Acts 23

Read: Acts 23

Persecution is something most people in the west have never really experienced to the extent that people in some parts of the world do.  Maybe we are afraid someone may make fun of us for our beliefs or there might be atheists or political leaders who ridicule us because of our views, but the kind of persecution that Paul experienced in Acts 23 is on a completely different level.  Paul was a Jew, but was outcasted by the Jews because of his faith in Christ. They arrested him, hit him, and threatened him because he proclaimed that Jesus was the messiah. A Roman commander even had to come to Paul’s rescue to keep the Jews from ripping him apart in their anger.  

Despite the commander’s protection, the Jews didn’t give up… they were determined to kill Paul.  They bound themselves under a curse and wouldn’t eat or drink anything until they killed him. They tried unsuccessfully to get Paul brought out where they could attack him, but thankfully for Paul, God had other plans.  God told him he would testify to Rome, so Paul had assurance he would not be killed yet. Because of this, God provided a young man who heard about the ambush and reported it to the commander. The commander then sent Paul away under the guard of almost five hundred men to a place where he could be kept safely.  

The sad truth is this is the way many people still live in some countries today.  In many other religious cultures, to proclaim Christ is to deny one’s family. I know people from some of these countries who have faced persecution and even had to flee their homes because if they hadn’t, they could have been imprisoned or killed… all of this, just because of a belief.  Yet these people were bold! The fear of death did not stop Paul from proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ risen from the dead, and it does not stop many who are in similar circumstances today. Instead, they boldly proclaim the message of salvation and leave their lives in God’s hands.

Tertullian said “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”  It is amazing that such a horrible thing like persecution can actually bring about revival.  As we trace our way through history, we see this happen over and over again. Here in America, many Christians are too afraid to speak up because we don’t want to be awkward or make anyone mad.  Throughout history, men and women died because they believed sharing the message of Christ was worth dying for. I pray that we would follow their example to stand boldly in our culture and be willing to lay down our lives and our reputations for the sake of seeing people come to know Jesus.