Witnessing to a Hostile World (Part 1)
Notes
Transcript
Main Idea:
Main Idea:
How do I see Jesus:
How do I see Jesus:
ME
ME
You may have heard it before, or you may remember being a victim to similar theology that is in the world today but there are so many pastors and churches that are preaching a theology that will ultimately lead to our death. The main theology that is being preached especially in our culture today is the idea that Christians are not supposed to suffer. God, does not want us to have any suffering in our lives. Instead, what he wants for us is for us to be successful and happy. People take ideas from those we looked at earlier in the book of John, such as John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
To try and tell us that he wants us to have an abundance of things, and you may remember what we really learned about this verse when we talked about it a few months ago. However, when we start to think that God doesn’t want any suffering in our lives we have misconstrued his language and gotten things to make us feel a little bit better about ourselves. We overlook scripture like some we are going to be faced with today, and we forget totally Acts 14:22
Acts 14:22 (ESV)
22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
And 2 Tim 3:12
12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
And we just think about God wanting our happiness by taking out of context what he has really said to us.
But it doesn’t just stop at the idea we won’t have suffering in this life, when taken to its fullest extremity, we get to the place where when we focus only on Jesus’ love and grace we cannot see how a loving God would make anyone suffer in a place called Hell. This was the main idea of Rob Bell’s popular book, Love Wins, he says the church’s translation and interpretation of scripture for thousands of years of a literal place called hell is incorrect, and this was all figurative, and a loving God would never send a person to a place like that, because Jesus work on the cross conquered the price of sin for everyone, whether we choose to accept him as our savior or not. Thus, Jesus’ love wins. And while it has been rightly described as the heretical garbage that it is by many scholars, there are tons of people who follow it and hold on to it as true. It actually seems like the way of the catholic church is moving with the newest announcements by the pope. Explain.
So as we move forward in our text today, Jesus words will not be popular. IT may be hard for us to digest but it is trying to prepare us for what is coming in the world. He will continue to show us the world will hate us but our job as he shows and will lay out in the great commission is through the power of the Holy Spirit to witness to the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment.
So he wants us to keep in mind a couple things as we witness to a hostile world we have to 1. first understand the task is difficult, we will be persecuted.
Jesus goes so far as to tell them the reason why he is telling them about all the negative things that would be coming for them in John 16:1
1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.
The greek word here that we translate here as falling away or the nasb as stumbling, means to be caught in a trap, and has this idea that it would be taken by surprise. And so Jesus has already been laying out before them they are supposed to be going into this world that is completely consumed with itself and share the gospel, and there will be some pushback. He says I want you to know these things because when you receive that push back your most likely next step would be to fall away from the message you are sharing because it is hard, and I don’t want that to happen to you.
I feel like he is telling us the exact same thing today. He would say, Adam, I know its going to be hard, you are living in a world who is totally in love with itself, it believes your happiness is more important than the life of the child inside of you;
it believes you don’t have to believe you are the sex your dna tells you it is, you can decide what you want to be, its not really hurting anyone, why should it matter, do what makes you happy;
it believes you can lie so long as its not a really big one, and you aren’t really hurting anyone and you are getting some type of benefit from it, because your happiness is more important than anything else in this world.
So, I understand when you speak the truth people won’t like it. When you talk about sin and righteousness and being made right through one person they won’t like it, but don’t let that make you discouraged. Don’t let that stop you from what I have called you to do. Don’t fall away!
It would be super easy even to think this kind of messaging, this type of push back would only come from those outside the church, from those that do not call themselves believers, but Jesus doesn’t leave that as an option. Look at the very next verse, Jesus shows us this type of persecution can also come from the religious world.
2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
And we think, there is no way this could happen. But think back to the life of Paul, and I want to show you what Paul says about himself as a religious, or righteous person Phil 3:5-6
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
So, he is telling the Philippians hey guys, I was the most righteous of them all, according the the law I was doing everything right, I was blameless. I was persecuting the world in the name of God, I was doing good services for him… So I thought, but I was wrong. And we can get to be that way and people in the church can get to be that way when they focus on the wrong thing.
This is why you see people fighting over the music in churches, where they think there are only certain songs they should be playing or not playing, at a certain tempo.
This is why people think they are doing a service for God by saying you should only wear certain clothes, and they have to be your best and you have to dress a certain way.
This is why people say kids have to sit still and cannot move and be kids in a building… because they aren’t focused and don’t truly know God. And you may think, that’s a little harsh, but that exactly the Reason Jesus gives them in the next verse…
3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.
And thats a harsh reality, but Jesus wants us to know even when the super religious push back it doesn’t always mean you are wrong, sometimes it can mean that, and its well worth checking it all out and seeing if you are right with God, but he gives us some hope as he continues in verse 4 he says, Jn 16:4
4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.
And he is saying, look, I know the future, don’t be disheartened. I know what is coming. And if we are going to be able to witness to a hostile world the second thing we must do after realizing how difficult of a task it is, is to realize we must focus on God’s glory, and not what we feel like we need.
5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
And as Jesus talks the disciples are hearing all of the words of Jesus and they are obviously saddened by them as I think most of us would be when we are thinking about losing someone so dear to us, but what he is pointing out here is they are thinking about their own feelings and desires and not really thinking about what Jesus returning to the glory of his father would mean. They are focused on their own needs and I think this is easy for us to do.
I saw a pastor friend of mine the other day said people ask him all the time what they are supposed to do in certain decisions in life, and he tells them which one produces the most fruit… and really what he is meaning and getting at is which one shows the most glory of God… he in essences is telling them to turn their eyes off their selves to look at the glory of God and how their decisions will affect that.
And as we read these words we may think Jesus has lost his mind, it was clear that both Thomas and Peter asked Jesus where he was going, but what we realize is Jesus knows the hearts of these men, and as they ask this question, they really don’t care where he is going, their question is really more of a protest of his leaving.
And this goes along exactly with what we were saying before, they aren;t really concerned with where he is going and what that means, they are more concerned about themselves and what it means for them.
As they think about this moment, they are thinking about him leaving them and how they are going to get on and what that loss will feel like, they aren’t thinking about Jesus returning to the right hand of the father to send them the HS to impart their lives.
And so in order to witness in our hostile world we are going to have to take our focus off of our feelings and desires and focus on the glory of God that will happen as we share the gospel with the people around us.
So what does this look like for you and me? It means we have to be focused on the mission at hand and not our own desires.
As we have talked about and most of your know, our mission as a church is to Sow. Grow. Go. and when we become members of the church what we are really saying is we want to be a part of that mission. So as well all come together and say we are members of this church, we are saying we want to sow. grow. and Go. together. And if you aren’t yet a member of this church we can change that at the end of this service, but beforehand you should understand these things, when you are looking to come and be a part of us, we are asking, do you want to Sow. Grow. and Go. with us?
Often times we can be so focused on ourselves and our own desires we forget what God has called us to and long before I arrived this was the mission at hand and we have to know as we continue to grow and move forward we have to stay task oriented.
As we Sow…
People will not be accepting of the message we are sharing, that Jesus is the Christ, he is the only way to Heaven there is no other hope for any of us but through Jesus. This world will not like it.
Our nature will be to keep it to ourselves because it is so counter culture we think people may not like US, but Jesus tells us to keep moving forward.
We may be depressed as people reject the message we share, thinking about our own rejection. But we must keep our eyes on his glory. We must continue to Sow like he has called us to.
As we Grow…
People will come who do not look or act like we think Christians should. Take heart, they may not be christians. And we get to grow together. It should never be our desire to crush or keep people from coming to God, but to edify and build up. We have to keep our eyes and focus on HIM and not what we see around us.
People will stumble… much like a child learning to walk we will watch people fall and our goal should be to grab them by the hand and help them up
We cannot be the 40 year old in the kiddy pool
As we Go…
The world will hate us. Not every good thing we do as we put our faith into action will be well received… story of homeless man who cussed me out.
These are just some of the things we will encounter as we begin witnessing to a hostile world and we will get more in depth next week as well, but the first thing we have to realize is we will be persecuted because the mission is not easy, and then we have to realize we must focus more on him and our own desires… could you imagine teh difference we could make not only in this city, or our county or state, but in the world if we could all grasp hold of these ideas
