The World’s Hatred & The Spirit’s Help – John 15:18–16:4a

Pray & Intro: Why hasn’t God made it easy to be a Christ follower? … By definition, to be a Christian is to believe in Jesus as Lord and only Savior, and to therefore aim become like him, and to testify about him in a world that is opposed to him. To be like Jesus is to willingly sacrifice and suffer in the will of God for his glory, by means of the good of others whom he is saving. If we are to be like Jesus, it isn’t reasonable to expect it to be easy.

As we approach the latter part of John 15 today, it is this difficulty of following Jesus that gives us our bearings. Continuing to speak to his disciples in the departure discourse on his last night with them before his crucifixion, Jesus shifts emphasis from our abiding in him and in his love toward us, becoming a community united in the same sacrificial love for one another, to also preparing his disciples to expect persecution because of world’s hatred toward him.

John 15:18–16:4a (ESV)

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.’ 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. ¹ “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.

To remain faithful to Jesus, we must expect the world’s hatred and rely on the Holy Spirit to be our help.

Why do I say the issue is about remaining faithful? Judas has defected completely and is presently in the process of betraying Jesus. Peter has declared his loyalty to the point of dying for Jesus, but the Lord has let him know that he will in fact deny him this very night before the morning rooster crows. And in the beginning of ch. 16, we just read that Jesus says these things to them in order to keep them from falling away—which would mean apostasy, a fatal and final rejection of Jesus that proves we were not ever truly in him, in the Vine.

Therefore, the goal of telling these things to his beloved disciples is to prepare them for remaining faithful to him in the hardships ahead, and to help them grasp further the necessity of abiding in Him, relying on the Spirit’s help to be faithful to our calling as his witnesses in a world that is hostile toward him. 

So the two overarching things we see in this text that we also can apply as Christ’s chosen and beloved: Get ready for the world to oppose you. (and) Rely on the Spirit’s help to persevere.

Christ’s beloved, expect the world to oppose you.

Although we are blessed beyond measure to be united in Christ’s love, and we have the privilege of abiding in that love and learning to love one another as Christ has loved us, we must also understand and be ready for hatred from the world.

The world here is understood as all those beholden to the world system under Satan’s influence, which is everyone who is not worshipping the true God by submitting to Christ. - Just as we are to be united with one another in Christ’s love, and to be like Jesus in obedience to the Father’s will and in humble service to one another, so we can also expect to be treated like Jesus by those who refuse to submit to him.

We who love Jesus and one another, united in our obedience to him, should expect hatred from the world. - “Know” that the world “has hated me before it hated you.” This experiential knowledge of a truth or reality is why I will use the word understand.

Understand not only that they will hate and persecute you, but specifically why. (15:18-21a)

Jesus is saying: The world will hate you because they hate me, and they hate me because they do not know the Father.

The people of the world system hate you because they hate me. - And why is that the case? v. 19a, If you were of the world”… If you looked like them and lived like them, and made them still feel comfortable about the way they live… the world would accept you… love and befriend you as one of their own.

But you are not of the world anymore, because I chose you out of the world. To be of the world is to be dead in our trespasses and sins, walking in them and living and loving it, rebelling against God and choosing to ignore that he is displeased. - And even conformity to religious ritual is still part of this world system, which is a deliberate part of Satan’s deceitful schemes. All religion can only be true religion if it conforms to a right heart in right relationship to God, which can only come through submission to Jesus as Savior.

- Even many Jews could use God’s own law wrongly (and it is they who are emphasized in this persecution, 16:2). Instead of the law leading them to deeper knowledge of God’s holiness and their need (and therefore a repentance of sin and dependence on God’s mercy & grace), many thought they could outwardly conform well enough to the law to merit God’s favor, as if such a capacity existed in themselves to be good enough.

We are all inclined toward the same aberrant thinking and living, until by God’s own saving grace, he chooses us out of the world to be trophies of his mercy, even as he did with his apostles. The fact of his choosing does not remove our responsibility, for how will we know if we are his? If we respond rightly to him, in repentance and faith, as he commands us.

But the main point Jesus is explaining is that those beholden to the world system, which is beholden to Satan, hate Christ’s people because they hate Jesus himself. And why do they hate Jesus? - They hate Jesus because he is the true light (a key emphasis in John’s Gospel). Jesus is the light who exposes the sin and rebelliousness of our hearts toward God. And when we are living in sin, we do not want our filthy hearts laid bare, and we do not want to feel the weight of God’s judgment for that sin bearing down on our shoulders.

And here Jesus also reminds his disciples, v. 20, that he had already said, “a servant is not greater than his master” in the context of them following his example to lead by humble service, not by trying to seek the highest place of honor. Now he uses that same phrase to further show his disciples that they will be treated by others according to how those others respond to Jesus, the Master. - If they are the ones who persecute me, they will persecute you. If they learn to submit to me and obey my words, they will listen to you also (because your responsibility is to say what I have said).

“But all these things they will do to you on account of my name…” - All these things being whatever forms the persecution takes, with some examples later spelled out in 16:2 (putting you out of the synagogues and thinking that killing you is a service to God… like Saul/Paul). - “On account of my name means” because of who Jesus is, but it is also noteworthy that the very name of Jesus is the moniker we bear, perhaps it was even the world that gave us this name: Christians. (first in Antioch, Acts 11:26)

But now the emphasis shifts to the reason that they have displayed a hatred for Jesus: “because they do not know him who sent me.” They do not know God, because it is the Father who sent the Son. All claims to know God are proven false by their rejection of Jesus.

Understand that their hatred toward Jesus reveals their true relationship to God and seals their judgment. (15:21b-25)

After saying the world’s hostility to Christ’s people is precisely because they do not know the Father, Jesus explains that their rejection of him, in spite of his words and deeds on behalf of the Father, ensures their guilt of a most fundamental sin: rejecting God’s own revelation and means of salvation.

We know from other Scripture that Jesus certainly doesn’t not mean they had no other sin whatsoever, or that the consequence of any sin isn’t complete separation from God. King David explained in a psalm that he was a sinner from the moment of his conception (Psalm 51:5), and the Apostle Paul quotes the Psalms as well to explain what it mean that “no one is righteous,” not even a single person (Rom 3:10) other than Jesus, and the consequence of that sin, as God said, is death (Rom 6:23).

But since Jesus is in fact Israel’s Messiah, revealing God, and has atoned for the sins of all who believe, their hatred of Jesus is a hatred of the Father who sent him, sealing their fate. (Jesus goes back and forth again between these two corresponding concepts: v. 23 correlates to v. 21b, and v. 24 returns to the concept of v. 22.)

The point is, had Jesus not come and spoken for God and done all the miracles he did in their presence, they would at least not have the sin of rejecting their Messiah when he was right in front of their faces. But now, in Jesus, they have seen the Father, and hated the Father.

So too they fulfill what was written about them in the Law (a way to reference the Hebrew Scriptures as a whole), quoted from the Psalms of David (either or both Ps 35:19, Ps 69:4). “They hated me without cause.” - The people who are enemies of God’s anointed hate him freely—they do not have cause or justifiable reason.

As we have seen, remaining in such opposition to Jesus seals their judgment because it proves they do not in fact relate rightly to God the Father either.

The truth is, even with a right understanding of why they do it and what it reveals about them, the world’s hatred and hostility toward Christ’s people could easily overwhelm us. So Jesus tells them the whole truth about the hardships ahead, but as he has been doing throughout this discourse, he does not leave them without comfort and encouragement.

Lest you should think yourselves hopeless and helpless because it is you against the world…

Christ’s beloved, rely on the Spirit to persevere.

Even though this fiery opposition must be their expectation, Jesus encourages the disciples again that he is not leaving them alone without divine help, but that he will send the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, to bear witness. - Just as Jesus was sent from the Father, so too the Holy Spirit proceeds (comes forth from) the Father. Add to this the masculine personal pronouns in reference to the Spirit (he), and we get a glimpse of the personhood of the Spirit who is present with God’s people.

As much as we can learn to comprehend what we do not comprehend about the triunity of God (who is one God in three persons… not separate, but rather a unified whole in tri-personality), we can be comforted and encouraged that Jesus has promised to be present with us by God’s own Spirit.

And here specifically, God the Holy Spirit will be our help against their hatred, to continue as faithful witnesses who remain steadfast (do not fall away).

First,

The Spirit’s presence is God’s own help to bear witness in the midst of vehement opposition. (15:26-27)

Notice the clear flow of thought from v. 26 to 27 that the disciples also will bear witness, which clearly means that such will be carried out in the Spirit. And we have the benefit of knowing that they experienced this after Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, when the Spirit came and the Church was born: as Jesus promised, the Spirit did come upon them to empower them to be his witnesses. We just completed a series all the way through Acts, seeing how God continued that work not only in the Apostles, but also through all who subsequently have believed their word about Jesus to become those he has set apart and sent.

But the point of bringing up again the Spirit’s help in this section of the discourse is so that we may know that we are not without God’s own power to accomplish his purpose of making us his witnesses, testifying to the truth that Jesus reveals God and is the only way to God.

And the beginning of chapter 16 echoes and explains why Jesus is telling them these things: So that they will anticipate the opposition and be ready to find strength in His help by the Spirit.

Be prepared to persevere by the Spirit through persecution. (16:1-4a)

As mentioned earlier, why does Jesus tell them in advance: so that when the hardship comes, they do not defect (v. 1), but remain faithful to the one in whom they abide. He wants them to remember these words and his comfort and encouragement when the time comes that such persecution takes place (v. 4).

What kind of persecution can these disciples specifically anticipate? Being put out of their own synagogues by their fellows Jews. Being put to death by those who think they are offering service to God. - Notice again that religion which does not submit to God is included within the world system, and such religion is the tip of the spear in persecution against true Christianity.

Jesus also repeats the explanation for their hateful actions: “they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.”

In contrast to those who prove that they do not know him, do not know God…

Conclusion: Don’t try to fit in with the world.

Repent and believe in Jesus to know for sure that you know God. You must be sure that you do know God through submissive faith in Christ. Otherwise, you prove to be God’s enemy, even like the opponents in these verses.

If you are God’s by faith in Jesus, be comforted that you do have a people you fit in with: Christ’s people whom he purchased and called out for himself. You don’t fit in with the world because you shouldn’t fit in with the world.

And since the world opposes us as Christ’s people, trust in the Spirit’s presence and power as you persevere in testifying to Jesus. We must expect persecution bc of the world’s hatred for Jesus, and we must rely on God the Holy Spirit to help us as witnesses to the world about Jesus… even to a world that hates him because they do not know God, but who must come to know God through Jesus in order to be rescued and restored to God, even as we ourselves have been rescued and restored.

PRAY

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