Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
What’s the greatest pain, physically you’ve ever experienced? A broken limb, a kidney stone, birthing a child naturally? And what is the deepest pain you’ve ever experienced emotionally? Rejection by your family, discovering your spouse is having an affair, finding your business partner is stealing company resources? Now what happens when you put those two extreme pains together? I think that’s a small perspective of what Jesus experienced as He went to the cross… extreme physical and extreme emotional pain. To some degree Jesus’ closest friends, the apostles, are about to experience a similar combination of extreme emotional and physical pain, as judgement is proclaimed and executed upon them.
Yesterday we left these apostles standing outside the courtroom as the Sanhedrin leaders contemplated a warning given them by one of their elder statesmen Sir Gamaliel: “I advise you, leave these men alone! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men and you will only find yourself fighting against God.” (Acts 5:38,39) What would you have done? They felt a moral and religious obligation to strike down any religious activity that seemed contrary to the laws of God as they knew them. They suspected as magic or sorcery anything that took place which was not explainable by normal human common sense. Clearly this “Jesus movement” was sweeping Jerusalem, garnering thousands of followers and miraculous, or at least unexplainable things were happening. They could not be true to their responsibilities before Rome and God, and stand by idle, doing nothing.
So we can imagine they debated among themselves, perhaps ferociously, and finally Luke reports: “Gamaliel’s speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.” (Acts 5:40) Don’t rush past this or minimize it my friends. Flogging was a horrific experience. The ‘cat of 9 tails’ often used in these ‘floggings’ was 9 long leather straps with jagged pieces of bone or even nails attached to some of them. These straps were attached to a handle which enabled them to be used like a whip. Can you imagine the excruciating experience of being stripped to the waist and then whipped with up to 39 lashes! That was flogging. Jesus experienced it, the apostle Paul experienced it. When finished, the person flogged was left with torn flesh, bleeding open wounds. The pain was beyond description. Healing would take a very long time. Scars would last a lifetime.
Luke records something unbelievable: “The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” (Acts 5:41) Can you explain that response? This didn’t take place in secret or private. Likely, they were flogged by professionals and with at least several of the Sanhedrin watching and probably shouting demeaning things, maybe even horrible things about Jesus. This my friends is happening today, all around the world. In dungeons, and torture chambers, men and women, who have been telling the people the full message of Jesus, are being arrested, threatened and beaten with the purpose of silencing them and halting the spiritual movement of Jesus around the world in our day. They are what many refer to as “The Persecuted Church”. Hundreds are actually dying of their torture, everyday! I wonder…could it be happening in your city and you don’t even know it? Maybe no one knows it! Yet my friends, the spiritual movement of Jesus will NOT be stopped, and those inflicting the persecution are “finding themselves fighting against God.” Just as Gamaliel had said.
They staggered out of the courtyard of torture, their shirts in their hands, their backs bleeding, but their minds clear and their hearts rejoicing! Why? Their mission just got clearer! Jesus had said to these apostles this warning: “If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is you do not belong to the world, for I have chosen you out of the world… They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One who sent Me…They will put you out of the Synagogue, in fact a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or Me… When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, He will testify about Me. And you must also testify for you have been with Me from the beginning.” (John 15:18-27)
Jesus had warned them… the price of following Jesus, and proclaiming Jesus, and doing miracles like Jesus, would be severe rejection, persecution, possibly torture, and eventually death for many. But Jesus promised His Holy Spirit, the Counselor, would ALWAYS be with each of His followers. They would not face any of this alone. The Counselor will advise them what to say and what to do. The Counselor will assure them of God’s love. The Counselor would give them a strong sense of God’s presence with them in their suffering.
Luke concludes his record of this event with this: “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they (apostles) never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus in the Christ [Messiah].” (Acts 5:42) This beating and warning to be silent actually served to motivate them to more strategic activity, more courageous accomplishment of the mission Jesus had entrusted to them! And the result? Luke writes: “In those days the number of disciples was increasing.” (Acts 6:1) In fact Luke with great joy writes: “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of Jewish priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7)
Please note Luke did NOT say, “a great many people believed”. Oh no, Luke uses the word “disciples” and “obedient to the faith“. This movement was both evangelism… people repenting of their sin, turning to Jesus, trusting in the truth of the Gospel for their salvation, and then PURSUING an ever deepening relationship with Jesus… disciples, not just interested new believers! Further, they committed themselves to learning all Jesus taught so they could live OBEDIENTLY to Jesus and His truths! That my friends is an authentic, transformational, reproducing spiritual movement of God!! Do you see that in your city?
Friends this is happening, just like Acts 5, in our day in many parts of our world in 2021. Men and women, young and old, like these apostles, convinced of the truth of Jesus, filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, are refusing to be silenced! And the Gospel continues to spread, the spiritual movement continues to gain momentum! I urge us to spend some time praying right now, lifting before God those places where you suspect such persecution is taking place. And here’s something visual to help you actually see the advance of the Gospel, as you pray! This is live, real time, a synopsis of 100 Christian websites around the world, powerfully presenting the Gospel and seeing great spiritual results. Open the link and be amazed, then pray!
Today’s Scripture is Acts 5:38-42.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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