27 Sermon Illustrations on Persecution And Faith

If you will allow me an expression, Satan got a match when he got Paul. He tried to get him away from God, but he never switched off. Look how they tortured him. Look how they stripped and beat him. Not only did the Romans do this, but the Jews also. How the Jews tried to drag him from his high calling. How they stripped him and laid upon the back of the apostle blow after blow. And you know that the scourge in those days was no light thing. Sometimes men died under that punishment. If one of us got one of the stripes that Paul got, how the papers would talk about it. But it was nothing to Paul. He just looked at it as if it were a trivial thing--as if it were a light affliction. When he was stripped and scourged by his persecutors you might have gone and asked him: "Well, Paul, what are you going to do now?" "Why, press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus;" Take your stand before Him and ask him as they bring the rod down upon his head, "What are you going to do now, Paul?" "Do? I am going to press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." He had one idea, and that was it. Look at him as they stoned him. The Jews took up great stones to throw upon the great apostle. They left him for dead, and I suppose he was dead, but God raised him up. Come up and look at him all bruised and bleeding as he lies. "Well, Paul, you've had a narrow escape this time. Don't you think you had better give up? Go off into Arabia and rest for six weeks. What will you do if you remain here? They mean to kill you." "Do!" he cries as he raises himself like a mighty giant, "I am going to press toward the mark of the high calling of God." And he goes forth and preaches the gospel. I am ashamed of Christianity in the nineteenth century when I think of those early Christians. Why, it would take all the Christians in the Northwest to make one Paul. Look at his heroism everywhere he went. Talk about your Alexanders; why, the mighty power of God rested upon Paul. "Why," said he, "thrice was I shipwrecked while going off to preach the gospel." What did he care about that? Cold churches wouldn't trouble him, although they trouble us. What would lying elders and false deacons be to him? That wouldn't stop him. He had but one idea, and over all obstacles he triumphed for that one idea. Look at him as he comes back from his punishment. He goes up some side street and gets lodgings. He works during the day and preaches at night on the street. He had no building like this, no committee to wait on him, no carriage to carry him from the meeting, no one to be waiting to pay his board bills. There he was toiling and preaching, and, after preaching for eighteen months, they say, "We'll have to pay you for all this preaching, Paul," and they take him to the corner of the street and pay him with thirty-nine stripes! That is the way they paid him. Oh, my friends, when you look at the lives of such men don't it make you feel ashamed of yourselves. I confess I feel like hanging my head. Go to him in the Philippian jail and ask him what he is going to do now. "Do? press forward for the mark of my high calling." And so he went on looking toward one point, and no man could stand before him.

The minister of the seminary at Clermont, France, having been seized at Autun by the populace, the mayor, who wished to save him, advised him not to take the oath, but to allow him to tell the people that he had taken it. "I would myself make known your falsehood to the people," replied the clergyman: "it is not permitted me to ransom my life by a lie. The God who prohibits my taking this oath will not allow me to make it believed that I have taken it." The mayor was silent, and the minister was martyred.

"Oh!" said Caesar, "we will soon root up this Christianity. Off with their heads!" The different governors hastened one after another of the disciples to death; but, the more they persecuted them, the more they multiplied. The pro-consuls had orders to destroy Christians: the more they hunted them, the more Christians there were, until, at last, men pressed to the judgment-seat, and asked to be permitted to die for Christ. They invented torments; they dragged saints at the heels of wild horses; they laid them upon red-hot gridirons; they pulled off the skin from their flesh piece by piece; they were sawn asunder; they were wrapped up in skins, and daubed with pitch, and set in Nero's gardens at night to burn; they were left to rot in dungeons; they were made a spectacle to all men in the amphitheatre; the bears hugged them to death; the lions tore them to pieces; the wild bulls tossed them upon their horns: and yet Christianity spread. All the swords of the legionaries which had put to rout the armies of all nations, and had overcome the invincible Gaul and the savage Briton, could not withstand the feebleness of Christianity; for the weakness of God is mightier than men.

— Spurgeon

During the revolution in France, the Ban de la Roche (a mountainous canton in the northeast of that kingdom) alone seemed to be an asylum of peace in the midst of war and carnage. Though every kind of worship was interdicted throughout France, and almost all the clergy of Alsace, men of learning, talents, and property, were imprisoned,—John Frederic Oberlin, pastor of Waldbach, was allowed to continue his work of benevolence and instruction unmolested. His house became the retreat of many individuals of different religious persuasions, and of distinguished rank, who fled thither, under the influence of terror, from Strasburg and its environs, and who always received the most open-hearted and cordial reception, though it endangered his own situation. "I once," says a gentleman, who was then residing at Waldbach, "saw a chief actor of the revolution in Oberlin's house, and in that atmosphere he seemed to have lost his sanguinary disposition, and to have exchanged the fierceness of the tiger for the gentleness of the lamb.

The Rev. Mr. Symes, a Christian missionary in India, baptized a soldier who had been a noted prizefighter, eminent in the ring in England, a powerful, lion-looking, lion-hearted man. With one blow he could level a strong man to the ground. He was the terror of many in the regiment. That man, to use his own phrase, "sauntered into Mr. Symes's chapel," and heard the gospel, and was alarmed. He returned again and again, and a last light broke in upon his mind, and he became a new creature. The change in such a character was, of course, marked and decisive: the lion was changed into a lamb. Two months after that, in the mess-room, some of those who stood in awe of him before, began to ridicule him. One of them said, "I'll put it to the test whether he is a Christian or not;" and taking a basin of hot soup, he threw it into his breast. The whole company gazed, in breathless silence, expecting that the lion would have started up, and murdered him on the spot; but, after he had torn open his waistcoat, and wiped his scalded breast, he calmly turned round, and said, "This is what I must expect: if I become a Christian, I must suffer persecution." His comrades were filled with astonishment.

It is well known, that many of the most eminent ministers of Christ, during the seventeenth century, were the subjects of great persecution. Among others who were thus cruelly treated was the excellent Matthew Henry; but when maligned and reproached, he showed great meekness and patience; and, instead of rendering evil for evil, requited it with good; ever seeking to improve such occurrences for his own advancement in Christian virtue. "How pleasant is it," he would say, "to have the bird in the bosom sing sweetly."

Negrino and Paschali exercised their ministry in Calabria, in comforting the persecuted Waldensians among the woods and mountains. But when the sufferers were closely hunted, the preachers were not likely to escape. At the instance of the inquisitor, they were both apprehended. Negrino was starved to death in prison at Cosenza. At this place Paschali was detained in confinement eight months, whence he was sent prisoner to Naples, with a view of being conducted to Rome. The patience with which he endured the cross, appears from the sensible and ardent letters which he addressed to the persecuted church of Calabria, to his afflicted spouse Camilla, and to the church of Geneva. In one of these he thus describes his journey from Cosenza to Naples:

"Two of our companions had been prevailed on to recant; but they were no better treated on that account, and we know not what they will suffer at Rome, whither they are to be conveyed, as well as Marquet and myself. The Spaniard, our conductor, wished us to give him money to be relieved from the chain by which we were bound to one another; yet, in addition to this, he put on me a pair of handcuffs, so strait that they entered into the flesh, and deprived me of all sleep; and I found that, if at all, he would not remove them until he had drawn from me all the money I had, amounting only to two ducats, which I needed for my support. At night, the beasts were better treated than we, for their litter was spread for them, while we were obliged to lie on the hard ground, without any covering; and in this condition we remained for nine nights. On our arrival at Naples we were thrust into a cell, noisome in the highest degree, from the damp, and the putrid breath of the prisoners."

He was next sent in boxes to Rome, at which place his brother arrived from Coni, with letters of recommendation, to ask his liberty. With difficulty this brother obtained an interview with him, in the presence of a judge of the Inquisition. He gives the following description of this first interview:

"It was hideous to see him, with his bare head, and his hands and arms lacerated with the small cords with which he was bound, like one to be led to the gibbet. On advancing to embrace him, I sunk to the ground. 'My brother,' said he, 'if you are a Christian, why do you distress yourself thus? Do you know that a leaf cannot fall to the ground without the will of God? Comfort yourself in Christ Jesus, for the present troubles are not to be compared with the glory to come.'"

At last, on the 8th of September, 1560, he was led to the conventual church of Minerva, to hear his process publicly read; and the next day, the 9th of September, he appeared, with the greatest fortitude, in the court adjoining the castle of St. Angelo, where he was burnt in the presence of the pope and a party of cardinals.

Some who can't prove Christianity a bad thing try to make out that Christians are "cracked" and call preachers cranks. Christians can rejoice at least that heaven will be their lunatic asylum

When enemies rage against Christianity, a Christian can offer no better defense than to relate his own vital experience with the saving power of Christ

Bishop Dubs was born in Germany, but came to America when a young man. During one of his visits to Germany, he preached to a congregation of his own denomination, but from the police authorities, he was informed because he had not asked permission to do so that if the matter reached the ears of the officials he would be fined. The Bishop did not request the permission, owing to his late arrival the day before, but preached three times on Sunday. He left the city before the authorities became aware of the facts and so escaped the fine. When in the act of rising to speak in Leipzig, the pastor of the society advised him that he should not say “my text is so and so,” as he would not be permitted to preach, but that he should say “the subject of my lecture,” for that would be permitted. The policeman was standing at the door, watching whether he would violate this regulation.

Some years ago, as is well known, Mr. Spurgeon preached on the theory of Baptismal Regeneration, which created a great stir, and occasioned no little controversy. He met a minister, one day, who said to him: "I hear, friend Spurgeon, that you are in hot water." "Oh, dear no," was his reply, "I am not in hot water; the other fellows are. I am the man who makes the water boil." 39. How his Mind was Changed In the early days of Mr. Spurgeon's ministry, many predicted his speedy collapse, but, thank God! they were not true prophets. Not a few of these were ministers, good men who held and preached the doc- trines of sovereign grace, which the young preacher steadfastly held and fearlessly proclaimed; but they objected to. his repeated fervent appeals to sinners, as such, to "Repent and believe the Gospel," to "Look and live." But this was not the case with all who held these truths. A few years since, the writer made the acquaintance of an elderly Christian man, who had been a member of the church at the Grove, Camberwell, under the ministry of Rev. Joseph Irons. Mr. Irons had been called home, and his successor was not equally satisfactory to all Mr. Irons's people. One evening a minister of the Strict Baptist order called upon this friend, who then resided in Walworth. It was Thursday, and the minister was going to hear the young preacher at New Park Street, and wished his friend to accompany him. "No," said he, "I have had enough of boy preachers." Still the minister urged him, and finally, for his sake, and that he might not seem unkind and wanting in courtesy, he consented, and went. The hymns, the exposition, the prayers, but, more than all, the sermon, so laid hold on his heart, that he took sittings in the chapel, and continued to attend all the time he remained in London. The young preacher handled old truths in a new and certainly very striking manner, and people could not help being attracted, whether they received the doctrine or otherwise. 40. "Hum, Ha!" The weekday prayer-meetings at Stambourne were well kept up, excepting at such times as haying and harvest, when the venerable pastor and a few old women were all that could be relied on. In one of his visits to Stambourne, young C. H. S. asked,—"Why, grandfather, we always sang, and yet you don't know any tunes, and certainly the old ladies didn't." "Why, child," said he, "there is one common metre tune which is all 'Hum Ha, Hum Ha,' and I could manage that very well." "But how if it happened to be a long or short metre hymn?" "Why, then, I either put in more 'Hum Ha's' or we left some out, but we manage to praise the Lord."

Do not fear the frown of the world. When a blind man comes against you in the street you are not angry at him, you say, He is blind, poor man, or he would not have hurt me. So you may say of the poor worldlings when they speak evil of Christians—they are blind.— M'Cheyne.

It was during the latter half of the eighteenth century in Europe that some statesmen commenced the much-needed work of reform. Conspicuous among them was Joseph II of had the right to regulate the religion of his subjects. In Bohemia a certain sect was formed, made up of thrifty, honest and hard-working peasants, who believed in God and named themselves deists. This offended the Emperor and he gave instructions to have them brought to justice; those who determined to stand by their belief were to receive twenty-five lashes “not because they are deists,” said Joseph, “but because they declare themselves to be something which they do not comprehend.” The lash did not prove effective, so he deported them.

Times of public distress should be especially praying times for the church. However God's people are surrounded, there is always a way open heavenward. Strongest bars cannot intercept God's power