As we continue through the book of Acts, we see that the early days of the church were met with both life transforming encounters with Jesus, and a curious resistance to that good news. In the midst of the unique obstacles that arose to the spread of the gospel, the church was built on a foundation that allowed its people to stand firm amidst the challenges of life. This section gives us a clear indication that God wants a people that will not crack under pressure, because they are rooted in the right place - in Jesus.
While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see. “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.
Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.’ “Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” (Acts 3:11-26 NIV)
Three truths that Peter lived by that made him unbreakable after his initial failings:
1) It is not by our own power or godliness that people are healed, but only through the power of Jesus. When things are going well, give all praise to God.
Why you can't save the world (but Jesus can), is because we are prone to swing to two sides of the pendulum: You either have a hedonist mentality that disengages a charitable spirit while being absorbed with your own pleasures and experiences, or, you can develop a Messiah complex that leads to pressures that cannot be fulfilled by a mere human. You will eventually reach an emotional, mental, physical, or financial limit if you try to be someone's savior.
The godly attitude points all things toward Jesus, His Kingdom, and His cross that reconciles you to a Heavenly Father with a covenant. This is where the pressure belongs. The government will be on His shoulders; His are broad enough to bear them, and God's resources are inexhaustible.
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death. (Psalm 68:19, 20 NIV)
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:6-11 NIV)
2) The gospel message is central to every endeavor of the church. It must be retold repeatedly since we are so quick to lose our center. There will also always be new people who have never heard or responded who must have an invitation to follow Jesus. How does the gospel shape your daily life?
3) Times of refreshing from the Lord come through repentance. You and I are blessed when we turn from our wicked ways, that which breaks the commandments of God. Of what do you need to repent to come into right alignment with God?
Once we receive this refreshing, we are set up to be people of faith, which is a deep-seated trust in Jesus in the midst of our daily affairs. We will be a people, a church, that does not crack in three areas:
Unbreakable under..
Judgments
Learn to serve an audience of one. The testing ground of life is found in the praise that you receive, either the praise that is given you, or the lack thereof.
The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise. (Proverbs 27:21 NIV)
God will always test the motives of your heart - why you do what you do. He does this through your circumstances. The testing can be found in friendships, family, or the workplace. It can come in the form of compliments, criticisms, oversights, or outright neglect. What do you turn to when your relationships are strained? Where is the first place that your money goes? Who is the first person that you turn to for approval?
What you do when things are tight reveals your trust. What you do with your abundance reveals your priorities. Both your trust and priorities must be grounded in Jesus. You do this by building on truth.
Do not think too highly of yourself during the good times. Do not have too low of an assessment of yourself during challenging times. Be sober minded.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. (Romans 12:3 NIV)
"If our identity is in our work, rather than Christ, success will go to our heads, and failure will go to our hearts." -Timothy Keller
How do I know what is in my heart?
The term "God" in the Scripture meant ruler and the one that you serve. The things from which you attempt to draw your identity in life, outside of Jesus, whether it be your looks, your finances, your sexuality, or your relationships are really your functional gods. These other gods are tyrannical and unforgiving, many times acting as life-draining task masters. Jesus is the only one who is not.
Circumstantial Pressures
There are daily pressures that you feel mentally, emotionally, and relationally, with God or the important God-ordained relationships in your life, including family, friends inside and outside the church, co-workers, mentors, and mentees.
It is our challenge in the midst of them not to become anxious. The term "anxious" comes from the Latin root word for anxiety, which is angustia and means "narrowness." We begin to grumble when we have a narrowness of perspective about our relationships and life circumstances.
The things that can cause a believer to leave their trust in Jesus are (Matthew 13):
The Worries of this Life The Deceitfulness of Wealth The Desire for Pleasures or Other Things
“Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” ― Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook
When the apostles were pressed about the source of their strength, they pointed to Jesus as the sole deliverer.
Persecution
This is the final place that you want to make sure that you do not crack.
The old adage, "only God can judge me," is right in a sense. You had better make sure, though, that you are on the right side of His judgment by knowing His Word and the Savior that all of it points to.
Faithful to God
The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand. The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.
So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old. (Acts 4:1-22 NIV)
Being persecuted for choosing to love what Jesus loves and turn away from that which He says to does not mean that you are doing something wrong. There is a bandwagoner's mentality that permeates our culture. The deception of the devil is that if the majority doesn't side with you, if everyone doesn't like you or agree with you, then you've done something wrong. However, it was the crowds who crucified Jesus.
It was Jesus who said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13, 14 NIV)
It was the 120 that stood with Him after His resurrection (Acts 1) to serve the world with the gospel in love and turn it upside down. If you have to choose sides, choose Jesus.
There was a very famous and funny scene that we agree with from the movie Coming to America where the preacher said, "I love the Lord. I love the Lord. And if loving the Lord is wrong, I don't want to be right."
“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre
What decisions in your life are you having to make that are forcing you to choose between obeying God or people? If you have to choose, obey God rather than man. He alone holds the keys to an abundant and eternal life.
In Christ Alone by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fulness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied –
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
Second City Church- Chicago Fire: The Spirit-Led Church in the City Sermon Series 2014