John 15:18-16:4. Hatred of God and his People

In ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, Mark Twain describes the adventures of Huck, a young attractive rebel as he floats down the Mississippi river with his negro friend Jim. Mark Twain was a famous humourist but also a miserable moralist who had a strong anti-Christian stance. He thought that man, left to himself, was noble and so opposed to anything that suggested otherwise. He could not come to terms with illness, ageing and death. He tried to escape in solitude, sharing his life with just animals - he had given up on fellow man. He portrayed in Huck his ideal of human nature as a noble thing if left alone and not tainted by civilisation.

Today there are some who similarly escape into the world of animals, especially dogs, cats and horses, because they cannot cope with the realities of living with human beings!

It is surely true and we can see it in ourselves that our characters are far from perfect, we are selfish and give in to temptations far too easily. The good news is that God can change people if they accept him on his terms. We have people in our church whose old lives were depraved in some way, yet who have found a greater power to help them live as God wants. Hatred both of others and myself is a symptom of the fall.

Love

In our previous study in John 15:9-17, Jesus spoke much of the love of God for his people and the way he satisfies all our emotional needs. We need to be loved and to love, we need joy and peace, we also need purpose in our lives. All these needs are met when we submit to Jesus Christ. Nine times he says what we are capable of when we live in harmony with him. Jesus is an expert on love and emphasises that love is the appeal of God to man but also the appeal of his people to outsiders.

Love is the prominent feature of God’s character. The same John, in his first letter, twice says,

“God is love.” 1 John 4:8 and 16

People often make the mistake of thinking this is the only feature of God’s character. It is certainly not. When the Lord introduced himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, he described his character by proclaiming,

“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished . . .” Exodus 34:6-7

He longs that all people should return to live in harmony with him and does all he can to facilitate this. He forgives the sins of those who turn to him, he empowers them with his Spirit. Yet if people persist in rejecting him a time will come when he will reject us. The prophet Hosea keeps reminding God’s people that his patience will come to an end if his people keep disobeying him and serve other gods. The time will come when he says,

“I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.” Hosea 9:15

Hatred of Jesus

In this last teaching session with his disciples there is now a sudden change, beginning from verse 18. The key word is now ‘hate’. It is used seven times in this one paragraph. This is not because Jesus is a pessimist like Mark Twain. This whole gospel is full of hope, it really is good news but John is faithfully recording what Jesus taught. The truth is that in spite of the love Jesus had for others, they wanted to be rid of him because what he taught was opposed to their views. All the gospel writers tell us of this hatred. John repeatedly puts it starkly, from the beginning people wanted to kill Jesus. These are some passages that remind us of this,

“So, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” John 5:16-18

“Why are you trying to kill me?” John 7:19

“At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, ‘Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?’” John 7:25

“I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me.” John 8:37

“As it is you are determined to kill me, a man who has heard yo the truth that I heard from God.” John 8:40

“ ‘I and the Father are one.’ Again the jews picked up stones to stone him.” John 10:31

“A short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?” John 11:8

This hatred of Jesus increased even more after he had raised Lazarus from the dead. You would think they ought to be rejoicing!

“So from that day on they plotted to take his life.” John 11:53

This is extraordinary. Why should people want to kill someone who had done so much good and had warned people about the dangers of false religion that can never protect people from the wrath of God.

“But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’” John 15:24-25

Hatred is irrational. All Jesus wanted to do was to remind people of the love and purpose of God and yet people did not want to hear this and did all they can to stop Jesus being heard.

In the New Testament we often see pictures of the final Day of Judgment. Paul taught that on that day all mouths will be shut.

“ . . . so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.” Romans 3:19

These critics of God will have nothing to say. Religion will save nobody, only a personal submission to Christ can open that door. In our complicated heathen society there are many voices telling us to reject God and reject Jesus and they even try to give reasons for doing so. But when faced with God and all the facts are before them, all these reasons will disappear and the reasons they have opposed God’s rule will become all too obvious. To have rejected Christ will then be seen to have been silly and preposterous. Unbelievers, even religious people, will have nothing to say by way of excuse.

Hatred of Jesus’ followers

Jesus warns his followers that they will be treated in the same way that he had been.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of this world. That is why the world hates you.” John 15:18

Just this afternoon I have heard of two sportspeople who have been attacked because they have dared to publicly make a stand on what the Bible teaches. Margaret Court was the greatest Australian tennis champion. She won 25 Grand Slam Championships and she has had their No. 1 court in Melbourn named after her in recognition of her achievements. Yet because she has reminded people of what God has repeatedly taught in the Bible about sexual practices, she is being publicly derided with pleas to have her recognition removed. The fact that the protests were made during the Australian Championships and against their code of practice doesn’t seem to matter. Similarly the same is happening now to Israel Folau, the great Australian rugby player who has been given a job to play rugby league in the United Kingdom. The media are up in arms because he also has tried to remind people about what God teaches. He may not have been wise in the way he did this but he does want to get people to think about their eternal destiny. There are certainly powerful forces in the media that are set on undermining what God teaches in the Bible. The questions people should be encouraged to ask are, who Jesus is and, whether the Bible is God’s word to mankind. However the hatred of many will prevent these vital question from being addressed. These are fundamental questions our school children and university students should be asking.

Jesus is here warning his disciples what life will be like if they want to continue as his disciples. It was a fair warning as eleven out of the twelve apostles were killed because they persisted in affirming that Jesus is the Christ, that he did die for our sins and that he did rise again as the Jewish Scriptures had foretold would happen.

In the last century, wherever a civilisation has been over-run by tyranny, by a dictator who is given overall power without restraints, there has inevitably been bitter opposition to the church of Jesus Christ.

The historian Piero Saruffi estimated that 160 million people have been killed as a result of wars during the last century. How many have been killed because they have held Christian beliefs is hard to accurately determine - 25 million has been proposed as a conservative estimate, but there are countless stories of churches full of people being attacked and individual Christians families being made to suffer for their faith. In a recent article, Justin D. Long emphasized the startling fact that more people have died for their faith in the Twentieth Century than in all of the previous centuries combined.

“During this century, we have documented cases in excess of 26 million martyrs. From AD 33 to 1900, we have documented 14 million martyrs.”

Such numbers mean little so let me share one story. Alexander Ogorodnikov had spent seven lonely years in the former Soviet prison system, or Gulag. He had been convicted of running a Christian discussion group for other students at the Moscow State University, where he was studying film making.

After being in prison for five years he wrote a letter to the former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. In the letter, Ogorodnikov told Gorbachev that he had been in prison for five years and had not received one letter or a visit from any Christian. He begged,

“Have me executed. . . .I know it is a sin to commit suicide, but I am so lonely that I wish to ask you to have me executed by firing squad.”

His case came to the attention of then British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. who interceded with Gorbachev on Ogorodnkov's behalf, and the prisoner was released. He now runs a soup kitchen for Moscow's homeless, but recently said,

“You don't know what it was like to discover that there were Christians who cared -- who wanted me to live and who loved me.”

Since the beginning of the Communist experiment in the USSR, millions of Christians have suffered and been killed. When I visited a Baptist church in Russia I was surprised to see so few men over 50 attending. I was told that the secret policed had rounded up the Christian men and they had not been seen again. The minister of the church explained that he was a top pupil in his school but had been denied a place at college because he was a Christian. Many children from Christian homes were harassed and denied an education. Thousands of ordinary Christians were transported to the Gulag camps. Some of the intelligentsia were sent to psychiatric hospitals to correct what the state thought to be erroneous beliefs.

Even in the west, when churches and individual Christians are alive for Christ and are trying to win their friends for Christ they will be disliked by both the world and even other Christians. So verses 18 to 22 is a reminder that both the world and the religious will hate Jesus’ disciples if they take what Jesus and his apostles said seriously.

Hatred of God

It is not only Jesus and his followers who will be hated – it will also lead to a hatred of God himself.

“He who hates me hates my Father as well.” John 15:23

In spite of all the evidence this hatred will grow. People will overlook the evidence of the miracles Jesus did. They will overlook the beneficial changes that can be seen in those who have become his followers.

“But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.” John 15:24

As Jesus is one with his Father, hatred of the Son will inevitably be hatred of the Father. Are we not seeing this today?

The reason people hate Christians is because they speak out. This is the effect of the Holy Spirit, Christians will always testify to the importance of Jesus.

“When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who goes out form the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify . . .” John 15:26-27

Some people today have an abstract idea of God as a god of love who will forgive everybody and will accept everybody into heaven. Listen to many funeral sermons in English churches and it would seem that many vicars are universalists in that they suggest everyone, even those who have lived godless lives, will go ‘to a better place’. Such thinking and teaching is totally against what Jesus and his apostles taught. Thus,

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:36

Some seem to think that apathy is a half-way house, they would try to say they are not against Jesus but just have little time for him in their busy lives. Jesus rejects such a view, he considers that only an active acceptance of himself as Lord and Saviour will result in a person being given eternal life.

God has spoken to us all through his Son. If we have heard what he says and do not take it to heart we are just as guilty as those who actively oppose him. The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the wilful rejection of God’s rule in our lives – to reject God and his Son is sin. Jesus said,

“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

God has now come and has now spoken.

A 16 year old delivery boy brought a package into an office. He was most uncouth, rude, and unhelpful. It would be difficult to find anyone who could represent his company in a worse way. He threw boxes of stationary at the girls in the office. One of the secretaries confronted him,

“If you behave like that you won’t keep your job very long, you won’t make much of a career.”

The youngster bridled at this criticism,

“Oh, I don’t want to be posh!”

He was really saying that he didn’t want to conform to high standards. When Jesus came we were also confronted by both what he taught, supported by his miracles. Both his words and his deeds should make people sit up and listen. We can see how, in God’s eyes, we are both unattractive and unacceptable to our heavenly Father and this will lead to our eternal destruction unless we turn back to him. Without him we have no long-term hope. Yet what do so many of us do? We say, often with a veneer of politeness,

“I don’t want to be acceptable, thanks! I don’t want to be changed by you. I don’t want you to make me acceptable to God.”

There are now indications that this is also what some churches are saying. Rye has a beautiful old parish church with many memorials to those important people who have died. In a redevelopment, what used to be prominently displayed on the eastern wall of the church, above the Communion Table, has been moved to a far back corner where they were much less visible. These boards had the Ten Commandments written on them. People love the historical side of our old churches but now hate what God teaches, such as,

“You shall have no other Gods before me.”

“You shall not commit adultery.”

“You shall not steal.”

“You shall not give false testimony.”

“You shall not covet . . .” Exodus 20:1-17

Too often today our gods are financial gain, prestige, fame or our family, too often these come before our commitment to God and his Son. When we are confronted we try to hide from what God has said and cry out,

“I don’t want to be posh,” or “I don’t want to be godly.”

Jesus and his followers must confront the world in the way it rejects Christ. We must be careful not to make Christian ethics the battle ground. It is Christ who must be central as an acceptance of him will inevitably lead to an acceptance of what he taught. We must learn to love sinners and accept them into our homes and churches so that they can see the Saviour.

The reason for the warnings

The longing of God is that his people will remain faithful to him in spite of all the knocks and temptations that will be thrown at us. Jesus continues,

“All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.” John 16:1

Hatred will come from all quarters, including those who would call themselves religious.

“They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.” John 16:2

Why will both religious and secular authorities hate those who simply want to proclaim what God has done for us?

“They will do this because they have not known the Father or me.” John 16:3

Such persecution will start after Jesus leaves. It is a characteristic of the ‘Age of the Spirit’ that we are living in now.

“I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you.” John 16:4

Jesus warns us because it will not be easy to live as God wants and we must therefore have a strong mindset about how we will react when the pressures come.

Hugh Latimer had been invited to preach before King Henry VIII. The Lectionary reading for that day was the account where John the Baptist was telling Herod the seriousness of his affair with his brothers wife. King Henry was renowned for the many sexual affairs he had been involved in. What should Latimer do? He was committed to sharing with people the Word of God so he did not flinch from expounding how this passage also applied to people later. The king was deeply offended. In order to give Latimer the opportunity to apologise for being ‘so offensive’ he was invited back the following week to preach again before the king. At the start of this talk Latimer addressed himself,

“Hugh Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art to speak this day? Before the high and mighty monarch, the most excellent majesty who can take away your life if thou offend him. Therefore take heed to not give a word that may displease him. But then consider well, Hugh, dost thou not also remember who sent you to speak this message – Mighty God who is always present and beholdest all thy ways and who is able to cast thy soul into hell. Therefore take heed that thou deliverest his message well.”

Hugh Latimer then proceeded to preach exactly the same sermon he had preached before but with much more passion.

What makes Christians so bold that we cannot but speak about Jesus? It is because we have all been given the Holy Spirit of God. We have become citizens of heaven and as its citizens we put honouring our king as our priority. When Paul was imprisoned because of his persistent witnessing about Christ he wrote to the Philippian church and us,

“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ . . . contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.” Philippians 1:27

The question is not should we testify about Jesus, that is a given, but how we should do so!

BVP