Acts 6
Heavenly Father, I ask that today as we open your word together, your Holy Spirit would be active and present and be applying your word to our hearts and our lives. Pray that as pastor Cameron delivers the message you've laid on his heart, pray that you would give him the filling of your Holy Spirit that he might speak your truth, that he might speak clearly and be in submission to your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Speaker 2:Amen. Good morning, church. How are you this morning? Good. It's good to see you all.
Speaker 2:Today, as pastor Luke said, we're gonna be continuing in our sermon series in the book of Acts. If you were here last week, we talked about the super encouraging story of Ananias and Sapphira, right, who dropped dead after lying deceitfully, and about all that that could possibly mean for us, for you, for the heart of God, for the church, for our sin, for repentance, and all of that. I would Right? Encourage you to go back and listen to that message on our YouTube page if you haven't if you weren't here last week. The thing about this coming week's message is that it is both equally, like, hard to hear and listen to and kind of process, and also encouraging and courage building and hopeful in the sense of the perseverance and the power of God's plan to build and establish His church no matter what and who comes against it.
Speaker 2:That no matter what Jesus says in Matthew chapter, I think it's 17, when he's talking to Peter, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the establishment of the confession as Jesus Christ is Lord. Okay? And so that's really what we're going to be talking about this morning. We're going be talking about this, the early period of the church in book of Acts, where they experience a pretty significant amount of opposition from the Jewish leaders in the area at that time. Okay?
Speaker 2:Talk about two kind of parallel events that happened. We're gonna be primarily in Acts chapter five today, but we're also gonna kinda be dipping our toes into Acts chapter four, to talk about part of the story that we didn't talk about earlier. In Acts chapter five, after the story of Ananias and Sapphira, verses 12 through 16 of Acts chapter five, really the writer of that passage, Luke, I think was just trying to more further establish for the readers and kind of in a historical way, further establish the way in which the church, that body of believers was building, was growing, and how, because of the power of the Spirit that was working through the apostles, that it was creating a lot of buzz and a lot of excitement. And similar to the ministry of Jesus, a large crowd of people were beginning to pay attention to what it was that Peter and John and the other apostles were doing. So much so, it says that so many people were getting delivered, so many people were getting healed, So many people were getting set free.
Speaker 2:It says that the crowds were coming. People coming to Jesus by the thousands, and that they were so bought into and believed in the power of the spirit through the work of the apostles that they would bring people who were sick and lay them on the ground, just hoping that as Peter walked by them, that his shadow would touch them in healing. Right? Now, you believe about that is beside the point. Right?
Speaker 2:We know that Jesus is the one that brings healing. And just like the woman with the issue of blood earlier in the gospel, where she just got hope that she could touch the hem of his garment and be healed, people were expressing faith in the power of God that all they needed to do was to pass by the shadow of one that was filled with the spirit of God and they themselves would be healed. It was a tremendous point in the in like, tremendous moment in the history of the church where people were, like, falling under conviction of sin and coming to faith in Jesus Christ. But this this kind of popularity, I guess you would say, began to attract attention and sometimes the wrong type of attention. In the same way that Jesus' ministry attracted the wrong type of attention, the ministry of the apostles began to attract a type of attention from the Jewish leaders that, whether or not the apostles wanted it or not, remains to be seen, but it was there.
Speaker 2:If you look at Acts chapter five, verse 17, it says, The high priest rose up, and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, who were with him were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. It's an interesting way. I don't know. It's like a commentary into the heart condition of the member of the Sadducees and the greater ruling, governance of the the Jewish nation, which we'll talk about here in a in a moment, Luke was almost like giving a commentary about their heart.
Speaker 2:They were responding to the growing mass of people who were following Jesus because there was some sort of jealousy within their heart. They they like, there was something that was happening here that they wanted, either they wanted to be a part of or that they wanted to be the ones leading this type of revival style ministry in the Jewish nation, but they were kind of on the outside. And these unschooled, unlearned boys who had followed this poor rabbi around the area for the last three years were effectually healing people in His name. And so their response to this growing ministry was not to come alongside and be like, Hey, can you tell us a little bit more about what are you doing, and what's happening, and what's going? We're really curious.
Speaker 2:We're we're we're here holding space in the spirit of curiosity to see what this thing is all about. They're like, nah, to jail. Directly to jail. Right? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Straight to jail. You know? Like, no not talking about it at all. Go to jail. And that's what they did.
Speaker 2:It says that they arrested the apostles, Peter and John specifically, and put them in jail. But listen, this is not the first time that Peter and John had a run-in with the Jewish leaders, and it was not the first time that they were put in jail. Okay? This was not new to them. In fact, in Acts chapter four, they had already it's almost like, am I reading the same story?
Speaker 2:They had already experienced the same thing. Now we're gonna talk about what that was, but first, I wanna give, like, a very a a kind of brief I don't know. Not a history lesson, as much as it is just like information about who we're actually talking about. You'll see in the New Testament quite a bit, both in Acts, some of the letters, the gospels, reference to the Sanhedrin. And it's important that you understand who the Sanhedrin are.
Speaker 2:The Sanhedrin was a 71 member Jewish religious cultural ruling class. It would have been like if the House of Representatives and the Senate were all and the Supreme Court and the executive branch and all branches of our government were kind of smashed into one big group and led the whole of the country from both a religious standpoint, but also a cultural standpoint, this would have been the kind of counterpart of the Sanhedrin to the Jewish people. There was three main groups that made that made up the Sanhedrin. There was the chief priests, who was kind of like the aristocracy. They were the high class people, and they were made up of the chief priests were mainly made up of a sect of Jewish people called Sadducees.
Speaker 2:Okay? And the Sadducees were we hear a lot of times people say like, oh, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, thinking that they were the same. They were actually very different from one another. Okay? Pharisees and Sadducees were like sometimes as different as like Democrats and Republicans.
Speaker 2:Okay? Or whatever modern day, like, distinction you want to make. Okay? The Sadducees were the chief priests. Then there was elders.
Speaker 2:You'll see this referenced in the New Testament a lot. They were really like respected laymen, usually from very important families, respected families in the Jewish nation. And then the third group was the scribes and the teachers. They were the legal and theological experts. Most of them were Pharisees.
Speaker 2:So most of them belonged to that specific sect or group within Judaism. And they really ran everything in ancient Jerusalem, in ancient Israel. They had authority over religious laws, civil disputes. They could order arrests and punishments. Though in their current situation under Roman occupation, they couldn't carry out the death penalty without Roman approval, which is why we see them have to go to who?
Speaker 2:They have to go to Pontius Pilate. They have to get approval to crucify Jesus because they're occupied and ruled by the Romans, and so the Sanhedrin itself can't make that decision all on their own. So this is a group that runs through the history of Israel, and it's a group that Jesus dealt with, and it's a group that Peter and John and the other apostles dealt with, and it's gonna be a group that Paul dealt with and was a part of at one point. There's gonna be like, it's a it's a main body of people in the New Testament. Very important that we at least have an idea of what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:These are the people who were who were trying to, like, protect and establish the Jewish faith and religion. Well, this is not the first time that Peter and John had a run-in with the Sanhedrin. In chapter four, if we read in chapter four, verses one through we'll just read, I don't know, ten, eleven verses here. And as they were speaking, he's talking about Peter and John. Peter and John are preaching the message of healing and freedom through Jesus after Peter healed the lame man.
Speaker 2:And he says, And they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. Okay? Pharisees did have a theology of the resurrection. Sadducees were like, there's no such thing as resurrection.
Speaker 2:Okay? So the Sadducees in particular were were, at least it says, annoyed that Peter and John were preaching about the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about 5,000. So even in the midst of persecution and incarceration, people were still healing, hearing the word of God, the gospel, and they were responding affirmatively, and the church was growing despite the opposition they were experiencing.
Speaker 2:Verse five, on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, By what power or by what name did you do this? Did you heal this man? From chapter three. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well.
Speaker 2:This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders which has become the cornerstone, And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So like Peter, Peter was it's almost like Peter was like, just ask me the question. Just ask me. Like, he was ready. Right?
Speaker 2:He was, like, ready to go. He didn't have to think about what his answer was gonna be. It was written on his heart. Right? It was here.
Speaker 2:There was no like, oh, well, kind of you know, like, no. It was it was there. Right? And the very next verse is so powerful to me. Acts four thirteen says, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished.
Speaker 2:Listen. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. So the Sanhedrin were astonished at the courage of Peter and John, especially because they were uneducated, unschooled young men, no formal training, not chief priests or scribes or elders or teachers of the law, just bros. Just dudes. Right?
Speaker 2:But they took special note of one thing. These men were with Jesus. This is important. This is an important part. Okay?
Speaker 2:And hold hold that. Right? Okay. Hold that. So what was the response then to Peter's, like, bold claim back to the Sanhedrin?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's the name of Jesus, the one that you crucified but that God raised from the dead. He was the cornerstone that you builders were supposed to use, but you didn't, so I don't know what to tell you. And so the Sanhedrin replied they kind of responded, verse 17, says, But in order that this may spread no further among the people They didn't want this message going out. In the name of Jesus, right?
Speaker 2:But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them, Peter and John, to speak no more to anyone in this name. And so they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, listen, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and what we have heard. What was Peter and John's response in the midst of persecution?
Speaker 2:Well, in the midst of it, they were very clear. They weren't rude. They weren't even accusative. They didn't attack. They weren't even defamatory.
Speaker 2:They just said, Hey, listen, we got this commission from God. We believe that the son of the most high God has told us to go out into all of the real in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth and to proclaim that there is freedom in his name, that there is healing in his name, that there is forgiveness in his name. So you judge among yourselves, religious leaders of Judaism, whether or not it's right for us to obey you or whether it's right for us to obey God. Now whether that was said with sarcastic tone, like I would want to say it myself, or whether it was just like matter of fact, we don't really know. But what we do know is that it was just plain.
Speaker 2:But we also know that they didn't necessarily walk away in that moment with this sense of moral or spiritual superiority. That's not the way in which the text reads. In fact, the next section in chapter four of the book of Acts is that the apostles, I think, recognizing the gravity and the weight of what they would be facing went right into prayer. They recognized that this is not something under our own power or our own motivation or our own strength or our own plan or our own provision that we can do on our own. We see now the weight of all that is official in the religious world is beginning to press down.
Speaker 2:What is our response? We can fight back, swords and clubs and knives and fire, or their choice? Just go to prayer. If you just read the prayer, it says they gathered together all of the community, verse 23 through 30 in Acts four. When they were released from prison after being scolded by the Sanhedrin and told, Don't say anything more in his name, okay?
Speaker 2:When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. Verse 24, chapter four, When they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, 'Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father, David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and his anointed. So what they were saying is like, Lord, we know that you have prophesied, or it has been prophesied already, that the kings and the nations of the Gentiles will rage, and they will plot for the destruction of your anointed, but they will do so in vain. Why do the Gentiles rage and people plot in vain against the anointed?
Speaker 2:And they go on to pray, for truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. What what do they want? Lord, Lord, consider their threats. Okay.
Speaker 2:Not ignoring their threats. They're being considered. Right? Now fill us with courage and boldness to speak the name of Jesus. Why?
Speaker 2:So that wonders are performed in His name. Reach out your hand to heal, signs and wonders performed in the name of your holy servant, Jesus. Verse 31, he goes on to say that when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Okay? So listen, this is not this was the first instance of what happened.
Speaker 2:And so when you come over to Acts chapter five, you recognize that this is not a foreign experience for Peter and John and the apostles. It says in Acts chapter five, that remember that they were jealous in verse 17. And so they arrested the apostles and put them, it says, in public prison. There's a form of prison that was out in the courtyard for everyone to see. Everyone look at these criminals.
Speaker 2:It was meant to, similar to the way that a Roman cross was meant not to just kill someone, but to make them they would hang them naked in order to increase their public shame. Public jail was a way in which they tried to shame the person in the midst of punishing them. Shame as a part of punishment for all to see. But what happens next, is a miracle that never really gets answered in the story. He says in chapter five, verse 20 I'm sorry, during in verse 19, But during the night they were in this public jail.
Speaker 2:But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, 'Go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.' And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to preach. So the angel of the Lord comes to them, and it was like, okay, door unlocked, you out, go back into temple courts, keep going, guys. Keep preaching the name. Keep keep saying his name. Like, miracles, signs, wonders, healing, freedom.
Speaker 2:Preach the name that brings life. Well, there was this sense of, like, the next morning when the high priest came, verse 21, and those were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel. They're like, okay, we're getting we're gonna bring these guys in. We're gonna read them the riot act once again. They called to the prison to have them brought, verse 22, but when the officers came, they did not find them in prison, so they returned and reported, yeah.
Speaker 2:So funny story. We got there, and we found the prison securely locked and all of the guards standing at the doors. But when we opened them, we found no one inside. And so then there was this whole, like, scene of confusion. Where did these men go?
Speaker 2:Until someone was like, ah, isn't that them out in the temple courts doing the thing that we told them not to do and lock them away for it? It's like, indeed it was. Right? Indeed it was. So in verse 27 of chapter five, it says, They brought them in, they set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them.
Speaker 2:Now, I'm not a high priest, and I don't really jive with them, but I would have some questions in that moment. Right? Chief among the questions would be what? How did you get out of jail? Right?
Speaker 2:How'd you get out? Who let you out? Who is conspiring with you against me to let you do this? And and what's clear is that jealousy and pride was still the main motivating factor of their heart in this moment, because the most obvious question that a normal person would have never even gets mentioned in the rest of the story. They never even come back to this idea of, Hey, how did you get out?
Speaker 2:They just kind of barge right into it. We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Very, very clearly, there was this sense that they were like this when it comes to the things of God that was happening. Right? That that heaven breaking into history in that moment in the person of Jesus.
Speaker 2:That signs and wonders and healings. Right? That freedom, that bondage being broken of those possessed by the enemy, right? That physical healing, mental healing, being like all of the They were just like, Ah, gotta be something else. Got to be something else.
Speaker 2:Right? Like, you just got to stop preaching in this name. You got to stop doing this. And so they accused them, says, We gave you strict orders not to teach in his name. You filled Jerusalem with this teaching and determined to make us guilty of this man's blood.
Speaker 2:So what do they do? They both like people who are usually pretty emotionally immature, spiritually immature, and conviction comes upon their heart that they don't wanna deal with. The Sanhedrin in this moment or high priest who is speaking, deflected responsibility. You can't make us responsible for the shedding of this man's blood, even though we were the ones that were responsible for the shedding of this man's blood. Right?
Speaker 2:It's it it well, why why why are you trying to make us guilty about this? Peter's like, gosh. You did it, bro. Like, I don't know. Like, what do you want me to tell you?
Speaker 2:Like, it was your responsibility. You're the one that made the decision. And so they deflected, right? And then the accused, This is your fault. You guys are the ones that are creating all this uproar, creating all of this issue.
Speaker 2:We have gave you strict orders not to teach in His name, but you are filling Jerusalem with this teaching. You're trying to make it about us. What was Peter's response? You might say Peter could get into some kind of response of defending himself or attacking back or calling out their hypocrisy or whatever the case may be, his response, I feel, like I read it, and it sounds to me like Peter is once again giving. He's preaching the gospel to the Sanhedrin one more time as an invitation to receive by faith and come into repentance.
Speaker 2:Right? He says this, verse 29, But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men.' Verse 30, The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. Peter's response is to give, again, full expression to the gospel in very clear terms, inviting them, the listeners, to repent, to be forgiven, and to receive the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:The same pattern that has been repeated through all of Peter's preaching. Gospel, repent unto forgiveness, receive the Holy Spirit. Gospel, repent unto forgiveness, receive the Holy Spirit. Hey Sanhedrin, you hung him on a tree. In his mercy, repent for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit as well, all who obey him.
Speaker 2:Right? And so this obviously, they, this went over like a lead balloon for them. And a Pharisee by the name of Gamaliel kind of saw the ruckus that was beginning to happen. Right? It says in verse 33, When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
Speaker 2:But verse 34, But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to the men to go outside for a little while. And Gamaliel made what is like probably one of the most like foreshadowing speeches or statements to the Sanhedrin that we are still experiencing the verdict from. Okay? Because Gamaliel said, hey, listen, guys, guys, we've seen this before. So Peter and John are put out of the room, and he addresses the rest of the other 70 people, the other 70 members of the Sanhedrin.
Speaker 2:He says, Listen, we've been here before. We had this guy that rose up in power, drew a bunch of people to himself, and then he was killed and people scattered. Right? It's no more. Then we had this guy do the same kind of thing, said the same kind of things, maybe even some miracles surrounding him.
Speaker 2:But then he was killed and all of his followers scattered. And we don't even talk about them anymore either. Right? Like, listen, this is probably just like one of those things. Right?
Speaker 2:The more attention we give it, the more like things are gonna be stirred up. And he's like, and listen. The the the real reality is is this. So in this present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking of man is is of man, it will they'll fail.
Speaker 2:Right? But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God or in opposition to God. So in a moment of, like, I don't know, maybe it's just like reductionist logic, the Sanhedrin says they took his advice and just kind of, like, let it be. Alright?
Speaker 2:Christianity, really in its most bullet pointed form, was built to fail. Okay? It was a movement built to fail. God comes from heaven where He has like supreme authority and power over all He's the agent of creation, and he decides to become a man with, like, real needs and flesh and bones and, like, walk on this earth. Like, that seems Wait a second.
Speaker 2:But He wasn't royalty? God chose to be poor? He chose to be born to a virgin in a scandalous way with not a real dad? That's the story? That's your story?
Speaker 2:You're telling me that God then allowed himself to be arrested, unjustly tried, and then killed in the most shameful way and shameful and painful way in that modern era? You're telling me that, like, before he did that, that when he was thinking about, like, how he really gets this thing going, that he chose 12 prepubescent fishermen boys, uneducated, unschooled, no professionalism, no sense of, like, direction, obviously dealing with their own insecurities? You're telling me that one of the, like, some of the main premises of this Christian faith is that the first will actually be the last, and that the last will be the first. And you want you want people to love their enemies and pray for people who persecute them? You're telling me that I have to hold my tongue to be a follower of Jesus and act with patience and kindness and ultimately love?
Speaker 2:You're telling me that the God of all heaven appeared first to, in a very patriarchal society, appeared first to women who were the first witnesses to his resurrected body and proclaimed his resurrection first? Listen, there was nothing about Christianity in comparative comparatively to other systems of religion or belief or power that would have been like, Yeah, that is a belief system purpose built to conquer kingdoms and establish the rule and reign of God. You would have been like, This is a poor beggar's religion that will get crushed by the Romans. The ethics of this are completely backwards. They're just gonna spend their whole lives in generosity and service and emptying of themselves and picking up their cross and loving their neighbors, and you're telling me that it's gonna beat, it's gonna overpower the Roman government, the Roman empire?
Speaker 2:But it did. So Gamaliel gave us the test. And if this thing is from God, you will not be able to defeat it. If it's from man, Gamaliel gave us the test. History has given us the verdict.
Speaker 2:In every era, in time of history, in every period, in every corner of the world, Christianity has been tried and has been found to fulfill. It has been virtually every system of government and virtually every man made apparatus of power has tried to, in some ways, suppress the growth of the followers of Jesus, and yet it continues to grow. Paul said in one Corinthians that God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. The very thing that the world said would never work, would never grow.
Speaker 2:It's like that is the very thing that God put his power into and has grown to overcome all other things. Listen, if you hear one thing in both Gamaliel's response and Peter and John's boldness, it's this, the mission and movement of God that is his church cannot be stopped. It cannot. It will not be stopped. But listen, it it doesn't mean that, like, the prevailing of the church happens, like, smooth without any friction at all.
Speaker 2:Right? Because in the very next verses, the Sanhedrin is like, okay, Gamaliel, we we believe you. That's how we're gonna go. So did you do they just let Peter and John go? No.
Speaker 2:They're like, but we're getting ours. We are getting ours. And so it says that they they did what? So they took his advice, and when they had called the apostles in, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Some, some translations will say that they flogged them or they they whipped them.
Speaker 2:Now Peter and John, after experiencing that punishment, could have very easily said, well, man, like, if this thing was from God, like, if this was true, then why would I be getting pun why would I be experiencing all this, like, opposition? Why would it be so difficult? Why would there be pain? Why would there be suffering? Why would there be punishment?
Speaker 2:If this were were thing were were really from God, it would just be like smooth sailing all the way straight up into heaven. Right? But instead, in verse 41, says that they were flogged, right? And then they left the presence of the council, this is incredible, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. What is interesting here is that in ancient near eastern times, there existed, as there does in still areas of the world today, slaves, k, and slave owners.
Speaker 2:And one way in which a slave was known to property of a slave owner is that each slave would have the mark on them of their master. And so when you saw someone else saw that mark, they would know that that person identifies as the servant or the slave of the master whose mark is on them. Right? And we know that Jesus himself in his passion before he was crucified and before he was hung on the cross himself experienced the same punishment that Peter and John here did. He was flogged, why?
Speaker 2:40 minus one time. He was whipped in the same way. And so the same scars and marks that Jesus had on his body, Peter and John now got to receive as well. And they did not see these things as some type of like punishment from God or as some type of thing that indicated that they were somehow not doing God's will. What they walked out of that room being like, we have the marks of our master on us.
Speaker 2:Like, we we now like like, can you believe that we have been counted worthy of being known as his, that we can wear the same marks? We have suffered like he has suffered. We have been counted worthy of the name. What the world thought was a punishment for Peter and John, the apostles saw as a reward, as a gift from heaven that identified them with Jesus as their master and savior. Peter later wrote in his epistle, one Peter four thirteen, he says, Rejoice in actually, what version do I have up here?
Speaker 2:I'm not sure I get it. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Okay? So Peter, in reflection of what he experienced here, wrote this to those who are also experiencing persecution because of the name of Jesus.
Speaker 2:They listen. It is the it is the it is the glory of God that rests upon you when you receive suffering because of his name. Wear the master's marks with pride. K? See, the Western world, Christians especially in the Western world, it's my opinion.
Speaker 2:It's a little bit of a soapbox opinion, so just bear with me for a second. K? Christians in the Western world, that would include us, I think need to rightly and more accurately measure what they consider to be persecution. Okay. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Because we make accusations of being persecuted quite often in the Western world, and it's usually when someone doesn't like our opinion. Okay? But we the Christian faith is not a faith that is separated by borders or languages or cultures or nationalities or geography or location. Meaning you are a brother and sister of believers in Jesus Christ in the African Continent, in the Asian Continent, in Europe, in South America, right?
Speaker 2:Anywhere that we find people who believe in, who have trusted Jesus Christ for their salvation, right? They are your brother. They are your sister. They are a part of this church. You are a part of their church.
Speaker 2:You belong to the same body. We are one together with one another. What happens to them should grieve us. What is joyful about their life should cause celebration for us and vice versa. Right?
Speaker 2:We are not separated from them by anything other than maybe culture, geography, language. We are united together with them in one in the same spirit, one in the same Lord, one in the same baptism. And for the majority, listen, for the majority of our brothers and sisters in the world, persecution is the norm, not the exception. Do you realize that your experience of Christianity is the exception, not the norm. It's the exception.
Speaker 2:A few stats. The most recent 2026 report puts the number of Christians actively experiencing persecution on a day to day basis as three eighty eight million currently facing daily persecution. This is not just like, Oh, they took my Facebook post down. Give me a break. This is people who are being arrested, kidnapped, abused, raped, forced into marriages, and yes, obviously killed.
Speaker 2:The number of countries in the world ranked as conducting extreme or very high persecution has risen from 23 countries in 2015 to 55 countries in 2023. That persecution is driven primarily by Islamic extremism, authoritarian regimes, and war. North Korea has topped the list for twenty three consecutive years, followed by nations like Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. You might have read or heard kind of most recently in the news is the nation of Nigeria, where Christians are being literally slaughtered by the thousands, by Islam extremists. And so the stats really don't lie, is that the church is experiencing the most actual persecution on the Continent Of Africa.
Speaker 2:But listen, the church is experiencing the most explosive and powerful growth on the Continent Of Africa. More than anywhere else in all of the world, the Continent Of Africa is exploding with growth and those who are following Jesus. There is a miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit that is happening across the whole of the continent, that even in the midst of significant and severe real persecution, that Jesus is drawing men, women, and children to Himself. That there is that like where there is suffering for His name, His presence is rushing in. And it's those people, those believers, whose love for the Lord and hunger for the Lord and thirst for the Lord and passion for obedience and passion for mission to the world is the strongest because the stakes are so high.
Speaker 2:We don't like to hear this, but persecution in the Christian faith is the norm. Comfort is the anomaly. Jesus said, The world will hate you because of me. This was not just like a, Yeah, it might. The world will hate you because of me.
Speaker 2:What's your comfort level in your faith? Usually our comfort level is somehow almost directly proportionate and connected to the passion with which we follow and obey the Lord. Right? Because as I I pour myself out passionately and obediently to follow that which I know the Lord has called me to, I get look pretty weird from the rest of the world. And the world's, what is that?
Speaker 2:What do you see? Like, what are you doing? Like, why? And and you see, like, the whole system begins to turn. Like the world begins to hate.
Speaker 2:Okay? But take heart, Jesus says, for I have overcome the world. Okay? These are things that we this is not one of the maybe one of those inspirational type of sermons, kind of like last week's Ananias and Sapphira. But listen, sometimes what we need is we need our eyes open to spiritual realities.
Speaker 2:Okay? And there is an enemy at work in the world that seeks to destroy all of the sons and daughters of the father. Okay? And not just destroy it by like, oh, my car broke down. Oh, persecution.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry if your car broke down. I will pray for you. Like, I get it. Like, just it's I'm making I'm trying to make a point. Right?
Speaker 2:But I made my point so bad, I can't even remember my point now. Yeah. Yeah, you get it, okay? But sometimes what has to happen is we have to have our that's what I was saying. All right, I'm back.
Speaker 2:There is a spiritual reality going on in the world that we must have our eyes sometimes the Lord needs to reopen our eyes to understand that our comfort, one, is a gift. Okay? But two, our comfort should be a responsibility to pray for our brothers and sisters who are actively being persecuted and slaughtered because of the name. Okay? We need some some days we just need that awareness of like, oh, what do you mean?
Speaker 2:I don't have it hard? No, you don't. You have it well as it pertains to the name of Jesus. Okay? So we're going to pray this week for the persecuted church, our brothers and sisters who daily experience significant persecution all over the world, we're going to pray for the persecutors.
Speaker 2:Why? Because Jesus said to, and Jesus did. And the greatest persecutor of the early church in the book of Acts was a guy named Saul who converted and changed the world. Right? So we're going to pray for the persecutors that Jesus may intervene in their lives.
Speaker 2:I'm like talking miraculous level on the way to kill a Christian. Jesus meets them on the road, changes their heart and life. I still believe that Jesus heals and Jesus changes and Jesus transforms and Jesus shows up on roads to proverbial Damascus to change people's hearts. Okay? And pray that we may be, if you're bold enough, courageous enough, pray that we may be worthy of suffering for his name.
Speaker 2:Pray pray that we may be found worthy enough to suffer for the name. Lord, would you make me worthy? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for our brothers and sisters all around the world right now in this very moment, whether they are sleeping in their beds, whether they are worshiping, Lord. Lord, I pray for churches around the world right now who are literally worshiping in secret, in basements, in caves, in attics, in hidden rooms, Lord, afraid of being found, but boldly proclaiming their faith in you.
Speaker 2:Lord, I pray for their protection. Lord, I pray that You would make them invisible to other men and women who wish to do them harm. Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus against any scheme or plot of the enemy that would seek to destroy the sons and daughters of the father as they worship him this morning. Lord, we pray for those on their way to persecute, on their way to abuse, on their way to kidnap, on their way to hurt, on their way to kill, Lord, that you would overcome the hardness of their heart, that you would overcome their spiritual blindness, Lord, that you would open their eyes and that they would see nothing else but Jesus, Lord. Lord, would you overtake them.
Speaker 2:And that, Father, for us, that we would be found worthy of suffering for His name. Lord, that our lives would be marked by such a radical obedience to God, such a strong pursuit of holiness, Lord, that the world might not be able to do anything but hate us. Lord, so against the Lord, Lord, would you make our lives a reflection of your kingdom so much so that the kingdoms of this world in comparison are just riddled with a fence at the stench of Jesus that is on us. And, Lord, that we would be considered worthy of suffering for your name, Lord. We want the master's marks.
Speaker 2:May you make us servants, Lord, of you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Lord, your goodness runs after us. It runs after us even in the moment of our darkness and despair.
Speaker 2:Our wanting and wandering. Lord, your goodness. Lord, as an overflow of your love, just envelopes us in rich mercy. Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us. Lord, for the church in the Western world, we thank you for your goodness.
Speaker 2:Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters all around the world. Who's experiencing suffering for the name and pray lord your deliverance of them, your protection of them. Lord, we go from this place with hearts eager to love, eager to serve, either to be counted worthy of suffering for his name. In Jesus name, amen. Conduit, you are loved.
Speaker 2:Have a great week and we'll talk to you soon.
