“Not of This World”
The Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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When you think of the world “alien” some of you might think of the little green man from mars. Some of you, if you’ve seen the movie alien, conjure up the mental image of a creature as big as a house with acid for blood.
If you were to look up the definition of the word “alien” in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, as a noun, this word is defined as this:
a person who is not of a particular group or place
a person who is not of a particular group or place
If we go to our source for living, God’s word, according to 1 Peter 2:11, WE are aliens.
Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.
An alien is someone who doesn’t belong somewhere. To quote a line from the song “This world is not my home”, the first verse says this:
This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through, My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through, My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door, And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.
So, even though I’m not a little green man, because I am a Christian and part of a group of people that don’t belong here, but in heaven, this world isn’t my home. I am, according to God’s word, not of this world. And because of that, as we will see in our passage of scripture today, I can expect to be treated differently. This is what our big idea tells us today. You should see it up on your screen. Here it is:
As followers of Jesus and not of this world, we will be hated by the world. Be encouraged; they hated Jesus too!
As followers of Jesus and not of this world, we will be hated by the world. Be encouraged; they hated Jesus too!
As we get ready to go into our time in God’s word and see what we can expect in life since this world is not our home, let’s pause and ask God’s blessing on this time.
<personal prayer>
As we begin to make our way through this scripture today, the first thing we see in the passage is this. This reason the world hates us. The reason the world hates us.
1. The reason the world hates us.
1. The reason the world hates us.
I realize that hatred is a strong word. To hate something means to bear that thing or person ill-will, to detest it, to desire to persecute it. And in our scripture this morning, it tells WHO hates us, and WHY. “The world” hates us. Now, we must have some context here. This doesn’t mean the world as in the planet earth. It DOES means the people that live on the planet, that don’t know Jesus Christ as their personal savior and Lord. You could define “the world” in this way:
Anyone or anything opposed to Christ, not part of his kingdom.
Anyone or anything opposed to Christ, not part of his kingdom.
So, if you belong to Jesus, and follow him, the world is going to hate you, because the world hates Jesus. But why do they hate Jesus?
Because of who Jesus is and what he stands for. Jesus is God, Jesus is evidence of God. Jesus declares that he alone is the source of truth in John 14:6.
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
And because Jesus is 100% truth, and the world wants to come up with its own source of truth, be it’s own “god”, they hate him.
And it’s actually quite ironic. Because Jesus message is one of truth and love, but it’s also a line drawn in the sand. Jesus says that he’s truth, and that to truly know what love is, you must first love him so that you can love others. Jesus message is one of absolute and resoluteness. Him and him alone. The world’s version of truth and love is based on anyone’s definition. And because of that, the world is going to hate us, because we are bringing his message everywhere we go.
The Bible tells us that the world will hate on on account of his name. Because Jesus name is truth. When you tell someone the truth about life, that they are a sinner, that Jesus died on the cross to pay for their sins, and that the options are either eternal life in him or eternal damnation in hell, there will be many that will hate you for telling them the truth…because they know it’s truth, and they don’t want to hear it.
And Jesus gives us a stark contrast, and way to know if we can expect the world to love us or hate us. He says that if we act like the world, if we are of the world, the world will love us.
To make this crystal clear, here’s what this means: you can’t claim to fully live for Jesus and be loved by the world. Philippians 2:15-16 tells us this.
so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.
Let me give you a very real world example of this happening.
In 2023, a man named Jack Phillips, a baker in Colorado, was sued by Autumn Scardina, because he refused to make a wedding cake for Autumn and her “so-called” wife, on the basis of his biblical beliefs that state that homosexuality is a sin. The case went all the way to the supreme court, where Mr. Phillips ended up winning. But, the reason that Mr. Phillips was sued was because he exercised his right to refuse service to someone, and that person took issue with the basis for his refusal, even though it was his constitutional right. So, because he was a follower of Christ, and this gay couple followers of the world, they attempted to change his mind by suing him..and he won.
But, this shouldn’t surprise us. This is happening more and more, and will continue to, as long as we take a stand for Jesus and reject what the world says it right and wrong. And this brings us to our next point.
We’ve seen the reason the world hates us, next let’s look at the rejection of Jesus. The rejection of Jesus.
2. The rejection of Jesus.
2. The rejection of Jesus.
Jesus makes an add statement in verse 22.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin.
What does it mean, that they would not be guilty of sin?
It doesn’t mean that the world would sinless…that’s not possible. It DOES mean that they wouldn’t be guilty of the sin of rejecting Jesus. But, because God has revealed himself to the world in the person of Jesus, and because Jesus told them why he came, to save them from their sins, they rejected him…and in doing so, they rejected God.
But it was’t just Jesus works they rejected…it was his works, and his greatest work, that of dying on the cross to pay for all of our sins. And in rejecting Jesus work on the cross, they also rejected God as well. Jesus tells us this in John 6:29.
Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”
We also see this in John 12:49-50.
For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said. I know that his command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
And then Jesus draws another line in the sand. John 15:24.
If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.
Jesus revealing who he is, and revealing God, through the cross, ultimately caused the world to choose to do something.
To hate God. To bear God ill-will, to detest him.
Why hate God?
Because we want to be own our “god”, to do what we want to do. It’s been that way from the beginning.
Remember that conversation in the garden of Eden between Satan, in the form of a serpent, and Eve? Let me refresh your memory! It will be up on the screen.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
What was the temptation? To be like God!
This is why the first commandment is to have no other God’s but God himself. Because we all want to be our own God. But the gospel tells us that’s not possible. There’s only one God, and you ain’t him. And when the world here’s that, they hate God…even though it’s their decision!
Think of it like this, and I’ll move one.
The law of our state says that to possess marijuana is illegal. If you get caught with it, it’s breaking the law and you can potentially go to jail. Those that decide to purchase it KNOW this. Yet, when they get caught with it, who do they get mad at? The cop, for doing their job and enforcing the law…even though they should really be blaming themselves for being stupid in the first place!
But, this is the logic of the world.When you tell the world what sin is, and that it’s breaking God’s laws, and that the penalty for it is spiritual death, but Jesus paid for their sins, paid that penalty on the cross, and was raised from the dead to give them eternal life, if only the’ll confess him as Lord…do you know what many say? “I’d rather burn in hell and be my own God…but blame God for it, than serve and love God and go to heaven.” This is like the person that blames the cop for enforcing the law, when it was the persons’ fault all along!
There is simply no logical reason to hate God…and yet that’s what happens. Which brings us to our final point.
We’ve seen the reason the world hates us and the rejection of Jesus, lastly, let’s look at the reality of their logic. The reality of their logic.
3. The reality of their logic.
3. The reality of their logic.
Jesus says in verse 25 that the world “hates him for no reason.” This could be said like this: “there was no justifiable cause for why the world hated Jesus.”
The world tells us it hates Jesus because he speaks truth, but the reality is, their hatred is unjustified. They are simply wrong for having the truth pointed out to them, and instead of being mad at themselves and admitting the truth and repenting, they’d rather use Jesus as their scapegoat and hate him instead. They really hate themselves, because they hear the truth, they know the truth will set them free, but that would also mean giving up their “rights” to live how they want to in their sin. John 8:31-32 says this.
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
And so, even though they know the freedom they could have in the truth, they’d rather perish in hell then have freedom now.
And the wonderful irony is this: this was God’s plan all along! Acts 2:22 says this:
“Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know. Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.
See, Jesus knew, when he came down from heaven to earth, became the God-man, that he was going to die. He would be murdered in the name of religion, by people who wanted things their way instead of his way. Jesus knew that the darkness, in the form of religion, doing God’s work man’s way and not God’ way, would be the death of him.
So, why did Jesus come?
He came to speak truth to us. He came to show us what love is. He came to set us free. He came to solve our greatest problem in life, sin.
He came to give us his gospel. Knowing people would hate him for no reason. Knowing that if we chose to follow him, we’d be hated for no reason…but promising to always by by our side.
So, how do we become followers, free from sin?
<the gospel>