Our Cornerstone Series

God is so faithful! He’s faithful to us as individuals and faithful to us as a church. And as long as we continue to be a church that’s all about [2] loving God and loving others, God will continue to bless us and show us His faithfulness.

We show our love for God when we’re devoted - to His Word

- to worship

- to prayer

- to lifestyle obedience

We show our love for others when we’re devoted - to fellowship

- to ministry

- to evangelism, missions

We must continue to be devoted to loving God and loving others. God will be faithful to us and will place His hand of blessing upon this ministry. And I tell you what, I’m so excited to see just what God is going to do next! (I can see…)

But, there will be opposition. There always has been and there always will be opposition to what God is doing on this earth. Jesus faced opposition, the early church faced opposition, and ministries down through the ages even up until this present time have faced opposition for one reason or another.

[3] But as long as we keep Jesus as our foundation, our rock, our Cornerstone, we will continue to see God’s favor in this place.

In Matthew 16 we see Jesus anticipating the church’s opposition while talking with His disciples. We also see Him give them the key to ministry survival.

[Read Matthew 16:13-18.]

Jesus uses a play on words here to help us understand just what the foundation of the church should be. When Peter correctly declares that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus blesses him and calls him Peter using the Greek word petros which means “little stone”. Then Jesus goes on to say that “upon this rock I will build by church.” The Greek word Jesus used here for rock was petra or “foundational boulder”.

The foundational boulder that the church is to stand upon is what the little rock, Peter, had said – that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

The foundation of the church is Jesus. The church isn’t supposed to be built on programs and personalities. The church is supposed to be built upon Jesus Christ. And when it is, even the gates of Hell won’t be able to destroy it.

But they sure will try. And the very first church understood that all too well.

As we continue to go through the book of Acts finding out how we can be the church in this world, we’re going to see how [4] Jesus’ people will be opposed.

Remember what’s going on here? Peter and John spoke healing into the legs of a man who’d been a cripple since birth. After the miracle they all went into the Temple to praise the Lord together. When the crowd gathered Peter spoke to them about the reality of Jesus Christ and that they needed to turn to Him for salvation. Then came the opposition.

[Read Acts 4:1-7.]

Talk about overkill! You’ve got these two fishermen and a former cripple being worked over by literally dozens of the most powerful men in the city. The Sanhedrin ruling council, the elders, the scribes and several high priests were surrounding these poor men and questioning them as if they were in the midst of a national crisis!

Of course these were the same men who just a couple months before this had done the same thing to Jesus and eventually had Him crucified. They thought they had secured their religious power with Jesus’ death but now, “Here we go again! These guys are teaching the people something other than what we’re teaching them. They must be silenced!”

“By what power or in what name have you done this?” Done what? Oh you mean heal this guy? We’re in trouble for healing someone?

Seems kind of silly doesn’t it? I mean, the healing was evidence that God was involved. And if God’s involved in the healing, maybe just maybe, He’s involved in the message as well! But they didn’t want to hear the message so they ignored the healing.

Listen, opposition will come against the church. Even though others can see the church doing good things for people. Even though they can see people’s lives changing for the better through the ministry of the church. Even though they see polite, loving, gracious and giving church people. The world will ignore all those evidences that God is real because they simply don’t want to hear God’s message.

But regardless of the opposition, [5] Jesus’ message will bring forth fruit! Did you catch what God was doing in the midst of them being carted off to jail?

[Read Acts 4:4.]

Up to this point in the early life of the church 5,000 people had gotten saved. 5,000 in just a matter of days! (This number included the 3,000 that got saved after Peter’s first sermon.) It didn’t matter that the main leaders of the church were being taken away to jail. God’s message had gone forth and had done an amazing work.