So Send I You Series: Be At Peace
Scripture: John 15:18-19; 16:1-2
Twenty-one young men, - the oldest was 42 - forced onto a beach in Libya, and brutally murdered - for no other crime than their faith in Jesus Christ. People of the Cross. Martyred.
Saeed Abedini, an American citizen - a pastor who wanted nothing more than to help his people, in Iran to build orphanages, arrested and given a jail sentence of 8 years in the worst prison in the country. Tortured and mocked. His only crime - faith in Jesus Christ, and wanting to help orphaned children.
Wednesday this week, a 14 year old boy succumbs to the wounds of his burned body, and dies. 55% of his body was burned when two young men douse him with oil and set him ablaze - why - because when asked if he believed in Jesus, he said yes.
Listen to the Word of the Lord:
Jeremiah 6:14, “They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when there is no peace.”
Jeremiah 8:11, “They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when there is no peace.”
Ezekiel 13:10, “These evil prophets deceive my people by saying, ‘All is peaceful’ when there is no peace at all!
Hani
Hani loved his four children -- three girls and a boy, the youngest -- more than anything in the world, his family says. He was gentle and kind, always making a joke whenever he could. His wife Magda Aziz, 29, will forever remember his laugh.
"I felt like he was an angel," Magda said of her deeply devout husband. "There was a prayer in anything he said."
Hani desperately wanted to come home after eight months laboring in Libya. He was sick and tired of the relentless violence and the constant threat of kidnapping. But leaving was a difficult choice. There was money in Libya, unlike in Al Aour, money that he needed to support Magda and his children. But he finally decided to come home to his family, she said. He was killed before he ever got a chance to leave.
"He took care of all of us," Magda explains, weakly. The women around her nod in unison, passing around a faded photograph of the smiling father with his little boy.
"He was so kind," Magda says. "He gave us hugs and kisses.”
Magda will never forget the last conversation she had with her husband. He called on New Year's wanting to speak with each of his children. The couple exchanged tender words. He asked if she wanted or needed anything -- he would try to get it to her, whatever it was. She remembers saying, "I want you safe." And he asked her to pray for him. She never heard from Hani again.
When she saw the video of his beheading on Egyptian television, her family cried so hard that she says neighbors called an ambulance. She doesn't talk much about how she feels now, apart from the fact that she's still in shock.
"I miss him," she says with a whisper.
Her three daughters sit around her, clinging to their mother. The oldest girl begins to weep as the younger two stare off, unable to comprehend the grief around them.
"Your dad is in the sky," a relative says, hoping to console the little girl. "He's in the heavens.”
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/18/isis-christians-killed-_n_6703278.html, accessed April 16, 2015, 7:36 a.m.)
How can I stand before you today and preach a message of peace after sharing these stories? Would I be just like those false prophets in the Old Testament, saying to you, “Peace, peace,” when it seems like there is no peace. Certainly not for these men. Thirteen of the 21 martyrs were from the same village as Hani. All went to work in Libya to support their families.
And these men are OUR family - they are our brothers. Blood brothers. Bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. We're the same family. And they are being murdered, and tortured, persecuted in ways we can only imagine - martyred because they held to their faith in Jesus Christ.
I wonder, are you at all like me? Do you sometimes lay awake at night, thinking about the persecution, and fear that you might not have the courage? Do you, like me, tremble just a little at the thought that if someone put a gun to your head, or a knife to your neck, that you MIGHT NOT have the courage to hold to your faith in Jesus Christ.
We SAY we believe in Him. We SAY we love Him. We SING - He is our ALL in ALL.
But is He enough? If we were given the choice to renounce our faith in Jesus Christ, or have our head cut off - what would we choose?
It scares me. It scares me that after preaching Jesus Christ, crucified, risen and coming again, for 18 years, that if the day should come for ME to make that choice, I might fold under the pressure. My love for this life might be so great, my peace might be so shattered - that I would crumble. And 18 years of preaching - and almost a lifetime of professing faith in Jesus Christ, would be for nothing. I’d blow it, one last time.
Do those things ever cross your mind? Or is it just me? See, I love my life. I love being here with you. I love my husband. I love the fun we had right here - in this place, these last two days, sewing and talking and getting to know each other better. I LOVE life! THIS life! It’s a blessing from God - from the One I SAY I would die for.
But would I.
Jesus said, “I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27).
Yousef
Yousef was a quiet young man with the heart of a child, his family says. All he wanted to do was find a job and start a family.
But after leaving the army after high school, there were few job prospects. He couldn't live the life he wanted, his mother, Theresa, recalls, sitting in her home surrounded by family.
But the Libyan border wasn't too far, and many men before Yousef had gone to work there already. He decided to leave Egypt. His mother begged him not to go, but he wouldn't listen. She says that his faith gave him the courage to go to Libya in the face of danger. "I have one God, he's the same here and there," she remembers Yousef saying.
A steady stream of women walk into the room, all dressed in black. They reach out to comfort the grieving mother.
"He's a martyr," she says, holding her cross close to her heart. "I know he's in a better place."
Everyone in the family looked up to Yousef. His sister says he was curious and always in good spirits, despite the family's hard circumstances.
His older brother, Shenouda, 27, the middle brother of four, says he was always proud of him.
"He lived according to the book," he said, holding a photo of Yousef as a young soldier. "I can't remember something he did wrong."
Yousef always joked with Shenouda to hurry up and get married so it could be his turn. He was saving up to support a family.
The last time the family spoke with Yousef was when he called on New Year's. "I told him I'd pray for him," she remembers. "I said: 'May God make your life easier.'"
Theresa refused to watch the video showing her son beheaded. But her other son says he made himself watch it.
"I saw that he had strength in his last moments," the 27-year-old man said, insisting that there was a heavenly light shining on his brother's face, even after he was decapitated. "And that consoled me.”
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/18/isis-christians-killed-_n_6703278.html, accessed April 16, 2015, 7:36 a.m.)
“I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27).
Jesus said: “Be . . . At . . . Peace.”
We live in an age of martyrs. Not too many years ago, we couldn’t have said that. And certainly never thought I would see it in my liftetime - and certainly not to the scale it is at now. But the time has come, and we are living in an age when our brothers and sisters are being persecuted and martyred for the cause of Christ.
We are living in the days of Revelation 14 when “God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying his commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus.”
We are living in the days that Matthew described when nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. (24:7)
And Jesus said, “. . .don’t be troubled or afraid.”
How do we live untroubled and unafraid in the middle of all this? Do these stories make it personal for us, or . . .
Do we console ourselves with the fact that it’s happening on the other side of the world? Do we tell ourselves, “This is America! It could never happen here!”
I do both of those things. When my faith is at its weakest. When those 21 orange jumpsuits parade across my mind. When I get an update from Naghmeh about her husband, Saeed. I console myself with the fact that it is not MY husband who is in prison. It’s not happening on MY side of the world - in my country.
And then I hear the Holy Spirit gently whisper, “Isn’t it?”
“Are you not part of my Body?” And when ANY part of our body dies or gets hurt, don’t we FEEL it?
And Jesus said:
“I’m leaving you with a gift. Peace.”
Peace doesn’t come from the fact that it’s not happening to us. Because it is.
Peace doesn’t come from the fact that we live in the greatest country in the world. Because we don’t.
Peace comes from one place, and one place alone.
“Be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus wouldn’t have had to say those words if he knew we were going to live a comfortable life and then just move right on up into heaven.
No. He said, the world will hate you, because it hated me first.
(John 16:2) - “the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God.”
Why did he warn us? Why did he leave us the gift of peace? Not so we would feel good. Not so we would be okay - like I’m okay, you’re okay. So we won’t abandon the faith.
When the risk is at it’s highest. When we’re in danger of losing our faith, that’s when he says, “don’t be troubled or afraid - be at peace.”
And he told us these things - so that when the time comes, we won’t abandon the faith. (John 16:1)
Yousef’s words live on, “I have one God. He’s the same here and there.”
Peace becomes real in our lives when we:
Understand it in our mind and heart
Jesus said, I am leaving you a gift - peace of mind AND heart. It’s not something we just give intellectual assent. And it’s not just something we feel. It’s heart and mind. It’s faith AND reason. And that’s why Jesus said what he did.
2. Know He is with us always
Jesus also said, to BE SURE - in other words KNOW, that “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” To the end of THIS age. To the end of YOUR age. Be sure - he is with you. Even when we don’t acknowledge his presence, he’s there. Even when a child dies. He’s there. Even when husbands, brothers, and sons are decapitated, he’s there.
3. Believe in One God - He’s the same here and there
One of our contemporary martyrs of the Christian faith, Yousef Shoukry said, “I have one God - he’s the same here, meaning Egypt, as he is there, meaning Libya.
The God who dwells in you during church on Sunday morning, is the same God who dwells in you at work on Monday.
The God who dwells in his people in the United States of America, is the same God who takes the insults of the prison guards in the worst prison is Iran.
The God who sees the sparrow fall, is the same God who bows his head as it is severed from its neck, only to look up in the twinkling of an eye into the eyes of the One who also gave His life for them.
Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into my rest.
Be at peace.
Today I’m wearing orange. There are orange ribbons for you. It’s not a gimmick. It’s not a fad. It’s a step of faith, declaring that we are standing with our persecuted blood brothers and sisters, and we are praying for them.
Sing: Peace, peace, wonderful peace.
Pray
