We are at a very interesting time in our short history as a nation. In many ways we are now at a major crossroad where our nation is on the brink of walking away from our Christian heritage and all that it has done to define our nation. The critics say Christianity is outdated and is now holding us back in our pursuit to become a truly secular nation. They say that there is no place for God, or the teaching of the Bible, as this prevents our nation from going forward. If you do not concur with these sentiments you are labelled a thing of the past and live in darkness. You are considered to be intolerant of others views and open for public rebuke. It is becoming increasingly hard to publicly state that you are a follower of Jesus. In fact, the critics are even suggesting that Jesus would be very different today in His moral stand if He lived in 2015! He would of course support same sex marriage and He would certainly condemn the teaching of the consequences of sin in schools. He would be all embracing of other religions and would support situational ethics and the rights of people to do what they wanted to do as long as they do not hurt others.
How deluded these critics and commentators are! They have no concept of a holy God nor understand the character of His Son Jesus! They have zero regard to God’s clear teaching and they are in total and absolute rebellion with the Creator God! One verse in our text from John 7 this morning makes me realize that nothing much has changed since Jesus walked the earth. He says, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.” Jesus always stood for righteousness and He was never silent about the evil ways of humankind. Yet, remarkably He would go to the cross to take God’s punishment for the sins of the world.
Jesus reminds us that His teaching was not His own. It came from the one who sent Him – God! He also suggests that anyone who seeks the glory of God is a person of truth. Jesus was being targeted for assassination for the claims He was making. He upset the critics of His day big time. He was indeed an enigma as many people did begin to believe that He was the Messiah with the claims He made and the stance He took. But for those in power, the Jewish leaders, well, they wanted Him dead! He upset their plans and He called them for what they were – evil! Let us not walk away from the challenges we face today as critics seek to silence us for standing up for God’s holy ways and for Jesus too. He will come one day and judge these critics and sadly they will meet their match in no uncertain ways!