Bible Studies
Relevant Truth Project Article 7, Baptism in Suffering
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    This last baptism which is relevant to the New Testament believer is one which is variable. That is, although all believers are called to suffer, not all experience the same level of suffering. As an example, we see at the present time in North America the Church suffers very little in the way of persecution. Most of the persecution which does happen in North America has to do with verbal rhetoric and slander, and the passing of laws to stifle Christianity. On the other hand, in some Middle Eastern or Asian countries, believers can be violently persecuted and suffer to the point of death!
 2 Timothy 3:12: Yes, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
    The key words in this verse are, “all†and “shall.†The word “all†speaks of everyone and the word “shall†is a definitive word which excludes persecution from being a mere possibility to those who live godly in Christ Jesus.
    This is not new. Throughout history, mankind has been divided into two camps; those who serve God, and those who serve Satan, the adversary of God. What’s fascinating about this is that those who serve God Almighty always know who they serve, whereas those who serve Satan are rarely aware of it unless they’ve made a conscious decision to do so. He is the master of deception whose sole mission was summed up by Jesus when He said: The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. John 10:10
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    Speaking to the church at Ephesus, Paul had this to say:
 Ephesians 2:1-3: And you has He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: Among whom we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
    When one walks or lives according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, then that person is subject to the [ungodly] spirit that now works in the children of disobedience and is at odds with God. In fact, the apostle James went so far as to say …whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4
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    The first record of the righteous suffering at the hand of the ungodly is found in the book of Genesis where Adam’s son Cain murdered his brother Abel. Genesis 4:1-16
1 John 3:12: Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
    Cain was of the wicked one, serving the adversary of God. Abel on the other hand, with what understanding he had of God, is declared righteous because of his righteous works that demonstrated his faith in God.  He knew what God required of him and obeyed. Cain did not, and this created an animosity on Cain’s part that motivated him to murder his brother.
    Right after the above quote in 1 John it reads, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.†v13
    Offending those who do not believe in Christ isn’t something we who live godly in Christ Jesus should be surprised about. Yet, we often hear people speak of not offending those who are unbelievers. In fact, some actually teach a “lifestyle evangelism†method of reaching the lost minus mentioning the Way of salvation (the gospel), so as to not offend. The idea is that our lifestyles as Christians will draw unbelievers to Christ, or at least bring them to the place where they ask what we are about, and then we share the gospel. This is all well and good to a point. In fact in 1 Peter 3:14-16 we read about this very thing:
But and if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are you: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
    [Note: the word “conversation†used here basically means behaviour, but it comes from another Greek word meaning: to overturn, overthrow, return. It speaks of our lifestyle behaviour in Christ but also of the renewal process which takes place as one grows and matures in their relationship with Jesus. As one grows and matures in Christ, they overturn or throw off those personal characteristics and sins which belong to us as a result of our being born into sin and still inhabiting a body bent on turning us away from all that is godly and holy. By disposing of these weights and sins (as Paul refers to them in Hebrews 12:1), we replace them with the truth and righteousness of Christ. All this happens by our choosing to ingest the Word of God, and submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit.
    The use of the word conversation is interesting because who and what we are about eventually comes out of our mouths in what we say:
Luke 6:45: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Proverbs 4:23:Â Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.]
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     There are a lot of very nice people who are not believers of Jesus Christ. They are not saved from their sins and not in a relationship with God, and yet these people may support and give enormous amounts of time, resources and money to various worthy causes. They are recognised as really nice people and they are not being persecuted for living upstanding lives. Why not? Well, for the same reason we who believe are not persecuted for being nice people. Being nice, in and of itself, is not cause for being persecuted as those who live godly in Christ Jesus. Indeed, normal people like nice people who do nice things for others.  It is only after we are recognised as being those who live godly in Christ Jesus does persecution come in some form, and this recognition generally comes in two ways:
1/ others are told of our faith by someone else, or we do something to demonstrate our faith in Christ, such as putting a nativity scene outside our homes at Christmas or being seen by the neighbours loading up the kids Sunday after Sunday going to church.
    These are all well and good, and these or similar things should happen by default by us who believe. However, others out there know full well of the many people who do the exact same things and yet live ungodly lives just like themselves. Doing such things are commendable and part of our testimony as believers, but by doing only this without speaking the gospel message to others, we fall short of our completeness as those who live godly in Christ Jesus.
2/ we intentionally tell others about our faith.
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   Another angle to this is as follows: We are to live out our Christian faith in a lost world, and love our neighbours as ourselves (Matt 19:19; James 2:8; etc.), but to do only this in the hope of having those we interact with eventually ask us about our faith, and then, at that time giving them the gospel, is playing a serious game of chance with souls. What we mean is this: there is no guarantee that the person(s) we interact with will be here tomorrow. In fact, they may not even see the next hour. Life is fleeting.
 James 4:14: Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
Proverbs 27:1: Â Boast not yourself of tomorrow; for you know not what a day may bring forth.
Luke 12: 16-20:  And He [Jesus] spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself saying, What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, You fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be, which you have provided?
    Seeing life from this perspective should give us a sense of urgency to at least ensure those people God has brought us into contact with receive the simple gospel message in a way they comprehend.
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Romans 1:16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
    Here we see the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, not how well we live our lives and conduct ourselves. The lifestyle we live should be an expression of the faith which resides within; but in and of itself, this lifestyle cannot save anyone. After all, we’ve all known very nice people who are unbelievers, and who, in their nice way, “pooh, pooh†the truth of coming to the Lord Jesus. At times, some of these people conduct themselves in ways that leave many of us believers wanting.
    The point being made here is basically this: A godly life in Christ is complete when one is not ashamed of the gospel message and declares it to others. In truth, one can live a godly life without proclaiming the gospel, but it will never be totally fulfilling because it will never be complete. Notice what the apostle Paul says in Romans 4:13, We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak. (The Old Testament quote here is from Psalm 116:10.)  He does not leave open the options of maybe speaking or might speak. Rather, it is doing one thing (believing) and doing another thing in response (speaking).
    There is something about sharing the hope of Christ with others which establishes us complete as believers. It is how Jesus, being still here within us who make up the body of Christ, desires to carry on His work.
    When we look at the life of Jesus we see this pattern of living godly before and after declaring the gospel:
Luke 2:52, And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
    Here we see the absolute sinless Son of God living out His most godly life as a child and young man having favour with both God and man[kind]. No mention of any forms of persecution, but rather favour. The word favour here speaks of good will and loving kindness. People really liked Jesus as a neighbour and fellow citizen.
     Later, after He began to preach the gospel [and progressively became the complete gospel we are to declare]; conviction of sin came upon the hearers. Hence, a lot of the favour from man began to shift and turn into persecution.
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   Here's how the early Church engaged unbelievers:
Acts 2:41-42, 47: Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers… Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved.
   Somebody must have been declaring the gospel daily for the Lord to add to the Church daily:
Romans 10:17: …faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
 Romans 10:13: …whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:13-14: How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
    In fact, the phrase “such as should be saved†in verse 47 refers to those who heard the Word of God and believed. God added these people daily to the Church as they got saved by hearing and believing the gospel. Of course, it wasn’t long after the gospel was being preached before persecution arose and the early Church was on the move. It is at this point we will do well to notice a couple of things:
1/ some people were offended at the preaching of the gospel and got ugly about it.
2/ the believers did not stop preaching regardless of some being offended.
 Acts 8:4: Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word.â€
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    During a time of persecution when the believers were scattered, they declared the gospel everywhere. They had a level of evangelistic enthusiasm that for the most part is sorely missing these days. Why? Is it a fear of being offensive to others?
    As believers, we have the only message of hope for a lost and dying world, and yet far too often we are concerned about offending somebody, and so the message lies dormant. According to the World Factbook of 2015 there were an estimated 155,500 people dying each day on the planet. Imagine, all these souls leaving this life and heading into an everlasting eternity of…what? There are only two destinations: heaven or hell. If we really love our neighbour as ourselves, shouldn’t we at least tell them how to reach the preferred destination? What they do with the information is up to them, but we do have a mandate from Jesus Himself to present the gospel. [See Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48]
    2 Corinthians 5:17-20: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to know, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the Word of reconciliation.  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be reconciled to God.
    Jesus Himself has given to us, as His ambassadors on earth; the ministry of reconciliation…and has committed unto us the Word of reconciliation. That is, we have something to say to those who are not believers and that something is the gospel; the Word of reconciliation.         Â
    This does not mean being pushy or tactless in our presentation. Proverbs 11:30 declares, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that wins souls is wise.†Wisdom speaks of intelligence, artfulness, and skill.
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    It is apparent that our present day culture is not like that of the early Church, or even a hundred or so years ago when one could stand on a street corner or in a public park, openly preach the gospel, and actually have people interested and listening. Certainly, these gospel messengers were mocked and scorned by those opposing Christ, but to preach this way was for the most part, a social norm. Today, for someone to do this in our current North American culture, they would instantly be labelled a fanatic and off-the-wall. Few, if any, would take the time to listen. This being the case, we need to pray to the Lord for opportunities to share the truth of the simple gospel message whenever possible. If we get shut down, we get shut down. At least we have done our part and can go forward in whatever relationship we have with that person or persons from that point. On the other hand, regardless of the response, we have sown a priceless seed of truth into someone’s life that hopefully will spring forth and produce another soul belonging to the kingdom of God.
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Matthew 9:37-38: Then He says unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.
John 4:35: …I [Jesus] say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
The next article, which is doctrine number 4 of the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ, is that of Laying on of hands.
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