Chapter 6

FACING THE FLAK

Many would-be followers of Jesus come to Him with dreams of greatness, which are good in their place. Jesus put down the disciples for arguing about which of them would be greatest and told them that real greatness centers in being of service to others (Mark 9:33–35). But Jesus also encouraged their aspirations for greatness with such statements as “You who have followed Me … shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt. 19:28).

But in the will of God, greatness follows along behind suffering, often far behind. And if you sign on with Jesus with greatness in mind, you better be aware that suffering comes first. Otherwise, the will of God may begin to look pretty undesirable after you have been on the way a short time.

One man came to Jesus claiming he wanted to do the Lord’s will. “I will follow You wherever You go,” he declared.

Jesus replied, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Luke 9:57–58). He wanted this would-be follower to know that the will of God involves suffering.

The apostle Peter wrote, “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10). Suffering is par for the course for Christians.

That is why the apostle Peter also wrote about “those also who suffer according to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:19).

Someone may say, “I should suffer? That part I am qualified for. Boy, do I suffer. I bear a real cross. My parents are my cross.” Or, “My husband/wife is my cross.” Or, “My mother-in-law is my cross.”

But that is not the kind of suffering Peter was talking about. He wrote, “For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right than for doing what is wrong” (1 Peter 3:17). We are to suffer, not because we have failed to be the right kind of person when we were younger, not because we are antagonistic, grumpy, grouchy, or out of whack somewhere, but we should suffer for doing what is right.

When that happens, Peter said, “To the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing” (1 Peter 4:13). You ought to be happy about it. “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler” (1 Peter 4:14–15).

The passage continues, “But if anyone suffers as a Christian …” (v. 16). Do you understand what Peter was talking about? Do you see what is par for the course? If you are a Christian who is living a godly life in an ungodly world, you will suffer.

The apostle Paul put it this way: “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).

You may say, “But I don’t suffer any persecution.” Then maybe you’re not living a godly life in the face of the world. But if you do suffer, it is a wonderful thing. The Spirit of grace and glory rests on you (1 Peter 4:14).

Evangelism isn’t just the preacher’s job. It is yours. Nor is it completed simply by distributing tracts everywhere, however good that may be. Evangelism involves living a godly life in the face of an ungodly world. And that will bring persecution, because the world does not like Jesus.

Out in the Bushes?

Consider the words of Paul as recorded in Philippians 1:29: “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Here is something shocking. Suffering is linked with faith. The Bible never sees a Christian at any time who doesn’t suffer—because anybody who lives a godly life in the world will get the flak that the world throws back. If you are waltzing through life comfortably, it either means that you are not living a godly life or you are living it out in the bushes in a place where the ungodly world cannot see you.

The Bible shows how we can live a godly life in an ungodly world with success. Acts 4 records how Peter once unloaded a bombshell sermon on the leaders of Israel. He blistered them so many times that I am surprised they did not stone him on the spot. When he finished preaching, the Bible says the Jews “laid hands” on Peter and John (v. 3). It was not to ordain them, we can be sure! It was to put them in custody. But the result of Peter’s sermon was that many believed. The number of men converted came to five thousand. And there were probably another five thousand women and children. By the time the church was a few weeks old, they had won perhaps twenty thousand people. In the next chapter we hear about their multiplying, but it doesn’t tell us how many because they were beyond counting!

But let’s get back to Peter and John, who were thrown in jail for the night. In the morning they were taken out, and they were asked, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” (Acts 4:7).

I imagine Peter thought, What a question! Does that guy know what he is saying? I get to answer that!

In a way, Satan is foolish. He overreaches himself. He thought, I’ll fix them. I’ll get them captured. Do you know what happened? They were slapped in front of the Sanhedrin (the top leaders of Israel), and they preached Jesus to the Sanhedrin, an opportunity they never would have had unless Satan had arranged it. Satan does that all the time. He put Paul in the Philippian jail, and the jailer and his whole family were saved. He put Jesus on a cross, and what happened? Jesus redeemed the world. Satan doesn’t really know what he’s getting into. And God is sovereign.

Peter and John got into this thing, and they just took their suffering. They didn’t hassle. There was no fighting, running, hiding behind a portico, or anything like that. They moved ahead in confidence that this was God’s opportunity.

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:8), preached the name of Jesus Christ and closed with an invitation in classic evangelistic style. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (v. 12).

Not Out of Order

Picture Peter standing in the hall of hewn stone near the temple. The whole Sanhedrin was sitting there, including Caiaphas, who was positioned behind them in the high priest’s chair. Peter was preaching Jesus! And he was not out of order. They had asked him by what name he had healed that lame man by the Gate Beautiful, and he was only answering them honestly.

Then the suffering got worse.

The authorities commanded Peter and John not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:18). Peter and John answered, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge” (v. 19). That was a question the Sanhedrin had a hard time answering because they fancied themselves religious and said they believed in God. If they said, “You ought to obey us instead of God,” it would have plainly put them at odds with God. If they said, “You ought to obey God, not us,” that would have also put them at odds with God and exonerated the disciples. Peter had stumped them.

The authorities gave Peter and John a lecture and further threatened them. They couldn’t figure out any way to punish them because they were afraid of the people, so they let them go.

Peter and John ran back to the assembly of Christians, and they all had a glorious time praising God. Then they prayed. They did not say, “God, protect us; they are after us.”

They prayed, “Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence” (Acts 4:29).

They did not say, “Help us.” They said, “Empower us and send us back again!”

“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness” (v. 31).

What does the next verse say? “And the congregation of those who believed …” (v. 32). They had results! They went out and turned that town upside down.

It was a beautiful thing, you see, because they submitted themselves to suffering. They confronted their world boldly; they did not back down. They did not sneak out or get into “gospel blimp” tactics. They were not trying to slip the gospel into somebody’s hip pocket. They confronted the world head-on with the claims of Christ, in love, and they let the chips fly. Do you know what happened? They got opportunities they never could have had otherwise, and God gave them more boldness than ever.

One of the problems of evangelism today is that Christians are not willing to stand nose to nose with the world and tell it like it is concerning Jesus Christ. The gospel is emasculated to accommodate everybody’s prejudice. We need boldness. It is sad that the boldness of Peter and John is far from what most of us experience in our lives. I pray to God that He will give us more boldness.

Confronting the Militants

On one occasion, I was invited to speak at a particular college, with fifteen to twenty thousand students, in Los Angeles. I was asked to speak on the philosophical basis for Christianity. Many people were there, including a radical, militantly anti-Christian faction of students. And they came to listen to what I had to say.

Sometimes when you preach, you just feel the power of God going through you. It is as though you are standing there but God is doing everything. God gave me clear thinking and a fluid voice. The auditorium was dead quiet, and I was ready for tomatoes and eggs. For one hour, I developed the philosophical basis for Christianity. The last ten minutes I spent proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

When I was done, the militant organization demanded that I be banned from the campus permanently. I began to get obscene letters in the mail and threats against my life and family. They also said they were going to blow up my church on some Sunday morning. I began to get vulgar and threatening telephone calls at two and three o’clock in the morning.

For the second time in my life I began to realize what it is to confront the world and to find the hostility that is meant for Jesus coming to me. I cannot say that I have ever had a more exhilarating or thrilling experience than in those days. (And they are still going on.) I confronted the world with boldness in the power of the Spirit of God, and things happened!

I could have stayed away from that campus that day for fear that it would wipe out my ministry or endanger my life. But I went. A student came up to me after the meeting, while we were still there and the rumbles were still going on, and said to me, “Could I come and talk with you?”

A week after our talk, he came to my office, sat down, and said, “What you said made sense, and I want to know Jesus Christ.” He is a brother in Christ now, and his salvation was an outcome of my going into that inferno. And he has already reproduced himself by leading others to Christ.

You may say, “MacArthur, you didn’t have to get yourself in hot water.”

Oh yes, I did. I am expendable for the sake of one young man! If God wanted me even to lose my life, I should willingly lose it for His sake. That was Paul’s attitude. Paul said that he gloried in infirmity, tribulation, necessity, even in persecution, because when he was persecuted, people got saved, and that is good.

A Christian is expendable. You may not get physical flak but may suffer intellectual persecution instead. You may be quietly ostracized from society. You may be politely shunned at the watercooler. People may take a “there goes the weirdo” attitude, which causes a deflated-ego problem. Every person wants so much to be accepted. But you cannot be accepted by the world and be effective for the Lord.

I am not a masochist. I take no pleasure in being abused, spiritually or otherwise, and I am not talking about going around saying, “Oh poor me. I am persecuted. Aren’t I spiritual?” God help us, no. But I am talking about a willingness to be bold, a willingness to face the world and let the chips fly. Don’t ever water down the gospel. If the truth offends, then let it offend. People have been living their whole lives in offense to God; let them be offended for a while.

Consider Paul’s words in his letter to the Philippians: “But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all” (Phil. 2:17). What did Paul mean? If I have to die as a sacrifice for you to be saved, that is good. If I have to offer my life as a sacrifice for your joy, I love it.

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul rejoiced about his suffering. You may think Paul was out of his mind. But he wasn’t. He said, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col. 1:24). What did he mean? The world would like to get at Jesus. They do not persecute Christians because they dislike them; they persecute Christians because they dislike Jesus. They can’t get at Him because He is in heaven, so they get at you and me.

Paul said that he was enduring the suffering that was meant for Jesus; he was filling up in his body the afflictions of Jesus. The world is not done killing Jesus. Paul stood in the world’s way so that he would get to die for the One who had died for him. In the same way, we should count it a joy to stand and take the arrows meant for Jesus.

Paul said, “I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus” (Gal. 6:17). These scars over here—these were not for me. They were for Jesus, but I took them for Him! Are you willing to suffer for Jesus, who suffered for you? Are you willing to confront the world? That is the will of God.