Here's something you don't hear often in evangelistic invitations:
God loves you and has a difficult plan for your life!
That's exactly what Jesus says. John 15:18-19 - 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' command to love one another is tempered with reality - harsh reality. Loving others is never going to be a walk in the park, "I never promised you a rose garden"
Hard times are not the same as punishment - though it can be. I'm not talking today about getting what you deserve. I understand it when I get lambasted for a good reason.
When I don't deserve it, that bugs me! That's exactly what Jesus promises us as followers.
Persecution can be a predictable thing. The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun from China
He tells about the Back to Jerusalem mission founded in 1921 by Jing Dianying
POP has a 4 word mission statement - They had a 5 word mission statement
Sacrifice, Abandonment, poverty, suffering, death
Let those words sink in, they don't appeal to Western churches. You wouldn't think of sending out a mass mailing to launch a new church with that slogan. Wouldn't do a five week series on it either. How many of you would put up with that type of mission. Would I?
Back to Jerusalem was a legend in China - the most persecuted of the persecuted church. At one meeting in 1995, Brother Yun noticed an ancient man weeping during his message. Especially when Yun sang the song "Lift your eyes to the West" part of an old Back to Jerusalem songbook.
The man was Simon Zhao (Jao) - an author of the song. The only survivor of an early group of leaders who 48 years earlier determined to bring the gospel all along the silk road back to Jerusalem.
Simon had only been married 4 months when they were arrested, his wife was pregnant. Soon his whole band of missionaries were arrested, sentenced to 45 years in hard labor. He never talked with his wife again, she died in prison. All of his coworkers died in prison. Every evening Simon faced the west towards Jerusalem and prayed for the success of those who were not imprisoned.
A few years ago, the Sinim Fellowship of house churches prayed about their involvement in Back to Jerusalem. They decided that is would be their mission, not one of their missions, but their entire mission. Every house church was committed to train up missionaries to send across the continent. The total number trained so far is 100,000. They will travel through the most unchurched nations imaginable, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and India. They will penetrate the heart of the Buddhist and Hindu worlds.
Here is the specialized training each of the missionaries receive:
1. How to suffer and die for the Lord. We examine what the Bible says about suffering, and look at how the Lord's people have laid down their lives for the advance of the gospel though out history
2. How to witness for the Lord. We teach how to witness for the Lord under any circumstance, on trains, or busses, or even in the back of a police van on our way to the execution ground.
3. How to escape for the Lord. We know that sometimes if is the Lord who sends us to prison to witness for Him, but we also believe the devil sometimes wants us to go to prison to stop the ministry God has called us to do. We teach the missionaries special skill such as how to free themselves from handcuffs, and how to jump from a second story window without injuring themselves. Sacrifice, Abandonment, poverty, suffering, death
This is not your typical seminary or Bible college.
Our world demands special treatment for people who are connected. Know the right people, you get the good jobs. But since Jesus isn't taking the road of power, we're out of luck.
John 15:20-21 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. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.
When did Jesus teach this - No servant is greater than his master"?
Jesus was doing the most radical and un-Rabbi like act imaginable
JN 13:12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. 13 "You call me `Teacher' and `Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
People who wash feet will likely be trampled and kicked around. They will not be always seen as powerful - though in fact, they are filled with the Spirit of God.
Pray all you want for God to bless you with a better job, longer life, increased health. Ask Him to make you prosper, to make your life easy and care free and filled with happiness. Just don't forget the fact, He never promised you a rose garden. Gold may be worth $670 an ounce here but it is just pavement in the world to come.
Don't be seduced by appearances!
2 kinds of people out there, those who will obey and those who won't
Obey what? = love God and one another -
Those who don't are enemies - they will hurt you, expect it, it will show up sooner or later
I have never felt persecution, hatred from the world like I have from the church - neither will you.
I am not being self righteous but... I am telling you this in love...
Hint, if you have to declare that you're not being self righteous, or that you're acting in love...
You probably aren't. Steer clear of the leaven of the Pharisees.
Who hated Jesus? Was it the lost? The rejected? The sinners? No, it was the ultra religious, the elite, the movers and shakers and the powerful. Jesus never sidled up to the powerful. He never powered up with his teachings.
Why did they hate Jesus? - No reason -
John 15:22-25 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. 23 He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: `They hated me without reason.'
Hated me without reason, if they hate and persecute the master, they will do the same to you
Jesus comes out and promises that the world will hate us, but don't be dismayed
God is in, Jesus is out - Why does the world hate Jesus?
Because Jesus calls them to leave the phony religion we cling to, to abandon the positions of power we crave, to identify with a man tortured and hung on a cross. It is not pretty, it is not particularly appealing. But it is the only way.
The One way of Jesus is not easy. Truth is - it is difficult, hard, smashing and crushing. Loving one another is the most difficult thing you will ever do.
It takes courage to know that the world will hate you - deal with it
We have a job to do, to testify!
John 15:26-27 "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Vs.. 27 you must testify - but you will never testify alone. Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses will every truth be established.
Witness #1 - you Witness #2 the Holy Spirit - Witness #3 the next person.
Next Step
Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness - lonely place, dangerous place
Out of the honeymoon into the furnace
Some trials (most I believe) are of God not the devil
Tribulations like Jesus had - God drove Him into the wilderness
Let go of every lesser truth to embrace greatest truths
Let go of every good thing to hold tightly to the best things
Does your God sit powerless on the sidelines, shedding tears or wiping your tears, or is he like the Boot Camp Sergeant driving you mercilessly into the wilderness - to make a saint out of you.
Afterall, it was the wilderness that prepared Jesus for ministry, not His baptism.
We seem desperate to spare God any blame for trials. What kind of God lets tough things happen?
The untamable, unpredictable love of God surprises us. It seems barbaric at times - difficulties and sufferings are often God's way of hazing us, testing us, not in a cruel prankish way, but to band us together, to help us keep our cool when things go unbelievably haywire
God did not spare His only Son - He didn't coddle Jesus, and He won't spare you, He won't coddle you. And at the end, you will be able to stand when all around you collapse. You will remain faithful when those around you turn their backs. You will shine like stars - because that is what God has been up to all along, transforming you into brilliant shining examples of His grace and love.
