Choosing Joy In Hard Times

When the People Who Should Be Terrified Start Celebrating

Picture the scene. You have just been flogged. Your back is raw. The people who ordered the beating have told you in no uncertain terms to stop talking about Jesus. You walk out of the building and your first instinct is... to rejoice?

That is exactly what happened to the apostles in Acts 5, and Anna Sherwin unpacked the passage at Crowd Church with the kind of honest, searching approach that makes you actually sit with the text rather than skim over it. Because this is not just a story about brave people doing brave things. It is a story about what happens when ordinary people encounter something so real that fear simply cannot hold them back.

The Background

The context is important. Peter and John have already been arrested once, thrown into jail, and miraculously freed by an angel during the night. They went straight back to the temple courts and started teaching again — the very thing that got them arrested in the first place.

The religious leaders are furious. They haul the apostles back before the Sanhedrin for further questioning. The high priest is explicit: "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name."

Peter's response is magnificently blunt: "We must obey God rather than men."

When Meeting Jesus Leads to Obedience

Anna's first point was disarmingly honest. She admitted that Peter's confident response left her wondering whether she would say the same thing in a similar situation. "If I'm totally honest, I'm often tempted to water down the truth quite a lot and to make it seem like maybe just a little more palatable to other people."

That kind of honesty is refreshing because most of us recognise ourselves in it. We soften our language. We avoid certain topics. We calculate the social cost before opening our mouths.

But Peter had no such hesitation. Why? Anna argued it was because he had encountered Jesus personally and firsthand. He knew Jesus as rabbi, as friend, and as risen Lord. "They really know Jesus intimately. They know who he is. They know his character. And I think it is because of this that they can't deny him or water down the truth about him at all."

She connected this to something Jesus said in John 14:15: "If you love me, keep my commands." Obedience is not about rule-following. It is the natural overflow of a deep encounter with a person you love.

Boldness That Is Not Man-Made

Anna's second point focused on the supernatural boldness the apostles displayed. This was not personality. It was not confidence built through public speaking courses. It was something that came upon them through the Holy Spirit.

"I think it's a boldness that not many of us naturally have," she said. "It doesn't feel man-made."

She acknowledged that most of us will not face the level of persecution Peter and John experienced. But she noted that many people have experienced lesser forms — being ridiculed, misunderstood, or having their motives questioned by friends and family.

"If that's ever happened to you, it can be really easy to keep your mouth shut in the future and to not rock the boat or risk saying anything about our faith again."

Her gentle challenge: "Maybe the Holy Spirit is just wanting to give you a nudge today. Maybe he's inviting you to ask him for a fresh boldness again."

The Wise Pharisee

One of the most interesting figures in this passage is Gamaliel, a Pharisee and teacher of the law who stands up in the Sanhedrin and offers remarkably measured counsel. His argument is simple: "If their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourselves fighting against God."

It is astonishing that the religious leaders actually listened. They accepted Gamaliel's advice. The apostles were flogged and warned — but they were released.

Anna pointed out that this was God's protection at work. Not the dramatic kind, necessarily, but the kind that comes through a wise voice in a hostile room. The apostles were not exempt from suffering. They were flogged. But they were delivered from death, and they were free to continue the mission.

The Joy That Makes No Sense

And then comes the verse that stops you in your tracks. "The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name."

They had just been beaten. And they were happy about it.

In Conversation Street, Matt Edmundson admitted this was not his natural response. "If I'd been flogged for actually quite unjust reasons, I don't know if that would be my first response."

Dan Orange reflected on the emotional whiplash of the apostles' day — prison, angelic rescue, teaching in the temple, being hauled before the Sanhedrin, flogging, and then rejoicing. "They experienced all those emotions all in one day and they come out rejoicing."

Anna connected this to James 1:2-3: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."

The apostles had been tested. They had persevered. And they emerged more mature, more resolute, and more joyful than before. The chapter ends with them going from house to house, sharing their faith with what Anna described as "a real sense of joyful abandon and freedom."

Reframing Changes Everything

Matt made a point in the conversation that cuts to the heart of it. The apostles did not deny what had happened to them. They did not pretend the flogging was pleasant. They reframed it.

"They counted it joy. They were rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ. That is such a remarkable reframing of what is going on."

He drew a parallel with the Old Testament spies sent to scout the promised land. Ten saw the size of the problem. Two — Joshua and Caleb — saw the size of God. Same giants, different perspective, completely different response.

As Christians, Matt argued, we have the ability to view life through a different lens. "Yes, this is going on. No, I'm not denying it. But it is not going to knock God off the throne."

The Connection Between Joy and Gratitude

Matt made one final observation that is worth carrying away. He suggested that joy and gratitude are deeply connected. "I think people that lack joy lack gratitude."

Dan agreed: "The great thing about gratitude is you've got to have thought about what's happened and then realised what God's done for you. Joy just falls out of that."

The apostles were not joyful because their circumstances were good. They were joyful because they knew who they served and what it meant to be counted worthy of suffering for his name.

Nicola, in the comments, put it simply: "Being misjudged is a very painful thing, but having the guts to continue is a much better adventure."

That is the story of Acts 5 in a sentence. Being misjudged, beaten, and threatened — and then going straight back out to do it all again. Not because they were fearless, but because they had encountered someone worth everything.

What would it look like for you to choose joy in the hard things this week? Not to deny the difficulty, but to look at it through a different lens and find that God is bigger than whatever you are facing?