Let's turn together to John chapter 16, verses one through four. John 16, one through four, I'll read from the English standard version. It's a literal translation of the scriptures, the same version which you have as your pew Bible. If you have need to use that, though I encourage you to use that as a scripture of last resort and always bring your own copy of the scriptures with you, that you might become more familiar and that you might understand your own scripture even more in your time of private reading and devotion at home. John chapter 16, only the first four verses. Listen for it as God who speaks to us. I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of synagogues and deed the hours coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering a service to God and they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me. But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. May the Lord bless the reading of his word and the hearing of his people. This section on persecution that we just read is nested in Jesus's teaching on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be empowering the ministry of the apostles and Jesus has been giving them in chapter 14 words of comfort. In chapter 15 he gave them words of admonishment and 16 now he's giving them some predictions. The work of the Spirit takes place through Christ's church today and the church ministers while living even as an alien in this world. The apostles are going to have to come to realize that they in their becoming persons saved through Jesus Christ and being a citizen in the kingdom of heaven that they will now be aliens in the world. And that the world in which they have dwelled the world of Judaism, the world of Israel will no longer be their safe abode. But because of the gospel they will now become enemies even of that place which gave birth to Christ. From where that ministry came it will now turn upon them. The Spirit has it come and has it called a comforter because our journey is easy and neither was theirs. It's not a journey that will take place over wide open plains and unobstructed straight paths but because our ministry as the apostles ministry takes place in what we might rightly call the fog of war, a fog of resistance, a fog of temptation, a fog of oppression, a fog of persecution and all of these are greater than our own strength. And it is only by the power and the ministry of the Holy Spirit that we will not only persevere but be successful and victorious in the cause of Christ. We will persevere. I remember driving as a young man, my father had an old GMC suburban and the gas gauge in that truck didn't work and neither did my billfold when it came to buying gas. And so I would take this big suburban which probably got three miles to the gallon and I would try to do the math computations, math, not my greatest skill. And I would drive downtown, I'm sure running some selfless errand on behalf of my parents, not. And on my way home, thankfully this particular GMC, I love good American ingenuity, would give you a warning that it was going to run out of gas, it would cut off once, about two miles before you re-crank the engine and you knew you only had a very short time to find some gas. And it would never fail that I would be able to coast into a gas station. I would just run on fumes until I coasted into a station to be filled back up. How much that has instructed me on the Christian life? Sell them do I feel that my tank is full and I can take on the world and travel the distance because I topped it off at the last stop. I always feel spiritually that I'm running own fumes. And I know that I would be left stranded except by the power and the work of the Holy Spirit that causes me to persevere. With all that Jesus had promised the apostles, He had given them these words of comfort. The apostles may have easily believed that their work was going to be easy or at least well received. Think for just a moment about what they're hearing. Jesus begins after the the Lord's supper and even that they journeyed into Jerusalem and there were throngs waiting for Him as they laid down palm branches and they sang hallelujah. They're on an emotional high with great anticipation and then the celebration of Passover which is a positive celebration of God's redemptive work among the people but it was there at the supper that things began to become strange for them as Jesus puts a towel around His waist to teach them servanthood and then as Jesus predicts that He would be betrayed not only by Judas but that all of them would flee when His name came to be called against them. And then Judas leaves mysteriously and they're confused and then Jesus announces that the time has arrived and He's going to be leaving them. Now despair has begun to set in but He says don't despair because I'm going to prepare a place for you and that place will be greater than the first and so now they're excited again. And Jesus says to them and after I leave I will send you a Holy Spirit. My Spirit, I will dwell with you and you will accomplish great and wonderful things for the Lord and my name as long as the Word abides in you and you obey my commands. And so as they are now set for this and they're beginning to think of they're going to take this great word in the power of Christ to the nation of Israel and to the people of Jerusalem they must anticipate that there will be a great reception just as they saw on the day of the triumphal entry. There is an anticipation of success and so Jesus now has to correct them and say there's something about this ministry that you need to know. You won't be received well. In fact they're going to throw you out of the synagogues and then failing the success of that to silence you. They'll leave them plot your murder. You will be so irritating to them that they will have to put you away from them and then they will have to not be satisfied with that but want to crush you as well. Jesus doesn't want them to be shattered by such a false optimism so he begins to warn them here. Unfortunately the church has not embraced this truth as something to be taught today and so we are probably guilty of some false advertising when it comes to our message that we put out. I'm intrigued by the drug commercials that I see on television because they build you up as if you take this whether you need it or not life is going to be good and then you hear this voice in the background almost unintelligible speaking in a very monotone sense and for us it might say something like this serving Christ may result in conflict, job loss, division, and families relocation or loss of friends and some Christian service commitment also results in sleeplessness personal sacrifice and in rare occasions imprisonment, torture, execution, and death as with all life commitments read the scriptures before making a commitment but unfortunately we don't actually advertise that way. We may say it subtly as we've read the message today but we don't really make that kind of an application do we? Jesus has already spoken of persecution however before in a broader sense in chapter 15 and all scriptures agree in several places we read about it, Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes verses 10 through 12, bluster those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Bluster you when others revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account and first Peter 3, 14 and 4, 14 but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake you will be blessed if you were insulted for the name of Christ you were blessed because the spirit of the glory of God rests upon you and even in Philippians 129 the book of joy the book of optimism for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake it's been granted to you not only that you would believe but that you would suffer for his sake. In chapter 15 Jesus had promised them the hatred of the world and that hatred would come from the world's hatred of him. The world hates the followers of Christ because they hate Christ because of Christ command to them that they must obey his commands they refuse they would like to have a Christ that would save them without the necessity of transformation without the necessity of obedience to him without recognizing his lordship over their lives. They'll take a Christ that is a soft cell but not one that causes them to have to live according to his design. He told them that they couldn't expect to be treated any better from the world that he himself was being treated and he was on his way to the crucifixion and that the harder they tried to make the case for truth make the case for light make the case for peace the greater the persecution would become as a reaction to the stinging of their being convicted of their sin you want to make some people angry talk to them about their sin you want to cause people to rail accusations against you you want to cause people to want to shut down your ministry start talking about their sin and the necessity of them dealing with their sin and you will then find out where people fall in their relationship with the Lord in this they apart the apostles join a good company of prophets like Jeremiah who came to God's people just as evangelists pastors and missionaries come to Christ church today Jeremiah called for the people to repent and to serve God for his troubles they threw him into a well they burned him and they burned his book rather and they threw him into prison Luther Martin Luther paraphrases Jeremiah's response what it would have been to this why should I continue to preach in vain Jeremiah would say what reward do I have except to be constantly mocked and reviled and plagued what devil can endure such groundless hatred contempt and torment from the world but when such thoughts entered my mind and such malice almost induced me to be offended and stop then I felt as if there were a burning fire in my heart and in my bones that is I became so terrified and so sick at heart that I felt as though I were lying in a red hot stove and I thought I would surely die if I kept silence rather and so we're all tried by the devil we're all tried by the world even as both are found to exist in the visible church today for wherever there is lust and strife and malice and deceit and threats and cursing and division or found we can say these things come not from God but from the spirit of the world which is brought into the household of faith verse four of our passage today he says I have said these things to you Jesus here almost sounds sorry that he has to tell them of the horror and the darkness that lay ahead of them but he wants them to know here at the last what it is that they were about to face in the most immediate sense while Jesus was with them the apostles had hardly been noticed all of the attention had been given to Jesus he had provided for them cover and protection just by virtue of his teaching and his miracles all eyes were upon Jesus and the apostles were just part of the background but now he tells them that they will be exposed and they will be targeted by those who were enemies of the gospel they'll be excommunicated and they'll be murdered we know from the book of Revelation in chapter 12 that this is true and it provides there in figurative language that the drag excuse me the dragon was seek to devour the child then next the woman who gave birth and then her seed and asked the prophecy of chapters 15 18 through 16 4 for filled in every detail the thread against them was first excommunication that they would be thrown out of the temple being put out of the synagogue meant more than what we feel when a member is dropped from the rolls of the church it means the same but we don't feel the same about that we don't sense the same because these days being dropped from the rolls we simply go find somewhere else to go we don't deal with the issue that calls us to be dropped we just go somewhere else where we might be accepted so the impact of being cast out of the household of faith is not felt in the excommunications of today it meant for them for the apostles separation from the spiritual life of Israel that means there are no other places to go there simply will be no worship of God not collectively there'll be no sacrifices that are offered no priestly duties for them there won't even be a reading of the scriptures there were not private citizens who owned copies of the scrolls there were no opportunities for them to exercise their faith as they had always known it anymore their social life would be devastated their economic potential was ended and if they and rather they would even be denied a proper burial all this suffering was to come from the religious community not from those outside of the community not from Babylon or Syria not from any of those traditional and ancient enemies of the people but from the religious community itself the place where they had called home now would turn upon them for most of us the inverse is true however well yes there is some within religious communities who will oppose the true work of Christ our real fear of excommunication is not from the church but from the world we are so afraid of being cast out of the world that we will sacrifice our work in the church to stay in the world a commitment to Christ will cut us off from the world's music and is drinking and it's carousing and it's gambling and it's fleshly indulgence and we may certainly suffer social and economic isolation as a result of our commitment to Christ and what do we do what is our remedy we compromise and secularize the expressions of our faith we avoid persecution from the world by accommodation and so we seek to maintain some sort of a dual membership with Christ church and the world can we manage some kind of a dual membership however James 310 from the same mouth compressings and cursing my brothers these things ought not to be so this double mindedness we cannot maintain this sort of a dual membership with two entities which are at odds with one another there's an ancient Middle Eastern tale of two enemies scorpion and a fox perhaps you've heard this let me remind you if you have a great river was cutting through an Iranian season through a part of the desert separating the animals on one side of that river from the food which was on the other a fox comes up to the river and he's seeking a way across the river and as he stood there considering his place his lifelong enemy scorpion also came up to the river standing there with the fox and looking across he said to the fox I have been up and down the river bank and I have seen a place where to shallow and the waters of calm and it's easy to cross I'll show you where that is if you will help me to get across if you'll put me on your back and you'll take me across I'll show you the place the fox looks at him and he says do you count me a fool if I were to put you on my back surely you'd sting me and I would drown a scorpion says if I was to sting you and you were to drown then we would both drown because I cannot swim across the river alone the fox thought for a moment it was logical with the scorpion was saying and so he goes to the place under the scorpion's instruction he lowers himself down the scorpion gets on his back and they began across the river halfway across the river the fox feels a sharp sting between his shoulder blades shocked that he has been stung by the scorpion he turns he says what have you done now we both will drown the scorpion with a bit of a quiet voice says I couldn't help it it simply is my nature what is the nature of the world which has always been in an opposition to Christ the threat to Christian fidelity has been persecution it's been prejudice it's been physical danger and someday it may be those things again we may face the sword for our commitment to Christ but the contemporary danger to Western Christians is not yet one of being murdered but infidelity to Christ comes in our accommodation to the world our love of the world Jesus warned the apostles so that they wouldn't go astray like a mouse that sees nothing but a feast on a mouse trap until the trap is sprung Jesus didn't want his children to be taken by surprise when the world showed them its hatred of God and mark 8 34 to 36 Jesus said if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's sake will save it for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life accommodation you want to see where the battle is fought look at the lives particularly of our young people watching on the news look at the programs that are on talk to some of them teach a class there you will see where the battle is being fought just as our young people are on the cusp of adulthood they are caught between the faith they've been taught and lived under their parents and the new faith they've seen in the world and seeking some peaceful resolution to these two conflicting philosophies of life too many will accommodate the world believing they have both but it's just simply not possible what part does death have to do with life or light with darkness or heaven with hell absolutely none but under such tremendous pressure from the world and the soft cell of Christianity that they have learned through their youth the incentive to avoid the mental and social affliction given to them by the world is simply too great Jeremiah burrows in his book the evil of evils which I strongly commend to you for your reading says it is a very evil choice for any soul under heaven to choose the least sin than the greatest affliction any affliction is better than to be under the guilt of the slightest sin he writes further on in that chapter servants of God who have been guided by the wisdom of God to make their choice but have rather chosen the sourest and most dreadful affliction in this world than willingly commit the least sin for example if you would but turn your thoughts to what you have read or heard of the martyrs what hideous and grievous torment they suffered the boiling of their bodies and led laying their naked backs on gridirones rending and tearing their members in pieces with with horses pulling the flesh off with pinchers and others by red hot burning tongs and during their flesh to be scorched by being broiled first on one side and then the next yes even the weakest of women have endured this to have their flesh harrowed with stones and sharp irons to have their bodies slayed and thrown into rivers of cold ice and thousand more things whatever hell and wicked men could devise they were content to endure all of this and whatever else rather than to act against their consciences and commit the least sin and they embrace the tortures rather than embrace the sin and so burrow surmises at the end many of you he says when it comes to it will be more loath to lose a coin than commit a sin more loath to endure the least shame or a nickname than to commit a sin or there are not many who would tell a lie rather than suffer a little shame even in your own family so should we protest and run when afflictions come Paul says he was whipped but he was put into stocks they kept him even without clothes and public humiliation he went without food and in 2nd Corinthians 417 he calls this suffering slight momentary affliction that is preparing for us and eternal weight of glory beyond all comparisons but when it comes to sin he doesn't call that a light momentary affliction when it comes to his sin he says oh wretched man that I am rather than being an offense to God what affliction on earth would there be that we would forfeit the honor of God for our own personal comfort and John 16 4 again Jesus says when their hour comes the prophetic word from Christ places all affliction under the sovereign hand of God he is here making a prophecy he's not saying if he's saying when and when and all of history belongs in the hand of a sovereign God and knowing that God is sovereign then means that all of the affliction we are to endure is a part of God's sovereign plan then we cry out we say but doesn't the Lord love us why would the Lord calls us to suffer his own people but isn't that the same cry echoed by the people of Israel all through the pages of the Old Testament where is our God why do the unjust seem to thrive while those who are called God's people seem to suffer the evil present in the world are not surprises has the world ever been a friend to Christ or to his people evil parses out the wheat from the tares God's own from the lost Satan's attack which is meant to destroy the church actually and God's sovereign hand purifies and strengthens the church the worst Satan can do to us is leave us to ourselves perhaps that's what David meant in Psalm 1971 it's good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn your statutes failing an assault on our bodies we can expect an assault on our conscience it was the first subtle attack in the garden making a fruit that is forbidden appear to be so essential to the good life that it can't be turned down and as a result of making them fall in love with the forbidden fruit all the good fruit that God had supplied seemed to be bitter in comparison this persecution in the form of temptation results in sin Jesus was a man of sorrows beaten ashamed and killed but would not have let the work he would have rather let the world perish than to sin against God he would endure even the shame of the cross as an as an act of obedience to the Lord but he would not have committed the first sin against a holy God persecution even in the form of moral temptation as a refining fire in which God is purifying his people the church there's a beautiful illustration it was told by Billy Graham and I read it in a source from James Montgomery boys a man who was overwhelmed with economic in the time of the economic depression he lost his job he lost his wife he lost his personal fortune and his home but he had a strong faith even in such dire circumstances and one day as he was wandering the streets he passed a construction site where a large church was being put together and he watched as a man was working with stone as he was chipping away a man it was a triangular piece of stone and he walked up and he asked the man what he was doing the man pointed up to a high spire on the church and he said you see that hole up there at the very top I'm fitting this stone for it as the man walked away he realized that even in these difficult circumstances God was perfecting him for heaven through earthly tribulation today we see nations at once embrace Christianity turning away some have adopted persecutions against Christians like that of the imperial or papal Rome we might be discouraged when we can't display the 10 commandments or we can no longer pray in Jesus name Jesus promised us it would happen why would we act surprised the question is not whether persecution will come or whether temptations will assail us or whether evil exists the Lord has promised us all of these and history has proved him to be right the question is what will we do in the face of all of these things Paul and Silas sang in prison when all else in the prison were in despair and when God released them the jailor who had been watching them fill it their feet and said serves what must I do to be saved made the testimony of our fidelity to Christ calls others to see Jesus in us just as well