As you know, earlier this summer, if you've been when
we've been with us, we spent a lot of time in John 13 through
17, but there is one passage that we missed because on July
6th, right after the flooding, Mark chose to preach from Psalm
16 that morning. So this is the passage that we
didn't cover. We didn't want you to miss this
portion of Scripture. So we're returning to it this
morning. You'll see a big portion printed
in your bulletin for us this morning.
I'm going to start with John 15, verse 818, and I'll read to
chapter 16, verse 3. Follow along in your Bible or in
the bulletin. John 1518.
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. If they kept My word, they will
also keep yours. 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.
But when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the
Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he
will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness
because you have been with me from the beginning.
I've said all these things to you to keep you from falling
away. They will put you out of the
synagogue's. Indeed, the hour is coming when
whoever kills you will think he's offering service to God.
And they will do these things because they have not known the
Father nor me. This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Please be seated.
Father, we thank you for this portion of Your word.
We're so grateful for every word that comes from your mouth.
And we pray this morning. That would be food for us, Lord,
that it would encourage us, that it would challenge us, and most
of all, that it would drive us to Jesus.
Lord, help us to know you and help us to cling to You for the
help that we need to live according to your word.
By your grace, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
How do we navigate the waters of life?
Whether life feels like smooth sailing or stormy seas?
How do we know where to go? And is there some fixed point
outside of ourselves that helps us navigate as we return to
these farewell discourses? And John, one last time, those
are questions that for me form a frame around our passage.
And, and they remind me of the North Star, the star that's been
so important to sailors maybe before all the devices that we
have now, but the star that's so important to sailors because of
its relatively constant location.
It's located close to Earth's N celestial pole, and it's that
point in the sky directly above the North Pole.
And so when sailors are lost, if they can just see the North
Star, they can find their way. What's interesting is that it's
not the most impressive * in the sky, but this dim little star
can help us navigate on the darkest night.
So if you think about what Jesus is doing in John 13 through 17,
one way to think about is he's presenting himself to his
disciples as the north, the north star.
For them, He's the fixed point that will help them navigate
every dark night that lies ahead because they're about to face
the darkness of his suffering, and then not long after, the
darkness of their own suffering. And so their hearts are troubled
and think about how Jesus responds to everything going on
in their lives. Their hearts are troubled.
And Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled. believe in
God, believe also in me. And he says, you know, they
don't know where he's going. What does Jesus say?
I am the way they feel unanchored.
And Jesus says I am the vine. Abide in me.
And they're worried about being left alone.
And Jesus basically says, I'll send you the Spirit to be with
you and in you forever. So, so Jesus says so much in
these chapters. But this brief sampling is
stunning because in short, he's presenting himself to them as
the North Star for them and for us.
He's the fixed point as our lives spin around and he's the
light that helps us navigate in the darkness.
But here's the problem. We all need a North Star like
that, but left to ourselves, none of us would choose Jesus.
Our natural inclination is actually to make ourselves the
North Star in life. So what we think, what we want,
what we feel, that becomes our compass.
And so we navigate life and we run everything through a grid of
questions that's really focused on us.
What's fulfilling for me? What's comfortable for me?
What's best for me? When we're the North Star and we
navigate by our own desires, it's easy to see why we just
want a healthier, wealthier, happier life.
Everything in US wants to sail around the storms and avoid the
suffering. And if we know Jesus, we're not
immune to this selfish approach to life.
We can actually see Jesus as the ticket to the healthier and
wealthier and happier life. And we expect that He'll protect
us from suffering and hardship. But God never intended for us to
be our own North Star. When we put ourselves at the
center, things start to fall apart because we don't actually
have a fixed point to navigate through life.
And then we especially struggle on the dark nights when life
gets hard. So Jesus words in these chapters
are deeply comforting. But we have to remember why he
needed to say these things to his closest friends.
Because he knew he was going to suffer and that they were going
to suffer. He knew his disciples then and
now would need deep comfort. But Jesus never offers cheap
comfort. The balance in his teaching is
really spectacular because in John 15, first he talks about
making a home in the One who loves us, and now he's talking
about living in a world that hates us.
So he wants us to know the reality of suffering as we
follow Him. He's telling us to expect the
world's hatred, but he also wants us to know all the
resources we have in Him. As we follow him, He's telling
us to expect the Spirit's help. So when Jesus is at the center
of our lives, he brings this radically new perspective
because life is no longer about glorifying and enjoying me, it's
about glorifying and enjoying Him.
He's the North Star, and if we're following him, we know
that the path to glory, as we've said before, runs through the
cross, not around it. But we also know that he's with
us to strengthen us, and he intends to use our suffering to
grow us and also to draw other people to himself.
So let's lean into this passage and see how the Lord wants to
change our perspective on suffering in the Christian life.
The first thing I want us to see is Jesus tells his disciples to
expect the world's hatred. He's clear about the reality of
suffering for his followers. Just look at verse 18.
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it
hated you. Since Jesus is talking about the
world hating us, take a moment to ask what he means by the
world. We remember John 316 for God so
loved the world that he gave his only son.
But we also remember first John 215.
Do not love the world or the things in the world.
So does God love the world or not?
And are we to love the world or not?
It all hinges on what John means by the world.
John 316 is talking about the people of this world.
God so loved His people that he gave his only Son that they
might have eternal life. First.
John 2:15 is talking about the systems and structures of this
world. They're the systems and
structures that set themselves actively against God.
This is the world we mean when we say the world, the flesh and
the devil, that evil Trinity that's always opposing the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
This is the world that Jesus says will hate his followers
because it hated Him first. And in these verses, Jesus helps
us understand why we should expect the world's hatred.
Really. He gives us two big reasons and
paints around them. The world hates Christians
because it hated Christ 1st and were associated with him.
And the world hates Christians because they're not of this
world. So when Jesus talks about the
world hating us, he's basically saying if they did it to me,
they're going to do it to you. A servant is not greater than
his master, Jesus says in verse 20, and he consistently teaches
this principle to his disciples. He never says, it's going to be
tough for me, but easy for you. Still, it's jarring for us to
hear, especially when we think about Jesus, because the world
had never seen glory like the glory of Jesus, but the world
looked at him and hated him. I think of Isaiah 53.
He was despised and rejected. It was prophesied to you and our
best. The world's never seen glory
like the glory of Christ in US, and yet Jesus gives us the
expectation that the world will look at us and hate us too.
And verse 19 helps us understand why.
Jesus says 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. This language of Jesus sovereign
choice runs throughout John and the Bible.
So John 644 no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws him. And John 1516 you did not choose
me, but I chose you. And then Paul in Ephesians 1/4,
he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
Now this doctrine makes two things clear.
The Lord set his love on his people before they could do
anything to deserve it. And the Lord's choice brings
about a change that separates His people from the world.
Jesus says his disciples are not of the world.
Why? Because he has chosen them out
of the world. In John 1714 and 15, Jesus prays
to the Father along these very same lines.
Listen, he prays, I've given them your word and the world has
hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not
of the world. I do not ask that you take them
out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil. 1 The
non Christian is in the world and of the world, but the
Christian by God's grace is in the world but not of the world.
And this is because God has done something significant and
marvelous in our lives. In Colossians 113 Paul says God
has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us
to the Kingdom of his beloved Son.
And so Peter can say in first Peter 211 that we are sojourners
and exiles in this world. We're like aliens and strangers
in this world. In Christ, we're no longer
slaves to the world's systems and structures.
We're actually a new creation in Christ with a new center and new
values and a new mission. And as we grow in Christ, we
become more and more different from the world, and the world
doesn't like it. There's a Chinese proverb that
says the nail that stands out gets hammered down, and no one
stood out like Jesus, and he got hammered down literally nailed
to a cross. So on a smaller scale, that will
be true for everyone who follows Jesus.
We should stand out in our families, in our schools, on our
teams, in our offices, in our neighborhoods.
If we're no longer conforming to this world, if we're being
transformed by the renewal of our mind, we will stand out, and
sooner or later someone will try to hammer us down.
Wherever Christians go, we bring the light of Christ with us.
But people in the world don't want their darkness exposed, so
they may not welcome us into their group or invite us to
their party. They may not want us work
working alongside them in their company.
So we'll experience exclusion, rejection, persecution to
different degrees. But when this happens, we need
to remember what Jesus says. The world did it to him first,
and he's chosen us out of the world.
But as we talk about this, we need wisdom to think about the
world hating us, because it's easy to be really black and
white, but there's Gray here. So think about the range of
possibilities. If the world hates us, we could
be doing something right. Our experience could be like
Daniel in the Old Testament. Daniel is that rare character in
the Bible who seems to do everything right.
He's in Babylon, but not of Babylon.
His character is exemplary. But how does the world respond?
They try to kill him and his friends.
Jesus and Daniel both teach us that a righteous life doesn't
necessarily save us from suffering.
On the other hand, if the world hates us, we could actually be
doing something wrong. As Christians, sometimes we
suffer because of our own sin and folly.
We bring the pain upon ourselves because of something we say or
do. And I think that's why Paul says
in Colossians, four or five walk in wisdom toward outsiders,
because when we lack wisdom, we actually invite the world's
hatred. What about the seasons when it's
more smooth sailing for us? If the world doesn't hate us, we
could be doing something wrong. Our experience could be like Lot
in Genesis. You remember, Lot decided to
raise his family close to Sodom. We can also live close to the
wickedness of this world. And in Genesis 19, when angels
warned Lot about the coming judgement, he shares that
warning with his family and they basically laugh at him.
They don't take it seriously. So it seems like Sodom was
influencing Lot and his family more than Lot was influencing
Sodom. So a life without suffering
doesn't necessarily mean God is blessing us.
On the other hand, if the world doesn't hate us, we could
actually be doing something right.
Proverbs 16 seven says when a man's ways please the Lord, he
makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
So even in places that Sam prayed about, where it's very
hard to be a Christian, Christians will experience
seasons of peace. Depending on where we live and
how we live, our experience is going to vary.
And there are winsome and admirable things about the
Christian life. There are moments when the world
is drawn to Christ in us. So a life without suffering
doesn't necessarily mean we're doing something wrong.
Still, Jesus tells us to expect the world's hatred.
So if the world always loves us, we should probably ask ourselves
some hard questions, because it's hard to avoid a verse like
verse 21. But all these things they'll do
to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who
sent me. The world doesn't know Jesus or
the Father apart from Christ. People don't love God, they love
themselves and Jesus is the threat.
From their perspective, Jesus and his people are the problem.
And that's why Jesus says in 16 two the hour is coming when
whoever kills you will think he's offering service to God.
And again, he says they'll do this because they don't know the
Father or the Son. Now, this teaching can fall flat
on us because we enjoy relative peace in America and Dallas.
But there were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than
in any century before. And there are places in the
world today, you heard Sam's prayers where Christians feel
the world's hatred intensely and their places even in America
today where Christians are feeling it more than ever.
So before Jesus went to his cross, he wanted to prepare his
people for their cross. So he talks openly about the
world's hatred, but he also talks openly about the Spirit's
help. And that's our second point.
Jesus tells his disciples to expect the Spirit's help.
It's wonderful to see Jesus teaching so much about the Holy
Spirit in John 14 through 16. He's going away, but his going
is not simply a going. Jesus going means the Holy
Spirit is coming in a new and amazing way.
By his Spirit, Jesus will be with us and in US forever.
And he he names the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Counselor, the
Advocate. So as we live for Christ, we
have the best possible help in the Helper.
But notice what Jesus doesn't say about the Holy Spirit's help
in this context. He doesn't say that the Spirit
will cause the world not to hate us.
He doesn't say the Spirit will deliver us from suffering.
He focuses on the Spirit's primary job, to bear witness.
The Holy Spirit loves to testify about Jesus, to point people to
Jesus. So if Jesus is the North Star,
the Holy Spirit provides the navigational help.
And Jesus makes it clear the navigational priority is not
comfort. The navigational priority is
witness. He wants to move us through this
world in a way where we can witness for Christ, and that
sometimes means suffering. So the apostles have witnessed
Jesus ministry from the beginning.
No one's better equipped to bear witness about Jesus than they
are. And Jesus promises to fill them
with his Spirit for this very purpose in this very moment when
the world hates them. The Spirit bears witness about
Jesus through the witness of his people.
And what we don't see in English, in our translation, is
the word martyr in English comes from the Greek word witness.
In this passage. Biblically, martyrs are just
witnesses. They testify to what they've
seen in Jesus, and sometimes the world hates them enough to kill
them. These fearful fleeing disciples
would become mighty witnesses for Christ by the power of the
Spirit. They would bear witness, some of
them for decades. And nearly every one of them,
tradition tells us, would die a martyr's death for their
witness. Jesus knew what it would cost
him to win a people for himself and he knew what it would cost
his disciples to share that news with the world.
And that's why Jesus says what he says John 16/1.
He says, I've said all these things to you to keep you from
falling away. And at the end of the chapter,
verse 33, he says, I've said these things to you that in me
you may have peace in the world, you'll have tribulation.
But take heart. I have overcome the world.
Jesus didn't want his disciples to be surprised by what was
coming. And sitting here 2000 years
later, he, his Word still speaks to us.
He doesn't want us to be surprised when the world hates
us. He wants us to know that the
Spirit is with us so that we can bear witness in those moments
too. So I want to encourage you and
your witness for Christ. I want Jesus to be your North
Star so that when suffering comes, you don't just try to
navigate around it. Nothing encourages us more than
the stories of those who've gone before us, and there's so many.
But let's consider a few people who learned about the world's
hatred and the Spirit's help. Consider Peter's story.
We've talked about Peter recently.
Peter was there in Matthew 5 to hear the beatitude.
Blessed are those who are persecuted, and he was there to
hear these very words. But we know that moments after
this, Peter would take up his sword and try to stop a mob from
arresting Jesus. Jesus was Peter's north star.
Peter just didn't agree with where that star was leading.
Peter didn't have room in his theology for a Savior who
suffered and sacrificed and called his disciples to the
same. He didn't understand it until
after Jesus died and rose again. But then in Acts we see what
seems to be a whole new man, filled with the Spirit, willing
to suffer for Christ. And then as an older man, he
wrote these words in first Peter 412 through 13.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial.
When it comes upon you to test you, doesn't that sound just
like this, As though something strange were happening to you?
But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that
you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.
Sword swinging Peter wrote that Peter was imprisoned multiple
times in his life and apparently crucified upside down.
The world hated him, but the Spirit helped him to bear
witness to Christ. Peter shows us even on our
darkest nights, the light of glory breaks through.
And so he didn't run from suffering.
He actually learned to rejoice in it because he knew that the
world may give us a cross, but the Lord will one day give us a
crown. He'll share his glory with us.
Next. Consider Paul's story.
We meet Paul or Saul at the end of Acts 7.
At the stoning of Stephen in Acts 760, Stephen cried out,
Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
That's what he says in his dying moment and the very next verse
we read. And Saul approved of his
execution. Saul hated the church.
He thought he was serving God by trying to kill Christians.
So what a powerful transformation the Lord worked
in his life. How amazing that the Lord would
choose this man to be his instrument.
How amazing that the Lord would choose any of us to be his
instrument. So the Lord invites this man
named Ananias to preach the gospel to Saul.
And Ananias is kind of like, you know who this guy is?
I don't really want to do this. And you remember what the Lord
told Ananias in Acts 9/16. He says, For I will show him how
much he must suffer for the sake of my name, the one who wanted
to make Christians suffer. The Lord has the path of
suffering for him for the sake of Christ.
So the Lord saved Paul and he became the saved Saul, and he
became the apostle Paul. And this man who hated the
church now loved Jesus and long for people to know him.
And perhaps more than anyone in history, Paul experienced the
world's hatred, but also the Spirit's help.
He says things about suffering that sound really strange to us.
So riding from jail in Philippians 129, Paul says, For
it's been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you
should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.
Did you catch that? Suffering for Christ is
something granted to believers. It's not a problem to solve.
It's a privilege to receive. If our North Star is just
comfort and prosperity, we'll never think like this.
Do we see the privilege granted to us to suffer for Christ?
And then in Colossians 124, Paul says, now I rejoice in my
sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I'm filling up what's
lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of His body.
That is the church. What is Paul talking about?
What could be lacking in Christ's afflictions?
There's a way you read that that sounds like heresy.
Surely he doesn't mean that Jesus failed to finish the job
on the cross, right? That's not lacking.
Christ's afflictions are not lacking in their merit or their
power to save sinners. What's lacking is their
extension to a world that wasn't there to witness Jesus dying on
the cross. They didn't see it.
It's not real to them. So when Christians like Paul
suffer, people see a miniature picture of Christ's sufferings
and it becomes real to them in that moment.
And they're forced to ask, why would someone live and suffer
like this? And we can say, because Jesus
suffered for me and I want you to know him.
Do you believe that he loved you enough, so much that he suffered
for you? Tertullian, who lived in the 2nd
century, said the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the
church. The blood of the martyrs is the
seed of the church. It's just another way of saying
what Jesus said in John 1224. Unless a grain of wheat falls
into the ground and dies, it remains alone.
But if it dies, it bears much free.
And we see the fruit from Peter's life and Paul's life,
from the lives of missionaries across all these centuries, from
the lives of missionaries that we send out into the world, and
from the members of our church. When Jesus is our North Star and
we follow him in this life of sacrificial love, our lives will
bear fruit for his glory. We'll be like a grain of wheat
that goes into the ground and dies, and from it bears much
fruit. And we may never shed blood for
Jesus, but if we're seeking Him and not just seeking our own
comfort, we will be mocked or misunderstood or insulted or
rejected in various ways, as we've said.
So when we experience the world's hatred, will we run?
Or will we rejoice and look for the Spirit's help?
So whether it's smooth sailing or stormy seas, the Spirit wants
to use our lives to point others to Jesus.
It can be scary living for Christ when we don't know what
the world's going to do to us. But friends, when the unknown is
scary, we have to focus on what we know.
And earlier in this passage printed we we know a lot.
We did not choose Jesus, He chose us.
He appointed us to go and bear fruit for His glory.
As we abide in Him, He will give us everything we need so we can
rest in His love and perfect sacrifice for us.
He is the one who laid down His life for us, for His friends,
and we can rejoice that He calls us to love and sacrifice for
Him, to follow Him and love as He loved us.
And we need to remember God is sovereign not just in our
salvation, but in our suffering. He knows who will suffer and
when they'll suffer, and how they'll suffer.
John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, knew this.
He suffered much, and he wrote these words to encourage us.
Listen as I close. Bunyan says Our sufferings are
ordered and disposed by him. Not that we might always, when
we come into trouble for this name, not stagger, nor be at a
loss, but be stayed composed and settled in our minds, and say
the will of the Lord be done. Let's pray, Lord Jesus, give us
grace to believe what You're teaching in Your Word.
The world will hate us, but Your Spirit will help us.
So be our North Star and guide us through all the suffering,
all the hatred of this world, and into glory.
Lord, we know that this is a hard word to hear, and yet we
know that You've gone before us, Lord.
So for those who believe, Lord, strengthen them in their faith
and their resolve to follow you. Strengthen them knowing that
they have everything in you to live and abide in you and bear
much free. And Lord, for those who don't
know you, I pray they might hear the call even today to look to
Jesus, to this one who suffered and died for us, that we might
have life and that even our suffering in this world would
one day be redeemed. Or that we might share in your
glory and and invite others to join us in this incredible life
in you. Lord, left to ourselves, we know
we're weak and fearful. And so as we come to your table,
give us your strength and courage that we might rejoice to
be your witnesses in this world. And your name we pray.
Amen.