As I am reading today in Acts 5, I see that the Apostles were doing the work assigned by God, imprisoned by jealous Sadducees, released from prison by an angel, and then apprehended again by their own Israelite brothers (church people). They were brought before the Sanhedrin, who could not ignore God’s hand on them, yet were afraid of them because of what they could not deny. Eventually, they scourged them publicly and they were released. But the remarkable thing was these disciples of Jesus “… went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the name of Jesus.” (Vs 41)
I thought of today and how often some will become jealous, critical, shaming…and these are people within the body of Christ, or supposedly Christian brother and sisters. How do we handle the jealousy and abuse of others? Does God call us into a work, knowing that we will be accused, ridiculed, shamed, and maligned? Of course He does because people are no different today than 2000 years ago during Acts 5. This situation was no different than centuries before when God had called Nehemiah to rebuild the walls. When some of the ruling officials, (Sanballat & Tobiah) saw the work God had assigned to Nehemiah, they became jealous, accusing, defaming, etc., just as Acts 5 and even today.
Often God will remove an assignment from one to give to another because of unfaithfulness to the task. Have you ever been the recipient of a “transferred” task? In the days of Nehemiah, there were priests and officials in Jerusalem, yet none bothered to rebuild the walls. God had to call a “Nehemiah” to do the work that needed to get done. The Jews of Acts 5 had missed the visitation of the Messiah. These Jews had been entrusted with the oracles of God, yet they had no discernment concerning the reality of the Messiah, Jesus. So, God called uneducated and untrained people who were faithful and who would represent Him with honor and integrity. Unfortunately, when God transfers assignments, it can get very messy because those who forfeited the work become jealous, accusing, and disrespectful.
It would be wonderful if those called to do the work could avoid the jealousy, slander, accusations, etc. from those who have failed in their assignment, or were completely ignorant of what God is wanting to do. But unfortunately, this is not and will not be the case. As days get darker and the lines are drawn more clearly between those who only carry a “label” of Christian and those who carry the Spirit of Christ within, we can anticipate much of what we have only read about in the past. But how will we respond? Will we succumb to the pressure and compromise? Or will we rejoice that we are counted worthy to be treated wrongly by those who profess what they do not possess, all for the honor of our Lord, Jesus?
We live in an age where the church is drifting further and further away from its Biblical pattern. This pattern is not about how we “do” church, but if we really “are” the church. Do we represent the values of the Lord of the church or are we more concerned about the bylaws of our denominations and affiliations. Are we more concerned about crowds than lost souls? Do we bend our knees to compromise to keep the image, the offerings, the numbers in the seats? Do we run from this church to that church looking for entertainment rather than a discipline of life? Do we refuse accountability, and then suddenly God calls me to “start my own work”, completely unaccountable to anyone other than a handpicked board that will always see things my way? We are seeing so much of this today, and God is demanding accountability.
Do we understand what the Scriptures mean when it says, “they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully by others on behalf of Christ?” We live in a money craving, fame-seeking culture and this “cultural virus” has bled into the church looking for a weakness in the character of leaders to attach itself.
One of the greatest dangers is that we respond incorrectly to the “Sanballats and Sadducees” in our own lives and then we become defensive allowing our hearts to become filled with resentment and unforgiveness. The enemy will work on both sides to disqualify us from the assignment at hand. Rather than responding out of hurt and disappointment, we should follow the example of the disciples. First, they spoke truth to the Sanhedrin and told them of their sin of murdering the one God sent. We cannot be afraid of truth and calling a situation as it truly is. Jesus confronted the religious Pharisees when they had allowed their own personal traditions to nullify the Word of God. (Mark 7:13) This only further enraged those opposed to what God was doing. And secondly, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer the accusations and attacks of those who were not found worthy or who were disqualified.
So, we rejoice in the calling. The calling is not dependent on who surrounds us with praise or support. It is dependent upon the God who called. He is faithful. He is worthy. He is the reason. He is enough.
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