St. Aidan’s Sermons
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Pastor Ken Turnbull, October 31, 2010
Trinity Sunday: 8:30 a.m. & 10:00 a.m. Holy Communion
No Cross, No Crown!
(The Persecuted Church)
Introduction
It is appropriate that today, on All Saints Day, we should remember our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST. The theme of the International Day of Prayer is Hearing Their Cry from Psalm 10:17. “You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.” More than 200 million Christians around the world are being persecuted simply because they call JESUS LORD. They are being discriminated against, beaten, fined, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered for the sake of the Gospel. Your awareness of their sufferings, and your prayers on their behalf, remind us that we are one in Christ. If we are one in Christ, then their sufferings become our sufferings.
Elizabeth Kendal, international religious liberty analyst and advocate, says “It is in arrogance, folly, and faithlessness that we invest our hope in human beings (that are mortal), human institutions (that cannot save), human works (that are insufficient), political power (that is self-interested), military might (that is limited) and money (which can only buy what is unprofitable and useless).”1
Today, on All Saints day we are being asked to lift up before God’s throne of grace all those who carry the cross of suffering because they are faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.
For most Canadian Christians who have little or no first-hand experience with being persecuted for the sake of the Gospel, those who suffer in foreign lands seem remote, almost beyond our comprehension. Yes, we know that Christians are being persecuted, but because we don’t see it happening we live as if it is not taking place. Our problem is that we don’t pay much attention to the issue of persecution in the scriptures because it isn’t yet part of our personal reality.
Persecution and Discipleship in the Scriptures
Glenn Penner in his article A Biblical Theology of Persecution and Discipleship points out that the typical Bible student in Canada tends to view scriptures that deal with pain and suffering as a natural outcome of sin rather than its more common connection to righteousness. We fail to recognize that persecution is expected for anyone who follows Jesus Christ.
Persecution and discipleship go hand in hand. Some would question if there can be real discipleship without persecution. To follow Jesus means “to join Him in a cross-carrying journey of reconciling the world to the Father.”2 A key verse is Genesis 3:15 where God says to Satan “I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” So right at the beginning of the Bible we are told to expect conflict, and suffering. We are engaged in a battle with Satan that has very real consequences. Notice we will “crush” Satan’s head and He will “strike” our heel. Deliverance comes through the crushing of the serpent’s head, but this engagement with the serpent will leave us bruised.
This truth is demonstrated in the next chapter when Cain murders his brother Abel. Cain’s worship sacrifice is rejected. He realized Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God. In a fit of jealousy Cain kills his brother. Interestingly, jealousy is a common scriptural reason for persecution. The New Testament views Abel’s murder as much more than a family quarrel that went too far. Jesus makes it quite clear that Abel was a martyr [Matthew 23:35] when he says to the religious leaders and Pharisees “upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” The apostle John [1 John 3:12&13] says “We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.” Martyrdom rises out of the conflict between evil and righteousness; between the world and those who belong to God.
Persecution is not something new. The Old Testament is filled with examples of the suffering of the righteous. The psalms of lamentation address the suffering of God’s people more clearly than anywhere else in Scripture. These psalms cry out for justice against those who oppress the righteous without cause. The book of Job is all about a man of God who was afflicted not because of personal sinfulness, but because of his righteousness. Those of us who live in the Western world are perplexed by this paradox of trusting God in the face of unjust persecution. This theme is amplified by the prophets who urge us to look ahead to the Day of the LORD, “believing that history is under the control of an Almighty God who, from the foundation of the world, has set His plans in motion of reconciling the world to Himself.”
Jesus, the revealed Word of God, brings all this into focus. The sacrificial love of Jesus reveals the very nature of our triune God. To do His Father’s will Jesus chose to suffer and die on the cross. Weakness, suffering, and sacrifice are the usual ways God chooses to operate in the world. God accomplishes His purposes not by compulsion, but through love and invitation. Jesus, the suffering servant of God, sets the example for us to follow. This is God’s way of reconciling the world to Himself. A cross-centred Gospel requires cross-carrying disciples. When Jesus announced,“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” [Matthew 16:24], He was giving us a much more literal challenge than most of us are comfortable accepting. What is at stake here is not primarily a willingness to die for Jesus, but rather unconditional obedience to the Crucified One.
Jesus is asking each of His disciples to walk the path that could lead to martyrdom. He sends His disciples out as sheep among wolves. This, my friends is costly discipleship! We all know what happens when a wolf meets a sheep. Yet we have Jesus’ assurance [Matthew 16:18], “I will build My church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Jesus’ death [Matthew 16:21] is the foundation upon which the church, the redeemed community is built. Just as Jesus’ cross was required to establish the church, our crosses are needed to build His church [Matthew 16:24&25]. “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save His life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.” Josef Ton is quoted as saying “Christ’s cross was for propitiation. Our cross is for propagation.”4 To answer the call to follow Jesus is to say “yes” to suffering [Acts 9:16, 14:22, 1 Thessalonians 3:3, 1 Peter, 1 Peter 2:21, 3:9, 17].
The other day, a close friend of mine who spent three months last winter at the YWAM base in Hawaii, told me that one of his instructors was an Iranian Christian who had been thrown into prison for no other reason than that he was a Christian. The church of which he was a member learned he was being tortured and called a prayer meeting to which his mother, who was a believer, came. Many were praying for his release from prison, but his mother prayed “Lord don’t release him from prison until all your purposes for his being there have been accomplished.” I don’t know about you, but I find that way of thinking stops me in my tracks. By the way, my friend later sat down with the mother to verify that story.
It was this understanding of sacrifice, suffering, shame, and even death that enabled the early church to turn their world upside down. They were not expecting to have everything in this world, but they were looking forward to their reward in the new heaven and the new earth. Contrary to Western thought that it is a blessing not to be persecuted, they knew it was the persecuted who receive the greatest blessing [Matthew 10-12]. The early Christians thanked God for the honour of suffering for His sake [Acts 5:41]. They understood that giving life to others involved dying; for others to receive peace from God they would suffer violence from the world; to bring love to a dying world they would be hated by the very people they wanted to save. They witnessed to the faithfulness of God in their suffering, sacrifice, and death. It was in this context that they knew the purposes of God would be accomplished.
This is also the reality of persecution in our modern world. Ours is the challenge of taking the Gospel to the farthest corners of the earth, knowing Jesus goes with us and before us. He is with us in all our afflictions. Just as Jesus challenged Saul of Tarsus, so he challenges His persecutors today, “Why do you persecute Me?” Knowing that nothing can separate us from Christ’s love [Romans 8:35], that the Spirit prays for us when we can only groan in agony [Romans 8:26, 27] and gives us His words when facing our accusers {Matthew 10:19,20] provides what we need to be faithful witnesses. God has provided what is necessary for the disciple to stand firm. Yes, there may be fear, but by God’s grace it does not overwhelm us. Yes, the suffering may be terrible, but suffering is not the worst thing that can happen to us. Disobedience to God the Father is far worse.
This morning as we ponder the powerful witness of those who suffer for Christ’s sake, let us reflect on Peter’s words [1 Peter 2:19 ESV] “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” Peter defines grace as that which enables one to suffer due to one’s faithfulness to God. It’s interesting that Peter doesn’t see anything heroic about this, but rather stresses that suffering is evidence that God is at work in one’s life. It is a work of God from beginning to end. Towards the end of Peter’s first epistle [1 Peter 5:10 &11] he says “In His kindness God called you to share in His eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation. All power to Him forever! Amen.”
This hope is strengthened with the Revelation of John’s vision of the victorious Lamb. Jesus is revealed as the one who stands in the midst of the churches, as the one who is in control of history, and will soon bring history to its rightful conclusion. John is writing to Christians who are being tempted to compromise with evil. John sees the persecution as increasing and his warning is meant to prepare the churches for that day. They are being called to be faithful witnesses even to the point of death when faced with compromising Christians and a hostile world. Defeat may seem all too near, but victory is closer than one might think. Victory will be the vindication of the church. By refusing to deny their allegiance to Jesus Christ, and by refusing to acknowledge the idolatrous claims of the world [Rev. 13:15, 14:9], the martyrs share in Christ’s victory over it and all the powers of evil [12:11]. Those who suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ will receive the crown of glory. Let us take hope and encourage one another on this All Saints day that we too will answer the LORD’s call to walk with Him. I would like to conclude this sermon with a quote from 2 Timothy 2:12. “If we suffer with Christ, we will also reign with Him.”
Footnotes
1 Elizabeth Kendal, “Devotional”, www.IDOP.ca
2 Glenn Penner, p.1, “A Biblical Theology of Persecution and Suffering”, www.IDOP.ca
3 Ibid, p.22
4Ibid, p.3
