Religious Persecution Revisited

It was a set of moment ago, it is no secret that religious persecution, particularly directed
against Christians, is on the increase around the world.
The very prestigious center for the study of global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological
Seminary in Massachusetts estimates that approximately 100,000 Christians are being killed
for their faith around the world yearly.
Other organizations challenge that figure.
They think it's much lower.
The discrepancy comes from how you define the term martyr.
It is a martyr, a person who is preaching the gospel and gets killed for preaching the
gospel or is a martyr, anybody who is a Christian and gets martyred for the sake of being a Christian
due to political or ethnic struggles around the world that changes the figure that is included,
regardless of how it is calculated, thousands upon thousands of Christians around the world
are being persecuted and in many instances brutally murdered for their faith.
The nation of North Korea is the foremost nation on the list of nations that persecute
the Church, the Middle East, of course, is a close second and so are various parts of
Africa if you have been following the news.
Abokha Haram, the radical Islam group in Nigeria, has just brutally murdered 150 men, women
and children when they overran the village, they shot many of them and those that got
away fled into the river and many of them drowned there.
And while that is far removed from where you or I live, as we have seen in the past,
we live in changing times and persecution in the Western world is increasingly coming
to the fore as the value system that was rooted in Scripture is being rejected and it is
being replaced by a very worldly, a very anti-god philosophy.
Chances are the name Bishop of Itus Hunter doesn't mean much to you, but he's been in
the news in the last month. He is a conservative Roman Catholic bishop in the nation of Switzerland
and he made the "mistake" about a month or so ago speaking on family and marriage issues
and quoting from the book of Leviticus about a man lying with another man in God's punishment
upon that. And his comments were interpreted by a very active gay organization as calling
Christians to violence and so they have now charged him with a criminal offense of inciting
people to violence if he gets convicted, he's going to face a three-year term. That's
where we're finding ourselves increasingly today. To bring matters even closer to home,
maybe you heard the news story, maybe you didn't. A 26-year-old Menonite street evangelist
in our nation's capital in the last two weeks was in the news because he was stabbed by a woman
on the street who took issue with his views on homosexuality. And so it goes on and on.
And these incidents in and of themselves aren't major because these kind of things happen
all around the world all the time. But they're significant because they are the tip of the
iceberg of changing values in our world. As you know, we used to live in a world where
even non-Christians at least had a pretty biblical understanding of who God is and what
God stands for, those notions are being rejected increasingly. And as God is being rejected,
guess who steps into the void. People are inherently religious if they refuse to bow their
knee before the true and the living God gets who they bow their knee before. It is Satan
and his evil cohorts. And so maybe you know this story too, it's been the news just
the last couple of weeks in the city of Detroit. Remember now Detroit is a city that has just
come through bankruptcy. It's one of the worst cities in North America. It's a place where
economic prosperity is going down the tubes where violence has been on the rise. They're
trying to rebound from the very severe economic depression. And so here is a satanic temple
group in the city of Detroit and they have just spent $100,000 on this statue. Now look
at that carefully because that statue is 9 feet tall. It weighs a ton and it is a representation
of Baphomet which is an image of Satan and all the members of that group have had to
swear loyalty to this image. And their idea is that if in Arkansas or in Oklahoma there
are these ongoing controversies about whether or not the Ten Commandments can be pictured
on state property, they want equal rights to place this statue on state property in either
Arkansas or Oklahoma. Now put that in your pipe and smoke it. Who in the world would want
to be photographed or have his child photographed with that kind of representation of Satan?
And that isn't the worst shot. I don't know if you've seen this image in the news. Anybody
know what building this is? That's the Empire State Building in New York City and what
you see represented there is a light show picturing the Hindu goddess Kali. Now she is
the god of death and destruction. Historically over 2 million people have been sacrificed
to this demon god and it's being portrayed on the Empire State Building by an organization
called Projecting Change because they are trying to warn the world. It's an extreme environmental
group and there this is one of many images that they're projecting onto the building. They've
had to have permission to do this but the argument is that if we don't start cleaning up our
act this goddess is going to destroy the earth. So here again we are in a public fashion
we can't have religious icons on public property. Understand that right? I mean this battle
has been waging ever since. We've talked about getting rid of Christmas displays and
you can't say Merry Christmas and God knows whatever else but now we're turning to this
and I'm showing you this because this is a reflection of the changes that are taking
place in our culture. The more we get gone out of the picture the more Satan enters into
the picture and the more people begin to worship the evil one and the more they worship the
evil one the more they hate not only the god of scripture but the more they start hating
those of us who represent the god of scripture. And what I want to do this week and perhaps
next week as well is reflect with you a little bit as to why that is not to scare us not
to cry wolf needlessly but to recognize that Jesus tells us in the gospels that before
the incomes God's people will be hated by all people for his name sake. And if history
is any indication most Christians historically when they have found themselves in that spot
have ended up denying the Lord because the cost of following Jesus became too great. And
you and I the decision to follow Jesus is not made when you're feeling good and everybody's
happy with you and you're at the top of your game. The decision to follow Jesus needs
to be made in the midst of persecution recognizing that it's a thousand and one little choices
that you and I make that enable us to stand firm when our friends our co-workers or people
around us are demanding things that we cannot deliver. And there are many of you know this
but some months back when we had the gay parade here in Belville three of our men in this community
were invited by their employers to participate in the parade. Now thank god all three of
them said no but how hard does this become if it means you don't get promoted or if you
lose your job. I mean we're a long ways from losing our lives but one thing leads to
another. And so those decisions need to be made now and for that to be made now we need
to understand what scripture has to say about it. So in the time that remains this morning
we're going to give you three reasons from scripture why Christians can expect persecution
as they follow Jesus. Let me walk you through this quickly as I can. Number one simply
because the Bible tells us so. The Bible says so. All through scripture from one end to
the other we are told that the children of the world will be at odds against the children
of God. Psalm 2 the verses one two and three is a good example. Why do the nations conspire
in the people's plot and vain. The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers
gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Let us break their chains
they say and throw off their fetters. That is a passage quoted in Acts chapter 4 as the
church begins to experience its first persecution and as they reflect on the fact that Herod
in Pilate ganged together with the religious system to put Jesus to death and by extension
that hatred flows to those who share his anointing. Jesus in the words of our text puts it
just as clearly when he says if the world hates you and remember the world is that whole
world system that is in rebellion against God that will not bend the knee. If the world
hates you keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world it would love
you as its own. As it is you do not belong to the world but I have chosen you out of
the world that is why the world hates you. 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 all saw. And what are you saying here and we've talked
about this before but it is so important to own this that in this creation there are
two different and opposing world systems. We can get that up. There is of course and
you've seen this so many times there is the kingdom of the world which is ruled by the
values of the world. It's anti-God. It is submitted to Satan. It is selfish to the
core results in conflict and confusion. It is characterized by the pride of life, the
lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. Over against heaven's values where God is
centered everything is in relationship with harmony with God and therefore in relationship
and harmony with each other. And Jesus says to the degree to which you and I by faith
in Jesus become part of this kingdom to that degree this kingdom will be at odds because
in this kingdom you want to submit to God you want to believe God you want to know that
he is good and that you can trust him even when you don't understand him. Over here God
is an alien entity. It is all about freedom apart from you know some to get rid of his
fetters, get rid of his bondage. Everybody wants to live without a law and then ultimately
it leads to utter and total destruction. And so again let me say it one more time to the
degree to which we are enamored by this value system. To that degree we will always be
irritated by God's value system. To the degree to which it is about me to that degree
I get resentful about the fact that in God's kingdom it's not about me. To the extent
that it's all about meeting my demands and my glory and my selfishness to that degree
I get irritated by being told by God what I cannot do. And so this isn't just between
black and white these kingdoms run through our lives too and to the degree then to which
we embrace these values to that degree we will always be uncomfortable with the values
of God's kingdom. James puts it this way he says you adulterous people that is to say
people who instead of looking to God look to other things then God you adulterous people
don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God. Anyone who chooses
to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Why historically do Christians experience
persecution because the Bible says we will and the more we are like Jesus the more we
will experience persecution. Now it's very important to understand that because the temptation
is to say if only Christians would modify their positions a little bit if only Christians
were because the stories that make the news are the radical ones right. The people that
embarrass you even as a Christian the people that take extreme positions and even Christians
want nothing to do with that kind of a person. And so the temptation is to say well if only
we were nicer. If only we were more friendly if only we were more secret sensitive if we
only went more out of our way to not cause offence we would not cause so much offence and
there's an element of truth to that you don't have to be a jerk to be a follower of Jesus.
But here's the reality and I've said this before I'll say it again there was nobody nicer
than Jesus. There was nobody who cared more for people than Jesus. There was nobody who
went more out of his way to bless people than Jesus. So what do they do to Jesus? The religious
and the political system ganged up on him and they hung him on across why because he
represented heavens values and heavens values do not fit in the world. Very important
to understand and for that reason the more you and I are like Jesus the more we can expect
some form of persecution and that may be as simple as as my spouse doesn't want me to
go to church or my kids ridicule my faith or my friends make fun of me because I'm a
Bible thumper. It may be any number of things but I can promise you that if you're really
serious about following Jesus even if you're the nicest person in the world there'll be
those around you who take issue with who you are. The Apostle Paul put it this way he
says in fact everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
I remember reading that verse many years ago saying Lord I'm not being persecuted that
was before I learned what persecution was just for the record and that had dawned on
me that if all those who live godly lives in Christ Jesus get persecuted and I wasn't
being persecuted it probably meant that I wasn't living a godly life and that was a sobering
reminder of what it means to follow Jesus. Two reasons then why we don't experience
more persecution in this day and age one is because historically our culture has been
shaped by Christian values and so they understand us that is rapidly diminishing and the other
reason is we're too much like the world the less like the world we are the more we will
experience the world's disapproval. Second reason Christians live by grace not by works.
You know Ephesians 28 to 9 it's a very familiar verses by grace you have been saved through
faith and this not from yourselves it is the gift of God not by works so that no one
can boast. The two terms there of course grace verses works to be saved by works is to
see God's approval on the basis of who you are and what you can do. Very difficult God
standards are very high there is nobody that can meet up with it and when you live
under work you live under condemnation because you're never quite good enough and there
is a lot of insecurity associated with that. Grace a good way to remember the definition
of grace is to make a acrostic out of it God's riches at Christ's expense and to be saved
by grace means that we see God's approval and His blessing not by what we bring to the
table or by what we have accomplished but rather by the completed and the finished work
of Jesus Christ and the practical implications of living by grace as opposed to living by
works the implications are enormous let me just really quickly walk you through three
places we're living by grace will impact you and why that will get other people's dander
up if they live by works as opposed to grace first of all living by grace means we have
a sense of belonging. One of the most fundamental questions every human being faces is the question
to whom do I belong because to belong to somebody means they're in my corner they provide
for me they look after me the tragedy of sin is you and I both know is that by nature we
belong to Satan he takes advantage he promises the whole world but he delivers hell but when
I mean Christ and I belong to him I belong to the father who is in heaven and to belong
to the father who is in heaven means all the resources of heaven are committed to my
well-being both for time and for eternity you cannot find a more secure place than belonging
to the father who is in heaven Jesus in John chapter 10 puts it this way he says my sheep
hear my voice or listen to my voice I know them they follow me I give them eternal life
they shall never perish and then he says no one no one can snatch them out of my hand
then he says my father who has given them to me is greater than all and he says it again
no one can snatch them out of my father's hand there is no greater security the knowing
that I belong body and soul and life and in death to Jesus Christ my faithful savior then
he also gives me a sense of value a sense of value apart from who I am or what I can do
doesn't take most of us very long leaving to discover that in the world my value is pretty
much determined by who I am and what I can bring to the table and that's a wonderful thing
if I'm cute and cuddly and talented and everybody wants me but it's not so fun if I'm not
cute have nothing to offer because that is the recipe for discouragement and depression
and one of the outcomes of embracing and evolutionistic world and life view where there is no
God and we're all the product of accident means people have no plan and they have no purpose
in life and their value is determined by what they have to offer and the problem with what
you have to offer is there's always somebody's got more to offer than you have and so the result
is that what am I here for and how good is my life and to know that in Christ God loves me
despite of who I am not because of who I am is incredibly liberating because it means that I
can live life fully without having to prove that I'm worthy of love all the time I was powerfully
struck as the Pan Am Games were taking place I read one interview with one of the Canadian female
athletes and she was at the top of her game but you can imagine the pressure on these athletes
your name is you know portrayed in front of the whole country your family has sacrificed
tens of not hundreds of thousands of dollars for you to do well who wouldn't buckle under that
kind of pressure right I mean I can't even begin to imagine what it's like living under that
kind of pressure and so this girl was really beginning to crack up because the more pressure
you're under the less your performance tends to be and I was very struck by the wisdom of her father
now this is a father who laid out a lot of shekels to get this girl to where she was and have
vested interest in her doing well but you know what he told her he says it doesn't matter how well
you do we will love you just the way you are and that gave her the freedom to give it all
and to in fact do very well because her place was not determined by what she was able to accomplish
thirdly then in the kingdom when we live by grace we have a sense of achievement now listen
very carefully to this because this is really really important Ephesians 210 you know the verse
its Valerie's favorite life verse we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works
which God prepared in advance for us to do to be God's workmanship means that we are his masterpiece
in Christ he is committed to making us the best that he can make us and he is making us for
good works that he has prepared ahead of time for us to do and what that means practically speaking
is that when you and I are in Christ there is a place in the world for us there is an inheritance
there are things he calls us to do things that only you and I can do through union with Christ
and for those things that he calls us to do in Christ he gives us all the resources that we need
to be able to accomplish it and all the negative things that it happened to us in the course of life
and the situations and the circumstances that want to tear us down God turns around for good
so that by his strength we can experience his giftedness the presence and the power of his Holy
Spirit so that we can fulfill the task that we have been called to and success in life
is not necessarily being rich wealthy or accomplished in the eyes of the world it is to stand before
God at the end of time and it's to be able to say to him the word as Jesus did the work that you
have given me to do I have finished it can you imagine anything greater than knowing that what
you were created for and what you were redeemed for God by his power has accomplished in your life
that's what it means to live by grace there is a power available to us to fly into realms that we
could never ever reach on our own now compare that to a person who lives by works because you see
if it all depends on who you are and what you bring to the table then it's only a matter of time
before you discover you don't have what it takes and even if you have what it takes there's all
these people around you who are better than what you are and if you're at the top of the pile
then you look down in disgust and criticism at those poor souls down there who aren't pulling their
weight and you can feel superior and important about yourself because you're better than everybody
else and if you're at the bottom of the pile then you look around you and you say life is miserable
because I'm not getting the kind of breaks that I want and everybody else has more favor than
what I have and the result in either case is that you become angry because you see when you live
under the law you're always irritated by those who live under grace because those who live under
grace seem to have a life in them and a relationship with God that you can measure up to and so
you find life unfair and while there are many examples of that in scripture one of the
clearest examples of that of course is the parable of the prodigal son and his elder brother
and you know the story the younger brother doesn't want to wait for his father to die
once his inheritance now gets his wealth goes off to a distant land utterly wastes it that's
what the word prodigal means it's wasteful ends up slapping hogs comes to himself goes back home
says I have sinned against heaven and you I'm not worthy to be called your son you know
this story the father sees him coming embraces him with joy calls for a celebration and welcomes him
back home that's grace and then of course you know the story of the elder brother and absolutely
angry refuses to come to the party declines his father's invitation and chooses to remain
in his anger why I'll tell you why grace is a wonderful thing if you know that you have nothing
to offer or to put on the table it is a wonderful thing to know that God loves you
the way that you are and that he forgives you and accepts you and will give you a second chance
but when you think relationship with the father is determined by what you bring to the table
by what you accomplish when you feel bent out of shape because you're not getting the kind of
recognition that you deserve because the sinners are just as important as you are then grace is
an incredibly offensive thing because it means that all the hard work that you have done
isn't accomplishing anything and so yes living by grace is wonderful but when you live by grace
and you know God's favor there will be people around you who live by law or who live by works
they don't understand you they don't think life is fair and for that reason they will hate you
and they will not embrace you because they cannot get into the reality of your life
let me just quickly introduce my next point and then we'll leave it at that the third thing
and I want to have time to talk about this in any detail but here's one of the really important
reasons the world hates believers we expose the darkness we expose what lives in people's hearts
one of the most telling verses in John's gospel and it's not one that we often pay attention to
occurs in John chapter 3 the verses 1920 and 21 this is the verdict light has come into the world
but men love darkness instead of light because the deeds were evil everyone who does evil hates the
light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed but whoever lives
by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been
done through a go on you know here's a really interesting thing a lot of people say
we like Jesus we just don't like the church you've heard that said many times over
I wonder if such people have ever met up with a Jesus's scripture because how comfortable
do you think you would be with Jesus following you around 24/7 how comfortable do you think
you would be if every thought you thought and every action you participated in and every activity
you engaged in were clearly visible be how comfortable do you think you would be around Jesus
who sees right through you you see so what happens when Jesus shows up is that he
exposes what is hidden in the dark and when you and I embrace Jesus and become filled with
his spirit then we expose what lives in the dark and when we expose what lives in the dark
what are two things is going to happen some people are going to be drawn to the light
because they recognize by seeing in us the spirit of Jesus that their lives need to change that's
how people come to faith but there will be other people who for reasons they don't even understand
will be terribly irritated because your very presence feels like judgment and condemnation
and when you say no I don't want to go with you in that drinking party some people are going to
feel bad try to drag you into it because you're refusal to engage outlines their agenda
and their program and again the more you are like Jesus the more that difference is going to show up
and it'll show up even when you don't preach even when you don't actively proselytize or evangelize
you are the Bible says the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are
perishing to the one we are the smell of death to the other the fragrance of life and so every time
the light begins to shine the darkness gets exposed and when the darkness gets exposed there is
an anger that rises up that ultimately becomes a spirit of murder and we live in challenging times
as you know when the gates of hell have been opened up and when worldly values are now publicly
embraced in ways that most of us have not seen before in our lifetime and without being in our
armist I think we need to understand and we need to see that as the darkness increases
God will also pour out light and life into the church and the contrast will become greater
because ultimately when Jesus comes and he will separate the sheep from the goats
there's got to be a clear line of delineation and you and I need to embrace the reality of the
gospel and recognize that those are momentous opportunities that we have because even in the midst
of the darkness there will be some who will come to faith and who will turn to Jesus did you know
that one of the the only one that I know of the positive outcome of the craziness of
ISIS in the Middle East missionaries to the Muslims are telling us there is an unprecedented
rate of conversion among Muslims they have never seen this many Muslims come to faith you know why
because the darker the darkness gets anybody who has even a touch of God in his heart will start
to recognize this is not the way to go we need to go the way of Jesus and so the darker it gets
the greater our opportunities are to let our light shine for Jesus