Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Rejections- It's Promised to Come

Finally, after two events at work and a “flu-like” sickness kept me away from the keyboard, we are back. I will try and finish out the last 3 topics in the next week and a half or so. 

So to recap where all the last five posts has been heading, we’ve walked through what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is and looked at how some of the disciples shared and took some guidelines from Scripture to aid us in effective evangelism. We have now arrived at the “after” stage. What happens now that I have laid out the Gospel? Is my job over? What do I say next? Over the next three posts we will look to Scripture to guide us through what to do when people respond to the Gospel. As we saw at the end of Acts 17 there are generally three ways people can respond; some will mock, others will ask more questions and some will believe.

32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. Acts 17:32-34
Today we will look to Scripture to help equip us for the outcome of rejection of the Gospel by those we share it with.

As those who follow Christ, we are promised difficult times and a hard road; Jesus Himself says as much.

Matthew 10:22 (When sending out the Disciples)- “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

Mark records this as well in Mark 13:13- “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”

John 15:18-21- “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.”


I highlight these passages to say that we have been warned that rejections will be apart of our lives as we live for Christ, so we should be prepared for what is guaranteed to come. Now to bring this back around to evangelism, when the unregenerate heart hears the Good News its reaction is to push back and reject it. I want to look to God, Jesus and the Disciples as examples of how to deal with rejections. (side note: I know God and Jesus are both one in the Trinity but I separated out Their reactions as “big picture” and “relational rejection”)

To know how God dealt with rejection we have only to look to the history of Israel in the Old Testament. Hundreds of years waffling back and forth in their loyalty and worship we see God constantly show His long-suffering, patience and faithfulness to pursue His people. One of the passages that sums this up well is Hosea 2:14-23 as God talks of how He will restore His people after constant rejection.

14“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
15 I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 “And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the Lord,
“That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’
17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,
To make them lie down safely.
19 “I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In loving kindness and mercy;
20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the Lord.
21 “It shall come to pass in that day
That I will answer,” says the Lord;
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.
22 The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer Jezreel.
23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy
Then I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’”

Here we see God continuing to show His love and faithfully pursue those who have rejected Him and He continues to show mercy in the midst of their rebellion.

We can also looked to the books of 1 & 2 Kings. It won’t take you long to see a pattern in the reigns of the Kings of Israel and Judah. With few exceptions the Kings of God’s chosen people are described by these words, “And he did evil in the sight of the Lord”. Even through their rejection and desire to do as they pleased, God remained faithful to His people as He promised Abraham and Moses He would. Our God is patient, and faithful to pursue.

To bring this a little closer to home, most of us who are in Christ have only to look to our own lives to see that God is good, loving, patient and faithful. Each of us has our own stories but think on this, to what lengths did Christ go to find you and bring you to Himself?

So, if God can show love, patience and faithfulness in the midst of rejection we then should do the same. We are to continue to love, and treat well those that have rejected the Gospel. We are to do this because we are commanded to do so, but also because it’s not given to us to know if or when someone will be born into the family of God and I would never want to drive them further away from God with my own sinful words or actions towards them.

Many things changed when Jesus come onto the scene of human history. One of the things that changed was how we were to regard other people.

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48

To me, one of the most wonderful things about Christ is that He does not ask of us anything He Himself did not do. He was rejected by His own people in John 6:41-71. Even through rejection by His own people, just as God was in the Old Testament, Christ continues to stay faithful to the mission He’d been given by His Father. He continues to disciple those who followed Him, healing those in need and teaching of things to come.

Despite this rejection, and in the midst of His crucifixion, He prays for them, “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do’” (Luke 23:34). If Christ can pray for those who took His rejection so far as to crucify Him, we can certainly pray for those that mock our belief.

Like God showed Himself to be in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ left the door open for restoration for those that sought it. After Peter’s outspoken denial of knowing Jesus, He restores Peter and is open to have him return to Him. John 21:15-19 lays out Peter’s restoration.

By this point you may begin to notice a pattern. And you may be saying, “yeah but that was God, Who has infinite patience and foresight, I’m just human”. So I'll turn us to other humans to see that it is indeed possible to follow the example of God.

After receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the disciples began to preach Christ crucified to the Jews. Word got to the Sanhedrin and Peter and John were called before them; “So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18). In spite of this, they continued to preach, knowing that their mission was God-given. Knowing that they were opposed, yet wanting to be obedient, they prayed, “‘29 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,30 by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus’ (Acts 4:29).

Stephen (the first Christian martyr) continued to stay faithful to his mission up to the point of death. His account can be found in Acts 7. Stephen believed the mission of Christ was worth enduring to his end and was not hindered by the rejection of the high priest and Jewish people. He faithfully carried out the mission God had for him. Stephen’s execution was carried out in the sight of Saul, who later became Paul- one of the most influential Evangelists of the early Church and writer of the majority of the New Testament letters.

In 2 Corinthians 11:22-28 Paul gives a rundown of some of the opposition he faced as he carried out his mission-
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— 28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.
Despite the rejections, beating and imprisonments, Paul continually drew on his belief in Christ and that sharing the Good News was worth much more than he received in physical pain.

We in America, have yet to truly understand persecution the way these early disciples did and how many of our brothers and sisters in other countries are currently fighting, but there will come a day where our faith is tested and we will be rejected as we share the Gospel. As we prepare ourselves for evangelism and walking out our faith with Christ Jesus we can look to scripture to give us confidence to continue. So I remind you, we must stay focused on the mission given to us by Jesus Christ, pray for those that reject the Gospel because we do not know if they might come to saving knowledge of Christ later in life, love them through your words and actions and trust in the sovereignty of our God.

Encouragement from Scripture:

1 Corinthians 16:13-14- 13 Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done with love.

1 Corinthians 3:5-8- 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

John 10:25-30
- Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.”


"Don't take my word for it, be like the church at Berea, “[They] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11