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R.C. Sproul
We are told by the author of Hebrews not only to look to Jesus, but to consider Jesus, to consider his endurance, enduring the hostility that people brought against him. And we are told to do that for this reason, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
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Radio Host
The cost of following Christ faithfully is real, but so is the reward. This is the Tuesday edition of Renewing youg Mind, and thanks for being with us. It's been said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. In other words, when Christians are persecuted for righteousness sake, far from shrinking the church history suggests it actually grows. So as RC Sproul continues to help us think about the persecuted church, he addresses the question, what is the reward of discipleship?
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R.C. Sproul
In our last session, we talked a little bit about the experience that the church has had throughout all of history in terms of persecution. And we look back to Jesus words in the Gospel according to John in which he warned his disciples that they should expect persecution in the future. And again in John 15:18, he said, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. And if you were of the world, the world would love its own yet, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. And we looked at that passage. What I didn't take you to was to the end of that passage where in verse 23, he says, he who hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin. But now they have seen and also hated me and my Father. This happened that the Word might be fulfilled which is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. Now let's keep that in mind that Jesus is declaring that the hatred that he experienced in this world was unjust hatred, that he was persecuted without any just reason for that persecution. Now if we go back to the Sermon on the Mount, where we also hear Jesus words regarding persecution, we read him saying in chapter five of Matthew, beginning at verse 10, Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And again, blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Now, there's something very important for us to understand in this context. Just because people are persecuting us or hating us or don't like us is not proof in and of itself that we are being persecuted for righteousness sake or because of our devotion to Christ. It may be because we have been obnoxious. It may be because we have not been very friendly ourselves and have provoked animosity from others, and so that we justly deserve the response that we are getting. Jesus is not giving a blanket benediction to all persecution of his people at all times for any reason. But he is careful to say, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, that is, that the cause of their persecution is because the believer has stood for the right thing or has done the right thing. That's what it means to be despised or persecuted by for righteousness sake. And if that is the case in our lives, then we hear the benediction of our Lord who says, blessed are you when men shall revile you, persecute you, say all manner of evil against you falsely. There is a blessing that Jesus promised to those who are victims of slander for those who have been falsely accused for Jesus sake. Now, I can't imagine any Christian being a Christian for very long without experiencing some of this stuff. If you never criticize an unbeliever for any reason, you are still, if you were known to be a Christian, open to the charge of being holier than thou, of being resented for the life that you live. One of my favorite illustrations of this refers back several years ago to a PGA Touring pro who had been the golfer of the Year in one particular year and had won a major tournament. And on the anniversary of that major tournament, he was invited to play a round of golf with the President of the United States, with Jack Nicklaus, and with Billy Graham. And a friend of mine was there that day who was also a friend of this pro. And at the end of the round, the touring pro stomped off the 18th green, went straight to the practice tee, and started furiously banging balls from the practice range and muttering and cursing. He was obviously very angry. And my friend went up to him and said, what's the matter? He said, I don't need that preacher trying to shove religion down my throat while I'm trying to play golf. So my friend backed off and watched his fellow just continue to ventilate by hitting these golf balls as hard as he could. And after a little while, he calmed down, and my friend went over to him and he said, did Billy really preach to you out there in the golf course? And the pro sighed and he said, no, actually, no, he didn't. He. He really didn't say anything. I just had a Bad round. And I thought, how interesting. Billy Graham didn't have to say anything to make this guy nervous. And I noticed that a million times playing golf, you know, somebody unleashes a string of obscenities or something, and they know I'm a minister, and they'll turn around and say, oh, I'm sorry, Reverend, you know, and all of that kind of stuff, as if I'd never heard those words before. But just by your very presence, you can incite people's accusations of this sort. Even if you're trying to be as warm and as friendly as you can be. Any identification with Christ is going to make some people nervous and hostile. And that, of course, is not new in church history. And it didn't begin with Jesus. This pattern of persecuting the people of God reaches far back into history, almost as far as history itself. Why did Cain kill Abel? God was pleased with the devotion of Abel and with the sacrifice of worship and praise that he gave by faith. And God was not pleased with the sacrifice of Cain. Obviously, it was not made by faith. And when God honors Abel for his faith, Cain can't stand it and rises up and kills his own brother. The history of the Old Testament is the history of the martyrdoms of the prophets, those who were faithful to God, those who spoke the word of God in obedience to him. Consider the life of the prophet Elijah, who lived in caves, who was hunted down and hated by the king and his consort. I think of the time when, while living in the cave, Elijah was reduced to the situation of having been fed by ravens. I'll be honest with you. I can't drive my car down the road in Florida without. If I see a buzzard on the side of the road picking at roadkill or some other. Carry on. Every time I see that, I think, yuck. Can I imagine if I were living in a cave someplace and my only means of nourishment were these birds carrying these morsels of food to feed me. That's how Elijah lived. And which of the prophets Jesus asked was not persecuted? They were killed and slaughtered by their own people. All right, well, that's part of the history that goes with the territory. It's part of the prophecy that. That we would be hated without just cause. Now the question is, how does the Church handle it? How are we supposed to respond to it? Well, I think what the church needs more than anything else in times of persecution is courage. And as I've said many times, the one absolutely necessary condition for courage is fear. Because it takes absolutely no courage to do what you're not afraid to do. Courage is required when we have to overcome our fears. And to act with courage is to do the right thing in spite of its peril or its danger or its consequences. And we need to be people of courage. And that means we need to be encouraged. And we are called in the Scriptures to encourage one another, to help one another, to shore up one another, lest we flee as cowards from the mission field that Christ has given to us. This is one of the reasons why I love so much the roll call of the heroes of faith in the book of Hebrews, which is given to us to encourage us. So let's look briefly again at this well known text that begins with a definition of faith at the first verse of chapter 11 of Hebrews. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony, that is, by trusting in God and by living out that faith and trusting that which they couldn't even see, the people of God of antiquity obtained a good report. And then we have this litany of a historical survey of the great models of faith from the Old Testament and includes such things as this verse 4. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous God, testifying of his gifts. And through it he, being dead, still speaks again, by faith Enoch, please, God. By faith Noah prepared the ark. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called out. By faith Sarah conceived a child. And then in verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promise, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. That's who we are, beloved. We're the strangers, we're the pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. Truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. Listen to that. When we are afraid of persecution, when we are afraid of negative reaction from the world, we sometimes do everything in our power to conceal our identity as Christians. And we become ashamed of Christ,
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Radio Host
we
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R.C. Sproul
become embarrassed to be known as Christians. And when that happens, we have to remember the words of Christ that the one who is ashamed of him before men, he will be ashamed of before his Father. But what it says of these who lived by faith and who died by faith. In the Old Testament, God was not ashamed to call them his own people. Hebrews 11 goes on. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of his sons. By faith, Joseph made mention of the departure of the children of Israel. By faith Moses, and by faith the walls of Jericho. By faith David. By faith Samson, and so on. And we read in verse 32, what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness, were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight. The armies of the aliens and women received their dead, raised to life again. Others, however, listen, were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Do you see him? Do you see the. The venerable, aged Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, called into the arena before the emperor and there commanded to repudiate his Christian faith. And the emperor, seeing the frailty as well as the popularity of this elder bishop of Smyrna, really didn't want to feed him to the lions and tried to give Polycarp a way of escape. And so, while Polycarp was standing on the floor of the arena, the emperor said to him, all you have to do, Polycarp, is simply say, away with the atheists, thereby repudiating his Christian brothers and sisters. So Polycarp smiled and he looked at the emperor and waved in his direction and said, away with the atheists, meaning the Roman atheists, and then said, For 80 and six years Christ has been faithful to me. How can I now be unfaithful to him? You see, he refused relief from his suffering. Others were tortures, not accepting deliverance. Now, of course, this was written long before Polycarp, well, about people who lived long before Polycarp, but it certainly applied to him. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 11 of the 12 disciples to the best knowledge of Christian tradition were executed for their faith. And the only one who wasn't spent his last days in exile. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And all of these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. He's talking about people who endured suffering and afflictions unimaginable, who had not received the benefits of the covenant that we enjoy as Christians. They only had a shadow of the things to come where we have been given the full reality. Well, what's the bottom line here? Well, the bottom line doesn't come to the next chapter. I mean, again, chapter 12 begins with a word that should link the two together. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls, for you have not yet resisted to blood. So who do we look to? We look first of all to the champions of the faith, to the heroes and heroines of the Old Testament and of church history who have refused deliverance, who have refused to compromise the faith, who have. Who have refused to betray Christ in the midst of affliction and slander and persecution, looking to a better country, looking to the resurrection. And finally, we look to Jesus, who endured the shame of the cross and the hostility of the world for our sakes. For he is the author and the finisher of our faith. We are told by the author of Hebrews not only to look to Jesus, but to consider Jesus, to consider his endurance enduring the hostility that people brought against him. And we are told to do that for this reason, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You know to be the subject of hostility or the object of it, to be the target of slander or the hostility of the world around you. To be hated by people is tiring. It's very tiring. And in your weariness you may be tempted to say, I've had all of this I ever need to handle. I'm going to sleep in tomorrow morning. We fail in our courage and we succumb to our fear. And when we are tempted with that, then we are supposed to look to Jesus lest we faint and grow weary. Understand, persecution is part of the agenda. And God calls us and expects us to endure to the end.
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Radio Host
That was R.C. sproul on the Reward of Discipleship I'm glad you've joined us today for Renewing youg Mind, and I trust that this week's messages on the persecuted church have been helpful and encouraging to you and your family. We'd like for you to have this series. We will unlock it for you in the free Ligonier app when you give a donation in support of this daily program@renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. And to further thank you for your support, we'll send you two books by Dr. Sproul, the 40th anniversary edition of the Holiness of God and the 40th anniversary edition of Chosen by God. So Request this classic R.C. sproul book collection and gain access to this week's series when you donate@renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight. Throughout our Christian life, in seasons of persecution and in seasons of peace, we can have doubts. Am I truly saved? How can I be sure? Don't miss renewing your mind for the rest of the week as RC Sproul explains how we can and be sure here on Renewing youg Mind.
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R.C. Sproul
Sam.