Persecution
Download MP3The scripture reading for tonight is from Luke 21 verses 5 through 19. And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, as for these things that you see, the day will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. And they asked him, teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place? And he said, see that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name saying, I am he and the time is at hand.
Speaker 1:Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tomolts, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once. Then he said to them, nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes and in various places, famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
Speaker 1:But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. And you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it, therefore, in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends.
Speaker 1:And some of you, they will put to death. You will be hated by awe for my namesake, but not a hair of your head will perish. You
Joel Brooks:would pray with me. You would pray with me. Lord, at the reading of your word, I'm reminded that Herod's temple came and went. Huge stones were scattered to the ground. Kingdoms rise and fall.
Joel Brooks:Nations come and go. Yet we are here because your word remains. I pray that in this moment, you would remind us of what last and what fades away. Give us eyes to see the things that we hold on to that were, that are a utter waste of time and energy. The vain idles we pursue, convict us of those things, Lord.
Joel Brooks:And through the power of your spirit, ignite something in our hearts to where we treasure Jesus above all else. Right now, we want to treasure his word. What we're looking at is
Jeffrey Heine:crucial.
Joel Brooks:It's too important to depend on me. So I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they transform us. In the strong name of Jesus I pray. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Let me read to you a few stories, from some events in recent weeks. In recent weeks, the Moroccan government has continued its crackdown on Christians. Just a few weeks ago, they expelled 60 Christian aid workers from their country. The Moroccan police accused these Christian aid workers, from the United States and Korea and England for violating their anti proselytism laws. So the police visited the orphanage, which had been operating under the government's approval for 10 years, and they scoured the grounds looking for Bibles, interrogated the children and staff members, and finally announced that all the parents had 7 hours to pack and say goodbye to all of their adopted children.
Joel Brooks:So all the foster parents had to leave leaving all of the children with the police. Here's a story from Vietnam on March 9th this year. Sung Quap Po, I think I have his name, Sung Quap Po, a Hmong Christian, fled into the force with his family after the authorities ordered his expulsion. They were already suffering, he and his family, extreme abuse by the people in the village after this man's father pressured him to make offerings to his family ancestors, but he refused. So those in the community gathered around his home and took away his entire 1 year supply of food.
Joel Brooks:Police were then authorized to demolish his home. Let me read you, another story from a book, by Don Cormack. It's the book's called Killing Fields, Living Fields, An Unfinished Portrait of the Cambodian Church, the church that would not die. In the village of Siem Reap, Cambodia, Haim, a Christian teacher, knew that the youthful black clad Khmer Rouge soldiers now heading across the field were coming this time for him. Haim was determined that when his term came, when his turn came, he would die with dignity and without complaint.
Joel Brooks:Hame's entire family was rounded up that afternoon. They were the quote old dandruff, the bad blood, the enemies of the Glorious Revolution. They were called CIA agents. The crime was that they were Christians. The family spent a sleepless night comforting one another and praying for each other as they lay bound together in the dewy grass beneath a stand of friendly trees.
Joel Brooks:Next morning, the teenage soldiers returned and led them to their place of execution, to the nearby Vil Samlapp, the killing fields. The family were ordered to dig a large grave for themselves, Then consenting to Haines' request for a moment to prepare themselves for death, father, mother, and children, hands linked, knelt together around the gaping pit. With loud cries to God, Hain began exhorting both the Khmer Rouge and all those looking on to repent and to believe the gospel. Then in a panic, one of his youngest sons leaped to his feet and bolted into the surrounding bush and disappeared. Haim jumped up with amazing coolness and authority prevailed upon the Khmer Rouge not to pursue the lad, but allow the father to call the boy back.
Joel Brooks:The knots of onlookers peering around trees, the Khmer Rouge, and the stunned family still kneeling at the graveside looked on in awe as Hain began calling his son, pleading with him to return so that they may die together as a family. What comparison my son, he called out stealing a few more days of life in the wilderness, a fugitive, a wretched alone, to joining your family here and momentarily around this grave, but soon around a throne of God, free forever in paradise. After a few tense minutes, the bushes parted and the lab weeping walked slowly back to his place with the kneeling family. Now we are ready to go, Hain told the Khmer Rouge. Few of those doubted that as each of these Christian's bodies toppled silently into the earthen pit, which the victims themselves had prepared, their souls soared heavenward to a place prepared by their lord.
Joel Brooks:I have found that Christians in America use the word persecuted, much like football players use the word battle, or use words like offensive weapons, to, to describe a game or to describe some skills. But, but when there's actually a war going on, those, those terms are dropped by any sane person, by anybody who has actually a grip of reality or a little bit of perspective. Those terms are gone and people realize, no, it's not a battle. These aren't offensive weapons. This is just a hard fought game and this is just a person who could throw really far.
Joel Brooks:The war gives you a little perspective. Let's be honest for most of us, we cannot relate to the passage we just read or to the stories we just heard because we live here in America, in which we are rarely persecuted for our faith. I've been a part of those youth group meetings and maybe you have to, you know, where you have those prayers about persecution, you know, pray for me. My, my friends are making fun of me because, you know, I wore this, Christian t shirt, you know, this blood for you or something. And, and, you know, they weren't making fun of you for your Christianity.
Joel Brooks:They were making fun of you for your t shirt. But still it's right to pray for such a person, but that's not persecution. That's, that's not persecution. There are roughly 160,000 Christians in the world who will be killed each year for their faith. Last century was the bloodiest ever for Christians.
Joel Brooks:And this is horrific, but it shouldn't surprise us. 1st Peter 4 says that you should not be surprised at the fiery ordeal, which comes upon you to prove you as though something strange were happening to you. It shouldn't surprise us. Well, and the text we just read, Jesus tells us that persecution is coming. He tells the disciples persecution is coming and it's coming from unlikely places.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 16. Says you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. And some of you, they will put to death. Jesus Himself would experience this cause He would be betrayed by one of His close friends. Luke 12 essentially says the same thing as this.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 12 here. But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons and you will be brought before Kings and governors for my name's sake. By the way, that for my name's sake, you'll find that phrase you 17 times in the book of acts as you see this come into play later. Verse 13 is the key to this paragraph. It says, This will be your opportunity to bear witness.
Joel Brooks:So all of this persecution being betrayed by those who are close to you, all these bad events that are happening will be so that you will have opportunity to bear witness to Jesus. Friends will betray you so you can bear witness to the love of Jesus. Your peers might make fun of you so you can bear love, bear witness to your love for Jesus. Some of you will be thrown into prison. It says, and this isn't just so you can show how much you hold to this conviction that they have to even throw you in jail.
Joel Brooks:It's also so you have a new people to reach. I'm not kidding about this. Some are thrown in jail so they can reach those in jail. That was true for Paul. I love how the letter to the Philippians ends when he says, greet every Saint in Christ Jesus.
Joel Brooks:The brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those in Caesar's household. Those people in Caesar's household are the guards. Paul's writing this from prison. So persecution is our opportunity to bear witness.
Joel Brooks:Paul understood this, Go through Paul's letters and you'll never once ever find him praying that god would deliver him from persecution. He never says, lord, take away this persecution. Lord, take away this suffering. He never says that. He always says, give me strength through this, glorify Your name through us.
Joel Brooks:Give us resolve through this, but don't deliver us from this because he sees it as an opportunity to bear witness. And I think that's especially true for us in America because how else will the world believe our words Sitting in our comfort where we are surrounded by every form of entertainment, every form of luxury. How in the world can our words be credible when we say Christ is sufficient in the midst of such, such luxury, how can it be credible? Persecution suffering gives our words, wait. Now, this is the opposite of what most of us think.
Joel Brooks:When we think about persecution as a opportunity to bear witness, most of us, we like to look for what I would call a safe opportunity. We want things to be safe. We have to get the timing just right. You know, the person has to be in just a perfect mood and then maybe you'll possibly drop a track that they might walk on and pick up. You know, things just have to be completely safe.
Joel Brooks:I mean, how many times have you thought to yourself, this just isn't a good time to share my faith. How many times have you thought that? And what's happening is you're making the mistake of thinking that a safe time to share is a good time to share. That's the time you should share your faith. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16, he says, A wide door for effective ministry has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
Joel Brooks:We see those two things as mutually exclusive. He saw them as working together and wide doors open where I could share my faith and there's many people who oppose me. When you speak truth, knowing that it will cost you something, knowing that you will be persecuted. When you say that the audience you speak to will see you as credible. Your words gain weight.
Joel Brooks:It's an opportunity. And Jesus, he tells his disciples and us in verse 14, that when this opportunity comes, he gives us unusual advice. He says, you're not to think beforehand of how you will answer because he's going to give you a mouth of wisdom. He's going to give you a mouth and he's going to give you wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. This is just a really bizarre command, to not prepare beforehand what you're going to say when you're about to be put on trial.
Joel Brooks:So, and this is whether it's trials in an official court or whether, you know, it's your peers who are basically putting you on trial, you're not to prepare beforehand what you're going to say. And so it just, the question that comes to my mind is how in the world can we be so calm, so at peace in the midst of persecution that we don't even worry about how we defend ourselves? And I'm gonna give you 4 quick reasons how we can do this, be so calm and peaceful that we there's no need to defend ourselves. And the first one you might not like, but it's true. We expect persecution.
Joel Brooks:You need to expect it. The reason why so much of this life is filled with worry. Worry is about uncertainties It's when you don't know what's going to happen. And so you worry about it. Jesus tells you what's going to happen.
Joel Brooks:You're going to be persecuted So you don't have to worry about, is this going to happen? Is this not going to happen? It's going to. 2nd Timothy 3 says, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So for those of you who want to live a godly life, you don't have to worry about whether you're going to be persecuted or not.
Joel Brooks:Okay? You could put yourself at ease. You will be. There's nothing uncertain about it. 2nd one you might like a little bit more.
Joel Brooks:God is in absolute control. He's in absolute control. Look with me again in verse 16. There's some difficult verses here. It says you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, And some of you, they will put to death.
Joel Brooks:You'll be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish. So just look at that. Some of you will be put to death, not a hair on your head will perish. Those 2 together. It's it's not talking about you're you're gonna look good in a casket or something like that.
Joel Brooks:That's that's it's, it's a tension here, but it's saying that God is in absolute control of your life. There's nothing that he is, that he is not in control of whether you are delivered or whether you're, you are not delivered. It's from his hand
Speaker 1:and you can rest in
Joel Brooks:that. Luke 12 says, are not 5 sparrows sold for 2 pennies, and yet not one of them is forgotten before god? Why even the very hairs on your head are numbered? So fear not. The reason that you don't have to prepare for a defense is because you were not in control of the outcome.
Joel Brooks:God is. You don't have to give a defense worrying. You could see is really nothing more than practical atheism. If you worry all the time, really practically when it boils down to it, you're an atheist. You're not trusting in God.
Joel Brooks:And let me just say real quick here, you don't trust in the task. You believe that you've been given by God. You trust in God and there's a big difference. You don't trust. God has given me this task.
Joel Brooks:He has made me pastor of Redeemer Community Church. This is my task and I don't take trust or confidence in my task because then when things go wrong, I begin wondering what what's, what's happening. And I think, well, well, I'm holding onto this task. We don't trust our task. We trust our God.
Joel Brooks:If Paul trust his task, what would happen when he says, I despaired even of life because ministry wasn't going well. If his trust was in his task, he was supposed to do this and it was tanking, he would have crumbled, but God pulled him out of that because his trust was in God. Alright. 3, Jesus will give you the words to say. Verse 15 says that He will give you a mouth and wisdom.
Joel Brooks:He does this through His Holy Spirit. Once again, we go back to Luke 12, that parallel passage in which, Jesus says, and when they bring you before the synagogues and rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should should defend yourself or what you should say for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. So, at the moment of need, god's holy spirit will come upon you and give you words to say. He will not come beforehand. He doesn't come the day beforehand.
Joel Brooks:He comes in your hour of need. When you need Him at the moment of crisis, God gives you the words. This is not saying that, I've heard so many preachers say this. Great. I don't have to prepare.
Joel Brooks:You know, just get up there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Holy Spirit, come on. Boom. And I listened. I was like, that's not the Holy Spirit. That is you.
Joel Brooks:That is all you coming out at this point. That, that is not what this is talking about. This is saying in a moment of crisis, When you're put on trial, when something hits you, you don't have to worry about that. God gives you the words to say. When that friend, you know, that you've been trying to share the gospel with all of a sudden ask you this zinger question.
Joel Brooks:You can't say, Hey, let's talk about this tomorrow. When I really get to research all this, Trust God that He gives you the words to say in that moment. I got to experience this one time when I was a senior in college. I was attending a Methodist student ministries conference and all the Methodist ministries in Georgia and some of the surrounding States gathered together for this student conference. It might surprise some of you that I was part of a Methodist student center.
Joel Brooks:God had a sense of humor. I became reformed through this Methodist group. I became charismatic through the Presbyterian reform group. So God just wanted to make sure that nobody liked me. It's pretty much what it boiled down to, but, but I went to this conference as a senior, and the speaker, terrible, horrible, heretical, do not, does not begin to describe the words that were coming out of this woman's mouth.
Joel Brooks:She was the chaplain of Emory University And she talked about how Jesus is a good option for you, but there are many options. There are many ways to God. She said that Christianity itself didn't even need Christ. So you could be a Christian apart from Jesus. You can find a way to God apart from Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And then after all of this, she, she told us that we needed to put aside our Western rational mind and embrace some more Eastern mysticism. And we need to learn to pray with those of all faiths. And we need to learn to pray with the monkeys, pray with the trees and that we could become one with everyone. And so she is teaching this at this conference and I am thinking, what's going on? And I'm looking around and this is packed auditorium and people are nodding in agreement.
Joel Brooks:Yeah. And so, I'm with my, my, my friend, Andy Byers, and I was like, somebody, somebody's gotta say something. And he says, you're right. Afterwards, we're gonna go up there, we're gonna talk to her. And, and then I'm thinking, well, I'm looking around for anybody.
Joel Brooks:My college pastor wasn't there. He would have said something. And then I had one of the most surreal moments in my entire life. It was an out of body experience. I'm telling you, I, I was walking down the aisle and I was even thinking as I was walking down the aisle, how did I get to this point where I'm walking down the aisle?
Joel Brooks:She's still speaking. And I, I walk up and I stand next to her. She is still speaking. And so she looks at me and she says, can I help you? Do you have anything you'd like to say?
Joel Brooks:I said, yeah, yes, I do. And so she handed me the mic. Now understand I am not, this story is not about me. Let me just real quick say, it's not about me. Left on my own, this, this story has a tragic end.
Joel Brooks:Okay? This is not about me. It's about God using incredible weakness for his glory. Okay. So she handed me the mic and, my, my heart is beating out of my chest.
Joel Brooks:I've never been so scared. And I said, Yes, I'd, I'd like to say something. And then it dawned on me, I had not thought of one thing to say. Not one. All of this, I kept thinking, She's wrong, she's wrong, she's wrong.
Joel Brooks:And I got up there and I didn't think of actually what I would add to this, what I would say, and so she hands me the mic, and I'm thinking, now what do I do? And I'm a speech major. And so all of my rhetorical training comes up with this one great sentence. Everything she has told you is wrong. And then God came.
Joel Brooks:I mean, just whisper, Joel, Colossians 2. And so I said, Hey, y'all open your Bibles to Colossians 2. And I'm thinking what's in Colossians 2 can't wait to get there. So I go to Colossians 2 and I start in verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.
Joel Brooks:For in Him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And you who are dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him. Having forgiven us of all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
Joel Brooks:This he set aside nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. I guarantee I did not read it like that. I've gotten better over the years. But I I said, It seems like everything's attached to Christ.
Joel Brooks:And what was amazing is by the time I had finished reading this, people in the audience were saying to end hymns with me. In Him. And so God took in this this one moment, a terribly closed door. And He turned it into an open door for effective ministry. And through His Spirit, He gave me the words to say, at the very moment, not before at all, I can assure you, but at the very moment.
Joel Brooks:A much better example of this is of course, Stephen in acts 7 in which you see him preaching in the same thing. Jesus is here saying that, you know, the temple is going to be tore down. That's what He was accused of, as Jesus said He was going to destroy the temple. And then just off the cuff, preaches possibly one of the best sermons in all the Bible, goes through the all of Israel's history, Holy Spirit filling him, using him. God will do that.
Joel Brooks:It's not about your glory. It's about His and He is passionate about His glory. And so if you take a risk and step into that opportunity, he will make sure he's glorified. Let's look at 4th reason why we can have peace and rest in the midst of persecution. You don't have to worry about what to say when you're on trial, because Jesus has already gone through the ultimate trial for you.
Joel Brooks:You don't have to worry about that. Yeah. Shortly after Jesus says these words, He will be put on trial. He will be mocked, He will be beaten, He will be crucified, and Jesus will receive the guilty verdict that you deserve. And He looks at you and He puts His righteousness on you and He declares you not guilty.
Joel Brooks:And this is what Paul is alluding to in 1st Corinthians 4, when he says, I am not aware of anything against myself, yet I'm not by this acquitted. Meaning he's on trial. I'm not acquitted because the one who examines me is the Lord. He says, you Corinthians are putting me on trial. But you know what?
Joel Brooks:My verdict's not in your hands. It doesn't matter what you think about me if you find me guilty. A matter of fact, it doesn't matter if I find myself guilty. The reason I'm acquitted is because of the Lord who finds me not guilty. The trial has already taken place, and I am declared not guilty.
Joel Brooks:So when you're put on trial before your friends, when persecution comes, all those are just these little trials. The big cosmic trial has already happened. And in Christ, you've been declared innocent. And when you know this, there is a calm and there is a peace that comes upon you that no situation can take away from you. Now my hope and all these things is that God is going to give you a boldness now to speak when you don't first see an opportunity, at least not a safe one, but he's going to give you this boldness, this conviction that you will take a risk because I think it is right for Christians to take a risk risk like Esther, you would say, Hey, if I perish, I perish Or Joab, when he went into battle and he didn't know if he should do it or not, he says, well, may the Lord do whatever seems good to him.
Joel Brooks:I risk it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They said, Hey, if God, He could deliver us from this, but if not, we will never bow down. That's a risk. Or Paul who says, I do not account my life of any value nor is precious to myself.
Joel Brooks:If only I may finish the course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus. My prayer is that trusting in God's sovereign grace, his goodness so much will embolden you to take those risks. You'll be so secure knowing that Jesus has already been to trial for you. You won't fold and crumble when your peers or your government puts you on trial, that we are so safe and secure in the not guilty verdict that Jesus has placed on us. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Lord, if only we believed what we read, Birmingham would not be the same, Our workplaces would not be the same. Our homes would not be the same. I believe this world wouldn't be the same. So help us to believe what we say we believe through the power of Your Spirit. I ask that Your Spirit now that He would write these truths deep in our hearts.
Joel Brooks:I do not ask that you give us words to say at this moment. I do ask that you give us boldness to stand up and to share, and then a trust that you will then tell us what we shall say and what we should do. Our confidence is in you and not in the task you've laid before us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
