Matthew 24:4-14 – please look this up in your Bibles. We will read this passage in a moment …
The first and second Sundays of November have been designated as the International Days of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
But since we were away the first Sunday of November at a District Pastors Gathering and the Needhams were here last week we have not been able to take the time to seriously look at what is happening to Christians around the world until today. This situation of persecution should actually be something we are in constant prayer about.
On the other hand, this is the Sunday before Thanksgiving and we usually take this Sunday to be especially thankful, which is actually kind of odd for a group of people who are instructed to be continually thankful, right?
So, the question is, “Can we combine a remembrance of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering and dying for the Lord and the American observance of Thanksgiving in one service?”
Let’s go ahead and read Matthew 24:4-14 …
Persecution of followers of the Lord Most High is nothing new. The same persecution that exists now took place throughout the Old Testament, it took place during the time of Christ and His apostles, it took place during the reformation, it is taking place now and will grow in its intensity until Jesus returns.
Persecution in the Bible (give a brief overview):
The prophets – the apostles – Stephen
John 16:1-2 NIV
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.”
What was Paul’s name before His salvation took place on the road to Damascus? It was Saul.
What was Saul spending every waking moment of every non-Sabbath day doing? He was persecuting the church.
Did Saul believe that he was offering a service to God by persecuting the Christians? Yes, he did!
What happened to Saul after he was saved and started proclaiming the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus? He was persecuted!
What about persecution since the time of Christ?
AD 70 – the destruction of Jerusalem – the dispersion
AD 500 – Bible translated into over 500 languages – by AD 600 there was
only one – Latin. Anyone found with a non-Latin Bible could be executed!
AD 1597 – In Nagasaki Japan 26 Christians were executed. On was a young boy named Thomas Kosaki. He was crucified along with his father and the others.
This is a letter he wrote to his mother while on his way to his death for the cause of Christ: "Mother we are supposed to be crucified tomorrow in Nagasaski. Please do not worry about anything because we will be waiting for you to come to heaven. Everything in the world vanishes like a dream. Be sure that you never lose the happiness of heaven. Be patient and show love to many people. Most of all, about my little brothers Mansho and Philipo, please see to it that they are not delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. Mother I commit you to the Lord."
The emperor thought the Christians would abandon the faith. They did not.
Thomas Kosaki had built his life on the firm foundation of Jesus!
John 15:18
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first.” - Jesus
When ISIS took over Mosul they gathered the remaining Christians together. Many were beheaded, starting with the children first.
Matthew 24:9
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me.” - Jesus
In China: China is a vast area with a government that ranges from tolerant to oppressive when it comes to Christianity. In some areas Christians may just be looked down upon and in other areas meeting in an “underground” or unregistered church can land you in prison.
Chinese prisons are not like our prisons; there is no cable TV, no exercise yards, no hot meals, no doctors and dentists on call. Instead there is forced hard labor, minimal food and only enough medical care to keep you alive.
I read one account of a preacher who visited an underground church in China.
In the church, the crowd was so packed that no one could sit down. It was so crowded that the preacher was backed up against the front wall and the people in the congregation were so close that he could have reached out and touched them.
The part of the service when the preaching was to begin started at 7:30 in the morning. The visiting preacher asked how long he should preach and he was told to preach from 7:30 AM – 8:00 PM. They also wanted him to come back the next day and do the same thing and if he would be so kind to do so they would like him to do it again.
They had no Bibles. Each one of them could have been arrested for even being there. They could have been sent to prison labor camps where they would most likely die from disease or exhaustion and starvation.
They chose Jesus!
- Approximately 50,000-70,000 of North Korea’s 300,000 Christians are in labor camps
- Since the beginning of the war in Syria over 7.6 Million Christians have been displaced
- Every month on the average 214 Christian churches and buildings are destroyed
- According to the Pew Research Center 75% of the world’s population lives in areas with severe religious restrictions
Matthew 5:11 NIV
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” - Jesus
Kyrgyzstan a 76 year old Christian woman died and her daughter was not allowed to bury her mom in the local cemetery because she was not a Muslim. The authorities finally found a village that would allow the burial of the Mom.
Later when the daughter went to check on the grave she found that her mother had been dug up and has never yet been found.
John 15:20a NIV
“Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.’” - Jesus
In a village in Kyrgyzstan, Zaur* was severely beaten because of his faith in Christ. The local police refused to take his statement when he tried to report the incident. Likewise, when he went to the hospital to have his wounds treated, the doctor refused to provide him with medical care when she learned that Zaur had been beaten for his Christian faith.
Zaur has moved because of this harassment, and is in hiding outside the village. His parents, who are not Christians, but respect his faith, have moved as well out of fear of the wrath of their neighbors. The day after they fled the village, their neighbors unleashed their fury over Zaur’s faith in Jesus by throwing all of his cattle off a cliff and throwing stones at his house.
So … what on earth do we have to be thankful for???
When we think of persecution on the Sunday before Thanksgiving can we be so shallow as to reduce our thankfulness to, “I’m sure thankful that it is happening over there and not here?”
Is there ANY benefit to persecution? Is there reason why we should be thankful in the midst of persecution if real persecution were to come our way???
Let’s look back at the last couple of verses in our main Scripture for today …
Matthew 24:9, 13 NIV
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me … but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”
SAVED! That sounds like a pretty good benefit to me! Saved from being eternally lost. Saved from eternal destruction. Saved from eternal separation from the Lord God who loved us so much that He gave His one and only Son for our salvation!
Saved because Jesus was brutally treated and beaten and crucified for us!
He suffered. He died. Should we expect anything less?
Now look at these verses …
Matthew 24:14 NIV
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Recently we have been talking a lot about being citizens of the Kingdom of God; that the Lord and His Kingdom on earth has the first priority in our lives. Would we give our lives for the Kingdom of God or forsake the Kingdom of God for our earthly lives???
Illustration:
Laos 2001. Hezekiah's life had been so transformed that he had to tell someone. When he returned to the village he grew up in, he told the 35 relatives and villagers who met him and demanded to know why he had converted to Christianity, "Jesus is the only way I can be saved from my sins. Jesus is the only way I can have eternal life."
They didn't like this. As Hezekiah reasoned with them about the truths he had found studying God's Word and being discipled by other believers in the safe haven he had left to bring them the Gospel, tempers began to flare. Suddenly someone lunged out and grabbed Hezekiah. Others followed. They dragged him to the ground and beat him until he blacked out. Then they left him in the street, bruised and bleeding.
When the crowd had gone, a friend took Hezekiah to his own home, where he nurtured him back to health. It was four days before Hezekiah could raise himself off of the bed.
Hezekiah eventually left his village and to this day is still not welcome either there or in his family's homes. Instead, he now travels from village to village sharing what he has learned from the Bible and showing the way of salvation to as many as will let him. He is compelled by love for his countrymen to know the love of God.
Because of this, he has been beaten and thrown out of at least ten other villages. Some of the beatings were so bad that he thought he would not live through them - and some were so bad that he thought he did not want to live through them. But his testimony remains strong: "As I have matured in my walk with Christ, I have more faith to endure these hardships. The trials I have gone through have served to strengthen my faith, as I see God's faithfulness in delivering me. I thank God I have been able to bring 30 people to the saving knowledge of Jesus.
Revelation 20:4 NLT
“Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God … they all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”
Video (VOM video from 2011)
Closing comments and prayer …
