SOLD OUT!

“SOLD OUT!”—3

www.pmchurch.tv

□ Martyrs

• The Center for the Study of Global Christianity has adopted a broad definition of

  “martyr”: “Believers in Christ who have lost their lives prematurely, in situations of witness, as a result of human hostility.” (www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2013/10/2815601/)

• Frans Veerman, director of Open Doors’ World Watch List: “There is a huge gray area around the question of ‘martyrs.’ When Christians are isolated and denied clean drinking water and medical care because they are Christians and refuse to become Muslims—[and thus] they perish quicker than others—are they martyrs? In a strict sense, they aren’t. But when the whole mechanism behind [their deaths] is studied, we can say they are.” (www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/september/counting-cost-accurately.html)
• John Allen, The Global War on Christians: “The truth is two thirds of the 2.3 billion Christians in the world today live . . . in dangerous neighbourhoods. They are often poor. They often belong to ethnic, linguistic and cultural minorities. And they are often at risk. And ultimately I think making that point is more important than being precise about the death toll.” (www.worldwatchmonitor.org)

□  The Lord of Martyrs

• • John 16:1-3
• • Matthew 24:9
  •  John the Baptist
  • Desire of Ages: “[Satan] had been unwearied in his efforts to draw away the
• Baptist from a life of unreserved surrender to God; but he had failed. And he had failed to overcome Jesus. In the temptation in the wilderness, Satan had been defeated, and his rage was great. Now he determined to bring sorrow upon Christ by striking John. The One whom he could not entice to sin he would cause to suffer. Jesus did not interpose to deliver His servant. He knew that John would bear the test. . . . But for the sake of thousands who in after years must pass from prison to death, John was to drink the cup of martyrdom. As the followers of Jesus should languish in lonely cells, or perish by the sword, the rack, or the fagot, apparently forsaken by God and man, what a stay to their hearts would be the thought that John the Baptist, to whose faithfulness Christ Himself had borne witness, had passed through a similar experience!” (224)
• • Revelation 2:10
  • stephanos—Stephen

□  How then shall we live?

• Lord Jonathan Sacks in an address to Parliament, December 2011: “‘I have
• followed the fate of Christians in the Middle East for years, appalled at what is happening, surprised and distressed . . . that it is not more widely known. It was Martin Luther King who said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our

• enemies, but the silence of our friends.” That is why I felt I could not be silent
• today.’” (Liberty January/February 2014)
• If you want to be involved politically:

   S. 653: Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act

   https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s653

   Write your senators and petition the bill to be brought to the floor for a vote.

• If you want to be involved spiritually:

   Pray for Seventh-day Adventist prisoner Bruno Amah in Togo  Pray for those incarcerated or suffering for their faith

• If you want to be involved personally:

   Jim Elliot: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he

  cannot lose.”

  •   Desire of Ages: “Of all the gifts that heaven can bestow upon men [and

    women], fellowship with Christ in His sufferings is the most weighty trust and

    the highest honor.” (225)

  •   Will you follow the Lord of martyrs to where you will find both them and Him

    today?

“R U willing 2 B SOLD OUT 4 Jesus?”