by Lynda Beggs
Have you ever had the experience of trying to share your faith in Jesus with a friend or a colleague at work, only to receive a hard stare or even to see the end of a friendship which was important to you. When this happens to us, sometimes our first reaction is “Well, I won’t do that again. It just causes me too much pain and anxiety.” The disciples in Acts 5 experienced very much the same reaction of total rejection, anger, and pain when they shared the gospel to the people around them, and they also endured deep physical pain. They were thrown into prison, at the mercy of the jailor to feed them or give them water. They were hauled before the Pharisees to defend themselves, and they were thoroughly beaten as a result of that trial. They were told yet again that they were not to preach about Jesus anymore. The beating they endured was thirty-nine strokes of a whip which intentionally took the skin and flesh from their bones. After this type of beating it was common for the victims to die of their wounds and shock. Amazingly, however, as the apostles crawled away after the awfulness of what they had endured, they were able to rejoice and praise God, not because of the beating, but because they had been counted worthy to suffer for Jesus’ sake and to be identified with Him.
How can any man or woman do that in their own strength? I think we all know that we can’t and the apostles couldn’t either in their humanness. They were men, made of flesh and blood, with the same tendencies as we have to be fearful, to feel pain and rejection. How were they able to persevere and deal with the awfulness of what they endured when they talked about Jesus? The apostles had the empowering strength of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God living within them. Their God and our God, the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe, knew exactly what the suffering of His Christians would look like, even in 2018, as they obeyed His command to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus to everyone on this earth. You see, God sent the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to infill, strengthen, and empower anyone who spoke the message of His Son’s sacrifice on the cross for peoples’ sins. God is so faithful! Just as He gave His apostles what they needed to persevere and endure in their trials, He will do the same today for you and me.
Be encouraged when you witness for Jesus. Trials are not nice or easy to endure, but if we turn to Jesus again and again in the midst of the trials and allow God to do for us what He did for those apostles so long ago, we too will be given enduring power to keep witnessing and sharing about Jesus. And you know what? We too might find ourselves rejoicing and persevering instead of being silent and afraid. Have a great day today!
