East Asia – Being a true follower of Christ

This was our first time in a country where Christians are openly persecuted. Christians here are thrown in jail or given a death sentence for saying the name Jesus. When you are in this situation, you find yourself asking the Lord… What does it really mean to be unashamed of the gospel? What does it look like to be a disciple of Jesus? What does it look like to take up your cross daily, or to deny yourself and follow Jesus?

 Jesus said in Luke 9:23, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.’ What does this mean?

When Jesus first told his disciples that they needed to take up their cross and follow Him, they may easily have assumed that He was speaking metaphorically. That is… until they saw Him actually picking up a cross and marching off to His death.

To be a follower of Christ, you need to be all in. But the majority of our generation today doesn’t know what it looks like to be a true follower of Christ. Being a follower of Christ doesn’t mean looking at Christian quotes to make us feel good about ourselves. Putting a bible verse in our bio to tell people ‘Look I’m a Christian’, going to church on a Sunday while just living for ourselves the rest of the week or skipping church because we’re feeling lazy is what being lukewarm means. Some of us don’t talk to our own friends about Jesus because we’re scared of what they might think.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I really denying myself, taking up my cross and following Christ?

Jesus’ disciples lived radical lives! They knew what it meant to follow Him and lived by the principle of not giving in to fear of man. They shared the gospel. Even when they knew the outcome of their actions was persecution, they walked across different countries preaching the good news. His disciples had something we lack in our generation… Fear of the Lord.

Paul the apostle was stoned by his accusers and left for dead. Following this, he was beaten, arrested, thrown in jail, nearly torn to pieces and eventually beheaded for sharing the good news of Jesus. Andrew was hung while staying alive for two days, then crucified. Nathaniel was skinned alive, then crucified. James was thrown off a hundred-foot wall repeatedly, still refusing to deny his faith in Jesus. He survived these falls but was then beaten to death with clubs. Matthew was staked and speared to the ground. Despite this, he carried on preaching the Good News until he was killed. Philip was tortured, impaled by iron hooks in his ankles and hung upside down to die, all while preaching to his death. Mark was dragged to death. Luke was hung on an olive tree until he died. Matthias was stoned and then beheaded. Why would all the disciples have been willing to lose their lives while preaching the gospel? And why do we let our fear of feeling uncomfortable keep us from telling a person in a shop that Jesus loves them?

Most of us, if we’re honest, want just enough of Jesus to receive His benefits, but we hesitate when it comes to paying the actual cost. Is it really possible to get one without the other?

Ivy and Helé shared their experiences of being in a persecuted country:

Helé said, “Speaking to local Christians, you learn a lot about what persecution looks like in this context. As a Christian living in a persecuted country, being lukewarm in your faith is simply not an option. Choosing to love Jesus at the risk of a jail sentence or even death gives meaning to the word ‘dedication’. People here are so on fire for the Lord. It really made me question my own life and how we as South Africans live. Why is it too much effort to drive 10 minutes to get to a church while the Christians here drive hours to have church in a small living room with five other believers? Do you think we realise who God is to the degree they do? Compare a persecuted believer who persists in sharing their faith while being in jail to a South African who goes to church on a Sunday, then gets drunk the following Saturday.”

Ivy said, “Being in a persecuted country where you are unable to talk about Jesus freely, I was really convicted about how often we don’t mention Him. How dedicated are we to talk about Jesus? Back home, we can talk freely, at any time. Here we are not permitted to, and did it actually bother me? The Lord impressed on my heart the realisation that I’m usually not hungry enough to talk about Him.”

Our host in this country was a perfect example of a man who takes up his cross daily. He’s unashamed of sharing his faith because he knows the power it holds. He is a true follower of Christ. Serving under him for two weeks in Asia was a real blessing. As a team, we got to see how this man uses sport as a vehicle to minister to unreached people. He uses sport as a doorway and then focuses on discipleship. As a next step, he challenges people to go to their homes and villages and to make more disciples in order to multiply. This is what Jesus called us to do.

Matthew 28:19 ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.’

Long-term missions is tough in this kind of context. Your freedom of speech is limited and you have to be extremely sensitive in the way you approach the culture and strongholds. It’s easy to be in a country for two weeks. Because your time there is limited, you try to be as direct as possible for maximum impact. But this is not always effective and can actually be harmful to the long-term work believers have been invested in here for years.

Henco said, “Being a long-term missionary means taking it step by step, as that Lord leads and guides you. Our mission is to submit to the vision God has given our hosts and to support them. We were grateful that our host in this country was strong in his faith and as tourists, we could be quite public about our beliefs. He wanted us to proclaim what we believe openly… so we worshipped out loud, in public, in front of his coffee shop, and it was beautiful!”

Knowing that the government of this country would not allow youth camps, our host and his team also knew that God is bigger than a government’s reign. They know that God will set them up with opportunities to share the gospel, and He does… They all received the same vision that God gave them to host a sports ministry camp to make God known in the young local community. We had the privilege of joining in and got to witness how God uses them.

We sang the same worship songs (in our own language), played soccer, volleyball, and tug-of-war, and had many Bible studies together.

Helé said, “During our time at the camp, I often found myself thinking, “How can this be my life?” Playing volleyball against older local ladies, riding with a local on the back of his scooter to buy food at a street market, eating with chopsticks… When saying ‘food’, I mean lots of rice with some kind of unidentified meat that looked like pork, smelled like fish and tasted like dog. Wow!” 

It was evident how the leaders wanted to build a relationship with the youth to enable them in turn to see that they can have a relationship with the Lord – that Christianity isn’t just a religion with rules to follow. Jesus never said to follow a religion, he said ‘Follow me.’

All the leaders we met showed us what it is like to deny ourselves and follow the Lord.

Ronen said, “Knowing that Jesus expects us to deny ourselves on a daily basis can sometimes be daunting. Throughout our ministry in this East Asian country, God was constantly asking me to check my heart regarding this. Do I love my life? Or has the eternal perspective settled so deeply within my heart that I am willing to deny my life in this world to the point of hating it (in the context of John 12:25).”

As Christians, the Bible calls on us to die to ourselves daily. Every morning, our first thought should be to ask Jesus ‘how can I look more like you?’ We’re not meant to just fill seats in a Sunday service because it makes us appear good. We should die to our selfish human nature and the world so that when people look at us, they no longer see us but Jesus. We are called to be unashamed to share the gospel. We need to step out in boldness because we care about people and what will happen to them when they die.

As Paul said in Romans 1:16, ‘For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes – the Jew first and also the Gentile.’

And in sharing the gospel, denying yourself and taking up your cross, you need to know that people aren’t always going to agree with you, but that is okay because it says in Matthew 5:10-11:

“God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.“

So together as the body of Christ, let’s show the world what it means to be a true follower of Jesus.