Persecution

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Hi, my name is Josh. [00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel. [00:00:26] Speaker A: Today, on reading the Gospel, we are studying the event persecution. This is found in John chapter 15, beginning in verse 18 and continuing all the way into chapter 16. And we will end with verse 4. Follow along with us as we read. [00:00:45] Speaker B: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before. It hated you. [00:00:51] Speaker A: If. [00:00:52] Speaker B: If you are 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 sin 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. [00:02:01] Speaker A: 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. They will put you out of the synagogue. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering a service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. So this event is in contrast with the the previous event where we're the true vine, we're to love one another, and if God lives in us, we're going to bear fruit. Now we're getting into a warning of how the world is going to react to that. How the world is going to react to Christians who bear fruit, who do good, who love others. And the answer is, they're going to hate. Why is hatred an answer to true love? [00:03:20] Speaker B: Jesus Christ said, if we are of the world, they will not hate us because we belong to the same category, but because we are taken out of the world into the kingdom of God, our existence. It's like a threat to them because Love reveals some defects, some problems. In the same way, light, when it shines on an object, reveals some imperfections. So they don't want to change. They don't want to be transformed. They are not looking to embrace the love of God for the purpose of becoming like him. So that is, as according to Jesus Christ, the main reason their response is hatred. [00:04:13] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and I think it. It's a natural result of sin and Satan and being against God. And it's easy when everyone's against God. You know, it's easy to go along and to do things when everyone's doing it. But. But then when someone stops and when someone does right, it convicts everyone else and they're uncomfortable and there's unhappiness and all of a sudden everything gets thrown on its head when someone is following God. And people who don't want to be changed end up lashing out and fighting that very thing that is convicting them and condemning them for what they're doing. [00:05:02] Speaker B: So even if I see this part of the chapter as the opposite of love, from the first part of chapter 15, I see it also as a logical continuation. If we bear fruit, the Master will put prune us to bear even more fruit. So persecution is not initiated by God, but it is permitted by God or allowed by God. And God is redirecting it to be used like a pruning tool to keep us humble, to keep us connected with him. Because in those moments we need God more. [00:05:50] Speaker A: Jesus says, if I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. Would it have been better for Jesus not to do works then? Because did Jesus cause these people to sin? [00:06:11] Speaker B: Could have been better for a few, but not for the whole world. Because the purpose of Jesus was to reveal God's character. Don't forget, we are not quite the center of the universe. God is. And the purpose of the plan of redemption will benefit God first, because his character was under attack when that war in heaven started, according to Revelation chapter 12. And one of his closed confidants and guardian cherubim, his name was Lucifer, rebelled against God and went from angel to angel to present a negative, darkened portrait of God's character. So the purpose of the plan of redemption and Jesus Christ is the core, the center of that plan was to reveal who God is. [00:07:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:08] Speaker B: And Jesus Christ did it by manifesting his love. He helped the poor, healed their wounds and providing food, raising their dead and so on. And at the same time by words. So we have this verse here that if Jesus Christ didn't use his preaching and his sermons and his teaching, they would not have had the sin. That now they have to reject him and reject him? Who sent that? Jesus, that is the Father. So I see it from this perspective. [00:07:49] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and Jesus didn't preach so that they would sin. [00:07:55] Speaker B: Of course. [00:07:55] Speaker A: Jesus preached so that they would have eternal life. But when they didn't listen, then they sinned. And I think of this so many times. I think of this in my own life when I first became a Christian, as we talked about in the previous episode. But I see this with people who are coming to Christ for the first time. You know, this fear of losing. I don't want to. I'm not sure I want to study the Bible. I'm not sure I want to come to God because I'll find out that I have to change too much. And this idea that if we don't know anything, then we can live in happiness. Ignorance is bliss is the saying. But that's not what God wants. God does not want us to live in ignorance. And as a Christian, our goal should not be to stay in ignorance so that we don't sin. Our goal is to find out how to better follow and serve God because really that is what brings true happiness. And so these leaders, as they see Christ, the goal was for them to repent and follow and accept the gift. And their life would have been so much better. They would have been better leaders, they would have been better equipped that everything would have been better if they had have followed Jesus. But they didn't and, and they sinned. And so we should not fear seeking out new information about God. We shouldn't fear coming to God and learning more about him with the thought that if I do, I might sin more. Here in verse 26, Jesus also promises this helper. Again, who is this helper? [00:09:46] Speaker B: As I talked in a previous episode, Paracletos, the advocate, the mediator, the comforter, the helper is the Holy Spirit, right? He's called here the Spirit of Truth. And the explanation is very clear. Those guys living thousand something years ago when the Christian church split because of the question who sent the Holy Spirit? Those guys should have read this verse that is so clear. Whom I will send you from? The Father. Yeah, because Jesus and the Father are one. So they send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, and he will bear witness about Jesus Christ. And we should bear witness because bearing witness is the second kind of fruits that Jesus Christ refers To in this chapter. The first one is our character based on the love that we receive from above. And now it is to bear witness is the second dimension, the external dimension of the fruit. And it's the Holy Spirit that helps us understand our spiritual needs. It is the Holy Spirit that presents Jesus Christ and him crucified as a solution for our problem. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the power to change, to be transformed, to overcome, to reconnect with God and to remain in that steadfast relationship with him. And it is the Holy Spirit who gives us the wisdom and the power to witness about Christ, to share our experience with those around us. [00:11:41] Speaker A: And then 16 just reiterates this thought that as we are filled with the Holy Spirit, as we witness for Christ, as we bear fruit, as we do these things, the world's going to hate us. And in fact, there will be people who will say in Christ's name, thinking they're doing what God wants, and they will be persecuting God's followers in God's people. [00:12:04] Speaker B: I really like to emphasize this thought because living in America, we have the fear that the liberals, those without God, those who promote all kind of unbiblical lifestyles, those who persecute us. [00:12:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:22] Speaker B: But if you read carefully the Gospel, the words of Jesus Christ, those people who believe in God will persecute us in the name of God. [00:12:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:33] Speaker B: They will put you out of the synagogue. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. The final persecution will be in the name of God. [00:12:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:49] Speaker B: A God they did not know, a God they did not receive, but a God whose power they want to emulate. They are looking to take the leadership from God's hands and to execute it by themselves. But they do not want to take God's character. The love, the humility, the self sacrifice. Laying your life for our friends. [00:13:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And so Christians should not be surprised or discouraged when they're persecuted. Jesus warns that there will be persecution. He doesn't warn that the Christian life will be a perfect life of no trials, no troubles, no tribulations, nothing. He uses those to better our character. When Satan comes to hurt us, he changes the outcomes and helps us. But we as Christians can know that as we go through those times, Christ is with us. As you know, Christ was on the cross when the darkness came and he cried out, why have you forsaken me? God was right there, right next to him. And the same thing's true with us. When we feel God is so far from us when persecution surrounds us, when we're in the most troubled, God is right there with us. [00:14:13] Speaker B: It seems that sometimes we would like to design a life for us that is better than the life of Jesus. [00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:22] Speaker B: Jesus said that disciples are not going to be above the Master. If he was persecuted, we will be persecuted. And God allows this persecution in our lives with a purpose of trimming those outgrowths which are not coming from the vine. They're not from the Father. [00:14:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Let's pray. Father God, when we face persecution in our lives, may we turn to you. [00:14:55] Speaker B: Amen. [00:14:57] Speaker A: May we glorify God in heaven. May we connect other people through the fruit that we bear. May we not worry about what the future holds. Because we know that you have our good in mind. And even if persecution leads to death, Father, you are able to save us from the second death. [00:15:23] Speaker B: Amen. [00:15:24] Speaker A: So we want to dedicate our lives to you and ask that you will give us that peace that in the midst of persecution, we know that you are with us in Jesus. Jesus name. Amen. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Amen.