People Laugh When I Talk About Jesus

The minute I got saved and started talking about Jesus people had issues. They call me a cult leader, a false prophet, a heretic, a fake minister, I've heard all of it.

I'm a person with feelings, so some of it can get to me, of course.

Most of us deal with this. 

We get it at work when we mention church and somebody smirks.

Or at dinner. We tell our family what God did, then watch them change the subject like we never said it.

Then we get home and go back over the conversation. Did I say it wrong?

A couple hours later we're not even thinking about them anymore. We're wondering whether we're doing any of this right.

The order Jesus says it in matters:

"it hated me before it hated you."

John 15:18 (KJV)

Before you. Before you ever opened your mouth about Him.

So whatever you think you set off, you didn't start it.

"The world" there means the people who want nothing to do with Him.

He says why, in the very next line:

"If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

John 15:19 (KJV)

It has nothing to do with how well we said it.

The world loves what belongs to it. Jesus says He chose you out of it, so you don't belong to it anymore.

People pick up on that even when they couldn't explain it.

Nobody had a problem with me when I was living for myself. I could do whatever I wanted and my homies were right there in it with me.

The second I started talking about Jesus, the same guys who swore they'd take a bullet for me started spazzing out.

They were reacting to who I belonged to now.

Then He tells them what to expect:

"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."

John 15:20 (KJV)

A servant is a worker. His lord is the man he works for.

You don't get better treatment than the Man you work for.

He doesn't end on the bad news either. Where they kept His word, He says they will keep yours too.

They stood at His cross and laughed while He was dying. They told Him to come down and prove who He was.

He could have done it in a second.

He stayed up there for the same people running their mouths at Him. That is how you and I got saved.

You're going to keep getting the smirk and the subject change. Jesus told you that Himself so you'd be ready for it.

The look on their face tells you nothing about where you stand with God.

You're standing exactly where He said you would be.

Here's how to carry it the next time somebody laughs:

1. Read John 15:18 before you replay the conversation.

He told us it was coming so it wouldn't shake us when it did. Let Him talk first.

2. Ask God once if you were harsh, then be done with it.

For about five years after I got saved I used the Bible to win arguments, and not one person came to Jesus through me in all that time.

Your delivery is worth checking. You don't fight pushback with pushback, rather you fight it with purpose.

Ask Him honestly, fix what's real, and quit going back over it all week because somebody laughed.

3. Pray for the one who laughed, by name.

That's what He did while they were still going at Him.

You can do it today, right now. It will do more for you than the comeback you keep writing in your head.

PRAYER

Gracious Father, somebody laughed at me. I went home wondering if I'm doing any of this right.

You were there for the whole conversation. You saw what it did to me.

Thank You that Jesus said this was coming. I don't have to take it as You pulling back from me.

Help me pray for them instead of rehearsing what I should have said.

Today I quit grading my faith by the look on somebody's face.

Give me the words next time. Give me peace either way.

In Jesus' wonderful name we pray. Amen.