Dearly beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have a great deal to learn about the aspect of the Christian life which Luke recounts in the text before us this morning. That aspect, of course, is the aspect of persecution. It's a normal part of the Christian life. In fact, it lies at the very center of the book of Acts, where (in 14:22) Luke brings together persecution and the Kingdom of God. His book centers on those two realities, quite literally. So when he introduces the topic of persecution, not just for the apostles, but for ordinary Christians, what does he have to say about it? Well, two major things: First, persecution is an essential part of the progress of the gospel. Christ's command to go from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria was fulfilled in response to this persecution. Second, persecution is multifaceted — painful, selective, and far from being the whole story of the world's relationship to the church. Let's look at these truths as the text presents them.
