Who Said It Was Easy
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Application: We have been blessed to live in a Nation with Freedom of Religion. A nation where worship cannot be regulated. However, with that freedom comes a curse. A enemy who uses the freedom to create a atmosphere of easy religion. In the first 100 years of the church, growth occurred because persecution was real and people saw martyrdom as a honor. Now we run from even telling people about Jesus.
Application: We have been blessed to live in a Nation with Freedom of Religion. A nation where worship cannot be regulated. However, with that freedom comes a curse. A enemy who uses the freedom to create a atmosphere of easy religion. In the first 100 years of the church, growth occurred because persecution was real and people saw martyrdom as a honor. Now we run from even telling people about Jesus.
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
1. He Has Experienced Your Pain.
1. He Has Experienced Your Pain.
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated 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.
-
Early Christians expected suffering. Christ had died on the cross, so there was no higher honor than to imitate that death through accepting martyrdom
Christians were arrested, cruelly tortured, thrown to wild animals, crucified, and burned as torches to light Nero’s gardens at night. The official persecution apparently was confined to the vicinity of Rome. But attacks on Christians undoubtedly spread, unchecked by the authorities, to other parts of the empire. According to tradition, Peter and Paul were martyred during Nero’s persecution.
In rapid succession fell many, Stephen was stoned, Matthew was slain in Ethiopia, Mark dragged through the streets until he died, Luke hanged, Peter and Simeon was crucified, Andrew tied to a cross, James beheaded, Philip crucified and stoned, Bartholomew flayed alive, Thomas pierced with lances, James the less thrown from the temple and beaten to death, Jude shot to death with arrows, Mathias stoned to death and Paul beheaded.
In the first 1200 years 50,000,000 million Christians were martyred
2. He Has Chosen You.
2. He Has Chosen 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.
Christians have a huge task:
Paul charged the Philippians, “Prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” (). “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness,” he admonished the Ephesians, “but instead even expose them” ().[1]
that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
SEE THE VERSE ON LOVE
Love is from phileō, which refers to “natural affection and passion, and not [agapaō], the high, intelligent, purposeful love of an ethical state” [2] (SEE VERSE 17 and 19)
[2] John F. MacArthur Jr., , MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2008), 172.
3. He Told You The World Will Not Like You.
3. He Told You The World Will Not Like 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.
Because Satan hates God he also hates the true people of God[1]
(; cf. ) Please beware of the warnings God has given us.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
On the other hand, the world applauds those who practice evil ().[2]
who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
[2] John F. MacArthur Jr., , MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2008), 171.
THE PROBLEM
THE PROBLEM
A. They Reject Jesus.
A. They Reject Jesus.
But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
B. They Reject Hope.
B. They Reject Hope.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
C. They Reject Eternal Life.
C. They Reject Eternal Life.
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.’