Sermon on global mission, the persecuted church, and the Body of Christ — Andy Miller at Sumner Redcliffs Church
A sermon by Andy Miller at Sumner Redcliffs Anglican Church, drawing on Hebrews 12:28–13:6 and Matthew 28:18–20 to explore the church's calling to mission and solidarity with persecuted Christians worldwide.
Summary
Andy Miller, speaking at Sumner Redcliffs Church during Mission Month, introduces Graham and Sandy Gallin, directors of Voice of the Martyrs, as long-standing members of the church family and central figures in a global ministry supporting persecuted Christians. He argues that between 360 and 380 million Christians currently live under persecution, and that the church is called not merely to be aware of this but to actively remember and support them — because, as members of the same body of Christ, forgetting the persecuted is itself a failure of Christian duty. Miller presents two passages of Scripture — the Great Commission from Matthew 28 and the call to worship with holy fear from Hebrews 12–13 — as the theological foundation for both global mission and local acts of love. He highlights specific cases including Susanna Koh, whose husband was abducted in Malaysia in 2017, and Asif Maul, whose Mordecai Ministries intervenes to prevent mob violence against Christians in Pakistan, and invites the congregation to attend an upcoming Voice of the Martyrs conference.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Welcome and Introduction of Graham and Sandy Gallin
Andy Miller: Sandy and Graham Gallin are here, who are the directors of Voice of the Martyrs, and this is their home church. We are so grateful for you as a church family to start with. I don't know that you realise — I met Graham and Sandy some twenty-odd years ago. They have been going around the world reaching people in the most dangerous and hard circumstances, and we are connected with that. We are part of what God is doing. I just want to honour you guys. I think it's so special, the support that we receive from you as a church family — not just financially, but relationally. As a mission organisation, the fact that we're based here is something special as a church. We're like headquarters in a sense of what God is doing with Voice of the Martyrs nationally.
I grew up in a country where Christians face persecution, so this is something very close to my heart. And I want to invite you to come deeper in with us.
Voice of the Martyrs and the Scale of Persecution
Voice of the Martyrs works around the world with Christians that face persecution. There are between 360 and 380 million people that live in places where Christians face persecution. We just heard from Jolene — she is one of those. We heard last week from Liz. In fact, a lot of our mission partners live in places where Christians face persecution. As a ministry, Voice of the Martyrs seeks to empower the church where Christians face persecution, but also to make us aware over here and to be involved.
We have our conference coming up next Saturday, the 15th of August. It's in All Saints Church, Burwood, and it costs $55 with lunch included. You're going to have two awesome guest speakers. Susanna Koh is coming over from Malaysia, and Asif Maul is coming over from the UK — though he is Pakistani. Asif is involved in rescuing Christians in the most dangerous places and placing them as refugees. But not just placing them as refugees — finding them also a place of connection so that they can start diaspora churches and connect in with the body of Christ. Because often when you leave, you can carry a lot of trauma, but God is still using you because you're called to make disciples wherever you go. He's also got a ministry called Mordecai Ministries, and he has managed to intervene to stop persecution happening. I'll tell a little bit more about him in a while.
Susanna Koh is one of the people written about in this book, Hearts of Fire. She and her husband were trained in New Zealand as pastors. A few years ago, her husband was kidnapped and disappeared. Voice of the Martyrs has been supporting her to help her take the government of Malaysia to court. She'll be signing some of these books, which you can get next week when you come to the conference.
The Great Commission — Matthew 28:18–20
Our first passage. Jesus came to his disciples and said:
"I have been given all authority in heaven and earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure that I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
When we look at this passage and we think of "all nations," the modern mission movement thought of going to every country, every nation. But that is a very modern construct. At the time when Jesus was speaking, he's saying all ethnos — every ethnic group, every tribe. And Revelation says every tribe and tongue will worship the Lord.
Today is World Indigenous Day, and we're remembering all the different tribes in the world. If we think about ethnicities and ethnos groups, there are more or less 17,000-plus different ethnic groups in the world, depending on how you measure them. Of these, there are still about 7,000 ethnic groups that are defined as unreached — a population with less than 5% Christian, less than 2% evangelical Christians that are willing to share their faith.
So Jesus calls us to go and make disciples. I used to think of it like a burger — like a sandwich — where Jesus is the bread at the top and the bottom. "All authority has been given to me" and "I will be with you always" — that was Jesus. But going and making disciples was my thing. That's something I had to do. Baptising them — maybe that's the sauce on the burger — baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to obey all I command. I like the word obey, because it's not just teaching them about Jesus, but it's actually knowing and obeying who Jesus is. But I thought that was all something I had to do.
Actually, it's all Jesus, isn't it? With us. Because he works through the body of Christ. And it's interesting, because the revelation of the other passage we talked about — remembering the persecuted — is because we are part of the same body. We are all one body of Christ, and God works through us. And it's not that you go, you have to go make disciples — go, go. It's more like Shrek. Has anybody seen Shrek? "Me, me, pick me, pick me!" Do I get to go? Do I get to be part of this? And it's the same way with remembering the persecuted church. Some people say to me, "Oh, it's too much. It's so sad. It's too much." But we need to put this into perspective. Our God is sovereign.
This is not the great tribulation that people are going through. These are persecutions that Jesus promised. "If they persecute me, they'll persecute you also." Listen to me — Christians that face persecution are not hard done by because they're persecuted. We are promised persecution from the beginning. Paul says to Timothy, anybody that wants to live a godly life will be persecuted. We will go through hardships. Christians who face persecution are hard done by if they're forgotten, because we're not called to forget them. We're called to remember them.
And I believe that as we remember the persecuted church, we will also be inspired to fulfil God's Great Commission. Because every one of these disciples went and risked their lives for their faith. In the book of Acts it says, "Wait until the Holy Spirit comes on you with power, and you will be my witnesses." The word witness is martyros, which is where we get our word martyrs from — the etymology of it. "You will be my martyrs. You will be my witnesses." A witness says what he's seen, what he's heard — in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
The Jigsaw Puzzle — The Body of Christ
This is what the body of Christ is. And it's amazing — here we have a jigsaw puzzle. It is the stained glass window of St. John's Church in Timaru. I was mentioning that I was going to share a message about this some years back, and they said, "Oh, we've got a jigsaw puzzle, would you like to use it?" So they gave it to me. The first time, I gave everybody a piece of the jigsaw puzzle and said, "Hold it." I'll never do that again because I might lose pieces. But this is a bit like what the body of Christ is.
It started in Jerusalem, Judea. It began to spread out into Europe and other places. And now, because we are part of the body of Christ, every single one of us is a piece of the jigsaw. Though we are many, we share in one breath, because we're part of the same body. So I've put it here on purpose so that we will walk past the jigsaw of the body of Christ during communion.
The problem we have is that we're not all in one place. Say one in seven people in the world is a Christian. If I reach seven people and you reach seven people for Christ, great — we'll fulfil the Great Commission. But we're not all in one place. And it's interesting that those countries where people face hostility and persecution are the same places where the most unreached people groups are. We know that Jesus is coming soon, but he's coming with every tribe and tongue gathered. So we are part of the puzzle.
Graham and Sandy are there with Pastor Clinton, and they're part of the puzzle. As Voice of the Martyrs, we're connected with 16 different offices around the world. It's a ministry that has gone on for more than 50 years. Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who were imprisoned for their faith, founded the ministry. It has expanded over the years, and there are hundreds of projects around the world. We've been helping with feeding in Gaza. Last year we travelled with Pastor Hannah from Gaza. We've been involved in safe houses for people escaping from Somalia. Do you know that over 10,000 Somali people — one of the second most dangerous places in the world according to some measures — 10,000 Somali Muslims have been baptised in the last five or six years?
Rev Harry Newton last week spoke about Jesus sending out the twelve and then sending out the seventy-two. And one of the things he said was that these were seventy-two nobodies — seventy-two with no name. And when we send out the Great Commission, where Jesus sends us all out, together we're all part of what God is doing.
Hebrews 12:28–13:6 — A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken
It says this: "Since we are receiving a kingdom that is unshakable." The disciples, when they were sent out, had this revelation that they had a kingdom that was unshakable. Jesus had died and he had risen again. They had seen it. They had it very much before their eyes. Our faith is something of life and death. People that are in places where they're risking their lives for Jesus — like Jolene, and Jolene's friend Amira — have received a kingdom that is unshakable. When you come to Christ in a Muslim nation and your family rejects you and they can kill you, you have to escape and you have to run. Why do you do that? Because you have a kingdom that is unshakable.
Before that, it says that once again God is going to shake the earth and the heavens and remove all things. I don't know what your eschatology is. The end can come. But we have a kingdom that is unshakable. "Since we have a kingdom that is unshakable, let's be so thankful and please God and worship him in such a way — with holy fear and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."
I want to put it to you that that verse introduces all the rest. The context is: let's worship God with awe. And here are some of the ways that we can do it.
Verse 1: "Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Let brotherly love continue." Take a moment and look across the room. Look around at different people that are here. How can we love each other more? Love and grace and forgiveness. Coming in from being away and being into the family and feeling embraced is such a big thing.
Number two: "Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some have entertained angels." What about opening up a home? Maybe today, here, there might be somebody that you can open up your home to and invite them in. It's just normality — normal ways. It's a way of doing worship, not just singing, but loving one another.
But the next one is: "Remember those in prison as if you yourself were with them. Remember also those being mistreated as if you felt their own pain in your own bodies" — or the other version says, "because you're part of the same body." That's just a normal part of our Christian faith. It should be part and parcel of our normality.
Then it says: "Give honour to the marriage bed. Keep your marriage bed holy, and don't love money, but be satisfied with what you have, because God says, 'I will never leave you and never forsake you.'" One of the ways of not loving money is giving, which is what we're also doing within Mission Month.
The Liberia Project — Pastor Clinton
Graham and Sandy have asked me to present a project that is happening. This is Pastor Clinton, and he is from Liberia in Africa. Over the last year, we've supported five children who have had to escape with their mothers. These are single mothers — Muslim converts to Christianity. Just like Jolene's friend Amira, they had to escape. They were received by Pastor Clinton, and there was a project where they covered school fees and food for the year — that was $9,000 for the children — and also training them to do sewing. This is Ruth — you can see the sewing machine — and there's the cost of the sewing machine and the training for five people, also $9,000. This year, we have 20 similar boys and 24 mothers in a similar situation, and we're backing them. This is the connection that Graham and Sandy have with them.
Susanna Koh — Faith Under Fire
Another point of connection at Faith Under Fire. Susanna Koh is holding her husband's photograph right there. Can you imagine? It was the 13th of February, 2017. He'd been sent warnings. He'd been sent bullets in a box threatening him. His office had been ransacked in the past. And all of a sudden, his car was stopped on the road by a number of black Humvees that surrounded it. There was police that stopped the road. And he was taken away and disappeared. When his daughter found out, she said, "They came after him. They came for him."
It's been nine years and he's disappeared. But the thing about it is that it was all caught on camera — all caught on security footage. You can see it online. It was played on the BBC and in different places. So Susanna has been so brave, and with the support of Voice of the Martyrs, she's taken the government of Malaysia to court. And won. She's won the High Court case ruling. She hasn't yet received the funds that she's been promised, but they promised to give her $3,400 New Zealand dollars a day from the day her husband disappeared until he gets found.
What is it like to have lost your husband, to have the strength to stand up and face the government? Sometimes we have an argument amongst ourselves and then we just don't want to turn up — we don't want to deal with it. But what about when your husband's been taken away so publicly? She's going to share about her experience and her faith, and we can be that personal link with her — not just at a distance.
Asif Maul and Mordecai Ministries
Asif Maul grew up in Pakistan, like Liz, who was here last week — she teaches Bible college in Pakistan. He grew up in Pakistan as a Christian. There are Christian villages in Pakistan, but you're very much a minority, very much facing danger and persecution. He trained in the UK and got involved in connecting with people in high places. He's a real connector.
In 2011, he found out that a whole village in Pakistan was going to attack and lynch a Christian village. In Pakistan, they have the blasphemy law — if you are simply accused of blaspheming the prophet, you could be sent to prison. But what often happens is that Muslims rise up and create a riot, don't get you to prison, and just inflict mob justice and lynch people. Many, many people have been killed this way. But Asif Maul managed to contact people in the parliament. They managed to contact the police. Over 200 people were arrested, and no Christian was hurt that day. So he started a ministry called Mordecai Ministries that looks to intervene to rescue people from persecution.
We want to support the church to stay in the places where there's most risk. But sometimes you have to escape, and that's okay, because Jesus said, "If they persecute you in one place, run to the next village." There are moments and seasons to stay, and there are moments and seasons to flee. Asif has managed to relocate Christian refugees in Canada, in Brazil, in Australia. There might be some of you here that know key connections that Asif might be able to use to bring refugees over here. We often bring refugees into the country that don't necessarily bless our country, but there are people that could come in and be a blessing to New Zealand, and he is involved in that as well.
Communion — One Body, One Bread
For me, when we come to communion, there is something that greatly impacts me from what a friend of mine in the Middle East said. He'd been to a prison in the UK, and they had that point: though we are many, we are one because we share the same bread, and we're part of the same body. When we come to that point, remember that we are one body.
I think we often don't realise — it's mind-blowing anyway that we are part of the body of Christ. We look down on ourselves. We are often so self-critical. But God delights in being in us and with us. So we want to invite you, as we remember Christians facing persecution, as we remember people in mission, that you and I are also in the body, and we have a part to play. As we come to communion, I want to encourage you to just skirt around the map and meditate on how we are part of the body and how God is using us in the midst of this.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we have a kingdom that is unshakable. Thank you, Lord, that we are part of your mission. Father, I pray that as we think of being part of your body, you will speak to us about how we can be a blessing — not just to people far away, but to the people right next to us. And Lord, that we can reach out towards each other. In Jesus' name, amen.