THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR"Remember Our Persecuted Brethren"Rev. Carl Haak(e-mail: Rev. Carl Haak) January 8, 2006; No. 3288 |
Dear
radio friends,
Imprisonment. Torture. Constant
intimidation. Death threats. Bombings of church buildings. Confiscation of homes and possessions. Murder.
To these things many of us are
total strangers. Yet for millions, and that
is no exaggeration of our brothers and sisters who have been purchased in the blood of
Jesus Christ, these things are a daily reality.
North Korea. Somalia. Iran. China. Myanmar. Nigeria. Saudi
Arabia. Eritrea. Moldavia. Christians
are killed, sentenced to jail or labor camps, confined in shipping containers, women
raped, families torn apart because they confess faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, as
the only Savior of sinners. Their
experience is to live under the gnawing fear of unprovoked attacks, of vulnerability. Their lives are at peril for Jesus’ sake.
In light of the disparity
between their experience and our experience, is there any duty that we as children of God
have today? Yes. God says in Hebrews 13:3, “Remember them that
are in bonds [or in prison], as bound [imprisoned] with them; and them which suffer
adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”
Remember them, carry them in prayer to God. Do
not walk away. Do not go back into our
luxurious and thing-orientated life. But let
our prayers bear them up daily before the throne of God.
Remember them for our own good and our need.
Have we, as Christians in
western civilization, lost sight of what it means to be a child of God? Is being a child of God about fun, possessions? Does being a Christian have to be easy, popular? Do the children of the church know what it is to
be a Christian? Do young people know? Remember the persecuted church! Or, despite all the orthodoxy that might be
claimed by us, we will become disconnected from what it means to be a child of God on the
earth.
The apostle Paul, in Hebrews, is
writing to converted Jews against whom there has been unleashed a violent persecution by
their former friends and parents. The
unbelieving Jews saw the Christians as attacking Moses and perverting the temple. And this persecution was intense. The apostle Paul writes of it in this epistle. Under the pressure of that persecution a few of
the Hebrew Christians were turning back and apostatizing, giving up their faith in Christ. Others were being tempted to do so. The apostle writes, urging them to cling to Jesus
Christ in persevering faith. He pulls them
with the promises of God. He says to them
thirteen times in the epistle that there are better things in Christ: better heaven, better promises, better sacrifice. He pushes them from behind saying,
“Don’t go back. Look at the
judgments that await those who go back from faith in Christ.”
And then, in chapter 13, he
brings a closing exhortation. He says,
“Let brotherly love continue.” But
he does not leave it in generalities. He
brings it down to the specifics. How are we
to continue in brother love? He says in verse
2: “Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers: for thereby some have entertained
angels unawares.” Because of the
persecution, believers were being uprooted and scattered.
And Paul says, “Open your heart and your door to them.” And then he says, “This is how brotherly love
continues: Remember them that are imprisoned,
as in prison with them. Remember the
persecuted brethren.”
As we sit today, perhaps, in our
comfortable homes and church, we are called to remember those around the world who, for
Christ’s sake, are imprisoned and evilly treated.
The Word of God says, “Remember them that are in bonds,” right
now. The Word of God was not written just for
a time in the past. It was written for today,
for you and for me.
Many are imprisoned, in bonds. They are confined in mental hospitals in Saudi
Arabia, in shipping containers in Eritrea, in labor camps in North Korea. Paul knew what it was to be imprisoned. He knew the shame that was associated with it. He himself said in II Corinthians 11 that he was
in prison frequently. The Hebrew Christians
knew many of their brothers and sisters who were imprisoned. Some of them had been in prison. The apostle says, “Remember them. And remember those who suffer adversity, or,
literally, who are ill-treated.” A wide
range — from torture, to the loss of property, to threats upon their life, when the
fury of the world rises up against a confession of God’s people in Jesus Christ, when
the fury of the world comes against the Christian for no other reason than that they are
attached to Jesus Christ by faith. Remember
what the Lord said: “For My sake ye
shall be hated of all men. The servant,”
He said, “is not above his Lord.” There
was, and is, a great, swelling persecution, a hatred always against those who would
confess the name of Jesus Christ. Remember
that!
The word “remember”
means to consider, with a view to responding appropriately.
The idea is not, let this flash like a billboard on your mind as you are going down
the highway and then quickly out of your mind. Do
not think about this as you page through the magazine and look at the various ads. But stop and consider, remember. The Bible says, “Remember the Sabbath
Day.” What does that mean? Look at the calendar and say that it is Sunday? No. It
means: respond appropriately. So, remember those who are imprisoned now, today,
for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Today there are more Christians
who, throughout the world, are being horribly treated and imprisoned for Jesus Christ than
there are Reformed Christians in western Michigan. In
October 2005, fifty pastors in a providence in China were arrested and interrogated,
beaten, in an effort to crack down on the house churches and drive the church underground. In Eritrea, 1,700 Christians were held in camps
and shipping containers because they met for prayer and worship against the law of that
Muslim country. In North Korea, ranked for
three years in a row as #1 by the Voice of the Martyrs (an organization that ranks the
various nations in their opposition to the Christian church), Christians are literally
living and hiding in caves and holes in the earth. In
Somalia, three converts died as a result of beatings because of their faith in Jesus
Christ, and other believers fled. In
Afghanistan, five were killed for abandoning Islam and spreading Christianity. Remember them!
Remember them as your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
That is very plain from the Word
of God itself in our text. Remember them as
bound with them. That is especially
plain from the controlling exhortation of Hebrews 13:1:
“Let brotherly love continue…remember them that are imprisoned and
ill-treated.” They are our brothers. God underscores the truth of the universal body of
Jesus Christ taken from every nation, people, race, and color. The extension of the church is beyond our own
local congregation, beyond our own denomination, beyond the State of Michigan, beyond the
United States, beyond, far beyond, whom we know.
The Apostles’ Creed says, “I believe an holy catholic (or universal)
church, the communion of saints.” All
those who have been set aside by God’s election, united to Jesus Christ, forgiven in
His blood, confessing one Lord and one faith — the church consists of the number of
the elect gathered from all nations and in all times.
It is much more than I know of. God
does. God knows each one. And He tells me today in His Word, “Remember
those who, this day, are sealing their confession of Me with their blood.”
The universal church extends to
all who confess the Son of God, their Lord and ours, who obey Him, who are saved in His
precious blood. They are our brothers and
sisters.
And when this world and Satan
reach out to touch them and to torture them and to ridicule them and to stamp them out,
they touch us, the body of Christ. Remember
the persecuted brethren.
Remember them because they
encourage us and challenge us in our faith. This
is the apostle’s point. He writes to
Christians who are being tempted to apostatize, Christians who are tempted to compromise. He holds up the persecuted church as an incentive
to our faith. He has written that glorious
chapter (Hebrews 11) on the heroes of faith. Why
was that written? Why was that glorious
chapter on the heroes, the portraits of the heroes of faith, written? It was written to motivate us, that “with
that great cloud of witnesses,” he says in Hebrews 12, “we might run the
race.” It is to encourage us in our
faith. Paul is saying to the Hebrew
Christians, and thus to us, “Now look here. Every
type of difficulty and fear has been cast upon the lot of God’s people in the past. Come on, now,” he says. “You are experiencing a little problem
because of your confession of Christ? As a
mother in the store, you get some stares because you have four, five, six kids with you? You are experiencing a little rejection on the job
— perhaps you are not getting the promotion because of your confession of
Jesus?” The apostle says, “You
have not yet resisted to blood. What are you
complaining about? Look to Jesus and remember
those who have gone before you, and those who today are ill-treated. Remember the persecuted church.”
Do we have that kind of
attachment? Do you who hear me today have
that kind of attachment to Jesus Christ? Does
the frown of the world wilt you? Is the
bottom line for you possessions and fun and ease and parties and booze and sex? And you call yourself a Christian?
This Word of God encourages us
because the persecuted brethren today are of the same frail human nature that we are. They are of like passions. They stand because of God’s faithfulness. You say, “Lord, I’m a scaredy-cat. Lord, what would I do if I were persecuted?” The persecuted brethren shout to us of the power
of God’s grace.
A nine-year old boy in Pakistan
witnessed militant Muslims kill his mother and four brothers and sisters. They did not kill him but took him prisoner in the
hope of making him a Muslim. They threatened
him, saying, “You must say there is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his
prophet.” He would not. He said, “I am a Christian.” They burned him and left him for dead. They maimed him for life. How could he do that?
If we are left to ourselves, we
could not stand. But the power of grace works
within the child of God. Remember your
brethren. Can you stand for your faith in a
Christian high school — when someone hands you a CD of music that is not chaste but
is ungodly? Are you afraid to be called a few
names in the locker room because you will not go along with the sexual jokes? What will we do if we stand before the flames of
fire for the confession of Jesus Christ?
Parents, do we support the
causes of God’s kingdom financially? Do
we give, both out of our abundance and out of our poverty, for the causes of God’s
kingdom? If not, what will we do when we are
threatened with the confiscation of all our property?
Remember the persecuted church.
Remember them, not from a
detached distance, soon forgetting them, saying, “Too bad.” But remember them as being one with them, as
prisoners with them, as if you were, says the apostle, their fellow prisoner. In Christ we are one with them. In Christ there is the grace of shared experience
of the life of Christ. We read in I
Corinthians 12:26, “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with
it.” “Weep with those who
weep,” the apostle says. By that grace
of God, step into their experience. Allow
yourself to feel what it is like to be ripped away from your husband or your wife, to have
your children taken from you, your home confiscated, put into a cell with rough men,
treated vilely. What would that be like? You can do that if you want to. Do not turn your mind to soft playthings now. But pause and put yourself in prison with them. Let brotherly love continue. How? Empathize
with those who are bound, as if you are bound with them.
“And them which suffer
adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”
There are many different interpretations of that phrase. John Calvin, the great expositor, says that this
refers to the body of Jesus Christ. Of
course, this is true in itself. But I believe
the idea is more direct. Let us remember our
persecuted brethren as those who are living in a human body, with all the emotions of fear
and vulnerability. You are in the body. What would it be like to be beaten and clubbed and
intimidated and threatened and ridiculed? You
have a body with nerve endings. You need food
and sleep. You have emotions. How must we remember? Not detached, not removed, not saying, “Oh,
yes. I suppose they are suffering, maybe,
somewhere out there. But I’m not going
to bother my head about it. A nice dinner and
a nice supper await me today — a comfortable life.”
Remember it in this way: as united with them in Christ, as possessing the
same human body. You have the same love for
your family, the same instincts. Know about
your persecuted brethren. Make it your
business to find out. Pray for your
persecuted brethren. Pray for them that God
keep them faithful. Pray that God maintain
them. Pray that God comfort them. Pray.
Pray for a family in South
Africa (Afrikaans Reformed Church) worshiping behind bars.
A daughter in the congregation distributing the mercies and gifts of Christ —
gang-raped and killed. Aged couples afraid to
go out of their home at night to church. Remember
the saints in Algeria and in the Sudan. Remember
your persecuted brethren.
Boys and girls in the Sudan have
had their hands chopped off because they would not deny Christ. Girls in Myanmar have been taken and not seen
again. Vietnam ranks as the third worst
nation in its opposition and persecution of Christianity.
Remember.
Remember them because, as I
said, it forcefully reminds us what it means to be a child of God in this world. It means suffering for Jesus’ sake. Christianity is not fun and games. It is not being like everyone else in the world,
only we go to heaven in the end. But
Christianity is Christ. It is attachment and
it is devotion and it is obedience to Him. And
He said that would come only with the ridicule and scorn and hatred of those who hate Him. Read your Bible.
You cannot miss this unless you want to miss it.
The Lord warned His disciples repeatedly (Matt. 10:16-34; 24:9, 10; John 15:20;
16:33; Rom. 8:17, 18; Heb. 11; and on and on).
What was the origin of
Christianity? What was Christianity in its
origin? We read in Acts 8 that there arose a
great persecution. The Christians were thrown
into the Coliseum and lived in the catacombs of Rome.
What is Christianity in its future? For
the faithful church of Jesus Christ, you cannot miss that.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:21, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was
not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be.” Christianity in its origin and in its future is
persecution.
We have been living in abnormal
times. The devil has his purpose for this
— so that, in the midst of all this prosperity, we might lose sight of what it means
to be a child of God, so that we, as Christians, begin to think that life is what the
world thinks life is: possessions, fun, good
times, sex, and booze.
Remember your persecuted
brethren, in order that you might remember that the kingdom of Jesus Christ is all about
pardon from sin. It is all about God and
righteousness and suffering for Jesus’ sake. Our
hope is above. Our life in Christ is not
something that you find in the shopping malls. Our
joy in God is not something that goes down your throat.
Our peace is not something that the world offers.
But it is pardon from the King of kings and Lord of lords. And it is suffering for His sake. Without remembering the persecuted brethren we
will not be preparing our children for what the reality of the Christian life is. We will not be preparing them for being lampooned
and misrepresented.
Remember the persecuted
brethren, because the persecuted brethren loudly tell us today of the preciousness of
Jesus Christ. Is there someone who, when you
have Him, you have all? Is there someone who
is better than the world and ten thousand more? Is
there someone so precious that, having Him, you would be willing to let everything else go
— goods and kindred, money and possessions — you would be willing to let them go
as a little thing — home and name and health and even your dearest family? Is there someone so precious, someone for whom we
would endure such horrible things? Is there
someone that valuable? Yes. Yes, and even more so. For unto you who believe, Jesus Christ is
precious.
Remember the persecuted
brethren. Remember what it means to be a
child of God in this world.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank Thee for Thy
Word. Now, O Lord, we lift up our prayers to
Thee, the great God and Savior of the church. Known
unto Thee are all of Thy children. Be near
unto those who suffer for Thy sake, who endure the loss of family and possessions and life
itself, who are imprisoned and evilly entreated because they have confessed, by Thy grace,
the name of God the Son, Jesus Christ, as the only Savior.
Bear each one of them up. Grant that
the cause of the truth throughout the world may be advanced and Thy church built and
gathered. And give us now in lands of luxury
and ease to be reminded that all who would follow Jesus Christ by a true and living faith
must expect the rejection of this present world and the hope of that better world that is
to come. And may Jesus Christ, above all
things, be precious to us. In His name we
pray, Amen.