Responding to Persecution

Sometimes I think we wrongly believe that we are not the persecuted church (right here, right now). There are a couple of flaws in that logic: Christ only has one church, one body, one bride. When Jesus’ followers suffer persecution in Nigeria, Afghanistan, North Korea (and many other places), we suffer with them in love and carry their burden to God in prayer.

Furthermore, we shouldn’t pretend Christianity isn’t the prime target of persecution from a progressive intellectual elitism in western culture and in our own nation. Those who are most influential in the public square have caved to the moral insanity that calls good evil and evil good.

Isaiah 5:20–21 ESV

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

And since we are the ones who believe that God himself is the standard of good, and that the Bible reveals such (cf. Rom 1:18-23), we have become the target of their persecution. So what do we do when people hate us and oppose us because we love and serve Jesus?

In our text today in Acts 4, we get to observe and apply the way the early church responded to their first test of persecution.Here are two overarching principles we discover in Acts 4:23-35: First, the persecuted church draws near to God together in devotion and dependent prayer. Secondly, we see them commit to mutual care and common mission in (the local expression of) Christ’s covenant community.

Acts 4:23–31 ESV

When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

In proceeding through these verses this morning, we’ll spend a bit more time on the first section because there are more verses and talking points. The second section is shorter and will have connection to the first part as well as to what we’ll emphasize in the following message on generosity and hypocrisy. (next week, Lord willing)

What our passage today covers may not prove to hold the only possible right responses to persecution, but they are certainly set forth as healthy and almost certainly as primary. According to this example in Acts 4, then,

We respond to persecution by drawing near to God together in devoted & dependent prayer. (vv. 23-31)

I want to draw your attention first of all to the ‘we’ and ‘together’ in my summary statement. What was Peter and John’s immediate reaction to being released? “they went to their friends and reported” (which must be the core group “assembled together” (v. 31), not the total number of Christian disciples (v. 32), numbering as many as perhaps 10 thousand at this point) - Our culture so inclines us toward individualism as to be unbiblical. Jesus’ church is a corporate entity by intentional design. We cannot have the church or be the church without one another. We will not be healthy and useful to the kingdom (the way God wants us to be) unless we are at it together.

Another ‘we’ aspect to consider in this context is that persecution rarely, if ever, remains isolated to select individuals. Persecution attacks a community of believers. And this is true for more than one reason. Genuine Christians will consistently practice their core beliefs, and that is problematic to those who oppose Jesus. That will apply to an entire group of Christians, not just to an isolated member. But this brings me to a second thing: When one of us becomes the bullseye of the persecution target, we all suffer together because we are indeed a community in Christ. So we carry the burden together, especially in prayer.

The response of the early church to what they hear from Peter and John then is corporate prayer. They pray together. And how do they pray together? (I’ve worded what they did into statements of application for us.)

Our prayers (really) should focus attention on God first.

Such is according to Christ’s instruction (the model prayer, Mt 6:5-15, Lk 11:1-13) and for our own good.

Expressing praise and thanks to God first in our prayers expands our joy in him, extends our trust and rest in his care, exposes our sin by the light of his holiness, and expels selfish motivation from our hearts.

[show "focusing attention on God first” in the passage, vv. 24b-25a] Here are things they clearly realize by doing so:

God is sovereign over evil and sovereign over our safety & suffering. (We should not assume that safety and suffering are opposites.)

If the suffering of Jesus was in God’s providence, then surely we can trust him with our own persecution as well. ‘Only strengthen us, Lord, to persevere and to do the task you have called us to.’

Our prayers should be tethered to the truth of God’s word.

Praying things that are not consistent with God’s will in the Bible is essentially asking God to be and to do what he cannot—be and do what is inconsistent with himself. To the contrary, when we pray in accordance with God’s word, we know that he is pleased to answer those prayers, even while we trust him to do so his way and in his timing.

[In the passage, we see this plainly in vv. 25b-28] Quote is from Psalm 2:1-2, application of that quote to their own situation (in particular here what took place with Jesus), but again crediting God’s plan and predestination as being that which superseded even the evil intent and injustice from the hearts and ways of men)

Our prayer should be tethered to what we know of God from his word, and what he has revealed as his will.

Our prayers should prioritize God’s glory through advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that he will enable us to faithfully play our part.

They did not pray for vengeance against their enemies or even for God to put a stop to their suffering. Instead, they confirmed their trust in God and prayed for gospel advance.

[vv. 29-30]

How should we respond when not sure what to do? Pray for wisdom and patience.

How should we respond when pretty sure what God wants? Pray for boldness and perseverance.

We can trust the Lord’s promise to empower his people.

Granted, not all the results we experience as answers to prayer are as immediate and impressive as what they experienced. God chose again here in these early days to manifest his support of them in a sensory way (shaking the place in which they are gathered). Secondly, they experience a renewal of the Spirit’s filling, so that they are enabled to continue “to speak the word of God with boldness.” (There’s that word again we’ve greatly emphasized in this section.)

A brief comment on the filling of the Spirit taking place again here can be helpful to curb a common misconception in some Christian circles. This is not a second Pentecost, nor a second blessing of the Spirit in some sense that we should have expectation of the same. We need not confuse an original act in which the Holy Spirit of God baptizes us into Christ, signifying his work of regeneration and coming to indwell the believer he has enabled to respond in faith to Jesus, with the filling of the Spirit as an active and ongoing work of God in the life of a believer as we yield to him to have control over our hearts and lives.

As one example, Eph. 5:18, in it’s context speaks to believers that they must be careful that their walk, their holy way of living, is evidence to outsiders that they are indeed quite different from the world because of what Christ has done in them. Paul instructs them that as God’s children of light they should be sexually pure and pure in speech (5:3-4), not idolaters (5:5) or drunkards (5:18) who ignore God’s will for believers (5:17), but instead to be filled with the Spirit.

For our purposes here, the simple point I’m making is that the filling of the Spirit is an ongoing opportunity in the life of a believer as we submit to the Spirit’s work in our lives. There may be times of the Spirit working in a uniquely dramatic way among us, but that need not be a required expectation.

Peter and John had been empowered by the Spirit (Acts 4:8) to give bold witness under duress, and that boldness was even recognized by the religious authorities (4:13). And now the believers pray further for boldness to continue proclaiming Christ in spite of their threats, and the Lord answers with the filling of the Spirit to enable them to do so. - We too can trust the Lord’s promise to empower his people, growing in our submission to the Spirit to allow his work in and through us.

Now, as we continue, I’m aware that you could think of the next section as separate from their response of corporate prayer in the face of persecution. However, I have connected them because I believe it illustrates further God answering their prayer, and it comes as another example of how they responded in this context of persecution. On either side of this mutual care and generosity, and Luke’s transparency about the imperfections of the first community of believers, there is not only continued boldness of the believers and miraculous public ministry of the Apostles but also intensifying persecution in Jerusalem. So yes, the believers pray together to persevere, but they will also be “of one heart and soul” in all things, illustrated by a common focus and sharing God’s provision:

Acts 4:32–35 ESV

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

From the example of the newborn church in Acts, we learn a first healthy response to persecution: We devote ourselves to God together in dependent prayer. Secondly,

We respond to persecution by committing ourselves to mutual care and common mission in Christ’s covenant community. (vv. 32-35)

(where we experience God’s care and comfort for his people)

I’ll tackle the latter part first, since this “one heart and soul” is clearly connected to their common cause, for which they have just been praying: the mission of advancing the kingdom of Jesus Christ by boldly proclaiming the gospel. Having prayed together for enablement for the mission, we saw an immediate answer and summary statement that God did so in them. And then here in v. 33 we see further outworking as the Apostles in particular are given a special measure of spiritual empowerment to testify that they witnessed the resurrected Jesus. (as promised in Acts 1:8)

Like the early church,

We are knit together (“one heart and soul”) when we share a common commitment to Christ and strive side by side for the gospel.

What might that look like for us? Together we refocus our reliance on God and rest in his justice. Together we repent of selfishness and self-reliance. Together we encourage one another to be willing to suffer persecution and to desire to preach Jesus. Together we plead for God to show himself to us and through us. Together, as a tightly knit band of foreigners in this world, but children, citizens, and soldiers of the Lord of Hosts, we fight side by side to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and journey toward the promised land of eternal life with God. … “One heart and soul”... because we are one heart and soul in Christ and in experience of God’s mercy and empowering for ministry.

So, these banded together disciples of Jesus share a common cause, which causes them to be willing to share what they have so that no one among them goes without basic provision. The group takes it upon themselves to be the means by which God provides for the needs of his people.

The church’s mutual care is (at least partly) manifest by generosity toward the common mission and fulfilling God’s provision for each member.

God not only provides “great power” through the apostles (v. 33), but he also provides “great grace… upon them all.” God’s favor being upon them both motivated and enabled this sense of community, this unity and generosity.

So back in v. 32, “no one said… was his own” - Not that whatever God has provided belongs to everyone else; but what God has provided is not really mine at all, but His! … Not that they had a common purse for everything, but that there is a common purse for distribution toward needs:

See 34-35, especially “There was not a needy person among them… it was distributed to each as any had need.” - You have to remember that a bunch of these people were in fact from Galilee or other parts of the world, and didn’t have houses or even regular income in Jerusalem. … And not that everyone sold everything at once, but that those who had more were generously redistributing some of that wealth for the common good of the body and their joint ministry.

We’ll come back to these things next time when we contrast the generosity of Barnabas with the hypocrisy in the hearts of another couple. For now, the emphasis we have seen today is God’s great grace and great power manifest in the early church by the way he enabled them to respond to genuine difficulty.

[So again, how might we respond…]

Conclusion: Responding to Persecution Like the Early Church

We must not pretend that persecution is something of the past, or that it is limited to tyrannical regimes, or even that the plight of other believers is not our problem. We must prepare ourselves, and train our children and our grandchildren, that Christians are persecuted for following Jesus. Even before the specific trials arise, therefore, we can obey the command of our Lord and apply the example of the early church to our own preparation and situation, and to our prayerful concern for others. So how do Christ’s people respond to persecution?

We saw in our text the last two weeks that the first thing we do is proclaim Christ in spite of persecution.

We proclaim Christ despite opposition.

We anticipate opposition, and need not fear it, because we fear God. If God is for us, who can be against us? (cf. Rom 8:31)

And now today we have seen from example that when we are persecuted,

We draw near to God together in devoted & dependent prayer.

and

We commit to mutual care and common mission in the Church.

Draw near to God and draw near to one another. Lean on God and lean on one another. We must commit ourselves to God’s purpose (proclaiming the gospel) and commit ourselves to one another in love and service.

COMMUNION - Togetherness, a unity, in our dependence on and commitment to Christ. [Note the plural you’s and commands in 1 Cor. 11 recap of the Lord’s Supper.]