Bible Text: John 15:18-25 | Preacher: Pastor Joe Ricchuiti | Series: John, Not Feeling the Love

Recap of 2/3/13 (John 15:18-25):
1.  Starting in John 15:18 the topic of Jesus’ teaching changing dramatically.  He had commanded them to love each other, the reason this love was so necessary was because believers would be hated by the world. The words “hate” or “hatred” replaces the word “love” as the topic of this section.
 
2.  “One thing is certain—no Christian who was involved in persecution could say that he had not been warned. Persecution came to the Christians because they put Christ first.  Persecution always comes to the man who does that.” (Barclay)  Friendship with Jesus brings the hatred of the world.  The world treats us as it treated Jesus. The reason for this hatred is clear: the more we are like Jesus the more the world will hate us.
 
3.  Believers are different once coming to Christ.  We are being transformed by the Word of God (Romans 12:2), we no longer think like the world (1 Peter 4:4).  People hate those who are different, whose lives are a rebuke to their own lives.
 
4.  Believers must be careful not to compromise in order to be popular with the world.  James warns against friendship with the world which he says makes us an enemy of God (James 4:4).
 
5. The world in ignorance hates Jesus and rejects His words, life, works, and miracles which clearly mark Him out as from God, God incarnate, the God-man.  “…-the revelation of the Father that Christ had given to the world—rendered the world inexcusable (vs. 22).  Christ’s life and words revealed the righteousness of God and provided a pattern of the kind of life that a man must live in order to be acceptable to God.  Before Christ came, the world might have pleaded ignorance of God’s demands as an excuse for their sins; but now that Christ had come and spoken, the world had no excuse for their sin.” (Pentecost)