Latest News
Latest updates: 9.45am Saturday 31 October 2026 - Weekly Sheet (KA)
11.5am Saturday 31 October 2026 - Jim Harries (BAF)
9.40am Sunday 1 November 2026 - Sermon notes (BAF)
10.25pm Sunday 1 November 2026 - Audio recordings (BAF)
Sunday 1 November 2026
Weekly Sheet
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10.25pm Audio recordings uploaded.
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Sermon Notes
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You Will Be My Witnesses
The Blood of the
Martyrs
Acts 7:54-8:3
The Inevitability of Persecution – ‘If they persecuted me, they will persecute you’ (John 15:20); ‘In the world you will have tribulation – you will have troubles – But take heart I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33)
When we become a follower of Christ, when we enter union with Christ, we enter a spiritual war zone! This is the story of:
· The whole Bible
· The Gospel account of the earthly life of Jesus
· The early and continuing story of the church that bears the name of Jesus
It has always been thus!
The world that hates Christ, hates those who are Christ’s. Troubles should not surprise us, nor should they worry us. We are not immune to pain and sorrow in this life, but our true treasure does not lie in the things of this world, but in knowing Christ, who has promised, ‘behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’ (Matt. 28:20)
Response: Read our Bibles with a heart willing to surrender to what God reveals concerning who he is and who we are, and all that God says, not what we would like it to reveal and say!
The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the church (Tertullian) – Tertullian liked to wind up government! His well-known quote literally means, ‘the more you try to mow the Christian faith down the more it grows.’
Countless numbers have been killed to silence the Gospel:
· Starting with Jesus
· The 11 disciples each suffered persecution and ultimately death in most cases
· Stephen was the first of the countless martyrs
· Starting with Nero consecutive Roman emperors persecuted Christians
· Our own Protestant/Non-Conformist Baptist tradition has its origins in persecution, including from within the church
· ‘Open Doors’ Watchlist identifies the top 50 countries that continue to persecute Christians today
Christianity and the church have faced many enemies, they have been largely forgotten but the faith and the church still remain – ‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock – the confession that Jesus is ‘the Christ, the Son of God’ (16:16) – I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail – though it will certainly try! - against it’ (John 16:18)
Gospel witness and Gospel suffering will always go together. Why? Because in all the examples above proclaiming the reality of who God is and who we are as fallen creatures will always stir opposition because at the heart of all sin lies hatred of God – ‘If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you’ (John 15:18) We are not called to be polite, people are dying in their sin and the only hope is the gospel. The ‘Great Commission’ does not say, ‘Go and make nice people by being nice people!’
John Piper identifies in the lives of those who recognised that Gospel Witness and Gospel Suffering routinely go together the following characteristics evident in the lives of these witnesses (martyrs):
1. An unwavering belief in the Sovereignty of God – that God is the only true authority and he is fundamentally good
2. A strong theology of ‘Suffering’ – they did not ask, ‘where is God?’ or ‘Why me?’
3. All life lived by God’s Word – the Bible does not make suggestions it contains commands
Sadly, in our Western context we observe too little of these characteristics. Instead, we traded:
· Perseverance for impatience
· Suffering for safety
· Sacrifice for self-care
We no longer look up to Christ but instead look inward to self!
Response: Regularly encounter the lives of those who have faced persecution in the past and consider how they continued to persevere, even willingly paying the ultimate price for the sake of Christ and his gospel through Christian biography and documentary
Praying for the persecuted church –
Why? Because we are family - it is our sisters and brothers in Christ, who follow the example of Christ: ‘let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Heb.12:1-2)
What? We do not prayer specifically
for the persecution to end! – ‘Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it
comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice
and be glad when his glory is revealed … Yet if anyone suffers as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name (1 Peter 4:12-13; 16) We pray that they and we will endure for the
sake of Christ and his gospel, knowing that though we will, ‘walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
[we] will fear no evil, for you are with [us]; your rod and your staff,
they comfort [us]’ (Ps. 23:40
How? By praying according to the Word – ‘God designed prayer to be intimately connected to his Word and God designed his Word to be intimately connected to the world’ (David Platt). When we pray according to God’s Word, we are changed as:
· We pray to ‘Our Father in heaven’ for our brothers and sisters
· he aligns our hearts to his. We look up not in! - ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven’
· we grow in the assurance that God is with us, is listening to our prayers, and working out his perfect purposes for ‘his glory, the good of the nations and our joy’ (David Platt)
Response: regularly pray for the church that Jesus Christ is building throughout the world using the resources provided by ministries such as Open Doors, and where possible do so by name!
Saturday 31 October 2026
Jim Harries - End-October News
In his latest news, Jim writes about:
- missionaries being mediators between donors and recipients;
- a lecture on understanding African languages (available on YouTube - NB This is the correct link);
- a trip to Uganda;
- work on his novels;
- his forthcoming furlough (28 February - 21 April);
- controversial practices to lure new members to a church plant;
- a need for an increase in donors (or increased donations from existing donors).