Sermon Transcript
But before we get there, let’s think together about pledges. Pledges are a regular part of our lives. I think that you look back over the years, there have been several pledges that we’ve taken, pledges that we’ve said we pledge allegiance to something, to someone, to something. Many flags that we have been connected to have had a pledge at some time. Type connected to them.
So there’s the pledge to the American flag. Most of you, I’m sure, have memorized this. If you haven’t, then we need to send you back to grade school, I guess. But would you stand up just for a minute? Let’s remember this pledge and let’s pledge allegiance, our allegiance to this flag over here.
Think about this just for a second, all right, as we pledge. Ready? Pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good.
Thank you. You may be seated. Now, that one is one that I would say everybody here has pledged that pledge many times. There are other flags represented here that perhaps some of us have never taken a pledge to, such as the Girl Scout flag. Now, how many have been Girl Scouts?
Okay, so you all know there are different pledges, there are different promises that the Girl Scouts pledge or promise. Here’s the Girl Scouts’ promise or pledge: On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country to help people at all times. And to live by the Girl Scout Law. It’s wonderful. I didn’t know it, but there’s actually another pledge.
It’s a newer pledge for the Girl Scouts. It’s a pledge to internet safety. Have you heard of this? It’s called Netiquette. It’s the Netiquette Pledge.
I thought, that’s good. I will practice netiquette, good manners, at all times when online. I won’t spam others. If you ask me, that’s enough right there, thank you. So let’s all take that pledge not to spam others.
I will not bully, nor will I tolerate bullying. And I will always tell a trusted adult if this is a problem, and I won’t use bad language. So all of that’s a part of this netiquette pledge for a Girl Scout. There’s the Boy Scout pledge. Here’s a Boy Scout flag over here.
How many of you pledged as a Boy Scout? Anybody? Okay, good. So you probably could remember this pledge with, you know, your fingers. On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
The Boy Scout pledge. If you’ve been in the military, you know that the military has a pledge. The military has an enlistment pledge. So here we have a Marine flag over here. You would face a flag, a military flag, and pledge something like this: I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to do the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, so help me God.
And then there’s the Christian flag over here on the far right. There’s a pledge to the Christian flag as well, and this is it: I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands, one Savior crucified, risen, and coming again with life, liberty, and all to who believe. Fabulous! Yes, we want to live that out, don’t we? There are other pledges.
If you were a part of a fraternity, you probably had some kind of a fraternity pledge that you took as a part of your, you know, initiation or whatever it was in the fraternity. Here’s a pledge that comes from Boston University: The toss of Boston, sparkle on, a flame for all to see. Here to learn and here to grow, the BU colony, a shining light of green and gold. It’s toss, not girls, who run the world.
That’s just kind of typical of a fraternity— frat pledge of some kind, isn’t it? There’s the Bible pledge. We don’t have a flag that we salute when we have the Bible pledge, but we possibly hold the Bible up and we say this: I pledge to the Bible, God’s Holy Word, and will take it as a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I’ll hide its words in my heart that I may not sin against God. Now, there are a lot of other pledges that we could talk about, but the reality is that a pledge is something that’s easy to make. It’s usually filled with some wonderful words, but the proof of whether or not that pledge matters is how we respond after taking the pledge, right?
So it’s a wonderful thing to make a pledge. It’s another thing to actually prove the pledge. By our actions. So, for instance, if you were married at some point and you stood before each other and you took a pledge of sorts to have and to hold for better or worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part— that’s a huge pledge, right? The proof of your feelings about that pledge is what happens in the aftermath.
It’s nice to say the words; it’s another thing to actually live the words out. You could say to your parents, or you could just say to yourself, I want a dog. And so you ask for a dog, and you say, you know, if we can get a dog, I’ll take care of the dog. I really will. I promise I’ll take care of the dog.
And then you get the dog, and we’re going to find out whether or not your pledge was worth anything, right? I was talking recently to an individual who’s Family talked him into getting a dog, and now they basically have abandoned, you know, the care of the dog, and he’s the one that’s caring for the dog. You know these kinds of things. I mean, it’s one thing to make a pledge. It’s another thing to actually live out what it was that you pledged.
Now, all of that is behind what we’re going to look at this morning, all right? Not necessarily these pledges, but there was a pledge that the early church took as Christ followers, a pledge to be what sometimes in this culture we call fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, to take up the cross daily and to follow Jesus. And when we get to Acts chapter 5, what we see is the early church coming to a place where this— the proof of this pledge is going to ultimately be seen or not. If you’ve been with us in this study up to chapter 5, they’ve been kind of like on a honeymoon. Of sorts.
You know, things have been great. There have been many people who are coming to faith in Jesus Christ. The church is growing by thousands. Even the Lord is taking care of the problem people in the church, Ananias and Sapphira, if you were with us last week. The Lord intervened and said, we’re not going to have this lying, deception thing going on in the church.
He put a stop to that. So, there are all these wonderful supernatural things that were happening in the church, kind of a honeymoon period of time. But in chapter 5, and starting with verse 17 and following, things begin to change. And we’re going to see the change for the next few chapters as these guys begin to experience hardship. And really it’s when hardship comes that a pledge is proven.
So I want to think about this passage this morning in light of this allegiance factor, because many of us who are sitting here this morning, we’ve said, I’m pledging my allegiance to Jesus Christ, my commander-in-chief. Okay? It’s one thing to say that. It’s another thing to actually live that out when hardship comes, when things become problematic. And it’s the same in other areas of our lives as well.
Some of us have made serious commitments. It could be to a job. It could be to a person. It could be just a commitment to change your life in a certain area, and you’ve come under this hard time now. And now’s really the time when this pledge is going to be proven or not.
And so think about this passage in light of that whole matter, and I hope what you see here this morning is going to be an encouragement to you, because my guess is, is that all of us at some point are going to come up against a big brick wall, and it’s going to challenge any kind of commitment that we have, whatever that commitment be, especially the commitment to Jesus Christ. So let’s look at it. We’re going to look at it in 5 scenes, all right? 5 scenes. I think it’s just helpful to pick up the scenes.
So the first scene is simply jailed again. You say, jailed again? Well, if you’ve been with us, if you go back into chapter 4, you know that the apostles were jailed the first time for running around preaching the gospel. They were arrested, they were questioned, they were threatened, and then were finally released. And after they were released, if you go up into this chapter, to chapter 5, verse 14, you’ll see that many more people came to faith in Jesus Christ.
The gospel just kept on spreading in spite of the fact that they had been jailed. Well, now they’re going to be jailed a second time. Let me pick it up in chapter 5, verse 17. And then it says, then the high priest and all his associates who were members of the party of the Sadducees were filled with jealousy. This then follows the growth of the church.
The church is just growing, you know, in amazing ways, and the religious authorities don’t like what it is that they’re seeing. Specifically the high priest, who is Caiaphas. Caiaphas, as the high priest, was the president of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the Jewish Supreme Court of the day. They didn’t have a few people on the court, they had 70 people on the court, okay?
So they’re upset and they’re jealous over what’s happening. And secondly, the Sadducees. The Sadducees were a group of liberals, a liberal religious group. They did not believe in the resurrection. They did not believe in miracles.
This is why they were sad, you see. Okay, think about it for a minute. It might settle in. The Sadducees. Okay, so you’ve got the high priest and you’ve got the Sadducees, and these 2 groups of people are filled with jealousy.
And so what do they do? Well, they arrested the apostles and they put the apostles in public jail. They decided the best way to take care of this problem is just to put them in jail, keep the disease from spreading, because they saw the Christian message as a disease, and to quarantine the leaders. So that’s what they do. Go on, verse 19.
But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. Go stand in the temple courts, he said, and tell the people the full message of this new life. And let me just add a word here. Some of you have a translation here that instead of saying, tell them the full message, the full message of this new life, it says, tell them the wonderful words of life. And I love that translation because that really is what the gospel message is all about.
It is the wonderful words of life. And these guys had the privilege, just like if you’re a Christ follower and me the same, we have the privilege of helping people come to understand the wonderful words that change life. All right? So an angel breaks them out of prison and recommissions them to go back out and to tell everybody this message. So it says in verse 21, at daybreak they entered the temple courts as they had been told, and they began to teach the people.
And when the high priest and associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin— that’s that 70-member group— the full assembly of the elders of Israel. So this is another group of people. So this is a big deal. I mean, for them to bring all these people together because of this message that’s being preached, this is a big deal. And then it says, and they sent to the jail for the apostles.
So they’re thinking the apostles are still in jail. They hadn’t heard what an angel had done. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and they reported, we found the jail securely locked with the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled.
I mean, this didn’t make any sense. Wondering what would come of this. And then someone came and said, look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people. What do you have here is scene 2. Scene 1, jailed again.
Scene 2, we’ll call it jailbreak, or you could call it release from prison, or whatever you want to call it, release and recommission, whatever you like here. But the point is simply this, is that God still has a job for his apostles to do. And if God still has a job for you to do, it doesn’t matter what the hurdle is. He’s going to remove the hurdle to get you to where he wants you to go. And if he has to use an angel to get you to where he wants you to go, he’ll do it.
So he used an angel here to get these guys out of prison. And notice that the angel then recommissioned them. And what I love here is this statement that tells us that they went back out— listen— and they did as they were told.
God wants us not sitting in jail, but he wants us out on the streets of Jerusalem telling other people about Jesus Christ. So they went right back at it and did as they were told.
I just think there’s an interesting lesson there, just even for us this morning. God’s got you right now where he wants you. He’s got me right where he wants me. He has us right where he wants us. And if he wants to remove some obstacles to get us to someplace else, he’ll do it.
The question is, is that once he puts us where it is he wants us to be, the bigger question is, are we doing in that place what it is that he wants us to do? Well, go on. Hearing that the apostles were back out preaching, we pick up the account, verse 26. At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force because they feared that the people would stone them.
Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. We gave you strict orders, verse 28, not to teach in this name. He said, yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. By the way, there’s the connection to this series. Series is called Filled.
This is a different kind of filled, not filled with the Holy Spirit, but the filling of the entire city of Jerusalem with this teaching. They said, we gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet you filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood. Verse 29, Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men. Now, just notice before we look at the rest of that little section there, there are 2 different orders going on here, right? You got the orders coming from the Sanhedrin, from the high priest, who are saying one thing, and you’ve got some orders that in the latest account came from an angel straight from God that are telling them another thing.
And Peter and the apostles replied to these man orders, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior, that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who Obey him. Seems to me that at the heart of this little passage right here is the matter of obedience.
Who are we going to obey? And so, scene 3, I would call conflicting orders. There’s man’s orders and there’s God’s orders. And what Peter is saying is God’s orders trumps man’s orders. When man tells us to do something that’s contrary to God’s will, God’s orders trumps man’s orders.
And by the way, our response at this point proves our allegiance. It proves who we’re allegiant to ultimately. Are we going to be allegiant to man first, or will we be allegiant to God? Now, I saw this played out a couple of years ago in a Jacuzzi. I was sitting in a Jacuzzi enjoying, you know, That whole scene, I love that.
And there were about 5 or 6 other people in the Jacuzzi. And when I first got in the Jacuzzi, there was a guy that was talking about Jesus in the Jacuzzi. 2 interesting things about that. Number one, most people don’t talk in the Jacuzzi. You just sit there and look at each other sort of, but not really, you know.
And the second thing is that he was talking not only— but he was talking about Jesus, okay? So he’s talking about Jesus. And there’s a guy there that’s kind of engaged in a conversation with him, and this guy didn’t like what this Jesus guy was saying. So he let it be known in no uncertain terms that he didn’t agree with them, and so they had a dialogue about this Jesus matter. And it finally came to a point where this other guy who wasn’t in agreement said, you know, this is why we don’t talk about politics or religion in public places.
Now, Where does that come from? It’s kind of like, you know, oral tradition in America, I guess, some unwritten pledge rule or whatever you want to call it, that we just don’t talk about Jesus, especially in jacuzzi where people are trying to relax or whatever it is. But from what I can tell, you know, excuse me, observing this guy was this guy was probably a brand new believer in the Lord, so he hadn’t been tempered yet. You know, that whole thing where he was just on fire for the Lord and really excited to just talk about the Lord, and the best thing that was happening in his life was the Lord. And so he’s letting everybody in the Jacuzzi know about Jesus the Savior and how we’re all sinners.
I mean, he got into the sin thing even. We’re all sinners. We’re all separated from God. We need a Savior. So he’s like going down that road, and there was no tempering him at that point.
What I would be very interested in is to be able to have another conversation with this guy and see if anything’s changed since then. Because if anything’s changed since then, guess what? Whose orders is he obeying now? Man’s. And so often what happens is somebody, because of innuendo or whatever it is that they say, we start out kind of excited about talking about Jesus, but then other people kind of push back on us, and so we push back.
We step back, and we kind of are very careful about whether or not we’re going to talk about Jesus with anybody. And so, if we see them raise an eyebrow, whatever it is, it’s like, no, I’m not going to say anything right now. I’m not going to do that. Now, this is not to say that we always got to be talking about Jesus. There’s a place where even in the Scriptures it speaks to the whole matter of sometimes it’s just not the best thing to verbalize your faith.
You may remember 1 Peter chapter 3, wherein Peter there. He’s talking about marriage, and he’s talking about a wife who’s married to an unbelieving husband. And evidently, she’s been trying to convince him to receive the Lord by her words. And this passage says to this wife and to others who are in this context, there’s a place for you to just back off and no longer talk to your husband about the Lord, but instead— and I’ll use this language— instead play the music of the gospel. So that he can hear the music through your life.
He can see the difference in your life. So live like Jesus in front of your husband. And when you don’t live like Jesus, have this gentle and quiet spirit that repairs the relationship. But be Jesus to your husband. You don’t have to preach at your husband with your words.
Preach at your husband with your life. See, that’s what that text is all about. And then it uses these words, so that he may be won without a word. Without a word. You mean it’s possible to win people to Christ without a word?
Yes. But it’s not that that’s the only way. We’ve got Romans 10. How are they going to hear without somebody telling them? So, here’s the challenge in this.
In our culture, there are so many things that will push back on us in the willingness or the desire or just coming out and talking to people about Jesus. I think the world will push back. The world says, no, that’s not something that’s polite to do, or whatever it might be. I think the flesh pushes back. I think sometimes we don’t verbalize our faith in Jesus because of our ego, because we got a pride problem, because we’re more concerned about how we’re going to appear to people than we’re concerned about them hearing the gospel, the good news, the wonderful word of life.
So there’s the world and there’s the flesh, and I think the third problem here is the devil. I think that the devil at times comes and whispers in our ears and says this: Don’t say anything right now about the Lord.
I think that happens frequently. And if you think I’m wrong on this, you think with me right now about times even recently where the Lord was saying to you, Talk about your faith. And you didn’t. And I didn’t. What is that?
It’s the same problem here. So these guys are told, stop talking about Jesus.
Well, go to scene 4. There’s a mixed response to that. I mean, obviously, when they’re told that, and these guys, the apostles, say, no, no, no, we’re going to keep talking about Jesus. That didn’t sit well with the religious authorities, the Sanhedrin. So it says in verse 33, when they heard this, they were furious, and they wanted to put them to death.
But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. So you get the picture? These guys are, you know, emotionally upset enough to kill. To kill the apostles for their unwillingness to obey them. I mean, they’re going to bully them into getting what it is that they want.
They’re not going to take no for an answer. But Gamaliel— and it’s interesting that he’s a Pharisee, so he’s on the opposite political pole of the Sadducees— who’s an honored person, a respected person, he stands up, he asks that the apostles be put outside so they can have a private conversation. And then it says he addressed them. Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago, Theudas appeared claiming to be somebody, and about 400 men rallied to him.
He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. And after him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of revolt— people in revolt. He too was killed, and all of his followers were scattered. Therefore, In the present case, I advise you— and here’s Gamaliel’s advice— leave these men alone. Let them go.
For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it’s from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourselves fighting against God. It says, verse 40, his speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and they had them flogged, and then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus.
And they let them go. Now, that’s why I call this scene a mixed response. I mean, there’s kind of a mixed reaction here. On the one hand, Gamaliel is trying to talk sense to these guys, and this is the kind of guy you want in your meetings, right? Because he’s saying, let’s don’t emotionally react to this.
Let’s take a logical approach to this. And his logical approach is to look at historical precedent. So he says, let’s just go back. Let’s think about what’s happened. If you go back to Theudas, you remember that he revolted and 400 people were following him, and then he died, and that was the end of it.
And then there was Judas, and he revolted, 6 AD, in taxation revolt, and then he died, and that was the end of it. So, what’s his point? I mean, come on, guys, think about it for just a minute. If this movement is of man, it’s going to die. That’s what he’s saying.
However, If this movement is of God, we’re going to die. I mean, we’re going to fail. It’s going to fail if it’s man-made. We’re going to fail if it’s God-made. We’re not going to be able to fight against God.
They took that advice. They said, yeah, that kind of sounds good. So, yeah, let’s go with that. But here’s the mixed part. But then they beat the apostles.
And you might think, you know, oh, no big deal, right? No. The word that’s used here is the word that’s used to describe 39 lashes.
They beat them, and they beat them, and they beat them, and they beat them. And often history tells us that when a person took the 39 lashes, or up to 30, up to 40— they didn’t go to 40, they would stop at 39— that people would die. So the apostles at this point take a beating. Things have really changed. We’re no longer in the honeymoon.
And then they ordered them to stop talking about Jesus. And now we’re at a different place, because now we’re going to find out just how deep their allegiance is. And this is where allegiance is proven for all of us, isn’t it? I mean, it’s one thing for us to take a pledge. It’s one thing for us to make a promise.
It’s one thing for us to make a commitment, but that pledge and that promise and that commitment is proven by what happens when hardship comes, when the challenge hits us.
Now, there’s not one of us here this morning that’s probably ministering or living under the threat of death like these guys are now under. I mean, it would have been very easy at this point for them to say, that’s enough. I’m getting off. I’m done. It doesn’t even have to be to that degree.
Just any kind of hardship can test your commitment, right? Max Lucado just recently posted about how the last couple of years he’s been living in pain in his right hand. Well, his right hand is his writing hand. If you know the word— the name Max Lucado, you know that Max has written now over 30 books. We’re talking about an amazing Christian writer.
Well, he’s been praying that God would remove the pain that’s in his right hand, but so far God has not chosen to heal his hand, whether miraculously or through doctors or any other— by any other means. So he’s been living with this pain in his right hand. And Max says, but God’s used my painful hand to heal my heart.
He’s used my painful hand to heal my heart. Now let me ask you a question: does that sound like somebody who’s given up his allegiance to the Lord? Absolutely not. God hasn’t answered my prayer to heal my hand, and yet the guy is still saying, you know what? That doesn’t change anything.
God’s working in my heart, and that’s okay. I’m fine with that. No, you know, detour at all in his relationship with the Lord. So what happens with the apostles at this point? Just let’s finish it off, verse 41.
So it says, the apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing— this is after they were beaten— rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace. And the word can mean dishonor. They’re rejoicing because they’ve been dishonored. For the name of Jesus. And not only are they rejoicing that they’ve been dishonored— I mean, those people didn’t treat us with respect.
That’s not an issue with them. Day after day, verse 42, in the temple courts and from house to house— so publicly and privately, behind closed doors and out in public— it says they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. What’s this? Scene 5. Undeterred commitment.
For them, stopping wasn’t an option. I mean, they were completely surrendered. We talked— we just sang about surrender. They were completely surrendered to the Lord. He was their commander-in-chief.
And they’re saying, you know, if this is what it’s going to take, fine. We’ve got our marching orders, and we’re going to just keep on going with the marching orders that God has given us. Nothing is going to deter us or stop us from doing that.
A couple weeks ago I was watching 60 Minutes, the news report on Sunday nights, CBS, and they did a report that was focused on Liberia. The report was called The Ebola Hot Zone, and the report focused on the devotion, the loyalty of doctors and nurses who are in this country in a risky, obvious situation caring for the sick and the dying. There were 2 doctors— excuse me, there was a doctor and a nurse, 2 people that were primarily the focus of this report. Dr. Colin Bucke, who just happens to be a doctor at Stanford University, and Nurse Kelly Suter.
When I watched the report, I said, you know what? This is a picture of allegiance. Watch this just for a minute. We just took a small clip from the 60 Minutes report. Dr. Colin Buck has been on duty here for the past month.
At home, he’s an emergency physician at Stanford. The world, if it chooses and people say step up, I think this is very containable. And if they don’t? I think we make our own bed. You know, that’s why I urge people to say, this is my responsibility.
I have a global citizen responsibility to do this. And if you want to say a patriotic responsibility to keep America safe, yeah. People go off to war to keep us safe. People should fight this crisis with the same sense of responsibility. These rooms are clean.
Nurse Kelly Suter is one of a handful of Americans Working alongside Colin Buckes. Even though I know it’s a reality that I could get sick and that I could be one of them that doesn’t survive, I’m okay with that because I’d rather be here helping than home and safe. She’s 29, from northern Michigan, and will be here until the end of the year. What is it like to see it every day? It can be difficult.
There’s good days and there’s bad days. I mean, the first death that I experienced was a gentleman that, I mean, he came in critical, but I didn’t expect him to pass away as suddenly as he did. In fact, I was in there bathing him and getting him dressed, and then all of a sudden I looked up and his eyes were really big and he was obviously scared. And, you know, my instincts as an American nurse is to turn around and look for, you know, the code blue button to hit or some medications or an ambu bag. And you realize— but there isn’t one.
No. You know, so I got down by his bed and held his hand and talked to him, and a few minutes later he was gone.
I looked at that and I said, why are they doing it? Because we see it’s our duty, they said. I mean, there are people dying and we could do something about it.
And what we’re doing not only could make a difference in the lives of people in Liberia, but actually it could make a difference in the lives of people around the world, they see. And I thought to myself, isn’t that very similar to what Christ has called us to?
Are we allegiant to that degree with the calling that he’s given us to save people who are sick and dying in our neck of the woods and around the world?
I went online last night and I, I found a post that Nurse Kelly Suter just recently put up, and it just frames her whole perspective on what it is that she’s doing. She said, Many, rather most of you, and she’s writing to supporters, are likely wondering, why would I risk my health and be willing to put up with the heat rashes, hot dog meals, spider-infected housing, peeling skin from constant exposure to chlorine, nasty oral rehydration salts, the heat, the humidity, and the sweat? In fact, most of you are likely sure it’s the most naive and foolish thing that I have ever done. Before I left Sierra Leone, I was able to attend a local Sunday Mass, and the parish priest said this: Life comes and goes. What matters is how we live.
Do we have the courage to be people of conviction? Do we have the courage to be people of faith? And then she said, let— or in quoting this priest, she said, Let— he said, let’s live as the people we are despite the darkness that surrounds us. And then Kelly says, what kind of person runs from the convictions they believe when those convictions are needed most? I’ll tell you what, not the apostles.
They didn’t run. All life is valuable, and I’m willing to stand up for that conviction when the majority of the rest of the world would rather turn a blind eye.
Well, that’s— that was the apostles. And when you look at this, you begin to realize that when hardship comes into our life, that oftentimes is the very thing that weakens commitment.
And deters us from doing what it is Christ has called us to. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it this way. He said, to endure the cross is not a tragedy. It’s the suffering which is the fruit of exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. Exclusive allegiance entails endurance and it entails suffering.
So I know that we’re not, you know, like at the same place. I mean, we’re— none of us right here are facing an Ebola crisis. But we are at a place in our life where no doubt God is calling us to a new level of commitment, and this morning’s passage can help us get there. It’s coming to that place where we say, you know what, Lord? I’m going to follow you no matter what the cost.
I’m going to do it. I’m going to talk about you with others. Some of us have never opened up our mouth to talk to others about the Lord because we’re living with the wrong orders.
So what’s the point? I hope the point is, is that we would make the kind of pledge of allegiance to the Lord that the Lord wants us to make and to live that out. You could pledge something like, I pledge my allegiance to Christ, my commander-in-chief, no matter what the cost. You come up with your own pledge. The point is, is that are we not just professors of the Christian thing, but are we actually proving what it is that we profess by the way that we are living our life?
Now, what can come out of this? Well, the cause of Christ could be advanced. Think about that. I mean, why are these doctors and nurses doing what it is that they’re doing? Because they’re all about saving people.
What could come out of this if we were to take serious the pledge that we’ve made to the Lord and prove that by the way we live? The cause of Christ could be advanced. People could come into salvation. Their eternities could be changed. The kingdom of darkness will be pushed back.
Wouldn’t that be wonderful? The will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray that. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We could be a part of that.
Lives could be saved. And let me give you one more. It’s just at the end of the text. We will experience new levels of joy. Isn’t it amazing that the text ends with joy?
It says, and they went out rejoicing. That they were considered worthy to experience dishonor in the name of the Lord. It’s possible that we haven’t yet experienced the deepest levels of joy because when hardship has come, we’ve abandoned the cause. There’s incredible, unspeakable joy that’s connected to doing what it is that Christ has asked us to do.
It’s one thing to pledge allegiance It’s another thing to prove it by the way we live, the commitments we make, the loyalty we have, the devotion that we give. All of that is ultimately the proof of a follower of Jesus Christ. Should we pray? Father, thanks for helping us this morning consider a text that In some ways we don’t even understand because we’ve never had anybody threaten to kill us because of our faith in Christ. There are believers around the world who have, and they totally understand this.
And we’ve probably never had a group of people say, you stop talking about Jesus.
But in other ways, we look at this and we think, I so often live with fear, and I so often cower when it comes to telling others about my love for you, Lord. And I pray that whatever it is that has kept us back from being like the apostles in fulfilling your plan by bidding your orders, that we would do the same. Every one of us, not just a few of us, but all of us.
That our allegiance to you would be strong. And in that, Lord, may our lives be changed. May it even begin to change in the whole area of levels of joy. May we have joy like we’ve never experienced before, and may people see Christ in us, hear about Christ through us, and come to faith in Jesus. By the way, if you’ve never received Jesus, even this morning, God longs to have a relationship with you, and he’s made it possible through his Son Jesus Christ.
The Bible says if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you’ll be saved. And if you want that, tell him that right now. God, save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my wicked ways.
Save me from my sins. Make me a new person. Lord, thank you that you hear sincere prayers. Thank you for the opportunity this morning to encourage each other in levels of commitment. May you be honored and may others be impacted in positive ways because of the time we shared together today.
In Jesus’ name, amen. Well, let’s have our team come back, and as they lead us in this final worship song this morning, let’s really sing this again from our hearts. Maybe this be another way to say to the Lord, you’ve got my attention, God, and I do surrender all of myself to you. If we can help you after the service is over, we’d love to do that. So please take up that offer and come and talk to one of us.
So you can see Barbara’s over there, one of our deaconesses. She would be happy to pray with you. We would be happy to pray with you and do anything we can to be an encouragement to you. If you’d like to talk about a relationship with Jesus Christ, we’d love to help you. So But before you go, speak to one of us.
We’d like to help you get going on this spiritual journey and answer any questions that you might have.
