LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 118

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His being is not by creation, as angels and men are;
or by adoption, as saints; or by office, as magistrates;
but by nature, being His own Son, His proper Son,
the only begotten of the Father, of the same nature
with Him, being one with Him and equal to Him. As
the apostle John wrote, the main reason the Gospel
was written was to disclose this very secret about Jesus. It was to disclose the secret that Jesus is the true
Son of God (John 20:31). As stated in Heb. 5:5, the
Father said to Jesus, “You are my Son, today I have
begotten you.” This implies that Jesus is “begotten” as
the “Son of God” and serves as the high priest of His
people.

5:3). In light of this, I would like to talk with you about
the sufferings—the tragic circumstances and hostile
environments—the Church in Ethiopia has undergone
and the joy generated from that painful experience.

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This confession is what all the disciples of Christ
agreed on. They took Him, one and all, and acknowledged Him to be the Son of God, a phrase expressive
of His divine nature and distinct personality. They
indeed judged Him to be a prophet—but much more
than that, they judged Him, they owned Him, to be
the Christ, which takes in not only His prophetic
office but also all of His other offices. They declared
Him to be the promised Messiah. This is another
ground on which Jesus has built His Church.
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Jesus as the Cornerstone
Peter affirms in his first epistle that Jesus is the
cornerstone that carries this whole foundation. He
stated, “You come to him a living stone rejected by
men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you
yourselves like living stones are being built up as a
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:4).
This text implies that Christ is the living stone. It also
implies that those who believe in Him are also living
stones. In a similar way, the apostle Paul stated to the
church in Ephesus, “You are built on the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself
being the cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). This text implies
that Christ Jesus is the cornerstone that carries
the foundation.
It is this cornerstone (Jesus) and our faith in Him that
sustain the Church to endure in the midst of suffering and persecution. More than that, it enables the
Church to rejoice in suffering, as Paul affirms based on
his personal experience: “We rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance” (Rom.
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Ibid.

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livingwordbible.org/Sermons/Matthew/Matthew16.13–18.pdf

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U P O N T H I S R O C K • Essay

REFLECTION ON THE SUFFERINGS OF THE EECMY

As the EECMY is a church born in the midst of opposing circumstances and has walked a painful path
since the days of her formation, in confrontation with
various forces of evil working against her, reflecting
on the experience of this church would better demonstrate the practicality of the above biblical teaching.
Thus we will deal with the faith journey of this
church, classifying that journey in two parts. The first
part discusses the joy in the experience of suffering.
This is what the church has gained during the severe
persecution by the Derg Communist Government of
Ethiopia. The second part deals with the blessings
that have followed—meaning the present flowering
growth of the church.
The Joy in the Experience of Suffering
The journey of the EECMY, from the days of her formation, has been full of strong confrontations owing
to opposing circumstances and challenging environments she has passed through. Especially horrible has
been the duration of suffering severe persecutions and
various sorts of trials that threatened her very survival.
Those days had moments of walking in the shadow of
death. This deep experience of suffering contributed
tremendously to the spiritual formation of the church.
On one hand, the horrible experience the church
underwent in those days was devastating and destructive. It involved the brutal action taken against
Christianity in general, the closing down of congregations, the banning of worship services, the detention
of many ministers, the severe trials and deaths of
many ministers and church leaders, and the loss of
church properties. It was a time when church properties were confiscated and the existence of God and
His Church totally denied. It was a time when many
believers were brutally tortured, beaten, harassed,
intimidated, fired from their jobs, detained, and
subjected to various other sufferings and trials. Those
evil times saw many leaders and ministers of the Gospel brutally tortured to death and many top leaders

“Rejoice—The Church Is Built on the Rock”