February 19, 2012 - Growing the Church Through Times of Persecution

Acts 11:19-26

Growing the Church Through Times of Persecution

Youth Sunday

 

Faith Anglican Church

Wes Brown

2/19/2012

 

[Skit – Paul, Shadrach, Lazarus, John, Corrie ten Boom, Lottie Moon all talk about coming into contact with the light of Jesus and carrying that light into the world]

 Being a light, they came into contact with Jesus and the response they gave was to give their lives for him despite the difficulties and persecution they faced.

  1. Paul had trials and persecution. He was brought before authorities, stoned, imprisoned, and shipwrecked.
  2. John endured persecution through imprisonment.
  3. Corrie ten Boom – Dutch Christian who along with her father and family helped Jewish people escape during the Holocaust of WWII. They were arrested, her father died 10 days later, Corrie and a sister were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp where her sister died.
  4. Lottie Moon – Southern Baptist missionary who spent 40 years, over half her life, ministering in China. She faced plague, famine, revolution, and war.

They all gave their lives because of coming into contact with the Light of Jesus. They stand as examples of faithfulness even during times of suffering and persecution. There are always those who because of sin will persecute those who live for Jesus. As Christians, we all should expect trials and suffering.

 But, our God is a powerful God who can use even persecution and suffering for his purposes. Because of this, our faith should reflect that God is still in control. In our reading from Acts 11, we see an example of God using persecution and suffering to accomplish his purposes. Here we see that through difficult times God spreads his gospel, reaches unlikely people, clears paths for others, and secures our salvation.

I. Through persecution and suffering God spreads his gospel.

 v. 19 - Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

The background for our reading is found in Acts 7 and 8. In Acts 7 Stephen is stoned because of his speech about Jesus. In 8 we see the persecution of the church at Jerusalem. The persecution caused a scattering, people went in different directions. And God used this persecution, this suffering for good. He used it to spur his people into the mission he had given them back in Acts 1:8. The spread of the gospel from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of earth. We see Gods gospel spreading just as he had promised, because of persecution.

 God still uses the persecution of his church to spread the gospel today. People are dying and being persecuted all over the world.According to one piece of research: In two-thousand years of Christian history, about 70 million faithful have paid with their lives and of these, 45.5 million, that is 65% were in the 20th century. (The New Persecuted by Antonio Socci).Persecution today includes the Islands of Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Cuba, the former Soviet republics, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries, Vietnam, China and others. (EWTN.com)

There is indeed persecution and martyrdom happening even today. That’s a hard thing for me here in Cordova, TN to imagine. But it is happening.People are giving their lives because they profess Jesus. And God is using it to spread the gospel.Just like the persecuted underground house churches in China that are growing. Because of their witness and stand for Jesus, the gospel is going out among people in power.

 We should be encouraged by their witness. And we should pray for them. Voice of the Martyrs at (persecution.com) and (Operationworld.org) have helpful stories and places and people to pray for. We need to become more aware of our brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering and we need to pray for them. Heb. 13.3 reads, “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.”We are part of them. We are of the same body. We suffer with them as though we were with them.And because of their suffering God is taking his gospel throughout this world.

But even we can suffer for our faith today. Look at Matt. 5:10-12, our suffering mainly comes in the form of being called hateful, ignorant, unloving, backwards, reviled and people saying and writing bad things about us.In our culture calling sin for what it is can stir up trouble for us. Presenting Jesus as the only way to heaven is seen as unloving. We can and will experience ridicule and insult by proclaiming Jesus. But we must not let that hinder us from proclaiming Jesus. For, where there are martyrs, where there is persecution, where there is suffering, God’s people are growing. I am not saying we should seek for ourselves persecution or suffering. But we should be very cautious of affluence and ease.It’s so easy to get too comfortable in church and become lazy about our mission.We should not become discouraged when suffering and persecution come. But we should count ourselves blessed if we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. For God uses suffering and persecution to spread the gospel.

II. Through persecution and suffering God reaches unlikely people.

In v. 19  we see that people were speaking the word to no one except the Jews. In v. 20 they are reaching people who had never heard the gospel before. And they were seeing success. 

vv. 20-21 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

They are now reaching successfully outsiders, Gentiles, those who had not been part of God’s people before. Notice here how they are reaching these outsiders. They are preaching the Lord Jesus. They are preaching the very message that is bringing the persecution.Although it brings persecution, they do not stop proclaiming it. They are even taking this message to an unlikely group of people, Gentiles.

 Afghanistan is 99% Muslim. They have a population of about 29 million with only and estimated 500-8000 Christians. Trying to convert Muslims to Christianity is illegal there. Just one year ago in Feb. of 2011 one man was imprisoned for 9 months for being baptized and one was still in prison for giving a Bible to a friend. (ABCnews.go.com)

Aug. 5, 2010 – 10 aid workers were killed in Afghanistan bc of alleged proselytizing. (Washingtonpost.com) July 2007 – 23 Korean missionaries were taken hostage. 2 were killed. Time.com Yet, Afghanistan is becoming a country where the number of Christians is growing rapidly. Our God uses persecution to reach those we may see as unlikely converts to Christianity.

 We should not be scared to preach the truth, to share the gospel. Our message of Jesus is offensive and we will draw persecution and ridicule because of it. May we go boldly preaching Jesus, fearing neither suffering nor ridicule. May we go to all people, even the outcasts and those who may seem to us unlikely converts. How great it would be if people were to say of our ministry, of Faith Anglican Church that the hand of the Lord is with them? We should be instruments of God bringing those unlikely people into his kingdom despite the cost.

 III. Through persecution and suffering God clears paths for others.

Through the sacrifice of some, God allows the way to be opened for other people to be used to grow the church.

 vv. 22-26 - The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people.

 Notice this good news. We saw back in Acts 8 that a great persecution arose against the church at Jerusalem and those who were dispersed were from that gathering of believers. Here we see there is still a church in Jerusalem. And more than that they sent a representative or missionary to Antioch to help teach. God did not allow the persecution to do away with this church in Jerusalem. God used the persecution to make a way for Barnabas and Saul to go in and do their ministry.

 God still does this today. Through the sacrifice of some, he opens doors to places where his gospel can be proclaimed.We may not be called to be martyrs, but we may be called to go on mission. Maybe you are called to follow those who give their lives and spread the gospel in their wake. One opportunity to do missions here is coming up in July with our New Mexico trip.

IV. Through persecution and suffering God secures our salvation.

v. 26 - And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Christian means a follower of Christ, followers of Jesus. We are called Christians because we follow Jesus. God used the suffering and death of our Savior to  bring us salvation.

It was through Jesus’ death that our sins were forgiven and we were restored to God. If Jesus, our Savior, the Son of God, was persecuted we will be too. Do we know this? Are we ready for persecution, for suffering? Are we willing to follow Jesus at all costs? Two weeks ago I went to a Voice of the Martyrs conference here in Cordova. One of the missionaries there spoke of his experience in Pakistan. He was worshiping with a group of Christians and noticed that during some of the songs they lifted one had and put on hand around their throat. They were worshiping God and saying to him that they were ready to lay down their lives for him. When we are bold in our witness and preaching, persecution will arise and the church will grow. To be a witness is to be a martyr.

 We are going to give our lives to something. What is it? We will come into contact with persecution. I want to remind you that we as the church are victors, not victims. We are not supposed to stay in the sorrow of martyrs and persecution. We are to remember that God is at work and powerful even over persecution. God will and does use it for his purposes.