Alba 9-15-13 (Revised 9-18-2022)
WHY DOES THE WORLD HATE US?
John 15:18-25
A woman in India watches as her sister is dragged off by Hindu nationalists. She doesn’t know if her sister is alive or dead.
A man in a North Korean prison camp is shaken awake after being beaten unconscious; the beatings begin again.
A woman in Nigeria runs for her life. She has escaped from Boko Haram, who kidnapped her. She is pregnant, and when she returns home, her community will reject her and her baby.
A group of children are laughing and talking as they come down to their church’s sanctuary after eating together. Instantly, many of them are killed by a bomb blast. It’s Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka.
These people don’t live in the same region, or even on the same continent. But they share an important characteristic: They are all Christians, and they suffer because of their faith.
While Christian persecution takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of identification with Jesus Christ.
From Sudan to Afghanistan, from Nigeria to North Korea, from Colombia to India, followers of Christianity are targeted for their faith. They are attacked; they are discriminated against at work and at school; they risk sexual violence, torture, arrest and much more.
In just the last year (2022 World Watch List reporting period), there have been: Over 360 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination
5,898 Christians killed for their faith
5,110 churches and other Christian buildings attacked
4,765 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned
[This information is current (September 16, 2022) from a website, Open Doors, which tracks persecution of Christians.]
One of the things that confuses many Christians is the attitude of non-Christians toward them. Even in the United States we experience backlash against us as Christians.
Dr James Merritt while giving the annual President’s message back at the 2002 Southern Baptist Church convention (and while under the constant stream of protesters walking and jeering outside) said the following:
"We face a secular culture that is becoming increasingly strident and militant in its anti-Christian, anti-truth, anti-God mentality and I fear the danger of facing this spirit with a lackadaisical heart. More and more we are being told to sit down, shut up, go along and get along, be inclusive, be tolerant, be nice and be quiet,"
You would think that since we come to the world with the greatest and most important message in all of history that the world would applaud and cheer.
Sadly, people often are not waiting for that message with open arms. In fact, the Bible says that the world does not want us or our message. They hate us. Hate? That is what Jesus said.
Turn to John 15:18-25. John 15:18-25 quotes Jesus saying, 18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet 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 keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
What Jesus said has proven to be all too true. A list of early martyrs who were witnesses to the life of Jesus is compiled from numerous sources outside the Bible, the most-famous of which is Foxes’ Christian Martyrs of the World.
Around 34 A.D., one year after the crucifixion of Jesus, Stephen was thrown out of Jerusalem and stoned to death. Approximately 2,000 Christians suffered martyrdom in Jerusalem during this period.
James, the half brother of Jesus, led the early church in Jerusalem and was the author of the New Testament book by his name. At age 94, he was beaten and stoned, and finally had his brains bashed out with a fuller’s club.
Matthias was the apostle who filled the vacant place of Judas. He was stoned at Jerusalem and then beheaded. This hatred for Christians didn't end in that first century.
It is estimated that 150,000 to 165,000 Christians are martyred each year. There have been more than 26 million documented cases of martyrdom in the last century alone.
Friendship with God, and faith in Jesus, results in enduring the world’s hatred. But the opposite is also true. James 4:4 tells us that being friends with the world is to be God’s enemy. Jesus alerted His disciples to the fact of the world’s hatred.
This undeserved hostility can be shocking (1 Pet. 4:12-13), but believers should remember that Jesus was hated from His birth, when Herod the Great tried to kill Him, to His death on the cross. So to answer the question as to why the world hates us...
1. The World Hates Us Because it Hated Jesus First
Jesus knew what others thought about Him. There were many who asked Jesus questions just to try to get Him into trouble. They were trying to trip Him up in order to have something to accuse Him with and cause His followers to leave Him.
They questioned His authority. They complained that He was not following their rules. They wanted to get rid of Him.
Just two days prior to His arrest, in Matthew 26:1-2 it says, “When Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
Not only did Jesus know He was going to die, He knew HOW He would be dying - by crucifixion, which was the cruelest, most torturous way for a person to die.
Death by Crucifixion was designed to produce the greatest degree of shame, and to inflict the maximum amount of pain, for the longest possible period of time. Jesus knew what was about to happen.
No wonder when Jesus went to the Garden to pray He "fell with His face to the ground and prayed..." (Matt.26:39). According to Luke, Jesus was in such an anguish that "his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." (Lk 22:44).
Why would Jesus endure the cross despising the shame of that cruel death? Romans 5:6 proclaims that it was for us! "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."
Jesus knew that on this planet called earth there are many kinds of people. But not in God’s sight. In God’s sight, there are only two kinds. Not rich or poor, old or young, tall or short, fat or thin, black or white, Anglo or Hispanic- only... saved or lost.
Without Jesus Christ, all are lost. Christ died with the intent that all might have the opportunity to be saved. Hebrews 2:9 tells us "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man."
Jesus knew that there were many who hated Him, but He was willing to endure it so that He could take the punishment we deserve, and so that we could be forgiven and set free from our sin. It was not hate that made Jesus go to the cross. But it was hate that drove people to put Him there. If we are followers of Jesus, no matter how imperfect we may be...
2. The World Hates Us Because We are Servants of Jesus
Look again at verse 20, Jesus said, “Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
You see...it becomes guilt by association. The more we look like Christ, the more the world is going to treat us the same way it treated Him. When we don’t act, talk or think like the world does, we are going to make the crowd uncomfortable.
We will not be considered "one of us." The fact is we are not. The concept of a Christian living in the world, but not being of the world, is a key concept to understanding what it means to be a Christian.
The world loves "its own." That is those who have become at home in the world. Life on this earth is all they live for. They spend their lives trying to get the things of this world. Their values are wrapped up in power, pleasure and possessions.
But God calls us to be removed from the way of the world and the love of the world. The consequence of being in Christ is that we are to no longer be like the world (1 Peter 4:4; Rom. 12:2).
Having left the kingdom of darkness and having been transferred into the kingdom of God’s Son (Col. 1:13), it gives us a different joy, a different purpose, a different hope, and a different love. We now have a new standard for life.
Rom 12:2 says, "Don’t be conformed to this world." That means we should not be squeezed into its mold. We can't let the world dictate how we should live and what we should do.
But how can we know if we are doing what the world is telling us to do? Ask the question, “Can I include God in this?” Anything that keeps us from including God is worldly.
As Christians we can do anything that God would do with us. But if Jesus has to wait outside while we do it, DON’T DO IT! Because we no longer belong to the world.
We now belong to Jesus Christ, and if things are going as they should, we are becoming like Him. So it is because we do not belong to the world that the world hates us.
Remember Jesus' words in verse 19, If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
And Jesus says in verse 24, “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.”
So now we know...
3. The World Hates Us Because They Don't Know God
The world has it all wrong. They see God as one who wants to limit their freedoms and fun. But God loves this old world with all of its problems. That is why He sent His Son Jesus. He loves us, and wants the best for us.
The world rejects this loving God who is made known in Jesus Christ. They show this by rejecting Jesus. And the world continues to show their rejection of the Father and the Son by rejecting those who represent Him... Christians.
To prove that He came from the Father, Jesus performed many miracles. Perhaps if Jesus had kept His mouth shut and just gone around healing and feeding people, there wouldn’t have been any trouble. But He exposed their sin.
The world hated Jesus because His perfect life pointed out the flaws in theirs. They heard what He said and they saw His lifestyle and it revealed their sinfulness. Now there was an absolute standard. Everything is to be measured against Jesus.
If we live a life that imitates Jesus Christ it will bring to their mind their own sins. They do not want a Christian who reflects God’s holiness. They don’t want to be confronted by a higher standard.
Harry Ironside told the story of a missionary in Africa. In a very backward village, he left a mirror hanging on a tree after shaving.
The wife of the tribal chief came along and looked into it. She had never seen a mirror before. She asked "Who is that ugly woman?" When the missionary explained the mirror to her and told her that it was herself. She got mad, threw the mirror down and crushed it.
The world doesn’t want to be shown what it looks like. It makes them mad. They can’t take out their hatred on Christ, so they take it out on us.
But here is a caution. We need to be careful how we react to the hatred of the world. We dare not fight the world with worldly tactics. How would Jesus have us react? Jesus said in Matthew 5:11-12,
“11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
We are to endure for the sake of His name. And, we are to pray for those who do not yet understand that God truly loves them. Because God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And as the apostle Peter writes in I Peter 3:15-16, “Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; 16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
We do have a message that the world is waiting to hear. Some just don't know it yet. If we remain faithful, by the testimony of how we live our lives and what we say with our words, others will know that being a Christian is not a threat.
Because they need to know that even they need a Savior, and His name is Jesus. So here is our challenge: to meet the antagonism of the world with the love and power and message of Jesus Christ.
CLOSING:
Albert Einstein, the great physicist, was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching tickets of every passenger.
When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn’t find his ticket, so he reached in his trousers pocket. It wasn’t there. So he looked in in his briefcase but couldn’t find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn’t find it.
The conductor said "Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it". Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets.
As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket.
The conductor rushed back and said, "Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one."
Einstein looked at the conductor and said, "Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going."
Too many people in the world today do not know where they are going. The joy of being a Christian is that we know where we are going. But we shouldn't make the trip alone. We need to let people know who we are and invite them to come along.
