Becoming an Everyday Martyr for Jesus

This is the text of a message I preached at Roswell Alliance Church in Roswell, GA. Click on the link for the online service if you prefer to watch or listen. The sermon begins at about the 17th minute.

Video: 33 minutes

Reading time: 8 minutes

https://www.facebook.com/roswellalliancechurchhomeforeveryone/videos/1409555649795256

We tend to think of martyrs as heroes. We admire someone who has the courage to stand for their convictions, even to the point of dying for them. Among the classics is Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

I was surprised to learn that only recently has a day been designated to commemorate martyrs. Several organizations united to recognize June 29 as the Day of the Christian Martyr. The first was in 2019, and they chose June 29 because it is the traditional anniversary of Paul’s execution.

Who can forget the great heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11?

We are coming up on Pentecost and Acts 1:8 has me thinking about martyrs because the word witness is our translation of the Greek word martus. The word occurs 24 times in the New Testament, mainly for people who witnessed events firsthand. Jesus used it in this sense in Luke 24, when He said the disciples had witnessed His suffering, His resurrection, and Him preaching repentance.

They were eyewitnesses.

But martus has come to mean someone whose death bears witness to the conviction of their faith. Stephen was the first martyr, bearing witness to Jesus even while he was dying.

Certainly many become martyrs in death, like Stephen and all of The Twelve, except John. But the more I study this passage, the more I see it as God’s answer to the call of Jesus, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 8:34).

Jesus calls us to become martyrs. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Give your life to me, and be prepared to give your life for me.

In the words of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, “I die daily.”

Jesus calls us to become an everyday martyr for Him.

This takes strength we don’t have. Jesus said this is why His followers need the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. “When the Holy Spirit comes, you shall receive power, and you shall be witnesses.”

Let’s see why.

Scripture, and our experience, show that God commands the impossible.

He said to Abraham: Become a father. But he and Sarah were too old.

Sacrifice your son Isaac. Abraham wrestled with this for three days, trying to understand how this would serve the promise of having innumerable descendants.

God said to Israel: Come out of Egypt. But Pharaoh would not let them go.

Possess Canaan. But the people are giants, and we are grasshoppers.

God commanded impossible things, yet

• Abraham became a father;
• God provided a sacrifice;
• Israel came out of Egypt;
• Israel possessed the land.

A truth emerges from this:

God’s commands are also promises.

His command is His promise that that I can.

Paul expressed it this way: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Jesus put it another way, “Without me, you can do nothing.”

Through the strength of Christ, I can do whatever God tells me. In His command is the promise of strength to obey.

Now, there is a command even greater than these, which makes it the most impossible.

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

This is impossible because we are not wholehearted. As Moses said to the Israelites,

“You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land—the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day” (Deuteronomy 29:2-4).

But remember, God’s commands are also promises. When He commands, “Love me with all of your heart” there is also His promise: “You shall love me with all your heart. I will make it possible.”

God spells out His promise directly.

“The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6).

God commands the impossible, but promises to do the impossible in and through us.

We obey, but not in our own strength. It takes the strength of God to do the work of God.

All of this is important for us because Jesus also gives us an impossible command.

“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 8:34).

Deny yourself…take up your cross.  Jesus is saying in essence,

Die to the life you have had without me, and you shall live along with me. Because I live, you will live also.

How I wish my old way of doing things would die. But can that be? This is where the promise answers the command.

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me.”

It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to die to the life I had without Jesus.

Each of us is in a spiritual battle. Paul tells us, “For what the flesh wants is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, and so you do not do what you want to do” (Galatians 5:17).

I am torn between my old habits and desires and the new desires that Jesus brings into my life. I hear what Paul says, “put off the old, put on the new” and I want to, but I find I can’t.  Old ways don’t roll over and die.

This is why Pentecost is necessary. When the Spirit comes, He meets these strongholds with the power of the living God. The one in the world is great, but “greater is He who is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

These verses now take on new meaning.

“Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10).

“If you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

And this is how they work out in our everyday lives.

Old ways	New ways in Christ
Lying	Tell the truth
Gossip	Refrain. Rather, speak well of each other.
Jealousy	Accept what I have. Be content.
Bear a grudge	Forgive
Cheating	Be honest

There can be no compromise. Put to death lying, jealousy, dishonesty, and the like. Every time we encounter these is an opportunity to be an everyday martyr for Jesus. Paul said, “I die daily.”

I admit, there is a mystery to this. It would be much easier if this were a checklist I could manage. But God does not give us commands and then say, “Go, do it.” We quickly learn the truth of what Jesus said, “Without me, you can do nothing.”

It takes the strength of God to do the work of God. We become witnesses by the power of the Spirit.

When we do the impossible things God lays before us, it is “through Christ, who strengthens me.”

And this is the gift of the Holy Spirit. When He comes, we receive power to be witnesses—to be martyrs, to deny ourselves and take up our cross.

We can learn how to approach these things from someone else who was given an impossible command.

God told Mary: You shall be a mother. She protested, because of its impossibility. “How can this be?” she asked.

God told Mary she would have an early Pentecost. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you…For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:35).

And Mary responded, “Let it be to me according to your word.”

God commands impossible things of us, but Pentecost reminds us He has also kept His promise: By the power of the Holy Spirit God strengthens us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.

This is how we become like Christ.

Let it be for each of us, Lord, according to Your word.