Summary
Pastor Safrit walks through Acts 5:12-42, highlighting the cost of the gospel and the cycle of prayer, power, preaching, and persecution in the early church. He emphasizes that humility brings love, salvation, healing, and deliverance, while pride leads to opposition. The apostles demonstrate unwavering obedience to God despite persecution, rejoicing in their suffering for Christ. The sermon encourages believers to embrace their brokenness as a means for God's light to shine through and to remain steadfast in sharing the gospel amidst challenges.
Welcome and Housekeeping
Thank you for listening to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church Sermon Audio. For more information, please visit our website, pgbcronda.com, or visit on all social media platforms. Amen.
Well, thank you for worshiping with us. We are going to be, if you have children, want to be dismissed to Children's Church, that is available for you at this time. And I'm excited to see them going, and excited for us to worship in the Word today.
If you have your Bibles, we're going to be in Acts chapter 5, verses 12 through 42.
So we'll cover about 30 verses today, and I hope the Lord will be a blessing to us as we study this and look through this as we are continuing our study in the book of Acts. We've looked at several different topics, and we're about halfway through the first half of the book.
So we're about a quarter of the way through, and we're excited to see what's sort of happened so far, right?
Jesus, he gave the mission to the church. When the church began living in transition, we got the first sermon, the response,
and the power of the gospel, and then the boldness that happens. And last week, we looked at the cost of holiness and what that looks like to be holy as Jesus or the disciples there rebuked someone for their lying, and ultimately there was a prescription of what happens when sin happens.
Today, we began to look at the cost of the gospel and what it means to serve the Lord and what that is going to happen in our lives. This is a transition here in the church as we begin to transition to what we're going to see in the next couple of weeks.
But we begin to see some persecution begin to happen as we look through this.
And so if you found your place there, Acts chapter 5, verses 12 through 42, we'll stand and we'll read that today.
Allie, will you get me a bottle of water out of my office? I forgot. Or Jade, yes, please. Great.
All right, let's stand and we'll read these verses, Acts chapter 5, verses 12 through 42. It says, Many signs and wonders were being done among the people through the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon's colonnade. No one else dared to join them, but the people spoke well of them.
Believers were added to the Lord and increased in numbers multitudes of both men and women.
As a result, they would carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
In addition, a multitude came together from the towns surrounding Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those who were tormented with unclean spirits and all were healed.
Verse 17, Then the high priest rose up. He and all that were with him who belonged to the party of the Sadducees were filled with jealousy. So they arrested the apostles and put them in public jail.
But the angel of the Lord appeared to them while the doors of the jail during the night, brought them out and said, Go and stand in the temple and tell the people all of this life. Hearing this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
When the high priest, who those were with him, arrived, they convened at the Sanhedrin, the full council of the Israelites, and sent orders to the jail to have them brought. And when the servants got there, they did not find the jail, so they returned and reported.
And we found the jail securely locked and the guards standing in front of the doors.
But we opened them and we found no one inside. And as the captain of the temple police and the chief priest heard these things, they were baffled about these things, wondering what could come of this. Sorry about that. Don't know what's going on.
Someone came and reported them, Look, these men that you put in jail are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Verse 26, Then the commander went with the servants and brought them without force because they were afraid that the people might stone them.
After they brought them in, they had them stand before the Sanhedrin. And the high priest asked, Didn't we strictly order you not to teach in this name?
Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood. Verse 29, I believe, is one of those pivotal verses. Peter and the apostles replied,
Obeying God Over Man
We must obey God rather than man. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you murdered and hanging him on a tree.
God exalted this man to the right hand as a ruler of the Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given him to obey. And when they heard these, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was respected by all people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered the men to be taken outside for a little while. He said to them, Men of Israel, be careful about what we're about to do to these men.
Some time ago, Theodos rose up and claiming to be somebody, and a group of about 400 men rallied to him.
He was killed and his followers were dispersed, and it came to nothing. And after this man, a man named Judas, the Galilean, rose up in these days in a census and attracted a following, he also perished and his followers were scattered.
So in this present case, I tell you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if it is this plan for this work of human origin, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God.
And they were persuaded by him. And after they called in the apostles and had them flogged, they ordered them not to speak of this name, Jesus, and be released. Verse 41 and verse 42, Then they went out from this presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the name.
Every day in the temple and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. Father, we love you.
Lord, we thank you for what you've done. And I pray, God, that you would have your will and way in this service. Help me as I preach with boldness, as Peter and the apostles did in the very first church. Help us to understand there is a cost to serving you.
And I pray, God, that you would help us this morning to honor you in everything we do. In your name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
As I began studying through these last couple of messages and began just processing, and I say it often, I like to meditate.
I like to go out in my building and just spend some time. This morning we were talking in Sunday school how it's time just to get away and release the distractions from around us.
And that's sort of where I go. And I look over at my messages and I begin to pray and prepare and seek the Lord and what he would have for us. And the Lord began to give me these couple of words as I began studying through this. But the church went through some cycles.
They went through some things that were going on. The first thing we see, the church began to meet in prayer. They began to meet and covet through prayer.
And then we see in the early church that power came among the church. The power came and they began to get up.
And after they had the power of the Holy Spirit, they began to preach the power of the Lord and preach the receiving of salvation to all those that were around them. And then ultimately we see persecution begin to happen. Well then, after persecution happens,
Cycle of Prayer and Power
the church meets and begins to pray again. This cycle of prayer,
power, preaching, and persecution happens all the way through the entire book of Acts. It is a cycle of the church praying, the Lord coming in and giving them power, giving them boldness,
them going out and then preaching. But ultimately after the preaching happens, persecution from the outside world comes in. And then the church doesn't run away, doesn't flee, doesn't begin to get away from the persecution. It bears into that and begins to pray and begins to seek the Lord again.
Begin to just think through that and begin to ask myself, is this the response that we have? Are we praying? Are we receiving the power from the Lord to go out with boldness? Is there preaching that's been done? And then ultimately when we do these things, there will be some type of pushback.
And how are we responding when that pushback comes? In a small village, years and years ago, a humble lantern maker named Elias, known for his craftsmanship, Elias created a lantern that illuminated the dark corners. This was before electricity. And one day a terrible storm struck and shattered windows. It toppled trees.
The wind was blowing so violently, it plunged the entire village into darkness. In the aftermath, Elias went and found his most prized lantern.
This lantern was handed down from his great-grandfather to his grandfather to his father and now to him. And he walked into his room and he saw on the ground this lantern that was a keepstake for all of his family, shattered and broken all on the floor. He was heartbroken.
He did not know what he was going to do. It was cracked. The frame was bent. He was disheartened. And he was discouraged in his life in this moment.
But determined, Elias gathered the pieces and began working carefully, putting the pieces back together, mending the frame, polishing it so it would look right. And he set it up and rekindled the flame. And after his best efforts, the lantern still bore scars all around. Cracks that couldn't be hidden.
Elias was disappointed and considering even throwing away this lantern that was a sake to all of his family. But when he lit the lantern that night, something unexpected happened.
Light began to shine not only through the glass, but it shone through the cracks and it cast a beautiful, unique pattern on the walls. What was once a sign of brokenness became a source of beauty.
It lighted up the place in a perfect beauty that not a perfect lantern would ever be able to do.
Elias realizing that the lantern, though it was marred, was more useful and more beautiful because of its imperfections.
And its light, get this, reached the corners that what previously was unable to touch. I think in many ways we are that lantern. Life storms begin to come in.
It leaves us cracked. It leaves us broken. And yet, through our weaknesses, through our humility, and through our dependence on Christ,
his light shines through us. His light begins to shine the brightest. As we look through Acts chapter 5, we begin to see the gospel enriching the poor, engaging, enraging the prideful, and energizing the faithful.
And today, I believe we begin to see this as we begin to humble ourselves and ask ourselves, what is it that God has for us? The question that God continued to bring to my mind this week was, how is God's light shining through your brokenness today? We've all been broken.
We've all been hurt. We've all have sources of struggle in our life.
Humility and the Gospel
And yet, the gospel says that it shines through our brokenness in order to reach the world.
As we begin to look at our first passage here, the first section of Scripture, verses 12 through 16, we begin to see the gospel enriches the poor in the Spirit. The gospel enriches the poor because we are beginning to see what happens when the gospel begins to work through our lives.
The apostles' ministry was marked by powerful signs. Man, there were wonders that were being done that is astounding that people were coming just so the shadow of the disciples would fall on them. But I love the response of the disciples.
They were humble and they were dependent on the Lord even through this. It says all through here that they were continuing to increase because of the Lord. It wasn't because of their own wonderful speeches. It wasn't because they were doing some mighty thing, but because the Lord was granting them favor.
I began to ask myself this question, how are we this morning?
Are we consumed by our own name and our own fame and our own name being lifted up and put into light so that we will be honored and glorified?
Or are we humbled to the point where we're saying, God, it doesn't matter what happens in my life. As long as you get the glory, that's all that matters.
You see, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 3, Blessed are the poor in the spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
Jesus is saying here that the poor in spirit, or we could use the word, the humble will inherit his kingdom. And oftentimes we must get to the place where we are humbling ourselves before the Lord and we are humbling ourselves and saying, God, what is it that you want me to do?
What is it that you need me to do in this situation? And I believe as we look through these couple of passages, these couple of verses, we'll see what humility brings. The first thing it brings is humility brings love.
I spent like 10 weeks preaching on 1 Corinthians 13 as we look through what a biblical view of love is.
And when we begin to humble ourselves, we begin to see love shine through in a great way. The early church was marked by what it says here. It says that they were sharing all things in common.
They began to look and say, what does this person have need of? How can I help them? What is this person struggling with?
How can I help them? I want to be the hands and the feet of the apostles. I want to work together as we begin to see God working mighty, mighty with different ways.
It says that as they did this, the people around them spoke well of them. Think about this.
Think about a family that encouraged you when you were growing up. This family, maybe they were always in one accord when you saw them in public. Now, in private, it may be completely different. But they were willing to sacrifice for one another.
They were willing to care for one another because they were willing to put their own pride and selfishness away in order for their family to succeed. Pride always blocks our love in our relationship. Pride will always step in and will always hinder our love in what we do.
When we begin to put ourselves on our own pedestal, we don't apologize. When we begin to put ourselves in a place of superiority, we begin to get to the place where we cannot humble ourselves and we cannot even ask for forgiveness or ask for care or ask for anything because we
believe that we can't do that. And humility begins to bring in this aspect of love that Christ says we must have in order for us to grow. Humility also brings salvation in verse 14.
Verse 14 continues on by saying that believers were added to the Lord and increased the numbers of both men and women. We see that when people are humbled, God begins to unleash his salvation power among the people that are around us.
As I was thinking through this, my mind went to the passage in Luke chapter 18. There are two people that come to the synagogue and Jesus is given the story.
He says there's this one man from the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin and he comes and he stands in the middle of the palace and he lifts his voice and he prays to God about how great he is and what he's done.
And he said there's this man who's a tax collector, someone who the world would have hated at this time. We don't like taxes either here.
And so we can sort of associate with this. And this tax collector comes and he says that he stands afar off, way far away from the synagogue. And he bows his head and he begins to pray. And the Bible says he beat his chest and he began to say, God,
be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. God, I'm not even worthy to lift my head. I'm not even worthy to look to the synagogue because you are merciful and you are great. And the Bible says that Jesus said one of those men went home and his whole house was saved. The other man went home and left unrepentant.
I believe, church, when we get to this place where we begin to humble ourselves, people are watching, people are noticing, and people are asking, what is it that is so great in your life?
And why are you not so built up in pride? And why have you received so much grace in your life?
I believe that this grace comes, as we looked at last week, where great grace and great power were given to the church. Because we get to this point where we say, God, it's not about me. It's not about what I'm doing. But it's what you have done through me.
And salvation begins to share and spread. And we see that all people of all nature begin to increase the number of what God has given us. But not only do we see love and salvation, we see healing. Verse 15.
Verse 15, it says, as the result, people would bring the sick and there would be healing. There were physical and there were spiritual healing coming as people began to seek the apostles with faith.
There was this aspect of faith, as we talked about in Sunday school this morning, where they came to the apostles in faith, believing that there was something going on over there.
There was something going on where these guys that follow Jesus, these radical, crazy guys,
something is going on where they're at. And we've just got to get people over there. We've just got to get people to where they're at so that these healings can be done. That these miraculous things can be done around what the Lord is doing.
I think about a patient, someone who goes to the hospital.
If someone's struggling with a sickness or an illness and they just sit at home and they say, you know what, I'm just going to try to fend this off on my own. They'll never receive the healing until they go to the physician and they say, something's not right. Something's wrong.
I don't know what it is. I'm just not recovering.
I'm not getting better. I need you to run some tests. Until that person goes to the physician,
they'll never receive healing. In church this morning, until we go to the great physician, we will never receive healing in our life, in our sinful life, in our sinful manner.
We will not receive the healing of the Holy Spirit through God's work in our life until we humble ourselves and we go to God and we say, I've sinned. I've done wrong.
I need you to work in my life. I need you to help me. Maybe it's a moment of salvation where we come and we say, God, I have sinned. I've never accepted you and I'm admitting my brokenness this morning so that I can receive healing from you.
What is it that you're broken from this morning that you need God to heal in your life? Maybe it's a family. Maybe it's a family member. Maybe it's a relationship.
Maybe it's a salvation relationship with you and God that you need to say, God, I need you to heal this morning.
Humility Brings Deliverance
And then in verse 16, we begin to see that humility brings deliverance.
Specifically in this case, we see that there were people of unclean spirits that were being freed and they sought help to see their life being changed because they acknowledged their need of dependence on someone else. That they were tormented by unclean spirits.
This is like a person that's drowning out in the ocean and they're sitting there and they realize that they can't save themselves. They're too tired.
They tread water as long as they could. And all of a sudden, someone comes by in a lifeboat and they just begin to tread. They don't call out for help and they don't call out for any type of salvation here. They don't call out for any type of deliverance.
And they begin to drown. That person must call out and say, I need help. I need you to come and help and rescue me in order for us to get to this place where we say,
God, I need help in my life. Deliverance starts when we begin to recognize that we can't save ourselves. We need something or someone else to work in our life to deliver us from the sin that we're in.
And we have to ask ourselves, what is it that Christ is here today to say, I am helping you. I have this power to deliver you, but you have to come to him in this humble spirit and say, God, I need your help and deliverance this morning.
Not only do we see the gospel enriches the poor in the spirit, but the gospel enrages the prideful. The gospel enrages the prideful.
I can't spend a lot of time today on this middle portion from 17 through 40.
So I'm just going to sort of give you the cliff notes, the high points, if you will, of this passage. Because I think this is some things that we begin to see in this passage that can help us this morning.
And I hope you'll go home and you'll study it for yourself a little bit this morning. But the Bible says that the high priests and the Sadducees were filled with jealousy and pride.
The early church was filled with humility. They said, it's not about us. It's not about what we're doing. It's because God has done this for us. We're just going to lift him high. Well, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, or we could say the church of that day, was filled with pride and jealousy.
Their attention, their popularity, their fame was put down. The gospel began to expose the pride of these selfish men who were in power and they were only self-seeking everything. They were losing control and they were enraged by it.
It's like a flashlight coming into a dark room. And my son Brody, he hates the dark. He hates going outside in the dark.
He's got to make sure every light on the outside of the house is on when he takes Hagrid out. Because there may be something out there that's going to jump out at him. And he wants to see it before it happens. Right?
This is what light does. It exposes the things that are around us.
Yesterday I was working on my mower and I had it jacked up and was changing the blades on it. I couldn't quite see everything that was under there. It was dark.
And so I began to take the screw off and drop the blades. And I grabbed my head of a flashlight. I grabbed it.
I put it on it there. And I began to see that I had strings and rope.
Guys, if you've changed mowers, you know your blades get this. And it was wrapped around the spindle of the mower.
And I began to grab my knife and I began to cut it off and pull it off. And what I realized was this light was exposing this thing that could damage my mower. Because it was exposing the dark corners, if you could, of the mower.
And this is the same thing. The gospel began to illuminate the dark corners and expose the pridefulness of these men.
It began to expose the dark corners of the church, you could say. And it began to say that God's truth was conforming them and changing them into a way that was going to make them closer to God. God began to deliver the apostles from the prison here.
He begins to talk about how they were thrown in prison. And we begin to see God's sovereignty even when we don't understand it.
They were thrown into prison. And you can imagine, Peter, this is not the first time he has been thrown into jail.
This is not the second time. It's like the third time in the book of Acts where Peter's thrown into jail. And he's sitting there. And it's almost like he's like, all right, well, this is sort of what it is. I serve Jesus.
I get up and I preach. And now I get thrown in jail. I serve Jesus. I get up. I preach.
Now I'm thrown in jail. It's almost like this is sort of what's going to happen in the early churches. This is constantly what's going on.
And all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, God sends an angel and brings them out. I can imagine if I'm Peter here, I'm like, my mind would immediately go to Daniel.
Daniel's about to be thrown in the lion's den. Bad things are about to happen. He's about to get eaten. Opposition is happening strongly against the church.
And God sort of looks at him and says, you're never outside my care. I see what's going on. Daniel, I see that you stood up for me.
Peter, I see that you're standing on me. Early church, I see you're standing up for me.
Let me take care of this for you. I'm going to send this angel and there's going to be this miraculous separation from this jail where they leave and no one sees it. It says that the people that were there, the guards, didn't even see this happen, even though it was securely locked.
I was encouraged as I looked through this to be thinking about, we're going to face opposition. And who are we relying on when opposition comes?
Are we relying on our own self to save ourself from this jail, from this opposition? Or are we like the disciples who say, you know what, it's for the sake of the gospel.
This is what's happening. I'm just going to serve the Lord. And if he throws me in jail, I'm just going to trust him. If this thing happens, I'm just going to trust him. And I'm going to continue to trust in the Lord. I think it's interesting. In verse 29,
we begin to see the response of the apostles. We begin to see the apostles respond in a miraculous way and respond in a way that they look at the ones that were their accusers. And they make this statement, we must obey God rather than people. Their response was not delayed. It was immediate.
When they were brought before the Sanhedrin, they didn't say, can we think about this for a little while? Can we go home? Can we consult some people and ask what would be the politically correct response? Can I call my mom real quick?
Can I ask her how she would respond? They just looked at the Sanhedrin, the most powerful religious people of their day.
This would be our Supreme Court, if you can imagine like that. This would be the ones that created the laws. You're standing before the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts is there. And he says, what are you doing? And they just look at him and said, sorry, we got to obey God.
Sorry, we have to obey God rather than you. Whatever happens is going to happen in my life. They responded with truth. With truth. They responded with, this is the gospel.
This is why we're doing what we're doing. And they began to say that Jesus was killed and he rose again and he's the savior of the world. And we as well will face opportunities every day of our life to stand up and proclaim the gospel and proclaim what God has done for us.
The question is, are we taking advantage of those opportunities?
When times of opposition come among us, are we willing to say, I'm going to obey people rather than God? Are we willing to take a stand and say, I'm going to serve my God no matter the cost? But then we begin to introduce this man named Gamal.
And Gamal shows that even opposition of men will not and cannot thwart what God has planned. When opposition comes among the disciples,
God's going to have his way. He says that, let us let this thing examine itself and if it be of God, you will not be able to throw them. This is a wicked, secular,
prideful man. He's part of the Sanhedrin. And he says, if this is of God, let's just let it work out. And my mind went to 1 Peter chapter 4. I put the verses on the screen, verses 12 through 19.
I want you to hear what Peter says to his disciples here in Jerusalem. He says, dear friends,
do not be surprised when fiery ordeals come among you to test you as something unusual or happening to you. Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be able to rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed.
If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of God and of God rests on you. Let none of your sufferings as murderers, a thief, an evildoer, or meddlers.
But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God, having that name. For the time has come that the judgment will begin with God's household. And if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?
And if the righteous person is saved with difficulty and will become of the ungodly a sinner, so then let those who suffer according to God's will entrust themselves to a faithful creator while doing what is good. Opposition often follows those that follow God. Those that follow the Lord, opposition is going to come.
Imagine yourself, you see a river flowing there, and your kid goes, Hey, Dad, let's stop this river up. And you say, You know what? I've got a good idea.
I'm just going to put my hand in the middle of the river, and I'm going to stop the river. Your hand would not be powerful enough to stop that river from flowing.
You would have to build up some type of dam, some type of boulder, some type of rock or wood to stop that river from flowing. It would be futile for you to think that you could stop that river on your own with just your own hands.
Responding to Opposition
And opposition is going to come to us, church. Opposition will happen, and it is. How are we going to respond when those times come? Do we trust God even when the opposition seems overwhelming?
Even when we don't know what's going to happen, when we don't know the outcome, when we don't know what's going to happen at the end, are we still trusting in the Lord? But I'm so encouraged at the end of this passage,
verse 41 and verse 42, we begin to see the gospel energizing the ministers.
I should have labeled it as I was studying it later, the gospel energizes the people to alliterate all the Ps. But the gospel energizes the ministers. Despite suffering, the apostles rejoiced, and they continued to proclaim the gospel.
They did not let a little bit of pain, a little bit of suffering that came their way, thrown into jail.
The Bible says that as they were serving the Lord here, they flogged them, which means they beat them with sticks, and they let them go.
It says as they let them go, they said they rejoiced because they counted it worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the name of Jesus. They rejoiced, and they were strengthened. See, the gospel energizes us, and what it should do is it should allow us to rejoice even when suffering comes.
They counted it joyful to suffer for the name of Jesus.
They counted it joyful that trials were coming in their life, that hard times were coming, and they said, the only thing we can do during this time, not complain about what's happening,
not go and tell someone down the road how bad my life is. They said that the only thing they could do was rejoice and give glory to God.
I don't know about you. That's not what I do when suffering comes in my life. I don't go, hallelujah, Lord.
This is great. Thank you for giving me suffering. Thank you for bringing this sickness into my life. Thank you for allowing these bad things to happen. I go, God, why are you allowing these things to happen? God, what are you doing right now? The apostles in the early church said,
how great it is that we would be treated a way that our Lord and Savior Jesus was treated. Thank you, God, for allowing this to happen.
My mind almost went to like a soldier who had been wounded in battle but yet survived.
And when he comes back home, all of his friends say, hey, hey, hey, can we see the wound that you got for serving our nation? And he pulls up his sleeve and he shows the scar where the bullet went through his arm and the scar was there, but they patched it.
And he said, I got this from serving my nation. I got this from standing up for what was right and standing up for what was true. It was a battle wound of glory, a battle wound of honor.
This is what it should be like for the Christian who gets to cause, gets to have suffering for the sake of Christ. It's look at what I've done for Christ.
Look at, Christ allowed me to suffer for his name's sake so that his glory could be done so that joy could come to those who later see that. You see, rejoicing was there.
They were strengthened, but they also remained steadfast. The very last verse, it says, every day in the temple and in various homes, they continued to teach and proclaim the good news of Jesus. They continued to preach daily, both publicly and privately. They didn't allow a little persecution.
They didn't allow jail time. They didn't allow physical pain on their life to hinder them from continuing to share the gospel with each other. It's like a candle that gets lit.
One of those candles, that's one of those relighting candles, and the wind comes and blows the candle out, and it immediately relights. The wind comes and begins to blow it out again, and it immediately relights. This is our life for Christ.
We've been steadfast in the mission that God has given us, and what happens here? The church begins to go out and share the gospel more boldly because persecution happens.
They begin to pray. They begin to go through this cycle again because suffering and persecution happens, and they say, we cannot be counted worthy to do this. It's all for the name of Christ. It's all for his sake.
I came across, as Terry comes and begins to play, I came across an article that was written by a professor.
Valuing Suffering
His name is D.A. Carson. He wrote, The Theology of Suffering. Six things to help us value suffering in our life.
The first one is this, and if you want to try to jot it, I'm not going to spend a lot of time. I'm just going to sort of read through each of them. It encouraged me this week because oftentimes suffering happens, and we don't know how to respond.
We're not used to it. In our easy Christian life in America, it's easy to go to church.
It's easy to go through life, but then suffering comes, and we're just like, I don't know how to deal with it, Lord. He wrote down some things, and I thought it was encouraging for me, and I think it can help you today. When suffering happens,
it's us connecting ourselves with Jesus in his suffering. Jesus suffered for us. He died a death that we should have died.
He lived a perfect life so that we could have eternal life with him, and when we go through suffering, we connect ourselves with Jesus Christ himself. We take up our cross daily. We suffer for him, and we connect with Christ.
When we suffer, we understand that it implies that the world is evil. We live in a fallen world. We live in a world that sin, disease, murder, things happen because this world is fallen and evil, and we live in this world. suffering also connects us with believers all throughout the ages.
Polycarp, all these forefathers, Peter and John and Paul, who died for the sake of the gospel, who died so that we could stand here today in our freedom, this connects us with believers all across the world, all across the ages, all across time, who also suffered for the name of Christ.
Paul teaches us that suffering for the gospel is part of our calling.
Philippians 1 says, For it has been granted to you on Christ's behalf, not only to believe in him, but to suffer for him. This is a calling for Christians.
It's not going out and saying, How can I suffer today? It's when suffering comes, it's, Lord, thank you for allowing me to suffer today. Thank you for allowing me to go through this. As hard as it is, as difficult as it is, I'm going to continue in this way.
The suffering that we experience should be tied to Christ's resurrection power. We don't suffer as those who have no hope.
We don't suffer as those who are in vain, but we suffer because Christ has given us glory. Christ has given us power to trust in him because Christ overcome the world so that we don't have to suffer alone.
We don't have to suffer in our own suffering, but we have this wonderful ability to rejoice in Christ and what he's done.
The last thing he wrote was, We suffer as a way to spread the gospel. When suffering happens, the gospel should be proclaimed. The evangelists experience great joy and go out and tell the world about what Christ is doing for them.
These pillars of encouragement should not view us as a sign of abandonment, but as a sign that Christ is with us intimately and he's leading us into a deeper reliance on him to conform us to the image of
God, to conform us to his image, not to what we think, but for what Christ has for us. Think of a seed.
It's this planting season, it's in the springtime, you put that seed in the ground and the Bible says that the only way that seed is going to produce fruit is if that seed dies in the ground. And as that seed dies, it produces more fruit.
And oftentimes our pride, our own self-image must be put to death so that the gospel can be spread. Death brings forth life to others.
And as I began to think through this this week, this is the question that I continue to struggle with the entire week. Am I willing to embrace suffering for the sake of Christ, knowing that it's going to produce eternal fruit?
Knowing that I'm going to suffer right now so that someone, maybe my own kid who just turned four yesterday, maybe my own kid's going to see me suffer and say, dad's suffering.
He's suffering for Jesus. He's suffering for the name of Christ. Christ and he experienced eternal fruit.
Maybe it's one day in the future, maybe it's a grandkid that the Lord will graciously allow us to have where they look at it and say, grandpa experienced suffering. Grandpa experienced heartache.
Closing Prayer and Reflection
I want to serve what he's doing. I want to follow after what he's doing. Because the persecution of the church always, should always, it should always conclude after that with prayer. With us saying, God, I need you today more than I ever have.
Not saying you're always going to live in a state of suffering, but there's times in our life where this happens. There's times in our life where we must get to the place and we say, God, I can't do this alone. I need you in my life.
Whatever it may be for you. Maybe you're here today and you just need a reawakening of humility.
Maybe you need to stand up for what is true and say, I'm going to obey God rather than people in my life because God is the author of my life. Or maybe you just need to be energized this morning and say, God, I want to trust in you more than I ever have.
I want to remain steadfast and remain confident in your life.
Whatever it may be, you see fit to respond as you see fit. Lord, we love you. We thank you for what you've done. Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, it encourages me every single day.
I pray that you would help us to respond appropriately. I pray that you would help us to understand suffering from a greater light and help us to ultimately rejoice that your name is lifted high. For it's in your name we pray. Amen.
Thank you again for taking your time to listen to the sermon audio of Pleasant Grove. Please subscribe to get our latest sermons each week. Rem Amy
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