Take a Lick'n and Keep on Tick'n

Catalogued in the libraries of classic commercials is an old favorite for Timex Watches.

The Timex Watch is known to withstand all types of adverse conditions — be it hitting water at more than 80 miles an hour; being housed in over 90 degree hot water in a dishwasher; being punctured with a bow and arrow --each commercial host concludes by saying, “TIMEX TAKES A LICKING AND KEEPS ON TICKING.”

Just recent two Civil Rights icons transitioned to the land on the bright celestial shores of glory — Dr. C.T. Vivian, and Congressman John Robert Lewis.

The late Congressman John Robert Lewis helped lead peaceful protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama — (20 days before my birth) on March 7, 1965 , an event which later became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

The Honorable John Robert Lewis, who was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 2011 by President Barack Obama, said, “We cannot give up, become bitter or hostile.”

He further stated, “We were trained to be orderly, to be peaceful, not to fight, but to STAND UP, SPEAK UP, & TO SPEAK OUT FOR WHAT WE BELIEVED IN.”

At the Edmund Pettus bridge he was beaten with a nightstick, but he took a licking, but he kept on ticking...

At the many lunch counters where he and others participated in nonviolent sit-ins…he was spat upon, but he took a licking, but he kept on ticking...

…he was beaten, he took a licking, but he kept on ticking...

…he had hot water poured on him, he took a licking, but he kept on ticking...

…he had hot coffee poured on him, he took a licking, but he kept on ticking...

…he was left bloody on many occasions, he took a licking, but he kept on ticking...

…he was even arrested 40 times… he took a licking, but he kept on ticking...he kept on marching!

A similar thing happened centuries before Congressman Lewis or the Civil Rights Movement.

It happened with the First Century Church and early Christians.

After bringing in the apostles and having another conversation with them regarding their preaching and teaching about the resurrected Jesus who was crucified by the Jews.

The response of Pastor Peter and his apostolic counterparts was a stern declaration in VERSES 29-32), “We must obey God rather than men…”

Interestingly, there has been a dialogue between a particular Pharisee called Gamaliel and his Sanhedrin counterparts. He warns them of the possible danger if they kill these itinerate preachers, Peter and John (vv. 33-39).

“In his address to the Sanhedrin, Gamaliel argues that the Jewish religious leaders should assume a lenient posture toward the rise of the early Christian sect, since history and the will of God typically bring false religious movements to a quick end.”

A major point for me in this Sanhedrin conversation was Gamaliel’s final word of advice in verses 38-39, “*Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is 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.”

The New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011. Print.

Jefford, Clayton N. “Theudas (Person).” Ed. David Noel Freedman. The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary 1992 : 527. Print.

v. 40 - The CAUSE Caused them Suffering

Suffering - the endurance of pain or affliction

- 40a - speech persuaded (convinced) them..

- 40b - flogged - “literally remove the skin, flay; figuratively in the NT beat, strike repeatedly, whip...”

- 40c - ordered not speak in the name of Jesus any more; and were let go...

Luke 9:23, “If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

Peter requested to be crucified upside down

Andrew was scourged and tied rather than nailed to a cross

John was on house arrest on the Isle of Patmos

James, the brother of John, was killed with a sword

Bartholomew, also known as Nathaniel, some say he was flayed alive

Philip, some say was hung until he died

Thomas, some say was stabbed with a spear

Matthew, was impaled and beheaded

James, not John’s brother, some say he was stoned, others say he was sawed in pieces

Jude, crucified and shot with arrows

Simon the Zealot, some say crucified

Judas Iscariot, committed suicide

Apostle Paul, beheaded

Friberg, Timothy, Barbara Friberg, and Neva F. Miller. Analytical lexicon of the Greek New Testament 2000 : 106. Print. Baker’s Greek New Testament Library.

v. 41 - They Celebrated in Their Suffering

Rejoiced - they felt happiness, gladness, joy

I Peter 4:13, “But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”

Matthew 5:11-12, “11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

v. 42 - They Continued in Spite of Their Suffering

Everyday…Day after Day

They did not stop; they did not allow anyone to turn them around!

Invictus

BY WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

Out of the night that covers me,       Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank [God]       For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance       I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeoning of chance       My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears       Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years       Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate,       How charged with punishments the scroll, [God is] the master of my fate,      [He is] the captain of my soul.

The Apostle Paul puts it like this in a some scattered verses of Romans 8:

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

34 ...Christ Jesus who died...who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The late Congressman John Robert Lewis remembered his parents, grandparents, & great-grandparents saying to him repeatedly regarding the segregated south, “That’s the way it is, don’t get in the way, don’t get in trouble!” And Congressman Lewis stated on the Late Show, when he met Mrs. Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, — he was inspired, and he has been GETTING IN TROUBLE, GOOD TROUBLE, NECESSARY TROUBLE EVERY SINCE!