FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
THE WAY FORWARD IN CHRIST
(Part 204)
WITNESSES OF JESUS – 12
April 16, 2021
Today’s readings:
Acts 5:34-42
Psalm 27:1,4,13-14
John 6:1-15
Jesus is the Savior who has brought us from darkness to light. “The Lord is my light and my salvation” (Ps 27:1a). In Jesus we have the fullness of our well-being as we go through life in this world. “The Lord is my life’s refuge” (Ps 27:1c). In Jesus we are assured of our spiritual and eternal well-being, and we can look forward to making it to heaven, to be with our God forever. “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple.” (Ps 27:4).
But in the meantime, there is a life here on earth to be lived. And it is a world in darkness, with evil abounding. Jesus has already won for us our salvation, we already can look forward to heaven, but while here on earth, we will need to endure and persevere. “Wait for the Lord, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the Lord!” (Ps 27:14). And of course, while we are living in a valley of tears, there are also many blessings, because we are already with the Lord who cares for us. “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.” (Ps 27:13).
While here on earth, we also have a task to do. We are to be light to the world and instruments of God’s salvation. And this is where we will face challenges, difficulties, oppression, persecution and suffering. This is what happened to the apostles, and at the hands of religious authorities at that. “They had them flogged” (Acts 5:40a). This is what is happening today, with opposition not just from the secular state but also from liberals within our Church. So all the more we need to be courageous and to persevere. As Jesus is our Savior and refuge, “whom should I fear? …. of whom should I be afraid?” (Ps 27:1b,d).
There are many reasons why we can take courage as we go about being witnesses to Jesus.
First, we do God’s divine work and so we are His instruments and so He equips us and so He empowers and protects us. God is with us in this His very own work. As Gamaliel told the Sanhedrin, “if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts 5:39a). God is a holy warrior fighting together with His holy warriors. And in truth, peoples and kingdoms have been trying to destroy the Church for two millennia. They have all come and gone, but our Church still stands.
But those in the Sanhedrin, while “they were persuaded by him” (Acts 5:39b), did not take Gamaliel’s advice fully. So “after recalling the apostles, they had them flogged, ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and dismissed them.” (Acts 5:40). Today Christians throughout the world are persecuted. They are physically assaulted, imprisoned and killed. But for most of us, the persecution can come in different ways. We can be flogged by hurting words, as when we are called haters, bigots and homophobes whenever we speak of homosexuality as intrinsically disordered and homosexual acts as grave sin. Then we can be cancelled, “killed off” by friends, relatives, co-workers, even by other so-called Christians.
Further, even within our Church, we are in effect being directed not to speak in the name of Jesus. We are told that all religions are valid and are ways to the divine, effectively saying that Jesus is not the only way. We are being told that proselytism (i.e., making converts) is wrong, thus undercutting the very command of Jesus to preach his name in order to make disciples. We are being told that morality, that is, living the way of Jesus, can give way to social justice issues, thus looking to the city of man rather than the city of God.
Second, another reason why we take courage, even in the face of being verbally abused, is that we are to rejoice that we share, albeit in a much smaller way, in the cross of Christ. That after all is the call to being a disciple of Jesus. And so the apostles “left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.” (Acts 5:41). Being a holy warrior engaged in spiritual war will certainly bring suffering and pain. But such is precisely the evidence that we are effectively doing God’s work. We assault the kingdom of darkness and we certainly must expect pushback, and possibly a very violent one at that. So when it happens, though painful, we rejoice.
A third reason is that everything is in God’s hands. God is the Supreme Being, the all-powerful One, with absolute power over all, including the forces of the enemy. Jesus had power over demons, over sickness and death, over the forces of nature. One time, he miraculously fed thousands of people with only five loaves of bread and two fish (Jn 6:9-11). The apostles had been concerned, but Jesus “himself knew what he was going to do.” (Jn 6:6b). Jesus, who transcends time and space, knows the future. He knows what he wants to happen, that is, ultimately our salvation, and will provide the grace and help we need in order to make it to heaven. But in the meantime, we need to decide in his favor, we need to put our faith in him, we trust in him, we endure for him, we continue to work at the salvation that he has already won for all. Thus, as in the case of the multiplication of the loaves and fish, Jesus asked Philip where they could buy enough food, but “he said this to test him” (Jn 6:6a).
Our future is in God’s hands, and as we strive to live our lives according to His will and ways, God will be there to fully provide for our needs. And even more beyond our needs. After everyone had eaten, the disciples gathered the fragments and ended up with even more than they started with (Jn 6:12-13). So in this life, we need to be courageous and endure, and not fail the test.
One great challenge today is modernism in our Church. This is looking to the well-being of man while neglecting or downplaying the righteousness of God. It is looking to the secular rather than the sacred. And so it was even in Jesus’ time, even in the direct presence and actions of Jesus. “A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.” (Jn 6:2). Jesus of course preached about the Kingdom, but what attracted people was physical healing. Healing of course is part of the gospel message, but what is more important, what is more fundamental, is faith in Jesus. It is spiritual well-being, with social well-being as just a consequence. In fact, as we can see later in John chapter 6, people would leave Jesus because they would not be able to accept his discourse on the bread and wine being his body and blood.
We further see a disconnect in the result of the multiplication of bread and fish. The people had the right conclusion. “When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.’” (Jn 6:14). So what did they do? Did they prostrate themselves in worship? Did they burst out in joyful song to God? No. Rather, “they were going to come and carry him off to make him king” (Jn 6:15). Indeed Jesus is King, but as he said to Pilate, his Kingdom is not of this world. Many in our Church today, including those in authority, look to secular well-being rather than the righteousness of God. They look to satisfying human desires, but will end up frustrating the very desire of God to bring people to heaven.
And so we have our work. We are to be witnesses to Jesus. We are to proclaim the authentic gospel of salvation in him. We are to bring forth his light and his truth, to counter the lies of the enemy. As we do so, we will be deeply enmeshed in spiritual war, both without and within our Church. We may be persecuted, even by our own pastors. We need to endure, and be courageous. But as holy warriors we just do what Jesus commands us to do. We follow in his footsteps, as well as the footsteps of the apostles. “And all day long, both at the temple and in their homes, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the Messiah, Jesus.” (Jn 5:42).
