DAY 15, PART 2 THREE MARTYRDOMS: RED, GREEN & WHITE BY DICK BROGDEN | SUDAN “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” JOHN 12: 24 Congratulations on making it halfway through the Live Dead challenge! Before you continue with the second half, I would like to ask you to consider dying for Jesus in three specific ways. Church history has passed down to us three essential martyrdoms. Martyr is a Greek word, and it simply means witness. The Three Martyrdoms, therefore, are three ways we can bear witness to Christ, three ways we can live dead. THE RED MARTYRDOM The Red Martyrdom is the most famous and the least common. We call it Red because it refers literally to dying for Jesus, to blood being spilled. The Red Martyrdom is following Jesus to physical death for your faith. Church tradition suggests to us that the Apostle Peter moved to Rome and began to pastor the Christian community there. According to one account, persecution was so fierce that Christians began to flee the city. Peter too tried to flee Rome and the pressure, but on the way out of Rome Peter encountered Jesus. Jesus was heading against the flow, going back into the city. Surprised, Peter asked Him, “Quo Vadis Dominae?” Where are you going, Lord? Jesus said, “Back into the city to die again for the flock that you desert.” Ashamed, Peter turned on his heel, returned to Rome and there witnessed in red to Jesus by being crucified upside down— upside down, according to the tradition, because he did not feel worthy to be crucified in the same manner as Christ. Followers of Jesus through the centuries have asked the same question. “Quo Vadis Dominae? Quo Vadis?” Where are you going, Lord? Where are you going? The answer of Jesus has not changed. Jesus is still going to the cross and if we are His servants, we must follow Him there. It has never been an unusual thing to die for Jesus— literally. It has happened all through history. It started with Steven and James and Paul, who in an ironic twist also witnessed in red. In the Roman Colosseum, in the Arabian Desert, in Ecuadorian jungles, in Communist jails, or islands of the Pacific— for 2,000 years men and women, old and young, have shed their blood for Jesus. John Piper tells the story of John Patton. In the mid-1800s, a ship took two missionaries to the New Hebrides, present-day Vanuatu. The missionaries went ashore and while the crew of the boat watched, the missionaries were captured by cannibals and eaten. Twelve years later in England, Patton felt the call of God to take the gospel to the New Hebrides. An elderly gentleman in the church— I believe his name was Dixon—rebuked him: “You can’t go to the New Hebrides. You’ll be eaten by cannibals!” Patton replied: “Mr. Dixon, your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms. What does it matter then if you are eaten by worms and I by cannibals? For in the day of resurrection, mine will be much more glorious!” We all die. What does it matter how? The Red Martyrdom is not to be sought, neither is it to be feared. Those who die for Christ should be considered neither heroic nor foolish. Dying for Jesus is part of the normal Christian life. Martin Luther King Jr. said this: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.” All die. Death is so normal. We have one life to live; we have one death to die. If we can glorify Christ by Red Martyrdom, why not? It is how He died. It is where and how He went. Would it not be an honor if He allows us to go the same way? Would it not be a privilege, if in death our witness is red? If by falling to the ground and dying much fruit results, it is indeed a double victory. THE GREEN MARTYRDOM In about 350 A.D., a young Romanized English boy was stolen from his country. Irish pirates threw him into a leather-covered boat, bundled him across the water, and made him a slave in Ireland. Some years later Patrick escaped and through a process of time returned to Ireland as a missionary. By this time Patrick was elderly— some think he was 72—and he gave the rest of his life to evangelize the Irish, understanding and loving them as few before or since. By the time Patrick died, much of Ireland was Christian. Patrick and his team did such an exceptional job of preaching the gospel that Christians almost lamented that they could not die for Jesus anymore. There was little opportunity for Red Martyrdom among the fifth-century Celts. So the Irish, being the Irish, innovated. They developed the Green Martyrdom. The Irish established missional monasteries wherever they went. These monasteries were not like the Egyptian monasteries of the Desert Fathers, who were trying to get away from the world. These monasteries were established to take the gospel to the world by interaction. This is how it worked: Patrick and his team would go to a new location, settle in, and build houses in a ring. These houses would have a fence around them and inside the compound would be a chapel, a workshop, a dining hall, a guest lodge, and a scriptorium— a place where the monks would make copies of the Scriptures and classical literature. These Irish were the most friendly of folk. They planted flowers and gardens, built roads and bridges, brewed ale, and shared it liberally. Their highs were high and their lows were low, and they shared life with all. A monk would station himself at the gate of the monastery and wait for travelers or guests . As soon as a traveler would come, the monk would greet him, smile, welcome him— kind of like a Wal-Mart greeter—and take the traveler right to the abbot. The abbot would welcome him again, pray for him, inquire of his news and needs, and then assign him to another monk. This monk would take him to the dining hall, feed him, find him a bed in the guesthouse, and bring the traveler to prayers. Before the guest knew what was happening, he had three new friends and had been absorbed into the life of the community. He ate their food, sang their songs, slept in their houses, shared their chores and humor, and felt immediately that he belonged. And they did belong! This was the genius of Patrick and the Irish. This was the Celtic way of evangelism. As a team, the Irish welcomed the lost to belong before they asked for a change in belief. The Romans— and most of us today—do it the other way around. We present propositional truth and ask Muslims to agree to it, but we make no provision for community, we create no space for belonging. Hundreds of Muslims have come to Christ in Sudan, yet, sadly, very few have remained. They were rejected by one community on their profession of faith but found no new community to embrace them. The Celtic way of evangelism put belonging ahead of believing, never sacrificing the urgency of proclamation, and in so doing Christianity spread joyously among the peoples of Ireland and Scotland. The picture painted above sounds kind of rosy— or at least green. Why call it martyrdom? Was the Green Martyrdom, the Green Witness, all joy and celebration? No. It is called martyrdom because it still involved death— a death to self within community. The theory of team—missionary team, body of Christ, working together—sounds wonderful. Everybody today wants to be part of community, a team, a family, and rightly so. But it does not take you very long in team or community to realize that theory and reality are two very different things. Missionary teams splinter, like Paul and Barnabas. Perhaps the greatest pain in missions is that received by the hands and tongues of friends. If the Red Martyrdom involves laying down your life for Jesus, the Green Martyrdom requires the laying down of your will for one another. And all who have served in team among unreached people will tell you: The Green Martyrdom is so much harder. The Live Dead initiative for church planting among unreached people is based on a team approach: four to 12 people committed to contextual ministry, long-term service in the local language, living within walking distance of each other, meeting three times a week (for prayer, for accountability, and for worship, fellowship, and teaching), and ministering together. These teams will vary in size and intensity, but one thing will never lack: the conflict of wills, opinions, and views among those who serve together. I ask you to be a Green Martyr. I ask you to die to your opinions or views. I ask you to put your will to death. Very few of us will be Red Martyrs. Every one of us has multiple opportunities every day to be a Green Martyr. Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to reveal His control of us by how often we are willing to cede our will and way to others. Let’s go Green! Let’s work in teams to plant churches among unreached people. THE WHITE MARTYRDOM Over time, something began to gnaw at the spirits of the Green Martyrs. The monasteries were booming and blooming. Ireland is like Central Africa: everything grows. Drop your cell phone in the ground in Rwanda, and a cell phone tower will probably sprout. Life was good in Ireland, food was plentiful, and friends did abound. But something was missing. To be content, satiated, and surrounded by friends and family was, strangely, not enough. There had to be something more in the world. There had to be higher purpose than living well, raising and educating children so they could live well, that they could do the same for their children. There had to be greater meaning in life. There had to be more than an endless cycle of prosperity. And of course there was and there is . The Good Shepherd is not content to stay with the 99 safe if even just one is lost. The missing martyrdom was a witness of Christ to the whole world. Columcille was a disciple of Patrick. He was commissioned to take the gospel to northern England and would do so by establishing a missional monastery at a cross-section of the sea. He would leave Ireland and sail in his leather -covered boat to the Isle of Iona. Thomas Cahill writes: “As [Columcille] sailed off that morning, he was doing the hardest thing an Irishman could do, a much harder thing than giving up his life: He was leaving Ireland. If the Green Martyrdom had failed, here was a martyrdom that was surely equal of the Red; and henceforth, all who followed Columcille’s lead were called to the White Martyrdom, they who sailed into the white sky of morning, into the unknown, never to return.” We can witness to Jesus by giving our physical lives. We must witness to Christ by following Him with surrendered wills. But there is another witness He demands of us: the White Martyrdom of taking His gospel to the ends of the earth. In a sermon on the White Witness of Adoniram Judson, John Piper makes these remarks: “Life is fleeting. In a very short time, we will all give an account before Jesus Christ, not only as to how well we have fulfilled our vocations, but how well we have obeyed the command to make disciples of all nations. “Many of the peoples of the world are without any indigenous Christian movement today. Christ is not enthroned there, His grace is unknown there, and people are perishing with no access to the gospel. Most of these hopeless peoples do not want followers of Jesus to come. “At least they think they don’t. They are hostile to Christian missions. Today this is the final frontier. And the Lord still says, ‘Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.’ ‘[ S] ome of you they will put to death . You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish’ (Matthew 10: 16; Luke 21: 16–18). “Are you sure that God wants you to keep doing what you are doing? For most of you, He probably does. Your calling is radical obedience for the glory of Christ right where you are. But for many of you … God wants to loosen your roots and plant you in another place. “Some of you He is calling to fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, to fall like a grain of wheat into some distant ground and die, to hate your life in this world and so to keep it forever and bear much fruit.” Judson himself wrote to missionary candidates in 1832: “Bear in mind, that a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years after leaving their native land. Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps. The question is not whether we will die, but whether we will die in a way that bears much fruit.” God may be calling you to a Red death. That decision is in His hands. We are all called to die Green. What is desperately needed now among the unreached of the world is the White Witness whether you are red, yellow, black, or white. As you continue with the Live Dead challenge, would you daily listen to the Lord of the Harvest? He may be asking the White Martyrdom
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 11:45:26 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015