Sermon Cloud

Good morning TF. Welcome to worship. As we gather for worship this Sunday morning in this great town of Gardner in a country with religious freedom. On this very day, in other parts of the world, there are underground house churches also gathering for worship. Despite the fact that it's illegal in their country, despite the fact that they're putting their own lives and the lives of their families at risk, they will come together to worship their risen Savior, Jesus Christ. As we gather for worship, we're connecting not only with our neighbors and friends here in this local community, but we're connecting with fellow Christians across the world that are putting their lives on the line to worship Jesus.
You've experienced some of the things these underground house churches experience every time they gather. Sneaking past security guards. Using a secret entrance. Wondering if anyone is watching you enter. Speaking with hushed voices. Praying the neighbors won't hear you. Some churches experience this every Sunday.
Ali Abas was born in the middle eastern country of Lebanon. Like most people in Lebanon, Ali grew up Muslim. After graduating high school, Ali moved to France to begin his university studies.
Ali became acquainted with a group of Christians in his university. And over a period of time, through their friendship, Ali eventually gave his life to Jesus. In making this decision, Ali immediately put his own life at risk, should he return to Lebanon. And he put the life of his immediate family at risk, too. For this reason, Ali has yet to return home.
But after becoming a Christ-follower, Ali felt God guiding him into full-time ministry. So Ali enrolled in European Nazarene College in Switzerland. By the way, our church has sent two people to help at that school, Andy Phelps (who was there for a couple weeks) and Elizabeth Messamer (who has just finished her year at EUNC).
Ali's missions class was being taught by a mentor of mine, Randy Beckum, a professor at MNU in Olathe. Ali shared his story with the class and then he asked for help. Ali asked, "what do I do? A few weeks from now, I'll be going home for the first time in years. Only my parents know of my conversion. When my extended family finds out, I'll be shunned. I know that I'm going to face some sort of physical persecution. But I'm worried about what may happen to my family.
"So what do I do? What do I do when my uncle asks me to go pray at the mosque on Friday? Do I go along with him, pretend I'm praying to Allah but in my heart pray to Jesus? Do I tell people I've become Christian or do I pretend nothing has changed?"
It was an emotional moment as Ali carried on this conversation with the class but mostly struggling with himself.
Eventually Ali decided, "I know what I'll do, I'll tell people the truth. I'll tell them I've become a follower of Jesus Christ."
This was just two weeks ago, Ali still has yet to return home. We'll have the opportunity to pray for him later on during worship.
Ali is one of millions of Christians who are putting their lives on the line everyday for their commitment to Christ. In the country of Turkey, .6% of the population are Christian. Although the country is officially secular and the constitution allows for freedom of religion, Christians who tell others about Jesus are often prosecuted under article 301 of Turkey's penal code. Sharing Christianity is considered an insult to Turkish heritage at best and a hate crime at worst.
Just last month, 3 Turkish men were put to death for "being involved in missionary activity." Each of these men had wives and kids.
In Baghdad's stora district, Christians are literally fleeing for their lives. Sunni militia are bombing churches and kidnapping priests. They recently passed out leaflets warning that Christians had 24 hours to convert to Islam before being killed. A pastor who has stayed behind said almost all the Christians have fled.
But despite all the violence (or maybe because of it) another pastor reports that there is a hunger for Christ among Iraqi people.
These are two of the latest stories from an organization that tracks Christian persecution. I could go on and on. Millions of Christians are being persecuted all over the world. To us, persecution seems almost other worldly, but to millions of others, it's all too real.
Persecution was all-too real for some of John's churches, too. Although government sanctioned, empire-wide persecution wouldn't take place for another 100 years after John wrote Revelation, there were still localized pockets of severe persecution spread out across the empire. Which is why some of John's churches were being left alone (even to the point they were becoming complacent) and others were facing some difficult persecution, the two churches we'll look at today, Smyrna and Philadelphia.
The Christians at Smyrna were being sold out by their fellow Jews. I say "fellow Jews" because at this time, most Christians were Jews. Since Christianity grew out of Judaism, which makes sense when you remember Jesus was a Jew. Most Jews tolerated their misguided family members who were claiming Jesus was the Messiah, they even put up with Christians' claim that Jesus had been resurrected. But when Jewish followers of Jesus started claiming that Jesus was God, they said "enough is enough. If you're claiming Jesus is God, then we're kicking you out of the family."
That may not seem like a big deal, no one thinks of Jews and Christians as a part of the same family anymore. But it was big deal to the Roman empire.
Last week I talked about the festivals that would happen in these cities, how it was expected that all citizens would partake in these festivals and worship the local gods. But Jews were legally exempt. The Roman Empire accepted their belief in one God and although they thought it quite strange. But Jews were able to worship God and were exempt from worshipping the local roman and greek gods. The Roman Empire would accept all religions that had a long history. Jews could trace their heritage back to Abraham, the Roman Empire protected their religious rights.
But Rome was not tolerant toward new religious beliefs. So when Jews started kicking Christians out of their communities, even informing Roman authorities that these Christians had no connection with them, the Christians found that their legal rug had been pulled out from under them. Since they were no longer protected as fellow Jews, Roman officials could force them to worship the local gods or be put in prison or even put to death. Death was obviously the worst case scenario, but prisons in those days were a close second. Roman prisons would not have been considered acceptable by Paris Hilton's lawyer.
Being legally and spiritually homeless, Christians were left to the mercy of their local authorities. Some of whom were not very merciful.
The earliest non-biblical evidence of Christian persecution is a letter dated just two decades after John wrote the Revelation. It was written by the governor of the province just north of Asia-Minor, Pliny, to the Roman Emperor Trajan. Pliny warns the emperor that "The plague of this superstition has spread not only in the cities, but through villages and the countryside." But he then optimistically adds, "But I believe a stop can be made and a remedy provided." His remedy was simple - execution. But Pliny needed the Emperor's approval. He asked whether he should actively seek out Christians or just wait until local authorities turned them in.
Emperor Trajan responded, "Christians are not to be sought out. But if they are accused and handed over, they are to be punished, but only if they do not deny being Christians and demonstrate it by the appropriate act, i.e. the worship of our gods. Even if one is suspect because of past conduct, he or she is to be acquitted in view of repentance."
So Pliny did exactly that. When Christians were brought before him, he gave them the chance to "repent." They could curse Christ, worship the statue of a local god or the Emperor Trajan or they could be put to death. Pliny added this interesting line,
"it is said that real Christians cannot be forced to do any of these things." Pliny warned them of the punishment awaiting them, gave each Christian three chances, but if they refused to renounce Christ, Pliny sent them to their death.
Jesus had this to say to the church in Smyrna vs. 11.
I feel unworthy to share the name "Christian" with the church in Smyrna, the church in Iraq or a guy like Ali Abas. I hope none of us ever know the vulnerable and exposed feeling of being a part of an illegal faith.
To these outsiders, those homeless persecuted Christians, Jesus had this to say 3:7. You have a home. Your citizenship is in a kingdom whose power Rome can't even fathom vs. 12.
We have the opportunity to help those who right now are being persecuted. To help them stand firm in the face of persecution, to help gain the crown Jesus promises.
Chris Kamp from "out of the wilderness", a ministry that exists to raise awareness of the persecuted church, gives 3 ways we can stand alongside Christians across the world that are being persecuted.
1) Pray We see this modeled in Acts chapter 12. Acts 12:1-18. Peter has been thrown into prison for preaching about Jesus. 12:5. Powerful words. And the night before Peter was to go on trial, an angel appeared in his cell, kicked him in the side to wake him up. And when Peter stood up, the chains fell off. He followed the angel past a first guard post, then a second, and right through the city gate as the doors opened seemingly by themselves. Peter thought he was having a vision until he found himself standing in the middle of the street all by himself. He went immediately to a home where people were praying together. Knocked on the door and those praying didn't believe their eyes, either. They thought it was his spirit or something. Eventually whole city hears about Peter's escape and even Herod's execution of the soldiers didn't stop the excitement.
One of the Iraqi pastors had this request for fellow Christians,
Pray for our churches in Baghdad. Pray the Lord would give us peace and good days to see what God's will is during this violence.
We're going to do exactly that in just a minute.
2) Fast Fasting helps us focus our prayers. It also reminds us of our constant need for comfort and instant gratification. As we fast, we can connect with those who are willing to give up everything to stay committed to Jesus. Isaiah 58:6 Those of you who are able, I challenge you to join me in a fast this Wednesday, fasting and praying for our persecuted family members.
3) Give Galatians 6:10 On your notes, you'll see the webaddress for my blog. I've just put an entry on there with links to organizations through which you can learn more and can financially support ministries for persecuted Christians. How great will it be to one day see martyrs receiving the reward Jesus promised and know that we had in supporting them.

This morning, we can pray. We are going to pray. We're going to split ourselves into two groups. Those of you in this half of the room will be praying for those who have lost family members to executions or imprisonment. As you pray, I'm going to ask you to kneel in an act of submission and solidarity on behalf of those who mourn the loss of family members. Pray specifically for the three wives and 5 children of the men killed in Turkey.
I'd like those of you on this side to stand and pray. As you stand, ask God to give strength to those facing the ultimate test of their faith. Pray that God gives them the strength to stand firm. Pray for the pastors and few Christians who stayed behind in Iraq. Pray for Ali Abas as he faces his family.
After we pray for persecuted Christians, we're going to pray for the those in the box, those who don't yet know Jesus. If you want to come add a name, feel free to do so.