INTRODUCTION: A clear indication of one who is a true disciple of Christ is that they will be rejected and hated by most of the world; there will be some blessed exceptions (LUKE 10:16; JOHN 13:20). Yet when we remember that we are only pilgrims passing through this world of sin (HEB 11:13; 1 PET 2:11), that this isn’t our home, but we are on our way There, that we aren’t settlers of this world but recruiters for the Kingdom of GOD, desiring to populate that heavenly domain more and more – then the sting of that rejection and hatred is lessened.
We cannot hope to follow the LORD without incurring the same reaction from the world that He received. As I’ve often quoted,
“If you want to see the world’s hatred for GOD, just look at the Cross of Christ. And if you would rather look at GOD’s love for the world… just look at the Cross of Christ!”
In the previous study we wrote:
“Think of who Jesus Christ is: He is GOD made flesh, love and truth, grace and peace personified. Tell me, what is so hateful about this Man? And yet the world does hate Christ, or to be clear, the biblical Jesus (not the Hollywood version, not the Social Gospel version, not the New Age version nor any of the other user-friendly versions).
JOHN 7:7
"The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.
“Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth. The world hates both, due to pride. Pride wants to merit everything based on its own so-called goodness and nobility, apart from grace. Pride is offended if the truth of its corruption is identified and condemned. This is why the world loves darkness that not only covers up its flaws but also promotes lawlessness.
JOHN 3:19
"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
JAMES 4:4
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
“We can be friends with the world in the sense of bringing them into reconciliation with GOD (THAT is a true friend indeed!). We’re conducting ourselves as faithful ambassadors of Christ, just as Christ came to bring us sinners to the Father (2 COR 5:20-21; MATT 9:13; LUKE 19:10). We can’t be friends with the world in partaking of sin, having fellowship with them in carnal, sinful ways that compromises our walk. The age old example is for someone unredeemed saying to the Christian, “C’mon! Have a drink with me! What’s it going to hurt?”
“Tragically, while the ‘worldly Christian’ is rather common, it should be an oxymoron, a stark contradiction.
“We are to abstain from those things that war against us (1 PET 2:11), from all things that have the substance of evil (1 THESS 5:22). We are strangers and foreigners in this world – making our pilgrimage through it, not put down roots as settlers!
JOHN 15:19
"If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
“If you’re being mocked, ridiculed, hated by people around you, just because you are a follower of Jesus and His ways, rejoice – their persecuting you is a sign that you don’t belong to this world, but belong to GOD!”
So now we continue in Part 3 of 3 in Chapter 15:
JOHN 15:20-21
20 "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 keep yours also. 21 "But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
We Christians generally speaking in the Western culture, and especially here in America think somehow that we are entitled to life on the Christian Easy Street. That GOD wants us peaceful, prosperous and unperturbed in our daily life. How different a perspective that is from Christians in Islamic or Communist countries where persecution is an everyday reality.
I think at least in part, our Christian heritage in America has produced soft-bodied saints that don’t know REAL persecution. And having a life of relative ease, comfort and material abundance, this has been a great distraction from our lives as disciples of Christ who are called to bear their crosses daily, die to self and grow in Christlikeness.
Satan’s tactic here in the West is different. Elsewhere he uses persecution. Here he uses prosperity. The weapon of persecution however always backfires and brings refinement and resolve among the saints. His weapon of prosperity can and too often does bring lukewarmness as ably demonstrated by the Laodicean church (REV 3:14-22).
That being said, the LORD uses other means to saints here in America to bring refinement via trials and tribulations. As of this date, I’ve been enduring the trial of cancer, and have learned A LOT from this experience and no doubt will learn more. If the LORD heals me in the here and now, I’ll carry these valuable lessons of truth with me to bring the same comfort to other sufferers with which I myself have been comforted by the LORD GOD (2 COR 1:3-5).
Our LORD Jesus is truly amazing! Think about this: He is actually the Eternal Almighty GOD manifested in a Man (the hypostatic union: fully GOD and fully Man). He is worthy beyond estimation of our greatest worship, service, honor, love, devotion as well as authority and rule. But that’s not how He came – He came lowly and meek. The Almighty Eternal GOD came as a servant, and to serve in the greatest example (bar NONE) of utter and complete humility. To suffer and die for the sins of all humanity, this GOD Man Who is absolutely holy and innocent!
And this amazing Person with all of His sacred virtues is the most vilified, hated, repudiated individual by the majority of humanity. GOD Almighty – a reject??!
It was the same in the days of Samuel the prophet!
1 SAMUEL 8:5-7I tear up every time I read this passage, thinking of how tenderly and carefully GOD led Israel by His hand through the wilderness (JER 31:32), much as you see a parent holding the hand of their child as they cross the street. And yet for all of His care and consideration in provision and protection, leading millions of Hebrews through the wilderness, putting up with their whining and complaining and accusations and depositing them in Canaan, true to His word only to have the Hebrew nation generations later, reject their Holy King for a human king, a sinner to rule over them.
5 and [the people] said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.
So if people you know reject you, mock the Gospel you’re trying to share with them, disparage you and shake their head at you, don’t get discouraged. It’s really not you they’re rejecting, it’s your LORD and Savior.
Whatever persecution we may (or have) suffer in America – mild in comparison to other countries that don’t enjoy our freedoms – let it be understood:
MATTHEW 5:10-12Let us keep the eternal perspective: whatever form of suffering we are called of GOD to endure, let’s understand that it’s not just about life in this world. There are eternal rewards for faithful service and faithfulness that will outlast this universe. We know GOD is enormously generous and that His rewards will be incredibly abundant! We have the very words of the LORD Jesus on that!
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
MATTHEW 5:43-48
43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
“…Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven…” The Omnipotent, Eternal GOD is saying “GREAT is your reward” and if He calls such reward great, you can be sure that to us, it will be mind-blowing! All simply for loving and serving the LORD no matter how harsh life may get, no matter how much we might get pounded on the anvil of circumstances.
GOD is sovereign, in control of the life of the saint. Nothing can get to you unless it first passes the desk of Jesus Christ where He either authorizes it or veto’s it.
JOHN 15:21
"But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
The world accepts the idea of ‘God’ in very nebulous, vague and general terms, but even these have the prerequisite of conforming to its own ideas of “who God is”. That version of God is not the GOD of the Bible, rather it’s setting up a false god that they want to worship – and because they themselves established the parameters of “who God is”, they’re actually just worshiping themselves in a false religious system.
They don’t know Jesus Christ, nor do they know the One that sent Him. Because they don’t know the Father, much less love Him, they don’t receive the witness of GOD’s children and persecute them (“all these things they will do to you for My Name’s sake”). If saints were of the world, the world would love its own (vs. 19).
Yet there are those few who do or will receive the witness of the saints, that is the testimony of Jesus and His gospel, and in keeping GOD’s Word, they will also keep the word spoken by His ambassadors, pastors, evangelists just as they received the Word from Christ’s apostles.
Knowing GOD and His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ is in a very special sense. It’s not knowing Them in a generic sense, or even in a historical setting (only), but knowing Them personally. Knowing GOD in an intimate and dynamic way results in a spiritual reality that all saints possess:
JOHN 17:3On that dreadful day, upon hearing some professing “believers” say, “LORD, LORD…” and the LORD’s response – He didn’t confront them based on their works, or their professing Him to be LORD – what did He say to them?
"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
MATTHEW 7:23There is a union between Savior and saved sinner that grows during that aspect of salvation we call sanctification (growing in Christlikeness). There is a mutual knowing as both come into union (and communion; 1 COR 6:17). And of course this union extends to the Holy Spirit and the Father as well (1 COR 6:19; JOHN 14:23). But among these false believers, all they have are these (apparently) self-appointed works but no knowledge after this fashion, of Christ; no union, no fellowship; not any more than the religious world at large does (JOHN 1:10).
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
And it’s these religious types that hate and persecute GOD’s saints and the light we bear.
JOHN 15:22-23
22 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 "He who hates Me hates My Father also.
Christ spoke, and His Word illuminates and makes manifest that which is hidden undercover. That which is hidden in the heart of man is iniquity (MATT 15:11, 18-20) and when exposed, the pride of man is wounded and being thus wounded, he retaliates with hatred and violence.
We know that the Father has rendered all judgment for the Son in order to evaluate and to render decisions in The Court of Christ. And even while on Earth, because He is the Light and makes manifest the darkness in humanity, His judgment is true and just. Sinful man hates the justice of GOD, preferring rather his own lawlessness and, or their false religious systems.
On that Day of Judgment, there will be no plea bargaining, no “greasing the Judge”, no early parole – all decisions are final and as sure as hell itself. No one will be able to utter a word in self defense while in the presence of GOD – they will be utterly silent and convicted by their own sin:
ROMANS 3:19-20I can’t think of anything more terrifying than if I was without the righteousness of Christ clothing me and standing before the Holy GOD with all my wicked history and current wicked heart exposed to His fiery eyes! THANK YOU LORD for saving my soul!!!
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
JOHN 15:24-25
24 "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 "But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'
Those works He did that no one else did – He is referring to the Messianic Miracles He performed, recorded in Scripture that the Pharisees would be well versed in, proving that He is indeed the Messiah, King of Israel.
No one since the nation of Israel had been established had ever been healed of leprosy. Yet the prescribed offerings to be sacrificed in the Temple for such a healing was there in the book of LEVITICUS for thousands of years.
And the only time those offerings were made was in the days of the LORD Jesus, when He healed the leper (LUKE 17:14-16)! He also cleansed the young boy who was made mute by demonic possession, and that was a sign that got the people wondering, “Is this not the Son of David [i.e., the Messiah King of Israel prophesied in Scripture]” (MATT 12:22-23)?
Despite the “infallible proofs” (ACTS 1:3), still He was hated just as much as His Father that sent Him for no justifiable reason (PSA 35:19; 69:4). As we shine the Light of GOD’s Truth and Grace, may we also be blameless before the lost souls of the world and innocent of any false accusations that they make against us (PHIL 2:15; 1 PET 3:16). By this means will we be Able Ministers of the New Testament.
JOHN 15:26-27
26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 "And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
It was with profound sorrow the apostles experienced when they learned that the LORD Jesus would be departing their company soon. Yet our LORD expressly stated that such was not only necessary but beneficial (JOHN 16:7), for He would send “another Comforter” that He mentioned in JOHN 14:16.
The Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in ACTS 2, but He indwelt them when they received Him in JOHN 20:22. Without the Spirit indwelling (enabling and empowering them to live Christlike lives), and His resting upon them (in the anointing of their ministry) the life Christ called them, and us to, would be quite impossible.
The Holy Spirit isn’t an “It” though many mistakenly referred to Him as such (I’ve done it myself) but He is just as much a Person as the Father and the Son; the third Person of the Triune GOD. Three Persons of exact features, powers, abilities, virtues and attributes. They are indistinguishable other than their Personhood and their roles that they fulfill. One is the Father Who takes the lead (just as does any human father in their biblical role), the Son is He Who follows the Father’s lead in obedience as an example to us all who are the children of GOD. And the Holy Spirit is the One Who empowers us to live and love according to His empowerment, and like Himself, always point to Jesus and never ourselves in our witness.
You may have noticed that the LORD Jesus never did anything by His own power, but by the anointing of the Holy Spirit (LUKE 4:18,21; ISA 61:1-2a). He intentionally laid aside His glory (His powers of Deity; PHIL 1:6-7) and depended on the Spirit of GOD to function in the miraculous and in being led to fulfill the Father’s will.
He did this so that we could follow in His footsteps; we could never fulfill the Father’s will by our own power as Christ could, but we can and should follow His example because we have access to the same Spirit of GOD.
Of course Christ walked perfectly due to the fact that He had no impediments for lack of a sin nature; we do – and yet while we can’t walk perfectly as He did, there should be evidence of our ability by virtue of the spiritual rebirth and the indwelling Spirit (1 JOHN 2:5-6).
And evidence is required in order to prove the reality of salvation. It’s vital to understand this fine-line nuance: evidence of spiritual life doesn’t provide that life – no, it only proves it. Lack of any proof doesn’t disannul the reality of a genuine, born again convert, but that proof should eventually reveal the nature of the new life.
Everything that GOD created both in the inanimate and animated world all have characteristics and natural attributes that are evident and revealing.
The sun projects light, heat and gravimetric force, keeping the planets of our solar system lit up, warm and locked in their orbits.
The lion is a predator, sleek, powerful and capable in tracking and capturing prey. They are fiercely loyal in their pride and especially protective of their young.
Humans in their fallen state are sinful, prone towards wickedness and rebellion, expressing a hatred for the light of GOD and a love of darkness. Yet in their regenerated state, with a new nature of GOD’s Spirit indwelling them, they love the light and hate the darkness and thus express the nature of Christ in incremental but progressive ways.
A lack of this expression over a period of time (be it a week or several months) indicates a false convert, lacking fruit. Even a one-day old believer exhibits the fruit of repentance and salvation in a general sense (a hatred for the former life of sin and a love for Jesus and His Word for example).
The Holy Spirit, “the Comforter/Helper/Paraclete” will come, He will testify of the LORD Jesus Christ directly, and indirectly through the witness of the apostles and disciples. Incidentally, the word “witness” in vs. 27 in the Greek is martos, from which we get the word martyr. That’s very telling – that it takes no one less than GOD the Holy Spirit empowering the LORD’s followers with the ability to competently and fearlessly testify of the truth of Christ and His Gospel, even at the cost of one’s own life.
It’s been said of old, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed bed of the church.” And so it is!
And on that note, please remember to pray for the Christian church in Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia as well as those in N. Korea and China.
If you’d like a great app that informs you of the prayer needs of all the nations of the world, check out “Operation World” in your app store or go to www.operationworld.org
This concludes Chapter 15 of JOHN’s Gospel. To complete this Triumphant Trilogy, we have two more to go: Chapters 16 and 17!
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