How to Handle Persecution, Part 2

Acts 4:13-32

Let's bow in prayer as we come to our study.  Father, we do thank You for the wonderful opportunity that is ours to look into your book and to see what it is that the Spirit would teach us this morning.  Make us to be open and help us to be teachable and not that we only learn it in our heads, but that we translate it into our lives.  Bless our time, Father. May Jesus be lifted up.  We pray in His name.  Amen. 

Take your Bible, if you will, and look at Acts Chapter 4, which will be our passage for this discussion this morning.  And we are dealing with the subject how to handle persecution and this our second and concluding study of these verses in this particular section.  In our continuing study of the early church, we have come in Chapter 4 to the first persecution.  The book of Acts, as you well know if you've been with us at all in our study, records for us the life and times of the early church, from its birth through the early years of its growth and its spread to the world.

Now along with the birth of the church, we were to anticipate a reaction from the world.  In John Chapter 15, Jesus Himself had warned by saying, "don't be surprised if the world hates you.  They hated me."  And they will kill you eventually, Chapter 16 of John tells.  So Jesus warned that there would be hostility to the church just as there was hostility to Him, that it is to be expected.  That it is inevitable.  And so it comes in Chapter 4 in the very early days of the church.  The church has been born in Chapter 2 through Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.  The great sermons of Peter, the church grew.  And by the time we come to Chapter 4, verse 4 it is likely that there were probably at least 20,000 people involved in the early church.

The 5,000 of verse 4 has to do with men.  In addition to that, women and children would be included or young people.  And so the threat to the Jews is very serious.  They had attempted to get rid of Jesus Christ by executing Him and now they are having to live with people going all over everywhere proclaiming that He rose from the dead.  And it isn't a handful anymore, it's probably between 10,000 and 20,000 of them that are doing this in Jerusalem.

So they're scared.  And opposition naturally comes politically and religiously.  Now the event that keyed off the persecution is recorded in Chapter.  Now, you'll remember that Peter and John went for the afternoon prayer time down to the temple and coming through the gate called beautiful, they came across a lame man who for 40 years had been lame and was probably a fixture at that particular gate where he would daily beg for alms.  At that point, they healed the man.  He jumped up and hopped all over everywhere praising God.  And such a thing drew the crowd into the courtyard, so startling was the miracle and so familiar was the man, that everybody gathered around and Peter and John jumped on Solomon's porch and with the man standing between them Peter preached a great sermon on Christ.  Announced that their Messiah was Jesus of Nazareth that they had rejected their own Messiah and executed Him.  And he indicted them for that.  And then offered them salvation through the grace of God.

Now as a result of this, many believed and the number came to be about 5,000 men as we see it in verse 4.  In response to this sermon and to the growth of this new faith in this Jesus, there came to be a tremendous antagonism on the part of the leaders of Israel.  And in Chapter 4 that breaks out and it progresses to be more severe as we go through Acts even as it did in the case of Jesus. 

Now at the persecution in Acts takes the form of physical abuse.  Although there is some threatening in the beginning of this persecution, it finally finds it way to personal abuse.  And in most cases, you might say well that really doesn't relate this text to me very well because we don't have that kind of persecution. Well, I'm not sure we wouldn't if we didn't...if we did confront the world in the same way that they did.  But aside from that, I think Satan is subtle enough to know that as we said last time, the kind of persecution that gets to your ego may be more severe than that which gets to your body.  The kind that hits you in the area of status or acceptance or pride or makes you fearful of losing your reputation or position in the community, may be the most subtle and devastating of all.

I think that Christians are want to depreciate their testimony and to back off from naming Christ as they ought to, because of the fear that somebody might not like them.  Or the fear of be ostracized from their society.  Or the fear of being fired from their job.  Or the fear of being shut out of a community of people that they'd like to be a part of.  Or the fear of being ignored as some kind of a strange commodity.  I think we fall prey to the temptations and the persecutions in the area of ego and acceptance and pride more than anything else.  And if I'm honest in examining my own heart, I think that's what gets to me.

Now there have been several occasions where physical abuse has been a reaction in terms of my preaching Christ and that didn't have a negative effect at all.  It had a positive effect, but there are times when I feared to name the name of Christ because I'm afraid of being an outcast or looked down upon or spurned or being shut out or being thought to be some kind of a weird individual or a religious nut or a freak or whatever.  But one way or another a Christian who really confronts the world is going to get some reaction from the world and we went into that a little bit last time.  In 2 Timothy 3:12, we took a key from that, "Ye in all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."  It's just a known fact revealed in the word of God repeatedly that if you live for Christ in the face of the world, you're going to get some flack.  That has to happen, because you're running cross grain to the system.  It can't be smooth.

The apostle Paul recognizes this and in Philippians 1:29 he says this, now listen, "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake."  That's part of being a Christian.  That's not a foreign element to the Christian life.  That's a natural response to the Christian who really lives his Christianity in the world.  And he says in verse 30, "you should have the same conflict which you see in me and hear to be in me."  If you're doing what I'm doing then suffering is a part of it. And so when you say somebody you ought to suffer for Christ's sake, that doesn't mean run out and, you know, do something masochistic, beat on your head with a hammer or something so you can...it simply means if you confront the world as I do, Paul's saying, you're going to get what I got when I did it.

It's the measure of your commitment, you see.  Now as we saw last time, the persecution begins in the first part of Chapter 4.  But the great instruction that we want to look at is in verses 5-31, because this gives us principles for handling persecution.  And that's what we began to study last time.  But let me just preface it by giving you a kind of a little picture of persecution that maybe you've never seen before.

If handled right, now watch it, if handled right persecution is a blessed experience.  It is a wonderful experience.  It is a plus, not a minus.  It is a positive, not a negative.  I'll show you what I mean.  Look at James Chapter 1 to begin with and we'll just kind of pick up a couple of points there.  "My brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials."  When you have problems whether persecution or whatever, consider it a great joy.  Why?  Knowing this at the trying or the testing of your faith works patience.  God has a plan.  He wants to make you patient.  "But let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire lacking nothing."  Don't avoid the persecution.  Don't get away from it, because in it God's going to bring you to maturity.

Let it have it's perfecting work you see.  In your life God has a desire and His desire is to bring you to maturity.  That's very clear.  The plan of God is that you be perfected or made mature.  And there are really two things that bring you to maturity.  Number one is the word of God.  1 Peter 2:2, this is what makes you grow.  But number two, trials, and under the area of trials, persecution, suffering, problems, whatever, these two things are to bring you to maturity.  And so you must allow for persecution it's part of the process of spiritual growth.  So if you're going to grow, you're going to have to be confronting the world and getting persecuted.

That's part of growing.  You don't run away from it, you accept, verse 12.  "Blessed is the man that endures temptation or trial or testing for when he is tried he'll receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him."  So what do we learn from James?  We learn that persecution number one brings maturity.  Persecution number 2 brings reward.  Maturity and reward.  Now I want you to listen to Peter.  Now Peter knew a lot about persecution.  In 1 Peter 2:20 listen to this.  Interesting.  "For what glory is it if when you are buffeted for your faults you take it patiently."  In other words, you know, if you're being punished for your sins that's not persecution, that's punishment for your sins.  No glory in that.  "But if when you do well you serve God and you suffer for it, you take it patiently."  This acceptable with God.  Verse 21, "For here unto were you called."  You were called to suffer.  Now some people have gotten all twisted around and there are some people who have become concerned with making themselves suffer. 

There's a certain order of the Catholic Church for example.  I met a man in that order, who desired a suffer.  Therefore this man wears around his waist a belt that has inserted into it sharp pointed nails.  He wears it all the time, because he does not understand what it means to suffer.  He thinks that the suffer itself is redemptive.  And there are other people in Europe and you've seen them on television at certain periods of time called flagelantes who go down the streets and with cords filled with bits of glass beat themselves until the blood runs out of them.  And they do this in the name of Jesus Christ, because they are feeling that they must suffer.  But you see they are suffering by a masochistic effort to suffer, not as a result of confronting the world with the truth of the gospel and getting the reaction that God has naturally promised will happen. 

You see to suffer independent of proclaiming Christ is ridiculous.  And some people would go around and say well, my husband is my suffering.  You know.  Well, I bear my cross, it's my son.  That is not your cross.  Now that may be one of the problems, but to suffer for Christ is to get the response of the world to an open proclamation of Jesus by your life and your lip.  And that's the only kind of suffering that pleases God.  The kind that comes as a result in terms of persecution that comes as a result of your active, aggressive, living godly in Christ Jesus in the face of the world.  And that is exactly what Peter is saying.

This is what you were called to, but suffering apart from that kind of life has no significance in terms of persecution.  Now look at Chapter 4 of 1 Peter, verse 13.  Now here's his attitude in persecution.  "But rejoice," isn't that terrific?  In verse 12 he says "don't think it's some strange thing when fiery trial comes.  Rejoice inasmuch as you're partakers of Christ sufferings. That when His glory shall be revealed, you maybe glad also with exceeding joy for if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."

Isn't that wonderful, to get persecuted?  The Spirit of Glory and the Spirit of God rests on you.  Glory is connected with persecution.  You want to really experience glory, persecution brings it.  Back in Chapter 1, he said, the glory of man fades as a flower of the grass.  If you put yourself in a culture and you try to accommodate yourself to the culture and accommodate yourself to the society, you may grab a little temporary glory, but it'll fade like the grass.  But you accommodate yourself to Jesus Christ, you confront the world with your message, boldly proclaim Jesus Christ and you may get flack from the world, but you get glory from God.

And so he simply says if you suffer happy are you because glory is involved.  In verse 16, "Ye yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God."  So what do we learn?  Persecution is wonderful.  It brings growth, it brings glory, it brings joy and it brings reward.  Terrific.  And I warn you by what I said earlier that that doesn't mean you run out and suffer and then say boy am I racking them up with God.  I'm beating myself.  No.  Something else Peter says in 1 Peter 5:10, "That the God of all grace who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus."  There's glory again connected with suffering.  All through Peter he connects glory with suffering.  Because first the suffering then the glory.

"Unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered a while make you perfect, established, strengthened, settle you."  You want to be established, strong, settled, and perfect?  How are you going to be it?  Say it.  Suffer.  That's hard to say isn't it?  That's part of growth.  You see that's part of maturity.  That's part of arriving where God wants you and as I say it's not masochistic, it's the proclamation of Christ by your life and your lip that sets up a reaction in the world by Satan and you get it.  And yet there's nothing negative about it, you see?

There's nothing negative at all about suffering.  It's entirely positive from beginning to end.  You say well, I get scared out there.  What happens if I get out there and the Lord leaves me?  That'll never happen.  I'll read you...you know this passage, Romans 8:35.  It says this, "What shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation, or distress, or," what, "persecution?"  No, and it says in the next verse, "As it is written for thy sake we are killed all day long."  We're expendable.  "We're counted as sheep for the slaughter, but in all these things we are more than," what, "conquerors."  It's victory, you see.  I mean to go through persecution is a fantastically wonderful experience.  It's growth, it's glory.  It's joy.  It's reward.  It's conquering.  It's all those things.

Listen to Paul's attitude.  2 Corinthians 12:9, and here he's kind of saying Lord, I've got a thorn in the flesh and Satan buffets me with it and it could be possible that I could rid of it if you'd like Lord.  But he says in verse 9, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness."  I like you weak Paul, because then you lean on me.  And then he says this, "Most gladly therefore will I glory," there's that word again, "in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me."  Now listen to this, this is a statement that is strange apart from what we have said.  "Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmity in reproach, in necessities in persecutions." 

You say, he really enjoys his persecutions.  Why?  "For when I am weak, then I am," what, "strong."  You see when I'm being persecuted I lean on Jesus.  God save us from a placid life where we never get persecuted, because then we can hack it on our own.  But when the going really gets tough and we are weak and we are incapable and we can't make it, that's when we lean on Him.  And so we pray that God would bring us trials and God would bring us persecutions that in our weakness His strength may be made perfect.  And so you see, all the way through this thing persecution is a plus.  It is never a minus.  Paul said, and this is good, in Philippians 2:17, I'll give you two more things that he said and then take it off from here.

But 2:17, "Ye," and he says, "if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all."  That is terrific.  Now Paul didn't suffer for his own sake.  He was already saved.  He could have grabbed his scrolls, tucked them under his arm, and taken off for the hills, you know.  Sure.  I mean, he could have said look people I don't need to do this.  I mean, I don't need to go into town and get stoned, with rocks, of course you understand.  He could have said, I...this...I don't need this.  I'm saved.  I mean, I know what the Spirit filled life is like.  I don't have to do this.  But he said look, if I can be offered for your joy I get a joy out of it.  If my life is a sacrifice, if I have to die to reach you man, that's a great thing.

And Paul considered persecution a blessing, because he was getting persecuted in order that others might hear about Jesus.  He'd go into town and he'd preach Jesus.  People get saved and they'd throw him in jail.  And he'd say, you know something, I got thrown in jail for preaching Jesus and people got saved.  Boy I ought to do more of this.  Because you see his life was expendable.  This is the whole point.  As a Christian, as we said last time, your life is expendable.  You can spend your life on somebody else and if you die in doing it what a blessing if you've brought somebody to Christ.  We're expendable.  We have to look at persecution as an opportunity to suffer for the sake of somebody else.

You know, you might have an opportunity preach Jesus or to talk about Jesus somewhere and you'll clam up to protect your ego and because of that somebody won't hear the message of Jesus Christ. And therefore, you have considered your own pride and your own status and your own selfish comfort above the salvation of that individual.  True?  True?  You see, it's only when you recognize that you are expendable and that you like the apostle Paul will say I sacrifice myself for you.  That is when you understand the blessing of persecution.  It is not because you get some intrinsic joy in suffering, it is because you know that you're suffering number one so somebody else can know Jesus.  That's a blessing.

Listen, there's a second reason that Paul suffered and this is beautiful.  Colossians 1:24, this verse confuses a lot of people and they find it difficult to understand it.  It isn't really that difficult.  Let me see if I can open it up to you a little bit.  Colossians 1:24, here's another way Paul looked at his suffering.  This is beautiful. He says, "I Paul," verse 23, he's talking about himself, "am made a minister."  Then he goes on.  "Who now rejoice in my sufferings," what are the next two words, "for you."  You see?  But that's the first thing about it is, I'm not doing this for me, it's for you.  I'm expendable and this is the whole point of Paul's life.  If I live, I live under the Lord.  If I die, I die under the Lord.  So if I live or die, I'm the Lord's and it's for you.

But he says this, "I rejoice in my sufferings for you."  And here's a second thing he loved about his sufferings.  "I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body sake the church."  Now there's two things he's saying here.  Number one, I do it for you.  I suffer for your sake, for your sake, for your sake.  But secondly, I have the wonderful opportunity of filling up in my flesh the afflictions that are meant for Christ.

Now watch what he means by this.  Beautiful thought.  Since the time the world began to persecute Jesus they haven't stopped.  Today the world is still hating Jesus.  And you know what it is about you and me that the world hates?  It is not us, it is Jesus.  True?  So that when we are persecuted, who is it that they are really persecuting?  It's Jesus Christ.  They don't even know us.  I mean, I may go into some place and proclaim Jesus all over everywhere and they may attack me and they don't understand that just personally I am a nice guy.  You know?  I mean, I am not that bad.  I mean, I'm not a warmonger.  I'm not a murderer.  I'm not there to assault anybody, but they'll get infuriated and they may pounce upon me and it has absolutely nothing to do with me at all.  Who is it that they're after?  It's Jesus. 

And you see since the time the world began, they finally got so far that they killed Jesus, but that didn't stop it anyway.  They're still trying to kill Him again and again and again.  There are people in this world and there always have been who are after Christ constantly.  All the false systems in the world are after Christ, persecuting Christ.  And when any Christian standing really in the place of Jesus Christ gets persecuted, he is really getting that which is directed at Jesus, but Jesus isn't around any more to get it so we get it instead.  True?  That's exactly what he's saying.  "I fill up that which is still left behind of the afflictions meant for Christ."  You see?

In other words, in my body I bear, Galatians 6, the marks of whom?  Of Jesus.  These aren't meant for Paul.  They're meant for who?  You see, people are still trying to kill Jesus.  They're still trying to get rid of Jesus.  And because He's not around anymore, those who stand in His place are the ones who get it.  And so Paul says, you know something folks, persecution is so wonderful, because after my Lord suffered so much for me can I do less than suffer some for Him?  I mean, He bore all my reproach.  Can I bear a little of His?  I mean, He died and provided all that for me.  Can I take a few of the darts meant for Him? 

He endured because it was necessary to be a blessing to the church to endure and secondly, because he loved the fact that what he was suffering was meant for Jesus.  You know, I think that there are some people in your life that you might suffer for.  I've often thought that, and you have too probably, that if one of your children went through something extremely painful, you might have thought to yourself, you know, I'd have gone through that for them.  I wish it had happened to me.  Have you ever thought that?

Or some pain and anguish that somebody went through and you thought because you loved them so much, I wish it had happened to me and not them.  You don't say that about too many people do you?  But the ones you deeply, deeply love.  Now that's how much Paul loved Jesus.  He said, you know what, I'll take it all for Jesus.  If He can just be up there in glory getting what He deserves, I'll stick around down here and I'll take it.  I'll fill up in my body the afflictions meant for Jesus. 

So persecution is a good thing.  It's good for the sake that Paul says that we are allowed the wonderful privilege of taking in the arrows of Satan meant for Jesus.  So it is in this sense that all true believers who live godly stand in the place of Jesus Christ and get the afflictions that are meant for Him.  That's what Mark 13:13 means when it says Jesus said, "You shall be hated of all men for my sake."  See, not because they hate you, but because they hate me and you. 

2 Corinthians 1:5, Paul said this, "The afflictions of Christ overflowed toward us."  You see?  "That which the world had meant for him came to us."  He says, I'm always bearing in my body the putting of Jesus to death.  You see.  The world is always trying to kill Jesus and they can't get to Him and they keep getting to me.  I always bearing in my body the putting to death of Jesus.  What a tremendous testimony.  I'm out there confronting the world, constantly face to face with the world and I am so represented of Christ that I keep getting what they mean for Him.  And he says, oh what a joy.  And he even prayed further in Philippians 3:10 "Oh that I may know him and the fellowship of his," what, "of his suffering."  I get to share in what is His to suffer.

You see, that's great joy.  So for the Christian persecution is a wonderful thing.  It produces growth.  It produces glory.  It produces reward.  It produces joy.  It produces blessing.  It produces salvation and encouragement to those whom we reach.  And it produces the privilege of identification with Jesus Christ to fill up the sufferings that are meant for Him.  Now maybe you don't love Jesus enough to want to do that, but Paul did and so did Peter and John.  And so here as we look at Acts Chapter 4, we see this kind of spirit.

And here we're going to find...that's the introduction, now I'll get to the sermon.  You say boy, MacArthur, I never thought of persecution like that.  I know.  That's the way to think about it though.  That's the only way.  And if you really live Godly in the world and confront the world, you're going to have the wonderful opportunity of getting persecuted and having all those blessings come to pass.  But the beauty of this passage, now understanding that the persecution began, was how they handled it.  And there are seven principles here for handling persecution.

Last week, we looked at the first three.  And here we'll look at the remainder, reviewing briefly.  Seven principles involving how to handle persecution.  Now they got it, Peter and John and here's what they did.  Number one principle, you have an outline in your bulletin which we've changed a little bit from last week, so you might want to follow along.  Principle number one in handling persecution, be submissive to it.  And remember that from the beginning of Chapter 4 clear through verse 7 to the time they got set down in the middle of the Hall of Hewn Stone where the Sanhedrin met together, they hadn't resisted at all.  They had just willing gone right along.  And they weren't cowards and they weren't afraid, they were submissive.  They said this in their minds, God brought us this far, He must have some reason.  Let's see what He's going to do.

And they didn't fight against it.  They...when persecution came, they willingly submitted to it.  You never hear Paul doing anything but that.  In the Philippian jail when the jail started to fall apart at the earthquake, what did he do?  Say at last we're free, vroom.  And...no, he didn't. He just stayed in there.  He submitted because he knew God had purpose.  It's a good thing he stuck around too.  God wasn't finished with what He wanted to do in that place.  But you see, they were submissive.  Whenever God brings you into a situation of persecution, stick around and see what God's going to do.  Don't fight it, be submissive.  That's principle number one.

And we went into that in detail and you remember that Paul and Silas stuck around in the Philippian jail and they could have gotten away.  They could have gotten out of there fast and they stuck around and who got saved?  The jailer and his whole family.  Now do you know what the key to the salvation of that jailer, apart from the theology, the circumstantial key to the salvation of the jailer was persecution, right?  They got persecuted.  They got thrown in jail.  They were having a great time singing songs in there.  The place got all rattled.  Everybody was panicky.  The man was going to fall on his sword.  Paul introduced he and his whole family to Jesus and it all came about because of persecution.  Again, a classic example of Satan doing his best and being overruled by God.

Second principle we saw last week, not only be submissive to persecution, but secondly, be filled with the Spirit.  Verse 8, "The Peter filled with the Holy Spirit."  You get into a situation like that and you're going to have to lean on some power other than your own.  And so he yielded to the Spirit of God, he and John.  And that was victory in itself right there.  They didn't try to handle it in their own strength and develop their own techniques and their own cunning.  They yielded to the Spirit.

Third principle, boldly use it as an opportunity to present Christ.  And this dynamic.  They got into this situation and they saw an open door to present Christ right in the middle of a persecution.  And it would have been so easy to say boy am I scared and we may never get out of this.  See?  And they didn't really have any historical precedence as a church either.  This was brand new stuff.  And they could have panicked at that point and just kind of faded away and just clammed up, but they didn't.  They...then they could have watered down their message and as I told you last week, they could have come out with a few little religious platitudes that would have been innocuous and inoffensive to anybody and just kind of gently accommodated themselves, but not them.

They used it as an opportunity to present Christ.  Jesus had told them "I want you to go into all the world to preach the gospel to," whom, "every creature."  And here was some every creature sitting right there.  They may have had a big sign on them Sanhedrin.  Boy that didn't make them not every creatures.  And so Peter and John said hey boys we're here we've got to do it.  Off Peter went.  Verses 8-13 he preaches Jesus.  And he even indicts them for crucifying Him.

And then in verse 12 he says, you know "there's no salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved."  He lays it on the line.  He says, guys this is the only hope is Jesus.  This man was made well by