I always try to make the distinction between what the Bible calls a church, and what we think a church is…the Bible speaks of the church as the collected body of true believers in Christ Jesus, while we think the church is a building like this and all the people contained within it. This I say so that we understand this: one, there is that which God has brought together; the collected body of believers; two, there is the physical church which man has created, and within the man created church we are seeing a decline in the true believers within it, most times starting with its pastor.
Now, in looking at the man created church and its decline in true believers, we must ask why a decline in believers in Christ is there. First, people are not happy with what the Bible has to say. Second, pastors are more concerned with quantity than quality. They want more people in the building, regardless of what they believe, then having people in the building who believe and trust in Jesus regardless of the number of them. Now I mention the physical church and its decline because this type of church does not want to be hated, so they adapt to the world’s thinking and are shielded from the hatred of the world. Jesus said this about the disciples, the world does not hate you, because you are still one of them, but they will soon come to hate you as well.
How did we get to a point where there are those that sit in a church who don’t believe what is necessary to be saved, let alone what it is to be a true Christian? Well, this is a problem of leadership. The prophet Hosea said it like this: “Like people, like priest,” Jesus even lamented that people don’t rise above their teachers. The physical church has been so busy over the last 30 years trying to find ways not to offend non-Christians, trying to find ways to take the offenses out of the Christian doctrine, designing approaches to nonbelievers that don’t create hostility or rejection, weaving in the changes and delusions of society into the physical church operations, that it has created a church movement that is void of the truth of the word of God. In most cases, it is far from the truth of God that I wonder why they even use the Bible at all.
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 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. 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. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
He who hates Me hates My Father also. 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. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
John 15:18-25
In these Scriptures, Jesu is using the word “world” in two senses, one for the current time and place; referring to the Jewish religious leaders, the people who were “following the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” the God of the Old Testament, the creator God as the world; also, for the physical world as the Christian doctrine spreads through it, leading up to today and beyond. One thing the disciples knew for sure was that the Jewish leaders hated Jesus Christ, and they hated Him with a passion. At one time I thought that I would never understand the Bible, it looked so daunting to me. But since I believed in God, He gave me illumination into what it says, and that illumination is a continuing process. But one of the things that I got that the Jewish leaders didn’t get, and they were supposed to know the Old Testament inside and out, was that God would come to earth and dwell with us in that of the Messiah. And in fact, Jesus is God incarnate, but they never recognized Him. In fact, they fully rejected Him, and He says here, “They hated me.” And He says, “They hated Me before they hated you.”
Okay, we can see what the world hates, but wait a minute pastor, the Scripture says that the world hates Jesus…He is a who and not a what…here we go with this pronoun stuff. The world hated Jesus, not for what He was, but for what He spoke about and done…is was the what the people hated, not the who, because Jesus says that the world will hate the disciples as well. So, it is a case of kill the messenger because of His message.
We now know who the world hates, now we need to know what they hate about Him and us. It is the Word of God, the Good News and all its supporting Scriptures, because the gospel, in truth, is so offensive. Strange as it may seem, the good news is hated by nonbelievers.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18
There was a time when the Jewish world didn’t hate the apostles, and there will be a time that the world at large doesn’t hate you and I, but it will. You see, at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus says this in John 7:7, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” But by the time we get to John 17 that friendliness the disciples had with the world is gone, and the worlds’ attitude towards them has changed.
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
John 17:14
Here is where Jesus is saying that now that they are the messengers, the people hate them, who at one time were buddy-buddy with them. What changed? They didn’t hate them until they had learned the message of Jesus and begun to preach it. Since Jesus was the one preaching the message, they hated Him. But as soon as the disciples began to do the same, they hated them.
Alright, we have the who and what the world hates, but why all the hate? Me personally I am surprised at why the world would hate Jesus. He was the most marvelous, compassionate, gentle, merciful, gracious, kind, loving human who ever walked on the earth and, more than that, the Godman who expressed divine love, healed the sick, brought sight to the blind, offered forgiveness of sin, entrance into the kingdom of heaven… giving man eternal life…and all for no charge at all, unlike our faith healers of today. Why all the hate? Well, Jesus answered that in John 7:7, which I previously read in passing, but will look at it again here.
The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.
John 7:7
Believe it or not, this is the most hated Christian doctrine. It is the doctrine that theologians have called the doctrine of depravity—the doctrine of total depravity, if you will—the doctrine that declares that the whole human race is sinful. We can only look around us today to see the types of depravity that pre-existed Jesus’ time, such as homosexuality, baby-killing (those used as sacrifices); and those the world has come up with after Jesus’ death, such as: multiple genders, transgenderism, abortion (those done in the womb).
This is what generates the hate, that fallen man cannot accept the fact that he is sinful, and one of the ways to make it tolerable is to silence the message that speaks of the evilness of mankind, so that fallen man can tolerate himself. In Jesus’ time and sometime after, this was done by physically killing the messenger. Today there have been some killings of the messenger, but by and large the method would be to cancel the speaker, to drum up so much hate against them that their message is effectively drowned out by protests and character assassination.
The main reason behind the hatred of the message against the evils of the world is one of the main evils that the Bibe points out, that of the dominant sin in fallen man is pride, and because of this pride he will create an image of himself which seeks to escapes ultimate condemnation. He will spin a web of delusions about himself that he is good, noble, virtuous—anything other than that his deeds are evil. This was especially intensified because Jesus was saying to the Jewish religious people: “You are evil not only in your normal life. You are evil in your religion. Your religion is just another form of your wickedness.”
As we study the book of John, we see the hate pointed out at the very beginning, where John says, He came into the world. The world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. They rejected Him. And from the get-go, there was hate. In John 5:16 we begin to see the persecution of Jesus by the world when He healed a man on the Sabbath. The sabbath is one of the areas in their religion that had become wicked, so much so that we see in John 5 that the Jews sought to kill Jesus. All because He was violating their religion. Although God gave the Sabbath to man, the religious leaders took it and turned it to something they could use to impose their control over the people. They did this to God’s word then just as false teachers do it to God’s word today.
It’s only in John 5 that they want him dead. There was so much hatred that they wanted to kill Him. Now, if you didn’t think that the hatred of the world could not have intensified, then hear this. They wanted Him dead, not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”
In John 7 it says the Jews were seeking to kill Him again, and in verse 32, the officers of the Pharisees were trying to “seize Him,” arrest Him. In John 8 and John 10, they pick up stones to stone Him to death. In John 11, they plot to kill Him, eventually arrest Him, beat Him, scourge Him, and crucify Him. The world was just hostile to Jesus from the beginning to the end of His ministry.
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
Hebrews 12:3
Here is a point of reference for us as we speak the word of God, to remember that Jesus was hated from the very beginning for what He preached, yet it did not deter Him from preaching the message of the Good News of salvation…we too should not lose faith and hope. Because although the world did not see any good in Jesus, nor did the world see an attractiveness to Him or His message, we should know different, that there was everything about Him that was attractive. During His time in Israel, He worked toward banishing illness from the land for three years. He cared for children, widows, and people who suffered. He brought a message of forgiveness, salvation, freedom from sin and bondage, joy, and peace, and eternal life. He passed that blessing on to us so that we could do the same. But despite all of that, they hated Him because He said they were sinners, just as the world hates us because we call out its sinfulness.
“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.”
John 8:37-41
Before this, Jesus pointed out that the Jews were in bondage to sin, to which they replied that they are Abraham’s descendants, and are not in bondage to anyone. So, Jesus lets them know that biologically and through heritage you are the descendants of Abraham, but by your thoughts and actions you are the sons of Satan. Unlike Abraham who rejoiced at the fact of Jesus coming into the world to save it, these religious leaders hated Jesus for doing what Abraham looked forward to. This is truly the mindset of the devil who wanted to prevent Jesus from delivering the Good News to the world, and so Jesus says that are acting like him, wanting to kill Me to prevent Me from delivering the Good News. At the end of that interaction the leaders jump into character assassination with the statement: “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.” So, to destroy the message they are saying that Jesus was not born of a virgin birth as the prophecy said would happen, but Mary just got busy with Joseph before marriage and out you came. Cancelling a person is nothing new. It was a trick the devil used back then, and he is using it against the Christians of today.
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”
John 8:42-47
In verse 43, Jesus begins starts to diagnose their problem: “Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.” Jesus now cuts to the core of the depths of their sinfulness, that of not being able to understand His words. It is not that they can’t make sense of what Jesus is saying, it is that they refuse to accept the truth that is being spoken. “You religious people are in a condition, where it is not possible for you to understand what I’m saying.” Why? Let’s go a little deeper.
“You are of your father the devil.” For those of you who want to talk about Jesus as being this gentle person, in most cases He is, but here he is saying something harsh and offensive. My niece likes to tell me I’m rude when I speak the truth, a truth she does not want to hear. But Jesus just told the Jewish leaders of Israel that they operate under the power of Satan. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning”—and that’s very specific because they were seeking to murder Him. “You wanting to murder Me is consistent with who you are. Not only that; “he was a murderer from the beginning and doesn’t stand in the truth because there’s no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” This is a profound diagnosis of the human condition: “You cannot understand what I say. You do not love Me or My Father. You follow your father, the devil, and you do what he desires you to do; and he desires to kill, and even to kill Me; and he’s a liar, and you believe his lies.”
One of the lies the devil pushes upon us is homosexuality. Someone had asked me, why do you care about what two people do in the privacy of their own homes. I said that I don’t care, but when their privacy now spills out into the school system, trying to infect the young children with this strange desire, and it starts to be pushed upon me in the sense that I could be jailed for not preforming their marriage, then it affects me and I must speak out about it because the Bible says it is sinful, and it seeks to destroy the very idea of family that God put together in the beginning, what we call the nuclear family…a father. Mother, and children. Now, before you say that Jesus never spoke about the matter, then I say you need to read Matthew 5 and 19 more carefully, because Jesus states that the only union that God looks at is that of a man and a woman.
The decline of our churches has it downplaying the sinfulness of homosexuality, even though the Bible clearly says it is a sin. Don’t get me wrong here, the homosexual person is welcomed into the church and through the spoken word of God and the love of the fellowship that individual should change their lifestyle to be that conforming to the will of God, other than the church breaking down and conforming to the will of the homosexual. I started out with a civil conversation with a person who lives the homosexual lifestyle, and all was going well until I pointed out that continuing in this lifestyle does not lead to heaven…that’s when the fangs came out…he called me everything but a man of God. But the one thing he thought would be the kill shot was to call me a homophobe and to say that I was homophobic. Now most people upon hearing this would rethink their position, not wanting to be labeled like this for fear of what the people in their life would say. No, not me, because I knew two things that kept me on a solid footing in Christ Jesus: one, the Bible is clear on the subject; two, when I think about the word’s homophobe and homophobic, I remember my Greek and understand where the two words come from. The first part of the word “homo” means same or one, while the second part of the word “phobic” means fear of. And I am not in fear of the same or in fear of one.
The devil is busy these days because he sees that homosexuality is not gaining as much traction as he hoped. So, he threw gender confusion into the mix, what we can transgenderism today. Which by the way is a relatively new term to our society. Before we had cross-dressers, who were those who liked to dress in the other genders’ clothing but understood that it was not a changing of genders. Today Satan has sent a strong delusion that men can be women and women can be men, some doing so simply by putting on the other clothes and demanding that we call them the other gender. This is another area where the church has succumbed to because we don’t call it out for the sinful nature that it is. Jesus was not gentle or turned a blind eye to this…He said it very simply, a man is a man, and a woman is a woman…there are only two genders and that is the way God designed it from the beginning.
This is the human condition: sinful, blind, dead, ignorant, darkened under satanic power, control. Speaking the truth doesn’t change anything. Because you speak the truth, they don’t believe, because it’s so alien to their nature; and you can’t be more hostile than to say to someone, “You’re from hell.” But that’s what the religious Jews said to Jesus, and He was offering them eternal life. But it was predicated on the recognition that they were the children of Satan, and they were profoundly captive to sin. That’s why they killed Him. That’s why they martyred the apostles. They hate the truth.
So, when you talk to somebody about the gospel, there may be a natural tendency to avoid talking about the true condition of a nonbeliever. You must have the courage to do that. You must be willing to take the hostility that may come back. And when they reject with hostility, you can just walk away, it is what Jesus eventually did, He just stopped talking with them. Adam and Eve fall because they had a continued conversation with evil, and in that conversation, evil messed with their pride.
The offer of life, the true offer, the true gospel, will offend. It will generate hostility and hatred. And because it’s the truth they can’t accept it, because they are under such pervasive deception. Jesus sums it up when He said, “You are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I can offer you that life; I do offer you that life. You have no capacity to come and receive it. But once you surrender yourself to God, He can change that heart of stone to flesh and draw you to Me.”
Lord may sinners who see, perhaps, their own condition clearly this day do the only thing a sinner can do: plead, “Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. Save me.” Give us the boldness to proclaim the truth that must be claimed, owned, believed, so that the sinner, broken, penitent, and helpless, falls before the Holy Judge and pleads for grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. Use us in that way, we pray, for Your glory. Amen.
