John 15:18-25: Hated by the World

1 Peter 4:12–14 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Intro

As our world grows increasingly hostile to Christ and Christianity… and there is more and more pressure to hide or be quite about our faith how do we stand firm?

You see the persecution ramping up.

An outright disdain for Christians without even trying to hide anymore.

And more common an absolute hatred even amongst some quote unquote Christian Churches of anything closely resembling a biblical worldview.

As the World ramps up the pressure… what comfort or encouragement does Christ give as we face… for most of us the first time… the hatred and hostility of the world?

Speaking to His disciples, Jesus told us…

The World hates the Church because the World Hates Christ and we belong to Him.

The hatred of the world is a good thing because it gives us an opportunity to live out our faith in a whole new way.

To Share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ and so glorify His name (2 Timothy 2:3).

To identify with Christ and follow in His steps.

Let’s start with point number 1…

I. The World Hates the Church Because the World Hates Christ

John 15:18–20 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 word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

When Jesus said these words it was to both comfort and encourage the disciples.

Well that’s odd… How is a promise of hatred and persecution from the world any kind of comfort or encouragement?

Well remember where Jesus said these words.

Its the night of His betrayal… He’s about to go to the cross.

And Jesus had just given His disciples His vision for the church… what Jesus Himself wants us… His church… to be.

Love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12).

And 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 (John 15:16).

Jesus appointed the Apostles for ministry… to take the Good News of the Gospel and carry it out to the world.

Love and Mission… those are the two identifying markers of a church.

And as they were going out into the world Jesus was preparing them for what to expect.

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you… If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

Their mission was not going to be easy.

They would suffer the hatred and hostility of the world.

And Christ wanted to comfort them that as they suffered for Christ… they would share in the very same hatred and hostility for Christ that Christ Himself endured (1 Peter 4:13, Philippians 3:10-11).

And Jesus wanted to encourage them.

John 16:1 I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

He wanted to encourage them to persevere and endure.

This is the same comfort and encouragement we need today because we ourselves are entering into an increasingly dark and hostile world.

One that is more and more antagonistic to Christ and His Gospel.

And if we are truly going to follow Christ we will suffer the hatred and hostility of the world and we need to be prepared.

As Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

And Jesus said Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matthew 10:16).

Overview

And in this passage He gives two reasons for the hatred of the world… one to comfort and one to encourage to persevere.

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

And 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.

And these are going to be the two focal points of our passage because they both have practical implications for us today as we encounter the hatred and hostility of the world for holding fast to Christ and a clear-spoken biblical faith.

If the world hates us because it hated Christ first then we share in the sufferings of Christ which by our suffering proclaims His glory.

And if the world hates us because we are not of the world then it speaks to our salvation as the people of God and our calling to be holy and distinct from the world no matter how much pressure the world puts on us.

Let’s start first with the comfort that the world hates us because it hated Christ first and when we suffer we share in the sufferings of Christ.

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

Persecution

Now for this sermon to have the weight and the punch it needs… for us to feel what comfort, encouragement, and challenge it has for us today we need to define biblically what it means to be persecuted.

Because one of my biggest pet peeves in ministry is Pastors and other Christians saying we live in America… there’s no way we are persecuted here.

And what that does is rob from you the joy of suffering for Christ’s Name as well as the promises of blessings for standing up under the pressure of the world.

The idea goes… well we don’t get thrown in prison, we don’t get killed, we aren’t thrown to lions… therefore we’re not persecuted.

Look at the Christians in China… look at the Christians in Northern Africa and the Middle East put in prison and literally beheaded for their faith.

Those whom the world was not worthy (Hebrews 11:38).

Amen… those brothers and sisters give a powerful testimony for our faith and we should pray that we would have the faith they do if that’s what the Lord would have for us.

Christians die and suffer all over this world for the name of Jesus.

But to limit persecution to imprisonment and death is to go against the Bible’s very own definition.

Persecution is any time we face the hatred of the world however that hatred is manifested.

Jesus said know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Look at how Jesus defined persecution in Matthew 5:10-12.

Matthew 5:10–12 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Notice what Jesus says.

Blessed are you when others revile you… persecute you… and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

This is a persecution of words.

That word revile means reproach… mockery… bringing shame and disgrace.

Its when the world speaks evil of you on account of Christ… tries to shame… shrink you… put you down.

The floor is not prison, the floor is mockery and reviling.

And also notice its not just for explicitly Christ… as in persecution is only “I hate you because you love Jesus.”

Jesus says blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

For standing fast and holding to God’s Word.

So when you hold fast to the Bible and God’s standard of righteousness… when you go against the prevailing thought and zeitgeist of the world and the world reviles you for it that’s persecution.

So when the world says you hate women because you believe in justice for the unborn and that women do not have the right under any circumstances to murder your baby out of your conviction of Christ and His Word… that’s persecution.

Your a Bigot… Your racist… what do you have against what two people in your own bedroom?

Love is love and only someone filled with hate could say that homosexuality is wrong or that God made them male and female.

Didn’t Jesus say they would lie about you and utter all kinds of evil against you?

That’s not Jesus… you’re not very Christian… God is love and Jesus gets us…

You’re just a pharisee… the real Jesus would accept us like He did at the woman at the well.

All of that stuff is cultural pressure… persecution… to make you conform to the world.

To back off and shut up about God’s standard of righteousness.

The world hates it because as we are going to see it exposes their sin and the world loves darkness rather than light.

So when you feel that pressure and shame about your faith to conform to the world whether that’s for straight up gospel of saying Jesus is the only way or for righteousness’ sake going against the prevailing thought and way of the world… that’s persecution.

And it can be personal as in someone personally reviling you for the sake of Christ…

Or cultural where Christianity and our faith is hated by the world.

And it is hated because you can see just how many Christians and churches have caved and given into conformity to the world.

How many Christians waffle on abortion or homosexuality… divorce… modesty… forsaking God’s own standard of righteousness for the shame that it would bring.

They look just like the world with a little bit of Jesus sprinkled in.

But that is not Christ!

That is not the Jesus of the Bible.

The real Jesus is not kumbaya and buddy-buddy with the world.

If you have a Jesus that is loved by the world… that is not Christ.

He is hated by the world… and if we hold fast to Him we will be hated too.

Going back to John 15 Jesus said If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

World

Now the world as it so often means in John is fallen sinful humanity in rebellion against God under the dominion and control of Satan (cf. John 12:31).

Why Jesus was Hated

And Jesus was hated by the world Because John 7:7 because I testify about it that its works are evil.

And John 3:18–20 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light [Why?] because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

So the World hates Christ because they love their sin.

And they refuse to come to Christ lest their sin, their evil works should be exposed.

They love their sin and they don’t want to give up their sin.

And the light of Christ exposes our darkness and for the elect… that means salvation.

We want our sin exposed because we want to be free of sin.

We don’t want our sin… the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

But the world lusts after their sin… They long for their sin.

They are slaves to their sin and can’t imagine life without it.

They will not worship God or bend the knee to Christ and so they hate Him.

And we see this kind of hard-hearted… unrepentant… willful rejection of Jesus in verse 21.

John 15:21–25 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.”

Jesus says the world hates Him and will persecute Christians because they do not know Him who sent me.

They do not know God the Father.

The Bible says they are dead in their trespasses and sins… alienated and hostile in mind… darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart (Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 1:21, Ephesians 4:8).

So the idea is the reason why the world hates Christ and persecutes the Church is because they are enemies of God and under judgment.

That’s why Jesus says If I had not come and spoken to the, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

Now Jesus does not mean that they would not be guilty at all… Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

What Jesus is saying is that they would not have been guilty of the specific sin of rejecting Him wholeheartedly in the face of His Words and His Works and thereby bringing on themselves greater judgment.

They will be judged according to the light they have received.

All are guilty before God and worthy of condemnation because of the natural light revelation and revelation they’ve received.

Romans 1:19-20 What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them… in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

But greater judgment will fall on to those who reject the greater revelation of Christ Himself like the Jews of Jesus’ day.

Therefore they were without excuse.

And the same thing is true today.

If you’re here, hearing this you are liable to greater judgment if you do not come to Christ.

Because God is holding out the light to you right here.

Jesus said you are either with me or against me (Matthew 12:30).

There is no in between… there is no half in half out on Jesus.

You either love Jesus and repent of your sin… or you hate him.

And Jesus says Whoever hates me hates my Father also.

Jesus is God

There is no loving God… being religious… without coming to Jesus.

John 14:6 I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the only way to be saved and forgiven of all your sin.

He said 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.

Notice Jesus says my Father.

Earlier in John 5:18 the Jews were seeking to kill Him because Jesus was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Jesus is the eternal Son of God incarnate in Human flesh.

This is what the world rejects.

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9).

He is the image of the invisible God… the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3).

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Gospel

To reject Jesus is to reject God Himself and die in your sins (John 8:24).

But the good news of the gospel is that God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

And what does it look like to believe in Jesus?

According to our passage coming to Him and repenting of all your sin.

Dying to yourself… renouncing your sin and trusting in Him alone.

There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved because there is no other sacrifice that can pay for our sins and wash us clean (Acts 4:12).

Those that hate Christ… that reject Christ… that refuse to come to Him lest their evil works should be exposed… they are without excuse…

But all who trust in Christ by the Father’s own testimony in both His Words and His Works (John 5:24, John 4:34) will surely be saved.

John 15:25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: “They hated me without a cause.”

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

When we suffer the hatred and rejection of the world we share in the very sufferings of Christ.

Jesus said this to comfort the disciples and to comfort us today.

Share in Suffering

When we suffer for Christ we follow in the footsteps of the Savior.

We follow the one who laid down His life for us.

There is no reproach or hatred of the world that we should not endure for the sake of Christ because Christ endured the reproach of sin for us.

Therefore Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:3).

This is why Jesus says Rejoice and be glad when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

He’s With Us

When we suffer for Christ, He’s with us.

Know they hated me before they hated you.

He even told Saul: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? (Acts 22:7).

When you suffer Christ is right there with you… He does not leave us or forsake us to suffer on our own.

Truth

When we suffer it bears witness to the Truth.

We give testimony with our lives that the gospel is true.

Christ’s Glory

It brings Christ glory because when we suffer for His Name we say He is God and worthy of all our life.

People of God

And when we suffer its the world’s own testimony that we are the people of God and do not belong to the world.

And that’s point number 2…

II. The World Hates the Church because the Church Belongs to Christ and Not to the World

John 15:19–20 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 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.

This is where Jesus encourages us to persevere and hold fast to Him because we belong to Him and not to the world.

This speaks to our salvation and new identity in Christ.

Before Christ we all belonged to the world.

We were enemies of God… Hostile in mind.

Slaves to sin.

Ephesians 2:1–5 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,… Now who’s he talking to? The Church!… following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

You are not of the world, but you are chosen out of the world.

This speaks to our election in Jesus Christ… how we were chosen before the foundation of the world.

In the Greek there is an emphatic I… I chose you out of the world with the sense that Christ chose us for Himself (Chose is middle voice).

We are saved entirely by His grace, and now we belong to Him.

We are the people of God called out of the world to serve and glorify Him.

That’s what the Greek word used for the church means… ekklesia… called out ones.

We are called out of sin and the world into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

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

And here’s where this really starts to hit home for us… we should look different from the world.

If salt has lost its saltiness its good for nothing (Matthew 5:13).

Here’s the lie… if we look more like the world… then the world will feel more comfortable about Christianity and be more open to Jesus.

And that’s the goal right? To win them to Christ.

But we don’t when them to Christ by becoming friends with the world.

John says Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).

James 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Christians are to look radically different from the World… a whole different way of thinking… speaking… living.

Do not be conformed to the world… do not fit perfectly into its mold (Romans 12:1-2).

Far from belonging to the world we are shine as lights in the world… blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation (Philippians 2:14-15).

The world will not hate a false Christianity that looks little different from itself.

Jesus said A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

Do we look like Jesus?

Or are we capitulating… caving… conforming to fit into the world with our faith?

As R.C. Sproul says if you’ve made friends with the world you’ve done it by compromising Jesus (Sproul, John, St. Andrews Expositional Commentary, 294).

Excommunicated

Here’s the principle that would revolutionize the witness of the church and our call to discipleship overnight.

To be a follower of Christ is to be excommunicated from the world.

Look what Jesus says in John 16 verses 1 and 2.

John 16:1–2 I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

Remember… Jesus is talking to the Apostles and to be put out of the synagogue was to be excommunicated from the Jewish way of life.

We’ve already seen this in John.

With the man born blind that Jesus healed in John 9, his parents to speak in His defense because the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue (John 9:22).

And when the man himself was confronted, he stood firm for His faith in Christ and said If this man were not from God, He could do nothing, and they cast him out giving us a picture of what our faith should look like (John 9:33-34).

To be put out of the synagogue was only to be separated from the spiritual life of Israel… it was to be cut off from even the social and economic life of the nation.

You wouldn’t be able to get a job.

If you had a business you’d lose all your customers.

Excommunication meant you were cut off from family, church, and friends.

You’d lose everything.

The exact kind of discipleship Jesus calls us to.

Luke 14:33 Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

So in coming to Christ we must renounce our sin… we saw that in the first point… and we must also renounce the world.

In every aspect of our life we must be wholly devoted to Him.

Separated Unto the Word

Well what does that look like?

What does it mean to be lights in the world?

Wholly devoted to Christ?

In the world but not of it?

Jesus said if they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

The mark of a disciple… someone chosen by Christ and called out from the world is obedience to Christ’s Word.

In John 8:31 If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.

To be in the world but not of it is to separate ourselves unto the Word of God.

This is what it says about the People of God in the book of Nehemiah that they separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God… [with an] oath to walk in God’s Law [and obey all His] commandments (Nehemiah 10:28-29).

To not intermarry with the people of the Land but to remain holy and distinct and not to participate in the ways of the world but keep the Sabbath (Nehemiah 10:30-31).

That is a picture of what we are to be as a Christian church today.

Holy and distinct…

Steadfast…

Faithful to the Lord no matter how much pressure the world puts on us.

Do we live all of our lives according to God’s Word?

If we are… then the world will hate us because the people love darkness, rather than the light.

If we aren’t hated by the World… if our values, lives, and ways of thinking don’t run counter to the world… have we really separated ourselves unto the Word of God.

As Paul said in Romans 12:1–2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

How do you do that?

Separate yourself unto the Word of God.

Hold God’s Word as your highest authority and live all of your life according to it.

Lead your family in it.

Don’t conform to the pattern of this world…

Don’t compromise with it.

Don’t give into the world’s way of thinking… Its customs… its values…

Don’t follow the Norms of this present evil age (Galatians 1:4)..

Offer your body as a living sacrifice and separate yourself unto Christ!

Don’t conform yourself to the pattern of this world… Conform yourself to God’s Word and the image of His Son.

To be a follower of Christ is to be excommunicated from the World.

To die to it. To lose your place in it.

To look for a heavenly home and stop living for the things of this world.

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

Application

Here’s the application… are we living… are we preaching… like we belong to Christ or like we belong to the World?

The World hates the light so when we preach the light… when we live the light… the world will hate us because it confronts them in their sin.

This is why the world persecutes the saints… we as followers of Christ are to be lights of the world.

Our preaching and our holiness should challenge the world and confront them in their sin.

And because the world loves their they try to persecute us and shame us to snuff out the light or make us hide it under a basket so they can keep their sin and their evil works would not be exposed.

The righteous man by existing confronts the world in their sin.

Proverbs says The one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked (Proverbs 29:27).

Does that describe you’re holiness?

Does that describe our holiness as a church?

Are we separated from the World unto the word of God in thought, word, action, and deed?

In 2 Corinthians 2:15–16 Paul says For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?”

To the elect… those who are being saved… we are the fragrance from life to life.

But to the world… those who are perishing… death… an odious stench… but only in as much as we put on the aroma of Christ.

Here’s the convicting thing… the challenging thing.

If Jesus said you are not of the world… therefore the world hates you… and if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you…

Then if we are not hated by the world… if we don’t feel that pressure to snuff out the light… then either we have converted everyone to Christianity… job well done…

Or… we have a faith that looks a lot more like the world than it does Jesus.

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

We should feel like our way of thinking… the way we see the world and how we live in it… runs completely counter to the culture.

There is a part of us that should feel like strangers and aliens in this world because we do not belong to the world (1 Peter 2:11).

Now in a church like ours that holds fast to the world you’re going to feel that.

The challenge for us is to bring all of our life into conformity to Christ.

To consecrate ourselves and all of ourselves unto God and look for ways… and all the ways no matter how small… that we’ve compromised with the world and put those things to death.

Its no coincidence this passage comes right after Jesus told us to abide in Christ.

The more we abide in Christ… the more we will be hated by the world.

And the more we are hated by the world… the more we will share in Christ’s sufferings and exalt His glory as the One who is worthy of all of our life.

If they persecuted me they will persecute you but not if we are not truly living out our faith and holding fast to Christ and his word where the hatred of the world in our culture burns the hottest.

Conclusion

The World hates the Church because the World Hates Christ and we belong to Him.

Jesus said these words to comfort and encourage the Disciples.

To encourage them to persevere and hold fast to His Word no matter how much pressure the world puts on us.

And to comfort them that as they suffer they share in Christ’s own sufferings.

That we share in Christ’s sufferings…

We follow His footsteps.

And that’s a comfort because we are not alone.

As we suffer for Christ with no home in the world… we have a home with Christ and He is with us.

He will not leave us… He will not forsake us.

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me.

Our job is to remain faithful and hold fast to Him knowing that as we suffer we glorify Him and His Gospel that saves us out of the world into eternal life.

Let’s Pray

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