Perseverance

[May 2018]

Winston Churchill was invited to give the graduation speech at his old school and spoke briefly saying: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense."

On Saturday I was at the quarterly meetings of our organisation At the beginning of the meeting we heard an excellent devotion. It was about perseverance. This is a subject which is very much important to me, and although I am not going to take his points into my devotion this morning as he talked in particular about the perseverance of Christian missionaries in apparently hopeless and fruitless ministry situations for years – but how God honoured the faithfulness of those missionaries many years later, sometimes after they had died. Alison, whom some of you will know, was in the room with us and she was too modest to comment on the fact that she and others in her team had spent decades working in a moslem country without seeing single person from the local population becoming Christian even though they treated thousands of local women. And some people might write that off as a failure. But I believe that the massive amount of prayer and Christian love that went into the ministry and daily life will bear fruit in eternity because they persevered and followed God’s calling, as God laid a spiritual foundation for the future in that country.

But I would like to pick up on the general theme of perseverance and endurance in the Christian life. It is an essential feature of the normal Christian life. It is present in the parable of The Sower in the Gospels. As you know, it tells of the sower who went out to sow and some seed fell among thorns, some seeds fell on the path, some seeds fell on rocky ground and some seed fell on good soil.

The good seed was not gobbled up immediately by birds; it was not swamped by thorns of material success and riches; it was not burned out by the heat of persecution and trouble. The seed that fell on good soil was the seed that persevered.

Perseverance in the Christian life is needed in all areas. That someone remains an openly confessing Christian for the rest of their lives is important proof of the real Christian life. As Jesus says: “He who endures to the end will be saved”. By implication I think I am free to add that those who give up on their faith will not be saved.

Where does that leave us this morning in our lives and ministry here at this college and beyond?

·     The perseverance referred to in the New Testament is more than remaining an official Christian, but also there is the call to persevere in prayer [Eph 6:18] as part of our spiritual warfare.

·      We are to persevere in doing good according to James [Jas 1:25].

·       Rom 5:3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us – perseverance does us good spiritually.

·      It is a spiritual truth that God blesses the ministry of someone who endures in difficulty [2 Tim 2:10].

·      The first apostles endured in their Christian life because they had seen the Lord Himself persevere to the very end in obedience to the Father at the cross – and receive his reward.

·      Endurance and perseverance cannot omit the reference to “He who conquers …” in Rev chh2-3. Those who conquer are those who:

o   Resist attractive false teaching against the crowd.

o   Remain faithful in persecution.

o   Resist immorality.

As students here I don’t think you’re facing an immediate issue of persecution – but other matters maybe on your mind. Don’t give up. You will need to persevere with struggling sending churches, and boring churches here, persevere with learning English, persevere with reading set texts, with assignments that need to be completed. Start here as you intend to continue.

If you are heading to Christian work of any kind you’ll need to be someone who perseveres, because along with the joys, which are many, there will be the need to persevere on the harder days. I spent yesterday with Paul and Pam Allen-Baines who are the first students I taught at this college and I’m delighted to say but they have persevered in Christian work and seeing lives changed in their ministry first with the army as a chaplain and then in a local church in Auckland which they are pastoring. They have persevered in spite of a lot of opposition and unexplained spiritual attacks.

Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. He persevered

 Lk 9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.

Is 50:7 But the Lord God helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame.