Here at Backyard Conversations, One Hundred-Fold Ministry’s blog site, as well as on our podcasts found at Kingdom Offerings, I have commonly noted how big and mysterious the subject of the Kingdom of God is. Even in our last blog, I noted that when teaching in the Kingdom Parables, it wasn’t Jesus intention to be mysterious, it is simply that the Kingdom of God is mysterious.

All the time – excuse me, I meant to say ALL THE TIME! – there are infinite things happening that our finite eyes cannot see. Weirdly, I think because this world is all that we can see, we tend to think of our world as concrete or substantial, even permanent. But the realest reality is the reality of the Kingdom of God. Though unseen by our worldly, finite eyes, the Kingdom of God is eternal, and therefore, so very far more substantial. I have told my church that in just 75 years, most likely someone will want to come and knock down this very nice building (that by then won’t be so nice!) and put up condos or a gas station on our six acres. Everything in this world is passing away:

1 John 2:15-17
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

That being the case, the Apostle Paul encouraged us to set our mind, our vision, on things above:

Colossians 3:2
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

We need to see with “the eyes of our heart” if we are to see the powers and principalities that are raging around us in a Spiritual realm. That is why, following his telling of the Matthew 13 Parable of the Sower (which we looked at in our last blog on Feb 3rd) Jesus then follows it up with two parables about “Bigger Things Than You Can Ever Imagine.”

Jesus, finding it hard to communicate a brand new spiritual paradigm (The Kingdom of God/Heaven) to his disciples, He used stories to capture their imagination and to spur them to ask questions:

Matthew 13
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
³¹ Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, ³² which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

The Parable of the Leaven
³³ Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”

These parables each lead us to imagining that what we can initially see with our worldly eyes (small seeds and a tiny bit of leaven), are only a foreshadow of what is to come in his Kingdom.

This spiritual nearsightedness is something that plagues us moment by moment. Especially when we read about tragic things in the world. We take the initial story of martyred Christians and despair while forgetting that God has bigger purposes than we can see on our own.

To this point, perhaps you remember that on February 14th, ten years ago, a terrible international tragedy happened when ISIS militants killed 21 Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach. Now a decade later, God is using His grace and power to accomplish more than we could ask or think through the lives and deaths of these faithful souls.

Check out this Breakpoint story that is featuring a movie dedicated to their memory and ministry:
https://breakpoint.org/the-21-telling-the-story-of-the-men-martyred-on-a-libyan-beach-a-decade-ago/

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“In 2015, ISIS murdered 21 Christian migrant workers on a beach in Libya. This is the story of the men who died, as told by those who loved them and those who hated them.” That is the opening line of a new, short animated film The 21. This past weekend marked the tenth anniversary of the mass-martyrdom, made public by a video released by ISIS that showed the brutal beheading of men lined up and dressed in orange jumpsuits.

The history of the Coptic Orthodox Church goes back to Mark, the apostle and author of the Gospel who first brought the Christian faith to Egypt. According to tradition, Mark was arrested in Alexandria on Easter Day of AD 68 and dragged to his death. Thus, he is considered both the father of the Coptic Church and the first of the Coptic martyrs, a group of millions that The 21 joined a decade ago.

In fact, just twenty of The 21 were Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians. The twenty-first man was a Christian man from Ghana, who was also captured by Isis during a separate raid. When given the opportunity to be released, he refused, saying that the God of “the twenty” was his God. In fact, the entire group of 21 were given numerous opportunities for release. Like millions of martyrs before them, they needed only to deny Christ and be spared. Over weeks, they were beaten, sleep deprived, and worked until exhaustion.

In the end, they were martyred one at a time. ISIS hoped that at least some of The 21 would deny their faith after seeing what was done to the others. None did. As the film says, “all died with the name of Jesus on their lips.”

The 21 is a film project of More Productions, founded by Mark Rogers and led by filmmaker and attorney (and Colson Fellow) Mandi Hart. This 13-minute animated short was created in the style of Coptic iconography. The imagery is striking, beautiful, and captivating. Over 70 artists from 24 countries worked to create this beautiful tribute to Christ and those who died rather than deny Him.

In an article entitled “What is Worth Dying For?,” Rogers described what inspired the project for him:


The idea for the use of animation came to me from a photo of one of the martyrs, Kirollos Shokry Fawzy, and a well-known icon from an Egyptian monastery which I have in my office. The icon is called Christ the Pantocrator.  

The Coptic (Egyptian) communion considers itself the “church of the martyrs” and has experienced persecution since its founding in the First Century. Coptic men and women tattoo crosses on their wrists to identify themselves in case they are killed. They are often vulnerable to attacks by extremists, especially in rural areas. Copts have a rich and ancient culture, including a unique form of Iconography, which has a cartoon-like aesthetic. Rather than produce a traditional documentary, or (even more challenging) a scripted film, we decided to allow what is otherwise unseen by human eyes be seen through the use of icon-inspired animation.

In 2019, the Colson Center recognized Mama Maggie with the William Wilberforce award. This wonderful servant of Christ has dedicated her life to feeding, educating, and caring for street children in Egypt. Many of The 21 martyred on that Libyan beach had been educated in the schools founded by Mama Maggie. Their testimony of faithfulness, even until death, not only was brought before the entire world, thanks to the evil intent of their persecutors filming their execution, but now again because of this animated short film. In fact, their story was brought before the Academy of Motion Pictures, and the film has been short-listed for an Oscar.

This weekend, in honor of the tenth anniversary of their execution on the beach, The 21 can be viewed for free on YouTube. Learn more about the film and this remarkable story at The21Film.com. And please, spread the word about this film.

What ISIS intended for evil, God is still using to proclaim to millions the name of His Son.

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I hope you will find deep encouragement in visiting this brief film. Remember, as Jesus taught us so long ago, ALL THE TIME, there are bigger things going on than we can ever imagine!

This is Dave Scherrer. Thanks for checking out Backyard Conversations today!