Lesson 43

Hated Without A Cause

John 15:17-16:3

Can you handle being hated?

Nobody wants to be hated. Some seem to care less than others about what other people think about them. Even so, none of us relish the idea of being hated. We like to be liked. We want to be accepted. It is our basic human nature to have the approval of people.

But in the midst of the upper room discourse, on the night of His betrayal, arrest and unjust trial, Jesus warned His disciples that they should expect to be hated. Turn in your Bible to John 15 and let's read for a text 15:17 - 16:3.

The purpose of this passage is not to make us paranoid. We must not be masochistic about our Christianity. But Jesus words do warn us of what to expect and explain to us why this will happen.

In the course of this text, Jesus used the word "hate" eight times (vs. 18, 18, 18, 19, 23, 23, 24, 25). Twice in verse 20, Jesus speaks of persecution. In 16:2, Jesus warns of expulsion and even of martyrdom.

These are strong words. Hate is a strong word. When I was a boy, my mother wouldn't let me say that I hated anything. If I said, "I hate lima beans", Mama would correct me with words to this effect, "Don't say you hate anything. Say that you don't like them." Hate sounded too strong an emotion. Even today, if I hear someone say in a fit of anger, "I hate (whatever)" it cuts me.

And yet Jesus used the word to describe what we should expect from the world. This was not His first warning about these things. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Matthew 5:10-12).

When Jesus sent them out on a training mission, two by two, in Matthew 10, He warned them that they would encounter hostility and hatred. Read Matthew 10:16-22a.

At the time of his conversion to Christ, Paul was warned that he should expect and that he would experience great suffering. Acts 9:15-16 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And it happened just as the Lord had said. Paul, in turn, told Timothy that "all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Tim. 3:12).

As we page through the New Testament, the blood of martyrs stains our fingertips. Heb 11:36-38 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

It didn't end in the first century. In the second century. In the second century, Tertullian, an early church father of the faith through which we Baptist trace our heritage back to Christ said, "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church."

Even in the 20th century, Christians are hated and hunted. "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." Those were the words of a young German pastor, who, in 1933 delivered a message over the airwaves of Berlin, castigating the German public for their craving for a political idol named Adolf Hitler. Before he could finish his broadcast, he was abruptly cut off. In 1943, he was imprisoned and in 1945 at a German concentration camp, he was executed.

Being the salt of the earth means that we irritate the world. There will be people who will be irritated by you and will hate you. Prepare for it. That what the Bible says. And that is what Jesus said in John 15:17-16:3.

Please notice that Jesus said (v. 25) that "they hated Him without a cause." Jesus is quoting a phrase that is found in two of the psalms (35:19; 69:4). What a statement! What a revelation! God erased every reason for man to hate Christ. God did everything necessary to save men, to keep men out of hell. Christ came loving and speaking the truth and healing the hurting. Yet men hated Christ, but without any valid reason. They hated Him so much that they looked for opportunities to seize Him and silence Him. John 5:16 And the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to slay him. They hated Him so much that they tried to create conditions through which they could have had arrested. They woman brought to Jesus who had been snatched in the act of adultery was one such incident. John 8:6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. They hated Him so much that in John 10:31 they picked up rocks to stone Him. They hated Him so much that they took counsel together to put Him to death, John 11:53. They hated Him so much that they paid Judas to tell them where they could find Him and then paid off some more men to be false witnesses and tell lies about Him at His trial. They hated Him so much that they insisted that Pilate have Him crucified. They hated Him so much that even while He hung on the cross they mocked Him and spit at Him. Yet there was no legitimate reason for anyone to every hate Jesus Christ.

Yet man's hatred for Christ did not end when He died and then went back to heaven. Men continue to hate Christ. And since they cannot persecute Christ in person, they hate and they persecute those who follow Jesus Christ.

You may be wondering, "But why do they want to persecute little 'ole me?" That is precisely the point. No one will persecute little old you, but many will hate and persecute the new you that Christ has created and reveals.

In these verses, Jesus tells His disciples four reasons why we are hated by the world.

We Are Hated Because Of Our Master,

15:18, 20a, 21a.

We are hated because we are disciples of Jesus Christ. The world hated Jesus and the world still hates Jesus. And since He is gone and we are representing Him, the world transfers its hate for Christ to us. Verse 21 says that they "will do these things to you, for my name's sake." We are baptized in His name, we pray in Jesus name, we wear the name of Christ and because He is our master and we are His disciples we are hated by the world. Saul of Tarsus persecuted the church and one day on the road to Damascus, he was confronted by the living, reigning Christ with these words, "Why are you persecuting me?" "Who are you?" he asked. "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." Acts 9:4-5. Saul's persecution of the church was really persecution and hatred of Jesus Christ. We are hated because of our Master. We are hated because of we are His disciples.

We Are Hated Because Of Our Manner, 15:19

Not only are we hated because we are disciples, we are hated because we are different! We are not of the world, so the world doesn't love us. We have been chosen out of the world, so the world hates us. We don't belong to the world anymore. Our lifestyles have been changed. We are under new management. We have a different direction in life and a different destiny when this life is over. Christians are different - different values, different convictions, different conduct.

This leads to two great dangers which the Christian continually faces. First, there is the danger of conformity. The world penalized, punishes, ostracizes, mocks, makes fun of, ignores, criticizes, shuns, non-conformity. There is this very powerful force that pulls on all of us to fit in. One of the worse things that can happen is to arrive at some gathering and be very conspicuous, to stand out because we are different. It effects the way we talk, the words we use - (groovy; can you dig it). It effects the way we dress. When I was in my early teens, a boy's masculinity was called into question if he wore white socks. I remember being asked during my Junior year in high school, in a very hateful and demeaning way, by a girl if I was a homosexual because my hair was short. I still feel the pressure of the culture to be stylish and fashionable. And you know who really feels it? Teenagers and young people have a very strong pressure on them to conform. But the Bible says that as Christians are to "be not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2). The standards by which we talk and dress and live are not controlled by the world but by the Word of God. We face the danger of conformity. By conforming to this world, we lose our testimony. We will not win people to Christ by becoming like the world. Our testimony is our difference.

There is a second danger. Because we are different, if we are not willing to conform, we will be tempted to withdrawal. Christian who do not conform may tend to isolate themselves. In the middle ages there were men who moved into monasteries to get away from the world. Though we would not become a monk, we can become isolationists, who have not contact with the culture. There is not witness there either. Without contact we become irrelevant and out-of-touch. We become Pharisees who brag about our isolation. Jesus was involved with people, not isolated. There was contact without conformity and without contamination and that is the way it must be for us.

May I ask - Has being a Christian made you different? Can the world see the difference that Christ has made? You may be hated and rejected because you are different but don't conform and don't withdraw.

We Are Hated Because Of Our Message,

15:20b, 22-25.

Not only because we are disciples; not just because we are different; but also because we declare a message.

Our message exposes sin, v. 22. Sin is uncloaked because of our message. They have no excuse. They cannot claim ignorance of sin. It has been exposed by our proclamation of the word of God. According to verse 24, the works of Christ exposes man's sinful condition. The text also teaches that to hate Jesus Christ is to hate God, vss. 23, 24b.

Our message explains scripture, v. 25. It amazes me that just proclaiming, explaining and applying the Bible can get you hated. The Bible from which I read and preach each week has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. It rubs them the wrong way because they are pointed in the wrong direction.

We Are Hated Because Of Our Ministry, 15:26-27.

What ministry is Jesus speaking of? The Holy Spirit "testifies" of Christ and we "bear witness" of Him also.

God's people are hated because of their ministry of bearing witness to the world. Many of the prophets of the Old Testament were persecuted for their witness of the truth. John the Baptist was beheaded. Stephen was stoned. James was executed by the sword of Herod for preaching Christ. Andrew was crucified. Peter was crucified head down at his request. Why were these men thus treated? Were they disloyal? Discontents? Dangerous? John says that he was banished to the island of Patmos "for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1:9). It was their ministry of bearing witness about Jesus Christ that caused them to be hated. Should we expect less?

And so having explained to us why we will be hated, Jesus says don't be offended when it happens. The word carries the idea of being tripped and falling away from Christ and led into sin because of the hatred of the world.

This is what will happen? They will put you out of the synagogue. For a Jew that means much more than not being allowed to attend religious services. The synagogue was the center of one's social life. To be put out from the synagogue meant being cut off from family and friends. It meant being treated as a social outcast of society and business. It had happened to man whom Jesus healed in John 9. It will happen to you. And even worse - Men will kill you thinking that they are serving God. Saul of Tarsus did. It was his religious zeal that caused him to persecute Christians.

We should expect to be hated by the world, by those who don't know the Father nor His Son Jesus Christ, 16:3. Why? Because of our Master. Because of our Manner. Because of our Message. And because of our Ministry.

Knowing that the world hates us makes the statement made by Jesus at the beginning of this text even more important. For the fourth time in His upper room discourse, Jesus commands us to love one another.

From without we are hated. But from within we must love one another. Earlier Jesus had said that it is by our love for each other that all men will know that we are His disciples. And He said that we are to love with the kind of love that Christ loves with. That is unconditional love. Could you love someone who mistreated your child? God did. God loved those who crucified His Son. And He commands us to manifest that kind of love for each other.

Most of the time our love is very conditionally. As long as you do what I want you to do, as long as you don't cross me, as long as you stay out of my way, I will love you. That is not Christian love. That is carnal, conditional love. Christian love, according to I Corinthians 13, is patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag, is not proud, is not rude, is not selfish, is not angered easily, does not remember wrongs done, is not happy when bad things happen, patiently accepts all things, always trusts and believes the best about another, not the worst, not the rumors. Christian love never stops loving.

Beloved, let us not stumble when we are hated by the world. Let us expect that from them. But let us expect better from one another. Beloved, let us love one another.