Dec. 7, 2003 John 15:18 - 25
“The gift I never asked for”
INTRODUCTION
Over 2000 years ago, wise men made a long and treacherous journey from their home in the East to find the one who was born as the “king of the Jews.” It was anything but an easy journey. They expected some of the difficulties that they encountered. They expected having to say goodbye to their families and being separated from them for a long time. They expected the heat of the sun and danger from robbers along the way. But they probably did not expect that they would face anger and danger from people – specifically Herod - who were opposed to them coming into the presence of God and being changed by that presence. They were perhaps the first ones to learn the truth that abiding in Christ isn’t going to be applauded by most people.
In this series on abiding in Christ, we have looked at many of the positive benefits of staying in the presence of God. By the way: what did we say abiding means?
That’s right. Some of the positive effects of that are that we get to see concrete answers to our prayers, we get to see our lives become useful for God, we see our attitude toward other people begin to change and we get to experience the fullness of God’s joy. But there are some negative effects too – you might call it the down side of abiding in Christ. It isn’t going to make your life easier. In fact, it’s going to bring more opposition, more pain, more enemies and more trouble.
Who needs more trouble? Most of us have been in trouble since the day that we were born. Two freshly hatched birds were sitting on the nest. One looked at the other and said, “We’re only two minutes old, and we’ve already broken something.” Trouble isn’t limited to creatures of the animal kingdom. Human children know how to get into trouble too. Listen to the advice of some children who obviously experienced trouble.
· Patrick, age 10, said, “Never trust a dog to watch your food.”
· Randy, 9 years of age said, “Stay away from prunes.” One wonders how he discovered that bit of wisdom.
· Kyoyo, age 9, said, “Never hold a dust buster and a cat at the same time.”
· Lauren, age 9 said, “Felt markers are not good to use as lipstick.”
· Joel, 10 years old, said, “Don’t pick on your sister when she’s holding a baseball bat.”
· Eileen, age 8 said, “Never try to baptize a cat.”
· Michael, 14, said, “When your dad is mad and asks you, "Do I look stupid?" don’t answer him.”
· Michael, wise man that he was also said, “Never tell your mom her diet’s not working.”
We understand why things like that get us into trouble, but how can abiding in Christ get us into trouble? That’s because abiding in Christ doesn’t just affect your relationship with God. It affects every other relationship that you have as well. It affects your relationships with Christians and non-Christians. It brings change into the relationship even when the other person liked things just the way they were. Abiding in Christ also affects your relationship with what Jesus referred to as “the world” – a system that is controlled by Satan. When you choose to stay in the presence of God, you will listen to a new leader, tap into a new power source and gain rest for strength to be able to accomplish more for God. Do you really think that the devil and the world that he controls are going to like that very much? Do you think that he is going to sit idly by and just watch it happen? NO! In order to stop you from abiding in Christ, he will send trouble into your world.
This morning, we’re going to take a look at the trouble that abiding in Christ brings into a Christian’s life, what causes it and what our response to it should be.
1. What is the “world”?
He’s not talking about the earth. He’s talking about a way of thinking and the actions that come from that way of thinking.
All that is opposed to the Father.
“...when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you.” 1 John 2:15 (NLT)
“...Don’t you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God?” James 4:4 (NLT)
All that is focused solely on self-satisfaction.
“...the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions.” 1 John 2:16 (NLT)
All that is fading away.
“...this world is fading away...” 1 John 2:17 (NLT)
This is obviously something that in theory we want nothing to do with. We don’t want to be opposed to the Father – we are His children. We want to focus on worship and service not our own personal fulfillment. And our focus is on eternal things because we are eternal beings. But in practice, our actions are often more like the world than we want to admit.
Take Christmas for example. If we are not careful, we can get a very worldly view of Christmas. (i.e. focusing on food and friends more than we focus on Jesus, wanting everything we see in the store, taking pride in how many presents we placed under the tree or how much bigger our box is than the other guy’s, spending money on things that are bought today – broken tomorrow rather than focusing our resources on eternal things)
2. What is the “world’s” attitude toward us?
“...the world hates you.” John 15:19 (NIV)
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” John 15:18 (NIV)
The world hated Jesus, so it should not surprise us when the world hates us, the followers of Jesus. Their attitude toward Him should give us clear warning of what their attitude toward us is going to be. The overall effect of abiding in Christ is that you become more like Him. The world is going to treat us the same way that it treated Him.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like it when someone doesn’t like me. It kind of puts me in a bad mood. Several years ago at camp, there was a girl there who had a saying that went like this: “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll just eat worms.”
It is actually a good thing if the world hates you. It means that something right is happening in your life.
3. Why does the world hate us?
because we are connected to Jesus
“They will treat you this way because of my name...” John 15:21 (NIV)
The presents that either are or will be under your tree have a name- tag on them. (By the way, make sure that you get the right name tag on the right present. It can be awfully disappointing, or even embarrassing to open a present that was meant for someone else.) Those name-tags connect the gift with the person that they are intended for. We bear the name-tag of Jesus. We are connected to Him. He is the Vine. We are the branches. It is our identification with Him that causes antagonism from people. So when the world gives us trouble, it’s not us that they are attacking – it’s Jesus.
Are you familiar with the “brain on drugs” commercials? I was in someone’s office the other day, and I saw a poster on the wall. It said, “This is your brain: Ford. This is your brain on drugs: Chevrolet.” If I had written that poster, it would have said just the opposite. The guy who made that poster wasn’t attacking each individual Chevrolet because he had tried them all out and found them to be wanting. He was attacking them because they carry a “Ford” or “Chevy” tag.
In the re-building of Iraq, the Iraqi citizens that are attacking our soldiers show that they hate the soldiers that occupy their land. Why? Do they know each soldier, and have they determined that each one is evil and worthy of their hatred? NO. They are hated because of the fact that they are identified with the U.S.A.
It is our identification with Jesus that causes them to attack us. The world would much rather we cling to it and abide in it as our source of strength.
Jesus said:
“No servant is greater than his master.” John 15:20; 13:16
Don’t expect the world to treat you differently than they treated Jesus. Don’t think that you can do better than Jesus did in winning the world to your side.
because we are no longer under their control, just like they couldn’t control Jesus.
“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own, As it is, you do not belong to the world...” John 15:19 (NIV)
The issue is ownership, and with ownership comes power and control – control of destiny, resources, values, etc. Do you know that the world doesn’t like the fact that at least 10% of your resources come to this church? JCPenney, Walmart, Lowe’s and every other store that is vying for a portion of the Christmas pie wants that money to go into their cash register instead of this offering plate. That’s why they have flooded every conceivable source of information with ads for their stores. They want to manipulate you – they want to control you so that they can use you to get what they want.
Herod tried to control the situation with the wise men and Jesus. He told them to go find the boy and then report back to him. When he lost control, he became enraged.
The world seeks to control you. And if they find that they cannot control you, then they will hate you and do everything that they can to destroy you just as Herod did when he killed all those baby boys in Bethlehem.
The world is exclusive in its love. Only those who belong to it get to experience its blessings. That’s one way that God is very different from this world system. God does not limit His love or His blessings to those who have declared their allegiance to Him.
“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:45 (NIV)
because we are no longer conformed to their way of thinking, just like Jesus didn’t conform to their way of thinking.
“...I have chosen you out of the world...” John 15:19 (NIV)
The world had us at one point and lost us. We are citizens of heaven now, not citizens of earth. Everything has changed. The more I abide in Christ, the more I start behaving like the citizen of heaven that I am, and the less I am like the citizens of earth.
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2 (NIV)
You can get the world to not hate you. All you have to do is live like them.
because we are a convicting influence in their lives, just like Jesus was.
“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.” John 15:22 (NIV)
If Jesus had not come and pointed out men’s sin and called it what it was, then men would still be able to claim ignorance and delude themselves. He gave them information that they did not want to know. It’s like the guy who comes to you while you’re eating a Big Mac and says, “Do you know how much fat is in that Big Mac?!” Ignorance is bliss.
“Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil...will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” John 3:19-20 (NIV)
Jesus diagnosed their problem, not to condemn them but to provide them with healing.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17 (NIV)
Now that the world knows God’s standard of righteousness, they can’t make excuses for their actions. And the world responds by calling us names: “Party pooper! You ruin all my fun! I don’t want to be confronted with reality.” Seeing the faces of hungry children around the world makes it harder to spend money on a plasma TV or a home theater system with surround sound. Reality has the effect of dulling your fun if fun for you is spending your time and resources solely on you for your own personal enjoyment.
4. How are we to respond to the world’s hate?
Hate them back. NO!
Jesus did not respond to the hatred of the world by hating them back.
“...Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...” Matthew 5:44 (NIV)
Hold your tongue. NO!
The temptation is to want to be quiet about our faith. Don’t make them mad. But we are commanded to testify.
“...you also must testify...” John 15:27 (NIV)
Sanhedrin: “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name.” Peter: “We must obey God rather than men.” ...they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news...” Acts 5:28, 42 (NIV)
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have the best of both worlds – the world of earth and the world of heaven. You’ve got to make a choice.
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other...” Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
Have a party. YES!
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12 (NIV)
In 16:2, Jesus said that anyone who kills you will think that they are doing a service for God. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t make me want to put up streamers and bake a celebration cake! You might not feel like partying, but partying is a statement of faith.
“They called the apostles in and had them flogged. ... The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” Acts 5:40-41
Remember that Jesus knows exactly how you feel. He went through it first. (vs. 18)
Help them to meet God. YES!
“They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.” John 15:21 (NIV)
Since people respond to us as enemies because they do not know our Father, the best way to turn these enemies into friends is by introducing them to our Father.
CONCLUSION
If you choose to abide in Christ, the promise of Jesus is that you will produce “much fruit”. Not everyone is going to enjoy the fruit that you produce. It’s going to be bitter to some people. But who, after all, are you producing the fruit for? Are you producing it for them, for yourself, or for God? Since they don’t like the fruit that you produce, they’re going to bring trouble into your life. If you’re like me, you’ve already got enough trouble in your life. Why in the world would you invite more? That’s definitely not a Christmas gift that I asked for! You abide in Christ and deal with the trouble because the results are worth it.
A couple of weeks ago, Crystal and Michael got an early Christmas present – little Mikayla Lynn. Did Crystal go through any trouble in order to have that baby in her life? You bet she did. She went through almost 9 months of having her back feel like it was going to break, several months of not being able to get a good night’s sleep and several hours of labor. Now that the baby is here, she’s got the trouble of trying to lose the weight, late night feedings, diapers to change, and cries to calm. The older Mikayla gets, the more trouble Crystal will have as Mikayla gets in school, goes through puberty and all the other things associated with growing up. That’s a lot of trouble. Will it all be worth it? You other mothers and dads, has all the trouble that you’ve gone through been worth it? If we asked the wise men who bowed at Jesus’ feet: “With all the trouble that you had to go through, was it worth it to get into the presence of Jesus?” How would they answer? “Getting into the presence of Jesus is worth any cost.”
