Are you a Peter and John?

It seems like you can’t turn on the news or read something on the internet (I would say read a newspaper, but who does that anymore?) without seeing Christianity being defamed, the Bible called irrelevant (even by those who profess to be Christians), subjected to harsh criticism or outright called hate speech.  There are groups who glory in their sins, that have attacked Christianity like never before in this country.  We are even being threatened by those of another religion, who want to either convert us to their warped way of thinking or kill us if we don’t.  It’s a scary world out there my friends, but is it really any different than what we read about in the New Testament? Those Christians were being persecuted in ways we can’t even imagine.  I pray to God we never see the things that a currently going on in the Middle East happen here in our country, but make no mistake about it, we are being attacked for our beliefs and it will get worse. 

What are you going to do about it?  Are you going to sit idly by and not do anything to profess Christ and His word to the world (pointing fingers at myself)? Are you going to just be silent and let people go on defaming Christ and prohibiting you from proclaiming your faith?  When challenged will you make excuses for what the Bible teaches? What did those of the first century church do when faced with persecution and challenges to their faith? 

I think a great example would be Peter and John in Acts 4 and all the apostles in Acts 5. Chapter 4 records the story of Peter and John being brought before the Sanhedrin to give account of why they were preaching and doing miracles in the name of Jesus.  When challenged, Peter proclaims:

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved – v.12.

Even standing before the rulers of the Jews, Peter proclaimed Jesus without reservation. He knew what they could do to him, but yet he stood firm in his faith.  Even after they were commanded by the Sanhedrin not to speak or preach anymore in the name of Jesus, Peter and John replied:

Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we’ve seen and heard. – v.19

In other words, they would not be silent about Jesus.  Did this mean just proclaiming Jesus as savior?  I don’t believe that was only what they were saying, but they were also saying that they were going to preach the whole counsel of God, how could they not?  They were filled with the Holy Spirit and He was guiding them.

We see in chapter 5, a similar encounter, but this time it was all the apostles that were being arrested and thrown into the public jail by the high priest and his associates. The Lord sent an angel to release them from jail and he instructed them:

“Go into the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.” (v. 20).

When the high priest found out what they were doing he had them brought before him and the Sanhedrin and he said to them:

We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.  – v.28

What was Peter’s reply?  Did he ask for forgiveness, shut his mouth and not speak, say the apostles would no longer do this? No! His answer was as before:

We must obey God rather than men! – v.29

In verse 40 they were flogged for saying these things, but what did the apostle do? 

They went out rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace in the Name. – v.41

…They never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. – v. 42

Can we do anything less? We may face persecution, ridicule, discrimination, and even be thrown in jail for preaching the full message of God, but we must remember that the apostles and early Christians faced similar things, but still continued. The more I study the Book of Acts, I’m beginning to understand exactly what those who professed Christ were up against, but still went out publicly proclaiming the word.  They were not just sitting in the seats and safety of a building, they were in the streets and market places proclaiming and demonstrating their faith.  I ask again, can we do anything less? 

Let’s be more like Peter and John and not back down. 

Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also ... – John 15:20

Adult Peer Pressure

When we think of peer pressure, adolescence comes to mind. Truth is adults are just as prone to peer pressure (or being influenced by others) as teenagers.

 Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. (Galatians 2:11-13)

 This is a classic example of peer pressure. Peter who had a prominent role in the spreading of the gospel influenced other Jews, and in particular Barnabas, not to eat with Gentiles when men sent by James were with them.

Peter “feared those who were of the circumcision”. He was also being influenced by peer pressure from those Jewish Christians who wanted to keep themselves separate from the Gentile Christians. Peter not only sinned, but influenced others to participate in the sin with him. The sin of hypocrisy.

           

Peter must have learned from this experience because in I Peter 4:3-4 he admonishes  the brethren:   

For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles--when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

Diotrephes in 3^rd John used his influence to stop others from accepting or welcoming those sent by John. He used the threat of putting them out of the church if they didn’t do as he wanted them to.  In verse 11, John admonishes Gaius: 

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.

The Old Testament is full of examples where the Israelites imitated what the nations around them were doing. They were being influenced to worship false gods and engage in sinful behavior.

 They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, "Do not do as they do," and they did the things the Lord had forbidden them to do. (II Kings 17:15)

Two prime examples of those who didn’t let themselves to be influenced by others were Joseph and Daniel.  We are all familiar with the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. She could have easily influenced Joseph to commit adultery with her, but instead he chose to run away from her. He didn’t allow himself to be pressured into something he knew was wrong.

We see the same thing with Daniel.  In chapter 6 of Daniel, we see the decree made by Darius that all men must pray to him only and not to any other god or man. Daniel, knowing that he could be killed if he didn’t comply with this decree, refused to bow down to Darius and still prayed to God Jehovah three times a day, as was his custom. He didn’t let even the threat of death influence his devotion to God.  (We could even look to the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in chapter 3, to see their example of not being pressured into worshipping the image of Nebuchadnezzar, even to the point of death.)

Just as in adolescence, adults can choose to let positive or negative peer pressure influence them. The best positive peer pressure is summed up by Paul in I Corinthians 11:1, 

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. 

And in Hebrews 6:12,

 ...but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

We need to seek out those positive influences and follow them, and when we see that we are being influenced by negative or sinful behavior, we need to be like Joseph and RUN!!