(Show video clip for International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.)
It wasn’t long after the church’s first Pentecost that the first follower of Christ was martyred for his faith. With furious opponents gathered around him, Stephen “looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God.” (Acts 7:55) He was stoned to death. The battle was begun.
In the first few centuries after Christ, persecution of Christians was not systematic, but if they were accused, they were required to recant. It was not hard to escape punishment. All they had to do was deny Christ.
(My resource for the following accounts of persecution in the early centuries of the church is Gonzalez, Justo, The Story of Christianity, Volume 1, HarperSanFrancisco, 1984.)
In the year 155 A.D., Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna was arrested. The proconsul tried to persuade him to recant and save himself. Surely given his advanced age it would be better for him to avoid torture and death. All he had to do was worship the emperor. Why be so stubborn? The bishop answered, “For eighty-six years I have served Christ, and he has done me no evil. How could I curse my king, who saved me?” He was burned at the stake.
If someone denied Christ, the authorities could use that to weaken the faith of others. At the same time, for every believer that did not deny Christ but faced death instead, many others would come to faith.
Writing in Carthage towards the close of the second century, a church theologian named Tertullian put it this way: “The more you mow us down, the more in numbers we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.”
In the third century, conversion to Christianity was outlawed, and persecution intensified. More than ever, the goal of the authorities was not dead Christians, but apostate Christians. (Apostate means that they turned their backs on their faith, on their God.) The authorities tried everything to get them to recant, to curse Christ and accept the official religion of the empire.
In 202 A.D., five young people, some of them teenagers, who were in training and preparation for baptism were arrested—three men and two women. The father of one of the young women tried to persuade her to save her life by abandoning her faith. She answered that, just as everything has a name and it is useless to try to give it a different name, she had the name of Christian and this could not be changed. After a long, drawn-out trial, in which they all continued to stand firm, all five were thrown to the beasts in the arena.
The battle continued.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you. No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:18-20)
In 1 Peter, the writer tells the believers scattered throughout Asia Minor, “do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” (1 Peter 4:12-14)
In about 170 A.D., a widow named Felicitas and her seven sons stood before the authorities in Rome. In response to promises and threats, Felicitas told the prefect that he was wasting his time, for “while I live, I shall defeat you; and if you kill me, in my death I shall defeat you all the more.” She and her sons were taken to different parts of the city and executed.
The video clip showed a Hispanic woman who faced persecution with very much the same attitude. “They tortured our pastor and the rest of the church. They came and killed them. They told us we couldn’t pray or worship God. … I told them, if you kill me I will be with Jesus. If you want to kill me or let me live…it’s not important, I win.”
What an amazing attitude! Can you imagine being so confident of victory? Can you imagine looking your potential executioner in the eye and boldly stating, “Kill me or let me live. It doesn’t matter. Either way, I win. Either way, I have already won.” Can you imagine?
The video clip of persecuted Christians around the world invites us to imagine just that.
Do you remember the elderly Chinese woman? She and other believers gathered in a secret hole in the ground to worship. They whispered their songs to God. They knew that what they were doing might bring retribution. Still they did it. Still they gathered. Still they sang. Still they worshiped. Can you imagine?
Do you remember the young African man? When the soldiers came, he and his brothers and sisters in Christ, old and young alike, ran. They ran and ran until they could run no more. As fires raged, they were caught. The young man remembers: “I was told I would be placed in the fire and burned. I said, “‘Kill me if you like…I will not deny Jesus.’” Can you imagine?
The accounts of early Christians who faced flogging and crucifixion and burning and beasts in the arena invite us to imagine just that.
Can you imagine being so confident of victory? Can you imagine looking your potential executioner in the eye and boldly stating, “Kill me or let me live. It doesn’t matter. Either way, I win. Either way, I have already won.” Can you imagine?
The Bible itself invites us to imagine just that.
In Galatians, Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 3:20)
In Philippians: “I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me [Paul is talking about his imprisonment] will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:18-21)
In Colossians: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:3-4)
In 1 Thessalonians: “Christ died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep [alive or dead], we may live together with him.” (1 Thessalonians 5:10)
In Romans: “For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” (Romans 14:7-8)
In 1 Corinthians: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
We belong to Christ. Those who have placed their trust in Christ and have been baptized into the body, belong to Christ. I am not my own. You are not your own. We belong to Christ. In baptism, we died to our old life and began life anew. We have died, and now our lives are hidden with Christ in God. Whether we live or die, we belong to Christ and have fellowship with him. That fellowship that began when we came to faith is not ended with death. On the contrary, that fellowship is made more perfect after we die!
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)
This is one of the reasons that a widow in Rome in the second century and a Hispanic woman in this century could both stand before their persecuters and say, “It doesn’t matter what you do with me. Live or die, I win.” Can you imagine?
The fellowship with Jesus that began when we came to faith is not ended with death. On the contrary, that fellowship is made more perfect after we die!
But there’s more. This confidence and boldness comes also from an assurance that what lies ahead is far better than anything that we know here on earth.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
“Light and momentary troubles”? This statement comes right on the heels of Paul talking about being hard pressed and perplexed and persecuted and struck down. Somehow Paul takes all that in stride and calls them “light and momentary troubles”. Can you imagine?
Paul can imagine it because in comparison with the eternal glory that awaits believers in heaven, these troubles are nothing.
Jesus gave his followers a wonderful promise, a promise from his own lips, a promise we can cling to, a promise that gives us courage as well as comfort. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)
John describes his vision of the new heaven in Revelation: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. [The sea represents chaos and all that is frightening—there will be no more sea.] I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)
Can you imagine?
The fellowship with Jesus that began when we came to faith is not ended with death. On the contrary, that fellowship is made more perfect after we die!
Fix your eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
