The persecuted church

Speaker: Paul Brown

Notes

A quick look at examples of persecution in the early church...

• Acts 5:18 - the apostles were persecuted by the Jewish authorities, but in the end (:42) the church was strengthened.

• Acts 8:1 - the church was attacked and scattered, but the result (:4) was the start of world mission.

• Acts 12:1-2 - the Romans persecuted the church. While this story is quite amusing to read, the situation was far from funny - it starts with a death and ends with Peter fleeing for his life. In the process, the church learned that prayer is powerful (:24).

God doesn't call us to an easy life, but if we trust in him we will overcome. We see that prayer is a powerful tool and that God brings good out of the worst situations.

There are many in the world today facing persecution for their faith. We stopped to pray for them, especially Christians in Orissa, India. For more information, visit Open Doors or IDOP.

Application

Look at Paul's catalogue of sufferings in 2 Cor 11:24-27. What was his response to these hardships and what can we learn from this?

Look at an example of how God turns bad situations round to bring good out of them. Have you experienced this in your own life? Does that mean we should thank God when bad things happen?

While most of us can't claim to be persecuted in the way we've been looking at, we nonetheless face difficult situations in life. As appropriate, share some of those and pray for one another to be "overcomers".

Pray for those in India who are suffering as a result of persecution.

Posted: 15 Nov 2009