Making the Most of Your Life: Values Jesus Lived By
11/10/2002 - The Value of Hope
This morning Valley View joins over 300,000 churches from 130 countries around the world to observe the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Today we remember our brothers and sisters all over the world who are suffering just because they believe "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so." I hope you'll take a minute just to write a note of encouragement to them and drop it in the basket before you leave this morning or donate $5 to provide a Bible for a persecuted Christian in a closed country. More than anything else they need to know that they're prayed for and not forgotten.
The statistics are staggering and the stories are shocking. When most of us think of Christian persecution we tend to think of ancient history and the Roman Coliseum and Christians being thrown to the lions under cruel emperors like Nero. In our minds persecution was something that happened way back then. But the truth is more people were tortured for their faith in the 20thcentury than in all the previous 19 centuries combined. A 100 million people were killed for their faith in the 20thcentury. That's more than all those who died in all the combined wars fought in that century.
Paul Marshall, a noted scholar and human rights monitor, estimates that today, right now, 200 million Christians face some kind of persecution, either physical abuse, family separation, incarceration or martyrdom. Nearly 400 million more face discrimination and restrictions of some kind just because they're believers in Jesus. The numbers are staggering!
Why? Why has worldwide persecution escalated so much? Well one reason is because the church is growing at a fantastic rate all over the world and governments that are control freaks don't like it! In 1980, 70% of all Christians lived in North America and Western Europe. In 1990, just ten years later, 70% of all Christians lived outside North America and Western Europe.
The church is exploding in places like Latin America, sub-Sahara Africa and Asia, places that have long been dominated by Communist or Muslin rule. And they don't like it. And they're making Christians pay.
Some of the fiercest persecution is in Sudan, Africa, a country torn apart by a brutal civil war that's claimed millions of lives. On October 21, just three weeks ago, President Bush signed the Sudan Peace Act designed to help address the evils that are being inflicted on the people of Sudan by their own government.
Not long ago an American TV journalist visited southern Sudan and interviewed a group of Sunday school children who live in villages where Christians are routinely slaughtered. Many of their relatives had already been killed. He asked the kids, "Would you ever turn to Islam? Or would you prefer to die for Christ? And if so, why?"
They all replied, "We will remain Christians because this is the truth." And he said as they spoke, their faces seemed to glow with light just like Stephen's face, the first Christian martyr, whose face the Bible says "was like that of an angel" when he was stoned to death.
China is another country where persecution is strong. Right now a young woman from our church is living in China, teaching English as a profession, but really there to share her faith in Christ. It's estimated that the church in China is growing at a rate of 3,000 people a day, 90% of whom become part of the underground house church movement. And when they embrace Christ they know that soon after they may embrace persecution.
This week I read about a group of Chinese university students who called themselves the "Revolutionaries Club." Their purpose was to study the lives of great revolutionaries who changed the world. So they examined the lives of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, Lenin, Mohammed, Alexander the Great and Jesus Christ. When they were done they concluded that Jesus was the greatest revolutionary of them all!
One of them said, "The true revolutionary has to change people from within, so that led us to religion. Once on that road, there was only one person who it could be ... Jesus. So we all became Christians! And I had no idea of the trouble I would get into."
In 1998, house church leaders for the first time publicly called on the Communist government to officially recognize them as legal. One man who collected signatures trying to petition the government to officially recognize his church was Gao Feng. He was a 30 year-old worker at Chrysler's Jeep plant in Beijing. For his "crime" of gathering signatures he was arrested and sent to prison without a trial. His home and all his possessions were confiscated.
While in prison he lived in a 12 by 20 foot cell with sixteen other prisoners. Every day they spent twelve hours working in the fields. At night they had to arrange themselves in a certain configuration so that they could all lie down. He was tortured and brainwashed for two years until he was finally released.
After he was let go he said, "I'd go to prison all over again if I had too, because I'd prefer to be in prison for two years than do nothing for God." That's the kind of commitment many Chinese Christians have.
Jack Vinson, a missionary to China was once held at gunpoint by a man who said, "I'm going to kill you. Aren't you afraid?" To which Jack replied, "Kill me, if you wish. I'll go straight to God."
When a friend heard about Jack's courage he wrote this poem.
Afraid? Of What?
To feel the spirit's glad release?
To pass from pain to perfect peace,
The strife and strain of life to cease?
Afraid - of that?
Afraid? Of What?
Afraid to see the Savior's face
To hear His welcome, and to trace
The glory gleam from wounds of grace?
Afraid - of that?
Afraid? Of What?
A flash, a crash, a pierced heart
Darkness, light, O Heaven's art!
A wound of His a counterpart!
Afraid - of that?
Afraid? Of What?
To do by death what life could not
Baptize with blood a stony plot
Till souls shall blossom from the spot?
Afraid - of that?
This morning we continue our series called Making the Most of Your Life: Values That Jesus Lived By and the value we want to look at today is the value that motivates men and women, boys and girls, all over the world to lay down their lives for Jesus, to say, "Kill me! I'll go straight to God." It's the value of hope.
Somebody once that, "We can live about 40 days without food, about 3 days without water, about 8 minutes without air, but only about one second without hope." Without hope life isn't worth living.
All of us need hope. Webster defines hope as "the expectation of something desired." Hope always looks to the future. Hope is always on tiptoes. It's what keeps us going. Without hope, something inside all of us dies. Like water to a fish. Like air to a bird. Like electricity to a light bulb. We all need hope to make the most of our lives.
And God knows that which is why he calls himself the God of all hope. In the New Testament book of Romans 15:13, the apostle Paul writes, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Vaclav Havel, a former president of Czechoslovakia once said, "I am not an optimist because I'm not sure that everything ends well. Nor am I a pessimist because I'm not sure that everything ends badly. I just carry hope in my heart. Hope is a feeling that life and work have meaning. You either have it or you don't, regardless of the state of the world around you. Life without hope is an empty, boring, and useless life. I cannot imagine that I could strive for something if I did not carry hope in me. I am thankful to God for this gift. It is as big a gift as life itself."
These men and women, boys and girls, all over the world who are laying down their lives for Jesus everyday have the hope that their life matters and their suffering will be rewarded. Because, like those Sunday school children in the Sudan, they know Jesus is the truth.
And Jesus said in Matthew 5:10-12, Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 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.
Great is your reward in heaven. That's the phrase that gives these people hope, certain hope that there's more to life than this life. That's "the expectation of something desired." Hope that their lives, cut short as they are, have value and meaning and significance in the eyes of a God who will reward them one day beyond their wildest imagination for paying the ultimate price for their faith.
The New Testament book of 1 Peter was written to first century Christians who were suffering severe persecution. Many of them were Jewish believers who were being kicked out of their families, fired from their jobs, slandered, and arrested by the police. And in that letter the apostle Peter, who himself would die a martyr's death crucified upside down on a cross, writes in 1 Peter 3:15, But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
One of the prayer requests that continually comes back to us from persecuted Christians around the world is that they will be able to articulate with gentleness and respect the hope they have in Christ to those who are beating them and throwing them in prison, torturing them and executing them. Their hope is not that the persecution will cease and that they'll be set free. Their hope is that their lives will count and that their suffering will be rewarded.
As believers in Jesus Christ we have the hope of rewards for faithfully serving Christ. As believers we have the hope of the return of Jesus Christ. Jesus could come back at any moment. The Bible calls his return the blessed hope of every believer.
Titus 2:11-13 says, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope - the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is coming again! For the Christ follower the best of life is yet to be. We alone, in all the world, have the hope that things will get better, not in this life, but in the next. Which is why when I officiate a funeral of a Christian I love to read what the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians who were grieving over the death of their loved ones.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14,18 (NLT), Brothers and sisters, I want you to know what will happen to the Christians who have died so that you will not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died ... So comfort and encourage each other with these words.
We have the hope of rewards. We have the hope of the return of Christ. We have the hope of the resurrection. The resurrection of our bodies to new life is the hope most often spoken of in the New Testament. The hope of the resurrection is what put the apostle Paul on trial and behind bars.
He says in Acts 26:6-8, And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today ... O King, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me. Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
After we die our bodies will be raised back to life again when Jesus returns. But they won't be the same old bodies that we had when we died. They'll be transformed into the kind of body that Jesus had after his resurrection. Beautiful bodies. Glorified bodies. Perfect bodies. You'll get you're perfect body someday. No more Weight Watchers! No more health food! No more LA Fitness! God will take care of it! Just be patient! It's coming! That's the hope of the resurrection that only believers in Jesus have.
As followers of Christ we have hope. Hope of rewards. Hope of his return. Hope of the resurrection. And without that hope we cannot make the most of our lives. We can't because we'll be too locked in to this world. But I know that life often knocks us down and threatens to steal our hope. Some of you maybe feeling pretty hopeless right now. I know life can do that to all of us sometimes and right now a lot of us are hurting. There's been a flurry of difficulties in our church community recently.
There are people out of work facing major financial challenges in our church right now. There are marital struggles that just don't go away. There are health concerns and biopsies that don't sound good. This week my mother, 82 years old, fell in the driveway and broke her right wrist. Our 17 year-old neighbor who was doing so well after brain surgery a couple of weeks ago, went back into Children's Hospital this week with an infection. There are women in our body who've suffered miscarriages recently. There are those who've lost loved ones quickly and tragically in the last few weeks. There are others battling addictive habits and substance abuse. Life can knock us down and rob our hope.
Which is why will all need the reminder of what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:28, And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Later on in that same chapter he'll remind us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Romans 8:38-39 (NLT), And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. Death can't and life can't. The angels can't and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What is it that you're going through right now, that has you thinking that maybe God doesn't really love me? Maybe God's lost control? Maybe God doesn't care? He does. That's the hope we have as Christians who love God, the hope that everything in our life works together for good even when we don't understand it.
This week someone e-mailed me a short parable called "The Burning Hut." And I'd like to close by reading it to you.
One day a ship sunk and the only survivor was washed up on a small, uninhabited, desert island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him and every day he scanned the horizon for help. But no help came. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements and to store his few possessions.
But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived back home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst thing had happened. He had lost everything. He was stunned with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me?" he cried and fell face down in the sand.
Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. The boat had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" he asked. "We saw the smoke signal you sent up and we followed it right to you."
It's so easy to get discouraged when things don't go our way. It's so easy to lose hope. But God is at work in every situation, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. So remember the next time your little hut is burning to the ground. It may be just a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.
Suffering is part of life. We'll all go through it to one degree or another. But only Christ followers have a context for it. Only believers in Jesus have the hope of rewards, the hope of Christ's return, and the hope of a resurrection into a better life. Hang on to your hope!
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.