The Hatred Of The World

The Travel Schedule and Upcoming Debates

Quite some time. We've, of course, been doing the FaceTime thing. And she's now crawling and trying to get to the iPad and eat it, which generally does not help with the quality of the video feed at all.

You see his big baby face coming. Everything goes black. It's just like, well, let's try calling again. And so that's just sort of how that works. But so I'll be in Atlanta. Some of you know Wretched Radio, Todd Friel.

I'll be doing Wretched TV Saturday evening on the reliability of the text of scripture, and then speaking at the church that Thad and Summer are at. They're in Atlanta. Well, it's north of Atlanta. I don't know.

It's somewhere around there. All I know is I don't want to drive in Atlanta. That much is a clear message to me. And on the way back, we're going to be in Dallas. And then I think I'm here for a week or two.

And then fly to London, do a couple debates on the unbelievable radio broadcast, and fly to Johannesburg. And after that, it's just all a big blur to me right now. But there will be at least one, two, three, four, at least five debates there, maybe six.

I'm not really certain. But it'll be interesting. And going over, I have it broken up. But coming back, it's all just one trip. So it's going to be interesting. And so I will be here the 13th, I think, of October.

But that'll be like two days after I get back. So I cannot guarantee that I will be at all cogent, functional, or anything else at that particular point in time. May have some exotic African disease. I don't know.

It's a possibility. But we'll see. And then the two weeks after that, Texas and Canada. So October is pretty much just next. I'm going to wake up. Next thing is going to be Thanksgiving. So that's just how that's going to work.

The World’s Hatred of Christ and His Disciples

So great acceleration of things coming up. But we are in John chapter 15, verse 18, I believe, is where we left off. We had just gotten to the section on the relationship of the disciples to the world.

And this is all within the context of the coming of the Spirit, which is going to pick up again, especially in chapter 16, and hence laying out the necessity and need of the ministry of the Spirit in the lives of believers.

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they would keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know the one who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my father also. Now, there's a lot of things to look at here, a very unpopular section in the sense that amongst those today who seek a Christianity that is user-friendly and that does not take a stand against the world, this text doesn't really fit in overly well.

We also note, once again, the number of different ways that especially John uses the term cosmos, world. You are familiar with the term cosmology, study of the world. Well, I've mentioned before that scholars have identified minimally 10, more like 14 to 16 different ways in which John utilizes that one Greek term, cosmos.

And that is one of the reasons why the simplistic interpretations of texts such as John 3 .16 don't really work overly well. We know that it's fairly easy if you want to ignore language to make John contradict himself.

You can just simply take John 3 .16, for God's love of the world, and then contrast that with 1 John chapter 2, where Jesus tells us, if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. Well, obviously, the Bible makes no sense, right?

Well, again, that's ignoring the use of language and the fact that words have a range of meanings. It's been a while since I mentioned this, but one of the things that certainly has helped me over the years is years back, oh, I don't know, third, fourth, fifth year of Greek, I forget when it was, my Greek professor had me read a book.

I think the name has, unfortunately, been changed. But back then, it was titled Biblical Words and Their Meanings by Moises Silva. And what it was was an introduction to what's called lexical semantics.

And what it basically does is points out that there are certain words, in any length, that have a very narrow range of meanings. And then there are other words that have very large ranges of meaning. And so just as an example, we could have rabbatan is a term that has a very, very narrow range of meaning.

This is used in Hebrews chapter 7. And when it's talking about Jesus's priesthood, he holds his priesthood rabbatan without a successor. It's not likely to be passed on to someone else. So there's just only so many uses of the term.

It has a very narrow range of meaning. And it would be difficult to put it in a lot of different contexts that would mean different things. But one term that's fairly well known is lagas. It can mean word, thing, matter, issue.

There's just a wide range of meanings that can be assigned to it. And what you have to do then is look at a context and go, OK, the meaning, because of the surrounding words, because of the context, because it's a place in the sentence, and so here over against up here.

You don't really have to worry about that with this, because there's really not much of a range to be worrying about. The same thing is true if we put in here cosmos, world. And especially in John, you have to find out, are we talking about the created world?

Are we talking about all human beings? Are we talking about the world in opposition to gods, fallen, et cetera, et cetera? And every context is going to determine where in this broad range of meaning you're looking.

One of the problems is that a lot of folks have been taught the Strong's exhaustive concordance method of Bible study. And there are actually people that teach, what you do is you look up the word, and when it's first used as scripture, that determines what it's going to mean for the rest of the Bible.

Well, that's just not how it works. And that ends up leading to all sorts of contradiction and odd conclusions. And you have to recognize that words can have broad semantic ranges, or very narrow semantic ranges, and everything in between.

And that's why context is so important. So when Jesus says, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you, what's one of the immediate contextual clues that we want to bring into our understanding of what kosmos means here?

This is where I stop and you actually talk. I know this is unusual, sometimes frightening for people, especially because we don't serve coffee on a Sunday morning. So some of you are like, no, I can't talk yet.

No, no, don't even look at me. Yes, sir? You're getting that from the fact that there are, what are the three actors, or three groups, in this sentence? The world, Jesus, and you being the disciples. And so if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

So there's a distinction between Jesus and the kosmos. And there's a distinction between the disciples and the kosmos. So what's one possible meaning of kosmos that can't be here? Every single human being, because that would preclude the disciples from being human beings.

So when you look at it in that way, you have to, this is what I mean by bringing in the context to be able to see where in the range of the meaning this is falling. Not only that, but the world is doing something and it's being personified.

It is being personified. So we're not talking about the world as the atmosphere, oceans, and rocks that make up the planet we call Earth that is the third planet in the solar system, et cetera, et cetera.

So we're not talking just about a physical created being here. We're talking about something that can hate, something that can oppose. And I know that people like to say, well, there's different kinds of hate.

Well, I suppose there is. I mean, I hate Chinese food. But that's a taste. That's a preferential thing. That's very different than saying that you hate murder or you hate child abuse or something like that.

Those are obviously not even in the same category. In the same way, I can say that I love Mexican food, but that shouldn't be the same category as saying I love my wife or my children or my parents or whatever else it might be.

So we recognize different uses, even in English, of those types of things. But the term here is a very strong term, hate. And since the Gospel of John uses categories like light and dark, I have come as light in the world, but men hate the light.

They love darkness. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. So there is an opposition here. There is an idea of rejection. There is an evisceral hatred. I certainly imagine you have, too.

I've certainly seen numerous instances where the world has expressed its hatred of Christ, hatred of the Gospel, and hence hatred of its followers. I think we do need to remember that in the vast majority of instances when people express that kind of vitriolic hatred of you and I, it's not you as an individual so much that they are really expressing a hatred toward.

It's what you represent. When homosexuals today in our land live their lives so as to seek opportunities to do what, for example, the two lesbians did in New Mexico in bringing that lawsuit against the Christian photographer, that is an expression of hatred of the world, but it's primarily against God and against his ways, not so much just the Huguenins, the Christian couple there in New Mexico.

It wasn't that, oh, I love all the rest of the Christians, just the Huguenins. No, it is really an expression of hatred on the part of the world against Christ and hence against those who would represent him.

Again, I think it is interesting to note that the only way really to understand what Jesus is saying here is that there is an intimate and meaningful connection between Christ and his followers. Just as Paul was going to Damascus, and what does Jesus say to Paul when he blobs him off his horse and blinds him and says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And yet Saul was going to persecute the followers of Jesus. And so from Jesus's perspective, and hence from the Bible's perspective, there is a very close, intimate connection. That is something the world should keep in mind.

That is, when the world does persecute Christians, as is happening all around the world today, especially in the huge amount of persecution being documented today against Christian believers, they are persecuting Jesus and will be held accountable for so doing.

The world does need to know and to hear that prophetic warning. We don't want someone standing before God saying, I didn't know, well, probably did, but we need to be clear in our proclamation of it. And so there is a relationship that is delineated here between the world and between believers.

And notice verse 19 expands upon this. If you were of the world, well, what does that mean then? Well, you're in the world, but not of the world. Well, that's nice, but what do those prepositions mean?

We need to flesh those things out. We obviously live in the world. We are surrounded by the world. We are creatures. There's all sorts of ways in which it could be said that we are worldly in that sense, that we live in this realm.

But clearly, there is a distinction in Jesus' mind between his true followers and the world. And it is a distinction that includes opposition. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you.

So obviously, there is something in the mindset and thinking of the world that involves a detestation of anything that is not of the world. So there is a demand on the part of the world for conformity.

But more so, it says, I chose you out of the world, ek tu kosmu, out from, and so what the world really, really, really doesn't like are traitors. The world doesn't like traitors. Now, that term doesn't have a lot of positive meaning to us.

We don't like traitors either. I mean, when I grew up, what was the big name of a traitor? Benedict Arnold. Isn't he just the essence, the epitome, the epitome, the epitome and the essence. Both start with an E.

It sounds very good. The double E's, yes, the epitome and essence. And we don't like that term. But it's good to be a traitor to something which is evil because that means you have left the service of that which is evil and now you serve that which is good.

And so from the world's perspective, because we have been chosen by Christ out of its sphere of control, it hates us. So the world is a control freak. The world does not brook dissension, rebellion. It does not accept anyone being taken out of its sphere of control.

Now, think about how many examples we could have of that today just in our own experience. I mean, once the world, once God allows the world to express itself completely, and I believe God is always restraining the world system of things.

That's the role of the Holy Spirit. He restrains the inherent evil of the fallen creation. But one of the things that we're seeing is the detestation of the mere expression of any other view than that which the world demands all of its followers hold.

Now, the world will always allow for all sorts of different perspectives to be expressed as long as they all share one thing in common, and that is none of those expressions say, this is the truth and everyone needs to follow it, just like the old Roman Empire.

And so when a Christian comes along and says, I bow the knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that person is no longer under the Lordship of the world. This is the very language that Paul uses in Colossians chapter 1.

What does it say? You've been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, into the kingdom of his beloved son. And so the world doesn't like to lose anybody. It wants to keep everybody under its control.

And so Jesus' statement is, if you are of the world, the world will love it, too. The world can love all sorts of different kinds of religious expressions, but the world will not love that religious expression that exposes its own impotence, its own frailty, the fact that there is a power above it.

But because you are not of the world. Well, why are you not of the world? Well, because you chose to be. No, it's because he chose you to be. It's not the way that, sadly, most evangelicals in the United States would answer the question, or expect Jesus to put it.

But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. And I suggest to you that the only reason that anyone is ever not ectu cosmu, from the world, is because Jesus chose them and brought them out of the world.

That is the only way, because as long as we are under the control and dominion of the enemy of our souls, we will continue to follow after the desires of our hearts and our lusts. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

Now, there are many in our lands today, in what calls itself the church, that are exceptionally troubled by, I think they would say initially, at least, the possibility of abuse of language such as this, because it is extreme language.

And we've all encountered people who call themselves Christians, but who do not follow the whole counsel of God. They are imbalanced, and they go running off into extremes and do odd and strange things as a result.

And when you see language like, because of this the world hates you, those who would say, well, it's just a little extreme, well, I don't think it's extreme at all. I don't think we have to respond with extreme measures that are outside wisdom to such language.

But we do need to recognize that it is the biblical teaching that there can be no state of truce between the follower of Christ and the world. And unfortunately, most of us are normally seeking that exact state.

It's easier when we all just get along. And certainly, someone might say, yeah, but the Apostle Paul said that we are to pray for our leaders that we might live peaceably. Well, that's obviously two different things.

What Paul's talking about is living in a culture without living in a prison. He's talking about praying that we might have the freedom to pursue our employment, to feed our families, and to preach the gospel.

Not necessarily in ease or anything of the kind, and certainly not, Paul certainly was never expecting that the church would be receiving the plaudits and the praise of the world. But this opposition, because of this the world hates you, this isn't, well, it's just for now, and it's just the disciples.

This is originally spoken to the disciples, that's true. But in John chapter 17, Jesus is also going to speak of the disciples, those given to him by the Father out of the world, going to use the same type of language.

And then he's going to pray for those who are going to believe because of their witness. And so this relationship of animosity coming from the world is always going to describe the followers of Jesus Christ, as long as this world system exists in the form that exists today.

Now notice, while we are told not to love the world, in 1 John chapter 2, and all the things of this world, when we are told not to be of the world, when we are told to see ourselves as being different, as not conforming to the image of this age and this world, we are never told to hate the world in the sense of the world hating us.

We don't return hatred for hatred. But we recognize that this world system and those under its control are going to express hatred for the gospel. And when the gospel you're preaching results and the world's going, hey, I like that, you got a problem, that might want to wake you up a little bit and make you go, oh, have I missed something?

The world seems to like this. The world, you know, Joel Osteen needs to be asking himself the question, where do I fit in all this? Because the world sort of likes what I have to say. They flock to hear me.

Well, I wonder why that is. Because this world hates you. That distinction should be brought about by the clarity and the full biblical nature of the message that we preach. And if we're not preaching the gospel at that level of clarity, then we're not preaching the gospel at all.

Jesus says, remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. Now, there is a clear indication that we are specifically talking about the disciples here, because they are going to have a word.

People say, well, you know, Jesus never knew there was going to be a New Testament, all the rest of that kind of stuff, well, it's pretty obvious that Jesus does know that these disciples are going to be the ones through whom his message is going to be communicated to others.

But notice the emphasis is, well, look, a slave is not greater than his master. If I'm your master, and they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And then he introduces the concept of my word, my word.

That word is, again, in John chapter 17, going to be coming up, sanctify them in thy truth, thy word is truth. The point is that there should be such a unanimity and consistency between the proclamation of the disciples of Jesus and Jesus himself that the detestation that the world has for the message of the cross should be the same detestation that the world will have for the message of believers as well.

And so we are not above our master. The more accurately we reflect his character in teaching, the more certain will be the response of the world toward us. The less accurately we do so, the more we compromise, muddle, squirm, shrink back, whatever terms you want to use, the more we try to look like the world, then the less persecution we'll get.

I mean, a lot of people do that. But that also says that we are violating our fundamental commission and our whole reason for being here, for that matter. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake because they do not know the one who sent me.

Now, these are words immediately applied to the Jews who claimed to know God but did not. But all through the history of the church, when true believers have been persecuted, they have been persecuted by those, obviously, who do not know the Father.

And John's argument in 1 John is also going to be, if you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father, vice versa. You can't separate the two out. So when I see the Roman Catholic system persecuting believers in the Middle Ages, I say it's because they do not know the one who sent Jesus.

When I see Muslims persecuting Christians today, as they have for 1 ,400 years, then I know it's because they do not know the one who sent Jesus, even though they claim to know because they believe Allah sent Jesus.

But they do not know the one who sent Jesus. And obviously, when communistic systems, secular systems, persecute Christians, it's because they do not know even the very Creator who made them. And very often, they are, in our day, very wise in denying, wise in their own eyes, in denying that Creator and proclaiming themselves to be uncreated.

About as wise and brilliant as having Siri on your iPhone going, I was not made. Right, Siri, good job. Obviously, you were, and same with us. But all these things that we'll do for my name's sake, for my name's sake, I don't think that's just because people like to use the name of Jesus in a horrific way, though that does strike me as a little bit odd.

I mean, I just don't hear too many people, as some of you work on job sites, generally, have you ever heard anybody swing a hammer, miss and go, oh, Buddha. Haven't heard that. I suppose it's possibly, oh, Muhammad, you know, something like that.

Just, you know, oh, Vishnu, something like that. But normally, it's a little something different than that in those situations. But I don't think that's just what it's about. I think when you talk about all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, the reality is secularly friendly Jesus is not a threat to anybody.

And what's the secularly friendly Jesus? Well, he's the historical Jesus who, you know, went about doing good things and blessed little children and carried little lambs around and knocked on noblest doors and, you know, is pretty much just limited to that little baby in the manger concept.

That secularly friendly Jesus makes no demands on anyone, does not talk about sin, does not talk about judgment, does not proclaim himself Lord, does not say that all will stand before him in judgment someday.

That Jesus the world has always opposed, has always hated, and will always oppose and hate until they are brought to bow the knee by the exercise of his power in the end days. And so when it says these things they will do to you for my name's sake, there is something about the name, there is something about the claim of the Lordship of Christ that the world finds absolutely reprehensible.

And we're seeing that, I think, with much more clarity in our day. When I was young, there was a general cultural respect for Jesus as a whole. Oh, certainly people still use his name in vain, obviously, but there would be very few who would want to openly attack the character of Jesus and vilify Jesus without expecting some kind of rather negative social stigma being attached to them in the process.

Now that's no longer the case. Now you can be a real social progressive by attacking Jesus. But, of course, it says all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, again, emphasizes the fact that there is this intimate connection in the mind of the world, and should be in our mind as well, between Jesus and his disciples.

And that is the bearing of that name and all that that name means. Now, one of the greatest difficulties that we've been facing for a long time in Western Christianity is this nominalism, this in-name only.

You've heard of rhinos, Republican in name only. Well, we've had a lot of Chinos, Christians in name only. And there's still a lot. They're diminishing in the sense that the mainline denominations, which abandoned the Gospel and the Word of God a long time ago, are bleeding members, right and left, millions per year.

And the very use of the term mainline is laughable now, because they represent such a small minority of individuals. But still, it is still a problem that we know that any stance of godliness that we take in regards to life, the family, marriage, human sexuality, all the realm of Christian morality and ethics, you can still find somebody who will call themselves a Christian to deny any element of Christian faith.

And they'll normally have a string of letters after their name and teaching at some prestigious institution someplace. So nominal Christianity has been a real issue. But of course, we know that these people really don't bear the name of Jesus.

They bear the name of a socially correct Jesus. They bear a name that does not actually represent what the Bible would have it to represent, where the believers are first called Christians at Antioch because they were little Christs, little ones following after Christ and acting like the Messiah.

Well, if you don't follow Jesus' teachings, if you reject Jesus' teachings or think that you're so wise that you can go through the Bible and go, well, you know, I like these teachings, but these other teachings need to be put off to the side, as is the standard paradigm and example and process of liberals.

If you follow all that Jesus taught, then the world will express its hatred towards you because they do not know the one who sent me. If they really knew that Jesus had come from the Father, he really was who he claimed to be, that would obviously have an impact.

But they don't even care about such things, especially when they don't believe there's a God in the first place. Now, this next verse troubles a lot of folks, but I think it has a very specific application.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse to have sin. It's not saying they were sinlessly perfect and going to heaven until I came along, and then I exposed their sin, and now they're going to hell.

That's obviously not what Jesus is talking about. I think there's a very specific issue here of that sin that the scribes and Pharisees committed in identifying Jesus as operating under the power of Beelzebub.

I think this is pretty much parallel to the Matthew, what is it, I think it's Matthew 12, off the top of my head, discussion of the impartial sin, the ascribing to the actions of the Holy Spirit, the actual power of Satan.

And notice the strong context in which Jesus puts this, which I think substantiates my understanding of it. He who hates me hates my father also. So when you're talking about the impartial sin, what were the people doing?

They're saying, he cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub. Cast out demons by the power of the demons themselves. And so these are people who are calling white, black, and black, white, good, evil, and evil, good.

It's Isaiah 5 all over again. That's what the nature of the impartial sin is, and these are people who have a tremendous amount of light in that these are people who have the scriptures. But Jesus comes and he speaks to them, the very one who gave them the scriptures, and yet they reject him, they respond in hatred toward him.

And Jesus says, he who hates me hates my father also. You cannot distinguish, in the sense of separate out your attitude toward Jesus from your attitude toward God, because it is the Christian message that God has testified of himself, that he is triune in nature.

He sent his son, and it was the son who became incarnate. It's the spirit that's been poured out upon us. And so you either have to accept that revelation, or you have to reject the God who has made that revelation.

There is no middle ground, there is no room for pluralism, the Gospel of John especially, but all the New Testament becomes a complete stumbling block to those who try to promote a pluralistic agenda, let's just all roads lead to Rome, all roads up Mount Fuji meet the top, or whatever it is they say in Japan, I don't know.

But that kind of idea that you've got all these different ways of getting there, everything's cool, it's all the same God, doesn't matter whether it's the 330 million deities of Hinduism, or the non-personal deity of Buddhism, or Allah, or Yahweh, or Jesus, it's all pretty much the same thing, you don't have to worry about that.

That's pluralism. And Jesus does not leave any room for that whatsoever. And in this section, certainly, he is drawing very stark, strong lines. He who hates me hates my father also. So the world is not just hating Jesus and his followers, but the world in essence is the world that is in opposition to God, hates God as well.

That's why John can later draw such a sharp distinction. If you love the world, the love of the father is not in you. Why? Because the world hates the father. There is a stance of opposition and enmity that exists there.

Then he not only has the words that he has spoken to them, but he says, if I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin, but now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well.

So here you, again, they have been given more light than anyone else had ever been given. They possessed the entirety of the Old Testament. They knew what it was. And now they're standing in the presence of the Incarnate One who is prophesied in those Old Testament Scriptures.

They have seen the miracles. This is after John chapter 11. So this is after the raising of Lazarus. They've seen the miracles. They've seen the multiplication of the fish and loaves and the turning of the water and the wine and all the rest of this stuff.

And they've seen it all. Now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well. Now these are strong words. But they describe exactly what happens. I mean, he's talking about the very same men who are going to stand before Pilate in, what, four chapters from now?

In the Gospel of John, anyways. Four chapters from now and say, we have a law. And by that law, he had to die because he made himself out of the Son of God. These are people that saw Lazarus come out of the tomb, and yet they can still say those words.

What kind of hardness of heart, what kind of hatred can motivate that kind of behavior? It is an amazing thing. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.

This kind of hatred on the part of the world, seen in the scribes and Pharisees, but seen today in the activities of communists or Muslims or whatever else against the disciples of Jesus Christ, is without a cause.

Because the reality is, what causes them to hate and to gnash their teeth is a message that, if embraced, would bring forgiveness, peace, and eternal life. So they don't have a cause. The reality is, they are creatures in rebellion against their creator.

They love their rebellion, and therefore, they hate the ones that expose their rebellion. That is the essence of that kind of rejection. So at that point, having now rather starkly enunciated a black and white situation of animosity and enmity, opposition between the world, the father, the son, and those who are sent in the name of the Son, then you have, in light of that, the resumption of a discussion of the parakletos, the helper, the advocate, in verse 26.

And we can be very, very thankful for that, for obvious reasons. I mean, if we didn't have the promise that then follows after this, it would be pretty dark. I mean, they hate you without cause. They hate the father.

They hate the son. They're going to persecute you just as they persecuted me. I mean, pretty dark. But right then, we transition back into, but when the helper comes, whom I will send from the Father, that is, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me, et cetera, et cetera.

So we don't face this opposition alone. We have the spirit to aid and assist us in dealing with the persecution of the world. All right? Well, our time has passed us by yet once again. Let's close our time with a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we know that the world has expressed its hatred toward you, toward our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ, and as a result, expresses its hatred toward us as we are faithful in representing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We know this. We ask that you would forgive us the many times we seek to bring about a separate peace accord with the world on our own. When we allow the world to pacify us into thinking that we can get along, may we hear the warning of your word and rely upon your spirit so we might be good servants of yours.

We pray in Christ's name.