FBC Morning Light – March 31, 2023

Well, a good Friday to you and the last day of March, the end of the first quarter of 2023. I'm glad to see that first quarter end. That means winter is behind us, spring is before us, though we've got some April showers that are going to bring us some May flowers we trust.

But anyway, well, today we're reading in Deuteronomy 25 and 6, Luke 21 and the 65th Psalm. I'm going to focus on a verse in Luke 21 where Jesus has been prophesying of persecution to come. He's talking about things during the end of the age, and he says there's going to be great earthquakes and famines and so forth, but he says, before all these things they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons.

You will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake, but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. He says, you'll be betrayed by parents and brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake.

But then he says this, not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience, or your endurance, possess your souls. By your endurance, possess your souls. What does he mean by that? Is Jesus saying that if you are faithful and endure through the persecution that you will indeed have salvation?

If you don't, then your salvation will be lost. It's only in enduring persecution that you can be glorified and ultimately saved. What does he mean by this? What helps me understand what Jesus is saying is the experience of Thomas Cranmer.

Does that name ring a bell? Thomas Cranmer from English history. He was instrumental in bringing about the Anglican Church, the Church of England, the breaking away from Roman Catholicism, and there are a lot of things we can criticize him about.

Nevertheless, he did want to establish the Protestant faith in England, as Archbishop of the Church of England. He wanted to do that. A lot of reforms were established under Cranmer's influence. Mary, the Queen of Scots, came to the throne of England, and she was a staunch Roman Catholic, and she put an absolute end to the efforts of Cranmer in Protestantism.

She had Cranmer arrested and put in prison, along with Hugh Latimer and Francis Ridley, and they all faced the potential of being burned at the stake. Thomas Cranmer watched as Latimer and Ridley were burned at the stake, and that was to be his fate too, except for the fact that he decided to recant.

He decided to turn away from his Protestant justification by faith alone, by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone affirmations, and uphold instead Roman Catholicism. It was a terrible betrayal, and Cranmer knew it.

Cranmer's soul was in total disarray and total unrest. The only reason that he signed a recantation letter was to save his life, his body, to prevent his own death. He had seen the excruciating deaths of others, and he determined that it was not going to be his fate.

But in signing that recantation, he also signed away rest for his soul. He did not possess his soul. The guilt of what he had done so plagued him that he was brought before the council, before the throne, and when he did so, he publicly denounced once again his recantation.

He denounced it completely and disavowed it, which meant that he was going to go to the stake. He was going to be burned at the stake. When he was lashed to the stake, the one act he did as a final act of defiance against those who were persecuting him was in silence to reach out his offending hand and let the flames burn that offending hand first.

Going back to what Jesus said, by your endurance possess your souls. I think what he's saying here is simply this. If you endure the persecution faithfully, you don't recant your faith, you will find rest in your soul.

You will go to the stake in peace, knowing that you're doing the right thing, your faith is solid, and God is pleased by your faithfulness. But if instead you allow the persecution to wear you down and you turn away from the Lord and you deny him, then you may save your life, but you're not really gaining it.

You're instead condemning yourself to a soul of unrest until you recant from your recantation. In patience, endurance, possess your souls. Don't allow the belittling of the world, the persecution of society against biblical Christian beliefs, don't allow that to get you down and to cause you to turn away.

Be faithful, be faithful, be faithful to the end, even if it means our lives. Our Father and our God, we thank you for this challenge today, and I pray that you would help us to be faithful in the little things and in the big things, faithful to the end.

We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Listen, I hope you have a good rest of your Friday, I hope your month of April gets off to a great start, celebrating April Fool's Day tomorrow perhaps, playing a few tricks on your loved ones, well, I don't know about that.

But anyway, gather with us on the Lord's Day, Palm Sunday, this coming Lord's Day, we'll be meeting together at 9 .30 for Bible study time, looking at the book of James, and then at the 10 .30 hour for the worship service together.

Hope you can join us. Otherwise, have a great weekend. May the Lord bless you. Good day.