Study Eleven: HE DIDN’T SAY IT WOULD BE EASY.

TAKING IT IN:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

²⁶ “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. ²⁷ And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you.    John 15:18 – 16:4

GETTING AT IT:

There is a misguided assumption, sometimes fueled by preachers of a “happiness gospel,” that believing in Jesus should mean an easier life.  To be sure, faith in Jesus means a better life – every spiritual blessing that accompanies forgiveness and eternal life; but Jesus didn’t promise health, wealth and an easier life.  More than once he told his followers to deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow him.  Identifying with Jesus will bring the world’s hatred.  The Christian’s moral life stands in judgment of the world’s immorality; and people apart from Jesus hate that.  The Christian’s certainty about absolute truth stands in sharp contrast with the world’s claim that truth is somewhere between unknowable and purely subjective; and no one wants to be told that he is wrong.  The Christian’s witness to Jesus as the only way to God and everlasting life with him challenges the illogical argument that there are many ways to perceive of God and many roads to him despite these “many” being mutually contradictory.

Like the disillusioned followers who abandoned Jesus in John 6, some people walk away from the Savior when they realize that faith in Jesus may separate them from friends and family and put them at odds with the conventional wisdom of their culture.  Others drift away from the Savior when hardship impacts their life, contrary to the easy life they expected.

Ridicule, the loss of friends, maybe even the loss of a job are possible consequences of confessing Christ in the western world.  Elsewhere, imprisonment and even execution await those who take up the cross and follow Jesus.  Jesus warned us; the world hates.

DIGGING INTO IT:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.”

The term “world” refers to everything that the fall into sin brought about in opposition to God – belief systems, institutions, and powerful people.  In Ephesians 2 St. Paul described the condition before faith in Jesus as “when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.”  That ruler, Satan, Jesus referred to as “the prince of this world.”  There are only two camps – falling in line with the world or belonging to Jesus. Hebrews 11:3 says of those who died in faith: “They admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.”  Inside the world’s camp you are loved by those who share a worldview opposed to Jesus.  Outside the world’s camp you will be hated by the world.  In contrast, neither Jesus nor his followers hate people who belong to the world.  They are loved by God and sought out by Christians who want to share the joy of the Gospel. 

The world’s hatred is a response to Jesus first, then to those who own him as their Master.  It’s not about you.  To openly identify with Jesus is to draw persecution from those who reject Jesus and welcoming agreement from those who confess Jesus.  Again, there are only two camps; there are no “free agents.”  These words of Jesus aren’t a popular recruitment poster; but then faith isn’t exactly “signing up.”  Jesus tells us that he has chosen us out of the world.  He reached out to us, not the other way around.  His Gospel warmed and won our hearts as the Holy Spirit drew us to Jesus. And in knowing Jesus, we know God the Father. People may think they know God in some other belief system, but apart from Jesus they cannot know God.  Jesus says so.

²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

Jesus isn’t suggesting the possibility that some people are not guilty of sin.  Romans 3:23 places every human being under the curse of sin when it says: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  The apostle continues in verse 24: “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  All people’s sins have been paid for by Jesus’ death, and God freely forgives; but to reject Jesus is to reject that forgiveness and remain accountable for sin. That is what the Jewish leaders who hated Jesus did.  Their accountability and guilt is far greater because they saw the Son of God, heard his words from the Father, witnessed the miracles that testified to who he is.  In John 3 Jesus said: “Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”  In John 12 Jesus said: “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.”

Jesus points to the hatred of those who rejected him as fulfillment of prophecy. “In their law,” Jesus says, indicting them from the Scripture they claimed.  That prophecy is in Psalm 69:4.  We might miss the prophetic nature of David’s words in the psalm if Jesus didn’t make the connection.  Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament unveil from the Old Testament the countless passages that point to the Messiah and salvation in him.

²⁶ “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. ²⁷ And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

Three times in chapters 14-16 of John Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit, who would “teach and remind” “testify about Jesus,” “convict the world of guilt,” and “guide into all truth.”  He is called the “Advocate” because the Greek word is a legal term referring to someone who takes your side and pleads your case.  The word has also been translated as “Counselor” and “Comforter,” for it literally describes someone who stands at your side.  The Holy Spirit’s work is everything that pertains to our life of faith.  Jesus here calls him the Spirit of truth, for he inspired the Holy Scriptures and convinces us by those Scriptures of the truth God has revealed about himself and our relationship with him.  His role, Jesus says, is to testify to the Savior.  Everything about Christianity centers on Christ, and the Spirit’s work is to keep us focused on Christ.

The phrase in the Nicene Creed, “who proceeds from the Father and the Son,” is based on verse 26.

It is not only the Holy Spirit who testifies about Jesus.  The disciples (learners, followers) are to become apostles (those sent on a mission).  They who were eye-witnesses to what Jesus said and did are sent to bear witness to him.  Earlier, in Mark 13:11, Jesus tied together their witness, the Holy Spirit’s witness, and persecution for that witness.  He said: “Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say.  Just say what is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.”  While the injunction to testify about Jesus and the promise of the Holy Spirit’s assistance were given to the first disciples, Christians today have the same mission and the same promise.

“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you.   

You’ve probably heard the maxim “forewarned is fore-armed.”  If persecution came as a sudden and violent surprise, followers could become disillusioned and fall away from faith.  Jesus prepared his disciples for what would come, so that they would be forewarned and fore-armed. To be put out of the synagogue meant not only excommunication from one’s religious community, but also ostracism from family and friends.  This was a threat to keep dissenters in line; and it was the experience of Jewish believers in Christ.  Misguided zealots would go further.  From Stephen to the Christians Saul (later named Paul) captured and condemned to death, following Jesus would mean execution.  The hatred Jesus spoke of in the verses earlier would be acted out by people who convinced themselves that they were doing God’s work.  Such extremism was the result of their refusal to believe who Jesus is and, therefore, who the Father is.  “Their time” would come, and tradition tells us that all the disciples except John died as martyrs (the word means “witness”).

Till this point, the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus hadn’t needed to so bluntly prepare his disciples for the cost of discipleship.  He hints at his ascension to heaven as he informs them of what lay ahead.  May we be forewarned and fore-armed for the opposition that our faith may meet.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:

We live in a world of gray, moral positions muddied and religious convictions blurred.  So-called postmodernism makes truth indistinct, whatever one believes to be true.  Into this gray world Jesus speaks black-and-white truth.  What contradicts his word is falsehood.  There are choices to be made.  One cannot have one foot in the world and the other in the kingdom of God.  Think about some of the choices God is calling you to make, and the impact those choices have on who you are.

SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT:

Read John 17:14-18, where in his prayer to the Father Jesus identifies his followers as IN but not OF the world.  What does that mean in practical terms?  What happens if Christians withdraw from the world?  What happens if they adopt some of the worldview of the world and appear to be OF the world?  How do we live out the delicate balance of IN but not OF the world?

SOMETHING TO PRAY ABOUT:

There are Christians living under the threat of death for their faith, especially in areas of the world where radical Islam is in control.  Pray that these brothers and sisters in faith will have the courage to face persecution and the peace in knowing that they are by that persecution identified with their Savior.

SOMETHING TO DO ABOUT IT:

One way that Christians testify about Jesus is with letters, emails, text messages, and social media posts.  Choose one such means and at least one person to whom you can testify for Jesus.  Many have found that quoting a Christian author, attaching an article, or suggesting a book is an effective way to testify to someone who is uncertain about what to believe.

To learn more about the persecution of Christians around the globe, look on-line at the website for “Voice of the Martyrs.”

SOMETHING FOR FURTHER STUDY:

Read 1 Peter 4:12-19 where this apostle, soon to be martyred, talks as Jesus did about the suffering for the faith that a Christian can expect.