Not of this World (John 15:18-25)

John chapter fifteen, starting in verse 18.

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

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

However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

Remember the word I spoke 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 they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don't know the one who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they wouldn't be guilty of sin.

Now they would not have now they have no excuse for their sin.

The one who hates me also hates my father.

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

Now they have seen and hated both me and my father.

But this happened so that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled.

They hated me for no reason.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you for this morning.

I thank you for your word and for the opportunity to be able to have it in our hands and to hear your divinely inspired, God-breathed word, Lord, in the Bible.

And Lord, I ask that you would fill me with your spirit to teach correctly, that you would fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly divide and discern what is of you.

And that as a result, ultimately, Lord, that we would fall more in love with you, that we would draw closer and closer to you and glorify you in all things.

In your name.

Amen.

Go ahead and have a seat.

Okay.

I'm gonna have to go back a verse just for my own uh well-being here.

In verse 17, starting this whole thing, this is what I command you.

Love one another.

Cool.

Because how many of you counted how many times the word hate was in the passage we're doing this week?

I'm not saying I feel marginalized about the passage I got, but it's uh definitely one of those, like, woo, it'll be good.

Actually, I'm excited about this.

Because it is a transition from Jesus speaking about how they are to treat one another, to love one another, to what to expect from the world.

See, we have been in the Gospel of John for a little while here, and specifically John 13 through 17 is one long meal.

And so this isn't something to where he like stopped and said, chapter 2, and went to the next one.

He's like, new thought, next one.

We're getting the recording of an entire uh discussion here with Jesus and his disciples right before his betrayal, crucifixion, and subsequent resurrection.

And so, with that in mind, this all flows into each other.

So it is not as if Jesus said, This is what I command you, love one another.

A few days later, if the world hates you, understand it hated me before it hated you.

Right into the next thing.

And so that's what we get to unpack today is a transition from how his followers are to treat each other to what they can expect from the world.

And we'll talk about that in a moment.

But first, I want to uh let you guys in on the ground floor of something.

Uh I am going to be launching my own inspirational Christian product line.

And I have a slide for the first picture of that.

Here's the initial art.

I think it's gonna go really well in market.

Right next to too blessed to be stressed.

It's gonna be hated but not frustrated.

We're gonna have persecuted shouldn't look this cute.

We're gonna have all these things all on the same.

Oh, do we only do encouraging copy cup verses?

Okay, anyway, I think it's gonna I think it's gonna be good.

So I appreciate if you can all buy one of them.

That would help me.

No.

We don't say these things.

We don't talk about these things, and if we do, it's kind of angsty because we feel like we've been mistreated.

And that's only usually the time when these passages come up.

And so it's nice to be able to discuss this in the context of what we are going through because this information may be jarring, especially in the context that we live in.

It may be surprising because uh we do have a lot of freedoms and we have a lot of rights, and we have a history of these things here, and we think that's the default.

And so when we look at scripture and it says, hey, the world's gonna hate you, and we go, well, that's not okay, we're gonna have to legislate that away.

But in the reality of the situation, that this is what God is saying will happen, is happening.

And we get to explore what that means for us, and then at the end of it all, spoiler alert, we're gonna talk about how do we interact with the result with the world as a result.

Because this could become a polemic or it could become an apology for scripture, and so we're hoping to just we're gonna go through it with that.

So ultimately, this information is jarring, but it shouldn't be surprising.

And we see that in 1 John 3.13, he straight up says, Don't be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

Don't be shocked.

So that's part of what we're gonna talk about today is don't be shocked that this is a reality.

And then what we do as a result.

Okay.

So starting in verse 18, we see if the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were not of the world, or if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

Okay, first chunk there.

The big picture, which we see indicated here, that he's using the world in the singular form for a little bit here, and then it's gonna switch to a they.

So, first here we're looking at a concept, a paradigm, a culture, the world as a singular entity.

And he's saying here, if it hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.

So there's the precedent.

Jesus is going, first, hated me first, and that is therefore shouldn't be a surprise to them.

Part of what I believe he's telling his disciples is that as this happens, this is normal.

Don't freak out when it happens, and don't feel like you did it wrong because it's happening.

Because they did this to Jesus, who was sinless.

Show of hands, how many of us are sinless?

Uh that, therefore, we can expect all the more so as a result here.

So he's saying, look, if the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated them, the disciples.

Why?

Why does it hate the world?

One little bit of information that we get earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus speaking to his brothers.

His brothers who did not yet believe in him are going, hey, why don't you go up to the feast and prove and prove yourself?

Prove yourself as the Messiah so that you can be seen.

And Jesus says, He's not coming, he'll come later, but he says in verse 7, speaking to his brothers, the world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

So one of the compelling things that we see, which we'll see in a few more verses in this passage, is that the world hates Jesus because he is testifying something about the world that it does not like.

And that is an interesting take in the reality of Jesus' mission to proclaim the good news of the gospel.

Because the good news of the gospel is that we are sinners, enslaved to sin, unable to be made right with God on our own.

And yet he came and lived a sinless life on our behalf, took our sin upon himself on the cross, metaphorically, and paid the price for that sin so that we could be restored to God through faith in Jesus alone.

Which should be good news.

But that's offensive if you start off with you're a slave to sin.

That's where we get caught up.

You're like, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, no, no, not doing that.

And as soon as that we're gonna talk about this spoiler alert, the light is shined on that and it's exposed, then you have to do something with it, and we don't like that.

So, with that in mind, we see the world hates Jesus because he testifies it about it, that its works are evil.

He's revealing something that we would love to avoid.

And then he says, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

So I boil this down to the kingdom.

We see Jesus proclaiming his kingdom throughout the gospel.

The kingdom of God is at hand.

And when he's saying you're not of this world, that we serve the Father, we serve a kingdom of God, not of this earth, not of this world.

And if we did serve the kingdom of this world and subscribe to its cultures, subscribe to its norms, and follow its patterns, the world would have no problem with us.

Why?

Well, because that would be uh what is expected, but it would also not negatively uh look upon them.

So if they were of the world's kingdom, living as the world lives, valuing what the world values, the world would be like, great, you're one of us, go team.

But because they are not of this world, but Jesus chose them out of it, the world hates them.

They are different, they are other, they are foreign to the world.

And that is part of the hatred of what that looks like.

Jesus speaks about choosing them out of this world right before this passage in verse 16.

You didn't choose me, but I chose you.

We also see in Luke 6, same thing when he's choosing the disciple, I chose you.

But because of that, the world's gonna hate them.

And therefore, this hatred is expected.

And this was promise.

This is not the first time God says this.

We saw it in Matthew 10, 22, 24, 9, Mark 13, 13, Luke 21, 17.

Multiple times Jesus is saying, the world's gonna hate you and it's gonna persecute you.

And so just come to expect that because you are different.

Your values have changed, your goals have changed, your master has changed.

So, why would they care and why would they be upset about this?

Something that I have learned from my work adventures and experiences.

I have a knack for work-wise being tossed into a dysfunctional spot and being told, fix it, go.

And then like the district manager walks away and it's like, oh, hey, it's gone, cool.

Uh there is something that I have seen in that, seen in church settings, seen in life settings, that I believe to be true, that helps people, that helps us to understand why we shouldn't be surprised that the world would hate us and hate the disciples.

People in general would rather follow what is familiar, even if it's harmful than what is unfamiliar, even if it's good.

They would rather follow, in general, what they know, even if it is directly bad for them.

We will call that good because we know it in familiarity, instead of something that may be the best thing in the world for us that we are not familiar with.

We value, as people who live in a fallen world, I know this is a surprise, we value what is familiar over the over what is rational.

And if you go, that's not true, let me just present to you.

We had to create empiricism and the scientific method to circumvent that bias.

Because we look at things and we look for what we know.

So part of that, as we know, is that if we Google something, Google does not give us back truth.

Google gives us what we were looking for.

That's that's success in their eyes, and because we get we're like, yay, we found it.

So, with that in mind, the world is always more comfortable with what it knows, even if it's bad.

Than something that is unfamiliar to it, even if it's the best thing in the world.

And we'll look at that in just a second.

But having that said, the reason why I give you that, this is why we shouldn't be surprised.

Because we could have the best presentation in the world, the best gospel presentation, that is the most applicable thing in the world, the most uh natural, the most logical airtight argument.

And don't be surprised if somebody rejects it.

You know why?

We're not the Holy Spirit.

That's how that happens.

It's the work of the Holy Spirit that brings about heart change and salvation and closes and bridges that gap.

So, having that said, why do I say all that?

Just because we shouldn't be surprised that this is how the world works.

Because if we were, if we looked like them, smelled like them, acted like them, they'd be like, hey, I'm cool with you.

Yeah, that's great, and we can we can dialogue.

But if we are not of this world, then that's a problem.

Not only because it's different, but because it calls into question what they hold to be true.

Okay, this will make a little more sense in a moment.

So, in the big picture, the world's gonna hate you.

Well, what does that look like?

Continuing in verse 20.

Remember the word I spoke to you.

A servant is not greater than his master.

Pause there for a second.

When did Jesus say that?

Well, he said it a couple times in Matthew 10, 24 and Luke 6, but it's interesting that in this gospel, most noteworthy, he said that in John 13, 16, which is right between him washing his disciples' feet and telling them to love one another, and Judas betraying him.

And here we are in a passage right between love one another and the world's gonna hate you.

I'm kind of seeing a pattern here.

But what that looks like here is Jesus is saying, a servant is not greater than his master.

If you are following me, you should expect what happens to me to happen to you.

So, what that may look like in action here, a servant not being greater than his master, we're transitioning here to the plural.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will keep yours.

But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don't know the one who sent me.

So we go from a general paradigm of the conceptual world and that conflict to what that looks like, what the people of the world will do as a result, and what we can expect and what the disciples can expect in very visceral form.

If you ever do a study on how the disciples on earth ended up, ain't good.

It's great, but it ain't pretty the uh the martyrdoms that that resulted.

So the only one I'm aware of that didn't uh historically, traditionally have a grisly end was John, because he just wouldn't die despite their best efforts.

So, having that said, it's it's a it's a rough gig, but it's a good one in that sense.

So, with that in mind, him saying, if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will keep yours.

So here's the nice thing is that there should be a consistency between how Jesus was treated and how his followers will be treated.

There shouldn't be a shock and a surprise that we uh his followers, his disciples, and by extension us, would be treated as Jesus was if we are his messengers, if we are doing his work, carrying his message.

It would be kind of weird if Jesus comes, declares the good news of the gospel, which requires repentance and salvation as a result, and people crucify him, and then we do the same thing, give the same message, and people are like, cool, I'm good with that.

That would be odd.

There's a consistency there and a comfort because, well, first of all, it's nice that he's telling them this before they got to see the crucifixion part.

Because if he told them this directly afterwards, that's pretty intense.

So, but he's telling them, look, how they treat you, me, is gonna be how they treat you.

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

The dependency is not upon the disciples, it is upon Jesus, upon the master, not the servant, upon the rabbi, not the disciples.

So, having that said, why will they do these things on the account of Jesus' name?

Because they don't know the one who sent me.

This is what I was talking about a moment ago with the idea of a collision of kingdoms.

They don't know the father.

The one who sent him.

Over and over and over and over in the Gospel of John, we see the one who sent him being identified as the Father.

So they are persecuting Jesus because they don't know the Father.

They will persecute the disciples because they don't obey Jesus.

It's there's a parallel there of what to expect.

And they don't know the Father.

They don't submit to the King.

And we see this paradigm in John 7, 28 through 29, 819, and 855, this idea of them not knowing the Father.

They don't submit to the King.

Rather, I would argue that they follow the ruler of this world.

We saw that last chapter in John 14, 30.

The ruler of this world, the arc primary one in there being the devil.

Which is brutal when Jesus, back in John 8.44, said to the religious leaders, your father, the devil.

That is equating those two, basically, that you are following your father, you are following your leader, who is the devil.

And this is what we wouldn't expect any different from the world at the same time.

Why do they do these things on account of Jesus' name?

Because they are not submitting to the father as the king.

Rather, they are following the ruler of this world, the devil, who is intent on killing, destroying.

So with that in mind, looking in verse 22 through 24, we have an interesting nuance we need to go through.

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

Now they have no excuse for their sin.

The one who hates me also hates my father.

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

Now they have seen and hated both me and my father.

Two ideas in parallel.

If I wasn't here, they wouldn't be guilty.

And they hate the Father and him.

What?

This is why we need to study Scripture as a whole and not just little verses in isolation.

Because if you take a look at just that and don't look at the rest of Scripture, we can go, wait a minute, hold on one second.

Are you saying that they're only guilty of sin because Jesus told them so?

That they were just perfectly fine until he ruined their day?

No, that is not what we're seeing here.

That's not what is in accordance with the whole council of Scripture.

We get the entire book of Romans, but particularly chapters 1 through 3.5-ish, that talks about how the whole world is under sin, enslaved to sin.

And that creation itself testifies of that.

Even before Jesus was there in earth, on earth in bodily form.

So, what this is not saying in the context of all of Scripture is that we were neutral until Jesus told us we were bad, and now we're in trouble.

For those of you who have children, when the response to your correction is, I didn't know that, it still doesn't work.

Same thing here.

So, here, because creation testifies of their sin, the Allah testifies of their sin.

The uh history testifies of that.

So, what does this mean?

Here's what I believe this passage means.

When he says, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty.

Of sin.

Or if I hadn't done the works among them that no one else has done, they wouldn't be guilty of sin.

I would argue that another way of putting this is that they would not feel and be confronted with the guilt of their existing sin had he not shown them that.

The sin was there.

He, being the light of the world, exposed it.

So that is what I believe is most faithful to the whole council of scripture, that the sin was already there.

They just didn't feel bad about it.

Why didn't they feel bad about it?

Because the culture and context of the world that we live in, which falls under the sway of the devil, isn't going to make you feel bad about your sin.

It's probably going to make you feel good about your sin.

Because in that, that's what everybody does.

Because we would rather follow what is familiar than what is good sometimes.

Sometimes what is familiar is good, by the way.

That's not that's the both hands sometimes.

But with that in mind, the light of the world, as we see in the Gospel of John, comes and he shines a light on what is happening.

What does that look like?

I have a slide for that for John 3, 19 through 20.

This is the judgment.

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

For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

This is what I see happening here.

Jesus, we see throughout the Gospel of John being the light, exposes what is there.

People want the darkness rather than the light, because A, their deeds are evil, and B, their deeds are exposed.

If there was no light, they would avoid it.

And so that is what I see on display here.

Here's how I picture this.

Best way that I can put this analogy together.

Imagine you're going to the doctor.

Hope you got a lot of money.

And you uh have your regular, your annual checkup, you're ready to go, you're well checkup, you get your blood test, and the doctor's like, could you tell me about your diet?

Could you tell me what do you what do you eat normally?

And you say, well, actually, I found the best superfood on the planet.

I found it on social media, so it's true.

And here's what I do.

Every day, every meal, I take a Twinkie, and I wrap it in wonder bread, and I dip it in bacon grease, and then I deep fry it.

And I eat that every meal.

And we all know, because it's got four million likes, that is the best superfood in the world.

And the doctor goes, wow! Because here's what your arteries look like.

It's a problem.

You've got a traffic jam.

And then he says, you need surgery imminently, or you are going to die.

Now, it may be reasonable to go, well, to that doctor.

Well, okay, you're a doctor, you see the results, you see the blood tests.

We have our HDL level here, which is horrifying, and I should probably listen to you and we should schedule that appointment.

Now, it might be unreasonable if you go, no, you are wrong.

I know, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is good for me.

How do I know?

Because we all know this is good for me.

Everybody told me this is good.

Everybody's four million little hearts on a social media app can't be wrong.

And then you start to get upset with the doctor.

You are trying to defraud me.

How dare you! I want a second opinion because, and I would love, I just I would like your license to be revoked because you told me such a horrible thing.

Okay, this is an extreme example, right?

But this is how we can expect the world to react to Jesus and his message of the gospel.

Because the message of the gospel begins where Genesis 3 hits of what you do is killing you.

You are enslaved to it.

And then says there is a cure, a remedy, and it requires heart replacement.

That's a metaphor.

And that will be your well-being and salvation.

You can live forever.

But it requires you to submit to that.

Because you can't fix this.

You can't go out and run 10 miles a day and solve this.

It's already in there.

Deed has been done.

You need outside help.

We don't like that.

So, why am I saying this?

Because we see both Jesus' words and his deeds exposing the darkness as the light of the world.

We see in verse 22, if I had not come and spoken to them, they wouldn't be guilty of sin.

And now they have no excuse for their sin.

Verse 24, if I hadn't done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin.

Now they have seen and both hated me and the Father.

So the collision with Jesus' words and works throughout the Gospel of John in tandem require their reaction because they have seen.

In verse 24.

What do you do when you're c when you are confronted with this?

It eliminates the plea for ignorance and it demands a choice.

And thus far, because they don't recognize the authority of the Father, which we see in this passage, they hate the one who does the work of the Father.

They'd rather crucify the doctor than get the surgery.

And so, therefore, by extension, because they hate the son, they're going to hate the one who carries out the message of the gospel.

See how that plays out?

They hate the son because they hate the father.

So they're going to hate the followers because they hate the son.

And we see here, as a result of them being confronted with their sin, in verse 23, the one who hates me also hates my father.

And in verse 24, they have seen and hated both me and my father.

So there is a collision there and a demand for a choice as a result of what has been exposed.

You can either choose health, which in this metaphor is faith in Jesus, repentance, belief, and salvation based on faith on Him alone, based on His substitution sacrifice, and not anything that we have done, or you can try to kill the light so that it's not exposing what's wrong with us.

And that is why there's no surprise here that the world will hate the disciples.

And it should not surprise us if the world hates us if we are following Jesus.

That shouldn't be a shock.

When met with persecution, we should be like, well, yeah, that tracks.

I mean, let's be honest, it's a lot harder real life, real term, than that.

But with that, that is why we see why the world hates the Father.

And then verse 25.

This happened so that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled.

They hated me for no reason.

We get a quote from Psalm 69:4.

Psalms 69:4

And the emphasis here, they hated Jesus for no reason.

They didn't hate Jesus because he was a jerk.

They didn't hate Jesus because he did something wrong to them and he wronged them.

He was sinless.

Their hatred is not dependent on, not dependent upon his behavior.

So, what do I do with that information?

First of all, it's a blessing to know that hatred is by the world as expected and is not going to be something that it's a direct result of following Jesus.

But secondly, they hated him for no reason.

Can we not give the world a reason, please?

Here's because here's what is easy to do when we read these passages.

It's very easy for all of us to do this because who here likes being hated?

That's a very specific small sliver of the population.

Okay.

Yeah.

It doesn't feel good.

We don't like it.

We don't like friction, conflict, in those waves.

What we do not want to be is the Grinch on the mountain, hating the who's.

Looking down at them in their revelry, shouting curses at them.

They don't know.

They don't care.

They can't even hear him.

Don't give the world a reason to hate you.

We're going to talk about this verse in a minute, but the world will know you are my disciples by your grumbling against the world.

No, that's not how the verse goes.

So, having that said, it's it is natural to react to friction negatively and to be hurt by that and frustrated by that.

But we shouldn't be surprised by that, and we should be sinless as a result.

We really don't want to build a culture of hating the world first.

Of being that, like, well, I got the first punch.

So that's not, we don't see Jesus acting that way.

And so I have a slide for 1 Peter 2 here.

11 and 12.

Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles, abstain from sexual or sinful desires that wage against the soul.

Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when, not if, they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day that he visits.

So here Peter is saying, as strangers and exiles, foreigners in this worldly kingdom, abstain from sinful desires, conduct yourselves honorably.

If you are an ambassador that does not give you the license to do whatever you want, that's the challenge.

Rather, conduct yourselves honorably so that when they slander you as evildoers, again, should be expected, they will observe your good works and they will glorify God on the day that he visits.

There's a testimony there.

There's a passage a little bit after that that talks about like um, it's largely in the context, I didn't include it because it's largely in the context of masters and slaves and bondservants, that whole idea, but it's basically like, what good is it if you do the wrong thing and get punished?

That's a duh.

But if you are doing the right thing and get punished, you're blessed for this because the Lord is your avenger.

So, anyway, something to look at with that.

Ultimately, we see this passage.

We see that we should not be surprised.

So we saw a whole lot of, hey, here's what's coming.

Tyle and his disciples, the world's gonna hate you, here's why.

It's a different kingdom, different rules.

You're weird to them.

Your message is offensive to them because it exposes something to them.

So they will treat you how they treat me because they hate my father.

And this is all a result of not doing something wrong.

So, what do we do with this information?

I mean, we're not gonna go back to my brilliant inspirational product idea and go, I'm gonna brand that.

The world hates me.

Man, the mark of a Christian is how much I can have the world hate me.

And it just, that's not quite where we're going with that.

So, what do we do?

Here's what I would suggest from Scripture.

How do we react to the world?

Because it's weird, it's awkward.

I have six points.

I couldn't make seven, I'm sorry.

And I know you all wanted seven.

I have six.

Uh, how do we do?

Well, number one, don't love the world.

Singular.

The culture, paradigm of the world.

I have a slide for John.

First John 2, 15 through 17.

Don't love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride in one's possessions, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

The world with his lust is passing away.

The one who does the will of God remains forever.

Point number one, don't love the world.

And when we see that passage, how do we identify the world here?

By its lusts.

The flesh, lust of the eyes, pride in one's possessions.

He didn't say, don't he didn't say, hate your neighbor, guys.

That's the next product reiterate iteration.

No.

Don't love the things of the world here.

Point number two.

Don't befriend the mindset and the motives of the world.

So we see uh have James 4, 1 through 4.

What is the source of wars and fights among you?

Don't they come from your passions that wage war within you?

You desire and you don't have.

You murder and covet and can't obtain.

You fight and wage war.

You don't have because you don't ask.

You ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?

Whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

So point one was don't love the world.

Point two, don't befriend it.

Don't befriend the mindset and the motives of the world, identified here by its passions and motives.

Because what's interesting here in this passage is it's all internal.

It's the passions and motivations of the world happening within the believer that James is speaking to.

Your passions that wage war within you.

You desire, you don't have.

You covet, you can't obtain, you fight and wage war.

That's what he is arguing with them.

Don't befriend the world with its passions and its motives.

Point number three.

Don't be surprised by or isolate yourself from the people of the world.

We see in 1 Corinthians 5, 9 through 13, Paul was addressing a specific sin in the church of Corinth and telling them, get this person out of there.

Stop encouraging them in their sin.

But here, he says, I wrote you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

I didn't mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, or else you'd have to leave the world.

Actually, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler.

Don't even eat with such a person.

For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders?

Don't you judge those who are inside?

God judges outsiders.

So remove the evil person from among you.

So we shouldn't be surprised by the people of the world acting like the world.

And we also are not called here to isolate from them.

Caveat.

Point one and point two, where don't love the world identifies by its lusts, and don't befriend the world identified by its passions and motives.

If certain people of the world stir up passions and motives in you that make you stumble, yeah, probably should avoid that.

If that is what the result is, that's a problem.

So I'm not saying go out in the world and hug a sinner.

That is not what I'm with that in mind.

What I'm saying is, you know, be careful.

Obviously, we all have points of stumbling, we all have things that can cause us to sin.

So be careful with that, but also we are not called to hate the people of the world who were made in the image of God.

So, we need to separate and differentiate between the culture in the kingdom of the world versus the individual who are slaves to sin just as we were.

So, point number four.

Remember that God loves the world.

So in John 3.16, God loved the world in this way.

He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believed in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

The whole purpose of Jesus on earth is an act of love for fallen humanity, of which we were.

And that is a good thing to remember.

So don't harden our hearts towards people who were made in God's image, enslaved in the same way that we once were.

And then what do we continue to do?

Love one another.

We see, I have a slide for John 13, 34 through 35.

The mark of a disciple is not grumbling, but love.

John 13, I give you a new command.

Love one another, just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

We cannot expect the world to love us.

It would be a little bit concerning.

That should give us reason to double down on loving one another.

And I love how we see that in the first few chapters of Acts, how they took care of one another, how they fed one another, had all things in common, were in fellowship with one another.

Love one another.

I think he said that a few times in this passage.

And then finally, here number six.

Don't be surprised by persecution, but rather rejoice, endure in hope, with a clear conscience.

We see in 1 Peter 4, 12 through 16, dear friends, don't be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you.

Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed.

If you're ridiculed for the name of Christ, you're blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, a meddler.

But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in having that name.

We see in this passage in John 15 that Jesus is telling us, telling his disciples, and therefore telling us, don't be surprised when the world hates you.

That's going to happen.

However, we see throughout Scripture, that doesn't mean you need to hate the world first.

You need to not love the kingdom of this world and not be conform to it, but be conformed to Jesus.

Love one another, don't be surprised by persecution, but rather rejoice and endure in hope and do so with a clear conscience.

Let us be Christians who, when people ridicule us, are ashamed of doing so by how we respond and by how we live our lives and by how we love one another.

It is immensely amazing how the work of the Holy Spirit can happen on the hearts of an unbeliever when they see Christians loving one another with a pure heart.

I'm going to leave you with this.

It's a quote that I loved.

It was attributed to a guy named Theodore Beza.

I don't know who that is.

So, but I love the quote.

It belongs to the church to receive blows rather to inflict them.

But she is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.

So cool.

The idea here is that the church is not a weapon.

It is an anvil, and the hammer that pounds against it will eventually wear down, whereas the anvil holds firm.

That is the uh the lot of the church in that way.

So let us be people who endure with joy under the receiving of blows.

Let us not be people that inflict them, and let us be steadfast and have our hope in Jesus and take care of one another as a result, loving one another, glorifying one another, glorifying Jesus as a result as we do so.

Don't be surprised when the world acts as the world acts, as we used to act.

Don't be surprised by that.

But instead rejoice in hope and set our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher exactly of our faith.

Let's pray.

Oh Lord, I thank you so much for your goodness and your faithfulness in all things.

I thank you for the reality that you are the light of the world, that you are the one who comes in purity.

You are the only one who came in a sinless state to reveal the kingdom of this world for what it is.

I thank you for those of us who know you, that you, by your spirit, have worked on our hearts and have saved us, not by anything we have done or will do, but rather by that salvation on the cross offered to us through faith in you by confession and belief.

I ask, Lord, that we would be followers of you, who are known by our love for one another, who are known by our rejoicing in the midst of difficulty, who are known by our hope for you, and the peace that surpasses understanding that you give, as we see in the Gospel of John.

And if anybody hears this who has not given their life to Jesus, Lord, by your spirit I ask that you would work on their hearts, that they would desire to be set free, that what may sound foreign would sound delightful, because it is so good to be your child.

I ask, Lord, that you would work and convict and encourage and draw as you do, and that they would make that choice today by confessing and believing, by saying along the lines of that, God, I admit that I am a sinner, and I believe that you came and died on my behalf and took the price and the penalty of my sins upon you, and I believe that you can set me free through faith in you, and I want you to be Lord of my life.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.