Title: Luxury Christian (John 15:18-27)
Contents Luxury Christian (John 15:18-27) - Rev. Jinwook Ryu
[John 15:18-27]
If you look at the contents of John 14 to 17, most of the words of Jesus are recorded. So Jesus has a lot to say to us. These are the precious words of the Lord. Yesterday we looked at the contents of 15:1 to 17, but in fact, we have to look at the entire 15th chapter together.
Yesterday, Jesus was talking about the true vine, telling his disciples to abide in the Lord and to love one another. He taught us in the parable of the vine, telling us what it would be like to bear fruit.
Today we are talking about Christians who are not of the world.
First, we are not of the world.
So you have to live a separate life. Verse 19 says, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.”
We can see that we did not seek the Lord, but that the Lord came to us.
We need to pay attention to the word 'the chosen one of Christ'. In the English Bible, it says 'I chose you to come out of the world'. It's not just a choice, it's that God has chosen us to bring us out of the world.
This is grace.
It is the fact that the status of the elect is no longer of the world, but of God.
You need to go to church and buy luxury. Luxury goods are not meant to look expensive or flimsy, but to live a life of faith that clearly realizes one's identity and lives as God's chosen people.
Jesus says you live in the world, but you are not of the world. That is why we have to live with different behaviors, languages, and ways of thinking than the rest of the world. In other words, the people of the world live without a conscience without any sense of guilt, but we, God's chosen ones, must not live in compromise with sin and injustice. It must not be avoided, tolerated or tolerated. The saints must take on the role of salt to prevent corruption in the world. According to Matthew 5:15-16, we must play the role of light and salt.
This is the identity of one who belongs to God and not to the world.
What kind of life is living with the joy of God?
It is a separate life. God does not want us to live by grace, but He wants us to live a life distinguished by luxury as a clearly chosen people. Our life is like a mist and a stranger. For the sake of the judgment and eternal time that will unfold after death in this short life, we must live that way.
We live in a minority right now, so how hard is it to get permanent residency and citizenship?
But even having it is not safe. If you are not born and received on this earth, you can be deprived of it at any time. If you do not obey the law and commit a serious crime, you will be deported.
When you do not live a separate life while living in this short world, you become a life that distances you from God. We should not live by experience and knowledge, but live a separate life depending on the words of verses 18 and 19.
1 Peter 1:24-25 says, "Therefore, all flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like flowers of the grass; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. This is the word.'
If we want to live a separate life, we must depend on the eternal and unchanging Word of God.
What is the criterion for distinction?
It is a word that does not change even one point, one jot. Hebrew has many dots after writing. Two or three dots have completely different meanings. That's why Jesus said that not one jot, one jot, one tittle will disappear.
The world's laws change, the world's thoughts change. However, when we rely on God's words that do not change and are always fulfilled, we can live a different life.
Second, the world hates our saints.
The reason we are getting more and more hated by the world is because God has chosen us and we are set apart from the world. Fundamentally, it is not hating us, it is hating Jesus Christ in us. Verse 23 says that it hates God the Father, and verse 25 says that it has no reason.
The word 'love' is found a lot in the text we saw yesterday, but the word 'hate' appears seven times in today's text.
The world refers to the world under the power of Satan. It is not a concept of space or place, but a world that belongs to sin and injustice that is not under the authority of God. That is why they hate us when we try to live the gospel. According to verse 19, the reason for this hatred is that we are the chosen ones from the world, verse 21, because they do not know God, and in verse 22, they hate because their sins are known and understood through the gospel. I did. After all, verse 24 says that it was because they did not know Jesus.
The world hates us when we try to live by the Word. When we try to live according to God's command, there is always Satan's temptation.
The sad thing is that the world should hate us, but there are cases in the church that hate each other. Seeing people struggling to follow the Lord, they say that they believe in the Lord and love the Lord unusually.
We must live an extraordinary life of faith in the world. The world hates us and tries to shun us, but if we want to believe in Jesus and live a separate life, we have to live a strange life of faith. Persecuting people for being weird is the hatred they receive because of Jesus.
The Lord wants me to love Him more, to try harder to hear His voice, and to seek Him with tears.
What was the attitude of Jesus who was hated for no reason?
In verses 23 to 25, the people who hated Jesus were actually those who were under the power of evil, and they hated Jesus who is the light, and ultimately caused Jesus to die on the cross. We know from the Bible that Jesus suffered for no reason and died on the cross for no reason, but Jesus did not complain or complain. Seeing this form of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah said in verse 53:7, “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, he did not open his mouth.” Jesus knew that it was the will of God and endured all these things.
When we are vaguely misunderstood and vaguely hated, we do everything we can to resist it. However, if it is the hatred you suffer because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have to wait and believe that God will solve it. If it is the loneliness that comes from faith, I believe that God will solve it. If it is the suffering, pain, and pain that I suffer because of Jesus, not human thoughts and human effort, I believe that the Lord will do it in God's time even if I do not resist, complain, and stand still.
If any of you are struggling with the gospel, don't try to solve it yourself. When you wait quietly with faith like Jesus, I believe that God knows your heart and opens your way like the highway of Zion.
In Matthew 5:11 and 12 we read, “Blessed are you when they curse and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”
Suffering because of Jesus is so rewarding. You must suffer through suffering because of you, but suffering because of the gospel is rewarding.
How should we live on this earth?
In this age when the truth is getting darker and darker, we must live as chosen and luxurious Christians.
Now, when you live, don't let your shoulders hang down.
Although we live in a world of evil, darkness, temptations, and indescribable difficulties, God has not left us to be assimilated into this world, but has called us into it. That he has chosen us from the world. I bless you in the name of the Lord that you will live as a luxury Christian with this chosen identity of faith. I hope you win with a spiritual mindset instead of having a carnal mindset every day.