Are You Willing To Proclaim The Good News At The Risk Of Suffering For Christ?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we continue to explore the work of the Holy Spirit that began at creation and is available to us right now received by faith and fulfilled in the completed work of Jesus manifesting itself in our lives. It is a gift of peace and rest that people work hard to receive, often failing because of a lack of trust and sincere love that risks. Too many are not resting in Christ’s work, but in their own work of resting. Christ’s transformative rest is rare because people’s love is committed to the wrong things in forwarding the faith of others. We must believe and trust, risk and love. Are You Willing To Proclaim The Good News At The Risk Of Suffering For Christ?
Scripture: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
Genesis 1:26-2:3 (NRSV)
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.
John 14:27-31a (NRSV)
But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, then on to Iconium and Antioch. There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had completed. When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. And they stayed there with the disciples for some time.
Acts 14:19-28 (NRSV)
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters, since you know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ.
Colossians 3:14-15, 17, 23-24 (NRSV)
Message: Jesus came to set us free and to help us learn how to seek God passionately and persistently in our lives. Jesus’ Spirit helps us to turn from doing our empty acts of pleasure and instead delight in what the Lord is doing to bring the Kingdom to earth as in heaven. Indeed we are to share the bread of the Gospel with the hungry so the light placed in us can break forth like the dawn to heal with the Good News. We are to ride on the heights in the Spirit but also have the courage to walk through the valleys. We are to feed on the heritage of God, in service to God, in harmony and love. But our text from Acts also tells us that: “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” And I wonder if we were first century Christians if we would be willing to give up your faith in Christ and worship the Emperor according to Roman law or keep proclaiming the faith and be set on fire as a slow burning torch to light a dinner feast for Nero. Would we give up our faith or go on and suffer and die for Jesus? It seems so foreign to us for we live in a time where we can worship here in the West without much persecution. But ponder for a moment what is happening in the world and how things are changing right under our noses. Perhaps our time of persecution is coming. Jesus knew…Paul knew…that people who truly believe needed to prepare for tribulation. We have forgotten that opposition to believers is normal. Persecution is something that has historically been a fact of life for most believers in almost every age. If history is our guide then we should expect to be persecuted for our faith in Christ. And if we do not have opposition we really might want to consider if God is really with us. That kind of thinking of the inevitability of discrimination for being Christian is foreign to us today because most of us in the West have never suffered in any significant way for our faith. Friends, if we are living a true and consistent Christian life our behavior will provoke the conscience of a lost world and we will face opposition. We need to prepare for it and if we have no opposition then we should reconsider if we are living the Christian life that serves the Kingdom to come.
Pray we delight in what the Lord is doing even if it means some suffering. Pray the light in us is used for an eternal good. Pray we realize that we must battle for what is not just good but great. Pray we realize that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, will work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Pray we put persecution in the perspective of the eternal. Pray we are not so wrapped up in this world, and the things of this world that we cannot even begin to relate to what opposition we need to prepare. Pray we are evidence of Christ in our daily walk especially when that walk is through the valley of the shadow of death.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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