The Responsibility of Every Citizen of God’s Kingdom
1, 2, 3 John Series, part 10
Intro:
The reality of persecution today à 600,000,000 believers
worldwide
1. Christ-followers are persecuted all over the world simply for what
they believe. According to the U.S. State Dept., Christians in over 60
countries face the realities of massacre, rape, torture, mutilation, family
division, harassment, imprisonment, slavery, discrimination in education &
employment, and even death.
2.
When we use the term “persecuted
Church,” “Church refers to the worldwide body of people who have chosen Jesus
Christ as Lord and leader of their lives. “Persecuted” refers to suffering
similar to the situations I just described. As Paul Marshall describes in his
book, Their Blood Cries Out: "This plague affects two hundred
million people, with an additional four hundred million suffering from
discrimination and legal impediments."
3.
Christian persecution can be traced to
Christianity’s beginnings. Jesus Christ Himself was martyred on the cross, and
the early church faced widespread persecution. Jesus said that His followers
could expect it (Jn. 15:20; 16:33). Modern-day persecution is well documented,
despite some reports to the contrary. In fact, it is estimated that more
Christians were martyred in the 20th Century than in the prior 1,900 years
combined.
Thesis:
Today’s passage teaches us two truths about persecution.
I. The world hates God’s people (v. 13)
1. “The world has hated them, because they are not of the world,” (v. 14b)
2. As Christians are not part of the world, they are hated by the world (15:19)
3. “You will be hated by all nations on account of my name.” (Mt. 24:9b)
B. Not paranoia but reality
1. John says don’t be surprised (“Do not marvel”) (I John 3:13)
2. Peter echoes these ideas (I Peter 4:12-14)
3. There are plenty of paranoid Christians out there, full of all sorts of conspiracy theories; this is different
4. Throughout history, enemies of God’s people have openly declared their hatred
1.
‘Yemen's
government-run television station broadcast a prayer sermon delivered at the
Grand Mosque in Sanaa, Yemen's capital. Here is what the preacher had to say,
“O Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters and the Christians and their
supporters and followers. O Allah, destroy the ground under their feet, instill
fear in their hearts, and freeze the blood in their veins.”’[1]
2.
‘In
a Friday prayer sermon broadcast live on official Qatari TV from the Omar
Bin-Khattab Mosque in Doha, the preacher denounced what he termed the “vile
Christians” and pleaded with Allah to annihilate them: “O Allah, destroy the
usurper Jews and the vile Christians… O Allah, pour out Your anger on them. O
Allah, destroy them.”’[2]
3. Closer to home, in “Christian” lands, there are those who hate Christians.
4. People promoting supposed “religious tolerance” are often hostile to Bible-believing Christians. A Canada-based so-called “religious tolerance” website, for example blasts conservative Christians as hateful, “intolerant, racist, sexist, homophobes.”[3] Such verbal attacks against Christians are not uncommon in the West. It is sometimes said that the one exception to tolerance by “religious tolerance” advocates is evangelical Christians; only they are worthy of hatred and intolerance. This shows the true face of phony religious tolerance.
5.
S.D. Gaede – When Tolerance Is No Virtue – The strange thing about the
PC movement “is that it is an intolerance of those who are assumed to be
intolerant. …this intolerance of intolerance is a strange thing, given its
internally consistent character. …If you are intolerant of someone who is
intolerant, you have necessarily violated your own principle.”
II.
God commands us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
A. Contrasted with hatred
1. Contrasted with the hate of the world
2. Contrasted with hate between Christian brethren (v. 15)
B. Should be an active love (vv. 16, 18)
1. As we discussed last week
2. We should do something for our persecuted brethren, not just say, “that’s too bad” about their suffering.
3. Don’t know where to start? Then pray—if our heart is right, God will certainly give us a burden for persecuted Christians. But be prepared when you ask—God will give it to you! (v. 22)
4. Even loving our brothers & sisters around us relates to the issue of the persecuted Church.
a. It’s hard to truly love an abstraction—like the millions of persecuted Christians who are out there—way out there, somewhere, far away
b. It’s another matter loving those in our daily lives.
c. If we fail to love our brothers and sisters around us, we are weakening the links of the family of God. Think of a net with tears in it. It weakens other parts of the net by putting extra strain on those otherwise fine parts of the net.
d. By loving those around us, it strengthens the bonds of the family of God
e. It also strengthens our own ability and capacity to love, just as exercise strengthens muscles. It makes us more useable in God’s Kingdom.
5. Our love for our brethren is evidence of the truth being in us (vv. 19-21)
6. Our love for one another leads many to Christ, as they witness this amazing phenomenon of love in the face of hatred and persecution. Points to a radically changed nature, which vividly demonstrates God’s power to transform lives and to replace hatred with love.
C. Hating or not loving our brethren carries serious consequences
1. “He who does not love abides in death,” (v. 14b).
2. “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him,” (v. 15).
3. Not helping our brothers in need when it is within our power to help shows the person is lacking in God’s love (v. 17)
4. In our age of self, these ideas are so contrary to the way we’ve been trained that they’re hard to believe. But then again, part of the radical change in becoming a Christian is learning not to always seek out, “What’s in it for me?”
Conclusion:
So what do we do?
It’s all good and well to talk about actively loving our persecuted brethren,
but how do we do that? We at Crossroads seem to be on the sidelines of this
battle of persecution, which is part of the great Spiritual War that’s been
raging now for millennia. We’re far removed from the frontlines. It seems like
there’s little for us to actually do. But that’s where we’re wrong.
First, we must pray. Too
often, prayer is seen as a last resort: “Well, there’s nothing else I can do,
so I guess I’ll just pray.” No! Prayer is the primary weapon in the battle, and
prayer is a long-range weapon. Prayer is equally effective from anywhere in the
world; physical proximity is not necessary or even relevant. So we’d better hit
our knees and pray.
Second, we at
Crossroads are a rather transient group. The people here come and go. Fewer
than half of you who are here today were here last year on the IDOP, and even
fewer the year before that. Three years ago, only a handful of you were here.
And before that, I wasn’t here, either! Much as I don’t want it to happen, many
of you will probably not be here at Crossroads or in Pusan a year from now. We
have Crossroads “alumni” on six continents. As you go out from here, you may
either find yourself closer to the battle of persecution, or you may find
yourself in another “safe zone.” If it’s the former, then you’ll have your work
cut out for you. If it’s the latter, then you’ll have another important job to
fulfill.
Imagine that a
nation’s military is at war, but many of the people in that nation don’t even
know about it. It’s hard to imagine in our mass-media-controlled society, but
it’s possible, at least in ages past. Wouldn’t it be important to get the word
out to the citizens of that nation so that they could support their troops with
supplies, reinforcements, and other necessities?
Well, that’s
the situation we face. Our nation, the Kingdom of Heaven is in a war, and
persecution is a battlefield of that spiritual war. Yet many of our fellow
citizens, that is, other Christians, are oblivious to the war. They don’t know,
or they don’t care. At most, they’ve heard rumors of this war, but they fail to
see how it affects their lives. If one Korean—or one American, or New Zealander,
or Canadian, or even say an Italian or Swede—is killed by Iraqi terrorists, we
hear about it. If it’s someone of our nationality, we feel indignant, violated.
Even if it’s someone else from another country, we shake our heads and say,
“what is this world coming to?” And yet thousands upon thousands of Christians
have been persecuted, tortured, and even killed for their faith in the past
century. And so many Christians in the “safe” countries don’t say more than
“that’s too bad.”
So if you go
out from Crossroads, you have an important role to play. Maybe you’ll be like
Kyoung-nam, who’s in Israel working with Palestinians, or Jung-sook in
Afghanistan, or Jim in Nigeria, or Anthony & Mi-kyoung who have gone to
(and will be returning to) India. Maybe God is calling you to serve Him in one
of the frontline locations, spreading the Gospel and/or helping Christians who
are persecuted for their faith.
Or if you go to
a “safe country,” you have the job of mobilizing the troops. That means
educating Christians in Korea, the U.S., Canada, Australia, and other such
countries about the realities of persecution of Christians. That means
awakening them from their complacency and comfortable lives and getting them
involved in the plight of our persecuted brothers and sisters. That means
getting them to pray for and support Christians in persecuted lands.
In order to
accomplish all of these responsibilities, we have a responsibility to keep
ourselves informed about what’s going on in the battle of the Persecuted
Church. That is easier than ever, with the convenience and availability of the
Internet. I’ve given y’all some web sites that provide lots of information and
updates on the persecuted church. Use them to stay informed.
Another way we
can help is by giving financially to people and organizations which are
ministering to persecuted Christians. The precedence in this giving was set in
the apostle Paul’s day, when the churches would give to other churches that
were in need.
Furthermore, as
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, we all have a responsibility to be on the
alert for ways that we can be actively, personally involved in helping those
who are persecuted. I can’t really give you specifics of this, but if you have
a heart that it willing to serve, and you are remaining prayerfully alert of
what is going on in the world, then God may reveal to you ways that you can
make a difference. Be in tune to His Spirit indwelling you, and not so wrapped
up in your day-to-day existence that you miss opportunities. That is easier said
than done. But if you seek His will, if your heart aches for your persecuted
brethren, you just may find ways to make a difference in their lives.
Remember, God let Christians know from the get-go that we’d face persecution. It’s been part of the deal all along. But He also made it abundantly clear that we’re responsible for each other. Christians on the other side of the world (or at least in the next country) are being persecuted and killed for their faith? You’d better believe it concerns us!