Reasons To Be Faithful To God In Persecution Series

To the Ends of the Earth, Part 8

Reasons to be Faithful to God in Persecution

Acts 5:26-42 and 6:1-7

Introduction

- Welcome to Seasons Church & 2024 sermon series, “To the Ends of the Earth”

-- In 2023 we unpacked the beginning of all history (Creation/Fall/Promise)

-- And we looked ahead, anticipated the coming & victory of Jesus (Revelation)

-- But, in order to get to the end, we have to be busy doing the work now (Acts)

- Last week … we saw an important promise from scripture …

-- PROMISE: God will provide a way, so your trust/hope must be found in Him!

-- So, the Christian must proclaim what they know … even under duress!

-- Consider week before: The greatest example that you’ve spent time with God is by taking a look at what comes out of you when you go into the world!

- Today, we have two topics to cover:

1. The reasons to stay faithful to God during a persecution, and,

2. The role of deacons (or elders or servants) in the church

- Read Acts 5:26 – 6:7 / Pray

Point 1 – Four reasons to remain loyal to God

- Let’s start with the obvious: The disciples are again, arrested

-- But it’s mentioned specifically that they are arrested without violence

-- Consider, the Temple guards were trying to avoid a conflict / riot (v26)

-- Apparently, this was a familiar thing to have happened before

- And the reason is simple: they had broken the Temple rule to not preach (v28)

-- They were thought to have a false doctrine, and were silenced by the religious

-- BOLD: Look at their response …. V29 … we must be loyal to God!

- In this, we see four key reasons the Disciples choose to be loyal:

-- APP: These are each a great opportunity to examine our life and our walk

-- Deeper: The bible should challenge our status quo …

1. First reason to remain loyal …

It is the primary work of a disciple to obey God! (v30)

- Remember, God had three purposes for exalting / lifting up Jesus

• To make Him a Prince and a Savior

• To give repentance to us when it is asked for

• To bring forgiveness of sins, to restore us to right living

- Greek: archégos; originator, author, prince

- Greek: sótér; savior deliverer, preserver

2. Second reason to remain loyal …

We are to be active witnesses of what we have seen

- We are witnesses to what God has done (because of what He did for Jesus)

-- How? Through the power and authority of the Holy Spirit (v32)

- RE: The work of the Holy Spirit:

• Witnesses for Jesus by giving supernatural power to the disciples to live righteously (they / we do not live righteously by our own power)

-- John 15:26-27, “But I will send you the Advocate - the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.”

• Convicts and convinces you and I of our sin and of God’s righteousness

-- John 16:7-9, “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.”

• He works signs and wonders through the believer’s life

-- Hebrews 2:3-4, “So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.”

- BIG: the Holy Spirit is given to us who obey Him (only believers receive)

-- This is why your testimony is so critical – it testifies to “these things” (v32)

-- How? By causing us to live righteously for Him in everything we do

- Get this: If you believe, then you are called to obey!

-- Disciples (men in general) would not give up their life if Jesus was a liar …

-- Fact is: Men will not die for a lie – they will look for a way out

3. Third reason to remain loyal …

We must know that God has a will, and it must be accomplished

- RE (creation): We are living in and under God’s plan for His creation