Standing Up in Midst of Persecution

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts.
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We're going to be in chapter 4.
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Hold your place at verse 19.
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Over the past couple of weeks, we took off some time from our series, Beyond Our Borders, for Sanctity of Life Sunday, but we continue this morning on that same course that we began at the beginning of this year.
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As we have been talking about, we want to go beyond our personal, our congregational, and even our national borders with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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We want to fulfill the commission that Christ has given us to take the gospel out into the whole world.
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We've been studying, as the foundation of this series, through the book of Acts.
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And we have seen so far, as we know this is not a verse-by-verse exposition, but we're looking at some major points in the book of Acts.
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We've looked first at Christ's call for us to be His witnesses.
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Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, which sets the theme of the entire book, that we are called to be His witnesses into the uttermost parts of the world.
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We've seen that our message must be one that aims for the heart.
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We must reach people by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the conviction of sins and to the repentance of sins and calling people to faith and repentance.
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And we've seen that our method for doing this is the ordinary means of grace, the word and sacrament and prayer.
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Well, today we're going to see how the early church faced persecution and how our response should be influenced by theirs.
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So let us stand as we read Acts chapter 4.
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And we're going to simply read verses 19 and 20.
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We're going to dive into the context a little later in the message, but as our opening, we'll read just these two verses.
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But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.
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Father in heaven, I am thankful that you have given me yet another time to preach your gospel.
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I pray, O Lord, that you would keep me from error, as I am certainly capable of preaching error.
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And for the sake of your people, I pray that protection.
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And I pray also, Lord, that you would use this as an opportunity to convict.
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Lord, if they are lost among us to convert, as certainly there are, and also to convict believers toward a closer walk and a more diligent stand for the faith in the face of persecution.
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In Jesus' name we pray and for his sake.
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Amen.
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To understand the text that we're in today, it requires that we understand the context leading up to this point.
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In Acts chapter 3, Peter and John are going into the temple.
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As they had been doing for some time, they would go into the temple to speak to people and preach to people about Jesus Christ.
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And as they're going into the temple, they come upon a man who was lame from birth.
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This man sat outside the gate and he begged.
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As people came in and out of the temple, he would sit there and beg for people to give him something to help him to live his days as he was unable to go out and work a normal occupation.
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So Peter and John are walking in and the man begs them for alms.
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And Peter says, I have no silver or gold, but I have this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, rise and walk.
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And so the man stood up for the first time in his life.
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His legs worked as they were supposed to work.
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And he stood up with great strength and great excitement.
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And thus, now Peter and John are going in with the most peculiar entourage of all.
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A very excited, formerly lame man, who's now telling everybody, look what these guys have done for me.
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And so he's following them in and he's excited about what's happening.
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And Peter uses this opportunity to preach the gospel to everyone who's seeing what's happening.
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You see this miracle? Now hear about the miracle worker.
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You see what has happened? Hear about He through whom this miracle came.
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And so in chapter 3, beginning at verse 11, we see this sermon of Peter's.
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And what's interesting about this sermon is, if you remember a few weeks ago, I preached on Peter's sermon in Acts 2.
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Well, this sermon in Acts 3 is very similar.
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It's very convicting.
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He pretty much calls everybody out for having crucified Christ.
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All the people under his hearing, he challenges them for what they have done.
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And he brings to them a very convicting message.
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And that brings us to chapter 4.
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And my focus today is going to be more on chapter 4.
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I just wanted to kind of give you kind of what's up as to leading us to this point.
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Because in chapter 4, we see the result of this sermon.
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In verse 1, it says, And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them.
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Now, the Sadducees, for those of you who don't remember, were the ruling class among the temple men.
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And the Sadducees had a very different theology than the Pharisees.
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The Pharisees were the conservatives when it came to theology.
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They believed in resurrection.
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They believed in things like angels.
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They believed in miracles.
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They believed those things.
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But the Sadducees did not.
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The Sadducees were typically sort of like the liberals of their day.
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They were the Jesus seminar of the first century, if you will.
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If you don't know who that is, I'm sorry to throw out a weird reference.
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But they were very liberal.
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They were ones who would say, There is no resurrection.
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There are no these miracles and things.
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They didn't believe in those things.
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So I like what verse 2 says.
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If you look, it says, They were greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
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They were greatly annoyed.
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That word, I took the time this morning to go look it up because I was reading through it again.
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And I said, I want to really get a foundation for what this word is.
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And the word annoyed there in the New American Standard Bible, it says disturbed.
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I think the ESV is a little closer to what the original, it means greatly irked.
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You ever been greatly irked? Well, that's what's happening.
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These guys are preaching Jesus.
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And the Sadducees are hearing them preach Jesus.
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They're hearing them proclaim the resurrection from the dead, which is something they didn't even believe in.
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And so now they're highly annoyed.
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They're greatly irked by what is happening here.
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And they're upset.
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So in verse 3, they arrest them.
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They just go.
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They take the temple authority.
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They go down.
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And in a very similar way to how Jesus was arrested, they go and arrest these men for preaching in Jesus' name.
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Verse 3 says, and they arrest them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.
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So they just go and they throw them into a cell and they hold them there for a night.
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And they say, okay, we're going to put you away.
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We'll see about you tomorrow.
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Verse 4 does say something amazing though.
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Verse 4 tells us that even though these men are arrested for their faith, there's actually converts.
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You'd think that there would not be converts.
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If you saw someone preaching and the cops came in and grabbed him and took him away, you'd think everybody would be like, well, I don't want anything to do with that guy.
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Right? You'd think, well, that's the kind of thing that would turn people off.
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But look at what it says in verse 4.
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It says, but many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
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If you remember back in Acts chapter 2, we were at three thousand.
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So we see a great expanse of the church that's happening here.
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And by the way, that word men there does not mean mankind in general and sort of a basic man-woman type situation, because that would be the word anthropos.
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No, this is the word andres.
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This means just men.
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That's all that we're being counted at this point.
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So we have five thousand men.
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It could be another five thousand women and children along with them.
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It could be that the church at this point has already risen to the point of thousands upon thousands of people, and that would be highly annoying.
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Going back to that word that was used earlier.
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Not only are these guys preaching about a man who was just weeks earlier crucified, but they're garnering to themselves a huge following, numbering in the thousands.
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So verse 5 tells us on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas, the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family.
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And when they had set them in their midst, they inquired, by what power and by what name did you do this? Can you imagine, just for a second.
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I tried to think this week, what is the closest thing that any of us could imagine this being? Imagine you're brought into a mosque.
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You're surrounded by imams.
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You've been preaching Jesus.
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They put you in the midst of them.
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They're surrounding you with looks of hatred.
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Nobody here is extending a hand of compliment.
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No one here is extending a pat on the back.
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Everyone here is ready to draw blood over this issue.
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And they sit you in the middle and they say, what are you doing and by whose name are you doing it in? Can you imagine the fear? I mean, can you imagine the oppressive spirit that would be there from the look of these men? And then we see in verse 8, Peter responds.
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And it says he's filled with the Holy Spirit, which is a very important part of this, because I don't think he could have spoken were he not filled with the Holy Spirit.
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I don't think he would have been able to do what he's doing here were he not given the power of God by the Holy Spirit to do this.
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Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be given for a time such as this.
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And so it says in verse 8, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man is standing before you well.
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Wow.
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I mean, wow.
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This guy is in the middle of the most irate crowd, the most contentious crowd he could be in.
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These are the very guys who had Jesus on trial weeks before.
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These are the guys who sat in there and said, Crucify Him.
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These are the guys who walked Him over to Pilate's house, walked Him over to Herod's house, walked Him back to Pilate's house, and walked Him to the cross.
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These are the same guys.
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And yet Peter says, It's you.
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You did it.
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You.
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The guy who healed that man.
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Notice Peter doesn't claim any power for himself.
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He doesn't claim any authority for himself.
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He says, By the name of the man who that man was healed, you guys killed.
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It's on you.
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This, Jesus, verse 11, is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
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He's quoting Old Testament Scripture there.
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And then he says in verse 12, one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture, he says, And there is salvation in no one else.
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For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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No one else.
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This is Him.
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This is Jesus, whom you crucified, God raised from the dead, and has proclaimed to you now, He's the only one, He's the only way.
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And in verse 13, it says, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were uneducated common men, and when they saw that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished, and then they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
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That's an interesting point.
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The uneducated word there, the word in Greek is agrammetoi.
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Agrammetoi means without letters.
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A modern expression, this is sort of an anachronistic way of looking at it, but a modern expression, you see guys who have letters after their name, you know, you go into a doctor's office, it says M.D., dentist's office, it says D.D.S.
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You see, you go into a minister's office, it might say D.Min, or something like that.
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Well, these guys don't have any letters.
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They don't have any expression of their teaching.
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These guys are ignorant.
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These guys are uneducated.
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These guys ain't been to school, for lack of a better term.
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These guys don't have a degree.
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They have not sat at the feet of Gamaliel, as we know Paul later will come on as one who has sat there.
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But these guys haven't.
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In fact, the only thing they have to their credit, and to them it wouldn't have been a credit, it would have been a detriment, the only thing they have to their credit, they were with Jesus.
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They spent three years in the university of Christ.
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But they didn't have any formal letters, any formal documentation, any formal degrees where they'd been trained in rabbinical teachings.
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So how do you think, just kind of thinking of it, how do you think, what do you think that means? Who do these guys think they are? You're going to come in and tell me the only way of salvation? You ain't got no degree.
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You haven't sat under rabbinical teachings.
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Who do you think you are? So the attitude towards these guys is very much a condescending attitude from the higher authorities here.
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Excuse me.
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Verse 14 though shows that they can't really deny what they're saying.
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Because in verse 14 it says, but seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.
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So even though they knew these guys were uneducated in the sense of not having a formal education, even though they knew that these guys were not people that they should respect in any type of scholastic way, they said, but wait, there is a point that we have to consider here.
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This guy who everybody knows was lame from birth is now standing next to them.
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He is their authorization.
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So verse 15, but when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another saying, what shall we do with these men? For that a noble sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
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And we cannot deny it, but in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.
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Verse 18.
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So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
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What an amazing thing.
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Okay, we can't deny that a miracle has happened.
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We can't deny that these guys are standing next to the proof of their ministry.
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This guy is absolute proof that these guys are telling the truth, but they are charging us with crime.
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They are charging us as criminals.
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They are saying that we should follow Christ.
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The very ones who put Him on the cross should now bow down and worship Him.
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Oh no, that's not possible.
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We can't deny what they've done, but we sure can tell them don't do anything else.
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We can't deny the power that they have, but we can tell them under our authority, you can no longer express that power.
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You can no longer talk about that power.
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You are now under our authority to be quiet, and you have no right to speak anymore in the name of Jesus Christ.
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And that's when we get to our text.
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That's all context to build up to the verse that we're looking at today, because the response in verse 19 is really a respectful response in the sense that they put their response in the form of a question, but you can tell in the question, in the way that it's formed, that the reason they're asking this question is to show the ridiculous nature of the charge that they've been given by the leaders.
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You're telling us not to preach Jesus.
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You're telling us not to preach the guy who healed this guy.
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You're telling us not to preach the only way to heaven.
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God has told us that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved, and you're telling us to shut up.
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You're telling us to be quiet.
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You're telling us not to proclaim Jesus.
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So how do they respond? Verse 19, But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.
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What is he saying? He's saying, Look, God has commanded us to go out and preach Jesus.
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Christ has commissioned us to be his witnesses in Judea and Jerusalem and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
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We have been given an order from the Almighty of the universe.
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And now you're telling us not to.
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Oh, great leaders.
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Oh, great lettered leaders.
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You who have this great education.
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Who do you think we should listen to? You great men of God, so to speak.
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If God has commanded us to do this thing, you are commanding us not to do this thing.
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Who trumps whom? It's rhetorical in nature.
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The question answers itself.
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It doesn't require a response.
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The answer is built into the question.
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And that's why he goes on to say, For we cannot but speak.
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Another way of saying we must speak.
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We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.
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You see, that's the attitude of the early church.
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The attitude of the early church was very simple.
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We are going to proclaim the gospel of Christ no matter what the cost.
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No matter who tells us not to.
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No matter the threats that come.
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No matter the reasoning for those threats.
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We will stand for Christ.
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Against all opposition.
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Against all oppression.
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Against all persecution.
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We will stand.
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This is the beginning of the persecution of the church.
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But beloved, this is not the end.
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This persecution which begins here.
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One might could argue it began when Christ was crucified.
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But really this is the beginning that the church is rising up and growing in number.
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And thus the authorities begin to see what's happening.
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And want to come in and squash it.
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This is the beginning of the persecution of the church.
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Beloved, we're 2,000 years removed from this event.
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But we are not removed at all from the persecution.
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Because it still is happening today.
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There are men today that are standing before courts.
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And the courts are telling them, You do not preach Jesus' name.
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And those men and women who are standing in those courts are having to face that authority.
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And having to say whether it is right to follow God or to follow you.
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Know this, I'll follow God.
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People today are having to make that decision.
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As I've already mentioned earlier, The statistics do not lie.
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Every month 322 Christians are killed for their faith.
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Every month 214 churches and properties that belong to the church are destroyed.
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On behalf of the persecution of the church.
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722 forms of violence are committed against Christians.
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And those violences are beatings, rapes, theft, robbery.
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All kinds of things are happening.
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Simply because people are naming the name of Jesus Christ.
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What began that day with Peter and John continues to this day.
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And beloved, here's why I'm bringing this out.
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Here's why I feel the urgency to express this to you.
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Because when it comes to going beyond our borders.
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That's our goal this year.
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That's our motivation this year.
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Is to think about taking the gospel out beyond our borders.
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Beyond the congregation.
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Beyond the walls of the church.
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Beyond the community.
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Beyond even America.
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When we think about going and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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What we need to understand is this reality can cause us to have pause.
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This reality of persecution can cause us to step back instead of stepping forward.
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Ministry can be a dangerous occupation.
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And missionary work even more so.
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And there may come a day when this level of persecution that's going on in other lands.
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May make its way to our land.
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And this is causing people to step backwards in fear.
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Rather than stepping forward in faith.
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So now that we understand the text.
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I want to make some applications from the text.
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Now that we see the context.
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And we've read the context.
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And we understand what's happening here with Peter and John.
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I want to make three applications for you.
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Because if we're going to effectively minister the gospel beyond our borders.
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There are three things we must not do.
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It's in your worship folder.
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I didn't even give you blanks this week.
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I didn't want you to have to look away and write.
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I wanted you to focus on what I'm saying.
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Because it's so important.
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If we're going to effectively minister the gospel beyond our borders.
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We must not do these three things.
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Number one.
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We must not allow fear of persecution.
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And a desire for comfort to keep us out of ministry.
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People always ask.
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And I want to tell you something.
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I'm not up here pointing at any individual.
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Because you might say, hey, I've asked that question before.
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Okay, we talk about ministry.
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I talk about Rob and Ruthie.
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You know, they go down and minister at the abortion clinic.
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Trying to keep people from having abortions.
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Trying to encourage women to keep their babies.
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What's the first question people ask when they invite people to go with them? Is it safe? Is it safe? We invite people to go hand out tracts on the boardwalk at Jack's Beach.
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What's the first question? Is it safe? We invite folks to go knock on doors.
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And invite people to come to church or to tell them about Christ.
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What's the first question? Is it safe? I invite people to go.
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I tell people I want to go teach at a seminary in Columbia.
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What's the first question? Is it safe? We become so consumed with safety that we allow it to immobilize us.
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Now, I know that we don't want to be foolish and just go dive into danger.
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But the reality is that we have too long allowed our fears to keep us from doing what God calls us to do.
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Ministry is not safe.
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It was never supposed to be.
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We are at war with the greatest enemy in the history of the world.
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Satan hates the truth.
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He hates those who speak the truth.
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We are actively battling against this one who hates us so much.
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Is it safe? No.
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It's not safe.
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It's never been promised to be safe.
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Open your Bibles with me and go to 2 Timothy 3.12.
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2 Timothy 3.12 begins with the word Indeed.
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2 Timothy 3.12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
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Notice it doesn't say they might be or they could be.
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It says they will be persecuted.
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The Bible doesn't promise us comfort.
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The Bible doesn't promise us safety.
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The Bible promises us persecution.
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And now listen, I'm not actively trying to get myself thrown in prison.
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And I'm not actively trying to become a martyr.
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But I cannot allow the fear of those things to keep me from preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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We cannot do that.
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I would rather die as a man consumed with Christ than to live comfortably as a coward.
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When the emperor of Alans threatened Eusebius with confiscation of all his goods, torture, banishment, and death, this is how he responded.
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He said, I'm going to take everything you have.
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I'm going to torture you, banish you.
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And kill you.
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This is how Eusebius responded.
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He said, he needs fear not confiscation, who has nothing to lose.
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Nor banishment, to whom heaven is his country.
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Nor torments, when his body can be destroyed at one blow.
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Nor death, which is the only way to set him at liberty from sin and sorrow.
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You can't take nothing from me, is what he said.
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I am in Christ and have nothing to lose.
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When did we lose that? When we started falling in love with the world.
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And everything else became more important than the gospel.
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And everything became more important than Christ.
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We spend so much time in the pursuit of comfort rather than in the pursuit of Christ.
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And it keeps many men out of the gospel ministry.
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The pursuit of comfort rather than the pursuit of Christ keeps men off the mission field.
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The pursuit of comfort rather than the pursuit of Christ keeps men from going and pastoring in churches when God has gifted them so.
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Peter and John knew the potential dangers.
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They knew what was happening and what could happen.
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And they knew ministry wasn't safe and they did it anyway.
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Are we cowards? We can't allow fear to keep us from ministry.
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Can't do it.
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So that's the first thing.
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Second thing.
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And this one's going to seem like it's out of the left field, but I promise I'm going to bring it back to home base.
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Second thing.
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We can't allow the demand for pluralism to cause us to change our message.
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We can't allow the demand...
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Would you change the screen for me, dear? We can't allow the demand for pluralism to cause us to change our message.
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Now, what does that mean? Go back to chapter 4 of Acts and look at verse 12.
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Peter makes one of the most precious proclamations of the gospel right here.
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He says, There is salvation in no one else.
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For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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That, my friends, is a slap in the face to pluralism.
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What's pluralism? Pluralism is the modern teaching that all roads lead to heaven.
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All ways lead to heaven.
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And you can have your Jesus, and Jesus is fine for you.
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You can believe in Jesus if that works for you, but I'm going to believe in Buddha, and somebody else is going to believe in Allah, and somebody else is going to believe in Confucius, and somebody else is going to believe in something else.
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And we're all going up the mountain, and we'll all reach the top eventually.
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We're just all going different ways.
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That's the idea of the pluralist.
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And the world wants that.
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The world wants us to give up preaching Christ.
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And those who proclaim the exclusivity of Christ are being marginalized.
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And the reason why I'm bringing this up is, people ask me, How do you think persecution is going to make its way to the church in America? Because, by the way, if you think we're persecuted, we're not.
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We're here, we're free, we're singing, we're preaching, and ain't nobody in here with AK47s telling us not to.
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Right? If you think you're persecuted, spend a little time at some of these websites that actually show persecution that's going on around the world, and then consider how it is.
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But people ask me, How is persecution going to come to the church of America? The way it's going to come, and it's already starting, is the marginalization of those who claim the exclusivity of Christ.
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You claim that Jesus is the only way to heaven, you are no longer allowed in the public arena of opinion anymore.
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You are called intolerant, radical, fundamentalist, homophobic, Islamophobic, antisemitic.
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You come up with any name, that's you.
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Because you believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
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You believe He is the only way, that only name under heaven given among men by which anyone can be saved.
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If you believe that, you are already being marginalized.
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And we don't like labels, so we soften our message.
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We quit talking about Jesus.
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We start talking about God in a very generic, small g kind of way.
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One of the most popular pastors in America, and I believe he's one of the greatest heretics in the world, but he is one of the most popular pastors in America, has an online media account that he puts out little quotes every day.
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They are motivational quotes.
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And out of three, there is a study done, out of 300 of his little motivational quotes, almost every one of them mentioned the name of God, but only two mentioned Jesus.
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And those two were in the context of this, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
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Nothing about the gospel, nothing about sin, nothing about the exclusivity of Christ, because that message isn't tolerated anymore.
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We can't preach the exclusivity of Christ anymore.
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And that's the way that persecution is coming.
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The world is demanding pluralism.
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The man who tells you that all ways to God are equally valid is your greatest enemy.
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And yet that's what we're told to preach.
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People say, I don't care if you believe in Jesus, just don't tell somebody else they have to.
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I don't think Peter had a problem with exclusivity.
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Peter looked at the guys that crucified Jesus, and he said, guess what? There is no other name, not one.
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There's not another option.
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There's no plan B.
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There's no second chance.
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There is one Christ, and through Him is one way, and it is the only way, and there is no other way but through Him.
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People don't like that message.
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That message is very offensive.
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We have had people leave this church over that message.
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So be it.
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We cannot allow the demand of the world to have a pluralistic message to change our message.
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We must have the same message that Peter preached, that there is no other name.
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Under heaven, given among men.
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Even if we have to stand in the midst of the worst persecution ever, we have to proclaim Christ.
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And finally, I don't want to hasten to the end here.
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I know I'm going a bit long.
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This one's, again, going to seem like it's coming out of left field, but as I was reading this, and I kept thinking of how are we going to apply this message, this one really hit hard.
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And I wrote this point first, then I went back and wrote the others.
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But this point really was so important that I don't want you to turn me off.
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I know how hard it is to listen to somebody for a long extended period of time, but please attend to this point.
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This is important.
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We cannot allow a misunderstanding of Scripture to keep us silent.
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Now, what am I talking about? Well, here it is.
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The Bible tells us that we have a responsibility to obey those who are put in power.
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Romans chapter 13 verse 1, 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 13 and 14 both say similar things, that we are to be subject to governing authorities.
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And it's obvious that as believers, we do have a responsibility to be good citizens and to obey those who are in authority over us.
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But some people have used that as a reason not to promote Christ.
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They argue that if it's illegal to share Christ, that we have to obey the law.
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They contend that because Scripture demands us to be submissive to authority, that we are never ever supposed to stand against authority for any reason.
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Beloved, if there's anything that Acts chapter 4 shows us, it's this.
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There are some times when we have to listen to the higher authority, which is God.
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There are times when we have to obey God rather than men.
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If faced with the choice to obey God or obey a governing authority, we must obey God.
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If the governing authority makes it illegal to preach the gospel, guess what? We are outlaws.
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But we're not silent.
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One of the most precious men in the history of the church was a man by the name of William Tyndale.
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You've heard of Tyndale, you've heard the name.
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Tyndale Publishing House, right? You've all heard of that.
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William Tyndale believed it was because of the gifts God had given him in language and the ability to translate.
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He thought it was that God had called him to translate the Bible from the Greek and Hebrew into English.
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And he was the first one to take that task.
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A couple hundred years before, John Wycliffe had translated from Latin into English.
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But John Wycliffe said, no, we need this from the original.
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The Greek and the Hebrew in English.
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So he translated, even though it was against the law, he translated into English.
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He became known, this was his moniker, God's outlaw.
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And he sent his Bibles out and he proliferated this new English version so that the English speakers, and he said that the boy at the plow would know more about Scripture than the highest of the popes.
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That he would know Scripture because he would have it in his own native tongue.
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He was not heralded as a hero.
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He was burned at the stake.
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You know what his last words were? Lord, open the King of England's eyes.
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And less than a hundred years later, the King James version of the Bible was authorized.
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We stand up for what's right, even in the midst of persecution.
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Even when the persecution comes from the authorities over us, we stand for God.
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During the time of Hitler's Germany, there was a pastor, a Lutheran pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
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And he did not bow down to Hitler.
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He did not bow down to that murderous dictator, but he stood opposed to the Nazis.
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He stood so firm in his convictions that he was placed in a concentration camp.
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And three weeks before Hitler killed himself, he died by hanging in a concentration camp.
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But you know what he said? He said, silence in the face of evil is evil itself.
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God will not hold us guiltless.
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Not to speak is to speak, and not to act is to act.
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Someone might say, and I've heard people say this, we shouldn't take the gospel to Iraq because it's illegal to preach the gospel in Iraq.
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We shouldn't support missionaries in China because it's illegal to preach the gospel outside of the state church in China.
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Some people say we shouldn't go speak out against abortion and gay marriage because they're legal in our country.
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Beloved, that is a misunderstanding of our call to obedience because the call to submission to authority is never a call to submission to ungodliness.
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The Bible is filled with examples.
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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went to the fiery furnace.
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Why? Because they would not bow down to the authority, rather they bowed down to God.
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Daniel was put in the lion's den.
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Why? Because he would not bow down to the authority.
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He would not give up his prayers to God and they put him in the lion's den.
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The midwives took Moses and they hid him and protected him.
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Why? Because Pharaoh was calling for the deaths of all of those children.
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No, we stand up for God.
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We stand up for truth.
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We stand up for scripture.
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We stand up for Christ.
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Even in the midst of persecution, no matter where it comes from, high, low, or indifferent.
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When we think about going beyond our borders, what keeps us from going is often our fear.
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And this is where I think the early church is a precious example to us because I think they were afraid too, but they didn't allow their fears to keep them from doing what was right.
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We must stand for truth even if it's dangerous, even if it's unpopular.
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Yes, even if it's not legal.
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For years, the Church of America has been a place of relative safety and security.
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However, opposition is increasing against the gospel every day and there will come a day where we are silenced.
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Beloved, are we ready to stand in that day and not be silenced? Some of us won't speak now when it's the easiest to speak.
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How will we speak then when it would cost us our very lives? We need to pray for strength to start speaking now, to proclaim the gospel beyond our borders starting now.
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May we seek the same empowerment that the early church had when it tells us that Peter, filled with the Spirit, proclaimed the truth.
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May we be filled with that same spirit.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I pray that you would apply this message to all of our hearts.
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I pray that you would convict us to stand for truth, that you would convict us to not be afraid of whatever persecution may come.
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Help us to remember that we need not fear confiscation when we have nothing to lose.
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We need not fear banishment when heaven is our country.
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We need not fear the destruction of the body as this is the only way to set us free from sin.
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God, give us strength.
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Grant us strength in the face of fear.
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By the power of your Holy Spirit, through the name of your Son, Amen.
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Let's stand together and sing.