Religious Persecution

foreign
well as I said earlier
I want to talk this first Sunday of the
new year
about religious persecution don't
really want to
put that kind of a weighty topic on you
for starters of the new year but I I do
that this morning for two reasons
one reason is because that is where the
narrative in the book of Acts is leading
us to
the Apostle Paul has been preaching as
you know in thessalonica
he's been there as best as we can tell
only for a couple of weeks
and then persecution breaks out once
again and so
he has to leave and he moves on down the
road and that is the picture of his
ministry in the book of Acts
but more than that
while much religious persecution happens
in places far away
I believe that is coming closer to our
door
literally
all the time and as if to underscore
that
here is what was on our front Church
door on Friday morning can you read that
I hate Jesus
and an upside down cross
now we don't want to make too much of
that
but it illustrates I think the spirit of
the age
that is becoming increasingly unfriendly
towards Christians and towards Christian
Community
and part of my job as your Shepherd is
to prepare you for those days
when you're going to be challenged in
your faith
and that won't necessarily be deny Jesus
or get killed although we don't know how
that goes
but it can easily be deny the truth
or you will lose your job
deny the truth
or you will suffer economic hardship or
will try to turn your children against
you those Spirits are loose within our
own age and within our own Society
and it behooves us to learn from those
who have gone before us and who even now
around the world are suffering very very
much on account of their faith so let's
read the next paragraph or two in Acts
chapter 17 as I said Paul has been in
thessalonica he's been preaching there
have been converts some among the Jews
but a lot among the Gentiles and that's
where we pick up the story in verse 5.
but the Jews were jealous so they
rounded up some bad characters from The
Marketplace
formed a mob and started a riot in the
city
they rushed to Jason's house in search
of Paul and Silas in order to bring them
out to the crowd
but when they did not find them they
dragged Jason and some other brothers
before the city officials shouting
they're always shouting when they do
this
these men who have caused trouble all
over the world have now come here
some other translations have it these
men who have turned the world upside
down a very interesting commentary on
Paul's Ministry don't you think these
men who have caused trouble all over the
world have now come here
and Jason has welcomed them into his
house
they are all defying Caesar's decrees
saying that there is another king one
called Jesus
when I heard this the crowd and the city
officials were thrown into turmoil and
then they made Jason and the others
post-bond
and let them go the story then continues
that as soon as night fell they smuggled
Paul and Silas out of the city and they
go on to the next town down the road
which is Berea where again they get up
despite all the opposition and they
continue to preach the gospel so we're
going to reflect on that a bit together
today join me as we pray father
we stand on the shoulders of those that
have gone before us
and while
for most of us serving you is mostly a
question of
will we get up on Sunday mornings and go
to church or will we stay in bed or will
we contribute financially and
participate in the ministries of the
church or
will we just pursue our own dreams there
are others all around the world for whom
serving you is every day a moment of
life and death
and we don't know what awaits Us in this
country in years to come and we don't
want to live in fear
but we also want to be on our guard as
you have told us and and we want to
understand Lord
uh what feeds into you
religious persecution so I pray this
morning that you give me words to put
into words what
what you've placed in my heart
and that you'll give each of us the
grace to just receive it and sort it all
out
and figure how it applies to our own
lives
and may we be found faithful
regardless of the cost that women have
to pay knowing that Jesus was faithful
even unto death
and that today he sits the right hand of
God the Father
king of kings and Lord of lords one day
coming back reclaiming the whole Earth
as his eternal throne in Kingdom we'll
be careful Lord to praise you in the
middle of it all
now as I mentioned a few moments ago
religious persecution
and I'm sure most of us know this
has experienced particularly in recent
years a worldwide resurgence
and while that persecution is often
aimed at any religious or ethnic
minority group
it is particularly aimed
at Christians
allow me to give just a couple of
examples
some of you will remember
mosul in Northern Iraq it's the second
largest city in Iraq
last June it was overrun by
Isis or the Islamic militant group that
has been conquering so much of that
world the city has about 1.6 million
people sixty thousand of them
we're part of the Christian Community
one of the most ancient Christian
communities in the Middle East
and although at first it looked like
Isis was going to treat them fairly once
they had established their caliphate
they turned strongly against the
Christians and they gave them all a
threefold choice
convert to Islam
pay ahead tax
or
leave the city or be killed
as a result
tens of thousands of Christians left the
city here's a picture of what that
looked like in terms of automobiles
trying to leave the city you can imagine
the chaos
then we're told as they left the cities
there was checkpoints where everybody
was forced to surrender
all their wealth and all their riches
and so they left literally with the
shirts on their backs
that is religious persecution of the
worst kind and people that stayed behind
they just got their heads cut off in
most instances and there are horrific
stories of brutality coming out of that
particular City
moving on to the nation of China
since 2012 religious persecution in
China has increased 40 percent
for a long time
the Christian Community was allowed to
flourish but in recent years
particularly there has been a concerted
effort not only to get churches to
remove their crosses
but whole church buildings have had to
be torn down and here's a picture of one
of the largest new church buildings in
the city of winzhou when Joe was a city
where we and I had our biggest audiences
because it is known as the Jerusalem of
the East about 15 percent of that
particular city is Christian
and
they have experienced High favor among
government officials but you see the
city has about 1500 churches and too
many crosses began lining the skyline so
put that picture back up here's a brand
new building four stories high and if
you look carefully you will see you see
the the back hole here is tearing this
thing down and you can go online and
find pictures of that whole building
reduced to Rubble as of July of last
year reportedly a
131 churches had been raised to the
ground
and some people think the figure is
three or four times higher than that
that's religious persecution
the argument is almost always they're
violating some building code sometimes
that may or may not be true but there is
a real backlash
against
the growth of Christian churches in that
particular country this next picture
that I'm going to show you is a picture
that you've all seen many many times in
the news
this is the 276
schoolgirls in Nigeria
who were taken captive by Boko Haram
most are still missing some have escaped
they've been sold off the rest as wives
to
Islamic militants or as sex slaves
but most of us don't know is that most
of these girls were Christian girls
and have had to suffer incredibly for
their faith as they've been challenged
to either stand up for Jesus or to
renounce their faith I know of stories
coming out of Baghdad out of Iraq
of young children
being challenged to deny Jesus or to
remain standing up for their faith and
for parents watching their kids being
slaughtered
in front of them because they refuse to
deny the Lord Jesus I mean we can't even
begin to enter into that kind of
persecution that's what happens when
evil takes root and begins to reign in
the country some of you may remember
seeing this picture this boss comes out
of Kenya
it was a passenger bus
loaded with Muslims and with Christians
got stopped by terrorists
and
they separated the Christians from the
non-christians
and they lined up all the Christians and
slaughtered them
it along
In Cold Blood and what was really tragic
about it is the bus driver was trying to
evade the terrorists but if you look
carefully at the picture it got stuck in
the mud
and so it couldn't get away
and so you have the blood of Martyrs
that has been shed now as I said a
moment ago
you know we're a long ways from that I
think in North America we still have the
rule of law to a very large degree on
our side but the fact is
that 70 million Christians by the Pope's
estimation have been martyred since the
days of Jesus on the face of the Earth
and estimates
today vary from ten thousand a year to a
hundred thousand a year because nobody
really has accurate figures and how do
you tally who is dying for Jesus and
who's dying for a political cause
because as you can appreciate there's a
lot of crossover
I do know that in some of these nations
now Christians have begun arming
themselves against these militant bands
who come in and and burn down a whole
village in you know in Nigeria they'll
just come sweep it in Burn everything
kill everybody and only the few that
survive
uh get away and of course live with the
trauma because I can't even begin to
imagine what that looks like well we
don't know too much of that in North
America but
if you put your ear to the ground
then you see that the same spirit
that is full-blown in some of these
horrific Nations around the world
is also knocking on our door I mean
literally if you see that image that I
just showed you a while ago about I hate
Jesus with the upside down cross on our
front door that
that's what greeted our people when they
but there are hints of words going in
today's society and and here are just a
couple of the new stories that we've
talked about in the past and that you
know have been very dominant in the
Press there's Trinity Chris Western
University
they've been wanting to start a
Christian law school earlier the BC
government had approved
their Law School
in the month of December the minister of
Education
changed his mind supposedly because we
have a couple of lost societies now
provincially that have voted against
accepting graduates from this program
and so now the argument is Trinity
Western can't be allowed to have this
particular program to train Christian
lawyers because they won't be able to
find jobs
as if that's the BC government's
business to decide so that's going to
the Supreme Court of Canada
and we'll have to see what happens as
we've as we said here before in 2001
they did the same thing with the
teachers College they won that of the
Supreme Court of Canada it'll be very
interesting to see if that Trend holds
true or if the Changing Winds in the
country this time will go against them
certainly something that we ought to be
praying about because remember the
effort all the time is to marginalize
Christians in the world and in the
workplace nobody cares if you pray at
home
nobody cares if you go to church as long
as your religion doesn't change you or
govern your public policies or the
values that you want to live by and that
you think Society wants to live by
now
this young woman you may or may not
remember her name is Bethany pacat she's
a graduate from Trinity Western I've
told you her story before she applied
for a job with a Norse company called
Emerald Wilderness Corporation she
wanted to be a Wilderness guide
and when she applied for the position
the company refused to hire her though
she was more than qualified saying that
she wasn't qualified because and
listened to this quotation unlike
Trinity Western University we Embrace
diversity
and the right of people to sleep with or
marry
whoever they want
and then he went on to say this and I
can't believe
this guy would put this in print
he said and I quote the Norse background
of most of the guys at the management
level
means that we are not a Christian
organization that we know
and he goes on to say and most of us
actually see Christianity listen to this
as having destroyed our culture
tradition and way of life
Christianity has destroyed our culture
as if the Vikings
honestly who used to cross the sea
plunder the monasteries of England
or a culture that one would want to
emulate
now
you know
that's where it's going one more quick
example
and then we'll get on to some other
things
some of you may or may not know the name
of Dobby
it is a major software company in the
world what other Flagship products is
Photoshop
a lot of graphic artists in this
congregation and elsewhere would be
familiar with that we use it here in
church all the time
they have a policy
to give virtually free software to
charities
and because we're always looking for
giveaways
we approach the organization that
Brokers this for them to see if we are
eligible for some free software because
some of this stuff costs a lot of money
and we're trying to we're Dutch so we're
trying to save you money
and so here's the word
religious organizations are religious
Charities are not eligible listen to
this they're not eligible
for this charity program
unless they have a separate secular
program
that interfaces with the community
then you're eligible I don't somebody's
phone is ringing
I don't quite know what that looks like
but then they have another paragraph
that applies to everybody
that
you have to be able to prove to them
that you do not discriminate on any
level including sexual orientation in
your organization and if you can't prove
that you're not eligible
for their software is that interesting
now you know I can respect their right
to give their stuff
but what if this you were on the other
foot
what happens when Christian Bakers don't
want to bake cakes for a gay wedding you
know what happens or when Christian
printers don't want to print publicity
double standards
and I'm telling you it's only the
beginning
it's very easy for us to sit back and
say well you know it doesn't apply to me
but some of you may remember the quote
and I wish I had brought it along and I
don't have it literally but you know the
quote I think it was from Martin
niemoller during World War II who said
first they came for the Communists and I
did nothing
and then they came for
uh the Jews and I did nothing and then
they came for the union workers and I
did nothing and then it says they came
for me
and there was nobody left to do anything
for me
for evil to Triumph all that has to
happen
is for good people
not to do anything so in the time that
we have this week and probably next week
there are three questions that I want to
talk about in the in in the course of
talking about religious persecution
and the first question is this why
persecution in other words why
is it aimed particularly at Christians
it's true there are other people that
get persecuted
but if you look around the world the
worst persecution almost inevitably is
aimed at those who are Christians second
question is what is the mechanism
what makes people what they are
and then number three and we'll probably
won't have time to deal with that this
week is how do we respond
because most of us as I said will not
find ourselves in a situation where
you know it's Do or Die
but there's a thousand and one ways in
which you and I have to make decisions
day by day what does it mean to follow
Jesus Christ in this particular
situation whether it's whether or not I
take the ridicule of praying at work
when everybody else is just digging in
really or if it's standing up for a
Justice or for righteousness when
everybody else is telling dirty jokes or
fooling around them what does it look
like for us to respond in the face of
being ridiculed because we Embrace
Christian values that's where we're
going to go with this eventually so this
morning let's begin with question number
one
why this persecution the answer is real
simple
in its most elementary form it's because
the Bible
says so
listen to these words of Jesus
this is Matthew 10 verse 22 all men this
is to his disciples he is sending them
out as sheep among wolves early in his
ministry all men will hate you because
of me
but he who stands firm to the end
will be saved
all men before history finishes all men
all women too
will hate God's people then John 15.
he expands on that even further he says
remember the words I spoke to you no
servant is greater than his master if
they persecuted me they will persecute
you also if they obeyed my teaching they
will obey yours also you've often heard
me say this nobody lived a better life
than Jesus and nobody was hated more and
in a little while we'll talk about why
that is now Paul in his writings and
certainly in his experience Echoes this
same sentiment second Timothy 3 12
you've heard me quote this verse a
number of times he says everyone who
wants to live a Godly life in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted this is in the
context of reminding Timothy what Paul
has suffered in his missionary Journeys
in lystra at an Iconium and how he had
been treated in Philippi and he says to
Timothy this is close to the end of
Paul's life everyone who lives a Godly
life in Christ Jesus Will will be
persecuted and then we have these words
remember this is the people that he has
just been talking to
you know quite well
he this is let me see the context of
this the context of this is the trials
the Thessalonian Christians were
suffering because after Paul left they
began to experience persecution just
like he had
and so he wrote them from Corinth a
number of months later because he was
concerned will you keep the faith and
then he says this you know quite well
that we were destined for them that is
for these trials in fact when we were
with you we kept telling you that we
would be persecuted and it turned out
that way as you well know
so Paul
made it a part of his ministry to say to
people you can come to Jesus and you can
have all the blessings of God's Kingdom
but I want you to be aware that there's
going to be a price to be paid
and the reason there is a price to be
paid and it's very important for us to
understand that is that
persecution is an inevitable part at
some level of following Jesus because it
is rooted
it is rooted in what I like to call the
battle of the ages Genesis 3 15. you
know that verse well I will put enmity
between you and the woman God says to
The Serpent and between your Offspring
and hers he will crush your head and you
will strike his heel
and here you have the battle of the ages
where Satan
opposes the human race
in its entirety because he hates us
and The Offspring of Satan which are
those who line up with him
in the course of history are going to be
at odds with The Offspring of the woman
which represents God's people eventually
comes to completion of course in the
person of Jesus Christ in this battle
which ultimately is the Antichrist
versus Jesus and all the followers of
Darkness versus the followers of line
in that battle
God's people will suffer
but in the end Satan will be defeated
and God's people will inherit the
Kingdom
so
the more the church
now listen to this and I'm not trying to
scare you but we have to be realistic
the more the church
becomes like Jesus
excuse me
and the more the world becomes like the
devil
the greater
will be The Clash
until eventually as I said you have the
Antichrist
who is going to set himself up in the
temple of God whatever that's going to
look like
he will pretend to be God
and he will refuse to Bow before any
Authority
and you have what's what's known as the
great persecution and Jesus talks about
that in Matthew 24 in in other chapters
where he says if God didn't shorten
those days the elect would not be saved
I know this is a great uplifting message
but to be warned is to be foretarmed
right
so it's important to understand that
because let me put it this way
the two value systems are incompatible
the value system of the world and the
value system of the kingdom are
incompatible
the more the seed grows to maturity in
each kind in whatever age or society
that it finds itself
The More The Clash is going to happen
the more the Christian Church grows and
matures in China the greater a threat it
becomes to the powers that be
and the more crosses need to be torn
down
and the more Church buildings need to be
brought down so that the Communist Party
can hold on to its power did you know
there are now more Christians in China
than there are members of the Communist
Party
and that is after Decades of trying to
destroy the church
it's often been said the blood of
Martyrs is the seed of the church so all
right that's the why of persecution
there is
an inevitable Battle of values
and those values cannot be reconciled
and at the end of the day
one set of values is going to win and
the other set of values is going to be
destroyed oddly enough about the only
people that understand that with
devastating consequences are the Islamic
radicals
that's why they're getting rid of all
Christians
because you are a threat to what we're
trying to establish which is our version
of the Kingdom on Earth but a kingdom
that is founded in darkness
because it's founded in violence and
bloodshot all right question number two
so what is the mechanism
that drives
persecution getting back for just a
moment to the example of China
you know the Christian Community in
China in many instances are your best
workers
and your best citizens
why because they walk with Integrity
according to the at least they try to
walk with Integrity according to the
teachings of scripture
so why in the world would a country want
to make life miserable for some of its
best people it doesn't rationally make
sense
but it only makes sense
if you understand
that the issue with persecution is
always the issue of who gets the
inheritance
and how
do you get it
or to put it another way
and who gets it
let me talk about that a little bit
because this will sound very familiar to
you in in many levels but it runs much
deeper than most of us I think realize
most of the time let me go back to
these
but if I say to myself it's very
profound
because
this describes two different ways of how
you get the inheritance let me put it
this way when God created Adam and Eve
why did he create them
he created them so that he could give
the Earth to Adam and Eve as any
inheritance the Bible says in Ephesians
he destined Us in love to be his sons in
biblical thought God owns everything
he's made everything and he can give it
to whomever he wants and he gives it to
his children which is why he made this
whole universe so you and I could enjoy
it and the only condition for receiving
it and enjoying it is what our
relationship with him an acknowledgment
in our part that he's God he's made it
he's given it to us and so therefore we
want to walk in relationship and in
obedience with him and that's what you
see in the in the garden story Adam and
Eve in the garden and I've often said
everything you and I fight for and work
for and pray for and try to get into our
own Pockets Adam and Eve had given as a
free gift the only condition was
know that it comes from me love me and
serve me good deal don't you think
you know the story
Genesis 3 Devil comes along
you can have your cake and eat it too
look at this great big wonderful garden
that you've got why should you have to
listen to God thank God and do things
his way you can be captain of your own
soul master of your own destiny have
your cake and eat it too so you know the
story they sinned they rebelled they got
separated from God
and death sets in and you know as well
as I do that the fruits of that death
are visible everywhere
and when we talk about the extreme
violence that happens in certain parts
of the world that's only you know a
manifestation of evil
when God gets exiled and people's
selfishness comes to maturity it's every
man for himself against everybody
so the big question in the universe for
Christians and non-christians alike
everybody knows there is pain in the
world at least most people do
and everybody's longing if we can put
that back up everybody's longing is how
do I get from here back to here
how do I get from a fallen world where
my marriage fails where I run out of
money my body gets sick I go through
financial bankruptcy uh Nations go to
war my child dies I don't live forever
how do I get back
to Paradise regained
and it's important for us to understand
that fundamentally there are only two
different answers in the world
and that answer is faith
or works
faith means that I recognize I brought
this on myself it's the result of my
alienation from God God wants to bring
me back to himself my sin has to be paid
for and I depend on his mercy and as I
cry out for his Mercy he grants it to me
and he restores me to himself and he
shows me your face
works
says
I can't trust God don't know if he
exists or if he does exist he's very
difficult to please work says it depends
on me
and so success in life is defined by
what family I'm born into how much
education I've got how rich I can make
myself how well I can what strengths I
can draw upon in myself to move me
forward those two are in violent
opposition to each other because for the
one self stands at the center
and for the other
God
stands at the center it's Faith versus
works
and that dual dynamic
is established almost immediately after
the fall in Genesis chapter four Genesis
1 and 2 are the creation story you know
Genesis 3 is the story of her Fallen to
sin in Genesis chapter 4 Adam and Eve
have two children remember
what are the names
Cain and Abel
the Bible says that as they were growing
up
they brought offerings to God
Abel's offering God received
cayenne's offering God rejected
why did he accept Abel's offering and on
cayenne's
well the Bible says Abel was a man of
faith
his name means short-lived
he knew that he was fragile that he was
made of the dust that he couldn't solve
the problems that were produced by the
Fall he leaned upon the mercies of God
symbolized I think by the blood
sacrifice that he presented in some
small way he foreshadowed the coming of
the Lord Jesus I believe
and God accepted him
and when God accepts you please
understand this he turns his face
towards you
he's no longer angry with you and he
makes his resources his power his
ability available for you and Abel got
it all back
not because suddenly he became good
enough to earn the blessing of God
but because he knew that he wasn't
and he was justified by faith
that makes sense
now why
was cayenne's offering rejected
some people think it's because it wasn't
a blood sacrifice and just the sacrifice
of the first fruits of the land I don't
know if that's true or not but I know
from the New Testament is that Cayenne
is ascribed as being of the evil one
that is to say fundamentally KN was not
a man of faith
that is to say Can did not want to throw
himself on the mercies of God
instead he wanted to depend on the fact
that he was the firstborn
on the fact that he could do it himself
that he didn't need to do it
uh in the way that God had prescribed to
him and all of that is really evident
from the fact that when God rejects his
offering
he doesn't repent doesn't fall to his
knees and say okay God if this is not
the way that you will accept me then
what must what does the story say about
him
his countenance I love that expression
his countenance fell
and he was thoroughly peeved
and instead of submitting to God
he gave in to sin couching at the door
anger grew up in him and what did he do
he killed his brother
and then he went out
and he established his own City he named
it after his son and you have and I've
talked about this before you have in
Genesis chapter 4 the two lines of
humanity that now develop the people of
faith
who throughout scripture are men and
women who know they need their God
and men and women who do not have faith
who think they can make it happen
themselves now here's a big question
why does cayenne
kill evil
well the Bible says is these are evil
but why were his deeds evil
because you see
when your place and wife
depends on how hard you work at it
and you pride yourself in how hard you
work at it
and you find that you're not getting
anywhere that God's not interested in
giving you
even an e for effort he just totally
ignores you because he turns it back to
you
and then you see somebody else over
there who isn't half as good as you are
hasn't tried half as hard has lived a
bad life
and he gets the blessing of God without
having to work for it and you're sitting
back and you're saying to myself that's
not fair
and now you get mad
because the harder you try the worse it
gets
and you feel Superior
and you can't understand why you
experience rejection in the way that
you're experiencing it
and if you're not careful
murder
settles in your soul
and just to try to bring that home a
little bit I mean just look at your own
life for a minute because this isn't
just out there
what happens when you're struggling in
life
you're struggling financially you're
struggling in your marriage you're
you're struggling with your work and and
you're trying so hard to do better and
and you feel so abandoned by God and
everybody else and and then there's this
other person over here
they're not trying half as hard as you
are they're not as good at work as you
are they're not as smart as you are and
and it's like they're born with a silver
spoon in their mouth
and you're working like crazy to try to
pay off the bills and they're going on a
and what happens when you see all of
that happening and this is with people
that you know
isn't it true that there is a Ted of
resentment and starts building up
and what happens when a resentment
starts building up
then you start looking for faults in
that person's life isn't that true
and then if you nurture that a little
bit what happens
pretty soon you become really happy when
they have a bad time because it makes
you feel so much better that you're not
the only one isn't that true
and if you're not careful you know what
that leads to it'll lead to murder
and there's a lot of ways to murder
people
short of shooting them
now if we understand
that it's a question of how do you get
the blessing of God
do you get it by being good and by
working hard for it or do you get it by
grace through faith
then you will understand why here in
Acts chapter 17.
these Jews
are so on Paul's case let's take just a
few moments to walk through that story
and then in a few moments we'll be done
why
are they so angry with Paul
that they want to kill him at every turn
of the road
well the passage as it begins
with jealousy
the Jews were jealous
why were they jealous
well I can give you a number of reasons
why they would be jealous I know why I
would be jealous if I were in there she
usually took half his congregation
that's enough to make you jealous isn't
it
the ears of the congregation were turned
to Paul and silas's preaching because
you see there is something very Winsome
about the gospel
if you can show people that the way to
God is Not By by keeping the law and and
being perfect then that is far
preferable to you have to do this you
have to do that remember they had tons
of laws that you had to keep in order to
be on God's good side Paul comes along
and he says hey it's all been fulfilled
in Christ all you need to do is believe
in Jesus well I turned their whole
religious world upside down I'll tell
you they were jealous
they were jealous because there is a
life that flows in Christ that you
cannot reproduce by trying to be
religious in the sense of I'm trying to
be a good person
what happens now
well now they have to take matters into
their own hands because this guy is a
threat to our existing world isn't he
so what do they do they go to the
marketplace and they round up a whole
bunch of bad characters
because how do you get your way will you
try to get your way by rounding up a mob
and how do you get a mob agitated
well you tell them half truths and in
this particular case they make false
accusations that have a measure of truth
but that are geared and calculated to
stirring the worst passions in these
people notice again how it says this in
verse six and seven they drag Jason and
some other brothers before City
officials shouting these men who have
caused trouble all over the world have
now come here
and Jason welcomed them into his house
and then this they are all defying
Caesar's decrees
saying that there is another king
one called Jesus
well you may as well shout fire in the
middle of a crowded theater
or throw a fire bomb in the middle of a
crowd why
because the Roman Empire was United
around King Caesar the emperor
and any suggestion that there was an
other king
would stir up all kinds of issues that
all kinds of levels and had to be
but Jesus
wasn't looking for a kingdom in the
world
he was looking for a kingdom in the life
that is to come he was not a threat
to the existing power structures other
than the fact that ultimately one day
they're going to be judged by him
so it's this lie
that stirs up the Moab
and once you get a mob going
it is horrific what happens because some
of you may remember the story coming out
of Pakistan a couple of months ago
a Christian man and a Christian woman
mother of four four months pregnant
or suddenly accused of having burned the
pages of a Quran
the imams announced it through the
loudspeakers
of of their mollusks
and immediately
1200 people
came running to this location
knocked down the doors where these two
people were staying and that's the whole
story in itself broke their legs
and then threw them in the Kiln oven
and burn them to death
that's what mob mentality will do
and don't ever think that we're immune
to mob mentality
because here's the thing I want to end
with
it's easy to say well that happens out
there
or I may be the recipient of it
when things go badly for me
but you know what's really important for
us to understand
is that the dividing line
between Good and Evil
isn't just between this group of people
and this group of people
the dividing line between good and evil
runs in our own Hearts too
and I will say this much to the degree
to which we have elements in our lives
where we want to be justified by works
as opposed to Faith
to the degree to which we pride
ourselves in our pedigree in our talent
in our accomplishment in our own
righteousness to earn the favor of God
to that degree in our hearts we will be
offended
by those who live by grace
and who have the favor of God and the
joy of God in their lives in ways that
we are not able to find think back to
the story of The Prodigal Son
and his elder brother
why was his elder brother so angry
because he tried so hard to be so good
and why was he so angry with his
prodigal brother
because the no good skunk had spent all
the fathers keep
and now came back sniveling for his
father's favor
and instead of straightening him out
his father welcomed him home
and
threw a party for him because this my
son was dead and is alive
and was lost
and now is found
let me say this one more time
the gospel of grace
is incredibly good news
for those who are sinners
because we all have an equal chance
because of Jesus
doesn't matter who we are where we've
been what we've done
but the gospel of grace is incredibly
offensive
if you want to find your righteousness
in something other
than Jesus
and if that doesn't bring us to the
cross
if we don't close the door
to Satan's
suggestion
of resentment that flows out of that
place
we have the potential
to become killers
you remember the genocide of Rwanda back
in the 90s
most of the hootsies and the Tutsis
involved in that
were Christian people
who had lived side by side for
Generations
until the devil threw a fire bomb in
there
played on resentment it got out of hand
and what 800
000 of them
were martyred
and I share this with you not to inspire
fear
because
but I want us to be alert to the
Dynamics
of what happens when you follow Jesus
when you follow Jesus
there will be those around you
sometimes family sometimes friend
sometimes people that you think are
Brothers and Sisters in Christ
who will have it in for you
for no other reason
and that the spirit of Christ and the
spirit of Glory rests upon you
and the question then is how do we
respond what does that look like and
that Lord willing is where we want to