May 7, 2017 AM Pastor Ken Hepner JOHN'S GOSPEL: JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD: 60. "This World System of Things Hates You!" John 15:18 25 Introduction: This morning we reengage in our journey through the Gospel of John. It's important that we understand: The goal of this series of messages is to immerse ourselves in the Life, Teaching, and Work of Jesus, the Son of God on the Cross. If we can see who Jesus is and what He came to do, we will be able to make solid decisions about what to do with Jesus claims to be the Son of God who alone can introduce us to an experience of relational love with the Father God. In John s writing in the New Testament, he addresses a really important topic for the followers of Jesus to have a good handle on: Our Spiritual Adoption by God the Father. Knowing the Father God intimately as our Abba Father is one of John s key themes. Jesus was the Son of God, who knew the Father intimately in eternity. He alone can introduce you and me to what that relationship looks like. Let s read together two of John s key texts addressing this truth: John 1:12, 13 "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of a human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." I John 3:1 "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! What Jesus lived out with His followers over the three and one half years John records for us, is a vital and dynamic Relational Love for and with His Father in heaven. It was His deep heart of love for the Father God that motivated Jesus to come into the world, to live among us, showing us the nature and character of God in humanity! It showed up in the things He said about the kingdom of heaven invading the human heart and in His personal prayer life with His Father It was relational love for the Father that motivated Jesus to Desire to Do the Will of the Father God completely. That will of the Father God for Jesus life had always been the Cross, His One and Only Son Jesus bearing the sins of the world! When Jesus stepped out of heaven and became two cells in Mary s womb, He knew what the will of Abba God was for His life. John writing in the Revelation states Revelation 13:8 All the inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast al whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. 1
Paul writes to Timothy, II Timothy 1:9 God has saved us and called us to a holy life not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, What we are seeing portrayed in these pictures of the life of Jesus, His relational love with the Father created Attitudes, Values, and Decision-making processes that were the exact opposite of what we see in the world system of things we live in. What Jesus came into the world order of things to do was to establish something new, the values of heaven living in human hearts and minds in the midst of this world system of things! In order to get a working definition of what the Bible refers to as the World System, we must understand the evil being behind it! The world system is under the ultimate direction of the one the Lord Jesus just referred to in the last chapter as the prince of this world. John 14:30, 31 I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father commanded me. Notice with me Jesus said, the prince of this world had nothing of the world in His life. Because he had none of His own, He could take yours and my worldliness and put them to death for us all on the Cross. Jesus said the world must learn that He loves the Father and does exactly what He has been commanded to do! Paul also refers to him as the god of this age or world, II Corinthians 4:4. Listen carefully as we read Paul s words to the Ephesians. Paul ties together Satan as the ruler of this kingdom all around us and the world system of things the enemy uses to tempt and entice the heart of the followers of Jesus. Ephesians 2:1, 2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work among those who are disobedient. When the Bible refers to the world system of things is ruled by the enemy Satan, it should not surprise the people of God that we are in a Hostile Environment, to faith and personal desire to know and walk with God. We must understand what the Scriptures teach us about the character and values the world system and its allure to us. Jesus told us to expect the world to stand in diametric opposition to us as we seek to know Him and walk through life with Him as our Lord and Master. The Bible clearly portrays the world as a System of Ungodly and unspiritual Values, Lifestyles, and Morals that are all around us, and calls us as His people to be in the world but not of the world. Jesus asks you and me to be His counter-culture kingdom in this world system. The best and most Biblical definition I have ever seen is found in Dr. Mark Bubeck s book, The Adversary, where he writes: The world is a composite expression of the depravity of the flesh of humankind and the intrigues of Satan s rule combining to oppose the rule of God. 2
John 15:18, 19 If the world hates you keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged 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. C. S. Lewis wrote in 1952, Enemy occupied territory; that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king landed in disguise and is calling all of his followers to a great campaign of sabotage. Let s be very clear as we begin this study this morning, as it relates to how we will choose to live our lives every day as the children of God in Christ Jesus. There are two kingdoms being built in this world simultaneously the two kingdoms could not possibly be more opposed to each other. One kingdom is ruled by the Lord God Almighty, revealed as Abba Father, Jesus our Savior, the Holy Spirit and its character is holy, self-emptying, otheroriented love. The other kingdom is ruled by Satan and its character is hatred and opposition for the kingdom of God on the earth! I. What the World System Is and Does: John 15:18, 19 If the world hates you keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged 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 that John is writing this Gospel in the early nineties AD. By the time this Gospel message was written to the people of God, persecution of the followers of Jesus had been going on for decades, malicious hatred for those who loved Jesus. John wanted his readers to know why they were so hated, what was behind the persecution of a people whose character was love! For the aged Apostle John as he approached his death, things got more and more clear. Things really are black and white, not 50 shades of grey. For John there are two great entities in the world as we know it, The Church of Jesus and the World System of things. And there is no area of agreement, contact, or fellowship between them. Jesus told His followers that they were in fact going to be hated by the world system of things precisely because they no longer belonged to the values and the patterns of thinking embraced by the adherents to the world system. Jesus says if we belonged to the world the world would love us as its own. But because He has chosen to Redeem us and to radically Change our Heart s Desires, we will always be permanently at odds with the world system! Everything about our world system is opposed to the kingdom of God dwelling in human hearts. This fundamental difference between the two kingdoms is founded on how the adherents of the two kingdoms view and understand the nature of God. People of this world system view God as a myth, or as one of many gods, with all roads leading to the divine, or in some cases an impersonal force. The Christian views God as loving, compassionate God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit who seeks us and acts to redeem us! 3
In our view of material things and the use of money, the world says, Get all you can, can all you get, and sit on the can. The Christian ethic is that we have in order to be able to give and to bless. When someone has been hurt or offended the world says, Get even with him it ll teach him a lesson. The Christian ethic is that we must make our way to the cross of Jesus and give Him the offense, receive His forgiveness, and forgive them because it will teach them a lesson. This insidious world system around us seeks to Entice our Fleshly Nature, which all of us inherited through the fact of sin. The world system of things treats our fleshly appetites like they is the only things there are to our lives. We have even coined the phrase, sexual identity. The fleshly nature is an inner bent toward embracing sin, to consider the wrong and ultimately act on it. The enticement of the world to the fleshly nature is constantly bombarding our senses, constantly waging war against our heart desire to live pleasing to God. Its aim is to get us to make Sinful choices based on Self Interest. The world presents Moral Evil as actually being Good what is opposed to the holiness and majesty of God is actually presented to us as appealing and attractive to the eyes, that the wrong will actually make us happy and self-fulfilled. It is the temptation Eve experienced in the Garden of Eden, which is still working on human beings today. Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye...she ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. The choice Adam and Eve made was based in their own self-reliance and self-interest. The strategy of appealing to the fleshly worked in the Garden of Eden with our original parents, and it is still working thousands of years later. Temptation is always about getting you and me to please our God-given human appetites in wrong and selfish ways! Temptation is always about getting us to focus on satisfying something that does not stay satisfied for very long! The world system makes promises to us that it has never been able to deliver on. Get me, attain this, achieve this and you will truly be happy! It promises Joy, Happiness, and inner Fulfillment in the here and now, the lie being that something we get from the outside in, will actually bring true inner joy and fulfillment to my life. This stands in diametric opposition to the truth of God. Romans 12:1, 2 Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God s will is His good pleasing and perfect will. II. The World s Tactics: John 15:20, 21 Remember the words I spoke to you; No servant is greater than his master. If they persecute me they will persecute you also. If they obey my teaching they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because they do not know the One who sent me. 4
The days during which John wrote this incredible Gospel were days of great hatred and persecution of God s people by the world system of things from two quite honestly strange teammates: The Romans who worshiped the Emperor as the divine majesty and the militant Jews who saw themselves as the keepers of God s truth and the Christians as their enemies. When John talks about the world system he is referring to the human system of thought and behavior quite apart from the personal knowledge of God as Father through the work of Jesus Christ for us all on the Cross. That basis for thought and action, godlessness, is always going to be at odds with the person who chooses to make God its ultimate reality for how we choose to live our lives! The truth is the world system of things is always going to be skeptical and reticent to accept those who choose to See Things Differently. The world system is a pattern of thinking, a way to view all of life. A pattern is like a mold for molten metal. Everything that goes into the mold comes out looking like the mold! The world system of things always Suspects Nonconformity! The world system of things does not like those who speak in condemnation of it. To live a life of holy, self-emptying, other-oriented love in a church family will always be dangerous to the world around it because the love reveals the hatred and darkness for what it is! In order to bring the ones who are different and nonconformist into the fold the world system has used two tactics for millennia, and why mess with what works. The first tactic of the world system of things is the Principle of Inoculation. As a medical professional gives someone small doses of a virus to improve the patient s ability to fight it, so the enemy introduces slow small dosages of evil over time, to cause the people of God to be numbed and unalarmed by its presence around them. The fact is that the world system is an external enemy of the Christian, trying to find entrypoints into our lives. The world doesn t storm into the human heart and soul of God s men and women. Quite to the contrary, the enemy is quite good at working Slowly and Methodically, to get the world s value system worked into a Christian heart and soul. We could refer to this as the wear them down tactic. Let s be honest about the fact our world has in fact inoculated us with small doses of evil over time. The media numbs us to suffering by showing it to us in three second clips. The media numbs us to desire for sexual purity by showing us little doses of sexual promiscuity in our living rooms on prime time TV each night, so we aren t alarmed by two people in their underwear acting like animals. The world system presents the hollow illusion of a created entertainment world, that somehow through engaging my mind and desires with the contents of this hollow illusion, I will find the true happiness I have been looking for all of my life. This illusion is a creation of the father of lies! It promises peace but delivers pressure, stress loads of broken relationships, hurts, and animosity between people who have loved each other deeply and 5
now feel betrayed. Ultimately the world system will enslave us with its slow and methodical tyranny of Sinful Cravings for Appetite Satisfaction! The apostle Paul, near the end of his life wrote back to his son in the faith Timothy to tell him that their brother Demas had allowed the internal giant of the world to seduce him and erode his heart. II Timothy 4:10 Demas, because he loved this world has deserted me. When that tactic does not work the world system has for centuries successfully used the tactic of Persecution of those who are Different in Values and Ethics. Jesus says the people who have bought into the world system will hate and persecute us because they have chosen to spurn knowing the Father God in life. The word Jesus used and John quotes for persecution is the Greek root word dioko, meaning to follow with a purpose, to pursue as in seeking for a person, and when it is in the context of having malignant purposes, to pursue with intent to harm, to persecute another person. Jesus said the people who are part of this world system of things, when nothing else works to silence the voice of His followers, will pursue with intent to harm us. Jesus also told us exactly why the world will resort to persecution of His followers: Because the world persecuted Him it will persecute His followers. Jesus said the world system of things hated Him so fiercely and persecuted Him so passionately because He steadfastly and lovingly revealed the holy Word of the Father God on earth. Jesus life of love revealed another way to live to those who live the world system s values and they have rejected knowing both the Father God and His holy Word alive in their lives. The principle Jesus is laying out for us in relation to experiencing persecution in life is that you and I don t have to go looking for it. Persecution will find us if we consistently love the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and seek to live in steady, loving, truthful ways. Jesus wanted His followers to know the truth that His love sincerely lived in your heart and mine will speak loudly to the world system we in which we live, even if we rarely ever say a word in confrontation to its values, and the world won t like the message. III. Overcoming the World: We must arm ourselves with the truth of God, regarding how this insidious creeping allure and temptation to embrace the world system of things. There are several things about defeating this world that we must gain from Scripture. First and foremost it is important to know Jesus took on the world and beat it for us. John 16:33 I have told you these things, so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. Secondly, being an overcomer of the world is also a matter of choosing a higher set of loves. If we would defeat the world in our hearts it is a matter of loving God supremely, of cultivating a new set of loves and desires. Here s a great principle we must understand: The love of God will keep us where keeping rules and regulations cannot even take us! 6
I John 5:3 5 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Too many of God s people do not recognize the key issue regarding our Faith: It is to be Alive, Growing, and Dynamic. It is too easy for us to rest on where our faith blessed us in the past. It takes passion and work to go to the Lord at the cross each day for personal renewal of our desire to know and walk with Him. Allowing myself to be broken in heart over places in which I see the world s values at work in me is a part of that renewing work the Spirit of God desires to do for all of us every day! Allowing brokenness of my heart to deliver the message is crucial to walking in victory. But it is equally important to own how the world has set up shop in our hearts and minds, and confess it to Him. Confession brings out into the light what the enemy has been doing in the darkness. Let s get to the place in our personal spiritual walk with the Lord Jesus that we are free to tell Him what is going on inside, our need of His provisions of grace, mercy, and peace. It is here as we meet with Him by faith at the Cross that the actual powerful exchange of His life for my brokenness takes place. It is at the cross of Jesus that the world, its values, desires, and longings that have wormed their way into me, are put to death in my precious Master s body, as Jesus dies for me to set me free from the world. Galatians 6:14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. It is God the Father s deep desire to fill us with His Spirit. The Spirit s desires in us will be in direct confrontation to the message the world sends to us. He longs to fill us with His holy love, His passions and desires, deep peace and inner satisfaction the world cannot even understand, let alone give to us! 7
May 7, 2017 John s Gospel, Jesus Is the Son of God: 60. The World System of Things Hates You John 15:18 25 Introduction: The goal of our series in the Gospel of John is to immerse ourselves in the L, T, and W of Jesus on the Cross for us! John wrote about an important topic for Jesus followers to understand: our S A as sons and daughters of God. John 1:12 13; 1 John 3:1 Jesus lived a dynamic R L for and with His Father. It was His love for the Father that motivated Jesus to D to D the W of the Father, which had always been the Cross! Revelation 13:8; 2 Timothy 1:9 What we see in Jesus life is holy love with the Father, creating in Him A, V, and decision-making processes that are the exact opposite of what we see in the world system we live in. To get a working definition of the W S, it is important to remember under whose direction it is. Jesus called Satan the prince of this world. John 14:30 31; Paul adds Ephesians 2:1 2 When the Bible refers to the world system of things ruled by Satan, it is showing us we live in a H E to any desire in us to know and walk with God! The Bible portrays the world system as holding U, unspiritual V, L, and I! Jesus said in John 15:18 19 C.S. Lewis wrote in 1952, Enemy occupied territory, that s what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king landed in disguise and is calling His followers to a great campaign of sabotage. I. What the World System Is and Does: John 15:18 19 John wrote this Gospel in the 90s AD. By the time John wrote this book, the people of God had been going through hatred and intense persecution for decades! John sees things in black and white terms; there are two great entities: the C of Jesus and the W S! 8
Jesus told His followers the world system would hate them. Because He had chosen to come and R us and C our hearts we will be at odds with the world system! The fundamental difference between the two kingdoms is on how the adherents view and understand the nature of God. The insidious world system exists to E our fleshly nature. It bombards our senses to get us to choose to feed S -I! It presents moral evil as actually being good; Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:6. The world makes promises it cannot keep. It promises J, H, and inner F in the here and now. II. The World s Tactics: John 15:20 21 The great hatred and persecution of the Church was at the hands of strange partners: the Romans and militant Jewish leaders! The world system is always skeptical of people who S T D the world always S N! Those who adhere to the world s values do not like those who speak in condemnation of them. There are two tactics the world has been using against people for hundreds of years: Ø The tactic of I. This is slow, purposeful, and methodical. Its aim is to get the believer sinfully indulged appetites! Paul writes of Demas in 2 Timothy 4:10 Ø The tactic of P. This tactic is reserved for those who love Jesus, who live a life of steady love and heaven s values and truth. III. Overcoming the World System of Things: The Scriptures teach us Jesus has O the world for us, John 16:33. Defeating the world s values is a matter of embracing a higher set of loves and desires. 1 John 5:3 5 We must live a life of faith that is real: Our faith must be A, G, and D. Permit brokenness to deliver its message, but what is even more important is to own how the world has infiltrated our hearts and then C it to Jesus at the Cross. It is at the C in Jesus that the W S is put to death and we are given inner victory! Galatians 6:14 9
Discussion Starter Questions for Home Groups 1. How would you describe to someone what it means for you to know God personally? What does knowing the Lord mean to you? 2. Why do you think John thought and wrote so much about Jesus coming to earth to live in loving submission to the will of the Father for His life? 3. What would you say if a friend asked you to describe the key differences between those who hold the values of the kingdom of God and those who hold the values of the world system? 4. What is it about the world system we live in that makes it hostile territory for Christians to live in? 5. Jesus wanted His followers to know the world system we live in entices us to think, desire, and act in ways that are in direct opposition to the will of God. Why? How does the world system entice the followers of Jesus? 6. The world system of thought indoctrinates people on a basic premise we as followers of Jesus reject as a lie. What is the world telling people will make them happy? 7. Jesus told His followers they would be inoculated by the world system. What is happening right now to inoculate us? What s the message? 8. Jesus told His followers they would be persecuted in this world system of things. What is happening right now? What might that look like for us? 9. Read together aloud 1 John 2:15 17, 5:3 5. Discuss insights you have regarding John s teaching on understanding and overcoming the world. 10. As you apply the teaching Jesus gave regarding the world system enticing the people of God what are some takeaways you ll want to think about and talk over with some friends who know and love Jesus? 10