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What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford Podcast. I'm Bryce. And today, by the title of the
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episode, whether you're watching or listening, we're
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going to be talking about persecution today.
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What happens when people hate you for your faith? What happens when you deal with hostile people? What that looks like? How do we navigate that? How do we even persevere? I, I, what, what does it look like when you're discouraged, when people hate you for your faith? So we're going to actually talk about that today.
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If you're watching right now, you could tell we're in a different location. And that is. Right. This is now going to be our permanent podcast studio.
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We have been building this thing. My, my friends Chris and McKenna and their whole team have graciously built us a studio and helped us. And so this will be where we
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will be recording from now on. We're super excited, unless we're traveling, of course, but we're going to get into this. We're going to bounce around Scripture, talk about persecution, talk about being hated for your faith. If you guys have got your Bibles,
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you can flip with me to Matthew chapter five. We'll actually start in Matthew chapter five. We're going to cover a few different scriptures here today. It's going to be amazing. Now, I, I just want to preface something here before we dive into the scriptures. Jesus Christ himself, who was a perfect
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human being, fully God, fully man.
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Jesus Christ himself lived a perfect, sinless life in this world. And the number one persecution he faced was being misunderstood. And because he was misunderstood, this caused people to persecute him.
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If a perfect man was able to be persecuted in this world, then you and I, as immature and imperfect human beings, should expect people to not understand, disagree, maybe even become hostile at times towards us because of our faith. This will happen. This is a guarantee. Jesus himself says, hey, if the world hates you, which it's gonna. If the world hates you, just remember it hated me first. The statement Jesus is making there saying, look, look, when people hate you for your faith, you shouldn't be like, oh, I'm surprised because I'm perfect. And they hated me, too. They hated me first. They were born into this world with sinlessness and pride and a heart's desire to rebel against me. They hated me first. When you think no one understands you and you're suffering, we can look to the one who has suffered. That's the greatest thing about Jesus Christ. In this faith that we have called Christianity is every other religion. It's Work your way to perfection, work your way to good dharma, but don't get good karma. You know, work your way. It's all about your good works. This isn't that and the other. And so because of that, when we suffer and we look at these other religions and their gods and they don't know what suffering is like, this is the best argument. One of. In my opinion, I think it's one of the greatest arguments about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ not only claimed to be God, was God, is God. He's actively alive today. But we have a God in Christianity that has suffered with us. So if anyone understands your suffering better
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than you, it's him.
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If anyone's going to know the shoes
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that you've walked in, it's him.
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As a matter of fact, the whole
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time he's nail pierced on the cross.
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It says, for the joy set before
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Jesus, he endured the cross. A perfect man was willing to stay hanging on the cross, not because of the thickness of the nails, but because he couldn't stop keeping you on his mind. Relationship with you was the thing that drove him to stay on the cross. And so when we understand that, as we dive into this subject of suffering and persecution, suffering for our faith, we have to understand Jesus Christ also suffered. He's been backstabbed by friends, spit on, mocked, stripped naked publicly and humiliated, or he stayed silent.
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All right, In Matthew chapter 5, we
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get Jesus's like one of the most famous sermons that Jesus ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter five through seven. And Jesus addresses persecution twice, I believe mainly, mainly here in, in chapter five. And then he. He mentioned something in chapter six that I want to point to as well. We'll flip the Pl page. Now, Jesus himself says talks about persecution twice in verses 10 and 11.
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Blessed are those who are persecuted for
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righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil things against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward
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is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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A couple things that we can take away from this.
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First thing we have to understand if we're getting persecuted for being Christian, if
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you're getting persecuted for being Christian, we
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have to understand this has been going on for thousands of years. The prophets of old were hated. The disciples were hated. Jesus himself was hated. Even after Jesus's resurrection, there were many Christians throughout history that have been persecuted for their faith. We see Stephen was stoned in Acts, chapter seven. And we're actually going to talk about that towards the end. So this should be no surprise. But there's actually a blessing when we stand in the face of adversity and suffer for our faith, and we don't bow down to the suffering. Here's what happens. Persecution wants you to bow to it and submit to it and say, oh, yeah, you're right.
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I can't deal with it. I can't suffer for my God. I can't do that. I can't suffer for Jesus. You're right, I'm wrong.
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See, this is what they do. When Christians get persecuted in the Middle east, this happens.
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Well, just say Jesus isn't God, then
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we'll let you go.
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Persecution wants you to bow to it.
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We're not gonna bow to persecution.
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We're gonna talk about how to respond
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to persecution later when you keep moving on.
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It's actually in chapter. In chapter five, still, verse 38.
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You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
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But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too.
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Give to the one who begs from you. Do not refuse to the one who would borrow from you. Jesus counters the culture of society then and now. Society says if you get punched, hit back harder. If someone hits you, you return evil to them. The Bible says we don't return evil for evil. We return good when evil is done to us. That this is the kind of culture that Jesus brings in. And this is so interesting. And if I'm being completely honest, this has been one of the hardest things for me lately. Following Jesus is like when people do me dirty, or if people say something about me that isn't true, or if people hurl awful statements towards me, or whenever we get death threats or all of these things, it may. There's something inside of the human being and inside of me that wants to provoke back and be like.
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And like, defend my case. And to say this back or do this and my human nature, it's like
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there's something inside of me that wants to respond. But Jesus is saying, hey, look, when evil is done to you, actually don't return evil. Bless them. Give them the other cheek. Pray for them. Bless their families, bless their friends, bless their loved ones, bless their job, bless their life. Because the book of Jude would tell you and I that vengeance is the Lord's. Jesus Christ dealt with sin on the cross. And if we receive the payment and atonement for sins, put faith and trust that what Jesus did on the cross, death and resurrection was enough to pay the price. We inherit this thing called eternal life. Now, the people that don't put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, it breaks God's heart. But God deals with their sin on judgment day. Vengeance is the Lord's. He will take care of it. He is a just God. We have to trust.
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When wrong is done to you, when people gossip lies about you, when people physically harm you, God is going to deal with it. Vengeance is his. You don't have to retaliate. You have an eternal God of the universe who at the snap of a finger could wipe out the human race in existence. You've got that guy on your side. He sees your heart and he sees theirs. And that's been a big heart check for me because when I just. If Bryce wants to return evil for evil, when evil has been done to him, if you want to return evil for evil when evil has been done to you, then you're trying to become God in your own life. You're trying to deal with the persecution that has been done to you. And Jesus is saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're not God. As a matter of fact, you may be misunderstood, but that is no right or reason to return the evil back
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to the person who has done it to you. Amen. That temptation inside to retaliate and persecution is as for some reason, as of lately, I've been tempted countless times be passive aggressive towards people and statements when they say something, to respond out of anger and frustration, to feel like I have to prove a point, explain myself all these things. I don't know why, if I'm being vulnerable. And this has been a big heart check for me in the face of adversity, like, don't. Don't respond in that way. I want to flip now really quickly to second Timothy, because I think this is very important as well. We understand persecution will come if you sincerely follow Jesus. The truth offends people.
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Jesus is the truth. That is the embodiment of who he is.
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The truth offends people. People will be offended. People are offended by the character of God. People are offended by the statements Jesus made. People are offended by the lifestyle and the cost it takes to follow Jesus.
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Sometimes people are offended not because they just don't even know. Sometimes people hate Christians for absolutely no Reason, they've just been taught to hate Christians.
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And every day we're growing in godlessness. And that's what two Timothy addresses. This world is growing in godlessness every
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day and Christians are getting persecuted more
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and more every day. And so that's something that's not the full encompassment of what it means to count the cost to follow Jesus. I mean, cost your preferences, it costs your comfort. You might have to surrender things, you might have to leave some friends. Get that. Yes.
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And you have to be willing to accept that you could be persecuted for your faith. As a matter of fact, it will come. You will be persecuted for your faith.
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Is that something you're willing to take into account?
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Are you willing to count the cost? Are you willing to look like a fool? And if we're going to look a fool for anyone, we're going to look
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a fool for Jesus,
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not a mortal
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man who is imperfect.
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We're going to look like a fool for Jesus.
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Now in second Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy something interesting. He's written two letters to Timothy here. And in chapter two, verse 24, Paul begins to say this. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. And then in chapter three, verse one, it says, but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty where people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, etc. You name it. Now the reason why I'm bringing up the verses in second Timothy 2, right before that is he says, look, you got to be willing to respond in this way because we're in the last days. We were in the last days.
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I don't use that as fear mongering.
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I mean, the last days are described as the period of time that we wait as believers for Jesus to return a second time. So when Jesus ascended into heaven, the apostles were then in the end times. Now that's. I'm not saying that to say, oh
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yeah, now we can do whatever we want. God's not gonna. I really believe that we do, or
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we are in the last days. We've always been in the last days,
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but I really believe it. Godlessness is rising every day, and that's what he Follows up those verses.
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You should respond to people in this way when people. When people come at you. But then he says, this is why
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you need to respond this way. Because you and I will be provoked more to respond in a harsh manner.
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To not.
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To not handle things according to scripture, to not handle things according to the character of God. You and I will be provoked to respond in such a way that would be a fleshly desire. Now, I think it's interesting. The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil.
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Correcting his opponents with gentleness. I want to focus on that. Correcting his opponents with gentleness. I love that people get zealous to share their faith. One of the biggest problems that I have in my heart with the street preachers that stand on the street corner with a.
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With a massive ruler and a big sign that says, repent and burn in hell.
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Repent or burn in Hell on the sign.
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These street preachers that hang out at the college football games, that hang out on the street corners, that go to the pride parades, they go everywhere. They have big, massive signs with fire and brimstone that says, repent or burn in hell. And you know what? That statement on that billboard is true. If we don't submit to Jesus Christ, we're going to burn in hell. But the reason that they get spit on, yelled at, nobody listens to them, I don't think is because of the message.
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I think it's because of how they deliver it.
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And you know what this letter to
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Second Timothy would say?
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If you provoke people to spit on
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you, if you provoke anger in someone, that is not persecution.
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Many people say, oh, I'm getting persecuted right now. But they're provoking anger in people. That's not persecution. You just piss people off. There's no ounce of persecution in that. He says correct his opponents with gentleness. First Peter 3 says, Be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for the hope inside of you, but
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do it with gentleness and respect.
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You know what's so crazy?
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At those same pride parades where those street preachers are. I can't tell you the amount of people that would walk by those men.
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We're the same one. We're doing. We're preaching, too. They're standing there with a sign, it says, repent or burn in hell. And they yell at them, they spit on them, they mock them, whatever. And they're provoking anger out of people.
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And the street preachers on the microphones
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are making fun of the people and saying horrible things to them.
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And then they walk by, and I
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looked at one lady.
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I'll remember this.
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This was two years ago.
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She said.
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I said, hey, what do you think about all that? It's so crazy. Blah, blah. You know, she's saying all that. And I was like, just out of curiosity, like, what do you think about Jesus?
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And we had a polite conversation.
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I preached the gospel to her.
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I shared testimony of what God has done in my life. I was able to pray for her. And you know what? There was a difference between how they handled it and how I.
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And I'm not saying it's because I did, because I'm so special.
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No, no. Here's the difference.
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Two things, I think.
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Number one, we were meeting them with curiosity and gentleness, but number two, we were able to explain what that. What that sign meant.
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Here's the reality.
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Here's why we think homosexuality is wrong. It's not because we hate your moral worth. We actually think that you're morally valuable. And I'm sorry that. That Christians have treated the LGBTQ community as of less moral value. But here's the reality. Homosexuality is a sin to us because God is an original design for mankind. He designed man and woman to come together under one covenant for one lifetime. Anything outside of that original design is considered sin and rebellion against God. When you explain things to people in gentleness and respect this verse, correcting his opponents with gentleness, God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses. There's a difference between provoking anger in people and being persecuted for your faith. And that's this case that Paul is making to Timothy. And then he says, like, in the last days, there will be godlessness and
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all this other stuff.
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And then he goes on to say,
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look, all Scripture is breathed out by God.
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Profitable for teaching, correction, rebuke, and then rebuke.
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And then in chapter four, it gives, hey, listen. Now that you've heard all this, go preach the word. It's necessary. So understanding is that this whole second Timothy is crazy. This is how you should respond to people when. When you're faced with adversity. This is how you should respond to people when preaching the gospel. You need to understand this, because you will be provoked to do the opposite and respond to the opposite, because in the last days, we're growing in godlessness. And so, listen. Because we're growing in godlessness. You need to be sharp on your
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scripture, is what he's saying.
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You need to be Sharp on your scripture, know how to respond with gentleness and respect. And then he says, look, even though it may be intimidating that we're growing
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in, God says, go preach the word. This is my response to you watching or listening. Go preach the word of God. Go preach the gospel. Go share the good news with people. Go preach the gospel. And the reality is, you might get
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persecuted for your faith.
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But listen, we gotta be ready. We're gonna flip to Acts chapter 7 as we begin to close this out. And as we're flipping to Acts chapter seven, I just wanna say something really quickly right now. When it comes to persecution in America, in America, we live so comfortably in America.
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We think as Christians persecution.
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And we get so upset when someone leaves a hate comment or a mean post or this, this and that, we
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go, oh, I'm getting persecuted. God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers. And we have believers in the underground church of Iran where if they stepped out in the street and said, I'm a Christian, before they could finish that sentence, they'd be murdered. If I walked in the middle of the Gaza Strip with an I heart Jesus shirt and I said, I'm a Christian, I love Jesus, Jesus is God. I wouldn't be able to finish that sentence. I'd be murdered. Underground churches all over the globe, in China,
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and yet here we are. We think real persecution is getting a hate comment. We are so comfortable in America, we don't even know an ounce of what real persecution looks like. And an encouraging story before we dive into the scripture. You guys should go look into the testimony of what happened with the 21 Christians in the Middle east about a decade ago. I think it was when the Islamic regime took 20 Orthodox Christians out on the beach to be denounced after they endured much torture. And they wouldn't surrender, saying, oh, yeah, Jesus God. They wouldn't. They wouldn't make that statement because they really wholeheartedly believe Jesus God. They have crazy powerful testimony of things that they saw during that time. And one young black man looks at the ISIS regime and sees the boldness in their faith and says, whatever they are, I am. They killed him too. Powerful. So powerful. Now when we read Acts chapter 7, we have to understand something. Acts chapter 7. Stephen is considered the first Christian martyr Christian that's killed for their faith. Stephen gives one of the most gangsta gospel presentations to the Sanhedrin. Do you know what happens after he preaches to the Sanhedrin? That's what it says in verse 54. Now, when they heard these things, they were Enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I've seen the heavens opened up and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed him. Together they cast him out of the city and stoned him to death. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning him, he called out, lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And then he said, lord, do not hold the sin against them. And when he said this, he fell asleep, AKA he died. There's a couple. There's two things I want to point out. Every time in Scripture, Jesus Christ is referenced at the right hand of God. He's referenced sitting at the right hand of God. This is the only time in scripture when Jesus is referenced at the right hand of God standing. You know why I believe Lord Jesus Christ was standing at the right hand of God. When he's looking down at Stephen, the first person to be murdered for a sincere faith in him, I imagine Jesus Christ standing off the reign of God, clapping, looking down, going, that's my son. I'm proud of you. When you are in the midst of your adversity, in the midst of your suffering, in the midst of your persecution, you don't know what to do, you don't know what to say. You feel like everyone's turning on you. You feel like you're losing your friends. You feel like you have no. I want you to imagine the Lord Jesus standing off of his throne. That's my son. That's my daughter. I'm proud of you. Keep pressing on. Keep moving on this scripture, that perspective of scripture got me through the first year of being a Christian. The first year of me sincerely following Jesus was one of the hardest years of my life. It's one of the hardest years I've ever experienced. Being a. Being a follower of Jesus, losing friends, family problems. When I started my senior year, first semester was, like, awful. First game of the football season, I got food thrown at me at the student section by, like, the lower classmen. They didn't want me to sit in the student section with them. I went to a Christian school, and for months I would cry to God, God, what is happening? What is going on? I feel like I have no one. All my friends all over the globe don't understand. And then I read that, and I began to Cry because I'm like when I stand. When you stand in the face of persecution as a believer and you don't bow down to persecution, the Lord Jesus is proud of you. He's proud, and he appreciates that you don't bow to temporary hatred and rather the testimony of your life. Martyrdom will bring more people to the Lord. But the second thing I want to point out really quickly, the people that persecute you, there is hope for them. Look at who killed him. If you read verse 58, Saul. Saul killed him. That name sounds unfamiliar to you. Read most of the New Testament. It was written by a guy named Paul who was renamed after he had an encounter with the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus. He became a Christian. When you're being persecuted, pray for those who persecute you. Bless them. Ask the Lord Jesus to encounter them. And I want to pray for you. There's someone that's being suffered, that's suffering for the faith. I want to pray that God gives you strength. And if you haven't experienced suffering yet, I want to pray that God strengthens you when that time comes. Lord Jesus, thank you that you suffered for us. Thank you that you love us. God, thank you that you understand us, Lord. For those who are in the midst of persecution and suffering, God, would you strengthen us. And for those that haven't experienced any persecution, God, would you give them strength when it comes to will? Thank you that you understand suffering. We love you, Jesus. It's in your name we pray. Amen.