Continuing Through Opposition
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What does the word opposition mean?
Dictionary.com
the action of opposing, resisting, or combating.
antagonism or hostility.
a person or group of people opposing, criticizing, or protesting something, someone, or another group.
Q: Can someone name what comes to mind when you think about opposition?
Sports team is a perfect example. Two side, each trying to score more points and win the game and the other side is trying to prevent the other team from scoring. In the case of the Cowboys sometimes even the referee’s are also trying to keep them from scoring.
Q: Have you had opposition in your life? You all have, maybe you are applying for a job, the other people are your opposition. Or maybe dating, you are interested in a person but there are other people who are also interested in the same person you are. HALLMARK movie right there.
Today we are talking about a more serious kind of opposition from a much larger enemy. Spiritual opposition.
Paul in Acts 22:30 has just been arrested for preaching about Jesus in Jerusalem. Just before this Paul was warned through a prophecy that if he was going to to Jerusalem that they would arrest him.
He chose to go anyways.
This isnt new for Paul, he has been arrested and imprisoned before. Once the people stone him and drug his body out of the city thinking he was dead. He was not going to let opposition scare him off.
Imagine with me, Paul in chains, in a large auditorium with a Roman legal council in front of him and a large crowd wanting to kill him behind him.
The Romans have nothing against Paul, they really dont care but because there are so many Jews in Jerusalem they listen because they want to prevent a riot.
If this sounds a bit like what was happening to Jesus in his trials, it is just like that.
Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.
Q: What happened? Why was there a division from what Paul said?
Verse 8 and 9 show what what the issue.
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.
Why did the Pharisess suddenly turn a corner?
Because Paul was preaching something they believed in but the Sadducees disagreed.
Where is God in all of this?
The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”
In this time God was with Paul.
Q: When you face opposition in life can it sometimes seem like God is distant? Like He is not involved in your life?
Anyone have an example they want to share?
Lets keep going, we will see how much opposition Paul was going to face. Continue with verse 12 to 15
When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near.”
Q: Why did they hate Paul so much?
He got this kind of response on a regular basis when he preached.
Do you believe they were successful? No, why because Paul’s nephew warned him and he then warned the Roman tribunal.
So what happened?
Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.”
My question is why would they do something like this? Its because Paul is a Roman citizen and they will not allow non Romans to unjustly convict one of their own people.
After this what happened? We dont have time to go through it all but its important to know what happens next. After this Paul is sent to Felix the governor.
Felix doesnt see anything wrong with Paul and even has converasation with Paul about faith and brings his wife along to hear about it but because he is afraid of the Jew he keeps Paul in prison for 2 entire years.
Felix then retires and another guy takes his place and he ultimately is sent to Cesar Agrippa and his wife. So Paul is before the rules of the most powerful nation in the world and he is being asked to defend himself.
Q: What does this all have to do with opposition, does anyone want to take a shot at it.
Paul just wanted to preach the gospel to have people hear about Jesus, he was never planning on being before Cesar. But what happened instead.
The Jews who hated him tried to have him killed and by a weird chain of events he was arrested and kept being sent up the chain of command
1st the local council
then the governor
then the next governor
then the ruler or all of Rome, Cesar
Through all of this remember what God promised Paul before it all happened
The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”
In the end Paul gets the opportunity to talk to Cesar about Jesus and they set him free. More than 2 years of his life and thats it, he is set free. It seems kind of unjust doesnt it?
Q: Why did one of the greatest preachers of all time had to do all of that?What does this story tell you about God and His plans?
Whatever God wants he will make happen and usually this happen in the face of extreme opposition.
This can mean that you can have a mob of people vow to not eat or drink until they kill you.
It can also mean that you are jailed for 2 years unjustly.
As a popular song lyric goes “I would rather be in the jungle and in the will of God than anywhere outside it”
And the opposite is also true, if people all around love you and no one wants you any harm but you are far from God’s will for your life then that is the worst place to be.
Q: What is everyone’s thoughts on this?
Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.