← Apologetics
Loading summary
Transcript3 lines
- [00:01]
A
This world is not a neutral place. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus described the world as a spiritual war zone, one that's actively fighting against the kingdom of God. In today's study of John 15, Jesus unpacks this reality even further and explains what it means for us as his followers.
- [00:23]
B
One of the traits that successful military leaders have often had is that they're just blunt. Those who serve in the military will tell you that they prefer commanding officers that will be honest and clear with them, even if what they're being clear about is something difficult, perhaps an enemy just over the fence line. In World War II, there was a number of military leaders among the Allied forces that we regard well, in part because they spoke clearly to those that they led. General Patton comes to mind. I think Churchill would also come to mind. These are men who spoke clearly, and because they cared for their troops, they're honest with their troops, even when they face the prospect of death. Just before a D day, literally the night before D day, Joe Patton speaks to his troops, is what he said. He says, you're the best soldiers in the world, and you will prove it. If you're a soldier and you're not willing to die for your country, you're not a soldier at all. We must be willing to give our lives for the cause of freedom, for the future of the world, for the future of our children. We must be willing to die if necessary. Now, I don't want you to think that this is going to be easy. This is going to be a tough fight, but you are the best, and the best is going to win. You're not only fighting for yourselves, but you are fighting for your country. You are fighting for your families. You are fighting for the future of the world. If you heard that from someone who is about to give you orders to march into what might be your death, what would be your response? Well, we know the response of those who stormed the beaches of Normandy. We know the response of those who gave up their life for their country. We know the response to these sort of words and others was to live and to act sacrificially on behalf of a greater good and a greater purpose. And part of the job of the military leaders at this time is to express what their purpose is, to be honest about the dangers, to say, yes, it may cost your life, it may cost you everything, but here's the thing, it is worth it. That is what Jesus is doing in the upper room discourse. In the upper room discourse, he spends an extended period of time laying the groundwork. He's building up his disciples. He's building them up. He's giving them strength. He's giving them courage. He's also being clear. He says, this is what's going to happen. This is what's going to go down. And it's going to be hard and it's going to be dark and it's going to be difficult. However, know this. As you face these difficulties, as you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you should fear no evil. Why? Because I'm with you. Beyond that, in today's text, he also says, I'm going to send you a helper. Yeah, it's going to be dark and hard and difficult. And yes, there are going to be people who are going to want to kill you on the basis of what you're going to say about me. But even as you go out into that darkened world to proclaim the truth, even as you go out to proclaim the gospel, you're not doing it alone. I am with you. The Spirit, the Helper is with you. We've got this. We will win. We got this. We will win. But some days, it doesn't feel like winning, does it? Some days it feels dark and difficult. And some days it feels like there's things going on in your own life that just feel so difficult that the prospect of facing persecution on top of that for raising the flag of King Jesus, it's just not something that we're inclined to. To do. With that said, those who will tell you that the Christian faith is a private matter. You ever hear that someone very piously say, your faith is a private thing? Nonsense. Your faith is a personal thing. It's not a private thing. And so the message to Jesus, to the disciples, the message of Jesus for us through this text, is that what's at stake is the future of the world. Future of our children, future our church, future of our homes, future of our livelihood, future of all that we care about. And it is worth it to do that which he has compelled us to do. So let's look at these verses. Let's look at verses 18 and 19 and work our way through the text in order to kind of see again this speech that Jesus gives them just prior to their D day, so to speak. Let's look at verse 18. If the world hates you, know that it hated me before I hated you now. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. And yet, because you are not, not of this world. But I chose you. I chose you out of this world. That therefore the World hates you. You know, the number one cause of hatred is differences. It always has been when you can see yourself and the attitudes and appetites and affections and choices of someone just like you. Not you, but like you. You tend to like them because they remind you of you. But bring someone into the midst of a group that has this commonality, a group that is otherwise very similar. Bring someone in who is different, who doesn't look like them, sound like them, act like them, what have you. And that breeds distrust and dislike. Even if there's no sin involved on the part of the one who enters in, it breeds distrust and dislike just on the basis of the fact that that person is different from me. Hatred stems principally from differences. You know, when I was younger, I like baseball. Still do. Baseball is my sport. I'd like to say I was good at it. I wasn't. But I still like baseball. But if I had to say what the second thing I really enjoyed is, I enjoyed watching wrestling. I won't ask you for a show of hands, because no one ever owns up to this, but in the 80s, I liked wrestling. My dad would sit there, you know, Hulk Hogan, all this. Now, I was too young and stupid to know that it wasn't real. I thought, oh, my goodness, Andre the Giant, dear heavens. You know. So we watch wrestling, watch these matches, and it was great. I had a great time with wrestling. With that said, do you know how. Do you know how wrestling promoters galvanize interest in a match? Well, in order to galvanize interest in a match, you have to have both. What's called a baby face and a heel, A hero and a villain. Now, how did they go about creating a villain in that setting? How did they go about creating a villain? Well, it was very simple. All you have to do to create a villain is make the person who enters the ring different from the people in the stands. Anyone ever remember the Iron Sheikh, the Iron sheik? In the 80s, the iron sheik was the great enemy of Hulk Hogan. The Iron Sheik comes into the ring. What does he have? He has a giant Iranian flag. How well do you think that went over in the 80s? They did the same thing with. There was a guy named Nikolai Volkov. He was a great Russian wrestler. He'd come in bearing the giant Russian flag. In fact, they would have him sing the Russian national anthem. And you've never heard so many boos. They booed these people off the stage. Why? Because they were different from the people in the stands. You want to create hatred for someone, for A group. You point to the differences. You say, this person's not like you. You like yourself. Right. You like you. You like your adjectives, affections and choices and all the different things about you. Right? You like you. Well, that person's not like you. Ah. Ah. That's how hatred has typically been manifest. Well, here's the thing. As Christians, you and I are fundamentally, ontologically, by our nature, different from the world around us. And the world notices. The world notices the differences of a Christian who turns their back on sin, who turns away from evil, who won't watch the things that they watch, who won't talk the way that they talk, who choose to live righteously, uprightly, do the right thing, what have you. The world notices that. They notice the distinction, they notice the disparity, and they notice the difference. And that difference breeds hatred. The world notices when a Christian raises the flag of King Jesus and the world does not like it. The Christian is not of the world. Today's text says it, but we could cherry pick seemingly a dozen other texts throughout the New Testament that say the same thing. You're not of this world, so stop trying to be. Just as a side note, stop trying to be. We try so hard to be accepted in the world around us. Like that's going to get us anywhere. That was not the methodology of the apostles, of the disciples, of the saints, certainly of the martyrs. The martyrs said, my road forward is not going to be a road by which I take on the attitudes and the affections of Rome or those around me. I will follow Jesus, come what may. And it cost them. And Jesus told them he was going to cost him. Verses 18 and 19. Let's look at our next verses. Let's look ahead to verses 20 through 22. So remember the word that I said to you. A servant is not greater than his master. And so if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know him who has sent me. If I had not come and spoke to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. You know, when people dislike a message, they pretty quickly dislike the messenger. If you have a guy, let's say you have a guy who goes and stands on a street corner, you know, busy city, and he has a sandwich board. You've probably seen these sort of guys now. There's all sorts of things you can put on a sandwich board. To get people's attention. But let's say that a guy stands on the street corner and the sandwich board just says, God loves you. You know, all right. People walk by, just nod. Okay. You know, it doesn't trouble them that much. In fact, people generally like to be affirmed. If you tell people that God loves you and has a great plan for their life, they'll say, me too. It's not hard to get people galvanized behind a message that affirms what they want to believe about themselves. So if you wear the sandwich board that says God loves you, they'll say amen and amen. What if, however, what if that same guy on the street corner, he does it for half the day, God loves you, has almost no negative encounters whatsoever. What if he switches to the sandwich board over and it just has one word, starts with an R. Repent, Stop sinning. What's the response going to be then? Well, you know, it's not going to be the same as when he said, God loves you. See, everyone likes to be affirmed. That's not a hard message to share. And in fairness, it's a good message and it's a biblical message. Does God love you? Yes. We can believe that and nod our head to it and say, amen. God loves me. I've given him no reason to. I've given him every reason not to. But God loves me. Yes. Amen. Amen. Amen. So that's good news. We can absolutely affirm that. But at the same time, we can affirm this, that if I love God, I should live differently than I was living yesterday. If I love God, I should repent from my sins, turn away, and start to live righteously. We can and should say these sort of things, but what we find is that society will say, you can go this far, but no further. You can go yay far with what you want to tell the people about Jesus. But you go past that, and then we're going to have a problem. Society tries to hem us in. Well, verses 20 through 22 just says, look, if they hated me, if they hated my message, if. When I came into town and I talked to Pharisees and the reaction of the Pharisees was to pick up stones to throw at me, what do you think they're going to do to you when you say the same thing? Presuming you do say the same thing? Because the temptation is always not to. The temptation is always not to say the same thing. The temptation is to water down what it is we believe to make it more Palatable. We try to raise the flag of King Jesus just high enough is to not get enemy fire. With that said, Jesus says in these verses, if they hated me, if they hated my message, if they hate who I am, do you think that the servant is going to fare any better than the Master did? Of course not. Of course not. If they came at me, in fact, if they killed me, you're not going to escape a similar punishment. In fact, they wouldn't. Eleven of the twelve remaining apostles would be martyred in due time. If you fly your king's flag, you will anger your king's enemies 100%, full stop. And again, the temptation then is to not fly it at all or to fly it selectively. As 21st century Christians, we tend to fly the flag just below the level that makes people upset. But as I said before, that's in part because we buy into this idea that you have a private faith. If anyone ever tells you that, just stop the conversation right there, you can say, I have a personal faith. I have a personal faith. You have a personal faith. You have a personal relationship with your God. This is true. But it was never, never intended to be private. And as you make it public and take it into a fallen world, what's going to happen? The world's going to notice it and the world's going to respond. And that's what he's saying here in verses 20 to 22. All right, let's look at our remaining verses. Now let's look at verses 23 through 27. He who hates me hates my Father also. Now, this was spoken in a Jewish context because there would be Jews who would say, I hate Jesus, but I love the Father. There would be Jews who would say, we love Abraham, we love Moses, we love Jehovah, we love that guy. We love the Father, but not you so much. Not Jesus. Jesus. Well, Jesus says right here, nope, nope, nope, nope. Doesn't work that way. He who hates me hates my Father also. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot take the Trinity and say, I'll take that member of the Trinity, but not that one or those two. No, that's not the way that works. He who hates me hates my father also, verse 24. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin. But now they have seen and have also hated me and my Father. Again, he's using this to really remind the Jewish audience of their problem, the predicament that they're in. But this happened that the Word might be Fulfilled, which is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. There are passages across the balance of the Old Testament that anticipated that when Jesus, this righteous, loving, kind, gentle lamb of God himself would show up, that they would hate him for no reason, would kill him. The Bible's open in one of those passages right there. Isaiah, chapter 53, this tender, kind, gentle guy would show up who would heal lepers and sick people and cure blindness and raise the dead. And what would they do? They'd kill him. They hated me without a cause. It was anticipated in the Old Testament. Jesus says right here. It's fulfilled in the new. Right there in verse 25, this happened, that the word might be fulfilled, which was written in their law. They hated me without a cause. Verse 26. But. And this is optimistic, this is encouraging, but when the helper comes. Who's the helper? We talked about this two weeks ago. Who's the helper? The Holy Spirit. Right? When the Holy Spirit comes. When the Holy Spirit comes, whom I shall send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father. He will testify of me, and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. All right, he who hates me hates my Father also. He who hates me hates my Father also. You want to know one of the proofs that Jesus knew what he was talking about? We're in the Book of John. What's the next book over? What's the next book? You're reading through the Bible, John. What? Acts. How far do you have to go into Acts before all the persecution and hatred that you see right here is demonstrated? You see the Book of John? Spoiler alert. The book of John ends this way. Jesus is going to die, but he's not going to stay dead. Three days later, he's going to be resurrected from. From the dead. And the Book of Acts starts in this way. In Acts chapter one, she's gonna send to the right hand of the Father. And in Acts chapter two, the Spirit, the Helper's gonna come down at the day of Pentecost and fill the local church and send them out into the world. Not just to Jerusalem, not just to Judea, but beyond and to the Gentile lands as well. Everything Jesus said is gonna happen would happen there in the first, the end of John and the start of the book of Acts. But you know what also happens in the Book of Acts? You get to chapter four. You only have four chapters in. And all the persecution starts by the time you get to chapter eight. You have a guy named Saul at Tarsus, breathing out threats and murder to kill Christians. The persecution started like that, started on a dime, and it didn't stop. The book of Acts records persecution after persecution after persecution. Everything that Jesus said would happen did happen. It unfolded like clockwork there in the time to come. And it didn't stop. It hasn't stopped 2,000 years later, but certainly in the first few centuries, it didn't stop at all. There was great martyrdom that occurred. It was only after about the third, fourth century that there was some easing as Christianity became the state religion of Rome. But even that, you could say the persecution never really ended against those who were truly of the faith. But the irony of all that is. And the irony in the midst of the persecution that happened in Acts and the persecution that happens in John and the other gospels, the irony is this, than 6,000 years of recorded history, there's never been as nice and genteel a guy as Jesus Christ to undergo that level of hatred to this day. The name Jesus Christ, if you say it globally, globally, will it elicit a lot of praise and worship and amens? Yes, yes, and yes. It'll also elicit some of the strongest negative reactions of any name you could name on the entire globe 2000 years after he died. Which is a side note, is proof that he was who he said he was. But with that said, when you think of who he was and what he did and the healings and the platitudes and kindness and compassion and empathy and resurrections and all the stuff that he did, you have to stand back and go, man, why would they hate him with that kind of passion? Why does the world hate him now, 2000 years later when he really never did anything to deserve it? You know, if you hate Hitler, that's okay. I do too. There are villains you can hate. There's villains you go, nope, that guy's not for me. That was a wicked, evil man who deserves to be under the boot of history. Yes, Jesus is not that guy. There's never been a kinder, more gentle, more sweet, more nice, more compassionate individual on the face of the planet. But it didn't matter what he did. He could give his own life. People didn't accept that. He could cure cancer. Jesus Christ could show up today. He could cure cancer, he could bring world peace. He could reunite the Beatles. He could do whatever it is that you want him to do. He could fulfill everything. But the minute he stands up at the press conference after curing cancer and describes the problem that mankind has with Sin and how he himself and his death and resurrection is the solution. The minute he shares the Gospel and talks about sin and reconciliation with the Father, the minute he does that, it doesn't matter if he cured cancer, he'll get booed off the stage. His message offended. His message offended and it still offends, despite being one of the greatest messages that any people could ever have. If people hated him. Without a cause in 1st century Israel, 21st century America is really not going to be any different. As I guess a side note as we start to wrap up this morning, there's a myth people have that you come into this world spiritually neutral. Now, you've heard this. It's the default setting of our institutions, academics and the like. There's this idea that when a child is born, the child comes in like a blank canvas, right? A blank canvas. And then that child can use their intellect and use their reason to deduce what's going on in the world around them, right? Spiritually, they're a free agent. Morally, they're free agents and the like. There's this neutrality they begin with. And if they become bad, that's on them. And if they become good, that's on them too. That's the default setting that most of our institutions have. But it's not what we see in Scripture. Scripture does not tell us that we come into this world spiritually neutral. You wonder why people hated Jesus. I'm going to get to this in a moment. You wonder why the world hates him even now, 2,000 years later. It's because the world's not a neutral place. This idea that the culture around us is inherently neutral, wrong. That is not what Scripture teaches whatsoever. It's 180 degrees the opposite of what Scripture teaches. First Corinthians 2:14 says this. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. See, this is what Paul says, right? Here is he takes the myth of neutrality and he just blows it up, says, nope, this is not the way it works. Natural man, when he comes into this world, he doesn't come in spiritually neutral, able to pick and choose from what's right and wrong on the basis of his own intellect and reason. Paul says the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. In Ephesians 2, he builds on this. He says that when you and I came into the world, we came in spiritually flatlining. He said, this you he made alive, who were dead in sins and trespasses in which you once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, which is a reference to Satan himself, but. So that'd be the bad news. You once were this way. You once were spiritually flatlining. You were dead in your sins and trespasses. Dead means dead. Just as a side note, it doesn't mean sleepy, it doesn't mean weak, it doesn't mean neutral. It means dead. You came into this world dead in your sins and trespasses in which you once walked, according to. To the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. But. But God, who is rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive with Christ. This speaks to the idea that we're going to talk a little bit on Wednesday night. We're going to have a class this Wednesday night, 6:15, on the topic of predestination. That's always something people are curious about. What do we believe along these lines and why do we believe it? We'll talk more about it then, but for the moment, now let me talk about regeneration, because it's relevant to this and it's also relevant to what we'll see on Wednesday. Regeneration. If you were to give a euphemism for regenerations, two words, starts with a B, what would it be? Born again. You ever hear someone say, I was born again, you ask someone, when were you born again? They'll say, well, I came down the sawdust path at a crusade, at a revival, at some moment, at that moment, I made a choice to follow, follow Jesus, and I was born again. What's wrong with that? Well, here's what's wrong with that. It yokes the decision, the cognitive decision that you make to the change in your own spiritual nature. But that's not what we see Paul saying. He says, you were dead in your sins and trespasses, but God made you alive. How did he make you alive? Well, we know this. You didn't do it yourself. What had to happen is what we call regeneration. Being born again is not a choice that you make. It's not a volitional statement. You say that, I think I'll be born again today. No, you can no more be born again than a corpse in the graveyard can just jump up and do a jig what has to happen to those who come into this world dead in our sins and trespasses? What has to happen is this, that God, out of his love and his volition and his choice and his sovereignty and his mercy, says, I choose you. And he takes a heart of stone, as Ezekiel says, and he turns it into a heart of flesh. And until that happens, until a heart of stone is turned to a heart of flesh, it remains a rebel in that enmity with its Creator. We talked about Solitarsis in Acts chapter eight. Remember when Stephen. When Stephen the great martyr died? Stephen dies. He looks up to heaven. He sees Jesus as departures from this world. Go. Being stoned is no fun. But seeing Jesus there and ascending to him, that's wonderful. Do you know who held the coats of the guys who stoned stone? Stephen? Who was it? Saul. Now Saul remains. Saul of Tarsus, bringing out threats of murder up through Acts chapter 8. What happens in Acts chapter 9? In Acts chapter 9, God took a heart of stone and turned it to a heart of flesh. In Acts chapter nine, while Saul is on the road to Damascus, breathing out threats of murder, God enters in, changes his heart, knocks him from his horse, shines down a light, puts blinders on his eyes, does any manner of things to resurrect and change his heart at a time when Saul of Tarsus was not looking to change it on his own. It was not up to Saul of Tarsus to choose to be saved any more than it was up to you to choose to be saved. It's God's sovereignty, his volition, his choice. We see it in verse after verse after verse after verse. The world hates us, by the way. The world hates it because they want some autonomy over their own future and their own salvation. And yet this is the manifest teaching of Scripture. With that said, this regeneration that occurs, this regeneration by which your heart is changed and by which your salvation is stamped in the book of life, this moment, this change that happens, it brings about a change in you. You are no longer the person, maybe the jerk, maybe the sinner, maybe the evil doer, like Solitaris was that you used to be. And praise God, even tomorrow you're going to have less of the attitudes and appetites and affections you used to have. Why? Because God, who started a good work, will finish it. When God starts a work, when he changes a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, the spirit enters in. And as the spirit enters in, it starts to clean up the mess, starts to clean up the mess that he finds There, this is what we call sanctification. It builds on regeneration. God sanctifies and cleans us up, and then we're no longer the people that we used to be. We still fail, we still fall, we still stumble. But through the grace of God, we are not the men and women that we once were. In this text, in today's text, we see that a world to whom this has not happened, to an individual society, a culture nation, if there are individuals in that society, that culture nation, whose hearts have not been changed for whatever reason, God's sovereign choice to do so or not do so. But if someone's heart has not been changed, if there's 100 people, thousand people, a million people out there whose hearts have not been changed, they are not spiritually neutral. They will remain at animosity with you and your king. And when you raise the flag, you'll encounter the persecution that is inevitable to we who are ambassadors for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. If you eliminate the myth of spiritual neutrality, there are implications, but it does help you explain and understand why people hate Jesus 2000 years after he died and will hate you if you take that standard and raise it higher tomorrow than you did yesterday, this morning. We all want to see change in the world. We all want to see change in the world around us. With that said, we need to be more willing tools in God's own changing of natures. You want to see culture and society change for the better. You want to see things get better. I know I do. If you want to see that happen, what has to happen is that God has to change more hearts. But here's the good news. As you wonder, can he do it? Will he do it? Well, A, you can pray to him to do it. And the God who answers prayers of mothers for their children can answer prayers of you for others. So, yes, that can and does happen. But furthermore, God says, all right, you want to see the world change. You want to see a brighter light in the culture around you. You want to see all these things happen. Are you willing to be my human instrumentation to that end? Are you willing to raise that banner higher? Are you willing to take the gospel to the neighbor down the street who you don't like that much? Are you willing to share it in your workplace? Are you willing to share the truth and the hope of all men? Are you willing to do that? Because if you do that, if collectively we do that with greater fervor than we have done it in times past, we can make a difference and a Dent, a Gulf point and far beyond, a city on a hill. That's not a pipe dream. It's what we're called to be. Let's pray.
- [26:31]
A
To search through an archive of Dr. Holt's previous sermons, please visit us@fpcgolfport.org or you can look us up@sermonaudio.com.