Sunday SchoolNovember 20, 2016

The Second

Commandment –

Loving the Persecuted

Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

STRANGERS

FAMILY & PARENTS

SELF

AUTHORITIES & LABORERS

ORPHANS, WIDOWS & ELDERLY

POOR & OPPRESSED

ENEMIES

Jhn 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.Jhn 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hatethyou.Jhn 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.Jhn 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.Jhn 15:22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.Jhn 15:23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.Jhn 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.Jhn 15:25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

• Stephen (Acts 2)• James (Acts 12)• Peter (Acts 12)• Emperor Nero (1st Century)• Diocletian Persecution (3rd Century)• Ottoman Empire• Islam• China• Japan• India• US

If a man dies, he falls like a tree. Wherever he falls, there he lies. If he is not a believer, he goes to the fire-lake.But on the other hand, a believer, If death overtakes him, Will not fall, rather will rise That very moment, to God’s house.

“Is the distinction between living for Christ and dying for him, after all, so great? Is not the second the logical conclusion of the first? Furthermore, to live for God is to die, ‘daily,’ as the apostle Paul put it. It is to lose everything that we may gain Christ. It is in thus laying down our lives that we find them.

Steve Saint, Nate’s son, was baptized by two of the men who murdered his father, in the very river where his father died.

"The Lord God is always with me to guide me and help me to try to accomplish the work of Graham, but I sometimes wonder why Graham was killed and also what made his assassins behave in such a brutal manner on the night of 22nd/23rd January 1999. It is far from my mind to punish the persons who were responsible for the death of my husband Graham and my two children. But it is my desire and hope that they would repent and would be reformed."

Christians are the most persecuted group in the contemporary world. It is reported that over 100,000 Christians are violently killed annually because of some relation to their faith. According to the World Evangelical Alliance, over 200 million Christians are denied fundamental human rights solely because of their faith. Of the 100-200 million Christians under assault, the majority are persecuted in Muslim-dominated nations. Christians suffer numerically more than any other faith groups or groups without faith in the world. Of the world's three largest religions Christians are the most allegedly persecuted with 80% of all acts of religious discrimination being directed at Christians who only make up 33% of the world's population.

Mat 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.Mat 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

1Co 4:12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:1Co 4:13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

1Pe 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.1Pe 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

Why are Christians persecuted?

• We are not of the worldJhn 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

• The world hated our LordJhn 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

• The world doesn’t know GodJhn 15:21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

• To fulfill scriptureJhn 15:25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

Psa 69:4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.Psa 69:7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.Psa 69:8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.Psa 69:9 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

An Example

Gen 25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.Gen 25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.Gen 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Gen 27:38 And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.Gen 27:39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;Gen 27:40 And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

Gen 36:1 Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.

Gen 33:4 And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.

Gen 36:6 And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob.

Deu 2:4 And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye good heed unto yourselves therefore:Deu 2:5 Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seirunto Esau for a possession.

Deu 23:7 Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother:

Psa 137:7 Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

Amo 1:11 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:

Joe 3:19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

Mal 1:2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,Mal 1:3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.Mal 1:4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.Mal 1:5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

Oba 1:1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.

Oba 1:10 For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.Oba 1:11 In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.Oba 1:12 But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.Oba 1:13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;Oba 1:14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.

How should we respond?

Act 4:24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:Act 4:25 Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?Act 4:29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,Act 4:32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

Jhn 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.Jhn 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.Jhn 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.Jhn 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.Jhn 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.Jhn 15:17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.Jhn 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.