My
tendency when coming under attack is to become silent, the whole curl-up-like-a-possum
and wait for the danger to pass strategy (one of those learned-as-a-child
things… not very successful). Jesus’ view on the situation is that persecution,
attack, criticism, rejection from family and friends, outright expressions of
hatred,[3] are like the timbers building the stage on which to
tell more people about him.
The apostle Paul exemplified this in wonderful testimonies
of God’s grace that continue to this day. When the Christians in Philippi were
concerned about how Paul was doing because he once again landed himself in
prison for proclaiming the good news about Jesus Christ, he explained things
like this in order to calm their concerns about him:
I want you to know,
brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,
so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the
rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord
by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.[4]
Paul’s encouragement to his family-in-Christ was that his
imprisonment was not a hindrance to his work of spreading the good news about Jesus.
Rather, the whole imperial guard had become his captive audience (so to speak),
and he had gladly proclaimed Jesus Christ to his captors so that all of them
realized that Paul was in prison “for
Christ”, not for anything that he had done wrong.
The Philippian Christians were actually quite familiar with
God using Paul’s imprisonments to spread the good news about Jesus Christ since
one of their founding families came to Christ through Paul’s imprisonment in
their city. On that occasion, the jailer and his whole family were converted
when Paul’s surprising behavior in prison caused the jailer to want to know how
to be saved.[5] When Paul was later writing the church about how
God was working in his present experience of imprisonment, the Philippian
Church would have been encouraged with the strength of Paul’s ongoing testimony
of faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul also passed on his encouragement that, instead of his
brothers becoming intimidated by the persecution, hatred, and imprisonment he
had experienced, they had actually “become
confident” and were “much more bold
to speak the word without fear”. Rather than falling into fear because of
Paul’s troubles, they looked at Paul’s faith, thought to themselves, “If Paul
is enduring through this, so will we,” and so the gospel was spread even
further, both through Paul preaching to his guards in prison, and his brothers
taking up the opportunity for preaching outside of prison.
When I hear of the way Christians in other countries are
being persecuted, put in prison, and put to death, just like Jesus said would
happen,[6] I feel my heart take a big gulp of nervous
anticipation and seek the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit to make me as
faithful as they are. It is clear that we must pray for our persecuted family
members wherever they are in the world, and continue to obey God’s word that
tells us to, “Remember
those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are
mistreated, since you also are in the body.”[7]
However, we must also join
God’s work of making Jesus known right where we are, willing to bear the same
cost as they are, in all the same ways as Jesus spoke about. Jesus said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be
proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then
the end will come,”[8]and it is just as much our part to proclaim this
gospel as theirs.
And, I highly recommend a thorough journey through the book
of Revelation as a very healthy prescription for the strengthening of our
endurance.[9] After all, Jesus said that, “the one who endures to the end will be saved.”[10] Let us make sure that we are one of those ones.
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~
in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
Luke 21:13
[2]
Matthew 10:16-22; Luke 21:10-18
[3]
This is all in the context of these things happening because of our sincere,
Spirit-filled preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, not because of us being
religious jerks that are an offense to the glorious gospel of transforming
grace.
[4]
Philippians 1:12-14
[5]
Acts 16:16-40
[6]
“Then they will deliver you up to
tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my
name's sake.” (Matthew 24:9)
[7]
Hebrews 13:3 (talking about believers in prison for sharing Christ, not
criminals in prison for their crimes)
[8]
Matthew 24:14
[9]
Here is the link to the start of my series through the book of Revelation if
you would like the encouragement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oIBKTe16ik
[10]
Matthew 10:22
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