Romanian Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) was a great twentieth-century scholar of religious history and religious experience. He is perhaps best known for his work on seeking to identify universal patterns in human history and experience, and for his theory of hierophanies, or “manifestations of the sacred.”
For Eliade, persons and objects “acquire their reality, their identity, only to the extent of their participation in a transcendent reality.”[1] Not everything he proposed has stood the test of time, and he was an advocate of fascism, which has delivered and continues to deliver enormous harm to human communities. But for many of us, especially those who encounter deep suffering and trauma, one of Eliade’s key insights offers wisdom and solace:
Life is not possible without an opening toward the transcendent; in other words, human beings cannot live in chaos. Once contact with the transcendent is lost, existence in the world ceases to be possible.[2]
When you’re down and out, with the world on your back, deserted by fine-weather friends, and everything looks bleak, and the lights are going out, “an opening toward the transcendent” means so much.
The Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings (the Hebrew Scriptures) point to “the transcendent” and encourage a posture of openness toward it in human experience. The teaching of Jesus about the coming of the kingdom of God is also about openness toward “the transcendent.” In the kindness of God, Jesus embodies the transcendent, making it tangible to us. As the great Reformed theologian John Calvin reminds us, Jesus, the Son of God, becomes our brother on earth, and lifts us up to heaven by the ladder of his flesh.[3]
We may embrace the message and mission of Jesus, and join his followers, and begin to walk in the Way of Jesus as he opens to us the wonders of the transcendent reality that is the kingdom of God. But there are some who despise the transcendent, and want it declared off-limits, and do all in their power to silence the Scriptures and manacle the mission of God. Such people are the opposite of those described as “blessed” in the Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-10), and their actions are described in Matthew 5:10-11. They “persecute” God’s people.
One test of true discipleship is that we attract persecution. And for that, we are blessed by God: the kingdom of heaven is ours!
Notice that the promises in Beatitudes 1 and 8 (vv. 3, 10) are in the present tense, while Beatitudes 2-7 are future tense. These intentional present-tense promises book-end the Beatitudes. In these two Beatitudes, “the kingdom’s future is so strong that it already impacts the present with joyous anticipation.”[4] It is also true that persecution often has a net positive effect on Christian witness, resilience and church growth. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church (2 Tim 3:10-12).
How, then, can we persevere in Christian mission in the face of potential or actual persecution? Here are ten principles to guide us:
1. Trust that God is in control. Think of the story of Joseph (Gen 37-50). Through various trials, his innocent suffering appeared unjust and meaningless. Yet, later in life, Joseph says to his brothers, “You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result – the survival of many people” (Gen 50:20).
In the New Testament, Paul teaches that “all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12). We should expect suffering for the sake of righteousness, and maintain our trust in God’s wisdom, mercy and faithfulness.
2. Let Scripture anchor your soul. Saturate your mind with the Word of God. Trust God’s promises. Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you. Catch a glimpse of the risen Christ who passed through suffering into glory, and who knows and cares for you.
Your circumstances may be uncertain, your faith small, and your path lonely, but the words of Psalm 119:105 are true and faith-sustaining: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
3. Pray without ceasing (1 Th 5:17). Prayer is not a last resort: it is your lifeline. It’s not mere therapy: it changes the future. Paul understood the power of prayer, and he says to all the faithful, “Devote yourselves to prayer, stay alert in it with thanksgiving” (Col 4:2).
In difficult times, when all other lights fail, we pray, and God grants us his peace, refreshes our perspective, and strengthens our endurance. As we pray, we rest on God’s nature and character, our faith is restored, hope rises, and our love for God and others deepens.
4. Remember that Jesus too was persecuted. Jesus was sidelined and excluded by powerful people. He was ostracised, criticised, misunderstood, belittled, shamed and ignored by many. He was arrested, mocked, beaten, and crucified. He knows your situation. He understands your pain. You are not alone.
You walk the path your Master has walked. Jesus said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (Jn 15:18).
5. Remember that Jesus walks beside you. God does not ask you to endure persecution by sheer willpower. God supplies sustaining grace. His Son indwells you as you abide in him, and the Spirit of God strengthens your inner being.
Jesus says to you, as he said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). His presence and grace may not take away the trial, but they carry you through it. The promise Jesus gave his apprentices in Matthew 28:20 is for us too: “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
6. Know that your work for Christ is not in vain. As you walk in the way of Jesus, you are in partnership with Almighty God. Your labour in word and deed shines light in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.
Remember the words of Jesus to his apprentices: “You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10:22).
7. Draw strength from your community of faith. Isolation weakens faith and fosters fear and despair, but fellowship fuels mission. Stand together with the church, the body of Christ, the hope of the world. Pray together, sing together, plan and serve together, laugh and cry together.
Hebrews 10:24f says, “Let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works … encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
8. Remember the “cloud of witnesses.” Heb 12:1 teaches that we are surrounded by a large “cloud of witnesses,” and urges us to “lay aside every hindrance and … run with endurance the race before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith.”
You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last. From Stephen (Acts 7) to modern martyrs, countless faithful servants of God have stood firm. Their lives continue to speak. Your life does too. Press on.
9. Forgive your enemies. Don’t let anger or bitterness take root in your soul and steal away the good that God has for you to do. Don’t let the bad behaviour of others dictate your response to them.
On the cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). Forgiveness is transformative. It is the fruit of self-denial and the seed of reconciliation. It frees you to pursue your God-given destiny, and reflects the example of Jesus.
10. Know that justice will prevail. What feels crushing and demoralising and profoundly unfair now will result in a crown of glory when Jesus returns. Don’t lose sight of the finish line.
God sees every injustice. A day is coming when God will set all things right. “For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17).
In closing, recall the quotation I mentioned earlier by Mircea Eliade: “Life is not possible without an opening toward the transcendent.” So let us remain open toward the transcendent! Let us know and love God, follow Jesus, walk in the Spirit, and serve together as we pursue the mission of God, prepared for persecution when and where it arises, assured that God is with us.
Sermon 816 copyright © 2025 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday 6 July 2025. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
References
[1] Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1959), 5.
[2] Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1959), 34, my emphasis.
[3] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), III.1.1.
[4] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary. Volume 1: The Christbook: Matthew 1-12 (revised and expanded edition; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 181.
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