Have Courage To Testify!

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

1. Testify with a clean life.
2. Testify with bold words.

SERMON TEXT:  Acts 23:1-11

See 2nd Lesson Below

Bible Readings

FIRST LESSON:  Jeremiah 19:14-20:6

Then Jeremiah came back from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: “This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Watch, I will bring on this city and on all its towns every disaster that I have declared against it, because they have become stiff-necked, refusing to hear my words.”
Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and the chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten, and he put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate at the house of the Lord. The next day when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib, for this is what the Lord says: Watch, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will carry them captive to Babylon, and he will kill them with the sword. Also the riches of this city, all its property, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah—I will give it all away into the hands of their enemies. They will plunder these things, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. As for you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, you will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon! You will die there, and you will be buried there, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

SECOND LESSON:  Acts 23:1-11

Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “Gentlemen, brothers, I have lived my life before God with a completely clear conscience to this very day.”
But the high priest Ananias ordered those who were standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there judging me according to the law, and then you order them to strike me contrary to the law!”
Those who were standing nearby said, “Do you dare to insult God’s high priest?”
Paul replied, “I did not know, brothers, that he is the high priest. Indeed, it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil about a ruler of your people.’”
When Paul realized that some of them were Sadducees and the others were Pharisees, he shouted out in the Sanhedrin, “Gentlemen, brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope for the resurrection of the dead!”
When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection or angel or spirit, but the Pharisees believe in them all.) Then there was a great uproar, and some of the experts in the law who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and protested strongly: “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?”
The uproar became so great that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He commanded the soldiers to go down, take him away from them by force, and bring him into the barracks.
The following night the Lord stood next to Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have solemnly testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”

VERSE OF THE DAY:  Galatians 4:6

Because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”

GOSPEL: Matthew 10:24–33

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor is a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If the master of the house was called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
“So do not be afraid of them, because there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
“Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.
“Everyone who confesses me before others, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”