larks

(Part 1 of 5 on the book of Acts)

“For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” — Acts 4:20

Peter and John had to be stopped. The Sadducees simply couldn’t tolerate all this talk of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. The crowd was growing! In desperation, and without knowing that Peter and John would never agree to be silenced, the temple guards arrested them and took them away to an uncertain fate.

Even though the crowd witnessed Peter and John being roughly seized and thrown in jail, about 5,000 of them came to faith anyway. Why? Wouldn’t it have made more sense for the crowd to recede quietly into the shadows? To claim no allegiance to Jesus? After all, first century jails were places of loneliness, despair, and—frequently—death.

But through the passionate testimony of Peter and John, the crowd had seen a glimpse of what a new life in Christ could look like. And they were changed. Though they witnessed Peter and John’s arrest, it just reinforced what the Spirit had already revealed to be true: a life built on Jesus might be risky, but a “safe” life built on any other foundation is no life at all.

Two men were imprisoned that day. But 5,000 more rose up in their place, unashamed and unafraid.

What would we have done if we had been there? The world conditions us from a very young age to change our behavior in the face of ridicule, insult, and bullying. When our daughter’s mismatched outfit draws laughter instead of compliments, she doesn’t wear it again. When our son’s awkward athletic abilities are mocked, he stays inside while his pals play football. As adults, we’re not much different. We conform, we bite our tongues, we look the other way…all in an attempt to fit in. Yes, the world wants so desperately to make us its own.

But, as Jesus so succinctly put it, His Kingdom “is not of this world” (John 18:36). And as followers of Christ, we are called to citizenship in that beautiful, upside-down Kingdom. A Kingdom where good is brought out of evil (Genesis 50:15, Romans 8:28). Where the last will be first, and the first will be last (Matthew 19:29-30). Where persecution for Jesus’ sake is a blessing, not a curse (Matthew 5:10).

Simply put, we’re called to be profoundly, noticeably, and unwaveringly different—at work, at home, in traffic, at Applebees, on the sidelines at the game, everywhere. And we should not be surprised when our otherworldliness leads to ridicule. The Apostle Paul, who suffered intensely for the gospel, was very matter-of-fact about the treatment believers should expect: “…everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

Ivan “Vanya” Moiseyev was one such believer who experienced all the cruel persecution the world could throw at him. In 1970, he was imprisoned, tortured and eventually killed by the communist regime in the former Soviet Union. His crime? Sharing the gospel with his fellow soldiers. Yet like Peter and John, who simply could not stop telling a lost world about Jesus, Vanya continued sharing the good news of Christ in the midst of his suffering. These words, some of Vanya’s last, show how completely he understood his citizenship in God’s Kingdom: “A lark threatened with death for singing would still continue to sing. She cannot renounce her nature. Neither can we Christians.”

Lord, make me a lark in your Kingdom, singing endlessly of Your grace and mercy. Help me to remember my true citizenship when the world tries to silence the good news I am called to share. Help me to remember that even in the midst of persecution, many will rise up and call you Lord. Jesus, I belong solely to you. May I never stop pointing the way to the sometimes-risky, always-abundant life You came to offer.