|
|
Sunday Sermons
Sermon: 11-18-07
Pastor Phil Lee
Title: "An Opportunity to Testify"
Text: Luke 21:5-19
Theme: Hardship and persecution offer us an opportunity to bear witness to our faith.
Introduction
I remember many campfires at Bible camps and youth retreats as I was growing up – Lutherwood here in Washington, Westminster Woods in Sonoma County, California, and Sky Ranch in the Colorado Rockies, to name just a few. With the sparks flying up and the occasional "shooting star" trailing across the sky, we would sing and testify to God’s grace and our faith in Jesus Christ. They were thoughtful and emotional moments, when we put aside normal teenage stuff like rebellion, sarcasm, and being cool, and we spoke to what was deepest in us.
In today’s Gospel – Lk.21 – this is what Jesus our Savior calls us to do. Jesus even says that the tough times in our lives will be opportune moments for his followers to testify to what is deepest in us.
Point
Today’s Gospel – Lk.21 – is from one of the last occasions that Jesus taught in the Temple. Here, Jesus foretold the destruction of the Temple – an event that took place 40 years in the future, when Roman legions surrounded the city. In Jesus’ time, people were concerned about when the world would end, and what signs would indicate "this is about to take place." And Jesus began to answer, in terms drawn from prophetic books, but he added that "the end will not follow immediately."
Then Jesus turned his attention to issues that mattered most, especially the treatment his followers would receive from their enemies, and how they should react to it. Jesus told his followers that they would be treated as he has been: they would be accused of heresy in "synagogues" and be brought before civil courts. But, Jesus also assured them that those occasions would be "an opportunity to testify."
Jesus continued, in very candid terms, telling his disciples that following him would bring suffering in the forms of betrayal and hatred. But, he also promised that their perseverance would gain them eternal life.
The lives of the early Christians are a compelling testimony to us today. What caused them to go everywhere telling the good news of the risen Christ? Were there any visible benefits for their efforts – prestige, wealth, increased social status or material benefits – that might explain their actions, their wholehearted allegiance to the "risen Christ"? No, there were no material benefits!
As a reward for their efforts, the early Christians were beaten, stoned to death, thrown to the lions, tortured, and crucified. Every conceivable method was used to stop them from talking. Yet, they laid down their lives as the ultimate proof of their complete confidence in the truth of their message.
It has been rightly said that they went through the test of death to determine the genuineness of their faith. And it’s important to remember that initially the disciples didn’t even believe. But once convinced – in spite of their doubts – they were never to doubt again that Christ was raised from the dead.
Several centuries later, the great Church father, Augustine, added his testimony to the growing list of believers: "We should have no doubt that our mortal flesh also will rise again at the end of the world," he wrote. "This is the Christian faith. Believe Christ when he says, ‘Not a hair of your head shall perish.’ Putting aside all unbelief, consider how valuable you are. How can our Redeemer despise any person when he cannot despise a hair of that person’s head? How are we going to doubt that he intends to give eternal life to our soul and body? He took on a soul and body in which to die for us, which he laid down for us when he died and which he took up again that we might not fear death."
Problem
Jesus told his followers straight up that they would experience persecution, betrayal, and suffering. And that’s enough to talk almost anyone out of it! So why continue to follow Jesus if that’s the way it’s going to be?! Consequently, many have fallen away, because today there is growing persecution of Christians across the world.
But, we should not point fingers of judgment at those who have fallen away. Instead, we can come along side those folks who are struggling, who are faltering, who are doubting, and point them back to the One who will not fail them. And if that is where you’re at today, listen to what Jesus had to say.
Power
Jesus was so bold as to tell his followers that their difficulty and suffering would be an opportunity to testify. He even counseled them not to prepare or rehearse their response in advance, but that he himself would give them the words and wisdom needed to respond when the time came.
Eighteen years ago the Berlin Wall fell. People in Eastern Europe had endured many painful years of suffering under an oppressive Communist regime and they prayed for freedom for 40 years at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig. Finally, on the night of October 8, 1989, at an opportune moment in history, 70,000 people filled the streets with candles and prayers. It’s been said that the East German government was prepared for everything...everything except for candles and prayers. (James A. Harnish, You’d Better Watch Out, 12-1-96)
If we are going to testify to our faith in Jesus Christ, it will not be a tightly rehearsed, highly coordinated performance of power, but a witness inspired by the Spirit of God in an opportune moment.
That is what people commit to as they sit beside all those Bible camp and retreat campfires singing of God’s gracious love in Jesus Christ – they promise to testify to what is deepest in them.
Listen to one such person, Malcolm Muggeridge, who along with C.S. Lewis, was one of the foremost British Christian writers, and whose testimony has turned many lives toward faith in Jesus Christ. Muggeridge wrote: "I may, I suppose…pass for being, a relatively successful man [with some] fame…It might happen once in a while that something I said or wrote…represented a serious impact on our time – that’s fulfillment. Yet I say to you, and I beg you to believe me, multiply these tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing – less than nothing, a positive impediment – measured against one draught of that living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty, irrespective of who or what they are. What, I ask myself, does life hold, what is there in the works of time, in the past, now, and to come, which could possibly be put in the balance against the refreshment of drinking that [living] water?"
Publicly naming the Name of Jesus Christ is not all that popular these days, especially in the realm of politics. But, to those who are starving, to those who are lost in the fog of doubt, to those who are in despair, our caring, compassionate testimony to the good news of God’s love and salvation in Jesus Christ is living water for the spiritually thirsty.
Conclusion
Finally, then, in today’s Gospel Jesus’ gives us this promise: you will not perish; you will gain life. There’s the possibility even of physical death because we follow Christ, but God is in control, and the ultimate outcome will be eternal victory.
Difficulty and suffering comes to us all. And on occasion, followers of Jesus Christ will experience persecution and hatred. And most would call that a terrible thing, an injustice, something to avoid at all costs. Jesus simply says that it’s "an opportunity to testify…[and] By your endurance you will gain your souls." Amen.
| If you would like more information about our Church's Ministries and/or Department-Committees, please contact our Church Office at 206-244-9400.
|
|
