“If the World Hates You…”
Various Scriptures
December 6, 2009
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT IS FROM ANDY STANLEYS’ BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me: Today we’re going to talk about that wonderful Christmas topic called “persecution.”
November 8th was the yearly International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
I was gone that day, and I wanted to get some other things taken care of before tackling this today.
Now usually this time of year I’m mid-way through a 4-week series about Christmas, but obviously that’s not happening this year.
So the first Sunday of December, we’re going to talk about persecution and the persecuted church around the world.
Now listen – I’m not a fan of persecution. I don’t like the idea of persecution and if it were up to me, I’d never have to mess with it. And I would rather not even talk about it. Really.
I don’t talk about this because I think, “Hey, I’ve been waiting for months to talk about this! I can’t wait!”
The whole idea of persecution is something I’d rather not deal with.
We: My guess is that everyone else here today is the same way. You’d rather not hear about it, and especially in church in December when we should be talking about mangers and wise men and big stars in the sky and angels singing to shepherd.
And I don’t imagine anyone here will try to get a group together than goes out looking to get beat up for Jesus.
So why are we talking about this? Because we need to. Scripture commands us to remember those who are being persecuted for His sake, as we’ll see later.
And we need to talk about it because Jesus talked about it. We’re going to look at one of those passages today.
God: During the last few hours with His disciples on the night He was betrayed, He took some time to talk to them about some real serious stuff, and some of that was the persecution they were going to face because they identified with Him.
I want to cover four facts from this passage that we need to keep in mind as we contemplate the fact that persecution is real, it happens around the world, and it can happen right here.
John 15:18-23 (pp. 764-765)
1. Persecution is part of our identity with Christ.
Verses 18-19 –
18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
Jesus says, “Here it is: they hate me, they’ll hate you. It’s that simple. Get used to it.”
Persecution is mentioned at least 25 times in the New Testament.
Jesus mentions it here and other places. Persecution is part of the package for those who call Jesus their Lord and Savior.
Let me point out just a couple things in relation to that, okay?
> Your life in Christ “invites” persecution.
2 Tim. 3:12 –
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
How’s that for motivation to live for Jesus?
Living for Jesus in a way that shows people you live Him above what the world says invites persecution.
Why is that? Lots of reasons, but the main one is that they see holiness in you that they can’t have on their own, and it’s convicting.
I think that’s especially true in this culture.
They see that you want to please God instead of yourself or the crowd. It makes them angry and even scared.
So they feel the need to make it rough on you.
It’s not fun, but it’s true. And many times you can still use those opportunities to share the love of Christ with them.
> How you handle persecution is a measure of the depth of your relationship with Jesus.
In Matthew 13 Jesus tells the parable of the sower.
The sower, or farmer, scatters seed, and he encounters four types of ground that the seed falls on.
Jesus says that the seed is the Word of God, and the soil represents four different types of hearts or people.
And in verses 20-21 He says this –
20 “The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.”
If you call yourself a Christian, but you continually run away from identifying with Him, then you are that rocky soil.
And that means your relationship with Him isn’t what it needs to be.
I see this all the time in people today. They love Jesus until they need to make a choice for Him in front of their friends or family.
Then it’s time to put Jesus on the shelf.
Well, my friends, that’s not what a real follower of Jesus is supposed to do.
If this is you, then I’m going to talk in a bit about how to change that.
Here’s the second major fact I want to point out today from this passage in John:
2. Persecution is based on hate for Christ and His message.
Verses 20-21 –
Remember the words I spoke to you: ’No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.
When persecution happens, it’s generally because of what the message of Christ stands for.
Persecution is taking your hate and fear out on the person bringing the message.
Killing the messenger because of the message.
They are not being persecuted and killed because they are saying the people need to follow them, but because they are saying the people need to follow Christ.
Jesus says that if they persecuted Him they’ll persecute you. And that you’re no better than Him.
So if God saw fit to allow Jesus, the Righteous One, to suffer, do you think it’s just possible He will allow His followers to suffer?
It’s not just possible, it’s probable, because we identify with Jesus.
Part of His message is the message of a holy God who hates sin.
Verse 22 –
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.
Anybody here like to be told they’re in sin? I don’t.
Anybody just love the idea of going to someone and saying they’re in sin, or even just pointing out sin when it’s thrown in your face? I don’t.
You have no idea how many times a conversation will come up and the people are discussing something that is sinful, and I was just praying, “Lord, don’t let them ask my opinion, please!”
Because then I’d have to be honest and tell them what the Bible says about that.
It didn’t win me a lot of friends sometimes, but I had to be honest. In fact, it got some of them downright mad at me. But I couldn’t be silent.
One thing I tried to do was always frame my answer as being from God and His Word, so that even if they didn’t like it, I could say, “Well, that’s what Jesus said. If you don’t like it, blame Him. I’m just telling you what He said, and I think He knows what He’s talking about.”
Now, as I’ve said many times, we have no real idea of what it’s like to be persecuted here in America, at least not in terms of what’s going on in other parts of the world.
For most of us, persecution consists of an angry word, a negative letter to the editor, or the loss of a friendship.
Those are no fun, believe me, I know. But keep in mind that God doesn’t forget what we give up to stand for Jesus.
Here’s the third major fact I want to point out today:
3. Persecution can come from religious people.
In this passage, Jesus says thing like “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
Who is “they”?
In this case, it’s the religious leaders who were out to kill Jesus.
In many cultures around the world, persecution is sanctioned by the religious leaders of whatever religion is the predominate religion of the area.
Unfortunately, the “Christian” church has taken part in some religious persecution
Over the history of the church, religious leaders have used the institution of the church to bring persecution to those who chose to follow Christ over man-made religious rules.
They have imprisoned, killed, and tortured believers.
Read about the Inquisition, the Huguenots, Hutterites, and some of those other groups and find out who did the hunting and killing.
Persecution can come from religious people, and that leads to something else that you really need to understand, and that is that persecution is often an honest and sincere response to the message of Jesus.
I talked about this a bit earlier, but my point here is that a lot of persecution isn’t just a bunch of murderous bullies looking for someone to beat up and kill.
That does happen sometimes.
Sometimes persecution is at least as much political as it is religious. In other words, Christians are killed not necessarily because of their beliefs but because of where they align on the political spectrum.
And here’s a bonus point that’s not from this passage, but from the experience of the church over the last 2000 years.
4. Persecution often brings a harvest of souls.
There is story upon story of persecution actually drawing people to Christ.
The conviction of those who suffer and die willingly is something God has used over and over to convince the persecutors of the truth of Christ.
It happened in the book of Acts in the Bible, and it’s happening today.
I don’t know all the reasons for that, but for some reason, God uses the physical sufferings of Jesus’ people to grow His kingdom around the world.
It’s fascinating. And it’s mindblowing.
You: Let me suggest four ways to respond to this, and I’m going to go through this kind of quickly, okay?
1. Don’t pretend it can’t happen here (or to you).
You don’t have to look hard to see our religious freedoms being eroded in our country.
Laws are being passed right now that infringe on our freedom of religion and religious speech.
And on a more personal level, we’ve already looked at how if you choose to live for Jesus, then you’ll be persecuted for it.
Folks, it can happen here, and it can happen to you. Don’t think it can’t.
The second way to respond to this is to…
2. Get your relationship with Jesus in order.
Remember when we talked about the rocky soil Jesus mentioned in the parable of the sower?
Well the good news is that God can take that soil and make it good soil. He can take that rocky stuff and make it so that it holds His Word, and produces a crop that will withstand the heat of persecution.
Ask God to do that in your life. Get regular time in the Word of God and prayer, and watch what He does in your life.
Folks, if you’ll let Him do that, then you’ll not only be able to stand up when the heat comes, you’ll also experience the abundant life that Jesus wants you to have.
3. Learn more about the persecuted church around the world.
Go to The Voice of the Martyrs’ website at www.persecution.com and sign up for their weekly e-mail prayer bulletins.
Don’t live in ignorance about this.
Your brothers and sisters around the world are being tortured, imprisoned, raped, and killed.
In some cases the children of the family are being raped and killed just to punish the dad for believing in Jesus.
That would be like if someone lined up my kids here and threatened to kill them unless I gave up Jesus.
Today, that’s happening to families around the world, and the dad is standing for Jesus.
Finally, our government is starting to recognize some of these things and bring a little attention to it.
But that’s not enough. You can’t rely on the newspaper or the TV news to let you know what’s going on around the world.
The news isn’t going to tell you of the 450 people who will die today.
Take the time to learn by going to websites like the Voice of the Martyrs and others, and then you can also do the fourth thing and that is to…
4. Pray for those currently being persecuted.
Two passages I want to show you very quickly.
Hebrews 13:3 –
Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
1 Corinthians 12:26 –
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
A couple minutes ago, I mentioned families whose children were raped, tortured and killed, because dad wouldn’t reject Jesus.
You and I have absolutely no idea what kind of pain that means.
But we can pray to the God who can give them the strength to carry on in the midst of that pain.
We can pray that God would comfort them and remind them of the fact that He loves them and hasn’t forgotten them.
Some of you might be thinking, “I don’t know what to pray for these folks.”
When you subscribe to this e-mail from the Voice of the Martyrs, they will tell you what is going on and they even tell you how to pray for them.
Okay, that excuse is gone. The newsletter is free. That excuse is gone.
There you go.
Pray for these folks like you’d pray for your literal biological brother or sister if they were going through something hard.
They need you to pray for them. Please don’t neglect this incredibly important task for them. Please don’t neglect that.
Don’t pretend it can’t happen here or to you. Get your relationship with Jesus right. Learn more about the persecuted church around the world. And pray for the persecuted church.
We: We have it so easy here. Nobody here is going to go to prison today for loving Jesus. Nobody here is going to be tortured or killed because they love Jesus today.
And because we have it so easy here, it’s easy for us to forget that others are suffering for Jesus.
Let’s change that today. Let’s be intentional about praying for those who don’t have it as good as we do.
And let’s start today. Let’s pray.
