John Piper was recently asked, “How can American pastors begin to prepare the churches for persecution?” Below is his response:
My answer would be, you should have started a long time ago—like, from your very first sermon when you came to your church. You must teach your people that they are not first Americans but Christians. Christians are aliens and exiles on planet earth. This world does not owe Christians anything. And Christians should expect to suffer.
We should preach these truths even when things are going as well as they can possibly go, because hostility against Christianity is built into the nature of the fallen world. In a sense, I am a little uncomfortable with painting the present moment as extraordinary and terrible, so that it becomes the reason Christians need to be ready to suffer. From the get-go and for fifty years, I want pastors to help Christians see that life is hard and that they are going to suffer. Jesus said, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:20b). This is plain biblical teaching. Therefore, suffering by persecution is not peculiar to America. All over the world over, Christians are suffering persecution.
In preaching
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