Sermon Tone Analysis

March 26, 2012

By: John Barnett

Read, print or listen to this resource on our website www.DiscoverTheBook.org

Do we as present day believers get to escape all of the dangerous times of death and destruction of the Tribulation?

In a precise, accurate, Biblical, and theological way the true answer is: YES.

Christ's church is not destined or appointed to go through that wrath (I Thessalonians 5:9).

However, if we go though just the normal struggles that many face today, and most have always faced—it may seem like the Tribulation to those of us in the English-speaking world.

In historic perspective, we Americans are living in a bubble, and I believe the bubble—is already starting to pop.

Are we to prepare for the demonic invasion of Satan’s rampage through the earth in the Tribulation?

No, but are you prepared this evening for what most believers alive on earth today, and throughout the past six thousand years, have faced?

Probably not!

For all of the history of the Earth, for MOST believers, life for God has been reduced to three words: frequent hostile persecution, constant inescapable affliction, and earnest supplication for the protection of loved ones.

Every day there are more voices around Christ's Throne in Heaven, more saints who kneel raising the fragrant worship of praise to God, and more redeemed lives who bless the Name of their Redeemer.

Because:

*Worshippers Increase Daily In Heaven *

One of the avenues of enlarging the worshippers of Heaven is through the martyrdom of saints.

More believers have died for their faith in the last hundred years than have died for Christ in the other 1,900 years since the Cross.

That is what Jesus said it would be like in Matthew 24:7-9.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.

Remember that many of Christ's saints are suffering and dying around the world today.

Persecutions are as old as God’s people.

Saints were persecuted in the Old Testament as were believers in the New Testament.

Even a casual reading of the book of Acts will find no less than 47 different events that involved harm, mistreatment, and persecution of those early believers.

In modern times with the unstoppable flow of news and reports from every corner of the globe via the internet, there is a growing awareness of the worldwide suffering that goes on among literally millions of believers who are persecuted just because they are Christ's.

Persecution takes many forms.

*The Persecution of Economic Discrimination*

Last month I was contacted online by a group of Pakistani believers who wanted to translate chapters from my Living Hope book into their language.

Although we weren’t able to fund another project at this time, I asked them to share more about who they were.

They explained what life is like for followers of Jesus Christ in Pakistan—one of the lands of great persecution against His church.

Persecution for Pakistani believers takes many forms; one of the foremost is constant financial oppression.

Most believers aren’t allowed to own property in Pakistan.

Consequently, they must rent from Moslem landlords.

These hostile landlords charge believers as much money for rent as they think they can possibly be earning—so the believers are always short on money just to live.

This makes hunger, endless labor, and financial insecurities just some of the daily persecutions and afflictions our brothers and sisters face in Pakistan.

Persecution is just one form of what the Bible describes as affliction.

Affliction in our lives was designed by God to be much like the fires of Daniel 3 that the three Hebrew boys were made to enter.

That fiery furnace only burned away what hindered them from walking with the Lord—the bindings that bound them!

So in our lives affliction and persecution are designed by God to only burn away anything that hinders our walk with Him!

What is a Biblical perspective to hold on as we see more and more hostility to Biblical Christianity?

First, the persecutions we see all around the world are just a preview of the horrors to come.

Jesus called them…

*The Beginning of Tribulation *

Jesus described the end of the world in Matthew 24 as a snapshot of Earth at His Second Coming.

Do you remember those first characteristics of “the end of days” that Jesus described?

1. Jesus described: Global False Teaching (vv.

4–5).

2. Jesus described: Global Warfare (v. 6).

3. Jesus described: Global Famines, Epidemics and earthquakes (v.

7-8).

4. Jesus described: *Global Persecutions* (v.

9).

Christians have always been hated by the world, but here we have an acceleration of persecutions and murders.

*All nations will be involved.*

This certainly was not true in the history of the early church.

5. Jesus described: Global Chaos (vv.10–13).

6. Jesus described: Global Evangelism (v.

14).

So, Jesus has warned us all in advance that…

*Global Persecution Is Coming*

As we draw close to what appears to be the end of days, we would begin to see the level of persecution is rising.

Now consider what most Church historians have observed, they nearly unanimously observe that, “More Christians have been killed for their faith in the past century than in all the centuries of Christianity combined”.

Wow, that is what Jesus would call the beginning of birth pangs for what He saw at the end of days as global persecution.

A recent article in The New York Times states that there are: “…eleven countries where Christians are currently enduring great religious persecution are China, Sudan, Pakistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria, Cuba, Laos, and Uzbekistan…anti-Christian persecution based on two political ideologies — Communism and militant Islam.”

Not mentioned were Indonesia and Iran where recently a married couple were severely beaten and whipped in their own home by the Religious Police of Iran for their faith in Christ.

Indeed, "Christian persecution" sounds like something from the distant past – conjuring up images of the early followers of Jesus being thrown to the lions, and various apostles being crucified or otherwise martyred for their faith.

For most of us in America the “out of sight” plight of our brothers and sisters so far away, keeps them also “out of our mind” so often.

Today across the world, believers are suffering persecution.

We need to sorrow with them in their sorrow, and to sacrifice for them who are suffering for Christ's sake.

We need regular reminders because…

*We are Often so Isolated from World Problems*

Even though most of the time we in America are unaware of it, there is a growing hostility for Christians around the world.

Here is an overview of the situation region-by-region:

• *Middle East*: A decade ago, Islamic fundamentalists had an uneasy religious "truce" with Western expatriates who came to work for them, particularly in the oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia.

They tried to keep the Westerners, mostly Christians of one degree of commitment or another, restricted from the rest of the populace.

The Islamic world is a hostile place for Christians: In Saudi Arabia, for instance, Christianity is illegal, and conversion from Islam is punishable by death.

In Pakistan, the death penalty is prescribed for anyone who "blasphemes" Islam – something that occurs automatically during Christian evangelism.

In Egypt and elsewhere, Christian girls have acid thrown in their face by Islamic extremists if they refuse to convert to Islam, or are raped, or worse.

At best, in the more enlightened Islamic societies, Christians (as well as Jews) are second-class citizens, have a special tax imposed upon them, and do not share the rights of Muslims.

• *North Africa:* The worst horrors seem to be in the Sudan., where a civil war has been on-and-off for over 50 years between the Arab, Muslim north and the black (Christian and animist) south.

The north has been working toward the Arabization and Islamization of the country by the imposition of Islamic law in the south in 1983, which flared to life the smoldering civil war.

Then the Islamic military overthrew a democratic government in 1989 leading to the deaths of over one-and-a-half million people in just the past ten years — most the result of government imposed “famines, warfare, and the displacement of millions of people from their homes.”

• *Eastern Asia:* In China, the continuing persecution of Chinese believers is well documented.

Churches have been bulldozed with believers inside.

Pastors have been arrested, humiliated and executed.

Christians have been threatened and imprisoned.

Christians have been beaten to death.

They are frequently tortured and imprisoned for many years.

Heavy fines and confiscation of property are also frequently employed.

Current reports tell us that in "house churches" (those not sanctioned by the totalitarian government) in 20 provinces, 129 people had been killed recently, 23,686 arrested and 4,014 sentenced to "re-education."

• *Latin America*: Missionaries have been attacked as "soft targets" by the various structures of sin-drug lords and terrorists in particular.

Other Christian workers have been kidnapped, and mission agencies have had to adopt a very difficult policy-refusing to pay ransom.

Agency executives agree that giving in to these demands would only cause a rash of kidnappings.

Missionaries going into insecure situations know they must rely on God's help and grace.

• *Africa:* Because of their stand for Christian principles of freedom and democracy, and because of their untiring work in the name of Christ on behalf of the poor, oppressed and persecuted, many Christians have been martyred in political and ethnic conflicts.

There are many incidents in Rwanda, Burundi and South Africa where missionaries, pastors, priests, churches, monasteries, and seminaries have been specifically targeted.

In Rwanda's genocide alone, half a million Christians were martyred.

But they are not out of God’s mind.

The persecution and martyrdom of believers are a great part of the focus of our God in Heaven.

Each day there are more voices in Heaven praising God, and many of them are coming by way of severe persecution.

Think about the…

*Saints in Heaven who Praise God for their Salvation*