Since the World Hates You (What Are You to Do)

Good morning.

God bless.

And as Teddy said, welcome to the Hill.

We're glad to have you again with us here this morning.

We're in John.

We've been going through the Gospel of John, and we're still in the upper room discourse where Jesus is speaking to his disciples right before he will be betrayed and go to the cross.

Anxiousness, apprehensiveness, nervousness, these emotions, these feelings, these thoughts, what do they have in common?

Well, these are all thoughts which enter our minds, whether consciously or subconsciously, with each new endeavor that comes into our lives.

Whether we're talking about taking a new job or joining a new church or entering a new relationship or going to college for the first time or any of the like, these questions in our minds, we we ask ourselves, we wonder, how will my life be different after I do this?

Will I be good at it?

How will others interact with me as I'm doing this?

How will my life be forever changed in this new chapter?

Well, this morning, Jesus will speak to the apostles as their lives will take a shift, as their lives will enter into a new season.

Praise God that God knows what we need before we need it.

Jesus knows what's coming more than the disciples do.

They know something's different, they know something's changing, and Jesus is teaching them and he's walking through these things with them.

And he says to them some words that we will look at now in John chapter 15, beginning in verse 16.

John 15 · chapter mention

You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give it to you, this I command you that you love one another.

If the world hates you, you know that it has 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 come, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned, 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 sinned, but now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well.

But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause.

You see, Jesus who has been telling them to love one another, Jesus who has been telling them to abide in him, Jesus who has been telling them that this new there's a new covenant, and he's inaugurated the Lord's Supper, Jesus now turns to tell them that they will have trouble in this life.

They will have trouble in the days ahead.

Jesus never promised his disciples that following him would make them popular with the world.

In fact, Jesus gives his disciples a very different expectation.

He tells them plainly that the world will hate them.

The title of this message is Since the World Hates You, what are you to do?

That is, it's not necessarily the message we would choose to hear, or that they would choose to hear.

As Jesus passes the gauntlet on to them to continue proclaiming his message and continue his ministry on the earth, this is perplexing news to some degree.

Why?

Because we naturally all want to be accepted, right?

We all want to be successful in anything we endeavor to do, no less than the disciples.

We want to be respected.

We want people to think of us well, we want our neighbors, coworkers, friends, and even our culture to approve of us.

But Jesus prepares his disciples for something very different.

He says, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

He's trying to open their eyes.

He's preparing them.

He knows what lies ahead.

He knows that the same world that rejected him will also reject those who belong to him.

Notice he does not say, if you are a Christian, everyone will hate you.

Nor does he say that Christians should intentionally make themselves offensive.

Rather, he teaches them that our, he reminds them that their identity is in him.

And that identity will inevitably bring about, bring them into conflict with the world, the world that rejects him.

There is a dividing line.

There's a difference between belonging to Christ and belonging to the world.

And Jesus wants his disciples to understand that difference and know it's coming before the hostility does come.

So what should we do when the world hates us?

John 15, verses 18 through 25 not only highlights this reality for us, but it gives us several answers.

John 15:18–25

And the first we see in verses 18 and 19, the first thing that believers should do is expect.

Expect the world's hatred.

Jesus does not indicate that the world will occasionally disagree with Christians while everything else is just sunshine and roses.

He indicates that the world will interject recurring opposition into the believer's life.

This is not a new subject for Jesus either.

If you would turn to Luke chapter 6, verses 22 through 23, you would see that Jesus teaches his disciples or reminds them that there is a blessing in being rejected for his sake.

Luke 6:22–23

If you were to go back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says something quite similar.

He says, Blessed are those who are hated and persecuted for his name's sake.

There's great reward for them in heaven.

And now again, he's reminding them that the hatred they will experience that's certain to come should not take them by surprise.

It's inevitable.

Jesus says, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

Says that in verse 19.

But then he says, But because you are not of the world.

But I chose you out of the world.

I took you out of the world.

Because of this, the world hates you.

There's the distinction.

The world loves its own.

The world does not love those who are not their own.

If you belong to Christ, you'd expect the world to treat you as though you belong to him.

Jesus says that he chose us out of the world.

That is, the Christian is one who has experienced something.

He's not only experienced the risen Lord, but he's experienced a change.

A change of identity.

When you trust in Christ, the scriptures say you become a new creation.

When you trust in Christ, the scriptures say that he begins to transform you and form you into the image of his son.

The Christian has experienced this change of identity.

The one who once belonged to the world and lived according to its values and its desires and its priorities and its standards is now called out of that system and changed.

Now there is a conflict.

The world system says one thing and Christ says another.

Surely you thought of this.

What does the world say?

My daughter loves this one.

Follow your heart.

And the Bible says that the heart is very wicked.

The Bible says not to follow your heart, but to follow Jesus.

The world says, define truth for yourself.

Do what makes you happy.

Christ says, I am the truth.

I am the way.

I am the life.

True joy is only found in me.

The world says, live for yourself.

And Christ says, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow them.

The world says, find your identity in yourself.

And Christ says that our identity is to be found in Him.

So what are we to do?

We cannot measure our faithfulness by how much we are accepted by the world or how much we are approved by it.

How much, how many invitations Brother Jason gets to be on Oprah cannot be his measure of success or invitation to the White House or anything else.

Sometimes the very fact that we are faithfully following Christ, oftentimes the fact that we are faithfully following Christ will put us at odds with the world.

That does not mean that Christians should be rude, intentionally offend people, or go looking for arguments.

It does mean that if we live faithfully in following Christ, there will be times when the world rejects us because they already rejected him.

So again, the first thing that we should do, because the world hates us, is expect it.

As they say on deployment, embrace the suck.

The second thing, though, that we see in the text that believers should regularly recall or regularly do in relationship to trying to wrestle with this opposition that we face, this hatred that we may come in contact with when we do, is that believers should regularly recall whose servants they are.

Where do we see this in the text?

We see this in 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 is our Lord.

Jesus gives them this simple but profound principle.

A servant should not expect better treatment than his master.

Jesus had already taught this principle elsewhere.

Again, in Matthew chapter 10, verse 24, it says, A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

Matthew 10:24

The point is simple.

If the master was persecuted, his servant should expect opposition of the same type.

Jesus was hated, rejected, rejected, mocked, falsely accused, beaten, abused, and eventually crucified.

And yet sometimes you and I we're surprised.

We're surprised that when following Jesus, we face suffering.

Jesus says essentially this remember who you serve.

You're not greater than me.

In this way, Jesus brings his disciples' perspective into focus.

Jesus grabs them by the shoulders, if you will, and says, Remember whose you are.

If the world rejected Jesus, we should not be surprised when it rejects those who belong to Jesus.

Peter makes this point in 1 Peter 2, verse 21.

1 Peter 2:21

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

And Paul echoes the same sentiment in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 5.

2 Corinthians 1:5

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

Brothers and sisters, friends, following Jesus means following him even when his path leads through suffering.

Sometimes we Christians suffer because we're doing something foolish.

Sometimes we suffer because we are doing something sinful or wrong.

But there is another kind of suffering that is not uncommon for us.

Sometimes we suffer because we are faithfully following Christ.

And that's the kind of suffering that Jesus is talking about here.

He wants his disciples to remember that such suffering does not mean that God has abandoned them.

Quite the opposite.

It means they are walking the path their master walked.

That's daunting.

But it had to be encouraging to them.

Maybe not in that moment.

But when they tried to boil John alive before sending the Isle of Patenus, I bet she found it encouraging.

When Paul was shipwrecked three times and was beaten and dragged out of the city for dead, I bet Paul, who probably heard these words as well, found it encouraging.

As well as all the disciples who suffered horrendous deaths, surely found these words of encouraging in those moments.

Jesus had told them, if they persecute me, they will persecute you.

And that word, if there, we translate it if.

Sometimes it means since.

Really, you could say, since the world hates you, in the original language.

At the end of the day, Jesus isn't suggesting that persecution may or may not come.

He tells us many places in Scripture, several places in Scripture, that it is a certainty.

And he's preparing them for that certainty.

1 John 3 13, in fact, the same author says in that epistle, Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

And Jesus also says something else here, though.

He says, If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.

So there will be some who reject them, and us who faithfully proclaim the gospel.

But there will be some who hear.

There will be some who believe and repent, and still yet others who will harden their hearts and reject God.

And of those who claim to believe, some will persecute and some will follow sound teaching.

Perhaps Jesus here is giving them a way to gauge who are true believers, who are Christ's genuine followers, as they go out to proclaim the message.

Because he says, if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

A tree will be known by its fruit.

And so here Jesus perhaps is also hinting at how others would respond to them as his messengers.

So we don't respond to the world's hatred by abandoning our mission.

We continue preaching Christ and looking at the fruit.

We continue proclaiming the gospel and pointing to him.

We continue loving our neighbors.

We continue serving.

We continue making disciples.

Why?

Because our calling is not to be accepted by the world, but to be heard as faithful witnesses to our master.

Our calling is faithfulness to him.

So we should expect this opposition or this hatred, and we should often recall who it is we serve.

But we should also recognize the real reason for this hostile opposition.

Jesus says in verse 21, but all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

Here Jesus explains the reason behind the hostility.

It's not ultimately about them.

The world does not merely dislike Christianity because Christians have different opinions than them.

At the deepest level, the world rejects the exclusive claims of Christ and his authority.

Jesus says they do these things on account of his name.

Why?

Because they don't know the Father who sent him.

He takes the issue deeper, and he's saying the world's ultimate problem isn't really with Christians.

The world's ultimate problem is with Christ and the one shrewd God who sent him.

How do we see this?

Well, the world rejects Christ's exclusive claims.

They don't like that he's Lord of Lords and King of Kings and that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess.

They don't buy it.

They don't accept him as Savior, who died for them to save them from their sins.

They don't accept that he's the only way to the Father.

Christ claims authority over their lives.

The world says, I want to do it my way.

And who are you to claim authority over me?

Christ commands repentance, and the world wants to remain stubborn.

Christ commands faith, that is to trust him in simple childlike faith.

And the world says, I can't trust that.

Which you claim, I can't trust that.

Christ calls sinners to surrender to him.

But the world says, Hold out.

You can do it on your own.

The sinful heart and the sin-saturated world system naturally resist the authority of Christ.

They naturally resist the unfathomable love of Christ.

It makes no sense.

He says in verse 22, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned.

But now they have no excuse for their sin.

He who hates me, my father hates my father also, verse 23.

And then verse 24, if I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sinned.

But now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well.

See, Jesus came as a light into the world.

And what does light do?

It exposes things, it exposes things in the darkness.

John 3, verses 19 through 20 explains it.

John 3:19–20

The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

Here's the thing they hate the light and do not come to it because they do not want their evil deeds exposed.

They are blinded to the extent of their own wickedness.

And they do not want it exposed because they are unwilling to forsake it.

But we who believe and desire to follow Christ, forsaking all to be his, we don't mind coming to the light.

We don't mind coming to the light because we know we're not perfect.

We know we fall short.

God has helped us see this.

God has helped us see on our best day we need his grace as much as on our worst day.

So for the light to be shown on us doesn't bother us.

Because we know that Christ has paid for our sins.

We gladly come to the light because we're forgiven, we're redeemed, we're chosen in him.

Jesus says here in these words that whoever hates him hates his father also.

And that is quite an astonishing statement.

You can't embrace the Father and ignore the Son.

You cannot say, I love God, but I don't want Jesus.

Jesus makes it clear the two cannot be separated.

To reject the Son is to reject the Father.

The problem is with our Lord's exclusive claims and unwavering call to holiness of life and submission to God.

The world rejects Christ's authority because Christ is exclusive in his claims.

His followers will sometimes experience opposition for proclaiming those claims.

What are some examples?

The Gospel says that salvation is found where?

In Jesus Christ alone.

The Gospel says that we are all sinners without exception.

The gospel says That we cannot save ourselves.

The gospel says that we must repent and believe.

The gospel says that Christ Jesus alone is both Lord and Savior.

We can't dissect him.

We can't say, well, I will embrace his sacrifice on my behalf, but I'm not interested in what he has to say about my life.

Now, these are not popular messages in a world that wants to define truth for itself and believe we can accomplish anything if we only try hard enough.

But we don't change our marching orders.

We don't change the good news of God because the world doesn't like it.

No.

We march ahead and we proclaim it faithfully.

Believers should expect the world's hatred.

Believers should regularly recall whose servants they are.

Believers should recognize the real reason for the hostile opposition, and believers should remember that such hatred is not unexpected to God.

This brings us to verse 25.

Here Jesus concludes this section of his teaching to the disciples by saying, But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled.

They hated me without a cause.

Here Jesus reminds his disciples that this hatred was not unknown to God.

God had already commented on it.

He had already spoken about it.

See, the rejection of Christ was not a surprise.

It was anticipated in the prophetic scriptures.

Psalm 35, verse 19, says, Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes.

Psalms 35:19

Psalm 69, verse 4 says, More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause.

Psalms 69:4

Jeremiah 15, 10 similarly describes the experience of the promised one being as one hated without cause.

Jesus, who came to show them a love they couldn't imagine.

A love that embraces any and all, who surrender to it.

Jesus was showing his disciples that what was happening to him was consistent with the scriptures.

What was about to happen in his being betrayed and taken away was consistent with the scriptures.

What would happen to them in the future would be consistent with the scriptures.

The cross itself was not God's plan B.

The rejection of Christ was not evidence that God's purpose had failed.

Even the hatred of Christ was incorporated into God's sovereign redemptive plan.

And this is incredibly important for us to remember.

You see, when the world opposes Christ and his people, God is ready for it.

God has not only noted that it will happen, or known that it will happen, but he, as the master chess player of the universe, has incorporated it into his perfect will and how he will carry it out in the world.

He knows.

He told his son, whom he sent as Messiah, who in turn told his disciples here in our text, and he has told us in both the Old and New Testaments to expect it.

Christ himself walked this road.

But notice what Christ did not do.

Christ did not retaliate.

He simply remained confident in the Father's call on his life.

He did not abandon his mission.

He continued to the cross and died as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.

He continued proclaiming the good news.

So go therefore and proclaim that good news.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, when you experience rejection because of your faith, don't assume that something is wrong or it has gone wrong.

Don't assume that you're not using the right words.

Don't assume that you're not expressing the love and the truth of God rightfully.

Simply remember your master suffered.

Remember that he died and rose again, and that the world's opposition cannot overturn God's purposes.

Christ himself walked this road.

The question is, will you walk this road?

Will you follow Christ when it causes you to suffer?

Will you follow Christ when it causes you to lose friends and loved ones?

Will you follow Christ when it causes you to be talked about in ways you don't deserve?

I don't know about you.

When I was growing up, I got a lot of spankings.

I didn't mind getting a spanking for something I did.

But I hated getting a spanking for something I didn't do.

That drove me crazy.

I'll take my lumps, I'll take my punishment as long as I earned it, as long as I deserve it, as long as I did the wrong thing, and you know, so it's supposed to happen.

But, you know, when you get falsely accused, it doesn't feel great.

Will you follow Christ when you're falsely accused?

Will you continue to follow Christ when you lose your job because they didn't like something that you said or did?

Because you didn't buy into this piece of agenda or that.

So what do we do with a passage like this?

What do we do with this reality?

That since the world hates us or is sure to hate us, what do we do?

The same world we're supposed to love, the same world we're supposed to reach with the good news of God, the same world that is lost and dying and desperately needs to know the God that has so richly blessed our souls.

What do we do?

We don't respond to hostility with more hostility.

We don't answer hatred with hatred.

We don't become angry simply because someone disagrees with us.

In trust, we trudge on.

Peter gives us a helpful principle in 1 Peter 3, verses 15 through 16.

1 Peter 3:15–16

Always, always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

Yet do it with gentleness and respect.

That is the Christian's response.

One of my, when I was coming up in high school, one of my teachers spoke into our lives as students and said, you need to have heroes.

You need to have people you look up to in your chosen field that you want to go into, profession, sports, whatever, but also in the faith.

And one of his heroes was a guy named Lunar Ravenhill.

Also one of mine, Brother Jason, had his biography in the back.

I gave it to him, but you know, anyway, I'll admit that.

But um he was widely respected throughout the Christian world as an expert in truly following God and in revival.

Something you may never even heard of this guy, but let me tell you something about him.

In leaving seminary, him and ten friends decided they were going to walk across all of Great Britain.

They walked across Great Britain and they shared the gospel.

They went and preached from town to town.

And sometimes they saw throngs come to Christ, and other times they saw throngs of garbage thrown at them, and they were persecuted.

But they prayed and they pressed on.

They trusted Christ.

And through them a denomination was born.

And they, Brother Ravenhill, had 27 years of fruitful ministry overseas across the pond.

Then he came here and God used him here in many circles.

From Milldale in Zachary, Louisiana, to New York City with David Wilkerson.

He always remained faithful.

He always pressed on.

He always shared the truth of God, whether people liked what they heard or not.

Why is he one of my heroes?

Because he was faithful.

He was true to that course.

I hope you can find your hero too.

One that says, I'm Christ, and I'm not ashamed of it.

One who says Christ's way is the only way.

There aren't any others.

This must be the Christian response.

We must speak God's truth in love and without compromise.

We must show grace and live faithfully and always be ready.

Always be ready to give an answer to anyone.

Anyone.

To the rich business tycoon and the homeless bum.

To the busy mother and the absentee father.

No matter who it is, we must be ready to give an answer to them when God lines up that opportunity.

What is that answer?

Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, the perfect lover of our souls.

Jesus Christ, the only Savior and Lord.

Jesus Christ, perfect person and his work.

That is the answer.

And how must we deliver it?

Not with agitation, not with frustration, not with anxiety, but with confidence, in gentleness, respectfully.

The world may reject our message, our values, and our allegiance to Christ, but our responsibility is not to force the world to love us.

Our responsibility is to faithfully represent our Savior.

So since the world hates you, what are you to do?

After you've expected it, after you've recalled who you are, after you have recognized the real reason for this hostility, and after you've remembered that this is not unexpected, this is part of God's plan.

You shouldn't be discouraged.

You shouldn't be surprised.

You shouldn't compromise.

You should press on.

You should remember that we are not called to live in fear.

We are called to live in faithfulness.

We are not called to win the world's approval.

We are called to proclaim Christ.

Proclaim Christ, sorry.

We're not called to retaliate against hostility.

We're called to show grace and speak truth.

We're not called to abandon the gospel when the world rejects it.

We are called to remain faithful.

Not to redefine it as many often try to do, but to just declare it faithfully and plainly as it's written in black and white in this book.

So take heart and speak God's truth, show God's grace, testify to God's love and goodness.

This is the message that the lost and dire world around us so desperately needs.

Brothers and sisters, the truth is the world's gonna hate us.

We don't know maybe all that that means.

We just know that it means we're gonna have some opposition in our lives if we're following Christ.

So let us consider these questions in closing.

Am I more concerned about being accepted by the world or about being faithful to Christ?

Are you more concerned about whether the world approves of you or whether Jesus is pleased with you?

Are we more concerned about being successful in the eyes of our culture or being faithful in the eyes of our Savior?

The world will not applaud you for following Jesus.

It will misunderstand you, it will reject you.

It will try to change you.

It may even hate you in the fullest extent of the world.

But remember what Jesus said.

If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.

He knows what rejection, suffering, and being hated without a cause all feel like.

And he has promised to never leave his people.

So be encouraged, be gracious, and be faithful.

And above all, keep your eyes on Jesus.

Because the goal of the Christian life is not to be loved by the world, the goal is to faithfully embrace the love of Christ, to faithfully love him in return, and to faithfully share his love with others.

As the worship team comes up, the main idea this morning is that Christians should expect the world's hatred as they faithfully follow Jesus.

They should take heart, recalling whose servants they are and how their Lord and Savior endured the same hatred.

And recalling that they should recognize that such opposition is not unexpected, but rather was foreknown to occur and used by our sovereign God to accomplish redemption for all who will turn to trust in Him.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we want to follow you faithfully.

Heavenly Father, we don't want to be deterred from following where you lead.

Whether it's through sunshine days or days filled with darkness that tempt us to despair.

Help us to want to please you rather than the world.

Help us to know that the only success we really need is to successfully keep walking with you.

Help us to do that for your glory.

Go to those around us.

In Jesus' name we pray.