Title: Strengthening Your “Suffering Muscle.” Text: Acts 5:12-42 (Overview) Good morning church. Today we continue in the book of Acts chapter 5. We will finish this chapter today. Though it is a large passage, it’s all connected to one singular story, so I think we can plan to be in Acts 6 next week. Let me also give a brief plug - if you are a follower of Jesus, but have never been baptized by immersion as a symbol of your faith in Christ - you have that opportunity here in a couple of weeks. We are still working on the exact date of whether it will be the 17th or the 24th of November, but we will have a couple of baptisms this month. So there is time for you to pray about whether you will follow Jesus in obedience in this public way. Kids, there is time to meet with me so that I can evaluate whether you understand what baptism is. So please pray about that. If you haven’t been baptized and you are a Christian, that is your next step in the faith. It’s the first step of obedience in the life of a Christian. Do you one thing I can’t do right now? Run a mile in under 6 minutes. Who thinks they could do that today? I did it in high school when I was trying out for a team - because I had to do it. But now, my life doesn’t require the ability to do that, so I don’t. It’s not a pressing reality to me. It’s not likely that I will have to ever do that again. Jesus said in John 16 - In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” In this world, you will have tribulation, troubles, difficulty, struggle, pain, suffering. You will. Jesus didn’t say - you might. He said, you will. Jesus didn’t say, if you have faith me I will make all your dreams come true and your bank account full. He didn’t say, if you believe in me I will prevent you from cancer and Alzheimers. He didn’t say that following Jesus would make your life easier. He said the opposite. You will have tribulation. This is not the message we hear from most TV preachers. In fact, the verse that we are going to focus upon today in the book of Acts should be on a milk carton or a wanted poster next to a missing criminal because you can’t find it in many of the leading churches in our country. 1 But the reason that I want it to be the focus of our time today is not because I revel in being the faithful outlaw - it’s that I know that suffering comes to the life of every person in one way or another - and only the true gospel will prepare you for that moment. Only a biblical understanding of trials will prepare you. You see, there’s a muscle that we all have in our body that I’ll call “the suffering muscle.” This is the muscle that gets you through those moments in life when you get the bad health report, or when you lose a loved one unexpectedly, or your faith is shaken - or anything that causes pain in your life. And whether or not that muscle has been built up and strengthened with biblical truth will determine whether you can handle the trial or whether you crumble. If you took me outside and said - “run a mile in under 6 minutes or you’re going to die” - I’d have to call it. There’s just no way, right now, that I could pull that off. My cardio is not there. As much as I’d want to will myself over the finish line - the muscles necessary for the task are not prepared for the trial. And just as with cardio or with weight lifting - the preparation can’t be done in a day. I would need months to prepare for that trial. There’s no cardio quick fix. The time to prepare is not as you’re at the starting line staring at the track - it’s too late to prepare. And that’s similar to dealing with suffering in your life - the time to prepare is not when you get the bad news, the bad report, the traumatic event…. that’s the moment when you need a suffering muscle that’s already built up and strong. So how do you do that? I believe that our passage has answers today. We are going to see the Apostles rejoicing while being persecuted for their faith. They were beaten but they rejoiced. So I want us to examine our view of suffering today. Let’s prepare now for those moments that will come. We are looking at three ways that you can build strength to rejoice in suffering when the time comes. God’s Word stands ready to equip. So let’s trust Him and go to Him in prayer before we open His Word. (pray) I want to tell you that I was really planning to skip on ahead to Chapter 6 in the discussion of the first deacons in the life of the early church. 2 I approached the text planning for chapter 6 unless something else in chapter 5 really just gripped me and I sensed God had one more lesson for our church. So I’d like to begin by reading the short couple of verses that stopped me dead in my tracks as I was studying - and then we can work backward to see how the story arrived there. Look with me to Acts 5:40-42. 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. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. I just want you to know that when I read those words - after they were beaten - “they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name,” I just stopped and said - Lord, how do we get a church full of people with that mindset? How does a person get to that spiritual place in their life? When suffering and trials come - how do we actually have the ability to rejoice and thank Jesus that we were counted worthy to suffer? That’s somebody whose “suffering muscle” is well conditioned. Now, allow me to cover a lot of verses by telling you the summary that got the Apostles to this point… We left last week talking about Ananias and Sapphira - and following this - Luke gives another summary passage of the early church. Listen to Acts 5:12-16 12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. In other words, they were blowing and going. The Apostles were doing the things that Jesus used to do. It was an explosive time in the church. People were being saved. The Spirit of God was manifesting His work in obvious healings left and right. 3 V17 begins the next passage - essentially the Jewish leadership become enraged and throw the Apostles in jail again. In the night, an angel opens their prison doors and commands them to go proclaim Christ in the temple again - so they do. Obviously the Jewish leaders are shocked to find them broken out of jail and preaching in the temple courtyard. They summon the Apostles behind closed doors again and say - “Hey I thought we told you not to proclaim Jesus anymore!” And Peter says, “Yea and we said we had to obey God rather than men.” Within the similar formula we have seen in Acts so far - Peter preaches again to these Jewish leaders. We know the message by now - You killed Jesus by hanging Him on a cross, God raised Him from the dead - now repent of your sins and believe in Jesus as the Messiah. Also in formulaic fashion, the Jews respond with more anger - except this time it’s worse and they contemplate killing the Apostles right there (this is new to Acts). Then one reputable Pharisee named Gamaliel stands up and tries to dial back the anger. He gives advice to “wait and see.” The other Jewish leaders reluctantly agree, but they do give the Apostles the customary Jewish beating - 39 lashes with the rod per Apostle. They warn them again no longer to preach Jesus. This is where we read earlier that they left rejoicing that they were worthy to suffer - and that they kept on preaching in the temple and in houses.