Barry Metz
05/03/15
The Hatred of the World
John 15:18–16:4
The email from our missionaries who minister to Muslims in North Africa through radio and
tv—the email said this…
“We have an urgent request to share with you. A believing sister, Fatima, in Tangier has been
taken in for questioning by the police; they have searched her apartment and are threatening to
put her in jail. That’s all the information we have at the moment. Please lift her up. Thank you
for standing with us. Your brother N. (N dared not give us his full name lest his identity be
discovered)
Several days later N. sent another email: Hello dear friends, Thank you for lifting up our
sister! Below is an update from friends who have been walking closely with her in this... I saw
her this morning! She is not in jail!!! Amen!
Here are some brief details on what happened... On Monday she was in the home of friends
when her daughter called to tell her the police had come to her home and were demanding she
be at the station by 10am. She arrived and was questioned until 10 pm. The questioning was
precipitated by a petition signed by every single one of her neighbors stating that she is a J
follower (a Jesus follower) and has been causing "problems" in their building. They filed a legal
complaint that said she was gathering other believers in her home for singing and prayer (this is
not true and never happened). They said that they wanted her to be evicted from the building.
They’ve even told the nearby stores not to sell to her. These are the same neighbors who broke
into her home this fall and broke, burned, or stole almost everything in it…and who (urinated)
on her door every day and who have harassed her daughter greatly as well.
And so she was taken into custody and questioned about why she was a J follower. They said,
"You’re an old woman, why would you change your religion now?" She told one policeman the
reason was that she finally knew what was true. After that he hit her in the face. Later she was
hit again for saying something similar. They told her, if you will just tell us who told you these
things, you can go. She told them, "I know the truth simply by watching the difference between
M*s1ims and J followers." After 12 hours at the police station they went to her apartment and
searched her home. They found some videos and an mp3 player with "the Book", and
threatened to take her to jail.
The next day, she spent the day in court. At the end of her hearing, she waited for the judge to
tell her if she was going to jail or could go free. The judge said, "Go on your way." She couldn't
believe it!
She has been totally cut off from any kind of fellowship or community because she knows she is
being followed and watched and doesn't want to endanger anyone else…The email goes on…
“We do want to highlight some of the amazing ways your beseeching the throne helped our
sister. She said she felt totally at peace in the police station and answered confidently and
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without fear. One lady sitting next to her told her, "My problems here are so small compared to
yours and yet I am trembling and you are not afraid." She said that she just thought of things to
say quickly to protect all the people in her life and felt like the right words just came to her. She
said she felt like God was helping her to be brave and strong. When the policemen hit her she
said "I just thought of someone much better than me whom men also hit."1
The hatred of the world…
Now I can imagine you’re thinking, “I’ve never experienced anything like that.” Well I feel the
same way. Perhaps you and I have been snubbed by a co-worker because of our faith or we’ve
had a door slammed in our faces when we were out witnessing door to door on a mission trip.
Or we’ve just been marginalized by those we know because we’ve stood for Christ. But we’ve
never faced anything like that woman.
Well the disciples who were with Jesus on the night before he died could say the same thing,
“I’ve never experienced anything like that” (Oh they had encountered some rejection. There
was the time Jesus sent messengers ahead of him into a Samaritan village and the Samaritans
wouldn’t receive them…that was rejection… and you remember the response of James and John,
“Jesus is it time for some Elijah-like fire from heaven?2 ) The disciples had faced rejection and
even the fury of angry religious leaders but Jesus took the brunt of most of that, didn’t he?
So it makes sense that Jesus--on the night before he was crucified, knowing the future, knowing
that the world would come at the disciples with all the hatred it could muster—it makes sense
that Jesus would prepare his disciples for what they might face. (Several themes run through
John chapters 13-16 and one of those key themes is Jesus preparing the disciples for what they
will face so they would not fall away…to be forewarned is to be forearmed)
If you’ve got your bible, follow me as I begin reading in John 15, verse 18…John 15:18….
18 “If
the world hates you know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 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. 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 also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on
account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 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. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 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. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They
hated me without a cause.’
1
2
Email to KBC
2 Kings 1; Luke 9:51-56
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26 “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. 27 And you also will bear
witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
16 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 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. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor
me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that
I told them to you.
The word ‘hate’ shows up 8 times in the verses that we’ve read. Let me suggest an outline of
the passage on the screen….
I. What Christians should expect as they relate to the world (John 15:18-25)
Let’s dig into the passage. In verses 18, 19, and 20 we get three reasons, one in each verse,
why we should expect hatred as we relate to the world.
The first reason we should expect hatred as we relate to the world, vs. 18, is because Jesus was
hated. If the world hates you (and the assumption is that it will) know that it has hated me
before (it hated)3 you.
Notice in verse 18, at least in the ESV, the word hated shows up three times. The tense of the
second word communicates that the hatred against Jesus continues into the present; in other
words the “world’s persecution of Christ is no passing phenomenon.”4 He was hated in the past
and that hatred continues.
3
4
Not in the text
Bruner, page 908
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The second reason we should expect hatred as we relate to the world, vs. 19, is that the world
perceives that we’re outsiders. Look at verse 19 19 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.
One author says this… “The world would not hate angels for being angelic; but it does hate men
for being Christians. It grudges them their new character; it is tormented by their peace; it is
infuriated by their joy.”5
You see if we were of the world and looked like and sounded like the world, if we did
everything that the world did, the world would not hate us. It would love us and regard us at its
own.6
Imagine a junior higher pulled out of school for a day and given a complete makeover—shiny
shoes, three-piece suit, flashy haircut, the works. And he comes to school dressed like that. (A
junior higher’s dream, right!) What would the other kids do? First they’d think ‘he’s an
outsider.’ Then they’d begin to pick at him and ostracize him because he’s different. So it is with
us in the world as Christians; we are outsiders. We look different. We act different. And we
sound different.
“The world is a society of rebels, and therefore finds it hard to tolerate those who are in joyful
allegiance to the king to whom all loyalty is due.”7
It apparently deeply irritates the world that we Christians don’t go along with their ways, that
we don’t find our deepest joys, our resources, our interests in the world. It apparently deeply
irritates the world that we are out of step with everything in the world.8
But are we out of step with the world and what do we mean by the world any way?
With the use of the word world we’re not talking about the planet earth full of people in a
neutral sense. We’re talking about the “created moral order in active rebellion against God”9
Is it an affront to you to remind you that everything around you—the created moral order that
you and I swim in every day—is in active rebellion against God?
Look at 1 John 2:15-17 in the New Living Translation on the screen.
5
6
7
William Temple as quoted by Hughes
Ridderbos, page 523
Carson, page 525
8
Bruner, page 902
9
Carson, page 525
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For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and
pride in our achievements and possessions. The craving for physical pleasure, the craving for
everything we see and the pride in our achievements is not from the Father.
James 4:4 says it even more directly… 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.
Are we friends of God or friends with the world? We can’t be both.
And there’s another point too--as we as Christians begin to look and sound more and more like
our Savior, I’m convinced we will be hated more. 10
Well verse 20 gives us the third reason we should expect hatred as we relate to the world.
20 Remember
the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they
chased me like a wild beast (and that’s the sense of the word persecute)11, they will chase you
like a wild beast. Doesn’t that describe the lady’s story at the beginning of the message?
Back in John 13:16, Jesus used this same phrase --A servant is not greater than his master--and
the emphasis was on humble service. If the master takes on humble service, then clearly the
servant should take on humble service. Here the emphasis is “If I’m the master, and I am
hated…it only makes sense that you servants of the master will be hated too.”
As Christians we are called to stand in for Christ in every way.
But verse 20 continues…If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. Now these words
don’t seem to fit do they?
10
11
Carson, page 525
A.T. Robertson as quoted by Hughes
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What is Jesus saying? One way to understand Jesus’s words is like this---“If they persecuted me
(and many of them did), they will persecute you also; if they obeyed my teaching (and some of
them did) they will obey your teaching also.”12
And so the thrust of what Jesus is saying then is that just as human beings divided around Jesus,
they will divide around Jesus’ followers.
Well in verse 21, Jesus says the real issue is that the persecutors don’t know the Father…they
will do these things on account of my name, on account of me because they don’t know him
who sent me.
And verse 22 tells us they have no excuse … If I had not come and spoken to them they would
not have been guilty of sin. Clearly Jesus is not saying that if he had not come into the world,
there wouldn’t be sin in the world. No his point is that his coming and speaking incited full
scale rebellion against God,13 his coming and speaking made their sin “especially inexcusable.”14
…but now they have no excuse for their sin.
“Jesus’ remarkable presence, his deep words, and particularly his striking deeds—think about
the long-time sick man (38 years), the Blind man (blind from birth), and Lazarus(raised from the
dead)”15—Jesus’s remarkable presence, his deep words, and particularly his striking deeds leave
those who experienced him without excuse.
Didn’t Jesus in a sense say the same thing to the cities around the Sea of Galilee where he had
done many great works? Look at Matthew 11:20-22 on the screen.
12
Carson, page 526; Beasley-Murray, G. R. (2002). John (Vol. 36, p. 275). Dallas: Word, Incorporated. “It is uncertain whether the two clauses
following the citation are in synonymous or contrasted parallelism. NEB assumes the former, and so renders the second clause, “… they will
follow your teaching as little as they have followed mine”
13 Carson, page 526
14 Bruner, page 904
15
Bruner, page 904
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Those who saw Jesus’ works and heard his words are without excuse. And the hatred
expressed toward him is hatred expressed toward the Father also (vs. 23-24). To hate Jesus is to
hate the Father.
We’ve seen this ultra-close connection between Jesus and the Father repeatedly in John. To see
Jesus is to see the Father.16 When Jesus speaks the Father speaks.17 When Jesus acts, the
Father is acting.18 And so to hate Jesus is to hate the Father and to accept Jesus is to accept the
Father.
But verse 25 assures us, that none of the hatred toward Christ (and Christians) should be seen
as jeopardizing God’s plan. Even the hateful rejection of Christ (and Christians) serves to fulfill
what is written in their law…and here ‘law’ is used as a stand-in for the entire Old Testament…
25 But
the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
Seems ironic doesn’t it that even the hatred of Christ (and Christians) is a fulfillment of
scripture? This quotation could come from either Ps. 3519or Psalm 6920. It seems that most
students of scripture assume it comes from Psalm 69, “a psalm written by David that has been
quarried for quotations by NT writers more than any other OT passage.”21
“If David could be hated for no reason, how much more the Messiah who would spring from
his loins”22?
The Junior High class has been going through 1 Samuel. For the longest time David was hated
for no reason. By who? Saul.
I read Luke 23 the other day and was surprised at how much hating there was of Jesus without
a cause…
Luke 23:4 “I find no guilt in this man” Pilate said
Luke 23:14 “I did not find this man guilty” Pilate said
Luke 23:22 “What evil has he done?” Pilate said
Luke 23:41 “This man has done nothing wrong!” Do you know who said that? One of the
Thieves
Luke 23:47 “Surely this man was innocent” the Centurion
Jesus was hated without a cause. Christians should expect hatred without a cause as they
relate to the world.
16
John 14:9
John 5:19
18
John 4:34
19 Verse 19
20 Verse 4
21 Beasley-Murray, G. R. (2002). John (Vol. 36, p. 276). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.
22
Carson, page 527
17
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Think about the lady in the opening illustration. Don’t you know that when she found urine on
her porch that she often wondered to herself, “What have I done to deserve this?” Or when all
of her furniture was stolen? Or when the policeman hit her? “What have I done?”
She had done nothing. Like her Savior she was hated without a cause.
Well we come to the second point in the outline. Let me put the outline up on the screen
again.
II. What God expects of Christians as they relate to the world (vs. 26-27)
26 “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. 27 And you also will bear
witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
This is the third ‘Helper’ saying in Jesus’ words to his disciples on the night before he died, John
chapters 13-16.
There is a question that bubbles to the surface when we think of Jesus leaving his disciples. If
Jesus is going away, how will the confrontation with the world continue?23 Verses 26-27 tell
us: The Holy Spirit will join with the disciples in testifying (bearing witness) about Jesus to the
world.
It’s not that the Spirit testifies apart from the disciples. No, as one author says, the “Spirit is the
power of the proclamation in the community”.24 Didn’t we see that in the book of Acts? That
when the Spirit came, the witnessing followed?
“If you want to have peace in the world,” Martin Luther hears Jesus saying, ‘just be silent about
me but if you oppose the world (or the worldly church) and teach otherwise—that they must be
23
24
Carson, page 528
Bultmann, 553–54.
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saved by me and that their own efforts do not contribute anything—then just be resigned to
the necessity of being hated and persecuted by the world to the utmost.”25
_________
Before we leave verse 26….look again at what it says…. 26 “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.
I don’t want to spend very much time on this at all but you would never dream that the word
‘proceeds’ in verse 26---which shows up only here in the New Testament—would be the bone of
contention which subsequently split the Western Church and the Eastern Church in 1054 AD.
(We Protestants and Catholics are part of the Western Church)
Let me explain on this slide…
POWERPOINT
The Filioque Controversy
The filioque (Gk., meaning “and Son”) controversy relates to the question, “Who sent the Holy
Spirit?” Was it the Father or the Father and the Son? Historically, this seemingly nonconsequential point has marked the difference between the Eastern and Western churches.
The Greek (Eastern) church taught the “single procession” of the Holy Spirit—only the Father
was involved in sending the Spirit. On the basis of John 15:26, and the fact that the Son is of the
same essence as the Father, the Roman (Western) church taught the “double procession” of
the Holy Spirit—both the Father and the Son were responsible for sending the Holy Spirit.
And the rest of the story, Paul Harvey style? At the Council of Toledo in A.D. 589 the phrase
“and the Son” (the Father and the son sent the Holy Spirit) was added to the Nicene Creed. The
Eastern Church refused to accept the doctrine and this was ultimately the issue that
permanently split the Eastern and Western churches in 1054.26
Again, if you’re not following, we in the western church teach that the Father and the Son sent
the Holy Spirit and that sending was mission-related and had nothing to do with any
distinctions in the Godhead. And so the word ‘proceed’ there in verse 26 is interpreted to have
to do with sending the Spirit in mission. In fact look at the two clauses related to the Holy Spirit
in verse 26…whom I (Jesus) will send from the Father and the Spirit of truth who proceeds
from the Father. The Western church, of which we are part, takes those clauses as parallel;
both are about the mission of sending the Holy Spirit.
Well we’ve come to the final point in the outline…
25
26
Luther as quoted by Bruner, page 909
Enns, P. P. (1989). The Moody handbook of theology (p. 434). Chicago, IL: Moody Press.
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“To be forewarned is to be forearmed” is a proverb. What does it mean? Advance awareness
of a situation, especially a risky one, prepares one to deal with it.
III. To be forewarned is to be forearmed (John 16:1-4a)
“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 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. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor
me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember
that I told them to you.
One of the experts in Bible translations “regularly delighted to tell his students that the chapter
and verse divisions as they appear in our Bible are often about as logical as someone putting a
mark in their text every time a rider bounces on a trotting or galloping horse”27 And that seems
to be the case here.
Vs. 1 I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. The word translated
‘falling away’, or ‘being offended’ (KJV), ‘going astray’ (NIV), is in the ‘passive voice and it means
to ‘give up one’s faith or ‘fall into sin.’ Jesus said these things for people like the lady we
introduced at the beginning of the sermon.
Vs. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues…
When Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 said that he had five times received the 39 lashes, he was
signaling the distinctive punishment meted out by synagogue authorities.
There’s another interesting connection. Towards the end of the first century the Jews
developed what are known as the Eighteen Benedictions. These benedictions were recited at
27
Bruce Metzger as quoted by Borchert, G.L. (2002). John 12-21 Broadman and Holmen
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the synagogue, and the 12th in particular was formulated to exclude Jewish Christians from the
synagogue.
Listen to a translation of the 12th benediction…
“For the apostates let there be no hope, and let the arrogant government [= Rome] be speedily
uprooted in our days. Let the Nazarenes and the Minim [= heretics] be destroyed in a moment
and let them be blotted out of the Book of Life and not be inscribed with the righteous. Blessed
art thou, O Lord, who humblest the arrogant.” 28
Continuing in verse 2…
…Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
Isn’t this what the apostle Paul thought?
Isn’t this what terrorists in the Middle East currently think?
There is a deep irony here. Religious persecutors think they are offering a service to God
(latreia…worship, spiritual service…it’s the word in Romans 12:1). They’re profoundly
deluded—yet at the same time the death of Christians by persecution truly is an offering to
God29.
3 And
they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have
said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to
you.
__________
Tom Doyle, in a new book entitled Killing Christians shares a story from present day Syria—
we’re talking about the last six months--about a church leader named Fareed. Fareed is the
leader of a church planting movement in this war torn and explosive area. They’ve seen many
come to Christ including Muslims. All of them have young, young families. At one point Fareed
met with the ten leaders he was shepherding and said, “If we’re going to get out of Syria, we’re
going to have to do it now. It’s getting worse. The war shows no sign of ending. Isis is targeting
Christians. We’ve all heard what is happening. So let’s pray and fast for a week because there
are no heroes here. If God leads you to go out, that’s fine. Maybe you can come back some day.
So let’s pray and fast and if you feel that God is leading you to stay in Syria, be back in a week in
this room, same time.”
28
29
Beasley-Murray, G. R. (2002). John (Vol. 36, p. 277). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.
Carson, page 531
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A week later, Fareed walked back to the basement room that they met in. As he was turning
the door knob, he said his thought was “It’s going to be an empty room…most certainly.”
He opened the door and to his surprise, not only were the ten sitting there but they had
recruited fifteen more leaders that said, “We’re staying even though we’ll probably die here.”
And to seal their commitment they went out—many of them were former Muslims so there
was not even a place to bury them—they went out and bought a plot of land and split it and it’s
their graveyard where they are going to bury each other. So they split it and they are planning
for it and they see it coming.
Fareed said this…
God is moving
People are open
The graveyard is still empty30
___________
Hear these words from Romans 8:
31 What
then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who
did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously
give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—
who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, …and what follows next…a quote from Psalm 44 just
seems like such an intrusion… it doesn’t seem to fit.
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
(But in light of Jesus’s word in our passage this morning about the hatred of the world, this
quotation makes all the sense in the world)
37 No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am
sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
30
Voice of the Martyr Radio, Tom Doyle: “No Panic in Heaven” 3/27/2015
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