A Biblical Response To Persecution
Pastor Matt Bell
Sermon Summary
Pastor Matt pauses the church’s regular study in Matthew to address the recent assassination of political activist and Christian, Charlie Kirk, framing the tragedy not as a political event but as a spiritual battle between light and darkness. He preaches that Kirk was a modern-day missionary and martyr whose death should awaken the church to the reality of evil. Drawing from the teachings of Jesus and church history, Pastor Matt offers three main points: persecution should be expected by Christians, it is not new (citing the apostles, Stephen, and historical martyrs like Margaret Wilson and Jim Elliot), and it is ultimately not the end because of the hope of resurrection and the subsequent advancement of the gospel. The sermon concludes with an impassioned call for believers to boldly proclaim the gospel in the face of hostility and an invitation for unbelievers to trust in the saving righteousness of Christ.
Sermon Transcript
Introduction and Addressing Charlie Kirk’s Death
It's good to be here this morning, worshiping with you today. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to open to Matthew chapter 5 this morning. We're deviating a little bit from our regularly scheduled sermon series. We are here at the church working our way through Matthew's gospel verse by verse, which is typically what we do here at Christ's King Church. But there are times where we pause that for Christmas and Easter, and we had a series in the summer on the family. And then periodically, there are times where there are certain events that take place that demand, I believe, a biblical framing, a biblical understanding of what's happening. And I believe that the events of the last week certainly rise to that level.
We don't always do this, and I have to confess to you that it's not always obvious what events happen that meet that threshold. It's a judgment call that we as leaders have to make. But as I spoke with our elders this week and asked for their guidance, they unanimously believed that I should address the events that unfolded in Utah and the assassination of a man named Charlie Kirk. In fact, I was scheduled this morning to be preaching in Fredericksburg. You may know that we have a campus there led by Pastor Mike Bell and his wife, Jennifer, and our elders are on a quarterly schedule to be in Fredericksburg to encourage that congregation. I was scheduled to be there, but we thought it would be best if we altered that schedule for this week.
Before we read our text this morning, we're going to be looking at several texts, and the texts are not on the screen this morning, so you're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way. You're gonna have to get your Bible out, or the new-fashioned way, get your iPhone out, and follow along.
A Missionary and a Martyr
Before we get into the text, I want to explain why I think that this topic is worth addressing. Some of you may be wondering why pause the regular schedule and address what happened. And that's a perfectly legitimate question. If you have that question, I want to try to answer it here just briefly. Charlie Kirk was known to many as a political activist. He was known to many as someone who engaged in the realm of politics, and commentary, and reported the news. If all you know about Charlie Kirk is from the news, you might seriously be wondering, why pause to talk about this political pundit?
The reason why is because not only did he engage in the realm of politics, Charlie Kirk was a devout believer in Jesus Christ. He was someone who was unashamedly a Christian, and unashamedly proclaimed the gospel of Jesus. He went to college campuses to debate with people who had other ideas and to engage with them, but all of his ideas that he was engaging with were biblical ideas, lifted straight out of the Bible. In fact, the boldness that he had typifies the boldness that we see in people who are filled with the Spirit of God. He went to these places that were very much against him, and he stood in the midst of crowds that often hated him, and he proclaimed to them the law of God and the gospel, the saving power of Christ.
Now you might not know that. If you just watch what the news says, you would not know that. But if you go online and type in his name, you will not watch very many videos of this man before you come across one where he is sharing about Jesus, about his death, his burial, and his resurrection, and the implications of that for everyone who would hear and listen. Charlie Kirk was someone who took the gospel to the public square and proclaimed it, and called people to repent of their sins and to trust in Christ. In the church, we call that an evangelist. And an evangelist that goes into hostile territory, we call that a missionary. And when someone is killed for their faith and their proclamation of the gospel, in the church, we call that a martyr.
So Charlie Kirk wasn't just a political commentator or a political activist. He was a Christian minister, not ordained by any church, but one who proclaimed the gospel in foreign places as a missionary and was killed for his faith as a martyr. Because one of our brothers was gunned down in our country, we're going to talk about what's going on. That's why we're going to talk about it here this morning.
The Moral Battle of Our Time
Again, if you watch the news, Charlie Kirk will be labeled as a provocateur. He'll be labeled as someone with extreme views. Let me tell you about some of Charlie Kirk's extreme views. He believed that God created the heavens and the earth, so they call him a science denier. He believed that marriage was between a man and a woman, so they label him as a homophobe. He believed there are only two genders, male and female, so they label him a transphobe. He believed that women should not have the right, so-called, to murder their unborn children in their own wombs, and because of that, they called him a misogynist, a woman hater. His extreme views were just vanilla Christianity. Just plain Jane, nothing nuts. Just what you read on the first page of Genesis. And he believed that Jesus died and rose again, that he is seated on a throne as King of kings and Lord of lords. He believed, taught, and preached that all must repent of their sin and turn to Christ.
These are the views that got Charlie Kirk labeled an extreme man. And if you're a Bible-believing Christian, guess what? You hold all those same views as well.
Now, as shocking as it was to watch this godly—not perfect, no, but godly, yes—man gunned down in front of his young wife and children, the images, the video, I don't know if you saw it, it's absolutely shocking. I don't know any other word to describe it. And as shocking as that was, something more shocking still happened. After the moments passed by, and it was pronounced that he did not survive the attack, we saw millions of people in our country—our friends, our family, our neighbors, our coworkers—celebrating, cheering, and applauding the assassination of this man. Millions of people in our city and across this nation said he got what he deserved, said that what happened to him was justified. It's not so shocking to me that there's some lone lunatic out there that would try and do something crazy. What has been absolutely unnerving and eye-opening for me is seeing just how many people thought that was the right thing.
That is a sobering reality. How could it be that millions of minds, millions of souls, watched what we saw this week and celebrated? It's because there is true evil in the world. There is true light and there is true darkness. There is true good, and there is true evil. I know our culture wants to say there's no such thing as right and wrong, no such thing as good and evil, it's all just shades of gray. Friends, this week, we saw there are no shades of gray. This is a black-and-white issue. There is a spiritual warfare, a spiritual battle taking place between light and darkness every single day for the souls of humanity. It has been eye-opening to see just how deep the darkness has gone, how it has captured the hearts of a generation. It is shocking.
Spiritual warfare is real, and it's not a political battle. The problem is that politics, so-called, has swallowed up morality. All of the issues that people say are now political, they're not political issues; they're moral issues. The reason this play is being run on the church—you being told as a Christian that you can't bring your religious views into politics—is because they want to swallow up morality and then advance their dark agenda. That's the bottom line.
Abortion is not a political issue; it's a moral issue. Children in the mother's womb are image-bearers of God. To take the life of the unborn is evil. God detests it. Same-sex marriage is not a political issue; it's a moral issue. Marriage is created by God. Sex is to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife in marriage, for a lifetime. Anything outside of that is a moral issue. The mutilation of confused children, robbing them of their reproduction because they're confused so we chop off their genitalia—that's not a political issue. That's a moral issue.
There is a culture of death that has metastasized into a political movement, but it's a spiritual movement. Millions of our friends, coworkers, and family have had their minds warped with a dark, demonic ideology of death. Murder children? Mutilate children so they can't reproduce? Same-sex attraction is a culture of death because you can't produce life. Now we see in other Western cultures that if you get old and feeble, they just euthanize you. It's a culture of death, and that culture comes straight from the pit of hell.
This is not an issue of left versus right. This is not Republican versus Democrat. Maybe it was that at some point, like in 1970, but we have to wake up. This is light versus darkness. This is good versus evil. This is right versus wrong. These issues animate a generation because they have been indoctrinated with the doctrine of demons. If we can't recognize that, God help us. Many people saw for the first time just how dark things are, not only in the assassination of Charlie Kirk but in the celebration and approval in the aftermath.
If millions of people think that Charlie Kirk should have died for what he believed, hear this: millions of people think you should die because of what you believe. Because they celebrated when he died, they would celebrate if you died. Because you believe the same things. This is not political. This is spiritual.
Point One: Persecution is Not Unexpected
I have three points for us this morning. I want to talk to you about persecution. What we saw on Wednesday was a young man, 31 years of age, who just minutes before he was gunned down, proclaimed the gospel to that crowd. I posted a video of it last night; literally his last words were that Christ is King, He is the Lord of lords, and that you need to repent of your sin and believe in Him. Persecuted for his faith. The only reason he was gunned down, and we have not yet been, is because he was more effective and more bold than we were. That's why he was taken out, because he was swaying the hearts and minds of young people across this nation.
The first point is that persecution is not unexpected. Let's look at Matthew chapter 5, verses 10 through 12.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
We should not be surprised when we, as Christians, are persecuted for the truth. Jesus said it would happen. Jesus said it's coming. You can expect it, and guess what? You are blessed when it happens. When it does, you are laying up for yourself treasure, not on earth, but treasure in heaven. The prophets before us were persecuted, and so also will those who boldly take a stand for the gospel. When evil rears its head, darkness will try to extinguish the light. There will be persecution, and we should not be surprised by it.
Turn with me to John chapter 15. Jesus gives this instruction to his disciples the night before His crucifixion, when He instituted communion, which we partook of this morning. In John 15, verse 18, Jesus says:
"If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."
We have to, as Christians, stop caring about what the people who hate us think about us. Why do we let what they might think stop us from speaking what we know to be the truth? They hate us because they hate Christ. Jesus says in verse 20:
"Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me."
Verse 23:
"Whoever hates me hates my Father also."
This is a God-hating ideology. It is anti-God, anti-family, anti-life, anti-Christ, and it's centered in a hatred for God.
Verse 25:
"But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: 'They hated me without a cause.'"
Verse 26:
"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning."
When we come to Christ and are filled with the Spirit of God, that Spirit isn't just given to us so we can have Holy Ghost goosebumps during worship—which are nice, but that's not the purpose. You have been filled with the Spirit of God to give you power, to give you boldness, to be a witness for Christ.
Continuing in chapter 16, verse 1:
"I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away."
Why would they fall away? Because great persecution was coming.
"They will put you out of the synagogues."
That's being rejected from society; you're not going to be part of the in-crowd.
"Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God."
The person who did this atrocious act thought they were doing the right thing, because we have a whole generation trained that what is evil is good, and what is good is evil. There is a generation filled with passion, believing they are virtuous when in fact they are evil. Only the Word of God and the law of God can expose what is true and what is false.
Jesus warned us about this. This shouldn't be shocking. The reason it's so shocking for us is that for 200-plus years, our nation has run on a certain set of assumptions that everybody just took for granted, and those assumptions were from the Bible. Our nation was founded with the morality of Scripture at its core. There were shared values that you shouldn't gun down innocent people, that murder, theft, adultery, fornication, and homosexuality were wrong. As we have gone further away from those foundations, multiple generations have grown up untethered from that morality, free to do whatever their evil heart devises.
Where is the common sense? Common sense was the common values we shared from the Bible. Without the Word of God as bedrock, we have no more common sense. It turns out it wasn't common; it was divine revelation from God. Our culture is off the rails, speeding headlong over the cliff. The only thing that will stop us from the abyss is if God's people wake up and boldly proclaim the law of God and the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. And when we do that, there's going to be persecution. We must count the cost.
In John 16, verse 33, Jesus said:
"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."
Where can we find true and lasting peace? It's only in Christ. This world is passing away. Everything you see with your eyes is temporary. This life is a vapor. In the world, we will have tribulation. But we should take heart and have our souls anchored to the fact that Christ has overcome the world.
Point Two: Persecution is Not New
Persecution for the church is also not new. It's throughout church history, from its very inception. Flip over a few pages to the book of Acts.
In Acts chapter 4 and 5, Peter and John are arrested, thrown into jail, and eventually beaten. What evil deed did they do? They saw a man begging who could not walk. Peter and John said, "We don't have any money, but in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk." This 40-year-old man, whose health was restored, went leaping through the temple, praising God. A crowd gathered, much like the crowd gathered around Charlie Kirk as he was sharing the gospel. The apostles told the crowd it was by the power of Jesus' name. The authorities arrested them, saying, "You cannot preach in this name."
How did they respond? Acts chapter 5, verse 29, a verse that should be emblazoned on the heart of every Christian:
"But Peter and the apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than men.'"
Look at verse 40:
"And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus."
The apostles eventually suffered martyrdom. Peter was crucified upside down. Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross. James was beheaded. Philip was crucified. Bartholomew was flayed and beheaded. Matthew was stabbed. Thomas was speared. James, the son of Alphaeus, was thrown from the temple and beaten. Thaddeus was killed with arrows. Simon the Zealot was sawn in two. Matthias was stoned and beheaded.
In Acts chapter 7, we see the first Christian martyr wasn't even an apostle; it was a deacon named Stephen. He was so filled with the Spirit and Word of God that they couldn't contend with the wisdom with which he spoke. Because they couldn't beat him in an argument, they stoned him to death in rage.
The apostle Paul, who was there when Stephen was martyred, later endured immense persecution himself. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 25, he details his beatings, stonings, and shipwrecks.
This persecution we are enduring as Christians in this country is not new. During the first 300 years of the church under Roman persecution, many ordinary, everyday Christians faced lions in the Colosseum and were torn to pieces to the cheers of roaring crowds. That same dark demonic spirit that cheered the martyrdom of Christians in Rome has taken root in the hearts and minds of many young people today.
I want to tell you about one ordinary Christian, an 18-year-old Scottish girl named Margaret Wilson. She died on May 11, 1685. She was part of the Scottish Covenanters, people who had the radical idea that Christ was the King of the church, not the King of England. She and an older woman named Margaret McLachlan were sentenced to death because they refused to swear an oath renouncing the Lordship of Christ. They tied them to stakes in the ocean at low tide. They put the older lady out front so Margaret Wilson would have to watch her friend drown, while crowds jeered at her to recant. But this 18-year-old girl said, "I will not deny my Lord. I will go and meet Him face to face. I will close my eyes in this life, and I will open them in glory."
Point Three: Persecution is Not the End
This leads us to our third point: persecution is not the end. I mean this in two ways.
First, we have the hope of the resurrection. When we die, we are ushered into the presence of our Savior. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When we close our eyes in this life, we open them to hear the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Death has been defeated by Jesus when He walked out of the grave, and He promises resurrection life to all who believe. There is a day coming when Christ will return, the graves will be opened, and we will rise with new, resurrected bodies.
Second, persecution is not the end because of the advancement of the gospel. I believe that many people had their eyes opened this last Wednesday. Many who were afraid to be bold for Christ woke up on Thursday saying, "I will be bold for Jesus. I am not going to deny my Lord any longer." I believe a generation is rising up who will advance the gospel with their lives.
The church father Tertullian coined the phrase: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." When a martyrdom takes place, boldness arises. The Bible says the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church. There is no power in hell that can stop the advancement of the gospel because Jesus died, rose again, and put His Spirit inside of you. He is seated on His throne, putting every enemy under His feet, and the very last enemy to be defeated is death.
We are His body, the army of God, but our weapons are not earthly. Paul tells us the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ. This is why Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation." The world wants to shame us into silence, but if we speak up, there is power in the gospel to change lives and turn enemies into apostles.
If the church remains silent and refuses to shine the light, we only invite further darkness. There is a remnant in this nation, but if we hide our light, where is this going? In the 1950s, Jim Elliot and his friends went to preach to the Auca Indians in the jungle. They were warned they would be killed, but they said, "Who will tell them if we don't?" They were speared down, leaving their wives widows. Before his death, Jim Elliot wrote in his diary: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
When the news of their deaths went out, his wife Elisabeth Elliot and others stayed to witness to the very men who killed their husbands. The tribe repented and came to faith in Jesus. That's the power of the gospel. And because of their witness, hundreds of thousands of new missionaries dedicated their lives to preaching the gospel. I believe God is going to raise up an army of young men and women who will be absolutely unashamed to proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
An Invitation to Trust in Christ
I'm going to close today with an opportunity, a call for you to trust in Christ. I think there may be some among us today who do not know where they stand with God. If you were to pass from this life into the next, you don't know whether you would be received into the presence of the Lord. There is an afterlife, and we will live forever in one of two places: in heaven with Jesus, or in hell, tormented for our sins.
Jesus came and died, shedding His blood so our sins could be forgiven. We've all sinned and broken God's law. Jesus suffered the punishment we deserve so we could receive the righteousness He earned through His perfect life. On the day we stand before God, we will either be clothed in the righteousness of Christ—received by faith—or in our own righteousness, which is filthy rags.
If you came in here today trusting in your own self and your own good works to get you into heaven, friend, that is not going to be enough. We must be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Save yourself from this wicked generation. Confess your sins to God. He is merciful, loving, and gracious. He laid His life down to give you salvation as a free gift. Give your life to Jesus.