For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of
John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already
written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave
off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily
word count limit.
To pick up the topic, you may need to read the one or two
postings preceding this one.
We continue from
our last message.
“Remember the words I
spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours
also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the
One who sent me,” (John 15:20, 21).
What
did Jesus mean by saying: “They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know
the One who sent me”? If somebody just does good and live in love, why
would anybody want to harm him through persecution? It does not make sense. So
why did it happen to Jesus and why does it happen constantly to fruitful
Christians? Why is persecution the order of the day for them? Jesus said it is
because of His name. What does He mean? We read in Philippians 2:9-11: “Therefore God exalted him
to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father.” Who does that include? It includes all humans and all
spirits, including the evil spirits. So what more reason would those, who
actually want to be exalted themselves, have to hate the name of Jesus?
We
must not feel people have it against us – it is all about Jesus. This is not
where this passage ends though. Jesus continues by saying “for they do not
know the One who sent me”. They hate his name because they do not know
the Father. If they knew the love of Father God, they would love Him. We also
read in our latest quoted passage that people will confess the name of Jesus ‘to the glory of
God the Father’. If people would care to know God the Father they will
fall prostrate before Him, just worshipping Him. Then they would not dare and
would not want to exalt themselves because they would know a love and a power
much higher than they could dream or perceive.
We
must remember that to the disciples and the people of that time, and also to us
due to pictures and descriptions we receive from the Bible, Jesus was just a
man to whom they had to bow the knee even though He had no splendour. “He had no beauty
or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should
desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar
with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we
esteemed him not,” (Isaiah 53:2, 3). Typically of mankind most people do
not see beyond the obvious, the natural and what meets the eye, but if they
could have seen God the Father they would definitely have changed their mind.
Dear
believer, please do not make yourself guilty of just looking at what meets eye.
Do not look at the persecution and the persecutor, but look beyond it into the
spiritual realm and see God the Father
and then you will worship with all that is within you in spite of all
circumstances.
Father,
please make us aware of who you are so nothing can stop us from worshiping you.
Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth,
via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will
accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.
Please pass this on if you
think others may benefit by it.
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