Church as it was meant to be, chose to endure hardship. They chose to endure hardship not because they didn’t have a choice, they could have walked away from the Church at any time, as many did, and gone back to the way life was before Jesus. They chose to endure hardship because they were focused on what God had called them to do.
While looking for the original design of how God meant His church to be, I believe church as it is meant to be is a community of saints, focused on their purpose. We are here today because our predecessors kept focused on the purpose.
Examples of Hardship
According to Acts, persecution of Jesus’ followers began after a trip by Peter and John to the Jerusalem Temple and Peter’s speech (Acts 3:12-26); imprisonment of Peter and John (Acts 4:1-21); martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 6:8-8:3); persecution in Damascus (Acts 9:1-31, 22:1-22, 26:9-24); execution of James (Acts 12:1-3, 12:21-23); persecution of Paul. Acts 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 all cite instance of persecution aimed at Paul. In fact almost every chapter in Acts records something of the hostility the early church faced. (see also 1 Cor 9:20-23; Gal 4:29 ;2 Cor 11:23-26.)
Personal Hardships
Like everyone else in the world, Christians face personal hardships. Whether it’s physical ailments, emotional pain, relational conflicts, or financial pressures, Christians, like non-Christians, face personal hardships. Everyone in this room is facing some degree of hardship.
Personal hardship demands a choice: walk away, live with it, or do all that is within your power to change it. Often people walk away from marriage due to relational conflict, people take their own lives because of emotional pain and some people live constantly in debt because they don’t face the challenge of change.
Believers facing personal hardship can walk away, live with it, or do, with God’s help, what they can do to change it. But they can also look to God for a miracle.(Ps 121:1, 123:1, Isa 40:26, 49:18)
Purpose Hardships
The early church faced hardship because of what they did. When Jesus spoke to them about being endued with power, it was associated with the purpose of the Church. (Acts 1:8)
When you read the examples of persecution, you will see that persecution was a result of the church spreading the Gospel.
So why did the early Christians not just walk away when the persecution or hardships came their way for doing what God had told them to do? They endured hardship because they were focused.
Before the days of modern cameras, that come with auto focus built in to help us take a better picture, you would be required to fix the focus to get the best results.
Christians don’t come with auto focus. We are constantly required to fix our focus on what really matters. (Ps 141:8, 2Cor 4:18, Heb 12:2)
Focused on the Pain
Due to personal hardship, many people spend their life focused on their pain.
As a result of this focus they live in self-pity. Self-pity make you feel worthless and thus miss your eternal value to Jesus. Jeremiah had a pity party:
Jeremiah 20:14-18 (The Message)
Curse the day I was born! The day my mother bore me- a curse on it, I say!
And curse the man who delivered the news to my father: "You’ve got a new baby- a boy baby!" (How happy it made him.) Let that birth notice be blacked out, deleted from the records, and the man who brought it haunted to his death with the bad news he brought. He should have killed me before I was born, with that womb as my tomb, my mother pregnant for the rest of her life with a baby dead in her womb. Why, oh why, did I ever leave that womb? Life’s been nothing but trouble and tears, and what’s coming is more of the same.
The problem with self-pity is, it is constantly looking inward and not upward and when you are in pity mode nothing looks good.
Focusing on the pain can sometimes result in us looking outward, consumed with jealousy over how much better off others are, and not focused upward on the one who’s better than all the rest.
Focusing on the pain can often result in people pursuing pleasure to block out the pain.
Whatever the pain, as believers, lift your eyes and look to the Lord (Ps 121:1, Ps 123:1, Isa 40:26, 49:18.)
Focused on the Promise
It’s good to have the promises of God in our lives; they inspire hope for a fantastic future. But there are some negatives to just focusing on the promises that can hinder our spiritual journey.
We can sometimes use the promises to hold God to ransom. “You said.” “But, you said.” We must learn to accept that God has a higher wisdom than we do and He knows when it is best for us, and for others, to receive the promise. The Prodigal Son ended up in a ‘pig of a mess’ because he believed he knew best about when he should receive his promised inheritance.
We can sometimes use the Word of God as a magic wand, to bring a quick fix to deal with our pain.
The problem with quick-fix solutions is that God may have a point to your pain, (see Rom 5:1-5), and no matter how much you shout a Bible verse at it, it’s not going to go away until God has proved his point. (Please see list of verses at the end that reveal a purpose to hardship)
You would not be the person you are today if it had not been for the times of pain. The pain is always producing something of God’s plan in our lives. (Rom 5:3, 2Cor 1:6, 7:11, Heb 12:11)
Leave the “when will it happen,” of the Promise of God, to God, and focus on what really matters.
Focused on the Purpose
What really matters is being focused on the purpose. The early church endured hardship because they were focused on the purpose.
Reach the lost, share the Good News of the Gospel with them, make disciples of them and equip them for service.(Matt 28:19 Eph 4:10-13)
Peter and John end up in prison; Stephen was stoned to death; Paul and Silas were put in prison; a riot broke out in Thessalonica; people wanted to lynch Paul. You would think they would have walked away and gone back to life before Jesus.
They endured because they where consumed and captivated by the purpose.
People of Purpose live life on purpose, which means they choose to reach the lost, share the Good News of the Gospel with them, make disciples of them and equip them for service, despite the hardship.
The response of the church to the opposition of the Jews to the spreading of the Gospel was: Acts 4: 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Romans 5:3 “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance”
1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
James 1:2-12 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ...”
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Psalm 127:1 A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
Job 7:15-16 “So that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.”
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
James 2:1-26 “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? ...”
James 1:1-27 “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ...”
Hebrews 12:2 “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Philippians 3:8 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”
Ephesians 2:8 “ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Acts 2:47 “Praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.””
Ecclesiastes 7:17 “Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?”
Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Psalm 13:2-4 “How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.”
