{"id":513,"date":"2014-06-13T20:32:53","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T20:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/?p=513"},"modified":"2014-10-21T13:12:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T13:12:50","slug":"persecution-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/persecution-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Persecution Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Alan-Dunn-Contributor\"<\/a>Alan Dunn<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is my pleasure to be with you, once again, this year, and to see many familiar faces, to see some new faces, all of them getting older every year. It\u2019s always an encouragement when you see brothers and sisters who are continuing in the way, and they are continuing, as the years past, to follow Jesus Christ, to be faithful, and to serve Him. Serving Christ in our culture, even as Pastor Martinez prayed, is becoming more and more challenging. I hope that the message today will be used by The Holy Spirit to strengthen you, especially you young people who are with us for these meetings. I believe that the days that are before us are growing increasingly challenging for us, to become Bible-believing, Bible-obedient disciples of Jesus Christ. As Paul brings His epistle to the church in Romans to a conclusion, he tries to give them words that will encourage them, and put everything into perspective. We read in Romans chapter 16, at verse 19 and verse 20, \u201cFor the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.\u201d
\n
\nIn verse 19, Paul is encouraged by the reputation that the church of Rome has gained for itself, he is rejoicing that they are walking in the way of wisdom. He encourages them to pursue what is good, and to be innocent, untaught, naive in what is evil. If you live a life of innocence in what is evil, Paul says then in verse 20, that God is going to bring you into conflict with pure evil itself, isn\u2019t that strange? You be innocent in what is evil, as you walk in the way of wisdom, the God of peace is going to take your foot, and put it down in the head of evil itself: Satan. That\u2019s all by the grace of God, and that\u2019s by The God of peace, who says, \u201cYou follow the way of wisdom, and I\u2019m going to bring you into conflict, I\u2019m going to bring you into conflict with Satan himself.\u201d What is Paul thinking? Where does he get this idea of putting your foot down on top of Satan\u2019s head? And why would such a picture be something that would encourage Christians? Well, Paul is making an illusion to something that is way back in the beginning of our Bibles in Genesis chapter 3. There on the occasion of the fall of Adam and Eve, through sin unto death, God now has the serpent, Satan, and the woman and the man, and is asking them questions. He\u2019s arraigning them in His court, and in chapter 3, verse 15, He speaks to the serpent and says, \u201cI will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.\u201d We understand this to be the foundational, prophetic word of the Gospel. Here is the beginning of the light of the Gospel, the dawn\u2019s right at the start of history, and here we understand Jesus to be the promised seed of the woman who would be victorious over Satan. But notice His victory will come through suffering. His heel will be bruised in the midst of crushing the serpent\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

It is the hope that mankind will be given a second Adam, a new man who will rectify and make right the things that the original Adam disobeyed, and in which he brought all things into a curse and into the Fall. So, in this age, we are to understand that we, as Christians and followers of Jesus Christ, are also seen as the seed of the woman; that we are brought into this ancient conflict that has been going on since the beginning of man. Genesis 3:16 gives to us this picture of this war. Satan here is seen as a snake, a serpent, and Paul says if you walk down the path of obedience \u2013Jesus said it\u2019s a straight and it\u2019s a narrow path, it\u2019s the way of faith, it\u2019s the way of obedience\u2013 you walk down that path, and you discover that the path is not paved with gold. The path turns out to be nothing other than the very head of Satan himself. I want you to picture what\u2019s happening here. You\u2019ve got a snake, it\u2019s not one of those little Garter snakes, it\u2019s a sizable serpent. In fact, by the time you get to Revelation chapter 12, this snake has grown into a big dragon, but here it is a snake. There you are in your bare feet, you don\u2019t kick the snake away, but you come upon the serpent and you begin to put your foot down on the serpent\u2019s head, and he senses that your foot is near him; so he turns his head around, opens his mouth and shows his fangs and begins to hiss. That\u2019s snake language for saying, \u201cIf you touch me, I am going to bite you!\u201d You continue to put your foot down into his open mouth, and as you do that his fangs immediately go into your heels. You cry out because it\u2019s painful! The fangs penetrate into your skin, and you look down and immediately see your blood coming out of your heel, and running down over the snake\u2019s face, but you continue to press your heel down through the pain. Now the snake coils itself around your calf, while you have its head pinned against the ground, and the harder you press, the more the fangs go into your heel. But the harder you press you begin to feel that beneath your heel the bones of that snake\u2019s head start to crack, and you begin to realize that his skull is breaking! When you look down, now you see his blood, pressure coming out of his eyes, out of his mouth, and you continue to put your heel down. You hear the snapping sound of bones being crushed, and you see the blood of your heel and the blood coming out of the serpent\u2019s head. Now the fangs are penetrated, and actually rubbing against the bone of your heel. That\u2019s not a very pretty picture, is it? <\/p>\n

You suffer immensely, but you realize that the serpent is killed, the serpent is dying. The serpent is being defeated, the serpent is being crushed, and that\u2019s the picture of this warfare, that\u2019s the picture that Paul brings to the church at the end of his epistle to the Romans. And he says, \u201cHere is the way of wisdom, here is the way of Gospel peace.\u201d The God of peace will put your feet down on this path, it\u2019s not a nice walk on a summer beach. It\u2019s not one of the beaches in the Dominican Republic that you\u2019re walking on. You\u2019re walking on top of the snake itself, and it\u2019s a conflict, and it\u2019s a warfare. I want us to recognize today that we are brought into conflict, and we are told to learn how to fight this warfare in a very peculiar way. We\u2019re to learn how to fight like slaughtered lambs, to fight like Jesus Christ, who overcame by being \u201cobedient unto death, even the death on the cross.\u201d We will see, I believe, times in the life of the church when our witness, our verbal testimony, will no longer be tolerated. We will not be given a platform to speak, but we are yet to be witnesses, we are yet to testify. I don\u2019t want us to see tonight that on occasions such as those- that suffering for Jesus Christ is itself a witness, it is itself testifying, and I want you to see that tonight, as we look at what it means to walk through life on fang-pierced heels. <\/p>\n

First of all, consider Christian suffering as a demonstration of the Gospel. Now, I could begin here by directing your attention to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Essential teachings of discipleship, in which we are called to deny ourselves to take up our cross -that\u2019s an implement of crucifixion, it\u2019s an instrument of death- to take up our cross and to follow Christ as He is on His way to Calvary. He tells us in several places in the Gospels that the world will hate us, there will be opposition, that even from our own immediate family. But I want us to see the example of the Apostle Paul. So, I ask you to take your Bibles and turn with me tonight to Acts chapter 9. We\u2019re going to be looking at several passages in our topical sermon today. Acts chapter 9 is asking the question, \u201cWhat did serving Jesus Christ mean for Paul?\u201d He tells us in Acts chapter 9, \u201cThe Lord said to him,\u201d \u2013Ananias is told of The Lord\u2019s words to Paul\u2013 \u201cGo, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name\u2019s sake.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bearing of the name of Christ is simultaneous to the suffering for Christ. They\u2019re not two things, it\u2019s not bearing the name of Christ as one thing and then suffering as another thing, but they\u2019re both seen together. The call to be an apostle for Paul was also a call to suffering for Christ, suffering for righteousness, suffering for Christ\u2019s sake, is an essential component of Paul\u2019s apostleship. In fact, suffering for Christ validated Paul\u2019s apostleship. You remember his ministry at the church in Corinth? There were false apostles that penetrated into that church, and they did not give credibility to the Apostle Paul. They tried to discredit him, and so there are places in Paul\u2019s writings to that church where he has to demonstrate the validity of his apostleship. He tells them in 2 Corinthians 6: 4-10, in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 12-33, he lists all if the ways in which he has suffered, and he\u2019s saying to us much more than simply, \u201cI\u2019m so committed to Jesus, that I\u2019m willing to suffer for Him.\u201d He\u2019s saying something much more than that! He\u2019s saying that the suffering for righteousness is a validation of his apostleship. He\u2019s telling the Corinthians, \u201cDo you want to know whether or not I\u2019m a true apostle? See how much I\u2019ve suffered for Christ. It gives validation, because when He called me to be an apostle, He also called me to suffer for His name\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let me draw your attention to what he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, because he uses a very interesting word here that is helpful to us to understand that suffering for Christ is itself a demonstration of the Gospel. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 we read from verse 7, \u201cBut we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus\u2019 sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.\u201d Now, the word that attracts our attention here is a word in verse 10 and verse 11 translated \u201cmanifested\u201d; it means \u201cto make something known,\u201d \u201cto make something evident,\u201d \u201cto cause something to be clearly seen.\u201d It\u2019s used in the Gospels to speak of Jesus\u2019 deity, that His glory is manifested, His divine nature is evidenced and seen by the things that He does and the things that He says. And Paul is telling us here that through his suffering for Christ there is a manifestation of Gospel victory, of the life, of resurrection power that is made evident and manifested. <\/p>\n

Robert Plummer, in his book Paul\u2019s Understanding of the Church\u2019s Mission writes, \u201cPaul thinks suffering not only accompanies the proclamation of the Gospel, but is a proclamation of the Gospel.\u201d It just doesn\u2019t accompany the proclamation, it is itself a manifestation, a disclosing, a making-known of the Gospel of Christ. So that when you heard Paul preach, you heard the Gospel, and when you saw Paul suffer, you saw the Gospel. You see, Paul was the media to which the Gospel was communicated, not only through his words, but through his life of obedience, suffering for righteousness. You see, the messenger of the Gospel is himself to be a picture of the message; he is to be a manifestation of that which he proclaims. The message concerns the cross and the resurrection of life over death. The messenger must be a replication of that message. The Corinthians absolutely despised that, that was definitely uncool, definitely un-corinthian! You see children, if you were raised in Corinth, they didn\u2019t have DVDs or televisions, they didn\u2019t have video games, they didn\u2019t have movie theaters; so what would you do of you wanted to take your family out and have a nice night out somewhere? Well, one of the things you would do is you would go down to the theater area where there were these wonderful speech-makers, orators who were trained and skilled in rhetoric and in speech, and as a Corinthian you would have been taught these things in school, you would have been well-trained how to be able to judge the competition of one speaker and another speaker. Remember, Paul didn\u2019t like them doing that, \u201cI am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of\u2013\u201d he said, \u201cWhat are we, we\u2019re servants of Christ,\u201d but you see, they were looking at the preachers as though they were these orators, these great speakers. And the great speakers\u2013 these guys were buff, they were really handsome, they had big voices, they were very dramatic, and they had all of these speaking techniques that is part of classical rhetoric training. Then here comes the Apostle Paul, now, by this time he\u2019d been beat up by more times than you can think, he\u2019s one ugly, little man, and probably very limited, because his back has been torn open and beaten for Christ so many times. He\u2019s been left for dead a couple of times, he\u2019s been shipwrecked, he has endured immense suffering. We gather from the book of Galatians it\u2019s very likely that he had very bad eyes, and he couldn\u2019t see. How impressive is that, this little man coming up and trying to look to preach? And he would get so excited, that he would begin, \u201cFirst of all\u2013\u201d and then he\u2019d go off on another thought, and he\u2019d never get to second of all. Everybody in the audience would say, \u201cThat is just so uncool, he doesn\u2019t even know how to go from a first point to a second point\u201d; but when he preached the power of The Spirit fell upon people and their eyes would open to see the glories of Jesus Christ not only from the things that he said, but from the man himself as they saw him as the media through which the Gospel was proclaimed. You see, Paul refused to accommodate his method of communication to the demands of the Corinthian culture. He refused to put away the foolishness of preaching and to learn how to be more culturally-relevant. He said, \u201cNo, the manner in which the Gospel is preached has to be itself a testimony of the message.\u201d The Gospel appears foolish as a message, and the preaching appears foolish as a method, and the man who preaches it does not impress you at all! It\u2019s a demonstration of weakness, it\u2019s a demonstration of the cross being the vehicle through which life is communicated.<\/p>\n

In Colossians chapter 1, in verse 24, Paul, again, speaks about his suffering, he says, \u201cNow, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ\u2019s afflictions.\u201d This tells us that Paul suffered for others, not in the same way that Christ suffered, as though his sufferings were making atonement for sin, but he is indeed suffering for the sake of the church, many of whom, most of whom, in fact, all of whom in Colossae, did not see Jesus die on the cross. Paul, by his own suffering, will give to them a visual aid, he will help to fill the afflictions of Christ, if you will, to be himself a demonstration of the afflictions of Jesus Christ, so that when they saw the man and understood his sufferings, they were given a picture of the Gospel: an innocent, Godly preacher who\u2019s suffering hardship for the sake of righteousness; so that the man himself pointed people to Jesus Christ by the way in which he suffered for righteousness. You know, in our day of overheads and videos and dramas and pageantry and elaborate productions, let me suggest to you brother, and my preacher brethren especially, that the most powerful visual aid that you can give to your people is you. You are the most powerful visual aid that you can give to your people. <\/p>\n

What is God\u2019s method for missions? What is God\u2019s strategy for the Gospel? John chapter 1, verse 6, \u201cThere came a man sent by God, whose name was John.\u201d \u201cThere came a man.\u201d The man himself is the media, he is the visual aid, he is the manifestation. He is the demonstration, not only in what he proclaims, but also in the way in which he conducts spiritual warfare in the midst of persecution, opposition, and hatred of the world. You see brethren, we, in our very persons, in the lives that we live, in our pursuits of Christ and His righteousness, in our doing of good deeds and acts of kindness and benevolence, in our words of Gospel truths, we are the media! We are the way in which the Gospel is communicated to other men. We are to manifest the reality of this Gospel, this Gospel that speaks of victory through death into resurrection. We are the ones who follow the suffering servant of The Lord, and like Paul, who\u2019s apostleship involved suffering, so to our discipleship involves suffering. Look at what Paul says to the church in Philippi. Philippians 1 and verse 29, \u201cFor to you it has been granted for Christ\u2019s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.\u201d Robert Plummer says that Christians suffer because they are identified with Jesus Christ, and the world hates Jesus Christ. Also because the Gospel message comes to the world as a Word of conviction, a Word of rebuke, where it identifies sin and calls sinners to repentance, and the world does not like that! Keep that in mind, the voice that speaks to the conscience is the voice of Christ through the preaching of the church, and the world does not like that voice. <\/p>\n

In 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12, Paul says, \u201cIndeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.\u201d Now, here we don\u2019t have suffering as an option. We don\u2019t have suffering as something that\u2019s just for the elite Christians \u2013you know, those who are contracting for an A\u2013 and the rest of us who are as satisfied with Cs will just believe in Jesus and have other people suffer. No, you\u2019ve been called not only to believe, but also to suffer for Christ. Now, back in Romans chapter 8 \u2013perhaps one of the most marvelous chapters of the Bible. I\u2019ve heard it said, \u201cIf I had just one chapter of the Bible to be stranded on a desert island with, it would be Romans chapter 8.\u201d In verse 17, Paul pivots, he turns into a new subject, and notice what he pivots on, notice what he says, moving from our adoption as children of God by the gift of the Spirit he says, \u201cAnd if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we also may be glorified with Him.\u201d He pivots from suffering with Him, to be glorified with Him, to enter then from verse 18, all the way to the end of the chapter in verse 39, to talk about the prospect of our being glorified with Him,and the glory of the coming new heavens and the new earth; and the glory of the resurrection, the redemption of the body of the sons of God, and how the earth is groaning and waiting for the resurrection of the dead. He says, \u201cThis is our inheritance, as the sons of God.\u201d We have a land that is our inheritance, which is the new heavens and the new earth. <\/p>\n

Now, I believe what Paul is doing here, is he is presenting with us a pattern, a paradigm, a structure, by which we are to understand living the Christian life, especially as that life is lived on the threshold of the resurrection, and the eternal state. He tells us that the Christian life is going to be a life that is threatened by everything Satan and the world can throw at you. Look at verse 35, \u201cWho will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, \u2018For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.\u2019 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d To live the Christian life is to experience things that threaten to separate you from Christ, opposition that threaten to pull you away from Christ: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword; things that are immense: life, death, angelic powers and principalities, height, depth, width, breadth, immensity. Go to the largest expanse of the universe, and you face the prospect of being separated from Christ, but I want you to notice something here. Paul tells us that it is in the midst of that conflict that we overwhelmingly conquer, because it\u2019s in the midst of suffering for righteousness that we experience something. We experience something. We experience being loved by Jesus Christ. <\/p>\n

Notice verse 35, \u201cWho will separate us from the love of Christ?\u201d Notice verse 37, \u201c…through Him who loved us,\u201dnotice verse 39, \u201c…will separate us from the love of Christ.\u201d Paul has structured those references to love at the beginning and in the middle and at the end, so that you would understand that by the way in which he has structured those words, that being loved by Jesus Christ is the foundational message of this paragraph. He\u2019s telling us there\u2019s nothing that can stop Christ from loving us, and it\u2019s in the midst of suffering for Christ that you\u2019ll experience something that is absolutely, overwhelmingly wonderful, and that is the experience of being loved by Jesus. <\/p>\n

Some of you know that in 2007 I had the wonderful privilege of being with Arif and Kathy Khan up until the morning of their martyrdom in Islamabad. This was the text that we had worked through the previous day in our personal devotions, and I had attempted to minister to these dear servants of Christ and to encourage them from this very passage of Scripture. On the morning that I left them was the last time that I saw them, because that night they were assassinated, and I consider it one of the greatest privileges of my Christian ministry to have been sent by Christ to minister to those two, dear servants just hours before they were martyred and to assure them, just hours before their death, there\u2019s nothing that can separate you from Christ\u2019s love. There\u2019s nothing that can separate you from Christ\u2019s love. They were living in a very dangerous place, and brethren, we live in a very dangerous place. Life here, in this Babylonian culture, in the great whore-embrace of this sensual culture, is no less lethal to our souls than those dear brethren who are living in Islamic cultures. It is a battle, and it is a warfare. I remember getting the news of their martyrdom, and it was so disorienting, it was so confusing, it was so painful, it was like slaughtered lambs, and I also remember in the midst of that bewilderment, in the midst of that pain, that there was an experience of something that was far more foundational, more subterranean, more real, more solid; and that was the confident experience of Christ\u2019s love, that He loves us, and there\u2019s nothing that can separate us from His love. And I believe that\u2019s what Paul is looking at, you see, he\u2019s bringing this section of Romans to a conclusion. He\u2019s going to enter now in chapter 9 through 11 on the subject of God\u2019s electing grace for His people, and he\u2019s concluding this part of Romans that brings together his teachings on justification and sanctification and the work of The Spirit. I believe that he\u2019s telling us as he sees the church coming to that time near to the resurrection, coming to the end of this present age, that he doesn\u2019t see the church sitting in positions of civil authority, he doesn\u2019t see the church having been raptured and she\u2019s no longer here anymore; he sees the church suffering, he sees the church going the way of the cross. He sees the church being conformed to Jesus Christ, just as he has taught us there in verse 28 through verse 30 that we will be conformed to Christ, and we will do that as we learn how to fight this battle as slaughtered lambs. So that when men hear the message, they hear the Gospel, and when they see us live the Christian life, they see the Gospel by the way in which we are willing to continue to be obedient to Christ, even when faced with tribulation and persecution and famine and sword and principalities and powers, any created thing, we continue to be obedient, even at the cost of our lives. That\u2019s a demonstration of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

Secondly, Christian suffering is a strategy, a strategy for spiritual victory. In Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 10, Paul speaks about the ministry of the church, and he tells us that, \u201cThe manifold wisdom of God might now be known through the church through the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.\u201d He\u2019s speaking about demonic forces. He\u2019s speaking about the work of Satan and his deceptive lies, and he calls us later in chapter 6 and verse 12, to stand in this fight, because: \u201cOur struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God.\u201d We are proclaiming the Gospel, Paul says, not only to men, but also to angels, to forces and powers in the heavenly places. We fight against forces of wickedness, and we do that by simply being obedient to the cross of Christ, being obedient to the Gospel of Christ. As Paul said in Romans, \u201cWalking in the way of wisdom, being innocent of evil, and God putting your feet down on Satan\u2019s head.\u201d What has Paul been describing here in chapters preceding chapter 6? He\u2019s been talking about the way you speak to one another in chapter 4, right? He\u2019s been talking in chapter 5, again, about the way we worship together as a church. Then he\u2019s talking about our marriages for the rest of chapter 5, and then in chapter 6 he begins to talk about parents and children. Then he also talks about how we relate to our employers in a workplace. He says in order to be Christ-glorifying in that Christian life, in your church life, in your work life, in your family life, you\u2019re going to have to wear the armor of God, because your life is a battlefield, and you\u2019re fighting against forces. <\/p>\n

You\u2019re fighting against deceptive lies that are launched against you to try to separate you from the love of Jesus Christ, and you need to learn how to be strong in The Lord, that\u2019s what he begin Ephesians, praying for us in chapter 1 and verse 18, \u201cI pray that the eyes of your heart may be may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness.\u201d Now, notice the words that have to do with military things, have to do with fighting: \u201cTo know the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet.\u201d <\/p>\n

As we heard in our previous message, \u201cThe earth is my footstool,\u201d it\u2019s a symbol for subjection, it\u2019s a symbol for rule. \u201cAnd he\u2019s put everything under Christ\u2019s feet and has given Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.\u201d Notice the vocabulary. He says, \u201cI hope that you understand what victory is yours in the resurrection of Christ, what strength is yours, what power is yours, what might is yours.\u201d This is all yours in the working of the God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead, because as you follow this Christ as a suffering servant, as a cross-bearing disciple, you not only experience the tribulation and the pain of the persecution, you also experience crushing that snake\u2019s head, and the power to do that is the power of the resurrection! You begin to experience resurrection power as you go the way of the cross, as you learn to fight like a slaughtered lamb, as you learn to walk on fang-pierced heels, as you learn to suffer for the sake of righteousness and for the name of Christ. And what will that look like? It will look like weakness. <\/p>\n

Look at 2 Corinthians 12. Many of us refer to this passage to get encouragement, for it\u2019s one of those passages where Paul expresses a truth, an axiom, a principled truth that we, as children of God, immediately recognize is relevant to each of us. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, looking at verse 9 \u2013remember Paul has now asked that this messenger of Satan stop tormenting him in verse 7, that he has implored The Lord three times to take this away\u2013 verse 9, \u201cBut He said to me, \u2018My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.\u2019 Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may be in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ\u2019s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.\u201d How does it look for someone to overcome? What does it look like? Paul says if it looks like a form of weakness, which is, in fact, the strength of God being manifest in you. <\/p>\n

Marva Dawn, in her book Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God, makes a very compelling case, that Paul is saying something like this in his text: he\u2019s saying, \u201cWhen my strength, when my power is brought to its end, when it\u2019s perfected, when it\u2019s completed, I am without strength, I am weak. It is then that I experience the power of Christ dwelling with me.\u201d Right? Isn\u2019t that what he says? \u201cSo, the power of Christ might dwell with me.\u201d Now, that word \u201cdwell,\u201d in the original, it literally could be translated \u201ctabernacling.\u201d \u201cTabernacling.\u201d It\u2019s the same word that John uses in John 1, verse 14, \u201cWhere the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us\u201d; \u201cThe Word became flesh and tabernacled with us.\u201d It\u2019s the word\u2013 it\u2019s a language of worship. It\u2019s the language of the presence of God among His worshipping people, and Paul says that it\u2019s in the presence of God and His tabernacling power, that my weakness becomes a stage upon which His strength is made known and made obvious. <\/p>\n

So, he becomes, in his weakness, the temple of God. He becomes the focal point of worship, he becomes a place where God is pleased to tabernacle with men, and so, in the midst of his weakness and his insults and the distresses and the persecutions and the difficulties, what does that do? It drives you to Christ, and when you go to Christ in the midst of your weaknesses, in the midst of your distresses, in the midst of your complete depletions, He fills you with His own tabernacling presence. His power is made evident on the stage of your weakness, and you commune with Him in ways that are far \u2013as I mentioned before\u2013 profound and significant, in ways that are mysterious. I\u2019ve heard accounts of martyrs in the Counter-Reformation, who were being stretched out on the racks \u2013Christians\u2013 and then they began to release the pressure. And the Christians say, \u201cWhat are you doing, stop that, don\u2019t release that! I was experiencing the presence of Christ that was so wonderful!\u201d It\u2019s in the crucible of the suffering, it\u2019s in all these things that we overwhelmingly conquer, and Paul is telling us that the way to conquer is to become the center of worship. A tabernacling presence where Christ is dwelling with you in worship. He is your Fortress, he is your Victor, He is The Warrior-God who defeats all your enemies, and He does that in the midst of your weakness, while you just but simply worship and become the place of His tabernacling presence. <\/p>\n

So that\u2019s why, when we look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we immediately recognize ourselves. Look at each other! Look at us! Chapter 1, verse 26 of 1 Corinthians, \u201cConsider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.\u201d We are weak! We don\u2019t just look weak, we are weak, despised, nobodies, but we\u2019re chosen of God, and we are the place of God\u2019s dwelling, His tabernacling presence. It\u2019s in that dwelling of God, that our strength is derived, and that our victory is obtained. It\u2019s in a people who have purity and simplicity in their devotion to Christ. Remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11? \u201cI\u2019m concerned for you, lest you\u2019re going to be deceived the way Eve was deceived by the serpent.\u201d So, what\u2019s your best strategy? Simplicity and purity of your devotion to Christ. The same thing, a walk of wisdom, a walk of faith, a walk of obedience, a walk of innocence, and you are defeating the Evil One in your simple commitment to the worship of God. In your pursuit of God\u2019s presence among you, you are victors, you are overcomers. You who are nobodies, you who are the despised, you who are the weak, you who are the world\u2019s refuge, garbage, you are the people of God among whom God dwells, and His presence in your life and in your church is your victory in the midst of that opposition, the persecution, and the suffering.<\/p>\n

The Old Testament gives us a picture of Christ\u2019s presence with His church. Remember, as the Israelites were going across the wilderness? They had the pillar of cloud during the day. You imagine being one of the Amorites or the Hittites or the other -ites that were there, wanting to come and fight against Israel? They come up over a little ledge and say, \u201cOk, their camp is just on the valley on the other side. Let\u2019s go get them,\u201d and as they get to the site of Israel they see this big cloud goes all the way up into heaven. They look at one another and go, \u201cI\u2019m not going there, forget that. What is that? That\u2019s the presence of their God! Ohh, gives me the willies, let\u2019s come back tonight.\u201d They come back tonight, they come over the ridge, ready to attack at nighttime and what\u2019s there? This big pillar of fire that goes all the way up, and they go, \u201cSo, are you going to attack that? I\u2019m not going to attack that!\u201d What are the Israelites doing? They\u2019re giving sacrifice, they\u2019re singing praises, they\u2019re worshipping God, and their enemies are running away, because God is with them. In their weakness, God is with them. As the world hates them, God is with them. As they experience the pain of putting their heels down on Satan\u2019s head, God is with them.<\/p>\n

Brethren, let me encourage you to embrace your call for suffering for Christ\u2019s sake. Embrace your call for suffering. Paul tells us in Philippians 3, verse 7 through 9, that he has embraced, having all things he\u2019s lost, all things for the glory of Christ, for the sake of Jesus Christ. The things that were once valuable to him, he says, \u201cI\u2019ve lost them , I\u2019ve counted them lost. I\u2019ve suffered the loss of them for the sake of Christ.\u201d And if you\u2019re a disciple of Jesus Christ here today, you\u2019ve lost something, you\u2019ve suffered the loss of something in order to follow Jesus Christ. If you\u2019ve been following Jesus Christ for any length of time, surely you can look at yourself in someway and say, \u201cYou know what? If I wasn\u2019t a Christian, if I wasn\u2019t committed to these values of the kingdom, I probably could have made much more money than I have. I probably could have been much more popular. I probably could have enjoyed things that I gave up. Sports, politics, but I\u2019ve counted them as loss for Christ\u2019s sake. If it wasn\u2019t for my being a Christian, I wouldn\u2019t have lost the affection of my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my extended family. I could have been popular with the people that I really love, but I\u2019ve suffered the loss. I could have cultivated some of my latent interests and talents and skills, but I didn\u2019t put time into studying how to be a better musician or a better artist, because I needed that time to study Christ and His Word. And I\u2019ve suffered the loss of good things.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re following Christ, you\u2019ve embraced the call to relinquish even things that are good, and to suffer the loss. This is the way of suffering that Paul says in verse 10, \u201cThat I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.\u201d Paul says, \u201cI want, more than anything else, to experience resurrecting power in my life, and to do that I have to have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings, because I\u2019m called to follow Him and to be His witness.\u201d You know that when you transliterate, not translate, but transliterate the Greek word for witness, you get the English word for martyr? I am called to be a martyr, and I\u2019m called to be His witness, both by my lip, and by my life. If you\u2019re articulating the Gospel, if you\u2019re telling your family, your friends, your workmates, your schoolmates, that you\u2019re a Christian, and you\u2019re expressing with your lips the words of the Gospel, but you\u2019re living a life of indulgence, then your words are nullified by your deeds. You see, you yourself, your character, your personal relationships, your lifestyle patterns, your decisions, your choices, your use of your time, use of your money, everything about you is to be done for the glory of God; \u201cwhether you eat, whether you drink, do it all to the glory of God.\u201d You are a medium, you are a message, you yourself are the message! <\/p>\n

People should be able to put what you say together with the way you live, and say, \u201cI see it, I hear it, it makes sense! You\u2019re talking about this weakness of a crucified King. You\u2019re talking about the suffering of evil, and the victory of faith, and the triumph of the resurrection. You not only say it, but you demonstrate it, and I see it.\u201d We have to embrace that, so that when we come to glory, and there\u2019s a little group of angels that are gathered around us who might say, \u201cHow did Christ fulfill His purposes in your day? What did He do?\u201d One of the brothers will come up and point at us and say, \u201cThere came a man sent from God, whose name was\u2026\u201d and he\u2019ll say your name. You\u2019re the strategy, my friend. You\u2019re the method, you\u2019re the message, you\u2019re the media. You, in your life, in your witness, both with your lip and with your life. And then, brethren, as we come back to where we started in Romans 16, we need to get better at crushing the head of the serpent. Reflect in these words: \u201cI want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil, and The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of The Lord Jesus be with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I want you to understand that you\u2019re fighting a spiritual war. You\u2019re fighting every lofty thought, every speculation that\u2019s raised up against the true knowledge of God. There are voices that are coming into your ears from pulpits of all shapes and sizes; messages that come across from the television, messages that come across on the radio, messages that come across from education curriculum, messages that come across from movies and novels and books and magazines and neighbors and friends. All part of the way which we gain a common mindset, a common value system of how we think about things and what we judge to be good and bad, and what does it mean to live the life that we\u2019re living. We all gain that information from all of these voices surrounded about us, and Paul says many of those voices articulate the doctrines of demons. You\u2019re confronting speculations and lofty thoughts that are raised up against the knowledge of God; and when you are in that kind of spiritual battle, you need to be willing to suffer the pain of standing for the truth in the midst of the deception. <\/p>\n

You need to be willing to put your head down on that snake that\u2019s hissing his deceptive lies against you, attempting to skew your judgement, attempting to tell you, \u201cGet your foot off of my face, cause I\u2019ll bite you if you step on me, you know; and you say, well, you know, you\u2019re right. I really don\u2019t like this pain aspect. I\u2019m going to pull back, and I\u2019m not going to stand for the truth, and I\u2019ll compromise.\u201d That battle meets us in the most unusual places, sometimes in the most surprising people. If you\u2019re committed to be a Biblical churchman in this place and in the churches where you serve, you\u2019re going to experience the fang-pierced heels. If you’re determined to live a Godly life of purity, if you\u2019re determined to be knowledgeable in the Word of God, if you\u2019re determined to be a prayer warrior, if you\u2019re determined to be a consistent witness for Christ, you better embrace the fact that you are going to suffer for His sake and see beyond it, see through it, and understand it as the way of victory. <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alan Dunn It is my pleasure to be with you, once again, this year, and to see many familiar faces, to see some new faces, all of them getting older every year. It\u2019s always an encouragement when you see brothers and sisters who are continuing in the way, and they are continuing, as the years … Continue reading Persecution Part 1<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","tag-alan-dunn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}