Sermon Transcript
Bible Reading
John 15:18-27
Good morning, Church. The passage is from the Gospel of John, chapter 15, verses 18 to 27.
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong 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.
Remember what I told you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you in this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their law. They hated me without reason.
When the Advocate 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. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Doesn't It Start Ominously?
Well hello folks. G'day. My name's Mark and it's a distinct privilege to be with you today. I'm very grateful to my pal, Kevin Pedersen, for inviting me to come and fill in today whilst he's got another task that he has to attend to, so hello.
What a passage, doesn't it start ominously? The disciples had been with Jesus for a couple of years and they had experienced quite a few things with him. They'd experienced some wonderful things. They had seen Jesus perform miracles, the kind of works which are, naturally speaking, impossible to do. But these were done so that Jesus might be proved to have authority, the kind of authority that the creator, the author of life has.
They'd seen wonderful things happen with Jesus. Just previously in timescale terms from this passage, they'd come into Jerusalem and the crowds had been absolutely delighted, praising Jesus and saying, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So the disciples alongside Jesus had experienced some wonderful things. But the next day, after our reading that we had today, they're going to experience something difficult, the crucifixion, the killing of Jesus.
So this is the context of our reading today. We're reading from John chapter 15 about the Last Supper and Jesus was speaking words of encouragement to his disciples.
Kev last week gave us such encouragement. Jesus said many things which were kind of like a nested ball, but Kev drew out a thread of meaning, a thread of encouragement.
Jesus said, I go, but then I will come. I go, but then the father will send the counselor.
And Kev drew out the thread of meaning from all of this, that Jesus was promising participation, companionship, and presence, the encouragement of the presence of God.
So as Jesus is speaking, he's conveying encouragement. But at the point our reading begins today, the tone changes a little bit and it becomes a little ominous, a little cautionary. It's almost like a rider clause to a contract, good things, but beware, be cautious. What an abrupt start to the passage, if the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. Jesus cautions them about the opposition of the world and he's setting up in their mind's eye an understanding that there are really two sides, the side of the disciples alongside Jesus and the side of opposition, which Jesus' terms calls the world.
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first, Jesus said. So Jesus calls his opponents the world.
But what is this world and why is it opposed to God? Well, that really touches, goes back to the story of creation and fall, doesn't it?
From the beginning, God made the world and everything in it and supremely, God made humanity to be the best thing in the world. Humanity is the product of God's wonderful imagination and creativity.
Humanity is potentially wonderfully bright, capable of being responsive to God as suitable companions for all eternity.
However, in that creation story, at an early point, humanity rebelled and that self-absorption, that rebellion is called sin. Sin is whatever opposes the proper authority of God. Sin is the cause, the root cause which lies behind every evil act and this is the condition of the world. When Jesus speaks of the world, in contrast to his followers, he's talking about the majority who rate themselves above God, who refuse to accept God's authority, who resents the boundaries that God sets over us.
Chosen, Like an Old Honda
So Jesus goes on and says, the world hates you because I have chosen you out of the world. The world hates Christians because Christians say yes to the appeal of God. When God approaches, people of faith say yes to God's approach. The world hates Christians because they possess the elected choice, they have been chosen. The world hates Christians because they possess the favor of God. The world scoffs and resents the promises of eternity which rest on each Christian.
Now I've got to be careful here, this could be a cause for false pride if you're not careful. You might think, oh, that makes Christians pretty good, but no, that's not the case. Be careful about false pride. Christians are not any different from other people. You see, the favor of God rests on Christians because he chooses, his sovereign choice, not because of what we have done but out of his choice. The favor of God rests on Christians not because we are inherently more worthy but because he chooses us.
Let me tell you a story about choice. For about 25 years, I drove the same car, I had the same car. It was a little Honda SUV, an HRV, Honda HRV, and I bought it at first simply because it was what I could afford. I bought the car because of its price, it was relatively cheap to buy.
But then over all the years of ownership, I had so many adventures in that car. I've driven through the South Australian desert in it. I've driven through the Hattah-Kulkyne and Murray-Sunset National Park deserts in it. I drove that car to the top of Mount Stirling near Craig's Hut. I've driven to Queensland in it.
I've had so many experiences with that car. We drove on beaches, we drove in deserts, we drove up mountains, and I say we because actually the car took on a kind of a personality over all those years. I maintained the car really well, and it returned in reliability. It was faithful in its return of reliability.
Like a comfy pair of shoes, I liked that car, I became heavily invested emotionally in that car, even while it grew old and worn.
My wife was always very sceptical about the car because it was actually pretty coarse. It was not actually a great car. It was noisy, it was not very powerful, and there were chances that I could have changed it for another car, for a better car, for a newer car, but I didn't want to lose the familiar feel that I had with that car.
I wonder, perhaps God's relationship with Christians is a bit like that choice I made. That is to say, a choice in the beginning for no particular discernible reason, not because Christians are any better, they're just regular people in every respect.
So God makes a choice in the beginning for no particular reason, but then over time there's a growing relationship and a growing commitment which becomes precious, leading to mutual commitment, and God's sovereign choice leads to meaningful relationship.
People scoffed at my funny car, but to me it was precious and its value laid in all the shared experiences we had.
In the same way, the world resents the holiness which rests on each responsive believer. The world hates because Jesus has chosen. The world hates because something precious resides in the believer. So the world hates. In our sermon today we're going to look at what Jesus tells the disciples about two reasons for hatred but then we're going to turn to something wonderful at the end, a promise of partnership and participation.
The first reason the world hates is because of the choice of God. The second reason the world hates, as Jesus says, is because of his name. They will treat you this way because of my name, Jesus says. And the name is Lord, the name means savior, Jesus saves, Jesus is Lord. The world will reject the disciples because of who Jesus is. So two reasons for rejection, because of God's choice and because of God's authority.
Isn't Jesus the Good Guy?
Now the name of Jesus, it sounds good in my ears, but why would the world reject disciples because of the name of Jesus? Why should the world have a problem with Jesus? Isn't Jesus the good guy? Well, Jesus goes on to explain why. If I had not spoken, they would not be guilty of sin. If I had not done the things that no one else could do, they would not be guilty of sin.
So, sin. We return to sin and get this, it's not a moral failing or a breaking of the rules, but sin instead is the obstinate rejection of Jesus as Lord and savior. He came and spoke and testified to his authority, to the father, but they would not listen. So they were guilty of sin. Jesus came and did miracles, the kind of things that only the author of life could do, the things that are impossible, impossible, naturally speaking, but they wouldn't recognize him as Lord, and so they were guilty of sin.
So, human sin is not so much the bad actions that we do, rather it is our refusal to accept Jesus, refusal of his name, refusal of his authority, refusal of whom he is.
And so, it's important not to confuse cause and effect. What I mean to say is that we think of sin in simple terms as the bad things we do, but actually they are just the product of an underlying cause, which is our sinfulness, our refusal to accept the authority of God.
Sinfulness is the disease for which God sent Jesus as healer. The evil acts that we do are more the outworking of the underlying disease, and the cause, the problem between the world and God, the cause is really serious. It needs to be attended to.
The effect, the outworking of sins, the bad actions, bad thoughts, bad deeds, they're less important, but still consequential.
Jesus, rather let me say that again, God did not send Jesus to right wrongs, but to fix wrongfulness. And that makes sense, doesn't it, because Jesus is no longer here on earth with us. He's not attending individually, bit by bit, to every wrong that comes along.
No, Jesus has acted once in history. The great work of the cross to actually fix the problem of sinfulness by taking upon himself the penalty that should be ours. Jesus is no longer here on earth intervening here and there, but rather he took the extreme action of the cross and resurrection, a single historical occasion, not repeated, that tackled the root cause of our ills.
And because of this, because of his authority, his name, because of his capacity, the world hates. Jesus says, they hate you, they will treat you this way because of my name.
Well, what does it look like in real life to cleave onto Jesus? It means that we have to not just treat the symptoms of what separates us from God, but rather to dig down to the attitudes which sour the world.
Sometimes as a pastor I encounter folk who are remorseful for their bad actions, as may they well be, but sadly who cannot go the extra step to the underlying cause. They can't repent of sinfulness. They can't hand over to God right authority over their lives.
And I look on with dismay because I see myself there. For me, even after 40 years of faith and trust, yielding up to God when it is rightfully his is so difficult. It is so difficult to repent deeply of one's sinfulness.
Lord, help us to repent.
The Spirit Cracks Open the Nut
Okay, well, up to this point, Jesus has given us two reasons why the world hates his disciples. Firstly, because they are chosen, and secondly, because of his authority. In the third movement of our passage today, Jesus gives a path forward. When the counselor comes, the spirit of truth who goes out from my father, he will testify, and you will testify also. This is where the spirit comes to crack open the nut.
I think the church has got a lot to say about the gifts of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit, but even before the church came to be, even on this early stage where Jesus was speaking to his disciples, and indeed even before St. Paul wrote his letters to the Corinthians about the work of the spirit, this feature of the spirit was a claim by Jesus, that the spirit of truth would approach his chosen and testify. And his chosen would receive that testimony. The spirit of truth is testifying to the name of the Lord, the authority of the Lord, the saving work of God.
So above everything else, this is the work of the spirit, reuniting humanity with God by testimony, by cracking open the nut of the human heart, and it's the greatest of miracles. Who's to say what cracks open that chink in a hard, armored heart? The world, as Jesus calls it, the natural world out there, the community of humanity, the ordinary person won't accept God unless they have somehow become convicted, unless they have somehow become convinced they are not right with God, unless they are brought to repentance from their sin. A person won't appeal to God for mercy unless they are convicted of their sin. And this is the particular work of the Holy Spirit.
The world in opposition to the disciples, the world hates the disciples. It's a stark contrast, and Jesus is speaking in very forthright terms.
The world in ordinary terms seems good. There are many good things in the world, but if this is the same world which Jesus is saying hates him, hates his disciples, hates because of his authority and his name, there are lots of decent people in the world.
And it may be that many, many people have an appreciation of God, they're okay with the idea of God, but it may well be that those very same people who are favorably disposed to God still refuse to appreciate their sin, their innate, deep sin, who rebuff the testimony of the Spirit.
Because after all, if you don't think there's anything particularly amiss, if you don't think that you're a bad person, then you're not going to appreciate the costly saving work of Jesus. Why did Jesus have to die? Everything's cool.
Instead, you might emphasize being nice and being charitable or doing good works, and you might completely miss the vital necessity for Jesus' costly crucifixion. And this is the testimony that the Spirit brings, not to the whole world, but to the chosen.
So there are lots of people, even people associated with the church, who in themselves have not reached a point of repentance.
Such people are loved by the world, accepted by the world, because they do not challenge the world's high opinion of itself. In contrast, Jesus says to his disciples, the world's going to hate you because they hated me. It's the disciples, the authentic disciples of Jesus, who are so startled by the realization of their own innate sinfulness that they respond to the Spirit, they respond to the testimony of God and brim over with a need to testify to Christ in their turn.
So today we're talking about the work of the Spirit taken from the words of Jesus given to his disciples at the time of the Last Supper. We've had encouragement and today our passage has turned sober, sobering.
Our sober passage today tells us the world hates Christians for two reasons, because God has chosen and because the very name or authority of Jesus. Hate was an abrupt and chilling start to our passage.
This is no fluffy, smooth talk from Jesus. This is Jesus with a purpose and he wants us to come along with him on his serious mission of salvation.
So this is our encouragement. He offers us purpose and partnership in drawing believers to him by the work of the Spirit testifying to human hearts.
By us partnering and coming alongside that in testimony, Jesus draws people to salvation.
Let's conclude by considering afresh the near escape that is made possible when we open our hearts to acknowledge our sinfulness. Let's open our hearts to let Jesus' testimony penetrate into us and change us. Let's pray to God that we are authentic disciples of Christ and that the Spirit speaks truly to us.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your Spirit speaking. Thank you for your Spirit testifying to us about your authority and your salvation.
May the Spirit work within us. May your Spirit change us so that we can partner and come alongside the Spirit in declaring your name, testifying to the greatness of God.
Lord, may your Spirit help us to be true disciples of Christ. Amen.
