Why Does the World Persecute Christians

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Why Does the World Persecute Christians. He will be in John 15: 17-25.

When I choose to say no to the world and choose no to that lifestyle or no to that sin or that no to that temptation and I say yes to Jesus. When I say no to self and yes to Christ it is an act of worship unto God Almighty.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders and this is Hope Worth Having radio program. Hope Worth Having is a ministry that is designed to broadcast the gospel of Jesus Christ not only through radio but the means of television, social media, the internet and our goal is to get the gospel to every heart and to every home so they have the opportunity to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today we are studying the gospel of John chapter 15 and we’re in verses 17 through 25 and what I want to speak about today is why does the world persecute Christians? I want you to join me in the gospel of John chapter 15 verses 17 through 25 is where we’re going to be this morning and I just want to take some time to answer this one question why does the world persecute Christians?

Jesus Christ in this text from chapter 14 all the way through parts of chapter 15 has been encouraging and comforting the disciples. He has been preparing them for his departure which will be very soon.

He will soon go to the cross and he will soon be resurrected and then ascended into heaven but he gives a warning to his disciples in the last part of chapter 15 reminding them that as they follow Jesus Christ that there will be persecution reminding them that following Christ Christ is not easy.

To live for Jesus means that you stand out and you face opposition. He is preparing the hearts of His disciples. And it is a warning that each of us must note this morning that as we follow Jesus Christ, there is always the potential of persecution, ridicule, opposition because of our faith in Jesus.

According to the new persecuted magazine that there are nearly 100 ,000 Christians a year that are killed for their faith in Jesus Christ around the world. According to the opendoorsusa .org website, there are 105 church buildings that are burned down every month because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

The stats are amazing, overwhelming, disheartening. You and I just learned last week that group of worshipers gathered and there was an explosion in their church building room. Just yesterday, you and I learned about our Jewish friends who had gathered to worship and there was a gunman who broke out.

Every day, every week, every month, it seems that there are these attempts of violence, not only in our country, but around the world. And we find that many times that it is simply someone who is upset about a religion, a faith.

But I want you to know that it is just the tea leaves of what is to come during the tribulation period for those who do not know Jesus Christ and are left behind. For Jesus reminds us that persecution will be ramped up.

But even while we today remember and we reflect and we pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who are facing persecution, we also are reminded of the words of God who told us in 2 Timothy 3, 12, yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Persecution affects each and every one of us, whether we are grieving with others who are persecuted around the world, whether we are personally insulted or injured because of our faith, whether our family disowns or disrespects us because we love Jesus, whether our government or culture rejects us, persecution is very real in America.

our world. Again the Bible reminds us as followers we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. If you came to Jesus because you wanted an easy life you came to the wrong person and place.

For Jesus calls his disciples to deny self and take up the cross and follow him. And suffering is inevitable for the believer. The Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonians who were facing much adversity in their life within their community and their culture and their own families that had rejected them and disowned them.

Reminded them in chapter 3 verse 3 that no one should be shaken by these afflictions for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. It’s not the most power of positive thinking thought to. Here, pastor might say that the Bible teaches us that we are appointed unto affliction.

We are called to suffer for him. The scripture reminds us of the realities of persecution within the life of the believer. And it must be taken under consideration. Jesus said that a king does not go to war unless he makes sure he has a big enough army to win.

And a man does not build a house unless he knows he has the resources to finish the job. And neither should a person follow Christ unless they know that they are willing to deny self and take up the cross and follow him.

In our culture of American Christianity, easy believe -ism has infiltrated the churches, the homes. And we have many who pray prayers thinking they’re okay with Jesus. But the truth is they have never really repented and believed and they have never chosen to allow God to transform their lives in such a way that they are distinct and they stand out.

You are odd this morning. I know that makes you feel good, but you are unique and unusual because you got up out of your bed on a Sunday morning and you gathered with God’s people to worship Jesus Christ.

That makes you different. And your neighbors think, what is wrong with you? Why aren’t you golfing? Why aren’t you sitting on the front porch in your robe drinking coffee, reading the New York Times?

Why aren’t you out hunting, fishing? Why aren’t you chilling on your couch and watching whatever you enjoy on television? Why don’t you take a break? Because tomorrow you gotta hit it hard. It’s the beginning of a new week for you at work and you’ve got a lot of things to accomplish, but you sacrifice.

You do. and you said attending church and hearing the word of God and being with God’s people is far more important than the things of this world. That makes you odd and you stand out. Jesus explains to his disciples why the world persecutes Christians.

And I submit unto you first of all, that he teaches us that the world persecutes Christians because the world rejects those who are not part of it. Look at our text this morning in verse 18 of chapter 15 and notice what he says that if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

And if you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. The world rejects those who are not part of it.

Now I don’t want you to get confused about when the… Bible uses the word world. There are many different ways and contexts that it uses this word But I want you to understand what it really means and what it doesn’t mean It doesn’t mean that Jesus is saying that you are to not love your neighbor He’s not telling us to not reach out to lost people and unchurched people and that we should have a love for Sinners and what desire to connect and build friendships with them so that we can share the gospel of Jesus Christ That’s not what he’s talking about when he refers to the world.

He’s talking about a system. He’s talking about a philosophy He’s talking about a value the values of the world a culture that embraces Everything that is opposite of Christianity Everything that is honorable to God and what he is saying that if you are an outsider of the world and that your Values are different than the culture or your behavior is different than the culture then the world’s gonna look at you Reject you and have nothing to do with you now.

That’s difficult Especially for our young people and you know why it’s difficult because they’re trying to figure out their identity Some of you are trying to figure out your identity And when you turn to the world the world says come be like us make a mess of your life Maximize all that you want to do and just live for self and focus on what you want and The world says we applaud that But when you choose to deny self and you choose to help others and serve others and you choose to live differently and you abstain from certain things in this world because you know that they’re not healthy for your heart and they’re not healthy for Your mind and they’re not healthy for your body and you choose to follow a path that God has laid out for you the world system culture and values will despise you this opposition that is between the world and believers is not a hatred because you and I as disciples are doing wrong but rather it is a rejection of us because we are doing what is right.

What God’s Word teaches us and therefore the believers in this world will be misunderstood and we will be mistreated. Remember what the Apostle Paul taught us in Romans chapter 12 in verse 2 he said be not conform to this what world but be what transformed by the renewing of your mind which is your reasonable service unto God or in some translation this is your act of worship unto God that every act every thought Every lifestyle that I live relating to,

what honors God is my act of worship to Jesus Christ. When I choose to say no to the world and choose no to that lifestyle or no to that sin or that no to that temptation and I say yes to Jesus. When I say no to self and yes to Christ, it is an act of worship unto God Almighty.

Some of you are saying, boy, I’m waiting till Sunday to worship God. You don’t have to wait till Sunday to worship God. Did you know that? Some of you think the only way you can worship God and no offense, Pastor Rod, but they think the only way they can worship God is through music.

But you worship God through your choices and your decisions that you make moment by moment. So Paul says, be not conformed. The word conformed is the idea of outward pressure. You see the world is trying to shape you into its own image.

The world is putting intense pressure on you to be like them, to follow their way and their system and do it what they want you to do. And if you do it their way, they will accept you. And there’s nothing more than the human heart wants than to be accepted, right?

We long to be accepted. We long to be affirmed. We long to belong. We long to have identity. This is why I tell Christian families all the time, you got to build a strong identity with your children and your children’s identity should not be in the world and it should not be in sports and it should not be even in music and it should not be in all these other things, but their identity ought to be in their relationship with God and their relationship with mom and dad.

But when mom and dad check out and when mom and dad say, I don’t want to do any family activities. I don’t want to hang out with my kids. I want to ship them somewhere else. I want to make sure that I can make enough money to do all these other things rather than spend time with my kids.

And you wonder, when they turn 16, why they don’t wanna hang out with you. I’ll tell you why, because their identity is in the world. And their identity is in the things of the world and the people that accept them and please them.

And though they may be things that are harmful and hurtful to their life, they have chosen that because that’s where they are accepted and that’s where they find people affirm them and approve them. But when they go home, mom and dad are ragging on them.

They go home and they find mom and dad beaten down on them. They go home and they find mom and dad has everything that they gotta expose that’s wrong with their child. Listen, if I came into some of your homes and I was your teenager, I’d leave too.

I have to be honest with you. And that’s why I tell parents that when you raise teenagers, you have to learn to pick your battles. because you can rag on your kid every day because guess what? Your teenager is not perfect and I know all the teenagers would be shouting amen.

Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t have guidelines and boundaries for your children. I get it. I’m all there and I’ve raised three of them and I still survive. So I just want to give hope to all moms and dads.

I’m still making it. Still have my sanity and you’re going to make it. But I want to encourage you to understand that there is a world that is drawing our young people, even ourselves, and they show affirmation and when they reject us, it is because we do not buy into their worldly system or values.

The second reason that the world persecutes Christians is because the world hates Jesus. Now they don’t mind a baby Jesus and anything that they can use relating to religion and baby Jesus to promote capitalism and spend more money and help us make more money.

They’re all in, but a Jesus who says, I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the father, but by me, that’s a Jesus they don’t want to be a part of. And you’ll notice in our text in verse 20, the Bible says, Jesus himself says, remember the world that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord or master.

And if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. Jump down to verse 25. But this cometh to pass that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law.

They hated me without a cause. Friends, they hate Jesus. So I want to help you as you’re dealing with rejection because we sometimes struggle with rejection and we might struggle with rejection because we’ve been rejected all our life.

And therefore more rejection takes us deeper into discouragement and depression and defeat in our life. And we don’t know how to work through rejection in our life. But I want you to know they’re really not rejecting you, they’re rejecting Jesus.

They’re rejecting Jesus Christ. And so as I work through that in my life, I recognize that the world hates Jesus, and we should expect to be treated like Christ was treated. Because we are His servants, and He is our master.

We are His slave, and He is our master, if you will. That is the metaphor that Jesus gives here in our text this morning. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. Why? Because the servant, the slave, is no greater than His Lord, His master.

We see this as we look at the life of Christ all the way in the Gospel of John. The Jewish leaders were already plotting to arrest and kill Jesus. We won’t take time this morning, but chapter after chapter, we can see that they’re working diligently to bring about the demise of Jesus.

And so as we look at the life of Christ, we know that they hate Him, they hate what He teaches, they hate what He stands for, and if you identify with that and Him, then they hate you because of who you identify with.

Baptism is beautiful not only because it is a reminder that the old person has died and been raised a new person in Christ. It is beautiful because it is a picture of what Christ has done for us, that He died on the cross and He was raised again to new life.

But I want you to understand that baptism is beautiful because it is a reminder that the believer no longer identifies with the world but identifies with Jesus. And when they stand before you, they are saying, I’m not ashamed of Christ, I’m not ashamed of Him, and I stand before you to identify with Jesus Christ.

When I am explaining this to children, I always like to use soccer as an example because all little kids love soccer. Have you noticed that? When my kids came along, they loved soccer, and so they’d get up early, and it was Saturday, and we’d have a soccer game at 11 o ‘clock, but they’d get up at 6 a .m.

and put on their soccer uniform. And they were excited to identify with the CVCS blazers, and they couldn’t wait to get out on that field and to play for the blazers because they identified with the blazers, and they were not ashamed of the blazers, and they proudly wore their blazer uniform.

So it is as a believer, you identify with Christ. So simply declaring yourself as a follower of Christ and identifying with Him through baptism often results that you are going to face persecution. And Jesus says, when you are persecuted, get this.

when you are persecuted because of him, not because of your foolishness. Now some Christians face persecution because they’re just downright ignorant and they make some dumb decisions. Can we say amen to that?

But when you really get persecuted for him, guess what Jesus says, you’re blessed. Matthew 5, 10, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness say, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This word persecuted is the idea of being ran after.

It is the idea of pursuing someone with the intent to harm them. And when you are pursued by the world with the intent to harm you, Jesus says you are blessed. It’s kind of like you hunters out there.

Do we have any hunters left? But I want you to know this word is kind of like a hunting term because this word is the idea of pursuing something with the intent. of killing, like killing a deer. You hunters go out and you have a purpose, you have a plan.

I’m glad some of your families do not have to rely on you bringing home dinner tonight. But for Christians, sometimes it is open season and unbelievers are hounding them with the intent to harm them.

And many times some of you have been lied about, you’ve been misrepresented, you have been maligned, you have been mischaracterized, you have been accused at work within your family. You have been misunderstood and really at the heart of it was their hatred to what you stand for and who you identify with.

Now when this happens, if you get insulted for Christ, if you are persecuted for Christ, if you are falsely accused for Christ, I don’t want you as a believer to have a sour attitude. I don’t want you running around saying, I can’t believe this is happening to me.

But I want you to rejoice and be blessed. And think to yourself how wonderful it is that my love and faith for Christ is so evident that it upsets people. Because that is a life that God will honor and that is a life that God will reward.

My third and final point, why does the world persecute Christians? Because the world does not even know who God is. And many times they persecute us not only because of unbelief, but of ignorance of who God is.

Verse 21 through 24, Jesus explains that to us and He helps us to understand they don’t know who God is. The essence of what He is saying. But I want to encourage you today and know that you cannot destroy the church of God.

Because it is God’s church and He said the shall not prevail against it. Even those who seek to harass us, imprison us, frustrate the church. will eventually lead to the advancement of the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

History teaches us that, the Bible teaches us that, and we see over and over again that whenever the world and the demonic forces rise up to try to destroy the church, that it only emboldens his people and brings courage to their hearts and helps them to be faithful to what he has called us to.

In verse 22 Jesus said, if I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hates me hates my father also, and if I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin but now have both seen and hated both me and my father.

And here’s the point, Jesus is not saying to us or to trying to teach to us that had he’d never come then man would never have sinned. But rather, he is talking about a specific act and reflection of the heart of the Pharisees in this, that Jesus is saying, I came, I walked among you, I healed the sick, I gave sight to the blind, I interrupted funeral processions and raised the dead, I came four days late,

but always on God’s time and I raised a man who had been in the tomb for four days. And Jesus is saying that as he ministered and he did good and he helped the hurting and he brought forgiveness and salvation and healing to all that he encountered, that after all this evidence that he is the true Messiah and he is truly God, that they still hated him.

And what he is trying to say is that after all that was manifested to them, they still would not believe in Jesus had he never come and shown him these great acts of miracles and kindness and grace and great message of forgiveness, then they would have never ever had to deal with this sin of rejection, this fatal choice of choosing darkness over light.

His miracles were innumerable, his words proved that he truly was the son of God, but yet they chose to be belligerent and hateful and reject the savior of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4 .2 says, for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

In that God has blessed you with the truth, he has blessed you with the gospel of Jesus Christ, he offers forgiveness and yet the only way that this can be applied to your life is through faith. And those who hear the gospel and yet still reject him, they are guilty.

before God of rejecting him. The only sin that God cannot forgive is the sin of rejecting his son for eternal life in your heart. And the Bible sends out a warning to all of us in Hebrews 10 29 how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace.

My friends people reject God and reject Christ and reject his word because they don’t know him but if they knew him they would worship him they would follow him they would sacrifice for him and they would give everything they had that they might advance the cause of Jesus Christ.

So how do we respond? How do we respond? Church I’m asking you this day to make a commitment in your heart to pray for those and minister to those who suffer around the world. You and I are blessed in America and our persecution is light and sometimes somebody laughs at us makes fun of us but I encourage you to remember our brothers and sisters that every time that they gather their government may be spying on them.

Every time that they gather they run the risk of an explosion, a bomb, but they still come. How many Americans would gather together if there was that kind of threat upon us? I’m asking you to remember our brothers and sisters.

I ask you simply this question, are you willing to suffer persecution for Him? Are you willing today to suffer persecution? Would you sacrifice for Him? I want to remind you the words of Jesus at the outset of our text in verse 17.

These things I command you that you love one another. The key is identity. The key is that you and I must create such a loving church that rather than people finding their affirmation and approval in the world, they find it within the church.

They find love and encouragement. They find their identity with Christ and His people and so church let us commit in our hearts that we help our brothers and sisters in Christ when we do not beat each other up, when we do not attack every failure and weakness in our life, when we don’t walk around with a chip on our shoulder offended at every little thing that someone says or didn’t say to us, but we recognize that people are at different places and different stages in their walk with God at the open door church and this is a place where you can find identity and affirmation and the love of Jesus Christ and even though you faltered and failed this week in your walk with Jesus Christ,

we receive you and accept you because we don’t want you to turn to the world. We want you to turn to Jesus Christ It’s important for us to remember and to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who are facing persecution We’re not facing anything like many of our brothers and sisters who are in hiding or maybe they gather to worship and they have encountered violence and there’s all kinds of persecution going on in this world But the most important thing is to remember that if we’re gonna follow Christ that there is gonna be persecution all they that live Godly will face persecution.

And so that’s just part of following Christ But we don’t quit we don’t give up We want to stay faithful for the Lord Jesus Christ and we must understand the scripture says through much Tribulation we enter into the kingdom of God.

This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ There is hope worth having