If you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews chapter 13, and our scripture reading will be verses one through 17. Hebrews chapter 13, beginning in verse one, let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the same body also. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me? Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. For we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the One to come. Therefore, by Him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. May the Lord bless the reading of this word. It's a lovely hymn. I'm not sure the angels did sing according to the biblical passage, but we can certainly allow for poetic license. Take your Bibles now, please, and turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Now, this email came to my inbox on Friday, as I'm sure it did for many of you. It's from Voice of the Martyrs, and it says, with regard to Somalia, members of the extremist Islamic group Al-Shabaab executed 23-year-old Christian convert, Mu'min Yusuf. His body was discovered in Mogadishu's Yaksha district, according to Compass Direct News. October 28, members of that group detained him and searched his home for Christian materials after a 15-year-old Muslim boy had accused Yusuf of trying to convert him to Christianity. While interrogating Yusuf about other Somali Christians, the extremists knocked out all of Yusuf's front teeth and broke several of his fingers. Then they shot him twice in the head and dumped his body on an empty residential street. Since it is unknown whether Yusuf revealed information about other Christians while he was tortured, the underground Christians who knew him have relocated for their safety. It's another world out there for many of our brothers and sisters, a world with which we are very unfamiliar. Broken teeth. Shot in the head. Underground Christians relocating for safety reasons. Pretty sure we're going to meet in this place next week, Lord willing. We won't have to relocate for safety reasons. Now, we're told that more Christians have been martyred in the 20th century than in all the other centuries combined since the institution of the church. We hear that statistic a lot, and I I don't think it should become so familiar to us that it doesn't have an impact upon us. There is an often cited source as well entitled the World Christian Encyclopedia that's produced by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary outside of Boston. And they tell us that there have been some 70 million Christian martyrs in history, and that more than 45 million of them have been martyred in the 20th century. So there are people who quibble about those statistics, but even if they need tweaking, they're still staggering. And so the reality of the The persecution of the church is ongoing, and that's the reality that we want to consider tonight. The passage that we've been working our way through in our evening services is Romans chapter 12, and we've come to verse 17. Now, verse 14 says, Bless those who persecute you and bless and do not curse, and then After dealing with a few other matters, Paul comes back to it in verse 17, this whole theme of persecution, and he says, Repay no one evil for evil. And then he spends a little bit of time on that right down to the end of the chapter. Now, we're going to work our way through that, if not next week, then at some point in the very near future, but before we do that, I thought it might be helpful for us to consider what the book of Hebrews has to say about the reality of the persecuted church and what our responsibility is in light of that reality. So we're going to look then at Hebrews, chapter 13, and we're going to focus on verse three. I'll read the first three verses. Hebrews 13, verse one, let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also. And that last phrase seems a little bit odd. The idea is really a parallel to. The first part, as if chained with them. So he's saying, remember the prisoners as if you were chained right there with them. And remember those who are mistreated as if you were being mistreated physically in the same way that they are. So it's really a parallel. He's saying the same thing. Those who are suffering, you ought to remember them with great sympathy and empathy. Now, as we come to chapter 13, The writer of this epistle now comes to a section where he's going to deal with a variety of practical matters. One writer says chapter 13 forms a postscript to the main body of the epistle or the sermon. As you will know, if you've listened to Brother Michael, as he's opened up the book for us in the Bible class, it's really a sermon that has been turned into an epistle, turned into a letter. In it, our author loosely strings together an assortment of practical and social exhortations and doctrinal admonitions in that first section there from verses 1 to 17. So it's a variety of things that he deals with. And in near the beginning of this section, he touches on this matter of the persecution of the church and what our response ought to be in light of that sobering reality. In a nutshell, our responsibility, according to this writer, is that we must remember them. Remember those who are in chains. And we want to open that up a little bit tonight. Now, first of all, we ought to remember them by knowing. We ought to remember them by knowing. That is, The writer assumes that those people to whom he is writing, they know about these people about whom he is speaking. They themselves, the folk to whom he is writing, they themselves had already experienced significant persecution. If you go back to chapter 10 and verse 34, you read this. Chapter 10 and verse 34, for you had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods. knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. And so these were people who had been reproached already. Notice verse 32 of that same chapter. You recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, that is their conversion, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. And so these people knew the reality of persecution. They had not suffered to the point of death. Chapter 12 makes that clear. You have not yet resisted to blood. That's what he's probably saying there. You've not been martyred yet, but you've been persecuted. That's clear. You've been persecuted for the profession that you have made for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so some of them have been imprisoned. And there were those that the writer knew and those that these people knew who were in prison. And they were not in prison for some crime, some wrongdoing, some ill deed that they had perpetrated. No, they were in prison simply because they were Christians. They were in prison because of their faith. Now, in those days, if you were in prison, You were pretty much on your own. They were not going to help you in any way, shape or form. That is, the authorities were not going to help you at all. Prisoners, says one writer, who had no means of their own, were very liable to starve unless their friends brought them food. or whatever other form of help they required throughout the whole church age, throughout the whole age of imperial persecution, that is the persecution of the church by the Roman Empire. And those times waxed and waned. Sometimes the persecution was intense and sometimes not so much. But all throughout that time, the visiting of their friends who were in prison was a regular, though dangerous, duty of Christian charity. And so the authorities didn't care much as to how you were doing when you were in prison. They threw you in and you pretty much had to fend for yourself and friends and family might come and visit you and bring you food and whatever else was needed. But you were pretty much left on your own and you may very well starve to death. And so it was tremendously important that Christian love be manifested in this practical way as brothers and sisters would visit those who were persecuted. Now, the writer says then that there were those of their number who are being imprisoned because of their profession of faith. Now, obviously, the writer and these people knew about their circumstances. They knew what was going on. You can see in verse three, there's not an awful lot of information given. We all know the situation. Well, I suggest to you that we can learn from that, and you and I ought to do the very best that we can in order that we might be familiar with what is going on around the world. Not so much what's going on in Canada, because we don't have religious prisoners in our land. There is a measure of persecution to be sure, but it's not in any way to the same level as the kind of thing that we see around the world. And we ought to be familiar with what's going on around the world. We ought to know what is going on around the world. Did you know that in China there are more Christians imprisoned than in any other country around the world? Jonathan was just telling me that there was an article in the Wall Street Journal this week about how the Chinese government this week, in these recent days, is clamping down on Christians again. We ought to be aware of these kinds of things. We ought to be familiar with these kinds of things. We ought to be aware of organizations like and websites like Open Doors or Voice of the Martyrs. And you can see in the bulletin at the bottom of the first page, there's always a comment about the persecuted church and about the need to to pray for a particular country according to the emphasis that is given to us by Voice of the Martyrs. Because these people know, they do the research, and they're aware of what's going on, and they can help us to be familiar with what's going on around the world. So remember them by knowing. We won't respond in any way, shape, or form that's practical and helpful if we don't even know that it's going on. And so we ought to really lift up our eyes from our circumstances, because how easy it is to just get caught up in our little world. But we lift our eyes up off our circumstances and look not just to the field that is white unto harvest and concerned about the sinners, but we also want to be concerned about the saints who are being persecuted around the world. So remember them by knowing. Secondly, remember them with a sense of kinship. Remember them with a sense of kinship. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them. But notice the context. Notice verse one. Let brotherly love continue. This is Philadelphia, as you know. This is the love of the brothers. You know that according to the New Testament, the people of God are a family. And according to the New Testament, the word brother is used, oh, I think in the neighborhood of about 250 times. And so Christian people are brothers and sisters. We have an elder brother and we have a father and we are part of a family. And so when you come to first Peter, chapter five, That's the idea that Peter sets before us. First, Peter, chapter five and verse nine, he says, resist him. That is the devil steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. These people around the world are part of the brotherhood, they're part of the family. They're part of the family with whom we're going to spend eternity. They are all the blood bought children of God. We have the same father. You know, we tend to care more about our family than anybody else, don't we? And it's understandable because, well, blood is thicker than water, but to Christians, we are tied together by the blood of Christ, are we not? We are all covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there can be no greater bond than that. And that's the reason why when you go to different places, perhaps in our country or perhaps in another country, and you go and you meet Christian people. There is something, some bond there, some unity that is just astonishing and always exciting. There is a kinship there that is remarkable. Well, it's because we're family. It's because we are brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why it's so troubling. That's why it troubles us so deeply when we read things like this. This is from December the 9th, 2009. This is from China. This is about a man, I can't pronounce his first name. His second name is Yimiti. He's 36 years old. He's a house church leader, and he was arrested in January of 2008. And just in October 27th, his people told him, What the sentence was, he was prosecuted for supposedly providing state secrets to overseas organizations. You know that that's absolute nonsense on so many occasions. These are just trumped up charges in order that they might imprison and persecute God's people. He's received a 15 year sentence. They just broke the news to him last October. Well, this is not just some nameless, faceless individual. He's a Christian man, he has a wife and two children. And as a Christian, he's your brother. He's part of your family. And what the writer here is saying, he says, let brotherly love continue, you ought to have familial concern for Christians around the world. You ought to be concerned about the brotherhood all over the world who are being persecuted by those who are hateful in their attitude towards God. And so we are to remember those who are persecuted, remember the prisoners, remember them by knowing and remember them with the sense of kinship. Thirdly, remember them with understanding. Remember them with understanding, remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated since you yourselves are in the body also. Well, what we ought to remember is to remember with understanding, knowing that the reason these particular people are being persecuted is because of the cause of Christ. Providing state secrets to foreign organizations. That's trumped up. At the bottom of it all, it's because they hate God. And they can't get at God, and so they persecute the people of God. That's what you read about in Revelation. You remember in Revelation chapter 12, the dragon seeks to destroy the little child. Remember Revelation 12 talks about the dragon? When the child comes into the world, you know, the scene in Bethlehem was not all sweetness and light. The spiritual reality was sobering. When Jesus was born into this world, the devil, the dragon, was there, and he was there in order that he might destroy the child. And he was behind Herod's destruction of the innocents in Bethlehem. But Revelation 12 says that the child grew and accomplishes purposes and was taken up into heaven. And then what does the dragon do? Well, he turns his attention to the church. And so when the church is persecuted, it is at the heart of it all enmity against God, which is being manifested in the persecution of the people of God. It turns to Matthew chapter five and verses 10 to 12, Matthew chapter 5. Our Lord Jesus says, in fact, that this is one of the marks of a Christian. Remember that the Beatitudes is a description of a real Christian. All Christians are going to have these marks about them. They're going to be poor in spirit, they're going to mourn, they're going to be meek, they're going to hunger and thirst for righteousness and so on. And then what's more, blessed in verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you, falsely. For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." And notice then, they persecute them for righteousness sake. There are times when Christians are persecuted because they're being obnoxious. Times when they're being persecuted because they're nagging people and they're just being quite, just uncivil in the way in which they're even trying to witness. That's not the kind of thing that we want. But even when you are the best witness you can be and the most gracious testimony you can give is given to those around you, you will be persecuted by unbelievers. And it's not always going to be that you're martyred, sometimes things are going to be said about you. And so persecution happens in China and it also happens in some measure in Canada. But the thing to understand is that it is because of their enmity against God, Romans chapter 8 verse 7, it is because of their antipathy towards the gospel, that they persecute you. You represent God. And if they persecuted him, the Lord Jesus said, they're going to persecute you. Well, when you read this, then recognize that there are men and women and young people around the world who are being persecuted for the faith, being persecuted for the gospel, being persecuted for the very things that you and I talked about today. And because they're talking about it, they're being persecuted. Well, when you think about that, it stirs your soul. You realize What tremendous freedoms we have in this country. And you realize how we ought to utilize those freedoms as much as possible. Utilize the freedoms that we have and assemble with the saints. Perhaps you are, well, you happen to be here tonight, but perhaps you're just kind of hit and miss in terms of gathering with the saints. You know, sometimes you're there, sometimes you're not, just to keep them on their toes. Well, there are saints around the world who'd give their eye teeth to have the kind of freedom that you have, where you can meet with the saints whenever you want, without fear of being persecuted and shame on us when we don't avail ourselves of those privileges. And we need to utilize the privileges that we have by witnessing the sinners. And some people, when they bear testimony to Christ and go and evangelize someone, while they're in danger of getting thrown into prison, you and I are in danger of people saying something nasty to us. Well, so what? So when we realize that there are saints around the world who are being persecuted for the faith, we ought to utilize our freedoms, freedom of assembly and freedom to witness. What's more, when we think about these things, it ought to stir our souls with regard to the importance of the cause, the importance of the cause. Think about this. There are people. in other places in the world who are ready to lay down their lives for this book, for the gospel about which it speaks, for the Lord Jesus to whom we have lifted up our songs tonight, for the gospel which I'm privileged to preach to you. There are people around the world ready to lay down their lives for this. Pretty important. It has to do with eternal destinies. There are people who are willing to be separated from families in order to promote this gospel, in order to bring this good news to sinners. There are people who are willing to risk being thrown into prisons in order to bring this gospel to those who are going to hell. And I ask myself, What am I willing to do? How hard am I willing to work in the cause of Christ when my brothers and sisters are literally willing to lay down their lives? Do I work hard at being a witness? Do I work, do I do all I can for the cause of Christ? So remember them with understanding. Remember them with by knowing and remember them with a sense of kinship. Remember them with understanding and then fourthly, remember them with sympathy, that's what he's saying in verse three, especially remember the prisoners as if chained with them. Those who are mistreated, since you are in the body, also those who are mistreated as if you're being mistreated as well. Remember them with sympathy. He's saying, put yourself in their shoes. Imagine sitting right there with them. Imagine Paul and Silas in that low dungeon, the deepest part of the prison that they had. sitting there with their feet in stocks and their backs torn up, unable to lie down, singing praises to God so that the men around them could hear the gospel and God could receive the glory. Imagine yourself in that kind of situation. Imagine yourself in this man's situation where he's separated from his wife and his two children. They look quite young. and facing a 15-year prison term for doing what I do. First Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 26 says we ought to have great sympathy for brothers and sisters in Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, 26. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. We're part of a body. We're members one of another. And so if one is hurt, we also are hurt. And if one is persecuted, we feel the pain. You remember Romans 12, the passage we looked at last week, that we are to weep with those who weep, We rejoice with them when they rejoice, and we weep with those who weep. It affects us. We're not cold fish. It breaks our hearts when we read about things like this. Now, again, this assumes that we know. We're not going to be affected by things we don't know. You know, ignorance is bliss in one sense, and you don't know about it, it's not going to bother you at all. But when you know about it, then it cuts deep, doesn't it? And so, we remember them with sympathy. And when we remember them with sympathy, we also sympathize with the fact that sometimes people fall. It's not all shining testimonies, you know. The young adults class, Mark is leading them through a study of some of the reformers, and they recently studied Thomas Cranmer. And if you know something about Cranmer, you know that it wasn't all sweetness and light for Cranmer. And he was one of the leaders of the English Reformation, and he recanted. Can you imagine? Those kinds of stories aren't really popular in Christian biographies, but they're real. And so he recants, but then he recants his recantation. And you know the story that he is then martyred and he puts his hand, I don't know whether he was right handed or left handed, but he put his writing hand into the fire first so that it would burn, because that's the hand that he wrote his signature with, recanting his faith. Well, it ends gloriously, but there were Troubling parts to the story, weren't there? And the same was true in the early church. Not all of them went to the Colosseum and were burned for the faith. Not all of them were attacked by lions and wild beasts. Because some of them recanted. In fact, it was a real problem for the early church. You know, people recanted, and then when things were safe, they felt awful. They felt terrible and they repented and they came back and they wanted to be received. And again, what do we do with these people? And so. Well, you know. We don't throw stones at people like that because. I kept my mouth shut at times when I've been afraid, haven't you? And so we remember these people with sympathy. It's easy to tell other people how they ought to behave, and it's easy to commend other people to have boldness in their witness. That's easy. I remember a few years ago, 2004, I think it was, Heather and I were in Malaysia, and on one occasion there was a question and answer period, and Malaysia is a is a Muslim country and they're not Christians, they're not persecuted the way they are in some other countries, but they are persecuted nonetheless. And one of the brothers stood up and asked, he said, well, now, you know, given this kind of persecution, he says, how ought we to respond to it? My first thought was, well, the New Testament, you know, Peter and the apostles, they say, well, you know, we're going to obey God and you tell us not to speak about Christ. But we're going to speak about Christ nonetheless. And it doesn't matter what you do to us, we're going to preach the gospel to you. And in Malaysia, they're told you're not to witness to Muslims. In fact, some of their literature at the bottom, it says some of their evangelistic literature says this is not for Muslims. Because if it didn't say that, they'd be persecuted. And so the fellow says, well, now what would you say to us? What should we do in light of this persecution? And so, according to the New Testament, well, you press on, don't you? You preach the gospel. And so I said to them, well, you know, this is what the Bible says. And it's easy for me to say that because within a few days I'm going to fly home. I'll come back here. All that to say, you know, we sympathize with our brothers and sisters around the world. We pray for them. And we pray with sympathy because it's tough. I can't imagine what it's like to face what some of these people face. I can't imagine it. So we remember them with sympathy, and then number five, we remember them with hope. Oh, the prisoners, they're chained. The saints, they're mistreated. Remember them, remember them. New Testament believers were aware, they were aware of what was going on. They were sympathetic, but they never despaired in the face of persecution. The New Testament never suggests in any way, shape or form that Christians just throw up their hands and Christians are all anxious and Christians wonder what's going on. Christians are supremely confident in God. That's the emphasis of the book of the Revelation. What Revelation tells us is this. The whole book of the Revelation tells us that for us in the church age, from the first coming to the second coming, it's going to be tough. All the beasts and all the dragons and all the people on horses and people being killed. That's just a series of horrifying pictures to tell us It's going to be tough. It's not going to be a cakewalk for Christians in this world from the first to the second coming of Christ. In every generation, and especially near the end, it is going to be a rough ride. You better get ready for it. And all the things we read about and all the things we see in the world, Revelation says you expect that. It's not a shock. You know the fiery ordeal that 1 Peter 4 talks about? Was it chapter 5? Chapter 4, I think. The fiery ordeal, Peter says, you've got to expect that. So, Revelation says it's going to be tough. If you don't understand a lot of those visions, at the heart of it, that's what it's saying. All these scary things. That's the message. It's scary. It's tough. And then Revelation says this, with all of that, remember this, the Lord God omnipotent reigns. God is on the throne. All these things are happening. All these things are swirling all around you. People are rising up and they're persecuting the church. But God reigns and God gives them power to do it. Again and again and again in Revelation, you see that little word, given, and God gives them. If a dragon has power to destroy these people here, it's power, Revelation says, that's been given to him. You read through Revelation in one sitting, you'll see that again and again. It's power given to them. What's that telling us? God's in control. It's not swirling out of control. God's on the throne. It's all, even in times of persecution, all working out according to the plan. And that's why when you see Christians in the book of Acts and they're being persecuted, they're not out of control. They're calm. Go back to Acts 4. Look at verse 24. Acts 4. These people are in control because they know who's on the throne. Acts chapter 4 and verse 24. Let's start at verse 23. And being let go. Well, that's because they'd been arrested. I've never been arrested in my life for preaching the gospel. But they now were let go. And they went to their companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and they begin with praise and with a recognition of how great God is. Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. And in fact, all this persecution you predicted in the psalm. And Lord, you're in control, because verse 27, truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together. Who's in control? Well, to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before it to be done. The greatest persecution of all, the most heinous crime of all, was done under the control of God. And so now, they're going to throw me in prison? Peter says, well, that's under the control of God as well. Remember these people with hope. It's for that reason, these were under control, they weren't panicking, they knew who was on the throne. It's for this reason that they could even. Not just be in control, but even rejoice in the face of persecution, can you imagine even rejoice in the face of beatings, can you imagine even rejoice? Chapter five and verse forty one. Chapter 5 and verse 41. So I go back to verse 40. They agreed with him. And when they had called the apostles and beaten them. They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go, you know, of course, that they continue to do just that. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Well, they rejoice because, again, they know who is in control. And they rejoice because they know their destiny. Go back to Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 34. Not only were they not panicking and rejoicing, but they also, these early saints in the face of persecution, rejoiced because they knew what lay ahead for them. Chapter 10 and verse 34. You had compassion on me and my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Imagine if you went home and your house was plundered, and they had written all kinds of things on the walls about what a terrible person you are, because you're a Christian, and you're so narrow and bigoted, because you think everybody who doesn't believe in Christ is going to go to hell. So they steal all your stuff, and whatever they leave there, they burn. And if you're like them, well, you rejoice the privilege of suffering shame for the name of Christ and and you gladly accept the plundering of your goods because you know that you have a better possession in the world to come. You know that. You don't really belong here. You know that all this stuff is just passing away. You know that you're looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. You know that you belong to a different country. You're citizens of a different land. And you have a heaven that awaits and glory that is beckoning you from the next world. And so you can rejoice. That's these people. And so they're not in despair. And when we remember the saints around the world, while we remember them with hope and we remember. And whilst the saints of God are mistreated in this world. They are accompanied by God in all the circumstances of life, and they are destined to be with God throughout all eternity, hope sustains them and hope, hope of glory cheers them even in the face of persecution. And then number six, we remember them with hope. And then lastly, we remember them with prayer. We remember them with prayer. And so the writer of Hebrews says, remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated as if you're mistreated right alongside of them. I've talked about prayer already, but this needs to be emphasized. Now, the response of the New Testament saints is to pray. We saw that right there in the book of Acts. Now, we should do all we can. We should do practical things when we can, that was what happened in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul, for instance, in Second Timothy one sixteen talks about an esophagus who. Who often refreshed him? Paul says, when he was in his chains, when he was chained, he was in prison, Onesiphus would come and refresh him. That word refresh is a very interesting word. Imagine that you're just boiling, you've been working maybe, you're sweating, you're just hot, and the heat's oppressive, and then there's a cool breeze. Just feels you feel it just feels so good and somebody gives you a glass of water You know sometimes you're so hot and you drink cold water. You can feel it going down And it's just like oh, it just cools you down. That's that word refresh Paul says he often He went to visit Paul in prison. That was dangerous in those days. Epaphroditus did the same thing. Visited Paul in Rome. It was dangerous. Because prisoners are despised. They weren't in country clubs, you know, they were despised people. And so you visit them, you're lumped in the same category. So it was a dangerous thing. But people like Epaphras and people like Onesiphorus, they would visit men like Paul who were suffering for the gospel and they would bring them things they needed, sometimes from other countries. Epaphroditus brought it from from Philippi to Rome so that he might minister to Paul. And these people, Paul says, refreshed me. So we do what we can. We don't have opportunities to visit people unless you have the wherewithal to go and visit someone in another country. But when we visit people in prison here, they're usually in prison for other reasons than for their faith, unfortunately. There are, however, practical things we might do for those who are imprisoned around the world. If you go to Voice of the Martyrs, they'll talk to you about things you can do. You can pray, you can write letters, you can make a donation, so on and so forth. And then they have a section there about letters you can write. You can write three different kinds of advocacy letters, they say, letters of encouragement to prisoners and Lord willing, those letters get through to those prisoners that you might make them aware of your love for them. And your prayers for them, letters that raise awareness, writing to the paper, writing to local, writing to government officials in our own country and And then letters writing to government officials, maybe in other countries and so on. And so they people like Voice of the Martyrs, they give us information and help as to how we can do things practically. So we ought to do things like that. That's the New Testament way they they did practical things, they visited. And Lord Jesus even says, remember Matthew, chapter 25, he says, and when I was in prison, you visited me. When you did it to the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. And so they did practical things like that, they visited the prisoners. But the thing I want to emphasize is that there's nothing better than prayer and especially then for our brothers and sisters who are in prisons around the world where we can't reach them, we can't touch them, but we can touch them with the hands of prayer. We can pray that God will protect them. Now, you go over to second Thessalonians, chapter three, notice what Paul says there, second Thessalonians three. Finally, brethren, this is verse one. Pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified just as it is with you and that we may be delivered. So pray for this. Pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for not all have faith. Now, this is exactly then what Paul is talking about, pray that we won't be thrown in prison, pray that we'll be kept safe. Now, you'll notice in Acts chapter four, they pray that God would do great things. But it's not wrong to pray that we'll be kept safe, that's what Paul's asking for here, so pray that they'll be kept safe. Look at first Timothy chapter two verses one and two. Therefore, I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions and the giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all who are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and reverence. So pray that these people will be kept safe, pray that they'll be able to live life peacefully and quietly, going about their kingdom business of promoting the gospel and spreading the good news about Christ. We don't court persecution. We're not like some of those those folk in bygone centuries who is looking for opportunities to be a martyr. No, no, that's weird. That's wrong. So we pray that they would be protected, and then we pray that the kingdom will progress. So again, you go back to Second Thessalonians three verses one to four, Paul says, pray that we'll be kept safe. But the first thing he asks is pray that the word will spread rapidly. So pray that the kingdom will go forward, look at Colossians chapter four and verse three, Colossians four and verse three. We'll start at verse two, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, praying for us, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains. So he's in prison, this is one of the prison epistles, so he's already in chains. What's he asking for? I'm sure he's not opposed to being set free. But the big concern of his heart, and that's all in accord with the Lord's Prayer, for instance, the concern of his heart is that the kingdom go forward, that the word be preached, that there be a great open door made available, and that the word become effectual in the lives of people so that they'd be saved. That's his great concern. And the marvelous thing is that that's precisely the kind of thing that God is able to do. If you go back and you read Philippians chapter one, for instance, there Paul also was writing from prison. It's the same situation. He's in prison in Rome, and he's talking about the fact that what has happened to me has worked out wonderfully for the gospel. Can you imagine you and me, you and I writing an epistle, a letter from prison? You know, we'd be saying, oh, I need this and I need that. But if we're like Paul, we write and say, you know what? I'm in prison, but you know what? Let's work it out. Great. Because people are being saved. That's Philippians 1. He's saying, I'm in prison, but you know, God is doing something wonderful. He's using my imprisonment to stir others to preach. And there are guards who are being saved, there are even people in Caesar's household who are being saved through all of this. So when we pray for people, we pray that they'd be kept safe. Nothing wrong with that at all. And then we pray that God, through those circumstances, through persecution, through imprisonments, He'll do great things. Sometimes those who are doing the persecuting are just so awestruck by what they see that they're saying, Stephen persecuted, Saul watching and assisting. And two chapters later, Paul, soul is saved. And so we pray, don't we? We pray for the saints of God. We pray for the persecuted church. And Lord willing, it'll be like, it'll be like, focus now, focus on what I'm saying. It's a test for you. What was I saying? John Knox, John Knox. They say that Mary said, I fear the prayers of Knox more than all the gathered armies of Europe. This is just to ease us into the close of the sermon. It's coming. Believe it or not. She feared the prayers of Knox. Why? Because God does remarkable things. through the prayers of his people, brings to pass his purposes for the spreading of the gospel and for the saving of souls. So we remember the saints. We remember the persecuted church. We remember them. We pray for them and pray not only that they will be kept safe, but that God, by his grace, would use us in our land with our liberties And then in their countries, with all the persecution they have to face, that God will use us together for the furthering of his kingdom and the glory of his name. Let's pray. Father, we do want to thank you for your people around the world, and we pray for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you will keep them safe. And we pray that you will use them powerfully. We know, Lord, that you purify your church. And so often through persecution, you not only purify, but you cause the church to progress. Do this, we pray. Do great things in our day. We remember, we have heard how the church has grown so remarkably in places like China. Oh, we pray that you will do great things and bring glory to your name. For Jesus' sake, amen.