Acts 5- Getting Whooped On

The apostles had already been arrested and divinely busted out of prison. Now the religious officials decided to flog them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus. Then this happened, "the apostles went away rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the Name" (Acts 5:41).

What is with that? The closest thing that I can think of to an experience that I have had like that is fighting my brothers when I was younger. We would hit each other and if you wanted to make the other one mad you would giggle when they hit you and tell them that it tickled... We were faking it. But, something about this biblical account tells me that these guys weren't faking it. 

So how did they rejoice when they suffered? I will offer a couple suggestions that I draw from scripture.

First, I think they looked forward to the reward. Their king Jesus who they were suffering for taught them that they would be seen and rewarded. Matthew 6 says your Father in heaven sees and rewards. So, they had to believe that their whooping was being looked down on and even commended by their Father. These guys wanted nothing more than to make their heavenly father pleased. So, they gladly accepted getting beat up to stand up for his glory. 

Secondly, I think they thought about the effect that their beating had on people. When a christian suffers for the sake of their faith it has a transforming effect on onlookers. Imagine the effect that this would have on you? If someone got beat up because they wouldn't stop preaching in the name of Jesus then you would realize that Jesus must be worth it and there must be a reward that you can't see. I think Paul puts it best, "now I rejoice in what was suffered for you. I fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, for the sake of the body, which is the church" (Colossians 1:24). What he is saying is that people that didn't witness Jesus on the cross and see how he was willing to suffer for people, can now see that physically manifest in the life of Christ's followers. Meaning, that when Christ followers suffer for Christ it shows the world the willingness of Christ to suffer for them. 

So my question to you this morning is are you willing to suffer for Christ? If your answer is no, is it because you don' t love Christ enough to suffer or is it because you don't think you will be repaid? An African missionary who suffered immensely on the mission field famously said, "I never sacrificed anything." What he meant is that being sick, and losing friends, and not having his comforts isn't a sacrifice when compared to the sacrifice of Christ and the reward that we get. You cannot out give God. He gives you Himself and even if following Him costs you everything your reward far outweighs your earthly discomforts. 

My challenge for all of us is to pray that we would treasure Christ. We should love Him so much that momentary discomforts get swallowed up into the thoughts of our eternal rewards. Then we will be freed to live courageously. We will become passionate evangelists and we will become courageous missionaries and the Gospel will spread and our faith will grow. Suffering is the mark of passionate Christ followers.