Begin with 2 minutes of stillness and silence before God.

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

In the first part of this passage, we see that after God thwarted the danger of corruption and deceit in the church by ending Ananias and Sapphira, He is now doing great and mighty miracles through the early church and its ministry. More people believe in the Lord and miraculous healing is happening in abundance. Can you imagine how incredible this was to everyone who witnessed this? Everyone, that is, except the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the aristocratic Jewish leaders at the time, and they denied the fact that Jesus was resurrected - the very message the apostles were sharing with all who listened! The Sadducees were filled with a jealous rage, and it motivated them to imprison the apostles. The apostles are promptly arrested and told to stop sharing the Gospel, but I love what we see happen next - the prisoners are freed!

The doors in the prison are locked and the guards are still in place, but the apostles are back in the town square sharing the Good News of Jesus because an angel of the Lord frees them! There’s some irony here. Who arrested the apostles? The Sadducees did. Guess what the Sadducees didn’t believe in? Almost everything supernatural, including angels. And with their freedom, the early believers immediately return to tell people about a new life through Jesus Christ. The Sadducees' tempers flare and they demand that the teaching of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection stop, and I absolutely love the response of the believers - “We must obey God rather than human beings!” Acts 5:39

The apostles are ordered to stop speaking the name of Jesus and are then flogged. Flogging was no light punishment; it consisted of stripping the victim of their garments and striking them with a whip. The whip used during the flogging was composed of multiple straps of leather, each about 18 to 24 inches long. The leather strips had metal balls woven into them along with pieces of sharp metal, bone, or glass, all of which inflicted horrific damage to the victim, brutalizing the flesh and exposing veins and arteries. I know this is a heavy thing to read to start your morning, but it truly helps us grasp the magnitude of the suffering and persecution the early believers were facing - the pain they endured because of sharing the Gospel.

Yet, even after such a severe beating, the apostles were not intimidated, and they were not discouraged. Instead, they left rejoicing. They were not rejoicing that they suffered, but that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. It was a privilege to be associated with Jesus in any circumstance, even to suffer shame. They did not cease teaching and preaching the name of Jesus Christ. Whatever beating or shameful treatment the Sanhedrin gave them, it did absolutely no good. The disciples didn’t stop preaching for a moment.

I don’t know about you, but this passage really challenges me as a follower of Christ. So often the threat of social rejection or discomfort is enough to make us less eager to talk about who Jesus is and what He did for us. However, if we are eager to suffer for the sake of the Gospel, we know that God’s name will be glorified and we will experience a hope through Jesus Christ unlike any other! Then, we can truly rejoice that we are worthy to experience suffering just as our Savior did during His time on earth.

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Reflection: 

• We see that the apostles rejoiced at their suffering in this passage. How do you react when you face suffering or trials?
  
• Take a few moments to read these verses: 1 Peter 3:14, 1 Peter 5:10, 2 Corinthians 4:17. Quietly reflect on these verses and the passage we read today. Pray and ask God to help you trust Him in the midst of suffering and ultimately glorify Him.