Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” – John 15:18-19
I remember during 1st year in the university we would go to some of the halls and preach Christ early at dawn. One time, a lady from the 1st floor poured a bucket of water at us and rained incessant insults at us for preaching. Our offense was that we were preaching Christ and she was offended by that. She lamented that our parents have wasted money bringing us to school to learn and we spend our time preaching.
Growing up in a pagan home, I was forbidden from going to church but I would go nonetheless. I would usually come back to meet beatings and lashes and threats. But at the next opportunity I would go again, I couldn’t help myself. This is how we bear in our body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. In my ministry work with the youth, I have had parents abuse and insult me for holding programs for their wards. Some have threatened us and reported us to the police. All these and more for His name’s sake. Men have been imprisoned, butchered and killed for Jesus sake. When Justin Martyr was arrested for his faith in Rome, they asked him to denounce his faith by making a sacrifice to the gods so that he will be released. Justin replied, “No one who is rightly minded turns from true belief to false.”. He and his followers were beheaded.
Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you”
BLESSED ARE YOU, IF YOU ARE REPROACHED FOR THE NAME OF CHRIST. What is your own story of suffering for His name’s sake? What have you endured for Christ’s sake? I know people who have lost promotions and jobs and properties because they will not bow to ungodly demands. Cheer up Beloved, you have lost nothing in the eternal frame of things – cheer up, for Blessed Are You.
Lets go back to our story in Acts 5:27–29,40-42,
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, ” Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!” But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. ..And when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
The high priest and the leaders at the time knew the power in the name of Jesus. They feared and so dreaded it. Peter and the apostles were arrested and brought before the council or parliament. The high priest lamented, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine”. They threatened them and flogged them and sent them away.
They were so afraid of what that name could do in the lips of the people, so they tried to stop it by forbidding them to preach in that name. Surprisingly, only we the children of God don’t know what power we posses in his name. The devil knows it; the devil’s agents know it; evil leaders in authority know it; but only God’s children don’t know what the name of Jesus can achieve in their lips.
All the persecution and the reproach and abuse you will receive is because of what the name of Jesus can do through you. There will be laws to stop you, but don’t let it derail you.
WITH CHRIST UNLEASHED IN OUR HEARTS, WE ARE A PEOPLE WHO
PERSECUTIONS don’t deter us,
THREATS stir us up,
ABUSE AND INSULTS fuel us up to do more.
WE ARE SOLD OUT TO HIM ETERNALLY. Hallelujah!
