Where are You Running To?
by Brother Fan
In the wake of Zero Covid policy and increased government persecution, the second generation in the house church are discovering what it means to be persecuted and tested. When things are overwhelmingly difficult, where can we find the courage to face our fears? This heartfelt sermon from a younger pastor in China addresses the disciple Mark’s desire to flee and how he found salvation to be even greater in his weakness.
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A person without a master is a person who wants to run away all the time, but he still does not find freedom. A man who has a master is a man who begins to really know that he has true freedom. He knows that his life is no longer his own. He knows that in the midst of this great uncertainty there is a real security, that Christ’s death and resurrection are real, that he loves me and bore the cost of my death for me, so that I no longer need to run, and my life begins to be a life of ministry.
A person who serves and ministers will not run away anymore. When Jesus and the apostles saw the call that came from heaven, they began to run in the opposite direction. They stopped running to places where the gospel was not needed, but they started running to places of darkness because the gospel was needed there. That is exactly where the whole Christian church should be running: to the farthest, darkest places with the least light of the gospel.
God has made you desperate to come to trust in the Lord, to see Christ as your hope. When all your outer and inner garments are stripped off, you will find that you truly have the heart of Christ within you. You will realize that “God loves me so much that I, who have been a slave to the fear of death all my life, see my greatest burden in the fellow human beings around me.” For where your burden is greatest, there you will find your harvest field. For here are your loved ones, your parents, your friends, your colleagues; now watch over their souls.
So a free man stops running for himself. He is free to stop running, and free to serve. When the One who was stripped naked and hung on the cross has revealed his own power and led you into true freedom, then you realize that the external loss of freedom profoundly manifests this true freedom. This is the mystery of the gospel that Paul preached, the mystery of the gospel of Christ. As with Christ and the early church, it is in the place of the greatest bondage, deprivation and weakness, that his glory is most powerfully manifested. -
Brother Fan became a believer during his college years. He has two sons with his wife. During his youth, he was once immersed in online games and worldly desires. Later, he was captured by Christ and now testifies to Christ's love for the church through preaching, poetry, experiences in marriage and family, current affairs commentary, and encounters with persecution.
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Category: Devotional
Date created: 2022
Scripture: Mark 14:51-52
Key terms: suffering, persecution, discipleship, Chinese emigration
This article was originally a sermon, which has been edited for length and clarity. This English edition and introduction are copyright © 2024 by the Center for House Church Theology. Illustration by PC Ng.
We encourage you to use and share this material freely—but please don’t charge money for it, change the wording, or remove the copyright information.
