2017.08.27                                           John 15: 17-27

                You are my Friends     Part 2

Good Morning…. I am glad to be with you this morning… I have Good News for You! His name is Jesus… We are on a great adventure… We are Experiencing the Life and ministry of Jesus… Jesus continues to Transform hearts and minds… by the Power of His Holy Spirit working in and through the Word of God… We are studying a very important section of the Word of God… The Gospel of John… John ch 13-17 all take place on the last evening that Jesus had with His disciples…  Jesus is communicating His Unfailing love for them… His has told them that He will send the Spirit of Truth… The Holy Spirit… He has been with them… He will live in them when He goes away…   I want to remind us of how this section began…. Look with me at John 15… v17…

 John 15: 17                               NKJV    slt 2000

17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

 17 Das gebiete ich euch, dass ihr einander liebt.

 Jesus´ Friends

1 They love each other… John 15v12,13,17

2 They Obey Him… v 14

3 They know Divine truth… v 15

4 They have been chosen by God… v 16

5 They are hated by the World… v 18-25

Look with me at v17…

1 THE FRIENDS OF JESUS LOVE EACH OTHER

v17… love one another… This evening has been full of God´s grace and unfailing love… Jesus has been loving His own… To the very end…  

Now for the third time this same evening…. Jesus said…   love one another… John13:34, John 15:12, and here in John 15:17… His loving example is the theme of this evening… Jesus´   love flowing out of us to others… Is the proof that we belong to Him… And that He has transformed our lives… Jesus promises the comfort and help of the Holy Spirit… But Jesus is also warning the Disciples… Because you are my friends…. The world will hate you…

Remember that this day started out as an evening of loving encouragement… John 13, verse 1… “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the max.”

Jesus loves them infinitely as only God can love... And for many hours now… The emphasis is on the gifts and the promises that Jesus´ love generates… Jesus pours His love out on His own by making promises that are staggering… He promises to take away their fear and anxiety and replace it with His peace…. He promised to turn their sorrow that he is going away into a lasting… Deep joy that no man can take away… These promises…. And in fact everything that the Lord does for us and in us… Is through the work of the Holy Spirit… This is new to them…. And He promises to send the Spirit of truth… The Holy Spirit to help them in His absence…. He promised that the Holy Spirit would be with them forever… Jesus is spending a lot of time explain that the 3rd member of the trinity will now take the leading role in helping them…  Last week He said Yes I am Lord and Master…. Yes you are my slaves…. Bond servants…. But you are also my friends… Because I tell you everything that the Father has told me… I love you totally… and you must love each other… Now as Jesus continues to tell them everything…. He warns them of the reaction of the World… Look at v18-25…

John 15: 18-25                               NKJV    slt 2000

18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 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. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

v18…. If the world hates you…. This could be translated… Since the world hates you… Jesus said… You are in the World…. But you are not of the World… As Christians…  We live in two worlds… We live in the world… And because of Jesus… We are also part  of God’s heavenly kingdom…  

We are loved infinitely by God…   At the same time that we are loved by God… We are hated by the world…   We are hated because they refuse to repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ… Romans ch1…  

Jesus says… I am warning you about hostility and persecution that you will face…  

Today there are approx. 100 million Christians living in lands that persecute Believers… Communism, Islam and Hinduism are all very hostile to Christians… More people have been killed for their faith in the last 100 years than in the 200 centuries that came before… The world hates anything or anyone who stands for the truth of God´s Word…

Sadly most of the people in the world are blind and spiritually dead… They are lost in their sin and pride… They are without hope…     They don’t seek after God… They can’t understand Divine truth… Their hearts are stone… and their minds are blinded…  And… they hate us… Then truth of the Gospel shines into their hearts as the Holy Spirit begins His transforming work… The Life transforming power of God  breaks through that hatred… He turns hearts of stone into living flesh and He puts His Spirit in them…. Ezekiel 36…  It is the work of the Holy Spirit to use the Word of God to teach and transform broken hearts and lives...

The disciples were already very upset… And Now Jesus says…. The world will hate you because they hate me… They are very sad…   But all is not lost…. There is help and hope… Let´s look ahead at John chapter 16… v6, 7…

John 16: 6,7   NKJV                             slt 2000

6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

sorrow has filled your heart because I am going away… But it is going to be ok… The Helper… The comforter… I will send the Holy Spirit to you… let’s look at the last three verses in this chapter… verse 25-27…

John 15: 25-27                            NKJV  slt 2000

25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ 26 “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. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

v25… Jesus says You will be hated without a cause…. v26…  Jesus says, I am going away… Yes the world will hate you… But when the Helper… The Spirit of truth comes…

v26… He will testify of me…. And you will also bear witness… Testify of Me to this lost and dying world… Not only do we learn the Truth from the Holy Spirit... The power for our gospel witness comes from the Holy Spirit…  Jesus is saying…. Even though the world hates you because of Me… I am sending you out…

Jesus says…. I will send the Holy Spirit to you… It is the Holy Spirit that I will use to finish the work that I have begun in you… How will we be able to reach the persecuting world with the gospel? This is the Supernatural work of the Holy Spirit…

Everything that God gives to us… Everything that is revealed to us… The power to stand against evil and to be His witnesses…. It all comes from the Holy Spirit…  Our Christian witness is to this hostile  Christ-rejecting… Christian-hating… Godless world... That is the subject of Jesus´ encouragement here…. They Hate Him…. They hate us…. But the help of the Holy Spirit… We will  respond to them like Jesus Himself… We will proclaim the Gospel… Grace and truth will also flow out of our lives… We will fulfill the great Commission… After the resurrection... Jesus says those well-known words about our mission… This is why we are still here… To testify of the unfailing love and mercy of God for a lost and dying world…   Look with me at Matt 28: 18-20…

Matt 28: 18-20                            NKJV   slt 2000

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Knowing that Jesus has sent us…. And because we have the Holy Spirit at work in us… We answer hatred with love… We are not afraid because the Holy Spirit gives us the strength to proclaim the Good News… We testify to the grace and mercy that Jesus has poured out on our lives…. We tell them the great joy that comes from knowing that our sins are forgiven…

This promise that despite their hatred…. We will be His witnesses… Is placed right in the middle of even more warnings about their hostility... John 15: 18-25…  Jesus tells us about hatred and persecution…  Then we are told that the Holy Spirit will remind us of His words of life…  and with the Holy Spirits´ help…   We will testify of Jesus… Knowing that he is their only hope… We will speak by the Power of the Holy Spirit… … And the Holy Spirit will prepare hearts… He will transform hearts and minds as we proclaim the Word of God…

Then Jesus talks about coming persecution and  martyrdom… John 16: 1-3

As we know… The disciples did testify of Jesus in the face of persecution…   And all but one of them became Martyrs for the sake of the Gospel…  We show Jesus´s love to the world… Sometimes we even lay down our lives… Our love will sometimes be repaid with suffering and death…   This is because the world has been deceived by the evil one… They hate us…  But we are not afraid… We know that our sufferings are only temporary… We understand that we have been called to go into all the world and preach the gospel… Our eyes are on our heavenly Home… We have forsaken the world… Paul and Silas… Acts 16: 16-40… You know the story… A desperate and terrible situation was used by God to Save lost souls…. But it started out really bad for them… They delivered a girl from demons… They were beaten and thrown into prison for helping her… In their suffering… They worshipped the Lord in the prison… The walls were shaken by an earthquake… They showed grace and mercy to the prison master…. He and his family were converted because the Holy Spirit grabbed hold of their hearts…

We are aliens in this world…  Heaven is our home… Paul had a single minded view of life with the Lord Jesus … Look with me at Philippians 3: 8-14…   

Philippians 3: 8-14                 NKJV   slt 2000

8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

We under the leading of the Holy Spirit…. Do what every Man and woman of God has always done… We speak of sin and judgment to the world…. We call for genuine repentance from the heart…   

Will the world retaliate in anger? Yes some will… But some will believe and repent…  We proclaim the Gospel… And  God does the saving through the power of the Holy Spirit…  

Christian witness is to the world of the Savoir…. The Lord Jesus Christ… The Son of God…   The world’s hatred is focused on Christ…   He is our message... “They hated Him without a cause… John 15: 25… This  is a quote from Psalm 69: 4…  

They reject the gospel because they love their sin… they love the darkness… They suppress the truth… They keep it from their own hearts… They want the Gospel to be stamped out… Psalm 2 says that the heathen rage in hatred against the Lord… The Psalms are great for your own quiet time with the Lord… We are studying the Psalms on Tuesday nights! Come and be blessed…

The Holy Spirit has placed in our hands the truth… He has given us His Word of Life…

We testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world… We proclaim the Good News of the Gospel to the world…  And we know that the Spirit of God is  working in and through us…  This is our calling… When we repent of our sins and come to the cross…. Our transformation is just beginning…  Our life in Christ is a life of faithful witness… We bring the Good News to a lost and dying world… Let´s pray…

Communion

Danger caution!!!! We want to once again welcome all of our guests and visitors this morning…. We are very glad that you are here…. We are going to celebrate communion this morning as a church family…. If you have given your heart to Jesus… And if you are willing to let the Lord Jesus search your heart…. And willing to  Confess any sin that is in your life…. You are welcome to participate with us…. In 1 Corinthians… Paul exhorts us….

Examine your hearts… That is what we need to do this morning as we prepare to take communion together… The worship team will come forward and as they lead us to the throne of grace…. Let´s examine our  hearts…. The elements will be passed out…. Please hold them and we will take communion together when I come back up here…

Communion is a picture of the fact that we are all in Christ….  Every time we take communion… we take into our hands  a reminder that we have been redeemed…. And that we belong to each other…. We are members of another… Jesus has saved us and made us one family in Him…  

1 Corinthians 11: 23-26                                 NLT

23 For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.[ Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

1 Corinthians 11: 23-26            Neues Leben

23 Das Folgende hat der Herr selbst gesagt, und ich gebe es euch so weiter, wie ich es empfangen habe: In der Nacht, als er verraten wurde, nahm Jesus, der Herr, einen Laib Brot,

24 und nachdem er Dank gesagt hatte, brach er ihn und sprach: »Das ist mein Leib, der für euch hingegeben wird6. Tut das zur Erinnerung an mich.«

25 Ebenso nahm er nach dem Abendmahl den Weinkelch und sprach: »Dieser Kelch ist der neue Bund zwischen Gott und euch, besiegelt durch mein Blut. Wann immer ihr daraus trinkt, tut es zur Erinnerung an mich.«

26 Denn jedes Mal, wenn ihr dieses Brot esst und aus diesem Kelch trinkt, verkündet ihr den Tod des Herrn, bis er wiederkommt.

Let´s pray