16

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17

"That in all things He (JESUS!) might have the preeminence!" (Colossians 1: 18).

This is the one statement which, more than any other, could be said to define the central dynamic of the true Christian life.

This is so clearly the central focus and emphasis of these chapters of John's Gospel. The Lord Jesus has been progressively revealing the astonishing glory and amazing potential of this exciting dynamic.

The motivation is: Love! His love! "As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you!"(John 15: 9). In this truth, which He so graciously emphasizes for us, is the most exciting consequence.

Each new revelation expands the glory of these exciting assurances. Enhances the wonder of all that is involved. Inspiring ever increasing praise, thanksgiving, adoration, and worship.

So it will be as we press on in this exhilarating investigation of the wonder of His gracious revelations to us.

The Lord Jesus first gave this commandment to His disciples in the thirteenth chapter. It was so soon after Judas had gone out into the night.

The disciples were greatly perplexed. Such unexpected and disturbing things were happening. Things over which they had no control. Yet all of those things were impacting on them in a very personal way.

As they listened to their Lord speak to them they heard much which deepened their growing perplexity. Thus the great turmoil in their hearts and minds multiplied with each passing minute.

It was into their struggling attempts to deal with these personal concerns that He thrust: "A New Commandment!" "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you; that ye also love one another" (John 13: 34).

Shortly after this, He expressed the inspiring truth: "As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love!"

"These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you!" (14: 9, 10, 11).

Again, He said, "These things I commanded you, that ye love one another" (verse 17).

In changing circumstances He restated this fact. He did so with developing and expanding emphasis. Over and over He reminds His disciples, and us, this truth is of the utmost importance! "Love one another!"

In the same manner! With the same priorities! The same willingness to sacrifice, to deny self. Marked by identical concerns.

Let the expression of your love to one another accurately mirror the full implications of My love for you.

If we are to be all that He wills us to be, growing to genuine spiritual maturity in Him, we will apply His Word faithfully. If we are to continue to develop into more effective servants for His glory, this emphasis must remain central.

"Love one another, as I have loved you!" "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3: 16).

That! Nothing less! Nothing else! This is so crucial. It is the only way of victory!

"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you!"

In addition to all that precedes, here is yet another vital reason we should love one another as He loves us!

It is in that genuine loving, caring, compassionate fellowship we are able to draw on the grace and strength to meet the inevitable assaults of the world.

"If!" "If the world hate you!" The Lord Jesus was not suggesting that this may or may not happen. That there would be some of His disciples who could find themselves being hated by the world. Yet there may be others who would not have to endure such an experience.

Rather, He is focusing on a vital fact which will inevitably apply to everyone who is identified with Him. Sooner or later the world will identify the disciple with the disciple's Lord.

The world hates the Lord Jesus! Is that too strong? Not according to the Lord Jesus!

"Ye know that it (the world) hated Me!" It "hated Me before it hated you!"

Hated Him! Despised Him! Rejected Him! Mocked and ridiculed Him! Spat on Him! Crucified Him!

Therefore, do not be surprised when you are hated! This is the inevitable result of being personally identified with the Lord Jesus.

Peter understood that fact! It was for this reason we see him responding as he did when he was challenged. Being identified as one of His disciples! Three times, in fear and cowardice, he denied Jesus. The third with cursing and swearing!

He was not alone in that. There are so many today who claim to be Christians who are motivated by fear. They are unwilling to pay the price of being identified with Jesus.

Listen to the Word of the Lord! There is only one sure way to discover the needed strength and courage to meet this: Being hated by the world.

That is: "Love one another, as I have loved you!" That is the Lord's answer! Love one another to share the shame. To bear the contempt. To draw from one another's love and sacrifice so as to be able to triumphantly endure all that the world in its hatred can inflict on you.

"Love one another, as I have loved you!" There is the source of the Christian's true, sacrificial strength! There he finds the resources for effective endurance. There is the key to triumphant living no matter what the world inflicts on you.

In its own twisted, distorted, perverted way, the world accepts, "loves," those whom the world identifies as being one with it.

This fact should trouble many who profess to be Christians. If we are popular with the world it can mean only one thing. The world cannot see the Lord Jesus in us! Rather, the world sees itself in us!

"But I have chosen you out of the world! Therefore the world hateth you!"

This revelation is so very inspiring. The important issue is not the negative attitude of the world. Rather, the important issue is the positive attitude of the Lord Jesus. Along with all that He has done for us!

In His redeeming love He claims us. "You are My friends!" As My friends, I have chosen you out of the world.

Jesus prayed, "I have given them Thy Word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world!" (John 17: 14).

He then repeated that fact: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world!" (Verse 16).

It is for this reason the world hates you! The Lord Jesus has totally changed you. Transformed you. Therefore the world can find nothing in you which it can use to identify you with itself!

The world now sees you as being "alien!" An alien to the world. Even as the Lord Jesus Himself was seen by the world as being "alien" to it. The world could never understand Jesus.

The world hated Him. The world will inevitably hate all those whom He claims as His friends. All those whom He has taken "out of the world."

Once we understand that fact, we will love the Lord Jesus even more. Even as we will love one another more. We will still love the lost in the world even though the world hates us!

"Remember the Word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord!"

He had spoken these words to them immediately after He had washed their feet. (see John 13: 16).

In that context, He was emphasizing the willingness of the servant to be all that his Lord was. The willingness to do everything his Lord was willing to do.

This included: "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you and example, that ye should do as I have done to you" (John 13: 14, 15).

Be! - all He revealed Himself willing to be! Do! - all He revealed He was willing to do!

In the face of His very clear words, we dare not permit the thought that there are some things from which we may excuse ourselves. Some aspects of "menial" service to which we do not have to stoop!

His requirements must be taken very seriously. His Word is unmistakably clear.

"If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep your's also."

There is one aspect of the Christian life with which many have real difficulty. It is: the cost! If only we could be Christians and yet not have to face the cost. The persecution which the Lord Jesus spoke about.

This is not a new problem. "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you" (1 Peter 4: 12).

This is not: "strange!" "Ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings!" "Ye are reproached for the Name of Christ" (Verses 13, 14).

The key: the fact that we are being fully identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. This must include: "The fellowship of His sufferings!" (Philippians 3: 10).

Also, we must keep the entire picture clearly in mind. Remember: "If they have kept My saying, they will keep your's also!" There will be those who do respond positively. Even as there were many who responded in devoted faith to the Lord Jesus.

"If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye!" Yes! "For the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified!" (1 Peter 4: 14).

Paul reveals more of the wonder which is ours in this privileged identification with the Lord Jesus.

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us!" (Romans 8: 18).

The words of the Lord Jesus so gloriously accentuate the positive privilege which is ours as we are identified with Him!

"But all these things will they do unto you for My Name's sake!"

The world will hate you: "For My Name's sake!" The world will persecute you: "For My Name's sake!"

As Christians, we have been re-created! "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2: 10).

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory of the Lord, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3: 18).

"All these things will they do" - because they see Jesus in us! They see, and are challenged by, the very nature of Jesus in our lives. As Peter reminds, it is God's plan that we "be partakers of the divine nature!" (2 Peter 1: 4).

"His Name" refers to Him in all He is. His person and personality. His nature and character. All He is! Thus the negative response of the world to the Christian is the negative response to Jesus in all He is as He abides in and lives in the Christian.

The Lord Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world!" (John 8: 12). He also said to His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world!" (Matthew 5: 14).

into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

"For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved" (John 3: 19, 20).

They will do these things to you. They will! For this reason: they hate you because they hate the light. They persecute you for the same reason they persecuted the Lord Jesus: in a futile attempt to justify themselves in their sin.

They do react negatively to the Christian because they do resent and reject the Christian's Lord! Therefore, the next step is inevitable.

They react negatively to the Lord Jesus because they are so totally ignorant of His Father!

The ignorance which the Lord Jesus is speaking about is the willful ignorance of sin. The deliberate self-inflicted blindness of malicious rebellion against God!

"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. . . . And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man" (Romans 1: 21, 23).

Ignorant: by willful choice! They deliberately chose to believe a lie and be damned! They so willingly gave the devil the opportunity which he sought, to blind "the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (2 Corinthians 4: 4).

As the direct result, their nature is now willful ignorance and deliberate rebellion. They react to those who are Christ's according to that debased and depraved nature. We must not be surprised by that fact.

"If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: But now they have no cloak for their sin."

In this statement, the Lord Jesus is emphasizing an irreversible principle. "If I had not come!" But, He has come! He has come personally. He has come in the fullness of the will and the plan of His Father.

He has come as: "The light of the world!" (John 8: 12). "Light is come into the world!" (John 3: 19). "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men!" (John 1: 4).

In His coming the light of His life radiated throughout the world. The light revealed Him in all He is to man. Even as it revealed man to himself in stark contrast to the Lord Jesus.

He came, as: "The Word of God!" Speaking the Word of God to man. The Word of love and grace. The Word of salvation and life.

But, as we have already seen, "Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved" (John 3: 19, 20).

He spoke The Word. The Word which He spoke was the Word of "the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak" (John 12: 49).

"He that receiveth not My Words, hath one that judgeth him: the Word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" (John 12; 48).

Sin is fully revealed: by the Light! Completely exposed, by His Word. Therefore, "now they have no cloak for their sin!" They cannot hide it. The Light and the Word lay it bare!

The whole elaborate structure of their pretence has been demolished. They are left with no way to conceal their true condition.

There is no difference today. Those who reject, still reject Jesus as the Light. They are still refusing to believe the Word of God.

As we allow the Lord to use us, He as the Light shines through the witness of our lives and our service. When our faithful witness is rejected, it is Jesus as the Light which is rejected.

The Word we speak is His Word, which is still being rejected by so many today.

Then, and now, "they have no cloak for their sin!" Nothing to conceal the shame and the stain of their depraved condition. Thus it should not come as a surprise to us that those who hate Him also hate us through whom He is committed to continue to speak.

Those who hated and rejected the Lord Jesus wanted to attempt to pretend that they still loved and honored God. Such a claim is a perverse delusion.

The attitude of the Son always reveals so clearly the attitude of the Father. The response to the Son should be identical to the response to the Father. In fact, it will be! The Father Himself insists on this!

"That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father!" (John 5: 23).

Those who respond negatively, who "hate!" the servant of the Lord Jesus, are revealing two things. First, the Lord Jesus Himself is being treated in exactly the same way. Second, so is the Father!

That is the actual reality as the Lord Jesus defines it. It is exactly as the Father declares it to be! It is for this reason that we must constantly keep this reality clearly in view.

This is the crucial issue of spiritual identification, as the Lord clearly explains it. As such, it is a great inspiration and encouragement to the servant of the Lord. Particularly when faced with times of difficulty, opposition, and rejection.

"If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin."

It is very interesting to notice that Nicodemus was in full agreement with the Lord Jesus concerning this fact!

"Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with Him" (John 3: 2).

He was right. The evidence of the mighty works which Jesus did was unmistakably clear for every one to see.

The man born blind added his confident witness! "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this Man were not of God, He could do nothing" (John 9: 32, 33). He, too, was completely right!

When confronted by those who were so negative in their attitude to Him, Jesus responded, "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me, and I in Him" (John 10: 37, 38).

He did do the works of His Father! The evidence is so very clear. So strong! There is no other way to explain all that He did. Yet, they still rejected Him!

Their deliberate rejection grew to open hostility. To hatred. Becoming the settled determination to destroy Him! Thus their sin was in full flower.

Remember, He reminds us today, if such is the way they responded to Him, then His people must expect to be treated in exactly the same way.

When we are rejected, it is because He is still rejected! Whenever we are opposed, it is because of this continuing refusal to believe Him. It is a clear witness to the fact that He is in us and we are in Him.

They have seen: Both Jesus and His Father! "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father!" (John 14: 9).

They saw both Jesus and His Father. They rejected both Jesus and His Father. Why? "Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3: 19).

He came! In Him the Light shone so brightly! They resented the Light. The Light reproved them! Exposed them. Convicted and condemned them. They responded in a desperate attempt to extinguish the Light.

They so hated the Light! They hated the Lord Jesus. They hated the Father whom He revealed to them. Their refusal to believe Him inevitably cost them the greatest loss possible. Forcing them into the way of utter and total degeneration as they fled head-long into the depths of the pit of total darkness.

Compulsively lashing out in irrational hatred at every expression of the light which invaded their hiding place.

This was the way it was. The Lord Jesus said so. This is the way it is. We must understand this fact.

"But this cometh to pass, that the Word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause!"

There was no justification. There could be no justification. They did not need any! There was no valid reason. They needed none! Today, they need none!

He was the Light. His Word was the Truth revealing their true condition in sin. His works were the irrefutable witness that He had come from the Father.

It made no difference. They would not yield. They were committed to live in deliberate open revolt against God. They had rejected His right to be God to them! They rejected His Son's right to speak to them.

Nothing has changed! Most Christians today do not want to believe that nothing has changed. People do act in the way they do today for exactly this same reason which the Lord Jesus stated.

Today, people still hate God without any cause to do so. They still hate the Lord Jesus without cause. They still hate His people without cause!

We must humbly, prayerfully seek to understand that this is the actual reality today. Respond to it as our Lord did. In love! "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23: 34).

"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father."

"I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter" (John 14: 16). "Another!" One who is exactly like Jesus. One who comes to faithfully represent the interests of the Lord Jesus.

He is the Spirit of Truth. It is an essential aspect of His mission to bring to our remembrance everything that the Lord Jesus said.

It is so important that we recognize the importance of this statement, particularly in the context in which the Lord Jesus placed it. This assurance related directly to all that the Lord Jesus has just said. Especially to the attitude of the unbelieving world.

Those who, in their unbelief hated the Lord Jesus, thought that they could get rid of Him. They not only failed to accomplish that objective. They were to find themselves confronted by the Holy Spirit whose purpose in coming was to enforce every Word which the Lord Jesus had said!

The Lord Jesus had clearly revealed all that was involved in His coming to this world of sin and unbelief. The complete expression of everything He said would be powerfully proclaimed with even greater effectiveness. With increased impact!

Every Word which the Lord Jesus had spoken! Now to be convincingly applied in the most dynamic conviction. The depth of compelling conviction which no one could evade or avoid.

All of the mighty works of the Lord Jesus, and the strong witness of those works, would be presented with even sharper focus by the Spirit of Truth.

There would be no way to escape this potent and searching witness of the Holy Spirit. No means to extinguish the Light of the Life of the Lord as the Holy Spirit revealed that Light.

No possibility of silencing His voice. Nor ever being able to diminish the strong claims of all He did.

Let the world do its worst! God, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit will hold all men to this reality in a compelling grip which no one could break.

JESUS is LORD! Every knee MUST bow to HIM! Every tongue MUST confess: HE IS LORD!(see Philippians 2: 10,11).

He comes from the Father in exactly the same way the Son came from the Father. "As My father hath sent Me" (John 20: 21).

He comes in the will of the Father. He comes to speak the Word of the Father with all of the authority of the Father.

This was true of the Lord Jesus. It is equally true of the Holy Spirit.

This world crucified the first Messenger sent from the Father in their attempt to silence the Word of the Father. Yet death could never silence His Word. Not even the death of the Son!

In His “death He destroyed him that had the power of death” (Hebrews 2: 14), revealing the glorious triumph of The Word.

Just as the first Messenger which came from the Father could not be silenced, even so this Messenger will never be silenced. No matter what the world attempts to do.

This world, in its rebellious unbelief and deliberate revolt, rejected: JESUS!

This Messenger comes into this same world. He has only one message for this sinful and depraved world. That message: JESUS!

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit filled the disciples as they were assembled in the upper room. What was the direct result of this mighty infilling?

This message: "Ye men of Israel, hear these words; JESUS of Nazareth!" (Acts 2: 22).

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4: 12).

This sinful world of humanity, determined to wallow in the depraved filth of sin, raced headlong into the depths of the darkness. While at the same time they did their utmost to extinguish the Light, and totally failed.

They desperately attempted to silence the Word, and failed! They pursued the most extreme methods to attempt to explain away His words, and failed.

Now they have this to face. The Holy Spirit comes to compel them to see this eternal fact: JESUS is the only way of salvation. The only source of Life.

"And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning."

It is so important for us to understand and emphasize that the primary Witness is: The Holy Spirit! He is the one to whom the Father has entrusted that responsibility. He fully accepts that responsibility.

"Ye also!" As those who are filled with the Spirit. Fully available to the Spirit. Equipped and empowered by the Spirit. He shall use you in His essential ministry of bearing witness to the Lord Jesus.

Witnessing to the Lord Jesus is central and preeminent in the mission of the Holy Spirit in the world. Witnessing to the Lord Jesus is equally central and preeminent in our continuing responsibility in the world.

In our willing submission to the indwelling Holy Spirit He reveals Jesus! To us! In us! Through us! The Holy Spirit is committed to reveal the Lord Jesus to the world in and through our lives and service.

With the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we are recreated as: The Light of the world, exactly as the Lord Jesus said! The world sees in us all that they saw in Jesus! They hear from us the same Word which they heard from Jesus.

"Ye also shall bear witness" to Jesus means all that is the vital personal reality. With all this means to our relationship to this world!

In cooperation with the Holy Spirit, your witness to the world will include all that you yourselves have personally experienced of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every thing which you have seen and heard.

With the Holy Spirit providing the needed guidance and sufficiency in this witness, your witness will be an authentic eye witness account clearly revealing the Lord Jesus. Accurately revealing to the world all that the Lord Jesus is to you. Everything He has done, is doing. As well as everything faith anticipates!

You will continue to powerfully keep Jesus before the world! All you are, say and do will insist that this world see Jesus. Demanding that they listen!

"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me!" (Acts 1: 8).

"You shall be witnesses!" Motivated by love to Him! In loyalty which persists even in the face of the most negative reactions from this world to which you witness!

It is so important to know the facts of all we are dealing with, as the Lord Jesus reveals them. Seeking to ever understand the reality as He defines it for us.

We are His living witnesses who constantly keep the Lord Jesus before the hostile world. This world hated Him. Still hates Him. Still hates all who witness to Him.

In the same love in which He motivates, we accept our identification with Him in the attitude of thankful praise. We willingly embrace the inevitable cost. Having only one desire, “That in all things He might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1: 18).. The Lord Jesus be glorified.

"The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us!" (Romans 8: 18).