The Church’s Three Counteroffensives to Our Enemies Attacks
Acts 8
17 Nov 2002
INTRODUCTION:
We are going to return to our broad outline for understanding Acts, you’ll remember the theme is THE START OF SOMETHING GREAT. While our three major points were:
1. Being a witness in Jerusalem (1:1 8:13)
2. Being a witness in Judea and Samaria (8:14-9:31)
3. Being a witness in the remotest part of the earth (9:32-28:31)
Today, we are going to shed some light on what types of attacks our enemy will use to stifle the voice of the church. The first one is…
1A. Persecution (8:1-3)
Following the death of Stephen, Saul began ravaging the church in Jerusalem. Now this did at least two things. First, it must have been a time of great fear for believers. Second, it was the beginning of the end for the church to remain isolated in Jerusalem and the end of a beginning for the church in Judea and Samaria.
The Enemy of our souls will use any means to quiet the voice of Christ’s church. And one counter attack he will relentlessly use is persecution. Clement of Rome – a disciple of the apostle Paul writes the following…
THE FRIST EPISTLE OF CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS
CHAPTER XLV.—IT IS THE PART OF THE WICKED TO VEX THE RIGHTEOUS.
Ye are fond of contention, brethren, and full of zeal about things which do not pertain to salvation. Look carefully into the Scriptures, which are the true utterances of the Holy Spirit. Observe that nothing of an unjust or counterfeit character is written in them. There you will not find that the righteous were cast off by men who themselves were holy. The righteous were indeed persecuted, but only by the wicked. They were cast into prison, but only by the unholy; they were stoned, but only by transgressors; they were slain, but only by the accursed, and such as had conceived an unrighteous envy against them. Exposed to such sufferings, they endured them gloriously. For what shall we say, brethren? Was Daniel cast into the den of lions by such as feared God? Were Ananias, and Azarias, and Mishael shut up in a furnace of fire by those who observed the great and glorious worship of the Most High? Far from us be such a thought! Who, then, were they that did such things? The hateful, and those full of all wickedness, were roused to such a pitch of fury, that they inflicted torture on those who served God with a holy and blameless purpose [of heart], not knowing that the Most High is the Defender and Protector of all such as with a pure conscience venerate His all-excellent name; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. But they who with confidence endured [these things] are now heirs of glory and honour, and have been exalted and made illustrious by God in their memorial for ever and ever. Amen.
This week, the London Times wrote an article about the allegidely “peaceful” religion of Islam. It entailed the account of a single woman (Ms. Lawal) who had a child out of wedlock. The bottom line is this. once the child is weaned from his/he mother, the mother will be buried up to her head and then stoned to death. So much for calling Islam a peaceful religion. Sorry, but I categorically disagree with our President on that one.
For those of you who are suffering to any degree from persecution, we want to pray for you. We also want to pray for those brothers and sisters around the world who are being persecuted and yes, even surrendering their very lives over to death rather than compromising and denying our precious Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray for them right now…
2A. Deception (8:9-25)
When persecution falls short of the Enemy’s counter attack, he will do something more subtely. He will instill deception amongt the ranks of believers.
It is said, the first casualty in all warfare is the truth! And it’s no different in the spiritual warfare we wage everyday.
4A. Isolation (8:26, 31)
How do we overcome these attacks?
1A. Stay the course, knowing you are following His plan (8:4-8; cf. 1:8))
Philip obviously left Jerusalem as a result of Saul’s persecution. When he realized there were others witnessing in the areas of Judea, he took the only logical step – stay the course. What course you ask? Look back at Acts 1:8
Illustration:
2A. Expose the deception, knowing its source (8:20-24; cf. Eph 5:11)
Peter responds, Acts 8:20 – Message Translation
Peter said, "To hell with your money! And you along with it. Why, that’s unthinkable—trying to buy God’s gift!
Peter, guarding the honor and glory of God, strongly rebukes Simon with a curse. But not just any curse, a curse that says you and your money are on the way to hell. Peter’s curse not only relates to the elimination of Simon’s money and to Simon’s physical death, but also to his state after death. Simon’s sin is he values God’s Holy Spirit in terms of a sum of money, that money as such is of chief importance to him, and that he worships the creation ($) over the Creator.
Illustration: I’ve shared this with some of you, but it’s worth sharing again… Mike and I at my house when the Mormon young ladies came to my door.
Mike used the law of eternal progression, asking them if they believed in such a law – which means one continues to progress in their state even throughout eternity. They said yes. When asked, if they believe Jesus Christ is eternally progressing, they said yes. They locked themselves in a internal contradiction. You cannot have a savior who is eternally progressing in his perfection or he is no longer a perfect savior – one is left in their sins.
3A. Follow his lead, knowing the Spirit is guiding you (8:26-30, 32-40)
Who would ever leave a spiritual awakening to walk down a lonely deserted road with no direction? Would you ever take a detour after signing one of your major accounts to see a small mom and pop account?
On the way home from Samaria, Philip and the others must have been celebrating what the Lord had accomplished. Can you imagine the conversations… “Hey do you remember when those people saw the Holy Spirit come upon them, Pete, when you came into town? Did you see the look on their faces? What about that woman who was lame since birth… did you see how God rose her up? And then Philip gets a tap on the shoulder and it’s this angel with a cell phone call from heaven, saying, go down the road from Jerusalem to Gaza – that desert road – you know which one.
Question: what would you do? You just had the event of your spiritual life. You just saw multitudes of people be saved. You just closed that big contract that no one else could. You were just awarded employee of the year and then someone asks you where the toilet paper is located?
When the enemy uses isolation as a counter attack, your best counter offensive is to follow the Lord’s lead.
Philip didn’t get bogged down feeling sorry for himself. He didn’t listen to any mind games by the enemy (“Hey, how come God sent you out on this desert road? Didn’t you just leave a great revival. They loved you? And now God sent you to this lowly road – there’s no one here - go home). Not Philip. He initiated the gospel, because he knew the Spirit was leading him.
Illustration: Share the time I shared Christ with a young lady from UOA, doing a research project over the phone. She came to know Christ. Normally you wouldn’t think about sharing Christ with a phone surveyor or solicitor. Maybe that might be your next desert road the Spirit is asking you to travel on…
A couple of things this section tells me:
1. No event is too significant to leave for God’s purposes.
2. No person is too insignificant to neglect to share God’s love.
3. No one is so important that God’s work can’t continue without them.
CONCLUSION:
I’d be amiss today, if I didn’t give someone an opportunity to be rescued from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light. If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ to be your personal Lord and Savior, we want to provide that opportunity today.
You may be thinking, I am not sure I understand why I need to ask Jesus Christ to forgive me. It’s really simple. Man from the beginning was created to have a close relationship with his Creator, God. But man decided to turn his back on God, creating an eternal breach between God and man. But God knew man would do this. So, God stayed the course for you and for me. He exposed the deception we were living, gently exposing the light of truth on our hearts so that we could see the problem from being close to God again, was not God’s problem, but in fact, ours. It was our sin. And God not only exposed our need, he exposed his solution. His solution was His Son, Jesus Christ – who took on our sin for us, so that we could be reconciled to God once again.
So, today, God is not punitive to anyone. He is extending His hand, desiring to be reconciled to you, today. He has been leading men and women to reconciliation since man turned their back on him. He has been leading men and women back to himself through the bridge Christ built over that eternal chasm, so we would be reconciled to God.
The only question left is, will you be reconciled to God? How do you do that? Simply by telling God, you realize that it has been your sin that has kept you from being reconciled to God and you accept the Work of Christ Jesus. He not only died but was raised from the dead – God’s way of saying I approve what Jesus did for you.
Here’s all you need to say – Jesus I accept your payment for my sin and I now want to be reconciled to God- thank you. Amen!
For those of us who are already reconciled to God, this message has been one that equipped us for the daily battle we know exists. The church is a preemptive strike force, engaging in battle for the souls of men and women. The church initiates strikes that wage war against the gates of hell. We are on the offensive. The church is a force, not a fortress and we are called to take that force wherever God may lead us, remembering the enemy of our souls will counterattack our strikes with persecution, deception and isolation.
Our way of overcoming these three counterattacks are simple. We need to remember to stay the course, knowing we are following His plan. Then we are to expose any deception, knowing its source, and finally, we are to initiate with the gospel, knowing the Spirit of God will lead us.
We can thank God today we know the enemy’s plan of attack. Our Lord, through Dr. Luke has exposed our enemy’s plans. By trusting in the Lord our counter offensive strategy will become automatic to us.
Let’s pray.
