THE BATTLE IS ABOUT A NAME, EASTER SUNDAY 2025

The enemy is real and his attacks don’t have to any make sense but God calls for a Holy church to do His Holy work, not to fear! In a culture where holiness and piety have become bad words, we ought to expect opposition, insult and tribulations: we ought to respond to opposition by continuing somewhat stubbornly, somewhat cautiously but always faithfully. In fact, we ought to flourish when we joyfully recognize we are being maligned because of the name of Jesus for the battle is about the name! 

 MATTHEW 10: 21 "Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

Hated of all men for my name’s sake.—these words sketch out the history of the persecution with a precision which marks and attests the divine foreknowledge. From the days of Stephen to that of the last martyr under Diocletian it was always as a Christian and for the name of Christ that men thus suffered. 

Would they but renounce that, all would have gone smoothly with them. 

As Tertullian said of the sufferers of his day, “We are tortured when we confess our guilt, we are set free if we deny it, for the battle is about a Name”

TEXT: ACTS 5:17-42

SONGS:

O PRAISE THE NAME, HOLY, DBU WORSHIP

MAN OF SORROWS, BRYCE SHEEHAN

SON OF SUFFERING, GC COLLABORATIVE WORSHIP

HOLD THE LINE,  JOURNEY WORSHIP