Yield

"Satan is without doubt nothing else than a hammer in the hand of a benevolent and severe God. For all, either willingly or unwillingly, do the will of God: Judas and Satan as tools or instruments, John and Peter as sons." - C.S. Lewis

Lately, God has really been pressing a certain verse on my heart. It is Matthew 5:10, which says “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

It’s no secret what this verse means – it has been made very clear. But I wondered, what does this look like? What does it mean to be persecuted for righteousness? Today I want to talk about what persecution is, both in Biblical history and now, so I turned to Scripture. In Acts, Chapter 7, we encounter Stephen. Stephen was a deacon who had been appointed directly by the Apostles to distribute charity and food to the poorer members of the Church community. The book of Acts says he performed many great signs and wonders among the people, which, naturally, caught the attention of the Jews. In their anger, they stirred up the Jewish elders and members of the Sanhedrin, bringing false accusations against him that he was blaspheming the name of Moses and the God of Israel. Today we would call that “Fake News”. And just as fake news pervades our media and individuals believe it regardless of credibility, so too did these accusations bring Stephen before the Sanhedrin. Now, all Stephen had to do was simply state that he had done nothing wrong. Did he do that? No.

Instead, Stephen chose to recite verbatim to the elders their own history as Jews in their relationship to God, reminding them of the times that they had rejected Moses, and the many moments that they had rejected God. In the end, the final blow he dealt was his reminder of how they had persecuted and killed every prophet God had sent to them, including the ones that predicted the coming of Christ – whom they crucified. Do you think the Sanhedrin were like, you’re right Stephen, that’s our bad? No. They were angry. Acts says that they furiously gnashed their teeth at hearing this, and then they stoned him. It is important to understand that nothing he said was a lie – he was recounting to them facts that they themselves knew very well. But stiff-necked people that they still were, they didn’t want to hear it. Instead of accepting Stephen’s rebuke, they cancelled him. They silenced the truth. Not his truth – but the literal truth. This was the cost of Stephen’s righteousness – his life. This is what it should mean for us as believers also, persecution because we preach the hard truth – God’s truth.

Stephen is one of just many examples in scripture of persecution for the sake of righteousness. What I’m about to tell you is going to be heavy, but eye opening nonetheless. This is the list of the deaths of some of the prophets that God sent to Israel in the Old Testament:

Isaiah was sawed in half (while still alive)

Jeremiah was stoned to death

Amos was tortured severely by Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, against whom Amos had prophesied

John the Baptist was Beheaded

Then you have the Apostles:

Matthew died a martyr by the sword

Mark died a martyr after being dragged by horses through the streets

Luke was hanged in Greece

Peter was crucified upside down as he felt unworthy to die in the same way Christ had

James, leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. Though he survived the initial fall, his enemies beat him do death with a club

The other James, son of Zebedee, was beheaded at Jerusalem

Bartholomew, also known as Nathaniel, was martyred by being flayed to death by a whip

Andrew was crucified after being whipped extensively. They even tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. He was said to have continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he finally died.

Thomas was stabbed to death by a spear during a missionary trip to India

Jude was killed with arrows when he refused to deny Christ

Matthias was stoned and then beheaded

Paul was tortured and then beheaded

There are not, in any point of time, statements or remarks made by the various martyrs I just named indicating they felt they had made a terrible mistake in what they had chosen to die for. These were souls that understood that time on Earth is short, and passing, and whatever discomfort they may have had here will disappear like the wind. Life on Earth is not everything. Eternity is. I tell you these things so you may ask yourself – which life am I living for? I’ve asked myself that. I don’t know how well I would hold up in faith if I was the one being persecuted.

You may be wondering why any of this is relevant today. Afterall, none of us in the United States has been called to suffer as much as those I have just mentioned. But we do have brothers and sisters across the globe who are. In other countries Christian persecution has reached such an extreme high it now has been said to border on genocide. I think about that a lot. While my brothers and sisters die in other nations, have I even been made uncomfortable for my faith? The heart of this matter goes way deeper than just the willingness to suffer in obvious ways. First, we must be humbled and accept that we are only servants. With that comes the wisdom and understanding that God’s Word – his whole word – is the truth. I know that can be hard because there are portions of scripture that are, quite frankly, hard to digest. I know there are some of you out there reading this that prefer to pick and choose what you will follow, because you do not know how to reconcile what you read in God’s commands with what you are seeing, and what you are experiencing with the people that you love. But when you do this, when you compromise in even the smallest truths, I want you to ask yourself why. Is it because you are uncomfortable about speaking God’s will into someone else’s life? Is it because you don’t want to make someone else uncomfortable? Is it because you fear losing a relationship or love of another because you refused to see them living in a way that will separate them from the love of Christ for eternity?

Consider this quote from Atheist Penn Jillette, who says:

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.” Do you understand the significance of that remark? Even an Atheist understands just how important everlasting life is in this context.

We have the very words of Jesus that instruct us on how we are to be. In Matthew 5:14 he tells us that we “are the light of the world” and then he turns around in Matthew 10 and says, “You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm until the end will be saved.” Does Jesus say we will be hated because we are awful people who intentionally anger everyone that disagrees with us? No, because he prefaced this verse by saying we are the light of the world. But just look around today. How easy is it to even remotely disagree with someone on any social issue? We are living in the age of cancel culture where everyone must go along with the consensus so that they may get along. Speaking the truth in love is no longer allowed because it is most often deemed as hate speech. It is getting harder and harder to be the light, because the world loves the darkness and hates what God says is good.

When we talk about the word yield, as in yielding ourselves to God, the very definition of that word means to submit, produce or provide, or to give way to pressure. Essentially, we must yield ourselves to God that we may bring this Good News to others; this literally means to submit and provide him with ourselves as vessels in order to produce fruit, by giving way to his will. This requires us to fully release all of the hang ups, all of the fear – anything that may hold us back from how the Lord intends to use us to fulfill his purpose. Throughout the entire journey he is working on us, making a way, until we were at this point and ready. Until we finally understood and accepted his love, and his sacrifice. Until we realized that we are either slaves to sin, which is death, or slaves to obedience – which is life. My only hope and prayer is that someone reading this hears the words God gave me and remembers that. While we may not be persecuted and live in countries like North Korea, China or Afghanistan, we should consider the ways that God is calling us out into situations that are more than just uncomfortable for the sake of the Gospel. Now, more than ever, this world and this nation needs Christians who are reaching out to the lost, emboldened by the Holy Spirit, knowing that their Savior always walks ahead of them.

I’ll close with this verse from Paul in 1 Corinthians, 15: Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.