Listening No.9 Persecution don't get a complex

Let's read from God's Holy Word, and once again it's my privilege to bring to you in a little while an address from this series Tim and I have so enjoyed bringing to you. From the Gospel of John, we deliberately entitle this Listening to Jesus. There is nothing more important for you and for me to do than just to engage in that discipline.

Listen to the words of Jesus are so sweet. Well, Jesus the Lord does speak to us. The child's hymn says sweetly, well yes, perhaps, but sometimes very somberly, but speak he always does.

Speech is a very important factor in the Christian faith, and one of the weaknesses of Protestantism is that we do too much of the talking. You will find that in the pre-Reformation Church, people were much more inclined to listen. Meditation, reflecting on God, being quiet before him, alas, is not one of the disciplines that evangelicals are strong on.

I would to God that there should be a correction. Our Lord does speak to us. He speaks to us through his Word.

He speaks to us through his Spirit within us, and the most important thing is for you and me to know his speech. If you ask why doesn't God speak so clearly to me as you would want, then maybe the words of the next hymn, which we'll sing following this reading, explains the predicament, for it talks about being called to separation. However, John chapter 15 and verse 18, if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Remember the words I spoke to you. No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin.

Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their law, they hated me without reason. When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me, and you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

Now the next three verses up to the conclusion of the first paragraph of the next chapter together. All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue.

In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when the time comes, you will remember that I warned you.

I did not tell you this at first, because I was with you. I do not find it easy to interpret the present world scene on any other basis apart from a spiritual one. You say, what do you mean? Well, I am really linking back into something I was privileged to share from the town pulpit a couple of weeks ago in the evening, and that is that the Bible teaches the forces of evil are so dominant in society and will become increasingly so that unless you posit evil influence as the reason for some of the atrocious things that are happening in our world, you are absolutely strapped of any rationality to explain some of the grievous situations in which we find ourselves.

For instance, if you tuned in to the radio this morning, you would have heard of further conflict in Serbia. Some of you who subscribe to the Daily Telegraph will remember the horrific headings on one of its middle pages not so long ago that speaks of the incredible persecution and suffering that Christian people are undergoing, especially in the Sudan. It is very hard to understand some of the things that are happening in various parts of our world unless you agree to the Bible scenario which suggests that there are evil forces that particularly dominate certain countries.

Let me try to explain historically what I mean. Why was it in God's grace that the Reformation took over Europe and affected us so significantly? Well, God, for reasons that He does not indicate, brought to the forefront of the stage a man by the name of Martin Luther and John Calvin. He filled both these men with His Spirit and gave them remarkable insight and influence, and as a result the situation in Western Europe particularly was radically improved.

Consequent upon that and in the afterglow of that Reformation, you and I have known relative freedom in our lives. We've had access to education and hospital services and so on and so forth. Many of these things that you take for granted, but historically it was not always like that.

And a great deal of the benefits that have been ours are directly traceable back to that remarkable move of God in the Reformation. But there were other areas of the world that were not so blessed. There are places historically which one could cite and in our present time where anything but the Spirit of God and His workings on the hearts of men and women is seen.

And we are driven to the conclusion, because I do not think that there is any psychological explanation at all, that alongside the forces of righteousness there are the forces of evil. This world is controlled, says our beloved Lord, and the point is picked up by the Apostle Paul, by one who is called the Prince of the Power of Evil. And it's only by such an understanding that you can come to any insight at all as to why there could have been an Adolf Hitler or as to why in Croatia and Serbia today some violent crimes outvying anything that the Nazis have done are being permitted.

Did you not know that according to fairly conservative estimates, last year 300,000 people were martyred for Christ around our world? These things tend not to affect us too much here because we have relative freedom. We still live in the afterglow of the Reformation even though the glow is dimming considerably. And the Bible indicates this, as far as I understand it, that in the last days of the last days, at the time preceding the coming of our beloved Lord, there will be two opposite but highly significant movements in our world.

There will be on the one hand the intensification of evil in a way that we have never known before, and I think there are evidences of that to this day. And on the other hand, there will be an outpouring of the Spirit of God. The two will run alongside one another.

There will be opportunities for gospel advance, the like of which has not been known for centuries. On the other hand, there will be increasing and horrific opposition to that gospel. Now, I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, though I think occasionally I am enabled by the Lord to say something that is prophetic.

I am not suggesting that the return of Christ is just around the corner. I do not know the time. I do not know the date.

But what I would say is that we live in some of the most remarkable days in the whole of the human story, and it is right for thinking people to contemplate the immediacy of the return of Christ. The political disturbance in the last decade or so has had some tremendously beneficial effects for the church. I had a fax just a little while ago from China from a brother with whom I associate very closely, who has just been doing a reconnaissance of Mongolia, and he was letting me know something of the opportunities that exist out there.

The whole of the Soviet Union that was has collapsed with the net result that gospel proclamation is allowed there in a way that just a few years ago would have been utterly incredible, unbelievable. And yet, we hear of these savage events in various parts of the world. Saudi Arabia, for example, which along with the Allied forces, men from our military went to help in the freeing of Kuwait and the preservation of the security of Saudi Arabia.

But come last Christmas, three Filipino pastors were due to be executed in Saudi Arabia for none other crime than this. In the privacy of their own homes, they had conducted communion. And had it not been for the conglomerate effort of politicians in the West, these men would have been killed.

As a consequence of intervention on the part of politicians, they were savagely beaten, and then they were returned to the Philippines. You see what I'm saying? Alongside the tremendous opportunities for gospel advance, there is a terrific kickback. There are two opposing forces which are interacting in our world today.

And my assessment, and I think I'm a fairly conservative preacher in some areas, my assessment is that historically, this situation, if not unique, is certainly extraordinary. And thinking people ought to have in mind the whole of the biblical promises regarding the return of the Lord Jesus. And I would buttress to my argument the fact of the freedom with which the Jewish people can now return to the state of Israel.

Well, you say, why have you spent 10 minutes or so in your introduction to these verses by giving us a historical survey and commenting on the contemporary scene? Well, I do that because, you see, one of the things that Tim and I and others who are privileged to enter this pulpit are committed to is this, that the word of God is a contemporary word. In other words, it's relevant to the situation that confronts you and me today. This is a historic book.

It's also a timeless book. And there is a sense in which you must always read it in present tenses. So here is our beloved Lord.

And he's talking to the disciples in this enchanting paschal discourse. He has in front of them the embryo of the church that will be. Here is our spiritual ancestry.

And our Lord is first of all making a declaration. He says, the world hates me. And then he makes a prediction.

Verse 20. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. And then, and I'm not suggesting these are the only strands of teaching by any means, he offers consolation.

For he says, the counselor, the Holy Spirit will come as my representative, as your companion. And he being the spirit of truth will continue to speak and lead you into all truth. So our Lord is predicting the immediacy of his being taken from the disciples and the initial spinoff of persecution that the disciples will know in Jerusalem and ultimately throughout the whole of the world in that first century.

Now spin the wheel of time and bring it to the 20th century and our Lord is still speaking. He's speaking to you and to me and he's making this declaration. The world hates me.

And these scriptures speak of Jesus and the world. And the world and Jesus. What does the Lord Jesus have to say about the world? Well he recognizes its hostility towards him and his cause.

He said on one occasion when he's confronted by his adversaries, this world has nothing on me. In other words, the evil forces, the malevolent powers that permeated society in that day and in this day do not have their hooks on the Lord Jesus. The world has nothing on me.

Just before, and you remember the context in John's gospel, just before our Lord goes into the garden of, down the valley of Kidron and into the garden of Gethsemane, he talks about the evil hour and says the prince of this world has come and it is his hour. And the apostle John, he links into the Lord's thinking when he writes his epistle and he says the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. That doesn't mean to say, however, that our beloved Lord, when he talks about the world and his attitude to it, is prepared to accept the status quo.

I mean by that, the world is not the devil's world, it's God's world. God created the world. God loved the world.

God has great things in store for the world. The epistle, or rather the book of Revelation says in the 11th chapter and the 15th verse, describing the angelic chorus of praise because of the achievements of our beloved Lord and catapulting themselves forward to the end time, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever. This world is the Lord's world.

If the devil has any rights on this world at all, they are squatter's rights. In other words, there is no legal foundation whatsoever. Hold on to that thought, I'll introduce something completely different and then link it together and you'll understand the point of the scriptural illustration.

The Apostle Paul on one occasion and several occasions was very much distanced from that Christian community in Corinth. They were immature Christians and from time to time they got it wrong as we get things wrong here at the tap. And the Apostle Paul dashes off a rather lengthy letter and he has it sent to the church and he gives them certain instructions and then he goes on to say, I think it's in the 15th chapter of the first epistle, I will then set in order certain things when I come.

I'll go back to our beloved Lord. He will set in order certain things, many things in this world when he comes again. The attitude of our Lord to the world is this, it is my Father's world and though the world hates me, I still love it and this world will still be the scene of the display of my sovereign power ultimately.

So, he makes this declaration, the world hates me and he speaks about himself and the world and then he speaks about the world and himself. How they treated him is some measure as to how his own followers shall be treated. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, did he have an easy birth in terms of, was the scenario comfortable? Of course the answer is no. Immediately on his birth, Herod was dangling the sword and pointing it towards Bethlehem. Our Lord becomes the most famous refugee of all times and sets his stamp on the wonderful work of all those who side with refugees and try to restore citizen status to those who have none whatsoever.

When our Lord commences his public ministry, how is he treated? Well, he's not treated in keeping with his own personality. A bruised reed he will not break. Smoking flax he will not quench.

In other words, he will always deal with sensitivity towards the people who are in need. According to fairness, you should give the same currency as you receive. He traded in righteousness but he received unrighteousness.

Never a foul word fell from his lips and yet they blasphemed him. The world hated him. It showed at every end and turn in his ministry its utter hostility to him and there was no satisfaction until those hands which had been used to heal the letters were fractured by the insertion of cruel nails and our Lord's body, bedraggled and bloodstained, was hoisted on a wall.

That's how the world treated our Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes on to say that if that's what's happened to me, then this is what disciples of mine too can expect in varying degrees. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.

On the contrary wise, if they obey my teaching, they will obey yours also. Why is it that our beloved Lord's presence in Israel made the spiritual responsibility of the Jews that much greater? You say, why do I ask the question? Well, it has to be asked because otherwise you'll not understand. Verse 22, if I had not come and spoken to them, he's referring immediately to his own people, then they would not be guilty of sin.

What is the greatest sin in the world? Sexual liberality? No, only the evangelicals seem to suggest that. That is a sin but it's not the only sin. It's a horrific sin and it can be cleansed through the blood of Jesus.

But there are other sins. The greatest sin is to be in the presence of truth and to reject it. In the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, as is illustrated so graphically by having him done to death in such a heinous fashion, what was the Jewish nation in effect doing? Well, they were showing they were utterly ignorant, verse 21, of the one who sent him into the world.

The greatest crime is to know about the Lord Jesus and to spurn the knowledge. You see, Scripture sometimes speaks comparatively. Our beloved Lord was not saying that the Jews had never sinned prior to his coming.

If he did say that, then that makes a nonsense of Romans 1 to 3 where the Apostle Paul is declaring that the whole world, Jew and Gentile, is guilty before God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But there is sinning and sinning, as incidentally there are punishments and punishments.

And the thing that made the situation impossible for the Jewish people was this, that the Lord Jesus came into the world. He came for his own, but his own received him not. And Jesus is his teaching, that there is a sense in which his presence in the world and the proclamation of the gospel in the twentieth century makes things worse for people who have heard.

Because hearing brings with it responsibility, and the responsibility is to react, which causes me to exploit the situation right now and say, how many of you have come and listened to me for years, or to him or others, and you've never really responded? Not in your heart. Your very presence here makes the situation worse. You're either with me, says Jesus, or you're against me.

You're either in the darkness which spiritually describes the world in its present condition, or you are in the light. There is no twilight. There is no in-between.

What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. Someday your soul will be asking, what will he do with me? Our Lord says the very treatment that he received, he predicates that in measure that will be experienced by his disciples. He goes on to say that the contribution he has made to this world is this, he has caused his word to permeate the world.

He has caused his signs to be testified to throughout the world at that time, increasingly as he leaves and the disciples run with the message. Men who saw the miracles done among them which no one else did, men who heard truth spoken to them in a way that no one else spoke with hostility have treated the Lord Jesus. Don't you see there is a sense in which it was not just unbelieving Jews and the cowardly, pontious pilot of the human level that placed Jesus on the cross.

There is a sense in which all our sin and therefore all our unbelief contributes towards Calvary. There is a sense in which you and I are responsible for the death of the Christ. But the difference between us and these disciples is and those who are unbelievers is precisely what is contained within the word unbelief.

We have repented of our sins. We have declared with joy and through the inspiration of the Spirit that this Jesus is our Jesus. He loved me and he gave himself for me.

Now, says this Jesus, the world hates me. That's a declaration. Here is a prophecy.

The world will hate you too. All who are godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Now that persecution is not evenly distributed.

In one sense in this country we get off with it quite lightly. I mean by that any persecution that there must be is in small case, lower case. That may not always be the situation.

And I wonder before God how faithful I would be as a pastor if I was in northern Sudan and instead of preaching on the comfortable south coast of the United Kingdom was brought to book by the Islamic authorities for blaspheming at least by lack of affirmation the name of Muhammad and proclaiming the name of Jesus. To what degree would I, to what degree would you remain faithful in those circumstances? We need to ask ourselves these questions, not just academically, but because if anything the world situation has shown us in the last 10 years how quickly things can change. The slavery that there was has now become an intellectual freedom in the land mass controlled at one time by the Soviet Empire.

How quickly could the freedoms of Western Europe erode and you and I be under some form of tyranny where to proclaim the name of Jesus may cause us discomfort. I'm not asking for that day of course but I am predicating the possibility and in that situation these words that we study this morning become so much more choice than necessary as they dealt with me so they will deal with you. How stupid are the prosperity gospel preachers and those who suggest that to become a Christian gives you a sort of physical and material guarantee through this world.

Not so because as I've explained at this moment this world is dominated not just by the power of the Holy Spirit though praise God he is actively engaged but it is dominated by the powers of evil and that prosperity and those material and physical blessings they have to be projected forward into that eon when the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever and this world and the universe shall be returned to its pristine glory as it fell fresh from the hands of God and in that day in that era we will think if we can have the ability to recall what fools we were living the other side of eternity as though that were eternity itself and counting of great value that which is transient and passing. You see what our beloved Lord is here teaching so practically to his disciples because well how long he is is going to be taken away from them he will be malevolently treated they will do this without any legal justification whatsoever verse 25 they hated me without reason and the possibilities they will hate you without reason the stories that come out of China to this day if you dare to read some of the books they bring tears to your heart to your eye and they crack your heart as you understand what Christian people are going through. I said humorously following Joy's and David's helpful comments for our kids and for ourselves this morning that my name is Tony simply because my brother couldn't manage John or Anthony and at first he used to call me Toto.

I had a fax from Toto yesterday you see there is a Toto I refer to Pastor Toto this church some of you perhaps do not know is twinned with a church in Romania they have been engaged in a remarkable program of building and alongside their church they are putting up mainly by our backing an orphanage. Toto suffered a great deal I have been amongst that with great respect smelling community of Christians because many of them don't have the facilities that you have in terms of washing. I've seen as many as this congregation on almost packed into an area that is not much bigger than our lower church lounge when there are no windows open and they've got some heat on it's an interesting atmosphere.

Toto faxes me last night and he says look we cannot continue the work of the orphanage at the moment I'm going to have to blow the whistle I need five thousand pounds to pay the wages of some of the men who are working with me is there any way in which you can help and I have to ask myself as our offering was taken this morning what am I prepared to do in terms of the largesse which I have comparative to him to redress the balance because I do want that orphanage to go up because those boys and girls do and should have cover and food and the reason why they are not so well looked after as you and I have been most of us here is simply because well the afterglow of the reformation didn't last very long in Romania as it did here and therefore we have a responsibility to those who have not fared so well in life as we you and I have fared. You see what I'm trying to suggest is this that as there is unevenness in terms of the hardship and the persecution so those who are more lightly tested have a responsibility to those who are more heavily tested and how long I put in the warning the scales could be reversed and we might be looking to them for their help as they now are looking to us for our help. Do you know one of the things the Lord Jesus promised his disciples I link into what I've just been sharing not in any way to take scripture out of its context but marvelously it falls into line.

He does not want people to be orphans that's what he says to the disciples doesn't he he said I'm going to go away from you and I'm going to be leaving you on your own but I will not leave you as orphans I will send the Holy Spirit to you and when he comes then he will not only testify of me he will continue to lead you in all truth. Look at verse 26, see Jesus has made a declaration the world hates me he makes a prediction the world will persecute you and here he leaves them a promise when the Spirit comes he proceeds as we will learn more clearly I hope next week from me and from the Father that is his origin he is the executive of the Godhead all of God that you see in me will be in him so there is a sense that when he comes I come also because I will not have my men as orphans I will not have my women as fatherless. You see one of the things that God pledges towards you as you make your way through this world whatever your circumstances is this he will never leave you he will never forsake you he won't.

I remember on the back streets of Shanghai having been lost like some some western fool trying to find his way around with no map and no Chinese at all looking for Wang Mingdao who I want to speak to when eventually I link up with him I remember asking him what have you to say to me you having spent 28 years in a Chinese prison camp and he took little microphone from my hand and started to sing all the way my Savior leads me what have I to fear he doesn't leave you he will never leave you I would like to predict that nobody here will ever suffer from cancer I would like to predict that none of you here will ever lose your mental faculties that none of you will ever lose your dignity in terms of body function I would like to predict it if I was a miracle worker I would I would plead for that miracle to come from my hands to this congregation but there are none of these things I can guarantee for you nor for myself but this one thing I say on the authority of God's word the Holy Spirit as he has come to you he will never leave you he will take you through sick and sin he will take you through persecution and through blessing he will take you through the harvest he will take you through the famine he will take you into the darkness he will take you into the light but one thing he will never do is to renege the responsibility that is his for your life and for your spiritual well-being and to bring you ultimately into the Father's house that's what Jesus is saying when the counselor comes who are sent to you from the Father the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father he will testify he will remind you of me and you will also testify of me for you have been with me from the beginning and then in those next three verses our Lord gives a little synopsis of what he's already taught because the art of being a good teacher is repetition. So there we are our beloved Lord speaks about persecution he experienced it himself the early church experienced it but don't you see in the cameo of the early church is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles you also get a statement of the last day how you did is to describe life in the early church well I use one word revival it's not found in the Acts of the Apostles they didn't need to use the word revival because they knew of no other experience to quote John Stott the Acts of the Apostles is a lyrical book it's a marvelous book there is revival isn't there I mean I mean you you see these men these handful of men first they hit Jerusalem then Judea then Samaria the uttermost parts of the earth and ere long even political commentators are saying these are the men who turn the world upside down but alongside that Stephen is stoned to death James is beheaded Paul is stoned there is the force of righteousness working alongside the force of evil and they are in collision and that is how it will be only more intensively at the end of time before the return of Christ I repeat I'm not a prophet nor am I a son of a prophet but there are things happening on our world scale which are virtually unique and there is a remarkable movement within Islam pro-Christianity in terms of conversion as well as a hammer drive from Islam against Christianity and one of the great struggles in the period before the return of Christ were between the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Abraham between Judo-Christian religion and Islamic religion and religious subculture and there is every evidence of that becoming central stage and taking the time of politicians and thoughtful influential people in Europe and in the Middle East more than anything else now you know that that is true that is an unequivocal statement that I make from the pulpit but here are the words of our beloved Lord which speak to such a time as this persecution yes they hated me they hate you but the Holy Spirit will be there and you will be successful as my disciples and one day when I return to put things in order then the kingdoms of this world will become my kingdoms and I will reign forever and ever and offer the church up to God who shall be all and in all concepts which are mind-blowing words which are too feeble to be able to contain all the meaning that is is placed upon them but brothers and sisters this is our future this is our king this is our Lord Jesus speaking have you listened have you responded may God give you the grace so to do let's sing Finlandia that lovely hymn based on this Swedish music 735 we rest on thee our shield and our defender we go not forth alone against the foe strong in thy strength safe in thy keeping tender we rest on thee and in thy name we go 735