LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE
Mark 12: 28 - 31
In the gospel according to Mark, chapter 12, verse 30 Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."
If you think about it that is a lot of loving. All of your heart. There can be no other before him. Not mother, not father, not wife or husband, not children. No one. All of your mind. All of your waking hours you will keep him in your thoughts. All of your soul. You commit your soul to him in love. All of your strength. You must devote all of your energy in sickness and health to loving Him. But what of Love? Jesus tells us with what to love, but what does Love mean.
Well, of course, it’s for instance like loving your wife, or your mother, or your children, or brothers and sisters. But what does that mean. Turning to John 3, verse 16, we read, ’For God so loved the world that he gave ...... So to love means to give. Matthew makes it clear that we are to give to God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind. There’s more. Turning to John 15 verse 13 we find Jesus saying, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." I believe that "those you love" can be substituted for "friends" without loosing the intent of what Jesus is saying. If we truly love god, we are willing to, no, required to, lay down our lives for him.
Most Christians here in the USA, at the end of the twentieth century have not had to have our faith put to severe testing. Oh, we look around us and see all of the conflict and pain around us, and sometimes our faith becomes a little shaky. We wonder about God, and we ask, "If there is really a God, and if he is really such a loving God, why does he allow these things to happen?" We then rationalize an answer, and don’t give it much more thought. But compared to Christians who have gone before us, our testing is slight. We almost never have to put our lives on the line for our God.
I am going to tell you about some people who suffered that extreme test. They did put their lives on the line, and persevered. The people I am going to tell you about lived Jesus statement "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his live for the ones he loves." They did "lay down their lives for the one they love." They are included in the great cloud of witnesses spoken of in Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 1 and 2 where it says
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Polycarp was bishop of the church of Smyrna, now Izmir, Turkey, where he served for many years. Little is known of his early life and origins, but he is reputed to have associated with some of the twelve apostles, including John of Patmos. It may be that he is "The angel of the church at Smyrna" mentioned by John in Revelation 2, verses 8 through 10. In the second century, during the reign of emperor Marcus Aurelius, Polycarp was martyred because of his Christian faith. Documents from the period tell us about his testimony when challenged to deny his faith: (See Foxes Book of Martyrs)
Now as he was entering the stadium, there came to Polycarp a voice from heaven, "Be strong, and show thyself a man 0 Polycarp." No one saw who it was that spoke to him; but those of our brethren who were present heard the voice. And as he was brought forward, the tumult became great when they heard that Polycarp was taken. And when he came near, the proconsul asked him whether he was Polycarp. On his confessing that he was, the proconsul sought to persuade him to deny Christ, saying, "Have respect to thy old age," and other similar things according to their custom, "Swear by the fortune of Caesar- repent and say, Away with the Atheists." Then the proconsul urging him, and saying Swear and I will set thee at liberty, Reproach the Christ." And Polycarp declared, "Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me any injury:, how then can I blaspheme my king and my savior?
The proconsul continued for a time trying to persuade Polycarp to renounce Jesus, but he would not. He continued to confess that he was a Christian. The story continues:
The proconsul then had Polycarp’s confession proclaimed in formal terms by his herald. This was the signal for the crowd, which included pagans and Jews, to show its feelings. ’They cried out with uncontrollable wrath and a loud shout "This is the teacher of Asia, the destroyer of our gods, who teaches many neither to offer sacrifice nor to worship’"
... when it was impossible to set a lion on Polycarp as the Asiarch ’had closed the sports,’ the Jews ’were extremely zealous, as is their custom, in preparing wood and faggot’ to use for burning Polycarp"
Because he would not deny Jesus, the Christ, Polycarp was executed by being burnt at the stake. At his execution he went of his own accord and stood in the middle of the pyre while the flames burned around him. For some reason the flames would not touch his body, so a soldier stabbed him to death."’
Now consider also the story about Felicitas, a widow who lived in Carthage with her seven sons. The story that comes down to us was written in part by an anonymous narrator who was most certainly an eye witness of the events.
Felicitas was one of the consecrated widows, that is, women who devoted all their time to work for the church, which in turn supported them. Her work was such that some pagan priests decided to put an end to it by accusing her before the authorities (of being a Christian, a capital crime). When the prefect tried to persuade her, first with promises and then with threats, to abandon her faith, she answered that he was wasting his time, for "While I live, I shall defeat you; and if you I do kill me, in my death I shall defeat you all the more."
She and her seven sons, who also refused to renounce the Christ, died in the arena. After being savaged by wild animals, Felicitas was still alive. At the end she was, taken to the middle of the arena and killed with a sword.
Jesus warned his disciples that they would be persecuted because of him. He also promised that if they endured to the end they would have everlasting life. Polycarp and Felicitas believed that Jesus was the son of God, that he was the Christ, and they knew that remaining faithful in their love for him, even to the death, would be rewarded with eternal life. They were willing to lay down their lives for the one they loved.
Polycarp and Felicitas were two among thousands who laid down their life for the God they loved during the great persecutions of the first and second century. Their names come to us through documents that have survived the centuries, the names of others will probably remain unknown to mortal man. Available evidence indicates that all of the twelve apostles and their early disciples such as Steven and Mark were martyred. Paul was sure that he eventually would pay with his life for his faith and preaching.
In Acts 21 verse 13 we read about Paul saying, " Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Paul did not die in Jerusalem, but he was arrested there and sent to Rome for trial. His letters from prison indicate that he probably died there.
How much do we love the Lord our God? Are we like the martyrs ready to die for our love for God? How will we appear before that great cloud of witnesses? I fear that we twenty-first century Americans have come to be too complacent about our faith. We live in a fairly safe country where we don’t have to face the daily atrocities faced by people in places like East Timor, or Kosovo, or Serbia, or Iraq, or Iran. We can feel secure as we lie down to sleep at night that we will wake to a new day, and continue our lives as usual. Oh, of course there is crime such as drug trafficking, and an occasional murder. But those are things that involve other people. There is not much chance that we will be affected. And we certainly are not going to be persecuted to death because of our religious beliefs.
Many of us go to church because it makes us feel good. We can go, sing some pretty and emotionally uplifting songs, maybe do a little bible study, and listen to a good sermon. If the sermon is preached by somebody that can get our emotions into high gear, that is even better. But then when the service ends, we go out the door and return to business as usual. Forgotten is the truth that we are each of us called upon to fulfill the great commission. We go to our homes, our offices, our shops, and to the places where we do our shopping, and we never say a word to anybody about our salvation through the Lord Jesus, who is the Christ.
Because of this the day may be rapidly approaching when we will again be faced with the kinds of persecutions suffered by those early Christians. Persecutions which are in fact suffered today by Christians in other parts of the world. Look around at the geometric growth of pagan religions in the United States. Consider the runaway growth of crimes such as child abuse, pornography, and school-yard massacres. Think about how easy it has become for people to cheat on their taxes, how doctors routinely pad insurance bills, how telling lies is a normal part of daily life. Many of those people we see in church will go home and tell their children that telling lies is a sin, but when the phone rings they will tell the child, "If that’s for me tell them I’m not home."
Christianity has in too many places become a "feel good’ religion. We talk about how we have been saved, but many don’t know what that really means. Those who do think that once they have been baptized they have nothing more to be concerned about. They can continue their lives as before. But the truth is, we must love the Lord Our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and all of our mind, and loving God means laying down our life for him. We may do this figuratively, or we may be required to do it literally.
Polycarp, Felicitas, and Paul were examples of how Christians must be dedicated to and love God and our Christian Faith. We can not be lukewarm in our love for God. We must be on fire, we must wake in the mornings with a prayer of thanksgiving, witness our faith all the day long, and go to bed at night with a prayer on our lips. We must be a light unto the world. And we must by our love for God show that we are Christians.
