A word for these end times...

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For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." - Acts 9: 16 (ESV)

Here is a verse you will not hear preached from the pulpit today. This is the opening gambit regarding the recently saved Saul of Tarsus who would go on to become the Apostle Paul. He has been knocked off his high horse and blinded by God. So the Lord instructs a man named Ananias to go and help him until God restores his sight. Ananias objects because he had heard of the persecution carried out by Saul against Christians. He probably heard about how Saul presided over the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr. God however quickly brushes this aside by declaring that Saul will be carry the name of the Lord to the gentiles and before kings! God declares - for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. And the Lord always delivers what He promises:

Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one--I am talking like a madman--with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? - 2Corinthians 11: 23-29 (ESV)

Beaten with rods. Stoned and shipwrecked. Adrift at sea. Dangers from everywhere and everyone. Hungry, thirsty, exposed. Eventually martyred for Christ. I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name! This is hardly the sermon you will hear from Joel Osteen this week. Or Joseph Prince. Or Rick Warren. No beloved. Instead what is the opening gambits we will hear this week from the pulpits across America? What will be the clarion call that will bring people forth to Christ?

"God wants to supernaturally bless you!"

"You are blessed and highly favored!"

"God wants you to have the desires of your heart!"

"Just say yes to Jesus!"

"Invite Jesus into your heart - it will only take a minute!"

"God is never angry with you!"

"The Ten Commandments are just promises!"

Is it any wonder when we build a faith upon such a superficial foundation that there are so many falsely converted today in the church? I am not suggesting that everyone must suffer as the Apostle Paul suffered but it is not even offered as a possibility! The Bible does teach us sacrifice:

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. - Matthew 16: 24 (ESV)

Deny yourself? Today's church is in the business of teaching the opposite! The church experience is about affirming oneself. Even the Gospel accounts get allegorized to be about you instead of being about our Lord and Savior. The entire premise of the purpose driven church is to find your individual an unique purpose. Just being saved is not enough anymore. God sees the state of the church. He sees the motivations of our hearts. He sees how many of us come to church for Him and how many come for themselves. How many think God is there to make their life comfortable. To make their life prosperous. To make their life a life without sacrifice. Without care for what God might actually want. For what God might require. It is time to take a serious look inside of ourselves and ask why we are in this.

The question for us today is this - what would you do if God told you that the great plan and purpose He has for your life is for you to suffer? Would you still love Him? Would you still follow Him? I know that people have filled your heads with Jeremiah 29:11, even though that was a historical promise meant for the exiles in Babylon. Have you ever seriously stopped long enough to question the impossible promises made by charlatans and snake oil salesmen from the pulpits of God? That God wants everyone prosperous? That God wants everyone successful? That God wants everyone healed?

You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?" Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? - Romans 9: 19-24 (ESV)

Oh you do not hear these verses preached on Sundays beloved. Have you ever stopped to wonder why? Have you ever wondered why it is always about being the head and not the tail? Why it is always about being more than a conqueror? Why it is always about being able to do all things through Christ when that verse is really supposed to be about enduring all trials and tribulations? Have you ever wondered why trials are only discussed in the church today as a stepping stone to more blessings? Or how the word tribulation is only discussed to assure believers of what they will not have to go through when we are raptured?

For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

What if that were the opening gambit from God towards you? Would Calvary be enough? Would the Via Dolorosa be enough? I know that they promised you the crown of glory but would you settle for the crown of thorns? Would Gethsemane be enough? The spear through His side? The blood dripping into His eyes? Or would we trade it all in for what baubles are behind curtain number three? When is the price right for us? When is the sacrifice enough? Did the Apostle John enjoy his best life now or was he almost boiled to death in a vat of boiling oil during the great persecution in Rome? Did Peter learn the great theology of seed sowing to grow his net worth or was he crucified upside down? James, the brother of Jesus, was thrown from the southeast pinnacle of the temple (over a hundred feet down) when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a club. Too bad he hadn't read Joseph Prince's Destined to Reign. Apparently Matthew must not have tithed correctly and the devourer made sure he was martyred in Ethiopia by the sword. Being the head and not the tail took on a different meaning for the Apostle James, who was beheaded by King Herod. Every day was not a Friday for Bartholomew, who was flayed to death by a whip.

Purpose? You want purpose Mr. Warren I direct you to the accepted legend of the death of Andrew; crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece. After being whipped brutally by soldiers, they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that when Andrew was led to the cross, he saluted it with these words: "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it." He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he died. Celebrate that purpose. Thomas was run through with a spear trying to establish a church in India. Matthias was stoned and then beheaded. Not to mention the Apostle Paul who was tortured and beheaded by Nero in 67AD, yet just five years earlier penned these words through the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. - Philippians 3: 8-11 (ESV)

Do we understand this today beloved? Counting everything as loss for the surpassing worth of simply knowing Christ Jesus our Lord? What are these Sunday morning stickup artists selling you? What are they valuing to you over the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus? A meaningful life? A purpose driven existence? Sin without consequence? The riches of the young ruler? The morality of the Pharisees? Bountiful harvests of rotting flesh and rusting metal? Is any of it worth more than the worth of knowing Jesus Christ? We look for the gain of rubbish instead of looking for the loss of all things. Just to gain Christ and be found in Him. We seek the power of self worship instead of the power of His resurrection. We seek the power of positive self talk. The power of right thinking. The power of motivated flesh. Resurrection power? Not so much. It doesn't make for handy marketing materials. Share in His sufferings? No thanks.

For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

Yet what if this was what was the offer. The final offer. Would it be enough? Would it be enough to be satisfied with the work of the cross as the totality of blessings from God? What if the Lord offered you shipwrecks and stonings? What if He offered you to beaten with rods for His namesake? Vats of boiling oil? Would you still love Him? Would you still sing to Him? Would you still sing about Him? Is everything we value in this temporal decaying world worth forfeiting for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus? Would we gladly discard as rubbish all the carnal trinkets the preacher-man is trying to pawn off to us just for the privilege of being found in Jesus Christ? To trade in that shiny crown of glory for the bloody crown of thorns and wear it with honor. To glory in the sufferings of Christ. Oh to be found walking the Via Dolorosa instead of the halls of whitewashed tombs! To be found on Calvary's blood soaked hill. To be found in Him.

Sometimes the opening gambit for our faith is not all puppies and rainbows. Sometimes it is that we have no idea how much we must suffer for His name sake. Beloved the end times continue to advance. At some point Christianity will become the enemy of the world. You can already see it coming if he who has ears would listen. If he who has eyes would see. The development of a one world religion will demand that exclusive claims to God, such as those that we make as Christians, will become anathema. Choices will have to be made. These churches that have sold out the Savior for curtain number three will discover that behind it is only eternal misery and separation from God. There is a reason why the Bible implores us to come out from among them. To touch not the unclean thing. There is a reason why we are to value the eternal and not the temporal. To rejoice in the sufferings of Christ. Being found in church will not be enough. Not at all. The majority of churches today have already bought into the world system. They chase the world system and covet it. They hide behind buzz words like "relevance" and catch phrases like "reaching as many as we can for Jesus" but at the end of the day they will not side with Christ. They certainly are not reaching people for Him because they are not found in Him. They have made their choice already. So must we sayeth the Lord. So must we.

Reverend Anthony Wade - January 8, 2015

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.