THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE

Pastor Carolyn Sissom \ September 9nd, 2010 (7248 views)

 
Last week we ended our message of Jesus’ “Six Days before Passover”.   On the Tuesday before Passover,  Jesus predicted his death,  departed and hid himself from the people.  This was the end of Jesus’ public ministry.  He spent the next two days with His disciples.  He prepared them for His death; the Baptism and Ministry of the Holy Ghost; the cost of being His disciples and their ordination as Apostles. 
 
 This week the Lord gave me a revelation in Chapter Fifteen of this occupation of the Apostle.  It is something I have been praying-through for many months now.  The Lord reveals to His Disciples, His choosing of them, and their appointment as apostles is all bound up in the law of mutual love.  Shortly they will encounter the HATRED of the world.  Only as they stand together in this mutual love, which manifests His presence among them, will they be able to meet hatred and triumph over it.   This triumphing has been a test for me personally for several months.  The 21st Century Apostles have been chosen, tested and prepared.  However, we will not come in to the place of our callings for this hour of the church  until we can meet hatred and triumph over it.  Many have tried to exalt themselves with the calling.  This is exactly what Jesus dealt with by washing their feet.  This Office is not one of exaltation, but one which must overcome religious hatred, jealousy  and fanaticism.
 
It seems there is Kingdom of God work to be done that is still ahead for me.  I have been asked to stand in this high calling.  If I am asked to stand, then there is a purpose.  The church must be able to overcome hatred in the challenges of the days ahead.  Until, we the Church, are able to overcome hatred, there will be no one to lead the church into the Harvest of the world.   It is sobering. 
 
 
.  Let us continue on our journey of Jesus’ next two days to the Cross.  We will speak more of this matter of overcoming hatred later.  Hatred was what nailed Jesus  to the Cross. 
 
13:1-2a “Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knew that the moment had arrived for Him to make the transition from this world to the Father.  Yet so completely did He love His own which were in the world, nothing could keep him from going the limit for them; " even though the devil had successfully planted the idea of betraying Jesus in the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.”
 
His message to them is 13:34-35:  A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one to another.”
 
He did this through the demonstration of washing their feet.  The washing of feet should have been cared for before the meal.  Apparently there was no host to see that the disciples’ feet were washed, neither were any slaves about.  No disciple volunteered for the job.  Luke says they were too busy arguing who was the greatest among them since the lowest in rank would inherit the task (Luke 22:24).   The absence of slaves no doubt kindled their struggle for pre-eminence.  When their debate was the hottest, Jesus arose from the table to assume the role of a slave.  The room was instantly silent.  Then He brought part II of His lesson bending to the task they shunned.  He washed their feet!  Likely He began with Judas.
 
The Lord dealt with Peter’s pride twice in this section.
 
(8)  Peter refused to allow the Lord to wash His feet, the Lord’s rebuke is that Peter is still not tenderly submissive.  He is dictatorial and the Lord must deal with Peter further.
(38) Peter boasted that he was ready to lay down His life for Jesus.  The Lord prophesied to him that before the cock crows three times, Peter would deny the Lord three times.
 
Chapter Fourteen is described as the Holy of Holies.  In a few hours the disciple’s faith will meet the severest test.  They will have to trust God that the arrest and execution of Jesus is part of a divine plan.  In the next three chapters, he ministers to them of His ministry beyond the Cross and the Grave.  In a little over 50-days he returns to them, but not in a body.  That part of the Lord’s work was over.  On the day of Pentecost, He returned to take up the larger part of His ministry, that of building His church.  (Matt. 16:18)  The process by which he would do this was baptizing people into His Spirit, so as to be eternally united with them.  At this point the disciples have no hint that he will indwell them and they will be baptized into the body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:13)  “For by One Spirit are we all baptized into One Body.”
 
(8)  "Show us the Father, exclaimed Philip and we will be satisfied."  Many today would like to discover God apart from Jesus Christ.  They prefer some other form of revelation rather than His incarnation as the Carpenter.  Jesus taught that He was the only revelation of deity that we are not to look for anything or anyone beyond Himself.  He reveals the complete personality of the Godhead. (Col. 2:9)”For in Him dwellest all of the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”
 
(12) “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that He that believes on me the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my father.” A mere 120 souls gathered in the upper room prior to Pentecost.  But through Peter on the day of Pentecost, Jesus’ ministry as the Great Baptizer has ushered in a harvest of souls on the earth. 
 
(20) “ At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you.  He that has my commandments and keeps them he it is that loves me; and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
 
At that day, is the Day of Pentecost.  Also, on that day, their understanding was open to His indwelling them.    John the Baptist announced Jesus as the Great Baptizer.  Yet Jesus never baptized anyone in the days of His flesh.  The Holy Spirit carefully put into the record how only His disciples did that.  (John 4:2)”Though Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples.”  Jesus’ work as a baptizer lay beyond the Cross. 
 
Then Jesus begins to teach them of how He will tabernacle with them.  (23)  “If a man loves me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
 
This is the Shekinah Glory of God.  In the days of Jesus’ flesh, the Shekinah was in Him, but now in these days of the SPIRIT,  the Shekinah is in us!  Wonder of Wonders!!  What then is the real dignity of man when the God of all glory is able to dwell within him!
 
In Chapter Fifteen, the Lord’s discussion is not salvation, but fruit-bearing or the productivity of the Christian’s life.  Until a man submits to Jesus’ word and allows his life to be disciplined by what Jesus said, he does not even begin to abide.  Beyond that, he must align his ambitions with those of the Lord so that they have one mind and one objective between them. 
 
As they talk, vineyard fires flicker along the slopes of the Kidron.  A Passover moon bathes the stripped vineyard.  The teaching is dramatic.   In Chapter Fifteen of Ezekiel, under the Hand of the Lord, Ezekiel prophesies this same parable to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
 
Now again in John 15, the Lord uses the same parable to teach.  It is not the stalk that bears the fruit, but the branches.  The stalk supplies the energy and sustenance needed to cause the grapes to form and ripen.  By this, the Lord teaches that the disciples will do the actual work in the “greater” ministry of building His church.  While He worked in them supplying what they need (power) to accomplish it.  They will bear fruit with  Him in this marvelous partnership.  But two kinds of branches are mentioned – productive and non-productive.  As pretty branches are useless to a vineyard owner, so are fruitless disciples of no value to God.  These have to be cut out, for they have no other value in the vineyard business.  The Lord has only one thing in mind—building His church.  Note the branches are not dead, just unproductive. 
 
(Verse 7)  This is a key to an effective prayer life.  “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.”
 
In 14:14, Jesus cautioned that prayer requests must be limited to petitions in His Name, i.e. consistent with His character and ambition.  Now he advises them they can ask and receive anything  provided it coincides with  what He has taught them. 
 
He is telling them that one cannot be a disciple until He bears fruit.  He can be a Christian, but not a disciple.  How solemn that God would depend on us for the display of His Glory!
 
15:16  The Lord spoke this scripture to me when He called me into full time ministry.  It is the scripture printed on all of the Eastgate  ministry stationary.  “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain;”  The disciples thus received their Apostolic offices.  This is their authority to go into action.  Christianity is to grow, not die with the death of its founder.  Fruit-bearing is connected with prayer.  This is a double-ordination, both to go and to pray.  The Lord makes prayer a part of the Commission.  Without Jesus there can be no fruit-bearing process. 
 
All that Jesus told them in Verses 11-17, He now sums up in one utterance, “This is my charge to you, Love One Another.”
 
Then comes the next verse:  “If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
 
Bingo!!!  HATE!!!   We seldom use that word in the church world.  It is not a pretty word.  We will not fulfill the commission of Apostleship to bring in the Harvest of the World until we can “Overcome and Triumph” over this.  The world hates Christ.  That’s certain.  They still do.  Hatred of the Jews was what nailed Him to the Cross.  The world advocates ego-exaltation, condones greed and approves selfish ambition.  The rich and powerful are always admired.  Jesus’ way opposes that of the world.  He is hated because of it.  The extent to which the world hates us is the extent to which it sees Christ in us.  The Christian whom the world approves, cannot be like Christ.
 
(22) If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin…but this came to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.”
 
As the Jews hated Jesus for His words, His works stirred equal hatred.  They saw the mighty things He did and were jealous because they couldn’t match them.  Because He healed, they wanted to hurt Him.  Because Hiw works were proof he came from God, they became enraged and attributed them to the devil.  With every work He performed, whether redemptive or healing, they “blinded” their eyes rather than see Him for Who he was.  In their fury to disavow Him, they cast aside all fear of  God and openly hated Him “without cause” (Psa. 35:19)  The Greek for “without cause” means as a gift.  God’s gift to His people was that of love, light and life.  They returned it with their gift of hatred, disownment and crucifixion. 
 
Jesus will soon depart the world amidst shame and hate.  The disciples appointed to the Holy Office of Apostles will inherit the reputation of the despised and rejected Carpenter –not an enviable situation.  But Jesus has an answer, His replacement, will return as the Holy Ghost to indwell the disciples, thus forming a blessed partnership.  It will be the task of the Holy Ghost to certify the words of witness uttered by the apostles.  That is why he is called the Spirit of Truth.  Men will hear  words from the lips of Jesus’ disciples.  Those who were there have been with Jesus from the first.  Those who were to come as in the case of the Apostle Paul, will receive a visitation and direct call from the risen Lord.  The commisioning of the Apostle Paul is the continuity of the Office of the Apostle throughout the Church age.  Paul's call and commission was dramatic.  I believe it is and will continue to be so for all who are called to be an Apostle,. 
 
If the ministry of the disciples is destined to be rejected, wouldn’t their persistent witnessing provoke fierce hatred against them?  “ I have told you all this in advance so that your faith in me will not be shaken when these things come to pass.  They will excommunicate you from the synagogues, yea do even worse to the time is coming when the man who kills you will think he is rendering God a real service."
 
I believe I have delivered the message of the Lord has given to me for this Sunday before Easter, 2008.
 
Judas betrayed the Lord for GREED.
Peter denied the Lord for PRIDE and to save his own skin.
All of the disciples DESERTED Him when He was arrested.
The High Priests guards slapped Him in CONTEMPT.
Pilate tried to HUMILIATE him with a scourging, the Crown of Thorns and the Purpled robe, but was  a COWARD and would not make a stand for Him with the Jews.
THE HATRED OF THE JEWS DEMANDED THAT HE BE CRUCIFIED.
 
19:17  “And bearing His cross went forth into a placed called the place of a skull which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha;  Where they crucified him and two others with him on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.  And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews….it was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin.
 
Pilate could post no crime over Jesus.  The inscription in its three-fold form symbolized the Kingship of Jesus over the world:
 
In the language of religion (Hebrew)
In the language of wisdom and culture (Greek)
In the language of power and government (Latin)
 
 
(29)    Jesus says, “I Thirst”.  Six hours have gone by.  John says nothing of the three hours of darkness that covered the earth. 
 
(30    When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished”: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.
 
(34)    “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”
 
Next Sunday, “Resurrection Glory”.
 
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
www.eastgateministries.com
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Scripture from KJV.  Text from Lovett’s Lights on John by C.S. Lovett.  Comments are my own.