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 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. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: “They hated Me without a cause.”
In this passage Jesus uses the word hate in some form eight times and two other times He uses a form of the word persecute.
Jesus makes it very clear here that if we are following Him we will be hated by some people and persecuted by some people.
How are we to handle hatred and persecution so that it honors Jesus?
#1: We need to make sure that we are being persecuted because of our faith in Jesus.
1 Peter 2:19-20
For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and endure it, this is commendable before God.
Many people claim there are being persecuted for their faith when it may be because they are being unloving and disrespectful of others and use their faith as an excuse.
The Gospel of Jesus will offend, but we as followers of Jesus don’t have to be offensive.
It is not about winning an argument.
It is not about being right.
It is not about make the other person agree with you.
It is about sharing the truth of the Gospel in love.
Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls is letting the truth of the Gospel be heard.
#2: We are to pray for those who hate and persecute us.
Matthew 5:44
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Remember, those who hate us and persecute us because of faith in Jesus are not the real enemy.
Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Our enemy is Satan. He uses others to do his dirty work.
When we pray for our enemies and those who hate us, we are praying for their salvation.
What great glory God receives when a persecutor of God’s people like Saul becomes a Paul and begins building God’s Kingdom.
We are to pray for boldness.
Acts 4:29
And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak Your word with all boldness.
They didn’t whine about the threats.
They did not get mad or fearful over the threats.
They did not march in protest around the building where those who made the threats were.
They did not appeal to the government to have the people stop the threats.
They asked God to make them even more bold than they had been.
Look at the results in Acts 4:31. “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
God honored their request in a BIG way!
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is be bold about Jesus and His Gospel in spite of bad circumstances.
#3: We are not to compromise to lessen the persecution.
Acts 3:18-20
Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot helping speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
We are not to be rude.
We are to be firm.
We are not to be angry.
We are to be confident.
We are not to legalistic.
We are to be biblical.
I have been told that Christians are intolerant because we say that Jesus is the only way to God. That is not being intolerant; it is simply believing what the Bible says. We don’t need to back off speaking and living out the truth.
As we speak the truth, we need to do what Paul tells us to do in Ephesians 4:15: Do it in love.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about speaking the truth in love and not compromising.
#4: We are to rejoice in the persecution.
Matthew 5:11-12
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Rejoicing in persecution sounds crazy, and if anyone but Jesus had said it, it would be crazy.
Why should we rejoice in persecution?
It means our reward in heaven will be great.
The prophets of God also faced persecution.
There is another reason to rejoice in being persecution because of your faith in Jesus. It means that your faith is being effective.
We don’t worry about or get nervous about someone or something that is ineffective. We don’t bother to try and stop something that is not making a difference. The fact that we are being persecuted means that Jesus is using us to make a real difference.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is rejoicing when we are persecuted for our faith in Jesus because we are making a difference.
The Gospel of Jesus has always been antiestablishment. It has always gone against the flow of human culture because all cultures are fallen. All cultures are broken because of sin.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33 to seek FIRST His kingdom, and that makes people who don’t know Jesus very fearful, and that fear will cause them to hate us and persecute us.
We don’t need to get angry.
We don’t need to get paranoid.
We just need to trust Jesus.
We just need to obey Jesus.
We are told in Hebrews 13:5 that God will never leave us or forsake us. We can face hatred and persecution by remaining faithful, praying for those who persecute us and rejoicing that we are worthy enough to be persecuted for Jesus’ sake.
Rejoicing in Persecution by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
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