Gospel Progress and Gospel Pushback

INTRODUCTION

Pew Research says that in 2020 there were 96 million Christians in Nigeria.

They predict that by 2050, there will be 154 million.

That is just over a 60% increase.

It’s going to be something in 2050 when Nigerian churches are sending missionaries to America to start churches here to reach our post-Christian society, where the Christian population is expected to fall by 75%.

But what a joy it is to know that God is doing a major work in Central Africa today.

And yet, as we consider the numbers that represent growth in Nigeria, there are other numbers that must be taken into consideration.

In 2022, the year that Pew Research did their study, 5,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria for their faith in Jesus Christ.

In 2023, the number rose to 7,000.

In the twenty years since Southern Baptists planted all those churches, it is estimated that 62,000 Christians have been martyred for their faith in Nigeria.

Do you know why church?

Because wherever there is Gospel progress, there will be Gospel push-back.

Where the Kingdom of God is advancing, it is often men with antagonism.

Where the Gospel is on the move, there will be opposition that inevitably rises up.

CONTEXT

This is certainly the case in Acts 17 this morning.

And we can say it has been the case in Acts in general.

After all, in this passage, Paul comes to Thessalonica by way of Philippi.

He was pressured to leave that city because of persecution.

He had to leave other cities for the same reason on his first missionary journey.

Everywhere Paul goes, there seems to be churches starting.

And yet, wherever Paul goes, there is also chaos ensuing, in the form of evil adversaries and corrupt leaders.

Because again—Gospel progress is met with Gospel push-back.

OUTLINE

In this text this morning, we will see the Gospel progress in verses 1-4.

And then in verses 5-8, we will see the Gospel push-back.

And as we go, we will see that there is an unnamed character in this text who lurks as this Kingdom opposition comes about.

We will see that the opposition in this text and throughout Acts is not merely flesh and blood.

There is a spiritual battle at hand.

Our teaching points this morning will be as follows:

1. Gospel progress produces new believers and new churches.

2. Gospel progress rouses a familiar enemy using familiar tactics.

3. Gospel progress is unrelenting because of Christ with His Church.

Acts 17:1–9 ESV

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

NEW BELIEVERS AND NEW CHURCHES (v. 1-4)

We begin with our first teaching point this morning:

1. Gospel progress produces new believers and new churches (v. 1-4).

We can observe this in the first four verses.

Paul’s route to Thessalonica is through Amphipolis and Apollonia.

This means that Paul’s crew is walking the Via Egnatia—a very famous Roman road that was the main route to the east.

All in all, this is a journey of about 102 miles for the missionary team.

Thessalonica itself is the capital of the province of Macedonia.

If you remember back in Acts 16, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia urging Paul to come and help him and his people.

Paul has answered that call.

He certainly did that in Philippi, but now he is truly in the heart of Macedonia. He is in their Washington DC.

Thessalonica itself was a booming metropolis of 65,000 people.

They were ruled by five Roman magistrates called politarchs.

In verse 2, we see Paul do the same thing that he has been doing throughout the book of Acts.

His pattern, or his custom, is to first go to the synagogue to preach because salvation is first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.

Therefore, Paul begins his work in a new city in a synagogue, if he can find one.

He does indeed find one here. According to Luke, Paul is at the synagogue on three Sabbath days, reasoning with the Jews from the Scriptures.

When Luke says, “three Sabbath days,” he means, three consecutive Sabbath days.

Which means that for Paul’s first few weeks in Thessalonica, he is going to the synagogue on each Sabbath day and he is evangelizing.

You see the content of his reasoning in verse 3.

He is…explaining and proving that is was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.”

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you know what this message is—this is the message we have believed.

And this message is life to us because at the glorious center of it is the Lord and Savior, the Messiah for all who believe—Jesus of Nazareth—Son of God and Son of Man.

As Paul is heralding the Good News, he would have been speaking to both Jews and devout Greeks (v. 4).

These are God-fearers. Gentiles who are involved in synagogue life, but not fully converted to Judaism.

This means that Paul’s reasoning would have been focused on Christ as the Jewish Messiah from the Old Testament Scriptures.

The words used by Luke are very similar to what we find in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

If you are not a believer this morning, whether this is your first time at church or not, I want to make sure you understand exactly what Paul was preaching—because 2,000 years later—it is the same thing we are preaching today.

It is still the matter of first importance.

THE GOSPEL

CREATION AND CORRUPTION

God created this world that you and I live in.

He made humanity in His image.

But we have sinned against God by breaking His laws.

We have treated things that are not God like they are God and we have given them worship.

We have used God’s name like a cuss word and blasphemed. We have lied. We have stolen.

These transgressions of God’s eternal law have left us in danger of eternal judgment.

We are separated from God and under the threat of His rightful wrath.

CHRIST AND COMMITMENT

But God, being rich in love and flush with mercy, has a plan to save a people for Himself.

He comes to us in His Son, Jesus Christ, who lives the perfect life we have failed to live.

He never breaks God’s laws. He is totally pure and perfect in every way.

And yet, even though He was not a sinner and He did not deserve to die, He volunteered Himself.

Jesus volunteered to take the punishment that we should get for all of our breaking of God’s laws.

This is what happened with Christ died on the Cross. As our sin offering, He became the target for God’s wrath toward our sin, instead of us.

But He did not remain dead.

Just as the Scriptures foretold, Jesus rose again to prove that God had accepted His sacrifice and that He was the Victor over sin and the grave.

Then He ascended to the right hand of God, where He remains, until the day when He returns.

Now, anyone who hears this message of salvation must respond by receiving it or rejecting it.

To receive it is to agree with God that your sin, for which Christ had died, is evil.

You must turn from it.

This is called repentance.

And when you turn away from sin, you turn toward God in faith, trusting in His Son to save you.

He will forgive your sin and give you the rest that Adam was made for to begin with.

And one day, after Jesus returns again or we die, we will dwell with Christ forever in the age to come.

He will be our God and we will be our people.

THE JEWISH KING

As Paul was reasoning with the Jews and Greeks on these particular occasions, it seems like His Gospel teaching is specifically focused on Jesus as the King of the Jews.

This is implied by what he and the others are accused of in v. 7.

It is not hard to imagine Paul doing this.

He would have wanted them to know that Jesus is the Prophet that was promised by Moses in Deuteronomy 18...

…the perfect revelation of God who brings the light of the truth to our ignorance.

He would have wanted them to know that Jesus is the Priest who is the one Mediator between God and man...

…the Great High Priest that all the other priests pointed to—rescuing us from our alienation.

And he would have told them all about how Jesus is the King who will sit on David’s throne forever...

…the One that was promised in 2 Samuel 7 and who comes to rescue us and subdue the will of our rebellious hearts.

In verse 3, Luke says Paul is explaining and proving these matters of first importance as he reasons from the Scriptures.

The word that translates to explaining could also translate to mean interpret.

The word for proving can also mean “to set before.”

So you can see what Paul is doing as he proclaims the Good News—He is interpreting the Scriptures, showing them how all the promises of God find their yes in Christ and setting it before them.

He is calling on them to receive it or reject it.

THE RESPONSE (v. 4)

And you see that the response is one that should cause us to praise the redeeming grace of God.

He sets it before them and some of them are persuaded.

They are convinced.

A group of Jews, as well as a throng of the Gentile God-fearers, repent of their sin and trust in Christ for their salvation.

The Jews must have been overjoyed to realize the Messiah had indeed come.

The God-fearers must have been overjoyed because they just went from being outsiders, locked out of the full benefit of the Jewish community, to being insiders—Fully brought into the Christian community upon their belief in Christ.

Luke also mentions a group of “leading women,” who follow Christ in response to Paul’s three week teaching session.

These are either independently prominent and wealthy women or women who are the wives of prominent men.

Regardless, you can see that Gospel progress is being made!

NEW BELIEVERS AND NEW CHURCHES

First of all, we know it because the spiritual address has changed for these that were persuaded.

They went from dwelling in the domain of darkness to being under the dominion of the Beloved Son.

Colossians 1:13–14 ESV

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

But secondly we know it because we have two letters that are written by Paul to this same group of believers that we see forming in Acts 17:4.

When Paul and Silas arrive in Thessalonica, it is about 49 AD.

The first letter written to the Thessalonians is only written 1-2 years later.

It is one of Paul’s first New Testament letters.

So as you read this:

1 Thessalonians 1:1 ESV

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

Silvanus is Silas what Robert is to Bob.

So who sends grace and peace to Thessalonica?

This very mission team—Paul, Silas and Timothy.

And who is Paul writing to?

Surely, many of these very people who are converted in this Macedonian synagogue.

This is the great sign of Gospel progress in the world—that God is rescuing souls and bringing them into His Kingdom.

He is changing their citizenship from earth to heaven.

From Babylon to Zion.

And as they are saved, they group up in congregations, which become these Gospel outposts for the Kingdom of God, here in the Kingdom of man.

This is what churches are.

They are embassies for the Kingdom of the beloved Son here on this earth.

And one day, after there are churches in every people group and He has saved a multitude from each tribe and from every nation, Christ will return.

But until then, as the church, we are doing exactly what Paul is doing here in this passage.

We are reasoning from God’s Word, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.

When we are splashing around in the baptismal water and new churches are forming, and it is brought about by the faithful preaching of God’s holy truth—you know that the Gospel is taking ground.

FAMILIAR ENEMY AND FAMILIAR TRICK (v. 5-9)

If we have seen the Gospel progress in v. 1-4, we certainly see the Gospel push-back in verses 5-9.

EXPOSITION

In verse 5, Luke says that some of the Jews were jealous.

They are losing influence to this new missionary group that has shown up at the synagogue.

Think about it—how long has this synagogue been there?

How long have the men who lead there been teaching the Scriptures?

All the sudden, this so-called Apostle shows up and in a matter of three weeks, you are seeing people start to believe what he says and follow that which he has set before them.

In Philippi, the owners of the slave-girl were upset with Paul because they lost money.

In Thessalonica, the trouble begins over the loss of influence.

They organize some bad characters together, form a mob and they essentially start a riot (v. 5).

They set the city in an upraor.

And the uproar ends up landing at the door of a man named Jason.

We don’t know a ton about Jason.

If he is the Jason of Romans 16:21, as most people think he is, then we know he is Jewish.

Romans 16:21 ESV

Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.

It seems that it is known that Jason offered up hospitality to Paul’s team.

There is no other explanation as to why the mob would go there and attack the man’s home.

In verse 6, when they don’t find them, they grab Jason and some other Christian brothers and they bring them before the magistrates—the five politarchs.

These politarchs are supposed to carry out the wishes of the people of the city.

This mob hopes to convince the officials that Jason and these other Christians men are guilty of a major crime.

The accusations in v. 6-7 are two-fold.

The first accusation is that they have turned the world upside down (v. 6).

This is very similar to the accusation of the slave owners in Acts 16.

Acts 16:21 ESV

They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.”

The accusation is that these men are disrupting the Roman way of life.

The second accusation is directly connected to the first. They are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” (v. 7)

To be clear, the accusation is that Jason has entertained treason.

They are saying, “These men claim there is a king other than Caesar. They disrupt the Roman world everywhere they go and they are doing it here too…AND THIS GUY PUT THEM UP IN HIS GUESTROOM!”

The politarchs are disturbed. They are troubled.

One of the ways they represent the interests of the citizens of the city is by keeping peace.

If peace is disturbed, they are failing at their jobs.

If they fail at their jobs, they will be in trouble with Caesar.

They cannot be seen as anemic in their ability to keep things even keeled.

Furthermore, they would not want to be perceived as harboring treasonous troublemakers.

We have to say that the accusations regarding Paul are not totally unfounded.

He hasn’t gone to some of the places he would come to love the most yet—Corinth, Ephesus, Rome.

But he has gone through Damascus, Antioch and now parts of Macedonia and it seems like everywhere Paul goes, things are pretty testy.

But that is because of what we have said from the start today:

Where there is Gospel progress, there is Gospel push-back.

As Paul would pierce an area of darkness with Gospel light, inevitably, there would be pressure and persecution.

We have seen it again and again and it is the case once more in Thessalonica.

This particular case is put to rest in verse 9, where Luke says that Jason pays a sort of bail that sees him and the other brothers go free.

The fact that this deal is worked out might indicate that Jason has friends in high place.

As for The politarchs, they probably felt pretty good about the conclusion of things.

Rome got paid.

Things settle down.

A message has been sent to this new group

UNNAMED CHARACTER

Now up to this point, all of our study has been about officials and customs and accusations playing out in a human court.

But is that really all there is to this passage?

We have Paul and Silas.

We have new converts.

We have a mob.

We have politarchs and we have Jason.

We have all of these characters playing their role in the narrative—but is that really all there is to this passage?

Well, theologically and biblically, we have to say no.

We have to say there is more to what is taking place in this passage than meets the eye.

We have to say that theologically and biblically, there is a character lurking in this passage who is not named.

It is the old enemy from the Garden.

2. Gospel progress rouses a familiar enemy using familiar tactics (v. 5-8).

SATAN AND THE GOSPEL

We must understand something about Satan and the Gospel.

Right after the Fall, in Genesis 3, the destruction of Satan is pronounced by God. A child from Eve’s line will stomp on his head.

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

You shall bruise his heel—crucial injury, but not fatal.

He will bruise your head—fatal injury.

Stomp the head of the snake and the snake is destroyed.

So what happens right after that?

Satan immediately attacks the seed of Eve.

Just as he deceived Eve into eating from the tree, he deceives Eve’s son into killing his brother when Cain kills Abel.

Satan has regularly bruised the heel of the woman’s seed since Eden. His influence is evident in the conflict between Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, and Egypt and Israel. Satan’s goal is always the same: to wipe out the chosen seed. Witness the command of Pharaoh to destroy all of Israel’s male children. Witness Haman’s plot against Esther and her people. Satan lurks at every turn throughout the Old Testament, trying to overthrow the long-term purposes of God.

Joel Beeke

I would add to Beeke’s list—Witness Herod seeking to kill all of the Hebrew boys born during the time of the wise men.

Christ, the Savior who suffered and rose from the dead, came from Eve’s line.

He is the Son of God, but He is also the Son of Adam.

Luke says this in Jesus’ genealogy:

Luke 3:38 ESV

the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

So what was Satan doing in all that flurry of evil activity?

He was trying to kill the seed of Eve and skip out on the destruction decreed by God in the Garden.

Revelation 12 illustrates this perfectly when it depicts Satan as a Red Dragon, standing there as Jesus is being born from the line of Israel. He wants to eat Him, but he fails.

Revelation 12:4 ESV

His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.

But the Child, who is Jesus, dies, resurrects and ascends before the Dragon can devour Him.

The Dragon is furious.

So what does he do?

Well, he turns on the woman who gave birth. The woman represents the people of God.

Satan turns on the people of God—the true Israel—anyone who is in Christ, by faith.

Revelation 12:5–6 ESV

She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

The woman is the church.

Satan is seeking to destroy her.

He couldn’t destroy Jesus, so he focuses on destroying the body of Christ—the people of God—who are in the wilderness of the world.

In this time between the first coming of Christ and second coming of Christ, Satan is hunting us in the world.

WHAT SATAN DOES

The New Testament most often calls the Enemy, “the devil.”

The word means accuser or slanderer.

It is used 60 times in the New Testament.

But it also calls him Satan, which is an English transliteration of a Hebrew word.

The title means Adversary.

The New Testament uses this name for the devil on 36 occasions.

Adversary is a term that is particularly appropriate for this passage this morning.

An adversary opposes. An adversary contends. They resist.

And this is what Satan does.

He opposes Christ and the Gospel. He attempts to contend with Christ as he attacks His church. He resists Christ, which he has hatefully done since his initial rebellion.

John Stott said that there are three ways in which Satan comes against God’s church— he tries to suppress her; he tries to corrupt her; he tries to distract her

A. Satan seeks to suppress the church (persecution).

This is what we are seeing in this passage.

It was more explicit in Acts 16, when the girl had a “python” spirit in her that has to be cast out.

It was the case throughout the first missionary journey in Antioch or when Stephen was martyred or when Peter and John were brought before the authorities.

Satan seeks to suppress the church by beating her into a quiet submission.

B. Satan seeks to corrupt the church (sin).

When the Gospel is making progress, Satan will not just seek to awaken persecution against the church, like we see in this passage.

He will seek to poison the church from within with sin.

Another way that Satan wants to silence the church is by dragging her into sin.

We saw this in Acts 5 with Ananias and Sapphira, lying about the money they had made from selling land.

Acts 5:3 ESV

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

Sin had entered the church and it incurred the judgment of God, but it was inspired by Satan, the Adversary.

This is another way in which Satan is trying to muzzle the Bride of Christ.

When the church falls into sin, it is in danger of losing its witness with the lost world.

Countless myriads of people have turned away from the church because of charlatans and hypocrites.

Understanding this, Satan does all he can to trap a church in the chains of Gospel-hindering iniquity.

And he is happy to play the long game.

He doesn’t need an overnight catastrophe.

He is happy to let a church become ingrown with bad doctrine, bad behavior and bad characters over a numbers of years.

He is happy to let pragmatic decision after pragmatic decision add up to a backwards, broken church that has lost the trust of the neighborhood around it.

C. Satan seeks to distract the church (drift).

Satan would love to see the church lose track of her purpose and her preaching.

He would love to see the church become about anything BUT Christ.

Anything BUT the Great Commission.

Anything BUT godliness.

You see his play at this in Acts 6 when the widow controversy breaks out.

Surely Satan sat in the wings and relished the idea of a race war breaking out in the midst of this growing community.

Hebrews and Greek Jews fighting over widows getting food.

And he would have been titillated at the prospect the Apostles giving up their Christ-commissioned roles as leaders who teach and pray, in order to administrate the widow food distribution.

It was Peter who called for vigilance and was adamant that the Apostles, and by extension, the church, did not lose their focus:

Acts 6:2 ESV

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

Is there anything wrong with serving the tables of widows?

Of course not.

But the Apostles couldn’t do that AND fulfill the task that had been laid on them by Christ Himself.

When Jesus told Peter to feed His sheep, He wasn’t talking about bread.

So here in Acts 17, we know who it is behind the mob.

We know that the Gospel progress of v. 4 is being met with Gospel push-back, because the Adversary, Satan, is seeking to devour the church.

He failed to devour Christ, so now He is coming for His Bride.

He is coming for Paul and Silas and Jason and the new converts.

He hunts them in the wilderness.

In the case of this text, it isn’t Corruption or Distraction—it’s suppression through persecution.

But regardless of the tactic, when the Gospel is opposed, we know who is behind it.

It is the same Serpent from the Garden—the same Enemy of Eve’s seed.

The Devil the Liar. Satan the Adversary.

And he bears down on Lord’s church with his worn out, but dangerous strategies.

CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH

Now, you might hear this talk of the Red Dragon marauding through the world, thirsty for the harm of God’s people, and think, “With enemies like this, who is my Friend?”

This brings us to our final point this morning:

3. Gospel progress is unrelenting because of Christ with His Church.

Here is the reality—Satan will not get but so far.

As Martin Luther taught us to sing:

And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us; we will not fear for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us.

Martin Luther

When Jesus spoke to His disciples about the church’s future and the adversarial attempts of Hell to snuff out the light, He promised this:

Matthew 16:18 ESV

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Now, we might wonder—how will the gates of Hell not prevail?

I am the church and I feel so weak and feeble. How will I not be conquered?

Well remember, that before His ascension, He commissioned the 12 for a global-disciple making movement, culminating in the return of His Son and eternal rest.

The church has been on that mission ever since, awaiting the 2nd Coming, when our work will conclude.

Until that age comes, Jesus promises that He will not just be in Heaven watching over the disciples—He will be with them.

And then, as John is telling believers to be discerning and look out for the spirit of error, he promised this regarding Christ who is with us and Satan, the Adversary:

1 John 4:4 ESV

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

SATAN ON A LEASH

In this age, as we are being used to preach and build the church, Satan has his limitations.

He is not God’s equal, going toe to toe with the Almighty in a battle between good and evil.

If he was, we would despair, thinking there is this great cosmic conflict and we are unsure of the outcome.

Instead, the Bible tells us that Satan is under the thumb of God’s sovereign hand.

Of course, we see this in the case of Job.

Satan desired to take from Job, in an effort to get him to turn on God.

But Satan could not do any more to Job than God would allow.

In their first exchange you see it clearly:

Job 1:12 ESV

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

So understanding that Satan is under God’s governance and that he is unable to do anymore than that which God will allow should comfort us.

He is God’s inferior.

God is stronger.

God is eternal.

God is perfect.

God is wise.

If all of these things are true, we need not fear the enemy.

We can be aware of him and prepared for him, but we need not fear him.

And we certainly do not need to fear the idea that he would defeat God’s church.

Satan will not be able to stop the Gospel from reaching every shore.

And Satan will not stop a multitude from every people group of being saved.

And Satan will not stop the day of the church’s vindication, when her mission ends, and Jesus returns, and she hears, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

He is a dog on a leash, and he will only run as far as the Lord allows.

Furthermore, wouldn’t we say that his plan keeps failing?

Haven’t we seen time and time again that when Satan attacks the church, the persecution that was meant to cause silence just ends up causing more noise.

Case in point, Satan chases Paul out of Philippi, only for him to arrive in Thessalonica and start church planting.

CLOSING

1. Gospel progress produces new believers and new churches.

2. Gospel progress rouses a familiar enemy using familiar tactics.

3. Gospel progress is unrelenting because of Christ with His Church.

If this is true--serve in the way Christ has called you to this week.

Proclaim to your lost friends and family this week.

Pray for God-glorifying fruit from the ministry of this local church.

Do the work of the evangelist.

Be the workmanship of God.

And do it with confidence that though the Enemy lurks, even if he is often unnamed, he will be defeated.

And yet, do not be foolish.

Stay grounded in the Word.

Stay vigilant in prayer.

Keep free from the world.

For if you turn the world upside down and the Gospel progresses, the push-back will most certainly come.