John 15:18-16:4a “Don’t Fall Away When Trouble Comes”

1:03One of the main problems was that we did not have a large, well-equipped, experienced standing army like England did. And what that meant is that many militiamen and volunteer soldiers weren't prepared for the battlefield. They weren't prepared for rifles and cannons to be fired at them over and over again. And the army, the trained army that We did have had a hard time holding the line in battles because they didn't trust that the reinforcements were coming at all, or if they did come, that they could be relied upon.

1:42And that meant a lot of retreats early in the war. But eventually, the Continental Army did prevail under Washington's courageous leadership, giving birth to America as we know it. And I think it's a great analogy for the passage that we're looking at today in John 15. In today's passage, Jesus warns the disciples about the persecution that would come once he was gone. And like the Continental Army, they would need to be prepared for that persecution that was coming, and they would need reinforcements once the persecution arrived. So Jesus prepared them for persecution by his words, and he said that he would prepare them by sending his Holy Spirit. Persecution has come to America, and persecution is coming to America, friends, and we must be ready. And so, what we're going to learn today in John 15 is that preparing for persecution prevents us from falling away.

2:45If your Bible has section headings, this section is probably titled something like The Hatred of the World, or Jesus Warns of the World's Hatred. And here in this section, Jesus teaches that the world is going to hate us, and that hatred will. Manifest itself in persecution that takes the form of ostracism, things like in the first century being cast out of the synagogue, and murder, among other things. And I think it's fair to say that we don't want to be hated by anybody.

3:19Making people hate us is not our goal in life, certainly not as Christians. And part of the reason that we don't want people to hate us is that our working assumption is that all hatred is earned. So if you're hated, it's probably because at some level, you deserve it. But that's a faulty assumption because, as we see here in verse 18, Jesus says that if the world hates us, we have to remember that it hated him first. Now, why did the world hate Jesus?

3:56Well, back in John 7, Jesus' brothers were encouraging Jesus to go into Judea and show his disciples and the world as a whole the works that he was doing. And the Apostle John notes that at that point, his brothers did not believe in him. It seems rather that they just wanted to get Jesus out of their hair. They wanted him out of their sight. They wanted him gone. And so they said, why don't you just go down to Judea, show the disciples who you really are?

4:20It seems that they were embarrassed by Jesus and his ministry. Take a look at his response in John chapter 7. Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come. But your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. Now, why does the world hate Jesus? Was it because of something that he did wrong? Not at all. They hated him because he told the truth about their evil works and he called them to repent.

4:57And then we find this in John chapter 10. Take a look. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you going to stone me? The Jews answered him, It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God. So we see that the world hated Jesus because he told the truth about their sin and because he claimed to be the Son of God, whom he also proved to be.

5:34They didn't hate him because he said or did anything wrong. So look down now at verse 25 of John chapter 15. But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without a cause. And you may remember from our call to worship in Psalm 69, David said those same words. They hated me without cause. He said those also in Psalm 35. And so Jesus is quoting either Psalm 35 or Psalm 69 or both to say that the hatred that he was experiencing, the hatred that was baseless and causeless, that was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. David, the author of these Psalms, had done no wrong in these instances. He was zealous for God and his name, and yet he was hated and he was pursued by his enemies.

6:26And in the same way, friends, Jesus was hated and persecuted by enemies in spite of the fact that he had done nothing wrong. They had no cause to hate him, but they hated him anyway. But I think we have reason to believe, both from scripture and from our own experience in life, that righteous people are often hated precisely because they are righteous, not in spite of their righteousness. We already saw that Jesus said that the world hated him because he testified about it, that its works were evil. In other words, he called sin sin, and people did not like that.

7:07And I want you to think back to one of Jesus' first encounters with Peter when he asked to borrow Peter's boat so that he could set out a little bit from the shore and preach to the crowd that was standing on the shore so he wasn't competing with the noise of the waves. They'd fished all night and they caught nothing. And Jesus then tells Peter and the other soon-to-be disciples to let down their nets for a catch.

7:30And they protest, saying they'd fished all night and caught nothing, but in deference to Jesus as a rabbi, they say, Okay, Lord, we'll do what you say. And they catch so many fish that the nets are breaking, the boats are sinking. And I want you to look at Peter's reaction again in Luke chapter 5. Look at this. But when Simon Peter saw it, the nets, the fish, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

8:01Friends, this is our reaction to holiness. Unholy people react to a holy God in this way. This is why Isaiah, when he was confronted with the vision of the Lord and all of his glory, said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips. Holiness makes unholy people uncomfortable. That's why Peter wanted Jesus to depart from him. It's why Isaiah despaired. And it's why many people who heard Jesus wanted nothing to do with him. They hated him without cause. They hated him in spite of the fact that he had no sin. But in another sense, they hated him precisely because he had no sin.

8:44They hated him because of his righteousness. His holiness made them too uncomfortable. Here's what that means for us. Take a look at verse 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. Now, that is a truth that's taught all over the New Testament. Take a look at Matthew chapter 5, Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and he says this: 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.

9:38Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 on the screen. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And then look at 1 Peter chapter 2. He says, For this is a gracious thing. When mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

10:23So, what is the common theme through these New Testament teachings? It is that we are persecuted. Persecuted for living for Christ. We will be persecuted for living godly lives. We will be persecuted for doing good, not in spite of it. And that is exactly what happened to the early church in the first many centuries. Take a look at Bruce Milne's reflection on that time in church history. During the succeeding years of the Roman Empire, men, women, and even children would at different times be hounded, abused, beaten, tortured in the most appalling ways, and slaughtered by the thousand, at times with a refinement of cruelty that numbs the mind.

11:11But believe it or not, things have actually been worse for Christians in recent history than they were even in those first centuries. Here's Bruce Milne again. It is estimated that in the 20th century, somewhere in the region of 26 million Christians lost their lives for Christ's sake in places like China, the Soviet bloc, Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia, and Uganda. A servant is not greater than his master. And if they persecuted Jesus, they will persecute us. So, friends, we must expect and we must be prepared to suffer. We must expect and prepare to be mocked and ostracized and excluded.

12:00Or even killed for living our faith in Christ. But that brings up a very important question. And that is this. If the Bible teaches that Jesus' disciples will be persecuted for their faith, why are we not experiencing persecution? Or at least more persecution than we do? Let's take a look at verse 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.

12:42So to answer the question about why we aren't experiencing persecution or at least not very much of it, we want to work backwards from what Jesus teaches here in verse 19. He told his disciples that the world hates them because they are not of the world. He chose them out of the world, so they're not of the world. And clearly, Jesus doesn't mean that he's taken the disciples away from and out of the world in that sense. They are still standing right there in the upper room with Jesus. That's clearly not what he meant. And in the same way, as Christians, we have not been taken out of the world. We are still here, living in our houses or apartments or dorm rooms, going to work or to class, doing all of the things that living in this world. And living this life requires.

13:33So, what does Jesus mean when he says that we are not of the world? I chose you out of the world, and therefore the world hates you. Well, I think to answer that question, we've got to understand how Jesus and the authors of Scripture are using the word world. Now, many times in Scripture, the word world refers to the earth and everything in it. At other times, the word world in scripture refers to all the people living on the earth.

14:02But there are many other occasions in Scripture, particularly in the New Testament, where the word world refers to something else, and that something else is what we might call worldliness. Take a look at 1 John 2 on the screen. John writes, 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. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. I want you to look again at that definition that John gives us there. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the Father. From the world, John mentions three desires, three cravings in this passage that are all part and parcel of worldliness. The first one is the desires of the flesh. This is our yearning for pleasure, which might come from things like food or drink or sex or entertainment. This is the cravings of our bodies.

15:29The second thing he mentions is desires of the eyes. This is our yearning for possessions or places or the human body, the cravings of our eyes and what we can see. And then he mentions pride of life. This is our yearning to be more wealthy, more powerful, more beautiful, more desirable, more intelligent than those people around us, the pride of life. Pride is a comparison. It's the result of comparison. So, this is the cravings of our fallen hearts. So, remember, friends, our fundamental problem as human beings is that we value and we pursue the cravings of our bodies, our eyes, and our hearts more than the Creator. And that is exactly what Paul teaches in Romans chapter 1. Look at the screen.

16:30Paul says, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. This is what we have done. We have exchanged the truth about God for a lie and we've worshipped the creature instead of the creator. That's what we are doing when we are worldly. So what is worldliness? We could define worldliness in this way. Worldliness is valuing and pursuing created things rather than the creator. Worldliness is valuing and pursuing created things rather than the creator. It is loving the gifts more than the giver.

17:15And here's the thing. We live in a binary black and white world when it comes to loving God or loving this world. Now, earlier in Jesus' ministry, he said that no one can serve two masters. He said, if you try to serve two masters, you are going to love one and hate the other. The human heart is not large enough to love two masters. It's not possible to do. Look at what James said in James chapter 4.

17:48You 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 friendly. An enemy of God. You see, Scripture puts it out there as a binary choice. It's black and white. It's one or the other. You can be a friend of the world. You can pursue and value created things rather than the creator. But if you do that, you make yourself an enemy of God. Our choice, every one of us, is either to be friends with the world or friends with Jesus. We cannot be friends with both. Our choice is to love the world or to love Jesus. We cannot love both. We cannot serve two masters. Now, remember, we're trying to answer the question: if the Bible teaches that Jesus' followers will be persecuted for their faith, why aren't we being persecuted or why aren't we being persecuted more than we are?

18:50Well, friends, I think verse 19 gives us the answer. I think we see the answer in the text. The reason that we may not be experiencing persecution, or at least much of it, might be because we love the world. Jesus said that if we were of the world and if we loved the world, if we valued and pursued created things rather than the creator, if we were controlled by the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life, the world would love us. And of course, that makes sense. You don't persecute people who love you.

19:27And you don't persecute people you love. You don't mock them, ostracize them, imprison them, or kill them. You don't do that to people that you love. So, if the world hated Jesus and persecuted Jesus and eventually imprisoned him and put him to death, and if it's true that a servant is not greater than his master, then perhaps the reason that we're not experiencing more persecution or any persecution at all is because we've become friends with the world.

19:56And that is seen in both our words and our lifestyles. Church, if Jesus is our Savior, then He must also be our Lord. And if He is our Lord, He is our Master. And if He is our Master, then He's also our Teacher. And we are told over and over in Scripture that we need Him to teach us how to live holy and distinct lives in this world as His followers. Take a look at Romans 12 and what Paul said.

20:31I 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. Now, hear that second verse again. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That's what Paul says to us. Don't be conformed to this world. Don't allow this world to mold and shape you into what it wants you to be.

21:20So, how do we know if that's happening to us? How do we know if we are being molded and shaped by the world? Let me ask you a series of uncomfortable questions. How do you decide what to wear? Do God's commands about modesty and not causing others to stumble into lustful thoughts enter your mind as you shop online, or as you shop in a store, or as you stand in front of the mirror in the morning?

21:56Do you decide what to wear based on fashion trends and what everybody else wears, what's acceptable in the world, or what makes you feel desirable? How do you decide what to wear? How do you decide what music to listen to? I think we're all aware of the power of music. It's one reason that we're so careful with our song selections here at New Life. Much to my chagrin, you might not remember a line from my sermon, but you will almost certainly remember a song that we sing. Or maybe all of the songs that we sing on Sunday. Music is powerful.

22:35And so I'm not asking you: do you listen to music with a little E next to it? Although that may not be helping you become a godlier person. I'm not asking you that question. I'm asking you: what kind of worldview are you learning from the music that you listen to? 95% of all songs out there have a worldview that is diametrically opposed to what the scriptures teach. There's a popular country song where the artist sings that heaven cannot possibly be better than lying next to the person you love.

23:13How do you decide what to listen to? How do you decide what to watch? Is it simply whatever is popular, whatever appeals to you, whatever your favorite studio has released, whatever your favorite actors are in? Does it occur to us that the actress who takes her clothes off in a movie is someone's daughter. Maybe is someone's wife or mother or sister? And I don't intend to excuse gratuitous violence in movies, but friends, violence in movies is pretend.

23:54Bodies are real. That's not fake. How do you decide what to watch? My purpose in asking you these questions is not because you may struggle with those particular areas, but just to get you thinking. Because you know yourself better than I ever could, and God knows you perfectly. And so I encourage you this week to ask yourself your own uncomfortable questions. And the overarching umbrella question is this: Am I being discipled more by the world or by God and His Word and His people?

24:39That's the umbrella question that is most important. Friends, I'm not here to discourage you. I love you, and I'm here to serve you as well as I can by telling you the truth, even when it's uncomfortable. And so, let me encourage you with these words from Hebrews chapter 6. Take a look on the screen. The author says, Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. I trust that every Christian here intends to follow Christ faithfully and desires to live a godly life. And according to Jesus, that means that we will be mocked and ostracized and potentially killed for our faith if we aren't in love with the world.

25:25And so these are good questions to ask. But, friends, who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient to stand up to the world and to stand up to this kind of persecution that Jesus talks about? Well, thankfully, he has prepared us for it. Let's take a look at verse 26 and John 15 here. John says, 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 have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

26:04Look at verse 4. But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. So, according to Jesus, being persecuted is not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. It is coming. So, Jesus prepared us for it by his words and by his spirit. First, Jesus prepared us for persecution by his words. As we've seen, Jesus warned the disciples and future disciples like us that we would be hated for following him. And he says in verse 1 here of chapter 16, I have said all these things to you. Why? To keep you from falling away.

26:48A soldier who enlists in the army but never expects to see combat is in for a rude awakening as soon as people start shooting at him. In the same way, when we start following Jesus, we become combatants in a spiritual war that's been going on since Satan first rebelled against God. Look at Ephesians chapter 6. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

27:29Now, thankfully, Jesus warned us about this spiritual war by his words and through the apostles who wrote the New Testament. He promised that we'd experience persecution and was specific about the kind of persecution that we would experience. And he says that he told us all of this stuff to keep us from falling away, so that when the spiritual bullets start flying, we don't get scared and lose heart and run away because we are experiencing exactly what Jesus said that we would, persecution for following him. Instead, we can remember, friends, that the battle has already been won. Jesus has already won the battle through his life, death, and resurrection from the dead. And he will be victorious in the end. So he prepared us for persecution by his words. But we also see here that he prepared us for persecution by sending the Holy Spirit. And if you remember back to chapter 14, Jesus promised. He was going to send the helper. That is the advocate, the counselor, the spirit of truth. And the spirit of truth would teach the disciples all things and bring to remembrance everything that Jesus taught. That was going to be very important when they began writing the words of the New Testament. But, friends, it's also very important for us that Jesus send the Holy Spirit so that we have this helper, this counselor, this advocate when we are being persecuted. Look what Jesus said in Matthew 10.

29:02Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

29:39Isn't that a great promise? When believers are arrested and dragged before the authorities, we don't have to be anxious about what to say because the Father Himself is going to give us the words in those moments where we are persecuted so fiercely. And here in John 15, we're told that the Holy Spirit will bear witness. He's going to be witnessed. Bear witness through the disciples who had been with Jesus from the beginning, and then he's going to bear witness through us who have believed the testimony of the disciples written down in the word.

30:12Brothers and sisters, I think one of our greatest fears is that when we are confronted in our classrooms or in our workplaces or our neighborhoods and somebody challenges the Bible or our faith, we're not going to know what to say. Haven't you felt that way? I don't know what to say. I don't know what I'm going to say. These promises can encourage us because Jesus prepared us for these moments. He said they were coming. There's no reason for them to catch us off guard. And he said that he would empower us by sending the Holy Spirit, who is going to help us answer those questions and bear witness for Christ in those moments where our faith is questioned, where the Bible is questioned. He's going to give us the words to say in those times. That should give us great comfort and great courage as we go forward into a world that is increasingly hostile to the Christian faith and message.

31:14If you're already following Christ, I want to remind you of Peter's words. Take a look on the screen. He said, 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. Church, when we're persecuted for our faith, we shouldn't be surprised. That should not seem strange to us. But I think for many believers, especially in the West, like here in America, where Christianity has been the preferred religion, or at least the accepted religion, for 400 years, it does catch many Christians off guard. We're not used to thinking in terms of being ready to make a defense for our faith. We're surprised when it happens. We're surprised when people mock and exclude us. And that's very obvious on social media and even in many pulpits, where Christians respond and fight back with the weapons of the world. Name-calling, threats, litigation, turning to the government to save us.

32:25And I don't want you to misunderstand me. I'm not saying that we shouldn't pray for and vote for candidates and laws that promote religious freedom for everyone. Religious freedom is a great blessing, and we are, it's a wonderful thing that we have it. But we have to remember that most Christians throughout the world and most Christians throughout world history do not live in countries or did not live in countries where they even believed in religious freedom, much less promoted it.

32:54And so we have to recognize that that is not the experience for the majority world. They aren't surprised when persecution comes because they've read scripture and they've experienced it in their daily lives. Persecution is here in some places in America and in some forms already, but more persecution is coming. We don't have to be afraid of it, though, church. We don't have to be afraid of persecution. Jesus said, don't fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

33:28The most that can happen to us is they take our lives and then we go and depart and be with Christ, which Paul said was better by far. But understand this: the reality is that most Christians, even our brothers and sisters around the world, most Christians are never going to go to jail for their faith. Most Christians are never going to be killed for their faith. Instead, most persecution takes the form of social and professional exclusion. And we have to be ready to consider the question: am I willing to pay the price in terms of friendships? Am I willing to pay the price in terms of my career in order to follow Jesus? We prepare ourselves by expecting persecution and praying for the Holy Spirit to give us courage and boldness to speak and to live faithfully.

34:24If you're not yet a Christian, I want to remind you of what we talked about back in verse 19. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. The world loves those who love it. I think you're probably aware that many non-Christians don't believe that the Bible is true. They don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They don't believe that He died and rose from the dead, and therefore they are not Christians.

34:52But many non-Christians have admitted that they don't actually have any good evidence-based reasons for not believing the Bible. And their not being Christians doesn't have anything to do with those pieces of evidence that they found. Instead, they have admitted that they aren't Christians because they love the world and they're unwilling to give up the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride of life. Jesus asked this question: What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

35:37What does it profit? Is it really worth it to have all of the money, all of the pleasures, all of the experiences that this world promises to you and spend eternity under judgment because you wouldn't repent and worship the one true God? Friends, following Jesus is costly, but only In this life, only in this life. You give up some fleeting pleasures and comforts for an eternity of lasting joy and fulfillment in the new heavens and the new earth, in a new body that never wears out, never deals with the effects of sin, never cries or is disappointed any longer. That's what you get in exchange. But what you must do is you must consider Jesus' works, the works that he did, that he says in this passage that no one else did, and the words that he spoke, the true words where he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. You must consider his words and his works, because to reject his words and his works is, as he says in this passage, to reject the Father also. To hate Jesus is to hate the Father. He is the way, the only way, the only truth, and the only life. If you reject His words and His works, then Jesus says you will be guilty of sin, and you will have no excuse for hating him and His Heavenly Father, because He is claimed and proven to be the Son of God.

37:08But if you repent and receive His words and His works, then you will be saved. You will be forgiven of your sin, counted righteous, adopted into God's family through faith. I want to remind you that Jesus did say, in this world you will have trouble. Following him is costly and it's not easy. But he also said that you could take heart because he has overcome the world. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we confess that we have not been ready for persecution.

38:23And there's no excuse for it. As we saw today, you say all over your word that if we follow you, if we live godly lives, if we do good in this world, we will be persecuted, we will suffer for it. And so there's a sense in which we know that you spoke those words or spoke those words through your apostles, and we believe that they're true. But there's another sense in which we say, Where is this persecution that is supposed to be coming?

38:57We pray that you would give us the courage, the honor. Honesty, the sobriety to look at our lives and consider maybe if we're not experiencing persecution, that it might be because we're too much like the world. We're too in love with the world and what it promises. And God, it's such a difficult thing, we admit, to figure out. We want to be in the world appropriately, we want to minister to non-Christians. But please help us. Because I think sometimes, with the best intentions in trying to break down barriers and walls that have been put up, we've just ended up looking like the world.

39:53May we be willing to live holy and distinct lives that stand out. May we be willing to be thought of as weird, uncool. May we be willing to pay the price socially in our circles of friendships. May we be willing to pay the price in our careers. I pray particularly in our context for our students, our master's and PhD students, those that work on campus at Texas. The professors in particular, I pray for those members of our body for whom this is going to be a daily challenge in the university context where lines are being drawn in the sand. And if you don't affirm and celebrate what this world says is true, then you can lose your grade.

41:00You can lose your opportunity for more education. You can lose your job. Would you give them courage and boldness? Holy Spirit, would you give them the words to speak? And so we look to you, God. We want to be faithful ministers in a world that is increasingly hostile to you. Help us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.