Haters Gonna Hate
Notes
Transcript
World of Warcraft EULA
World of Warcraft EULA
World of Warcraft. Exactly as nerdy as it sounds.
When this game came out in the early 2000s, it was the stuff of rumor and legend. Blizzard had made amazing games, Warcraft I, II, III, Starcraft… the rumor that they were working on a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. The nerd world was excited.
And my friend Mike, well his cousin was the art director. So Mike asked me if I wanted to be in the friends and family beta, and I jumped at the chance to play this incredible game early.
Well, famously, they had one of those EULA things, the endless screens of text that nobody ever reads. And buried in there was “Blizzard now owns your soul.”
I… didn’t read it. I totally clicked it.
I pray that Jesus has more authority in the Day of Judgment than Blizzard’s lawyers.
The Kingdom of Heaven is Here
The Kingdom of Heaven is Here
Recap - Jesus chooses and sends out the disciples as workers into the harvest.
Don’t panic, don’t over-prepare, it isn’t about the equipment or the equipping… it is this simple proclamation:
Jesus has already given them guidance into what may happen if things don’t go perfectly. Shake it off. Shake it off.
Then Jesus seems to transition from what is going to happen in this particular mission, to what is going to happen in the larger mission of his disciples, the Great Mission, the Great Commission, the Mission of the church.
Because the next things he describes don’t happen immediately.
He is still perfectly accurate. Jesus speaks of what will happen, and fluidly shifts from what will happen tomorrow to what will happen in the coming years and ultimately in the whole of the Church Age.
He addresses the disciples before him as “you” and equally all of his disciples to follow.
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
I love this. He is picking up on his earlier metaphor, seeing the lost as “sheep without a shepherd.” He doesn’t send us out as shepherds… we are fellow sheeps pointing the way to the Shepherd.
And there are creatures whose desire is to devour the sheep.
So, therefore, be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
Wise — knowledge rightly applied. The secret of the serpent is to know when to strike, it is one of timing.
Innocence — is purity, like the unstained sacrifice, the pure white dove. Purity of intention.
Wisdom and intelligence paired with pure intention, that’s a beautiful thing.
Our tendency is to be sinful as serpents and dumb as doves.
Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues,
and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.
These things ABSOLUTELY happen to the disciples in the future, but not in the next few days really, which is our first clue that Jesus is looking at a longer timeline here.
Persecution is coming.
I love how Jesus never hides the ball. He is SO upfront, count the cost, be aware, it isn’t all sunshine and roses. There’s some hard coming.
But you won’t face it alone. And you won’t be unprepared.
When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.
For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
I have heard folks use this as an excuse to not study and prepare for bible studies or preaching and the like, almost as if preparation is opposed to the Holy Spirit. The disciples didn’t take it that way, they “devoted themselves to studying the Scripture” every chance they got.
This is speaking against anxiety in the face of persecution, when the chips are down, no preparation possible in this scenario, God’s got you.
God’s got you. He is with you. He will never leave or forsake you.
And that’s especially important… because in certain seasons… life might get rough. And you’ll need to remember that He is with you.
Here, what follows, is just the WORST recruitment speech of all time. If Jesus is selling timeshares, absolutely nobody is buying.
If you encounter this in the EULA, you’re not checking that box.
Here it is:
Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,
and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Just take that literally for a second.
Dylan turns Logan and Drew over to be executed, then I turn Dylan in, then Arabelle and Ella take KK and I both out.
That’s a bad day, that’s brutal. Who is signing up for that?
And the advice here? RUN AWAY!
When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
This is another clue that Jesus is likely talking about the overall total mission of the church and persecution that will rise and fall. If he means “the Son of Man comes” by his own earthly ministry, none of this persecution stuff happens to his disciples in that time frame.
If however, he means “the Son of Man comes” as the second coming of Jesus to make new all things… then this makes sense.
Paul writes along these lines:
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“all Israel will be saved.” How’s God going to do that? I can’t wait to see it!
But you aren’t going to run out of places to serve in the meantime. The mission will continue despite and amidst the persecution.
Why will their be persecution. Because they hated Jesus, so they are bound to hate Jesus people.
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
Recall that the Pharisees have started this line of slander.
I want to talk for an hour about who Beelzebul is. Sounds like a name, it means something like “Lord of the High Places.” And recall that the Israelites coming worshipping in the “high places” as a center of pagan worship, that’s where they hid all the other Gods. “Beelzebub” shows up too, which means Lord of the Flies, and Jesus uses this name interchangeably with Satan in Mark and Luke.
But we don’t need to know exactly how and why they were wrong, except that it’s interesting to know how the Pharisees understood the spiritual world. They were just completely and totally wrong.
Calling the work of the Holy Spirit the work of false gods, demons, or Satan himself… they are wrong and dead wrong. More about that in a couple chapters.
The disciple is like the master.
What they love about the master, they may love about you. It isn’t always about persecution… but if they hate Jesus, they are going to hate you too to the extent you are like Jesus.
To the extent that you faithfully represent Him.
He’s building up to this in a few verses:
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Keep in mind, he hasn’t been to the cross yet. They have no context for this, no “Old Rugged Cross” no “Beautiful Cross” no “Cross of Redemption...” just the ugly and shameful execution method of the hated Romans.
Like student is like the Master.
Jesus wants them to be PAINFULLY aware of what’s coming.
Eyes wide open.
This is the End User License Agreement for Jesus.
There will be hard times ahead. And yes, He does own your soul. More about that next week.
Jesus doesn’t hide the ball.
Just as He is aware of the cross to come. He knows the plan, he knows the road is to the cross, he knows the prophecies, he wrote the prophecies, he is the prophecies.
There’s some hard on the road of discipleship.
Peter, years later, made it all the way to Rome, part of serving and maybe leading the church there that Paul never actually got to see because he was in prison.
The story goes that Nero burned Rome and blamed the Christians for the fire… he captured Peter as the leader of the church in Rome, the Bishop of Rome… but Peter requested to be crucified upside down as he wasn’t worthy to be killed in the same way as His master.
He turned death into worship. Think of that when you see an upside-down cross.
Peter, one of those who got this warning, there on the day. Saw it coming… and was beautifully ready for it. Now Nero’s name is a joke, he’s mostly known for this story, and half of Rome bears the name of St. Peter… and the cross of Jesus.
There’s some scary in there.
There’s some hard.
But look at the end of that verse:
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
How does one “find life?”
Lose it, for his sake.
Lose it all at once like Peter… or one day at a time like Peter in the years before. Or one day at a time like John, all the way into his 90s.
Wherever He sends… I will follow.
Knowing the cost… and knowing it’s worth it.
Like Master, Like Student
Like Master, Like Student
It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher… the servant like his master.
I am the student, let me be like my Master.
Let them love what they see of Jesus in me.
Let the hate what they hate about Jesus… because they see Jesus in me so clearly!
This is not about being obnoxious, or mean… getting in people’s faces and screaming “JESUS!” so that you get Jesus points for them hating you.
That wasn’t Jesus move.
He was radical love, radical peace, radical righteousness… and to those ready to receive it… they loved him.
And to many, especially many in power, that was a threat to their power. A threat to their self-righteousness.
We have some radical and beautiful religious freedoms in this country. Our religious freedom is built on the the Judeo-Christian ethic, by the way. That didn’t come out of nowhere.
But I see more and more speech police, thought police, control in the name of “tolerance...” and it isn’t persecution today… but I can imagine that day coming.
But sometimes the subtle pressure is more insidious… and more effective in squashing the American church. How often is the church shaped by culture more than we are shaped by Jesus?
Better question: how often am I shaped by culture? Shaped by those I want to impress, those I want to like me? Instead of Jesus.
More important than dying the martyr’s death is living the martyr’s life.
“It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher.”
Let me be like Jesus… in this way and every way.
Let us follow boldly in the footsteps of Jesus, with His Word, His message on our lips, living out righteousness and holiness.
Let that be a blessing to whomever will receive the blessing.
