When Opposition Comes

Bottom line

You shouldn’t shy away from opposition. In fact, you should pray for boldness to overcome it.

Opening Line

Have you ever wondered about God’s timing?

Introduction

Last week we looked at Acts 3, and a man that had been lame his entire life was healed by Peter and John. In light of the story, we touched on God’s timing.

This week while I was out at camp, I was reading a book about God’s timing, and the challenge of serving a God who works on his own time in a society that enjoys instant gratification. The book is called Cooked on the Outside, Raw on the Inside. As you can imagine, the book uses the metaphor of enjoying a restaurant quality meal. When you go to a high end restaurant, you don’t expect your food to come out before you sit down. There is an expectation of a wait. Some restaurants even give you salad or breadsticks to tie you over. These aren’t the meal, they are a promisary note that the real meal is on its way. Part of the wait is the expectation that the meal is going to be perfectly cooked.

The metaphor is that God is the good chef, and whatever his will is for your life, it is going to be worth the wait. When the healing does come, just like the guy last week, it is going to be worth the wait.

But along with good food, what is something else almost every restaurant is inevitably going to have?

Critics. People who take exception to the food being served. Inevitably, you can’t make everyone happy, and most restaurants are going to have to content with people voicing their displeasure.

Main Point

But here is the question I want to pose to you. If you were running a restaurant, or you were the head chef, would you close up shop just because someone didn’t like the food? Probably not. It is just the reality that you can’t make everyone happy. Now if multiple people took excepting to a particular dish, it might be worth evaluating the dish and possibly making some adjustments, but you wouldn’t shut down the whole restaurant over one critic.

The same idea has to apply to your faith. The truth is that you will face opposition as a follower of Jesus. In fact, Jesus said that the world will hate you because of him. If they persecuted him, then they will definitely persecute his followers. The problem is that some believers will take opposition and let it determine how they are going to serve God.

Why it matters

What you are going to see this morning is that opposition isn’t always an indicator of God’s will for your life. In fact, when opposition comes, it actually means you are exactly where you need to be, doing what you need to be doing. This week at family camp, the evening speaker encouraged us that doing the right thing doesn’t always feel good. Sometimes your feeling betray you, but your feelings can’t determine what you know to be true.

Scripture

We are in Acts 4 this morning if you have your bible. As always, if you don’t have a bible, let me or the greeters know and we will fix that problem.

We are picking up the story from last week. Peter and John were entering the temple and healed a man who had been lame for 40 years. Peter than takes the opportunity to preach about the power of the name of Jesus to quickly forming crowd.

In the gospels, whenever Jesus performed a miracle, who usually showed up shortly after?

pharisees

Yes the Pharisees, and right on cue, the religious leaders show up in this story.

Acts 4:1–4 NLT

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000.

The religious leaders show up, take exception to the fact they are preaching about Jesus and the resurrection through Jesus, and so they throw them in jail.

Then Luke just throws in the fact that the church is now about 5,000 men, not including women and children. We have gone from 3,000 to 5,000 in very short order. That is pretty significant growth!

Acts 4:5–15 NLT

The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves.

So a couple of things to point out here. If you’ve read through the gospels, Annas and Caiaphas should be names that you recognize. These two were key players in the false trial of Jesus the night he was betrayed. When it says that they recognized Peter and John, this is why. The gospels tell us that both Peter and John were in the crowd during Jesus’ trial.

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This detail also adds weight to Peter’s accusation. He’s not calling out the crowd who were guilty by association. Peter is looking right at Annas and Caiaphas, the very men who ochestrated everything, calling them out for what they did. His words hit a little different.

I love what happens. Peter calls out the leaders. Why exactly are we being questioned? Is it because we did a good deed for this lame man? Because this man was healed by the name of Jesus?

The pharisees are in shock. Peter, who denied he even knew who Jesus was, is now standing before the religious leaders calling them out. These men clearly have no training, they’re just fishermen, yet they speak with such confidence. The cherry on top of it all; the guy who was healed is standing there in their midst. So do they do? They do what all good leaders do, and they kick the two men out so they can discuss their next move.

Acts 4:16–18 NLT

“What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.

Anyone else notice what the council doesn’t do as they are trying to decide how to handle these men and the situation? They don’t pray. There has been a healing, something only God can do, so why didn’t consult God about what their next steps are?

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So they resort to their collective wisdom and decide to give these disciples a strong warning. They even commanded them to stop speaking and preaching in the name of Jesus.

What do Peter and John say in response?

Acts 4:19–22 NLT

But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years.

Peter and John respond by telling them they have to obey God and the direction he is leading them in. They actually can’t stop preaching and speaking the way they have been. So then the council threaten them. Look at how it has escalated. It went from a warning to stop, to a command to stop, and it has hit the level where the council is actually threatening them, stop or else.

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Now it is all fine and dandy to read about the boldness of Peter and John, but what about today? What about for those who don’t share that kind of boldness? What happens when opposition comes?

For those of you who have taken the Hearing God Seminar, this point actually comes up. Pastor Ray points out that many believers take the approach that when opposition comes, or a door is closed, that it means God must be leading you in a different direction. On the flip side, believers can fall into the trap of believing that open doors are also an indicator of God’s will.

But that is not always the case. Sometimes God tells you to walk through a closed door because God wants to show you his power by removing the door. Look at the story of Jericho in the book of Joshua. Jericho was a fortress, a military station and the first line of defense across the Jordan. Could you imagine if Israel had walked up to the gates of the city, knocked or pushed on the gates, and concluded that the locked gates meant God must be calling them in a different direction? No! Jericho was an opportunity for the people to be faithful and God to show his power.

Same with open doors. John Bevere wrote a book called Good or God a while back, the premise was that not every good opportunity, not every open door, is actually part of God’s plan for you life. You need to know what God is calling you to, and become so focused on it that even when good opportunities present themselves, you say no so that you can stay focused on what God has actually called you to. It is too easy to become busy with good things that you become distracted from the God thing you are called to.

The point is that opposition doesn’t mean you are going to wrong way. In fact, Jesus said you would face opposition in this life. I want you to know that I know a little something about opposition in the face of following God’s calling. As I have said many times, I have been a part of Church Renewal for a while. It is how I have been mentored since I came into lead ministry, and I can confidently say that Church Renewal has been a big help in getting the church where it is today. However, the decision to join Church Renewal has not always been well received by my peers. It is not because Church Renewal is lacking, they just believe another method or philosophy of ministry would work better.

Which is actually the same thing the council is doing. It is often easy to read into the story that the council is evil. They aren’t. They are trying to lead the people the best way they can, in a way that honors God, and they are having a hard time with Jesus. They want what’s best for the people, and they don’t want some false doctrine getting in the way.

You will face opposition, and despite the boldness that Peter and John have shown, I want you to take special note of what happens next.

Acts 4:23–31 NLT

As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying, ‘Why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.’ “In fact, this has happened here in this very city! For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed. But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will. And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.

It doesn’t say it, but I think Peter and John come back to the church and take their first breath of the story. You know that feeling when you come through a difficult situation and you almost start shaking. That is Peter and John right now. *deep breath*

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Unlike the council, the church go to prayer, and they ask God to empower them more. Give them boldness to preach, and allow more miracles and signs to be done in the name of Jesus.

They pray for boldness because they know that the opposition is going to keep coming and they don’t want to shy away from it. And God answered their prayer by filling them again with the Holy Spirit and they went out in boldness.

Transition to Application

I believe that we all need more boldness for the gospel in our lives. To prove that point, I have a story to tell you. I got a text from Ryan yesterday. They are in PEI seeing Cheryl’s family. He tells me a story that happened on their flight. He was sitting beside a lady who happened to look over and see him with his bible. He shared a little about why he carries it. She apparently was taken back by that, and so Ryan continued to tell her his story about what Jesus has been doing in his life. She responded by saying, “I’ve been going to church every Sunday for a very very long time and have never heard anyone talk like you. People at our church don’t talk about church outside of church, let alone with a stranger on an airplane.”

As you can imagine, Ryan continued to share and just amaze this lady.

Ryan’s story stirred a lot of emotions in me. It breaks my heart that there are believers out there who don’t share about church or their faith. This lady shouldn’t have had to run into a prairie boy on a plane to see faith in action. I am hopeful that Ryan’s story has inspired her and lit a fire in her faith. And I am so excited for what God continues to do in and through Ryan. I know he openly shares with people he works with, but even people on the plane aren’t safe. Its awesome.

Main To Do

Church, you need to pray for boldness. Last week I challenged you to start your day by asking God to increase your awareness of the needs of the people around you. Now I want you to take it step further and pray for the boldness to do something about it.

Why it matters

You are called to go, be disciples who make disciples. Your testimony has great power to impact people deeply. Your story of faith may open a door for someone to meet Jesus for the first time, or it might awaken someone’s faith that has gone dormant for a while. You never know what the impact your story could have if you never share it. The best part, you don’t have to quote scripture, you don’t have to have anything memorized. You just share from your experience, your story, and no one can take that away from you.

NOW, to the KLBC staff. Clay pointed out that the challenges the last couple of weeks, you do by default as staff, and today’s is no exception. So I have a special challenge for you. Do not let camp be the height of your willingness to share about your faith. You don’t you two months of ministry and throw in the towel for the rest of the year. Use this time and the saftey of camp to build your boldness, so that when summer ends and you go back to regular life, you keep doing what you’ve been doing all summer. You keep sharing about your faith, you keep creating opportunities for people to find hope and life in Christ. So pray for boldness, not just for the kids this week, but the friends and neighbours you will interact with in just over a month.

Closing Line

Pray for boldness, because you never know when the opportunity to share about your faith in Jesus will come.

Discussion Questions

What stood out from the message?

How can you actively seek boldness in the face of opposition in your life?

In what ways can you share your personal faith story with those around you?

How does understanding God's timing change your perspective on challenges you face?

What practices can you implement to strengthen your prayer life, especially when facing challenges?

In what ways can you prepare to respond with boldness when your faith is questioned?

Why is it important to pray for boldness in your everyday life and interactions?