Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the Book of Acts, chapter five. The apostles performed
many signs and wonders among the people, and all the
believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one
else dared joined them, even though they were highly regarded
by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women
believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
(00:21):
As a result, people brought the sick into the streets
and laid them on beds and mats, so that at
least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as
he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem,
bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and
all of them were healed. Then the high priests and
(00:41):
all his associates, who were members of the party of
the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles
and put them into the public jail. 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 all of this new life.
(01:02):
At daybreak, they entered the temple courts as they had
been told and began to teach the people. When the
High Priests and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin,
the full assembly of the elders of Israel, and sent
to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at
the jail, the officers did not find them there. So
(01:23):
they went back and 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 at a loss, wondering at what this might lead to.
Then someone came and said, look, the men you put
(01:43):
in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.
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. The apostles were brought
in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be
questioned by the high priests. We gave you strict orders
not to teach in his name, he said, Yet you
(02:05):
have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to
make us guilty of this man's blood. Peter and the
other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than human beings.
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead,
whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God
exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior,
(02:29):
that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the
Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.
When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to
put them to death. But a pharisee named Gamliel, a
teacher of the law who was honored by all the people,
(02:50):
stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men
be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed
the Sanhedrin, men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend
to do with these men. Some time ago, the Odds appeared,
claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied
to him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed,
(03:13):
and it came and it all came to nothing after him.
After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of
the Census and led a band of people in revolt.
He too was killed and all his followers were scattered. Therefore,
in the present case, I advise you leave these men alone,
let them go, for if their purpose or activity is
(03:36):
of human origin, it will fail. But if it is
from God, you will not be able to stop these men.
You will only find yourselves fighting against God. His speech
persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged.
Then they ordered them not to speak in the name
of Jesus and let them go. The apostles left the
Sanhedron rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering
(04:01):
disgrace for the name. Day after day in the temple
courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching
and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So a few weeks back, we were celebrating a birthday
party at my brother's home, and on the way there
my family, myself, Carrie, my kids, Maddie and Max, we
stopped at the dairy Queen near my brother's house so
that we could get an ice cream cake for dessert,
and I went in by myself to purchase the ice
cream cake, because that is not a.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Four person job.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I quickly made my choice and I went to the counter,
whereas greeted by someone who could not have been older
than sixteen years old. The kid apparently had not been
working there very long because he had to go get
the manager so that they could ring up the cake.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
He didn't know how to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This is a full size, like large ice cream cake.
So when the kid asked me if I wanted a bag,
I was a bit and I politely declined. In my mind,
putting a cake in a bag is like that, that's
only asking for trouble, right, The cake is gonna tip,
it's gonna smash. As I was having these thoughts, I
(05:12):
heard this kid under his breath like mutter, well, don't
drop it.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
That frozey in place for a moment, like.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I was honestly surprised at his comment, and I said,
did you did you say don't drop it?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And he kind of sheepishly shook his head. Yes. There's
all kinds of things. In that moment, I was tempted to.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Say things I know that I probably should not say,
things like, man, I've been practicing for like forty four
years of not dropping stuff, so I think I'm gonna
be all right, But I resisted that urge and I
sort of settled on I'll try my best. I got
back in the car and I started was kind of
relaying this story to carry and I remember remarking, I
(05:55):
can't believe the courage on that kid, but think he
would say that, especially obviously you haven't been working there
very long. I was then thinking about that moment for
the last couple of weeks, and I've realized that describing
his remarks as courageous isn't really the correct description. It's
more like misguided audacity. You see, I don't think he
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was being brave. I just think he was being unnecessarily
rude to a customer. I mean, he was just being
lost in his own co over confidence. I mean, who
puts an ice cream cake in a bag? You see,
Courage is not simply saying or doing the hard thing.
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It's not simply speaking your mind or being stubborn. It's
not just lowering your head and pushing through. That's not courage.
Courage is following the path of truth, regardless of the circumstances.
It's being principled, it's persevering in the face of hurt
(07:04):
or danger, or fear or opposition, it's saying and doing
the hard thing because it's the right thing to do.
That's what we see happening in our text today. In
the face of hurt, danger, fear, and opposition. The early
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Church they continued on the path of knowing and following Jesus.
They did that regardless of their circumstances. They were going
to make God's kingdom known because that's the right thing
to do. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus
promised his disciples, I will build my church and all
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the powers of Hell cannot stand against it. And here
in our text we see that promise coming true. More
and more men and women believed in the Lord. They're
added to their numbers. What we read we just read.
The early Church believed God's promises. They had faith that
God's kingdom cannot be overcome. They had faith that God
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is for us, He's not against us. They had faith
that God is in control his purposes cannot be thwarted.
Because of that, they lived principal lives. They believed knowing
and following Jesus was the right thing to do. They persevered,
They kept going. They lived out the kingdom no matter
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what the consequences were, because of God's faithfulness to them.
They found the courage to be faithful to God. Now, admittedly,
our circumstances and our own lives are a bit different
than what we see in our text today, but the
call to courageously know and follow Jesus that still lies
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on us. We are called to live principled lives who
do what's right, living out God's kingdom broods, regardless of
the circumstances. Courage is not something that's only required of
just a few exceptional people throughout history. The truth is
we all need courage simply to live our lives well.
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I must find the courage to keep going in the
face of loss. I have to find the courage to
risk offending someone when I know that they're being off base.
I must find the courage be generous and sacrificial with
my resources. I have to find the courage to risk
losing my position or my status by standing against things
I know are wrong. I have to find the courage
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to face the own lies that I've believed about myself,
to stand against those and no longer accept those, so
that I can grow and mature spiritually. To know and
follow Jesus means that we must live courageously. To know
and follow Jesus, you must live courageously. The details of
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how that is gonna work out in your life is
gonna be as different as you are. But to know
and follow Jesus, you will have to live courageously. Using
our text as a model, there's three commitments that we
must make in order to do that. First, we must
commit ourselves to trusting Jesus even when we're overwhelmed by life.
I must commit myself to trust the Lord, even in
(10:24):
the face of just being overwhelmed and confused. Secondly, I
have to commit myself to obey Jesus even when I
don't want to, when there's other things I would rather
be doing, I must commit to obey the Lord. And Lastly,
I must commit myself to rejoicing in Jesus even in
(10:46):
the middle of hardship. I must commit myself to not
focus on the negative and never lose sight of the
goodness of the finished work of Christ. Because of God's
faithfulness to us, we are freed to find the courage
to be faithful to Him, regardless of our circumstances.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
So that's what we're going this.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Morning, that's what we're sort of exploring and applying to
our own lives as we're using our text today as
sort of a springboard to that conversation. So as we're
preparing to do that, let's first pause and pray together.
So Lord, thank you for another day on the earth,
another day where we can come together as.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Your disciples, as your followers.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Together as a group to announce in solidarity and unify
that you're the King.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
God.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I pray against anything that is hindering us from just
being present with you in this moment. Lay us out
our distractions, Lay aside the false voices that we might
be wrestling with right now. Lord, help us just to
be present with you, knowing that you're present with us.
So we love you, We thank you. Continue to teach us,
(12:02):
inform us this morning, so you pressed us in Holy name,
we pray Amen. So first we must commit to trust
Jesus even when we're overwhelmed. Acts five, verse seventeen. The
High Priests and all of his associates were members of
the party of the Sadducees. Were filled with jealousy. They
(12:22):
arrested the apostles, they put them in public jail, but
during the night an angel the Lord opened the doors
of the jail and.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Brought them out.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Go stay in the temple courts. He said, tell the
people all about this new life. At daybreak, they entered
the temple courts that they'd been told and began to
teach the people.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
In many ways.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
The second arrest of the Apostles that we see here
in our Texas is really, in many ways just inevitable.
In the previous chapter, in Acts chapter four, we read
this says the Sanhedrin called them in and commanded him
not to speak or.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Teach it all in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
This has already happened that Peter and John replied, what's
right in God's eyes?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Listen to you or listen to him.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You be the judge. As for us, we cannot help
speaking about what we've seen and heard. After further threats,
they let them go. The Sanhedrin had strictly ordered the
early church not to teach about Jesus, and the apostles
not only publicly disregarded this command, they also let the
Sanhedron know ahead of time that they were going to
(13:21):
do it.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
They didn't stop. They kept going.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
They kept teaching others about the finished work of Jesus,
and as a result, what we see in our texts
an escalation. The first time the apostles were arrested, it
was in the evening, it was in private. But this
time we're told that they arrested and placed in public jail.
This is another way of saying that they were arrested publicly.
This wasn't something that was done under the cover of night.
(13:49):
The san heedred was asserting their authority over the Apostles.
They were making a spectacle of them. You see, sometimes
we can rely on our emotions to muster up the
courage to do the right thing. We can use our
emotions and lead on them to sort of to sort
of conjure a one time only type of courage. In fact,
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I would argue that the American Church has often relied
on that type of emotional experience as a tool of discipleship.
It is not uncommon for churches have alter calls or
invitations to get baptized after like swelling music and like
heartfelt testimonials. Many many churches teach their members to evangelize
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by telling people, hey, if you died tonight, would you
go to hell? Like tapping into this emotion of fear.
I've been in attendance when a missionary is trying to
get funding by showing the suffering people of the regions
that they're serving, sort of tapping into the emotion of pity.
I don't think emotions are bad. Here's what we need
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to understand. A courage to do the right thing that's
rooted in emotion will always fade. Once the emotions are gone,
the resolve to persevere will disappear. And to be sure,
the sanhedro knew that. They knew that. That's why they're
(15:19):
escalating things. They are testing the resolve of the apostles.
If your courage is only skinned deep, well then we're
going to break you of that. That's not what we
see happening at all in our texts. Verse nineteen says
during the night, an angel the Lord appeared, opened the
doors with the jail. He brought them out. Go stand
in the temple courts. He said, tell the people all
(15:40):
about this new life. At daybreak, the apostles enter the
temple courts just like they've been told. They begin to
teach the people. The apostles cannot be deterred. We've seen
the text that once they were released, they didn't hesitate.
It says at once at daybreak they went to the
temple forse to teach about Jesus. They had their minds
(16:05):
made up. They were principal. They were going to do
the right thing regardless of the circumstances. It wasn't emotion
that was motivating them. It was their trust in the Lord.
My in laws they live in South Bend, and one
of the reasons that my kids loved going up there,
outside of just seeing their grandparents and getting loved on,
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is that they have a pool. So it is not
uncommon from like sun up the sundown that the kids
will be in the pool the entire time if we
let them. I remember when they were younger, they didn't
know how to swim yet. I remember how sort of
excited and how nervous they were around the water as
we're teaching them to swim. One of the things that
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we did was to encourage them to jump where we're
waiting to catch them in the pool, Like, jump into
the pool, We'll catch you. I remember my kids would
like wrap their toes over the edge in sort of
an anticipation and then they would like lose their nerve
and back off and like reconsider when they finally found
the courage to jump, it wasn't because they were so
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wrapped up in the emotional experience of the fun.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
When they finally jumped.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
It was because they firmly believed that I would do
what I promised to do. They firmly believed that I
would catch them. They jumped because they trusted me. See,
here's what I wants to understand. I wants to deeply consider.
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A courage that lasts is a courage that is rooted
in a deep trust of Jesus Christ. A spiritual courage
that lasts, that endures, that perseveres, that always does the
right thing, never gives up. A courage that lasts is
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a courage that's rooted in trust. I trust that Jesus
is who he says he is. It loves me the
way that he says he loves me. We're not promised
that God will always intervene in miraculous ways like we
see in our text.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
That's not the promise. The promise.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Is that he loves us, He's always present, that his
plans cannot be thwarted. The courage that's last is rooted
in God's promises. Like we read in Romans chapter eight,
can anything ever separate us from Christ's love. Doesn't mean
he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity,
or we're persecuted, or we're hungry or destitute, or in
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danger or threatened with death. No, despite all these things,
overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loves us. Friends,
what you were promised is that you have overwhelming victory
over sin and death through Jesus Christ, because He loves you.
That's the promise. You have overwhelming victory over set in
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death through the finished work of Jesus Christ. No matter
what happens, that can never be shaken. On the day
that Jesus returns, God's full plan of our thriving or
for our good, for our eternal joy will be revealed.
The full plan will be revealed in the middle of
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the challenging situations. Admittedly, we hardly ever understand all the details.
In the middle of challenging situations, we hardly ever understand
the details. But friends, we always know the big picture.
Nothing can separate you from Christ's love.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Courage. That last is the courage that's rooted in deep
trust of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
That's why it's so important that in our everyday lives
that we're deepening our relationship with the Lord through our
spiritual disciplines. We need to strengthen our trust in the
Lord right now, anymore than it's important if you're married
that every day you're deepening your love for your spouse.
Not like, hey, we went to the altar, we said
the things that we're good. It's like, no, every day
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I deepen my relationship with my spouse. Every day I
deepen my relationship with the Lord. And I do that
before I'm standing face to face with the opposition or
the hurt or the danger. I root myself in God's
promises now, so that I don't have to depend on
mustering up this emotional courage in the middle of the thing.
I can tap into the reserve that I've been setting aside.
(20:35):
We need to continually reflect on the finished work of
Jesus Christ, allowing the Gospel to always be fresh in
our minds. That's why we pray, that's why we read scripture.
That's why we fast, that's why we practice times of
silence and solitude. That's why we journal. That's why we lament.
You're as unique as your spiritual rhythm should be. The
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point is you should have them to have an intentional
rhythm of your life that you're humbly approaching the Lord saying,
continue to root in me a trust of you. To
live courageously, we must commit to trust Jesus even when
we're overwhelmed. Secondly, to live courageously, we must commit to
obeying God even we don't want to.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Verse twenty five.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Someone came and said, look the man you put in
jailer standing in the temple courts teaching the people. At
that the captain went off with his officers and brought
in the apostles. They didn't use force because they feared
that the people would stone them. The apostles were brought in,
made to appear before the Sanhedron to be questioned by
the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to
teach in this name, he said, Yet you have filled
Jerusalem with your teaching, and you're determined to make us
(21:43):
guilty of this man's blood. Peter and the other apostles replied,
we must obey God rather than human beings, the God
of our ancestors. Raised Jesus from the dead, whom you
killed by hanging on a cross. God exalted him to
his own right hand as prince and savior, that he
bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are
(22:03):
witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit,
whom God has given to those who obey him. So
it has to go without saying that the apostles were
not like excited about enduring suffering, Like they weren't like
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amped up, like I like this is gonna be great.
Given the choice, they would have chosen to avoid it.
We see this very thing in Jesus right the garden
of Gyseimite. So night before he's about to be betrayed, arrested, crucified,
he's praying, God, if there's any other way, take this
cup from me.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
He's like saying, I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Given the choice to the Lord, I would choose not to,
you know, be executed on a cross in just a
few moments. But just like Jesus, the disciples, they had
their will bent towards God. They're willing to obey the Lord.
They're willing to follow him into situations that they would
rather not be in. See we need to understand with
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regards our own spiritual journeys, that you and I we
are not called to enthusiasm and the middle of hardship.
You are not called to be enthusiastic in the middle
of hardship. You're not called to be happy. Just put
on a brave face. You're called to persevere. You're called
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to be obedient, keep following, to keep trusting even when
you don't want to.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
That's the call.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
So that being said, let's consider the reasons found in
our text of why we should obey God. There's three
reasons in our text. First, we obey God because we
believe the Gospel is true. I obey God because I
believe the Gospel is true. The Apostles tell us in
verse thirty two, we are witnesses of these things. So
is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those
who obey him. We know that the finished work of
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Jesus Christ is true. We have the testimony of the scripture.
We have the test the money of the Holy Spirit
who's been given to us. We follow in obedience even
when we don't want to, because we know the gospel's true. Secondly,
we believe the Gospel has power verse thirty, The God
of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead, whom you
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killed by hanging him on a cross. Our obedience isn't
waste based on like wishful thinking and hope. We know
that the Lord has power to make all things come
together and accord us to his will. My obedience isn't
based on my wishful thinking. It's based on knowing that
God has the power to fulfill the promises that He's
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given to me. God isn't giving me empty promises. He's
given me firm, solid ones. I know that that's true,
even when I don't understand the details of my life,
when things aren't happening the way that I want them
to happen. We follow Jesus in obedience because we know
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the Gospel has power over death. Third, we believe the
Gospel is the path to life and life abundantly. Verse
thirty one. God exalted Jesus to his own right hand
as prince and savior, that he might bring Israel to repentance,
that he might forgive their sins. It's through the finished
work of Jesus Christ, and only through the finished work
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of Jesus Christ, that we have redemption over sin and death.
Following the Lord is the path to life. That's why
we follow him even in the middle of hardship. This
is the path of life. I love the Apostles, Confession,
and John six when things are kind of flying off
the rails and they're like, where else are we gonna go?
You have the very words of life, Like they're saying,
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I don't understand anything that's happening right now, but I
know that I need to hang with you. Those are
the reasons why we obey God. But now let's consider
how we do it. How in the middle of the
suffering and the hardship, how do we find the courage
to persevere to keep going. Returning to verse thirty one,
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God exalted Jesus to his own right hand as Prince
and Savior, that he might bring Israel to repentance and
forgive their sins. As a very peculiar description of Christ
to this prince and savior. This description only happens four
times in the entire New Testament, and one of those
times is found in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
The author of.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Hebrews writes, let us run with perseverance the race marked
out for us fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer
and profector, or the Prince and savior of our faith.
Same phrase for the joy set before him. He endured
the cross, he scorned its shame. He sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Jesus,
who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you won't
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grow weary, and so that you won't lose heart. The
author of Hebrews tells us, fix your eyes on Jesus.
He instructs us consider him who endured. The word consider
it it literally means to ponder, to sort of like
mullet over in your mind. In other words, we find
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our willingness to obey God by placing our focus on him,
by remembering what he has done. Return to the swimming pool.
Analogy is one thing for me to tell my kids
jump in, I'll catch you. Is another thing for them
to see me do it first. God is never going
to ask you to walk a path that He has
not already walked. This goes back to the importance of
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our spiritual disciplines of just setting a time inside to
be with the Lord. We read scripture in the middle
of hardship to place our focus on Christ. We pray,
we fast, we lament in order to proactively take our
concerns to the Lord, that we place our focus on
him in the middle of the difficulty. My kids, they
just finished their robotics season. In fact, last week I
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was with my son Max as we were in Dallas, Texas.
He was competing at the World Robotics competition. And to
qualify for Worlds, your team has to do extremely well
at the state championship. And this year, as my kids
were competing, whether they're at the state qualifier, I noticed
another team from a Christian school and they were like
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on the cusp of qualifying as well. They're watching sort
of with baited breath as they were starting their final run.
There's this nervous energy that hung in the air, and
to their credit, they did awesome.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
They crushed it. They qualified.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
They were so excited, rightfully, so they're jumping up and down,
they're celebrating, and in the middle of that celebration, one
of the team members turns to a coach and shouted,
you see, this is why we pray. And I kind
of pause in that scenario, like the same way when
I was at Dairy Queen just kind of caught me
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a little off guard. Don't get me wrong, I truly
believe that there's not a single instance that you cannot
or should not pray for it. But that moment, I
felt just some sadness for this girl because the spiritual
training that she's receiving is not teaching her the truth.
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I can imagine her disenchantment later in life when things
are falling apart, and the only conclusion she can draw
is I didn't pray the right way. I didn't pray enough. Friends,
we do not pray in order to make every dream
come true. If things aren't going well, it's not because
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you haven't done a good job of praying. We pray
in order to be formed into the image of Jesus.
We pray to grow in our intimacy with God. We
pray to learn his voice, to receive his heart, to
see the world through his eyes. We pray so that
(30:04):
we grow closer with the Lord. To focus our hearts
on Jesus is why we pray. It's by placing our
focus on the Lord that we find our willingness to
obey him. We consider him who has endured opposition for
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our sake. We fix our eyes on the Lord. We
speak the good news of Jesus Christ over ourselves so
that we can run with perseverance the race that's been
marked out for us, so that we don't grow weary
and lose heart. We remind ourselves of the truth. Even
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in the face of loss. We pray so that we
can focus on the things that we can never lose.
That's a perfect transition to our last point this morning.
To live our faith out courageously, we must commit to
rejoicing in the Gospel even in the middle.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Of hardship verse forty. They called the apostles in.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
They had them flogged, and they ordered them not to
speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
The apostles left the Sanhedron rejoicing because they had been
counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. Day after
day in the tiple courts and from house to house,
they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that
Jesus is the Messiah.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Full disclosure.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
This verse has always been one that has been a
weird one for me. This has been strange and challenging
and encouraging all at the same time. This is one
of those verses that has stuck in my mind ever
since I first read it, like in my early twenties.
She's been up there just rolling around. When I thought
about what if we study the Book of Acts together
(31:53):
on Sunday mornings here, this was one of the first
verses I thought about.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
The Apostles left.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
The Sanhedron rejoicing because they've been counted worthy of suffering
disgrace for the name. I've thought about this passage a lot,
and here's sort of where I currently stand. Here's where
I've sort of landed in my own application and understanding,
understanding that. I know that as I continue to journey,
(32:21):
I will have an even more robust understanding of this.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
This is where I'm at right now.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
The joy felt by the Apostles in this moment is
as a joy of kinship with Christ. It's a joy
of being sort of lumped in with him. It's a
joy of identity. In other words, it's a good thing
(32:48):
in their minds. This is a good thing. It's a
good path for us to be on, for us be
even remotely similar to Jesus. The joy of the Apostles
was found in knowing that it's only because of their
in movable relationship with Jesus that they're in this position.
It's because of my immovable relationship with Christ that I'm
(33:08):
in this position. That's sort of like Christ. I'm standing
before this same council that put him to death. I'm
not looking for trouble, but man, I must be on
the path of Christ because I'm in the middle of it.
I don't think they're rejoicing because they are suffering. I
(33:32):
don't think this like masochistic or something like this. I
think they are rejoicing because of what they're suffering. Said
about them. Look why they were suffering. Their hardship is
proof that you belong to Christ. It's a joy of kinship.
Let's return to Hebrews twelve for a moment. Let us
(33:54):
run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfect of our faith,
for the joy set before him. He endured the cross,
scorning its shame. He sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such
opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary
and lose heart. The question is, what's the joy set
(34:17):
before Jesus. It wasn't God's good pleasure. He already had that.
It wasn't glory and honor. He had those things fully
before he humbled himself and took human form and came
to the earth.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
What was the joy set before Jesus in this moment?
It was you.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
It was your redemption, you being with him forever. That
thought on his mind was the joy set before him
when he went to the cross. It was that thought
that helped him to persevere to do something that he
(35:00):
did not necessarily want to do. It's that same thought
in our own minds, being with Christ forever that can
free us to be joyful in the middle of our
own hard situations. Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying you're always happy.
Happy and joyful are different things. Joyful means that I
(35:24):
have not lost my hope. The candle has not been extinguished.
I can call these things to mind and keep going.
I'm not saying that you can't be sad or scared,
or anxious or even angry. I'm saying that even as
you're navigating those emotions, you can still rejoice because you
know that you belong to Christ. I don't have to
(35:46):
suppress the bad stuff. I simply need to keep in
mind because of Jesus, the bad stuff cannot have the
last word anymore. I have eternal life in Christ. Eternal
life has already begun. That's the joy set before you.
You have eternal life because of Jesus, and your eternal
(36:07):
life has already begun. So what about you? In which
of these areas is the Lord inviting you to commit
to him more so for the sake of knowing and
following him? How's the Lord gently putting his arm around
you right now saying this.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Is the way walking it?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Is it committing yourself to trusting Jesus more even when
you're overwhelmed. Are there certain things that you can do
to root yourself in God's promises? Even more, is the
Lord challenging you to commit yourself to obeying Jesus even
when you don't want to. What can you do to
focus on the Gospel persevering even when things are difficult?
(36:48):
Is it committing yourself to rejoicing in Jesus even in
the middle of your hardship? What can you do to
remind yourself that nothing, absolutely nothing can ever separate you
from the love of Christ. Friends, the invitation is not
to act like the that the hard times aren't such
a big deal.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
That's not the invitation. The invitation is no.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Matter what, never lose sight of the fact that the
Gospel is a big deal. The invitation is not bad
times aren't such a big deal. The invitation is. The
Gospel is a huge deal in every situation, in every circumstance,
and we never lose sight of that. So a moment,
we're gonna remember this very thing. As Joel comes back
(37:32):
up and leads us in the in the Lord's Supper.
And so as we're finishing our time with teaching, let's
first pause and pray one last time. So God, we
submit ourselves and we humble ourselves. We admit that we
are not good at this. We are not good at
living a rooted life. Lord, that's why you had to
come and do the things that you have done. But God,
(37:54):
we also know that you've given us the promised power
of the Holy Spirit, that you, you, who began a
good work in us, will see it on until completion.
And God, may we lean into that promise. So teach
us to have joy, to have expectation of who you
are and how your promises will will manifest themselves in
our lives, even in the middle of a difficult situation.
So your precious and holy name, we pray Amen.
From the Book of Acts, chapter five. The apostles performed
many signs and wonders among the people, and all the
believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one
else dared joined them, even though they were highly regarded
by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women
believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
(00:21):
As a result, people brought the sick into the streets
and laid them on beds and mats, so that at
least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as
he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem,
bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and
all of them were healed. Then the high priests and
(00:41):
all his associates, who were members of the party of
the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles
and put them into the public jail. 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 all of this new life.
(01:02):
At daybreak, they entered the temple courts as they had
been told and began to teach the people. When the
High Priests and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin,
the full assembly of the elders of Israel, and sent
to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at
the jail, the officers did not find them there. So
(01:23):
they went back and 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 at a loss, wondering at what this might lead to.
Then someone came and said, look, the men you put
(01:43):
in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.
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. The apostles were brought
in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be
questioned by the high priests. We gave you strict orders
not to teach in his name, he said, Yet you
(02:05):
have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to
make us guilty of this man's blood. Peter and the
other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than human beings.
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead,
whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God
exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior,
(02:29):
that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the
Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.
When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to
put them to death. But a pharisee named Gamliel, a
teacher of the law who was honored by all the people,
(02:50):
stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men
be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed
the Sanhedrin, men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend
to do with these men. Some time ago, the Odds appeared,
claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied
to him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed,
(03:13):
and it came and it all came to nothing after him.
After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of
the Census and led a band of people in revolt.
He too was killed and all his followers were scattered. Therefore,
in the present case, I advise you leave these men alone,
let them go, for if their purpose or activity is
(03:36):
of human origin, it will fail. But if it is
from God, you will not be able to stop these men.
You will only find yourselves fighting against God. His speech
persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged.
Then they ordered them not to speak in the name
of Jesus and let them go. The apostles left the
Sanhedron rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering
(04:01):
disgrace for the name. Day after day in the temple
courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching
and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So a few weeks back, we were celebrating a birthday
party at my brother's home, and on the way there
my family, myself, Carrie, my kids, Maddie and Max, we
stopped at the dairy Queen near my brother's house so
that we could get an ice cream cake for dessert,
and I went in by myself to purchase the ice
cream cake, because that is not a.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Four person job.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I quickly made my choice and I went to the counter,
whereas greeted by someone who could not have been older
than sixteen years old. The kid apparently had not been
working there very long because he had to go get
the manager so that they could ring up the cake.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
He didn't know how to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This is a full size, like large ice cream cake.
So when the kid asked me if I wanted a bag,
I was a bit and I politely declined. In my mind,
putting a cake in a bag is like that, that's
only asking for trouble, right, The cake is gonna tip,
it's gonna smash. As I was having these thoughts, I
(05:12):
heard this kid under his breath like mutter, well, don't
drop it.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
That frozey in place for a moment, like.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I was honestly surprised at his comment, and I said,
did you did you say don't drop it?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And he kind of sheepishly shook his head. Yes. There's
all kinds of things. In that moment, I was tempted to.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Say things I know that I probably should not say,
things like, man, I've been practicing for like forty four
years of not dropping stuff, so I think I'm gonna
be all right, But I resisted that urge and I
sort of settled on I'll try my best. I got
back in the car and I started was kind of
relaying this story to carry and I remember remarking, I
(05:55):
can't believe the courage on that kid, but think he
would say that, especially obviously you haven't been working there
very long. I was then thinking about that moment for
the last couple of weeks, and I've realized that describing
his remarks as courageous isn't really the correct description. It's
more like misguided audacity. You see, I don't think he
(06:20):
was being brave. I just think he was being unnecessarily
rude to a customer. I mean, he was just being
lost in his own co over confidence. I mean, who
puts an ice cream cake in a bag? You see,
Courage is not simply saying or doing the hard thing.
(06:42):
It's not simply speaking your mind or being stubborn. It's
not just lowering your head and pushing through. That's not courage.
Courage is following the path of truth, regardless of the circumstances.
It's being principled, it's persevering in the face of hurt
(07:04):
or danger, or fear or opposition, it's saying and doing
the hard thing because it's the right thing to do.
That's what we see happening in our text today. In
the face of hurt, danger, fear, and opposition. The early
(07:24):
Church they continued on the path of knowing and following Jesus.
They did that regardless of their circumstances. They were going
to make God's kingdom known because that's the right thing
to do. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus
promised his disciples, I will build my church and all
(07:44):
the powers of Hell cannot stand against it. And here
in our text we see that promise coming true. More
and more men and women believed in the Lord. They're
added to their numbers. What we read we just read.
The early Church believed God's promises. They had faith that
God's kingdom cannot be overcome. They had faith that God
(08:08):
is for us, He's not against us. They had faith
that God is in control his purposes cannot be thwarted.
Because of that, they lived principal lives. They believed knowing
and following Jesus was the right thing to do. They persevered,
They kept going. They lived out the kingdom no matter
(08:31):
what the consequences were, because of God's faithfulness to them.
They found the courage to be faithful to God. Now, admittedly,
our circumstances and our own lives are a bit different
than what we see in our text today, but the
call to courageously know and follow Jesus that still lies
(08:53):
on us. We are called to live principled lives who
do what's right, living out God's kingdom broods, regardless of
the circumstances. Courage is not something that's only required of
just a few exceptional people throughout history. The truth is
we all need courage simply to live our lives well.
(09:15):
I must find the courage to keep going in the
face of loss. I have to find the courage to
risk offending someone when I know that they're being off base.
I must find the courage be generous and sacrificial with
my resources. I have to find the courage to risk
losing my position or my status by standing against things
I know are wrong. I have to find the courage
(09:37):
to face the own lies that I've believed about myself,
to stand against those and no longer accept those, so
that I can grow and mature spiritually. To know and
follow Jesus means that we must live courageously. To know
and follow Jesus, you must live courageously. The details of
(10:01):
how that is gonna work out in your life is
gonna be as different as you are. But to know
and follow Jesus, you will have to live courageously. Using
our text as a model, there's three commitments that we
must make in order to do that. First, we must
commit ourselves to trusting Jesus even when we're overwhelmed by life.
I must commit myself to trust the Lord, even in
(10:24):
the face of just being overwhelmed and confused. Secondly, I
have to commit myself to obey Jesus even when I
don't want to, when there's other things I would rather
be doing, I must commit to obey the Lord. And Lastly,
I must commit myself to rejoicing in Jesus even in
(10:46):
the middle of hardship. I must commit myself to not
focus on the negative and never lose sight of the
goodness of the finished work of Christ. Because of God's
faithfulness to us, we are freed to find the courage
to be faithful to Him, regardless of our circumstances.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
So that's what we're going this.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Morning, that's what we're sort of exploring and applying to
our own lives as we're using our text today as
sort of a springboard to that conversation. So as we're
preparing to do that, let's first pause and pray together.
So Lord, thank you for another day on the earth,
another day where we can come together as.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Your disciples, as your followers.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Together as a group to announce in solidarity and unify
that you're the King.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
God.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I pray against anything that is hindering us from just
being present with you in this moment. Lay us out
our distractions, Lay aside the false voices that we might
be wrestling with right now. Lord, help us just to
be present with you, knowing that you're present with us.
So we love you, We thank you. Continue to teach us,
(12:02):
inform us this morning, so you pressed us in Holy name,
we pray Amen. So first we must commit to trust
Jesus even when we're overwhelmed. Acts five, verse seventeen. The
High Priests and all of his associates were members of
the party of the Sadducees. Were filled with jealousy. They
(12:22):
arrested the apostles, they put them in public jail, but
during the night an angel the Lord opened the doors
of the jail and.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Brought them out.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Go stay in the temple courts. He said, tell the
people all about this new life. At daybreak, they entered
the temple courts that they'd been told and began to
teach the people.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
In many ways.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
The second arrest of the Apostles that we see here
in our Texas is really, in many ways just inevitable.
In the previous chapter, in Acts chapter four, we read
this says the Sanhedrin called them in and commanded him
not to speak or.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Teach it all in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
This has already happened that Peter and John replied, what's
right in God's eyes?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Listen to you or listen to him.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You be the judge. As for us, we cannot help
speaking about what we've seen and heard. After further threats,
they let them go. The Sanhedrin had strictly ordered the
early church not to teach about Jesus, and the apostles
not only publicly disregarded this command, they also let the
Sanhedron know ahead of time that they were going to
(13:21):
do it.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
They didn't stop. They kept going.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
They kept teaching others about the finished work of Jesus,
and as a result, what we see in our texts
an escalation. The first time the apostles were arrested, it
was in the evening, it was in private. But this
time we're told that they arrested and placed in public jail.
This is another way of saying that they were arrested publicly.
This wasn't something that was done under the cover of night.
(13:49):
The san heedred was asserting their authority over the Apostles.
They were making a spectacle of them. You see, sometimes
we can rely on our emotions to muster up the
courage to do the right thing. We can use our
emotions and lead on them to sort of to sort
of conjure a one time only type of courage. In fact,
(14:15):
I would argue that the American Church has often relied
on that type of emotional experience as a tool of discipleship.
It is not uncommon for churches have alter calls or
invitations to get baptized after like swelling music and like
heartfelt testimonials. Many many churches teach their members to evangelize
(14:36):
by telling people, hey, if you died tonight, would you
go to hell? Like tapping into this emotion of fear.
I've been in attendance when a missionary is trying to
get funding by showing the suffering people of the regions
that they're serving, sort of tapping into the emotion of pity.
I don't think emotions are bad. Here's what we need
(14:56):
to understand. A courage to do the right thing that's
rooted in emotion will always fade. Once the emotions are gone,
the resolve to persevere will disappear. And to be sure,
the sanhedro knew that. They knew that. That's why they're
(15:19):
escalating things. They are testing the resolve of the apostles.
If your courage is only skinned deep, well then we're
going to break you of that. That's not what we
see happening at all in our texts. Verse nineteen says
during the night, an angel the Lord appeared, opened the
doors with the jail. He brought them out. Go stand
in the temple courts. He said, tell the people all
(15:40):
about this new life. At daybreak, the apostles enter the
temple courts just like they've been told. They begin to
teach the people. The apostles cannot be deterred. We've seen
the text that once they were released, they didn't hesitate.
It says at once at daybreak they went to the
temple forse to teach about Jesus. They had their minds
(16:05):
made up. They were principal. They were going to do
the right thing regardless of the circumstances. It wasn't emotion
that was motivating them. It was their trust in the Lord.
My in laws they live in South Bend, and one
of the reasons that my kids loved going up there,
outside of just seeing their grandparents and getting loved on,
(16:27):
is that they have a pool. So it is not
uncommon from like sun up the sundown that the kids
will be in the pool the entire time if we
let them. I remember when they were younger, they didn't
know how to swim yet. I remember how sort of
excited and how nervous they were around the water as
we're teaching them to swim. One of the things that
(16:48):
we did was to encourage them to jump where we're
waiting to catch them in the pool, Like, jump into
the pool, We'll catch you. I remember my kids would
like wrap their toes over the edge in sort of
an anticipation and then they would like lose their nerve
and back off and like reconsider when they finally found
the courage to jump, it wasn't because they were so
(17:10):
wrapped up in the emotional experience of the fun.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
When they finally jumped.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
It was because they firmly believed that I would do
what I promised to do. They firmly believed that I
would catch them. They jumped because they trusted me. See,
here's what I wants to understand. I wants to deeply consider.
(17:35):
A courage that lasts is a courage that is rooted
in a deep trust of Jesus Christ. A spiritual courage
that lasts, that endures, that perseveres, that always does the
right thing, never gives up. A courage that lasts is
(17:56):
a courage that's rooted in trust. I trust that Jesus
is who he says he is. It loves me the
way that he says he loves me. We're not promised
that God will always intervene in miraculous ways like we
see in our text.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
That's not the promise. The promise.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Is that he loves us, He's always present, that his
plans cannot be thwarted. The courage that's last is rooted
in God's promises. Like we read in Romans chapter eight,
can anything ever separate us from Christ's love. Doesn't mean
he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity,
or we're persecuted, or we're hungry or destitute, or in
(18:39):
danger or threatened with death. No, despite all these things,
overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loves us. Friends,
what you were promised is that you have overwhelming victory
over sin and death through Jesus Christ, because He loves you.
That's the promise. You have overwhelming victory over set in
(19:00):
death through the finished work of Jesus Christ. No matter
what happens, that can never be shaken. On the day
that Jesus returns, God's full plan of our thriving or
for our good, for our eternal joy will be revealed.
The full plan will be revealed in the middle of
(19:21):
the challenging situations. Admittedly, we hardly ever understand all the details.
In the middle of challenging situations, we hardly ever understand
the details. But friends, we always know the big picture.
Nothing can separate you from Christ's love.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Courage. That last is the courage that's rooted in deep
trust of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
That's why it's so important that in our everyday lives
that we're deepening our relationship with the Lord through our
spiritual disciplines. We need to strengthen our trust in the
Lord right now, anymore than it's important if you're married
that every day you're deepening your love for your spouse.
Not like, hey, we went to the altar, we said
the things that we're good. It's like, no, every day
(20:08):
I deepen my relationship with my spouse. Every day I
deepen my relationship with the Lord. And I do that
before I'm standing face to face with the opposition or
the hurt or the danger. I root myself in God's
promises now, so that I don't have to depend on
mustering up this emotional courage in the middle of the thing.
I can tap into the reserve that I've been setting aside.
(20:35):
We need to continually reflect on the finished work of
Jesus Christ, allowing the Gospel to always be fresh in
our minds. That's why we pray, that's why we read scripture.
That's why we fast, that's why we practice times of
silence and solitude. That's why we journal. That's why we lament.
You're as unique as your spiritual rhythm should be. The
(20:56):
point is you should have them to have an intentional
rhythm of your life that you're humbly approaching the Lord saying,
continue to root in me a trust of you. To
live courageously, we must commit to trust Jesus even when
we're overwhelmed. Secondly, to live courageously, we must commit to
obeying God even we don't want to.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Verse twenty five.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Someone came and said, look the man you put in
jailer standing in the temple courts teaching the people. At
that the captain went off with his officers and brought
in the apostles. They didn't use force because they feared
that the people would stone them. The apostles were brought in,
made to appear before the Sanhedron to be questioned by
the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to
teach in this name, he said, Yet you have filled
Jerusalem with your teaching, and you're determined to make us
(21:43):
guilty of this man's blood. Peter and the other apostles replied,
we must obey God rather than human beings, the God
of our ancestors. Raised Jesus from the dead, whom you
killed by hanging on a cross. God exalted him to
his own right hand as prince and savior, that he
bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are
(22:03):
witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit,
whom God has given to those who obey him. So
it has to go without saying that the apostles were
not like excited about enduring suffering, Like they weren't like
(22:25):
amped up, like I like this is gonna be great.
Given the choice, they would have chosen to avoid it.
We see this very thing in Jesus right the garden
of Gyseimite. So night before he's about to be betrayed, arrested, crucified,
he's praying, God, if there's any other way, take this
cup from me.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
He's like saying, I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Given the choice to the Lord, I would choose not to,
you know, be executed on a cross in just a
few moments. But just like Jesus, the disciples, they had
their will bent towards God. They're willing to obey the Lord.
They're willing to follow him into situations that they would
rather not be in. See we need to understand with
(23:05):
regards our own spiritual journeys, that you and I we
are not called to enthusiasm and the middle of hardship.
You are not called to be enthusiastic in the middle
of hardship. You're not called to be happy. Just put
on a brave face. You're called to persevere. You're called
(23:25):
to be obedient, keep following, to keep trusting even when
you don't want to.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
That's the call.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
So that being said, let's consider the reasons found in
our text of why we should obey God. There's three
reasons in our text. First, we obey God because we
believe the Gospel is true. I obey God because I
believe the Gospel is true. The Apostles tell us in
verse thirty two, we are witnesses of these things. So
is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those
who obey him. We know that the finished work of
(23:57):
Jesus Christ is true. We have the testimony of the scripture.
We have the test the money of the Holy Spirit
who's been given to us. We follow in obedience even
when we don't want to, because we know the gospel's true. Secondly,
we believe the Gospel has power verse thirty, The God
of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead, whom you
(24:17):
killed by hanging him on a cross. Our obedience isn't
waste based on like wishful thinking and hope. We know
that the Lord has power to make all things come
together and accord us to his will. My obedience isn't
based on my wishful thinking. It's based on knowing that
God has the power to fulfill the promises that He's
(24:40):
given to me. God isn't giving me empty promises. He's
given me firm, solid ones. I know that that's true,
even when I don't understand the details of my life,
when things aren't happening the way that I want them
to happen. We follow Jesus in obedience because we know
(25:01):
the Gospel has power over death. Third, we believe the
Gospel is the path to life and life abundantly. Verse
thirty one. God exalted Jesus to his own right hand
as prince and savior, that he might bring Israel to repentance,
that he might forgive their sins. It's through the finished
work of Jesus Christ, and only through the finished work
(25:22):
of Jesus Christ, that we have redemption over sin and death.
Following the Lord is the path to life. That's why
we follow him even in the middle of hardship. This
is the path of life. I love the Apostles, Confession,
and John six when things are kind of flying off
the rails and they're like, where else are we gonna go?
You have the very words of life, Like they're saying,
(25:43):
I don't understand anything that's happening right now, but I
know that I need to hang with you. Those are
the reasons why we obey God. But now let's consider
how we do it. How in the middle of the
suffering and the hardship, how do we find the courage
to persevere to keep going. Returning to verse thirty one,
(26:04):
God exalted Jesus to his own right hand as Prince
and Savior, that he might bring Israel to repentance and
forgive their sins. As a very peculiar description of Christ
to this prince and savior. This description only happens four
times in the entire New Testament, and one of those
times is found in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
The author of.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Hebrews writes, let us run with perseverance the race marked
out for us fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer
and profector, or the Prince and savior of our faith.
Same phrase for the joy set before him. He endured
the cross, he scorned its shame. He sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Jesus,
who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you won't
(26:49):
grow weary, and so that you won't lose heart. The
author of Hebrews tells us, fix your eyes on Jesus.
He instructs us consider him who endured. The word consider
it it literally means to ponder, to sort of like
mullet over in your mind. In other words, we find
(27:14):
our willingness to obey God by placing our focus on him,
by remembering what he has done. Return to the swimming pool.
Analogy is one thing for me to tell my kids
jump in, I'll catch you. Is another thing for them
to see me do it first. God is never going
to ask you to walk a path that He has
not already walked. This goes back to the importance of
(27:37):
our spiritual disciplines of just setting a time inside to
be with the Lord. We read scripture in the middle
of hardship to place our focus on Christ. We pray,
we fast, we lament in order to proactively take our
concerns to the Lord, that we place our focus on
him in the middle of the difficulty. My kids, they
just finished their robotics season. In fact, last week I
(27:59):
was with my son Max as we were in Dallas, Texas.
He was competing at the World Robotics competition. And to
qualify for Worlds, your team has to do extremely well
at the state championship. And this year, as my kids
were competing, whether they're at the state qualifier, I noticed
another team from a Christian school and they were like
(28:20):
on the cusp of qualifying as well. They're watching sort
of with baited breath as they were starting their final run.
There's this nervous energy that hung in the air, and
to their credit, they did awesome.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
They crushed it. They qualified.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
They were so excited, rightfully, so they're jumping up and down,
they're celebrating, and in the middle of that celebration, one
of the team members turns to a coach and shouted,
you see, this is why we pray. And I kind
of pause in that scenario, like the same way when
I was at Dairy Queen just kind of caught me
(28:52):
a little off guard. Don't get me wrong, I truly
believe that there's not a single instance that you cannot
or should not pray for it. But that moment, I
felt just some sadness for this girl because the spiritual
training that she's receiving is not teaching her the truth.
(29:15):
I can imagine her disenchantment later in life when things
are falling apart, and the only conclusion she can draw
is I didn't pray the right way. I didn't pray enough. Friends,
we do not pray in order to make every dream
come true. If things aren't going well, it's not because
(29:41):
you haven't done a good job of praying. We pray
in order to be formed into the image of Jesus.
We pray to grow in our intimacy with God. We
pray to learn his voice, to receive his heart, to
see the world through his eyes. We pray so that
(30:04):
we grow closer with the Lord. To focus our hearts
on Jesus is why we pray. It's by placing our
focus on the Lord that we find our willingness to
obey him. We consider him who has endured opposition for
(30:25):
our sake. We fix our eyes on the Lord. We
speak the good news of Jesus Christ over ourselves so
that we can run with perseverance the race that's been
marked out for us, so that we don't grow weary
and lose heart. We remind ourselves of the truth. Even
(30:48):
in the face of loss. We pray so that we
can focus on the things that we can never lose.
That's a perfect transition to our last point this morning.
To live our faith out courageously, we must commit to
rejoicing in the Gospel even in the middle.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Of hardship verse forty. They called the apostles in.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
They had them flogged, and they ordered them not to
speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
The apostles left the Sanhedron rejoicing because they had been
counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. Day after
day in the tiple courts and from house to house,
they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that
Jesus is the Messiah.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Full disclosure.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
This verse has always been one that has been a
weird one for me. This has been strange and challenging
and encouraging all at the same time. This is one
of those verses that has stuck in my mind ever
since I first read it, like in my early twenties.
She's been up there just rolling around. When I thought
about what if we study the Book of Acts together
(31:53):
on Sunday mornings here, this was one of the first
verses I thought about.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
The Apostles left.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
The Sanhedron rejoicing because they've been counted worthy of suffering
disgrace for the name. I've thought about this passage a lot,
and here's sort of where I currently stand. Here's where
I've sort of landed in my own application and understanding,
understanding that. I know that as I continue to journey,
(32:21):
I will have an even more robust understanding of this.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
This is where I'm at right now.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
The joy felt by the Apostles in this moment is
as a joy of kinship with Christ. It's a joy
of being sort of lumped in with him. It's a
joy of identity. In other words, it's a good thing
(32:48):
in their minds. This is a good thing. It's a
good path for us to be on, for us be
even remotely similar to Jesus. The joy of the Apostles
was found in knowing that it's only because of their
in movable relationship with Jesus that they're in this position.
It's because of my immovable relationship with Christ that I'm
(33:08):
in this position. That's sort of like Christ. I'm standing
before this same council that put him to death. I'm
not looking for trouble, but man, I must be on
the path of Christ because I'm in the middle of it.
I don't think they're rejoicing because they are suffering. I
(33:32):
don't think this like masochistic or something like this. I
think they are rejoicing because of what they're suffering. Said
about them. Look why they were suffering. Their hardship is
proof that you belong to Christ. It's a joy of kinship.
Let's return to Hebrews twelve for a moment. Let us
(33:54):
run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfect of our faith,
for the joy set before him. He endured the cross,
scorning its shame. He sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such
opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary
and lose heart. The question is, what's the joy set
(34:17):
before Jesus. It wasn't God's good pleasure. He already had that.
It wasn't glory and honor. He had those things fully
before he humbled himself and took human form and came
to the earth.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
What was the joy set before Jesus in this moment?
It was you.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
It was your redemption, you being with him forever. That
thought on his mind was the joy set before him
when he went to the cross. It was that thought
that helped him to persevere to do something that he
(35:00):
did not necessarily want to do. It's that same thought
in our own minds, being with Christ forever that can
free us to be joyful in the middle of our
own hard situations. Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying you're always happy.
Happy and joyful are different things. Joyful means that I
(35:24):
have not lost my hope. The candle has not been extinguished.
I can call these things to mind and keep going.
I'm not saying that you can't be sad or scared,
or anxious or even angry. I'm saying that even as
you're navigating those emotions, you can still rejoice because you
know that you belong to Christ. I don't have to
(35:46):
suppress the bad stuff. I simply need to keep in
mind because of Jesus, the bad stuff cannot have the
last word anymore. I have eternal life in Christ. Eternal
life has already begun. That's the joy set before you.
You have eternal life because of Jesus, and your eternal
(36:07):
life has already begun. So what about you? In which
of these areas is the Lord inviting you to commit
to him more so for the sake of knowing and
following him? How's the Lord gently putting his arm around
you right now saying this.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Is the way walking it?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Is it committing yourself to trusting Jesus more even when
you're overwhelmed. Are there certain things that you can do
to root yourself in God's promises? Even more, is the
Lord challenging you to commit yourself to obeying Jesus even
when you don't want to. What can you do to
focus on the Gospel persevering even when things are difficult?
(36:48):
Is it committing yourself to rejoicing in Jesus even in
the middle of your hardship? What can you do to
remind yourself that nothing, absolutely nothing can ever separate you
from the love of Christ. Friends, the invitation is not
to act like the that the hard times aren't such
a big deal.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
That's not the invitation. The invitation is no.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Matter what, never lose sight of the fact that the
Gospel is a big deal. The invitation is not bad
times aren't such a big deal. The invitation is. The
Gospel is a huge deal in every situation, in every circumstance,
and we never lose sight of that. So a moment,
we're gonna remember this very thing. As Joel comes back
(37:32):
up and leads us in the in the Lord's Supper.
And so as we're finishing our time with teaching, let's
first pause and pray one last time. So God, we
submit ourselves and we humble ourselves. We admit that we
are not good at this. We are not good at
living a rooted life. Lord, that's why you had to
come and do the things that you have done. But God,
(37:54):
we also know that you've given us the promised power
of the Holy Spirit, that you, you, who began a
good work in us, will see it on until completion.
And God, may we lean into that promise. So teach
us to have joy, to have expectation of who you
are and how your promises will will manifest themselves in
our lives, even in the middle of a difficult situation.
So your precious and holy name, we pray Amen.
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