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Persecution. #7 In Series on the Biblical Book of Acts. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Pilgrims. Persecution. Without persecution there might be no Thanksgiving.
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Persecution #7 In Series on the Biblical Book of Acts
Persecution Without persecution there might be no Thanksgiving. “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name” (Acts 5:41). Persecution brings Thanksgiving!
Expands God’s kingdom Pilgrims come to America for religious freedom and…Duane A. Cline writes in The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony1620 “The Pilgrim fathers also had a desire to advance the gospel and the Christian doctrine in remote parts of the world.”
Expands God’s Kingdom Acts 14 Paul is in Lystra. He goes from hero to dead man in a day. “Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.”
Expands God’s Kingdom Acts 8, after Stephen is killed for Christ…“On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria… Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.”
Purpose in a cynical world “The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, ‘Surely this was a righteous man.” Luke 23:47
Purpose in a cynical world A cynical Roman soldier is moved at the way Jesus dies. People dying from drinking too many energy drinks. Man dying in the Dakar Rally.
Purpose in a cynical world Acts 5:41 – The disciples rejoice at being beaten for Jesus. Acts 4:13 – “They saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
Puritans “Although they were victims of religious persecution in Europe, the Puritans supported the Old World theory that sanctioned it, the need for uniformity of religion in the state. Once in control in New England, they sought to break "the very neck of Schism and vile opinions…
Puritans The "business" of the first settlers, a Puritan minister recalled in 1681, "was not Toleration, but [they] were professed enemies of it." Puritans expelled dissenters from their colonies, a fate that in 1636 befell Roger Williams and in 1638 Anne Hutchinson, America's first major female religious leader…
Puritans Those who defied the Puritans by persistently returning to their jurisdictions risked capital punishment, a penalty imposed on four Quakers between 1659 and 1661.” -Religion and the founding of the American Republic; Library of Congress.
Persecuted become Persecutors “Teacher, we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us” (Mark 9:38).
Persecuted become Persecutor “Do not stop him. No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” (Mark 9:39-41).
