18 Jan

4/15/18   ACTS 5:27-32    “LIFE IS JUST NOT FAIR”

Sometimes I have to just sit back and scratch my head at the things the happen even on a daily basis.  How can we be having so many bad things happen?  There was a letter to the editor this past week that kind of asked the same question but he put it more like this.  If most people of this country claim to be Christian why aren’t we acting like it?  Well, that is a good question.  The problem with his question was that most people who claim to be Christian aren’t.  Churches are full of people who go through all the motions but have never committed themselves to Jesus.  One of the statements that I heard a lot during confirmation was: That’s not fair!  They were right and it wasn’t.  However, I don’t remember ever reading anywhere in our rule book that life is fair.  This is one of the hardest lessons for people to learn.  Life is not fair.  Get used to it.  Fortunately, we have a God who is fair 100%.  And if we all acted like real Christians, things would be a lot better and more fair.  Today we are looking at how unfairly the apostles were treated and how they coped with it.  Let’s see if we can improve our coping skills a bit.

In July 2005, 210 Chinese house church pastors and believers were arrested in a crackdown of house churches.  Two American tourists were caught up in this.  In August of the same year 41 more were arrested along with two more American tourists as 30 Chinese officers rushed the house.  The Americans were injured in the attack.  At the same time 41 more were arrested in another province.  Most of these were released but a few remained in jail a year later.  Eyewitnesses say that the people who were jailed were tortured and beaten.  One man was only 17 years old.  China still is very oppressive to Christians today as hundreds are arrested with no trial or justice.  The outlook is bleak there as it is in many of the Muslim countries throughout the world where Christians are murdered for their faith.

But God is working.  In Bulgaria in 1985, a man was arrested for preaching in his church just like I am doing right now.  His crime was that he was not appointed by the government and only government pastors could preach in that country at that time.  So this pastor was put in jail.  He was found guilty at his trial and sentenced to 8 months in prison.  During the eight months he was in prison, many of his fellow inmates and guards asked him many questions about Jesus.  In the end he found more converts in the prison than he probably would have had in his church.   I just read a similar story about how this happened in China.  God knows where He wants His people.

Did you know that if I preached from the Bible a mere 200 miles north of here I could be arrested?  Canada has passed laws that make it illegal to preach certain passages of the Bible.  Hopefully you know how I feel about that and if you don’t then you will soon.  If it is in the Bible, then it is true and I will preach about it.  It is not up to some agency or society to tell us what we can or can’t hear from the Bible.  It is up to us to change our lives so that our lives conform to the teachings of Jesus Christ and not the other way around.  God and the Bible are always right and they will not change.  It’s always us who are wrong and we have to change.

I read an interesting item by David Schaal about comparing Christians to a reservoir used in making electricity.  When we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, then we are like the reservoir.  We have the potential to be useful and effective in our service to the Lord.  But that is all.  As long as the floodgates are closed, we will remain a pool of water.  However, when those gates are opened in that reservoir, we become a cascading power in the name of Jesus Christ.  And this is not for a one-time thing.  Just as the water will run continuously, we are to work in the same fashion for our God.  This is what had happened to the Apostles.  This is what has happened to me since I retired.

However, sometimes you get a little wore down.  You need to be fired up again.  What do you do?  You look to Scripture to see what you are to do.  Jesus prayed when He needed special help from the Father.  Peter and John do the same thing as we can read in Acts 4:31.  They prayed and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  And once you are filled with the Holy Spirit, look out world.  Great things are going to happen and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

And that is just what happened in the verses prior to this morning’s reading.  The Apostles had been in jail and an angel of the Lord had come and let them out.  Then they were found in the Temple court preaching the word of Jesus.  The jailers had to be in fear for their lives when they found the cell empty.  We do not know but they might have been executed for this.   Anyway, this time the officers of the guard, the bosses, took no chances and came themselves to arrest the Apostles.

So now they are now in front of the High Priest.  Please remember that he is pretty much the boss of the Temple and the Jewish people.  He tells them that they are not to teach in the name of Jesus.  He has told them this before.  But they have kept on and have been telling all of Jerusalem about Jesus.  And the worst part for the Sanhedrin is that they have been telling the people that they, the Sanhedrin, are to blame for killing Jesus.  It does not matter that it is true.  They do not want the people knowing it is true.  Keep this thought in mind for a minute.

We have already looked at the state of the world concerning Christians in my opening comments.  Now let’s take a look at how wonderfully we treat Christian’s right here.  I cannot go to the Capitol in Washington and preach this sermon, I can’t go to the capitol in Bismarck and preach this sermon, and I can’t go to the school right here and preach this sermon or any other sermon about Jesus Christ.  It has been suggested that I do not preach on the first chapter of Romans because it talks about all kinds of evil behavior including being quite specific on homosexuality.

According to the powers that be there are many passages in the Bible that we should not preach about and we should not really follow.  Let’s take a look at 1 Cor. 6:10.  It tell us that fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, the covetous, drunkards, revilers and extortioners will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.  As far as I’m concerned, this is what the Bible says and what the Bible says is the absolute truth.  However, we are to minister to all these people in truth and grace.  We need to remember this part.  But our society says something totally different.  They want us to preach only grace and we are to get the truth from anywhere but the Bible.  We want everything about our society, including our preachers, to be neutral and politically correct.  We do not want the truth of Jesus because the truth tells us just how wrong we are in our thinking and our ways.  You cannot discard parts of the Bible just because you don’t agree.  If you do, then you are probably a Christian in name only as I mentioned earlier.  As a society, we are not unlike the high priest who did not want his people to know the truth.

Unfortunately, the one of the truths that we live by today is the power of the dollar.  That is how our society is run.  If something makes money, then it must be ok, right?  Well, the pornography business on the internet makes huge sums of money.  Is that ok?  Huge corporations make billions of dollars for their investors at the expense of the breaking the little guys back.  This is especially true in the health care and drug industry.  Is this ok?  I have always said that if you find a problem somewhere; follow the money trail to find out what is really happening.  You would be surprised.  I think that you can fill in the blanks as to the industries that are taking us to the cleaners.  Anyway, I’m a little off track so let me get back to the subject.

So we have this huge problem of the Sanhedrin and our society telling us that we cannot preach the word of Jesus.  Notice what Peter and the other apostles do.  They tell these priests that they must obey God rather than man.  There is a big fight in the Methodist church right now and I cannot follow them as they go against the Bible and God.  I have to follow God, not society.  And not only that, but they tell the Sanhedrin that it was they who took Jesus and hung him on a cross.  Peter does not pull any punches here because he is filled with the Holy Spirit.  They were the witnesses to what happened with Jesus and to Jesus.

The most important part of this whole passage is that God will not abandon his people.  This is the best news ever.  We saw that right before this; the apostles had prayed and were filled with the Holy Spirit.  And it seems that at this time Peter was their leader.  This is the same Peter that for three years was always putting his foot in his mouth.  This is the guy who took his eyes off of Jesus and sank.  This is the one who denied Jesus three times during his trial.  And suddenly, he has been transformed into a man who can do anything in the name of Jesus.  This Peter is a new man.  This is the miracle of Peter.  Next week we will see the same thing happen to Paul.

I have quite a story of my coming to the pulpit.  It was only about 25 years ago I could not even talk in front of people for a little bit, let alone give a sermon.  But my dear friends voted for me to give the message on a men’s Sunday.  I cannot tell you how scared I was.  But right before I gave that message the first time, I prayed that Jesus would just take over for me just like Peter and the Apostles prayed.  And He did.  I did two services without a nerve in my body.  And the rest is history, God’s history.

We are all like that.  We are afraid to let go and give it to Jesus.  If there is anyone here today that has not invited Jesus into their heart, then confess your sins and ask Him in today.  And here is a reason why.  Jesus works miracles.  He changes people.  He worked a miracle in my life that has put me here today.  We read the Bible and we see all the miracles that he performed.  A couple of weeks ago I listed 33 miracles named in the Bible and I had barely got started.  And we see in this morning’s passage the miracle He has worked in the life and ministry of Peter.  Next week it will be Paul.  And you are just as important if not more important than any of these people.  He wants to have a personal relationship with you.  He wants to talk to you.  He wants to elevate you to His level.  Please ask Him in today.

So we have seen that God did not abandon Peter and He will not abandon you either.  Do you remember the story of Lazarus?  Jesus came 4 days after he had died.  He was four days late.  And He may seem that He is four days late in your life sometimes too.  But He is not late.  He is never late.  His timing is perfect.  We only think that He is four days late, but He is not. He is always on time.  This is hard if not impossible for people who don’t know Christ to understand.  It is hard for us to understand, too.  But you are not in control.  You never have been and never will be.  I heard a joke recently that went like this.  If you want God to have a good laugh, then tell Him your plans.

I had some real good plans several years ago.  And they did not include being a pastor at Kindred and Colfax.  God must have chuckled a bit.  Then he put it on my heart to serve Him there.  I praise the Lord for giving me the wisdom to follow.  I was at a meeting one time with missionaries Mike and Libby Flowers who serve near Devils Lake.  Mike tells the same story.  He had great plans to continue a career in Wal-Mart.  They even asked him to go to Kindred before they asked me.  He knew that the timing was not right.  God was not asking him to go there.  The church was.  But then this missionary job came up and they both knew that they had to obey God.  He touched their hearts and they knew what they had to do.  You will know when God touches your heart.  Pray for the wisdom to follow like the disciples did, like Mike and Libby did, like Sharon and I did, and like so many others have done.  You will never regret serving our Lord and Savior.

Michael McCartney tells the story of Eric Liddell as depicted in the movie Chariots of Fire.  In the Olympics of 1924, he was supposed to run in the 100 meter dash and he was one of the favorites.  The race was to be run on a Sunday.  But he was a devout Christian and he could not run on the Sabbath.  He was called a traitor among other things.  Later in the week he won the 400 meter race and became a hero.  After he became famous, he was a missionary in China and helped many people to know Jesus Christ.  He was imprisoned for this and died shortly before the war ended in 1945.  We remember him as a runner but God knows him as a good and faithful servant.

Spring time is a time for graduations, confirmations and new beginnings.  We have seen that things are tough out there in this world.  Again I don’t recall reading anywhere that life is fair.  As a matter of fact in my 67 years I have found that life is anything but fair.  Those people that don’t know Jesus will struggle and have little hope.  And those of us who do know Jesus will struggle also.  But we have the hope, the assurance, the knowledge that God is with us every step of the way and in the end, all will be well.

So don’t be disheartened when you are told to be quiet about your faith.  Don’t get upset when you are made fun of because of your faith.  Instead look to Jesus and pray.  This works.  If you give it to Him, He will handle the situation.  Jesus can handle anything.  That is a promise and all I can say is, “Praise the Lord” and thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.