Sunday, September 27 · Hope Church
Sunday Worship (9:00am Service)
The notes for this service carry a single thread: Jesus telling his disciples that the world will hate them because it hated him first, and calling them to stand firm in that. It is a sermon about belonging to Christ when belonging costs you.
The passages
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.
John 15:18–21
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates my Father also. If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
John 15:22–25
You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.
Matthew 10:22
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
2 Timothy 3:12
Go deeper
Why does following Jesus make some people push me away?
Jesus told his friends plainly that the same hatred aimed at him would land on them. It is not a sign they got the message wrong; it is the message working its way through a world that does not want it. The disciples heard it before they ever felt it.
If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.
John 15:18–21
You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.
Matthew 10:22
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
2 Timothy 3:12
Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you. But because you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, that at the revelation of his glory you also may rejoice with exceeding joy. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or a meddler in other men’s matters. But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter.
1 Peter 4:12–16
How do I keep going when the opposition doesn't let up?
Jesus does not promise the pressure will lift; he promises endurance will be worth it. The word he uses is one that describes staying in place under weight rather than escaping it. He says it to people who had already left their nets and their families.
You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.
Matthew 10:22
Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.
John 15:9–11
Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.
Hebrews 12:1–3
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2–4
Am I at fault if people don't like what I believe?
Jesus says the hatred is directed at him before it ever reaches his followers, which means not every rejection is a character flaw in the person being rejected. But Peter draws a line: some suffering is deserved. The question is which kind a person is actually carrying.
But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me.
John 15:21
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates my Father also. If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
John 15:22–25
Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you. But because you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice, that at the revelation of his glory you also may rejoice with exceeding joy. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or a meddler in other men’s matters. But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter.
1 Peter 4:12–16
For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, who didn’t sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.” When he was cursed, he didn’t curse back. When he suffered, he didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.
1 Peter 2:20–23
What is actually mine to hold on to when the world says no?
Jesus does not send his friends out with a strategy; he sends them with a relationship. He calls them friends rather than servants and tells them everything he heard from the Father. The belonging comes before the opposition and survives it.
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.
John 15:15
You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
John 15:16
“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
John 15:26–27
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35–39