The Blood of the Martyrs

2 Corinthians 4:6-18

We are focusing our attention, this morning, on our Christian brothers and sisters, around the world, who are suffering - right NOW … for no other reason than because they love Jesus Christ, they testify that He has saved them, made them new creations by His Spirit … and the people around them say, ‘No Way’. Because they are Christians - they are being ‘smashd in the mouth’.

You need to understand that God has NOT turned His back on suffering, dying saints. You need to understand that because there is an entire stream of thought ‘inside’ the evangelical church - that says, “If you follow Jesus well enough … if you have enough faith - then God’s plan for you is to keep you healthy … wealthy … and free from suffering. So, when suffering does come - and inevitably it does - devastation comes along with it. “What’s wrong?”

That brings us to our text this morning.

READ:

2 Corinthians 4:6–18 ESV

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

A group of outsiders have infiltrated the church in Corinth. This is a curch that Paul started. He spent .... months there, pouring his life into the new believers - making tents to support himself ....

The outsiders have come in, claiming to be ‘Apostles’ themselves … carrying themselves as though they are great leaders and teachers for Christ. Paul sarcastically calls them, ‘Super Apostles’ - that’s the image they are trying to portray. Now, it’s one thing to carry yourself with arrogance, but it’s quite another to boost yourself up by putting others down .... and that’s exactly what these ‘Super Apostles’ are doing. They are slandering Paul: “What does he have to offer?! He’s nothing to look at; his preaching is nothing special. The guy isn’t like us. Don’t pay attention to him. What can you gain from listening to someone who isn’t a dynamic speaker, who doesn’t have ‘the look’, stirs up trouble wherever he goes

.... and is SUFFERING ALL THE TIME?!

How are you going to reach your full potential, if you hitch your wagons to that thoroughly unimpressive horse?”

The infiltrators are having an influence. There are some in the church who have begun separating themselves from Paul … they’ve started to walk down the pathway of false teaching on which the ‘super apostles’ are leading. That’s why one of the MAIN purpoess of this 2 letter to the Corinthians is for Paul to defend his apostleship. It’s a defence he weaves throughout the letter. But he doesn’t do it in the way you would think

.... if your Christian ideas are shaped by the culture that the Corinthians lived in, during the 1st Century … or if your ideas of the Christian life are shaped by our culture today.

“Ordinary?! You better believe it. ‘Clay pots’, actually”, Paul says in v. 7.

“We have this treasure in jars of clay ...”. Jars of clay are the most ordinary of containers lying around everyone’s house. These are not fancy, decorative vases to put flowers or expensive perfume in … A clay pot is the first century equivalent of the resealable plastic containers you take your lunch to school and work in, today. You get a few uses out of them, but when one breaks - as it inevitably will … it’s no big deal, they’re cheap and you just grab another one to take its place.

“We hold the treasure of the Gospel in the ordinary vessels of our bodies.”

1. THE REALITY OF CHRISTIAN SUFFERING vv. 6-9

“We are ordinary”. That’swhat Paul means when he speaks of jars of clay. But he means MORE than JUST that. We know what it is to get ‘SMASHED IN THE MOUTH’ - to use the language of football (I love the raw, vivid imagery that marks the way coaches often talk. I don’t love ALL of their language, but some of it is very colourful in a good - descriptive way). Let me put my sports’ fan hat on for a minute: Football is a metaphor for life: struggling against an opponent who is dedicated to knocking you down, stepping on you - and then walking over you.

So whether we are talking about suffering saints in distant nations around the world, OR whether we’re talking about your Christian life - here in our country, ‘sheltered from some of the storms of political persecution’ - you know what it is to be ‘Smashed in the Mouth’ as you strive to live faithfully for Jesus.

2 Corinthians 4:8, “We are afflicted in every way ...”

The Greek word, translated ‘afflicted’ in our English Bibles - ‘thlibw’ - means to crush something - ‘compress with violence’ as if in a vice, with someone cranking the two halves together … tighter and tighter.. ‘We are being squeezed ...’.

Next description in v. 8, “… we are PERPLEXED …”. The word carries the idea of being ‘filled with uncertainty” - as in, humanly speaking, it is uncertain just how it is even possible to ever get out of the vice that is squeezing you ...”. PERPLEXED.

Verse 9 says that we are, ‘… persecuted ...’. - that is, ‘pursued’ - HUNTED - like prey in the forest. You can feel the enemy’s breath on the back of your neck and you know that he intends to do you harm.

Verse 9 goes on, ‘STRUCK DOWN ...’. That is, ‘Thrown Down’. Here’s where the football analogy breaks down, a little bit. In football, if you get knocked to the ground, the play is over - you’re done.

This is the language of the boxing ring. You get knocked down … and that’s hard. It hurts. But that doesn’t mean the fight is over. If you can manage to pull yourself up off the mat, like Rocky - If you can get to your feet again and get your head clear - the fight can go on. You can still win.

“We have been knocked down ...”, Paul says. That’s an understatement in his life.

In chapter 11 of this very letter, Paul gives a description of his suffereings for Jesus, in vv. 24-27.

READ 2 Corinthians 11:24–29 “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?” ,

Probably the single, most amazing experience of Paul being, in a literal sense, pursued and struck down by the enemies of Christianity, was the time, described in Acts 14, when hostile Jews from Antioch and Iconium pursue him to the city of Lystra, in Asia Minor - modern day Turkey.

Acts 14:19, “But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.”

So the crowd throws rocks at the man who is preaching Jesus, because of his preaching, they keep throwing the stones, hitting him over and over, until he lies in a heap … surely lying in a pool of his own blood. They are convinced he’s dead. Then, like the ‘religiously observant’ Jews they are — they can’t leave a corpse inside the city … that will make EVERYONE unclean. So, the people drag the body out of town and leave it there.

I love how the story ends: Acts 14:20, “But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.”

There is not a person here who has experienced the depth of suffering for Jesus that Paul does. But you KNOW SUFFERING. And you are a Christian. And for some of you - that is a problem. We don’t like to suffer. Nobody likes to suffer. But here, in North America, we seem to have a particular problem with it.

“I’m being picked on” - and we look for somebody to blame. The joy is gone.

If you’ve ever been to a so-called, ‘Third-world’ country, one of the great things that stands out, besides how much we have here, in material wealth … what also stands out powerfully is just how happy the people often are, there. They have NOTHING. They live on a fraction of what we have here. But they’re always smiling! Why is that?!

Well, I’m sure there many factors and I wouldn’t presume to over-simplify. But I would suggest that ONE of the reasons is because they understand the ‘real world’ better than many in our insulated society do: “SUFFERING is inevitable in this world.” They ‘get it’. We don’t ‘get it’ here - we’re so used to being able to use the latest technology to give us a sense of being in ‘control’. Do I have a headache? There’s got to be a pill to take to chase the pain away. We are so used to living relatively pain-free lives, when suffering comes -the conclusion follows, “There MUST BE something WRONG.”

.... And it ISN’T much different in the Church.

“If I go to the Bible and read it and take notes … and go to church … and do all the right, Christiany things … then life should go smoothly.

That’s not Christian. That’s not Biblical: It’s paganism - it’s a view of God that looks a him as though He were a Divine Genie. “If we do the right things, if we rub the bottle … then He HAS to come out and GRANT MY WISH!”

Paul is saying, the Bible is saying - “Not only is suffering part of the human experience … it’s ALSO part of the Christian experience.”

Verse 10, “ … always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that th life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

2 Corinthians 4:11“For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake ...”

“Every day that I live for Christ … I die a little be. So, SUCK IT UP PRINCESS!” There IS suffering in this world. Sometimes things just don’t work out the way you expected … circumstances may knock you down. Don’t stay there. Get up off the mat and move on.

Did you know that in the 20th Century, there were more martyrs for Jesus Christ than in ANY other century … in fact there were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined.

ILLUSTRATIONS ...

Are these Christians suffering because they’ve sinned? Has God forgotten them?! NO! What Paul is saying in our text

The wife of a pastor who serves in one of Colombia's "red zones" was shot to death recently by FARC guerrillas.

One night at around 9:30 p.m., after the family of Pastor James and his wife had gone to bed, two men on a motorcycle stopped by the home. The men lured the pastor outside by asking him to help them fix their motorcycle. When the pastor went to take a look at the vehicle, he heard men behind him ask his wife her name. When she replied, they shot her twice at point-blank range.

Pastor James and his family were the only Christians in their village, and his wife was very active in sharing Christ with everyone she met. The pastor and his four daughters are now being cared for by a VOM contact in another city as they mourn the unexpected loss of their greatly missed wife and mother.

In Nigeria - on July 27th - in the city of Kano, as believers were leaving their Sunday worship service - a bomb was thrown over a church's fence. At least four Christians and a soldier were killed. Many other Christians were hospitalized with injuries. Several other sites in the area have also been bombed in recent weeks, and the Islamic militant group "Boko Haram" (which translates to "Western education is a sin") is suspected to be behind the assaults. The terrorist group seeks to impose Sharia law throughout the country, often targeting Christians.

on August 3rd - In another incident, Fulani gunmen stormed a church service in southern Kaduna State and began firing at those present. A young man who was guarding the church was killed, while several others were seriously injured.

Are these Christians suffering because they have sinned? Or because God has forgotten them? NO! What Paul is saying in our text this morning prepares us for the suffering of the stream of persecution that has flowed throughout the history of the Church of Jesus Christ

2. THE POINT OF CHRISTIAN SUFFERING, vv. 10-18

Okay, so we get that there WILL be suffering for Christians in this word … but is there any comfort to be found - today … in the middle of the heartache? Is God’s only word to us to ‘Suck it up because life’s not fair?’

Hear this, suffering Christian - your pain is not in vain. There is a point.

First of all, let me say that not only were there more martyrs who laid down their lives for Jesus Christ than there were in the 20th Century … but does it help you to know that ALSO, there have never been more Christian believers alive on earth than there are now, in the wake of that century. There are MORE Christian believers alive, in all places of he world - TODAY - than in all of the previous centuries combined.

That’s a reminder … God has a purpose. THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS is the SEED of the Church.

Look at v. 10 again, “… always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, SO THAT THE LIFE OF JESUS MAY ALSO BE MANIFESTED IN OUR BODIES.” Those two words are massively important! ‘SO THAT ...’. It means - “This is the purpose: Christian, yuo are suffering SO THAT … something will happen.”

And what is the ‘SO THAT’ … to make Christian suffering worthwhile?

Paul gives us two:

FIRST: SO THAT GOD WILL BE GLORIFIED THROUGH THE THANKSGIVING OF OTHERS

I get that from vv. 10-15. Take a look at v. 15 first, then we’ll go back and work up to it.

Verse 15, “For it is all FOR YOUR SAKE, SO THAT as grace extends to more and more people it may INCREASE THANKSGIVING, to the glory of God.”

Paul is specifically referring to what he’s found in his own experience - but he’s sharing it because it is relevant to every Christian ; ‘Your suffering for Christ leads people to give glory to God - because THAT’S how we put Jesus on display.

Take a look back at vv. 10-12. Do you notice how tightly Paul ties together HIS death with the LIFE of JESUS being shown to others and delighted in BY them?

Verse 10: “… always carrying around in the body the DEATH of Jesus, so that the LIFE of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”

Verse 11: “For we who live are always being given over TO DEATH for Jesus’ sake, so that the LIFE of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

Verse 12: “So DEATH is at work in us, but LIFE in YOU.”

WE SUFFER, as Christians - SO THAT the life of Jesus - the priceless treasure of what was accomplished when the Eternal Son of God took on our humanity and died for our sin, then rose as the great Conqueror over death - the first fruits of all His people … We suffer so that the Life of Jesus will be seen in all of its glory.

In this sin-stained world of rebel humans .... there is no life without death. There is no resurrection unless there is, FIRST, a cross. There would be no eternal life for us, UNLESS Jesus had chosen to suffer and die for our sins.

And Paul had discovered, in his own experience, that there is no spread of the Gospel - without Christians sharing in Jesus’ sufferings.

Jesus himself said, “No servant is ABOVE his Master” … “If they hate me, they will hate you.” … Then He went to the cross.

In other words: “I give my life to purcase yours - that job is done and you cannot add to it … but it is the example for you to follow:

John 12:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

The history of the Church bears that out.

It was Tertullian who first said, in the 2nd century: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” And he was right.

From the very beginning of the church, Christians have suffered and died for their Saviour. But it was Tertullian, from Carthage in North Africa, in the 2nd half of the Second Century, who coined the phrase. He is also the one who first used the term, ‘Trinity’ to describe the Tri-Une God Whom Christians had believed in since day 1, but hadn’t put a name to, yet.

In Tertullian’s day, Christians had become the ‘Whipping Boys’ in the Roman Empire. Anything and everything that went wrong was blamed on them. Tertullian wrote to defend the Christians - and to plead with society’s power-brokers to understand that Christians were always the BEST citizens a ruler could ask for.

You see Christians refused to worship the pantheon of Roman gods - so they were accused of being ‘atheists’. The problem was not that they worshiped Jesus Christ; the problem was that they worshiped and proclaimed Jesus as the ONE AND ONLY God: Jesus is ‘Kurios’ - Lord of the universe and they would not bow the knee to the Emperor or anyone else.

And THAT was intolerable to the pluralist Empire-builders of Roman society. Does that sound familiar?

So Tertullian writes,

“If the Tiber reaches the walls. If the Nile does not rise to the fields. If the sky does not move, or the earth does. If there is famine, if there is plague - the cry is at once, ‘The CHRISTIANS TO THE LION.’”

He actualy shows a sense of humour that only someone who has complete confidence in the power and Goodness of God can keep, when the vise is crushing. He adds, “What? ALL the Christians to ONE Lion?!”

The man knows pressure - and yet he responds: “Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust. The more often we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow. For the blood of Christians is SEED.”

When he says that - he’s weaving the Word of God into His teaching. He’s echoing Paul in our text. He’s echoing Jesus’ words in John 12 - and the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 126, “Those who go forth weeping, bearing their precious seed, will doubtless come gain rejoicing.”

When a Christian suffers for his or her testimony to Jesus - particularly when it takes them to death - there is a sowing - a planting of the reality of the Gospel.

Tertullian knew that and so he was able to write in his day:

“We (Christians) are but of yesterday. Yet we have filled every place among you - cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum - we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods.”

He adds that if Christians were to leave the empire ...

“Why, you would be horror-struck at the solitude in which you would fiin yourselves, at such an all-prevailing silence, and that stupor as of a dead world. You would have to seek subjects to govern. You would have more enemies than citizens remaining. For now it is the immense number of Christians which makes you enemies so few - almost all the inhabitants of your various cities being followers of Christ.”

From 11 maimed disciples, through years of persecution and numerous martyrs - by the end of the second century - - there were TWO MILLION Christians PACKING the Roman Empire - living testimony that the Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church.

And it grows. And it grows.

We’ve talked about William Tyndale before. He was a young Englishman in the 16th century - a commoner, but brilliant. And he was determined to use his God-given gifts to translate God’s written Word into the English language. The Bible existed ONLY in the Latin language and Tyndale was convinced that the way to God is through His word, so the Scriptures should be available to everyone - so that even the common people could read it for themselves.

The Pope didn’t like the idea. Educated ministers told Tyndale to just ‘leave it alone’. “We had better be without God’s laws thna the Pope’s.”

Tyndale, swelling with emotion, responded: “I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the Scripture than you!”

In 1526, Tyndale translated and published the first-ever, mechanically-printed New Tesament in the English language.

The king of England, in those days, was the notorious Henry VIII. He wasn’t looking to get out of a marriage yet, so he was still loyal to the Pope. He didn’t like the idea of the translation, either. So, as a thank-you gift for Tyndale’s hard work and determination, the authorities spent a small fortune trying to buy up all the copies of the translations he hd published. Then they burned them all.

Tyndale printed more. They did the same thing all over again.

Then Tyndale had to run. The powers in charge of the Church and the Government hunted the Reformer throughout Europe -Tyndale was a hunted prey. They finally caught him in Belgium, through trickery. They brought him back to England and put him on trial.

There was a long list of charges drawn up against him -

“He had maintained that faith ALONE justifies.”

“He maintained that to believe in the forgiveness of sins alone - and embrace the mercy offered in the gospel - was enough for salvation.”

“He denied the freedom of the will.”

“He denied that there is any such thing as ‘purgatory’”.

“He affirmed that neither the Virgin Mary or any of the Saints pray for us ...”.

In other words, he was a Bible-believing Christian who trusted in the Good news of salvation by Grace alone, by faith alone, through the finished work of Jesus Christ … alone.

In early August, 1536, Tyndale was condemned as a heretic. A few days later - a crowd gathered in the town square. The ‘doctors’ of the church and dignitaries assembled in their pomp and took their seats on the high platform.

Tyndale was led out, wearing his priest’s robes. He wa made to kneel and his hands were scraped with a knife or piece of glass - a symbol that the benefits of the oil they used to anoint hime when he was consecrated to the priesthood - it was gone.

The bread and wine of the mass were placed in his hands - and immediately taken away. Then his priest’s clothes were ceremoniously stripped off of his body and they put on him the plain clothes of a layman. Then with no trace of his life of ministry left - they handed him over for the secular punishment. The Church would condemn, but always left it to the secular government to get its hands stained with the murder.

On the day of execution, they tied him to a stake and then strangled him to death. But just to make sure … and send a message - to anyone who may be tempted to follow Tyndale’s footsteps … they packed straw around his already lifeless body and set it ablaze until his body was turned to ash.

William Tyndale knew persecution and suffering for Christ.. “The blood of the martyrs is seed.”

Sometimes,you don’t see the benefit of your suffering. Tyndale’s last words before he died were:

“LORD, open the King of England’s eyes!”

He didn’t live to see the prayer answered. But if you love having a Bible that you can read in language you can understand - the you are thankful to William Tyndale’s suffering and you KNOW - it was not in vain.

Do you realize that less than a year after that martyrdom, King Hentry VIII gave his official approval to an English Bible that, without him having any knowledge - the Bible he approved was composed - nearly SEVENTY PERCENT, of Tyndale’s work.

The king proclaimed: “If there be no heresies in it, let it be spread abroad among all the people!”

Did you know that Tyndale’s translations were so fundamentally correct and had such smooth flow of words that more than NINETY percent of his exact wording appears in the King James Bible that was published nearly 100 years after his. And more than SEVENTY-FIVE percent of his wording appears in the Revised Standard Version of 1952 - FOUR-HUNDRED years later. Words in the Bible that we take for granted … like: “LOVING KINDNESS” - that’s Tyndale’s word.

The blood of the martyrs is the SEED of the Church.

Hear this suffering Christian - and take heart when you think of our brothers and sisters suffering around the world, right now. You may spend your days trying to understand how God could EVER use your persecution for His glory - you may NEVER understand how He’s working out yoru good through it .... but there are eyes watching:

Children, family, friends. And God’s word says that, as you suffer for Christ - their thanksgiving WILL increase … and God will get more glory. That’s the first purpose of your suffering for Christ, according to this text: the thanksgiving of others.

3. The Perspective of Victorious Christian Suffering vv. 16-18

Let me quickly touch on one more point of persecution, as we close. The second point of Persecution, in vv. 16-18 of our text is this: OUR GLORY.

There are Christians who find themselves in a time of trial - they grit their teeth, clench the jaw … they are on the verge of losing all heart. And so they miss the blessing.

“I’ve been hurt!” “I’ve been wronged” “God has let me down or He’s punishing me!”

I hear it in my own heart - I feel like a child complaining about another day of school. “But I hate math! Why are you making me do my homework - do you hate me?!”

Parents say in reply: “I’m making you go to school because I actually DON’T hate you. I love you and I want more for your life than a career where the most important words you say in the day are, ‘Would you like fries with that?’ These few, short years of school are the preparation for a whole life you have ahead of you. So, get the right perspective, child!”

Verse 16: “So we do not lose heart.”

That’s quite a testimony from Paul.

“We don’t lose heart ...”. How can he not?

It’s all about having the right PERSPECTIVE. Look at v. 17, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comprehension.”

See the contrast here, suffering Christian: On the one side, you have suffering and the squeeze of persecution. Is it real? Yes. Does it hurt? Absolutely. Our outer nature is wasting away … oh but it’s momentary - like the sight of your breath on a cold winter morning.

On the other side: that VERY AFFLICTION is preparing for us … GLORY.

There are many religions that teach - “You can be happy IN SPITE of suffering”. That’s what Buddhism says.

That’s NOT what Paul is saying. The Word of God says, “The suffering ITSELF is doing something good for us. It is preparing you for ETERNAL GREATNESS AND INCOMPARABLE GLORY!”

Like the Rocky movies - have you seen any of them? They’re essentially the same story. The whole movie leads up to one last big fight. Rocky has trained himself silly. He has perfectly prepared. Now he’s dancing around the ring and … nothing.

He’s useless. He gets punched and punched, beaten and bloodied. And just when you think it’s hopeless - he’s on the verge of being Knocked Out … JUST THEN - he wakes up, the musical anthem builds … and he slays the dragon.

He can’t fight properly UNTIL he’s properly beaten up.

We are Rocky.

There is no resurrection without death and there is no glory without suffering. Not in this sin-stained world. I will be the first to confess that I don’t like to suffer, let alone would I want to be persecuted for Jesus. But I have to admit:

If there is anything meaningful in my ministry … I mean truly, lastingly significant …

It’s because of suffering in my life. And I really hate to say that, since I spent a lot of money going to school and studying. But I needed the suffering.

“This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an ETERNAL weight of glory BEYOND ALL COMPARISION.”

Paul says, “In the midst of my persecution: I look through the suffering and keep my eyes on the prize.”

verse 18, “As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Are you here this morning, aching for our suffering brothers and sisters around the world? Do you feel that you are suffering in your own, small way? Are you afflicted in every way?

“Yes” … Oh God promises that you will never be crushed

Are you perplexed? You need never be driven to despair.

Are you persecuted in some little way? God will never leave you - never FORSAKE you.

Do you feel struck down? You will not be destroyed.

It’s not in vain - none of it is.

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.