One has been removed from a faithful pastorate by unprincipled and worldly actions from within the church.
Another is threatened with removal from a cross-cultural ministry situation. This is not an intemperate street evangelist, but someone who quietly serves a community through a ministry of helps in the name of Jesus.
In the third case another cross-cultural worker sees a local friend suffer because of the friend's contact with Christian people and literature.
These three stories can be multiplied many times over. Persecution from without and difficulty from within are normal not exceptional.
At one level this should not surprise for the Lord warned that 'if they persecuted me they will persecuted you also' (Jn 15:19-20) and Paul warned of wolves arising even from within God's church (Acts 20:29-30).
Yet Jesus also spoke of how he would build his church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt 16:18-19).
How can the reality of persecution from within and without and Jesus' word about hell not prevailing be reconciled?
My daily Bible reading recently turned to Rev 12. John writes the book against a background of terrible persecution and the book pulls no punches in describing the troubles of the earthly church. God seems to be absent and the mad and bad have been left in charge.
A key literary feature of Revelation is the way it switches between earthly and heavenly perspectives - if you like, the view from the control tower (heaven) is set against the view from the earthly ground. This is the same reality in different perspectives.
The heavenly scene gives a different view from the earthly. God rules in heaven. He also rules earthly events from heaven. It is his scrolls and trumpet blasts that act like stage directions for human history. The earthly church suffers because God is strong and because Satan has been defeated (Rev 12:7-11). Satan's desperate lunges against the earthly church are because he is evicted from heaven and knows that his time is short (Rev 12:12).
This is a dramatic re-framing of the church's struggles and suffering. When Satan is strong he does not need to trouble the church but can let leave it in complacent slumber. When he is week he attacks like a cornered beast.
The people known to me above, and others like them, will continue to suffer and evil will appear to gain the supper hand from time to time and place to place. The great encouragement is that evil can reach no further than God allows (Rev 13:7) and that its power is temporal and bounded. Christ has conquered in his cross and resurrection. He is building his church and hell shall not prevail against it.
The message?
- Expect difficulty and persecution, but rejoice that it is a sign of God's triumph over evil in Jesus.
- Give ourselves to faith and endurance (Rev 13:10b) knowing that God's day is at hand and that the battle is already his.
- Persist in living and serving for the Lord, for that is our share in his sufferings and the means by which his kingdom is extended on earth and that of Satan rolled back.
