If you have your Bible, I want you to open with me to the book of Acts. We're going to go to chapter 5. We come out of our Easter series, and I want to finish up Identity Check, Part 10. We're going to be in 1 Peter 4:1-11 today, but I want to open this morning with the book of Acts. I want you to go to chapter 5, and I want to read this beginning in verse 40.
"…and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus."
I want you to understand this morning that God's primary focus in your life is not for you just to feel good; he wants you to be good. It has been said before. It has also been said that the road that leads to feeling good is often paved with not feeling good. In other words, in this world, there is suffering. There is pain. There is heartache. There is suffering that goes on.
The Bible says in the book of John, chapter 16, around verse 33, Jesus talks, and he says, "In this world, you're going to have suffering. You're going to have pain. You're going to have this persecution." Then he says, "Fear not, because I have overcome the world." Now I don't know about you, but when I read this opening text, I see a lot of things that jump out, and it does something to my spirit.
Verse 40 again. "…and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus [anymore]." One of the first things that takes place in this opening text is they are physically beaten. The flesh is attacked. Your flesh is attacked from time to time. Then they go to the heart of the issue. They go down deep in the soul, right? They begin to strike against this identity crisis. Amen?
They really are saying this. "This Jesus you're preaching, not only are we going to beat you in the flesh and you're going to have suffering, but we're going to damage your spirit. We're going to go to the heart of the matter, and we're going to go deep in your spirit, and we're going to say, 'Don't even speak in the name of Jesus anymore.'"
They put the physical punishment. They put the spiritual punishment on them. They try to shut their mouths. As we read the text, it says, "…they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing…" I can leave some church services not rejoicing. Hello? Does anybody hear me?
We can come into church and have so many problems. We can get so focused on all kinds of little things. "Mrs. So-and-so wasn't too nice to me today. They kind of snubbed me. I wonder what he has against me." We really do. We take these small persecutions, and we leave and go, "Man, I went to church, and I leave, and I feel worse than when I came." Has anybody ever been there?
Yet we ask God for power. We ask God, "Give us power. Let us understand our identity." Our identity was never to be brought together and fuss with one another. Our identity was to be brought together and accomplish the kingdom work God has called us to. These guys set the example.
In this world, you're going to have suffering and persecution, but God has already overcome all of that, right? It doesn't mean we don't feel some kind of pain, but we have to understand that God is not primarily concerned with us feeling happy. He wants us to be on fire for him regardless of the pain. They go out rejoicing.
I don't know about you, man, but can you remember growing up when your daddy used to give you a whooping? If you grew up with my dad, you got a whooping, right? Does anybody remember those? You know when you get in trouble, because Daddy would pull the… You've done something you weren't supposed to do. You would hear the belt. Come on. It would go through the loops. Does anybody remember that?
I mean, I got some whoopings, man. I don't ever remember getting a whooping and going out and going, "That was awesome!" It doesn't even go together. You know what would happen if I would have gone out and said, "That was awesome, Dad! Do it again." He would have said, "Okay, I'll do it again." Until it don't feel awesome.
I'm blown away by the apostles and those who lived in the first century who named the name of Jesus, because here's the thing. They would go out, and they would literally get stoned. Paul was left for dead at one time, and then he got up, went back into the city, and rejoiced. Yet we have churches that will divide over stupid stuff. We get so fixated on stuff. We really do.
Church doesn't have a cross in it. It has a cross. It doesn't have a cross. It offends me. It doesn't offend me. It has carpet. It doesn't have carpet. Can I get a witness, now? Instead of knowing that we are called to change the world, not grow something that's immaculate, we are called to shape and change the world.
Part of that shaping means we have to move through suffering. It says so. "…rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus." The whip didn't shut their mouths. The suffering and pain they felt in their flesh didn't shut them up sharing the good name of Jesus.
The woundedness that went down deep in their spirit that says, "Don't preach in the name of Jesus." They later go on to say stuff like this. "You decide what you need to decide, whether it's lawful or not, but as for us, we're going to obey God, and we're going to keep sharing who he is in spite of all this suffering."
Here's what we try to do. We try to spend most of our lives running away from suffering when suffering is the way God wants us to go, because it's the way God walks. We learned that on Palm Sunday. We learned that on Palm Sunday when he comes in, and he finally goes to the cross. It was that road of suffering. It was through the suffering that glory came, and it will be through the suffering that glory comes to you and out to others.
See, we all know what persecution feels like. At least we think we do in America, right? We have somebody who tells us to shut up about Jesus, and we feel real offended, right? Look around the world. If you've ever traveled anywhere, if you've ever done any kind of missions, you'll understand real quickly that we kind of have it made. Hello? We really do. We kind of have it made.
Everywhere I've been around the world, I always come home, and I have to de-clutter my spirit. I have to de-clutter my mind and my soul, because I literally will walk into my garage and go, "I have all this?" I'll open my closet and go, "I have five, six, seven, eight, ten pairs of shoes? I have four pairs of jeans. I have shirts. I have this. I can open the refrigerator. I can get a gallon of milk. I can turn on my faucet, and I can get water." Yet when we travel around the world, we see Christians who give up a lot.
I was reading this week (I think it was on the Voice of the Martyrs) about Nigeria. Ten years ago in Nigeria, they used to have attacks, at least once a year, these huge attacks that would come on Christians. As time went on, this escalated. Now it has escalated, and it finally got down to like every other month. Now it's coming on like every other week?
I read about this one evangelist who was leading this group of Christians, and literally on the way to church, a group of radical Muslims had set a bomb off, and it hurt him really badly. He was in a hospital for a long, long time. This happens week after week after week. Can you imagine going to church worrying about a bomb this morning?
I would imagine that if we were there, and a bomb went off, and it hurt our family… I would imagine that if a bomb went off and hurt me or hurt my daughter or my son, probably the first thought I would have is go, "Is it really worth it to be here? Let's just get on back to America." "We paid our dues. I got a leg blown off." Not him. He said, "I love them too much to leave." Wow.
This is where it's hard for me as a pastor, because we're in a blessed nation. Western Christianity. We're blessed. Here's where we go wrong. Here's where we go wrong. We literally filter all of our theology through Western Christianity instead of a global Christianity.
I read of another story in Nepal. There is a little town there in Nepal that has about 30,000 inhabitants, and five families are Christians there, mainly surrounded by Hindu. What happens is when someone dies in Hinduism, they fully believe in cremation and cremation only. That's what they do because it represents some stuff for them. It represents their religion.
These Christians had someone get sick, and a son died, so they wanted to bury him, because they kind of believed in a bodily resurrection. They didn't want to go with cremation, because that was the culture of Hinduism, and they said, "That will relate." They wanted to do a full burial. The radical Hindus heard about it, came, struck against the house, dragged people out, tried to steal the body so they could cremate it, so they could stand up and say, "He converted back from Christianity to Hinduism because we cremated him."
They began to run, and they ran into a widow's house. They get into the widow's house, and she harbors them. They're coming against the house. They're dragging them out and beating them. They finally get away, and they're asked the same question. "Why don't you just go somewhere else?" "Because we love them too much."
Suffering. Now this is what I want you to hear this morning. If you miss everything else I say, I want you to hear these next several sentences, okay? Jesus is higher than any suffering you'll ever go through. Hear me. Jesus is wider than any suffering you'll ever go through. Jesus is deeper than any suffering you'll ever go through.
Pain becomes beautiful. Suffering becomes beautiful when you look up, you look around, you look down, and you realize you're following Jesus. Do you hear me this morning? Suffering becomes beautiful when you look up, you look around, you look down, and you realize you're following Jesus.
I want you to go with me to the book of 1 Peter. I want to share with you from there today just a few verses about suffering. In 1 Peter 4:1, it reads like this. "Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin…" In other words, he's saying, "You're going to suffer. Arm yourself with the same thinking God has. Arm yourself with that."
This is what I want you to understand this morning. If you are going to retreat from suffering, then you don't need any armor. Do you hear me? If your plan in your life is to run from suffering and to run from pain, then don't put any armor on, because you're in a retreat mode. If you're going to be like Jesus, you have to face the suffering. You have to press through it.
You have to make a break from the old way of life because the way to glory is through suffering. You will not get out of this life unscarred, but one day, when true life comes, the scarring will be removed. Do you hear me? A few verses back, when we were last in this series, Peter begins to lift up Noah. He goes back, and it's weird, because he talks about Noah and Noah's ark.
We're like, "Where are you going with this?" What he was trying to show us is when God had brought a judgment to the world, he came to Noah and said, "Listen, you have to preach to them and let them know suffering is coming. Then you're going to get in the ark, and you're going to be saved through the suffering. You're going to float on top of this judgment. You're going to float through this suffering. Then you're going to come to rest on a mountain one day, and then you can recreate again. You can start over."
It is the redemptive story. That's why he referred back to it. What he's saying is you have to get in Christ. In Christ, you're going to go through some suffering. I'm convinced if the American church would suffer to the level of the rest of the world, not only would it humble us, but true revival would come to America again. Do you hear me? But we want to get rid of pain. We certainly don't want to pray for it, but they experienced it on every level.
Verse 2, "…so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God." In other words, he's saying, "Live new now. Stop living for the passions of the past. There is a break." Every single one of us who is in Christ are new creations. All the old is passed away. Everything that is new has now come. This is the way we live.
Look at the next verse. "For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry." Do you know what Peter is asking? "Haven't you given enough time to the past way of living? Haven't you spent enough time doing all the same things you used to do? Isn't it time to break free from that?"
I remember when I played in my heavy metal band for all of those years, I can remember being in some very (and I'll keep it clean) dark places, playing in some places that if I would tell you some things that used to be around us, your mouth would drop open. I remember giving my life to Christ, but being under some contract stuff and had to continue to play with the band for a while, having a song on the radio, having some things going on, having other big bands looking at us.
Then here I was in the back of these clubs, and we would go out on stage, and we would play in these clubs. When the break was over, I would slip back. There would be drugs and things all over the table. Stuff would be everywhere. I had this little black Bible. I would open it up, and my band members would come by and go, "What in the world has happened to you?"
I knew something was different in my life. Something had gotten ahold of me that was bigger than every dream I had ever had, every passion I had ever had, any hope I had ever had. Anything I thought was going to be good to me had been washed away, and I knew there had to be a break. There had to be a time I made a decision.
I'll never forget. I was playing one song one night, and it had some lyrics in it that struck me so deep and so vile that I dropped my sticks, and I got in front of the band guys I had grown up with all of my life, and I said this. "I can't do that anymore. I choose to do this now." And I walked away. That's what Scripture is about.
What will you suffer when you give up some of your close friends? I didn't plan on this in the message today, but let me just go ahead and say this. Some of you today may have some fatal friends. I've always wanted to outline a message on that. I have it. It's a working title. Fatal Friends. I've never done it, but I will mention it today.
I had some fatal friends at that time. Not because they were bad, bad people, but because of that environment, I knew it was stronger than me at the time, and it would have pulled me backwards. There was a time in my life I broke from my fatal friends, and then they eventually became faithful friends.
I broke away from them. I began to pray for them. I didn't go after them and beat them up with a Bible, you know, and start quoting Scripture and beating them over the head and trying to get them in church, that kind of stuff. That kind of evangelism makes me sick. I kept praying for them. One by one, they came to the Lord, every single one of them. No longer. They're all in Christian ministry now. It was a time I had to break away.
That's what he's saying here. Look at verse 4. "With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead." You see, here's the deal. When you break away from people and move toward the suffering of the cross and walk away, your friends, your whole world, will mock you.
Until you're strong enough in Christ to go back into the darkness, get out into the light and get cleaned up. Then I'm one of those pastors who will look at you if you stand in the light long enough. I will go, "Why are you in the light? It's time to take the light back into the darkness." If you don't, what happens is you begin to go, "It's us against the world." It is not us against the world. It is us in the world, for the world, to correct the world, to set it right, because Jesus on the cross and the resurrection has already set it right. Amen?
We're just kind of waking people up to what they can be and what they can have and what God's purpose is in their lives. You're going to suffer persecution, and you're going to go through heartaches, and you're going to go through trial. Here's the deal, man. Suffering becomes beautiful when you look up, around, and down, and you realize you are following Jesus. That's when it's worth it. Verse 6:
"For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling."
What does all that mean? It simply means this. When you come into the kingdom of God, you learn the habits of the future. You learn the virtues of the future. Where do we learn it? We learn it at church, right? If you can't love your person in the pew, how are you going to love somebody outside these four walls? If you can't be patient with those inside the church, how are you going to be patient with those outside the church?
You see, this is where true life is practiced. It's inside the church that the virtues of the future, no more pain, no more heartaches, no more injustices, equality, goodness, preferring your brother more than yourself, being a servant, taking care of others before you look for your own… On and on and on. Those are virtues of the future pulled into the now.
That's why when we come into a church and begin to worship together, that's why the Bible says, "Bear ye one another's burdens…" Listen, if we can't learn to love one another, then we're just hypocritical love outside the church. What happens when people are hungry for a refuge, and they come in a church, and they can't even feel an overwhelming love? That's where we went wrong, if we're not careful. We learn the habits of the future. That's what Peter is trying to tell us.
Finally, look at verse 10. "As each has received a gift…" Can I stop right there? Everybody look at me. "…each has received a gift…" You have a gift. I don't know what that gift is, but it's a passionate gift. You have a gift to do things. It isn't even necessarily serving in the church. Some of your gifts are. Nelson plays the keyboard and several other instruments. That's his gift and his passion, and he serves in the church. I'm just using that as an example.
Amy Roberts, a friend of mine back there on the back, has a passion for raising awareness for cancer out in a world where cancer has devastated many of my family members and many people you know and your family members. Yet she will go and raise awareness and do walks and tell people and Facebook it. That's the kingdom.
When you cry out for a cure, you know what you're really crying out for? God. Some of the people she may interact with just look to the cure, but she's a believer. She looks beyond that to the ultimate One who cures all things. That's Jesus. That's what I mean. Here's what he says, as we look at these verses. He says, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another…"
If you are not serving in your gift, you're not necessarily hurting me. You're cheating God out of a little bit of glory, because he wants to get glory from everything done. Look what it says. It goes on to say, "…use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be…" Look. "…glorified through Jesus Christ."
Now I want to stop right there, because it says some of you have gifts to serve, and others have gifts to speak. That happens to be my gift and what I like to call curse. I'm serious. The church has always amazed me, because it's this beautiful, jacked-up, ugly dance between the believers and the congregation and the pastor.
Some days, it's smooth, and we catch the right wave, right? Isn't it crazy how human we are? Isn't that what makes us beautiful? It's okay for me to come one time, and I get finished preaching, and 98 percent of the congregation goes, "Man, he really brought it today." Next week, it's kind of like, "Eh. It was all right. I was thinking about the ball game. I caught something you said about something, suffering, beauty, or something. You know."
Even in all of that, we still get something. That's the beauty of it. You can check out halfway through the message. Many of us do. After about 10 minutes, your mind is shot anyway, right? That's why I try to preach 30 minutes. I catch a few of you. It's all done for the glory of God. I felt like this morning… I really do. This is a new setting. I'm a little uncomfortable, but I want to say this. I think the beautiful, ugly dance of Christianity is just that. We're in the process of being healed, and we are healed, and it's beautiful.
People need to see our messed-up-ness. I know that's not a word, but I just made it, okay? They really do, because he gets glory out of it. When you are weak, he is strong. When you are suffering, that's when God gets some of the greatest glory. Embrace that. If you have a gift, serve. If you can speak, you speak. You do all of these things.
Once we've practiced it in here, we take it out there. Amen? The greatest language out there that wins people is the language of love and service. That's it. We close like this. Listen to this last part. "To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever." I have a really cool point here I want to close with.
Out of the dark forbidding soil
The pure white lilies grow.
Out of the black and murky clouds,
Descends the stainless snow.
Out of the crawling earth-bound worm
A butterfly is born.
Out of the somber shrouded night,
Behold! A golden morn!
Out of the pain and stress of life,
The peace of God pours down.
Out of the nails—the spear—the cross,
Redemption—and a crown!
Would you stand to your feet with me this morning?
