Martyrdom (excerpt from a sermon I recently preached at a church prayer meeting)
When we say we are a soldier of God, that doesn’t mean we just inherit the armor of God, but we also inherit the call of duty. And every soldier understands that their calling might lead to their death, but they are willing because they know they are serving a cause that is greater than them. Dying for Christ is not just for specific people, it is something that should be expected for every person that decides to live by true faith.
This is short testimony of a young high school girl in America that was killed during the Columbine high school shootings back in 1999…
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“Do you believe in God?” they asked Cassie Bernall. The shooters knew full well that she did. The girl who had once indulged in the occult (as the killers now did) had moved into a realm of peace when she learned to center her heart on Christ. She became a church-goer and a worker among those who needed Christ. Often she brought her Bible to school.
She was reading it in the library when the killer pointed his gun at her. Did she believe in God? “Yes, I believe in God,” she replied.
“Why?” asked the boy in the dark trench coat. Without waiting for an answer, he pulled the trigger.
The Sunday before her death, Cassie wrote these words after church:
Now I have given up on everything else. I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought Him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. So, whatever it takes I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead.
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Filled with faith in God, this girl wanted to know Jesus completely. Her desire was for Him and nothing else. And to know Jesus completely is to live the life that He lived… laying down your life and your own ambitions and living and dying for God’s will.
1Peter 4:13 – “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”
It is actually in these moments of persecution and even death that we can feel and see God the clearest. You might remember that just before the first martyr for Jesus, Stephen, was killed for his faith, he looked up to heaven and was able to see Jesus standing by the throne of God. It was in his toughest time of persecution that he saw Jesus the clearest.
Philippians 3:10-11 – “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
I believe that as we truly yearn for knowing more of Jesus, the desire to die for Him will grow naturally within us. We were created to be like Him. Do not be discouraged if a desire to die for the Lord is not there yet. Know that as you grow with the Lord, so will your surrender to Him. And as you become more like Him, so will your desires change to reflect His desires. The Lord will prepare you and use you for every good work He has planned.
Philippians 1:6 – “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
