In today’s
blog, we’re going to discuss the difficult topic of persecution taken from my
book, Victory
Over Backsliding.
Closely related to trials is when we suffer the trauma of persecution
and rejection because of our faith. [Today,
due to the length of this section, we will mainly discuss Persecution.]
Persecution & Rejection
People Pleasers
Many people compromise their Christian walk and even go back into the
ways of the world rather than suffer persecution and rejection. To be persecuted and rejected for the sake of
the gospel threatens our most basic human needs – to be loved and
accepted. Many of us care so much about
being loved and accepted that the fear of rejection for the sake of the gospel
is just too much to bear. What results
when we care more about what others think of us more than obeying the Lord is
that we become people pleasers instead of God pleasers. When this happens we become overly conscious
of what we say, how we act, what we wear and generally how well we are
accepted. If we feel accepted then we will be able to live in a safe comfort
zone, free from the backlash of angry people who disdain to hear the truth of
the gospel we bear. We lose
spontaneity in sharing the truth with others.
Rather than share our faith from a heart full of love for people, we
give them what we think they want to hear.
Our lives can become structured by what others think and we restrict
ourselves to the codes of man. No amount
of reasoning can justify such behavior in the eyes of God.
Standing
Up for God
One of
the greatest accounts of persecution for Christians is found in the book of The
Acts of the Apostles. The apostles of
the first recorded church left us with an amazing example of how to handle
persecution. In this book we discover
almost immediately that the Apostles were not wimpy Christians hiding from men
that wanted them killed because of their faith.
They had absolutely no fear.
After the Apostles received "power from on high," they
performed many miracles as Jesus had (see Acts 1:8;2). People witnessed these miracles and
multitudes became Christians on a daily basis (see Acts 5:12-16). Following these mighty miracles and influx of
converts, came severe persecution. The
Sadducees were threatened by their popularity and promptly threw the Apostles
in prison. But the power and authority
of the Lord was so much greater than the feeble attempts of these men of high
religious order, that the word and works of the Lord could not be stopped by
anything.
The
Apostles may have suffered persecution, but the Lord delivered them by sending
an angel to literally open the prison doors and let them free (Acts 5:17-19). Imagine how much more this miraculous act
cemented their faith and empowered them to further the work of the Lord. In fact they continued to preach just as
boldly as before (Acts 5:20-21). The
high priest was outraged when he heard what had happened and demanded to see
them and explain their actions (Acts 5:26-28).
The answer that Peter and the other Apostles gave, not only told them
their (the Apostles) loyalty lay with the Lord alone, but also put the blame
squarely on the Sadducees for the death of Jesus.
We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of
our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye
slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to
be a Prince and a Savior, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of
these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that
obey him. Acts 5:29-32
How do you think the Sadducees reacted?
They had just been told that their word meant nothing and that they were
murderers. Their first plan to stamp out
Christianity through crucifying Jesus failed miserably after He rose from the
dead. Now they had to contend with His
followers who were performing His same works and converting thousands of people
daily. The prison bars couldn't even
hold them in and shut them up. Things were dangerously out of control. They
conspired to kill the Apostles, but a wise Pharisee named Gamaliel advised them
not to do it (see Acts 5:33-38). He said
that others who claimed such success came to nothing and proved that they were
not of God. He said that if their work
was of man it would dissolve on its own.
But they would be fighting in vain if it was the work of God.
But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it,
lest perhaps ye be found even to fight against God. Acts. 5:39
The Apostles got away with only a "beating"
and were commanded not to speak "in the name of Jesus" (Acts
5:40). So powerful is this name that
Satan will do anything in his power to prevent it from being uttered. Even the demons tremble at the mention of the
name of Jesus (see James 2:19).
What
would be our response so far to this kind of persecution? Would we have fought back, gone to a higher
court and sued them for violating our human rights? Or would we have meekly apologized and vowed
never to speak the name of Jesus again?
The response of the Apostles was none of the above. They did not walk out of the room with their
heads hanging down in shame or self-pity for the wrong done to them. They did not curse God and vow to immediately
change careers where they would be safe from the threats of these godless
men. They did not go home and pack a bag
and move far away from the turmoil. No. What followed is truly amazing and upon
reading it for the first time we can only imagine how the Apostles could react
in such a way.
And they departed from the presence of the
council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his
name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach
and preach Jesus Christ. Acts 5:41-42
Doesn't this create a kind of respect for these men who truly loved God
more than themselves? Do we love Jesus
so much that we are "willing to obey God rather than man"? Do we seek to please man at the expense of
pleasing God? The Apostles literally
experienced great joy and blessing realizing their exalted status as men of
God. So can we experience such a
blessing when we see what a great honor and privilege it is to serve and suffer
for the sake of our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Well do we keep in mind the following
beatitude:
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my
sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad; for great is your reward in
heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-12
Another important aspect to consider if we have chosen
to be people pleasers is the aspect of accountability. When all is said and done, we need to be
reminded that one day we will have to give an account to God for our works and
be rewarded accordingly:
For we must all appear before the judgement seat
of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10
Will it matter then whether we did things to please
men and bring glory to ourselves or will we see the importance of having obeyed
God? There are many people all around us who have no hope. If someone had failed to share the good news
of the gospel to us, where would we be now?
Where would we go when we die? We need to put our own fear and ego aside
and consider what is more important. We
need to witness to people no matter how silly and ridiculous we feel. Even if we are hated, shunned and ostracized,
it is still better than living with the regret that we could have done more,
but didn’t.
Taken from Victory
Over Backsliding,
by Linda McBurney-Gunhouse, Creative Focus Publishing, p. 71-74, 2007.
Perhaps we live in a free country where we
can still share our faith without persecution.
If so, we need to think about sharing it without delay while the doors are still open.
In the next blog, we’ll discuss the second
part of this section, Rejection, an inevitable result of the high cost of being
a follower of Jesus Christ.
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