The World, The Test & The Testimony Series

I was listening to radio one afternoon recently when I heard story of a young woman in Albania who had come to faith in Christ and was a joyful, radiant Christian, witnessing to her friends about what she had found in Jesus. Then I listened with great sadness & shock to hear that this vibrant young believer had not merely been rejected by her former friends, but within a couple of years of her conversion had been killed—she had actually been murdered by her former friends because of her newly-found faith and testimony for Jesus Christ. I was shocked and found myself wondering why her friends could not just have left off with rejecting her, and leaving her alone, with a live and let live philosophy.

And this is all because I had forgotten passages like the one we come to today—a passage full of promises which no believer really wants to claim, a passage which would not be taught in many Christian churches in America today because it would not be attractive, it would not be seeker-sensitive, it might turn some people off to Christ and the Gospel if, God forbid, they had to count the cost, or something like that.

But it is a passage spoken by none other than Jesus Christ, at one of the most sober and intimate moments in all of his ministry to his 11 faithful disciples, moments before the ultimate effect of the World’s persecution against Him would result in His death. It’s a passage that was spoken with a purpose, a good purpose, a God-ordained purpose given with all the divine wisdom we need to hear, with the goal of keeping us from being disillusioned, keeping us from being shocked by the realities of life for a believer in this world. What we hear from Jesus this morning could be considered a reality check—a reality check to see whether we have a grasp of exactly what life will be like for someone who lives in godly manner in this world.

Remember, once again we’re in John 15, the last evening Jesus would spend with his disciples before his arrest late that evening and His crucifixion the next day. In John 15 Jesus explains to his disciples and to us about three vital relationships we will have as we live out our Christian life and what we must do to please Him in each of those relationships. The first vital relationship is with Jesus Christ Himself, and the key word was abide. We must abide in Christ—that is we must obey Christ and depend on Him and His power for the ability to do so. The second vital relationship is to one another—to other believers, and we must love one another. We must love one another as Jesus loved us and love one another to the point of death. A self-sacrificing kind of love unique to Christians is in view here. And just why this love for one another will be and is so necessary is that we will not be getting much love from the world. We will not be getting much love from anyone or any other place. And that’s the subject of our message this morning. Don’t be shocked that the world hates you but keep on witnessing to it anyway. And there we find the key word for our relationship to the world—witness. Keep on witnessing, or testifying to Christ, despite the world’s hatred for you.

Three vital words with regard to three different relationships. With regard to Christ—abide or obey. With regard to one another—Love one another. With regard to the world—Witness or Testify.

In John 15:17, Jesus has just summed up the disciple’ss responsibility toward one another—Love one another. And immediately His commentary as He prepares His disciples for their life without his physical presence with Him turns to the absolute opposite of love. And that of course, is hatred. And He warns them in advance that they will experience plenty of that, hopefully, not from other believers. But surely from unbelievers. And He in essence tells them to count on the world hating you. Count on the world hating you. Don’t be surprised if you find that you are the object of hatred from unbelievers. Don’t be surprised like I was when you hear stories like that of that young vibrant believer in Albania. Jesus actually promised us that this would be part and parcel of a vibrant believer’s experience. In fact, if it isn’t somehow a part of our personal individual experiences, a question we ought to ask is whether we’re really abiding in Christ and witnessing to the world we are a part of.

John 15:18: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”

Now the first thing we need to establish clearly and carefully here is just exactly what the word world means, in this context. The world, in the Greek, kosmos, can speak of the physical earth, as reflected in the sentence, God created the world and all that exists in it. Or it could be speaking of the world of mankind, as we find it in John 3:16, where it says, “For God so loved the world, that is the world of men, that He gave His only begotten Son.” And then it could be speaking of the world of men who are opposed to and without God, and devoted to their sin, the lusts of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life, as we find it portrayed in I John 2:19. In this context, Jesus is clearly using the word world according to the latter of these three definitions. He’s speaking of the world of men who do not follow God, who are devoted to living for pride, for the lusts of the flesh and the lust of the eyes without any regard for the will of God or righteousness. And He tells us something that would be good for us to know as we embark on this journey of following Him, of living for Jesus Christ. He’s telling us that upon making this choice to follow Christ and follow God in heaven, we will not be popular in the eyes of the world. In fact, we will not merely be unpopular, He chooses to use the word hate repeatedly to describe this world’s attitude and actions demonstrated toward us.