Persecution and Kingdom Expansion

Missionaries may face no greater obstacle to the spread of the gospel than persecution. The vast majority of today’s unreached peoples live under persecution’s shadow. Whether they are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, animist, or atheist, the threat remains the same. In almost all mission field situations, people know they will suffer if they follow Christ. From all appearances, the threat of persecution may often blind people to the truth of Christ more effectively than the actual teachings of the world’s varied religious systems.

This shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus warns his disciples about the persecution they will face on numerous occasions (e.g. Luke 12:4–6, John 15:19–20). He tells them that the threat of persecution will be enough to dissuade people with “no root” from following him (Matthew 13:21) and that because of it, “many people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).

Still, perhaps we miss just how inevitable persecution is in missionary contexts. When Jesus’s enemies come to arrest him, he says, “The ruler of this world is coming” (John 14:3). What does it mean that the ruler of this world reacted to Jesus with violence? Probably that he will react to Jesus’s followers in the same way (John 15:20)! While Jesus’s kingdom “is not of this world” and his servants don’t need to fight to establish his kingdom, Satan is “the ruler of this world” (see also John 12:31, 2 Corinthians 4:4) and his followers very much are fighting. We see Satan repeatedly at work in the New Testament persecuting those who follow Christ. John writes, “The dragon. . .went off to make war on…those who…hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12:17). Jesus tells the church of Smyrna that “the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested…” (Revelation 2:10). Similarly, he speaks of “Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells” (Revelation 2:13). Peter warns the saints that it is

“Your adversary the devil [who] prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour… the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:8–9)

So, Satan predictably incites persecution against God’s people when he is able. Indeed, while we should never hope for persecution, it has become more common in recent years for missionaries to report enormous movements to Christ in persecuted areas without any credible reports of persecution surfacing. Often, this is a sign we may need to scratch below the surface to find out what is really happening. The numbers may not be what they seem.

What is Satan’s goal in bringing persecution? It’s not simply to make us suffer; though doubtless he’s happy to do that. Before Peter crumbles under the threat of persecution, Jesus tells him,

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” (Luke 22:31–32)

Satan is coming for Peter’s faith. And you can see how the temptation works: Peter, you never expected things to end this way. Jesus himself is about to die. What good is it if you die with him? God can’t help you now. Peter’s faith in God, to be with him if he does what is right, wavers, and he denies Christ. While his faith doesn’t ultimately collapse, we can see what Satan intended.

This strategy is effective. Satan gives the beast authority (Revelation 13:2) and the beast uses this authority to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it… (Revelation 13:7–8).

Do you see what has happened here? It is Jesus who ransomed “every tribe and people and language and nation and… made them a kingdom and priests…” (Revelation 5:9). But the terror of persecution is fierce enough that for a time, a sort of reverse Great Commission has taken place.

How should missionaries respond? Obviously, we should strive to teach the gospel in understandable ways and should avoid giving unnecessary offense as we do so. But beyond this, we are still left with the naked offense that the gospel itself provides to the “ruler of this world,” and there are two directions we can take. The first is to compromise. If we redefine what churches are, or what believers are, or soft-pedal the difference between believers and the world around them, or assume reports of ministry success are true without genuinely verifying what happened, we may have expansive results to report. Expand the target, and you’ll hit the bullseye more often! But, of course, ministry successes we come by in this way will largely be hollow and will rarely stand the test of time. We owe better to the people we minister to.

The second way of responding is to dig in, refuse to give ground, and insist on planting churches that are ready to face persecution. Adoniram Judson described a visit with some young believers:

“They appear to have experienced divine grace; but we advised them, as they had so little love to Christ as not to dare to die for his cause, to wait and reconsider the matter.”

Many of us would feel sheepish putting things in such stark terms for new believers today. Yet Judson knew he needed to because these young men would certainly endure persecution, and needed to be ready. Indeed, Jesus himself says something very similar to what Judson said (Luke 9:23–25).

How might we disciple people to endure persecution today? I’ll offer a brief summary.

To begin with, we have to simply be honest with new believers, as Judson was, that suffering and persecution almost certainly await. Persecution was normative in the lives of New Testament Christians and it is in most mission field settings today.

But I think we need to go a step further—it’s not enough just to give people a sobering heads-up about the realities they’ll face and to tell them to dig deep and be ready to tough it out. Instead, we have to insist on the good news—that though the devil has “the power of death,” Jesus came to “deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:15). Persecution has lost its grip on those who truly believe in Christ. The devil can still torment and even kill, but Christ’s death and resurrection mean that fear can’t control us anymore because we know we are coming back to life. This is why the New Testament insists at many different points that those who are unwilling to suffer with Jesus don’t have real faith—because real faith that God can raise us from the dead prepares us—by definition—to suffer.

Let’s take this a step further. Missionaries must remind suffering believers not only of the resurrection but of how greatly God will reward them in the resurrection:

“…we are children of God, and if children, then heirs… provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:16–18; emphasis mine)

The author of Hebrews insists that true faith involves trusting that God “rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). People who are confident in a reward that far outweighs the suffering along the way can endure the cross for the joy set before them. So, if we want to prepare new churches to endure persecution, we need to teach a robust theology of reward.

After all, suffering is never the point in the Christian life. Joy is. Suffering is simply a road on which God is leading us as he works out his redemptive purposes. And because suffering isn’t an end in itself, we need to teach believers to actively avoid persecution in most circumstances. Jesus tells his disciples, “When they persecute you in one city, flee to the next” (Matthew 10:23), and he spends a good deal of time fleeing persecution too until his “time has come” (John 12:23). But we can’t avoid all persecution. If we want to minister to a world where the devil is still at work, a part of the price tag for doing so is enduring his violence toward ourselves and those we minister to.

Still, we needn’t be discouraged. Not only will God reward us, he will use the persecution that arises to accomplish purposes that are altogether bigger than ourselves. Paul writes,

“We are… persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies… So death is at work in us, but life in you…. For it is all for your sake.” (2 Corinthians 4:7–15)

Paul’s sufferings are “for [the Corinthians] sake,” because it is in his sufferings that they also see the resurrection power of Jesus manifested, giving them courage to believe. Paul is enacting the gospel in front of the Corinthians; his life is showing them that yes, God does have power to raise the dead. Paul takes great courage in this. Yes, Satan is at work in Paul’s sufferings and persecution and intends both for evil. But God is also at work, intending both for good.

We must prepare new believers to face persecution with the same hope that Paul describes. Persecution may be the devil’s greatest weapon, and those who cannot face it with hope will be in great danger. The good news is that persecution is a broken weapon. After Jesus’s resurrection, his disciples never feared death again in the same way. We don’t have to either, and nor do the people we minister to. We can share with Jesus’s disciples in his victory, if we push ahead for the reward and teach others to do the same.