“How to Be the Church: Being Persistent”
October 15, 2023
Dear brothers and sisters, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
A lot of the hymns and songs we sing actually have inspiring stories behind them, that caused them to be written and passed down for generations, even to us today. And, there is actually a powerful story behind the song we sang just a few moments ago, and, despite the fact the melody sounds like Bluegrass, it’s actually from India.
The reason is because the lyrics are actually the last words of a man named Nokseng, who lived about a hundred and fifty years ago in a village in what is now northeastern India, and which was inhabited by the Garo people. Missionaries from Britain had preached the Gospel in that area, and many among the Garo people, and in that particular village, had responded to the Gospel by believing in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, turning from their old religion to a new one. This angered the village chief, who ordered everyone who lived in the village to assemble in his presence. He then demanded to know who had adopted the new religion, and ordered them to renounce their belief in Jesus or face death. Nokseng, his wife, and two children then boldly stepped forward, and Nokseng shouted out in front of the crowd, “I have decided to follow Jesus.” The chief was angry, and ordered his archers to fire their arrows at Nokseng’s two children, which they did. The chief then said, “You have lost both your children. Unless you give up your faith, you will lose your wife, too.” Nokseng replied, “Though none go with me, I still will follow.” The chief became even more angry, and ordered his archers to fire on Nokseng’s wife, which they did. In a rage, the chief demanded that Nokseng give up being a Christian and spare his own life. Nokseng responded, “The world behind me, the cross before me, no turning back.” At which point, the chief ordered his archers to fire on Nokseng, and, of course, they complied. Nokseng and his entirely family died in front of the astounded chief and villagers.
But then something happened. The chief, further astounded at the persistence and strong faith of Nokseng and his family, began to wonder: how could someone who had lived and died two thousand years before, in a faraway land, inspire such loyalty and boldness to cause people to follow Him, even to the point of losing everything and being willing to die? The chief said to himself, “I too want a taste of that faith.” At that moment, the chief experienced a change of heart, and cried out, in front of his villagers, “I too belong to Jesus Christ! I too have decided to follow Jesus!” The villagers, hearing the words of their chief, decided to go along with him, and become Christians as well. It was because of the bold and unwavering persistence of one man and his family that one whole village, even a stubborn chief who had only moments before been an enemy of Jesus, decided to become Christians and follow Jesus. Even today, the majority of the Garo people are still Christian, largely because of what happened that one day.
Nokseng and his family also demonstrated what Paul says in today’s Second Reading from Philippians: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Nokseng looked forward to the heavenly prize which was promised him by Jesus, and was even willing to give up his life to experience that prize. Nothing else mattered to him and his family than following Jesus, even when faced with pressure to stop doing so, and nothing ought to stop us from doing the same. Jesus continues to be with us every day to love us, care for us, and help us in our every need. He is always with us to sustain us and keep us going, even when things seem dark and uncertain. He never leaves us alone to fight our battles, but is always fighting for us, on our side, bringing us victory. He has also promised that even though life may be difficult, we have a great reward, an eternal prize, waiting for us – eternal life, which will be free from trouble, sickness, sadness, and struggle. But where we have to keep our eyes focused is forward. Yes, we have had hurts, moments of guilt and shame, and have made mistakes, but we can’t let those keep us from following Jesus to the wonderful place He is leading us. By His death and resurrection, He has triumphed over our sins, guilt, shame, and all our hurts. He has won victory already, and so He is leading us to victory. But we are to keep being persistent, not let anything get in our way, and certainly not let the past, in any way, keep us from moving forward persistently.
As the saying goes, “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.” We are also to be examining ourselves, and seeing if there are any thoughts, feelings, or habits which have been keeping us from focusing on Jesus. And if there are, we can ask Jesus to remove them. We are to continue to keep looking forward, because God is propelling us forward. God has been keeping us going in a positive direction, especially in the past year, and as long as we continue to be persistent in trusting and following Him, we will continue in this positive direction. As the old proverb says, the times change, and we change with them.
Ed Stetzer, one of the presenters at the LCMC Annual Gathering a couple of weeks ago, pointed out that, mentally, we’ve been living as the Church in pandemic mode for the last three years. Even though covid still remains with us, the pandemic has been officially over for quite some time, and we can no longer claim the pandemic as the source of our issues. The biggest thing, however, that will cause us to become bogged down is if we keep looking back to the past, to how things used to be, and thinking that if we can somehow recreate the past and make things how we thought they once were, then everything will be better. Any attempt to recreate the past will only end in futility, simply because the past no longer exists. The world has changed, and, as we certainly experienced during the pandemic, it is impossible for us to remain completely unaffected by the world. It is time for us to be listening both to God, as well as the people we seek to reach and bring into our church family, to learn how we can both tell and show the love of Jesus to everyone, and bring them to faith in Him. Because everything we do and say, as the Church, is to be about Jesus. Especially in this day and age, that is what is more effective. Having everything be about Jesus, and only Jesus, will bring people to faith, and will give us new life and purpose as well.
As another saying goes, “Your future needs you, your past doesn’t.” Or, more specifically, God needs us to be in the future. He also needs us to keep open to what He reveals to us to be ways to reach others to follow Him. Though we will continue to face struggles, we know God is with us and will resolve any struggles we have to deal with. He has already been removing distractions, obstacles, and roadblocks that would bog us down, and is helping us keep following Him. With Jesus as both our leader and the main reason we do everything, we will continue to go in a good direction. So let us keep being persistent, not giving up, not looking back, not turning back. As we sang just a few moments ago, will you decide now to follow Jesus? Hopefully your answer is yes – because there is no other best way to go, than forward with Jesus.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
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