Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 12, 2017 | Persecuted Church Sunday - Loving Jesus' Persecuted Family

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November 12, 2017 | Persecuted Church Sunday - Loving Jesus' Persecuted Family · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I know that was a sober video, and I don't apologize for that.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be a little bit of a unique Sunday.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm entitling today's message, Loving Jesus Persecuted Family.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And going to use the parable or the story Jesus told at the end of Matthew 25.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, you may want to look that up.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is Orphan Sunday across the country.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's November 12th.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we love orphans.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: We have ministries to orphans overseas, and I want you to know that we also really care deeply about orphans in our state.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, we have Christy Chance, and our church is the person you need to see if you're interested in pursuing the adoption, perhaps, of an orphan or taking care of orphans in our state.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: We have a wonderful ministry, and Christy Chance does a lot of work in that.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: But this morning, I want to do something.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want to also make this the Sunday for the Persecuted Church.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: It actually had been declared around the country, around the world as International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: That was November the 5th last week, but I had a sermon series I wanted to conclude, so I ignored it and said, I'll do it just a week late.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know we usually don't do this, but I want to do it for a couple of reasons.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, I mean, it ties in with the How to Live at the End of Time series that I just finished.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: It actually does, you'll see.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and because this is a subject really close to my heart.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have to start uh with something I'd rather not start with, but since at the end of this message, one of the challenges I'm going to give us is that we need to pray for the persecuted church.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'll explain it.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: But this week, prayer is under attack.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know if you know about this.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you certainly do, but remember a week ago, there was an awful massacre at a church close to my brother's church down outside San Antonio, a little Baptist church.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: There was a massacre down there, and our president was overseas somewhere, and he tweeted back our thoughts and prayers are with the victims.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, something almost exactly like that has been said by every president for a hundred years after there's a disaster, but this president can't get away with anything.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So immediately there was a reaction by people who don't believe in prayer, to be honest, and who consider it religious mumbo jumbo, and who believe that uh passing a gun law would be far more important, even though a gun law wouldn't have stopped what happened down there.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: So you have Bill Maher, you know, I'm so sick of thoughts and prayers.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: After mass shootings, uh uh the Huffington Post ran an article nearly every day this week attacking this whole idea of thinking and praying about victims.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: People fed up with thoughts and prayers demand action, was their Monday headline.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think their Tuesday one was the murderous hypocrisy of thoughts and prayers.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, eventually there was a reaction by people like Senator Paul Ryan, who had defended, who defended his call for prayers after the Texas mass shooting, announcing, I think prayer works.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: The right thing to do is pray in moments like this.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then there came a picture and a video of the pastor and other survivors of this first Baptist church.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor had his own daughter shot, and yet he said, We need your thoughts and prayers.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: They held a candlelight vigil outside the church.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then a real philosophical thinker in our country the day before yesterday wrote a wonderful article entitled, In the Face of Evil, Prayer is the most rational and effective response.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, right now, it's hard to say I'm gonna pray for something publicly without getting made fun of by people who, let's be honest, don't really believe in prayer.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to call you to prayer because I firmly believe four things about prayer.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, that prayer is action, that it is powerful action, because it's calling upon the only person who can really do astounding, supernatural kind of stuff, and who says that he will do stuff in answer to prayer.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, prayer may spur us on to further action, right?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just as when we say we're gonna we pray for the victims of Hurricane Irma, we also send water down, we may send a team of people to help.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: It may spur us to further action, it may spur us to, you know, urge for some sort of legislative action, you know, after Las Vegas to pass a law against bump stocks on guns or something.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: But three, no actions, no laws can stop evil, despite what the tweeters say and the TV hosts say and the politicians say.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you get this idea somehow from people that if only you'll pass the right law or institute, you know, this safety check or whatever, you can stop it.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, prayer and action has its limitations and forth, but do pray.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Especially, dear friend, if you say I'm praying.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had a situation where someone, you know, you find out from Facebook, they're going to the hospital, you say, and you and you write back praying, and then something happens right away and you realize two days later you never actually prayed.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, is that just me?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and then you feel really guilty.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, listen, if especially if you say you're gonna pray or you're praying, do pray.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even if you just fall on your knees for a flare prayer.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's enough of that.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, about persecuted Christians, there is further action being taken.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it by our administration two weeks ago.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: I noticed Vice President Mike Pence, you know, finally got fed up with the fact that, you know, the United Nations, which is supposed to be helping with this, doesn't seem to care at all about persecuted Christians.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he said the U.S., well, they're gonna buy we're gonna bypass the United Nations and aid persecuted Iraqi Christians directly out of our U.S.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: aid fund.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: We give millions and millions and millions to all sorts of causes.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so I think this is a good thing.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I didn't put up a slide about this, I'm really happy that several months ago uh President Trump asked our governor, uh uh Sam Brownbach, to become the face, not just for religiously persecuted Christians, but for religious freedom for all religions and so forth.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and and since this is something that Sam really feels deeply about as well.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, he helped pass a bill about 10 years ago on the floor of the Senate.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really happy about that.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the Congress is really slow about moving in D.C.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: and so he hasn't been finally approved yet.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: But uh anyway, so I believe in action.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: I really do believe in action, and I'm really thrilled about that.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So let me move on to some specific uh data and then to our text.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this information comes from the Pew Research Center as well as opendoorsusa.com, that 322 Christians are killed for their faith around the world every single month.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: 214 churches and Christian properties are destroyed every single month.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: 722 forms of violence are committed against Christians.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here we're talking about beatings, we're talking about torture, we're talking about rape, we're talking about imprisonment, we're talking about all kinds of violence like that.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um earlier this year, Franklin Graham was in Iraq, where the where it's just really brutal against Christians.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: He was there on Easter Day, as I recall, and he was looking at a church that had been burned out just a few days before, and and and relay back the words written on the walls by ISIS.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: One of them was, you believe in life, we believe in death, and another was, we are here to drink your blood.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and even he was was noting that just a thousand miles to the southwest of where he was standing in Egypt, there's just horrific persecution against Christians.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Christians are not a small minority in Egypt.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: There's nearly 10 million Christians out of 95 million people.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, the Coptic Christians are having their churches burned.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: The week before, two bombs had gone, on Palm Sunday in Egypt, two bombs had gone off in churches and killed lots of people and ruined the churches.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Franklin Graham in Samaritan's Purse has really gotten active in this.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: My brother Rob was a doctor in southern Sudan with Samaritan's Purse.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: When I was over to visit him a few years ago, Sudan is one of the top three with Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the top three places of persecution in the world.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Our State Department says over 60 countries in the world are persecuting Christians horribly.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: 215 million Christians are being persecuted today around the world.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And Rob said to me, Okay, why don't you let the other guys continue to build?
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: We were building a maternity ward over there in southern Sudan.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'd like you to meet a guy.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And he brought in a guy who limped in, you know, he'd lost a leg.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: He limped in with a cane.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: He said, This guy is wonderful.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows him around here.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's been a church leader.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want him to tell you how he lost his leg and what's happened.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this man was so godly.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: He had halting English.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: But we sat there during that afternoon and he shared with me how the radicals from the Muslim North had come across and captured him and his family and killed his brother before his eyes and cut off his leg.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, just terrible stuff.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And yet he was full of love and he was full of joy and he was full of peace and he was full of hope.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I was deeply, deeply moved by that.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've told some of you that my brother Rob has been asked by Samaritan Spurs, he has had to leave Southern Sudan because of persecution, not just death threats to him, but death threats to the hospital that he was running.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so they said it would be safer for everybody if he left.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm familiar with our family's familiar to some extent with persecution, but it's it's all over the place.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, it's it's crept into Europe, it's crept even into Mexico, which is now, of those 60 persecuted countries, it's now in the top 20.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of dozen Mexican believers were slaughtered earlier this year by drug cartels simply because they were Christians and would oppose drugs.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: 150 Christians were had uh lost everything they owned earlier this year, were kicked out of a town.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: The religious persecution just south of our border is awful.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Europe, it's spreading in Europe.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: We've had a couple named Trent and Tammy Martin, who, you know, worked with refugees in Germany, led some of those refugees, Muslim refugees, to Christ.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: But 90% of refugees in Germany who are believers say they fear for their lives.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: A third of them have been threatened with death by the other Muslim refugees.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: We have a terrible situation starting, of course, in Great Britain.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many Muslim radicals there now that the government is having to protect Christians, Arab Christians who are literally in danger of losing their lives.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this is in London and in England.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we we have this is a really current issue.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: I could talk about it a lot, but as you know, the New Testament talks about it a lot as well.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And later in the New Testament, remember those who are in prison as though you were in prison with them.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a passage that I want to share with you that I believe has to do with the persecuted church, even though we use this passage, it's one of the most egregiously misused passages in the entire Bible.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to share with you what this passage really says.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's oftentimes called the parable of the sheep and the goats.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm calling it the parable of the judgment scene, Matthew chapter 25, verses 31 to 46, last parable that Jesus told in the book of Matthew.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this fits in with the series we've just concluded about the end of times, because the scene is that the tribulation period has now ended.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: As you know, the a terrible time of trouble called Jacob's trouble, because the Jews will suffer more than anyone, is coming upon the whole earth.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of this time, uh, because Jerusalem is in grave danger, uh, Jesus, riding on a white horse, will break through the heaven, trumpet will sound, he'll bring a heavenly host, he'll come down to the valley of Megiddo, uh, and on the plain of Megiddo, and then later in the region right around Jerusalem, there will be a huge war between the forces, the Antichrist forces, and the Lord Jesus Christ will win.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Sword will come out of his mouth and he will win.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so as soon as this is completed, what will happen is that the Lord will set his throne up in Jerusalem and will have a judgment.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how this passage begins in verse 31.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he'll separate them from one another, like the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Being a good shepherd, the Lord knows who are his sheep and who are his goats.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you immediately can tell that the sheep are the believers or the Christians, and the goats are not, because he says, and he'll place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: The right side, of course, is the honored side.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this is going to happen.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: The sheep and the goats are, of course, figurative here, represent two different kinds of people.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then in verses 34 to 36, the king will say to those on his right hand, who were they?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Those were the sheep.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he'll say, in a wonderful statement, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful statement there.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And notice, you'd sort of expect him to say, Come and enter the kingdom, but he he goes a little bit further than that and says, inherit the kingdom.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, be the wealthy heirs of all that this kingdom contains.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's a bit of reward here, okay?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: For, here's the reason, for I was hungry and you gave me food.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was thirsty and you gave me drink.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was a stranger and you took me in.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was naked and you clothed me.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was sick and you visited me.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: I was in prison and you came to me.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you know, the sheep are going, whoa, I didn't think we ever even met you.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we've ever seen you on earth.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so they go, Whoa, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, exactly when did we see you sick or imprisoned and go to visit you?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then what I've come to feel is probably the most important verse in this passage, verse 40, the king will reply, says Jesus, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me, identifying Jesus, or the king identifying with his family.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: For he says, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was a stranger and you invited me in.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And now he turns to those on his left.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: He he says then to the goats on his left hand, depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Notice, he's almost reluctant, isn't he?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because to send anyone there.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: For we know from 2 Peter 3 that his God's wish is that no one would perish, but all would come to repentance.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: This fire is not prepared for people.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: This fire was prepared for the devil and his angels.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then he explains, for I was hungry and you gave me no food.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I was a stranger and you didn't take me in.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Naked and you didn't clothe me, sick and in prison, and you didn't visit me.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they're going, What pretty sure if we'd have seen you around on earth, we'd have rolled out the red carpet.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, they're gonna say, Lord, when did we see you, hungry or thirsty, or stranger, naked, sick of prison, didn't minister to you?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then he'll answer them, saying, Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you didn't do it to one of the least of these, you didn't do it to me.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous and to eternal life.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how many of you have heard this story before?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have been in a Bible study or discussion group and talked about this story?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm guessing that uh you may have, as I've been in groups, where the common interpretation, misinterpretation, uh, was that the least of these were the poor and homeless.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they didn't even refer to the words least of these, but just assume that what we were talking about was poor, homeless people, perhaps including orphans and widows.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that Jesus tells us and the Bible tells us elsewhere to show compassion on them.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes you'll see uh you know statements that if you see a homeless person, you need to see Jesus' face on there because he identifies with them as the least of these brothers.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, usually if you're in a Bible study at a church like ours and you get to this point, usually that's where it stops.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: You don't go on to the fact that there's heaven and hell to pay.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: But the fact of the matter is that is what it says, isn't it?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so there are people who are consistent and who say, well, listen, charity to the poor and prisoners is the way to heaven.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: A former governor of Kansas, who was opposing at the time a pro-life bill or a bill that limited abortion somewhat, said in the Hutchinson News, I get a little frustrated in the singular focus on that issue abortion.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I read the 25th chapter of Matthew and it talks about judgment day and what we're going to be judged on, and here it comes, who's brought into heaven and who is cast aside, it has everything to do with feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, visiting those in prison.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And some Christians as well, even you know, if, especially if they're uh the word today is progressive, who would agree.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And one of them said some years back in his book, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, Jesus, quote, Jesus warned his followers in the strongest possible words, that those who do not feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the prisoners will experience eternal damnation.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you get this far, I know that some of you are thinking, but hold it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm I'm struggling with that because why in the world would Jesus have even needed to come if just by being kind to poor people you could go to heaven?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why would Jesus have to die?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you need the cross?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: What about sin?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: What about salvation?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: What about John 3.16?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shouldn't perish.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: How about Ephesians 2, 8 and 9?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: For by grace you're saved, not by works, lest any man should boast.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: How about, maybe someone would say, I've read the end of the Bible, and in Revelation, John foresees that on the last final judgment day, in verse 15, the last line, if anyone's name wasn't found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire, that book that records the names of everyone who's believed in the Son of God.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: How does that fit?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, we'll struggle with that a little.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe if we're wise, we'll go back to that verse where the king says, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point, it would be smart to ask, well, who are the least of these my brothers?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they're basically three interpretations over the last 2,000 years, and the one is the one I've hinted at already, that they are the poor in general, they are the orphans, the widows, the homeless, the needy people.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: They are the ones that Jesus is saying that we ought to care for, and when we care for them, we're caring for him.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a number of things I could say, but the most important is probably that though Jesus did, yes, tell his followers to be compassionate to the poor, he never uses these words to refer to the poor, never uses the words the least or little ones or even brothers ever to refer to the poor.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: So there's another interpretation which a number of people have held, and that is that the least of these my brothers are his brothers, the Jews.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was a Jew.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that Peter refers to his family, his brothers, as being Jews.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Paul sometimes uses in Romans, uses the word brothers to mean the Jews.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe Jesus is talking.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Talking about, and there have been a few Jewish ministries that have said, what Jesus is saying here is you'll go to heaven or hell based upon how you treat the Jews.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: But again, the problem with this view is that while Jesus perhaps could have thought at times of the Jews as being his brothers, he he uses these terms, but he never uses them to refer to his earthly relatives, the Jews.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, instead, oftentimes Jesus speaks about the least and about his brothers and sisters, and he's always referring to his disciples.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then he pointed Matthew 12, 49 to his disciples, and he told everybody, look, these are my mother and brothers.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, which he explains elsewhere, is to believe in the one that the Father has sent, is my brother and sister and mother.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, and this is one of many verses I could quote.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: So this would be that third view, the third view, which, by the way, is now finally sweeping the commentaries and so forth, and that is that the least of these Jesus brothers are the disciples.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Either all Christian disciples that we ought to care for, or perhaps especially Christian missionaries.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I say that because Matthew 25 has a really close parallel black in Matthew chapter 10.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Where Jesus, after a year or two of ministry, sends out the 12 disciples.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm sending you out two by two, and I'm sending you to all the villages here in the Galilee.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Josephus said there were about 200 villages in the Galilee that were really sizable.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know if that's true or not, but so they had a big job of sending you out two by two.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: You walk into the village, you share your message, and you stay overnight and get fed there, and so forth.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now he said, he said, your message, how they accept the message will be how they accept the messenger.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever doesn't receive you, nor heed your words, says you go out of that house or city, shake the dust off your feet.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: With dire consequences, he says, Truly I say to you, it'll be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'm telling you in the next verse, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you're going to be persecuted.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he who receives you, Matthew 10, 40, receives me.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he who receives me receives him who sent me.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: This identification of Jesus with his disciples.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Paul found this to be true back when he was Saul, when he was persecuting Christians.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, and the light shone down and he collapsed under the road there, heading to Damascus, and the voice came out of heaven saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Who are you, Lord?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently, if you persecute Jesus' followers, Jesus says, You're persecuting me.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, he says in Matthew 10 to his disciples, whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he won't lose his reward.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: The New Living Translation puts it this way, and if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Notice there are five close parallels, I won't list them, between that first commission and Matthew 25.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: But one of them is right here, one of the least of my followers, and in Matthew 25, whatever you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now in Matthew 10, Jesus is speaking about missionaries and evangelists, not just disciples, but disciples who go out and share the gospel.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Who's he talking about in Matthew 25?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I put my view down right here, and I'm going to read it to you, and that is the parable of the sheep and the goats is about the persecuted church.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: The least of these, whom, if you help, you're helping Jesus Himself, are not the poor and homeless everywhere, but are Christians, especially evangelists and missionaries who are persecuted because of their faith and their witness and need our love and help.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Note only those who receive the gospel message will take the risk of receiving the messenger, assisting and visiting them in prison.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, fortunately, I say this the view that is that looks at the passage carefully is now fortunately becoming more common and sweeping rather than this sort of a mushy view.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, a two years ago, Christianity Today ran an article, a little startling for them, entitled What You Probably Don't Know About the Least of These, a young guy in his 30s named Andy Horvath concluded, the least of these, my brothers, are the disciples, followers of Jesus who carry his message.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, brothers in the Gospel of Matthew are always his disciples.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: That language is used of no one else.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Andy has just died at age 34 in California.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sudden heart attack.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry about that.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Or Denny Burke, who's a well-known blogger, theologian, listen to this, says this text is not about poor people generally.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's about Christians getting the door slammed in their face while sharing the gospel with a neighbor.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's about the baker, florist, photographer who's being mistreated for bearing faithful witness to Christ.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's about disciples of Jesus having their heads cut off by Islamic radicals.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's about any disciple of Jesus who is ever mistreated in the name of Jesus.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: This text shows us that Jesus will judge those who show contempt for the gospel by mistreating gospel bearers.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was preparing this message, I was happy to see the Catholic bishops of America have put a commentary online in the New Testament, and I was thrilled to see that they take my view exactly.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: The sufferers, and I quote from their commentary on Matthew 25, the sufferers are Christians, probably Christian missionaries, whose sufferings were brought upon them by their preaching of the gospel.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: The criterion of judgment for all the nations is their treatment of those who have borne to the world the message of Jesus.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this means ultimately their acceptance or rejection of Jesus himself.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now let me drop something in here.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Just an idea I have, and it's just a suggestion.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: In the context of Matthew 24 and 25, which is the end times and includes the great tribulation, you know, he that endures to the end of this horrible time.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: This parable also may have special application to those sheep who, endangering their own lives by doing so, receive and assist the evangelists during those awful days when they'll be persecuted, imprisoned, and killed.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke about this time, by the way, to his disciples the chapter before.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: He said, They'll deliver you to tribulation and will kill you, and you'll be hated by all nations because of my name.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Revelation speaks about this group of people when it says that they'll conquer the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: They love not their lives even unto death.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Revelation also says that when they get martyred, God has a special place close to Himself, under His throne for these martyrs, Revelation 6, 9 and 10.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: So bottom line is this, okay?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling us, my family, my family is being persecuted.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Please help.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, but what can we do?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I live in America.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a little bit of persecution here, but it's mainly the kind that, well, Peter talks about this ridicule and so forth.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: But real persecution overseas, 215 million Christians being persecuted today in over 60 countries.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: What can I do about those Christians being killed, beaten, imprisoned?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I've come up with four things that I really believe.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, we can know them.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: We can identify with them, and we can love them, and we can pray for them.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: I know the stories behind almost every one of these pictures, and they're sad.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're horrific.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: The girl on the right, halfway down, you know, her two best girlfriends as they're walking to school, Christian girls were killed by the machete that left this, that carved her face open in Pakistan.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, not only, and by the way, to know them, just go on opendoorsusa.com or go on, you can go now on Franklin Grant, Samaritan Spurse, or you can just type in persecuted church or anything.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing what you can find out.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was really thrilled that Franklin is taking this so seriously now.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: He paid for 600 persecuted Christians to come to New York City or DC a couple months ago and tell their stories because he says, this is just an epidemic today.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you can know their stories.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: I read their, I'll look online, I'll read a story, and then I'll shoot up a flare prayer for them.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, identify with them.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: If Jesus identifies with them and says, that's me, right there, suffering.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's my brother, my sister, that's me.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: If the church is one, as it is, you're part of his body, then you too are the persecuted church.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Third and fourth, love them.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you find yourself in a situation where even though you're risking your own life by caring for them, love them, care for them, visit them in prison, and especially pray for them.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: In a day when prayer, this week, this month, prayer is being mocked, is not doing anything.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Pray for the persecuted church.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because the first request, when you talk to persecuted Christians, when I asked that guy without a leg who'd lost his family recently, I said, What can I do?
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: What can we as a church do for you?
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: I kid you not, he said, just pray, please pray.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: That would mean so much if I knew you were praying for us.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And my tendency is going, yeah, but what can we do?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he was saying, that's something you can do.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the first request consistently of persecuted Christians, if you will, if you'll know who I am and if you will pray for me.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, bottom line, I think Jesus is saying they're there in over 60 countries.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: My brothers and sisters today are being persecuted, they're being hated, they're being rejected, they're being murdered, raped, beheaded, and tortured, they're being robbed, beaten, jailed, starved, and banished simply because they believe in me.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's heavy.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is a sober message.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is what's happening in our world.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying, I want you to know them.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to identify with them as I do.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to love them, and I want you to pray for them.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: One day we'll stand before Jesus.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think some of the things we've done, which we consider pretty cool and pretty big and pretty important, will somehow fade into relative insignificance.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: And some of those small things that you've even forgotten about, you know, the time you encouraged that disciple of Christ who was absolutely down and out, and you said a word, you found out later how encouraging it was, or maybe you opened your home or your pocketbook to a disciple of Christ, to a follower of Jesus, because they were a follower of Jesus and you knew they needed help, emergency help at that moment, or maybe you visited them in the prison or in a hospital.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: At that point, standing before Jesus, you and I, because of his love for hospitality and his identification with his needy disciples, that will somehow become vibrant and shine and get his well done, thou good and faithful servant.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that something?
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know that our church actually comes out of a background that's illustr that that this parable illustrates.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because, in a sense, we're sort of an Anabaptist church as well as Calvinists.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Anabaptists, you know, we celebrated Luther hammering the thing on the, you know, the Reformation Day a couple weeks ago.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what happened is that doctrine became really hardened those years after Luther and Calvin and so forth.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, governments were actually very religious, and if you disagreed with what they believed about, let's say, when you're baptized, it was law, basically.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was the rule, you should get baptized when you're a baby.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Here come the Anabaptists, here come the Mennonites, here come, you know, forerunners of the Baptists, saying, No, no, we think the Bible says that we need to be baptized as adults.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: You'd think that's no big deal.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: But they were actually killed by the thousands for getting baptized as adults.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Minno Simons, you know, for the founder of the Minnonites, Minno Simons, killed because he was a pacifist.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: He believed in believers' baptism.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the rule was if you helped him, if you took him into your home, if you fed Minno Simons or his family, you'd suffer his fate as well.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: This happened like crazy in the 1500s.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: And now, today, Christ says, you know, this is happening around the world.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's happening in certain places where you cannot show affection or show kindness to Christians without you suffering their fate.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Christ says, think of those people, know those people, identify with those people, love those people, and pray for those people.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let me lead us in a word of prayer right now and let you go.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we know we live in a day when just hundreds and thousands and millions of Christians outside of our country, especially, are being persecuted.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this morning we think of them, we pray for them.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: We pray specifically, Lord, that they would know love, joy, and peace, that they would know how much you love them, even though they feel abandoned, how much they would experience the joy you promised to persecuted Christians.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we ask that they would feel a sense of peace inside themselves, even as their whole world falls apart.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: And most of all, Lord, we pray for courage, for boldness, that they would stay true to you, that they would stand up for you, even though where they live, that may mean life and death.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this morning we care for them in a special way.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we love you, we love your son Jesus Christ, and so we love what you love, and so we love persecuted Christians in Jesus' name.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for letting me share that.