Stand Up, Stand Up
John 15:18-27
Two weeks ago the well known evangelist Franklin Graham was dis-invited to say a prayer at the pentagon. Military officials ask Graham not to come on the national day of prayer because Muslims working at the Pentagon might be offended by Grahams presence because Franklin Graham has said in the past that he finds Islam offensive and desires Muslims to know that Jesus Christ died for their sins
former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow participated in a controversial focus on the family pro-life commercial which aired during the super bowl earlier this year. As a result of that commercial he lost several of his sponsors. Tim says, “ losing sponsors was a small price to pay for being able to present my beliefs about family and faith to the public”
When you take a stand for something you will have people who agree and disagree. People who like you and people who hate you but it is impossible to take a stand for something and please everyone.
Country singer Aaron Tippin sings a song about taking a stand
He'd say you've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything
You've got to be your own man not a puppet on a string
Never compromise what's right and uphold your family name
You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything
That hymn we sung this morning
Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
ye soldiers of the cross;
lift high his royal banner,
it must not suffer loss.
From victory unto victory
his army shall he lead,
till every foe is vanquished,
and Christ is Lord indeed.
When Christ came into the world he drew the battle line
Jesus said, “Mat 10:34Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”
and since that time there has been a battle between Satan and the church and those who bear the name of Christ. Jesus identified this battle when he established the church
Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
He warned his disciples in this passage that being a follower of Jesus is not going to be easy, its going to create some enemies but its also going to make some good friends.
The question this morning for us is: are we willing able and ready to take a stand for Jesus?
Are we like the Apostle Paul willing to say
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
We are living in a generation that refuses to take a stand for much of anything, to many people today having people like them is more important than principle or even Jesus. That's one of the reasons that we don't talk about religion, it creates division, arguments and even enemies if we state our view.
People have a natural tendency to want to be liked Thats why whenever a group of people are in a room together and a vote is taken by a show of hands many people will look around and just vote how others are voting. Taking a stand is not easy
Paul says that we are to put on the whole armor of God and then he says something interesting
Eph 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
He didn't say you had to have all the right answers or the best lawyers., He didn't say you had to be a public speaker, Just one that was willing to stand. Standing alone if necessary, standing like Franklin Graham and refusing to compromise your faith and beliefs because it offends someone.
If I please Christ it matters not who I offend. Thats why when we come together I don't pray that everything said and done here be pleasing to everyone who came but we pray that it pleases Christ
Gal 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
the church that did not deny his name
The disciples who refused to succumb to pressure and continued to preach the name of Jesus
Jesus stood up for the father and because of that the world hated him and after only 3 years of ministry nailed him to the cross and left him there until he died
now Jesus calls us to stand up for him and warns us that we will not be popular for doing it, but if popularity is what we have come to see than we are in the wrong place, multitudes walked away from Jesus when the teaching got tough, and everyone with the exception of a few women and John abandoned him when he was on the cross
there are three things that Jesus did to show the world that Father that so upset them and these same principles we can apply today in our walk with Christ and doing so will be taking a stand for Jesus in a world that is sitting down.
We stand up for Jesus by
Being different
Jesus said in verse 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.”
being saved makes us different than the world
1Cr 6:9Do you not know that the unrighteous [fn] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
1Cr 6:10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
1Cr 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God
Peter said
1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light
so you might say for us to take a stand for Jesus we need to embrace the change that God has made in us and through us instead of spending so much time fighting it and trying to fit into a world system that we don't belong in. Its just like being a tourist its hard to fit in when you don't dress look and act like everyone else.
It reminds of the Old Testament account of a man named Daniel
Daniel decided to be different, all he had to do was make a decision to do the right thing in the site of God and then he did it. When he was taken into captivity in Babylon He didn't eat the kings meat, we aren't sure why... but he decided to be the one standing when everyone else was sitting down. He could have easily came up with a thousand reasons to not stand up for God at that point in his life, after all things weren't going the way one would expect for a man of God.....
You know how awkward it can be to be standing when everyone else is sitting because thats when everyone notices that you are different. Go visit a new church sometime and sit in the front row and see how awkward it is when by nature you go to stand on the last verse of the prayer song but no one else stands up with you.
We need to strive to be more like Daniel, men and women who are so sure of our faith and where we stand in Christ that we are not ashamed to take a stand for him. I
Choose to take a stand this week, don't participate in the gossip, don't listen to the worldly joke, Choose to love when the world hates, choose to forgive when the world hurler insults
Jesus took a stand when he went to the temple for what was right when he tossed out the moneychangers. , he took a stand when he went to Samaria for what was right in treating people with love and respect.
We are different because we are not people pleasers, but we are God pleasers. The world likes to please its own, follow the crowd....
When David took a stand for Jehovah God in the Old Testament all of Israel was afraid of the Philistine named Goliath but David saw a reason to be the person who stood up for God. The people said he couldn't do it, he was too young, but David showed up for duty with only a sling shot and 5 stones and God used David in a mighty way because he was the only one standing when everyone else was running with fear. David was different than the crowd
Last year when we took a vacation to Gatlinburg TN we went to the the aquarium they have there and in one of the tanks there was a bunch of fish all traveling in one direction and there was one fish swimming the opposite way. Its easy to swim with the crowd it takes more effort to be different
There are also times when we first get saved that we have no problem being different than the world than as times goes on we start drifting back to our old ways
Its the problem the church in Galatia had when Paul wrote
Gal 1:6 ¶ I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Its the same thing he reminded the Christians about in the book of Colossians
Col 3:8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Col 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with
That's why we need to hear sermons like this so that we might examine our lives. If we see ourselves drifting back to be more like the world than Christ we need to do something about it, its all about the choices we make everyday
Many of you here know that 4 years ago
Removing the Excuses
Jesus said in verse 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.
Taking a stand for Jesus includes removing excuses
In a book that I've been reading this week titled, “When the game is over it all goes back in the box” John Ortberg tells a story about a friend of his who is also complaining about his job, and John ask him, :what if you were to take another job? Or work for another company or go back to school for more education. To which his friend said, “No taking another job would be too risky.” Education would be a waste of time, I'm too old. Transferring to another job within the company would be the same as where I'm already at.
In other words his friend just wanted to complain he didn't really want to do anything because he had a list of excuses
Jesus taught a parable in Luke 14 about a man who put on a great banquet....and all the invited guest had an excuse..
excuses are easy because they don't require anything from us. Moses had an excuse, Jeremiah had an excuse, Isiah had an excuse....
The world hated Jesus because he removed their excuse for sin. There was no more excuse to live like the world
If we are to take a stand for Jesus we have to first remove the excuses for our own sin....
some of our favorite excuses
“I just can't help it..”
“You just don't understand it was the way I was raised.”
“My mom and dad didn't......”
“Everyone else is doing it,”
“I really want to quit, but....”
“I didn't know any better.”
“I'm just too busy for God.”
In the Parable from Luke the master of the house said that none of the men who had an excuse would be invited to the banquet.”
Jesus removed the excuse of ignorance from the world, there was no one left to blame sin and disobedience on except themselves and that's why they hated him.
When we take a stand for Jesus we do so by removing the excuses from our lives and not buying the excuses of the world. Everyone is accountable to themselves before a holy and a righteous God.
.
Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse
Act 17:30 "The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
When we remove the excuses we are taking a stand. It doesn't mean that we are perfect and never sin it just means that when we sin we own it instead of blaming it on someone else, circumstances, or situations.
Finally this morning,
Standing up for Jesus means
Showing the Father
The world hated Jesus because he showed them the father. In verse 21, “because they do not know him who sent me.: verse 23, “Whoever hates me hates my father also.” verse 24 says, “but now thy have seen and hated both me and my father.”
Standing up for Jesus means we introduce the world to the Father through the Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus showed the world that there was only one true God, the creator of all things and all other Gods were inventions in the minds of men, dumb idols that could not speak, hear or even move.
Standing up for Jesus is not denying his name, its the refusal to bow at the altar of the Dalia Lama, or any man made religious icon.
When the Apostle Paul stood up at mars hill among the altars to all the false gods he there he introduced them to the one true and living God
Act 17:22 ¶ Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, [Ye] men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
Act 17:23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
Deu 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD
Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else.
In closing.,
The world Hated Jesus because he stood up when the rest of the world was sitting down and he told his disciples in this passage and us that if we stand up for the things that he stood for that the world will also stand against us.
The question this morning as we begin to examine ourselves is: “Are you standing for Jesus?”
Are standing by being different than the world? Are you standing by removing the excuses? Are you standing by showing the Father to the world?
Maybe your here today and you have never made a decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you have never placed your faith and trust in his death burial and resurrection and you would like to come and do that today
