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WHY THEY HATED HIM

A SermonBy Jeffrey D. Dean Sr.

January 18,2012

I once had a Pastor who taught us from scripture concerning walking in "the loveof Christ." I cannot remember his entire sermon but one aspect of it is burnedinto my memory for all time. He was giving some examples of "signs" that youare NOT walking in the Spirit of the "love of Christ" and many of those "signs"actually FIT Christ himself. For example, he said that if you are walking inChrist's love people would love you back! He stated, in not so many words, thatthe person walking in Christ's love would have very few enemies and if you seesomeone who is "at odds" with everyone around them it's a good "sign" theyaren't very spiritual. If it hadn't been so tragic, it might have been comical that aman of the cloth, who has taken it upon himself to shepherd the "flock" of theMessiah could make such a colossal error. He obviously forgot that Messiahhimself was hated profusely! When Pilate sought to release him at his trial thecrowd shouted "crucify him" and demanded that a murderer be freed instead! Heforgot that Messiah was HATED, PERSECUTED, and PUT TO DEATH. ThisPastor clearly did not know the Messiah of scripture, that was obvious, and hecertainly did not know what true love is!

Christ did not live by the principles set forth in Carnegie's "How To Win FriendsAnd Influence People." (A very popular book among Christians in the Americas).Carnegie taught them that they should let someone be in error rather thancontradict them and worse yet (according to Carnegie) prove them wrongpublicly! One example Carnegie gave in his book is of a dinner in which the hostand a guest got into an argument as to whether a certain quote was from theBible or Shakespeare. Carnegie's advice was that the guest should never havedone that but he goes further and admits that he actually stepped into theargument himself and AGREED with the host (even though the host was clearlyin error) just so he could get on the host's "good side." (He was proud that hehad done it too, how appalling is that?) This seems like a silly example, yet it isnot! The world says you should never correct others when you could otherwise

just allow that person to remain in ignorance (or worse yet lie to them to get ontheir good side) in order to make that person like you more. The world says thatsomeone who does correct the person when they could avoid doing so is a "fool."The BIBLE on the other hand says that the person who doesn't like someone justbecause they corrected them is the fool. I wonder about Carnegie alot. I wouldlike to examine his entire business history and see how many times he everlamented in his life about being in business "with fools." It was clearly his ownfault if he ever had those moments!

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Proverbs 9: 8-9"8 Rebuke not a scorner lest he hate you, rebuke a wise manand he will love you."9 Give instruction to a wise man and he will yet be wiser; teach a

just man and he will increase in learning."

Proverbs 18: 2"A fool has no delight in understanding but that his heart maydiscover itself."

There is an old saying that churches in America pass around: "People don'tcare how much you know until they know how much you care."This is most definitely true of the world, but should NOT be true of a wise man! Awise man seeks knowledge and desires to know the truth (any truth). Peoplehave revealed where their hearts are at with this saying. Before they will seekknowledge from someone (or accept correction) there must be something ELSEin it for them. They must know that the person they are receiving truth from"cares" about them (in other words the person must win their worldly friendshipfirst). This sets up what I call the "politics" of religion. You must get into the"group" first and be accepted and received into the clique before you can bereceived as someone with something important to say. I tell you now, very few ofthose cliques would ever receive Christ if he were to have started his ministrytoday and walked among them teaching, for Christ would NOT have played theirpolitics! He would not have tried to win their hearts first by flattering them and

joining their group and stroking their egos! Messiah, the Christ, was mostdefinitely a "tell it like it is" person who did not worry about whether people whoheard him liked him at all!

The fact that people (especially in American churches) don't care how muchsomeone knows until they know how much that someone cares is a sadtestament and speaks volumes about their search and desire for the truth! It'snot just in the churches though, it permeates American culture. In schools, thegifted kids are ridiculed, scorned, called names like "geeks, weirdos, nerds." Thesmarter you are the more you are likely to be an outcast especially if you don'thide your intelligence (and for highly intelligent girls hiding their intelligence iseven more important).

Messiah was probably the smartest man who ever lived! Yet I can hear thePharisees and Scribes talking about him now. "I hate that guy he turned over themoney changers tables the other day and called us "a den of thieves" and heclaims to walk in the love of God, what a phony."

Messiah corrected people all the time. One man came to him to earnestly askhim what he must do to inherit eternal life, the man said, "Good Master whatmust I do to inherit eternal life." Instead of congratulating that person for seeking

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truth and wisdom from the only true source in Israel, Messiah felt the need tocorrect him and asked first, "why do you call me Good, there is none Good butthe Father in Heaven?" It was totally unnecessary, really. Messiah could haveoverlooked it (especially if you, like Trinitarians everywhere, believe that Messiahwas actually the Father wearing a human suit). You would think the important

thing was to get the message to this man, but instead Messiah chose to"embarass him" in front of everyone by pointing out the man's obvious error incalling another man "Good Master." Not something Carnegie would haverecommended!

Messiah said "they hated me without a cause."

John 15: 25"But this comes to pass so that the word might be fulfilled thatis written in their law, "They hated me without a cause."

Yet, by today's standards, (especially among the churches) they had plenty ofunderstandable cause to hate Messiah! Messiah wrecked their temple moneyexchange system and grabbed a whip and drove out the money changers.Messiah publicly called the CLERGY of his day "snakes and vipers" and "whitewashed graves." Messiah was politically incorrect constantly! He even said toone of his own disciples "get behind me Satan!" He accosted arrogance at everyturn. He shouted "you fools" while quoting incorrect interpretations of scripture!He was a constant thorn to the powers that be, an irrepressable whistleblowerwho did not cease to call out the hypocrites and shame them publicly everychance he got! He didn't care that they would hate him and actually wore theirhatred for him as a badge of honor and told his disciples to do the same saying,

"the servant is not greater than his master, if they hated me they will hate you."

My former Pastor was dead wrong! Messiah said the world would NOT love us,but would HATE us!

Mark 13:13"And you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, but hethat endures to the end, the same shall be saved."

What am I saying? That we should go out of our way to make people hate us sothat we can be more like Messiah? Don't be ridiculous! Anyone who twists whatI'm saying in that fashion is, well, they are a fool, there's no other way to put it!Of course we speak at all times out of love. My only point here is that modernChristian churches have a distorted and perverted view of what love does! If youbelieve that Messiah was FULL of God's love, if you believe that when Messiahspoke, that his words were not his own but came straight forth from the mouth ofthe God of Love, then you have to accept that sometimes love says things that

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might be embarrassing and hurtful to the hearers!

The truth truly does indeed hurt sometimes! The fact that the world empathizeswith the FOOL who hates to be corrected is the most telling of all signs whichshow how far they are removed from the Love of Christ and how little they

understand the Messiah of scripture!

Someone like Carnegie is NOT walking in love. A true friend does not lie to youto get on your good side or stroke your ego! A true friend will tell you the truth,no matter how much it hurts. Someone who truly loves you is NOT going to lie toyou just so that they can "do business" with you, win you as a friend, or influenceyou (that's actually manipulation not influence)!

So, the next time you go into a Bible study, or into a chat room, or a forum on theinternet and start despising someone because they are stomping all over yourpet theories and proving it with hard scripture, and before you start accusing

them of being "hateful" because they don't beat around the bush and they tell youthe truth exactly as it is (and that truth seems to hurt you). If you are "rebuked"by someone, before you walk away and use that rebuke as evidence that theyMUST NOT be spiritual, remember the Christ himself rebuked many, andconsider it might just be possible that person LOVES you! Remember what theBible says. I'll quote it again:

Proverbs 9: 8-9"8 Rebuke not a scorner lest he hate you, rebuke a wise manand he will love you."9 Give instruction to a wise man and he will yet be wiser; teach a

just man and he will increase in learning."

Jeffrey Dean