A German preacher named Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”
As we turn the pages of the New Testament, the blood of martyrs stains our fingertips. Paul’s life is a good example. Acts 9:15-16 predicts the suffering he would endure for Christ, the fulfillment of which can be found in 1 Cor. 4:11-13 and 2 Cor. 4:8-9.
Jesus never intended that the Christian should live in pious isolation, but in active contact with the problems of men.
Nevertheless, He drew a sharp line between the Christian and the “world” which comprises the mass of men who live without God.
Jesus, in stating the attitude of the world, carefully forewarned the disciples of its hatred because He did not want them disillusionned when they met it. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”
The type of grammatical condition which John used implied the actuality of the hatred; it was not hypothetical.
Jesus recognized it as a chilling reality; but He comforted the disciples by reassuring them that He shared with them all the ostracism and contempt which the world could heap on them.
Throughout all nature, whether in the animal or human world, there is a tendency to dislike any individual that differs from the average type. Birds will drive from the flock one of their number that differs radically from them in plumage.
The very fact that He has chosen men out of the world places them in a different category from others. They have a new nature, a new aim in life, a new productiveness. The world does not understand their motives nor feel comfortable in their company.
Jesus gave three reasons why persecution will occur:
- “Because you are not of the world
- Because they do not know the One who sent Me
- That the word may be fulfilled
“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. {20} Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master[1].’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. {21} They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.”
The chief reason, lastly, for the hatred of the world was Jesus’ exposure of its sin. Verses 22 and 25 describe the effect of Jesus on the world.
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. {23} He who hates me hates my Father as well. {24} If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. {25} But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.'”
The words and deeds of Christ showed by contrast how evil men can become. Ignorance could no longer palliate their guilt.
Two antidotes to the attitude of the world are proposed in the concluding verses: the witness of the Spirit and the witness of Christians.
Our reaction to persecution should be one of acceptance, as stated in 1 Peter 4:12: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.”
Jesus gives us four suggestions on how to react when the persecution starts to bewilder us:
- We should rely on the Holy Spirit
- We should stand firm and boldly testify our faith in Christ
- We shouldn’t stumble
- We shouldn’t forget we’d been forewarned
“”When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. {27} And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”
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Two unpopular themes in modern evangelical Christianity are the need to suffer for the sake of the gospel and the certainty of God’s judgment. Rather than suffering, the TV religious groups are into how Christianity can help you have a successful, happy life. Of course, the Bible does give wisdom and guidance on how to live happily and it is proper to understand and apply its teaching.
But, the Bible also teaches (Acts 14:22), “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
Paul said (2 Tim. 3:12), “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
Jesus said that all His followers must take up their cross (an implement of a slow, tortuous death) in order to follow Him (Matt. 16:24).
In its extreme form, the de-emphasis on suffering has veered into the heretical teaching that it’s always God’s will for you to enjoy financial prosperity and physical health. You’re supposed to rebuke any sickness or suffering it in the name of the Lord. If it continues, you must not have enough faith.
Regarding God, we focus on His love and grace rather than on His judgment. Many go so far as to say that because God is love, no one will suffer in hell.
So Jesus’ words in our text are not going to be popular in today’s Christian world. He continues to prepare the disciples (and us) for what we will face after He is gone. The world often will hate us, but…
Our task is to witness in the power of the Spirit to a hostile world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
In the upper room discourse Christ promises to counter the problems that we will encounter in this evil world: “The world hates you, but I love you. The world is your enemy, but I am your friend. The world gives you trouble and anxiety, but I give you My peace. The world will cause you sorrow, but I give you My joy. The world may kill you, but I give you eternal life. The world is under Satan’s power, but you will have the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.”
- To witness in a hostile world without stumbling, you must face the difficulty of the task: you will be persecuted and you may get killed.
John 16:1 (ESV) “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.
Jesus spoke these things so that the disciples would be kept from stumbling or falling away when they encountered the opposition of the world.
Their task (and ours) is to go to a self-seeking, pleasure-oriented world and proclaim that the Holy God is going to judge all sinners, but that He has provided the way of escape through the Savior.
This message is sure to stir up derision and hostility. Just the people of Noah’s day rejected his message of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5) and the people in Sodom thought that righteous Lot must have been joking (2 Pet. 2:6-9; Gen. 19:14), so sinners today will not respond favorably to a message about sin, righteousness, and impending judgment.
If you expect that everyone in this hostile world will welcome your message, you’ll be in for a rude awakening.
Sometimes we may be surprised because persecution often comes from the religious world, where you would expect a receptive audience (John 16:2): “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.”
Before his conversion, the apostle Paul thought that he was being faithful to his Jewish faith by imprisoning and killing Christians. After his conversion, the Jews persecuted him and other early Christians (2 Thess. 2:14-16).
Jesus pinpoints the heart of the problem (John 16:3), “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.”
The key to enduring persecution is to trust in the Lord Jesus. Thus in verse 4, He gives us a solid reason to trust Him: He knows the future. He knows the trials that we will face as we serve Him and He warns us in advance so that we will trust in Him.
When Jesus was with the disciples, He was the lightning rod for persecution. But after He returned to the Father, they would catch the brunt of the opposition. So the Lord speaks these prophetic words so that we will be forewarned and thus forearmed. It will not be easy to be a faithful witness to Christ in this hostile world.
2. To witness to a hostile world, you must focus on the Lord’s glory, not on your own needs.
John 16:5-6: “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.”
My point about the Lord’s glory may not be immediately obvious, so let me explain. The disciples were not thinking about Christ’s returning to His glory with the Father and what that would mean, but rather on their own sorrow that Jesus would not be with them any longer. They were focused on their needs, not on Jesus’ glory and His kingdom purposes.
At first glance, Jesus’ words, “none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’” seem to contradict John 13:36, where Peter asked, “Lord, where are You going?”
Also, in John 14:5, Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going …”
But neither man was really interested in learning where Jesus was going as much as in protesting that He was leaving them. So the Lord is saying, “None of you is really interested in knowing where I am going. You’re just focused on your own sorrow over My leaving.”
Although the disciples have asked about where Jesus was going, they were really just self-absorbed in their own loss at His leaving them. They didn’t have the big picture of the Lord’s returning to the right hand of the Father and of His sending the Holy Spirit to empower them for the task of the great commission.
The application for us is, to be effective witnesses in this hostile world, we need to take our focus off of our feelings and needs and focus rather on the Lord’s glory through the spreading of the gospel to all peoples. Even if we are persecuted, His glory should be our aim. But we can’t accomplish that task in our own strength. Thus the Lord adds …
3. To witness to a hostile world, you must join the Holy Spirit in His witness concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Jesus makes a claim that would have startled the disciples (John 16:7): “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”
Three specific functions of the Spirit convict the world through the Christian:
– Concerning sin.
The Spirit uses the faithful, loving Christian as a visual aid to convict the unbeliever (see 1 Cor. 7:12-14). If Jesus is the Son of God, as this Gospel declares Him to be, then rejection of Him is the greatest and most fatal sin of all. It is the deliberate refusal of God’s will.
In order to define sin there must be a standard. There can be no transgression where there is no law, no darkness when there is no light, who sin where there is no holiness.
– Concerning righteousness.
The Christian should have a standard, or lifestyle, foreign to the unsaved person. Since the world can no longer see the righteousness of Jesus, they can only see it reflected off us.
– Concerning judgment.
Whenever sin and righteousness meet there must be judgment. When unsaved people see the Christian’s free and unfettered life, the Holy Spirit shows them that their ruler has no power over the saint.
The key word in these verses is “convict,” which is a legal word that means to “bring to light, to expose, to refute, to convict and convince.” The world may think that it is judging Christians, but it is the Christians who are passing judgment on the world as they witness to Christ!
The Holy Spirit convicts the world of one particular sin: the sin of unbelief. After all, it is unbelief that condemns the lost sinner (John 3:18-21).
The Spirit also convicts the sinner of righteousness, not unrighteousness. Whose righteousness? The righteousness of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God.
Surely this text informs us that we should not expect the world to embrace Christians with open arms. The cross of Calvary assures us that the world does hate Him. Our Lord’s words should prepare us for opposition from the world as well. If the world hates us, then we surely should not love the world in the sense that we seek its approval, embrace its values, or attempt to find our identity with it:
Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility towards God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy (James 4:4).
15 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; 16 because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains forever (1 John 2:15-17).
Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you (1 John 3:13).
The Bible is clear that God now imputes the very righteousness of Christ to every sinner who trusts in Him.
As 2 Corinthians 5:21 states, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
So the message that we are to proclaim to the world is that they are never good enough to qualify for heaven. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
But, God has provided a means by which we can be covered with the perfect righteousness of His Son, namely, by believing in Him.
Conclusion
So to be effective witnesses for Christ, we need to recognize that many people will not like our message and therefore they may not like us.
If we are faithful, we may suffer persecution or even death.
Given that unpleasant prospect, what should motivate us to bear witness? The Lord’s glory: He is now risen from the dead, at the right hand of the Father, returning soon to judge the world in righteousness. He has entrusted to us the message of salvation through the cross.
But we can’t compromise the message by hiding the reality of judgment if people do not repent. Don’t be judgmental, but do tell the truth about God’s coming judgment.
Our task is to witness in the power of the Spirit to a hostile world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Proud to be TJ's man 