Well, good morning. Morning. The best sermon has already been preached. We have a sister, she gets wheeled in here, but when it comes to sur praising Jesus, she stands as long as she can. You have so blessed me just watching you give your all to love Jesus. Thank you. Also, a quick PG 13 explicit warning here. I’m not gonna say anything about sex, but this is about persecution. We’re wrapping up first Peter four. He’s very honest about what we may face. We’ll talk about historical examples. It might be a bit intense for some of the littles. I just want to give you a heads up. It could be a little scary as they hear what’s happened. I don’t want teenagers to leave one the heroes of the sermon who’s a 14-year-old Romanian Christian. So I just want to give you a heads up that you think that might be an issue.

You could scoot ’em out while I pray and there’ll be time as I get into the sermon for you to do that. So let’s go in prayer. Father, I just do thank you for the Lord. So many witnesses in scripture and throughout history who have loved you to the very end, who have testified to your truth of reveal that they live for another world by even laying their lives on the line. Let us get what we need to understand from this. Lord, open up your word for us in our hearts. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. I have a, a delightful friend. He’s Jewish. We disagree about a lot of things, but he’s really fun to talk about. And one time we were talking and he said, Gary, why? Why do you Christians think you need to evangelize all the time? Why can’t you just let well enough alone, you know, live and let live?

I said, that’s a fair question. We’re in a whole series here on evangelism. I just talked about our love for Jesus and our excitement, wanting to share that experience with others. And then we got around a little bit of heaven and hell and he admitted, he goes, yeah, Gary, I think you’re right. When I think of all the world religions, if you believe in hell, Jesus is the way to go. <Laugh>, you think? Yeah, I mean it is true. Now, he doesn’t believe in hell. So that’s not decisive for him, but at least he’s honest at admitting. I I get why if you think people are gonna go to hell that you want to share your faith, but all instances of sharing our faith won’t be that agreeable. I love talking with him because he’s very agreeable even when we disagree. But there will be times when we share our faith, when there’ll be pushback.

And I remember when I was a little guy, single digits grade school, I would wear these pins. If you remember the Jesus people’s era, they were really popular back then. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow every time we’ll confess, things like that. I would bring my Bible to school. There must have been some after school class or something where I did that. And I’ll never forget one recess, a friend of mine named Alan had a bunch of other friends around him and he was teasing me. I don’t remember a lot about my childhood, but I can picture it to this day. Alan standing up there, oh, Gary, yeah, brings his bible, read the Bible every day. And they’re all laughing at me. But I look back on that as a young boy and see that is a really positive thing.

Something happened. I almost solidified my faith to be ridiculed by my friends, that I believe the Bible was worth reading and Jesus was worth worshiping. And when I was coming across this passage to, to prepare, as we wrap up the series on one Peter, it dawned on me exactly why Peter writes in one Peter four, 12 through 14, in verses 16 and 19, dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed if you are insulted. And that was me in grade school. Nobody was hitting me. They weren’t stealing my lunch, they were just insulting me. If you were insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed for the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

It’s hard to explain, but I experienced that there was a sense of you can ridicule me, but there was a presence of God. I felt as a young little boy. If you suffer as a Christian, don’t be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. So then those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good. So Peter begins this passage with, don’t be surprised. Don’t be surprised. Don’t be surprised when these terrible things happen to you because of your faith. You should not be surprised. Jesus prophesied, Jesus promised we would all face this. Matthew five, mark 13, John 15, if you have the app, all of these verses, we’re gonna go through a lot of scripture this morning. All of these verses are in the app if you don’t have time to write ’em down.

And the fiery ordeal that Peter is talking about here, it’s grotesque. Peter wrote during the time of Nero, Nero was he hated Christians. And he would literally rip Christians from their families. He would bring them to his palace. He would dip them in tar and light them on fire to illuminate his gardens fiery ordeal. Indeed. And Peter says, you should not be surprised at this. Don’t be surprised how many Christians today would be surprised how many of us think that this is a part of our faith, having that kind of response from the world when we share our faith. But this wasn’t just Rome under Niro. Peter is writing to churches all over the known world at the time. And in scripture we read of persecution in Jerusalem, in Pisidian, Antioch, in a, in lira, in Thessalonica, in Berea, in Corinth, in Philippi and Ephesus.

It seemed like the church was being persecuted everywhere. At the end of this epistle, near the end, Peter says, stand firm in the faith. This is five nine because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. We can’t be surprised. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Instead of being surprised. We should rejoice verse 13. But rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. Peter actually says, the more you suffer, the more you rejoice. Instead of being ang at God, how come I lose my job? How come I lose that friend? How come I’m laughed at because of that? Instead of being upset at God, we should rejoice because something better comes then it’s joy. And we’ll get into that in a little bit.

Now, Peter knew what he was talking about. Many imprisonments in the book of Acts where Peter was imprisoned and in Acts five, he wasn’t just imprisoned, he was flogged. And and here’s where I get explicit. Here’s what a flogging was. In Roman times, the soldier would have his his leather handle and leather strips. And at the end of the strips they would tie little pieces of metal or bone that had a sharp edge and they were designed. So when the soldier hit the back of the person, they were flogging the little sharp pieces of metal or bone would dig into the flesh so that when he pulled it back, he’s literally pulling apart the flesh of the person being flogged. And that’s what they went through, including Peter in Acts five and A. Instead of them questioning God, how could you let this happen? We tithe, we’ve been faithful.

Why? Why did you abandon us? Instead, we read in 5 41. So they went on their way, a rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to sh suffer shame for his name. Now, our recent history in this country has kind of lulled us to sleep thinking that we can be a Christian without facing this. Now in other parts of the world, they don’t have that luxury. And it’s even allowed the development of heresies. And you know, Kurt and I, we don’t like to get negative. We don’t think it’s our job to police everybody’s theology. But on some channels of television, when they say all you need is more faith, then more faith means all healing, all prosperity, no problems. That is a grotesque view of faith. Sometimes faith means being true in the midst of persecution to the point of losing your family, your wealth, and even your life.

They’re leaving out a grotesque amount of scripture and they’re not gonna be prepared if things change In the early third century, I mean near the very start of the church, Ian wrote this, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Rather than clamping down on the church’s growth, it was like fertilizer. It’s what caused the church to grow. There is a chilling commentary in the book of Revelation where you see a picture of all of these martyrs, special proximity to the Lord gathered around the throne and they’re calling out, when will we be avenged? We gave our lives because of our testimony. You said we would be avenged. We haven’t been. How come you haven’t called them to justice yet? And here’s what they’re told. Revelation six 11, they were told to wait a little longer. Why? Until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.

Do you hear what this is saying? God tells the martyrs, it’s not time yet. Why? More Christians need to be killed. More Christians will be killed before Jesus returns. You have to wait. Now, many others, they weren’t asked to give up their life but they suffered. Boy, we we think of Joseph, it’s a familiar story. He refused to engage in sin with Potiphar’s wife and he was thrown in prison. Ahab a wicked king, jailed my kayah for faithfully prophesying God’s truth thrown in prison. He subsisted for a long time on only bread and water. I’m glad gluten-free wasn’t a thing back then or he would’ve had a real tough time. Jeremiah, man, he we should do a series on you, threatened by his own family with losing his life, beaten, put in stocks, jailed many times, and for a horrific stretch put into a cistern, which is this boggy mud up to his waist without any food or water left to die.

God intervened, but he was there for a long time, nearly died. And tradition tells us that every one of the apostles, except for John, died a martyr’s death. And none of them were easy death. Peter was crucified upside down. Thomas was pierced with a spear. Bartholomew was beaten with sticks, crucified and then beheaded. They really wanted him dead. James was stoned by a mob and then he wasn’t dead. He was just lying there suffering. And so they killed him with the blow to the head. The early church lived with these stories. They were heroes of the faith. It shaped their expectations of what it means to be a believer that you don’t just endure this. It was the way they rejoice in this. Now, if we could bring up the next slide, ’cause I want you to consider this. Rejoicing in persecution is the ultimate statement that we live for another world.

It’s not just theory to us. It’s not just a religion where we have something to do on Sunday morning to be around other people. We really, truly believe there’s another world and its promises are better and it’s glorious, superior, and it’s truth. Oh, supersedes anything that we hear here that we would be willing to accept pain and even death in this world for glory and God’s affirmation in another world. And so Peter sets up these contrasts, we’re hated by men. Yes, but that means we are blessed by God. You are reviled by men, but God glorifies you and Peter’s convincing them it’s a good transaction. What do you care if for a few years here you have pain and you’re rejected and you are ridiculed if for eternity, the God of the universe blesses you and glorifies you and rewards you and celebrates you. This is where our faith becomes real.

It may hurt to be ridiculed by humans, but it’s nothing to when we see God in his glory and he smiles on us and blesses us, we’ll think that is the best transaction I ever made. But if we refuse persecution, we put ourselves in peril. And Jesus said as much about this as anyone else. I would say more, mark 8 38, for whoever is ashamed of me, could you please read the next three words with me and my words In this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Now here at Cherry Hills, all of scripture we believe is inspired. The red letter version is a little deceptive because Jesus says whatever is in the New Testament, he inspired the writers of scripture. So Jesus’ words are every command, every teaching in the New Testament are the words of Jesus. And so we can say, well, I’m okay with Jesus, but I I I, you know some of the words of his apostles, you know this, this whole bit about him being the only way or hell, or when Paul is really stuck up on sexual ethics or whatnot. I I can do without we’re ashamed. God forgive us of the true powerful love, grace based teachings of scripture. We act ashamed. Well, I I I can’t accept that.

And Peter says, basically, we must choose to be hated with scripture and loved by God rather than hate scripture to be liked by society and spurned by God. I had another friend share the faith with, he’s asked me about something and I told him what the scripture teaches. He goes, that’s shameful. Not just I disagree. He goes, it’s shameful that you believe that I don’t apologize for scripture. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Every word is birth in love and grace and truth and power war. I don’t wanna be ashamed. So I’m asking the younger people here, the teenagers, the 20 somethings are, are you willing to accept this faith? Not just that. Pray for forgiveness, be baptized, and then you get to go with heaven in life. Now, it’s increasingly difficult to not be ridiculed if you’re not just ashamed of Jesus, but his words, you’ll have to make a choice even more than my generation did that I will stand with scripture.

I will not be ashamed of the gospel. I will not be ashamed of Jesus as a pastor, I just feel for you. You are gonna have to decide. Jesus told his followers, all men will hate you because of me. But he who stands firm, what are the next three words to the end will be saved. You get baptized, you utter this quick prayer. Will you follow Jesus to the end? Wherever the end leads? This is why sermons like this are necessary, which doesn’t make me popular. Not an easy sermon, but Jesus says in Mark four 17, but since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the world, they quickly fall away. Why do I have to preach a sermon like this? Kurt and I as teachers recognize the responsibility God gives us through those watching online. Thank you for joining us. And those who are here, thousands of people, literally thousands, will hear this sermon.

If persecution hits, will we be down to hundreds? Will we be down to dozens if we’re caught by surprise? ’cause We only want to preach pleasant sermons. We probably will. We believe in teaching all of scripture here at Cherry Hills. And while there are many blessings about being a Christian, if all we’re expecting more miracles and all healing and all ease and everything, we won’t last if the persecution hits. I was told growing up, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, which is true, wasn’t told but dear. You step into that ring. Satan hates you. He will send people to stop you, to ridicule you. They will kill you if they can.

Before Sacred marriage came out, I did a lot of books with Christian celebrities, helping them write their stories. One of them was with Evander Holyfield, three time heavyweight champion of the world. I was in his kitchen when he was negotiating his fight with Michael Tyson, Mike Tyson. And I heard him on the phone, 15 million. And there’s this long pause, then he says, 10 million. I’m not gonna give myself away. I was getting $5,000 for that book, <laugh>. I thought 10 million, give yourself away. I have a little more negotiating room than he Vander did. But I asked him, I said, yeah, I don’t, I don’t get this because before the fight you’re talking smack like you’re gonna kill each other. You get in the ring, you’re hitting each other, you’re trying to knock each other out, you’re making each other bloody. You’re hurting each other. And after the fight, you hug like your best friends.

I go, how does that work? And said, Gary, if you don’t wanna get hit, don’t get into the ring. I can’t take it personal. They’re trying to knock me out. I’m trying to knock them out. That’s boxing. You can’t take it personal because that’s what it is. It’s part of what the sport is all about. So you don’t take it personal. They could be a good friend if they’re a good competitor. And, and really Peter is telling us as Christian, don’t be surprised when you get into the ring of faith and people wanna hit you and hurt you and try to take you out. This is the normal experience of ministry. Another one I worked with, you’ve heard me mention a couple times, John Ashcroft, who I just think is one of the most men of highest integrity I’ve ever seen. Two term governor of the state of Missouri, served as term as a senator.

Just impeccable integrity. He wouldn’t let us make copies in his office because it was a senate office and we were working on a personal project. He had only kissed one woman other than his wife his entire life. And that was his mom. I mean, nobody could find anything, any dirt on him. He had one of the cleanest backgrounds of any man I’d ever known. And when he was elected to the Senate, he asked his father, big guy in the Assemblies of God, as their tradition does to come in and anoint him in his office. So his father did, and they anointed him with oil and prayed over him that God would bless him, that he would walk with integrity and truth and conviction that God’s favor would be upon him. And and I, I wish every senator, every congress person, every judge, every member of the President’s cabinet would’ve that humility, God, I’m not worthy of this.

Call down your giftings. I call down your favor. Lead me. Let me be a person of integrity and truth and faith. And Kurt, it’s so beautiful. And yet he was ridiculed by many. One person called out, oh, Ashcroft in is Bizarre Crisco parties, which at the time was a reference to some really gross stuff happening in San Francisco. Like, how do you take something so beautiful, so wonderful, you make it so vile and they still found things to lie about and and attack him? And I asked him, John, how how do you do it? He said the same thing Y Evander told me, Gary, if you don’t wanna be lied about, don’t go into politics, they’ll do it every election. It goes with a thing. They’re gonna lie. They’re gonna misrepresent your motives. It’s what happens. You’re not cut out for this if you can’t handle this.

And here’s one of the extraordinary things I saw that Evander and John Ashcroft had that the disciples talk about. One of the extraordinary things about the gospels is there’s no nasty talk about their opponents, the Jews, the Romans, even the Pharisees that took Jesus down. Jesus doesn’t allow the persecutor persecuted to become the persecutor when his betrayer Judas, who Jesus had given three years of his life, even while Judas is ripping him off, and then Judas comes up to betray him. What does Jesus say? You scum. You. You, you do this. What did Jesus say to Judas? Friend? That’s why we hear Paul say to the Romans, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Peter told us earlier in this epistle to have the same example. Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate.

When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly we’re to pray for our persecutor. Matthew five and one, Peter three, they curse. We bless, they hit we love. It’s why in this time when we’re not being actively persecuted, I’m not talking about being not able to say Merry Christmas. I’m talking about real persecution here. That’s when we have to develop the love of God, God’s compassion that we’ve been saved. He’s given us his Holy Spirit that, that now we can read the word and it’s alive to us, and we can drop our sins behind in the affirmation of the Father. I mean, just drink in the spiritual treasures of being a Christian because we can’t respond this way. If we don’t know the love of God, we will respond with hatred, with hatred. And we can’t be surprised if we’re caught by surprise.

That’s when we will dishonor Christ. By the way we respond to our own persecution. The early disciples encouraged each other. This is Acts 1422. It says they encourage each other with these words. We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. I know this sounds like a hard word, and for some of you it may sound shockingly new. Nobody told me this when I became a Christian. I’ll say, when, when I got baptized, nobody said, Hey Gary, they will hate you so much for being a Christian. There was a time when Christians were dipped tar and lit on fire to try to put out the church. But we believe in preaching the entire gospel here. Now let me be clear, as a pastor, I mean, I have prayed this week. I prayed this morning. I hope this doesn’t happen in our lifetimes.

It’s already happening in other countries. But I, I don’t rejoice in this. I don’t wanna see it. I don’t wanna see one of you suffer like this. Certainly not our children or grandchildren. I don’t revel in this. I don’t look forward to it. It’s one of those realities, I I hope it doesn’t happen. But when Peter says, don’t be surprised, we have to preach that it might. So as we wrap up the series on one Peter, it changes our perspective. When, when, when Kurt’s been teaching us and encouraging us to share our faith, and we find ourselves a little embarrassed or ashamed, or afraid to share our faith, can we look back to the biblical examples and the historical examples and say, if they could do that, man, I could risk a job. I could risk a little bit of laughter. And and it goes beyond persecution. If this is a heart to lay down even our life, what might God be asking you to lay down now a sin that you hold on to?

Maybe he’s asking some of you to choose life and it’ll be embarrassing and really hard. But you know, in your heart, that’s what Jesus is calling you to do. Maybe God will be telling some of you, this is a good job for your bank account. It is not good for your integrity. It’s not good for your family life. You might need to be willing to put up with less. See, these are the little things where we compromise so quickly that this message says, no, I I I don’t wanna have a heart that always takes the easy way out. Or perhaps I won’t be found faithful 80 years ago in Romania when it was under communist control. And look, I know for young people, communism becomes in vogue every other generation. It’s romanticized you. You can Google this if you don’t believe me. Go to AI every time communists get control of the government.

The Christian Church is suppressed or outright persecuted. There are no historical examples where that’s not the case. They don’t say that going in, but if they’re given power, they will suppress the faith and they will persecute you. And that’s what happened to Pastor Florescu. He was a Romanian pastor. The, the, the, the Communist wanted to stamp out the church. They had him and they wanted him to give up the names of other pastors and other Christians so they could completely stamp out the church and he wouldn’t budge. And so they began persecuting him with red hot pokers and knives with little cuts. And he wouldn’t give in. And so they deprived him of sleep. And you know how they deprived him of sleep? They put starving rats, starving rats in his cell so that if he started to knock, knock off the rats would begin to eat him. And so he would have to wake up and push them away. He still wouldn’t bend.

And then they brought in his 14-year-old son named Alexander. They said, pastor, if you will not give us the names, we will beat your son in front of you. Florescu stood firm. And they began beating Alexander in front of him and he wouldn’t budge. And then he said, if you will not tell us, we will kill him right here in front of you. And finally, Florescu began to budge. He said, Alexander, I can’t bear to see them do this to you. I have to tell them the names. And you know what that 14-year-old boy said, father, no, don’t do me the injustice of having a traitor for a father. Stand strong. If they kill me, I will die with the name of Jesus on my lips. Communists were enraged and they killed Alexander in front of his dad,

A 14-year-old boy who knew if his father would just give it up, his beating would end, his life would be spared. But he valued, he valued his faith in Jesus more than he valued his comfort, more than he valued his life. A 14-year-old boy, young people I could give, if I had another 15 minutes, I could give you astonishing examples of young people who have lived their faith just like that. Will you love Jesus that much? Not just for the easy times, not just to get into the college of your choice or to get that boyfriend or girlfriend to like you back. Would you lay down your life? Will you say like, Paul, I’m not ashamed of the gospel. It’s the power of salvation for everyone who believes. And I’ll tell everyone I know about it because it is so true and powerful. And parents, will we make training our children to fall in love with Jesus that deeply our priority.

What concerns me about this culture is it that we wanna raise tough young boys and girls for sports and to sacrifice because it builds character. And I agree. Take one for the team sacrifice, learn that other things matter more. But is that replacing our sense of them sacrificing for their faith? I remember when my little boy is four or five years old, so he’s playing T-ball in Virginia. They were playing the championship game and the other team had a batter that got up and he got his weight behind it, which was considerable for a boy that small. And he got a hold of that ball and it went line drive right toward Graham was playing second base. Graham put his gloved up, missed his glove, hit his head. You could hear it up in the stands. Graham drops to the ground. I’m sitting next to my wife Lisa. She’s sucking in five liters of oxygen.

I run down the stands, I run onto the field and there’s Graham. I could say he’s got this red knot coming up already. I go, man, he’s gonna have a knot. Graham, are you okay? Yeah, yeah, I’m all right. I’m fine. I dust him off. You sure you, yes, I’m okay. The coach come out and says, here, Graham, we’ll take you out. We’ll give you a rest. We’ll put Timmy in. And Graham goes, no, no. Timmy lets the balls go by. There’s a, we can still win, dad, don’t let him take me out. I gotta stay, gotta win. And the coach looks at me and he’s like, Gary, Graham’s probably better groggy than Timmy is with a clear head. So it’s really your call. I look at, are you sure buddy? Dad, come on. Don’t take me out. I can do this. Like, okay, all right bud.

I dust them off. You got this. I go away. You don’t know when they’re four or five if they’re tough. I felt so good about ’em. I got a tough kid. You don’t know. I felt so good about my parenting. I’ve raised a tough boy. This is so great. I felt so great about life until I’m walking back and I catch my wife’s eyes in the stands <laugh>, every husband in this room knows that what I’m about to say is true. Wives can scream at you without opening their mouth. <Laugh>. And I know she, you, my son got hit in the head. You left him. Have you lost your mind? I imagine she’s saying to the otherwise around, there are three despicable men in the history of the world. Adolf Hitler, Judas is Scarritt and my husband, right? That’s where I was. So I made the courageous decision to spend the rest of the game on the bench next to the coach <laugh>.

I thought he might need some tips. You know, afterwards we had our discussion and Lisa, I, I just can’t believe you did that. And it got around to where I said, honey, this is not a world in which weak men do. Well, Gary, he’s a boy. I go, yeah, he’s a boy, but I gotta raise him to be a man. He was being tough. I didn’t wanna take that away. Now can I just say, looking back, I don’t even know who won that game. I’m not sure I would do the same T-ball championship game. Who cares? But I was kind of affirming his toughness. And I think sports are great when they do that. Take one for the team, do your best. And that’s wonderful if it builds a heart where they will take one for their faith and do their best for Jesus.

But when that replaces their passion for the church, they won’t miss a game for church. ’cause They don’t wanna let the team down. Not so much whether they want to worship Jesus with their fellow believe parents. What, what are we emphasizing if persecution comes? Do our kids have that faith? Kurt’s been talking to us and challenging us? Who are we gonna invite to Easter? Which is the easiest step we can make? That’s great. I hope as adults, every one of us are giving out those cards. Parents, can I ask you, who are your kids giving cards to? Have you talked to them? They have teachers and teammates, coaches, friends. They can say, Hey, here’s a card. It’s Easter. It’s a great time. You, you gotta come. We’re gonna go to this service. We don’t. You come with us. They might be laughed at, but is that so bad?

Alan, who ridiculed me eventually became a Christian in high school. He was in the same youth group I was in. But if we wanna spare our kids from being laughed at or say, we understand, if you’re too embarrassed, we might be keeping something very precious from them. Here’s how Peter describes it. If you were insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed. We want our kids to be blessed for the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Do we want God’s spirit and glory to rest on our kids? If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed.

Praise God that you bear that name. The name above all names. Father, we do not deserve your name. We didn’t deserve to receive it. And we have sinned away our right to that name again and again and again, and you keep forgiving us. And you’re not ashamed or embarrassed to call us your sons and daughters. You accept us with our sin and our rebellion, and our weakness and our cowardice. You still call us your children. You’re not ashamed of us. May we not be ashamed of you. May we raise our children to be overwhelmed by your goodness toward us and to be courageous as they share our faith, as we model sharing our faith. Lord, I pray this persecution doesn’t come in our lifetime, but I pray just as much that if it does, this body of believers won’t be surprised that we will be ready. May we be faithful in Jesus’ precious, holy name. Amen.