Date:   11/25/07

Text:   Acts 5:40-42

Title:   Security, Comfort, Pleasure

Theme: Since God has given His followers the hope of the Heavenly Kingdom , we can endure

suffering for Him with joy.

Introduction:

  “Security, comfort and pleasure” is the battle cry of the late 20 th and 21 st century. In the early 1990's a church in Denver changed its name to “ Happy Church ”. When asked why, the response is: it attracts people. Who wants to go to a sad or mourning church. We also read about some churches doing survey in their neighborhood asking the residents this question: “What is it about Christianity that hinders you from coming to church?” The church listened and made appropriate changes. Richard Ostling, religious editor of LA Times wrote that churches had gone from ‘glorification of God' to ‘Gratification of Man'.

  We want to remove any terms that may alienate and offend men. We don't want to talk much about sins, cross, cost of discipleship and suffering. In a culture of ‘tolerance', we want to down place our uniqueness or Christ's exclusiveness, and to focus on what we have in common with other religions.

  With this mindset, we find great difficulty or just shy away from passages like Acts 14:22, “ 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” Paul was telling the new believers that there will be many suffering when we follow Christ. It's certainly not Security, Comfort and Pleasure.

  As we survey the scriptures, we probably notice that it is rather silent on the kind of suffering we are most interested in; such as natural disasters, great financial hardships and sicknesses. It doesn't tell us much about why they occurred, but showing us how to live under hardships. However, there is much teaching on suffering resulting from following Christ. This morning I would like to take a closer look at suffering in the context of being a witness of Jesus Christ. For a more complete treatment of this topic I'd refer you to Dennis Johnson's book on “The Message of Acts in the history of redemption”.

I.   The followers of Christ will face suffering for the gospel of God's Kingdom.

  Acts 14:22, “ 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God .” The word ‘must' means it is necessary. It is necessary to suffer when we enter the kingdom of God . In Luke we read about that Jesus ‘must' be in his father's house. He ‘must' go to other cities. Referring to the sick woman he healed on Sabbath, “'ought not' this woman….be loosed from this bond….?” He ‘must' go on his way today and tomorrow, and the third day….” He ‘must' stay at Zacchaeus' house. In Luke's writing, the word ‘must' carries the meaning of God's will, God's desire and plan. Why is it necessary to suffer?

1.   The Messiah suffered

  After Jesus' resurrection, on the road to Erasmus, he explained to the two disciples, “ 26 "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). A little while later, “ 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, "“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead," (45-46). In the OT, the prophets prophesize that the coming Messiah is a suffering Messiah. In the book of Acts we notice that after Jesus' ascension, the disciples began to pick up this theme of the suffering Christ in their messages. This servant Messiah is a suffering Messiah. He suffered because people rejected him as the one sent from God.

2.   The Messiah's followers suffered.

  Jesus told his disciples that whoever wanted to follow him, must take up his cross and follow him. In Luke 6:22-23, “ 22 "“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!" When Paul was called to become an apostle, God told Ananias, Acts 9:16, “ 16 "For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”". It appears that to suffer for Christ is built into the calling. Not just the apostles were to suffer, but this applies to all believers, followers of Christ. Paul instructed the young believers, Acts 14:22, “ 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God .” 2 Tim 3:12, “ 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,…”

  The Messiah was a suffering servant. All his followers are expected to suffer, to be persecuted because of their faith.

II.   The followers of Christ will face suffering from different sources.

  Now let's take a look at what are some sources, or causes of suffering.

  First it is clear that suffering is not a result of illegal or any antisocial behavior(s). It is important that when we go to another country, another culture or even a friend's house, we need to be sensitive and respect their laws, customs and tradition.

  Secondly, in Acts 5:17-18, “ 17 But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy 18 they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.” The believers were persecuted and suffered because of the religious leaders' jealousy. They wanted to protect their power, influence and reputation.

  Thirdly, Acts 16:19 “ 19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.” In this and another incident in chapter 19, the disciples were persecuted and suffered because of individuals' greed. They saw their source of prosperity was cut off by the disciples.

  Isn't this also true today? Whether we are at home, school or work, as long as we go with the majority, do not rock the boat, people will leave us alone and no one would bother us about our faith. However, when we start to speak out for the poor, the homeless, the defenseless ones, when such speaking out begin to intrude into people's comfort zone, opposition will arise. When we speak out for the little ones, including the unborn, we'll be labeled as extremists and intolerant. When we stand firm on principles and maintaining personal integrity, we're called rigid and inflexible. As long as we keep our faith to ourselves, we'll be fine and liked by others.

When Christian principles and worldview begins to collide and challenge the atheistic and materialistic worldview, people may shun and label us being intolerant, outdated and narrow minded. In this day and age, in our present culture, the worst name calling is that we are intolerant.

III.   The followers of Christ will face different kinds of suffering.

  Not only the causes of suffering may be different, but there are also different kinds of suffering. Luke and other gospel writers recorded the suffering Christ experienced. He experienced closed doors, homelessness, alienated from his own family, being laughed at, false accusations, unfair trial, beaten and death on the cross.

  In Acts, Luke wrote about Stephen and James being murdered. The early church was confronted with Paul's violent threats. There were imprisonments, flogging and false testimonies. With the exception of John, all the original disciples were killed by the Roman Empire . John was exiled to an island and spent the rest of his days there. The sufferings come in all forms and shapes.

  What does it mean to us today? During the communist rule in Russia , countless Christians (including the political prisoners) were exiled to Siberia and died there. In Chuck Colson's book, “The Body”, or in “Voice of Martyrs” and other human rights publications, we read about story after story of how some Christians and ministers were imprisoned in the Eastern bloc countries until the 1990's. Imprisonment for being a Christian still occurs in different country in this 21 st century. Christians are being denied many basic human rights.

  However, to many of us, we may feel such occurrences are in far away countries, having little to do with us. Let's bring it closer to home here. In this and many countries, there is the freedom of religion; therefore one will not be imprisoned because of one's faith. This week, during a dinner conversation a young man said that it is really hard to be a Christian in the academic world. In the academia, we worship tolerance and total freedom of speech. Yet the moment one mentions or hints at the Christian God, all tolerance and freedom of speech will go out of the window. We pride ourselves as open minded, yet totally closed to the Christian faith. We are tolerant to all religions except Christian faith. You seldom find teachers or professors making fun of the Buddhists and Muslims. But making fun of Christians is a common occurrence. About two months ago, Columbia University invited the president of Iran to give a speech to the school. Yet just sometime early in the year, the school rejected the invitation of a Christian speaker to come on campus.

Many Christian faculty and scientists have to be very careful in choosing the right words in discussion or in writing a paper. Any hint of God and especially Christian faith, can leave an unwritten or unspoken black mark among our peers. Of course, if you are in a strong leadership position such as Francis Collins, the well known Genome scientist, you can be very free in expressing your faith in Christ. On one college campus, a philosophy professor was quoted saying in the first class of the school year, “to those of you who are Christians, my objective is that by the end of your first year here, I would have made you abandon your faith.”

  There are situations when some of your friends found out that you have become a Christian, they may begin to slowly withdraw from you, and treating you as a weird person. In our western society, being a Christian is really not a very glamorous thing. In the media, seldom do we see reports friendly to the Christian faith. When we talk with our non-Christian friends, the mention of bible, Jesus Christ is often a conversation stopper. Consequently we would retreat to our own small circle of likeminded Christians. We do not feel being treated equally by others. Sometimes, standing firm in our faith may cost us a promotion or job opportunity.

IV.   The followers of Christ will respond to suffering in positive manners.

  Being a follower of Christ is not easy. It is not security, comfort and pleasure. Jesus had clearly foretold us that if we are to follow him, we have to take up the cross and follow him. In that day, the cross can only mean one thing, suffering and death. So, the call to follow is also a call to suffer for his name. So how are we to respond to suffering? None of us like pain or welcome suffering. What are we to do when we find ourselves suffering for the sake of Jesus Christ? What are we to do when others ridicule and even subtly ostracize us?

  Again, Luke in his writings, the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts gave us many examples of how the early believers respond to suffering.

  In Acts 5:40-41, “ 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. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” The disciples rejoice over the fact they suffered because of the Name of Jesus Christ. They rejoice because they felt it was an honor to have suffered for Jesus Christ. They felt God let them suffer because they were considered as worthy. If you receive an invitation to a White House dinner party, this is such an honor that you would not turn it down. You would be overjoyed because the president considers you as worthy to be his guest.

  The same is true with suffering for Christ. When God considers you worthy and to let you suffer for him, this should be considered a very honorable privilege and is to rejoice over it.

  Besides rejoicing, in 4:29-31, “ 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” What happened after suffering for Christ? They prayed for boldness and God listened to their prayers and enable them to continue to speak God's word with boldness. The disciples responded to suffering with more boldness.

  What do we do when we are being made fun of because of our faith? We can feel so intimidated that we would withdraw from that circle. However, like the disciples, we can ask God to give us courage so we can continue to be his witness with boldness. We don't have to be intimidated by people around us. It is important to remember that what is within us is greater than what is in the world. Don't let the world defeat us, for Christ is our victor.

  When Stephen was stoned, his last words were, 7:60, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Even at death, he was full of compassion for those who killed him. When others made fun of us for our belief, it really reflects their ignorance and narrow mindedness. In a way, they were blinded by God's opponent, Satan. When we recognize this fact, it will be natural for us to turn our fear into compassion, for they know not what they are doing.

  Lastly, in Luke's writing we read about Paul wanted to appeal to the highest Roman authority. He was imprisoned for Jesus Christ. Yet he also appealed to Caesar. Paul knew the Roman law and knew his rights as a Roman citizen. Isn't this something we can also learn from? When we suffer for our belief, we too can appeal to the government and asked to be treated equally just like other citizens. In this country, there are several Christian legal societies helping believers to be treated equally under the law and constitution. Some of us may have negative attitude towards ACLU. Yet it is good to note that there are also cases where the ACLU and Christian legal services cooperated to help Christians be treated equally.

Conclusion:

  Who doesn't want to live a life of security, comfort and pleasure? Isn't this the reason why some of us come to this country years ago? No wonder it came to us as a surprise when we find out that having come to know Christ, and making an effort to be his witness, life is no longer secure, comfort and full of pleasure. It is then we begin to realize Jesus' words: if you follow me, take up your cross and come. Being a follower of Christ is certainly not the key to security, comfort and pleasure. If we are to be his witness, suffering is expected.

You remember the hardship you went through in order to get into medical school. Then there was the hardship of applying for different internship. Some of us remember the trouble we went through in order to get the visa to come here. Then there is the long and tedious process of applying for US citizenship. Why did we endure such hardships? Because we have the hope that at the end of the process, we'll materialize a part of our dream in life.

  Isn't this the same with suffering for the Name of Christ? We believe in the truth of God's kingdom. We believe in the reality of God's kingdoms. We know with certainty that there will come a day when we'll find ourselves standing in the presence of God. We'll see him face to face. This is the hope we have on earth. Since this is not a pie in the sky, but a reality to be experienced, it begins to make sense that even when we suffer for this, we can respond with joy, boldness and compassion for those who persecute us.

  You see, our hope is not built upon present security, comfort and pleasure. Our hope is build upon the coming of God's kingdom. It is people with hope can endure suffering and coming out of it victoriously.