Rejection Is To Be Expected
John 15:18-16:4a
November 6, 2022
preached by Josh DePasacreta
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Time of Reflection Quotations
“The only sin God cannot forgive is the sin of rejecting Christ. Turn to Him in repentance and faith and He will forgive.”
~ Billy Graham (1918-2018), American minister and evangelist
“The fact that my continuous and public rejection of Christianity does not worry me in the least should suggest to you just how inadequate I think your reasons for being a Christian are.”
~ Sam Harris (1967-present), American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host
“The greatest contribution we can make to the strife in the world is to keep strife out of our heart and to keep learning and growing in love.”
~ Kevin Gerald, contemporary pastor and writer
“Since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through. That includes loneliness, temptation, stress, criticism, rejection, and many other problems.”
~ Rick Warren (1954-present), American pastor and writer
“Let us cleave to Christ more closely, love Him more heartily, live to Him more thoroughly, copy Him more exactly, confess Him more boldly, follow Him more fully. Religion like this will always bring its own reward. Worldly people may laugh at it. Weak brethren may think it extreme. But it will wear well. At even time it will bring us light. In sickness it will bring us peace. In the world to come it will give us a crown of glory that will not fade away.”
~ J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), English minister and the first Anglican bishop of Liverpool
Sermon Passage
John 15:18-16:4a (ESV)
John 15
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
John 16
1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.