Let's turn back in our Bibles to John chapter 15. I want to encourage you, as we look at this passage, it's a rather long one for me, as you know. I usually take a verse or two. Dennis and I were talking about that yesterday and how with John's gospel taken bigger chunks than normal than we would like if we were in Ephesians or Romans or something where, you know, we could camp on, you know, a verse or even you probably could a word even. But I want to encourage you to put your thinking caps on this morning, because we do have a good bit of material to cover. But it all really goes together in its one package, and I want to try to present it that way, rather than going into a lot of great detail about any one aspect of it, to try to look at it as a whole in these verses before us, 15, 18 through 16, 4, and to, I hope, glean some help that Jesus intends for us to receive for testifying of Him in the world, of evangelizing. I know that that's a difficult thing for all of us. There are a few people out there that just have that kind of personality, that they're very outgoing and it seems to come easy to them, but that's not most of us. And so I hope that we will receive from Jesus this morning help in sharing Him with the world. What goes through the minds of those volunteers who get behind a political candidate, and we're in primary season right now, and so it's been a really interesting and rather weird primary season, historically speaking. But think about how, and I've been wondering about this, we have a person who is convinced that this particular candidate would be the best person for the job. They are the right person out of all of them that are available, that are even interested in running. They're the right one. to eventually become president of the United States. And so they pour everything into it. I'm talking about these people that they volunteer their time. Maybe they take off time from work. And they're always down there at the campaign headquarters for their area. And they're making phone calls. And they're sending letters. And they're doing everything they can, even as much money as they can, they put into it. They get behind a particular candidate. And their hopes run high throughout the primary season. But then, you know, state after state, after, you know, several losses, after one particular loss, their candidate gets up to give their concession speech about that state. But then they surprise them and they suspend his or her campaign completely. What must go through the mind of those people who have poured so much into that? And they put all of their hopes into this particular candidate. This is the one. And now the one. Has suspended their campaign. What are they going to do at this point? I mean, they they've spent so much time. trying to prove not only that their candidate was the right one, but that all the other candidates are the wrong ones. And they have done so much and put so much rhetoric behind whenever they talk to people and everything that, you know, As we've seen in this campaign season, this primary season, a lot of tough things are said about, you know, the other candidates, if you will. I mean, I know that's how politics works. You know, you have to promote yourself and destroy everybody else. You know, that's just how they do it. And so now can they support this other candidate? And if they decide to, will they be warmly received? Or will they say, yeah, I know what you were saying about us all this time, and now you want to join us? Are they going to be warmly received by them? Or are they going to meet with anger and hatred? So imagine with me the bewilderment, the confusion, the loss of direction, and the grief that Jesus' disciples must have felt in these last hours before he dies here in what's sometimes called the upper room discourse, his farewell discourse, where Jesus leaves his marching orders for his disciples. They've put all of their time. I mean, they actually took off from jobs. You know, they just gave it up. It's not like I'm going to use my vacation time to support a candidate. They gave up their jobs. They left all that. They've left everything. They've left their families. They're following Jesus. They put all their eggs in that basket. He's the one hope of Israel. And indeed, we think he's the Messiah. He is the hope of Israel. And in that day, they more wrongly, I mean, they thought of him primarily as a political deliverer. So you can see kind of the tie with our primary season. And Jesus one day will come back and he will then be the head of the government. And it will, you know, it rests on his shoulders and all, but not today and not that day. And so he's told them, you know, guys here, they're getting excited and they're thinking, OK, you know, and which one of us is going to be at his right hand and which one, you know, we're going to be, you know, what order in his kingdom and and, you know, they're excited about it. He's going to take over and and this is going to be great. And he says, oh, and by the way, I'm going to die and I'm going to leave. What do they make of this? What do they do now? And Jesus is talking here in his farewell discourse about. OK, guys, I'm going to leave and I'm going to leave the ministry in your hands and what? We're not even sure we don't even know what you're doing. And we've seen how things went with you. You know, you served God, you ministered faithfully and yeah, look what happened. They're in Acts 1, they're going to count 120. That's it. Out of the thousands. And I mean, OK, you're Messiah and the best you can come up with is 120. And we're all pretty shaky at that. And you expect us to go out there and make a difference in the world. So do they just give up in disappointment? Do they? How are they going to handle the hostility? OK, if we do, you know, try to carry on your ministry, Jesus. I mean, these people have been hateful. And in just a few hours, he's going to be dead, murdered by his opponents. And the thought in their mind is, OK, and Jesus wants us to go on and carry on this ministry. They murdered God. So what are we supposed to do? We're just people. We're not God, the son. Should they give up and just rejoin the opposition? OK, priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, OK, you win. You know, when we were first saved, we can't wait to tell people about what we found. But, you know, it didn't take long till we realized that people don't want what we have. And it only makes matters worse when you open your mouth and start talking about Jesus. And then they really get angry. And the funny thing is, have you noticed this? When you hang around people, whether it's, you know, maybe at school or work or in your neighborhood or wherever, that people just get angry if you're around. You don't even say anything. And, you know, I've noticed that at work. There are times where if I'm hanging around people, it's just just like, you know, they they start into a dirty joke and I just politely excuse myself. And some of them, you know, are respectful. They say, I understand you. That's not your thing. You know, they don't understand why. But OK, that's cool. But other people, they get upset about it. Oh, who does he think he is? Is he too good for us, you know? I don't know about you, but most of us find it difficult to talk to unbelievers about Jesus. Is there help for us? You bet. Jesus gives his disciples three precious possessions. to help them prepare for a hostile world. He gives them three precious possessions to help them prepare for a hostile world. He's going to give them advance notice. He's going to give them his Holy Spirit. He's going to give them insight. These are things we're going to talk about this morning, things that he gives us to help us. Be. Able to engage ourselves. with this world that is going to hate us. And in fact we find that it does hate us. Here in John 15, what Jesus is doing is in this larger section where he's preparing his disciples, we focus down here, chapter 15 and a little bit of 16 this morning. What he's doing is we saw the first part of chapter 15 that he's telling us you have to be rightly related to me. You've got to be plugged into me as the vine. You've got to be vitally connected. You've got to draw your energy, your spiritual life from me. And that's the only way that you will bear fruit. Otherwise you can do what? Nothing, absolutely nothing apart from Jesus. And then he tells them in verses 12 through 17, that you have to also be rightly related to one another. And what's the one word there? Love, right? You are to love one another. Now, do we get to make up how we love each other? Should we, you know, put together, maybe break up in little groups and brainstorm about, OK, how do we think we should love one another? Is that what he told us to do? No. He says you're to love one another. How? Because he loved us. And he doesn't leave that open either, because then he spelled out for us a number of different ways, examples of how he loves us. And he says, OK, and that's how I want you to go and love one another. So as we are plugged into Jesus, if you will, if we are connected to the vine so that his life is flowing through us and then we have the support of one another, where we love one another, we give each other that mutual support. And he says, then and only then I'm sending you out into the world. because you need to be rightly related to them and they are hostile. And how are we to relate to them. His point is that you are to testify about the truth of Jesus testify to the good news testify to who Jesus is. That's how we're to be related to the world. And so we must be prepared to testify of Christ, and it won't be easy. So we must utterly depend upon the Lord first. We must exercise mutual love for one another so we have that mutual support. We're going to need that if we're going to go out into the world, if we're going to bring the gospel to the world. But we must reach out to that hostile world with the good news of Jesus. you know, threats, insults, hardships. They put pressure on disciples to modify the message. You know, we might be tempted to kind of alleviate the hostility. You know, you talk to somebody about Jesus and they don't take it well. You lost a friend. And so you're thinking about friend number two and, you know, maybe I need to leave the sin thing out. Because it really made the other person mad, and I lost a friend. You know, or the holiness of God part, I need to kind of leave that out. Jesus is the only way part, you know, that just makes them mad. They don't like hearing that Jesus isn't the only way. And so we soften it, we adjust it, you know, I just want to tweak it a little bit, you know, for modern times. You know, I would make the gospel available to the modern man, you know, that kind of thing. I want to try to make it easier to receive, but Jesus' call here is to press on in love toward a world sinking into hell, offering them the good news of salvation from sin, good news of salvation from the wrath of God. You see, sin and the wrath of God didn't change any, and so the message cannot change. And he calls us to preach it, but to to have confidence, to be bold when we present the gospel to this hostile world, to present it without shame. without compromise. So what are these precious possessions that Jesus gives us? And I gave you a quick rundown a moment ago. Let's go into them in detail now. First, Jesus' disciples have advanced notice that they will face a hostile world. We'll look at this in verses 18 to 25. Jesus' disciples have advanced notice. He gives them advanced notice that they will face a hostile world. What he's doing here is he's eliminating the surprise factor. You know, he doesn't want us, you know, we're all excited about, you know, telling people about Jesus and we go out into the world and, you know, and you're like, oh, my. Something's wrong here, and then we're tempted to just throw it all away. John later in 1 John 3, 13 is going to also advise Christians. Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you. Don't be surprised by that. Go out there and take the gospel to them, but know that many of them will hate you for it. Don't be surprised. This world that he talks about here is made up of those who actively rebel against God and against his Christ, his Messiah, Jesus. It's a world system of darkness. It's very well organized. They don't have an official organization, if you will, but they are very well organized. It's made up of political leaders. One day the early disciples would run into that, they would find that Rome is not going to be a friend. But even before that, they're going to find that the religious leaders out of which, you know, Judaism that they came, they are going to hate them. You see, and that's where they potentially could be surprised. Like, well, you know, Israel's been looking for the Messiah and want to take the Messiah to them. You know, if you go even to Israel today and there's certain areas in the Jewish quarter and things like that, you go in there where the ultra-Orthodox are and you tell them that Jesus is the Messiah, they'll kill you. And that's a surprise. Or it can be. And then there's ordinary people. You will find that you're family. will get upset when you tell them about Jesus, your friends will get upset when you tell them about Jesus. So why do they hate us? Well, first, he says here that they hate us because of our union with Jesus. Look at verse 18. If the world hates you. You know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. It's normal. It's normal. For us to. see this kind of response, a response of hatred. Why? Well, we once were part of them. Think about, if you're saved, think about when you were saved and there may have been people you stopped running with. There are some people, rightly, you just cut off completely because that was the right thing to do. There are other people that you just don't do the things you used to do with them. And, you know, hey, you want to go party? No, let's read the Bible, you know. So it's like, you know. They see us as rebels. We've betrayed our fellow sinners. That's the way they look at it. And that's why they don't like us. They're like, okay, you think you're better than us? You know, they come up with all those little ways of, you know. There's an important point that you need to note here for evangelism that he talks about. He says in verse 19 that I chose you out of the world. You know, sometimes Christians struggle with, how do I connect with people who are so different from me? I mean, they do things that I don't do. They don't do things that I do, like go to church and read my Bible and talk about Jesus. So how do I connect with people that are so different from me? Well, right here, Jesus tells us, I chose you out of the world. In other words, guess what? You used to be part of it, whether you realize it or not. Now, if you were like me and you grew up in a pretty good Christian home, used to go into church and things like that, you don't really think of yourself as having been part of the world, but you were. And you just have to take a little time and think about what was I really like before Christ? You know, OK, maybe I didn't do, you know, that list of don'ts. But. You used to be them. And we need to remember that so that we can connect with them, not that we go back and do it again, not that we tolerate, not that we, you know, say, oh, that's fine. I used to do that, too. Not that. But you should be able to empathize with them. You should have compassion because you think back, you know, oh, how I was so deceived. And so when you wonder why do they do this, it destroys their body. You know, I used to be that. And so, you know, you start talking to him about Jesus. And I've heard this a lot of times. Well, I can never be holy like you or I can never be as good as you or I can never be a Christian like you. And. That's where you stop them and you say, well, stop right now. I used to be I maybe didn't do the same thing you did, but I had my own list of sins. I was enslaved to these things. I was just as lost as you are. I was just as deceived. I was absolutely no better than you, and I'm still no better than you, except that I am in Christ. And you see, that's how we we should have compassion for them, and we should be able to empathize with them and say, I understand what you deal with and you struggle with. Because I am a sinner too, and I was lost too. I was blind as well. But Jesus saved me out of this world. That's how we connect with them, if you're armed with that. Now, you know, when Dennis read it, and then when I just read it again, 18 through most of verse 20, it sounds kind of bleak, doesn't it? You know, they're going to hate you. And guess what? They're going to hate you and they're going to hate you. You know, you're just like, oh, you know. But there's a wonderful note of great hope at the end of verse 20. So after saying, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you, then he says, if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. Praise the Lord. You see, because there were some who kept his word up to this point, 120. But. Here's the encouragement. You know, we've talked a lot about, OK, you've got 11. And then next one, you know, you got 120 that they were able to count out. Doesn't sound like a whole lot. But you remember what happened in Acts two. The 11, Jesus pours his spirit out on the 11 and guess what? Multiplies to 3000. I mean, just like that. You see, and he's going to get to the spirit here in just a little bit. But there's a note of hope because, yes, you know, you might tell ten people about Jesus and nine of them may get mad at you, reject you. But there might be that one. And I don't know what the what the numbers are going to be for you. It might be one out of three. It might be one out of one hundred, one out of a thousand. We don't know. But he said, if they listen to me, then there's going to be some that are going to listen to you. There's great hope in that. And so our job is just go out there and preach the gospel to as many as we can and see where those few, and few for you might be a lot. Some people have the gift of evangelism and they may lead hundreds or thousands to Christ. And for you and me, it may be a few here and there throughout the years. But there will be some. OK, so they they hate us because of our union with Jesus, and that one really governs these other ones I'm going to talk about why they hate us. If we're in union with Jesus. Then guess what? If they hated him, they're going to hate us, and that's what he says, right? So the second point of why they hate us, they hate Jesus because they lack real knowledge of his father. Verse 21, but all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know the one who sent me. And then verse 23, he who hates me hates my father also. He talks about how they didn't know a lot about God. I mean, yeah, they knew they could probably get pretty good grades on a theology test. They knew a lot of facts about God. But he says, you know, but they didn't know what really counted, because what happened? Well, when God the Son came to earth. He revealed God in the fullest sense, fuller than God had ever been revealed to man. And they rejected him. So you see, what happens is they've rejected the fullest revelation of God when they rejected Jesus. Without real truth of God's character, they've rejected Jesus. Then he says, and then for his name's sake, they're going to reject us, too. You know, because what do we come armed with? This revelation in Jesus, right? The revelation of God through Jesus Christ. See, he and his father are so tightly connected that he says, you know, if you accept one, you accept the other. And if you hate one, you hate the other. And then what he's doing is he's been telling us all along is now I'm I'm inviting you all. I'm bringing you all in. So as the vine and the branches, you will share into this this closeness that the father and I have eternally experienced and enjoyed. And I'm pulling you into that, but guess what? If they hated me, they're going to hate you. You see, so it's a great blessing, but sometimes it's hard. They also hate Jesus because he exposes their sin. Verse twenty two, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. And verse twenty four, if I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have both seen and hated me and my father as well. His phrase here literally is that they have no sin or they they if he had not come, they would not have sin. Now, that doesn't mean that if Jesus had not come, then they would be you know, they would not be headed for hell. He's not saying that he's not saying they were nice and innocent all this time, and then I came and boom, now they're in trouble. What he's talking about here is that when he came and revealed God to the fullest extent that God has ever been revealed to man, that that shone such a light on their sin, that it also was the most revealing of sin that has ever taken place. Because you see, in the light of Jesus, not only do we look to Him and we see His light, we see who God is, we see what God is like, That light also shines on our sin. And so. If we look at how how holy. That how righteous is our savior, the son of God. And then we compare ourself to him, not to one another, but to him. It reveals our sin. And you see what happened is that God Himself came to earth. God the Son came to earth. He took on the form of a man, took on a human nature, and guess what? They rejected Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. John 1. He revealed the root of all of their sins. The root of all sin is a rebellion against God. Whenever you sin, even as a believer in Christ, when you sin, you're telling God, I'm rebelling against you. I'm going to go ahead and do this. You say, don't do it, but I'm going to do it anyway. That's rebellion against God. That's what our sin is. John would later in his first epistle say that sin is lawlessness. It's breaking God's law. It's saying, God, I don't care what your law says. I don't care what you say. I'm doing this. You see, that's what Jesus has revealed to them. The root of their sin is rebellion against God. Jesus, in chapter seven, verse seven, said that he testified that their deeds were evil. And guess what? They hated him. When Jesus spoke, they heard the words of his father, 519. When Jesus worked, they beheld the works of his father, 434. When they saw Jesus, they saw God, 149. Jesus explained God to them, 118. You see, when Jesus came, he not only was the fullest revelation of God, but as I said, that revelation shines the most penetrating light upon sin. Now. You know, we rightly call that. The bad news, right, you know, we talk about the good news and we say, OK, you got to know the bad news first before you can know the good news, but, you know, there's a sense in which the bad news is good news. Because each one of us, every sinner needs to first come to the point where they understand they are a sinner, they are condemned before God, they are not righteous, they can do nothing to make themselves righteous. They have to see that they are dead in sin. Now. When they come to realize that. If the spirit of God is working in them, it's really good news because then they will cast themselves on his on on the mercy of Jesus and say, oh, have merciful mercy on me, a sinner. And then they will be ready to hear the good news that in Jesus, He forgives sin. He has paid for their sin. So, yes, it is right to call this the bad news, but it can be very good news when the Spirit of God works and convicts them of that and convinces them that they are sinners. So don't be shy about talking about sin. You have to. Now, there are some people who already come to you and they're they're broken there. They know they're a sinner. That's why they came to you. Okay, they got it. Now you can move right on into the good news as we say it. But if they're not there yet, you have to share that with them. And in your head, at least think of the discussion of sin as good news. If I can just get this through to them, if the spirit of God will take what I say about sin from the what I say from the Bible about sin and he impresses that on their heart and convinces them, then, oh, is it ever good news? Because now they know they need a savior. And that is good news, right? And then they hate Jesus because it was foretold in the Old Testament. They hate Jesus because it was foretold in the Old Testament, verse twenty five, but they have done this in order that the word may be fulfilled, that it is written in their law, their law. They hated me without a cause. When the world is hostile toward us. We shouldn't fret as if God's salvation plan is at risk. You're talking with someone about Christ and things are going along pretty good, and then they turn hostile on you. Hmm, I wonder if God's plan even works. No, actually, it's right on schedule. That's what you need to remind yourself of. And so Jesus gives an example here for us, an example from his own experience. Remember, he's Messiah, and he quotes from a Messianic prophecy in Psalm 69, verse 4. They hated me without a cause. He's saying they're fulfilling a prophecy about me. Their own law, the ones who hated him, their own law said that they would hate him. Now, how convicting that should have been. But that's an example for us. So whenever you do share Christ with people and they hate you. And just remember, God already said they would right here in the words of Jesus, he said, if they hated me, they will hate you. And just as Jesus hung on to that, he knew that God's program is right on schedule. You ought to think that, too, whenever they hate you. OK, so we said the first precious possession that Jesus gives us is that he gives us advance notice that we will face a hostile world, takes the surprise factor out. Second, the second precious possession is this. Jesus' disciples have God's spirit to help them testify to this hostile world. Jesus' disciples have God's spirit to help them testify to this hostile world. We'll look at that in verses 26 and 27. But Jesus once again, as he has already done, this is now the third, as we call paraclete in Greek word for helper, comforter that you might find in your translation. The third paraclete passage, he's going to have a longer one in chapter 16. But Jesus reminds him of what he said already. The Spirit's going to come to you. The Spirit of God will come. Look at verse twenty six. When the helper comes whom I will send to you from the father, that is the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness of me. So what does the helper do? Well, second, the spirit will testify about Jesus. So he said there at the end of verse twenty six, he the spirit will testify about me. You see what Jesus is saying is that, OK, you know how hostile the world has been toward me. You've seen that you've had front row seats to that. And I'm going to be leaving, but guess what? The hostilities are not going to end. Why? Because I'm going to send the spirit and what's he going to do? He's going to keep him stirred up. How? He's going to testify about me. So you see, the Spirit of God is going to be constantly there, you know, testifying about Jesus. Some people are going to get saved. Other people are going to get stirred up to hostility. And he said, so he's going to be testifying about me. You might remember back in Chapter 5, verses 31 to 40, Jesus gave us four witnesses that testify that he's the Messiah. And we talked about, you know, there's John the Baptist, and there's Jesus' word, there's Jesus' works, and there's the Father. And Jesus now adds a fifth, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will testify that Jesus is indeed the Christ. He is the Messiah. He's the Son of God who takes away the sin of the world. But along with that, along with the witnessing of the Spirit, Jesus' disciples will testify about Jesus. Verse 27, And you will bear witness also, because you have been with me from the beginning. The witness of God's Spirit and the witness of disciples, they're necessarily intertwined here. Jesus puts them right together. Why? Because we have to be the mouths that testify. The Spirit of God isn't this voice on the wind that talks to people audibly. He uses us and we have to be the mouths that that speak the good news of Jesus. But. It is not up to us to convince them. It's not up to us to convict them. It's not up to us to make them see the light and actually come to Christ. It's not up to us to redeem them, to transform them, to give them new birth. That's the Spirit's job. And so as we testify of Jesus, the Spirit of God will be working in that, and He will be testifying, and He's the one that really is going to make the difference and make them get it if he ordains that they get it. We have to work together with the Spirit of God depending on his power and his work of witnessing, of testifying. We have to depend on that if we're going to be effective in saving souls for Jesus. And now the third precious possession. We have an advanced notice that we'll face a hostile world. We have the Holy Spirit to help us testify to this hostile world. And now third, Jesus' disciples have insight to keep them from falling away. Jesus' disciples have insight to keep them from falling away. You see, as they face this hostile world, they need this insight that we're going to talk about. First, Jesus warning prepares his disciples to stand firm during persecution. So he's he gives us a warning so that we can stand firm and we will stand firm during persecution. Look at verses one and two. These things I have spoken to you that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts from the synagogue. But an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he's offering service to God. See Jesus is concerned of a real threat that his disciples will face all through the ages. The threat of apostasy. the threat that, you see, when he talks about to keep you from stumbling, he's using that word some of you are familiar with. It's the verb form of the noun scandalon, a stumbling stone, a stone of stumbling, you know. And the idea behind that word actually is the idea of trapping someone. Sometimes it was used of the little stick, you know, kids, if you ever made a trap for birds, you know, and you get a box or something like that and you prop it up with a little stick and, you know, the bird goes in there and then hopefully they bump the stick and it falls on them. Kids did that back then, too, and adults, too, you know. That's how they would trap animals sometimes. They'd have a little stick that would trip. Okay, they would sometimes call that the scandalon. And the idea here is that Jesus wants to prepare his disciples so that they not fall into these traps. Those traps are going to be there. He's not taking the traps away. He doesn't want them to get entrapped. And so he says that he wants to keep them from them. Traps like worldly wisdom. This is the big one today, I think. Because persecution is not that bad here in the U.S. Compared to other places I mean you go to Iran you go to you know a lot of other places in the world and you can actually die for being a Christian and For preaching the gospel It's a lot of places. It's against the law Here it's not you can do it, and you know people might get mad at you and stuff. They're probably gonna kill you But what's worse here today? I think is worldly wisdom Because what happens is we start thinking, well, you know, it will pull business principles, you know, management principles in that kind of thing, marketing principles. That's kind of a biggie now. And all these different things that if we do this because this really worked, you know, at my job. So let's pull this in and maybe this will work in church, too. So it's pulling worldly wisdom in things that may be entirely appropriate for business. But it goes against the gospel. It goes against the method that Jesus gives us. You know, it's back to what I was talking about where, OK, maybe we need to kind of smooth some of the rough edges over. You know, people like to hear about the exclusivity of Jesus. He's the only way. That just makes them mad. So how about if I leave that out of the gospel and then later on, you know, I'll tell them, oh, by the way, you know, Kind of slip it in or something, you know. But that worldly wisdom, in some places in the world today, intense persecution is a trap. You know? I mean, think about it. If we were over there as a missionary, and we're telling people about Jesus, and you find out that, oh, do you know it's illegal to do that? And so-and-so was killed just recently for doing what you're doing right now. You might fall into the trap of, you know, I'm going to tell them, you know, any way is a good way. You just got to be sincere in it or whatever, you know. Those are traps, and the danger is to fall away from the faith, because what happens when you fall into one of these traps? You modify the gospel, you soften the gospel, you change the gospel, and when you do that, it's not the gospel anymore. Jesus says that he'll preserve them through these trials. And the first way he does it is by giving them the insight here. This is going to happen. And he says here in verse two that many persecutors are going to think they have good intentions. They're going to kick you out of the synagogue. And he said, you know, and some of them are even going to think that they are offering service, the same word we find in Romans 12.1 for your worshipful service or your spiritual service of worship. We translate it different ways. It's a word for worship. They're going to think they're actually offering worship to God by killing you. Anybody come to mind? Paul. He really thought, looking back, he said, you know, I was so ignorant. I thought I was serving God. I thought I was doing something that was going to please God by putting Christians in prison, knowing that they're probably going to be put to death. Being there when Stephen was put to death, and I was all for that. They're going to think that they're actually serving God. And it's not just the Jews that would do that. How many other religions out there? How many people in the name of Christianity kill other Christians? because of their disagreements. And they think they're doing a service to God. And so do you see the insight here? He helps us to see what's going on in their head. So it may not be that they're a hateful person. Paul may have been really, really nice to the people that he liked. The people who were on his side. He may have been a great guy. And in his head, he thought, you know, I'm doing something for God. And so he was then hateful, but he thought that that hatefulness was love for God. It gives us insight to understand them. Second, persecution comes. This is part of the insight. Persecution comes from those who lack a relationship to Jesus and his father. Verse three. And these things they will do because they have not known the father or me. Now, back in verse 21, Jesus said that the problem was that they don't know the one who sent me. It's a different word for no. There he was talking about more, you know, they have all these facts, but they have rejected the full revelation that came from me in me, the revelation of God in Christ. Here he uses a different word for no. He's talking about a relationship. They don't have a relationship with God like the Jews claim or me, their Messiah. See, that's why we shouldn't be surprised. I mean, even when there are people within Christendom who are hateful toward you because you preach that Jesus is the only way. And it may be that they really don't know God, the father or God, the son. And that should move you to have pity on them, a godly pity, rather than just bristling up and wanting to fight them or whatever. But to see they don't have a relationship with God. What do I need to do? I need to ramp up evangelism here, right? Third, Jesus' warning prepares his disciples to be assured that God's plan is on track, even during persecution. His warning prepares his disciples to be assured that God's plan is on track, even during persecution. Kind of picking up the same theme that you had a little bit earlier. Verse four, but these things I have spoken to you that when their hour comes, when their hour comes, when it looks like they have the upper hand, You may remember that I told you of them and these things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you. He doesn't want him to be taken by surprise. Again, can pick it up at that theme to again. But he's told them in advance and he says, I told you ahead of time, not just so you won't be surprised. But he says when it happens, when persecution ramps up, when their hour comes, did you see what he says he hopes we will do that you may remember? What does he want them to do? He wants them to think back and see insight. He wants them to think back. Jesus said this was going to happen. And what is that going to do? It's going to strengthen their faith. Everything Jesus said that would happen has been happening, his word is true. I can count on his word, and so when he gives me all these different things that should help me in my evangelism, help me to be confident and strong, bold in my evangelism, I can count on them because everything he said came true. Insight by remembering. Well, he said, you know, I didn't tell you this at the beginning because I was here. You know what he means by that? All the hatred is directed to me. But now I'm going to be going and guess what? It's all going to be directed to you. Thanks, Lord. You know. But he says, I'm telling you, I'm preparing you for it. I'm not leaving you on your own. You know, as he said elsewhere, I'm not leaving you as orphans. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to you. And that's huge. But I'm giving you all of this other material, and I want you to remember this. I want you to think about this. I want you to absorb all of this so that you will be confident and bold in your evangelism so that you will go out there and you'll tell them about Jesus and you won't be shy about telling them about sin because, you know, they have to hear that first. And it's a good thing. Jesus adequately prepares his disciples to testify about him in a hostile world to a hostile world. And the real question then becomes this. Will you put this to use. And then obey him and testify. to a hostile world about the good news that's found only in Jesus? That's the real question. Will you use this so that you will have the confidence to talk to others about Christ? And that's the question I leave for you and for me. As we talk about now the Lord's Supper, It's so fitting to continue our worship after singing and praying and studying his word together to now do what we do every week in the Lord's Supper. And do you remember? We read this many, many times because we tend to gravitate to first Corinthians 11 when we do the Lord's Supper. But I don't know if you've really heard this. After talking about the bread and the cup, Jesus says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. What I've done this morning is proclaim to you the good news that Jesus died for our sins and that we need to testify that to the world. And here at the Lord's table, we are testifying of that. We're proclaiming his death here at the table. That God, the son. Died. For our sins. To take away our sins. And we proclaim that that is the message that you and I need to be reminded of every week so that we will go out to the world and tell them that message. That God, the son died. To save sinners. to save them from their sins. And so it's so appropriate now for us to turn our attention here, that as we partake of the Lord's table, that we remember this is a proclamation. It's a proclamation of the gospel. The good news that is set on the backdrop of that bad news. That we're sinners, but there is a Savior. And so as the elements are being distributed, let's each think about this. In the bread and in the cup, there's a preaching of the gospel. And it's the message that you and I, I hope, will be taking out to the world.