One of the things that confuses many Christians is the attitude of non-Christians toward them. Most of us think that since we go to the world with the greatest and most important message in all of history that the world would applaud and cheer. For the most part, people 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.
Why does the world hate Christians?
A. Because Christians are different. (18,19)
"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hate you."
"world" is not the earth. Everyone lives in the physical world. It is the word - cosmos. It is the word from which we get the word COSMETICS. It means "to put in order." Cosmetics are designed to put women’s faces in order. Most of you have watched women putting on their make-up with the use of the car mirror while on their way to work.
The world than is organized. Put in order. It is a system run by an intelligent head, the devil. He has one specific goal: to get this world order to leave God out. The word "worldly" then as it is used biblically means to operate as if there is no God. Don Carson - The created moral order in active rebellion against God. To buy into that system and operate within that system that in practice and lifestyle operates independently of God.
You cannot reconcile the war between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. (James 4:4) "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God." You cannot be a friend of that which hates the Father. The world says: disobey God, forget God, don’t follow God, leave God out, forsake God. You can’t be a friend of something like that. You can’t have God and the world.
(Rom 12:2) "Don’t be conformed to this world." Don’t be squeezed into its mold. Don’t let the world tell you what to do.
Ho do you know when the world is telling you what to do? Can you include God? Anything that keeps you from including God is worldly.
As a Christian, what can I do? Anything God can do with you. If Jesus has to wait outside while you do it, DON’T DO IT!
You love what you spend your time, your money and your energy on. If very little of it is going to God, then God is not the One you love.
(19) "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
The more you look like Christ the more the world is going to treat you the same way it treated Him. When you don’t act, talk or think like the world does, you are going to make the crowd uncomfortable. You are not going to be "one of us." The fact is you are not. God has "chosen you out" by His sovereign grace. This concept of a Christian living in the world, but not being of the world is a key concept to understand what it means to be a Christian. "His own" are 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.
B. Because Christians insist on an absolute standard.(20-24)
(20) "Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have presecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also."
If the church today is not undergoing persecution it may be because there is very little distinction between the world and the church. Religious surveys consistently show that there are no noticeable differences between the lifestyles of those who attend church and those who do not. Church members wear the same clothes as the secular culture, watch the same movies, get divorced at the same rate, buy as many lottery tickets, have as man affairs and use just as many questionable business practices. The secular culture has so invaded the minds and hearts of those in the church both in the pew and the pulpit, that the godless society sees nothing about the church worth persecuting. That in itself may be the most telling criticism the church faces today.
(21) "Butall these things will they do unto you for My name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent Me."
They hated Jesus because they did not know the Father. They will hate you becaue they don’t know Jesus.
(22) "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin."
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.
(23) "He that hateth Me hateth My Father also."
You can’t have the Father without the Son.
(24) "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father."
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. When you live a life that imitates Christ it will bring to mind their own sins. They do not want a Christian who reflects God’s holiness. Folks want to hear "we all sin." They don’t want to be confronted by a higher standard. That is why they are so quick to latch on to anything negative they hear about the church.
C. Because Christians remind them of the God they hate. (25-27)
(25) "But this cometh to pass, that the Word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated Me with a cause."
Remember when you were in school. Sometimes they graded on a CURVE. The highest grade became a 100. It created a whole new standard. Jesus messed up the curve. When He graded out 100 everyone else had to be compared to Him.
Harry Ironside told the story of the 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 she. She got made, 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 you.
(26) "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me."
How am I going to make it in this hostile world? "The Comforter" will give me the staying power.
(27) "And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning."
The Holy Spirit witnesses and you witness. You have a strength beyond yourself ot go on in your Christian witness. A witness is someone who simply tells what he or she has experienced.
Billy Graham is now in his 80’s and has Parkinson’s Disease. Just a few years ago, he told this story that reveals that he understood that this world is not our home. Many wonderful things had been said about him as he stepped to the podium at a luncheon given in his honor in his hometown of Charlotte, N.C.
"I’m reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist who this month has been honore by Time magazine as the Man of the Century. Einstein 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."
Having said that Billy Graham continued, "See the suit I’m wearing? It’s a brand new suit. My wife, my children, and my grandchildren are telling me I’ve gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be more fastidious. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion.
You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I’ll be buried. But when you hear I’m dead, I don’t want you to immediately remember the suit I’m wearing. I want you to remember this:
I NOT ONLY KNOW WHO I AM...I ALSO KNOW WHERE I’M GOING."
That is the message that we are called to share with a lost world. We know who we are in Christ and we know where we will spend eternity. And we know how they can have the same assurance.
It is not a popular message. Most will reject it. Sharing the message may make you very unpopular with people. But you will be popular with the Christ who first brought it and received an even worse reception.
