Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20060618.htm

JOHN: TRUSTING JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD
Part XXXIX: Enjoying God's Parenting In An Evil, Perilous World
E. Part V - Living Victoriously Though Persecuted For The Faith
(John 15:18-16:4)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

The Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:12 KJV taught that "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." I suppose we who are here today are seeking the enhancement of our walk with God, so Paul predicted we will be persecuted for doing just that!

However, persecution is humanly hard to handle! My seventh grade teacher told our class that every person needs to be loved, to be accepted and to achieve to survive on the human level! I suppose that's what makes being persecuted for standing for God's truth humanly so tough: persecution makes us have to face the demeaning of our achievements or rejection or hatred when just the opposite is what we need from others for our human welfare!

On the other hand, regardless of the high cost involved, many Christians in history have been able to handle great persecution: (a) In John 21:18-19, Jesus said Peter would be crucified rather than deny his faith. (b) In Matthew 20:20-23, Christ told the mother of the sons of Zebedee that her sons would be martyred for their stands for Christ. (c) Then, outside the city of Rome are the catacombs containing the bones of Christians who were martyred for their faith over ten generations of history! Between 1.75 and 4 million of bodies were entombed there, and these caverns cover such a large area that they have actually cushioned Rome from earthquakes! (Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible , vol. One, p. 761)

We may then wonder how so many Christians for so long could have handled such demeaning, rejection and hatred for the faith!

Dr. Charles C. Ryrie's footnote to John 15:25 in his Ryrie Study Bible, KJV (1978 ed.) suggests the answer: he reveals that many early Christian writings used John 15:18ff "as instruction to the faithful and as warning to pagans and Jews" who were then persecuting them!

Since John 15:18-16:3 deals with the hatred and mistreatment Christ's followers would face even to the point of being martyred (John 16:2), and since Jesus predicted in John 16:1 that He was sharing these facts with His disciples so they would not fall away from standing for the truth while facing persecution (Ibid., ftn. to John 16:1), we do well to expound to learn how to handle persecution for the faith in our era:



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "Since we as human beings need to be loved, accepted and recognized for our achievements, but persecution for the faith causes us to miss having such needs met by other people, HOW does God expect us to KEEP standing for the truth under such a challenge?!"
  1. Jesus knew His disciples would face great persecution for the faith: in John 16:2, He said they would be wrongly excommunicated and killed by those who thought they were serving God by doing so!
  2. Jesus also knew His men would be tempted to recant their faith due to such persecution: He said in John 16:4 that His words in John 15:18-16:3 were given to keep them from falling away from the faith under persecution pressure, Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, ftn. to 16:1.
  3. To meet this need (among others), Jesus spoke of God's Parental Oversight that equips believers to handle godless persecution:
    1. Christ called His men "little children" in John 13:33, or teknia, "a diminutive expression [of] . . . affection . . . like a father to his little children;" strikingly, this term exists only here in all of the Gospels, cf. Leon Morris, John (NICNT), p. 632, ftn. 67.
    2. Later in that same message, Jesus said He would not leave His men "as orphans," ['orphanous] (John 14:18; U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 388; Arndt & Ging., Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 586.
    3. Thus, Christ's words in John 15:18-16:4 equip believers who face powerful, evil forces that demean, reject and hate them for holding to His truth, and that so they can effectively handle such persecution!
  4. We thus view Christ's insight on handling facing powerful persecution for the truth VICTORIOUSLY (as follows):
    1. Jesus said the "world" of the unsaved [and thus also even "carnal" believers to the degree that they heed the world's views and values ] WILL HATE the godly: they will not love, accept or appreciate the upright, John 15:18; 1 John 3:13-15 (Bib. Know. Com., N. T., p. 896)
    2. From additional passages, we know the ungodly persecute the godly, NOT the other way around, cf. Galatians 4:29; 1 John 3:14b-15!
    3. Jesus then told why the lost and carnal believers persecute the godly:
      1. Persecution arises due to the great tension that exists between a perfectly righteous God and a very evil world, John 15:21; 16:3.
      2. Now, when this perfectly righteous, holy (separate from sin) God disciples one who believes in Christ, He increasingly SHIFTS that believer in the discipling PROCESS toward an upright life that is separate from the world's sin, Jn. 15:19-20, 22-25; 1 Cor. 2:14-15.
      3. Also, the indwelling "Holy" ["separate" from sin] Spirit testifies through that increasingly upright and so increasingly separate believer's life and words about God's righteousness, John 15:26-27!
      4. This testimony inevitably exposes the SIN in the lost and carnal believer, a very uncomfortable experience for them , John 15:22!
      5. Now, the lost or carnal believer is supposed to react to this witness by trusting in Christ or repenting as needed, but this may not occur!
      6. Indeed, they may try to handle the discomfort they feel at the exposure of their sin by persecuting the upright so as to persuade themselves or others that the UPRIGHT are the guilty ones; in fact, by self-deception, the ungodly may even kill the upright as though he was evil, J ohn 16:2; cf. Acts 9:1-5 with Acts 26:14!
    4. Thus, Jesus revealed the way for believers to handle such persecution was to keep these facts in mind for edifying ORIENTATION:
      1. The godly must see the wrong party is he who rejects, hates and ridicules him and his works, not that he himself is wrong, 15:18f!
      2. The godly must realize that experiencing such mistreatment is inevitable, for his uprightness can not be tolerated by those who retain the world's evil views and values, John 15:19, 21; 16:3.
      3. For these reasons, the godly are to view persecution with joy and continue their stands, for the persecution signals they are right with God and have His approval, Jn. 15:19; Acts 5:40-42; Mtt. 5:11-12.
Application: (1) If convicted of sin especially by another godly believer's life and words, may we (a) trust in Christ as Savior (John 3:16) or (b) confess our sins [as a carnal believer] (1 John 1:9). (2) If being persecuted for righteousness, (a) know it signals we are right with God and so (b) rejoice and (c) stay upright! (3) This way, Jesus Who disciples us is exalted as God!

Lesson: (1) Persecution is the INEVITABLE result of an UNGODLY party's failure to REPENT of SIN that a GODLY believer's life and words EXPOSE. This DRIVES the UNGODLY to ATTACK the godly with rejection, hatred and ridicule to make him seem bad in a deceptive way so as to EASE the PAIN of his OWN GUILT! (2) So, ONLY the UNGODLY persecute as only they need a SHIELD for their SIN! (3) If the godly recall these facts, he can rejoice if mistreated, for persecution means HE is RIGHT! (4) The persecuted one thus witnesses to the credibility of the sinlessness and hence validity of His Savior, Jesus Christ, as God's Son!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 As is typical, the Lord wants me to apply this sermon myself:

You recall that at last Sunday's Church meeting, the proposed amendment on church discipline of nonmembers was countered and eventually tabled. That put me in a corner, for I authored the proposal! (1) On the one hand, I face pressure to modify the proposal to please others! (2) Conversely, (a) Titus 2:14-15 calls me not to let anyone "look down on" (periphroneo) my pastoral authority to proclaim that God wants us to live pure lives, which truth the proposal Biblically promotes! Besides, (b) 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 calls me as a believer to have no company with one who claims to be saved but commits one of the sins listed there! So, if the proposal is not accepted, events can rise where I will be required to fellowship with a sinning nonmember who God calls me to avoid, and I would sin by simply coming to Church!

As I thought on all of this, God graciously led me this week to recall a situation I faced 40 years ago in my Senior year in high school. The students had wanted to bestow a special honor on me and my two brothers at the basketball homecoming game. Yet, to be so honored, I had to attend a function that was deeply laced with excommunicable sins, so I knew I had to avoid the function to heed 1 Corinthians 5:1ff!

Yet, were I to decline the honor, I risked persecution: I could be rejected by the students and face bitterness from my brothers who would feel obliged to follow me and face rejection in the process!

In the end, I opted to obey God at all costs: I told the function leaders I could not attend due to my personal beliefs! My brothers followed my lead, so I braced for potential retaliation on both fronts!

The stand did make a stir, but no one troubled us! In fact, as a result, a football teammate, Dave Meinberg, accepted Christ as Savior!

After recalling this, I studied Exodus 16 for last Wednesday's prayer meeting and noted how God had led Moses after 40 years of being rejected by Israel in Egypt (Ex. 2) to face criticism from Israel in Exodus 16! I saw this connection in Moses' life to be God's direction for me to trust and obey Him now as I did 40 years ago in high school!

So, just like 40 years ago in high school, I again today opt to obey God at all costs: I thus announce today that, in obedience to God in my life and calling as a pastor, I unconditionally support the Board's proposed amendment as it stood written for June 11, 2006 meeting!

May we heed John 15:18-16:3 and not fear persecution!