WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:16.399 So this morning I woke up, I took my nice long hot shower, like many of you, and I got dressed up and I got made my coffee and protein shake like every single morning, and I drove the very long four blocks to get here. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:30.640 And I did all of this, I did all of this without ever, ever fearing at all that I might have some harm done to me because of any of that or coming here or any harm for my family. 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:47.119 And yet, this morning there are hundreds of millions of people doing exactly what we're doing right now, and they do it out of the courage that harm might be done to them or to their families. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:54.799 So, according to open door research, every month 322 Christians are killed because of what they believe. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:08.079 772 people are beaten or kidnapped or arrested or forced into marriages simply because what they believe about Jesus. 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:10.000 This happens every single month. 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:18.719 And this happens because what they believe is perceived by those in power to be a threat to them that are in power. 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:20.239 And that's what persecution is. 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:32.959 Persecution is always the ones in power holding hostility toward the powerless because of race or political or religious belief. 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:35.040 That's what persecution is. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:39.040 Now, I know none of you walked in with persecution on your mind this morning. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:40.319 Most of us don't walk around. 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:44.799 We don't live with the idea of persecution dominant in our thoughts. 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:52.879 But I do wonder, have you ever felt, perhaps ever felt sidelined because of your belief? 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:54.159 Some belief? 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:59.280 Have you ever felt uh belittled because of your belief? 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:07.439 Have you ever been made to feel intellectually inferior because of something you believe? 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:11.680 Well, maybe you remember the story from last week, this Acts chapter 4 story. 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:18.800 We read the whole passage of Acts chapter 4 last week, and we talked about what Peter and John said when they were arrested. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:28.080 This morning, we're just going to talk about the fact that they were arrested, because this is the first time that the church, the Christian church, was persecuted. 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:29.280 So here's the text. 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:32.800 The text is Acts chapter 4, verses 1 through 4. 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:45.840 And as they were speaking to the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed, because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:56.960 And they arrested them, and they put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening, but many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:00.240 So we talked about last week that these Sadducees were the people in control. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:02.719 These guys, these were the elitists. 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:08.800 They controlled power in society, they controlled power, religious thought, the courts, the police. 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.840 These guys held all the power. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:20.240 And they did not care about what Peter and John were saying, nor did they care about what actually had happened in terms of Jesus' death and resurrection. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:21.199 That didn't matter. 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:26.639 All they cared about is that this was a threat to the system that benefited them. 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:31.919 They only cared to maintain the system that benefited them and their friends and their family. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:35.360 And the grace of Jesus threatened that system. 00:03:36.479 --> 00:03:40.400 Last Thursday, Chrissy and I went on a date to see the movie The Post. 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:41.280 So we we pulled in. 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:52.719 We pulled in, and right when we pulled in, and it's not, you know, not a heavy movie-going night, Thursday night, Friday night or Saturday night. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:54.479 So, you know, it's kind of a sparse parking lot. 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:55.680 I mean, there's not a lot of people in there. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:04:01.199 As soon as we park, though, tons of cars start to pour into this parking lot. 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:03.919 A lot of cars at the same time. 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:08.879 And enough that Christy and I kind of look at each other like, like, what had like a flood of cars? 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:17.680 And all of the cars were nice, and pretty much everybody getting out of the cars were dressed very nice, and pretty much everybody was over the age of 55. 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:19.360 And so Christy and I started to notice this. 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:20.639 We're like, what happened? 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:21.120 What is this? 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:24.879 And we think, well, maybe it's like senior discount night, is what we figured. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:26.079 We just kind of figured that. 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:27.279 I'm not making fun of that. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:30.720 I can't wait for that to begin in my life. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:31.680 I can't wait. 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:32.480 It's a discount. 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:33.600 It's fantastic. 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:36.399 But then there were some people who weren't over 55. 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:37.600 There were some people in their 40s. 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:39.839 And we're like, well, so it's not senior discount night. 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:41.839 We're like, it's got to be like a movie club. 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:43.199 There's like a movie club. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:44.480 And we're like, that's awesome. 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:45.920 Because they all know each other too. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:51.279 They're getting out of their cars and they're like shaking hands and they're hugging, they're talking, and they're in line, they're talking to us. 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:52.319 So they all know each other. 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:54.000 And we're like, this is a movie club. 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:56.800 And we're like, well, we get we need to know what movie they're going to see. 00:04:56.959 --> 00:05:00.480 And so we all we get in the theater and we watch them. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:02.879 Our theater was right up front, there on the left. 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:06.000 They went down this hallway to the very end and turned left. 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:11.040 And so we follow them down there to see what movie they're going into. 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:17.199 And so the the name of the movie was called Alien Intrusion. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.680 And so I figure, well, this is some science fiction movie I just hadn't heard about yet. 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:23.519 And so we get back to our theater, and Chris C. 00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:26.560 Googles Alien Intrusion. 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:29.360 And so it's not a science fiction movie. 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:31.279 It's not a well, maybe, maybe it is. 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:32.399 That's up for debate. 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:43.519 What it is is a one-night only documentary about UFOs with interviews with people who have had spiritual and alien-like encounters. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:48.079 And I'm not making fun of this because I actually have a serious point coming out of this. 00:05:48.800 --> 00:06:03.040 But I'm assuming most of you don't know that there's a community of people around us that all know each other, and they apparently gather on some regular basis to talk about UFOs and alien-like encounters. 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:22.480 And not only that, but then there's a guy who has enough of audience base to make a film and financing to make a film and distribution to get the film into theaters, and all of these people are coming together and gathering happily to watch this movie together. 00:06:22.959 --> 00:06:24.480 That's amazing. 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:25.600 Right? 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:27.120 Isn't it amazing? 00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:34.000 These people have this right to do all of that without any hostility or persecution toward them. 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:34.560 Okay? 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:36.079 That's just a side note. 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:38.240 Because then we go into our movie. 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:52.800 And we see our movie, and it's a the movie about the Washington Post that's uncovering sort of the way that politicians during the Vietnam War kept the war going for political reasons when they knew that the war was an unwinnable war, and I loved it. 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:54.399 I loved it. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:58.720 Which was a little odd to me because I know very little about the Vietnam War. 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:00.879 I'm not like a huge history buff. 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:03.600 I'm definitely not a Vietnam War history buff. 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:07.279 And I'm not like a big into politics, but I love this movie. 00:07:07.519 --> 00:07:09.279 So why would I love this movie? 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:10.879 And so I started thinking about that. 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:17.120 Like, why would I love this movie so much when it's about a topic that I don't really love the topic that much? 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:24.399 Because what I do love is I love truth spoken to power. 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:25.920 I eat that up. 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:27.519 That's my thing. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:37.519 And journalism, the right of free press, exists to uncover and speak truth to falsehood, especially to the abuse of power. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.959 And see, this is what Peter and John are doing in this moment. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:44.000 They're speaking truth into falsehood. 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:46.800 They're speaking truth to power. 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:51.519 They're speaking, risking up against the system of belief. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:56.399 And what they're saying to them is they're saying, hey, your system of belief is now completed. 00:07:56.720 --> 00:07:57.600 That's what they're saying. 00:07:57.759 --> 00:07:59.360 They're saying Christ is salvation. 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:00.319 We talked about last week. 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:02.000 We fleshed that out over 20 minutes. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:03.680 Salvation, wholeness. 00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:05.680 Christ is your wholeness. 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:11.360 You don't have to keep up the sacrificial system anymore, relying on your own purity and your sacrifice and doing it over and over and over. 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:18.720 You are accepted and absolved and loved fully because your sin is put upon the final sacrifice. 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:24.720 God's grace to you, known in Jesus, and his righteousness is put upon you, and it is over. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:26.240 It's over. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:29.040 There's nothing left for you to add. 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:43.679 And while that news to some of those in power was bad news, because it risked their power to those who were powerless, thousands and thousands of people, that was like streams in a desert. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:46.399 Now, a few points about persecution in general. 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:55.120 Number one, point number one, persecution is the painful gift that can grow that which really matters in your life. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:09:02.720 Persecution is the painful gift that can grow that which really matters in your life. 00:09:02.879 --> 00:09:04.159 Persecution is always hard. 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:05.360 It's always going to be painful. 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:06.879 We wouldn't choose it. 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:11.519 But it has the ability to not just be painful. 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:13.679 2 Corinthians 12, verse 10. 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:16.480 For the sake of Christ, then I am content. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.840 This is Paul who knew lots of persecution and hardships. 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:28.240 I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:31.519 For when I am weak, then I am strong. 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:43.200 So Paul is saying, when I see that I'm weak, because of whatever hardship it is that reveals this, I see a truth about myself, and in that process, sort of a sifting occurs, right? 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:53.200 And all the dirt of life that just doesn't matter that much falls away, and the gold of what truly matters in life remains. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:10:03.360 This is why that time when you got really, really sick, and you're lying in bed and you're aching and just you feel horrible. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:14.159 The only things you start to think about is the few people in life that really love you, the few people in life you really love, and the fact that you know what? 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:15.039 God loves me. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:27.440 Like it just boils down to the few essentials when you're hurting hardships, persecutions, insults, it just has a way of sifting down to the gold of what really matters in life. 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:30.159 And all of a sudden, the next pair of jeans from J. 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:32.799 Crew just doesn't seem to matter as much. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:35.440 You're just like, I mean, why was I obsessing about that the day before? 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:39.279 That new truck doesn't seem like I don't, all of a sudden you don't need a new truck. 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:44.960 I mean, the the nest egg doesn't matter if it hits a certain number, if it's a little under that number. 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:46.720 All of a sudden, all of this doesn't matter. 00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:48.480 Now you're strong. 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:59.679 For when you're weak, you are strong because you begin to see, even in hardship, even in hardship, our lives are rooted into what will always remain. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:02.159 And that's Christ's love for us. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:03.679 That is unending. 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:14.639 Point number two, persecution is the painful gift that wages against the myths that you are not enough and you always need more. 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:22.559 Persecution is the painful gift that wages against the myths that you are not enough and you always need more. 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:28.240 Last year, Christy and myself and all the adults on her side of the family, we went to an escape room. 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:34.480 So, an escape room, maybe you've been to these, these are these like facilities that you go with a group of friends and they lock you in a room. 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:35.200 You pay. 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:37.440 You pay to be locked into a room. 00:11:37.679 --> 00:11:41.039 And then you have an hour to work your way out of the room. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:47.519 And so I think maybe there's 10 or 12 of us, all the adults on her side of the family, and we're all locked in this little room, and it was the casino room. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:49.360 So we're doing all these math problems. 00:11:49.440 --> 00:12:00.720 I think at one point we had like a laser and a mirror, and we're doing, and all the personalities are coming out, the control freaks are controlling, the followers, the pleasers, those who don't mind conflict, the ones that don't want conflict at all. 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:04.320 All of that's playing out within about a minute and a half in our family. 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:08.240 And we're solving these problems, and the clock's on the wall, and it's working its way down. 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:19.200 There's a door on the sidewall, and finally, like at like 45 minutes into this thing, that we solve a problem, a big problem, and the door opens, and you think, this is it. 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:22.799 You think this is gonna be the way out. 00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:29.600 And you walk through the door, and it's another room with more problems. 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:37.519 And you get in there and you gotta solve more problems, and you end up having to go back to the first room to get some stuff to come to the second room. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:41.519 And it's just another room and another room. 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:42.960 I mean, you know, right, you know that. 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:43.759 This is our world. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:45.279 This is our world. 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:47.120 And you know those doors, right? 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:48.960 The door that says more. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:51.840 And you go, that's what I that's what I need. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:52.639 I need some of that. 00:12:52.720 --> 00:13:01.840 And so I'm gonna go through that door, and you think it's gonna get you, and I think it's gonna get me into a room of contentment, and then you get into that room, and that room's called lacking. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:27.200 But the next door says more because you see it on the other side, and you go, okay, so that's where I need a head, and then you're gonna walk through that doorway, and on the other side of that doorway, that's gonna be, and then you get in that room, and that room's lacking, and then you go, oh, but there's another door, and it says more, and you just keep going room after room, door after door after door, and persecution and hardship in general has a way to destroy the doors that are lying to us. 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:29.679 We begin to just see them for what they are. 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:33.120 And this is what Peter and John are saying. 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:41.440 When they come to these guys and they risk all this hardship and persecution, they come up against the system and they say, Christ is salvation. 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:44.000 They're saying, Christ is your wholeness. 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:46.720 Christ is your wholeness. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:49.039 You don't need anything else. 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:53.759 There's nothing else for you to add to be whole other than God's love for you. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:14:04.320 Point number three, and this is a tough pill to swallow persecution comes at Christians, and persecution comes from Christians. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:10.960 So the early Jewish Christians held hostility toward the Gentile Christians. 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:27.519 And then if you look into history, the Christian church existed in a persecuted state as they were an illegal religion until the 300s, and then the Christian church became legalized, and as soon as they become legalized, they make a move to begin to make other belief systems illegal. 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:29.600 Now, isn't that interesting? 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:42.159 A group of people, a group of people whose community began in persecution, gains power, and then as soon as they get power, they turn to persecute others. 00:14:43.039 --> 00:15:04.639 On an individual level, uh perhaps we say, when we become the power holders of the PTA or the neighborhood association or the friend group or the school or the town, I would never hold hostility, I would never exclude anybody, I wouldn't, and then you get there and then you find yourself doing the thing you hate. 00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:18.320 On a societal level, when our politicians attempt in any way, to any degree, to take away any of our freedoms to speak or to gather because of what we believe, that's a form of persecution. 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:31.200 And just as much, to be clear, on like current culture of the last year, when a person is arrested or killed because of the color of their skin and nothing else, that's a form of persecution. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:44.240 When our leaders use belittling language of somebody or a group of people because of their race or because of their religion, that is persecution. 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:51.039 It is hostility by those in power toward the powerless. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:16:01.519 And when we shrug our shoulders to any of this silently, because it sort of doesn't affect us that much. 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:11.200 And all of this is us living out of ignorance and fear. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:26.240 It's us wanting to feel more important than someone else, which creates bias, which then creates hostility, and in that a process of persecution, racism, becomes a societal norm. 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:34.960 Listen, peace and compassion toward anybody else only comes when we realize I too am the enemy. 00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:46.480 We have to understand our propensity to persecute in order to the moment that we have power that we will not persecute. 00:16:46.720 --> 00:17:02.399 But if we don't face the fact that we have the ability and that we will and we can persecute, then we'll never, in the moment when we hold power, choose to not persecute and be peaceful and compassionate toward people. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:11.359 This week I read 2 John verses 6 and 7, and this is a writer who wrote for me the most profound sentence in the Bible, which is God is love. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:19.920 And he writes in 2 John, and this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:33.759 This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:41.680 Okay, so he says, walk in love, be this love in front of people, for hostility exists. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:47.359 Because the hostility exists, be love toward people. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:18:03.680 See, we are called to be a community that speaks truth to power, confesses we too are the enemy, and in the great grace of God known to us in Jesus, we are fully and accepted and loved and absolved and redeemed children. 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:11.759 Therefore, we love those in power, and we love those who hold no power, and we even love our enemy. 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:21.440 So, my brothers and sisters, may you live lives of love, learning to receive grace from God and give grace to your neighbor. 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:22.640 Let's pray together. 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:30.880 God, thank you for the great call to love those in power and to love the powerless and to love our enemies. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:36.319 Forgive us for the way, for all the ways that we are insecure. 00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:47.440 And in that we hold bias, hostility, persecution, and even shrug our shoulders toward the ways that those around us are persecuted. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:49.279 Forgive us for this. 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:51.200 We too are the enemy. 00:18:51.920 --> 00:19:02.640 And we confess that this morning, and we ask that in your great grace would you begin to soften our hearts, to love people, to see people. 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:14.559 God give us the courage to speak truth to power, to stand up for what is true and right, and to love those around us. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:16.240 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:16.880 Amen.