Sermonette for Saturday
Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. 1 John 3:13
Most people are aware of the Ashers Bakery case in Northern Ireland, where the owners of a bakery were charged and eventually fined for refusing to provide a customer with a cake decorated with a promotion for same-sex marriage. The owners of Ashers, Daniel and Amy McArthur, are Christians. They testified that they could not produce such a cake because it violated their deeply-held Christian beliefs. They said they would provide that particular customer with a cake with any other type of message on it, and in fact had done so in the past. The Equality Commission painted the McArthurs as hateful and promoting hatred because of their refusal to produce the offending cake. But who was actually being hateful? Not the McArthurs, who treated the customer with respect at all times, and who directed the customer to another bakery that would bake the cake. But the homosexual community, with their supporters in the Equality Commission, seized the opportunity to persecute the McArthurs. The persecution had nothing to do with the availability of a particular cake, or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The persecution was based solely on the fact that the McArthurs are Christians. And our text declares that this should come as no surprise.
The first proof of this truth comes in the murder committed by the very first man born into this world, as described in the previous verse in 1 John 3: ‘Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous’. Consider King Saul’s mistreatment of David, a mistreatment that was based on jealousy because David’s righteous deeds condemned his own failures. Consider the mistreatment that was given the Old Testament prophets: ‘And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.’ (Hebrews11:36-38) Then, beginning with the persecution of the apostles in the book of Acts, the world has seethed with hatred and savagery against the Christians, those who name the Name of Christ and who live according to His Word. During the time it takes you to read this message, another two or three Christians will have been slain for their faith, some merely for the ‘crime’ of having a Bible or a portion of a Bible in their possession.
The world will hate us for being Christians. No surprise. The world will lash out at us for loving them enough to share the Gospel with them. No surprise. No, we won’t like it, but it is not anything to be discouraged about, in fact, just the opposite. The world’s hatred is proof that we belong to Christ. – Jim MacIntosh