Closer than we think: The persecuted in the body of Christ

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor in turn can the head say to the foot, “I do not need you.” On the contrary, those members that seem to be weaker are essential, and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our unpresentable members are clothed with dignity, but our presentable members do not need this. Instead, God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member, so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another. If one member suffers, everyone suffers with it. If a member is honored, all rejoice with it. (1 Corinthians 12:21-26, NET)

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13:3 ESV) 

It's easy to forget how closely connected we are to the persecuted church - how we are all part of the same body. A few years back when I injured my neck, God gave me a vivid illustration of how persecution affects the larger body of Christ. When my was neck hurt, I hurt all over! Honestly, I took my neck for granted before this episode. I didn't realize that my neck muscles play a role in typing, or opening the bathroom door, or tying my shoelaces. But when I was in severe pain, all those things hurt. I could feel my neck muscles in literally every movement.

That's how it can be with believers in other countries, and specifically the persecuted church. They can seem so far away, so unrelated to the immediate needs of staffing the nursery and cleaning the church and planning the Christmas pageant.

But no matter how distant persecuted believers seem sometimes, the verses above are true. The body of Christ is hurting when the church in the Middle East is nearing extinction ... when some believers recant their testimony rather than watch their children starved or their wives be raped ... when we exalt the persecuted church rather than identify with them. When my neck was at its worst, I didn't glorify the pain for the lessons it was teaching me; instead, my whole body threw itself into compensating for the pain and helping me get through it.

As we've looked this week at five things worse than persecution, it might be easy to think that perscution isn't all that bad. Not so. As I have learned more about persecution I have seen that the church either tends to ignore it or glorify it - both of which are unbiblical responses. (See this earlier post on myths related to persecution).

Persecution is bad. It can throw the church into a survival mode. It can tear churches apart when people give in to pressure and recant their faith and then repent and want restoration. At its worst it can destroy all the believers in a specific area (it's happened in places before and some feel is happening again in the Middle East as believers are either killed, recant, or flee to the West).

The persecuted church needs our prayers. Sometimes they need our tangible support - letters to officials, financial support for family members, Bibles. And we need them too. We need them to remind us of the importance of worship, prayer, and Scripture reading - those elements of our daily quiet times that can seem routine are their lifeline. We need them to remind us that this world is not our home, and that no matter what happens we always can have hope. We need them to demonstrate vividly that as bad as persecution is, there are things worse - things like apathy, lovelessness, denial, idolatry, and the absence of God's word.

Open Doors does the best job I've seen of connecting the persecuted church to the rest of the body of Christ, finding out what their real needs are and communicating how we can pray for them and meet their needs. There are other great ministries as well. I encourage you today, as part of IDOPPC, to take a few minutes to find a resource you can refer to regularly to remember those who are part of the body, but hurting today.

They are closer than we think.  

http://youtu.be/OHbs18dmKa4

Worse than Persecution #5: A famine of God's Word

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land-- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12 ESV)

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. (Proverbs 29:18 ESV)

There's a reason why believers imprisoned for their faith throughout the world are typically denied a Bible.

There's a reason why they treasure every word they recall or every portion of Scripture that is slipped to them.

There's a reason new believers in lands where persecution is prominent are taught to memorize Scripture.

• It is the means He uses to impart faith to our souls so we can believe and increase our faith as believers. (Romans 10:17)
• It teaches, reproves, corrects, and trains us for righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).
• It's living, active, and pierces the deepest parts of our soul. (Hebrews 4:12).
• It gives us encouragement and hope. (Romans 15:4).
• It is eternally written in the heavenly places, so it can never be eradicated by man. (Psalm 119:89). This means it withstands every effort to destroy it, minimize it, or doubt it.
• When it is taught by pastor, teacher, evangelist, prophet, or apostle, it builds up the church. (Ephesians 4:11-16). Embraced by enough people, it has the power to transform a society.
• Wherever it is proclaimed, it goes forth with power - even if the proclaimer utters the verses with disbelief, sarcasm, or wrong interpretations. It never returns empty. (Isaiah 55:11).

Scripture contains everything God knew we needed to know until His return. It points us to Jesus so we can have a relationship with Him to guide us in those areas that aren't specifically spelled out in Scripture (which job to take, whom to marry, etc.).

Even when we don't realize it, we have an underlying hunger for God's Word. A famine of His Word would leave us searching, even if we didn't realize specifically what was missing. The absence of God's Word, therefore, is more devastating to a believer than persecution could ever be. We absolutely do not want to know where we would be without Word of God as revealed in the Bible.

We have to hear from Him through His Word.

Let us pray to be people immersed in Scripture. Let us commit to read every word God has revealed in the Bible - not in any certain time frame, but in an ongoing way, consistently reading through the Bible and being reminded of passages we had forgotten were in there.

And let us pray that those who are being persecuted will recall passages they have read or heard even one time. Let's pray for all those without Scripture in their language, so that when they find themselves facing persecution they will have been infused with its faith-giving words.

http://youtu.be/BYu8ZyETnKo

Worse than Persecution #4: Idolatry

Little children, guard yourselves from idols. - 1 John 5:21

I don't remember getting the hope chest in the picture above. From my earliest memories, this chest has held treasures primarily of my choosing. My mom gave it to me when I was too young to remember. In true southern fashion, she intended me to fill it with things I would need some day when I had a home of my own. What I put in the hope chest wasn't necessarily important to my mom, but every item was very special to me.

It's a sobering reality: The Apostle John wrote his first epistle to believers, specifically to give them assurance that they could know with certainty that they had eternal life -- but he still warned them about idolatry.

Christians can be drawn into idolatry. We might not build a golden calf as the Israelites did, but we certainly can have false "gods". Biblically, an idol is anything which a person places ahead of God - in importance, in priorities, in ultimate trust or hope. That's why Jesus said: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21). "Treasure" here doesn't just refer to money - it refers to a place where good and precious things are stored. Our spiritual "hope chest", if you will.

That's not to say that trust and hope are bad - we're not supposed to be cynical or hardened - but we have to keep in mind that ultimately our trust and hope are in God alone. Everything circumstance or possession is merely His instrument. We must always look beyond His instruments to see the One on the throne over our circumstances. That spouse, that job, that retirement plan, that politician who's saying all the right things - none of them are our ultimate hope. When we are free from idolatry we know that if we lost them tomorrow, we would be ok.

That's why idolatry is worse than persecution. Idolatry says "my future depends on ___________". Idolatry places something in the hope chest besides God Himself. And where our treasure is, our hearts follow.

Ultimately my life looked very different than my mom probably envisioned when she gave me the hope chest. The treasures I placed in it were unique to me. Those things which tempt each of us to idolatry will also be unique. John's warning to "guard yourselves" literally means "protect from outside assaults.". We have to be intentional about protecting ourselves, especially in areas we know are temptations to idolatry.

Fortunately John gives the best antidote to idolatry in verse 20:

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:20 NASB)

The revelation God has given us of Jesus is a revelation of truth. It's a revelation of certainty in who Jesus is and of our position in Him. This is the true hope, the true treasure. Let us pray that we will be so enthralled with the True that anything less will hold no appeal for us. Pray for those being persecuted to cast their total hope on God alone and hold fast their confession of faith. And pray that whether we ever face outright persecution or not, we will have all our treasure stored up in Him alone - that He will be our ultimate hope.

Worse than Persection #3: Denying Christ

Peter didn’t get it right the first time. Even when he was forewarned, Peter initially chose denial: 

Matthew 26:31-35 ESV - [31] Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' [32] But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." [33] Peter answered him, "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away." [34] Jesus said to him, "Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." [35] Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!" And all the disciples said the same.

Luke 22:54-62 ESV - [54] Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. [55] And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. [56] Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, "This man also was with him." [57] But he denied it, saying, "Woman, I do not know him." [58] And a little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." But Peter said, "Man, I am not." [59] And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, "Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean." [60] But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are talking about." And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. [61] And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times." [62] And he went out and wept bitterly.

Peter felt the depth of his denial, and wept bitterly. He didn’t take it lightly. Imagine denying Jesus then having Him look at you with His all-seeing, all-knowing, ever-loving eyes. Eyes that were not surprised. Eyes that saw ahead to Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost. Eyes that looked ahead to another time when Peter would reject denial and pay the ultimate price:

John 21:17-19 ESV - [17] He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. [18] Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." [19] (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me."

 Reliable church tradition holds that Peter was executed under Nero’s reign:

Among many other saints, the blessed apostle Peter was condemned to death, and crucified, as some do write, at Rome; albeit some others, and not without cause, do doubt thereof. Hegesippus saith that Nero sought matter against Peter to put him to death; which, when the people perceived, they entreated Peter with much ado that he would fly the city. Peter, through their importunity at length persuaded, prepared himself to avoid. But, coming to the gate, he saw the Lord Christ come to meet him, to whom he, worshipping, said, "Lord, whither dost Thou go?" To whom He answered and said, "I am come again to be crucified." By this, Peter, perceiving his suffering to be understood, returned into the city. Jerome saith that he was crucified, his head being down and his feet upward, himself so requiring, because he was (he said) unworthy to be crucified after the same form and manner as the Lord was. (http://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/martyrs/fox101.htm)

When Peter got a do-over, he chose persecution over denial. 

Denying Christ doesn’t just happen with words, but with deeds:

Titus 1:15-16 NASB - [15] To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. [16] They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

Let us pray for grace to never deny Him – with our words or with our actions. Denial is far more dangerous than persecution could ever be.

Worse than persecution #2: Lovelessness

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:35-40 ESV)

It's hard to overstate the importance God puts on love - loving Him, and loving others. The Apostle John, that "Son of Thunder" turned "Apostle of Love", hits the point over and over in 1 John, unfolding the inseparability of loving God and loving others. And with good reason -- Jesus Himself laid out love of God and others as the top commandments. Loving God passionately and others selflessly should permeate every aspect of our lives. It's simply not optional.

That's why two of the most sobering passages in Scripture jump out to remind me again and again that lovelessness is to be avoided, period. Without a doubt, it's on the shelf labeled "Dangerous Things for Christians." Lovelessness is worse than persecution.

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:12-13, NIV)

(Revelation 2:1-5 ESV) - (1) "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: 'The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. (2) "'I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. (3) I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. (4) But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. (5) Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Taken together, these passages should motivate us to not harbor any vestige of lovelessness. Jesus warns that the love of "most" will grow cold. Not just a few - most. The word literally means "a multitude." It's sobering to see what motivates this lovelessness: An increase of sin. Oh, can I ever identify. My grandparents reached out to show love in ways I would never dream of today because of an increase of wickedness -- picking up hitchhikers, serving food to strangers walking through their property, leaving church doors unlocked day and night. I'm not saying we shouldn't be wise - absolutely we need to discern the times and act accordingly. But we must be very, very cautious not to let wisdom toward our fallen world turn into lovelessness. The challenge I give myself is to always look for ways to love, with wisdom, rather than excuses not to love. This keeps my heart soft and tender to God's very creative Spirit.

Ephesus bears another warning against lovelessness. Don't miss verse 3 - this church had successfully endured a level of persecution! Yet Jesus held against them their abandonment of love. Wow. We never, ever have an excuse not to love. Paul even tells us that martyrdom is no substitute for love:

(1 Corinthians 13:1-7 ESV) - (1) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (2) And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (3) If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (4) Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant (5) or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; (6) it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (7) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Scripture has so much to say on the subject of love that there is no way we can exhaust the subject. One very clear principle, though, is that love is not passive, theoretical, or distant. Look again at Paul's definitions. Love is active. Love is tangible, practical. (1 John 3:18 ESV) Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. And love reaches out, just as God reached out to us in Christ. (Romans 5:8 ESV) but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

May we never settle for lovelessness. May we pray constantly to know His love more, to love Him more in response, and to manifest His love to others better every day.

Worse than Persecution #1: Apathy

Sometimes here in the west, we imagine that persecution is the worst thing that could happen to us as Christians. For most of us persecution remains only a distant, theoretical possibility, and so we are able to place it in a box on a shelf labeled "Dangerous Things for Christians". We may be fully willing to take down that box if circumstances warranted, but it's easy to forget one glaring truth:

There are worse things than persecution.

This Sunday, Nov. 13, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Along with others around the world, our church will be participating and prayer and awareness activities to identify with those who suffer - to be "One with Them." The persecuted church has been heavily on my heart and mind lately, and for years I've studied and written about persecuted believers.

But this morning in my quiet time, God caught my attention with a couple of passages that reminded me of something worse than persecution: Apathy.

Recounting Israel's history before his death and their entrance into the Promised Land, Moses describes a time when serious intercession impacted the course of events:

(Deuteronomy 9:11-21 NIV) - (11) At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. (12) Then the LORD told me, "Go down from here at once, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made a cast idol for themselves." (13) And the LORD said to me, "I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! (14) Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they." (15) So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. (16) When I looked, I saw that you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you. (17) So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them to pieces before your eyes. (18) Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD's sight and so provoking him to anger. (19) I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me. (20) And the LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I prayed for Aaron too. (21) Also I took that sinful thing of yours, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust and threw the dust into a stream that flowed down the mountain.

Moses - described in Scripture as a very meek and humble man - was so distraught by Israel's idolatry and God's threat to destroy them for it that he smashed the tablets, fasted for 40 days and nights, and crushed the idol calf.

There is no suggestion that Moses hesitated even a moment before taking righteous action. He seems not to even consider that God would keep His plan going through another people that would come from Moses' line. Moses didn't take a laissez faire attitude toward the situation. He didn't let pride at being a potential patriarch of a chosen line guide his thoughts; he didn't justify prayerlessness by focusing on God's sovereignty; he didn't rationalize leaving the people to their own devices and letting them keep the calf and suffer the consequences.

Moses was anything but apathetic.

And his prayer made a dramatic difference. Instead of destroying the Israelites and starting over, God listened to Moses. The sovereignty of God and the free will of man intersected - God was glorified and the people benefitted.

There is no place for apathy in the body of Christ. Each day as I pray for a different country in Operation World, I learn much about God's global work. One principle I've seen played out repeatedly - where the church is on mission, God is working and spiritual battles abound. But where the church is apathetic, there is decline. There is often little spiritual warfare - there is no kingdom advance to which the enemy needs to respond.

Psalm 107 describes the stories of several who were rescued by God. One story spoke to me of those who are walking with the Lord through the ups and downs of life:

(Psalm 107:23-32 NIV) - (23) Others went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. (24) They saw the works of the LORD, his wonderful deeds in the deep. (25) For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. (26) They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. (27) They reeled and staggered like drunken men; they were at their wits' end. (28) Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. (29) He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. (30) They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven. (31) Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men. (32) Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders.

This group literally rode the waves with God - the ups and downs of the storm. They were glad when it grew calm - who wouldn't be? - but it was "in the deep" (v. 24) that they saw His works. Apathy might be safe, but it's when we actually get out into the deep with God that we see His works... even if it means riding the waves at times.

Christians aren't supposed to be apathetic. Jesus counseled the church at Laodicea: "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! (16) So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Rev. 3:15-16 ESV). Let us pray to have a burning passion for God and desire to know Him and make Him known. Let us ask for a heart like Paul's for those who don't know Him:

(Romans 9:1-3 ESV) - (1) I am speaking the truth in Christ--I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit-- (2) that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. (3) For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

Let us ask He would break our hearts with the things that break His heart. Let us walk in the Spirit and always be prepared for the righteous actions that characterize those who have nothing to fear.

And let's remember that on that shelf of things dangerous to Christians, there are things much worse than persecution.