John 17:15,16 - In the world, not of the world

17:15

As is often said, we are in the world not of the world. Christianity is not escapism. Our natural reaction is usually to want to avoid conflict. But Jesus’ prayer is that we remain in the world and are protected by the Father. Now I am sure that we can all agree that Jesus’ prayers will be answered! So we can be confident. This day we can be sure that the Father is protecting us, just as He protected Jesus. We have exactly the same covering. Now we must also remember that the Father’s covering involved leading Jesus to the cross, it may also include us suffering for the sake of the kingdom, but we can be sure that nothing happens that is outside God’s control. We are protected from the evil one. The devil is real, but is our protection.

17:16

Note the identification of us with Jesus. When we come to know Christ we are born again, we become a new creation. Now, for all the time we are on earth our old self is still and we experience the flesh warring against the spirit, but we need to know where our true identity lies, and it is with Christ (Col 3:1-4). As we mature in Christ the new self becomes more dominant and more of the old self dies. So we are not of the world any longer. Now there may be times when we wish we were just like everyone else in the world, in those times we need to remind ourselves that we belong to Jesus.

John 17:13,14 - Joy and hatred

17:13

Jesus knew that He was going to the Father. He also knew that first He would have to go to the cross, then there would be the resurrection. We may know the end destination, but there can be many steps in between. Jesus prayed this prayer while on earth so that we could know about it. Jesus wants us to have the same joy that He had while on earth. While on earth Jesus was full of joy, even knowing the route He would have to take. So it is with us. Our natural desire is to avoid suffering, but our godly desire should be to see God’s purposes fulfilled. If we take the second course of action, then even though we may suffer for a time, we will still know fulness of joy.

17:14

“I have given them your word and the world has hated them”. For a long time in the west we have lived in a society with at least some Christian foundations and where the Bible was given some respect. That situation has been changing for several decades and the change is now accelerating. I was reading an article recently that dealt with this matter in some detail. One remark was that once we were regarded as “do-gooders” now we are increasingly considered “do-badders”. For instance, anyone daring to question the societal orthodoxy on homosexuality is often labelled a bigot. Jesus then explains why this is the case. God’s ways and the world’s ways are fundamentally at odds with each other. When Christ comes in to our life He takes us out of the world (in the sense of not being of the world), so we become the enemy.

John 17:11,12 - Keep them in your Name

17:11

Clearly the first part of this verse is looking forward to after the ascension. Soon Jesus would no longer be in the world, but we are in the world. So Jesus prays for God to keep them “in His name”, the same Name He gave to Jesus. We are to continue the ministry of Jesus. This is a theme that has been developing since chapter 14. There He says we will do the things that He has been doing. We do this not on our own, but with the Holy Spirit, and protected by the Father. Jesus lived in permanent conflict, yet did the works of God. We can do likewise because we are protected by the Father. Jesus wants us to be in unity, not just with each other, but with the Father and the Son also.

17:12

“While I was with them ..” We don’t often think about Jesus protecting the disciples when He was with them, but think about it. No one did harm them, even though the religious authorities were antagonistic to Jesus, and at times sought to take it out on the disciples. No harm came to them, even at the point that Jesus was arrested. He did protect them. He also protected them from falling away, with the one exception of Judas who was “doomed to destruction”. This means that God had no intention of any of the others being lost, but did intend for Judas to be lost. Now does this mean that the sin in Judas’ heart played no part in this. Absolutely not. Jesus says that Satan entered Judas. God’s will and our responsibility work together (the theological term is “compatibilism”, I think).

John 17:9,10 - All mine are yours, and yours are mine

17:9

Jesus now states that He is praying for them, but not for the world. There is a distinction. Now we can certainly broaden the application of the prayer out, at least in some respect, to future believers, but there is a distinction between those who believe in the Son and those who do not. Jesus prays for us because we belong to the Father. Notice also that what is given to Jesus is immediately referred to as belonging to the Father.

17:10

As I have stressed many times, there is complete unity between the Father and the Son. All that the Son has belongs to the Father, and all that the Father has belongs to the Son. Here it is referring specifically to the people that belong to God.

ESV says Jesus is glorified in them, and NIV that glory has come to Jesus through them. ESV is probably the more accurate. The true wonder and glory of who Jesus is is shown through the church, in His people. The saving effect of Jesus is demonstrated in people. Eph 3:21 speaks of there being glory to Jesus in the church. Now when we look at the church we might question the validity of this verse, but there are several things that can be said. The first is that what the world counts as the church and what God counts as the church are not the same thing. Secondly, we need to realise what a high view God has of the church, and how great are His expectations and plans for the church.

John 17:7,8 - Given

17:7

The key difference between those who do not really know Jesus and those who do is whether we see Jesus as the one sent by God or just a man. The world when it is speaking favourably about Jesus is just viewing Him as a man. They view Him, and judge Him, in the world’s terms. If we belong to God then we view Jesus as the One sent by God, we view Him as coming to fulfil God’s mission. We view Him as the One who has all authority, who has the right to give life, and the one through whom judgement will be executed.

17:8

How did the disciples come to know who Jesus is? Jesus gave them the words that the Father gave Him. Then they received them. Our preaching and teaching needs to be from God. It needs to be based on His word, deeply rooted in His word. That does not mean it needs to be boring and stilted, never making cultural references. Jesus spoke in an interesting way, the apostles, especially Paul, made cultural references but it was all firmly based upon the word of God. To be an apostolic church means to be one that is proclaiming and living the word of God.

Then there is again the emphasis on the disciples knowing that Jesus came from God and was sent by God. This is crucial.

John 17:4-6 - Glory

17:4,5

Jesus has brought the Father glory by finishing His work on earth. His work on the cross meant that Satan’s plan to separate us from God that began back in Eden had failed. It means that God’s eternal purposes are fulfilled, it means that His justice and mercy are demonstrated. The Father will now glorify Jesus in His presence. Jesus would be given all power and authority (Matt 28:18; Eph 1:20,21).

“The glory I had with you before the world began”. This clearly states the eternal nature of Christ, and links in with all things being created through Him (Col 1:16). Note that there is a mutual giving of glory. We tend to think of glory as being self-serving, but in God it is mutual giving. We are to give glory to God, and in Rom 8:17 it says we will share in Christ’s glory, and Col 1:27 speaks of Christ being the hope of glory in us.

17:6

The beginning actually says “I revealed your name”, meaning Jesus revealed who God really is. He revealed this to those the Father had given to Him. So there are two key facts here. The first is that we can only see who God really is if Jesus reveals Him to us. Secondly, the Father chooses who will receive this revelation. The Father gave these to the Son “out of the world”. When we get saved we do not get saved so that we can have a better life down here. Often many things will improve in our life, but that is a byproduct, it is not the product itself. The product is that we saved out of the world, so that instead of living like “worldings” we live like Christ.

We belong to God, He gave us to Christ, and we obeyed His word.

John 17:2,3 - This is eternal life

17:2

Jesus has been given authority over all people. Now consider this for a moment. Any view of Jesus that has Him as merely a man makes no sense at all in the light of this verse. No one man would be given authority over all people, unless that man was also God. Note also that it infers that the resurrection was real. If Jesus had died never to rise again then His having authority over all people would be meaningless drivel.

And why has He been given this authority? So that He can give eternal life to those that the Father has given Him. See the centrality of God’s decree in this. Our actions, attitudes and decisions matter, but the starting point of everything is God.

Now when you look at your life and you consider all the things that seem to be working against you, including your own sin and weaknesses, we should look to Jesus. He has been given all authority, and He is using that authority to give us eternal life. Hallelujah!

17:3

Jesus has just said He was granted authority to give eternal life. Now He says that eternal life is knowing God. So Jesus came to enable us to know God. This is not just knowing about God, but actually knowing Him. I was going to say knowing Him as a person, but that should be knowing Him as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In fact Jesus says right here that eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ. What we need in all circumstances is to know the Lord. In Matt 11:28 Jesus urges all who are heavy laden to come to Him.

Now when Jesus here refers to the Father as the “only true God”, and then speaks about Himself, this should not be inferred as saying Jesus is not God. Rather it stresses the distinction between them. We have just seen that in verse 2 the divinity of Jesus is inferred, and so it is again here. If Jesus was a mere man, then how could knowing Him give us eternal life? In fact His words put Him on a par with the Father.

John 17:1 - The hour has come

17:1

“After this”, after His teaching to the disciples Jesus turns to pray to the Father. He looked towards heaven. This does not mean that heaven has a geographical location, but Jesus turned His attention from the disciples to the Father. We need to look towards heaven. We don’t ignore what is going in our lives and going on around us, but if that is all we focus on we will have a very distorted view of life. Moreover, we will become very weak and not have the strength to do what God wants us to do, and life will overwhelm us.

“The hour has come”. Earlier on in John it says that His hour had not yet come, then as the time for the cross approaches it says the hour has come. Jesus knew what was going on, He knew what He was here for.

“Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you”. Glory is a very complex word. The original Hebrew word meant weight, and part of the meaning of glory is significance. It also means moral excellence, and then also glory in the sense that was seen during the transfiguration. The cross (including the resurrection) is the most significant event that has happened on earth, and it is the most morally excellent event as well. It includes righteous judgement on sin and unlimited forgiveness for those who believe. There are those who object to the idea of the cross involving punishment for sin, of it satisfying God’s wrath. Such objectors are fools. If our sins have not been paid for then we are without hope. But they have, and I am so glad that Jesus has paid the price of my sin.

John 16:29-33 - Plain speaking

16:29,30

The disciples were human beings and now keen to demonstrate that they were understanding what Jesus was saying. So they declare that Jesus was now indeed speaking clearly. Of course, this is not what Jesus actually said (v25), He was talking about some point in the future.

However, the disciples had grasped some things. They knew that Jesus came from God. “You do not even need to have anyone ask you questions”. A lot of teaching was done in the style of answering questions. While Jesus did answer questions, He could also just speak the truth, for He knew an awful lot more than anyone else did!

16:31,32

The disciples may have been trying to gain favour with Jesus, to show that they weren’t as thick as they sometimes seemed to be! However, Jesus was not impressed. Jesus knew exactly what was in their hearts, He knew exactly what their current state was. So very soon they would all be scattered and He would be left alone. Jesus knows the truth about us, yet still loves us and still works in our lives to transform us. Yet Jesus was not alone, for the Father was with Him. So it is with us. There may be times when we seem to be abandoned, but even in those times the Lord is with us.

16:33

The disciples needed to realise the true nature of the peace that God gives. It is not like the world’s peace, it is peace in the midst of trouble (Psalm 138:7, 23:5). We need to grasp the full extent of Jesus’ teaching, the full depths of His assurance. The Bible does not give superficial comfort, but true comfort.

John 16:25-28 - The hour is coming

16:25

What does Jesus mean when He says He has been speaking figuratively? Maybe He means the stuff about “in a little while you will see me ...”. Whatever the case, a time was coming when He would speak plainly about His Father. Jesus would continue to speak to them through the Holy Spirit.

16:26

In that day there would be a much closer relationship between the disciples and the Father. They would have direct access to the Father. It would not be a matter of the disciples asking Jesus and Jesus then asking the Father. Note that they would ask in His name. The hearts of the disciples would be changed and they would be more Christlike, then they would ask of the Father in Jesus name.

16:27,28

This further stresses the change in relationship. Previously Jesus has spoken of the Father’s love for Him, now He speaks of the Father’s love for the disciples. Why does the Father love them? Because they loved Jesus and have believed that He comes from God.So there are two things to learn here. One is that loving Jesus means believing that He comes from the Father. Now when it says “love you because” it could mean that they receive the Father’s love because they believe. There is no question of earning the Father’s love, but if we want to receive the fullness of the Father’s love we need to believe. Or it could mean that the sign that the Father loves them is that they believe in Jesus, the belief is the fruit of the Father’s love.

Jesus came from the Father and is about to return to Him. This would mark a new phase in the disciple's life.

John 16:21-24 - Whatever you ask

16:21,22

Jesus then likens the situation to a woman giving birth. The actual time of giving birth is the most painful (or so I am told, I am a man!), but afterwards the baby is born, the very thing she has been hoping for all these months is now here and the pain is forgotten. Joy overcomes anguish. So the whole purpose of Jesus coming to earth was about to be fulfilled, there would be enormous pain, most of all for Jesus Himself, but then exceedingly great joy.

The disciples were about to go through grief, but this would soon be replaced by pain. It would be replaced with a joy that cannot be taken away. We need to understand this principle of God’s working in life.

16:23,24

Now this does not mean we should not pray to Jesus, what it does mean is that we can pray direct to the Father. Under the Levitical system God could not be approached directly, but only through a priest. After the cross the barrier between man and God was removed, for all who believe. When we ask in Jesus’ name the Father will give us whatever we ask for. Now this does not mean we get whatever we want, it does mean that when we are walking in the Spirit, doing the work of Christ, we will receive what we ask for. We will be fully equipped and fully provided for when we are working in complete harmony with Christ.

Now some might say that this is not much of a promise, if we ask God for what He wants then He will give it to us, but no promise that we will get whatever we want. But such an objection completely misses the point and is totally man-centered, which is the root of the problem. The world at the time was very much against Jesus. The disciples were about to be rudely reminded of this. Then when the church started they would face continual opposition and persecution. Following Jesus in such times would be a difficult prospect from a purely human perspective. Likewise today society is increasingly anti-Christian. How can we manage to live as Christians? Should we give in and go along with society? No we should not. We should continue to faithfully follow Jesus, knowing that our prayers will be answered when we walk in His will.

John 16:16-20 - In a little while

16:16-18

What does Jesus mean by this? Indeed, the disciples asked this very question.”seeing Him no more” almost certainly refers to the death of Jesus, and then the ascension to heaven. After this time they would not see him until His return. The “you will see me” could refer to the resurrection appearances, but it probably also refers to the disciples finally seeing Jesus for who He really is after pentecost.

Whatever the precise meaning, at the point that Jesus said this the disciples did not have a clue what Jesus was on about.

16:19

While the disciples were puzzled, they were afraid to ask Jesus. However, Jesus knew what was going on inside their heads. The same can often be true of us. There can be questions swirling around in our minds, but we are afraid to take them direct to God, yet He still cares about us, and about the fact that we do not understand.

16:20

We need to understand that the world hates God, it hates Jesus. Now this does not mean absolutely 100% of the population hate Jesus, it does mean the world system hates Jesus, and mankind is in rebellion against God. The “system” was about to crucify Jesus, and the crowds were about to call for Him to be crucified. The world would be rejoicing thinking that it was achieving its aims. Meanwhile the disciples would be mourning and in grief. There would be sorrow at losing Jesus, and fear for their own lives, for what the future seemed to hold. But this would not last, their grief would turn to joy. This would happen when they met the risen Christ.

I am writing this a few days after the result of the Irish referendum on “same-sex marriage”. The world is rejoicing, while those of us who respect God’s word, believing He knows what is best for the human race, mourn. But there will come a time when God’s ways are seen to be the best.

John 16:14,15 - All the Father has

16:14,15

These are a very trinitarian couple of verses. “He will glorify me”. A prime function of the Spirit, and a key indicator of whether or not something truly is of the Spirit, is whether or not it glorifies Jesus. The Spirit highlights who Jesus is. He does this because what He makes known He receives from Jesus. Now this may seem a little circular, but it is crucial to understanding. God is His own source of reference. He is the ultimate truth, the foundational truth. Everything stems from Him, so the truth stems from Him. So what Jesus is saying here is that the Spirit and the Son are in perfect harmony, just as the Father and the Son are.

And the next verse goes on to highlight the relationship between the Father and the Son. Everything the Father has belongs to the Son. So what the Spirit makes known comes from the Father. There is complete unity between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

John 16:12,13 - The Spirit of Truth

16:12

One might have thought that Jesus had already said more than the disciples could bear, but there was more to come. It could mean “more than you can understand”. Whatever the case, He had more to teach them. This implies that as far as Jesus was concerned, He would continue speaking to them through the Holy Spirit after He had left them, though it would also refer to what He would tell them in time between the resurrection and the ascension.

There is also a general lesson for all of us. We don’t have to give someone all of the truth at once, most of the time none of us can take all of the truth at once.

16:13

Jesus then makes it explicit that the Holy Spirit would continue the teaching ministry of Jesus. Throughout the gospel of John the Holy Spirit is seen as a continuation of Jesus’ ministry. The Holy Spirit is a person, any views which see the Holy Spirit as a force are completely misguided.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Jesus earlier has said “I am the truth”. Truth here is not merely facts that are correct, but a whole understanding of life, and we might add “the universe and everything”. It is a whole world view and a view of ourselves. Who we are, and most importantly who we are in relation to God.

Jesus said that He only did what the Father did, and only spoke what the Father said. Likewise the Holy Spirit would only teach what He heard, not on His own authority. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit work together in perfect unity. They are one God, three persons.

When Jesus says He, or the Spirit, only speak what they hear, this does not mean in an autonomon way. They were not robots merely repeating what the Father said. Rather, it means they were in perfect unity with the Father, doing His will. We see something of this oneness in a good marriage. In a good marriage the husband and wife are one, but they are distinct as well. One is not the slave of the other, but they work and live together in unity. Sometimes God will speak directly to us, but He also works on our characters so that we naturally think and act the way that He thinks and acts.

John 16:8-11 - Convicting the world

16:8

We live in a time when society (ie “the world” in John’s terms) is increasingly ignoring God’s standards, especially in the area of sexual morality. Moreover, the world says there will be no judgement and seeks to deny the reality of sin, putting everything down to genetic or environmental factors. Part of the role of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world, “to prove the world to be in the wrong”. We can easily get discouraged at the way society is going and seems to be “winning”. Any apparent victory will not last.

16:9-11

Accepting the reality of sin is related to believing in Jesus. The world sees man as a being at the mercy of his genetic makeup and the environment (social as well as physical) in which he exists. God has a much higher view of man. While we are undoubtedly influenced by our genes and the environment, we can become the masters. Indeed, right at the beginning man was commanded to have dominion over the earth. See how the world completely inverts that command, so under an atheistic world view it is the earth that has dominion over man.

Jesus taught the world about righteousness. Now He was going to the Father, so the Holy Spirit would take over that role. He works through the church, so part of our role is to teach the world about righteousness. That is very much needed in our day, but is something where large parts of the church are doing the exact opposite. It applies to sexual morality, but equally to the increasingly gross inequalities in society and exploitation of the poor, and denial of justice.

On the cross the “ruler of this world” (Satan) was judged. His end is now near, and the Holy Spirit declares that victory. Again, mostly working through the church.

John 16:5-7 - It is best if I go

16:5

“Now I am going to Him who sent me. None of you asks ‘Where are you going?’”.  It might be thought that in chapter 14 Thomas and Philip had been asking about where Jesus was going, but that misses the point. The disciples were focused on what was happening now, they had a largely earthly perspective. Something far greater was about to happen, something far more important, and something that would have profound effects here on earth. In Col 3:2 Paul urges us to set our minds on things above. What happens in heaven matters, and it matters here on earth. Our life is hidden in Christ, our destiny depends upon Him and the Father.

16:6,7

The disciples were filled with grief. Now we haven’t had any specific mention of this, but we need to remember that the gospels give a condensed account of what happened. The disciples were upset because Jesus was going away, they were giving no thought to what was going to replace their “loss”. In fact it was for their good. Why was it for their good? Because the Holy Spirit, the Advocate would come to them. and He could only come to them if Jesus returned to the Father. The Holy Spirit would work changes within their very being. We are actually better off now than when Jesus was on earth because we can now receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And when we receive the Holy Spirit we receive God Himself and we can know God.

There is also a general principle here. We often think things are going against us, or even that God is working against us, when in fact He is working for us. Instead of focusing on the loss we need to focus on the gain.

John 16:3,4 - They have not known

16:3

Why do people act in such an illogical way? Why did the Jews oppose Jesus and even kill Him, when if only they had believed they would have received eternal life? It is because they did not know the Father nor the Son. This also shows that “know” here is much more than just “knowing about”. They did know who Jesus was, yet they killed Him. Knowing or not knowing Jesus makes an enormous difference to the way a person lives.

16:4

“When their time comes ..” Ecclesiastes tells us there is a time for this and a time for that. There is a time when evil seems to triumph. It seemed to be triumphing when Jesus was arrested, when He was put on trial, when He was nailed to the cross. In Acts there were times when the church was persecuted, and such times have occurred periodically throughout history. Today they are occurring violently with IS, and now even in the West, though so far without the violence. We need to realise that God’s plans are very different than ours, and His understanding is far greater than ours.

The disciples may have thought Jesus should have warned them about this when He first called them. But they needed to get to know who Jesus was, otherwise they would have turned away right at the start.

John 16:1,2 - They will kill you

16:1

Another opportunity to remind you to look at what has gone before when interpreting a verse. “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away”. All what? Jesus has told them various things that could result in them falling away. First, He is going to leave them. Secondly the world will hate them. He has also told them about the Holy Spirit, about the closeness of their relationship with Him and the Father, and about them doing greater works. We need to have a complete picture of the gospel and all that it entails.

Remember also that earlier Jesus has said He will not lose any of those the Father has given to Him. This does not mean there is not an active part to be played on our part in listening, believing and obeying.

16:2

Jesus now stresses the seriousness of the events that will unfold. The Jews would react violently against the disciples. This would result in them being put out of the synagogues. Society rejecting and ostracizing Christianity is a normal event in history. It happened with the Jews right at the start, it happened with Communism, it is starting to happen now in the West. The Jews thought they were doing God a service. IS think they are doing God a service when they kill Christians. Our misguided society in the West, and in parts of the church, think they are doing God a service when they reject Biblical sexual morality. Notice the seriousness of it all, “when they kill you”. Following Jesus is not a game.

John 15:26,27 - The Spirit of Truth

15:26

This verse has caused enormous problems in church history, being the reason for the Orthodox church splitting from the Roman Catholic church in what became known as the Great Schism in 1054. This wasn’t the only issue. It was essentially a split between east and west and political factors were probably at the root of it, along with disputes over papal authority. However, the “filoque clause” was the key doctrinal issue, and this is about whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, or the Father and Son. No, I don’t quite see why it merited splitting over, but there you go, such is church history.

What is clear is that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all in it together. They are also distinct. The key role of the Spirit mentioned here is testifying about the Son. He is the Spirit of truth and Jesus is the truth.

15:27

We also must testify. Now this verse refers directly to the original disciples, for of no one else can it be said “you have been with me from the beginning”. However, it can be applied much more widely. We are all to testify. Now, if God Himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, is going to testify one might ask why we need to testify? If God is going to do it why are we needed? There is an important theological truth here. God works together with man. Moreover, just because it states somewhere that God does something, it does not mean that we do not have our part to play as well.

John 15:23-25 - They hated men without reason

15:23

The attitude a man has towards Jesus is the same they will have towards the Father, and vice versa. The Jewish leaders would claim to love God, even while they were hating Jesus, seeking His death. What they said was not true, for in hating Jesus they hated the Father too.

15:24

Jesus reiterates what He has shown the Jews. They had seen amazing miracles happen, they had seen people healed. Yet when they saw these things there reactions was only to be upset that they were done on the Sabbath, to feel threatened. This is the effect of sin in our lives. Without the grace of God, without God taking away the veil that is over our minds, we cannot see the truth. The oft repeated notion that the fact that people do not believe is God’s fault is complete nonsense. So the fact that Jesus did the works of God among them increased their guilt.

Jesus says again that in hating Him they hated the Father. Today it actually seems more appropriate to put it the other way round. In the current debates about human sexuality “Christian” proponents of accepting homo-sexuality claim to be following Jesus, yet in rejecting the word of God they are in reality hating Jesus because they hate the Father’s commands.

15:25

Jesus then refers to Psalm 35:19, or Psalm 69:4, or Psalm 109:3. Jesus’ use of the term “Law” here shows that “Law” is often used to refer to the whole of the Old Testament. Jesus saw the things that happened to godly people in the OT as foreshadowing what would happen to Him, but to a much greater extent. Give what Jesus has said earlier in this chapter, we must also expect the world to hate us without reason. We should act reasonable and kindly, and sometimes this will be effective, but at other times regardless of what we do others will treat us badly and without cause.

John 15:21,22 - No excuse for their sin

15:21

Jesus has spoken of His being in us and we being in Him. This identity with Christ is a wonderful thing, but it means we take on board all that happened to Christ. The world rejected Christ because they did not know the One who sent Him. So if Christ is in us, they still do not know the One who sent Him, so they will not understand us and will reject us. Christianity is not “nice”.

15:22

The Jews were very proud of the fact that they were God’s people, of all the dealings God had with them. But these very same dealings would bring condemnation on the nation, for they had all this revelation but had rejected it. Now they had the Son of God Himself living among them, doing miracles, teaching the truth, yet they still rejected it. Atheists are very keen on saying God should supply more evidence, but the truth is that even when incontrovertible evidence is provided men do not believe it. People also often raise the objection of “what about those who have not heard”, the truth is that hearing or not hearing is not the real issue. For a people can hear and still reject. The issue is the condition of our heart. We need the mercy of God to operate upon our hearts and minds, to open them so that we can see. By the way, what this verse says manifestly does not mean we should not tell people. We are commanded to tell, so we should tell.

John 15:18-20 - If the world hates you

15:18

I have said several times that we need to beware of taking love in the sentimental/romantic way that society usually thinks of the word. This section makes clear the seriousness of the situation. “If the world hates you...” We live in a time when society is increasingly anti-Christian, violently so in some parts of the word. We should not be surprised. The world hated Jesus. This does not mean that every single person hated Him, but the religious authorities wanted to kill Him, the Roman authorities were happy to go along with this for the sake of a quiet life, and the general populace acquiesced to it. The notion that society will think we are all nice Christians and will want to love us and join us is without foundation.

15:19

Jesus is different from every other human being. He lived life in a completely different way to every other human being. The focus of this is that He did only what His Father commanded, whereas the world lives in constant rebellion to the Father. We need to realise the that the world and God are fundamentally at enmity with each other. So the question the world tacitly asks is “whose side are you on?”.  We do not belong to the world, we belong to Jesus. And we belong to Him because He has chosen us. Belonging to Jesus means we have ended the rebellion against God, and we now live to the beat of a different drum.

15:20

Jesus had previously told the disciples that a servant was not greater than his master (John 13:16). Note that all this comes in the context of Jesus telling them they are His friends and of love. Servanthood, friendship and love all work together, and we need to beware of interpreting things purely in current ideas of friendship and “love”. So we are servants of Christ, He is our Master. As such we must expect similar things to happen to us as happened to Jesus. This has two sides to it, persecution and obedience. The world persecuted Christ, so it will persecute us. Now does this mean we are wrong to seek to defend religious freedom? No. It is generally good for society for their to be religious and political freedom. Moreover, this is actually beneficial to the spread of the gospel (1 Tim 2:2-4). However, we need to keep things in perspective. Religious freedom is not an absolute, and there will be times when society rejects this. In these times Jesus is still Lord, and the gospel will still triumph, it will just be much more difficult for us in the midst of this!

See also that the persecution and obedience go together. There will be those who reject and those who respond. Both will happen at the same time, and the balance between the two will vary. But when people respond to the gospel we need to remember that it is Jesus they are responding to, not us.

John 15:16,17 - I chose you

15:16,17

Just as we did not create ourselves, so we did not choose Jesus. He created us and He chose us. Now this immediately upsets people, and again we need to look at the Bible as a whole. Every book of the Bible is quite clear that what we do matters, what we think matters, what we decide matters. So if you have an understanding of God’s sovereignty that renders our choices and actions irrelevant then you have a misunderstanding of God’s sovereignty. However, we need to be perfectly clear where the initiative lies, and that is with God. In fact, predestination really should not cause us a problem at all. We would not exist at all unless God had decided to create us, we are completely dependent upon Him, and yet we know that our existence is real, we are not just a toy. So it is with predestination. If you look at any place in the Bible, such as here, where it is mentioned you will see that it is never given as an interesting philosophical problem, or to start a theological debate. Rather it is always given so that we have a right understanding of life, and to motivate and encourage us.

Just think for a moment. If my being a disciple of Christ was entirely dependent upon me what hope would I have of fulfilling that commitment? None at all. But the choice lies with Jesus, He chose us. And He chose us so that we “might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last”. We have been chosen for a purpose, and saved for a purpose.

Then see again the promise of answered prayer and the context of that promise. It is so that we will bear fruit for the kingdom. Just as the promise of answered prayer was repeated, so the command to love one another is repeated.

John 15:13-15 - Friends

15:13,14

Just consider how amazing this verse is, Jesus calls His disciples friends. The One through whom all things were created calls His disciples friends. In the OT Abraham and Moses are called friends by God. There is a dual danger in considering our relationship with Jesus. One danger is to consider Him as our “buddy”, underplaying the fact that He is Lord, but the opposite danger is just as serious. Jesus laid His life down for us, and He states clearly here that we must be prepared to lay down our lives for each other. D A Carson points out that while the Bible says that Abraham and Moses, and here the disciples (and by implication us) are His friends, it never refers to God as our friend.

Then we are reminded yet again of the importance of obedience. Jesus is our friend if we do what He commands, so we need to keep in mind the nature of the friendship.

15:15

This verse expands on the nature of the friendship relationship. He calls us friends because He reveals all of the Father’s plans to us. Now before we go further, this verse is yet another reminder of the dangers of interpreting a verse in isolation. Being servants of Christ is an important part of our relationship with Him. In Luke’s gospel (Luke 17:10) Jesus speaks about our attitude, and Paul repeatedly refers to himself as a servant. We look at scripture as a whole, not as a series of isolated verses. Jesus brings us into the knowledge of God, we become partners with Him.