Signs of the Times, Part 5

And Don, welcome back. You will
remember this passage because this is the same passage we were
in six weeks ago when you left. We are in the midst of Luke 21. And it is, as I’ve said in the
past, it’s important to kind of keep your bearings on exactly
where we are in the passage. We are midway, midweek rather,
through Jesus final week of ministry, the triumphal entry on Monday,
the cross on Friday. And we find ourselves in Wednesday
of that week in the midst of what is well known as the Olivet
Discourse, the longest of all of Christ’s answers to any question,
the longest of any of his discourses. As I’ve told you in weeks past,
the longest version of any of them is Matthew’s gospel. And
for that reason, what I’ve sought through the course of this study
to do is to go into the other gospels, Matthew and Mark’s account,
and kind of augment where we are in the gospel of Luke. If you would, I want to just
read Luke’s portion of this, but I want to do so in going
all the way back to verse five. We’ll take a running start, as
we have in weeks past. We’ll pick up what we call new
material beginning in verse 12. Verse five says that while they
were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful
stones and votive gifts. He said, as for these things
which you are looking at, the days will come in which there
will not be one stone upon another that will not be torn down. They
questioned him saying, teacher, when therefore will these things
happen and what will be the sign when these things are about to
take place? And he said, see to it that you
are not misled, for many will come in my name saying, I am
he and the time is near. Do not go after them. When you
hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified for these
things must take place first. But the end does not follow immediately.
Then he continued by saying to them, nation will rise against
nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes
and in various places, plagues and famines. There will be terrors
and great signs from heaven. But before all these things,
they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering
you to the synagogues and prisons bringing you before kings and
governors for my name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity
for your testimony. So make up your minds not to
prepare beforehand to defend yourself. For I will give you
utterance and wisdom, which none of your opponents will be able
to refute, resist or refute. But you will be betrayed even
by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put
some of you to death and you’ll be hated by all because of my
name, yet not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance,
you will gain your lives, as we have seen in weeks past. And
I’m going to give just a really rapid overview. We have seen
in weeks past that this whole Olivet discourse was born out
of a response by Christ to the questions that the. that Jesus’
disciples pose when he suggests that the temple is going to be
destroyed. That was so utterly shocking to them, such a noble
place of worship, such a beautiful place of worship, that the thought
of seeing it destroyed brought to them the idea of the end of
the world. It had to be utterly disastrous.
And so they ask a series of four questions. Two are recorded in
Luke. And the gospel of Mark and Matthew’s
gospel records two additional questions. Matthew, rather Luke
and Mark record these. When will these things happen?
When is this temple going to be destroyed? And then beyond
that, what will be the signs? What will be the harbingers of
the destruction of the temple? But it’s Matthew’s gospel that
produces a couple of questions that we have seized upon, because
I think those are the key ones. Those are the ones really that
Jesus is responding to in this passage. He said, what will be
the sign of your coming? What will be the sign of the
end of the age? That’s those are the questions
particularly that Jesus is responding to here. Perhaps he intends to
put things in perspective that the destruction of the temple
is secondary, quite secondary. It is the ministry of Christ
that is the return of Christ that is foremost and paramount. Jesus launches into this. And it is because his followers
were so uncertain about the future. Remember, they thought that the
kingdom was now that Jesus was going to go in and conquer and
take over. And from that point forward,
everything was going to be just according to plan. Because they
were so uncertain about the future, Jesus says they are in a very
precarious position. They could be duped into following
almost anything, and because of that, Jesus purposes to help
them by issuing a series of warnings. warnings that have been an assistance
to the church ever since, that when we see these things, they
are ultimately harbingers of the end, but they are not immediate
harbingers of the end. The signs that Jesus is pointing
to didn’t have anything to do with 70 A.D., but ultimately
to the return of Christ. As we have talked about in weeks
past, it is the return of Christ is a dynamic, a complex event
that begins with the rapture of the church. So these things,
while not immediate signs, they are signs with a small s.
The more earthquakes that take place, the more famines there
are, the more persecutions of the church, As I explained to
one, there isn’t anything that is yet to be fulfilled for Christ
to come and rapture his church out of the world. There isn’t
anything that needs to be fulfilled in order for that to take place. But these things will continue
to be so. If we’ve looked at some of the false signs already,
there will be false messiahs, there will be false labor, things
like war and earthquakes, famine and so on. Those are not the
true pains of birth itself. They are merely the false labor
that precedes. We began last week by looking
at false incrimination, and when I say false signs, I’m not saying
that these aren’t signs of Christ’s return. They are just in the
background. They are not immediate signs. They are not to be read as producing
instantaneously the return of Christ. We began to look last
week at the urgency with which Christ appeals to his followers. Mark starts off the discussion
by reminding them to be on their guard. to be very watchful, to
be very vigilant. We are to be watching for all
of these things. We are to be watching for a great
persecution rising to face the church. And that is because of
the great tendency that is ours as a church to be complacent
and to put ourselves at ease and to think that Jesus’ return
is far off in the great future. The argument is plausible. After
all, it has been nearly 2000 years that we’ve been hearing
about Jesus’ imminent return. Many local societies have cashed
in everything and given all, sacrificed their entire futures
only to realize that Jesus’ return wasn’t imminent or wasn’t at
least in their day. And so there is this tendency
toward complacency about the whole subject. But as I said
last week, that ought not be. We are to be living in faithfulness. We are to be living in expectation. We are to be living in eager
anticipation of Christ’s return. And Jesus says essentially the
same thing to his disciples. Be watchful, be on your guard.
I suggested to you that as we begin to get into this section
on false incrimination, these signs, these the sign that we
are to look for that says that a great persecution will begin
to break out on the church. And that has always been the
case with the church. The church has always it’s been
a relative degree of persecution, not a matter of either full-on
persecution or complete peace. There is always a relative hatefulness
toward the church and toward the things of Christ. But I suggested
to you that in our own day and age, we’ve begun to see signs
that our own nation is warming up to the idea of a detestation,
a practical hatred toward the church. I alluded only briefly
to this and I come back to it just to give you the detail behind
it. This idea where Congress approves this law that extends
hate crime protection to gays. As the news agency laid it out,
Senate Democrats used a must pass military spending bill to
attach this controversial bill to the backside of it. Extending
hate crime protection to homosexuals. As the news organization goes
on, it says the bill known as the Matthew Shepard Act, named
for the gay Wyoming college student murdered 11 years ago, was opposed
by conservatives because of language that said that it targets clergy
and others who oppose homosexuality on religious grounds and who
might express those beliefs publicly. Might? The worry here is that it could
trigger federal involvement and allows federal government to
step in if the Justice Department certifies that the state is unwilling. So it doesn’t matter what the
state does. If the state doesn’t rise to the level of upholding
the law of the land, the federal government will. Attorney General
Eric Holder, in driving this thing through, said this. It
has been one of my highest personal priorities to ensure that this
legislation finally becomes law. They need it to become law for
them to be able to put the teeth in the law. And the question
was, how can we, in our relative time of peace, move so quickly
to a time of persecution? Things like that. Things like
that that suggest that we cannot preach, that we cannot read Romans
1. We cannot articulate our views
that homosexuality is wrong and a sin. They can say whatever
they want. We are bound by God to do what
God commands us to do, and we will. As I quipped on Wednesday
night, you know, it started off as training a few men. It blossomed and bloomed into
15 or 17 different men desiring some level of training. And I
joked about this and tongue in cheek, perhaps I just want a
whole lot of guys behind me so that when they haul me off to
jail, somebody else steps in and fills my spot. Right now,
we’ve got 17 guys, you know, one by one, right? Go back, if
you would, to verse 12. Jesus says, look, this persecution
is coming. In verse 12, he says, before
all these things, they will lay hands on you. That was the point
that we focused on apprehension. They will apprehend you. They
are going to seize hold of you. It denotes a vicious enemy grabbing
hold. It literally is to throw their
hands upon you. We will be arrested. That is
the language of arrest and seizure. And I’ve told my wife almost
as long as I’ve known her. It wouldn’t surprise me in my
time. It wouldn’t surprise me in our
day and age to pay this price, to suffer this. It is the hostility, as we saw,
that issues forth in capture. We looked at the apostles, almost
every one of them hostily treated. So from the very first days,
Christ’s words began to be fulfilled. Secondly, though, we looked at
persecution. Not only will they lay their hands on you, they
will persecute you. And in some sense, those things
are related. But in a very real sense, they’re
separate. Not only are they going to lay hands on you, but once
they lay hands on you, their intent is hostile. It is not
pleasant. It is an outright declaration
of the authorities, hostile intent towards the church and toward
the people of the God of God. The word is a simple word, as
we saw last week, it just simply means to run after. And many
times in scripture, it’s used in a positive sense that we are
to pursue good things. But the world’s. It is clear
here is going to pursue the church in a very bad way. The world
is going to pursue and persecute the church. Again, I read from
Fox’s Book of Martyrs, and I told you last week, I don’t mean to
chide. When I told you about somebody
that I came across, a friend that had never even heard of
Fox’s Book of Martyrs, much less read it. And I told you, it’s
an absolute must read for every Christian. How else are you going
to know how to face persecution if you don’t know what the saints
of God have been through in times past? Fox said this. What force of
princes, kings, monarchs, governors and rulers of this world, with
their subjects publicly and privately, with all their strength and cunning,
have bent themselves toward this church? The true church of Christ
has always and will always face that kind of hateful persecution. He goes on and says, how the
said church and all this notwithstanding has yet endured and hold in its
own what storms and tempests it has overpassed. It is wondrous
to behold. And yet, notwithstanding all
these continual persecutions and horrible punishments, the
church daily increased. Tony Evans said it well when
he said the church is like a tea bag. It is best in hot water. And God knows this. God knew
that in the Soviet church, the best way to flourish that church
was to persecute it. And they drove it underground,
did the authorities and that church flourished in the land.
Absolutely undying. Because it’s a love for Christ.
It’s a love for Christ. Thirdly, we looked at incarceration.
Not only will they apprehend and persecute, but thirdly, there
in verse 12, before all these things, they will lay their hands
on you, persecute you, delivering you. And this is where I told
you I struggled to find one little word to sew up all four of these
elements. Luke gives us two things that
they are going to deliver us to. Both Mark and Matthew add
an additional. Luke says they will deliver you
to tribulation or rather to synagogues and prisons. They’re going to
take you by force and they’re going to take you against your
will to these places. Matthew says they’re going to
deliver you to tribulation, Mark says to the courts. Ultimately,
what they’re talking about is they’ve got control of you. They’re
going to march you around wherever they want you to go and they’re
going to do what they want. The concern here is that we take
our minds off of the end of God. Look, we begin to look at this
and say, you know, this is going to get really bad really quick. Am I really up for this? Is my
family up for this? Do I want to put my family through
this? If you haven’t counted the cost already of following
Christ, you’re overdue. You’re overdue. You’ve already
signed up. You’ve already affiliated with this operation. You’ve already
said that you want to follow Christ. You’ve named Him as your
Savior. You’re part of a local body of
believers. It’s high time you think it through.
Am I up for this? They will cast you ultimately
In prison, they will bring you before the synagogues. They’re
going to haul you into courts. They’re going to falsely accuse
you, just like they did the Lord Jesus Christ. All of that by way of review,
if you would look at the fourth and we just briefly introduced
this last Lord’s Day, and this is me hoping to get through these
next four points in 30 minutes. Not only apprehension, persecution,
and incarceration, but in looking at the details in the persecution
of Christ’s church, look at the fourth one, oppression. Luke doesn’t include it. You
pick this detail up from Mark’s Gospel when it says, before all
these things, they will lay their hands on you, persecute you,
delivering you to tribulation, to the courts, to the synagogues,
to the prisons, and you will be flogged. Only Mark adds that
little detail. That once these Christians are
before authorities, they will suffer physical beatings at the
hands of their accusers. That almost seems unthinkable
in our day and age, uncivilized. Right. And yet it has taken place
regularly through the 2000 years of church history. This word
flogged is translated in the Scriptures only a few times with
that English word flogged. It’s almost a word that is exclusive
to the Scriptures now, right? We don’t use it that much. Except
teams who lose on Saturdays, we speak of them as having been
flogged. Often it is translated beat, lashes, to strike, to hit. It is referred to repeated strikes. referred to as, rather, repeated
strikes upon a person. It’s not just a blow, but rather
a series of blows. It is the language of the parable
of the vineyard owner. Remember that? The vineyard owner repeatedly
sent his servants into the vineyard and they repeatedly were flogged
by the evil servants in the vineyard. It is the language of the passion
of our Lord. who was repeatedly beaten prior to his own crucifixion. Luke 22, 63. Luke 22, 63, I estimate
it will be there in about 2012. The men who were holding Jesus
custody were mocking him and beating him, flogging him, repeatedly
striking him. John 18.23, John answered him,
if I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong. But if rightly,
why do you strike me? Why do you flog me? Why do you
continually punch me? Paul, likewise, was beaten on
more than one occasion using the same word. Acts 16.37, Paul said to them,
they have beaten us in public without trial. Already fulfilling. The words of Christ, in fact,
when Paul spoke of that great grocery list of all the difficulties
that he had faced in life, all of those things that that amounted
to a great struggle of life in Second Corinthians 1120. He basically
said that flogging was a regular feature in his life. Five times,
2 Corinthians 11-24, five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine
lashes. The reason they gave thirty-nine
is they figured forty brought death, so we’ll deliver one blow
short of thirty-nine. Well, many times, there were
many that couldn’t even endure twenty-five or thirty lashes
without succumbing to death. But to behold in to the courts
and to be brought before the authorities was considered, in
and of itself, disgraceful. But then to be stripped and to
be beaten was utterly, utterly humiliating. And that brings
us to point five. Point five, if you’re looking
back at Luke’s gospel, still in verse 12, humiliation. Humiliation, not only apprehension,
persecution, incarceration, oppression. All of these things are what
we can expect as followers of the Lord Jesus. This is the worst
that we can expect. But we can expect it in this
world in which we live. He said they will deliver you
to tribulation, the courts, synagogues, prisons, you will be flogged.
They will bring you before kings and governors. Isn’t that a good
thing? Don’t I want to have my day in court? What this is talking
about, we’ve already talked about the Jewish persecution. The just
because he said synagogues doesn’t necessarily mean that that has
to be the Jews. Synagogue just meant a great
congregation and could very easily, just as easily be the court of
Islam or the court of the Roman Catholic Church. But when he talks about kings
and governors, now we’re talking about secular persecution and
that will be prevalent as well. Greatly prevalent. It isn’t just
limited our persecution that we can expect to mistreatment
in the synagogues. It isn’t just some mock ecclesiastical
action. Mark echoes Luke here and pointing
out that the persecution will come from civil authorities as
well. You will stand. Mark says, you
will be brought before them and you will stand as a great act
of humiliation. You will stand before them as
offenders and as culprits, as criminals. And where else? But in America now, where we
actually begin to hear that kind of language that our views are
spoken of as being offensive, the very thought that homosexuality
is wrong, the very thought that adultery is wrong before God,
the very thought of purity and all of those things that we hold
dear as God’s standard are mocked and ridiculed. One commentator said it this
way, he said the powers. The powers, too, would be involved
in the actions against them. On the Palestinian level, the
governors were the Roman provincial rulers, Felix and Festus, whose
kings were minor potentates such as Herod, Antipas or Agrippa.
But the scene need not be limited to Palestine. Rulers and kings
may well be intended to denote secular authorities generally. Secular authorities will be against
the church. That’s not surprising. Again, Fox recounts protracted
sufferings under many rulers. In fact, for those of you who
are familiar with Fox’s book, as it opens up, no sooner does
he deal with the apostles and the persecution that they faced.
He brings up what he calls 10 persecutions of the early church,
10 phases. I’m not talking about 10 individual
events. Ten phases that lasted multiple
years, each of them spread out over the centuries. Let me tell you about a few of
them. That when Luke says here, kings
and governors, what he’s talking about is secular authorities
and almost immediately that began to be fulfilled. Eighty sixty
seven. Emperor Nero. Where Fox recounts
the first persecution of the church took place in the year
67 under Nero, the sixth emperor of Rome, it gave way to the greatest
extravagance of temper and to the most atrocious barbarities.
Among other diabolical whims, he ordered that the city of Rome
should be set on fire, which order was executed by his officers,
guards and servants. And no sooner was it set on fire,
he blamed the Christians. While the imperial city was in
flames, he went up to the tower. You’ve heard about fiddling while
Rome burned. He played upon his harp. Several
thousands perished in the flames, smothered by the smoke. This
dreadful conflagration continued nine days. When Nero finding
that his conduct was greatly blamed. And a severe odium cast
upon him, in other words, the whole city was angry at him.
He determined to lay the whole thing upon the Christians and
at once excuse himself. Nero refined cruelty upon cruelty
and contrived all manner of punishments for the Christians that the most
infernal imagination could design. In particular, he had some Christians
sewn up in animal skins and then worried, bitten by dogs. Until
they expired, others dressed in shirts made stiff with wax
fixed to the actual trees and set on fire in his gardens in
order to illuminate them. Harsh and unthinkable. In fact,
as these things unfold, I can’t even read you all of what Fox
details. Persecutions under Domitian in
eighty eighty one. where a law was made that no
Christian once brought before a tribunal should be exempted
from punishment without renouncing his religion, that if you weren’t
willing to renounce Christ, you would be punished and sometimes
ultimately so. Under Domitian also. A variety
of fabricated tales were during this reign composed in order
to injure the Christians. Fox goes on and says such with
the infatuation of the pagans that a famine, pestilence or
earthquakes afflicted any of the Roman provinces. If anything
bad happened, it was the Christians fault. The pattern had been set. One of the hardships for Christians
was that when any of the Christians were brought before the magistrates,
a test oath was proposed when, if they refused to take it, death
was pronounced against them as if they confessed themselves
Christians. The sentence was the flame. They were burned.
Under Trajan, 8108, the severe persecution under Antonius, 8162,
a severe persecution. You’ve heard me quote from time
to time from a man named Polycarp, one of the early church fathers.
Polycarp was arrested because of his faith in Christ. Fox tells
it this way. He says after feasting the guards
who apprehended him, in other words, Polycarp has his guards
to dinner, takes care of them, feeds them. He desired an hour
of prayer. which being allowed, he prayed
with such fervency that his guards repented that they had been instrumental
in taking him.” The Gospel will always flourish. The Word of
God will always go forth. There will always be those who
are touched by the light of the Gospel. Once he was brought in
before the authority, he was called upon to reproach Christ,
to which he answered, 80 and 6 years I have served him. And he never once wronged me
How then shall I blaspheme my king who has saved me? At the stake to which he was
tied, not nailed. A lot of times they
would nail you to the stake because of the flames. He was merely
tied and as he assured them, he would stand immovable. The
flames were set to the wood. It encircled his body like an
arch without touching him. In other words, the flames were
all around him. It were not burning him up. And
because of that, the executioner, as soon as he saw it, took the
sword and pierced him through. Severe persecution under Severus,
a severe persecution under Maximus in AD 235, under Decius in AD
249, It records that Alexander and
Epiphanicus were apprehended for being Christians. They confessed
the accusation. They were beaten with staves,
torn with hooks and at length burned with fire. Under Valerian, 8257, Fox says
this, Oh, what tongue is able to express The fury and madness
of the tyrant’s heart. How he stamped and stared and
ramped. He fared as one out of his wits. His eyes glowed like fire. His
mouth like a boar foamed. His teeth like hellhound grinned.
Now a reasonable man, not a reasonable man, but a roaring lion he might
be called. All this because of Christ. Under Aurelian in 8274, a great
persecution. Under Diocletian 8303, and I’ll
end with this, where Fox records that all the Christians were
apprehended and imprisoned. Galerius privately ordered the
imperial palace to be set on fire so that the Christians might
be charged. He said no distinction was made
between age or sex. The name of a Christian was so
obnoxious to pagans that all indiscriminately fell sacrifices
to their opinions. Many houses were set on fire,
whole Christian families perished in the flames. Others had stones
fastened around their necks. The persecution became general
in all the Roman provinces. Racks, scourge, swords, daggers,
crosses, poison, famine, all were made in use in various parts
to exterminate and dispatch the Christians. Well, do I even need
to add number six execution? Only Matthew’s gospel records
it, and he just says it simply almost almost matter of fact,
you’ll be killed. They will persecute you, deliver
you to the synagogues and prisons. You will be flogged. You will
stand before kings and governors. You will be killed. Not everybody. This persecution isn’t mere harassment. Like I said last week, we consider
it persecution when our neighbor rolls his eyes, when we try to
share with him, right? We consider it persecution when
they take down the Ten Commandments off the bulletin board at school.
We consider it persecution when they Change the words of some
sacred hymn that is for centuries proclaimed Christ through the
lyrics of those Christmas carols. And now suddenly sings about
something so innocuous you can’t even figure out who it’s proclaiming. We consider all that persecution. But this persecution isn’t just
harassment, that’s what persecution is. It is harassing a people.
But rather, rather, Matthew here records that for some it will
mean a persecution unto death. You will be killed. Obviously,
not all Christians are going to suffer that fate. Not all
have throughout the centuries. Not all will. But it will be
a common occurrence for the world to aggressively respond to Christianity
with murder. That has been the case with the
church. Some people were surprised. Some people were not so surprised
to hear me bring up the name of the Roman Catholic Church.
Roman Catholic Church has been far from innocent throughout
the centuries. The Roman Catholic Church has been the one driving
the persecution through the great part of the church. Fox, again,
details a very lengthy period in the church called the Inquisition.
The Inquisition was one that if you didn’t believe what the
Catholic Church believed, then you were to be examined. They were to bring you before
in this series of questions, we joked about calling what John
went through the Inquisition. This was not fun. They would
bring you before the council, and if you didn’t answer according
to what the Roman Catholic Church believed, you were deemed anathema,
accursed. And if you didn’t recant, they
had the power to put you to death. Some people were surprised to
see me, you know, in this nice day and age in which we live.
Why would you be so inflammatory as to bring up the Roman Catholic
Church? After all, some of us have friends and relatives that
are Roman Catholic and we have neighbors that are Roman. I’m
ministering to a good thing. I didn’t bring my Roman Catholic
friend yesterday. Well, the Roman Catholic Church
hasn’t repented of what they said, that what we believe is
a curse, anathema, damnable offenses. If they think that it’s damnable
before God, what prevents them from putting us to death because
of it? They are only restrained. They
are only restrained currently. This is what happened. During
the period of the Inquisition, as Fox lays out in the 13th century,
the popedom was at the summit of mortal dominion. It was independent
of all kingdoms. It ruled with a rank of influence
never before or seen or since possessed by a human scepter.
In other words, they had more power than any nation has ever
had. It was the acknowledged sovereign
of body and soul to all earthly intents. Its power was immeasurable
for good or evil. It might have spread literature,
peace, freedom and Christianity to the ends of Europe or the
world. But its nature was hostile. Its
fuller triumph only disclosed its fuller evil. And to the shame
of human reason and the terror and suffering of human virtue,
Rome in the hour of its consummate grandeur teamed with the monstrous
and horrid birth of the Inquisition. And it goes on to talk about
how it was our forefathers. The Protestants, the Puritans,
those who professed faith alone in Christ alone, Those who upheld
the Scriptures as the very word of God, those that believe that
God’s glory was ultimately in view. The Roman Church persecuted
them mercilessly. As Fox goes on, he said, the
principal accusation against those who are subject to this
tribunal is heresy, which comprises all that is spoken or written
against the articles of the creed or the traditions of the Roman
Church. That’s all you had to do. That’s all you had to do
to put yourselves in the crosshairs of the Roman Catholic Church
is to speak contrary to what they taught. When a person was impeached or
condemned He was severely whipped, violently tortured, sent to the
galleys or sentenced to death. And either in these cases, all
of his effects, all of his property was confiscated. Fox recounts
later of the result of this inquisition. He said the numbers burned in
effigy or condemned to penance, punishments generally equivalent
to exile, confiscation, taint of blood, to all ruin but the
mere loss of a worthless life amounted to 309,000. But the crowds who perished in
the dungeons of torture, of confinement and of broken hearts, the millions
of dependent lives made utterly helpless or hurried to the grave
by the death of the victims is beyond all register. In other
words, he says, if you take the family, you take the father out
of the family, some of these entire families would perish
because of it. And they did. And finally, detestation. And
you say you’re going to end this after that great, horrible list. Apprehension, persecution, incarceration,
oppression, humiliation, execution. And you’re going to end with
detestation. We don’t know already that they hate us. It’s Matthew’s
gospel, it’s God’s word, and he puts the capstone on it quite
neatly. The capstone is that you will
be hated. Don’t think that you’re going to be a friend of the world.
James didn’t like that thought very much, did he? Jesus didn’t
like that idea very much, did he? That we are going to be friends
with the world, that the world is somehow going to like us,
even though they’ve hated all the rest of Christ’s followers
in the past. Only Matthew adds this last detail.
And it does, it seems after this list, like a gross understatement,
doesn’t it? You will be hated. You will be
hated after all this? As I said, this seems like an
understatement. Persecuted, delivered up, beaten, hauled into court,
even killed. And Matthew says you will be
hated? That’s what makes this whole
idea of the hate crime so absurd. What crime isn’t a hate crime? What it does is it brings this
whole sordid scene full circle. Hatred is actually the starting
point, isn’t it? And it’s the finishing point as well. It’s
all hatred. It’s all born out of hatefulness,
hatefulness ultimately to Christ. The fascinating thing about this
Greek word here is that is always translated, at least it is in
the new American standard as hate, hate, hatred, hating, hateful. Some such word, and as such,
it refers to an intense hostility and aversion that derives from fear or hatred
or anger or a sense of injury where you are just utterly isolated. As one said it, they will utterly
Christians be the object of a hatred that will be universal. It is
one of the things that puzzle Christians in every age that
all they are doing their best. To love God and their neighbor
and to put love into practice by ministering to whatever needs
they discern in those who encounter on their way through life. They
are often the butt of ridicule and the objects of hatred. It
astounds us, doesn’t it? When you try to share Christ
with your family or with your friend. No wonder Peter said it this
way, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles. Continue
to walk your walk. So that in the thing in which
they slander you as evildoers, here you are doing the right
thing, trying to honor God, pleasing God, and all you’re going to
get is slander for it. And Peter says, keep doing it.
Keep doing what you’ve always done. Don’t reply. Don’t respond.
So that they may see, because of your good deeds as they observe
them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Now, I know what you’re thinking.
You would like to say, I’d really like to be persecuted more. I’d
really like to live a life that, you know, I’m living too comfortable
a life. I don’t have I don’t I’m not
experiencing that. Really, to a great degree, the
world is not dishing it out right now. As I said, what we experience
now is not really, truly persecution. I mean, it’s persecution in a
sense. It’s minor. It’s mild. But the world is waiting and
the world will dish it out in its time. They haven’t fallen
in love with Christ. And Luke adds here that it’s
all because of Christ. Look at the passage again, verse
12. Come to think of it, we never made it out of verse 12. Before
all these things, they will lay their hands on you, persecute
you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before
kings and governors. For my name’s sake, it’s not
because of you. It’s not because you’re such
a good Christian, if not Because you’ve got a good family name
and a long upstanding. It’s not because you live such
an impeccable life. It’s because of Christ. It’s
because of the Savior you name. It’s not because of you. In all
three of the Gospel accounts, they remind believers that the
animosity that we face, that we will face from the world,
is due to the world’s hatred for Christ. As one said, they
will be hated Not because of anything they have done, but
on the account of Jesus name, they will suffer persecution
because they bear the name Christian. In an evil world, they must expect
to suffer for what they are, not for what they have done.
And I ask you again, have you counted the cost? Have you really
signed up for this? Jesus said the same thing in
John 15. John 15, 18, he said, if the world hates you, you know
that it has hated me before it hated you. We saw what they did
to Christ. If you were of the world, the
world would love its own, but because you are not of the world,
because I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world
hates you. Remember the word that I said
to you, a slave 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. As our dear friend J.C. Ryle
said, this world is not our home. If we are faithful and decided
servants of Christ, the world will certainly hate us as it
hated our master. In one way or another, grace
will always be persecuted. No constancy of conduct, however
faultless, no kindness and amiability of character, however striking,
will exempt a believer from the world’s dislike. Did you get
that? You can’t live a life good enough to change their mind. If they hate Christ, they will
hate you. No kindness, no amiability of
character, however striking, will exempt a believer from the
world’s dislikes so long as he lives. It is foolish to be surprised
at this. It is a mere waste of time to
murmur at it. It is a part of the cross and
we must bear it patiently. No wonder Jesus said at the outset
of this whole thing, be on your guard. As I said, the persecution that
the Christian faces is ultimately because of their association
with Christ. And yet, you know what? God has
a purpose even for that. God’s not unaware of this. God
isn’t caught off guard. He says that there’s a purpose
and the purpose is testimony. The purpose is to give us an
opportunity to proclaim. You guessed it, Christ. And I’ll
tell you all about that. next year. Let’s pray. Our merciful King, we bow before
you having heard hard things, difficult things. We would desire
it to be otherwise. We would desire the world to
celebrate and rejoice with us about Christ. And yet, sometimes
it seems that the more we declare and proclaim Him, The more the
world hates us and it is hard to get our minds wrapped around.
And yet your word tells us to expect it, to be on our guard,
to be not surprised. Lord, we don’t look forward to
this, but we do look forward to proclaiming you. We do pray
for the grace to be faithful and to honor you, even in those
dark hours, should they come. Lord, for some, they will be
taken out of this world in all peace. Never having faced the
difficulties of great persecution for others of us, we will have
that privileged opportunity. To stand before hostile men.
And be. Admonished to recant our faith
in Christ. God grant us the grace. If given
that hour, grant us the grace to be faithful even to death.
We thank you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.