Responding to Opponents of the Gospel

Introduction

My bad door-to-door experience...

When someone is against Christ, it can easily lead to conflict. Most of us don’t like conflict and will do anything we can to avoid it.

This is especially true in our modern world where people seem to be set off easily about politics and/or religion.

And yet, as the church, we are still called to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. This will, at times, put us in conflict with others.

We can learn a lot about responding to the opponents of the Gospel by looking at the story of the first-century church’s response to the Jewish religious establishment.

Body: Acts 5:17-42

Verses 17-21a

The first great enemies of the first century church was those in the Jewish religious establishment, particularly the Sadducees.

The Sadducees...

They were jealous because the crowds were responding to the apostle’s teaching, but also out of a zealous defense of their lifestyle.

So the apostles are all arrested, not just Peter and John, and placed in prison overnight until the Sanhedrin could determine what to do with them.

However, that evening the apostles receive a holy visitation from and angel who rescues them and charges them to go right back teaching and preaching the Gospel in the temple.

“this Life” meaning Jesus.

There are numerous points of irony in this story. The first being, the Sadducees don’t believe in angels. And here an angel releases them from the prison the Sadducees put them in.

The apostles readily obey.

Verses 21b-26

In the next bout of irony, the religious leaders meet to discuss what can be done with the men they have in custody, not knowing that the men we no longer in custody because of the intervention of an angel, which they didn’t believe in!

Luke takes great care to mention that the prison was locked and the guards were still on duty, emphasizing the miraculous nature of the apostle’s release from prison.

Then to add to their confusion, the apostles don’t behave like escaped prisoners...by escaping. Instead, they go right back to where they were before, doing the very thing the religious leaders warned them not to do: preaching the name of Jesus.

So perplexed are the religious leaders that when the rearrest the apostles, they don’t do it by force out of fear of the crowds.

Notice that the apostles don’t resist arrest either. If the God who commissioned them to preach the Gospel got them out twice now, why would they think He didn’t have a plan for them this time!

Verses 27-32

The apostles are read the riot act, as the religious leaders are angry that they continued to preach the name of Jesus.

Interesting that they say, “...you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” Here’s why:

Matthew 27:24–25 “So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!””

Clearly, they did that themselves!

Peter takes this opportunity to preach the Gospel to them:

We must obey God, not you...

You are guilty of killing this man, Jesus...

But God has resurrected Him and made Him to be Leader and Savior, offering repentance to His people and the forgiveness of sins...

The Greek word here translated as “Leader” is only used four times in the NT.

It means a person who rules and commands; one who has authority because he established some institution.

It the other places it’s used it is translated as “Author” or “founder.”

Today we often use the title “Lord”.

This is important because Jesus didn’t just come to be your Savior, but also your Leader or Lord...

Verses 33-39

Peter’s Gospel presentation sends them into a potentially violent rage.

“How dare this uneducated fisherman speak to us in this manner! Doesn’t he know who we are?!?! We are his betters in every way, and now he thinks he can calls us blood-guilty! We are the one’s who point out other’s guilt!!! And to think he would speak as if this man was the Messiah!” (Which, consequently, the Sadducees didn’t believe in either!)

Not to mention, what Peter said in verse 31 amounts to blasphemy in the eyes of the Sanhedrin because if Jesus is exulted to the right hand of the Father it makes him equal with God.

But, a respected teacher named Gamaliel (guh MAY lih uhl) shows great wisdom in his response to them:

Using examples from recent Jewish history, he reminds them that if a movement is of man alone it will fail, but if God is the one behind the movement nothing they can do will stop it.

In fact, they will put themselves in conflict with God Himself!

Wisely they heed his advice...sort of...for now...

Verses 40-42

However, they take the opportunity to beat the apostles and threaten them not to speak the name of Jesus to the crowds anymore.

The apostles promptly ignore the threats, returning to the temple to preach the Gospel the next day, and the days after that!

Notice that the apostles were “rejoicing that they were counted worth to suffer dishonor” for Jesus name.

This doesn’t mean they enjoyed the beating. It means they saw themselves as identifying in a small way with Christ Jesus Himself. This is the source of their rejoicing.

So What?

How do Christ followers respond to opponents of the Gospel of Jesus?

Followers of Jesus obey His commands, in the face of all circumstances.

Jesus’ last words to the disciples before the Ascension were clear:

Acts 1:8 “But 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.””

After this second arrest, some might be tempted to give up on the calling to be witnesses. But, not the disciples. In fact, the angel charges them:

Acts 5:20 ““Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.””

The command is clear and to the point: go back and continue to be Jesus witnesses in Jerusalem.

It’s so vital that we understand the underlying teaching here: For a follower of Jesus to be a follower of Jesus, we must set out to obey what God tells us.

Add to this, we must be willing to obey the command of God, even if it is scary to obey the command of God.

See, this strikes at the heart of many people’s deeply held, non-biblical belief that God is always going to put us into situations and circumstances where we are safe. Allow me to disabuse you of that belief right now.

In Scripture, God rarely sends His people out on a mission where they are completely safe.

While it’s true that our soul is safe and God protects His people, this doesn’t mean we will be physically or emotionally safe.

As modern Americans, we put a massive emphasis on personal safety. To the point that sometimes we stop just short of worshiping our safety and the safety of our family.

But, that’s not necessarily the call that God will have on our lives.

The movie End of the Spear tells the story of missionaries, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Nate Saint, and their families. The group went to Ecuador in the 1950s, and during their time there attempted to reach a group of natives named the Waodani with the Gospel.

The men were all eventually speared to death by the tribes men. If you are familiar with the story you know that after this some of the men’s wives made contact with the tribe and eventually led mean of these people to faith in Jesus.

But there is a power scene in the movie where Nate’s son, Steve, begs his father to use the rifle in the plane if they were in danger. Nate’s response was, “Son, we can’t shoot the Waodani. They’re not ready for heaven...we are.”

Nate was not physically safe. But his soul most certainly was.

Another legacy of this missionary family was a major magazine ran a front page cover story about the missionaries being killed. The response was not fear, but it shockingly inspired other believers to follow the call to be missionaries!

Now, don’t miss my point, I’m not saying God is necessarily going to call you to do something like Jim Elliot and his companions. What I am saying is that when God calls His people to obey, there is no promise of personal comfort, leisure, pleasure, or safety. But, that doesn’t mean it’s not a calling that’s worthwhile.

In C.S. Lewis’ amazing story from the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, upon hearing about Aslan the lion (the Christ figure in the story), Lucy asks Mr. Beaver, “Is He safe?” “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”

Our God is not a safe God. But praise God, hallelujah, He is good!

So, let’s commit to obeying Him in all things!

Followers of Jesus trust God’s provision, especially when experiencing resistance.

I have no doubt, this was likely a scary time for the disciples. Yes, the responded with faith and obedience, but that doesn’t suggest they weren’t scared.

They’d already seen first-hand what happens when the religious leaders want to rid themselves of problem what the results can be.

The easiest thing would have been to say, “Alright, let’s not preach and teach about Jesus publicly. Let’s find safe, private places to meet and not ruffle feathers.” Many people today would have responded this way.

What was it that moved them to respond the way they did?

Because God had always provided exactly what they needed to fulfill the mission He had for them at any given time. Thus, instead of retreating in the face of fear, they boldly continued to fulfill their mission because they are convinced that God would provide for them as long as they did what He told them to do.

Now, let’s be honest, we aren’t likely to face similar circumstances as the first century disciples.

But that fact doesn’t mean that God isn’t calling us today to trust His provision.

Everyone follower of Jesus has a calling on his or her life...

General calling...

Specific calling...

In order to fulfill that calling, we have to trust that God will give us exactly what we need to fulfill the calling.

But too many believers spend too much of their lives not fulfilling God’s call out of fear; fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of letting go of some false idol, fear of how others might react, or any other number of fear sources. The commonality of all of these is a fear that God will not come through for you.

Understand this: God will not call you to do something then leave you on your own. This is clearly seen in this text, but also throughout church history, and in countless stories of believers like you and me.

Followers of Jesus boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, regardless of the potential danger.

I love that the disciples went right back to what they were doing when they first got arrested: preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus.

This is the call of the church. To boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus.

This will always be the call of the church until we are all in glory with Him.

Everything we do as a church should be Gospel-centric. Meaning, our mission is only the Gospel of Jesus Christ; proclaiming the Gospel, daily Christian living because of the implications of the Gospel in our lives, worshiping together because of the victory won by Christ through the Gospel, teaching believers what it means to be a Gospel-centric people through lessons and example. Gospel, Gospel, Gospel.

But I’m not a preacher!

Proclaiming the Gospel isn’t the sole purview of preachers. We preach the Gospel, but Gospel proclamation is more that preaching from a pulpit. In fact, the greatest Gospel proclamation generally doesn’t happen from the pulpit. It happens through conversation, relationship, genuine care for others, and presence in the lives of unbelievers.

So, who are you proclaiming the Gospel to in your life? Who are you spending time with? Who are you praying for? Who are you looking for opportunities to proclaim the Gospel to.

Challenge:

Write a list of everyone you know you’d like to see come to know Jesus as Savior.

Pray for everyone on that list every day this week.

Look for at least one way to reach out to that person this week, just to see how they are doing.

If the situation is right, ask how you can pray for him or her.

If the situation is right, ask him or her about their faith.

Regardless, listen and affirm your love and concern for them.