Jesus said these things so we would not be led astray. He wanted them to remember his words when the time came. So what was so awful that his own best friends and disciples could be tempted and led astray?
It was the promise of pain.
First, he said, the world will hate you. If it hated him, how much more will it hate them.
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
The only reason the world would love you is if you looked like, smelled like and acted like the world. But that is not what Jesus calls a disciple to do. He calls them out of the world. He calls them to righteousness and holiness and to proclaim Jesus as God.
9 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.
If we don’t think being hated is a big issue, just think of how tempting it is to us to keep our mouths silent instead of sharing Jesus. Or how so many Christians have compromised to the values of the world instead of to the truth of Scripture.
Hate is hard to take. It’s real.
Secondly, Jesus said they would kick you out of their spiritual communities.
2 They will put you out of the synagogue;
For many in the West, this is not such a big deal. In the East, your spiritual community is everything. Literally almost everything. It is your family, your work, your friends, your everything. Excommunication in the first century was a sentence of loneliness and isolation from man. It was horrible.
For those in the West today, it more looks like losing friends. If you take a stand (let’s not go political here), but just stand on what the Word teaches, other Christians will hate you. They will call you a hater and question your faith. The accusations will build.
Then it progresses to the third level. They will kill you.
Simple as that. They will kill you because you are followers of Jesus. Worse. They will think they are taking their own faith seriously and doing something great for God.
2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.
Why do they do all these things? Because they know religion. But they don’t know God. If they would know God, they would have welcomed Jesus as God’s Son, God in the flesh.
21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.
They are guilty because Jesus taught them, and they still rejected him. Not only this but he did great miracles among them, miracles of love and service to others. Yet they still would not believe.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.
They got to see what he did. They could find no fault in him. But they had to kill him because he claimed to be God.
They didn’t pause to consider Jesus and all that he did.
For those who do not know Christ, this stands as a warning. Pause to consider Jesus and all that he did.
For those who do know Christ, this stands as a warning. If you actually folow Jesus in truth and love, you will be hated, kicked out, and even killed. But don’t be discouraged. Don’t go astray.
Jesus said there would be times like this.
John 15:18-16:4
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 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. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’[a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’[b]
26 “When the Advocate 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. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
16 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,