The Church Suffers
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Reintroduce our series on Church History. Important to understand the history of the church in order to understand how we got to where we are and to see how Christians of other generations influenced their culture in difficult times. Today’s lesson is on the persecution faced in the first 300 years of the church and the ways that the early Christians stood out from the rest of the Roman world. As we watch, think of the things that the early Christians did faithfully and think of ways that we can stand out from our secular culture today as we stand on God’s Word faithfully.
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After Video Notes/Discussion Questions
One of the defining marks of the early church was that Christians stood out from the rest of the Roman world. What are some of the ways that early Christians stood out those around them?
They provided food and supplies for the poor, widows, and orphans
They met with people that they didn’t have much in common with
They gave out of their poverty to help others
They rejoiced in difficult circumstances
They grew rapidly in times of persecution
What are some of the ways that we must stand out from our worldly culture today?
Everyone in our world is mad - as Christians, we can choose joy
Everyone in our world is panicking over little things - as Christians, we can have peace
Everyone in our world argues over everything - as Christians, we don’t have to die on every little hill
We stand out because of the Word of God and because we stand on the facts of Scripture, not the feelings of our flesh
The early Christians were said to hate humanity because they didn’t go along with the Roman culture. Why would the early Christians not do the things that the Romans did?
They were sinful
They worshipped false gods/humans
They were concerned primarily about self
Early Christians were asked to curse Christ or die. Many (like Polycarp) held firm to the faith. Do you think things would look differently if the American church experienced this level of persecution today?
Often it’s hard for us to imagine people not being able to talk about Jesus publicly or not allowed into the market to buy or sell food. This has been going on for nearly 2,000 years. It isn’t anything new. God’s people have always been a persecuted people. Whenever Christianity grew the most, it was persecuted the greatest. Whenever a Roman emperor would come to power and the church was experiencing great persecution, many remained faithful to the point of death and their faithfulness to the Word paved the way for the Gospel to continue to change lives and for Christianity to grow. Many Roman emperors persecuted Christians throughout the entire empire, but the ones who led the most vicious attacks seemed to rule for the shortest amount of time. The Bible tells us that God is the ultimate ruler - not man. He allows people to rule for a period of time, but He is always the one in charge as Daniel 2 reminds us
21 He changes the times and seasons; he removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
This was true in Bible times, it was true in the days of the Roman empire, and it remains true today. God has a purpose and a plan, even for wicked, evil, ungodly kings and leaders… we may not fully understand what that purpose is in the time that it’s happening, but we can always look back and see the hand of God at work doing something good in times of great evil as places like Genesis 50:20 reminds us
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
The early church understood martyrdom well. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” - Tertulian
God was still in control then, and He is still in control now. As persecution picks up, we shouldn’t look at it as a negative thing, we should see it for what it is: an opportunity for us to stand boldly on the Word of God as Romans 1:16 instructs us to
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
Our God is still in control. He still has a perfect plan. He will continue to accomplish His perfect purposes. He uses suffering and persecution for a reason - and whenever we think about suffering in that sense, the people of this world can never truly hurt us because our God is always for us as Romans 8:31 says
31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Jesus promised us that the world will hate us and that we will suffer as Christians. Why is there a temptation to reject this teaching?
Because of natural self preservation
Because we don’t truly believe Philippians 1:21
21 For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Because we have difficulty wrapping our minds around eternity
If we really understood how big eternity is, persecution wouldn’t even make us flinch
Pray that God would give us boldness to proclaim the Gospel and stand on His Word unashamedly, even if it means that we experience some persecution for our faith. Pray for strength to remain faithful and wisdom to know which hills are worth dying on and which are not.