John 15:18-27
I’m sure this has been a busy day for many people. Mother’s Day is a time when people do get together with their families. The family unit is important. When you are part of a family, you wear that family name and all the good and bad things of the family come with the name. Legally Dan is not yet a Molenaar. Hopefully in the next couple of months the Hong Kong government will give their final approval of his adoption and then the court in Orange City have to give their approval. After he receives full permission from the courts he will officially become a Molenaar. His adoption and everything that goes with it will be complete.
When you and I are adopted into Jesus family everything that comes with that title comes to us. We are officially his sons and daughters and we are identified with him. This past week I was struck by some verses found in I Peter 5. Peter writes these words to the children of God. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety upon him because he cares for you." Isn’t that a beautiful description of a relationship between a parent and a child? Allow God to simply love and care for you. Rest in his grace and he will take care of you. It doesn’t matter if you are one month or 100 years old; God wants to care for you as a parent cares for a child.
This week I read a story in my devotions that really brought out to me the reality of God as my parent. I thought it fit in well for Mother’s Day. It is somewhat dated but it comes from a book called Prayer by O. Hallesby. Prayer is really an attitude of our hearts toward God. As such it finds expression, at times in words and at times without words, precisely as when two people love each other. As conscious personalities we must and should give expression to our attitudes in words one to another. It is this faculty which lifts the fellowship of human beings to such a high plane and makes it so rich.
But at the same time let us remind ourselves that life, in the last analysis, is inexpressible. There is something in our lives, also in our fellowships, which can never be formulated in words, but which can be common experience, nevertheless, of two who share with each other everything that can be expressed in words.
In the soul’s fellowship with God in prayer, too, there are things, which can and should be formulated in words. We have spoken of that in the proceeding. But there are also things for which we can find no words. Likely it is this to which the apostle makes reference when he speaks in Romans 8:26 of the "groanings which cannot be uttered."
My little boy came in one day and stuck his little head into the doorway of my study. Now he knew that he was not supposed to disturb me during working hours. And his conscience troubled him a little on account of this. But he looked at me nevertheless with his kind, round baby eyes and said, "Papa, dear, I will sit still all the time if you will only let me be here with you!"
That he received permission when he approached my father-heart in that way, every father knows.
That little experience gave me a great deal to think about.
Is not that just the way we often feel with regard to our heavenly father? We do so love to be with him, just to be in his presence! Moreover, we never disturb him, no matter when we come nor how often we come!
We pray to God. We speak to him about everything we have on our minds both concerning others and ourselves. There come times, not so seldom with me at least, when I have nothing more to tell God. If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said. At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in thy presence, Lord? I have nothing more to say to thee, but I do love to be in thy presence."
We can spend time in silence together with people whom we know real well. That we cannot do with others. We must converse with them, entertain them either with interesting or profound things as the case may be. But with our own dear ones we can speak freely about common and insignificant things. In their presence, too, we can be silent. Similarly, it is not necessary to maintain a conversation when we are in the presence of God. We can come into his presence and rest our weary souls in quiet contemplation of him. Our groanings, which cannot be uttered, rise to him and tell him better than words how dependent we are on him.
As evening drew nigh, and our little fellow played until he was tired, I noticed that he drew closer and closer to his mother. At last he found the place he was longing for, mother’s lap. He did not have a great deal to say either. He simply lay there, and let his mother caress him to sleep.
We, too, become tired, deadly tired, of ourselves, of others, of the world, of life, of everything! Then it is blessed to know of a place where we can lay our tired head and heart, into our heavenly Father’s arms, and say to him, ’I can do no more. And I have nothing to tell you. May I lie here a while and rest? Everything will soon be well again if I can only rest in your arms a while.’
I know this may be a rather long quote but I believe it sets the stage for what is found in this text. In this text Jesus warns of being hated by the world. It is not easy to be hated by other people. It isn’t easy to even suffer persecution in this world but what gives us the ability to go through such abuse is our relationship with God. If we truly are able to believe that God loves us in the way described by O. Hallesby then we are able to endure because we are that committed to Jesus. He is that parent we refuse to deny. There is a saying blood is thicker than water. It means that when it comes to a family relationship there is no stronger bond. If we see God as our parent there is no stronger bond.
Jesus uses a very powerful word in this text. He uses the word hate. This word brings about so many pictures in my mind. Hate causes people to do things in life that are horrid. When the Nazi’s executed the Jews it occurred because of their hatred toward them. Because of their hatred they believed that the Jews were less than human and this gave them the excuse to be so brutal.
Our own government has passed legislation called hate crime legislation however, I think all crime comes out of hate. If a person is able to violate another person by taking something or hurting another person physically or mentally or emotionally it is the result of hatred. Hatred is a disgusting word in our vocabulary but it is one that describes doing inhuman things to another human being.
Last Sunday when we had Afton Timothy with us, she shared how she received death threats and words of hatred because of her relationship with her stepbrother Aaron McKinney. Her brother Aaron had committed a horrible crime when he killed Matthew Shepherd and we might understand how people might hate him for his crime but why would anyone hate this young woman? She had nothing to do with the crime. She simply loved her brother even though he had done this vicious thing. People hated her because she was related. She was part of the family and that is what people do in an evil world.
Jesus committed no crime but he dared to challenge the powers of religion and politics. He was willing to point out the sin of both and for that people hated him. They cursed him, they spat on him, they whipped him and eventually they killed him. This is what hate is capable of doing. It doesn’t always make sense but that is because sin distorts our view of life and this world. Sin causes there to be lots of grief and pain in this world.
However, if we are adopted children of Jesus Christ, then we bear his name and we come under the same type of hatred. Just as we often pick up the characteristics of our parents, we also pick up the characteristics of Jesus. Just as our parents’ beliefs often become our beliefs, we also believe in the things that Jesus believed and professed as truth.
Jesus tells us in verse 20, "Remember the words I spoke to you: ’No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also." We should not take the hatred of others against us personally because they may hate you not because of who you are but because of who Jesus is. The hatred the world has towards the followers of Jesus Christ comes because the world does not like the life Jesus produces in you.
But it is also important for us to recognize that Jesus did not respond to the hatred of the world by hating the world back. Jesus did not see people as an enemy but as people who needed to be loved. Jesus knew that the reason people showed this hatred toward him was because of sin in their life and if Jesus responded by showing hatred toward them he would be showing hatred toward his own Father.
If we believe that God is sovereign then we also need to believe that God created people just as they are. We are not to hate the person created in God’s image. We cannot excuse a person’s actions but to hate a person would be the same thing as hating God. If someone shows hatred toward us, the reality is they do not really hate us but they hate the God who lives with in us.
Knowing this can be intimidating at times. It could cause us to want to be quiet and not allow anyone to know who are Father really is. However, Jesus tells us in verses 26-27 these words, "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning." We may wish to be quiet in order to keep ourselves protected from the hatred of the world, but if the Spirit of truth is living within us, then we cannot be quiet. We have to speak out for what we believe.
Afton Timothy made it very clear to us last Sunday the dangers of keeping quiet about Jesus. She honestly believes that if she had shared her faith with her stepbrother, he may have come to Jesus and not killed Matthew Shepherd. However, because of what happened to him, she believes that it is her calling to proclaim the truth of Christ. I have never heard a 21 year-old speak with such passion and conviction. She had every person from the youngest to the oldest attention. People were talking about what she said in high school and in the work place through out the week.
But my concern for her is this. What will happen when churches find out about her and her message and she gets greater exposure? Will she be opening herself up to more ridicule from the media and possibly gay groups who will be offended by what she says? I’m afraid that she will receive criticism even though she is sharing her story of faith in Jesus Christ. I also think that when churches have her speak they may also receive ridicule and some may wonder if they should allow her to speak even though she is speaking the truth of the Gospel.
We cannot allow the fear of this world to keep us from sharing what Jesus means to us. We need to be willing to share our life story about our family relationship with Jesus Christ. We will only do this if our faith in Jesus is built strong in him.
Some people have been willing to do some amazing things in this world and it all has to do with their love for Jesus. I was reading an article the other day about Roni and Jim Bowers the missionaries to Peru. Roni was the one who was killed with her child when the Peruvian government mistaken the plane she was on as a drug plane. Jim grew up as a missionary child and always had the desire to be a missionary in some exotic place on the earth. However, Roni was not born under those circumstances. However, during her teenage years she decided that she was going to go to a Bible College and become a missionary.
Before she met her husband, whenever she was asked out for a date she asked the man what he was going to do after school. It was a test because she only wanted to date those who were going to be missionaries. That was her dream and she believed that was God’s call for her life. After she married Jim, they decided to have a rather unique ministry in Peru. They lived on a houseboat and would go deep into the jungle sharing their faith in Jesus Christ with the tribe’s people. They always did live their life on the edge. I’m sure they never thought that the Peruvian government would gun them down but they knew that they were taking great risks in the vocation they had selected.
People will live and die for Jesus if they are connected with him through the Holy Spirit. Slain Russian Orthodox priest Aleksandr Menn was quoted by Larry Woiwode as saying, "Some ants build; some ants sow and later reap the crop; and some apes fight and have wars although they are not as cruel as people are. But nothing in nature, except for man, ever tries to think of the meaning of life. Nothing climbs above its natural physical needs. No living creature, except for man, is able to take a risk, and even the risk of death, for the sake of truth. Thousands of martyrs who have lived are a unique phenomenon in history of all our solar system.
We read in Job 32:8 "But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding." In Psalm 8:5 we read, "You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor." God has breathed within his children the spirit of truth. He has given us the ability to know what His will is for our lives and how we are to live our lives in this world. Just as our parents give us our genetic make-up God gives us our spiritual make up. This is what gives us the ability to know what God’s sovereign will is for our lives and how to make right choices so that we continue to bring about his blessings into this world. This is the only way in which we can stay true to the Gospel, even under difficult circumstances.
I know there is that part of every human being to have God’s justice come. We may have a strong faith because of our relationship with Jesus but that does not mean that persecution and even death is ever easy. Even in the book of Revelation we read about the cry of those that stood up for the Gospel and lost their life as a result of their faith. They as well wondered when God was going to make Satan and evil pay for their suffering. We read in Revelation 6: 9-11 "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed."
We find out in the book of Revelation that the church will continue to be persecuted to the very end. God knows when enough is enough but until that time His children are to be patient and be strengthen by the Spirit of His grace. Earlier in the message I read from I Peter 5. We are told in that text to cast all our cares on Jesus because he will care for us. However, in verses 8 and 9 we also have this warning. "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith because you know that your brothers around the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering."
We belong to a large family and there is always one of our sisters or brothers going through more pain than we are because of their faith in Jesus. Jesus has told us what it was going to be like living the life of a disciple. We will be able to do great things in him and we will be able to bring about blessings. But we may also be hated and condemned for our faith in Jesus. How important it is for us not only too know Jesus but to also have the heart of Jesus in us, a heart of compassion for the lost and even for those who hate us. On this Mother’s day may we truly honor the parent who loves us and may the spirit of our loving Parent be alive and well within our heart. Amen
