We Don't Belong To The World

Last week, Steve rushed us along at breathtaking speed, covered like five verses in John 15. Want to pick up where he left off and talk little more about our relationship with the world. READ John 15:18-16:4.

Wish could have gotten a clip of this quickly. “Witness,” Harrison Ford, Kelly McGinnis. “He’s going back to where he belongs.” Jesus has talked about our relationship with God (connected, remaining, hooked in), and that as we remain and become like Christ, it impacts life with each other (express same love, love like Jesus did). A third consideration, how does it affect our lives in the world?

· Start here—Jesus is laying out for us what the normal Christian life is all about, what it means to remain, to be connected, the way it’s supposed to be. Expected to have this kind of relationship with God, expected to love each other and be unified with each other, the way it ought to be. And here’s what you can expect when it comes to the world around you.

· The world hates Jesus. Amazing, isn’t it? Think of how loving, caring he is, how could you hate someone like that? Steve—not the good man Jesus, or the great teacher Jesus, or the prophet Jesus, those Jesus’ they can handle. It’s the Jesus that reveals their sin, that shines as a light in their darkness, requires they give up control, get off the throne of their lives. John 3:2.

· If they hate Jesus, how do you think they’ll feel about those who identify themselves with him? Hate you as well!

o 1 John 3:13—Don’t be surprised if the world hates you.

o Ever get tired of the way Christians are portrayed on TV or movies? Jesus is saying of they rejected him they will also reject us. We will be marginalized, ridiculed, dismissed as irrelevant, excluded, and in some places in this world, imprisoned and executed. If they did it to Jesus, they will do it to us.

· Why? Because we don’t belong to the world anymore. Used to be hooked up there, but not anymore, now we’re hooked up to Jesus, we belong to him.

o Our values, goals, morality, priorities, worldview are undergoing change as a result of our following Christ.

o No longer live to gain the world’s affection or approval, but God’s. Romans 12:1,2—don’t be conformed, don’t be shaped or controlled by it. Instead be transformed, changed. I begin to reflect life as God intended it.

o Heard me say we represent a counter culture. Yancey says we are the culture! We have life, we understand it better than anyone.

§ Too often feel like we’re missing out on something. Maybe because we want the results but don’t put in the effort to remain.

· But this change isn’t just for our benefit, as we are transformed we become what Jesus is—salt and light. Salt is a preservative, keeps from spoiling, light is a revealer, shows the way, truth and light.

o 17:14ff—don’t take them out of the world. That’s just where I want them, their influence, presence, to be light in the lives of those around them.

o Now almost everyone will respond to that—some good and some not so good. V. 20.

· V. 16:1—Jesus telling us this so we won’t go astray, won’t be surprised, that it will drive us to get even more connected.