‘THAT YOU SHOULD NOT BE MADE TO STUMBLE’ – John 15:18-16:4a

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 11, 2013 under PM Bible Study |

PM Home Bible Study Group; December 11, 2013

John 15:9-17

Theme: We’re to remember that we will be persecuted in this world for following Jesus Christ, so that we will not ‘stumble’ when it happens.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

We have been studying together from the wonderful ‘upper-room’ discourse that our Lord Jesus had with His disciples just before He went to the cross for them. These words are meant particularly for Jesus’ followers; and there is much in them that is deep and wonderful. In fact, in the verses just prior to our section this evening, we were told of the warm love that our Savior has for us—even affirming to us the deep love of the Father.

How glad we should be that the Lord Jesus told us those warm and wonderful truths of love. But it’s important that we heard them first; because now—in the section before us—the tone changes. We’re told of the very serious matter of this fallen world’s hatred for those to whom divine love is affirmed!

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We live in a time, and in a cultural environment, in which the followers of Jesus are becoming increasingly maligned. Sometimes, those who observe this growing hostility say that professing Christians have brought it all upon themselves. It’s often said that we are hypocritical and judgmental and unforgiving. It’s often said that we tend to meddle in affairs for which we are ill-equipped to involve ourselves; or that we make sweeping comments about social events that are insensitive and judgmental, and assign moral causes to terrible disasters in a cruel and wrong-headed manner. And to be perfectly honest, in some notable cases, these accusations have been true. We can all think of some rather embarrassing examples.

But compared, with intellectual honesty, to the vastly greater number of genuine, faithful, sacrificial, loving, gracious, forgiving, honest, tolerant followers of Jesus world-wide—sincere Christians that have made the world and immeasurably better place to be—those embarrassing examples are really extremely few and rare; and they have, by no means, proven to be the norm by which to measure the Christian faith. The answer for the profound hostility toward the Christian faith that we see today, therefore, has to have another explanation. And we find it in the words of our Lord in the passage now before us.

Later on in John’s Gospel, our Lord is recorded as having prayed for His followers; saying, "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (John 17:14). The apostle John later wrote to his fellow Christians and said, "Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you" (1 John 3:13). The apostle Paul suffered greatly for his obedience to Christ. He wrote to his young colleague Timothy and said, "But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me" (2 Timothy 3:10-11). And rather than presenting this as something unusual, he added, "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (v. 12). Likewise, the apostle Peter expressed that this is to be expected when he wrote, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:12-13).

We must never give the world a legitimate cause to speak against our faith. In fact, we should do everything that we can to faithfully ‘adorn’ the gospel we preach through a godly life. As the apostle Peter went on to say,

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now

“If the righteous one is scarcely saved,

Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:14-19)..

But the fact remains that we live in a world that is set in hostility toward our Lord; and hostile to those who follow Him. Jesus lets us know this so that we will not "stumble" at the faith—that is, so that we will not be like the soil in Jesus’ parable;

But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles (Matthew 13:20-21).

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This is vitally important information, then, that our Lord—who loves us greatly—wants us to know. He doesn’t want us to be caught by surprise by the things we will sometimes be called upon to suffer for Him, or to stumble from our faith because of this world’s deep-seated animosity toward us.

So; what does our Lord tell His followers about all this?

I. IF THE WORLD HATED JESUS, IT WILL ALSO HATE HIS FOLLOWERS (15:18-20).

A. Jesus tells His followers, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you" (v. 18). There are two things to note in this. First is the fact that Jesus forever stands as the one that the world hated before it hated us. That hatred came upon Him first. And second is the assumption that we "know" (as a present tense reality) this fact. John expressed this early in his Gospel when he wrote, "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him" (John 1:12-13). It’s important to us that we truly “know” that He was hated first.

B. Jesus then said further, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own" (v. 19a)—that is to say, if we were a part of this world’s system of values and priorities (see 1 John 2:15-17); if we were complicit with it in its rebellion against its Creator—then the world would love us. We would be of this world; and the world would love its own. The fallen people of this world always love those who approve of its sin. "Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (v. 19b). It wouldn’t have to even be a matter of speaking out against the world in an active and aggressive way. It would simply be enough that we were once in this world but were—by God’s grace—called out of it, and have become "saved from this perverse generation" (Acts 2:40). Our salvation from the impending judgment that will fall upon this unbelieving world is itself a condemnation of this world. In that respect, our Lord is telling us that we are not hated by the world for what we do, but rather for what we are in relation to Himself.

C. To explain further, Jesus calls us to again consider the hatred that the world has toward Himself and to apply our understanding of that hatred toward our own situation. He said, "Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master’" (v. 20a). This hearkens back to something that He said back in John 13:12-16—immediately after He had washed His disciples’ feet. After rising up, He said,

“Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him" (John 13:12-16).

If He, as our Master and Example, would humble Himself to serve His followers, then we should be willing even more to do so. And now, He uses the same argument from ‘the greater’ to ‘the lessor’ to show that if He—our Lord and Master—would suffer the hatred of this world, we as His followers shouldn’t expect to escape it. "If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also" (v. 20b). Whatever treatment He received is the pattern of what we His followers should expect.

II. THIS HATRED IS BECAUSE THE LORD JESUS CAME FROM THE FATHER (15:21-25).

A. As our Lord goes on, He shows us why this hatred—eventuating to us—is first directed at Him. He said, "But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me" (v. 21). In other words, the unbelieving world’s hatred of Jesus is because of an absence of any knowledge of, or relationship with, the Father. Jesus once put the matter very boldly when He told His unbelieving fellow Jews;

“If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God" (John 8:42-47).

B. But it wasn’t simply because of their lack of knowledge of the Father. It was because He also spoke and acted from the Father. He performed works that verified that He was, indeed, from the very God that they disobeyed and rebelled against; and taught in such a way as to speak against their sin. He said, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father" (vv. 22-23). What a remarkable revelation! As Paul wrote elsewhere, "I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’" (Romans 7:7). Similarly, if Jesus had not spoken, they would have no sin. But His word revealed the commandments of His Father; and now they cannot help but know that they have sinned—and worse, that knowing their sin, they refuse to repent, and are now even more confirmed in that sin.

C. Jesus taught His disciples to expect this hatred ahead of time. And similarly, He was made to expect the world’s hatred of Him well in advance. It was spoken of and foretold long ago in the Scriptures. Jesus said, "But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause’" (v. 25)—here seeming to summarize the thrust of several quotations from the Psalms: "Let them not rejoice over me who are wrongfully my enemies; nor let them wink with the eye who hate me without a cause" (Psalm 39:19); "Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; they are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully; though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it" (Psalm 69:4); "They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause. In return for my love they are my accusers, but I give myself to prayer. Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love" (Psalm 109:3-5). No one was able to accuse our Lord of wrongdoing. He did not come to destroy—rather to save. But because the offer of salvation implies a condemning need, He was hated. And so will we be if we proclaim Him faithfully.

III. THIS HOSTILE WORLD WILL, NEVERTHELESS, HAVE A WITNESS OF JESUS(15:26-27).

A. The world hates this Savior; and demands that we either be silent about Him or suffer. Early on in the history of the church, the authorities commanded the disciples not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:18). Nevertheless, Jesus here promises, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me" (v. 26). This divine Helper—the Holy Spirit—will come and bear witness in the world; and the world will not be able to silence Him. As Jesus would later say in Chapter 16, "when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged" (John 16:8-11). What a mercy it is from God that—in spite of the world’s hostility toward our Lord—it still, by God’s mercy, receives a divine witness by which some are saved.

B. It also receives a human witness—inspired and enabled by the Holy Spirit. Jesus went on to say to His apostles, "And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning" (v. 27). These words seem to be directed specifically to the apostles. They, after all, were the ones who had been with Him from the beginning. Their witness would be protected and preserved by the Holy Spirit (see John 14:25-26). But this same Holy Spirit would empower the witness of the church throughout the ages. This can be the only way we could understand Jesus amazing promise just before He left this earth: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Even in times of suffering and persecution, this same, empowering Holy Spirit diffuses through us the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ in every place (2 Corinthians 2:15).

IV. ALL OF THIS IS TOLD TO US IN ADVANCE SO THAT WE WON’T STUMBLE (16:1-4a).

A. Now; the reason that these things are being told to us is given at the beginning of Chapter 16. Jesus tells us plainly; “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble" (v. 1). The word that is translated "stumble" is the same word from which we get the English word "scandalize". Metaphorically, it refers to the idea of being so offended at our experience of suffering that we are tempted to turn from Jesus. Our Lord holds nothing back from us. He lets us know what we may be called upon to suffer for Him. He said, "They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service" (v. 2). These things, of course, happened to the apostles. They have happened to those who have followed Jesus ever since. Jesus said,

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known" (Matthew 10:16-26).

B. And Jesus reminds us, "And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me" (v. 3). When these things happen—as they surely will—we should remember the reasons that our Lord gives us for why they occur. And remembering this, we should not allow ourselves to stumble from our stability in our faith. They should not take us by surprise; for as Jesus tells us, "But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them" (v. 4a).

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Perhaps before we depart from this ‘warning’ of the world’s hatred, we should consider what it is that we’re to do in response to that hatred. Though this world hated our Savior—and will certainly hate us for following Him—we’re not to respond with hatred. The same Lord Jesus who warned us that we will be hated for His name’s sake also said;

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-47).

May God help us to show that we truly belong to our Savior—not only by suffering for His name, but respond to that suffering as He did!