I rarely write about sermons I preach, but today I want to make an exception. I want to write about what I preached about this past Sunday, “How the Apostles responded to adversities”, and apply it to how we should respond to what is happening in the world with Coronavirus. I really believe that because of the level of fear that many people are experiencing, we need to hear what God says about situations just like this one.
In Acts 4, the Apostles are being persecuted, they have been threatened, intimidated and jailed for openly preaching the Gospel of Christ. Even though the adversity was different from what we are facing today, they way they responded to the threats they were facing speaks exactly on how we should respond.
1.- The recognized the the Sovereignty of God (Acts 4:24-28)
They realized it was God the creator, and who is orchestrating everything that was happening and that He was totally in control of the situation. A post-modern perspective of Christianity thinks that only good things should happen to Christians.
But here we see that the Apostles were being threatened, jailed, beaten (later they actually killed some of them) for preaching the Gospel. How do we reconcile the fact that sometimes Christians suffer, they are persecuted, they even die for the sake of the Gospel? The Sovereignty of God. God is in control, and He knows what He is doing, even when we do not. When Job lost everything he owned, even the life of his children, he worshipped God (Job 1:20-21). True worship is recognizing that God is Sovereign and good, even when our circumstance’s are not.
2.- The joined in with what God
was already doing (Acts 4: 29-30)
In chapter 3 a man that had been that was “lame” since he was born, was miraculously healed be Peter and John, after he was healed he went into the Temple praising God. Because of that, and other “signs and wonders” that God was doing, many were coming to faith in Christ. They did not view the persecution as different, God was working. That is the reason that instead of asking God for Protection, they asked Him for Boldness to continue to preach the Gospel They joined in on what God as already doing!
In China where the Coronavirus started, Chinese believers are handing out face masks, and also handing out Gospel tracts and using this as an opportunity to show Christ’s love and preach the Gospel to a very fearful population.
In the second century of Rome there was a horrible plague that was killing over 5,000 people every day.
The Christians under the leadership of Cyprian began to attend to the sick and dying and even became exposed to the plague themselves. As a result of their caring for the sick and dying, almost all of Rome was evangelized! They realized this was an opportunity that God Himself was providing for them.
3.-They prayed and were filled with
the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:31)
