Expect Persecution Devotional

1) Bring some thoughts on the dreaded word (for many Christians), persecution.

And I just want to bring a little reminder this morning that we, individually, and we corporately as a ministry, should expect and not be surprised when we face persecution.

I’ve been in the book of Acts recently, one of my favourite chapters is Acts 4.

Acts 4 – Standing before the sanhredrin, the high priest, those responsible for putting Jesus upon the cross.

Acts 2 – Fileld with Holy Spirit

Acts 3 – Healing and preaching

It’s in Acts 4 we see the beginning of persecution for the early church, and from Acts 4 onwards, things only got more difficult for those who followed Jesus.

- In Acts 4:21 we read that Peter and John were released from jail with a warning.

- In Acts 5:17, all the apostles were imprisoned, an angel freed them, and after being re-arrested for preaching in the temple, they were flogged and released.

- In Acts 7 we read of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, stoned to death.

- In Acts 8 we read that persecution spread to the whole Church.

- and over the next 300 years, the Church began to face some of the worst persecution in their history, starting with Caesar Nero in AD67 until Diocletian in AD 303

o Christians were beaten, scourged, beheaded…

o Many were given wax shirts and lit as living torches in the gardens of Rome until they died in flames.

o They were given skins of freshly killed animals which were sowed around live men and women of faith and then wild dogs were set on them to consume them alive.

- Christians still face persecution on earth today. In fact there is an increasing stream of it. As a ministry we are no strangers to that fact. From church bombings in Nigeria, to the likes of ISIS beheading Christians for not recounting their faith.

- The reality is though, In the West, although we face persecution we don’t experience that kind of persecution.

o I’m sure you’ll agree but it’s more a persecution of the ego. Often, we’re mocked, belittled, misunderstood, maligned, looked down upon, and as we all know far too well, cancelled.

o It’s still legitimate persecution but it pales to what is happening to our brothers and sisters in the middle east, north Africa and in the early church.

- THE REASON I SHARE ALL THIS IS BECAUSE I WANT TO CHALLENGE US:

- You see as Christian’s, and I say this to myself too, we need to stop trying to get the world to love us, and instead get comfortable with persecution.

- Jesus said in John 15:18-20 - 18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you.[1]

- 2 Timothy 3:12 – All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Not ‘may’ be persecuted but ‘will’ be persecuted. If you’re not experiencing any persecution, the question is, are you living Godly in Christ Jesus?

- If you are preaching the Gospel, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and standing for biblical truth (ie SP & BGEA) you will experience persecution because the Gospel and the Christian worldview goes against the status quo and society at large today. It is definitive, it is exclusive, and it takes the broad opinions of people, and presents a singular, narrow truth.

o The Gospel declares we are all sinners in need of a Saviour.

o The Gospel declares that there is a righteous way to live, and we must die to ourselves to walk in it.

o The Gospel declares that there is only one way to be saved and one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ alone.

-

- I will finish in a moment, but, saying that, there’s a balance to persecution. Because we all probably know a Christian or two that wear the persecution badge and the real reason they’re persecuted is that they are just bit of a jerk – the persecution probably comes because they are being harsh, insensitive and rude – they lack Godly character.

- This was not the reason the early Church was persecuted. the early Church was both attractive and growing yet faced persecution.

Let’s look again specifically at Acts 4:

3 The Sadducees laid hands on them and put themin custody until the next day, because it was already evening (PERSECUTION). 4 But many of those who listened to the message believed, and the number of the men was approximately five thousand (GROWTH).

- My challenging prayer for each of us today is that we would be Christians who are winsome and attractive, yet also receive persecution for righteousness’ sake.

-

Paul says in Romans 1:16 – I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation…

I pray that as a ministry, even here in the UK, we continue to collectively and individually be winsome in our witness, unfazed by persecution, unashamed of the Gospel,

END