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Hated without a Cause
John 15:18–25 (ESV)
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
I’d like to turn your attention to the often overlooked celebration that Halloween calls to mind.
In case you've missed it before, the name Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows' Eve and signifies the night before All Saints’ Day.
For centuries on All Saints’ Day, the Church celebrated the lives of Christians who went before us.
And rightly so: We can learn so much from those whom the author of Hebrews calls that great cloud of witnesses.
The tradition of remembering the Church triumphant dates back to the time of the first Christian martyrs.
When soldiers of Marcus Aurelius Verus came to arrest Polycarp, a beloved church leader, Polycarp greeted them kindly.
According to the third-century historian Eusebius, Polycarp “ordered a table to be laid for them immediately, invited them to eat as much as they liked, asking in return a single hour in which he could pray.”
When Polycarp later stood in the coliseum, accused and surrounded by the jeering crowds,
the governor pressed him to recant his faith.
Instead, this man, who himself had been discipled by the Apostle John, said this:
“For 86 years, I have been [Christ’s] servant, and He has never done me wrong: How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
As they were preparing to burn him alive, Polycarp offered up prayers of faith and praise.
In the years following Polycarp’s death, Christians would gather annually to take communion beside his grave.
There they would remember his brave witness and take courage from his example.
As the years passed, the day shifted in focusing from remembering Polycarp to honoring all martyrs.
By the seventh century, the Church created a holiday to honor all of God’s saints—heroes of the faith.
That was Chuck Colson, from October 31, 2007, describing the rich history behind All Saints' Day.
About 100 years ago, wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.
It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
GK Chesterton
There is much wisdom in this.
The Christian faith is not easy for the human mind to grasp in so many ways, and not just because we believe God became a man, and died for the sins of the world.
What is so hard to grasp is its cost.
Not simply that which was paid by Christ himself, who set aside his glory to live among us, so that we might live forevermore with him.
But what it requires of us—the cost of being a Christian.
A life without cost and without Christ
Years ago, I read a passage from J. C. Ryle that described this dilemma well.
He put it this way, first describing the ease of having an outward appearance of faith:
I grant freely that it costs little to be a mere outward Christian.
A man has only got to attend a place of worship twice on Sunday, and to be tolerably moral during the week, and he has gone as far as thousands around him ever go in religion.
All this is cheap and easy work: it entails no self-denial or self-sacrifice.
If this is saving Christianity, and will take us to heaven when we die, we must alter the description of the way of life, and write, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to heaven!”1
Introduction
According to Jesus, there is a cost to following him that must be faced: his followers will be hated by the world.
Just as Jesus was savagely opposed by the people of his time,
despite his loving ministry and godly life, so also must those who follow him expect hostility and persecution from the world.[1]
Peter Kusmic, a Yugoslavian Christian who suffered under Communist persecution:
So much popular Western evangelical religiosity is so shallow and selfish.
It promises so much and demands so little.
It offers success, personal happiness, peace of mind, material prosperity; but it hardly speaks of repentance, sacrifice, self-denial, holy lifestyle and willingness to die for Christ.1[2]
According to Jesus, such an easy, persecution-free Christianity is far from normal.
Indeed, a kind of Christian faith that involves no sacrifice and produces no opposition from the world is, according to the New Testament, not true Christianity at all.
Paul stated plainly:
“All who desire to lead a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim.
3:12).[3]
Open Doors released their annual World Watch List.
The World Watch List assesses 50 countries where Christians face the most severe types of persecution.
The newly published data reveals significant changes in the situation of Christian minorities around the world.
The persecution of Christians has reached the highest levels since the World Watch List began nearly 30 years ago.
“Across 76 countries, more than 360 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith – an increase of 20 million since last year.”
312 million Christians live in the top 50 countries alone.
One in every seven Christians live under at least high levels of persecution or discrimination for their faith.
Hated by the World
John 15:18 (ESV)
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
The word world?
He’s not talking about the planet.
He’s referring to
All those who live in open rebellion to the Creator, which means all people.
By virtue of our sin, all people have embraced this anti-God world system.
“In the unlikely event the world hates you.”
The sense is more “If—and trust me they will.”
live as if not only isn’t there a God in heaven but even if there is he is not one that requires anything from me.
The hatred of the world is a certainty.
If you’re following Christ, this is a guarantee.
If Jesus was hated, so will his followers be.
Was Jesus hated?
Less than twenty-four hours after he made this statement, he was arrested, tried for crimes he didn’t commit, mocked, beaten, whipped, then executed as a criminal.
Before being hung on the cross, he was dressed up as a mock king, and while hanging on the cross, he was verbally assaulted before being physically impaled by a spear.
Yes, the world hated him.
Jesus Has Called Us Out of the World
John 15:19 (ESV)
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
The often low-key but nevertheless real hostility to Christ that is deeply imbedded in this world.
This world hates the things of God.
This world hates Christ.
Unbelievers can tolerate Christ only as long as He is stripped of His real identity.
But if Jesus’ followers proclaim the real Christ, the biblical Christ, and demonstrate their allegiance to Him, they are despised by this world.
That’s why Jesus warned, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:26a).
If you’ve made friends with the world, you must have done it by compromising Christ.[5]
godless values and morals of this world- living not for the Honor of Christ for what is expedient and comfortable for me.
but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Christ chose the disciples for a specific work in this world.
Therefore, although the world rejects Christ’s salvation and despises his work, it also hates those who have been chosen by him for it.
There is probably nothing that the world hates more than the idea that God has chosen for Salvation certain individuals.
Certainly, it was this more than anything else that caused the world’s hatred of Christ during the days of his ministry.
In John 6,
after Jesus had begun to talk about God choosing certain people for salvation,
pointing out that no man is able to come to him unless drawn by the Father
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