DAY #77: John 15:18-21

BACKGROUND:
Jesus called the disciples to abide in him and to love one another. But their relationship with the world would be entirely different. Because they loved Christ and were so like him, the world would transfer its hatred of Christ to the disciples. Yet they must take the Good News to the world.

Jesus was hated from the very beginning (when Jesus was a young child, King Herod sought him out to kill him—Matthew 2:13-16). He was hated at the end when the people rejected him as the Savior and called for his crucifixion. The same world would surely hate those who proclaim allegiance to the crucified Lord. Jesus wants believers to be distinctive; he sets us apart from the world. His choosing and setting us apart makes us holy and helps us grow. Our very separation from the world arouses the world’s animosity. The world would prefer that we were like them; since we are not, they hate us (1 Peter 4:3-4).

The disciples needed to understand that, if their Lord was not respected or honored by the world, they should expect even harsher treatment. To persecute believers is to persecute Christ because believers are an extension of Christ, as branches are an extension of the vine. Yet despite certain persecution, believers are called to share the gospel—this includes not just telling the story, but giving the invitation to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. While they will face those who hate them because they belong to Christ, it would also be true that those who would have listened to Jesus will listen to the disciples.


SO WHAT? (what will you I do with what I have read today?)

In John 15:18 Jesus says, “If the world hates you…” What does that mean? It means persecution and martyrdom and suffering. Not exactly the ideal promotion tools for becoming a follower of Christ.

What happens when somebody hates you for your faith? There’s a process that goes on. It can go on in a relationship between you and another person. You also see this happen in an entire culture. An entire country can turn against people who are believers in just this same way. You and I are more often going to see this in individual relationships.

This hatred begins with just feelings. Someone has a feeling against you because you’re a believer. They’re irritated at your faith. Agitated, angry. But then that feeling turns into a passive action. Passive actions are inattention. People just start ignoring you, pretend you don’t exist. Maybe if you don’t exist you’ll go away. It never happens but they try to do that.

Then that moves into more active rejection. I don’t want you around – they hold you at arm’s length. Some of you who are new believers see this happen with friends who kind of move away.

Then it moves into aggressive action. Discrimination. Opposition. Persecution. You don’t get that promotion at work. You don’t get to be in on the things that are happening. It may seem like little things compared to the discrimination that’s gone on in history and in the rest of the world but you feel it and you know that there’s something about you that they don’t like.

Then that moves into opposition – I don’t want them around. I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want what they bring here. Then that moves to active persecution.

You and I in this country are mostly on the feeling and passive action end. Yet to be the kind of believers God wants us to be in any culture, you and I have to learn how do I face rejection for our faith.

One of the most shocking things to a new believer is this rejection that happens. You become a believer in Jesus Christ and you go and try to tell your best friends about it. When you told them, I bought a new car, they were thrilled. When you said, I got a new house, they were excited for you. When you told them, I’m a new creation, they looked at you like, you’re strange! What’s going on? You’re not going to become one of those Jesus freaks are you?

You’re not going to witness to me are you? All of a sudden because you’re new creation it’s a whole different thing. And you start to face some rejection for your faith. Jesus in the last third of John 15, gives some very practical advise about how to face this rejection.

If you’re like me, you make a lot of mistakes when you’re rejected. None of us like to be rejected. Jesus knew that so in advance He said, Here’s some advise. Here’s some things to understand as you face that rejection.

#1. Don’t take it personally.

Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first.” Don’t take it personally. It’s not about you. It’s not that you didn’t use deodorant in the morning. It’s not that they didn’t like the school that you went to. It has nothing to do with your family. It has to do with your relationship with Jesus Christ. I’ve found that if I take rejection personally I start to build anger towards the other person. I start to build bitterness towards the other person. I start to build pride in my own life: “Look at me! I must be great Christian, I’m getting rejected for my faith.”

But if I focus on Jesus instead and I realize that the reason this is happening is because Jesus Christ is real. And even though I’m a pretty imperfect human being He’s still shining His love through me. That humbles me. That challenges my faith instead of resulting in anger or pride. Jesus said when you face persecution, anywhere along the scale, don’t take it personally.

In 1 Peter 4:3-5 Peter talked about exactly what we would face and why we would face it. “In the past, you wasted too much time doing what non believes enjoy. We were guilty of sexual sins, evil desires, drunkenness, wild and drunken parties, hateful idol worship. Non believers think it strange that you don’t follow the many wild and wasteful things that they do and so they insult you. But they’ll have to explain this to God. He is ready to judge the living and the dead.” A whole different perspective the Bible says don’t take it personally. Realize it’s Jesus and not you.

#2. Don’t try to fit in.

That’s what we’re all tempted to do. The United States is a pretty fit-in kind of place. We’re not as independent as we like to say we are. We like to fit in. Nobody wants to be rejected. Everybody tries to fit in with everything else that’s going on. When you face rejection in your life one of the temptations is always, Maybe I’ll just fit in with people around me. As a believer you can’t. It’s impossible. You cannot fit in. It’s like trying to take a square peg and fit it in a round hole. It’s trying to fit something that just won’t work.

Because we’re holy. Holy literally means different. Separate. Set apart for His plans and purposes. We are different by definition as believers. So we can’t fit in. As believers because of Jesus Christ we are light in a dark world. And because we’re light in a dark world, how can we fit in? Not only can’t we fit in, it’s very obvious that we can’t fit in. If you take light and put it in a dark room, isn’t it pretty obvious that it’s there?

We’re also salt, Jesus told us in the sermon on the mount. If you put too much salt in food, is there any way to cover it up? No matter what you try to cover it up with, it’s a taste that’s there. You and I don’t fit in. Why? Because we’re being not conformed to the world but transformed by Jesus Christ.

The world – the direction most people go – hates people who don’t fit in, who are different. But we’re holy. People hate it when someone else’s lifestyle condemns their lifestyle. It’s ok if we’re having a philosophical discussion about lifestyles. But when what you do says to me that what I’m doing is wrong, people hate that.

But you and I are light in a dark world. People like to say, Nobody can change. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, so they excuse their lifestyle by saying, It’s just too late for me. When you’re being transformed, your life is saying that’s not true.

So we cannot fit in. This has been true from the very beginning. When the gospel of John was written, the Romans were condemning the Christians for not fitting in. Rome was a place that celebrated Caesar-worship. It wasn’t the government’s idea in the first place. Some of the people decided that the Caesars were doing such great things, Rome was such a great Empire, that they decided to start worshipping the Caesars as gods. At first the Caesars, the leaders rejected it. Then they figured out this could be pretty good for the government. They’ll pay more taxes to god than they would a Caesar. So they began to invite people to worship them as god. This is what they had do once a year. They’d take a pinch of incense and burn it and proclaim the fact that Caesar is Lord and then they’d get a certificate that said they were a loyal part of the Roman Empire.

Christians wouldn’t do that. The Roman Empire thought it was such a little thing. They were so free about this. That’s all you had to do once a year. Then you could go worship any way you wanted the rest of the year as long as you didn’t break any laws. You could do whatever you wanted to the rest of the year. They were just asking once a year to do this. It was no big deal.

But the believers said, We cannot say that we have any other Lord but Jesus Christ. They didn’t fit in. And they admitted that they didn’t fit in. Even though the Roman Empire said it was a small thing, the believer said it was the center of who we are. Because of that they were burned at the stake. Because of that they were fed to the lions. Because of that Christianity exploded into the world. People saw those people don’t fit in but they’ve got something I’ve always wanted.

We don’t fit in. But we do proclaim light and salt to a world that desperately needs to hear it. So Jesus said when you face persecution there will be something within you that says, Maybe I should just blend in, fit in, with what’s going on. But don’t do it. You’re holy. You’re light. You’re being transformed. Don’t fit in.

Have you noticed how from a very, very young age we condemn those who are different? Just go out on a kindergarten playground sometime. One little kid will walk up to another little kid and say, “Your nose is big.” The kid will say, “So? Your ears are tiny!” And they just find those little differences and begin to point them out and condemn them. Everything in our society, everything in our world pushes us to fit in eventually. Jesus says don’t do it. Don’t fit in. It’s the fact that you’re different makes you the light and salt that the world needs.

What else do I do about the fact that I am going to be hated and persecuted sometimes in little ways and for some of you in big ways? In verse 20 of John 15, Jesus said, “Remember the words that I said to you. No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted Me they will persecute you also. If they obeyed My teaching they will obey yours also.”

#3. Don’t try to avoid it. Don’t try to avoid rejection.

Why? Because Jesus said you can’t. “If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.” It’s just that simple. You and I can’t avoid it. The only way I could avoid it is if I could somehow do life better than Jesus could. I can’t. He lived a perfect life. So it’s not a matter of if I lived a little bit better life, if I just communicated a little bit better with people, if I prayed a little bit more, I wouldn’t face this persecution. Jesus lived a perfect life. And He said, If they persecuted Me they’ll persecute you also. So don’t waste any time trying to avoid it.

But persecution and martyrdom aren’t to be invited into our lives either. There are some people who seem to invite it into their lives. They seem to enjoy this persecution complex thing. That’s not what Jesus is saying here. He’s not challenging us to invite persecution in. He’s encouraging us to expect it. And when it comes not to be surprised. He says you’re My followers.


In China, a young Christian woman was arrested last September 8th for attending a house church meeting. They have public churches in China but they’re controlled by the government. So most believers worship in house churches. She spent twelve exhausting days in a filthy prison cell. Those days were marked by endless hours of interrogation. Finally she was allowed to return home. She was luckier than most of the other 120 arrested that same night. Most of them were repeatedly beaten, intimidated and threatened were still in jail. When she got back to home, she arrived at a home she barely recognized. The authorities had stripped her home bare. Everything that was valuable they’d taken and sold. What they through was of no value they’d burned including her Bible. This is what’s happening today to believers.

About a year before that in September in China, 300 public security offers went to a registered church, state run church, and broke up the service. They chased everybody outside, brought bulldozers and bulldozed the church in front of the congregation.

In Sudan, one of the greatest places of persecution today, as the government moves south across Sudan where most of the Christians live, the believers are given three options – either to convert, to flee or to be killed. Thousands of children have been snatched from Christian families and many of them have been sold as slaves to buyers in Sudan and Libya and other countries around the Middle East. Thousands of women have been raped, others sold as slaves or servants or concubines. There are even some reports of men being crucified for their faith. Today. In our world today.

In Ethiopia last year government troops raided the largest evangelical church in Ethiopia arresting most of the people attending. Many died in jail and their bodies were thrown out to be eaten by animals. In Saudi Arabia the government awards up to $8000 for information about secret worship service so they can go and arrest believers.

In Iran three prominent evangelical pastors were abducted and assassinated this last year.
Amnesty International reports cases of Christian women being hung by their thumbs from wires and beaten. Denied food and water and shocked with electric probs.


In Bangladesh Muslim neighbors will not rent to the Christians in that country a cow to plow their field. Then they gather and laugh at the believers as they pull their own plows. Often beaten and fired from jobs, many have had their houses destroyed. Christian children are chased from public schools and these believers having left the Islam faith to convert and say Jesus is my Lord, they’re not allowed to take water from public wells. They have to walk miles to obtain it and carry it home.

That’s not the world I live in. That’s not the world you live in. But that’s the world that the majority of believers today live in. We have Christian brothers and sisters all over the world who are facing constant persecution.

One expert said on a worldwide basis Christians are the most persecuted major religion in terms of direct punishment for practicing religious activities, public worship, evangelism, and giving.

When you and I think about persecution we don’t think it’s happening today. But it is. It’s so easy to get caught up in this little bubble we’re in. Don'te get caught up into that trap. Be aware.

I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.