City Life Starter

The Word

“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,

Exegesis

Jesus never sugarcoated what it meant to be a Christian and to follow Him. This is very unlike some churches and pastors in the U.S. that makes Christianity into a “feel good” religion that if you follow Jesus you are blessed and nothing can go wrong. This leads to where their congregation cannot face a terrible trial or they end up falling away from Christianity. They don’t hear the words of Jesus and fail to realize the significance behind why Jesus spoke this way to His disciples the night before His death.

Ten of the eleven remaining disciples(after Judas Iscariot’s betrayal) ended up being martyred for their beliefs. Christianity for 300 years after Jesus’ death, until the Roman Emperor Constantinople, were hunted down and killed for their faith in Jesus. Even the first immigrants to the U.S. were populated by protestant groups that faced persecution in their home countries.

The disciples had to deal with Jews who killed Christians as a “service for God’. Paul(Saul) being one of them as he would hunt Christians in Jerusalem before being converted on the road to Damascus. We read this and assume that this was in the past, but we don’t understand that Christianity is the most persecuted religion today. Why is that? It is simply because Christians won’t stop preaching about their risen Savior. That offends people, but it also changes the lives of others significantly.

Application

Today we hear stories of Christian martyrs killed throughout the world and feel numb to it all because of our quiet lives in the U.S. Stories where they have to choose between following Jesus and risk death, torture, and/or prison or turn away from their faith. They will read John 15 and 16 and hold the words of Jesus close to their heart as they refuse to turn away. They understand what their Savior had to go through and they gladly choose to suffer for His sake.

In the meantime, we sit here in the U.S. and deal with persecution or trials that doesn’t lead to death, torture, and/or prison and get upset with God that somehow our lives aren’t perfect for following Him.

Instead, let us gladly take on any trials or tribulations for speaking out in faith. Let us not worry about what others may say. We have a Savior, a King, that sits on the heavenly thrown, and we will all live with Him in joyous celebration as our time on this earth ends.

John wrote about what he saw in the book of Revelation regarding the end times. He writes:

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰ They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” ¹¹ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

Revelation 6:9-11

Are you willing to suffer for what you believe? Are you more worried what someone can do to your body instead of worrying about your soul? Do you believe that God will bring judgment on this earth one day?

Pray for God to give you courage each day to bring others into repentance no matter the cost, and to preach the gospel message to all that will listen. Persecution will come if you follow Jesus, it just takes on different forms for each person.