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John 15:18-25  A WARNING OF PERSECUTION TO COME

Introduction:

	Jesus was but a few hours away from His arrest, trial
and crucifixion.  Yet He was more concerned about His
disciples than about Himself.  He warned them of persecution
that would come upon them.

I. Hatred for Jesus, the reason for hating the disciples

	V. 18, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me
before it hated you."  Jesus wanted His disciples to know
that the hatred which they would face would not be directed
personally against them.  They would be the brunt of cruel,
 vicious and hateful words and deeds.
	But the hatred which they would encounter would not be
directed personally toward them.  The hatred of the people
was really was really toward Jesus.  It was Jesus whom the
people hated.  Very soon His disciple would see first hand a
demonstration of the hatred which the people had toward
Jesus.  .  They would see Him arrested without just cause.He
would be falsely accused.  He would be cruelly beaten with a
whip.  They would see Him forced to carry a heavy cross up
Golgotha's hill until he fell beneath the heavy load.  They
would see a crown of thorns placed on His head and beat with
a reed into his scalp.  They would see Him nailed to the
cross and see that cross dropped into a hole.  They would
	watch great masses of people march before Jesus.  They
would hear cruel insults hurled at Him.  They would see
Jesus the people beat Jesus in His face and spit in His face.
	So in this text Jesus is saying to His disciples, "It is
not really you whom the people hate.  It is me.  They hate
me, and they will also hate you because you are my
disciples."

II.  The disciples of Jesus not of the world

	V. 19, "If ye were of the world, the world would love
his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth
you." Jesus is saying, "If you were still of the world the
world would still love you.  But I sent John the Baptist to
Judea to preach the gospel and when you believed John's
message about me, that changed the people's attitude toward
you.  Then when I came to you and called you out and asked
you to follow me and be my disciples that clinched it.  They
stopped being your friends because you had become my
disciples.  That is why they will persecute you after I am
gone.  They will no longer consider you to be their neighbor
and friend.  Some who have known you all their lives and
have been your friends all of their lives will now be your
enemies because you are friends to me.
	If you still lived like you used to live, they would
still love you.  If you still held to their values and their
life style they would still love you.  But because you now
love me and hold to a new moral standard and have a new set
of religious beliefs which I have taught you, they have
nothing for you.  They will hate you and will persecute you
because of me."
	V. 20, "Remember the word that I said unto you, The
servant is not greater than his lord..."  Back in chapter 13
and verse 16 Jesus had spoken these very word to them.  He
said, "The servant is not greater than his lord."  Now He
explains what He meant by that statement.  (V. 20), "...If
they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if
they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."  Most
of the people hated Jesus and were involved in persecuting
Him and those were the people would now hate His disciples m
and persecute them.  There were some of the people who had
believed what Jesus preached and taught and had adopted His
beliefs as their own.  Jesus said that these would also
believe His disciples and accept them as friends.  But the
vast majority of people would hate them and persecute them.

III.  Hatred for God the Father the reason for hating Jesus

	V. 21, "But all these things will they do unto you for
my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me."
Here Jesus gives the real reason for their hatred of Him.
Jesus said that the real reason that they hated Him was that
they hated God the Father who had sent Him.
	They claimed to worship God, but they did not really
know God.  They took great pride in the beautiful Jewish
temple and in their great gatherings at Jerusalem to observe
the annual feasts.  On this very night Jews from all over
the land of Israel and from several foreign nations were
present in Jerusalem to observe the Passover.  Thousands of
them had eaten the Passover Supper that very night.  They
prided themselves in their keeping, or at least their
pretending to keep the Law of Moses.
	They had an outward appearance of worshipping God.  But
God looks deeper than the outward appearances.  God looks on
the heart and God knew that they did not worship Him.  If
they had truly worshipped God they would have sought to live
their lives to please God.  If they had truly worshipped
God, they would not have hated His Son and sought to kill
His Son.
	They did not worship God.  They only pretended.  They
hated God.  They hated His laws, which sought to guide their
conduct and keep them within the will of God.  They
considered God's laws as an interference in their lives.
They could not live in the will of God and do the wicked
sinful things that they desired to do.  They hated the
teachings of God which presented His laws and His will.
They hated the chastisements of God.  If God had been
willing to approve of their ungodly way of living and still
pour out the richest of blessings upon them, they would have
loved Him.  But they hated a God who would punish them for
their wrong doings.
	So since in their hearts they hated God the Heavenly
Father, they hated His laws and they hated His teachings and
that is the reason they hated His Son.  They especially
hated His teachings, which had come from God the Father.

IV.  Christ haters without excuse

	V. 22, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had
not had sin..."  This statement is to be understood in the
light of what He is talking about right at this time.  He is
talking about their sin of hating Him and rejecting Him and
seeking to kill Him.
	It should also be understood in light of the over-all
teachings of the Bible.  The Bible teaches that all men are
sinful by the nature which they inherit from Adam and that
all men commit sins.  All men commit many sins.
	So Jesus is not saying that if He had never spoken to
them that they would have never sinned at all in their
entire lives.  Rather He is saying that they would not have
sinned in this particular matter.  They would not have
sinned by rejecting Him.
	But He had spoken to them.  He had revealed clearly that
it was God the Father in heaven who had sent Him to this
world.  He had cited to them the sayings of the Old
Testament prophets of God.  He had shown them by the very
word of God that He is the Christ whom God has promised
would come.  He is the Christ of God, the very Son of God,
the Savior of men.
	(V. 22), "...but now they have no cloak for their sin."
Jesus said about those Jews that they were without excuse.
They had no cloak to hide their sin.  They were guilty
before God of a grievous sin.
	Since He had spoken to them and revealed by the Word of
God that He is the Christ of God, then they are without
excuse for rejecting Him.  They have committed a very
grievous sin by rejecting Him.
	Jesus says that this applies to anybody.  It applied to
the Jewish leaders and it applies to anybody.  V. 23, "He
that hateth me hateth my Father also."  If one hates Jesus
this is a sure sign that he hates God the Father also.
	People today who reject Jesus Christ commit the very
same grievous sin.  They, too, are without excuse.
	Jesus continues this line of thought.  V. 24, "If I had
not done among them the works which none other man did, they
had not had sin..."   He says in effect, "If I had not
proven to them by the mighty works that I have done that I
am sent from God, then they would have been without fault."
But He did prove to them by His mighty works that He is sent
from God.  As Nicodemus had said, "No man can do these
mighty miracles except God be with Him."  He proved to them
by His mighty works that the power of God was at work in His
life.  How could He have fed a multitude of people with five
loaves of bread and two fishes if God had not sent Him?  How
could He have raised Lazarus from the grave, as He had just
recently done, if God the Father had not sent Him?  How
could He have done all the other mighty miracles if He were
not from God?  He had, indeed, proven by His works that He
is more than just a man.  He is the very Son of God.
	But they had seen the mighty works of Jesus that He is
sent from God and they still hated Him.  (V. 24), "...but
now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father."
They hated Jesus whom they had heard and seen and they hated
God the Father whom they had not seen.
	Jesus now quotes from the Old Testament to show that the
prophets of old had predicted their hatred of Him.  V. 25,
"But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled
that is written in their law, They hated me without a
cause."

V.  How this applies to our day

	The Jewish leaders and the great masses of Jewish people
did not love the God they claimed to worship.  They hated
God.  They hated the strictness of His laws.  They loved the
fanfare of making a great show of worshipping God, but they
hated God.
	They hated His Son Jesus Christ in spite of the Old
Testament Scriptures which showed clearly that He is the
Christ.  They hated Him in spite of the mighty works of God
which He had done.  They hated Jesus and would not be
content until they were able to put Him to death.
		They would then direct their hatred of Jesus and their
hatred of God the Father toward the disciples of Jesus.
They would hate them because those disciples believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  Just as they had
persecuted Jesus they would now persecute His disciples.
They would persecute them by saying all manner of evil
against them for Jesus's sake.  They would persecute them by
doing all manner of evil things to them for Jesus's sake.
They would hate Simon Peter and his brother, Andrew.  They
would hate James and John.  They would hate Philip and
Bartholemew.  They would hate Thomas and Matthew, Thaddaeus
or Lebbeus, Simon the Cananite.  There was only one of the
twelve apostles whom they would not hate.  They would not
hate Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus into their hands.
	Even so the unsaved world today hates God and hates true
Christianity and hates Christians.  Like the Jewish leaders
and their followers, most people love to make a show of
religion.  Many make a show of loving Christian religion.
But they do not love God.  Neither do they love Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.  Nor do they love the teachings of
Jesus nor the moral and spiritual standard of God as set
forth in the word of God.
	But all who reject Jesus Christ as their own personal
Savior and as their personal Master are without excuse.
Whatever excuse they offer to men for rejecting Jesus as
Savior will not hold up.  God will not accept their excuse.
	But let me speak a word of encouragement to you who have
trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior.  The servant is no
greater than His Master.  Just as the world has persecuted
Jesus it will persecute you.  You may never be arrested
because you are a Christian.  You may never be beaten
because you are a Christian.  You may never be put to death
because you are a Christian.  But you will be persecuted
because you are a Christian.
	I think I can safely say that nobody wants to be
persecuted.  But all who have been saved by the blood of
Jesus Christ should be willing to be persecuted for Him.  We
should be willing to witness to the unsaved and tell them
what great things Jesus Christ has done for us.  We should
be willing to present the word of God which clearly teaches
that Jesus is the Christ and the Savior of men.  We should
be willing to work for the cause of Christ, to give of our
means and our energies to the cause of Christ.  We should be
willing to sacrifice for the cause of Christ and to suffer
for the cause of Christ.

Conclusion:

1.  Someone here may want to be saved and may be ready to
turn to Jesus and trust in Him.  If so, will you come and
publicly acknowledge Jesus as your Savior?

2.  Some Christian here may desire to commit yourself to the
service of Jesus Christ even though you know it will mean
persecution for you.  if that person is you, will you come?