Key Bible Passage(s):

Matthew 5; Matthew 10

Tier 1:

Jesus has a clear understanding from the beginning of His ministry (likely earlier) that His mission included His being rejected, betrayed, handed over to suffering in His Passion and death on the cross.

And He had an equally clear understanding that His disciples would have to navigate the same experiences. Indeed, it was one of the first things He taught, and it reamins a clear and present theme throughout His ministry.

Tier 2:

Suffering, and even the prospect of suffering, for the sake of the Gospel is a dangerous phenomenon. But not for the reasons that we might expect. The greatest danger Jesus anticipates is not the death of the disciples so much as their failure to stand firm in the face of opposition and hostility. The Father is sovereign over the details of our lives, but this doesn’t mean we will avoid suffering, but rather that He will ensure our faithfulness in the midst of persecution.

Tier 3:

As we engage with Jesus’ teaching on suffering and persecution we find that time and again He links our faithfulness to the propsect of rewards in heaven. This tends ot be problematic for some Christians who work from the faulty assumption that grace means that God should treat everyone equally… or if people know they aren’t oriented to live as Christ teaches. Either way, this is a theme we’ll encounter a number of times throughout this term, and we beging to make sense of it in this session.

Persecution is one of the natural consequences of living the Christian life. It is to the Christian what “growing pains” are to the growing child. No pain, no development. No suffering, no glory. No struggle, no victory. No persecution, no reward.

Billy Graham

Groups Discussion:

(picking up on the Tson video we watched for homework)

Why does God choose some Christians to die? (opening question). How would you answer the question of what purposes God might have for ordaining His Church to be persecuted, and for His children to be martyred?

Tson cites Martyn Lloyd Jones as saying: ‘Make sovereignty of God the main pillar of your theology’? Do you agree? Do you agree with Tson’s application: ‘God is so much in command that He always uses all His enemies for our good’?

‘The most dangerous people on the planet are those who are not afraid to die’. How can we overcome our instinct for self-preservation, so that we would be willing to suffer and sacrifice for the cause of the Gospel and the good of the Church?

and later in the session:

How do you feel at the end of Matt.10?  What questions, concerns does this raise for you?  What excites you? What disturbs you?

Is Jesus exaggerating in v.22? 

What does Jesus teach us here about the relative importance of family and Church (see vv.21 & 34-37)?

When someone says they are a Christian, but that it doesn’t affect how they do their job, their policy decisions, or the way they go about fulfilling their public office, what should we make of it?

Is Jesus suggesting we can lose our salvation if we don’t stand firm to the end (v.23), or if we disown Him before others (v.32)?

and if you do tier 3:

What do you make of the idea of ‘rewards’? What do you think Jesus is driving at?

Do you think people will be rewarded differently? Can you think of any passages that back up your answer?

If people can be rewarded differently, on what basis would that happen?

Why do you think Jesus talks about rewards so often I the context of suffering and persecution?

Homework:

Read and Reflect on I Peter ahead of next session.

Let me know if you would be willing to talk about your experience of DTP from the front of Church. As we prepare to start a second cycle, it would be great if folk could get a vision of the difference DTP can make!

Watch this video of a talk given by Josef Tson. We will begin our next session discussion what he says.