Matt. 10:16-23; Eph. 6:10-13, Believer’s Handbook (3)

Every “job” has difficulties.  Some are actually hazardous.  A person will want to know about these things.  Thus, Jesus warns His disciples about “on the job hazards.”  It boils down to one thing: persecution.  There will be people who oppose Jesus’ followers; some will be moved to strongly contradict the message and the messenger.

·        Three sources of persecution, v17,18,21.

o   Religion.  We can speak with some experience on this matter.  In Israel the law provides for freedom of religion; but the primary opposition to the gospel is, of course, from Judaism.  Next door, in Jordan, again there is freedom of religion.  The opposition comes from religion, especially Islam.  In many other countries of the Middle East the opposition of Islam is, of course, even stronger.  When we have been in Ukraine the primary opposition to the gospel is from “Christians,” from the Orthodox Church.  In villages, when we would come for a week offering to help the needs and to provide Bible classes and wholesome activities, the Orthodox priest would warn parishioners about the “Baptists” or “Evangelicals”, telling them to keep their children from contact with them because they are a “cult” and that they do terrible things to children and so forth. In some Eastern European countries, the Orthodox has such influence that they have been able to get laws passed that forbid or discourage conversion to another faith.  We have been in Sri Lanka where, again, the law provides for freedom of religion, but opposition comes from Buddhists and Buddhism. In India it’s from Hindus, in the West it comes from humanists or progressives (yes, those are religions), and in the New Testament Church it was Judaism.

o   Government.  Typically, and by God’s will, the goal of government is to keep the peace.  In the NT, what Paul experienced in Corinth illustrates this (Acts 18:11-17).  What he experiences in Philippi also shows this (Acts 16); the city government, wanting to protect their special relationship with Rome, moved (too) quickly to deal with Paul and Silas whom they saw as stirring up trouble.  There may be some persecution of Christians because the government considers it to be a problem.  China might be an illustration of this, where the government is the primary opposition (although you could properly say it is because of the religion of Communism which is atheistic; the persecution is of Christians but also of Muslims and others the government deems to be a problem).  But as we noted was the case in Eastern Europe, and is true in many Muslim nations, when one religion is dominant in a country they can coerce the government to do their persecuting for them.  In a sense, this happened in the NT Church.  The initial opposition was from Judaism, until Christianity came out of the shadow of Judaism and was seen by the Romans to be a separate entity. 

o   Family.  Family ties are inseparable unless someone (religion) tells the family something is more important.  Indeed, in the Mosaic law, families as well as the community were to deal with those within who would try to introduce idolatry (Deut. 13:6-11).  Jesus did not advocate the same method of dealing with this (we are called to peace, 1 Cor. 7:15), but He warned His followers about opposition coming from within one’s own family. 

The reason opposition to the gospel comes from those who are supposed to be close and supportive of us is that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  The opposition pre-dates the establishment of governments and began within the first family (Gen. 3).  Thus, today, in our own situations, we should not be surprised by opposition.