Hope in the Mission of the Church
Throughout the history of the church there have been many who have laid down their lives for Jesus and the message of the gospel.
Even today, there will be people who will suffer persecution for their faith in Christ. There will be those who are mistreated, imprisoned, tortured, raped, beaten, starved or killed today because they believe Jesus is Lord, Saviour, Messiah.
From the days of the early church, all of Jesus disciples except John who died of old age were killed or martyred for their faith.
The twelve apostles were just ordinary working men.
There was nothing special or spectacular about them.
Yet Jesus sent them out with a mission to reach the world.
Mission is a response to the command Jesus gave to His disciples and to each of us in Matthew 28:18-19,
Jesus told His disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The first group of the disciples were in many ways, the beginning of the church.
Jesus took these ordinary men and formed them into the foundation of His church.
Jesus gave to them and us the most extraordinary task imaginable: sharing the truth of who Jesus was and is to the entire world.
Telling people the truth about sin, the forgiveness that is possible through accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
The disciples spread out across the known world to follow the command of Jesus to share the Gospel, minister to others and evangelize.
The disciples went far and wide with the message of the risen Christ. People heard about Jesus, placed their trust in Him and the church grew.
But as the early church grew, so did the suffering that many would endure for following Jesus.
Jesus the only way, the only truth, the only life, the only hope, the only way to Heaven.
The disciples themselves suffered for their faith and in most cases each of them died because of their testimony that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.
Church history and other sources record the death of the disciples:
Simon Peter and The Apostle Paul were both martyred in Rome about 66 AD, during the persecution under Emperor Nero.
The Apostle Paul was beheaded.
Peter was crucified, upside down at his request, because he did not feel he was worthy to die in the same way as Jesus.
Andrew, the brother of Peter, went to the area the modern world called the Soviet Union. Christians there claim Andrew was the first to take the message of the gospel to them. Andrew also preached in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and Greece. Andrew went to Patras in western Greece in 69AD, there the Roman proconsul Aegeates debated religion with him. Aegeates tried to convince Andrew to forsake Christianity, so that he would not have to torture and execute him. But, when that didn’t work, he decided to give Andrew the full treatment. Andrew was scourged, and then tied rather than nailed to a cross, so that he would suffer for a longer time before dying. Andrew lived for two days, during which he preached to the people who walked past the cross he was crucified on.
Thomas was active in the area east of Syria. Church history and tradition records Thomas preaching as far east as India where the Marthoma Christians honour him as their founder. They claim that Thomas was killed there when he was when pierced with the spears of four soldiers.
Philip had a powerful ministry in Carthage in North Africa and then in Asia Minor, where it is recorded that the wife of a Roman proconsul was converted. But, the Roman proconsul was not happy that his wife had turned to Jesus so in retaliation the proconsul had Philip arrested in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis.
Philip was scourged, thrown into prison, and then crucified in 54 AD.
Matthew, former tax collector and writer of a Gospel, ministered in Persia and Ethiopia. Matthew was martyred in Ethiopia - stabbed in the back by a swordsman sent by King Hertacus, after he criticized the king’s morals.
Bartholomew had widespread missionary travels attributed to him. He went to India with Thomas and while he was there he translated the Gospel of Matthew for the local church. Bartholomew went back to Armenia, then on to Ethiopia and Southern Arabia where it would seem he really upset a group of idol worshippers. Tradition states that the idolaters beat Bartholomew, then he was skinned alive, then crucified, then to make sure he was really dead he was also beheaded.
James, the son of Alpheus, is one of at least three James referred to in the New Testament. James ministered in Syria, was elected by his fellow believers to head the churches of Jerusalem, and was one of the longest-lived apostles, perhaps exceeded only by John. The Jewish historian Josephus reported that at the age of 94, James the son of Alpheus was beaten and stoned by persecutors, and then they killed him by hitting him in the head with a club.
James the son of Zebedee, Acts 12:1-19 says that James was killed with a sword.
The newly-appointed governor of Judea, Herod Agrippa, decided to ingratiate himself with the Romans by persecuting leaders of the new sect. After James was arrested and led to place of execution, his unnamed accuser was moved by his courage. He not only repented and converted on the spot, but asked to be executed alongside James. The Roman executioners obliged, and both men were beheaded simultaneously.
Simon the Zealot ministered in Persia, preached in Mauritania on the west coast of Africa, and then came to England, where tradition says he was crucified in 74 AD.
Matthais was the apostle chosen to replace Judas. He went to Syria with Andrew and to death by burning.
John is the only one of the original 12 disciples who died a natural death from old age.
He was the leader of the church in the Ephesus area and is said to have taken care of Mary the mother of Jesus in his home. During Domitian’s persecution in the middle 90’s, he was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he wrote Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. John passed away peacefully in Patmos in his old age, sometime around 100 AD.
Each of the early disciples were willing to suffer for Jesus. Throughout the centuries there have been so many others who have been willing to suffer for the sake of the Gospel.
Today, the modern persecution of Christians is worldwide. Statistics from The Christian Organisation Open Doors states approximately 215 million Christians experience high, very high, or extreme persecution.
According to Open Doors researchers, 1 in 12 Christians live in a place where Christianity is “illegal, forbidden, or punished”.
North Korea has been in the news a lot recently, but what you never see in a newspaper or reported on the TV is what Open Doors has discovered: “More than 50,000 Christians in prison or labour camps”
Here is another fact from Open Doors that you won’t here about in the media: “Every day six women are raped, sexually harassed, or forced into marriage to a Muslim under threat of death due to their Christian faith”
This number is low, it includes only reported incidents. It also points to the double persecution—for both their gender and religion—that Christian women still face in much of the world.
Persecution still exists. People are still killed because of their faith in Jesus. But there is Hope found here, because God’s church continues to grow. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”
Today, the disciples of Jesus, His Church, continue to share the truth of who Jesus is, how people can be saved from their sin, how people can be assured of a place in Heaven.
Every day in every country there are people who are being saved by the power of the Gospel, every day people are repenting from sin and turning to Him.
Jesus is continuing to build His church.
In this country we may not face the problems that our brothers and sisters in other lands face. We may face opposition, we may be accused of being narrow minded, we may encounter people who think we are weird or strange, we may be worried about what our friends, family, neighbours or work colleagues will think or say if we share the Gospel with them.
Each of us must share the Gospel as Jesus has commanded us to.
The minster Oswald Chambers said this, “God holds us accountable every time we refuse to submit to His plans, and He sees our refusal as wilful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us. To refuse to follow puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.”
Don’t refuse to follow the mission God has given you. You are called to be a participant in the Mission Jesus has given to His Church, to go into all the world with the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus Christ is the only way of Salvation.
You may not be called to be a missionary in another country, but God has given you a mission field, your workplace, your neighbours, your friends, even your families inside your own home.
What are you doing in the mission field God has given you?
Are you using every opportunity to witness for Christ?
In 1 Timothy chapter 5, The Apostle Paul describes the church as people dedicated to doing whatever it takes to reach out and help others.
Paul says we have a responsibility, as the church, to serve and help others.
Caring for each other as well as those outside of the church is the quickest way to see Jesus change lives.
God gives each of us skills, abilities and opportunities to serve Him and each other.
In Timothy’s church, for example, the women ran a widows ministry (1 Timothy 5:16), and elders directed church affairs while others were devoted just to teaching and preaching (1 Timothy 5:17).
In the Bible, church is always a reference to people, not a place. The church is the body of believers that live out the Gospel in their words and actions. The church is at its best when people inside the building take Jesus’ message outside the building and serve those they meet.
Church is not somewhere Christians go, but something Christians are.
Friends, you and I, we are the church. We, as the church, are the hands and feet of Jesus wherever we live, wherever we work, wherever we are.
Listen again to Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Go and make disciples.
This is a command from Jesus to you and I.
Jesus did not say go sit in a building for an hour and a half on a Sunday morning and wait for the unsaved to wander in. We, as the embodiment of church, are commanded to go OUT after the “lost”.
God has called us to serve Him. We have a God given mission, a God given responsibility to go and lead other people to Christ.
As I draw to a close, I want to remind you that love is at the core of our faith.
Father God loved us so much that He was willing to send His Son to die for us. God continues to love us and we are to love Him. We express our love for God by serving Him and by serving others. Galatians 6:10 says “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
One of the tests of us being the Church comes in what others think of our actions, our witness when we are not within these 4 walls.
Pastor and author Craig Groeschel expressed it this way “We don’t go to church, we are the church and we exist for the world”.
The final thought is this:
We will never change the world by going to church, we will only change the world by being the church.
God has given His church a mission, God has given each of us a command to go and share the Gospel.
Fulfilling the mission God has given to each of us as part of His Church requires more from each and every one of us than just coming here once a week, sitting on seats, singing and listening to a sermon on Sunday.
We will never change the world by going to church, we will only change the world by being the church.
May each of us choose to show the world the true meaning of being a disciple of Jesus and part of His church.
May each of us do what God has called us to do.
May we all be willing to go into the world and share the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour.
AMEN
