DO
NOT FEAR PERSECUTION
LUKE
12:8-12
Luke
12:8 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the
Son of man also confess before the angels of God:
Susie: To
“confess” Jesus is to affirm publicly your belief that He is the Son of God who
came to earth as a man, died for your sins, and was raised to life on the third
day after His crucifixion.
Susan: Confessing
is testifying that you are trusting in the truth that through His death,
burial, and resurrection, Jesus delivered you from the insurmountable weight of
sin.
Susie: If we
make this public profession of faith in Jesus, then in the Day of Judgment,
Jesus will testify on our behalf before God the Father and the witnessing
angels that we belong to His forever family.
Susan: For
those who believe, the Day of Judgement is a glorious day rather than one to
feared because we are declared by Jesus to be clean and whole before God.
Jude
24-25 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you
faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise
God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen.
Luke
12:9 But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of
God.
Susie: You
may be thinking, “Wait! Whoa! Didn’t the Apostle Peter deny Jesus three times?”
Let John MacArthur help us here:
MacArthur
Study Bible note:
12:9
he who denies Me before men. This describes a soul-damning denial of Christ—not
the sort of temporary wavering Peter was guilty of (Luke 22:56–62)—but the sin
of those who through fear, shame, neglect, delay, or love of the world reject
all evidence and revelation and decline to confess Christ as Savior and King,
until it is too late.
Susie: Those
who continue to deny the Lord Jesus, who never turn to Him in faith, will not
have the benefit of Jesus as their advocate on the Day of Judgment. They will
stand before a Holy, perfect God with absolutely no defense and will be
condemned to eternal punishment in Hell.
Susan: Those
who have rejected every truth, every revelation God has given us, will be
separated from all light, from all goodness, forever in tormented. Those who
deny Jesus have chosen this end for themselves.
Susie: They
have chosen temporary pleasure which results in permanent pain.
Luke
12:10 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be
forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not
be forgiven.
Susie: Jesus
was speaking about the Pharisees. The Holy Spirit who is the person of the
Trinity who illuminates truth to men and reveals Jesus as the Son of Man, a
title meaning He is the Messiah, the Son of God. A person may temporarily deny
that Jesus is that person but ultimately turn to him. For example, the Apostle
Paul was persecuting Christians, but surrendered his life to Jesus and was
gloriously changed. The Pharisees, on the other hand, had been eye witnesses to
many miracles proving the deity of Jesus, had seen Him face to face, knew the
Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled by Him; but still refused to believe.
They even attributed Jesus’s mighty works to Satan!
Matthew
12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out
devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
Susan: The
Pharisees blasphemed the Holy Spirit by refusing the see the proof He offered
that Jesus was God’s Son. It was also blasphemy to say Jesus derived His power
from Satan. Let’s look at a definition of blasphemy:
American
Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828.
BLAS'PHEMY,
noun An indignity offered to God by words or writing; reproachful, contemptuous
or irreverent words uttered impiously against Jehovah.
Blasphemy
is an injury offered to God, by denying that which is due and belonging to him,
or attributing to him that which is not agreeable to his nature.
Susan: Not
all Pharisees were guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. For example, Joseph
of Arimathea and Nicodemus who laid Jesus in the tomb were two Pharisees who
believed Jesus to be the Messiah and placed their trust in Him.
Susie: For
more on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, you may wish to read the notes on Matthew
12:31-32 from The MacArthur Study Bible
found at
Luke
12:11-12 And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and
powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall
say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.
Susie: Jesus
did not say if you are persecuted, but when
you are persecuted. He knew that the Apostles would all face persecution and
most of them would be martyred. Even so, Jesus assured them they did not need
to fret or stress about what to say when they were arrested. The Holy Spirit
Himself would place the right words in their minds at that time.
Mark
13:11 But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought
beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall
be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the
Holy Ghost.
Susan: We can
be confident that when we are placed in similar situations of persecution, the
Holy Spirit always has been and always will be faithful to those who have
placed their trust in Christ Jesus.
Susie: I once
told a friend who had been persecuted, even beaten severely in his homeland of
Romania because of his faith in Jesus that I almost envied him because he knew that he had remained faithful. I
confessed to him that I was not sure I would stand strong in that situation. He
comforted me by saying, “You will stand strong because the Holy Spirit that
fills you will enable you to stand strong.”
Ponder
this and Apply it: I (Susie) grew up during the “Cold War” with
all the fear of communism. However, I still found it hard to believe that
America could ever undergo religious persecution. In recent years, I have come
to conclude that persecution is here to a degree and will get worse. Do you
ever worry about that possibility? Are you anxious about what you would do or
say if you were arrested for having a Bible study in your home, displaying
Christian symbols at your business, or just simply professing to be a
Christian? This passage assures us the Holy Spirit will work in and through us,
empowering us to face persecution and be able to glorify God in the middle of
it. Do not be anxious. Be confident that even when persecuted or even martyred,
you are more than a conqueror and remain in God’s presence.
Romans
8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is
written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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