Why They Hate You - [John 15:18-21]

I'm sure all of you are following the news closely. I came across this and I found it actually pretty pertinent to what we're going to be talking about this morning.

August 7th, which what, Tuesday, right? From the

AP, the 62 -year -old Chinese shopkeeper had waited his entire adult life to see his dream of building a church come true.

I could identify with that. Sorry. A brick house with a sunny courtyard and a spacious hall with room for 200 believers.

But in March, about a dozen police officers and local officials suddenly showed up at the church on his property and made the frightened congregants disperse.

They ordered that the cross, a painting of the Last Supper, and Bible verse calligraphy be taken down.

And they demanded that all services stop until each person, along with the church itself, was registered with the government.

You have to register to be a Christian. Without warning, this man and his neighbors in China's heartland province of Henan had found themselves on the front lines of an ambitious new effort by the officially atheist ruling

Communist Party to dictate and in some places, displace the practice of faith in the country.

Under President Xi, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, believers are seeing their freedom shrink dramatically even as the country undergoes a religious revival.

Experts and activists say that as he consolidates power, Xi is waging the most severe systematic suppression of Christianity in the country since religious freedom was written into the

Chinese Constitution in 1982. The crackdown on Christianity is part of a broader push by Xi to sinicize, which is to say to make things more

Chinese, to make Christianity more

Chinese by infusing them with Chinese characteristics such as loyalty to the

Communist Party, the merging of nationalism and faith, which is highly problematic.

Islamic crescents and domes have been stripped from mosques and a campaign launched to re -educate tens of thousands of Uyghur Muslims.

Tibetan children have been moved from Buddhist temples to schools and banned from religious activities during their summer holidays.

Over the last several months, local governments across the country have shut down hundreds of private Christian house churches.

Authorities have also seized Bibles, while major e -commerce retailers pulled them off their sites.

Children and Communist Party members are banned from churches in some areas and at least one township has encouraged

Christians to replace posters of Jesus, which by the way, I have a problem with anyway.

I wonder if he looks more Chinese, but I digress.

But they want to replace those portraits with portraits of President Xi. Some Christians have resorted to holding services in secrets and those who resist pay the price.

Persecution, and by the way, China isn't even one of the, because I went to this website called

Open Doors USA, and it's not even one of the most persecuted countries or, you know,

Christianity isn't even persecuted as heavily in China as it is in at least 10 other countries.

And by the way, that top 10 list, which was dominated for the last 17 years by our good friends in North Korea, that top 10 list doesn't even include

Saudi Arabia. I once had an inquiry about going to minister permanently in Saudi Arabia.

I just thought, no. I mean,

I was very nice, but I, you know, no. And by the way, just for the record, that top 10 list of persecuted countries doesn't include the

United States, no matter how many bakers are forced to bake cakes, right?

Persecution against Christianity is real. It is happening in our world today.

Let's open our Bibles to John chapter 15, and I'm going to start reading in verse 11 for a little bit of context.

They're talking about the fruitful nature of the work of the

Father and the Son in the lives of believers. John chapter 15, verse 11,

Jesus says this, says, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do

I call you servants, for the servant does not know, excuse me, what his master is doing, but I have called you friends.

For all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the

Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another.

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates 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 also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

Now the apostle John wrote this gospel in order that his readers might come to know that Jesus is the

Christ, the Messiah, and that by believing in him they could have eternal life. And here we are in the upper room discourse, the last supper, the last evening of Jesus' earthly ministry.

In just a few hours he's going to be arrested, he's going to go through false trials, shipped around a little bit, and ultimately he's going to be crucified here in less than 24 hours, much less than 24 hours.

Last week, verses 12 through 17, we spoke about the love of Jesus.

We know that it is, that it sets the standard. In other words, that as Jesus loves, we ought to love, but we will fail to meet that standard.

And that's one of the reasons for the gospel, right? Jesus is always setting the standard. Whatever the topic is,

Jesus is perfection. We fall short of that, therefore we need his perfection imputed to us.

Second thing we looked at was the love of Jesus led to his death. He loved his disciples to the end.

He loved them enough to finish his work, which was to go to the cross.

He loved us that much. It led to his death. He came to die. The third truth we looked at was the love of Jesus is transforming.

Jesus loves us enough, thankfully, to not leave us as we are.

Imagine that. What if Jesus just said, I love you guys, just be like you are.

That's how the world wants us to be, to think about the love of Jesus, but he changes us.

He gives us new affections even as I prayed. The fourth thing we looked at, the fourth truth was that the love of Jesus is sovereign.

He commands it. He gives us the grace to do what he calls us to do.

He is thoroughly sovereign. And this morning we're going to look at four reasons the world hates believers.

Last week it was about love. This week it's about hate. But like last week

I said, you know what? The love of God is not emotional. It's not emotional in the sense that we think about love.

It's love in action, right? And this week I'm going to argue that I'm not really going to argue this, but I'm going to say it right now.

The way the world hates us isn't really so emotional, although it might feel that way. It is a set and fixed hatred because of the ultimate object of their hatred.

But I want us to be encouraged to faithfulness when we are persecuted, when that actually happens to us.

And I think we need to be really mindful, and I'll mention this more later, mindful that our brothers and sisters in Christ are going through much more than we are even today.

Reason number one, the world hates you. I just like the title, The World Hates You. The world hated you because it first hated

Jesus. The world hated you because it first hated Jesus. Look at verse 18, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

In just a few hours, Jesus is going to leave. He's no longer going to be available as a target for their hatred, right?

They're not going to be able to get at him. Their hatred is going to be fulfilled as far as he goes because they're going to nail him to a cross.

But his disciples are going to be left behind. And they're going to, if they would just, you know, be sensible and fade away and do nothing, then there would be no reason to persecute him.

But that's not what Jesus is calling them to. He's calling them to spread the gospel. And as they do that, then guess what?

They become the objects of their hatred. And if we think about the number of times where Jesus would say or where he, scripture would describe how he eludes the crowd.

They wanted to seize him. They wanted to arrest him. They wanted to take him and he gets out of it. You know, what's amazing is if we go back and reread all those passages, if you want, but what you'll never see is, and miraculously the disciples got away with it.

Why is that? Because they were after Jesus. Cut off the head. Everybody else just scatters.

That would be the theory. But as after the crucifixion, as the church spread opposition to Christianity spread as well,

Jesus was not a normal God by ancient world standards.

What did they do in the Roman empire? Much like in the older world, they had little local gods, local deities, or deities that were in charge of different things, whether it was the weather or whether it was the seas or whether it was, you know, some particular aspect of life.

And it was okay to worship those kinds of gods, you know, have your little wooden or stone idols and fall down and worship.

Those were fine because you got to worship those things and still be loyal to the emperor, still be loyal to Caesar, still worship him as well, because you were supposed to worship

Caesar. But the followers of Jesus did not worship

Caesar. And this was not acceptable 2000 years ago. In fact, two ancient historians,

Tacitus and Suetonius, I practiced those all day yesterday. They both referred to Christianity as a mischievous superstition.

In other words, it's different from all these other religions. Today we hear what? All religions are alike.

They knew it. They knew there was a difference. The world knew there was a difference. They're like, what is up with these

Christians coming in and they're preaching this strange God, even as the

Athenians would say, you know, preaching about Christ and the resurrection, these strange gods.

And Jesus is sitting there with his disciples. He's trying to, he's trying to encourage them, but he's also keep in mind that a lot of these things, because they're so downcast, they're going to forget a lot of these things.

He's already promised them the Holy Spirit is going to come and he's going to remind them of these things. Why? Because they're going to forget a lot of it.

When the Holy Spirit comes in the day of Pentecost and reminds them of all these things, I think it gave them a lot of steel, a lot of backbone.

When he says, if the world hates you, he doesn't mean, you know what, there's a chance, you know, let's roll a couple of dice.

You know, if it's a total of five or less, they won't hate you. They're going to hate that.

That's certain. All he's saying is, listen, when the time comes, when they hate you, just remember they hated me first.

Persecution is certain because it is based on their hatred for Jesus. The fact that he will be gone doesn't dissipate their hate because they want to stop the gospel.

They want to stop the good news that God saves sinners. And that Greek verb hated is in the perfect tense.

What does that mean to you? It means it's a one -time act with ongoing consequences.

That hatred is not going anywhere. They hate Jesus permanently.

The world of unbelief is permanently at war with the Lord and his followers.

If you recall, what happens just as soon as Jesus is born? Herod becomes aware that the

Savior basically is on the scene. What does he try to do? He wants to kill every infant child.

Why? Because he wants to kill Jesus. We take a quick survey through John, John 1 .5.

The light shines in the darkness talking about Jesus coming into the darkened world and the darkness has not overcome it.

It wants to overcome it. John 1 .10, he was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know him, didn't want to know him, refused to know him.

John 5 .16, and this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the

Sabbath. Well, what was he doing? Healing people. He was persecuted for telling the truth.

They hated him because they were not children of God but they were children of Satan.

Remember, he even told a group of Jews that. You are of your father the devil.

He was the light of the world but they loved the darkness and hated the light.

Why would we think that any of this has diminished? According to that same page

I was talking about earlier, listen to these statistics. Every month, 255

Christians are killed worldwide. 104 are abducted, kidnapped. 180

Christian women are raped, sexually harassed or forced into marriage. 66 churches are attacked.

160 Christians are detained without trial and imprisoned. This is what's going on in the world.

I want to just take a minute and talk about worldview. Sometimes we talk about worldview and we don't just restrict ourselves to the weekends.

Never mind. I'm going to turn to a couple of scriptures and just read them quickly to you.

Colossians 1 .21. The Apostle Paul writes this and he's talking about what happens as a result of salvation but it's important for us to think about who we were before God saved us.

Colossians 1 .21 says this, and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.

Another translation of that word hostile is hate -filled. This is who you were before you got saved.

You were hate -filled. Well, who are you hate -filled against? Against God. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1.

The Apostle Paul writes this and we read this, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

Now listen. Following the course of this world, which we're about to talk about, this whole world system all of mankind, unregenerate mankind.

Following the prince of the power of the air who is Satan. The spirit that is now working or at work in the sons of disobedience.

And listen. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind.

This is who we were. This was our mindset before we got saved. And one more

I want to give you because I want you to understand this, that we're not at war with people.

We don't hate back. We are at war with ideas.

With ideas that are really not unchristian. They're anti -christian. They're against God.

2 Corinthians 10 verses 3 to 5 says this, for though we walk in the flesh, in other words we have human bodies, we are human beings, we are here in the physical world, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

We're not fighting against these people physically. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey

Christ. This is what we do. Our fight is not against people.

Our fight is against wicked ideas, speculations, false religions, and that's really the only weapon we have is the truth.

And that's the only weapon we need. We have the gospel, we have the word of God, and that's all we need. So that's our first truth here this morning, our second truth, our second reason that the world hates you.

The world hates you because Jesus changed you. The world hates you because Jesus changed you.

Look at verse 19. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

Now for a moment, let's just ponder how the disciples would be received, or how believers today would be received if they were not

Christians. If you were not a Christian, how would people receive you? How would your unbelieving family treat you?

How would your unbelieving friends and co -workers and the people that know you're a

Christian, how would they treat you? Well, Jesus says they would love you.

Why? Because you're just like them, right? The world loves those who are just like them.

If only you would be more sensible and get rid of all this Christian thinking and Christian talking and Christian way of life, well, you'd be a great guy, great girl.

Before you became all religious, before you got religion, before you started doing this whole Christian thing, you know what?

You were a lot more fun. I liked you a lot better when you used to be... But here's the truth.

1 John 2 verses 15 to 17. John who's sitting there listening to this and recording all this, and he writes this later in a letter, do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, right? If we're just going along to get along, as Pastor Mike likes to say, the love of the

Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the

Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Listen, you're together with your unbelieving family, you're together with your unbelieving friends and what do they want to talk about?

The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. It may not be necessarily directly sinful, but they're going to want to tell you about the wonders of their lives, right?

You want to tell them about the great things that the Lord is doing in your life and the lives of others and the forgiveness of sin, even as Andrew was saying this morning in Sunday school, as you think about all that God is doing and how thankful you are.

This is what you want to tell them about and they want to talk to you about the latest thing they bought or what their kids have accomplished or something else, something that is temporal.

Everything that the world values that they spend their whole lives investing in and everything else, what's going to happen to it?

It's all going to be destroyed. During the last couple of years, there's been a lot of talk about locker room talk and that kind of thing.

All the things that men in particular so value, all these sins are temporal.

They have no eternal value. In fact, the only value they have is a negative value. The penalties are eternal.

That's what they value. That's what they want to talk about. But those who belong to Christ, those who do not love what unbelievers love, and that's redundant, right?

If you're a Christian, you don't love what unbelievers love. They will not pay the price for their sins, but will spend eternity with Christ.

That is what it means in 1 John, that these things abide forever. If your life is exactly like your unsaved friends and family do, there's a problem.

If you get together and those are the best times of your life, there's a problem.

I'm not saying you can't get together with them, but there ought to be something special about getting together with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

The world lives their lives in rebellion against God. You say that you love

God, and so those two things ought to be in conflict in some way, shape, or form when you get together.

And Jesus draws a sharp contrast here in verse 19. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Jesus starts by assuring them that they are not of the world, and he uses a less stark adversative, you know, the word but.

He's just simply comforting them to remind them that they are not like the world.

But then he goes on to use a stronger adversative when we see the second

English word, but, it's a stronger word. And it's as if he's trying to say, you are not like them because, for this reason, because I chose you.

Because I changed you. Out of all the people in Israel, all the people that Jesus could have chosen to be his disciples, he chose these 11 men.

And if he had not chosen them, then guess what? They'd just be the world.

They'd just be like everybody else. They would never be subject to the persecution that they're going to be subject to.

The world hates believers because Jesus chose them. The world hates you because Jesus chose you.

And since they cannot reach him, they'll settle for you. They'll settle for our brothers and sisters in China, for our brothers and sisters in North Korea, for our brothers and sisters throughout the

Islamic world. And what a great picture of election.

I know sometimes people think, oh, he's talking about election again. He's talking about the sovereignty of God again.

I'm not going to apologize for it because Jesus is talking about the sovereignty of God. He says,

I, himself, emphatically, I myself, emphatically, chose you. And that's the word there, eclego, elected.

I chose you. I plucked you out, as it were. Out of all the people in the world,

Jesus chose you. If you love him, it's because he chose you. Why are you not part of the world that hates

Jesus? It's because he chose you. Why are your desires different than those of the world?

Because he chose you. Why is your destiny different than that of the world?

Because he chose you. And you would no more have chosen him than anyone else who hated him.

And again, that's the disposition of unsafe people. They're not neutral. They hate

God. But since he personally chose you, the world, who would have loved you, now hates you just as it hates him.

Our first reason was they hate you because they first hated Jesus.

Our second reason was they hate you because Jesus changed you. Our third reason is the world hates you because it is consistent.

There's a consistency to their thinking. Verse 20, remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.

Fairly often, especially in the Gospel of John, Jesus will say something to kind of recall to mind a former teaching, but he doesn't exactly quote himself.

Well, here, this is a direct quote. He quotes John 13, 16.

Truly, truly, I say to you, listen, the servant is not greater than his master. He just said it right there.

He goes on in that verse to say, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. It is a lie to tease as we learned from Pastor Mark a few years ago, a truth taught by means of negation.

In other words, you can't really expect to get treated better than Jesus. You're his follower.

Why would they treat you better than they do your master? Well, how are we to respond to such things?

How are we to respond to persecution? Well, earlier, I noted

John was there and took notes. Well, I think Peter took copious notes. I invite you to just turn to 1

Peter for a moment. I'm going to start in 1 Peter 4. I'll try not to go too fast.

We'll stop at a few places. Peter, if you recall, wrote the epistle of 1

Peter to encourage Christians. They were in scattered parts of what we now call

Turkey in Asia Minor. In fact, I remember studying this some time ago.

Interestingly, some of the Christians that he wrote to would eventually wind up in caves trying to escape the persecution, living in these really kind of well -engineered caves where they had this kind of sweet air conditioning, which

I think a lot of us could get behind, where they worked in these caves to bring the air in over cooled water and then up into the...

It's all pretty nice. By the way, they had real baptismal fonts, not real sprinkle things.

They had real things that they could dunk people in. Okay, all that to say. He wanted to encourage them on how to face persecution, so he wrote the book of 1

Peter. 1 Peter 4. Verse 16, we should face persecution with a willingness to suffer.

Listen to what he writes in verse 16 of chapter 4. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify

God in that name. Glorify God by doing what?

By suffering. You think, okay, is this me?

Could I do this? I certainly... I have to tell you the truth. I don't want to suffer. But we have to think too, we'll receive grace in due time.

Turn back to chapter 2. With a willingness to suffer, but also by doing good.

By doing good. Listen, if we're persecuted, what should be our response? Well, one of them is going to be with a willingness to suffer.

Another one is going to be to do good. In the face of persecution, do good.

Look at verse 13 of chapter 2. Be subject for the

Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

Sounds like Romans chapter 13, right? But listen to verse 15. For this is the will of God that by doing good, doing good things, doing good works, by being obedient to even unreasonable rulers, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

We tape up the mouths of our accusers by even in the face of persecution, doing good.

Later on in chapter 2, verse 19, we see this.

Just follow the example of Christ. Look at verse 19. For this is a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?

But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

In the face of persecution, what do you think? You think, I want to emulate Christ. I don't want to give in to my fleshly desires to get vengeance.

Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. Turn over to chapter 3.

Again, Peter writing saints in the early church facing persecution. How do you encourage them or what should their response be to persecution that's coming?

Display hope, 1 Peter 3, verse 15. But in your hearts, honor

Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

Yet do it with gentleness and respect, not being willing to defend what you believe to be right at the point of a weapon or a gun, but to give a reason for the hope that is in you.

Yet do it with gentleness and respect. I had a friend the other day, it was the nicest backhanded compliment

I think I've ever received on Facebook. He says, I like how you're patient with people that are so stupid. And I'm like, well,

I try, I really do try. Because it's not their fault. They can persecute me all they want.

It's not me they're after ultimately, they're after my master and I will defend him. I won't defend myself. I hope

I won't. Friends, if your hope is in the things of the world and not fully in Jesus Christ, then when persecution comes, you're going to fold.

If your heart and your mind is fully set on Christ Jesus, that can't be taken away from you.

They can take everything else away from you. But when you know where you're going, when you know where you're going, nothing in this life ultimately matters.

I mean, you want to do things rightly, right? You want to give people a reason for that. You want to give them the gospel.

But the physical things of this world are temporary. Take all those things.

Just give me Jesus. Look at verse 20, the second half of it.

If they persecuted me, yeah, we're back in John. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. Latin term,

QED. If they kept my word, it's basically we set forth the standard and now we've met the standard, right?

He stated it negatively and now positively. If they persecuted me, and they will, or they did, they will also persecute you.

It's a given. They're going to persecute you. But don't let the second part of that half of the verse there, so the third quarter, fourth quarter of it, don't let it go unnoticed.

Those who kept Jesus' word, well, who are those? Who are the people who listened to Jesus and kept his word, who obeyed his teaching?

Who were those people? They're other believers. So there's not just 11 believers, there are other believers, right?

We know that when Christ comes back, he appears before hundreds. Not every single one, and here's the message to you, not every single person in the world is against you.

Other believers are not against you, and the same for the disciples.

There would be comfort, there would be times of comfort, and that would be when? When brothers and sisters get together.

Jesus has commanded us to love one another. Well, why? Because the world hates us, right?

When we gather here together on Sunday, one of the things we do is we love one another. Well, why? It's a refuge from the hatred and persecution of the world.

Okay, fourth reason the world hates you is because it has always hated anything that reminds it of God, always.

I thought about going back to Genesis and just proving the point, you know, with Cain and Abel. Well, why did Cain kill Abel? Because Abel's sacrifice was more pleasing to God, and therefore,

Cain killed him. The point is the world always hates God or anything that reminds it of God.

First notice that they hate Jesus, Jesus, verse 21, but all these things they will do to you on the count of my name.

What? All these things they're going to persecute. Why does the world, why does the unbelieving world, the unbelieving system of government persecute believers?

Why do they destroy churches and commit all manner of unspeakable acts against believers?

Because believers bear the name, it says that right there, on account because of my name.

Because the name Jesus Christ represents His person. All that He is is a threat to them.

He's ultimately going to be their judge. And on judgment day, they will be able to do nothing. Their time is now.

And Jesus has always warned that the cost of following Him would be high, and that it could cost believers literally their lives.

By following Christ, you have become a target of those who hate Him. Well, is it out of ignorance?

Look at verse 21 again, the second half of it. Because they do not know Him who sent me, they don't know the

Father. Well, is it because they don't know that there's a

God? Because they don't know that there's a God who rules all things? No, Romans 1 tells us they suppress that truth in unrighteousness.

They know that there's a God. The verb here, do not know, is again, perfect, a one -time event with ongoing permanent consequences.

It does not mean mere ignorance. It is a determination to not honor God, to reject

Him, to do anything other than worship God, which would be right.

They have rejected the Father. They have put the Son to a shameful death. And they will do the same if they are able to His followers.

Why? Because they do the will of their Father, Satan. Just quickly, let's turn to Matthew chapter 10.

And again, this is Jesus talking about persecution. And I'm going to start in verse 21,

Matthew chapter 10. Jesus says, verse 21, brother will deliver brother over to death.

And as I'm reading this, I'm just thinking about there are literally places in the world where this happens, including

North Korea, where if you've ever read any accounts there, people are afraid to tell their own kids what's going on.

They have to hide their faith from their own children. 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.

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. 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, right? If they've said he's possessed by a demon, which they did, how much more will they malign those of his household?

So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known.

What I tell you in the dark, say in the light. What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.

Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Respect God. Put him first.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father?

In other words, God knows everything. He's in control of everything. Verse 30, but even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Fear not therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men,

I will acknowledge before my father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will deny before my father who is in heaven.

Why would we acknowledge Christ before men? Because we have no choice. We have a compulsion to tell people the truth.

Why? Because we have a joy that cannot be taken away from us. We trust Christ.

We're not going to trust in the things of this world because we know those things are going to disappear.

We're not afraid of those who can destroy our body, but our fear, in other words, our reverence, and really our love is for the one who has granted us heaven.

Reasons the world hates you, it hated you because it first hated Jesus, because Jesus changed you, because it is consistent, it has always felt this way about God, and it has always hated anything that reminds it of God.

Now just in closing, these 11 men who are there, we don't have a record of what happened to each of them.

In fact, the only apostle whose death is recorded in the Bible is James, and King Herod put him to death, most likely with a beheading.

Matthew, history would tell us, was probably put to death by a sword also in Ethiopia.

John, the author here, died in Turkey of old age after being released from the prison island of Patmos.

He's the only one to die that we know of a natural death. Bartholomew or Nathaniel was a missionary to Asia.

He was apparently whipped to death. Andrew was crucified on an X -shaped cross in Greece.

History or contemporary witnesses said that he continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he died.

The apostle Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during a missionary trip. Matthias, the one who was chosen to replace

Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded. The apostle Paul was tortured and then beheaded.

James, the brother of Jesus who was not an apostle, was the leader of the Jerusalem church.

He was, according to history, thrown from the southeast pinnacle of the temple over a hundred feet down when he refused to deny faith in Christ.

What motivated these men? What motivated them?

Their love for Jesus. Their love for Jesus. So how should we, a couple of takeaways here, how should we think about this?

First of all, persecution purifies the church. One of the reasons I'm convinced that we see so much nonsense in the

American church is because we're not under that much persecution. Secondly, persecution also purifies us individually.

When we're being persecuted, our thoughts go back to Christ.

We are driven back to our knees. Why? Because we don't understand what's going on and we need to find some hope in all that.

The third takeaway is we should really be praying for our brothers and sisters in these foreign countries. When you think about it this way, we may never meet them.

We likely won't meet them in this life, but we're going to spend eternity with them. How can we not pray for them now?

Takeaway number four, pray for our leaders that we may lead quiet and peaceful lives now.

We should be thankful for the peace and tranquility that we have and the capacity we have to meet here and do this kind of thing.

We should just thank the Lord every single day for the blessings that we have in living in a place where we can worship

Christ. But we need to know that persecution certainly will come, if not in our lifetime, then in our children's or our grandchildren's.

It's coming and it's going to get worse because these things aren't going to change. The attitude of the world towards Christ is not going to change until the day he returns.

Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we do pray for our brothers and sisters in other countries, places where your name is not just profaned, but where it's persecuted, where the good news of Jesus Christ must be whispered, where scripture has to be hidden, where believers cannot openly get together, but must clandestinely meet.

Father, let us be mindful of them and pray for them often. Pray that you would grant them faithfulness, that you would grant them relief, that you would grant them the capacity to do what we do, what we are blessed to be able to do.

Lord, I would also pray that you would just give us a greater sense of the blessings that are ours and even being able to do what we get to do, that there would be a greater joy in knowing that these things can all be taken away from us, that we ought to cherish these times.

More than anything, whatever is taken away from us, the faith and love in Christ Jesus that you have granted us can never be taken away.