The Persecuted Church, Part 1

Driving home: The word better is used no fewer than 13 times in the book of Hebrews, 8 or 9 of which refer explicitly to the better things of the new covenant. A better sacrifice, a better priesthood, a better inheritance, better prom…

Martin uses the analogy of pulling and pushing a stubborn horse into a gate or a car stuck in mud to illustrate how the writer of Hebrews uses both drawing (better things in Christ) and driving (sober warnings) methods to persuade Jewish Christians not to apostatize.

Register in弰 Keshell 20 and 23. It says here, you've ever watched a horse race and once in a while it's a stubborn horse who doesn't want to get into the gate and there you see the pull and the push method you'll see some men out in front of him they've got a hold of the rope that goes to his bridle and they're pulling and there's some other very courageous guys that are behind the horse pushing on his rock so you have the pull and the push to get him in the gate or you may have seen a situation in some movie or in some other circumstance where a car is stuck in the mud and maybe someone is at...

9:07 - 10:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Show love to believers who are strangers, uprooted, and disjointed from family and home; don't wait to get to know them, but run the risk and open your heart and home.

An illustration of a father telling his son 'be a good boy' at camp, then giving specific applications like 'don't forget to say your prayers' and 'remember to obey your counselors,' to explain how the foundational imperative of brotherly love is followed by specific applications in Hebrews 13.

Now for you kids. Let me try to illustrate exactly what the writer's doing. Here's a young man going off to camp. And his father takes him aside and says, now son, and here's his foundational imperative.

16:29 - 16:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Remember them that are in bonds, it means simply to call to mind but now follow me closely call to mind with a view to performing the activity appropriate to that which we call to mind

Used to explain that 'remember' in Scripture is not just a mental recall but implies performing an appropriate action, such as getting a card or flowers for an anniversary.

mind with a view to performing the activity appropriate to that which we call to mind in other words it's not a naked bare mental activity if i say to you did you remember your anniversary i'm not asking you do you simply remember to certain date on the calendar when you're getting married i'm asking you you remember ie call it to mind with a view to performing an appropriate activity to what you remember he got a card at least see it took your wife out to eat or you had some flowers If you barely, quote, remembered, oh yeah, I haven't forgotten, June 30th, 1956.

20:53 - 21:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Remember them that are in bonds, it means simply to call to mind but now follow me closely call to mind with a view to performing the activity appropriate to that which we call to mind

The thief's request to Jesus, 'Remember me when you come into your kingdom,' illustrates that 'remember' means to call to mind with a view to performing an appropriate activity, in this case, receiving him into the kingdom.

But you see, remembering has the connotation, and that's the way it's used in the Scripture. For example, the thief upon the cross in Luke 23, 42. He's hanging there a few hours from death. And though he had begun with his fellow criminal to mock and to jeer the Lord Jesus, for the Scripture tells us that they both cast this into his teeth.

21:40 - 22:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He explains that remembering must be done with a specific disposition: shared life and feeling for prisoners ('as bound with them') and shared humanity and vulnerability for the…

Martin uses the contrast between a cheerful and an ugly disposition to explain what he means by the 'prevailing state or attitude of the soul' with which believers are to remember the persecuted.

The disposition with which we are to engage in this activity. Now you know what the word disposition means. It's a prevailing state or attitude of the soul. We say of someone, he has a cheerful disposition.

30:59 - 31:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember the prisoners as having been and remaining imprisoned with them, allowing yourself to feel what it would be like to be in their setting, stripping away self-centeredness to become other-sensitive.

He asks listeners to imagine the feeling of being ripped away from family, home, and normal life, and being put into the company of criminals in prison, to help them cultivate a disposition of shared life and feeling with prisoners.

And allow yourself to, feel what it would be like to be ripped away from your husband,

35:16 - 35:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize your imprisonment by self-centeredness and turn to Jesus, who can set you free to love God and others.

Used to describe the unconverted person imprisoned by self-centeredness, unable to experience the 'exquisite joy' of living for God and others, just as a bird in a cage cannot spread its wings.

You are not free to love others. And you never will be until you're free by the Son of God, who came to open the prison to them that are bound. My dear unconverted friend, you don't know what it is to live until you're out of the prison of self-centeredness and know the exquisite joy of living for God and for others. That's what you were made for.

54:53 - 55:24 Read in full sermon