(Audio version; Music: "Worn" by: Tenth Avenue North and "Shoulders" by: for KING & COUNTRY)
Introduction
Boian was a
pastor in Communist Romania in 1964. “The day the Adventist pastor Boian of
Ploiesti was released from prison, a Communist officer asked him, ‘What will
you do now?’
Boian replied, ‘I will begin my
Christian work, with or without your permission, exactly where I left off when
you arrested me.’
He kept his word and eventually
appeared before the court again. The Communist judge asked him, ‘Do you regret
having preached illegally?’
[Boian answered,] ‘Why do you have
stupid laws that forbid what is pleasing to the Lord? If you apply them, God
will punish you here and in eternity.’
[The judge ordered,] ‘You were not
allowed by us to preach.’
[Boian insisted,] ‘God not only
allowed me to preach, but commanded me to do so. Read the order yourself in the
Bible. You will find it in Matthew 28:19, 20.’
He was sentenced to eight years in
prison. He already had three years of jail behind him.”[1]
I have a
handful of books in my library with literally hundreds of stories just like
this one. Throughout all of Christian history, there have always been various
governments who have sought to destroy the witness of Christ’s followers. In
the first century it was the Roman government that tried to exterminate
Christianity through intimidation, torture, and executions—they failed. Since
then, countless groups have tried to succeed where the Romans failed. Hindus,
Communists, and Muslims all over the world have gone to extreme measures to put
an end to Christianity. Yet despite their sometimes gruesome efforts to purge
their region of Christians, they too have failed. There are stories of
Christian persecution and martyrdom all over the world except one particular
place where Christians have been especially free from persecution—right here in
America. As I said last week, of all the places where obedience to God should
be the easiest, it should be here in America because, until recently, we have
been free to be completely obedient to the word of God without opposition.
However, it is right here in America where Christians appear to be the least
faithful and obedient to God’s Word. And it is here in America where
Christianity has experienced its greatest decline. It is right here in America
where the gospel could be preached without opposition that we have allowed
unbelievers to purge our public school systems of Christianity. American
Christians have allowed unbelievers and some “believers” to legalize murdering
unborn children. And now American Christians have allowed unbelievers and some
“believers” to legalize homosexual marriage. As a result, faithful American
Christians are left with a choice—capitulate to a sinful culture and not cause
any trouble or stand up for the truth of God’s word and pay the consequences.
Last week I
wondered if perhaps God is testing American Christians to see if we can be
faithful without religious freedom since we haven’t been all that faithful and
obedient while we had complete and unobstructed religious freedom. Some people
have been put to the test already.
Unless you
reside in Rusk County Texas, you probably don’t know Joyce Lewis-Kugle. Joyce
was the clerk for Rusk County until just recently. You see, Joyce is a
Christian and she had a deep commitment to be obedient to God’s Word when it
came to homosexuality. When the United States Supreme Court ruled that
homosexual marriage was now legal throughout the United States, Joyce had to
make a decision since she was the one tasked with issuing marriage licenses as
the county clerk. She was told by the Attorney General of Texas that she
wouldn’t be forced to comply with the law based on her religious conviction.
However, the District Attorney told Joyce that homosexual marriage was now the
law of the land and she would either have to comply or resign. She resigned. It
would have been so easy for her to say, ‘I didn’t have a choice.’ But she did
have a choice—it was a hard choice, but a choice nonetheless. I’m sure Joyce
will tell you that obedience is easy when your job doesn’t conflict with God’s
word. However, when it does, I’ll bet Joyce would readily confess that that’s When Obedience Is Hard.
Subject Text
Acts 4:13-22
13When
they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled,
ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been
with Jesus. 14But since they could see the man who had been healed
standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15So
they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16“What
are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem
knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17But
to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn
these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” 18Then they
called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the
name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves
whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. 20For
we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 21After
further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them,
because all the people were praising God for what had happened. 22For
the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
Context
We left of
last week with Peter and John being questioned before the Sanhedrin. The day
before their appearance before the religious ruling party, Peter and John had
been preaching in Jerusalem where they witnessed as many as 5,000 men repent
and put their faith in Jesus. When they had finished, they made there way to
the temple along with the other people where they encountered a crippled man
who was strategically positioned at the main gate leading to the temple. Here
the crippled man could beg from those who were going to the temple to worship
and bring their offerings to God. It was here that the crippled man’s life
would change forever when Peter and John happened by. Peter told the man he had
no silver or gold to give him but something even greater—Peter gave him back
his legs. The man jumped to his feet and danced around worshipping God. Of
course none of these things went unnoticed under the watchful eyes of the
religious leaders. It wasn’t sixty days before this that they had to deal with
Jesus and the crowds of people who followed Him witnessing His many miracles. By
having Jesus put to death, I’m sure they were again confident that they had the
people back under their control. They weren’t about to lose control of the people
again to someone else performing miracles. So the religious leaders had Peter
and John put in jail until they could get around to questioning them.
The stage
is set when the religious leaders convene a hearing and have Peter and John
brought in for questioning. When they were asked by whose name they were able
to heal the crippled man, Peter had the opportunity to preach the message of
Jesus Christ in front of the most powerful people in the city—the same people
who had Jesus put to death. Courageous and articulate, Peter informs the
religious leaders that it was by the power of the name of Jesus Christ that the
crippled man was healed and that salvation is found in no other name but the
name of Jesus Christ. Having answered their questions, it is time for the
religious leaders to render their verdict against Peter and John.
Text Analysis
13When
they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled,
ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been
with Jesus.
Before I go
too much farther let me just tell you what v.
13 is not saying. I can’t tell you how many people have used this verse to
“prove” that seminary-trained pastors are unnecessary because Peter and John
were unschooled and ordinary men yet they were articulate and knowledgeable. Some
have used this verse to show that if God calls someone to a life of ministry, then
He will also equip that person to perform that ministry without the need for
any formal training. While I agree that God can fully equip a person to perform
ministry without any formal training, couldn’t He also fully equip a person to
be a doctor, or a lawyer, or an accountant, or an airline pilot without any
formal training? The answer is obviously, yes! God can do anything He chooses. However,
how many of you would trust your child to someone who simply said they were a
doctor but never went to medical school? How many of you would trust your legal
affairs to someone who called herself a lawyer but never went to law school?
How about your money, would you trust your complex financial accounting to
someone who wasn’t actually trained as an accountant? How many of you would get
on an airplane with your family if the pilot had never gone through any kind of
flight schooling? Yet many Christians seem to have no problem being taught by
someone who has absolutely no Seminary training. Think about that for just a
minute—we want the best doctors taking care of our health, the best lawyers defending
our legal rights, the best accountants looking after our money, and the best pilots
when it comes to our flight safety—yet our health, our legal rights, our
finances, and our safety in this life are all things that are passing away. But
in eternal matters—just give us somebody who is charismatic and entertaining
and that’ll be good enough—how backwards is that? I fully acknowledge that
there are places in the world where the gospel must be preached by people who
have no formal Seminary training and I believe God equips those people to do
that work. For example, I am aware that there are pastors around the world who
do not have access to or resources for formal Seminary training who access my
lesson in order to educate themselves to teach those God has given to their
care. Nevertheless, in places where Seminary training is available, anyone who
is called to a vocation of ministry should pursue a Seminary education.
All that v. 13 is attempting to convey is that the religious leaders
recognized Peter and John only as simple fishermen so they were astonished by
their knowledge and boldness in a subject and field for which they didn’t appear
to have any formal training. Religious leaders were highly trained by other
religious leaders who they followed around day and night and who they learned
to emulate. They read the Scriptures, the memorized the Scriptures, and they
debated the Scriptures. The religious leaders went through rigorous training
and earned their place as teachers of the Law. But Peter and John, where did
they get their training? Well let me remind all those who point to this verse
to “prove” that anyone can be qualified to preach the gospel without any formal
training as long as they are called by God to do so—Peter and John spent three
years following Jesus around day and night listening to His teachings. The
disciples, in particular Peter, James, and John who part of Jesus’ inner circle
among the disciples, were personally trained by God incarnate in Jesus Christ
and then filled with God the Spirit at Pentecost. I think it’s safe to say that
no amount of theological training could possibly replace spending three years of
being taught by God Himself. The only reason the religious leaders couldn’t
understand where Peter and John received their formal theological training was
because they didn’t recognize Jesus as a divine teacher. Peter and John as well
as the other apostles were perfectly qualified to preach about Jesus because
they were first hand witness to His words and His works. Add to that they were
filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and they became an unstoppable force
used by God to spread the gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ.
“Again and again Acts reports how fearlessly Peter, Paul and others stood
before the Jews or the Gentiles and proclaimed the works of God…This boldness
which provokes astonishment, division and persecution is not something that man
has under his own control. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit that has to be
sought again and again.”[2]
14But since they could see the
man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could
say.
There’s something about a changed
life that makes people take notice. The easiest thing that the religious
leaders could have done was to deny Peter’s claims but as we see in v. 14, there’s that pesky problem of a
former cripple dancing around the temple courts praising God. A changed life is
a powerful witness to the power of God to change lives. I heard a woman by the
name of Star Parker speak this past week about how her entire worldview changed
when she accepted Christ. Parker is a beautiful, successful and extremely
articulate black business woman and political activist who at one time was a
drug addict, dependent on America’s welfare system, hated white people, and had
four abortions by the time she was 23, and worst of all she rejected
Christianity. Nevertheless, there were some Christians in her life that didn’t
give up on her and she eventually became a born-again Christian. Once she
became a follower of Christ, she put away the drugs, became highly educated and
self-sufficient, stopped judging people by the color of their skin, and
abstained from any further sex until after her marriage. She is now married to
a pastor. She is a business owner, an activist that seeks to promote the value
of hard work and self-sufficiency as opposed to government dependence. Parker,
once a woman who didn’t think twice about aborting unwanted pregnancies, is now
a staunch pro-life advocate. You can dispute the power of her beliefs if you
want, but you cannot dispute the evidence that her life was completely changed
by the power of the One she believes in.
“The second
reality the leadership has to cope with is the healed man, now standing among
them and beside the apostles. No magic has been used. The apostolic claim is
that this is the work of the God of the fathers through Jesus. The healed man’s
regular begging made him will known to the community. Everyone knew him as a
cripple, and now he is healed, standing with the apostles like exhibit A in a law
court! There is nothing the leaders can say in opposition to the man’s improved
condition…The leadership needs to confer about how to respond. What the
apostles have done is obvious. Why it has happened is troublesome. Who did it
was being proclaimed. Given that the leaders are not going to embrace the
claim, what can and should they do to stop it?”[3]
15So they ordered them to
withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16“What are
we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem
knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17But
to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn
these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” 18Then they
called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the
name of Jesus.
Well the
scene in vv. 15-18 should look
familiar. This wasn’t the first time the religious leaders gathered to figure
out how to put a stop to the spread of the gospel. The last time we saw this
group gathered, the subject of their meeting wasn’t one of Jesus’ followers but
Jesus Himself. Once Jesus arrived, the religious leaders where obsessed with
creating obstacles to keep the people away from Jesus; away from God. Imagine
that! How can pastors, and that’s really what the religious leaders were, become
so preoccupied with keeping people away from God when their primary task is
supposed to be to bring people into the presence of God? When their power over
the people is threatened. Let me replay the scene for you the first time it
happened:
Therefore many of the Jews who had
come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. But
some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the
chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we
accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs.
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the
Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation (Jn 11:45-48).”
The very
people God entrusted to be shepherds of His sheep have in essence become like
the despotic rulers they feared would take away their power and authority if
the people continued to follow after Jesus. Having Jesus killed didn’t solve
the problem because they were having the same meeting in vv. 15-18 to deal with Peter and John. Their options seemed to be
limited since having Jesus killed only managed to make things worse. But they
had to keep the message from spreading even farther. “The stone the builders of
the nation rejected as an unworthy foundation for national aspirations has
become the cornerstone of hope in the future. Now the authorities have a real
problem on their hands. They are backed into a corner by two uneducated men. A
miraculous work of healing has occurred. If they clamp down upon these two
troublesome commoners, there could be trouble among the people. After all, the
establishment must appear to exist
for the benefit of the people. So the authorities take what is always the first
step by any authoritarian leadership—they order Peter and John to keep quiet.
Suppression of the press, control of the media, banning of books—the rulers
always hope that there is some way to keep this sort of thing quite, some way
to control the people’s access to information. Unfortunately for the rulers,
trying to keep spirit-filled apostles quiet is like trying to hold back a
breaking wave. These witnesses are not primarily trying to stir up trouble,
they simply want the freedom to ‘speak of what we have seen and heard.”[4]
19But Peter and John replied,
“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather
than God. 20For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and
heard.”
The
disciples and by extension all of us got our marching orders directly from
Jesus. We are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and to teach them to obey everything
He commanded (Mt 28:19-20). Yet now the authorities are telling them to disobey
Jesus and keep quite. They have to decide who to obey—the men who are in
authority over them or God who is in authority over all people. The choice is
simple but not easy. By being obedient to the earthy rulers, Peter and John
could have saved themselves from so many problems. Their lives would have been
so much easier. They knew that. They weren’t stupid. They didn’t even have to
deny the truth, they just had to keep quiet. But they wouldn’t keep quiet; they
couldn’t keep quiet. There was too much at stake and they weighed the cost of
being obedient to human authority against the cost of being obedient to God’s
authority and decided that disobeying God was too expensive even if it meant
that obeying God cost them their lives. This is When Obedience Is Hard.
Honestly, sometimes I think it
would be easier to die for what we believe. At least then the struggle would be
over. Instead, most of us are called to live out what we believe. It seems so
harmless to just go along with the culture when we are faced with the decision
to do something so easy as just keeping our mouths shut; just get along; just
compromise a little. But that wasn’t an option for Peter and John and it isn’t
an option for us either. It is far better for us to live out what we believe
everyday of our lives than it is to simply die for what we believe even though
some will, in fact, die for their faith just like Peter and most of the other
apostles died for theirs. “The New Testament makes it clear that believers are
to obey government authority (Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17), but not when
the authority requires believers to sin. It would have been sinful for these
apostles to obey the leaders’ mandate not to speak when they had been clearly
commanded by God himself to speak. God is the highest authority and rules in
the highest court anywhere. Our first obedience is always to him. In that case,
they had to obey God rather than human authority.”[5]
21After further threats they let
them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were
praising God for what had happened. 22For the man who was
miraculously healed was over forty years old.
The text doesn’t
tell us exactly how else the religious leaders threatened Peter and John in vv. 21-22, but it wouldn’t really be
that hard to believe that they reminded the apostles what happened to Jesus
when He crossed them—it is, after all, the same group of leaders. I want you to
picture the scene for a moment. A man who was crippled from birth; more than 40
years, has been miraculously healed. It’s obviously a big deal because the text
says that “all the people were praising God” for his healing. However, there’s
something terribly ironical about this scene. Do you see it? The religious
leaders had some very specific major responsibilities. They were responsible to
teach the people the appropriate way to worship and praise God. In general, the
people were called to worship God as the Creator of all things and praise Him
for His miracles and wonders. And here they are praising God for His miracles
and wonders and look who is trying to figure out how to put a stop to it—the
very people who are supposed to be leading the people to praise God for exactly
what He did by healing the man crippled from birth! They weren’t about to
concede an inch to this Jesus movement and so thereby failed to do exactly what
they were called to do. How often have you seen this in our own day? Religious
leaders who are connected to powerful political figures and would sooner turn
their backs on their own Christian community than possibly jeopardize their
cozy and self-serving relationship with this world’s power brokers if it means
exposing the ungodly actions and attitudes of a sinful world. The attraction of
the fame and fortune was too great for the religious leaders. Every time the
religious leaders were faced with the Truth, they just closed their eyes and
turned away and they expected everyone else to do the same.
“The court
had no alternative but to threaten them and release them. They could find no
grounds for punishing them at this point, and they feared the apostles’
popularity with the populace. The man, born lame, was over forty years old so
the miracle was particularly striking; and the people took it for what it was,
an act of God, a sign. The little word ‘sign’ should not be overlooked in the
Greek text of v.22. That is what the man’s healing had been—a sign to the
temple crowd…that attracted them to the gospel and ultimately to faith. It had
been a sign to the Sanhedrin as well, a pointer to the sole name in which
salvation (ultimate ‘healing’) is to be found. There is no record of the
response for Peter’s appeal to the Sanhedrin, as there was for his temple
sermon. Here for the first time is found a theme that will recur throughout
Acts—the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews. For many of them, particularly
their official leadership, he was, and continued to be, the stone rejected by
the builders.”[6]
Application
I know this
is a hard lesson. I know it is so much easier to pretend the evil in the world
around us just doesn’t exist. I know it is so much easier for some of us to
stay behind the walls of our nice suburban homes and keep to ourselves. I know
it is easier to make a private profession of faith than a public profession of
faith. I know it’s easier to go along to get along than it is to stand up and
fight for biblical truth. I also know that the easy way is almost never the
right way when it comes to being a follower of Christ. Jesus told his disciples
that the gate through which a true disciple must pass in order to follow Him is
narrow and few will have the courage to pass through it. Passing through that
narrow gate necessary implies that life as a follower of Christ will not be
easy; obedience will not be easy. There will be times when we will have to
stand up to those who are in authority over us, whether it is the state, our
employer, our teacher, or maybe even our pastor. I know that some of you do
this every day and it has already cost you dearly. I pray the God will give you
the strength and courage to continue to be faithful and obedient. However, many
of you have been asleep for too long now as a sinful and unbelieving world has
grown stronger and taken more ground everyday—unfortunately with the help of
some people who claim to be followers of Christ. Don’t be deceived, you can bet
that if the world says we should be turning to the left we should probably be
turning to the right.
When the President of the Unites
States or anyone else for that matter says that Christians need to begin to
change their long held religious beliefs about the sinful practice of
homosexuality to reflect the more progressive culture that surrounds them,
Christians have to make a choice—obey the authorities of this world and fit in
with a sinful culture like a hand in a glove or obey God’s authority and be
hated by the world. This is When
Obedience Is Hard. When someone uses the argument that no one has the right
to tell a woman what she can do with her body as justification for killing an
innocent baby and laws are passed to allow a woman to do just that, Christians
again have to make a choice—either side with the woman who chose, in most
cases, to be sexually active with the chance of becoming pregnant or side with
the unborn baby who has absolutely no choice in anything whatsoever. Which of
the two is more likely to be abused? Isn’t the one with the least power the one
most likely to be abused and isn’t it exactly that person Christians are called
to protect—those who are the least among us? The choice seems easy enough until
the world starts screaming that because you want to protect the unborn that you
obviously hate women. This is When
Obedience Is Hard.
Being a
follower of Christ is hard—there are no two ways around it. It is hard to
oppose those who are in authority over us. Most of us have a lot to lose when
it comes to standing up and fighting for biblical truth. For many of us,
obedience is expensive. Some Christians are unwilling to pay the price so they
capitulate to a sinful culture and live life without much conflict with those
in authority over them. Some of you, however, have considered the cost and have
decided that you will pay the price. Some of you have paid a very high price.
You’ve lost your job, you’ve lost your money, you’ve lost your reputation,
you’ve lost your possessions, and you’ve lost your families. And some have even
paid with their lives. Every time we stand up for biblical truth, the stakes
are raised; the cost continues to go up. Every time the cost goes up, it gets
harder to be obedient until it feels like the cost is just too much to pay.
That’s When Obedience Is Hard.
Last week I
used Hitler as an example of how people can get tangled up with evil because it
can make life easier. I also mentioned the Confessing Church; an underground
church, who were some of the only people who openly opposed Hitler and his
murderous plan of world domination. And one of the founding members of the
Confessing Church in Germany was Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was
a vocal anti-Nazi dissident. Bonhoeffer is best known for his book The Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoeffer
stood up for what was right and true in the face of one of the world’s cruelest
despots in modern history. And it cost him everything. Let me share with you
the story of the end of his life and you’ll realize that Bonhoeffer understood
the life of being a disciple of Christ When
Obedience Is Hard.
The July 20 Plot (aka “Operation Valkyrie”)
It is important to note, without
going into substantial historical detail, that Bonhoeffer practiced what he
preached. Therefore, a bit of context might be helpful in understanding what The Cost of Discipleship looked like for
Bonhoeffer.
Bonhoeffer was a minister in
Germany during the Nazi occupation of the country. In 1944, an assassination
plan was developed by some high-ranking Nazi officers. In short, the plan was
to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Third Reich. When asked to participate
in the effort, Bonhoeffer was at first horrified at the idea of murder.
However, he realized that as a Christian he could not stand by and watch the
annihilation of the Jews. The “July 20 Plot,” also known as “Operation
Valkyrie,” was the culmination of years of meticulous planning.
However, before the assassination
plans were implemented, money used to help Jews escape to Switzerland was traced
to Bonhoeffer. He was summarily arrested and sent to jail. His life was spared
because he had a relative in the German high command. Finally, on July 20th,
the assassination plot was put into action. Everything worked exactly as
planned until the very last moment. Shortly before the bomb was set to go off,
someone unknowingly moved it away from where Hitler was sitting. Three officers
were killed when the bomb went off but Hitler survived the attack. The German
high command immediately began to track down members of the resistance who had
been involved in the plot. The investigation eventually led to Bonhoeffer as
one of several conspirators.
Hitler personally ordered
Bonhoeffer’s execution. On the morning of April 8, 1945, Bonhoeffer was led
naked into the execution yard while the prison guards mocked him. At the foot
of the scaffold, Bonhoeffer paused to kneel and pray. He then got up and
climbed the steps to the gallows. Using a meat hook, Bonhoeffer was slowly
hoisted using a noose around his neck formed from piano wire. Asphyxiation is
thought to have taken around thirty minutes. For thirty minutes Bonhoeffer knew
exactly what it feels like When
Obedience Is Hard.
[1] dc Talk
and The Voice of the Martyrs, Jesus
Freaks, (Tulsa, OK: Albury Publishing, 1999), p. 304.
[2] Colin
Brown, gen. ed., New International
Dictionary of New Testament Commentary, Vol. 2, (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan Publishing Co., 1986), p. 736.
[3] Darrell
L. Bock, Acts—Baker Exegetical
Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academics, 2007), p.
196.
[4] William
H. Willimon, Acts—Interpretation: A
Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press,
1988), p. 49.
[5] Bruce
Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 491.
[6] John B.
Polhill, Acts—The New American
Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1992), pp. 146-147.
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