Being a Christian means more than just attending meetings; it involves a deep personal commitment that impacts one's entire life, including family and community. Early Christians faced significant opposition and persecution because their allegiance to Christ directly challenged the prevailing imperial powers, who demanded worship as gods and lords. True Christianity requires individuals to live out their faith authentically, influencing their homes and demonstrating courage in the face of societal pressure, as exemplified by the early believers who were willing to suffer for their convictions.
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He said that the attendance at the prayer meeting is the thermometer of the assembly. And in many assemblies, the thermometer is awfully low, because the attendance at the prayer meeting is awfully poor. And I think that as we get on toward the end of this dispensation of grace and toward the coming of the Lord Jesus, that we certainly ought to lay hold of our privileges to pray. Because, brethren, I believe we're living in dark and dreadful days, and they're getting darker. And the day may well come when we will wish that we had taken advantage of every opportunity to come together for every meeting, because the day may come when we will not be permitted to do this.
No government of a democratic type has ever stood two hundred years in history. No democratic form of government has ever yet stood two hundred years in history. If we make it to two hundred years, we'll be the first one. We don't have very far to go. We may make it. I'm not saying we won't. I'm saying if we do, we'll be the first one. Not set on that. I'm going to start out with a very simple question tonight. An extremely simple question. I just want to try to do a little thinking with you about it.
My question is this. What does it really mean to be a Christian? I know that all of you could preach a sermon on that. Even if you don't preach up here on the platform, you could give a five-minute talk, face-to-face with me, and tell me what a Christian is, what it means to be a Christian. I'm sure that the largest percent of us here, if not all of us, especially the older group, are Christians or professing Christians. What does it mean? What does it mean for you to be a Christian? I'd like to try to point out a few things this evening as to what it meant for early Christians to be Christians.
And then maybe you will appreciate a little bit more of what it means to be a Christian today. Maybe you can appreciate the soft padding that we've got today. Because do you realize that when Christianity came into this world? And I'd like to say that Christianity came into this world with Christ. That's when Christianity was introduced into this world because that's what Christianity is. Christianity is entirely different from churchianity. Christianity is Christ. I'm a Christian. I have Christ. Well, when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, he came into a world that was diametrically opposed to everything that he said and did.
I'd like to try and point out a few things tonight. Maybe giving us a little insight into what the Lord and what Paul and different ones meant when they said certain things in the Bible. And maybe it'll help us to appreciate the courage and the aggressiveness of those men who went out to preach the gospel in the early church. Maybe it will help us to appreciate what some of our forefathers have endured and suffered. And it may make us feel a little bit of shame as the fact that we live in such a complacent society and we live in such a soft-pedaled scene that it's so easy to be a Christian for us now.
At least it's easy to profess to be one. I'm convinced as I look at Christianity and I look at Christians and look at myself and look at the whole scope of the picture today as best we can, I'm convinced that we really don't know too much about Christianity. I think we're such cities. I also am convinced that if we will take our stand for Jesus Christ and be the kind of a Christian that God wants us to be, that it's still going to cost us something. I really believe it. And I believe that the reason that most of us are not paying anything is because we're slipping through the easiest way possible, like a beast monkey or something like that.
We don't want to really have to pay anything for standing up for Jesus Christ. Oh, I'll go to meetings. If you don't get any persecution when you come to meeting, how many people threw rocks at you tonight for coming to meeting? Anybody try to rotten egg you tonight for coming to meeting? Of course not. So we don't pay any price coming to meeting. I'm glad to see people come to meeting because back home right now in this new assembly that I've talked to you about in the past, we're having a terrible time getting these people to come to meeting more than once a week because that's all they're ever used to us.
Most of these people had been saved out of modernistic churches where they went to church. If they were really good Christians, professing Christians, not saved. If they were really good churchgoers, they went once a week, and that was on Sunday morning. If they were super good, they went Sunday morning to Sunday school and church service both. If they were good, then they just went for once. And such a thing as going for Sunday night, well, they couldn't go because there wasn't anything to go to. The church building was dark. They wouldn't have went in a way. That's why the church building was dark. And of course the idea of going to a Wednesday night meeting was foo-hoo. They never thought of that. I don't know if they even had a church service in Wednesday night where most of these people come from.
One of the large modernistic denominational churches downtown. Most of them come from that. So they're accustomed to going to church once a week at very best, and that was what constituted a good Christian. Now when they come into the assembly and find out that there's a number of meetings of the local church. That there is meetings when the local church comes together for breaking a bread. Meetings when the local church comes together for prayer. Meetings when the local church comes together for the teaching of the Apostles' Doctrine or the ministry or teaching meeting of the Assembly. Three functions of the local church.
Three times when the Christians ought to be together for three different functions. Now I'm persuaded and convinced that in the early church in Jerusalem, they did all three of these things at one gathering, but they didn't come together for one hour, and they didn't have any clocks in the wall. I'm sure. They probably spent a whole day together, and in the coming together of a whole day, then they performed the functions of the week. They had their breaking of bread, and the apostles' teachings, or the apostles even talked to them until midnight in one case. And they probably had their prayer session or the time of the prayer at the same time. Now, all of this embraced their fellowship. These were all facets of the fellowship that those Christians enjoyed.
But now our society has changed. We've got automobiles with wheels on them and our methods of living are different. So we can come together. Instead of staying together all day and Sunday, well, we can come together Sunday morning, Sunday night, or any other night of the week and for the prayer meeting and so forth. But I'm convinced that Christians ought to feel a responsibility and a privilege to be at all the meetings of the local church. Now, that doesn't mean that every time there's a function going on, that every Christian has to be involved in it. But it is a good thing when we take in all the functions of the local assembly. Those functions of the early church was breaking bread, prayer, and Apostle Kishi.
So... So we really think we're great Christians when we have done all this. We really are great Christians when we are present at all three of the meetings in one week's time and do this week after week. Well, I would say you're above average Christian, all right, but I'm not sure that that's all the Lord expects of us. I just don't think that's all the Lord expects of us at all. I think there is so much more that the Lord expects of us than just going to meetings. I might say something here that just comes to my mind that I think I have seen as mistakes being made. That is, while I agree with what I said, I want you to know that I agree with what I said just a minute ago, there is another side of that point that I think can be a dangerous side, and that is that a person's whole Christianity is judged by his going to meeting.
Did you ever hear anybody judge other people? Strictly on the basis of whether they go to meeting or not. I've seen this back home. I won't mention any names, but, oh, I know of one person that comes to my mind in particular. And he judges, well, I lived in the neighborhood where my neighbors were nearly all Dutch people. And they judged everybody in the neighborhood by what they did on the Sabbath day. So that if you was a good guy... you kept the Sabbath according to their prescriptions. Not according to the Bible, but according to the way they thought the Sabbath had to be kept. So they judged you strictly by how you observed the Sabbath.
And if you kept the Sabbath according to their standards, you was a pretty good Christian. But if you broke their standards, not God's, but their standards of the Sabbath day, then you were looked upon with disdain. Well, that same thing can happen to us as Christians. We can judge other people by whether they come to meeting or not. And while as coming to meeting is something that we ought to do, because it is a privilege, first of all, it is also a responsibility because you can't have meetings without table.
And if you stay home, the next person is going to be inclined to stay home, and then the next person will be inclined to stay home, and pretty soon you haven't got any people, and then you haven't got any meetings. And when you don't have any meeting, then you don't have any prayer, or you don't have any teaching. So it's important, it's necessary for the Christians to feel the privilege, especially seeing that our privileges may be taken from us, and to feel our responsibility to be at all the local functions of the assembly. But, Just because a person goes to all the meetings does not mean that that person is spiritual. That's the other side of that point.
That does not mean that that person is spiritual. You can be a person who is there at the very first one to step on the carpet every time the door is open and still be just as carnal and cold as possibly you can be. Because this Christianity business goes way further than just going to meetings. Otherwise we become going to meeting Christians. Going to meetings. Going to meetings. Oh, every time there's a going to meetings time, you're going to meetings. This Christianity of the early century, those early Christians, their Christianity went further than going to meetings.
And believe me, I believe they went to meetings. Because those people were slaves and I, I will back to show you in the next few minutes, that when those people became Christians in the early days of the Book of Acts, and those people who became followers of Jesus Christ, even as his disciples, there was a price to be paid, and they were willing to pay that price. They were no soft Christians, I want to tell you. And I'm sure that they counted every opportunity to be gathered with the Christians in their local assemblies, such as you have in the Enoch book, the Bible. I'm sure they were there. But I'm sure that their Christianity was much, much deeper than just going to meetings.
It extended into their homes. And I don't think too much can be said today for Christianity in the home. You know why? Because this is basic to everything else. Here's the way it works. I must be a good Christian in myself first, individually. If I'm a good Christian, godly, spiritual, living close to the Lord, if I'm that, then I can carry that influence into my home life. Because my home life will never be more than what I am as an individual.
especially those of us who were husbands and fathers. God places upon us the leadership in the home. God has put that responsibility upon every man, every husband, every father. God has put upon us the responsibility of leadership. The lady came to me about a year ago, and she was almost in tears, and she says, I don't know, and she was a Christian. Her husband was a Christian, and they're raising three, four, five, four or five girls. They're in the girl business. They're coming in the girls' business. And I think they've got either four or five girls, and their oldest ones, are getting up well into their teenagers.
Now, this was a year or so ago, she came here, and she said, I don't know what to do. She said, my husband will not take leadership in the home. He's a Christian. I had the privilege of leading this man and his wife to the Lord both the same night, one whole January night, several years ago. Beautiful conversions. Saw them baptized. Saw them received into our Ascendedria Ladyville. Saw them going on fairly well for the Lord and still going on outwardly fairly well for the Lord. But she came and told me, she says, My husband will not take leadership in the home. And he will not lead us in family prayer.
He will not lead us in Bible reading. And she says, I see that these girls of ours need it so badly as they begin to approach their high school and teenage years. So she says, I at supper time will take the initiative and go ahead and get out the Bible and try to get something going. And she says, what will my husband do? He'll get right up from the table and he'll will plump himself down in the chair in the other room. They'll turn on the television set. And he let the little wife sit there with her responsibilities of trying to get those girls into the wood of God. My daughter rises up a little bit with some of these guys. I like to shake them. Shake some sense into their head or something because these people are going to be held responsible to the Lord.
The Lord has put the leadership of the family into the hands of us as parents and fathers, and we will never see our spiritual level of our families rise higher than what we are now if i'm a spiritual father and a spiritual guide in the home then i can influence that dear little wife of mine and then my wife and i can influence those dear little kids as they grow up and as those kids grow up They grow up in the fear of the Lord and in the nurture and admonition. And there's not one of you parents here tonight who have either raised your kids or in the process of doing it. There's not one of you here tonight that would deny the idea and the fact that if our kids don't need the Bible in the home today now, they never need it.
Because you know what they're facing at school. You know what they're facing in grade school. When they get into high school, it gets worse. Pretty soon they're in college and it gets worse. And many, many kids that go to college are washed out and come home atheist or infidelic or just plain idol cares. It's so dangerous to send a kid to college anymore that when parents ask me if they should send their kids to college, I stick my tongue in my cheek and I say, think it over seriously before you do it. Because that's some of the price that we have to pay today for education. just ain't worth it. Because those kids are so brainwashed with infidelity, and those cunning professors in college are so crafty, and what will they do?
They will almost invariably pick out the smartest kids in the class. They don't care for the old dummies. They're interested in the ones who will have the greatest achievement, and they will work on them the hardest. And we have known time after time of young men who went into college. And when they went in, they were professing Christians, but they were geniuses with a genius mind. And before the college four years was done, those professors had washed out every semblance of a foundation underneath them. And the kids came home professing atheists. These are dark and dreadful days.
What are we going to do? I know there's one thing we can still do. We can still get that Word of God into our lives as Christians. And then we can get that Word of God into our home. And then you know what's going to be the next result? You get good Christians, good families, and good local churches. Because the local church never rises higher than what the family standards are. What is a local church? Well, first of all, what is a family? A family is made up of individual members, right? Individuals and members, starting out with pa and ma, and then pretty soon the little barges come along and you've got a family unit made up of individuals.
And then the local church is made up of families of individuals. I have my family over there, you have your family over there, you have your family over there. We're not operating as a church, each in our own home. When we come together in the local church, then it's a fellowship of family. Individuals make families, and families make local churches. Now, while I'm saying this, there are two ways that I see an operation in the world today to build local churches. Some local churches, and this even spills over into denominational churches, some churches are building for their future by doing children's work, reaching the kids of the neighborhood, reaching a lot of kids, and bringing them in to Bible school and to Sunday school.
There's another way of doing it. The other way of doing it is to try to reach the parents first. and then get the whole family. Now, you see, the two, and either one of these is okay. You can reach the children first, and through the children, reach the parents. But if you don't reach the parents, through the children, you won't keep the children. You can ask anybody in any big assembly or any place in the big city, and ask them if what I said isn't true. Invariably, with some exceptions, of course, But almost invariably, if you've got a kid that comes to Sunday school when he's five years old.
You keep that kid in Sunday school until he's twelve years old. But in that minute of time, you haven't reached the parents. So they don't care. And the kid gets no encouragement at home. Do you know what's going to happen? Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. He's a dropout. And you can't reach him anymore because he doesn't care. Why should he come to Sunday school when dad goes fishing on Sunday morning? That's what he would like to do, too. But why not? And so because dad and mom doesn't tell him to go to Sunday school, it wouldn't do any good if they did. If they told him to go to Sunday school at that age, he'd say, who are you to talk to me? That's just about the age they start saying things like that. You're telling me to do something you won't do yourself?
This is why examples are so important, don't you see. So why would the kids go to Sunday school? When mom and dad don't go to Sunday school and he's already coming to the age where he wants to declare his independence. So he brought that. Now if in this process of time you can reach the parents and see dad and mom reach with the gospel and sage and brought into the assembly, then you probably kept the family. And you'll keep eating. There's another way of going at this. Reach the parents first and then reach the kids through the parents. And I would say that though that is the slower way of doing it, it is the more stable one. Probably most satisfactory.
Reaching the parents first and then reaching the kids through the parents. Because if you've got the parents, then you've got the kids. So that's the way, two ways I see at building local assemblies. And while saying this, today it seems to me that there's one most effective method in reaching the parents, and that is through home Bible practice. We're not reaching the parish through our gospel meetings in our chapel, hardly, not very much. We're not reaching people in our community that way. We're not seeing a lot of people saved through giving up track, although I think we should give up track. But we are seeing people reached and saved through home Bible study and then through a combination of that with visitation work.
So I don't really feel so bad. that back at home, we don't have any techies, gospel meetings. In fact, do you mind if I tell you? You might want to tell me never to come back again. But in our little assembly of only a year and a half old, we didn't even have a gospel meeting. We don't have any gospel meetings. And I'm not saying you shouldn't hear. I don't mean what you do. Maybe you have a ministry meeting. But we don't have a gospel meeting. Sunday night is our... Bible study time and prayer meeting right now. We may change that because it's not very effective either, but we don't have a gospel week. So do we have a gospel outreach? Certainly we have a gospel outreach through Bible classes during the week.
And through visitation, work done throughout the day. Well, I kind of got a little far away from what I was going to talk about. That is I want to take us back to what... Christianity really is. And I guess the way I got way over here in my field was by trying to point out to us that Christianity, real spiritual Christians, are way more than just meeting ghosts. They are people who let their joy and their Christianity fill out over the neighborhood, to their neighbors, and to their friends, and to their social involvement during the week.
people who are on fire for Jesus Christ, and real Christians are people who will dare to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ even in the face of opposition. A little girl got saved or professed to be saved in our camp near a somewhat this past August. She comes from a very, very ungodly family. In the little town where Edgar is in the She comes from a very ungodly family and a large family. And she's the only one in the family that would really know to be a Christian. She got saved at camp. Then Brother Edgar brought her down to Ozark camp. She stayed back after the meeting one night when people were invited to counsel with us or stay in her seat if they wanted to be talked with.
So she came up to me and she wanted to talk with me. And she said, I don't think I need to be saved, but she says, I just need to be made sure about this. So I talked to her a little bit. a little child of about twelve or eleven years old, just as sincere and honest before God as she can be. And I immediately concluded that the little girl surely had gotten to Christ. And I gave her a few verses of assurance. And then I said, now, look, little girl, and I forgot what her name was called a irony. And I said, you know, being a Christian at camp here where so many Christians are, that's easy, isn't it? But I said, you know you're going to go back into a home where your parents aren't Christians.
And your brothers and sisters are naughty kids. And I happen to know how naughty they are. So naughty that we even sent some of them home from camp one night. Very, very hungry, wild, ferocious almost, ungodly. But since here she is a little girl, stepping at about eleven or twelve years old, right into the midst of that. I said, when you go back home, are you going to let your parents and your brothers and sisters know that you're safe? She says, I sure am. I says, when you go back home and go to school this fall, are you going to let your brothers and your kids at school, your friends and playmates, are you going to let them know you're a Christian? I sure am. I says, even if they say ugly things to you, even if they call you names and say unkind things about you, and maybe even forsake your friendship, are you still going to do it?
She says, I sure am. I'm ready to do it. And she stayed right by her gun. Just the night, Brother Harold and the owner, maybe it was telling me, that Edgar reports that the little girl has gone to school and she used to be a terrible curse her and the swear. And now she tells her friends, she says, you don't curse and swear around me. And now they're all beginning to forsake her. And she told Brother Edgar, she says, and I don't care. She says, if I lose my last friend, I don't care. I'm going to stand for the Lord Jesus. I can't tell you what's going to happen to this girl. I'm not here to tell you that one year from now she'll still be going on that way. I hope so.
But I am here to tell you that what she's doing right now, that's real with me. When we tell you something else, a lot of us haven't got enough backbone to stand. We haven't got enough backbone to even let our neighbors know where to stand. We haven't got enough backbone to even let anybody know that we are taking our stand for Jesus Christ. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ was born into this world, I want you to try to understand something of the background and the culture of the day in which he was born. Did I give you any scriptures to look at? Luke chapter two is one of the look at.
Noah wouldn't get back up here if we didn't read the scriptures. There must be a scripture. But I wanted to read the scripture anyway. I'm way with the Bible. Luke chapter two and verse eleven. This was an angelic announcement. The night that the Lord Jesus was born. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. say that verse belongs at Christmas time. How come you're reading that in awe in September? Do you realize that when the Lord Jesus Christ was born into this world, that he was born into a world that was under the complete control of the fourth world kingdom?
Now, go back with me in your minds to the Old Testament. Go back to the book of Daniel. You want to go in Daniel? All right. In Daniel, Daniel prophesied four great world kingdoms. Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar was number one. Babylon was a world-dominating power. She controlled all the world of their day at one time. But Babylon fell. Babylon fell to the Mediapersian. So the second world empire was Medial Persia. That was a great world empire, controlling the world.
Medial Persia later fell to the Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great. Now some of you kids can check in here. Alexander the Great, another third great world empire. But Alexander's empire fell, just like the other two did, and fell to the fourth world empire, which was Rome, the Roman Empire. Now, if you took a map, probably got one in the back of your Bible, if you took a map showing the Roman Empire at the time of Christ, you would see that the Roman Empire dominated all of Western Europe and all of Eastern Asia.
and all that territory around the Mediterranean Sea, even Northern Africa, that whole vast domain, the whole Vendorne world, was under the power of the Roman Empire. The head of the Roman Empire was called an emperor, and the emperors were the Caesars. Caesar is not a man's name. I suppose you knew that. Pharaoh is not a man's name. Pharaoh is a family name. a dynasty name, a number of pharaohs. There was pharaoh one, pharaoh two, and pharaoh three, and pharaoh four, and so on. And some of the pharaohs had other names too. The same thing was true of Caesar. Caesar is not a personal name.
That's the name of a line of kings, a dynasty of kings. So there was Caesar the Great, and Caesar, Augustus, and Caesar, Caesar, and so on, a number of it. Okay. The Caesar was the man who sat upon the the governing throne of the Roman Empire in the city of Rome, controlling the whole Roman Empire, and so what? The whole nation of Israel was in the Roman Empire at this time. Israel had ceased to be a nation. Israel was living under the domination of the Roman Empire with a Caesar upon the throne.
Now here's the interesting things I'd like to have you. understand and maybe appreciate a little bit. The Caesar demanded that the emperor be worshipped as God. So that there was a thing called the cult of the Caesars. And this cult of the Caesars was more than a political rule. It was a religious type of a thing. And those people under the Roman Empire were forced to worship the Emperor as their God.
And that's what held the Empire together, because they knew that there is a stronger hold on people's minds than political holds. Let me just digress here a little bit. Someone has said that if you want to hurt people or get an argument with people, the quickest way is to attack either their politics or their religion. You probably know that. Now, I never attack people's politics, but I don't like to discuss politics, because I'm not, I don't really think about politics, but I'm talking with people all the time, usually on what is normally called a religious platform. Now I know that one of the most sensitive questions that you can ask people is a question about their religion or, as I do, their spiritual relationship as well.
Those are the two most sensitive parts of anybody's philosophy. Okay? The Roman Empire, knowing this, said, look... We've got to hold our Roman Empire together not only by a political rule, but by a religious rule. And they force the people into an emperor worship. Now, what do you have taking place? In the Roman Empire, people are looking to the Caesar as they're gone. Now, I'm going to give you some of the names. I want you to listen to these because I won't get time to handle each one carefully and separately. But I'm going to give you some of the names.
that the Caesar forced the people to recognize him as, and the people did it. The people recognized their king, one of the Caesars, as Lord. Do you remember when Festus, well, look over in Acts, Acts twenty-five. Just a minute. Acts chapter twenty-five. Here's the trial of Paul before Agrippa. And Festus said in verse twenty-four, Acts twenty-five and twenty-four, King Agrippa and all men which are here present with us, you see this man, that Paul, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself had appealed to Agustus, which is Augustus Caesar, I have determined to send him, of whom I have no certain thing to write unto whom? My Lord. Who would be talking about? Testa said, look, if we're going to send Paul to Augustus Caesar in Rome, I've got to have something to write to my Lord. And who was his Lord? Augustus Caesar. They were forced to call him Lord. Now here's another name that they claimed for themselves.
They were called God and sons of God. Sons of God. They were called that. They were also called overseers. That man who sat upon the throne of the Roman Empire was turned and overseer because he oversees all the people. in his realm. He looked over the people. You know what the word overseer is? A word that we're familiar with? The literal adjective and words? Bishop. A bishop is the same thing as an overseer. In the local church, the Lord said in First Timothy chapter three, if a man desired the office of a bishop, he desired a good work.
The word bishop there is an overseer. We don't use the word bishop today because it's an old English word and it sounds too much old English religion to us. So the better word to use is overseer. What is an overseer? An overseer in the local church is one who oversees or he sees over. And it's the word he says because in his Greek language. He's overseeing the people. And overseers are elders. So on we go. All right. The The man who was the emperor of the Roman Empire was looked upon as being the overseer. Lord, God, overseer.
He also, of course, was recognized as a king. He was also called a savior. Eight men who were emperors carried this title, Savior of the world. eight ruling kings in the Roman Empire carry that title, Savior of the world. And then, that's number five, and there's still one more. They were also called high priests. Now, perhaps I lost your interest at that. But if you'll just try to gather up this much out of what I've said, when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, Every one of the titles that the Caesar had were titles that the Lord Jesus Christ claimed.
Now, appreciate this. What's happening? Here's a great earthly power ruling over the whole world. Not to be challenged. Rome says we will never fall, like the others have fallen before us. And right into the midst of this whole governmental realm appears a baby which is born out on the hillside, outside the city of Bethlehem, born of humble peasantry folk, and an angel comes down and says, unto you is born this day in the city of David, Christ the Lord.
I didn't read that much. The Savior of the world. Under you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. Imagine making that announcement in this world where the King Caesar is saved. I'm the Savior of the world. And here comes another Savior into the world. Do you think that this Savior... that is born in the city of Bethlehem and the announcement is made outside the city to those humble shepherds? Do you think this is going to go unchallenged? What else is he? How many of you is born this day a Savior which is Christ?
The Lord! Caesar says, but I am the Lord. Who is this who says he is Lord? We only have one Lord and everybody gives their allegiance to me. And they wouldn't stand for a minute for anyone having their allegiance to anyone else other than the king as the Lord. And here comes someone who is proclaimed to be the Lord. He says, I'm God. And when the Lord Jesus Christ was here in this world, he was worshipped as God. And he himself made it clear that he was the Son of God. And that ran counter to that. We won't make any more comment on that. And then the Apostle Paul tells us, or it was Peter that tells us in First Peter chapter two, in verse twenty-five, that ye were as sheep going astray, but now you have returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your soul.
Who is our bishop? Your bishop, your overseer is Jesus Christ. He's called that in First Peter two twenty-five. He's called the shepherd. Or the word shepherd is pastor. He's called the pastor. You think I don't have a pastor? You bet I have a pastor. My pastor is the Lord Jesus. He's a shepherd of my soul. You think I don't have a bishop? You bet I've got a bishop. Jesus Christ is the bishop. So he says in First Peter chapter two. And that's what the emperor was called. Then the emperor was called king. And look what Peter, or Paul says in First Timothy chapter six.
Maybe you'd like to turn to this one. This one comes home with real force to my soul. First Timothy chapter six. When you see the background of some of this, it makes you appreciate some of these dynamic statements that are made. Paul, in writing to the Christians who are familiar with all of this that I'm saying, much more familiar than I am. He says, in verse fifteen, which in his time he shall show, who is a blessed and only potentator. Get that. He's the only potentator. Not the kings of the throne, but Jesus Christ, and he is the king of kings and Lord of lords.
Look, the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, and he is the... internalistic form of government from heaven comes into this world and two great forms of government from Christ. When Jesus Christ was here in this world, he clashed with the world power on almost every turn. You know what it meant for people to declare themselves to be Christians and say, we take our stand with Jesus Christ. That's what Christians did in those days. People in those days when they became Christians, they said, we stand alongside of Jesus Christ, and the minute that they did that, they took their position contrary.
They ran counter to the imperialistic form of government that would rule the whole world. And that's why those Christians suffered, among other reasons. And they were prepared to suffer, because to take your stand for Jesus Christ was to run counter to the spirit of their age. And I want to tell you, those people were no sisters. Another thing they didn't do. They didn't hide their Christianity. Because just as soon as they were saved, they got baptized. And just as soon as they were baptized, they were marked out for persecution. They couldn't hide their Christianity when once they got baptized. Because that was a public event. And from that point on, they could expect to suffer.
And they did. And over the first two or three centuries, you know the story of the early church. You know the stories from the book of Acts how the Christians suffered, suffered, suffered. Paul has to leave the Christians at Thessalonica suffering afflictions. When you read about Paul's letter to those Christians at Thessalonica and he reads about their afflictions, you just remember what some of their afflictions were. All right. Last little thing I'd like to point out. Well, another thing I was going to say was another title given to them was a high priest. And Paul wrote about our high priest. Jesus Christ. Now the last little thing I'd like to point out is that when a man like Paul goes to the city of Rome to preach the gospel.
Here's what he says. Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one. Verse fifteen. So much as in me is, I am rich.