Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: This has been a very rich study for me personally. There is a saying that goes something like, "I was sorry for myself when I didn't have any shoes until I met a man who had no feet." As we think of persecution in our safe Western culture, with our rights, our protections, and our safe little nests where we live, it is very difficult to get a worldview of what is happening when we talk about persecution. As I say, I have had a rich time being forced to look into this particular subject.

We are coming to the end of this series on the Sermon on the Mount, and I would like to sum up the series by reading through the poem that I have been putting together. Let me remind you about the Pharisee in me, the one who would prevent us from standing on the solid ground of God's principles set out in the manifesto here, Jesus's manifesto in the Sermon on the Mount.

One day I found within my heart someone who had been there from the start. A prudish person, self-appointed, self-sufficient, self-anointed. Though I a true disciple be, I've met the Pharisee in me. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Oh Lord, I pray hard on my way. I try to do it every day. A publican to be, I try, and beat my breast and sigh and cry. I'm hoping others round will see. Oh, there's the Pharisee in me.

Blessed are those that mourn. He sees not why his heart should bow. Instead, he is holier than thou. He casts the mote out of your eye while beam in his obscures the why. A tear be shed because of sin, or why he should begin again. Forgive me, Lord, the sin you see. I've met the Pharisee in me.

Blessed are the meek. He's there as I start out my week, advising me that meek is weak. He's up before me every day to figure out a better way than following Him submissively. I've met the Pharisee in me.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He tells me, "Oh, you know enough. Just keep on with the same old stuff. You've books galore and tapes to lend. You've Christian magazines to send. No need to learn theology." I've met the Pharisee in me.

Blessed are the merciful. He passes people every day who've lost their innocence some way. He says a prayer for those poor fools for breaking his religious rules. For some reason, I've lost two lines out of that verse. I'll find them after the study.

Blessed are the pure in heart. He laughs when told of a pure heart and wants no parcel or no part of looking in and seeing sin when such a perfect man he's been. He spends his life in holy work and never quits and never shirks. He shines the outside of his cup and knows not that he'll finish up in dungeon deep in hell's abyss, because God condemns a man like this.

Blessed are the peacemakers. The Father reasons with the son that mercy and forgiveness won. The offending brother be restored, that retribution be outlawed, that loving welcome be extended. Instead, the Pharisee is offended. He wants the boy to crawl, you see. I've met the Pharisee in me.

Today we're going to look at: Blessed are you when men insult you, when they falsely say all manner of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This is a tough subject. Be happy when you're persecuted? That sounds absolutely ridiculous, and probably it is. But then God loves to do the miraculous from the ridiculous. I think of the Romanian pastor on the MacNeil/Lehrer Report who was interviewed after Romania had their uprising. It all began with a young pastor who stood up for righteousness' sake. They decided to execute him publicly.

When they got there with the firing squad, not only were the mob around to see blood, but the entire city turned out and said to the soldiers, kneeling down, "Shoot him, shoot us. Shoot him, shoot us." They say that the majority of those people that day were Christian believers. As he was interviewed about this incident that sparked the Romanian revolution in that country against communist rule, he said to Robert MacNeil, "Christian suffering, that's inevitable." He gave a little shrug of his shoulder.

We should say "when," not "if." I would like to do a little bit of Bible study with you and turn to scriptures to speak for themselves for a few minutes. If you have your Bible, I'd like you to turn to John chapter 15, beginning at verse 18. Jesus is speaking.

"If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you don't belong to the world, but I've chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I've spoken to you. No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they'll obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

If I hadn't come and spoken to them, they wouldn't be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I hadn't done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they've seen these miracles and yet they've hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what was written in their law: they hated me without reason."

The world hates me, the world's going to hate you, and they're going to hate you without reason for the word's sake. The world here refers to the human system that opposes God's purposes, the human system ruled by Satan that opposes God's purposes. Jesus warned us of the cost if we believe in him, the cost of following him. "All that will be godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution," we're told in the scriptures.

"Happy, blessed are they," said Jesus, "who suffer this normal persecution that will come to you for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." There is a line over which persecutors can never step; it's the line of death. One thing is certain: ours is the kingdom of heaven. One day there will be no more persecution for eternity, for ours is the kingdom of heaven. For this reason, with our eyes set on the goal, forgetting those things that are behind and pressing forward to the things that are in front of us, we can have this sense of peace and happiness.

We are to suffer solely for righteousness' sake. If we will uphold God's stand because of truth, justice, and purity, and refuse to bow to idols or companion with paganism, then Jesus warns we will suffer abuse for his sake. When he is gone, he says, hatred will turn upon his followers. Do you remember when Paul was persecuting the Christians and the risen Christ appeared to him? What did Christ, risen from the dead, say to Saul at that point? "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Saul said, "I'm not persecuting you, I'm persecuting Christians." But as much as ye have done it unto one of these, ye have done it unto me.

Jesus warned that once he'd gone, Satan would array his forces against those that followed Christ, against the disciple. "Beware," said Jesus, "when all men speak well of you." Not "beware when all men speak evil of you," he said that's a given. Why are we to beware? Because you're obviously not living in the light and living holy lives. When you live a holy life and you stand up for the truth and for Christ, evil resists. Evil tries to overcome the good. Darkness tries to overcome the light.

Why did people hate him? Because he was good. You switch the lights on, the darkness has to go. That's the spiritual law that we read about in John's Gospel. Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. We always quote John 3:16, but just read to the end of the chapter. In the context of John 3:16, it talks about Christ having to come to die, and dying because darkness hated the light. Then he goes on to say that men will not come to the light because if they come into the light, their deeds are exposed. So they live in the darkness, they do the deeds of darkness, and they hate anyone that lives in the light and lives a life of light.

The word persecution is all the way through the Old Testament as well as the New in different forms. It's usually because of the word. We have to be very careful here. Did you notice it said when you're persecuted for righteousness' sake? We must make sure that we're not saying, "I'm persecuted," when it's nothing to do with righteousness but because of our own stupidity. We probably deserve it. Are we being persecuted because of righteousness' sake or not? We must make sure.

Just look at 1 Peter 3 for a moment. Peter has a lot to say about suffering for righteousness' sake. We read the epistle of 1 Peter and we say, "This is a tremendous epistle. It's all about suffering." When I get sick or when I suffer in some way, I go to 1 Peter. But in 1 Peter, the whole subject is suffering for righteousness' sake, not suffering for suffering's sake or suffering because we're part of this sin-suffering world in that sense.

1 Peter 3:9 says this: "Don't repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called." That's interesting. Being a Christian means you're called to expect persecution so that you may inherit a blessing. "For whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil, his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, his ears are attentive to their prayer. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

"Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?" he asks rhetorically. "But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil."

Peter says in many other places, even though we should seek peace and pursue it, even in the act of seeking peace between people, trying to get them together, trying to reconcile them, we sometimes get into persecution. We get reviled. That word means yelled at. Persecuted for trying to seek peace. So he says, "Who's going to do you harm if you're good?" That's a rhetorical question. Why should this happen? Why should good people have people do them bad? The answer is because of their guilty consciences, because they can't stand it, and because the prince of the power of the air will persecute those who try to be that disciple building their house on the solid ground.

In the misrule of a deranged world, it too often occurs that the good in the eagerness of Christians for righteousness' sake inflames the hatred of the evil ones against themselves. Christians above all are virtually doomed to find the antagonism of men in their faces.

2 Timothy 3:12 says this: "All who wish to live a godly life in Christ are liable to persecution." This persecution takes various forms. Jesus said in Matthew 5 in our passage that you will be reviled. This involves yelling at. That's what the word means: rail at. When Jesus was on the cross, they railed at him, they shouted at him, they screamed at him. I have met Christian women who are persecuted by their own husbands for righteousness' sake, who are yelled at, who are screamed at for righteousness' sake.

This is, as Jesus said, a reproaching persecution. "Blessed are you who are reviled, who are reproached for righteousness' sake." The word reproach means held in contempt. "You're despicable," that sort of language. It includes verbal abuse. Many times, this is the sort of persecution that we in the West, who are not facing the bigger persecutions of physical suffering and torture and death, do bear.

They said this of course about Jesus. What did he say? "Those that do it to me will do it to you." They said to Jesus, "Say we not well thou art a Samaritan and hast a demon?" Jesus says immediately after that, "If they called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household?" Every time Jesus is persecuted, he reminds his disciples who are around while this is happening, who are watching it, who are listening to it, that when he's gone, this isn't going to stop. "If this is what they've done to me, what are they going to do to you?"

On and on he warns us. "Blessed are ye who are reviled, who are reproached verbally, and who are removed socially from the company of other people. Blessed are ye when men shall separate you from their company." This too is a persecution that we experience many times. I'll tell you who experiences this sort of persecution: our teenagers. Ask them what it's like to be in a tough school situation or in a tough college campus situation, and they'll tell you what it's like. They'll say, "We are socially separated from their company. We are the only person in our dorm that doesn't get the invitation to whatever." We don't get the invitation because they don't want pious Christians hanging around, making them feel uncomfortable and guilty. It's a form of persecution.

Sometimes, you know the little couplet, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me"? I don't believe that. I remember serving as a teacher in the Liverpool school system in England. On vice patrol, that was playground duty. Whoever was on vice patrol would come in and tell these horrific stories of these little beasts in the playground. These were just grade school children, but the gangs in Liverpool were made up of grade school children. The evil that was perpetrated on those playgrounds was unbelievable. If there was a Christian child, and there was here and there, then they were very definitely separated. They were left out of the games. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but maybe it would have been easier for those children to bear physical abuse than it was to be separated socially because they were a good child or because they didn't use bad language. They don't get asked to the parties.

There is a persecution that has to do with that. In England, we have a little phrase called "sent to Coventry." Coventry is a city, and there has to be a root to this phrase in the English language, but it really means that people don't talk to you for some reason. So you're sent to Coventry.

There was a story of a friend of ours who worked in a factory with a lot of communist people, and they sent him to Coventry for no other reason than he was a believer, the only believer there. Darkness hates light and all the rest of it. He worked for six or seven years without ever having a workmate ever address a comment to him. The only thing he ever heard was his boss telling him what to do. He would try everything to make conversation, but he would be totally ignored. That's a form of persecution. When you stand for right and when you live triumphantly in the face of evil, you're going to get railed at and reproached and removed socially from their company. Sometimes we do come up against it as Jesus promised that we would, but we mustn't be surprised.

Martyrdom is a regular ongoing feature of church life in the 25% of global Christianity that we call the underground church. In one part of the globe, over 10,000 Christians have been killed every year since 1950 due to clashes with anti-Christian mobs, infuriated relatives, state-organized death squads, and so on. During China's cultural revolution, religious activity was forced underground. Most Bibles were destroyed, believers' homes were looted, and many Christians were imprisoned or executed. In '83, the government arrested hundreds of church leaders in a crackdown on illegal house church meetings.

Beyond the Soviet Union and China, Christians have laid down their lives for their faith in some 180 countries. In Uganda, under Amin, some 400,000 Christians died, disappeared, or fled the country. The most notable martyr was Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum, apparently shot personally by Amin himself. In Vietnam, congregations were disbanded and buildings destroyed. Hundreds of pastors were sent to reeducation camps. Other Christians died of starvation and disease because their fields were confiscated and their harvests stolen. In Nepal, conversions are outlawed. That's heavy stuff. So persecuted they the prophets who were before us. Why? Because of the word.