You’ve probably noticed that I am always interested in history. I feel that you just can’t understand the way the world is today without learning how we got here. I was a history major in college. And one expression of that interest is learning about my own ancestors, genealogy. I am blessed that a great aunt on my father’s side and a cousin on my mother’s side have done most of the work of laying out the family lines, the names and dates, sometimes back many generations. But I’m especially interested to find the human interest stories of their lives.
For example, my mother’s family line includes many Quakers who came to Pennsylvania in the 1680s to escape religious persecution in their home countries. I recently found a description of what that religious persecution meant for some who came from Wales.
They lived in a time of strict social classes in Britain. There were laws that enforced respect for ‘the betters of society.’ If a gentleman rode his horse through town, the common men were required to tip their hats, and the women to stop and curtsey. And those little things were only the tip of the iceberg of a whole system that gave all sorts of unfair advantages to a few rich families who held the power and all sorts of disadvantages to everyone else. But the Quakers read in their Bible that every person is created in the image of God and that Paul said all are one in Christ. So they refused to recognize such social distinctions and went to jail for it as social revolutionaries.
The Queen passed a law that required everyone to take an oath supporting the crown. And it was part of their faith that Quakers would be loyal citizens, but the Quakers read in their Bibles where Jesus told his disciples not to take oaths, so they refused, and they were charged with treason and arrested or fined.
In an effort to unify the country and the power of the crown, the Queen enacted a law that required everyone to attend the Church of England at least once a month. How’s that for a church attendance booster? This was before people figured out that you can disagree on religious principles and still treat each other with civility. The Quakers believed that the Church of England had compromised on too many things, so they worshipped with their fellow Quakers and refused to attend the Church of England. And they went to jail for it.
There was a law they made it illegal for more than 5 Quakers to congregate together in one room, but they just kept right on standing together and worshipping according to their understanding of God’s word.
And so this article described the persecutions they faced. The author of the article, John Humphreys, was an eye witness to what happened, was one of the those who suffered, recording the sordid episode for all posterity, and he was the brother of my ancestor, Samuel Humphreys. John Humphreys describes two of my ancestors, Samuel Humphreys and Rees John Williams and the persecutions they experienced for their faith.
The soldiers would break into Quaker worship services with swords and arrest the people. They broke into private homes in the middle of the night, pulling men and women out into the dark in their bare feet and bed clothes. They herded them 20 miles on foot to the jail, with the soldiers on horses, hitting the Quakers with their swords, driving them to trot, sometimes in bare feet and their night clothes. They were imprisoned in unheated cells in the winter. The jailor tried every trick he could think of to force them to pay him exorbitant fees in order to get decent food to eat. But they stood firm to what they understood of the Bible. And when fellow Quaker, William Penn provided a chance for them to be free in the new world, they took a huge step of faith and moved to the wilderness of Pennsylvania and became heroic pioneers of our nation.
Are such episodes rare in the history of the church? Not at all. Probably more Christians died for their faith in the last century than any time in history, and many Christians are suffering today. Does persecution mean that you’re doing something wrong? Not at all. Christians have often suffered for doing right. Does persecution mean that the church can’t get anything done? Not at all, When Christians stand firm under persecution and boldly proclaim the gospel we find the church often stays the purest and so grows the fastest.
Our scripture for this morning, getting to the very end of Ephesians, finds the Apostle Paul in prison for his faith, not complaining, but very much asking for the Ephesians to pray for him to be able to continue to boldly proclaim the gospel, even in prison. This passage comes on the tail end of the full armor of God. Paul doesn’t list prayer as one of the pieces of God’s armor, but he certainly could have. If he were here today, and asked me about it, I might say, “Paul you missed it. You could have continued the analogy with only a little stretching by saying that when Christians are faithful to pray for one another, covering each other in prayer, it’s like those Roman formations were the soldiers stood side by side, each with their shields up, each protecting the other.” I like to think he would answer, “Thanks, Steve, that’s a good idea.” But I don’t what he would think. Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 6:18-20, and stand for the reading of God’s word.
“Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.”
Keep your finger in the page because we’ll come back to it.
Is there religious persecution in our world? I’ve seen it first hand. When we lived in Afghanistan in the early 1970s, we worked with American and European travelers. And the missionaries who worked directly with Afghans, mostly as teachers and aid workers, told us that if we ever met any Afghan Christians we should avoid them because, if their faith became known publicly they would likely be expelled from their families, fired from their jobs, and could even be killed. The one Afghan Christian that I saw with my own eyes, but didn’t officially meet, somebody just pointed him out to me, was killed for his faith years later. So in those days the Afghan Church of Jesus Christ was an underground church, in hiding.
There was one Protestant Church in Kabul, for the international community, which we attended. But one day the mullah of a nearby mosque complained that the cross on the church was higher than the dome on his mosque, and the mayor of Kabul order the church must be demolished. And because the authorities had heard rumors of an underground church, they even dug up the foundations, looking for the underground church that wasn’t there. If you’re going to persecute someone, you should at least learn something about them first.
When we lived in Nepal, again working with American and European travelers, it was against the law in Nepal for Nepalis to change their religion. The government didn’t mind us because they figured all Americans are Christians already. The law prescribed 1 year in jail for any Nepali who accepted Christian baptism and 3 years in jail for the one who administered the baptism. The Nepali church met openly in Kathmandu, but many of their leaders had spent time in jail.
Did persecution ruin the church? No. I asked a friend, who had come up from India as an evangelist how it went for him working as an evangelist where it was against the law. He said he liked it, because when people know he could go to jail for telling them about Jesus, they really listened. They knew that he meant every word he said.
In the mid 1970s the missionaries would talk excitedly that the Nepali church may have grown to even 5,000 Christians. Twenty years later, when, in 1990, the government eased up on the persecution in 1990, the church had grown from 5,000 to 200,000. Then it doubled in the next ten years to 400,000 Christians in the year 2000, and who knows what it is now in 2006. And the new government that is being formed right now after the king stepped down will be a secular government, meaning the end of all official persecution, although I’m sure Christians still are ostracized by some of their neighbors. Did persecution keep the Nepali Christians from doing their job? No, persecution purified the church and as the church was purified, people saw the light of Christ in their Christian neighbors and wanted to have the same thing for themselves.
So, in our text, Paul is being persecuted. He’s in jail for his faith. And look what he wrote to the church back in Ephesus. Did he ask for money so he could hire a lawyer to get him out? No, although there is a time for that. Did he ask them to take up a collection so he could have plenty of food and blankets in his cell, and maybe a TV and a coffee pot? No, but in his second letter to Timothy, Paul is in jail again and he did ask Timothy to send his warm coat before winter and his favorite parchments for reading material.
How did he ask them to pray for him in prison? Look in verse 19. He asked for them to pray for God to give him a message to make known the mystery of the gospel to…. To whom? It must be to his jailors. And he asked for God to give him boldness, even in jail. You might think he would have cooled it in jail for his faith, but not Paul. He was wearing the full armor of God and could hold his ground with anyone.
And was he embarrassed to be in jail? No, he was just ‘an ambassador in chains.’ He saw it as an honor to suffer for Christ.
What does all this have to do with us? We’re not likely to face anything like this in America. We have such freedom here for our faith.
1. Be very thankful for the freedom we have in this country. It’s easy to forget how rare such freedom is.
2. If you are suffering for your faith, don’t just assume you are doing something wrong and God is mad at you. You may be suffering because you are doing something right. Christians should expect some suffering. In fact, Paul wrote to Timothy, “Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12)
3. When persecution comes, even if it’s just some mockery or insults, see it as a time to witness for our faith, not to run away. God’s love shines brightest when it is displayed right beside bigotry and mean spiritedness. And if Paul had to ask for prayers to know what to say, then why shouldn’t we? Be thinking and praying and reading your Bible so that you will be ready.
4. The main message of our text, pray for those who are persecuted for their faith.
The need is still there. The Church in China survived incredible persecution in the years under Mao Tse Tung. Do you remember those days when China was so closed that we knew almost nothing of what was happening inside China, when no tourists or business people or missionaries were allowed in? Christians wondered if there would be any Christians left due to this isolation and the tremendous persecution. Well the church only grew in those years. Then things eased up a lot. But in the last two years, as the government has relaxed its controls over the economy, allowing their incredible economic boom, they have started tightening the screws on Christians again, especially Christians who won’t register their churches with the government and allow the government to control them. They need our prayers.
I appreciate that President Bush has publicly met with persecuted Chinese Christians and even attended a registered Christian church when he was in China. We must always be looking to help our brothers and sisters in Christ.
And for those of us who aren’t President of the United States, what can we do? Paul says, in verse 18, to ‘pray in the Spirit… for all the saints.’ I’m not sure that I understand all of what it means to ‘pray in the Spirit,’ but I know that I have often prayed for a situation where I didn’t know all the details and felt that the Holy Spirit guided me to pray specific prayers, to pray for a young man or an old woman, someone in a difficult situation, of whom I have no natural knowledge. I believe God guides such prayers and answers them. When you read reports of government restrictions in China, feel free to ask God to guide your prayers. He could guide you to pray for one man, one woman, in China who is especially facing persecution today, or for a government official who is facing a decision about persecuting them. And what should you pray? Well, let the Holy Spirit guide you for that, too. But why not start with Paul’s request and pray that in the persecution, God would guide that person to be able to communicate the gospel clearly and boldly. That’s when the church grows. Remember the centurion at the foot of Jesus’ cross, who heard Jesus pray forgiveness for his persecutors, and commit his life into the hands of his father God, and responded by proclaiming, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God.’ (Mark 15:39).
Today there are thousands of Palestinian Christians caught in the middle of the conflicts. The Israelis mistrust them because they are Arabs and the Moslems mistrust them because they are Christians. They need our prayers
Today the ancient Coptic Church in Egypt continues to suffer having their homes and places of business burned and restrictions placed on them that prevent them from building or even repairing their churches. They need our prayers
Today those who stand up for justice in Latin America are still sometimes killed for their faith. They need our prayers.
Today Christian pastors are being killed in some regions of the Philippines. They need our prayers.
Today in Saudi Arabia and some other Moslem countries, Christians must hide if they want to worship, and Moslems are forbidden to read the Bible. They need our prayers.
The church of Jesus Christ has been persecuted for much of its life. Do we have to be afraid of ever giving any offence to our world by being faithful to our Lord? No, don’t be afraid. Speak out what you believe. Serve and love as our Lord, Jesus did. And if anyone gives you trouble, love them in return and double your efforts to be a Christian before them. Be encouraged by the message of the suffering church.
And, as you listen to the news, pray for our brothers and sisters who suffer for the faith. AMEN
