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ARE WE SITTING COMFORTABLY?
Bible references are to
the Anglicised New International Version (NIV-UK) unless noted otherwise.
Praise be to the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who
comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
2
Corinthians 1: 3, 4
. . . THEN WE’LL BEGIN. Once upon a time (and this is no
mere legend), being a Christian called for great courage and determination.
The experiences of the early Church recorded in The Acts of the Apostles and in
the New Testament Epistles reveal a people so inspired and dedicated to the
ministry begun by their Lord, that they learned to count other things worthless
and gladly forsook all for His sake.
The mandate Jesus had entrusted to
His disciples to go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation
was a challenge not to be ignored. The days of uncertainty following His
ascension to the Father would surely have tested their resolve and magnified
their fears of reprisals at the hands of the ecclesiastical authorities who had
put their Lord to death. Though risen from the tomb, His physical absence from
their company left them bereft, but in eager anticipation of the power that the
promised holy spirit would bestow upon them they prayed unceasingly ― men
and women called to be the first missionaries to a world in desperate need of
deliverance from sin and death. (Acts
1: 8).
But the magnitude of the mission
was not immediately apparent to them. While the man Christ Jesus had been with
them, their ministry, like His, had been confined to ‘the lost sheep of Israel’
(Matthew 10: 5, 6). And even after the baptism of the holy spirit at Pentecost,
the Apostle Peter needed a special revelation from the Lord before he and the
emerging Church of Christ would welcome Gentiles into the faith.
It was that fiercely determined
defender of the Jewish Law, Saul of Tarsus, whom the Lord appointed to be the
pre-eminent Apostle to the Gentiles, and to witness for Christ before kings and
to the people of Israel (Acts 9: 15). After his life-changing
conversion, as the Apostle Paul his mission was to win the Roman world. The
provinces of Greece and Asia where devout Jews and pagan Gentiles lived,
presented an extensive field where the Gospel seed could be sown and Christian
churches established.
Tradition holds that other apostles
took the Gospel to distant lands, some suffering martyrdom in their zeal for
Christ. And since those early times many thousands of consecrated disciples
have carried the good news to ‘all creation’, sowing seed that sooner or later
sprang to life and prospered as God gave the increase.
Suffering for Christ’s Sake
The witnessing continues, and so
does the persecution. It is believed
that more Christians have been martyred in the past 100 years than in the
entire 1,900 years before. In many nations – even today – Christians are
persecuted, tortured, imprisoned, and even martyred for their faith in
Jesus
Christ.[fn1] In the last century, communist countries such as Russia,
China and North Korea were the main persecutors, but these days extremist
Islamic states bear chief responsibility, from Africa, through to the Middle
East, Central Asia and Indonesia.[fn2]
Yet even in so-called Christendom, the collective body of
believers found historically in Europe, America, and their dominions, a more
subtle but none the less vindictive practice of ridicule, exclusion and control
is evident today. Personal evangelism is discouraged, or even forbidden, and
while physical violence is usually avoided, the false accusations and insults
experienced by Christians are often painful. An increasingly secular society,
the influence of popular evolutionist teaching, and a fear of offending
immigrant populations, may prompt such hostility toward the more outspoken
Christian, and examples of such conduct appear often in the media.
The assurance of Jesus recorded in Matthew 5: 11, 12, is
still relevant:
Blessed are you when people insult
you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same
way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Some Serious Questions
Such sobering accounts of courage
and faithfulness, even in face of death, for Christ’s sake, must surely prick
the consciences, or more seriously, question the dedication of many of us who
consider ourselves to be His disciples. St. Paul spoke from experience when he
reminded Timothy that ‘everyone who
wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’ (2 Timothy 3:
12).
Everyone? Does that include me? What persecutions can I recall? Probably most of us
will have little to report of a serious nature. So isn’t it a cause for concern
that so many of us appear to be comfortable Christians, having little in
common with those we may rightly regard as saints, laying down life itself
along with Jesus? While we may perhaps have been ostracised, shunned or
ridiculed for Christ’s sake, that could scarcely be regarded as serious
suffering, and lacking such evidence of the Lord’s approval, a worse
possibility comes to mind: have we reneged on our original commitment to serve
the interests of the Gospel by preaching the Word to others? Having ourselves
been blessed by the God of all comfort in receiving the good news of salvation
through Christ, has our zeal to bless the world through that Gospel become
lukewarm?
Too much comfort may be a stumbling
block to active service, and efficiency of mind and body depends on regular
exercise. The zeal of youth, of those early years when we first knew the Lord,
is challenged by the distractions of life among an increasingly ungodly
society, and we may grow weary. The somewhat cynical view of Solomon tells us
that ‘A little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you
like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man’ (Proverbs 24: 33, 34). Our
spiritual poverty is the Adversary’s aim, and his tactics may include spurious
words of comfort and rest.
In recent years, hundreds of
churches have closed their doors for lack of support. Even the many groups of
serious Bible Students who in bygone years held ‘parlour meetings’ in their own
homes, doing a splendid witness work in their communities, now have little to
offer that appeals to the needs of today’s unbeliever. Disappointed hopes,
nagging doubts, differences of interpretation, failing energies and a sense of
discouragement, all test the faithfulness of those once appointed as the Lord’s
evangelists. So it is comforting to gather together for fellowship, hear a pleasant
discourse, talk of the old days and warm one another with that Christian love
that identifies the Lord’s true disciples. And why not? There is real
sincerity, undoubted consecration, great love for God’s Word, and joy in the
prospect of the blessing of all mankind in due time.
We Must Be About Our Father’s Business
As modern missionaries, messengers
of the good news, it is no longer essential that we travel on foot, horseback
or sailing boat to distant destinations. As this world has moved on, so has the
Divine Plan kept pace with the needs of the ministry, and we are called upon to
expand our methods of witnessing to the world. But while travel to every land
is possible in today’s advanced society, it may not be affordable or practical.
Nor is it strictly necessary, as a powerful witness can be given by such means
as radio, television and the World Wide Web. Such technological means of
preaching the Gospel may be costly to finance, and require a suitable level of
ability, but word of mouth and face to face contact remains the most acceptable
and the most successful means of passing on the good news to others. And we
need no university degree to do this work.
Even the least able of the Lord’s
consecrated people may give a good witness and be a blessing to others, not in
distant lands, but just where the Lord in His providence has placed them. He
called us on purpose, as the Apostle Paul declares (1 Corinthians 1: 26, 27, KJV):
[N]ot many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things which are mighty.
Our numbers of years in the Lord’s employment are not
specified and there is no plan for retirement. We are not to be pensioned off
at three-score years and ten or later, and not until laid to rest, or otherwise
rendered incapable, is our service in this life complete. While life remains,
we have the responsibility of letting our light shine for the blessing of
others. And as we are destined to deal with
all sorts of people in the Millennial
Age so near at hand, a little practice now will not come amiss.
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Notes
[fn1] <http://www.mpcc.org/e-news/2007/11%20Nov_2007/e-news_PersecutedChurch.htm>
(retrieved 9 November, 2010)
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[fn2] <http://www.premier.tv/archive/persecuted%20christians.aspx?gclid=CLvfiI6ajKUCFVD2Aod7lWbMw> (retrieved
9 November, 2010)
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Scriptures not quoted in
the text:
Acts 1: 8:
But you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
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Acts 9: 15:
But the Lord said to
Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the
Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. . . .’
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Copyright
November 2010 ukbiblestudents.co.uk
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