John 15:18-27

Hey, friends. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us.

Glad to have you back, even if we're a day late.

Good to be back together as we work our way.

Continue to work our way through the gospel of John.

We find ourselves in the 15th chapter.

The 18th verse.

Pretty hard turn if you've been with us.

Jesus has been talking to the disciples about his commandment

and loving them and loving others and seeing the father. And,

we have those posted.

If you didn't get to those studies

and you'd like to, you can certainly go back and get them.

But today, Jesus,

takes kind of the opposite approach, goes back the other way,

and this is really important in the Gospel of John.

We'll talk all this through, but some, pretty blunt language here to start with.

So let me start reading verse 18.

And, maybe we'll just finish the chapter quickly here.

If the

world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.

If you belong to the world, the world would love you as its own,

because you do not belong to the world.

But I have chosen you out of the world.

Therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you, servants are not greater

than their master.

If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.

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

But they will do these things 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 sin.

But now they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me hates my father.

If I had not done among them the works that no one else did,

they would not have sin.

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

It was to fulfill the word that was written in their law.

They hated me without a cause.

When the advocate comes, whom I will send you from the father,

the spirit of truth, who comes from the father, he will testify on my behalf.

You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

So we introduce a

concept here that's going to matter in the Gospel of John.

And that's the idea of a kind of animosity between

the faith or Christians,

followers of Jesus and the world, and it it is important here

that we understand what John has in mind when he uses this phrase world.

He doesn't have in mind

our life experience on the whole,

but specifically that idea of our sinful nature, the part of our sin

in our society and ourselves that push back on the teaching of Jesus.

And in the Gospel of John, there is a very clear

conflict between Jesus and the world.

Now, keep in mind that Jesus has already said, I've come to save the world,

but here world represents for John

this kind of animosity, both within us and outside of us,

that pushes back against Jesus and those who follow Jesus.

And, Jesus has strong language here, Michael.

We're going to see more of this in a chapter. So,

but I think,

again, it's maybe an important place to remind people

that this likely comes from.

John is likely written at a time in which

the church is experiencing some of the world's hatred.

And so these words have a

a purpose, part of which is to comfort

those who are struggling with the quote unquote world.

Let's talk about that idea of purpose, because I think that this is essential

to get this out right.

As we start this text, let's not beat around the bush

what Jesus is doing here is he's doing a descriptive work.

He's saying that if the world hates you,

then remember it hated me before it hated you, right?

He's not saying go and make the world hate you.

This is not Jesus giving commands

to go find as many ways to make the world.

And I think you're right to want to tease out exactly what

Jesus means by that.

But he's not saying, go make the world hates you.

That's how you know you're following that.

That's not the point.

This is Jesus revealing something

that will be in the experience of Christians innately,

because of the fact that they are following Jesus.

It is a natural repercussion that when you live in the kingdom of God,

that that kingdom is going to find the borders of the kingdom of the world.

And I think that you're you're right to call to mind, Clint,

that text that we have in John chapter three, that God so loves what the world.

So clearly there's a play happening here between the world that God loves

and the world that is going to hate those who follow Jesus.

And ultimately that this is where this crossover becomes so important.

Really, this this gospel, I think, has shown us

that hatred throughout because the Jews, as John has called

them, have been dead set against Jesus this entire time.

And I don't think John would use the world to describe that, that group.

But it is a kingdom set against Jesus.

The world is whatever power sets itself against the power of Jesus Christ.

That the the world is whatever seeks to glorify itself

over glorifying the one who has come to reveal God.

And I think when we get to the end

of our discussion here today, you're going to see

that how Jesus wraps up this section is an important way

of understanding what Jesus means at the front end.

So make sure that you stick with us to that.

I just think it's worth noting here that what we have

happening here is Jesus providing some structure

and meaning for the early church, for the early Christians to understand.

Don't be shocked when hatred comes your way, right?

That is a very different reality than saying

your goal is to go and make yourself as hated as possible.

And that's not what's happening here.

Certainly in there's maybe

a clarification to in this world, this word hate

that the world displays toward believers, toward Jesus hate here is

what we think it is.

It is a feeling or an emotion, but also scripturally.

Hate is to mistreat, to abuse.

And so the world has abused, mistreated

Jesus, misunderstood, accused Jesus.

And so Jesus says to the disciples, if you're following me,

I've shown you the way I am, the way we've just had this long conversation

about staying close to me, seeing the father doing what I do.

And Jesus says, if you do that,

then do not be surprised if it doesn't go over well.

And I think this is an important word to us, Michael, because we can

sometimes be drawn to the idea that

if we're doing things well, right,

if we're living the faith, if we're pursuing Christ,

then we will be blessed that things will go well for us.

And there is language like that in Scripture, but it's tempered

with this other language that says, look, we follow the crucified one.

We follow the one who was accused of blasphemy.

We follow the one who is ridiculed and rejected and accused

and do not be surprised

when you who bear his name, find yourself at odds

with the same world that didn't tolerate him.

And this is both a challenge and a comfort

to a church in John's time that is suffering, that is living under

that experience of of being persecuted, of being abused and oppressed.

And there's a sense in which Scripture

always says to us in those moments, well, yes.

What what did you expect?

What else did you think would happen? And

we are so

blessed in the American church to live

in a place of prosperity and freedom, that

sometimes that's a message that I think gets lost on us.

But scripturally speaking, there is always an expectation

that faith, while it makes us better

in some way, will also make life in the world

more difficult because we are taken out of the world

and given a new set of standards and a new way to live.

And that puts us at odds with the common practice of the world around us.

It it happened in the first century.

It continues to happen in the 21st century.

And so I think there is is wisdom here.

I think these kind of passages,

though, they can be misinterpreted and misunderstood.

They're important for us.

What they absolutely are at some of that is because I think we also take

for granted that people will accept Christian faith in its basic form.

And I want to direct your attention here to what I think

is one of the most important parts of this passage that comes in verse 21.

It's the because statement.

I think

if you've got your Bible in front of you, you underline the end of that sentence

because they do not know him who sent me, right?

Why do they do all these things?

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

Jesus said, that is absolutely critical because ultimately,

Christians are not going to be hated because they went out of their way

to make everybody angry.

Christians are going to be hated because when they reveal God to the world,

the world does not recognize the one who sent them.

That the Christian witness is Babel.

It's meaningless.

In fact, in many places it is the source of mockery.

The Christians throughout time

have experienced at the proclamation of the gospel ridicule.

And, you know, I think some of that exists in the modern world.

Certainly you have the atheists who who will reject the idea of God completely.

You have the person who is ambivalent and says, you know,

I don't really know what to believe.

And there's something in the middle, the Christian who's convicted

by the gospel, as John tells it, is that it has some world

and then ultimately life orienting order to it

that this gospel is going to put us in a new kingdom

with a, with a new center, with new values and with new relationships.

And it's going to even transform our understanding of who we are ourselves.

And if that's the true reality of what it means to be Christian as Jesus

teaches it, then most certainly that is going to be foreign to the world. Why?

Because they don't yet know the revelation of the father.

They don't yet see through Jesus Christ that the lenses do not allow them yet

to see the world in that way, and so therefore it is rubbish to them.

It is foolish to them, and Christians are ultimately going

to be pushed out and in these words, hated because of it.

And I think we we have to understand

that this is boiling down to who Jesus represents.

It's the father.

It's not because Jesus is out, just rabble rousing.

It's because when he portrays God in the world that cuts

against the value structure of a world that would prefer to be its own God.

Right?

When Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God, when

Jesus says, I and the father are one, and I do the works of the father,

what Jesus advocates is a life in which obedience

and passion for God

is at the center, and to be at the center.

That means faith has to dislodge anything that's already there

wealth, power, and self.

And as Jesus

pushes against wealth and power,

it is no surprise that it pushes back, right?

The the world doesn't want to hear this.

The world doesn't want to hear that.

Wealth and power are not the center of life,

that wealth and power do not make a person worthy.

Do not give a person special place.

The Pharisees, the religious leaders, do not want to hear that

their system is flawed and helpless due

to their own sinfulness and their own brokenness.

Of course, the world is going to push back

on anything that tries to push those

those treasured

idols out of the middle of our lives.

And we should be not surprised when it happens, both internally

in our in our own hearts and externally in the world around us.

And this is such an important theme for Christians.

Again, we we live in a society that even not only tolerates

Christianity, but often likes to think of itself as Christian.

And so one of the things that we conceive of is that one

can be a good Christian and good citizen, and that those two things

mash up, that they're necessarily kind of the same.

And they are compatible in many ways.

But ultimately, what Jesus proclaims

is that when you have to choose,

you are to choose the cross as the center.

You are to choose Christ as the center.

And if Jesus is the center, nothing else can be.

Our identity can only be found in him, and whatever is displaced

from the middle

is likely not going to be happy about it.

And so there is a tension in in us

and in the broader world between faith

and what we might say, worldly ness

and this this is important for everyone.

But I think this is a

I think this is a difficult and,

Just crucially important thing

for American Christians to think about this.

It is not that we should hate the world, and it is, as you said, Michael,

not that we should seek to be hated by the world, but never should

we think that the world and the faith are going to be friends there.

There will always be the question

of what gets to be first, what gets to be at the center.

And for Christians, we we have already answered that.

And the world at some moment is going to be unhappy with our answer.

Well, no matter how good the world is or no matter how polished it

is, it's the world.

And ultimately, when it meets the face of Christ, it will

it will fall, it to the reality of who he is.

I just I do have a caution for us all.

I think here, as we come to the end of the study,

I would caution you in verses 24 and 25 to to not yet

really hurt by the theological depths of what is Jesus talking about here?

You know, is he giving us some sort of,

in-depth theology of salvation?

I would encourage you to read this at a very devotional,

sort of just with the text level.

And ultimately, one of the reasons why all of us are repelled

by Jesus is because he reveals the truth about us.

And Clint, the truth is that we are broken and that reality,

even if you've heard it before, if you've been in church for a lifetime, friends,

we are repulsed by that core revelation of Jesus that shows

us that in the light of his glory

and grace, our darkness and brokenness and our ill intentions

and our complicated motivations, and even at our best,

the ways that we make it about ourselves

and that we find even in love, ways that that love enriches us.

That that in light of Jesus and His purity and perfection,

we see a very dark side

of the brokenness of the world in ourselves.

And that is repulsive.

I think there's a way in which we come to even hate that thing we find in ourself.

And the question is, will we turn to this advocate?

Right. Well, we accept the one who's come to us.

Will we hear the truth?

Will we see God as Jesus reveals him?

Because if we do, then we discover good news.

Yes, the first news is really bad news that that we at our core are broken.

At our core.

No matter how much we try to hold it together, we can't fit all of the pieces.

The good news that if we look to Jesus, there is a right ordering

that if we trust Jesus, there's a gravity capable

of keeping it together, that there is good news to be heard.

But Jesus is first bad news before he's bringing the good news.

And that is a really inconvenient reality.

That's an inconvenient truth that we have to grapple with,

that the world sometimes does hear the gospel more clearly than we do.

They understand the implication,

and it's a repulsive implication that we can't do with ourselves.

The Christian gospel, the good news, what we call the good news is

that even if we can't hold it ourselves, Jesus has done for us

what we couldn't have done for ourselves.

And if we trust him, if we look to him, then the father will work in

and through us.

It would be wonderful if,

having made that faith, commitment, that struggle internally went away.

But from the first pages of Scripture,

we see the reality that human beings

are selfish, self-centered, and sinful,

and therefore the tension between faith

and disobedience, believing and non-belief

following and selfishness,

they're inherent in life and that and they never go away,

so that our faithfulness becomes

the ongoing task of saying yes to Christ, even when it means

saying, and maybe especially when it means saying no to the world.

So this is never something from which we are exempt,

as if the people who get it get it, and they don't have to worry about it.

That's not true, that that battle rages within us

each and every day, and we have a constant struggle

to put Christ in the center of our life

where he belongs, and to keep our faith, keep him there through our faith, and

and not let our self selfishness

or the world around us dislodge that.

And let's not quit here without the last verse that's important.

You are to testify because you've been with me from the beginning.

Jesus makes it abundantly clear in red letters

to the disciples, to you your job is to testify.

Now, of course, this is a theme throughout John.

We've mentioned it before, but I just want to make sure

that we understand the reason that we will find ourselves

hated by the world is if we follow Jesus's command to testify.

If we say if we reveal, if we live in the world

in such a way that Jesus is seen in us,

then we will not be greater than the master.

So do the work. That's really the message of this text.

Do the testifying.

Live into the world, pointing others to Jesus.

Show them that when they look to you and they see the life of Jesus,

that they see the life of the father.

When you do your work, the testifying, don't you be surprised

that the world will hate you, because when you do the work of testifying,

that is both bad news before it's good news.

And ultimately, anytime we see the revelation of Christ,

there's the threat that we would choose our own way over his way.

So do you do your job? That that's the point.

Do your job to testify.

Everything else will follow.

Yeah, I would say never.

And we can talk about this tomorrow. Will follow up a little bit.

But the call here is not one of attack.

It is one of endure.

It is one of remain faithful and it is one to be aware.

We are not called to hate the world in kind for its hatred of us,

nor are we called to attack the world for its worldliness.

We are called to be aware of the world as we seek, as

to the very best of our abilities to be faithful to Jesus Christ,

even if it means animosity from the world around us.

That's a great last word, and it's one of the classic.

There's so much easier to say and do.

We all live our lives trying to live into the reality of that exact reality?

So thanks for being with us here today.

Give this video a like if you found it helpful, it has engaged you

or it has been helpful in your own study.

Certainly subscribe so that you can follow along with the studies like this.

And we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.