Intro to John 15:17-25

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/27/2016 11:22 AM

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  Intro to John 15:17-25

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  John 15:17-25

            Message of the verses:  “17 “This I command you, that you love one another.  18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 “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, because of this the world hates you. 20 “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; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 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. 22 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24  "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. 25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ’THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’”

            Now as we look at what amounts to a prophecy by our Lord telling that because the world hated Him that the world would hate His followers too and as we look at the history of the early church we saw that this came true.  Not only did the world hate the early church but the world has hated the true Christian church ever since it began.

            I have mentioned in different SD’s that there are people who believe that the seven churches found in the second and third chapters of Revelation are prophetic in nature.  Yes there were seven literal churches in that region of Asia Minor, which is not modern day Turkey, but as you look back at the history of the church age you can see that the dominant type of church can be traced back to the different churches that are seen in Revelation.  I say the dominant type of church can be seen throughout the church age, but during the church age there were all of these types of churches around.  I can give you the different time periods in which each of these churches seemed to be dominant and as we look at these we can tell from the different types of churches the amounts of persecution that would have been going on during that time period for the more purer the church the more likely the church is to be persecuted.  However we know that the Lord can protect different churches if it is His desire and in His will. 

            The following are a list of the seven churches found in Revelation chapters 2-3 and I will list the prophetic application after the name of the church as seen in “There’s A New World Coming,” written by Hal Lindsey which is his commentary on the book of Revelation.

·         Ephesus: A.D. 33-100

·         Smyrna:  100-312

·         Pergamos: 312-590

·         Thyatira:  590-1517

·         Sardis:  1517-1750

·         Philadelphia:  1750-1925

·         Laodicea:  1900-Tribulation

I have read that in our world today that there are many people who lose their lives for the cause of Christ each day, I have heard that as many as 1000 people a day are killed for the cause of Christ and that in my generation (baby boomers) more people have died for the cause of Christ than all years previous years since the church began.  The Muslims are responsible for many Christian martyrs in our world today.  When the church began it was actually the Jews who were responsible for many Christian deaths.  There is a book entitled “Foxes Book of Martyrs” that tells the history of people slain for the cause of Christ, and although I have not read this book I believe that it is an accurate detail of the fulfillment of this prophecy that Jesus gives here in these verses.  John MacArthur entitled this chapter in his commentary “Hated by the World.”  I think that this is a very insightful title for true believers are hated by the world. 

Satan is truly behind this hatred and is very clever in how to determine whether one is a believer or not.  During the Roman Empire if one refused to worship the leader of that empire then they could be killed, and a Christian could not worship anyone but Jesus and so many were killed during that time.  Now I know that the tribulation period is not a part of the church age, but during that time many millions will be killed because they refuse to take the mark of the beast, a way to find out who is a believer and who is not. 

            In his commentary on this subject we are looking at John MacArthur gave a rather long introduction on this subject of people being martyred for the cause of Christ talking about the different time periods when the most people were martyred.  At the end of His introduction he writes the following:  “Jesus balanced the promises of comfort and blessing with a warning to the disciples of the hostility and awaited them.  In the face of the world’s hatred, the disciples would need each other desperately.  The Lord therefore repeated His earlier instruction, ‘This I command you, that you love one another.’ (cf. v. 12; 13:34-35).  That command forms a transition between the Lord’s promises to the disciples and His warning of the world’s hatred—a warning that should also motivate them to love one another.

            “This passage reveals three reasons why the world hates believers:  because the world rejects those who are not part of it, because the world hated Jesus, and because the world does not know God.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord for keeping believers in our country safe in my life time so far, but as I look at how our country continues to speak about being a part of the new world order and seeing signs of a coming persecution of believers in our country I have to trust the Lord completely.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord that the problems that I am experiencing with my computer can be fixed at a cost that is not too high.  Sometimes I think that there is outside beings causing my computer issues because of what I use it for.

Memory verse for the week:  (Romans 6:10) “10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Gideon” (Judges 7:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “In the beginning what did God create?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/27/2016 12:35 PM