Transcription of the Video: Don't Forget Us

Ray Vander Laan: "Take up your cross and follow me," the Rabbi said. And many did. They followed their Rabbi, walking in his footsteps, becoming like him, being willing to pay an enormous price to be his disciples. We've learned here in Cappadocia of our ancient brothers and sisters who left behind the echoes of the passion of their devotion.

There's another question that this beautiful place in Asia Minor raises in my mind. Can we, followers of Jesus today, identify with our brothers and sisters who suffer around the world? There's a place here in Cappadocia that I think helps us to answer that question. 

We've come to a place called Derinkuyu. Deep well, it means. We're down 20 stories. When they got to this level, they carved, in the rock, a church. Now we're in a place where people truly did come to hide throughout history - not only Christians but Hittites and Persians and Egyptians and Muslims and Jews - but certainly Christians. The air shaft here goes down nearly 20 stories or 20 plus stories actually. It's camouflaged as a well. The stairs, the little rooms, the stones that could be rolled to close the doors if the enemy came. 

In this area, because the volcanic ash goes deep into the ground, it was possible to dig these deep, deep cities, with hundreds of rooms, and disappear if the enemy came. Now, I can't tell you any actual stories that happened down here, because there are no records. But it was in places like this that the disciples of the of the disciples came to do everything they could to be like the Rabbi. 

Now picture yourself down here. Some of you have got your children, your old grandparents, your brothers and sisters, friends. The enemy's near so we can't be on the surface - at least not in the daytime. So here we are.

There's almost no light because we couldn't have torches and the lamps here. It would use up the oxygen in fill this with smoke. So here we sit in the darkness for a day, two, a week, a month just in silence. Listen. 

We hear a noise. What is it? Who is it?

Every day, you have to decide, "Am I going to walk the walk?" Because should you choose to go to the surface, you could put incense on the emperor's altar and you were free to go every day. What do you tell your children? "Grandpa, will we ever see the sun again?"

"I don't know."

"Are we going to die?"

"Maybe."

When the Rabbi says, "Come, follow me," sometimes the path leads here. 

Listen to the Book. "What more can I say? I do not have time to tell you about Gideon and Barak and Sampson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the Prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouth of lions, quenched the fury of flames, and who escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned into strength, and who became powerful in battle. Women received back their dead, raised to life. Others were tortured and refused to give in to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection." 

"Some faced jeers and flogging while others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sawed in two. They were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground."

"The world didn't deserve them." That's God's words for these brave, nameless followers of the Rabbi. 

How far would you go to be like him? How long would you stay here? Maybe this is why they memorized Scripture so they could sit in the darkness and recite.

But listen to the next verse. That chapter in Hebrews describes all the great heroes of the Jewish people and then on into the Christian era at the beginning. And after all that, this amazing verse. "All of these are commended for their faith. Yet none of them received what was promised. For God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would their work be made perfect."

People, they didn't come here and live down here for days, weeks, months, and maybe years at a time just because they wanted to go to Heaven. They came down here because they wanted to pass this on to you. Their work isn't finished. It's our job to finish what they did. 

Hold up your Bible. Do you know the price they paid so that you could have this book and this faith? They were willing to be here and to suffer for you. They never met you. What are you going to do with this? What will you say when you meet them someday and they say, "I paid the ultimate price to pass the faith to you. What's your story?"

I cannot face them and say, "I wasted it."

There's one more piece. People say, "I'm not suffering."

Jesus said, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you if you are my followers." 

"I'm not suffering." I think that's a Greek, a Hellenistic, a humanistic way to look at it because it reduces it to me. 

Say these words after me. The body is a unit made of many parts. Though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with the Messiah. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If I say I'm not suffering, it means that I do not see my brothers and sisters who are suffering as part of the body. 

See, what Jesus said is, "My body will suffer." Sometimes it will be the toe or the finger or the ear. 

Tell me if someone were to hit your finger with a hammer, hard, that you would say, "I'm not suffering. It's only my finger." The fact that you and I do not cry and ache for brothers and sisters around the world tells me that we've lost the sense of community. People, we are suffering.

When Jesus said, "You will suffer if you are my disciples," he didn't necessarily mean you and you and you.  He meant you [all]. And not only you [all] but you [all Christians]. We are suffering big time.

I have a student who became a very good friend. Rebecca, would you be willing to tell us a bit of your story?

Rebecca: Yes. I'm Rebecca. I'm from southern Sudan. I moved there when I was two. And on the way, my mom passed away. I cannot remember her face. There was a war between southern Sudanese and Arabs in the north. So my dad went to the frontline in 1993. He was killed there. I was shocked. I didn't know what to do. So my friends just held my hand and they were like, "It's okay." 

Not only did I face a lot of difficulties through the running, but I saw people being killed at church in Karpasia. I remember it was Sunday afternoon, and the government bombed the church. We were praying in there, so we ran out. And as I was running out approaching the woman that was our neighbor, the bomb landed and it exploded and cut her head off. 

I saw her running, and I was confused - because I was six years old - to see somebody running and their head was not there. All I could see was blood coming out. Then the sister of the lady that lost her head grabbed my hand and said, "Will you still want to die for Jesus and be like her? Because I'm old now and you see what just happened to her."

I went like, "Yeah."

Ray Vander Laan: And you were walking across the desert?

Rebecca: We were walking-- sometimes I walked and sometimes they carried me because I was so little at that time.

Ray Vander Laan: What did you see while you were walking?

Rebecca: I saw some wild animals like lions and hyenas eating people. At the time, the hyenas didn't used to eat people. But they got wild because there were a lot of dead bodies lying around. So they became wild and started eating people.

And one of my friends that used to play with me, she died that way. 

Ray Vander Laan: Did you see all this?

Rebecca: I did not see. I was sleeping. I just heard the screaming and, boom, she was gone. And then they told me. I could only see the blood, and they said she was gone.

Ray Vander Laan: What's it like to leave home all of a sudden because the danger is coming?

Rebecca: You just run because you never plan it. They attack you and you have to run like that and hope that God will help you like the people that he helped a long time ago or you would be gone and know that you are dying for what you believe in.

Ray Vander Laan: So fellow disciples, are we suffering? Yeah. How do you feel that it was her turn to be the part of the body that suffered? Tell me you can take that lightly and not walk out of here determined more than anything else in the world to walk behind the Rabbi with everything you've got.

What a price she paid to be the part of the body that was suffering, in a sense, so that this part didn't have to. Rebecca, I want to ask you one more question. You look at us. None of us have faced what you've faced. We feel one with you. We bless God that you're in the body, that you're one of the disciples. We are honored we can even be here with you. What would you ask of us? What would you ask from us?

Rebecca: What I would ask probably is don't forget about your Christian body that is suffering. Don't forget. I've been wondering about why did I have this happen to me. My mom is dead, my dad. And I don't want my baby to go through it. Without my life, she would be there with me. She just turned three years old this summer and she started going to school now. And I managed to raise her with my foster parents. I agreed that after school, I have time to play with her, bathe her, put her to bed, read her a bedtime story.  And seeing that being the only thing she knows now. 

My challenge to you today as a group and to me, too, is to think about we are not here by chance. There's another time I would just think how good a neighbor had been to me. All I know is that I believe he is the only God with all my heart. May I pray for the group?

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for all the body that you've got me in. I thank you, Lord, for all the beautiful things you gave me, coming to this land. I've never seen a cave like this. And it's all your beauty. 

Lord, may you help me in my life to not even have a single thing that I should complain, because all you have is beauty. And I thank you for the body that is all around me. May I always praise you. I know that you are beautiful no matter what comes my way. May I always praise your name and give me a smile to light up all of the beauty you have for me. 

Bless us, Lord and let us carry on what you want us to do. Take away what we add in. And give us wisdom. Amen.

Ray Vander Laan: Don't forget about us. And that's the echo I hear in this little church, 20 stories underground with a little cross on the wall. As if our ancient brothers and sisters - like our 21st-century sister - are saying, "Don't forget about us." 

They're not asking you to take their place. They're asking you not to forget. Because they're willing to suffer so that all of us can be more faithful to Jesus. And I ask you again, can you do anything, can I do anything but walk out of here with a fire in our chest to walk with the Rabbi with every ounce we've got?

He called us to be talmidim. We've come a long way in this study. We've learned about passion. We've learned about the text, Scripture. We've learned about community. It's really about becoming like Jesus. And this woman has shown us, in a way. So I come back to my original question. How badly do you and I want to be like Jesus? As badly as the people here? As intensely as they did? As intensely as Rebecca? 

I think we dabble in discipleship. I think discipleship for us is an interesting possibility. A few minutes a week. It's a walk every single minute of every day. And remember, he chose us. Because he believes in us. 

Say these words after me. Whoever is in him must walk as Jesus walked. "Come," he said. "Follow me."