ACTS 8:1b-4
THE CHURCH HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!
“There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
“Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” [1]
Crowds were massive, larger than anything witnessed in the past. And the numbers grew larger with each appearance. The audiences were animated, even unruly! Girls screamed each time the young man looked at them, some even fainted. The young man was a phenomenon that hadn’t been seen before. December 15, 1956, was his final appearance on the Louisiana Hayride, and the growing crowds had forced a change of venue from the Shreveport municipal auditorium to the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum on the grounds of the Louisiana State Fair. The crowd, however, wouldn’t leave.
After a while, Horace Logan made the following announcement to the ten thousand teenagers packed into the Coliseum. “All right, all right, Elvis has left the building.” [2] That night marked the first time the announcement was made, but it would not be the last time. “Elvis has left the building” was an announcement that would be heard throughout the sixties and the seventies at the conclusion of concerts presented by Elvis. If the phrase was not delivered by promoters following a concert, it would often be spoken by some of the backup singers in an effort to calm down audiences following a concert. “Elvis has left the building” became the signal that the crowds were to leave so that life could go on.
When the first church sought ease, the advance of the Faith languished. When the first saints were driven away from the comfortable existence they had come to know, the Faith flourished, spreading rapidly, and transforming vast regions of that ancient world. God Himself ensures that we who follow the Risen Lord of Glory are not permitted to think that we will have rest now. We are promised a rest, to be sure.
Do you not remember the promise of rest we are given as recorded in the Book of Hebrews? That writer encourages saints, the redeemed of the Lord, when he writes, “While the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
‘As I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest,”’
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’ And again in this passage he said,
‘They shall not enter my rest.”
Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, ‘Today,’ saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.’
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” [HEBREWS 4:1-11].
We who are twice born are at rest in our spirit because we have the Spirit of Christ Who gives us His rest now. Though this is the case, we are nevertheless restless because we must still be in the world. And the world is a restless place. Hence, we are forced to be alert against the intrusion of sin, alert against the attack of the evil one, alert that we do not stumble. Augustine observed, “Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.” [3] Nevertheless, the time for rest for the chid of God is coming; whether sooner or whether later, that time still lies somewhere in the future. Now, however, is time for God’s child to work. Either we will obey the expressed will of the Master, or He will force us out of our comfort zone to fulfil the charge He has given each one who follows Him.
Allow me to take a moment longer to emphasise the restless nature of the sea. Describing the godless who infiltrate the Faith, the half-brother of our Lord testifies, “These people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’ But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever” [JUDE 8-13]. Jude uses the imagery of a restless sea, the waves crashing against the rocks to speak of those who are identified as part of this world. Jude adapts this concept from what Isaiah has written concerning the absence of peace for the wicked. Isaiah wrote,
“‘Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,’ says the LORD,
‘and I will heal him.
But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
for it cannot be quiet,
and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’”
[ISAIAH 57:19-21]
There is no peace for the wicked! And the wicked are those who are estranged from God. The wicked are those who are unsaved. The wicked are those who imagined they could promote themselves as good enough and thus in no need of Christ’s sacrifice. Here is the tragic truth that should grip our souls—the wicked are our colleagues, our neighbours, and too often our family members. The wicked are those who shall be eternally removed from the presence of the Lord God at that awful assize.
John wrote of that separation as he neared the conclusion of the Apocalypse. He saw what is coming and he wrote of it, saying, “I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” [REVELATION 20:11-15].
Long before the Saviour delivered that Great Commission, the people of God would have received the words recorded in the Proverbs,
“Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?”
[PROVERBS 24:11-12]
Knowing the end awaiting those who are lost, knowing the damnation of the unsaved, can any Christian claim an exemption from fulfilling the commission we have received from our Master? I suspect that though we know the end of the matter for the lost, we don’t actually believe their end. We too often console ourselves that God is so good that He will not damn the lost. Therefore, we don’t allow ourselves to think of the eternal condition of our lost children, or the eternal banishment of our neighbours who have never received Christ, or the dreadful sentence that our dearest friends will one day hear. And yet, we know that Christ has warned us that the lost will hear those dreadful words, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” [MATTHEW 7:23].
OPPOSITION USED BY THE LORD — “There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison” [ACTS 8:1-3].
What will it take for the faithful to take the command of the Master serious? Early in the history of the Faith, even before the descent of the Spirit of God, our Master commanded each one who would follow Him, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [MATTHEW 28:18-20].
This charge is packed with so much information and promise that it is difficult to believe that any follower of Christ would fail to seize the opportunity to obey His command. And yet, it seems that the professed servants of God are more focused on building their personal empires than they are on obedience to the command of the Saviour. Those who claim to follow the Master seem more intent on securing personal comfort than they are in embracing the Master’s call. I know that the charges are harsh, and that making such charges opens me to the accusation of painting with a broad brush. Nevertheless, it is difficult to dismiss the charges out of hand.
Let me invest a moment to challenge us to think this through. If our emphasis for service is attendance at congregational worship without an equal emphasis on daily worship, couldn’t we be said to be attempting to build a personal empire? Why are we not rather focused on building the Kingdom of God? To be sure, I understand that uniting for the services of the church is not only expected of Christians, but it is commanded. We read, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” [HEBREWS 10:24-25].
To be sure, the first Christians who came to faith following the ascension of the Master were said to have, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” [ACTS 2:42]. It is obvious that the earliest followers of Christ wanted to unite in fellowship, enjoying the mutual strengthening that attended being together.
What is too often neglected is that these same saints who enjoyed fellowship with one another and worshipped together were also speaking the Word of God with boldness! These saints were indeed “praising God and having favour with all the people,” thus, ensuring that the Lord would be adding to their number on an ongoing basis those who were being saved [see ACTS 2:47]. The take-home for us is that while we must not neglect meeting together, neither may we fail to declare the glories of the Risen Saviour if we will be obedient to Him.
Again, if the emphasis in our Christian life is to use our religion as a means of getting things from God, it is likely that we know nothing of grace. Among many assemblies in this day, the people anticipate that they are engaged in an exchange. They give some time, even giving a small financial token, and in exchange they receive something from God.
God owes us nothing and His grace is not negotiable! The Lord showers us with His goodness, and we appear prone to believe that we deserve what we receive. You may recall how Jesus taught during the sermon He delivered while seated on the side of a mountain, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” [MATTHEW 5:43-45].
That God is good, sending His blessings on all, apparently made an impact in the thinking of the earliest missionaries, for we read how Paul and Barnabus pleaded with the people of Lystra when they were attempting to treat the missionaries as though they were gods, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” [ACTS 14:15-17]. Our worship is not a means of exchange; we worship and serve our Lord because He is worthy. We worship the Lord because no other is worthy of the honour we accord Him.
As I read the text, I cannot help but note that nothing comes into the life of a church except it is permitted by our God. We are not victims of circumstances; we are God’s holy people, led by the Spirit and guarded by Lord who is always watching over us. We have read, and we accept the promise is applicable to us, the words penned by the Psalmist when he wrote,
“I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
“He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
“The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
“The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.”
[PSALM 121:1-8]
The Lord watches over His people, but that doesn’t mean that He won’t use what we call tragedies to compel us to do what should be done. God allows the disruptions that come into our lives to capture our attention and to remind us of what must be done. When bad things happen in the life of a congregation, or when bad things happen in the life of God’s child, we who follow the Risen Lord of Glory can be assured that our God is working to ensure that His will is done. Our God does not allow anything to come into the life of His children except by His permission. And when that which does come into the life of His children disturbs them, we know that our Father is working to accomplish His will. When opposition arose against the first Christians, God was working to accomplish His will through His people. They were not victims, but rather they were victors. God was using the events to stir them up to fulfil His will.
THE NEGLECTED COMMISSION — We have heard the divine command, or we have read the words of the Risen Master, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [MATTHEW 28:19-20]. Yet, despite the Master’s commission for those who follow Him, the vast majority of professing Christians ignore the command. Think about that! The majority of people who claim to follow the Risen Saviour are disobedient to His final charge delivered to His redeemed people! I pray that is not the case for us who have united as the New Beginnings Baptist Church.
I understand that the charge I’ve just made against the saints of the Most High may appear harsh, but ask yourself when you last had a follower of Christ approach you asking about your relationship to God or asking about your eternal well-being. I’ll admit that various cultists will come to your door—Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, etc.—but it is obvious that these deluded individuals are acting out of fear rather than concern for your spiritual condition. Jehovah’s Witnesses must visit door-to-door if they wish to secure a better spot in the future kingdom they mistakenly anticipate. Mormons visiting are restricted to young men who give a year or two to do their duty. When I ask you to recall when you were last approached by a follower of the Christ asking about your relationship to the Living God, I’m speaking of one of any age speaking with you in your home, at the mall, at work—I’m challenging you to recall that spontaneous conversation, if such ever happened, when the one speaking with you was genuinely concerned with your eternal welfare and not merely trying to get brownie points with her or his religious superiors. I suspect that I’m on pretty solid ground in presenting you with this challenge. It just doesn’t happen! Or if it does happen, it is so rare as to be life changing!
Some of the commands of the Saviour will be quite easy to fulfil as we obey Him. Fellowship in the company of those who follow the Master will inevitably lead to love for one another. Jesus commanded those who would follow Him, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” [JOHN 13:34-35]. I suggest that fulfilling this command is far easier when you fellowship with the people of God. I don’t mean that Christians are always lovely or loveable, but it is easier to love even the unlovely individuals when you regularly associate with them. Sharing time with them allows you to share life, and that makes you tender-hearted toward such people.
Other commands are difficult, but we seem to manage to adjust how we fulfil these commands, allowing us to claim we are obedient to Christ. For instance, Jesus commanded, “I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” [MATTHEW 5:44-45]. This is certainly difficult for most of us because we don’t want our enemies, or those whom we identify as enemies, to enjoy goodness. We say we don’t hate them, so that must mean that we love them. The question is, do we pray for our enemies? Do we ask the Father to bless them? This is undoubtedly a difficult command for us to obey, but we manage to convince ourselves that we are obeying Christ.
Jesus commanded us to pray always. You will recall that our Lord has commanded His followers, “Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” [LUKE 21:36]. Few of us are in constant prayer, and especially are we negligent about praying that we will have strength to escape what is coming on the earth. We live in tumultuous times when the future appears increasingly dark. While we pray for our leaders and pray for the Lord to revive us in these days, Jesus was quite specific in commanding us to pray that we would have strength to escape what would take place.
I understand that when Jesus gave this command, He had just spoken of the invasion of Israel, spoken of wars and persecution of the righteous, spoken of His return; and I am quite certain that we who follow the Saviour do pray for Israel to be strengthened and protected. I’m certain that we pray for peace in our day. But we need to be reminded that we are to pray for ourselves to have strength to escape what is coming and to pray always.
We are clearly commanded to ask the Lord of the Harvest to send more labourers. You will recall Jesus teaching, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” [LUKE 10:2]. Few of us pray for the Father to send labourers into His harvest. And yet, this is a command of the Master. I’m not suggesting that the faithful never pray for these workers, but I am saying that there is surely room for improvement for all of us.
These are just a few of the commands issued by our Master. It is painful for us to admit, but we Christians do a poor job at fulfilling these commands at the best of times. We equivocate and excuse our failure to take His commands seriously, but we continue claiming our relationship with the Master, knowing that He has redeemed us and knowing we can never fall from His grace. However, it is that last great command Jesus left, the Great Commission, looming over the professed people of God that disturbs us most when we allow ourselves to think about Him and the reason He left us here.
These first disciples had been swept into the Kingdom of God beginning with the descent of the Spirit of God and continuing through the early days as the Jerusalem church was growing. That first congregation grew rapidly and continually as the Spirit of God worked powerfully through those disciples. Three thousand people saved on the Day of Pentecost! Soon after, another five thousand people were saved! Continued growth as the Lord blessed the first congregation! Praying for boldness, the Apostles declared the message of life and the Spirit worked through all the people! Such power had never been witnessed, and perhaps never has been witnessed in the millennia since. But these saints were disobedient to the final command of the Master!
Jesus had commanded His disciples to “make disciples of all nations.” If somehow that command was difficult to understand, He would say immediately before He ascended into Glory, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” [ACTS 1:8]. Time has passed, and the disciples have certainly evangelised Jerusalem. Perhaps an argument could be made that they had evangelised Judea, filling the land with the message of life in the Risen Saviour. But Sameria? They hadn’t even spoken to a Samaritan, let alone given thought to “the end of the earth.” These disciples gave the impression that they were unconcerned should the Gentiles die and go to hell! They were content to remain comfortable with their condition in Jerusalem, doing what they had always done.
If these first disciples were to obey, something would have to be done. And what was done was accomplished through what we can only characterise as an event so unexpected that no one could have seen it coming. One of the seven deacons chosen by the congregation—chosen deliberately in hopes of bringing peace to a troubled congregation, was compelled to appear before the Jewish Council. He had been having incredible success in declaring the message of the Christ, especially in one synagogue composed primarily of Jews from outside of Judea. Here is the biblical account of this deacon’s success. “Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” [ACTS 6:8-10].
That his message could not be refuted is understandable. Hadn’t the Master promised, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict” [LUKE 21:15]. By the way, that promise has never been rescinded. The promise was applicable to those first disciples, and it holds for you when you speak in Jesus’ Name. You may not consider yourself to be an expert in the claims of the Word, but when you speak in Jesus’ Name to those opposed to the Gospel message, your words will have an incredible impact. Try it! You’ll be amazed at what happens when you speak in the Name of Christ the Lord to lost people.
There is a cost to standing for the Master when those opposed to Him and His Word discover they are unable to refute what you are saying. When Jesus promised that your words would be powerful, He also cautioned, “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake” [LUKE 21:16-17].
Stephen, empowered by the Spirit of Christ, delivered the message of Christ, His words enraged the religious leaders. And thus we read of the death of the first martyr. “When they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him” [ACTS 7:54-58b].
This mob violence unleashed a broader persecution against the church. “There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” [ACTS 8:1].
OBEDIENT, AT LAST — “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word” [ACTS 8:4]. At last, the followers of Christ were obedient. He had commanded them to begin in Jerusalem, and them carry the message throughout Judea and Samaria before reaching out to the farthest regions of the earth. All the world was to hear the message and receive opportunity to believe the message of life. To this point, those who were saved were disobedient. All that was required to drive the disciples out of Jerusalem and toward obedience was a maddened Pharisee named Saul from the city or Tarsus.
As Moses prepared Israel for a future without his presence to provide guidance, he spoke these stirring words.
“When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.
But the LORD’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
“He found him in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
the LORD alone guided him,
no foreign god was with him.
He made him ride on the high places of the land,
and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with honey out of the rock,
and oil out of the flinty rock.
Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
with fat of lambs,
rams of Bashan and goats,
with the very finest of the wheat—
and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.
“But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked;
you grew fat, stout, and sleek;
then he forsook God who made him
and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.”
[DEUTERONOMY 32:8-15]
I suppose we could say that Moses was a realist. Moses longed for the people whom he had shepherded through the howling wastes to walk confidently with the LORD, but God would not permit the Great Lawgiver to wear rose-coloured glasses. Moses was shown the ultimate disposition of his work with Israel. It is the destiny of every group that has known the blessings of the Almighty.
Years ago as a new fellowship of churches was bursting on the scene, one of the founders of that movement was challenged by a reporter who asked him, “What do you see as the future of this movement?” Without hesitation, the godly man answered, “Apostasy!” The answer stunned the reporter, though the stern word shouldn’t have surprised the reporter. Anything that is touched by the hand of man moves inexorably away from God and toward apostasy.
Here is the startling, tragic truth that must be stated—the New Beginnings Baptist Church of Dawson Creek is destined for dust. There is but one thing that can change this dark destiny, and that is the direct intervention of the True and Living God. Without the infusion of spiritual power from time-to-time, the destiny of this church—and the destiny of every church—is spiritual ruin. A church that survives more than one hundred years without surrendering to the spirit of the age is an anomaly. There is always pressure on the congregation to accommodate the culture to keep the institution viable. In time, maintaining the institution becomes more important than honouring the Master. The only hope for reversing this trend is for God to stir the congregation. And what is often overlooked is that the means by which God stirs His people is often opposition, often leading to persecution.
Saul of Tarsus went on a rampage against these followers of the Risen Christ. Some have speculated, with what appears to be sound reasoning, that the Synagogue of the Freedmen included some of Saul’s relatives. And it seems probable that some of those relatives were converted to Christ Jesus fueling Saul’s rage to a white-hot heat. Let’s follow that line of reasoning to see if it makes sense.
Tarsus was in the region of Cilicia which was located in Asia Minor. Tarsus, located in a region of the Roman Empire that would be found in modern-day Türkiye, has been inhabited continuously for over three thousand years. You will recall that the Synagogue of the Freedmen included Jews from Cilicia, which may have included some of Saul’s relatives. In fact, we note Paul writing, “Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me” [ROMANS 16:3-7].
At a basic level, it is reasonable to conclude that Andronicus and Junia were related to Saul, who of course would later be known as Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. It is not out of the realm of reason to imagine Epaenetus was related to Saul, or at the least known to him from Saul’s days in Cilicia. It is reasonable to assume that Saul would be enraged if his relatives were embracing this new religion and identifying as followers of the Messiah Whom the religious leaders had crucified. Few people are more zealous to destroy the Christian Faith then those who have lost their argument!
I am not suggesting that God sent persecution on these first Christians, but I am saying that God was working during the persecution to drive them to fulfil the ministry He had commissioned them to perform. God works in the storm to watch over His people and to use them to perform His will. Throughout the Book of Acts we witness constant opposition to the message of Christ the Lord. And if we read the accounts provided we witness an incredibly powerful impact of those who observe the response of the Christians when they are persecuted.
In short, the harder the people of this world pushed against the faithful, the more powerful was the witness of those saints. This was precisely what our Lord had promised when He said, “When [the unrighteous] bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” [LUKE 12:11-12].
I do not want anyone to assume that living as an obedient follower or the Risen Saviour immunises you from opposition. In fact, you are an ambassador of Heaven sent into hostile territory where you represent the Lord of Light. The powers of darkness will not easily surrender what they see as power by agreeing to the message you bring. Again, remember the words Jesus spoke when He sent out His disciples the first time. “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake” [MATTHEW 10:16-22a].
I have often prayed for revival in this day and in this place. I do not want anyone to imagine that I am unaware that God’s answer may require that His people must face opposition, and even experience persecution. I do, however, believe that He will work through our situation to accomplish His will. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Good News Publishers, 2001. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Jordan Runtagh, “‘Elvis Has Left the Building!’ The True Story Behind the Popular Phrase,” People, August 16, 2017, "Elvis Has Left the Building!" The True Origin of the Phrase (people.com), accessed 8 June 2024
[3] Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo, The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book 1, Chapter 1, trans. E. B. Pusey (Logos Research Systems, Inc., Oak Harbor, WA 1996)
