Psalm stanza 71 there, O Lord, you continue to be near to me. What a blessing that is, even as we suffering all kinds of different afflictions. The Lord never leaves his people, but he continues to be near to us. Well, let's open in our Bibles to the book of First Thessalonians this morning, chapter two and verse 14. First Thessalonians two and verse 14. I know it's been many weeks since we've been in our series in First Thessalonians. But we return this morning, I want to just remind us what this letter is about. As we've seen in the past, 1 Thessalonians is a letter for us and for all of God's people at all times. In it, we're given a portrait of what a healthy church looks like. In it, we're given instruction on how we can be ministering to others in a Christ-like way. It's also a book where it continues to call us to pursue greater holiness in our lives. And most of all, it's a book where we're seeing clearly page after page of the character and of the work of Christ. And so it's a book given to us that would increase our love for the Savior and our devotion to Him. Last time we looked just at verse 13, where we learned about the importance of the preaching of God's word, and today we're gonna leave, pick up rather, where we left off, and so we're gonna look at verses 14, 15, and 16, where God gives us encouragement on how we are to deal with hostility whenever it comes into our lives for being his people. Also just wanna remind you that in the bulletin there is a sermon outline if you'd like to follow along, and you'll find the cross-references that I'll be referring to this morning on the back of it. So let's give our attention now to God's word. For the sake of context, I do want to begin our reading at verse 13. But again, we'll just be looking at verses 14 to 16 this morning. So let's hear now the reading of God's most holy word. For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God, which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us. And they do not please God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utter most." And there we'll end the reading of God's word. May the Lord bless His word to us as we consider it together this morning. This week I read the story of a woman, a young woman in India, who back in 2012 had left the religion of Hinduism, which was the prevalent, it is the prevalent religion in India even today, to become a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as I was reading her story, I found myself greatly encouraged because though this woman suffered a lot for her faith, she remained faithful to Christ through herself. As her husband discovered her newfound faith, I read that he commanded her to never read the Bible again, never to pray to Jesus again, as long as she was to be his wife. Those things were absolutely forbidden. And yet to make it even worse, he eventually started beating her and then eventually kicked her out of the home where he said, you may never see our kids again. And so truth be told, this woman lost everything for the sake of Christ. She lost her husband, she lost her kids, she lost her home. And so you can imagine how painful this would have been for her to endure this kind of suffering. And yet, as I was reading the story, that's exactly what this woman did. She didn't let her husband's actions keep her from following Christ, but rather she remained true to her Savior. Even though it meant she couldn't see her husband, she couldn't see her kids, she remained true to her Savior. She kept living for Jesus. She kept worshiping Jesus. She willingly endured the hostility. Now in case you're wondering, she was praying that she would be restored to her family, and later on she was restored to her family, and now she's back with her husband and her kids. But she endured the hostility. Now, as we come to look at these verses today in 1 Thessalonians 2, we see that that is exactly what God calls all of us to do as we experience hostility from others today. We are not to be hindered by it. And yet, that's important because it's easy for us to be hindered by it. That's our natural reaction to suffering is to be hindered by it. That is, we are not to allow the suffering to keep us from following. Rather, we are to willingly endure it. That is, we're to remain faithful to our Savior through it all, no matter what it costs, just like this woman in India. And that's because, as Paul teaches us this morning, experiencing hostility is normal. Justice will be served eventually. And most importantly, because this is what Jesus Christ has done for us. When He was on earth, He willingly endured hostility for our salvation. And so as we look at these verses together this morning, let us see that as our main point of application. Instead of being hindered by hostility, willingly endure it as Jesus did for you. Instead of being hindered by hostility, willingly endure it as Jesus did for you. Well, let's see first of all this morning that you and I, we may experience hostility for being a Christian. If you remember from last time when we looked at verse 13, Paul was telling us that we should be receiving and welcoming the preached word. That is, we should take every opportunity to listen to preaching and we should let the preaching shape our lives because, he tells us, God speaks to us through the preaching of his word and God works in us through the preaching of his word. In particular, as we welcome his word with faith, he works in us to convert us to Christ and to conform us to Christ. Well, as we come into the verses that follow this morning, Paul goes on to speak of another effect the Word of God has in our lives when we welcome it in faith. He says in verse 14, for you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God, which are in Judea in Christ Jesus, for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans. So having believed the gospel as it was preached to them, Paul says the Thessalonians also became imitators of the churches in Judea. And this word, imitators, is the same word used earlier for followers back in chapter 1, verse 6. It's actually the word from which we get our English word, mime, or mimic. And that's the idea here, that by believing the gospel, the Thessalonians had become mimics of the Judean churches. And what exactly they were mimicking, Paul specifies in the second part of the verse. He says they were suffering the same things as the Judean Christians from their own countrymen. That is, like the Judean Christians, they too were being persecuted for their faith in Christ. Now, of course, this doesn't mean they consciously chose to be imitators of the Judeans in this way, but rather, this is what happened. This is the result of their believing the gospel. They became rather hated and opposed. And Paul says, to make it worse, it was from their own countrymen. That is, it was from their fellow Thessalonians. It was from their friends. It was from their neighbors, their coworkers, even from their own family members. As we've seen in the past, the Jews drove Paul and his companions out of Thessalonica, and then after that they continued to persecute the church that Paul and his companions had just started. And what's more, it seems here that even the Gentile unbelievers started joining in on these attacks of the church as well. Now, we've seen in the past that the Jews attacked the church because many of the new believers were once in the synagogue with them. And the Gentiles attacked the church because many of the new believers were once idol worshipers with them. And yet, now the new believers were all worshipers of the living God and of his Son, and the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles wouldn't have it. They wanted the new believers to be like them, to believe what they believed, to do what they do. And so, since that wasn't happening anymore, they started attacking. in opposing the church. They brought suffering into the lives of the Christians as an attempt to keep them from following Christ and to try to bring them back to their old ways. And Paul says this is what happened when the Thessalonians believed the gospel. They experienced hostility. And you see what you and I need to learn from this is that we could experience this same kind of hostility from others today as well. As we believe that there is only salvation in Jesus Christ, we may be ridiculed. We may be called a radical by others. As we believe what the Bible says about marriage and about human sexuality, we may be hated. We may even be fired. As we seek to live in accordance with God's law by keeping the Lord's Day or by not getting drunk with our friends, for example, we may be teased. We may be made fun of by others. And that's because when we believe that Christ is the only Savior, when we believe that the Bible is the truth, the unbelieving world does not like that. And when you seek to live in faithfulness to God's commands rather than the world's commands, the unbelieving world does not like it. And so we may experience those same things today. We may be hated and rejected. We may be teased and ostracized. We may be slandered or thought to be closed-minded. We may even be treated unjustly, imprisoned, or physically attacked. And like the Thessalonians, it may even come from our own countrymen, from our friends, from our neighbors, from our co-workers, from our own family members. Now I know that as Christians in America today, we hardly know what it means to experience hostility. And we should praise God for that. We're not experiencing the hostility the rest of the church is experiencing in other parts of the world. But nevertheless, we could still experience it. And we need to be ready for that. I read in the news last month that a college in Michigan, Wayne State University, recently prohibited InterVarsity Fellowship, a Christian organization, from becoming a campus organization. Now, InterVarsity Fellowship had already been a campus organization there for the last 75 years, but now they decided they could no longer be a campus organization. Why? Because InterVarsity said the leaders of their group had to believe what the group says they believe. And of course, there were many other groups on campus who insisted that their leaders share in the beliefs of the group. But for some reason, the university treated intervarsity differently. And of course, it doesn't take much to understand why that was the case, simply because they're Christians. And similarly, this is what happened with the Thessalonians, and this is what could happen to us. It may not be as bad as it could be, and we can be thankful for that, but we need to know we could experience hostility for being God's people, for holding to His Word, for doing what He calls us to do and being faithful to Him. And so what are we supposed to do when we experience this hostility? And that's really what Paul is driving home to us in this passage. And so as we see secondly on the outline, we are called by God to willingly endure the hostility, first of all, because it is normal. We are to willingly endure the hostility because it is normal. So as we think of this passage, we have to ask ourselves, why is it that Paul reminds the Thessalonians of their sufferings? Well, as we've seen in our past studies, it's to encourage the Thessalonians to persevere in the faith despite their sufferings. In other words, Paul's writing these verses to them because he wants them to keep pressing on in the face of the hostility. He doesn't want them to let persecution keep them from being faithful. Rather, he wants them to be faithful in the midst of the persecution. And as we see here, one of the ways he does that is by reminding the Thessalonians that their sufferings for the faith are normal. Not that they're justifiable, not that they're allowable, but that the normal experience for Christians is to be persecuted. In other words, they are not alone in their sufferings, but on the contrary, this is what happens to all of God's people in all places and at all times. It's not just happening to them. Again, Paul says in verse 14, for you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God, which are in Judea in Christ Jesus, for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans. As we mentioned earlier, the Judean Christians had also experienced this hostility. They too knew what it was like to suffer for the faith. And Paul knows that full well because in the past he was one of the persecutors of the church in Judea. You'll remember at the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7, Paul was there consenting to the death of Stephen. And what we're then told in Acts chapter 8 is that after the stoning of Stephen, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem, scattering the church throughout all of Judea and Samaria. And so the Thessalonians were not the only ones hated and opposed for their faith. The Judean Christians had been and they probably still were experiencing those same things. In fact, not only had the Jews persecuted the Christians in Judea, but they had also persecuted the Lord Jesus before that. And that's also what Paul says here. Going back in verse 14, the second part, he says, for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans who killed, verse 15, both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets. We know from the Gospels that it was Pontius Pilate, the Roman authority, who put Jesus on the cross. But as Paul says here, it was the unbelieving Jews who actually killed him. They were the ones who, in their hatred, delivered Jesus to be executed. And as Peter confirms for us in Acts 2.23, they are the ones who, with their lawless hands, crucified Jesus and put him to death. They were the ones ultimately to blame. And so not only had the Judean Christians suffered persecution from the Jews like the Thessalonians, the Lord Jesus had suffered persecution from the Jews as well. He had been opposed throughout his earthly ministry. He had been hated. He had been wanted to be dead by them. And as Paul says here, he was even killed by them through the hands of Pontius Pilate on the cross. Jesus had also experienced these same sufferings. What's more, the prophets of the Old Testament had also experienced these same sufferings. Again, Paul says in verse 15, unbelieving Jews had killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets. And when you read throughout redemptive history, this is often what we see, the Jews rejecting the prophets God had lovingly sent to them. And we saw an example of that earlier in the service with the prophet Jeremiah. And then along with that, Paul says that he and his companions had also experienced this same kind of hostility from the Jews as well. And they have persecuted us, Paul goes on to say in verse 15. So as the book of Acts teaches us in their missionary journeys, it was usually the Jews who opposed Paul and his companions. And as we've seen here, it was the Jews who drove Paul and his companions out of Thessalonica. So to put all of this together, the Thessalonians were being persecuted by the Jews, along with their Gentile counterparts, just like the Christians in Judea, just like the Lord Jesus himself, just like the prophets of old, and just like Paul and his companions had all experienced before. They all knew what it was like to be persecuted by the unbelieving Jewish people. And we have to be clear here. Paul's not saying this to pick on the Jews. He's not saying this because he hates the Jews. This is not in Paul's mind at all. As he says in Romans 9 verses 1 to 3, Paul would willingly go to hell himself if it meant his fellow Jews could go to heaven. These are not words of hatred. These are not words of vengeance. But rather, Paul says this because he wants the Thessalonians to know that their persecution is not a one-time isolated event. On the contrary, it's an episode in a much greater series of events. The unbelieving Jews have been known throughout history for persecuting the faithful. And as I said earlier, Paul's point here is to show the Thessalonians that they are not alone in their sufferings. Their sufferings are not unique to them. Rather, this is what has been happening to Paul, to the Judean Christians, to the prophets, to the Lord Jesus Himself. In other words, persecution is the normal experience for God's people, whether it comes from Jews or from Gentiles. Peter says in 1 Peter 4.12, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial. And he's speaking here of persecution, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you. Put another way, persecution is not the exception to the rule. Persecution is actually the rule. And that's because, as I mentioned earlier, when you become a Christian, you're no longer of the world. When you're no longer of the world and you no longer believe what the world believes and do what the world does, the world hates you for it. Jesus teaches us this when he says in John 15, 19, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. As one author puts it, when the gospel takes root, it brings us into a collision with the unbelieving world. This is always what happens in all places and at all times. And so even though you and I may not experience this hostility like others are in the world today, we should not be surprised by it when and if it comes to us. Rather, we should expect it to come into our lives if we're being faithful to Christ. Because as Paul says, it's normal. It's normal. It's what all of God's people are having to deal with. And if it's normal, then that means we should not let it hinder us from serving Christ throughout. But rather, we should willingly endure it. Recently my son is not wanting to go to school or do his homework because it's hard. And I can't fault him for that because I don't like doing hard things either. But one of the things Anna and I have been trying to talk to him is to help him realize he's not the only one who has to get up early in the morning and go to school. This is not something that's unique to him. This is what all second graders have to do. They have to go to school. They have to get their work done. And we remind him of this because it's by understanding that it's normal, that he's not alone in having to do these things, that we'll actually give him the strength to do them, to overcome the difficulty. And in the same way, that's what Paul is saying here to us. We should not give up when the hostility arises. Rather, we should endure because it's not unique to us. It's what every Christian in the world is having to deal with today. It's the normal experience. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.12, yes, and all, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. We should willingly endure it when it comes because it's the normal experience for God's people. But then as we see thirdly on the outline, we should also willingly endure the hostility because justice will be served. Justice will be served. And so let's look again now at verse 15. Paul goes on, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us and they do not please God and are contrary to all men. So Paul goes on to speak of the unbelieving Jews and of their persecution of the church. And as he says here towards the end of verse 15, they do not please God. Now, if we read the Gospels, I think it's clear to see that the unbelieving Jews actually thought they were pleasing God. And this is why they were doing what they were doing. But according to Paul, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit, they were actually doing the exact opposite. They were displeasing the Lord in their persecution of the faithful. Because for one, they were displeasing the Lord in that they didn't the Gospel and they did not receive God's Son as the promised Messiah. And that right there says enough. If we reject Christ as the Savior, we are not pleasing God in any way. But also, as Paul brings out for us in the text, they were displeasing the Lord because by persecuting the church, they were actually opposing the Lord and they were fighting against His Kingdom purposes. As Paul goes on to say in v. 16, they were forbidding him and his companions to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved. Now this is most likely what they experienced in Thessalonica. Before they could spend much time preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, the unbelieving Jews had driven them out of the city. Now this was also true for the unbelieving Jews before then, such as those who killed the Lord Jesus and their prophets in the past. They did not please the Lord either. But on the contrary, they invited His judgment like the ones in Paul's day. By persecuting the church, they were rejecting the Lord. They were fighting against His work of redemption. Now, as we think of that, we have to realize that this is not all that Paul says. He does not say that this is not the only thing he says, that they displease the Lord, but he goes on in verse 15 to say that they are actually contrary to all men in addition. Literally, they're opposing all men. And what he's saying here is that by persecuting the faithful, they're not just opposing the Lord. They're not just opposing his kingdom purposes and his people, but rather they are actually opposing all of humanity. Just think of that for example. They are acting like the enemies, in other words, not just of Christians in particular, but of mankind in general. This is also why they are displeasing the Lord. And that's because in their persecution of the church, what are they really aiming to do but to stop the spread of the gospel? They do not want the gospel that brings eternal life to those who hear it and believe it to go anywhere in the world. As Paul says, they were forbidding him to speak to the Gentiles the gospel that they may be saved. In a word, those who persecute the church do so to keep others from hearing the words of eternal life and believing the words of eternal life because they do not want anyone to have eternal life. And so Paul says they're not just working to harm some people, i.e. the Christians they're persecuting, they're actually working to harm all people. Because by keeping the words of life from others, they are, quote one author, committing a terrible crime against humanity. Now, of course, they can't actually hinder the work of Christ on earth, and the Bible makes that clear to us. Jesus says in Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Nothing can stop the Lord from saving the lost, but nevertheless, this is their goal. This is one of the primary reasons for their hostility. It is to keep others from hearing the good news of salvation in Christ. And this is why those who persecuted the church in the past did so, and this is why those who persecute the church today do so. In that, they do not please the Lord, and they are contrary to all men. And so, Paul says, they will be judged by the Lord. 16, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. By persecuting God's people, Paul says they are filling up the measure of their sins. Literally, they are filling up their sins like you would fill up a cup with water. And by that, Paul seems to mean that they are piling their sins on top of each other, committing one after the other, just as they always do. Or to put it another way, they are ripening themselves more and more for God's judgment, just like a banana would ripen all the way to the point of being rotten. And so as a result, Paul says judgment is sure to come upon them eventually, as he concludes the verse, but wrath has come upon them to the utter most. And this is an interesting statement because it's written actually in the past tense. And yet I don't think that means Paul is saying they've already experienced the judgment by God, but rather it means they will certainly be judged by God. That the guilty verdict, in other words, has already been given. It's already hanging over their heads. As one commentator says, the use of the past tense expresses the completeness and the certainty of God's wrath coming to them in the future. And as we think of that, we have to remember at the same time that this doesn't mean a persecutor is beyond the hope of salvation. And Paul himself is the prime example of that. He was a great persecutor of the church, and yet the Lord saved him. And the Lord can do that today. He can make his enemies into his people whenever he wants. And in fact, that is what he's done for all who believe in him here this morning. But what Paul is saying here is that even though there are persecutors of the church, unless the Lord decides to save them, which He does and He can, they will be judged eventually for their unbelief, first and foremost, and for their mistreatment of His people. Because God loves His people. He loves us very much. They are those who have been brought by the precious blood of His Son. Jesus says in Matthew 18, six and seven, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. That helps us to understand Jesus does not take lightly the mistreatment of his bride. And so as Paul brings out for us here, those who persecute his bride will be punished for their crimes eventually. This is what happened to those who persecuted the prophets, persecuted Jesus, who persecuted Paul, who persecuted the Thessalonians, and who persecute us today. Not pleasing the Lord, being contrary to all men, they will be judged by God for what they've done. And friends, Paul is telling us this because it means we don't need to be discouraged by the hostility then. It means we don't need to be hindered by the hostility then, but rather we can press on in our service to the Lord. Because for one, we can know we're actually the ones in the right. They're the ones in the wrong. We're doing the right thing, and so we can keep on doing the right thing. But also because we can know that God will take care of the wrongdoing committed against us. You see, there's a comfort. A comfort that comes, that helps us to endure hostility, that comes from knowing that God will one day judge His enemies. This is why the Psalms, for example, tell us to rejoice that Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead. It's not because we're to take delight in the judgment of the wicked, it's because there's a comfort that comes from knowing justice will be served eventually. And that's the comfort Paul's trying to give the Thessalonians, as well as us here with these words. A few weeks ago, one of my sons had a splinter right in the middle of his hand. And as I got the tweezers to go get it out, I realized it was actually deeply embedded into his hand. And so I reassured him. I said, son, this is going to hurt. But hang in there. I just need to dig a little deeper. And it won't last too long. But let me do it. And I'll get it out. And the pain will go away. Now, he still cried, and it was still very difficult to deal with, but as I dug a little deeper, he was able to get through it, because he knew, if I let Dad do it, it'll be over eventually. And in a similar way, that's what Paul's saying here. The hostility will hurt. You bet it will hurt. But we can endure it, because the pain will not last forever. And that's what we need to remember. The day will come when we will be set free, when we will be persecuted no more because justice will be served. The Lord will take care of it. So we need to know that we should willingly endure the hostility because it's normal and because justice will be served. But most of all, as we see fourthly and finally on the outline, we should willingly endure the hostility because this is what Jesus Christ has done for us. As we've seen, Paul said the unbelieving Jews killed the Lord Jesus. But when you read the gospels, you see they actually did a lot more than that. to our Lord Jesus. It was certainly an act of hostility, but it was not the only act. For instance, when Jesus was born, there was an attempt on his life by Herod, who thought he was the king of the Jews, to kill Jesus by ordering all the males, two years of age and younger, in and around the city of Bethlehem. This is why when he was young, Joseph and Mary had to flee with Jesus all the way down to Egypt. And then later in his earthly ministry, it was the Jewish leaders who challenged Jesus when he healed the sick. They ridiculed him for eating with sinners and tax collectors. They scorned him for doing good deeds on the Sabbath day. They tried to trip him up before others so as to discredit him and to discredit his ministry. What's more, they often put Jesus to the test and demanded that Jesus give a sign to prove his identity. They even accused Jesus of being demonic, of working on Satan's side. When he preached in his hometown of Nazareth, he was rejected by his own people. They accused Him of wrongdoing. And of course, towards the end of His earthly ministry, He was betrayed. He was unjustly arrested, unjustly tried, unjustly condemned. And then He was delivered to the Romans where He was unjustly beaten, mocked, and crucified. And so when you think of persecution, we of course need to remember Jesus knew very well what it meant to suffer for the faith. In fact, He knew what it was like to suffer more so than anyone else has or ever will know what it means to suffer. And yet, as we're told, Jesus never let it keep him from doing the Father's will. Instead, he always willingly endured it. Despite the spitting and the teasing, he pressed on in the Lord's service. Despite the hatred and the unbelief, he persevered in his calling. And despite the nails in his hands and in his feet, he remained faithful to God. We're told in 1 Peter 2, 23, speaking of Jesus, who when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. And friends, he did that for our salvation. That's why he did it for you and for me who trust in him this morning, because he knew that it was through his hostility and experiencing it and enduring through it that you and I would be saved. As Peter goes on to say in 1 Peter 2.24, who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. Peter's saying this is why when Jesus was reviled, He did not revile in return. This is why He willingly endured the hostility, the rejection, the betrayal, the crucifixion. It was so that His people would be saved from their sins. It was so that you and I who trust in Him would have eternal life and be the heirs of the promised glory in heaven. Brothers and sisters, it was for us. It was so that we would be saved. And so as we experience persecution today, no matter what form it takes, we should follow in the footsteps of our Savior. We shouldn't be surprised by it. We shouldn't be discouraged by it. But we should endure it and persevere despite it. because this is what he has so graciously done for us. When the Communist Party had taken control of Romania in the 1940s, the church at large was sadly towing the line and supporting the Communist government. And so many of the Christian ministers in Romania at the time were faced with a choice. Would they remain silent and live in peace, or would they speak up for Christ and suffer the consequences? And as one of those ministers was considering what to do, a man by the name of Richard Warmbrand, you may have heard of him before, knowing very well that if he spoke up for Christ, he could be taken away from his family, he could be suffering the consequences immediately. His wife actually encouraged him. And do you know what his wife said? She said, Richard, go and wipe the shame off the face of Christ. Go and wipe the shame off the face of Christ. You see, the church's support of the communist government and its godless principles have brought shame on their Savior and they could not bear it because He was their Savior. And so, yes, even though it would bring persecution into their lives, Richard went up and he spoke for Christ and he suffered the consequences. Arrested, beaten, put in prison for years and years, separated from his family because he knew that Jesus had lovingly done the same for him in the past. And brothers and sisters, this is to be our response. We should endure because we are thankful Jesus Christ has endured for us and for our salvation. And as long as we're looking to him for the strength to do it, we will be fully able. We read in Hebrews 12, 1-3, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls." As Paul teaches us, we may experience hostility, but we should endure it because it is normal, because justice will be served, and because Jesus Christ has done it for us. So instead of being hindered by hostility, let us all seek to willingly endure it as Jesus has done for us. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you again for this portion of your word and pray that you would help us to believe it and to apply it to our lives. Father, we confess that it seems like an irrelevant passage to us because many, if not all of us, are not really experiencing hostility for being your people. And yet, Lord, we pray that nonetheless, we would be prepared for the day that comes because it is the normal experience and we should expect it if we're being faithful to you. So Lord, help us to keep being faithful to you. Help us not to be surprised by hostility. Help us to willingly endure it in light of the truths you have brought to our attention today. And Lord Jesus, we thank you together as a congregation this morning for all the suffering that you willingly endured on our behalf and for our salvation. Lord, make us so grateful for that. Even today, we pray in your name. Amen. Let's open now to Psalm 22, Selection A.