Previous Lesson | Return to Home Page | Next Lesson
Lesson 24 of the Discipleship Making process.
I left you last time with this question, “Is it better to live for your faith or die for your faith?”
In the Scriptures the Greek word for martyr means a “witness or testimony” and does not necessarily convey the idea of death. Death became associated with the word martyr because those who witnessed were convinced of the validity of their testimony even to the point of dying for what they believed. As Christians we should live as martyrs, giving evidence of a changed life in Christ through our words and deeds.
Read: Matthew 10:24-42
Jesus was a practical person and didn’t use hype to motivate His disciples. He told them the truth. They will be persecuted for their faith and the message they proclaim. Despite the message of impending persecution, Jesus issues several commands for His disciples to follow that fly directly in the face of the fear they feel.
He literally commands His disciples not to fear men but instead to fear God. By issuing a command, Jesus is forcing the disciples to make a decision. Will they choose to be governed by God or their feelings? The rationale for choosing God is simple. Men can kill the body, which is not going to live forever anyway. But they have no power to destroy the soul, which will last forever. Only God has that power. So it is better to fear God than men.
Jesus’ primary purpose was to reconcile men to God, not to bring peace to the earth. He knew that what He was proclaiming would divide people. They would either be for Him or against Him.
Jesus comforts the disciples by telling them that He will be actively engaged with each of them in bringing forth their testimony. In fact, He will guide them in what to say. “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light.” In this case Jesus is saying He will communicate with them through dreams and visions (ex. Job 4:12, Joel 2:2/Acts 2:17, Acts 16:8-10).
Jesus also tells His disciples, “What you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.” In this case Jesus is saying He will communicate with them audibly, like a whisper in their ear. This is extremely common. God has been speaking to men ever since the Garden of Eden. Some men refuse to hear God’s voice and others choose to disobey it (ex. John 14:15, 10:3-5, 10:27, 18:37, Acts 9:4-6, and Hebrews 3:7).
Is it better to live for your faith or die for your faith? The Apostle Paul struggled with the same dilemma (Philippians 1:20-24). Paul’s decision whether it was better to live or die was not motivated by the fear of death or personal loss. Those issues had been decided when He first believed. Following Jesus’ instructions to “fear not”, Paul made the decision that Christ would be exalted in his body whether he lived or died, regarding Christ and others as more important than himself. This should be the focus and purpose of every Christian’s life.
The point of the lesson is, fear of men is overcome by faith in God.
With that, allow me to leave you with this question to consider, along with a little homework assignment until my next posting:
How often should you take a break from work (either in general or ministry)?
. . . and the homework assignment . . .
Taking this lesson into consideration, let’s reflect on these additional questions in answering the original question, “Is it better to live for your faith or die for your faith?”:
Will you choose to not fear death?
Will you choose to not fear personal loss?
Will you choose to not fear persecution?
In addition, pray every day for the Lord of the harvest to send workers into His harvest.
Until next time . . . Godspeed!
Previous Lesson | Return to Home Page | Next Lesson
No comments:
Post a Comment