THE COST OF MISSION.
John 15:18-25.
Jesus was preparing His disciples for the work of world mission. He warned them that they would face opposition, even as He first faced opposition ahead of them. In effect, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated Me before you” (John 15:18).
One of the reasons that we are hated by the world is because of our association with Jesus. We are partakers of a new nature in Him. Just as He is ‘not of this world’ (so to speak), so are we “not of the world” because He has “chosen us out of the world” (John 15:19). Therefore, just as the world hates Him, so the world hates His people.
This does provide some reassurance when we are persecuted for Jesus’ sake. When He calls upon us thus to suffer, we know that He has walked this road before us (cf. 1 Peter 2:21). We are drinking of the cup from which He has already partaken (cf. Matthew 20:22).
Furthermore, persecution does provide some evidence of our calling. If we are living in the world, but outside of conformity to the world, then of course the world will hate us. They hate Him, so they hate His people.
There is even a Beatitude for those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake (cf. Matthew 5:10-12).
“Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord” (John 15:20). This was what Jesus had said to His disciples when He first sent them out on mission (cf. Matthew 10:24).
We must not expect to be treated any better than the One who sent us. If they have persecuted Him, they will persecute us also. Conversely, if they paid attention to His saying, they will also pay attention to the message which we share in His name.
There is a certain irony in the fact that the ones who did the first persecuting were God’s own people. Hitherto they had persecuted the Son because they knew not the Father. Now, “all these things will they do unto you for My Name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me” (John 15:21).
Sometimes it is the people inside the visible church who take exception to those who truly adorn Christ. We read in the Old Testament how Jeremiah had to do his preaching OUTSIDE the doors of the Temple. We see in the Gospels how Jesus had to speak stern words to a people who had rejected the prophets, and refused to receive Him.
It would not be long before the rejection of Jesus would lead to His death. Within a few weeks Stephen would become the first Christian martyr, stoned by the Religious people of his day. Yet persecution takes many different forms, especially when the pure Gospel threatens the cosey ‘Christianity’ of professing churchmen.
“If I had not come and spoken unto them,” says Jesus, “they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak (i.e. ‘no excuse’) for their sin” (John 15:22). People were offended at Jesus because His holy words and works exposed their sin.
Here He was, the Prophet of whom Moses had spoken, into Whose mouth the LORD had placed His Word, unto Whom they must hearken (Deuteronomy 18:18-19). They heard His words, and refused them, and thereby compounded their guilt.
Not only that, but “he that hateth Me hateth My Father also” (John 15:23). We are reminded again of the close union of the Father and the Son. To offend the One, is to offend the Other.
And it is not only Jesus’ words that testify against the sin of His opponents, but “the works which none other man did” (John 15:24). Jesus’ miracles are a proof of His Messiahship. “But now,” says Jesus, “they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father.”
Jesus makes a general reference to the Old Testament Scriptures here, literally: “But that might be fulfilled the word that has been written in their law, They hated Me without cause” (John 15:25).
We need not be astonished when we find that the world hates His people also.
