{"id":36673,"date":"2022-09-13T13:05:48","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T18:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/when-a-government-is-against-christians-how-should-we-react-according-to-bible\/"},"modified":"2022-09-13T13:05:48","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T18:05:48","slug":"when-a-government-is-against-christians-how-should-we-react-according-to-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/when-a-government-is-against-christians-how-should-we-react-according-to-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"When a government is against Christians, how should we react according to Bible?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>First, we <strong>must obey God&rsquo;s will <\/strong>in all matters. Acts 5:28,29, 33 (NIV),&ldquo;&lsquo;We (<em>the Sanhedrin and the high priest<\/em>) gave you strict <strong>orders not to teach<\/strong> in this name,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man&rsquo;s blood.&rsquo; Peter and the other apostles replied: &lsquo;We must <strong>obey God rather than human beings<\/strong>!&rsquo;&hellip;When they heard this, they were furious and <strong>wanted to put them to death<\/strong>.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This account illustrates that Christians are always to witness whether <strong>by<\/strong> <strong>actions or by words<\/strong> for that is God&rsquo;s will. Where governments outlaw our message, our loving Christian behaviors might be the initial witness. Some, seeing <strong>our example<\/strong>, may be <strong>drawn to ask us<\/strong> about our beliefs. Additionally, we may <strong>leave printed tracts<\/strong> in public places. If and when <strong>God opens<\/strong> an opportunity to proclaim His truth, we should <strong>joyfully share the Gospel<\/strong>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prison did not stop Paul<\/strong> from preaching. After he was beaten, chained, and put in a cell, Paul and Silas sang hymns.&nbsp; Acts 16:25(NIV), &ldquo;About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.&rdquo; An earthquake opened the prison but Paul did not escape. His <strong>behaviors<\/strong> were so amazing that the prison guard asked, &ldquo;&lsquo;Sirs, what must I do to be saved?&rsquo; They replied, &lsquo;Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved&mdash;you and your household.&rsquo; Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.&rdquo; Acts 16:30-32 (NIV). The guard and his family were converted!<\/p>\n<p>However, we do <strong>not need to purposely put ourselves in danger<\/strong>. Acts 9:19-25 (NIV), &ldquo;Saul (<em>later named Paul<\/em>) spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.<strong> At once he began to preach<\/strong> in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God&hellip;After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the <strong>Jews to kill him<\/strong>, but <strong>Saul learned<\/strong> of their plan&hellip;But his followers took him <strong>by night and lowered him in a basket<\/strong> through an opening in the wall.&rdquo; Thus, the local Christians secreted Saul out of danger.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus also instructed His followers to leave hostile towns in Luke 9:5(NIV), &ldquo;If people do <strong>not welcome you<\/strong>, <strong>leave their town<\/strong> and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.&rdquo; Remember, now is <strong>not the time for the conversion of the world<\/strong>. The world will receive God&rsquo;s word during Christ&rsquo;s millennial reign, &ldquo;for the earth<strong> will be filled <\/strong>with <strong>the knowledge of the L<\/strong><strong>ORD<\/strong> as the waters cover the sea.&rdquo; Isaiah 11:9(NIV).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In some nations, <strong>Christians meet secretly<\/strong> at night in the forests or in other houses. Over the centuries, Christians have <strong>secretly printed the Bible<\/strong> and truth literature. Even in hostile countries, Christians will obey God, not man. But we need to <strong>be wise<\/strong> in our behaviors.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First, we must obey God&rsquo;s will in all matters. Acts 5:28,29, 33 (NIV),&ldquo;&lsquo;We (the Sanhedrin and the high priest) gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man&rsquo;s blood.&rsquo; Peter and the other apostles &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/when-a-government-is-against-christians-how-should-we-react-according-to-bible\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;When a government is against Christians, how should we react according to Bible?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}