Text: 2 Timothy 3:12
You’re looking for a house to buy or rent. Or maybe you watch one of those shows on the Home and Garden channel. The realtor takes you from room to room. The entry way, the family room, look really nice. It’s bright and open. You can see that the kitchen has been redone. I like those stainless steel appliances. Then the master bedroom. A nice big closet. And the bathroom. Looking good. Room after room she leads you. You’re feeling pretty good about this house. Then finally the realtor says, Oh, there’s something else you need to know about this house. What that? The neighborhood. What do you mean? It can be kind of unfriendly. Suddenly you’re not feeling so good.
Let’s take a walk through the house of our Christian faith.
First of all, realize. You and I don’t even deserve to be invited inside. We know that. We prove it every day. We’ve all fallen so very short. It’s only by the wondrous grace of God that any of us have what we have in Christ.
But we do. So let’s take a walk through this house of our Christian faith. Look inside here. There you see a perfect life lived for you. Then that very same life given for you on a cross. The life of God’s own Son that covered our sin with God’s forgiveness. How do we know? He rose from his grave and lives. So look in that room and sense, feel, and rejoice at God’s great love for you and me.
Now look in this room. It’s a room filled with God’s promises. And our Bible tells us about them. Every one of those promises is, Yes in Jesus Christ.
We only have time to view a few of them this morning. Every one of them is precious assurance for our lives. God promises you: Never will I leave you or forsake you. He promises: I will help you. He promises to hear and answer your prayers. He promises to make all things work for the good of you, his people. That’s a good room to spend time in when life doesn’t look so good. God’s promises in his Word.
But we need to keep moving this morning. Here’s another room. Somebody once said, you can get through most anything if you have hope. Well look inside this room of our Christian faith. It’s full of hope. And not a wish, not a maybe. No in Christ our Savior we have the hope of life like it was meant to be. No sorrow, no pain, no evil, no tears, but life, life with God. That’s another very special room in this house of Christian faith.
And it’s kind of nice. We don’t live in this house alone. We have brothers and sisters here and everywhere. Brothers and sisters who care about each other and pray for one another.
It all sounds really great like that other house. But our lessons this morning, tell us more. It’s like our Lord and the apostle Paul say to us.
There’s one more thing you need to know – Christian
I. Persecution will come to you who live your faith
II. Persecution comes to people we must not forget
So that brings us to this Word we need to know. As Paul wrote from a Roman dungeon to a young pastor Timothy, Everyone who wants to live to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Persecution means to harass or oppress someone. To make life harder, more difficult or even dangerous. For the Christian, persecution is a cross this world throws in our path. And it can include a lot things. From the snide remark. To the tension at home where believer and unbeliever can live side by side. To a job interview where you don’t get the job because the interviewer realizes Sunday Worship is important to you. Persecution can be a quiet thing where people avoid us. But it can also turn ugly. I remember the man who lit into me just because he knew I was a Christian. Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Our Lord Jesus promises the same in our gospel lesson. If we follow him, if we share a gospel that Satan hates, if we try to be the people Jesus calls on us to be, if we bear the name of Jesus, not hiding our faith, Jesus tells us, THEN people will hate you. People will despise you and sometimes worse.
Two things here. I think of a woman suffering persecution in her land. You know what she said? The fact that she was persecuted told her she belonged to Jesus. She was probably thinking of these words of the apostle Peter. He wrote them to Christians taking it on the chin, If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. And what name is that? That one name given to us by which we are saved. Persecution tells me I belong to Jesus.
Then this. This encouragement not to hide from people’s poor opinion or the grief they give you for following your Savior. You heard it minutes ago. Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. Think about that. It’s kind of nice to be recognized. For someone important to point to you and say he or she is my friend. Well this you can know. Hold on to Jesus, confess his name and one day you will hear him say to his Father. He’s one of my own.
Yet when we think about it. Persecution is not that big a deal for we Christians in the West. We can speak freely about our faith, our churches. We can openly carry and read our Bibles. We can wear crosses around our necks and not have to keep looking over our shoulder wondering if we will be arrested or attacked.
Our churches are well built. We can put up signs promoting them. Your pastor can focus on his ministry without having to worry about angry mobs or police out to get him. Our freedom of religion is protected by our government and is part of our social fabric.
But it’s easy to forget that most of the world’s Christians don’t share in that kind of situation. And here’s the point. Persecution comes to people we must not forget.
There’s a young Christian mother in a Pakistani jail. You’ve heard me speak of her before. I think it was two years ago. Her death sentence has just been upheld by a Pakistani court. She was convicted of blaspheming the name of Muhammad. And many think she was falsely accused because she is a Christian. Her name is Asia Bibi. Remember it.
You can also read about the Coptic Christians in Egypt and what they have suffered. Daughters kidnapped and sold into slavery. Churches attacked and burned. You can read the same about the Christians in Nigeria. And if your heart is not moved by this, then think of the Christian children of Iraq and Syria. Many have fled with their families, but not all. A missionary just wrote of this. How ISIS took over the town they were in. They were going systematically house to house to all the Christians and asking the children to denounce Jesus. So far not one child had. And when they refused, they killed them. They beheaded them in front of their parents. Persecution comes to people we must not forget.
What can we do? Think of these words in the letter to the Hebrews. Jewish Christians who were suffering too. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. (13:3) What can we do? God’s Word tells us. Remember them. Remember them in your prayers. Remember them to our leaders. Our President has done very little to help. We can write letters to raise public awareness. We can use the social media. And it’s worked. Prayers have been answered. Remember the lady released from the Sudan also under a death sentence. Persecution comes to brothers and sisters we must not forget.
And even here our Lord is not absent. Even here as precious little ones have been put to the sword. For what has the Lord done? He has taken them to heaven and allowed them to become martyrs. Martyrs. Do you know what that word means? Sadly it’s been hijacked by those who want to blow themselves up and kill others who are not Muslim. But a martyr is something different. A Christian martyr is someone like those children in Iraq. They would rather die than turn away from Jesus. And when they do, that makes them a martyr, a witness. For their death says something so powerful about Jesus. To know him, to believe in Him is more precious than even this life. And if you know the history of the church, you know this The blood of the martyrs and their testimony has changed many a heart, even in these days, the hearts of some in ISIS.
But that’s God’s business. Using that tragedy. Our business is this: to remember our Christian brothers and sisters. To pray for them and to help them in whatever way we can. For persecution comes to people we must not forget.