They Will Treat You This Way

John 15:16-21 – You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 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. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not 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 17:14 – I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.

Matthew 5:10 – Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

John 16:3 – They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.

Application:

• ·         Jesus enables us to bear fruit, and then the Father will hear our prayers.
• ·         “The world” is the world that is hostile to God and God’s people.
• ·         Because Christians do not belong to the world, persecution from the world is inevitable.
• ·         Righteous living is often offensive to unbelievers.
• ·         Not to know Christ is to be ignorant of the Father.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV