“The Glory of Persecution”

“The Glory of Persecution”

Scripture text: Acts 8:1-13
(The first of a series on Acts 8)

Persecution of the Christian Church seems to have become a mark of our faith. It began during Christ’s lifetime, and has continued, nearly unabated, throughout the centuries, and is still very active, very pervasive, even today. And why not? Our Lord and Master suffered persecution in all of its many forms, so why shouldn’t we? In Mark’s gospel, the 8th chapter, we find Jesus telling his disciples about future events that they would see as extremely unpleasant, to say the least! And when my good friend Peter tries to get the Lord to tone down the rhetoric, he tells every follower within hearing distance “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

And there are many other passages that should be preparing us for discrimination and maltreatment by the world, but how many should we need? If we don’t listen to one, will we believe any of others?

Read Acts 8:1-3

Saul had just witnessed the stoning of Stephen, and it had inspired him to start his own vendetta against the fledgling sect that followed the Way of Christ. And was he ever inspired! Believers were dragged off to prison to face interrogation, torture, and even death, simply because they steadfastly refused to give up their new found faith. He started in Jerusalem, and quickly spread his brand of purification to the surrounding countryside.
And the hysteria that surrounded these attacks was based on lies and half truths and unsubstantiated rumors. If the people had known the reality of Christ’s Way, there would have been far more conversions and far fewer attacks.

Wayne Rice tells a story from the early church in the years before Constantine. Roman officials were ignorant of the actual teachings and practices of true Christians, and often acted out of bigotry, fear and misinformation. They assumed that the growing Christian church operated along the same lines as the pagan religions.
One emperor, coveting the wealth these Christians must surely possess, summoned the archbishop to his palace and ordered him to produce “the treasures of the church.”
The bishop protested that the church had no gold, jewels or other valuables (which was true at this point in history). But the emperor brushed aside his objection, and demanded that the riches of the church be brought to him in the morning.
The next day the bishop dutifully appeared at the palace doorway, empty-handed. “I told you to bring me the treasures of the church!” raged the emperor.
The bishop then invited the emperor to look out at the palace steps. Gathered together, peering sheepishly at the great doors of the royal palace rising above them, was a mass of common people including ragged beggars, cripples, slaves, and outcasts.
With a sweep of his arm, the bishop said, “These are the treasures of the church.”
—Harry W. Hughes, “Laborers for the harvest,” January 12, 2003, Lewes Presbyterian Church Web Site, lewestoday.com.
- Homeletics
Few have ever learned that lesson – not then and not now. They prefer to believe the lies, and live out their lives hating and fighting against the Church, and they miss discovering the “treasure” of God.

Read Acts 8:4-8

And what does it accomplish? In this particular instance, the church scattered, but went undeterred! They were no longer contained in a small, easy to control area – now they had begun spread out to Samaria – fertile ground for the new faith, and eventually the faithful would carry the message of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth! They still had to deal with the Romans, it’s true, but they saw great opportunities where others might only see road blocks.

The faithful preached the truth of Christ wherever they went, and didn’t worry about secular authority. They didn’t try to get Rome, or the Jewish authorities for that matter, to endorse them or to tolerate them. They didn’t water down the gospel to make it more palatable and politically correct. They didn’t pray for calmer days (or at least we never hear of anyone offering such a prayer!), and they never tried to avoid the angry crowds. These were opportunities to share the gospel.

As late as the eve of the American Revolution, Leo Pfeffer writes, Baptist preachers in Virginia were whipped, arrested, fined, and imprisoned on bread and water for preaching a theology deviating from that of established Anglicanism (God, Caesar and the Constitution [Boston: Beacon Press, 1975]), 9).
Virginia Baptist itinerant John Leland was one of those persecuted, so he was writing from first-hand experience when he said:
“Persecution, like a lion, tears the saints to death, but leaves Christianity pure; state establishment of religion, like a bear, hugs the saints, but corrupts Christianity.”
- Homeletics

We need more of John’s kind in the church today. We must not be concerned with our personal safety if it could possibly lead to perversion of the faith. The church today is, unfortunately, far too concerned with preservation of the status quo, and no where near excited enough about sharing the gospel with everyone they meet! The pot of secular society needs a good stirring! And I believe this because we have recently been told that America is no longer a Christian nation (even though polls reveal that up to 70% of the country identifies with Christianity), but that we just might be a Muslim state.

Does everyone have a big stirring spoon with them? If not, get one!

Read Acts 8:9-13

Philip was a stirrer! He wasn’t preaching from hearsay, he wasn’t reading someone else’s prepared text, he wasn’t witnessing by rote, and he definitely didn’t water down the message. Philip was ministering to the people with what he knew was certain – that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that no one else is the truth of God.

Years ago, in a central European town, or so the story goes, the older townspeople could be seen making the sign of the cross as they passed by a certain ordinary- looking wall. When a visitor asked why they were doing this, no one knew.
The visitor's curiosity led him to begin chipping away at the layers of whitewash and dirt covering the wall until, underneath, he discovered a beautiful mural of Mary and the child Jesus. Generations before, the townspeople had had a reason for making the sign of the cross, but succeeding generations had only learned the ritual. They continued to go through the motions without knowing the reason.
This is the danger we face every Christmas and every Easter and every Sunday morning, going through the motions without ever knowing why.
- Homeletics

We can’t fear the ignorant responses of others. We can’t avoid the hateful rhetoric that beats down the faithful every day someplace in the world. We can’t take our faith for granted. Hatred and pain and disappointment and failure and even death in this life will end, but the Lord’s judgment that awaits us in the next will be eternal and will never end. And we must never compromise our belief in Jesus Christ just because someone else thinks we have deviated from some line, some arbitrary point of political correctness.

Will we rejoice in the glory of the world’s persecution, or will we try to hedge our bets, looking for an easier time now and hoping for a merciful sentence later?
Will you decide to save your life now, only to loose it later, or will you make the decision that this life is only temporary, and place your entire hope in the eternity of Christ Jesus?

My friends, Philip, and many others throughout the ages, never hesitated and never compromised. They never saw the world’s persecution as a final sentence – only as a feeble attempt to delay God’s Glory, and each one of them chose the glory. May it be so with us.