he chooses them out of the world. This is not just a picky theological point that Jesus is making here. It has profound practical applications. When someone hates you, what is your natural response? If you are normal, you return the favor. However, when you realize that what makes you different from them is nothing you have done but simply because Jesus had mercy on you and chose you, doesn’t that make it easier to be kind and compassionate? You are no different from the most hate-filled, anti-Christian person you can imagine. The only reason you are not just as full of bitterness towards Christ is because he chose you, not because you are somehow smarter or better.

There is nothing quite so ugly as a person who professes to be a Christian but who then condemns those who aren’t Christians for acting like non-Christians. It is ugly because it is arrogant. Those who are shocked when non-believers attack them or when they behave like non-believers have either forgotten or never knew that the only thing that separates a true Christian from the vilest of sinners is the unmerited favor of God in Christ. I am not a part of the world because Christ chose me out of the world, not because I’m more holy or smarter than other sinners.

If you asked your neighbor who doesn’t go to church if he hated God or Christ, what would he say? Most of our neighbors would be offended that we even suggest such a thing. So how can Jesus make such a statement? We all have heard of the ways in which Christians are tortured around the world and so we know that some people hate Christ and Christians. Maybe we have even known a person or two who are openly and adamantly anti-God and anti-Christ. But how can Jesus make such a sweeping generalization? How can he claim that the whole society of humanity hates him and his Father? That’s the question that Jesus answers in vv. 22 &24.

You are going to have to put on your thinking caps here. Look at the first half of both v. 22 and 24. Jesus says, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin." Then he says, "If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin." Is Jesus saying that people didn’t sin before he showed up on earth? That can’t be. If you know anything about the OT you know that people have been sinful ever since Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There are thousands of examples in the OT of this reality. In fact, the opening chapter of the gospel of John says that Jesus is the "Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world." This certainly shows that sin was present before Jesus showed up. So what does he mean?

What he means is what he says in the second half of both verses. In v. 22 he says, "Now (that I have shown up) they have no excuse for their sin." In v. 24 he says, "But now they have seen the works I did and yet they have hated both me and my Father." To see Jesus is to see the Father. Jesus is a brilliant, unmistakable revelation of God. His life, his teaching, his miracles all display the greatness of the true God. Yet, people not only did not see God in Christ but hated Christ, therefore showing that they hated his Father as well. Prior to his coming the revelations of God in creation and in the OT scriptures and through the Jewish nation were but dim candles compared to the absolute brilliance of Christ’s revealing of the Father. There has never really been any excuse for sin but now that Jesus has come all possible excuses are eliminated because he is so obviously God become man. To see him is to see the Father and if you see God you ought to be impressed and to fall in love with him. If you see Jesus and hate him then you also hate God the Father.

What is the sin that humanity is guilty of and has no excuse for now that Jesus has come? It is the sin of not knowing God, which is the same as hating Christ and hating God as well. How can Jesus equate not knowing God with hating God? We were made for God. The reason that God made you and gives you life is so that you will seek him as the source of all your happiness. The chief ambition of your life ought to be knowing and loving God. But you know that is not the case. Unless God has done a work in your heart, your chief ambition is to find your happiness in something else. None of us naturally depend upon God to make us happy. Rather we depend upon jobs and wives and husbands and children and success and pornography and shopping and TV and popularity and hunting and alcohol and preaching sermons and…you get the idea.

Think about this in the context of marriage. How many spouses complain about their partner in this fashion? My husband loves his job way more than he does me. If he would give me half the attention he gives to that stupid job I’d be happy. He doesn’t care about me. He doesn’t love me. He only loves his job. Husbands ought to love their wives more than their jobs, right? Is it morally wrong to love your job more than your wife? Yes! She is far more important because she is a human. She is far more able to make you happy than a job. So it is evil to love your job more than you love your wife. God is infinitely more important than a wife and he is infinitely more able to satisfy us than any created thing. It is therefore morally wrong to not seek him with our whole being. It is especially wicked that humans don’t seek God now that Christ has come because we now have the brightest and best possible revelation of how great and merciful and all-satisfying God is. We have incontrovertible evidence that God is able to satisfy us. When people pursue their happiness in anything other than in the only God who has revealed himself in Jesus, then they show that they don’t know God and in fact hate him by loving other things more.

When you tell your neighbor that the only God has revealed himself in the person of Jesus and now commands him to stop pursuing his happiness in a manicured lawn and to pursue it in knowing and loving God, how will he respond? Unless God does a work in his heart he will hate you because he loves having a manicured lawn and believes having a perfect lawn is more able to make him happy than the God who made him. Christians, by our allegiance to Christ and our forsaking all things here in order to have Christ reveal the all sufficiency of God in Christ and so expose the world’s hatred of God as shown in its pursuit of happiness here. The world doesn’t like to have its sin exposed and so it hates us for being light.

This verse tells us that it was part of God’s plan that Jesus suffered and it is part of God’s plan for Christians to suffer. God has many purposes for the suffering of Christians at the hands of non-Christians. The one that is emphasized here is that the persecution of Christians by the world shows the justice of God in destroying the world. Did the Jewish people and the Roman government have any just cause for killing Jesus? No, in fact, it is just the opposite. Jesus went around doing good. He healed people. He taught the truth of God’s word. He was always kind and good. He never did anything wrong and always did good. There was no reason to hate him, much less torture and kill him. Therefore, the hatred of the people and their killing him are pure evil, with no justification.

Paul says in Phil. 1:28 that the persecution of Christians "is a sign to the persecutors that they will be destroyed but that you will be saved." In 2 Thess. he says, "God is just: he will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled…" One of the purposes of God in the unjustified persecution of Christians is to prove how right it will be to send people to hell. The world’s hatred of Christ and of Christians is completely unjustified therefore God’s destroying the world in hell is completely justified.

How are Christians to live in the midst of a world that hates them because it hates Christ? I want you to first notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say, hate them back. He does not say, make them pay for what they do to you. He does not say, take over their political institutions and make them live your way. He does not say whine and complain about your rights not being respected. He does not say to take up weapons to defend yourself. Some of the animosity and the criticism that the world directs at those who profess to be Christians is justified because sometimes Christians do stupid things. Sometimes professing Christians arouse the ire of the world, not because they are exposing sin but because they adopt the world’s methods and align themselves with political ideologies. Just because someone is angry with your politics doesn’t mean they are angry with Christ and persecuting you for being a Christian.

What does Jesus tell us to do as we live in a world that hates him and therefore us? First, he promises to send the HS who will bear witness to Christ. The HS will teach us about the greatness of Christ and enable us to rest in his sufficiency for us. Through the work of the HS we should fix our eyes on Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith and who endured the hostility of men for our sake.

I think of Paul and Silas sitting in a Roman prison. They had been given no trial and were beaten up before being thrown in prison. How did they respond to this unjust treatment? They were singing hymns and praying through. How were they able to do this? The HS was there bearing testimony to the greatness and sufficiency of Jesus for all their needs and so they praised him. Their happiness was in Jesus, not in having the respect of the world or in living a comfortable life.

Then Jesus says that the result of the HS bearing testimony is that we will bear testimony to the world that hates us. We will be like the apostles who said they could not stop talking about what they had seen and heard. This is amazing. Jesus says the world hates you because it hates me and so what I want you to do is to keep telling the world about me. Keep declaring my greatness to all these people that hate me. It’s like being a supporter of Al Gore and being told to go and spend all your time with the team of people running George Bush’s campaign and keep telling them how great Al Gore is. Or it’s like being a Packer fan and being told to go to the sport’s bar across the street from Soldier Field and keep telling the Bear’s fans who gather there every day how great Brett Favre and the Packers are. How would you expect to be treated in either of those situations? Wouldn’t you expect to have people yell at you and be angry with you? Why does he want us to do this? Does he enjoy seeing us suffer? Is He just trying to be "in the face" of the world?

I think v. 16 and the last sentence in v. 20 gives the answer as to why he wants us to keep bearing witness of him to the very people who hate him. V. 16 says, "You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit—fruit that remains." V. 20 says, "If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." Jesus chooses people out of the world by means of preaching the gospel to the world through us. There are people all around us that Jesus is going to choose out of the world. How will he choose them? Only by our bearing witness so that those whom he chooses will obey our teaching about him. It is our suffering witness for Christ that is the means God uses to bring others out of the world.

The world hates us because we won’t stop talking about Christ. But if we will keep talking about Christ in spite of their opposition, then some of those who hate us will join us in loving Christ and talking about Christ.

Verse 2 of chapter 16 is frightening not because of what Jesus says will happen to his followers but because of what he says motivates those who persecute us. There are two ways that the hatred of the world for us is going to be expressed. It will be expressed sometimes in social ostracism and other times in violence often leading to martyrdom. But the scary thing is that those who persecute us will be doing so because they think this is what God wants. Don’t miss this point. Most of the world is religious. Most of the world professes faith in God and claims to know God. So, most of the persecution in the world has happened at the hands of religious people. Right now the Islamic government of Sudan is killing and enslaving thousands of Christians. The same is happening in Indonesia. In India the Hindu majority makes life very difficult for Christians even resulting in the death of a missionary and his son last year.

But even here in the US most of the persecution of Christians is by religious people. Last year the Southern Baptist Convention announced that they were going to send 100,000 people to Chicago to share the gospel in the city and help the poor. The ecumenical religious community in Chicago comprised of Moslems, Hindus, Budhists, Jews and mainline Christian denominations protested. They wrote letters to the papers in town and went on all the talk shows. What they said was that the Baptists were engaging in religious bigotry and hate speech by coming to Chicago to talk about Jesus. Jesus says in v. 3 that they wrote these letters and protested because they do not know God, even while declaring they do.

© Copyright 2000 John Swanson.
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