Sometimes the music we sing really hits home. Sometimes I come to worship and it’s easy to sing the songs, and sometimes it’s hard. Lately, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, some worship song lyrics have made a lot of us think twice. Verse 3 from the hymn we sang earlier, “How Firm a Foundation,” seems poignant:

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;

Or, even more striking to me, our introit today:

When oceans rise and thunders roar,
I will soar with You above the storm.
Father, You are King over the flood.
I will be still and know You are God.

On the one hand, it can be difficult to sing songs about God being “King over the flood,” or God calling us to go “through the deep waters,” because we wonder why the sovereign King of Creation would allow something like a hurricane.

Though I affirm God’s sovereignty, I don’t have an easy answer for that question. But the songs we sing also say something else about God, and that is that Jesus is with those who suffer. The rest of verse 3:

For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

We’ll sing a praise song later in the service that talks about Jesus as our security in the storm: this sold ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm (“In Christ Alone”). We’ll sing a song that speaks of Jesus as our security through physical death: Though my flesh it be destroyed yet with my eyes I will see God (“My Redeemer Lives”).

There is security that God promises that goes beyond physical safety—even beyond death—it is an ultimate security that we find in him alone. And our passage today speaks to this ultimate security in Christ…

This part of Luke is the last time Jesus teaches the crowds before he shares his Last Supper with his disciples, is betrayed, and goes to trial and dies on the Cross. So death and suffering were very near to Jesus when he spoke these words.

Let me set up the scene a little bit, because we enter into it part-way: Margie talked last week about how Jesus sees more clearly than the crowd around him sees. The people see the beautiful Temple all adorned for the Passover festival – the center of life, the greatest accomplishment of religion and architecture for centuries.

Jesus also sees that this Temple would fall one day, the whole Temple system would crumble, and Jesus will be the New Temple…rising again physically from death, and rising again in his Church. So when the people hear Jesus talk about the Temple being destroyed, they begin to ask Jesus when this destruction will happen…

Gospel reading:Luke 21: 7-19

The people were asking: When will this happen, and what will be the sign? Understandable questions. If I were listening to Jesus talk about all this destruction and re-structuring, I think I would have asked the same thing…when? And what will the warning be? Will you write it in the sky, will you warn us first?

Jesus, in his typical way, doesn’t answer their question exactly— at least not right away, not the way they were expecting to be answered:

• Watch out for false warnings!
• Don’t be misled by those who claim to be me, or claim to know the end is here!
• “Many will come…don’t follow them.”

These are the people who use Jesus’ name to gain power for themselves, and make false promises. They use Jesus’ name and they use fear to manipulate people. They are the fear mongers…I can’t help but think of today’s fear mongers in the church. The Left Behind series describes in detail an end-of-time tribulation, much like the Hal Lindsay books and the end-of-the-world movies that Christians produced in the 1970s. These authors use biblical prophecy interlaced with history and current events to form a countdown to calculate Jesus’ return, trying to force news and Scripture into prophetic signs signaling the end of the world.

It’s really nothing new, people did this in the years before and after Jesus walked the earth… people claimed that wars, volcanoes, plagues signaled the end, people even claimed to be messiahs; Jesus considered them to be frauds. People were asking for secret signs about the future, Jesus warns the people against those who claim to know them (see also Acts 1:6-8). Jesus goes on to say (after this passage), that basically you know when I’m coming back when you see me coming back (Luke 21:27-28).

Here, Jesus says: Don’t listen to the fear mongers, do not be terrified. There will be wars and rebellions (the battle in AD 69 over Nero’s throne was one of them), but these do not mean the end is coming right away.

Jesus seems so practical here: Hard times are up ahead, but hard times don’t necessarily mean that the world is ending right away…don’t confuse the daily news with the final end of time.

In fact, Jesus says that it’s going to get worse (Jesus isn’t much of a recruiter at this point): There will be many wars, also natural disasters (earthquakes, famines, plagues). There will be many disturbances before the end (human/natural/divine), “dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.” Jesus acknowledges the reality of a fallen violent humanity, fallen violent creation. But Jesus said:

Do not be terrified.

Jesus also acknowledges a world that often opposes the Gospel —before all of this general disaster happens, there will be specific persecutions against Christians: Those who follow Jesus will suffer “because of [Jesus’] name.” What could the disciples expect the future to bring? Not prosperity, not safety, not even a date for when the Temple would fall or Jesus would return…but they could expect suffering, if they dared to be associated with the name of Jesus. Friends and family will betray them, some will even die (like Stephen and James, see Acts 7 and 12), all will be hated “because of my name.”

Those marked with the name Jesus would suffer. Any theology that tries to provide Christians an early escape from this tribulation suffering ignores Jesus’ words. Suffering on account of our faith is a reality of following Jesus.

But those who follow Jesus could also expect that persecution like this will bring an opportunity to testify: The present time is not meant for figuring out when Jesus will come back, the present time is for bearing witness to Jesus. This happened…Acts is full of these stories.

The early persecution of the Church was severe—the Roman Emperor Nero executed Christians at his garden parties for entertainment, he even blamed them for burning Rome—but many Christians were given opportunity to testify, in spite of but also because of persecution. Christians publicly proclaimed Christ…Peter, Paul, John, and many other men and women suffered and even died because they held on to their faith, confessing that Jesus is Lord.

This still happens today…one place is China: Our Chinese friend, James, is part of the underground house-church movement. He told us many stories, and we could hardly believe what Chinese Christians are willing to risk to worship and witness.

Two things amazed me most: James’ lack of fear, and James’ understanding that persecution brings opportunity to share the Gospel. James was not afraid of prison! James reminded me of the Apostle Paul—who also saw being in prison as a good thing because he could share his faith to his captors (Philippians 1.12f).

Persecution also happens here, but it’s often more subtle. Our culture persecutes Christianity in mainly non-violent ways:

• Church is deemed irrelevant,
• Christ is deemed outdated and old-fashioned,
• Worship is considered boring.

There is so much that is more exciting, more enticing, more relevant.

• Maybe your friends/family wonder why you do this “Jesus thing.”
• Maybe your co-workers or boss wonder why you won’t go along with what everyone else is doing…maybe you are ridiculed.
• Maybe your morals seem as old-fashioned as going to church on Sunday mornings (or evenings).

We shouldn’t be surprised at all that our culture—while bragging about tolerance—often doesn’t want to tolerate the Church. These days, when I meet non-Christians, and they ask what I do, they’re usually fine with me being a Christian pastor, as long as I’m not one of those “Jesus-is-the-only-way” fanatics. Persecution in our culture is there, it’s subtle, but it’s there. But Jesus said:

Do not be terrified.

Jesus told us this would happen, “My Kingdom is not of this world,” (Luke 17.20-21, John 18.36) and the world will sometimes fight against you. But you endure this, stay on. Maybe you’ve heard the phrase: The life of faith is not a sprint, it’s a marathon…I don’t even like marathon (I can’t run that fast or that much). The life of faith is a slow, steady march.

And it’s a march that includes suffering and persecution for our faith. So you’d think Jesus was about to say, “Prepare—get ready for this persecution!”

Instead, Jesus says: “Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance.” Words and wisdom will come from Jesus himself (Luke 12.11-12), words that their opponents will not even be able to oppose (martyrs like Stephen, Acts 6.10). This is not an excuse to stop pursuing the discipline of studying Scripture or praying (1 Peter 3.15, 1 Timothy 4.2). This is a promise of the Holy Spirit…the promise that Jesus is present when his people suffer or die because of their relationship with him.

Prepare by trusting Jesus. This is so counter-intuitive, we want to be prepared by staying safe, and making plans. There is a lot of talk right now in the wake of the hurricane, “Why weren’t we better prepared?” We need to ask those questions as a country. But when it comes to the suffering we will encounter on account of following Jesus, Jesus himself just tells us,

“Learn to trust me.”

And then Jesus gives this bizarre assurance: “not a hair of your head will perish” (Luke 12.7). How can this be? Jesus just said that some will die, surely others will be beat up, surely there will at least be hair loss.

Jesus was not promising physical safety…this was a way of saying that those who suffer because of his name will be taken care of. He was promising an ultimate security, found in him. The kind of security our song lyrics talk about.

“By your endurance you will gain your souls.” This word endurance means “bearing up under difficult circumstances,” to persevere. Hold on, hang in there, wait it out…and stay in place.

I need to be very clear: I’m not talking about enduring abusive relationships: Jesus was talking about holding onto our faith and our Christian witness when we suffer because of our faith…he was talking about confessing “Jesus is Lord” despite persecution.

This in no way means that Christians should not seek safety from abusive situations. Whether it’s a domestic violence situation, a woman who is being abused by her husband/boyfriend, or sexual abuse, or anyone being emotionally/verbally/physically abused, we need to seek safety and healing for ourselves and others.

The endurance that Jesus encourages is that we endure in our faith…not that Christians should just endure general abuse, and stay trapped in abusive situations. Christians (of all people) should not tolerate abuse of any kind, especially domestic violence. We need to work together against abuse—this is not the place for endurance.

The place for endurance, Jesus says, is when we are persecuted for our faith—hated because we confess the name of Jesus—and we endure in our faith and our witness. Like our friend, James, who remains in ministry in China though persecution is a daily reality. James, and his family and his friends, do what they can to avoid being caught and hurt and imprisoned, but they keep on confessing that Jesus is Lord. They endure.

Jesus says to his disciples that by enduring they will “Gain [their] souls,” a way of saying they will be protected…again, a protection beyond physical safety. Ultimate security, that real life will not be lost when persecution comes, it will be gained. It doesn’t mean that we earn our salvation, but that by endurance we prove that our salvation is real. Sometimes the Gospel stands so opposite our culture, and the way we think! But Jesus said:

Do not be terrified.

God can do amazing things with difficult situations, with suffering. What’s the good of suffering? When we suffer…

• We follow in Jesus’ steps. Christ suffered for us, and he is our example – he bore our sins on the Cross, so that we might be healed and live free (1 Peter 2.21-25).
• We receive Christ’s consolation, and can better console others (2 Corinthians 1.3-7). We share suffering and comfort in community.
• We become more mature (James 1.2-3). Suffering “produces” things like endurance, character and hope (Romans 5.3-5). Paul even liked to brag about his sufferings!

It doesn’t always do much for church membership recruitment to tell folks that the Christian life involves suffering. But deep down, these days, I think many new Christians/seekers relate to Jesus partly because he was honest about suffering. I think that people often know that being vulnerable to suffering is part of being human.

Real Christian living is living a life that is vulnerable to suffering on account of our faith. It’s not living out our faith in safe, predictable ways. It’s not living with a Left Behind theology of trying to find a way out of suffering, an early escape from persecution. Real Christian living is being honest about suffering, and being willing to suffer, for the sake of Jesus.

We don’t live this vulnerable life without Jesus’ presence with us, and we don’t live this vulnerable life without each other. I don’t know any way that we can live a Christian life without living in Christian community…people who know us, suffer with us, comfort us, allow us to comfort them.

Many of you have this Christian community…if you don’t, there are ways here to find it: Alpha, James study on Sunday nights, Home Groups, etc. The best way to learn how to trust Jesus in tough times is to learn together, in community. Even taking that vulnerable step of going deeper into Christian community can be scary… But Jesus said:

Do not be terrified.