Prepared | No Excuse | Neil Crouse | September 6, 2026

And now will everyone please stand as one of our elders reads today's scripture from the book of John.

The Gospel of John, chapter 15, starting at verse 12.

John 15 · chapter mention

This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing.

But I have called you friends.

For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide.

So that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

These things I command you so that you will love one another.

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

If you were were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you a servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

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

But all these things they will do to you on account of my name because they do not know him who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin.

But now they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me hates my father also.

If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

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

But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled.

They hated me without a cause.

But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.

I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

They will put you out of the synagogue.

Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.

But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.

I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.

This is the word of the Lord.

May he add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word.

You can have a seat.

Thank you, Preston.

As always, appreciate our elders that read our main text for the day.

Well, welcome to Forward Church.

We're thankful that you're here today with us.

We know that you have a lot of options on a Sunday morning, and we're just grateful that you're here and worshiping with us, that it's a testimony to what God is doing here through the preaching of his word and through his church.

So we're grateful that you're here with us.

Listen, um, if you're new with us, I want you to know that we go verse by verse through books of the Bible.

And since the beginning of the year, we've been walking verse by verse through the Gospel of John.

We're now in John chapter 15 and rolling over a little bit into 16 today as we continue through.

John 15 · chapter mention

And um Preston just read that text for us, and and um we're gonna continue on and teaching verse by verse through that.

So last week um we saw Jesus, he was focusing on the importance of how to love him and how we abide in him.

He said, You remain in me and I in you.

And and the focus was really on receiving and and showing the love of God and how when we abide in him, we will bear good fruit.

And today he makes a transition as to how now we are as followers of Jesus that are abiding in him, how we are to love each other.

So last week it was focusing on loving God and loving him well because he first loved us, and now he's going to talk about how we love each other and how we even should love those who oppose us.

So we're going to dive in, um, remembering the context that we believe that at this point in the text, Jesus is walking with his disciples through the Kidron Valley towards the Garden of Gethsemane, um, because the chapters leading up to this has been what's known as the Olivet Discourse, um, where they were um in the upper room and they are teaching, and or Jesus is teaching them, and they were in the upper room.

And then at the end of chapter 14, I believe it was, he said, Arise, let's go from here.

So now they have left the upper room and they are headed towards the Garden of Gethsemane.

Um, that's why last week we looked at Jesus teaching about the vine and the branches and bearing good fruit, because they would have seen the vineyards, and he always used object lessons like that to teach them.

So we come to verse 12, and he says, This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

So I want you to remember Jesus is about to leave them.

They're on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane.

They don't know what's happening, but Jesus knows what's happening.

He knows that in the garden, that's where he's going to pray desperately before the Father, and then that's where Judas is going to come and betray him with a kiss.

The Roman guard will arrest him, and Jesus will be taken away.

So he knows that the disciples are about to go through a traumatic time.

And here's what he says to them: Love one another through this.

You're gonna have to learn to love one another because times are going to get really tough.

And these guys had spent the last three years with Jesus.

They'd spent three years together, and they've been studying under Rabbi Jesus, and they didn't always get along.

Sometimes they argued amongst each other.

There was different personalities, and Jesus knew this group, and the one thing that was holding them together was Jesus.

They were unified around following Jesus.

So he knows that when he leaves, they're going to have to remember to love one another.

When he's no longer in their midst, they're going to have to know that when tough times come, they have to love each other.

So he says, This is my command for you.

So it's a command.

They have to follow it.

He says, Love one another as I have loved you.

Because one of the first things that happens among a group of people when trauma or division comes is we turn against one another.

We turn on one another.

Division starts to happen.

John 17, we'll see that Jesus prays for unity among the believers, because it is so important that we be unified in Christ and that we love one another.

So this is basically a supernatural command that he's giving.

Because we need his Holy Spirit to empower us to have that kind of love.

And he'll get to that in a few minutes.

But I would say that almost every single issue within a church community could be resolved if we could just follow this one commandment of Jesus: love one another as Jesus has loved us.

If we could do that, if we could grasp that, then we would be able to get rid of any kind of divisiveness if we would love as he has loved us.

Imagine if someone make a false accusation against you, and instead of getting angry or frustrated or gossiping about it or retaliating, imagine if, like Jesus, you loved them anyway and you forgave them.

Loving others as Christ has loved us.

Imagine if someone says something hurtful about you within the church family and it hurts your feelings, and you chose to forgive them and serve them as Jesus did.

Loving others as Christ has loved us.

Imagine if you knew that someone in the church had betrayed you and you just really can't feel that you can get over that, but by the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of you, the Holy Spirit convicts you to love them and serve them anyway.

Even giving up your own rights as Christ did, as Jesus did, we would have a lot less division.

We would have a lot less disunity among the body of believers worldwide and in the local church.

If we began to realize that we need supernatural love like Jesus has, to have the forgiveness of Jesus.

And if we began to rely upon the Holy Spirit, when we have those moments of thinking, I don't know if I can forgive that person.

But imagine if we called upon the Holy Spirit and said, God, would you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, help me to forgive that person?

Because I know Christ, you forgave me, and I know that you're calling me to forgive them.

And imagine if we lived that way.

It would get rid of a whole lot of issues within the church.

So I would ask you, are you frustrated with someone here at church?

It's very likely.

It's very possible.

There's a lot of us in this room.

We're all different personalities, right?

But imagine if we chose to love that person as Christ loves them.

To love that person and forgive that person as Christ has loved and forgiven us.

Because the reality is, if you're not frustrated with somebody right now, you will be.

It's just a reality.

You might be frustrated with me from something I've just said already.

So we have to love one another as Christ has loved us.

And we have to be willing to forgive and say, that person is created in God's image.

That person I know loves Jesus.

Yeah, they hurt me, but I recognize that you know what, I'm gonna trust in positive intentions and I'm gonna have that loving conversation with them.

I'm gonna forgive, even though they're not asking for forgiveness.

I'm gonna love them as Christ has loved me.

And that's what Jesus is calling his disciples to because they are about to face some really hard circumstances.

And you see, Jesus gave his life for them, he gave his life for you.

He gave his life for each of us before we ever even breathed our first breath.

He gave his life offering forgiveness before we even were born.

But guess what we've been doing since the moment we were born?

We've been breathing and we've been sinning, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

There comes a point in our life where we knew the difference between right and wrong, and many times in our life we have to admit we've chosen wrong, and that is sin against our holy God.

Yet he forgives you.

He forgave you before you were even born.

He offered forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus.

And then he calls on you to forgive others in that same way.

And then he commands to his disciples to offer forgiveness before the person who hurt you even asks for it.

And he's commanding that of us as well.

So it's a command that we need supernatural strength for.

We have to recognize that in our own flesh we just can't do that because in the flesh we get frustrated, angry, we would we try to think of a way to get back at the person, and it's the Holy Spirit's power that convicts us and says, No, you need to forgive them as Christ has forgiven you of so much.

It doesn't make it easy.

It's a continually taking that to the Lord and saying, God, I want to forgive them.

Help me forgive them, give me your power to do it.

So we love as he first loved us, and he elaborates on what that looks like.

Verses 13 through 15.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Are you willing to give your life for the sake of friendships, for the sake of others?

Do we love that way?

Well, Jesus did, and he goes on, you are my friends if you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

So we know Jesus demonstrates the ultimate love by laying down his life for his friends.

He gave his life for us.

Then he says, You are my friends if you do what I command you.

I circled the if in my Bible.

I told you before, I've circled it before.

It is so important.

That is that word that is so important, has great consequences to it.

And I have to say it again to be clear that you're not saved by what you do.

So we can't get that confused here.

Following the commands of Jesus is not what saves you.

You are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

That is the gospel message.

It's the works of Jesus on the cross and resurrecting from the grave, conquering death.

That's what saves us when we place our faith in that.

However, after we believe, once we believe, then we are compelled to follow his commands.

And your obedience, doing what he commands you to do, is evidence that you are a friend of God.

So that is the evidence when we follow Jesus, it's the evidence to other believers that we truly believe and live what we believe.

Now, I want to focus on that word friend for a moment because a rabbi and his disciples was not considered a friendship in that day.

It was more like he was their spiritual father and they were his spiritual children.

And even more than that, they would be seen as servants of their master, so they would serve their rabbi.

Jesus takes the relationship beyond that to an even closer dynamic with his disciples.

It wasn't expected in that day, but he says to them, You are my friends.

Now, if you do a basic read-through of the New Testament, you will see that the disciples, as they're writing the letters, they will call themselves servants of God, bond slaves of Christ.

And that, in a sense, is true because we live a life of service to God.

We live a life of being slaves to God, not to sin, right?

So, in a sense, that's true.

But Jesus here is saying, now, he is our master, he is our Lord, but he takes it even deeper than that, and he says, I see you as my friends.

Because Jesus is looking for far more than someone to just serve him.

Jesus is looking for an intimate relationship with you.

And he says, You are my friends if you do what I say.

He wants you to know that what he has done has allowed you to draw close to him, and that he loves you so much, he's given his very life for you, and then he's making the point very clear that these disciples are his friends when they follow him.

So it's the evidence of their friendship because they are going to be obedient to his commands.

And then he says that he chose them specifically.

Verses 16 through 17.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

These things I command you so that you will love one another.

Now, something else that's important to know about the disciple-rabbi relationship from that time is that a disciple would typically choose the rabbi that they wanted to follow.

So a disciple would be familiar with the different rabbis in the area, they would listen to their teachings, they would know their reputation, and then they would choose which rabbi to follow.

And they would go to that rabbi and seek to follow them.

Jesus tells his disciples, he's like, Hey guys, you didn't choose me.

In fact, I came and I found you.

And that's what we see throughout the scriptures, right?

Jesus went to them and said, Come follow me.

So he's the rabbi that chose them, which went against what they would do in that time.

So Jesus had chosen them specifically because he knew that they were the ones to begin his church, the ones that would take the gospel to the world.

So he handpicked them.

But they also had to respond.

They had to choose to follow him.

Once he chose them and said, Come follow me, they had a decision to make.

Am I going to give up everything and walk away from family and my business and follow Jesus?

So they did have a choice to make, but they were first chosen by Jesus to come and follow them.

Which is again why he says several times, if you follow my commands.

If you follow the commands of Jesus, then the Father will give to you whatever you ask for in the name of Jesus.

In other words, you ask according to what honors Jesus, and God will give it to you.

It's a pretty simple formula in Scripture.

We get it so muddied up, but if we ask with selfish motives, we won't get it.

But you ask according to God's will, then you get it.

So what we should understand is that if I don't get something that I've been asking for, then I have to recognize, well, this just isn't according to God's good, perfect will for me.

And it makes it that much simpler to go, okay, I'm going to pray for this, but God, according to your will, not my will, yours be done.

If he doesn't answer it, then I know, well, that wasn't his will.

If he does answer it, clearly it was his will.

It's really pretty simple if we break it down.

Now I do want to address this verse from one way that is often taken out of context.

So some will read this verse and they will state that it looks like Jesus chose his disciples, which he did, and they didn't choose him first, but they will wrongly then proclaim well, this says that God will choose who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.

And some will take that out of context and say, well, God has to choose you for you to get into heaven.

Um, or if he doesn't, then he's choosing for you to go to hell.

So that's a wrong teaching.

That statement is not biblically supported.

Some try to support it with scripture, but it's not what Jesus is saying here.

It's not the context of this verse, this passage.

So when you look at all of Scripture, we can see that the word chosen is used in, is used in different ways.

So chosen can be used in a variety of ways in Scripture.

God's chosen people in the Old Testament are the nation of Israel.

God chose the nation of Israel to be his people, and they were set apart to show what it looks like, to set on display what it looks like to follow God.

Sometimes they did that really well, and when they did, they prospered.

Other times they did it horribly, and when that happened, they suffered.

So God was showing, if you follow me, follow my commands, this can be good for you.

And others, right, in the Old Testament, were able to come and join in and follow along with God's chosen people and follow God, our creator.

So God's chosen people were set apart the nation of Israel.

Then here, Jesus chose the specific men that would be his disciples to begin his church.

And then we also see in Scripture that through Jesus, God has chosen you so that by faith in Jesus you could be saved.

So, in a sense, God has chosen us before we chose to follow him, because he has chosen a way for anyone to follow him and enter into heaven for eternity.

So God has chosen you when he sent Jesus to die for the sins of all who will believe in him.

You are chosen by God.

Whether you believe in him yet, or even if you don't believe in him, he has chosen that you would have a way to enter into heaven with him, and it's by faith in the grace of Jesus.

If we go to 1 Timothy 2, 3 through 4, it says this This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

You see, God does not choose for anyone to go to hell.

God has chosen that all would be saved.

Now it's on us to respond and to receive what he has chosen for us.

He wants all to be saved.

The choice is now yours.

So he has chosen you for his team.

The question is, will you then receive the offer, put on the jersey for team Jesus, and begin following his commands as evidence that you truly believe in Christ.

So that's what we see from Scripture.

He's chosen you.

Now the choice between heaven and hell is for you to decide.

I hope that everyone here will choose to follow him because he first chose you.

And if you do that, then you need to know some things.

And Jesus will continue sharing some things of what it looks like to follow him.

Verses 18 through 20.

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

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the world, the word that I said to you a servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

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

So Jesus is now telling them what to expect from the world.

He says, When you start following my commands, the world will hate you.

And don't be surprised by their hatred because they hated Jesus first.

Now, we might say, in some sense, that the world doesn't seem to hate Jesus.

You might look in some ways and be able to make the exclamation that, you know, there's a lot of religions that claim that Jesus was a great teacher, so how could they hate him if they're saying he's a good teacher?

There's a lot of religions that would say Jesus was a moral man, so how could they hate him?

They're saying he's a moral man.

Or they might even claim that he was a prophet, just one of the prophets.

So it doesn't seem like they hate him.

You know, when it comes to Easter, we might see Jesus on the cover of Time magazine or on the front page of certain websites, and Jesus will be kind of on the front page during that season.

And then at Christmas time, you know, baby Jesus, we see the manger in the nativity scene.

So it doesn't seem like the world really hates Jesus.

And, you know, there's a lot of people that claim to follow Jesus and they don't really get um hated for that.

You know, there'll be politicians and stars and athletes that will say something about Jesus, and they don't seem to really be hated for that.

And here's the reality, here's where the hatred comes.

Because a lot of people generically will say that, yeah, Jesus was a good man.

Is okay, where the hatred comes is when you actually follow Jesus.

So if you are sold out all in, in love with Jesus, following Him, following His commands, standing firm on His word, and loving others as Christ has loved you, that's when you begin to receive the hatred because the enemy hates it.

He says the world is the enemy of Jesus.

So the worldly system hates Jesus and therefore hates you.

The worldly system is okay with people casually following Jesus, people casually proclaiming God.

The worldly system is okay with you just kind of saying, Yeah, I'm a Christian.

I go to church on the weekend, but my life doesn't really reflect it throughout the week.

But once your life starts to reflect Jesus in every area, you will receive hatred, you will receive persecution in some form or another.

Here in America, it's far less than around the world.

We just see a little bit of it.

But you know what?

If you're standing firm on God's word, you will begin to see that the world hates it.

So the moment you're all in, the moment you're truly a friend of Jesus because you're following his commands, the moment that you refuse to affirm a sin that our culture affirms, you will be hated.

The moment you speak truth against false claims, you will begin to be hated.

The moment you speak up loudly about God's design for marriage, you will be hated.

The moment you proclaim truths like God created two genders, male and female, which 10, 20 years ago seem like an obvious, but now you make that statement, you will be hated.

There will be those in the culture that will hate that and will say that you are full of hate whenever really you're full of love and trying to speak truth to a broken world.

So all of a sudden, the world begins to hurl insults at you, the world will turn against you, and when it does, just remember that the worldly system hated Jesus as well, so much so that it hung him on a cross.

And the disciples saw a similar reaction.

As they began to preach the gospel, they would experience the hatred of the world.

Each of the disciples died a martyr's death, and they stood firm for the sake of the gospel, and they were hated by the world.

They were beaten, tortured, killed for following Jesus.

Only John died a somewhat natural death, but even with that, that came after a series of beatings and imprisonments, and there are a lot of historical documents that claim make claims about how they tried to kill John, but he just wouldn't die because God still had plans for him.

But he ultimately ended up dying of somewhat natural causes, but he still died.

He still died under attack, under persecution, and really feeling the full impact of these words of Jesus.

And you should recognize the weight of these words as well.

When you stand firm on the words of Jesus, even when you do it as lovingly as possible, you will be called a hater, you will be called insensitive, you will be accused of things that the world is actually doing, but they will flip it and claim that it's you that are doing it.

Because those that are caught up in the sins of the world will hate you for standing against the sin that they love.

When you speak truth that speaks condemnation of a sin that someone is clinging to and that they love and that they love more than anything else, then they will throw hatred back at you.

And the world calls what is wrong right and what is right wrong, and they will attack you for your faith because they don't yet know God and they don't know Jesus, therefore they will feel hurt when you point out or when the Holy Spirit points out the sin in their life.

And when the Holy Spirit is drawing on them, they have a choice to make.

Either they repent of the sin or they get really angry because their sin is being exposed.

We go to verses 21 through 25.

But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me hates my father also.

If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

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

But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled.

They hated me without a cause.

Now it says there something that's a little confusing, because he said, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

That doesn't mean there was no guilt for the sin.

That just means they didn't realize it.

So when we're living in the world, in the flesh, before I became a Christian, there were many things I did that I didn't realize was sin, because I was just living according to my flesh, according to my desires, following my heart, right?

But then once I started to understand the word of God and that sin was exposed, that that went against God, it became a conviction in my life, and I recognized I'm guilty of this sin.

And that's what he's addressing here is that had he not come and spoken the truth, they wouldn't even know.

But now he's spoken the truth, so they know.

And once we have heard the truth of God, we have no excuse.

It's that whole idea of those who have greater revelation have greater responsibility.

So once you have heard the truth of God, you have no excuse.

Either you're going to accept it or you're going to reject it.

Either you're going to choose Jesus in his way, or you're going to choose the world and the worldly ways.

He says, once you've heard the words of Jesus and your sin is exposed, you're now without excuse, therefore you must respond.

So being without excuse, those whose sin has been exposed, they feel guilt, they feel shame.

And that's what happens to every one of us, right?

The moment you your sin is exposed, you're guilty, you're full of shame, you feel bad about it, you feel condemned.

Now, the beautiful thing of the gospel is there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So that condemnation goes away.

But now, as a believer, when I sin, I have the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

So I feel guilt and I feel shame, but I can recognize, you know what, when I bring that to the cross, when I repent of that, I'm forgiven of that, and I can walk in freeness and freedom and newness of life because there's no condemnation for me now.

I'm in Christ Jesus.

But if we're not in Christ Jesus, the guilt and the shame just heaps on and it builds up and then it turns into anger and hatred towards those who are pointing out the guilt and the shame.

So what happens is the world tends to lash out at the one that exposes the guilt and shame.

Jesus is the one that's being lashed at here, and now believers that follow him will be as well.

But Jesus says this, and um, he quotes David from Psalm 69, where he wrote this More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause.

Mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies.

What I did not steal must I now restore.

So Jesus quotes from the Old Testament as a fulfillment of prophecy to make the point that there is no just cause for hating Jesus.

There is no reason to hate Jesus.

He simply exposes our sinfulness and then he offers salvation.

Therefore, we must respond in faith, or we respond in rejection.

And when we follow him, there will be no just cause for hating us.

If we're following him, abiding in him, and living according to his word and speaking truth in love according to his word, then there is no cause for attack on us, but he says, You expect it.

Know that it's coming.

Opposition will come.

And know this, though, that when opposition comes, you will have a helper that will be with you to get you through it.

Look at the next verse, verses 26 through 27.

But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me, and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.

So here's the beauty.

Jesus is explaining to his disciples and an extension to us as well, that there will be times that it's going to be very difficult to follow him.

We might face persecution for our faith.

And when we do face that, we can be assured because the Holy Spirit has been given to us.

The helper lives inside of every believer so that we can be ready to face it and ultimately get through it.

He says the Holy Spirit is here to testify to the words of Jesus, to what Jesus has said.

So the Holy Spirit doesn't point to us to himself.

The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus and the words of Jesus and the power of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus.

The Holy Spirit teaches us about Jesus as we read his word.

The Holy Spirit shows us who Jesus is.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin in our life when we are not following Jesus, when we are breaking that friendship commandment, right?

When he said, You're my friends if you follow me, so we want to be close to him in relationship.

And the Holy Spirit shows us areas where we're not.

And then the Holy Spirit comforts us when we face trials, and the Holy Spirit empowers us in the face of persecution.

So when we are in that moment of needing to show love as Christ has loved us, we draw on the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us.

And the Holy Spirit, he gives us the power to do it.

When we're facing persecution and we're afraid and we're scared to speak the truth in love, we call on the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us and he empowers us and gives us the right words to say in love and empowers us to face even persecution.

So the Holy Spirit is so important, and we have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

We have to listen to the Holy Spirit.

And what is important to the Holy Spirit is that we magnify Jesus.

The Holy Spirit's purpose is to point to, teach about, magnify Jesus and what it looks like to follow him, to abide in him.

So therefore, if we have the Holy Spirit living in us and the Holy Spirit is overflowing out of us, then guess what our lives will do?

They will point to, magnify, and abide in Jesus.

That's what the Holy Spirit does for us.

So we have to call upon him and we have to nourish the flame of the Spirit that's inside of us.

If we get caught up in sin, caught up in unforgiveness, caught up in the worldly things, then what we do is we press down the Holy Spirit so that we don't get the fullness of what God has for us.

That's what it means to rely on the Spirit.

Verse 27 tells the disciples that with the Holy Spirit empowering them, they too would be witnesses that would testify about all that Jesus has said and done.

And then we continue to the first four verses of chapter 16.

We're going over into chapter 16 a little bit because a quick reminder when the Bible was actually written, there was no verse and chapter in it.

That was added later, so that we would know how to find things.

And I could tell you, turn to chapter 16, and you would know where that is.

Instead of just, hey, turn to where it says, I have said all these things.

You know, you'd be sitting there flipping forever.

Even with chapters and verses, it can be hard to find.

But that's why it's there.

But this is a continuation of thought.

So we're going on verses 1 through 4 of chapter 16.

Verse 1 through 2, he says, I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

They will put you out of the synagogue.

Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

So Jesus here is giving them kind of a heads up.

He says, Hey, you're going to be kicked out of synagogues for following me.

You're going to have a lot of attack on your life.

And in fact, you know what?

They're going to kill you for it.

He says, They will be killed for their faith.

I think this is important to note.

He says, so that you don't fall away, remember to love each other, expect hatred from the world, rely on the Holy Spirit.

And he says, the hour is coming when whoever kills you, they will think they're offering a service to God.

To me, that's a pretty shocking statement.

Jesus is in an intimate conversation with his friends, walking through the Kidron Valley, on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he'll be betrayed, and he's like, hey guys, there's 11 of you here.

All of you are going to die.

You're going to die for me, sharing my word, my truth, the gospel.

When they kill you, know that they're going to think that they're doing the right thing for God.

That's a bomb on them, right?

It's just like, whoa, okay, wait a minute.

We're following the rabbi.

You're the Messiah, we believe, but you're just saying that every one of us is getting ready to die.

We have to wrap our minds around that and recognize that he's saying, but the Holy Spirit is going to empower you, going to give you strength, stay firm, keep loving others as I've loved you.

You know that the hatred's coming, and you rely on the Holy Spirit to get you through this.

Because he's just told them this is what's going to happen.

And we know every one of them died a martyr's death.

Of course, except for John, who was beaten, imprisoned.

They tried to kill him, and he ended up dying later.

And you know what?

That kind of persecution, we read about it in the Bible.

But as Americans, we read about it and it seems so foreign because really the biggest persecution we have to worry about is if someone calls us a hater or we might possibly lose a job in America if we really stand firm for our faith.

You know, some things like that can happen, but around the globe, people are dying today for their faith in Christ.

And we have to recognize that.

We have to know that that is happening.

We can't shut our eyes to it.

We have to expose and know and see that what Jesus said is coming is really true.

In fact, there's a couple of organizations that I just looked at their website this week.

Um, one's called Open Doors, the other Voice of the Martyrs, and they're organizations that help us understand persecution around the world.

And they have staggering numbers from their 2024 report.

This is open doors.

Um, you can see 4,125 Christians detained without trial, arrested, sentenced, or imprisoned.

There were 3,906 believers abducted.

This was in one year.

Um, more than 3,200 Christians raped, sexually harassed, or forced to marry non-Christians, 42,849 Christians physically or mentally abused, 300,000 Christians forced to leave their homes, go into hiding, or flee their country of origin.

And in Nigeria alone, so Nigeria is known as the most dangerous country right now for Christians to live in.

In that year, 4,118 Christians were killed for their faith.

That should stagger us.

This was two years ago, and it's increasing.

Numbers show us it's increasing year after year.

Other countries are so hostile towards the Christian faith.

A lot of people have to be underground, meaning they have to be hidden in the way that they gather and study the Bible.

People tear out pages of the Bible and try to sneak them to other people so that they can read the Word of God.

I've got two Bibles right here on the platform with me.

I've got several Bibles in my office, several Bibles at home.

There are countries where people don't have a Bible.

They're just trying to memorize it.

Or they're sneaking pages to them.

We have to be aware and be praying for Christians around the world because in the most dangerous of countries, people doing the killing think that they're serving God.

Just as Jesus said would happen.

What we know about jihadi Muslims is they are targeting and killing Christians because they believe it's what God wants them to do.

That's why they're so radical about it.

Because they fully believe they are following God, but they are deceived.

Jesus said it would happen.

He tells us why it will happen.

Verses 3 through 4.

They will not do these things because they have not known I'm sorry, they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me.

But I've said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you.

Jesus says you're going to be hated, you're going to be persecuted for your faith, because those that do these horrible things, they don't know Jesus.

And they don't know God the Father.

The reality is they've been tricked, they've been deceived by the deceiver.

Satan is described as a great deceiver in Scripture, the father of lies.

He has deceived others into believing that they should kill Christians, and that that means that they're following their God.

So it's deception.

But Jesus called it.

And he shared these things so that we will not be surprised when we see it happening.

We will be appalled when we see it happening, but we won't be surprised by it.

Jesus said it would come.

And we remember he said to expect it.

So as we come to the end of this passage, I want you to see something that's incredibly important.

Jesus makes two statements that might seem difficult to put together.

He contrasts love and hate.

Love and hate.

When you love like Jesus, you will be hated.

And that doesn't seem rational.

It doesn't make sense that when we show true love, when we speak the truth in love, when we stand firm on God's word, which is love, it will be met with hate.

But I think we have to understand this because sometimes I think we get caught up in the thinking that, well, if I'm truly loving and if I'm really gracious and I'm really kind to others, and and if I am if I'm a faithful Christian, then everybody should like me.

Everybody should get along with me and see that I'm just a loving person.

And certainly the kindness of the Lord leads people to repentance.

We we see that in Scripture, so that can be the case, but Jesus doesn't promise that will always happen.

But what he does promise is that everyone will receive, or not everyone will receive the love that you show.

That's what he promises.

He promises the opposite of what we tend to think.

He says, there will be times when you will love someone and they won't love you back.

There will be times when you speak the truth in love, but people don't want to hear it.

There will be times when you stand for Jesus and his word and you will get mocked for it.

There will be times when following Jesus will cost you something.

And Jesus says, don't be surprised by it.

Expect it to happen.

Stand in the power of the Holy Spirit, and he will be with you.

Because the world rejected him first.

And here's something I don't want to submiss.

Jesus doesn't tell us to respond to the world's hatred with hatred.

He says, You love because I first loved you.

You see, our world, the culture we live in, we live in, says, cancel them.

Jesus says, no, no, no, forgive them.

Show them love, show them grace.

The world says, they don't deserve your love.

Jesus says, look at what I did for you when you didn't deserve my love.

Gave my life for you.

Offered you forgiveness.

You do the same.

And that's the gospel.

Jesus didn't wait for us to become lovable before he loved us.

Didn't wait for us to ask him forgiveness before he offered forgiveness.

He loved us first.

We can love because he first loved us.

He went to the cross for sinners.

He gave his life for people who would reject him.

He prayed for people who would crucify him.

And now he says to his followers, Guess what?

As I loved you, I want you to love one another.

And I will give you my helper, the Holy Spirit, to help you love.

And the Holy Spirit is with us to help us do that.

So Jesus tells his disciples plainly, following him will cost you.

And in 16, verse 1, he says, I've said all these things to keep you from falling away.

In other words, I'm telling you this now so you're not shocked when it happens.

Expect it to come and trust in the Holy Spirit to strengthen you and encourage you through it.

He promises to be with us in the middle of it because we need his Spirit's power.

I want us to take away this truth today.

The world doesn't need more Christians that are great at hating the darkness.

Think about that one.

We're good at hating the darkness.

I hate the darkness.

I see sin and I hate it.

I see sinful things.

I see I see stuff happening in the news and I just hate it.

We've become really good at hating the darkness.

But what the gospel says, what Jesus says, is that He wants Christians who are willing to love like Jesus and share the light of Jesus into the darkness so that it pushes out the darkness.

Darkness can't conquer light.

Light always conquers darkness.

And it's on us to shine his light.

So maybe today you're hearing the words of Jesus and you need the sacrificial love of Jesus.

You need to receive it.

Maybe you haven't responded to him and placed your faith in him.

We would offer for you to just come to the altar today and say, Lord, I want to place my faith in the saving grace of Jesus.

You can do it.

It's as simply as placing your faith in him that you are saved and you're forgiven of your sins and you can conquer sin and death by the power of the Spirit living in you.

You've heard his words.

There is no excuse.

A decision must be made.

Either you're going to follow Jesus or you're going to follow the world.

Maybe today you're here and you've received his love, but you found it difficult to show sacrificial love towards others.

Maybe you've been squashing down the spirit in your life and you need to allow the spirit and ask the spirit to give you that sacrificial love, to love that person that hurt you.

Maybe today somebody came to your heart and you're thinking, I need.

To forgive them.

I know I do.

I just can't, I just can't let it go.

God's calling you to let it go.

He's commanding you to let it go.

So maybe today you need to come to the altar and just let it go.

Lay it, leave it at the feet of Jesus, and ask him by the power of his Holy Spirit to help you forgive.

Because unforgiveness in your heart is just going to poison you.

And God doesn't want you to live with that.

He wants you free from that.

Maybe today you're recognizing the persecuted world for the first time, or you've already known it, but it's just reignited.

And maybe today you come and kneel at the altar and you pray for those who are being persecuted for their faith.

Maybe you need to pray for strength for yourself that there's something at work that you need to do, something you need to say.

Maybe there's a relationship that you need to speak truth into and you're just not sure how to do it.

Ask the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit will be with you.

We want to invite you to come.

We're going to worship our good God and we're going to just bow at the feet of Jesus and say, God, I thank you that I can have salvation through faith in Jesus.

I thank you that your spirit is with me.

I thank you that your spirit empowers me and I'm relying on your spirit.

I pray that every one of us will walk out of here today different from the way we came in because we've left something at the feet of Jesus.

Let's stand together and let's pray.

Father, you are good and your word is true.

And Lord, we're thankful for the ways you speak to us through your word.

And God, I know after a text like that, every single one of us were impacted in some way.

I was impacted as I studied it this week to preach it.

I'm preaching to myself as I preach through this text.

And Lord, I know every one of us has something in our heart that we need to let go of.

We need to lay at your feet.

Some need to receive salvation today, others need to forgive today.

Others need to just have that extra dose of your Holy Spirit to help us love someone in our life as Jesus has loved us.

Others of us are just broken over the persecution we see in our world.

People who are standing firm for you or being killed around the globe for their faith in you, and God, that breaks our hearts.

So, Lord, we just come to you right now.

And we thank you that we have the freedom to gather, to study your word, to worship you, to proclaim the name of Jesus, to speak your truth.

But God, may we do that in a loving way.

May we love others as you have loved us.

And God, we recognize that we can't truly love until we've accepted your love.

We ask your Spirit to empower us, to strengthen us, to encourage us, to inform us, to convict us, to teach us, to rebuke us where needed, to guide us, comfort us, Lord.

May we walk out of here free from the bondage of sin because you've set us free.

May we trust in the powerful name of Jesus to conquer the dark and may we walk in your light.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.