Stand Up for Jesus

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Acts 4:1-21.

            Tomorrow is Memorial Day.  It’s a day when we honor those people who have given their lives in service to this country.

            They were willing to do that because they believed in this country and what it stands for.  Not that they thought it was a perfect country--it’s not, it never has been, and it never will be.  Things created by humans can never be perfect--perfection is something only God has.  But they believed this is a great country, and a good country, and they were willing to sacrifice their lives to defend it.  

That’s a pretty powerful thing.  That’s saying you are willing to stand up for what you believe is right no matter what the consequences to you might be.  That’s a quality to be admired.  It’s to be admired among people who are willing to sacrifice for their country.  It’s also a quality to be admired among Christians.

As Christians, of course, our first allegiance is to Jesus Christ.  That does not mean we cannot also love our country and defend our country.  Much of the time, we can do both.  But if there ever is a conflict, as Christians we need to put our allegiance to Christ first.

We’ve talked about this before, but a lot of people seem to have the idea that following Christ should make our lives on earth easier.  That’s true in a way, but not in the way we often think of it.  Following Christ does not guarantee us wealth.  It does not guarantee us earthly success.  It does not guarantee us popularity.  In fact, quite often, it brings the opposite of those things.  Being a Christian may very well mean that we have to forego chances to make money.  It may mean that we have to sacrifice chances for earthly success.  Standing up for our faith in Jesus sometimes makes us very unpopular.  Following Christ does not necessarily make our lives easier in any of those ways.

The way following Christ makes our lives easier is that it gives us confidence and inner peace.  Following Christ makes our lives easier because we believe that God is with us and will see us through whatever may happen to us.  Following Christ makes our lives easier because we know that, when we do our best to be faithful to God, God will bless our efforts and make things go the way they’re supposed to go.  And if that’s not the way we want them to go, well, we know that God knows best, and so we can accept whatever happens to us.

In the chapter before our reading for today, Peter and John meet a man who was lame since birth.  Because there was no such thing as welfare or disability payments back then, the man had to beg to survive.  And we’re told:

Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles because strong.  He jumped to his feet and began to walk.  Then he went into he temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.  When people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Peter and John then start telling people about Christ, and that’s where our reading for today picks up the story.  The religious authorities of the day--a lot of the same ones who’d had Christ crucified--saw the crowd starting to believe Peter and John, and so those authorities had Peter and John arrested and thrown in jail.

Think about that.  Peter and John were thrown in jail precisely because they believed in Jesus Christ as the Savior and were not afraid to say so.  They were able to heal someone because they believed in Jesus Christ.  They were able to tell people about Christ because they believed in Jesus Christ.  They were able to convince others to believe in Jesus Christ, too.  And they also were able to really anger the religious authorities because they believed in Jesus Christ.  

The religious authorities probably thought they could intimidate Peter and John.  After all, these were, as our reading says, “unschooled, ordinary men”.  And they were going up against the well-educated, wealthy, powerful religious authorities.  These people had the power to keep them in jail for a long time, if they so chose.  And it’s not like they could demand legal rights the way we can in this country today.  Peter and John had no legal rights whatsoever.  Surely they would give in and do what the authorities wanted.

But they did not.  Peter and John could not be intimidated.  We’re told that the religious authorities were “astonished” at their courage.  They call Peter and John in again, and threaten them, and it does no good.  Peter and John are going to serve God, no matter what happens to them.

Peter and John had no guarantee of what was going to happen when they did this.  They knew the religious authorities had all kinds of earthly power over them.  But that did not matter.  They knew what they believed in, and what they believed in was Jesus Christ.  And they were going to stand up for Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences were for them.  And they said so.  They said that the Lord had told them to do what they were doing.  And then they said, “Which is right in God’s eyes:  to listen to you, or to Him?”  

That had to really make the religious authorities mad.  After all, they thought they were the ones who knew all about what God wanted.  They thought listening to them was listening to God.  They had to be so tempted to just send Peter and John back to jail and throw away the key.  And yet, we’re told, they thought they could not do anything, “because all the people were praising God for what had happened.”

So think about this.  On the one side we have Peter and John.  Two unschooled, ordinary men with no power whatsoever.  On the other side we have the religious authorities, with all the powers of their office.  Peter and John are not intimidated by these powerful religious authorities, because they had the courage that comes from knowing you are following Christ.  Instead, these powerful religious authorities are intimidated by James and John, these two unschooled ordinary men.  Because the religious authorities did not have the courage that comes from knowing you are following Christ.

So, where does that leave you and me?  Most of us would consider ourselves ordinary people.  None of us is particularly powerful, in earthly terms.  Would we be willing to do what Peter and John did?  Do you and I have the courage that comes from knowing we are following Jesus Christ?  Are we willing to stand up for our faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of what the consequences may be for us?

I cannot answer for you, obviously.  As for me, I don’t know.  I’d like to think so, of course.  But I don’t really know.

I wonder if Peter and John knew.  Before this happened, before they were put to the test, had they thought about it?  Did they talk with each other about it?  Did they say, look, this stuff we’re doing could get us into trouble.  We’d better be prepared.  We’d better know what we’re going to do when the authorities come after us, because they almost certainly will.

I suspect they did.  Given what had happened to Jesus, given who the religious authorities were, Peter and John had to know this could happen.  And that gave them an advantage, because they could be ready for the trouble when it came.

You and I need to think about it, too.  And we need to talk about it.  It’s hard for us to think we could get into the same kind of trouble Peter and John did.  And maybe we never will, although if you pay attention to the news you know there are pastors, and churches, who have gotten into legal trouble for standing up for their faith.  It’s certainly not impossible that we could be put to that kind of test.

But even if we’re not, there are other ways we can get into trouble because of our Christian faith.  As I said earlier, it can cost us chances to make money.  It can cost us popularity.  It can even cost us friends.  Taking our Christian faith seriously does not guarantee us a smooth, easy ride through life.  Again, it sometimes guarantees just the opposite.

So the question is, can you and I stand up for our faith in Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences may be?  We know what our answer should be.  But is that what our answer really is?  We need to think about it.  We need to be ready.  We need to make the decision now that we will follow Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences may be.

Those consequences are real.  But there are other consequences, positive consequences, that are real, too.  The confidence that comes from faith.  The knowledge that God will be with us, no matter what.  The inner peace that comes from knowing that God will be faithful to us, and that God will bless us and the things we do, as long as we stay faithful to Him.

The sacrifices of those who gave their lives for this country should never be forgotten.  They were willing to stand up for this country and defend it, no matter what the consequences to them might be.  But it’s even more important that we all stand up for Jesus Christ, no matter what the consequences to us may be.  It’s not always easy to do that.  But it is always worth it.