Why Seek the Kingdom of God in the Face of Struggles

Why Bother to Seek First the Kingdom of God

Last week we talked about worry. From Matthew 6:24-34 we drew out 6 reasons Jesus gives us not to worry. 1) God takes care of the birds of the field and you are worth more than a bird because you are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. 2) God delights in adorning His creation. He has dressed you in the righteousness of Christ so don’t worry about the outside. 3) Worrying doesn’t accomplish anything anyway. Some things there is nothing you can do about. 4) The lost world has to chase after things that bring them security and comfort; that is all they have. You, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, have to be different. 5) God already knows your needs. What do you believe about Him? 6) God’s mercy is new every morning for the troubles of the day. Don’t carry tomorrow’s troubles today. Then we moved from there to discuss what we are to do with ourselves if we are not to worry, what will we fill our time with? We found the answer to that in verse 33 of Matthew 6: 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Taking that apart a little we determined that what Jesus is telling us is that our primary craving (seek first) should be that God rule and reign in our lives (the kingdom of God) exemplified by our lives demonstrating His righteousness. When we do that our necessities become not the things that glitter but Him, not the stuff He gives us but the person of God and He takes care of the rest. Paul put it this way in Colossians 3:1-4 1If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Like I said last week, all of that changes our perspective when we are faced with covid 19, the down turn of the economy, our retirement funds, the contentious political season and the things in your life personally that are a struggle, jobs, interpersonal relationships, you name it. This is indeed wonderful and a great assurance. But…Were you expecting that? But what happens when you indeed crave the rule of God in your life exemplified by His righteousness lived out in you and still the world seems to be falling apart in these uncertain times? What keeps you seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? I wish I could say that there is one verse that answers that question then I could just read it to you and we could celebrate the goodness of God and pray and eat lunch. And to be honest that verse may be there somewhere in Scripture but I couldn’t find it and besides, that would be the easy way, and I never do anything the easy way; you know that. Today we are going to look at the book of the Acts of the Apostles. We are not going to read it all but we will look at some of the events and see how the Apostles reacted when struggles came their way even though they craved the rule and reign of God exemplified by His righteousness in their lives. Don’t worry I have no intention of reading the entire book of Acts to you but we will start at Acts 1 and end around chapter 28 with a few stops along the way. Let’s pray.

In Acts 1 we find Jesus promising His Apostles that they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, all of Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. HE then ascends into heaven and His Apostles are promised that He would return the way He left. In chapter 2 these same Apostles are waiting in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit to come. They were craving to have the rule of God in their lives so they were waiting in anticipation for the promise to be fulfilled. And they were not disappointed. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended in power and empowered them to preach the Gospel to people from all over the Roman Empire. Their necessities had changed from food and clothing to power to preach the Gospel. Because they craved the rule of God in their lives that necessity was provided and about 3000 souls were added to them that day. That is a good start, wouldn’t you say?

That is the way the rest of the Acts of the Apostles goes. They go from place to place and preach the Gospel and people flock to them and everything is always great and happy. They never suffer from anyone harassing them or trying to arrest them or anything. They were craving God’s rule in their lives and that is what was going on and nothing was a struggle. Right? You only have to go to the next chapter to find the answer. In Acts 3 Peter and John go to the Temple to pray and on the way they come across a man who has been lame from birth. When Peter and John passed he asked for alms. Peter and John were not out there seeking for riches or even for their daily bread and we know that because they say “gold and silver we do not have, but what we have we will give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” That which was of greatest priority to them was what they shared with this man. And this man stood and went running and leaping and praising God. The people in the Temple knew that it was Peter and John that was instrumental in this because the man was clinging to Peter. So Peter preached the Gospel. When he had finished preaching in chapter 4 it says that about 5000 men believed. Here we have it, just a very short time has passed since Jesus rose from the dead and 8000 people have been added to the kingdom of God, because a handful of men had craved the rule and reign of God in their lives. So everything is going great; no problems. But wait, look a little farther in chapter 4 and you will see that Peter and John are arrested and put in jail over night. The next day they are brought before the Sanhedrin and questioned. They preached again, this time to the Sanhedrin and Peter made that great statement that there is no other name under heaven by which man must be saved speaking about the name of Jesus. So the Sanhedrin, the religious rulers of Israel, hear the Gospel message and they are all converted and everyone celebrates and Peter and John go out into the street free to proclaim Jesus to everyone, right? NO! In verse 18 of Acts 4 we read this: 18So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. This is their first real test since Jesus rose from the dead. Their governing authorities were telling them that they could not preach in the name of Jesus but their greatest craving told them they had to; Jesus had told them to be His witnesses so for God to rule and reign in their lives they had to obey. This is kind of an aside but I think Peter’s response was the greatest response the Church of Jesus Christ could ever make to governing authorities: Acts 4:19-20 19But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” Basically Peter is saying; “You do what you gotta do, we gotta preach the Gospel.”

Peter and John go back to the other Apostles and they have a prayer meeting. But instead of whining about the threat (they didn’t post their rant on social media) or crying out to God for deliverance and protection they pray this in Acts 4:29 29Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word. Don’t forget that prayer, it is very important for some coming events.

After that threat the church began to take care of one another by combining their resources. The Scriptures do not tell us this but the combining of resources was most likely because the believers were being kicked out of the Synagogue and being deprived of their livelihoods in Jerusalem as is mentioned in the book of Hebrews. Then they even have morality issues in the church with the event of Ananias and his wife Sapphira lying to the Holy Spirit and dropping dead. You can read that in chapter 5. These believers are seeking the kingdom of God, they are craving the rule and reign of God in their lives and it seems that they keep facing more and more trials, from outside the church and inside the church. What are they to do? Acts 5:12-16 12And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch. 13Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. 14And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. 16Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. Remember they commanded not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus so they prayed for boldness and boldness they had. They were seeking first the kingdom of God. But the high priest had them arrested and thrown into prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord released them telling them: 20“Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.” The Apostles did just that and taught there at the Temple in the early morning hours. When the high priest and his crew found out they were not in prison they sent guards to “invite” them back to face trial and the Apostles went. Why did they go? They were craving to have God rule and reign in their lives and it was an opportunity to preach to the lost. They were warned again by the Sanhedrin and Peter said; “We are to obey God rather than man”. On the off chance that they may be acting on the commands of God the Sanhedrin had them beaten and released.

Then came more internal problems with complaints from the Hellenist believers that their widows were being neglected by the rest of the church. So what did these Apostles do? They sought the rule of God in their lives and appointed men from both sides of the conflict to take care of the distributions so that they could continue to seek first the kingdom of God. There are even more internal struggle when Gentile’s begin to be converted and the Jewish believers were struggling with their acceptance. They sought first the kingdom of God, not their own solutions.

Then the unthinkable happened. Stephen one of those chosen to solve the problem with the widows was accused of blasphemy and stoned to death after preaching Christ. Saul of Tarsus held the cloaks of those casting the stones and later went about arresting anyone claiming that Jesus rose from the dead. Then God literally knocked him off his high horse and he also literally saw the light. He began preaching Christ crucified and risen to anyone who would listen. He was stoned and left for dead, beaten several time, shipwrecked, lied about, tried many time, even rioted against. Yet many, many people came to Christ. And during this time that Paul and others are being persecuted for seeking first the kingdom of God there was a famine going on in Judea and collections were being made for the churches in and around Jerusalem. Saul’s name sometime along the way changes to Paul and he ends up in prison in Rome and later beheaded there, a death not unlike most of the other Apostles.

There is so much more I could tell you from the book of Acts but I think I have reminded you of enough to make my point this morning. The point being that throughout the history of the church the disciples of Christ have sought the kingdom of God as its priority; there has been a craving for the rule and reign of God in the lives of believers. And when they lived out the righteousness of that reign people have been converted. But along with those conversions came, and comes, hardship for those who seek first the kingdom of God. Granted we live in a time and a culture that does not officially seek to quiet us; our culture does but nothing official right now. But just like the early church, in the midst of official discrimination from Roman and from the Jews, there were struggles within the community of Christ (morality, theology, and caregiving), and there were struggles from famine and it wasn’t Roman or Jewish discrimination that caused the storms that shipwrecked Paul.

With that being the case for the early church, the church throughout history up unto this very day then let me go back to the original questions: What happens when you indeed crave the rule of God in your life exemplified by His righteousness lived out in you and still the world seems to be falling apart in these uncertain times? What keeps you seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? If we are going to have the struggles anyway why bother? I know we have a direct command to seek first the kingdom of God but we have a lot of commands that we don’t always follow; so why continue?

That thought, those questions that arise from certain struggle in the face of desired obedience to God are the toughest questions disciple of Christ face, and to be honest I’m not real sure I have an answer for you. However I do have one that calmed my struggling spirit this week as these questions arose. So let me share them with you, perhaps the answers will be sufficient to spur you to continue to seek first the kingdom of God in the face of certain struggles. Remember I told you that Paul had been in prison in Rome. While he was there under house arrest he wrote four letters; Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon. In these prison epistles Paul makes some statements in Philippians 1 that give us cause to continue. Let’s run through these very quickly.

Philippians 1:12 12But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, Paul is saying that everything he has experience up this point has turned out to further the gospel. We continue to seek first the kingdom of God in the midst of our own struggles because it furthers the gospel.

Philippians 1:13-14 13so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. The struggles we experience as we crave the rule and reign of God in our lives will embolden those who come behind us to seek first the kingdom of God. Philippian 1:15-18 15Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16£The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. Obviously Paul had been experiencing persecution being in chains in the last few verses but here he is experiencing struggles from inside the church and he says that these struggles just lead to Christ being preached all the more and that brought him joy. Our struggles bring us opportunities to preach Christ and that should bring us joy. That is why we continue to seek first the kingdom of God even as we struggle. Philippians 1:19-20 19For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. As we seek first the kingdom of God in the midst of the sure struggles we will magnify Christ. Nothing magnifies Christ more than His people going through the same struggles as the rest of the world but honoring God in the process pointing to Him as their deliverer.

Philippians 1:21-26 21For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23£For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. 25And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, 26that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. For me to live is Christ but to die is gain and the gain is for others. Our struggles as we seek first the kingdom of God will benefit others.

Why do we continue to seek first the kingdom of God knowing that it will not alleviate our own suffering? Because: 1) It furthers the Gospel; the power of God unto salvation. 2) It emboldens those who come behind us to seek first the kingdom of God. 3) It leads us to preach Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. 4) Our struggles in the midst of seeking first the Kingdom of God magnifies Christ as He is seen as the one who has overcome the troubles in our lives. 5) Our struggles benefit others as they grow in Christ.

Let me end with a verse of Scripture that has taken on special meaning to me over the last couple of months. Romans 8:18 For I consider the sufferings of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed in us. Keep your eyes on those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. And may God be glorified. Let’s pray.