Greetings and welcome to Witnesses of the King. Witnesses of the King. This is an exposition of the Book of Acts. We're going through chapter by chapter, taking a look at the main events, seeing what it is that God was doing by the Holy Spirit to begin the work of the Church, continuing the work of Jesus Christ in the world. Today we're in Acts chapter 5 and I hope you'll join me there. We'll be looking at verses 17 all the way through 42 So we've got a big chunk of scripture here But it's really a single narrative event and what we're going to take a look at today in some details We're going to take a look at this opposition to the gospel. So far, our focus has been upon the content of Peter's preaching early, on the actions of the early church, what kind of things they were doing, and we've seen opposition already to the church. We saw opposition immediately in chapter 3. We saw that even though Peter and John had done a good thing, they were opposed by the leaders, and we're seeing that opposition again here in chapter 5. It begins to intensify a bit. So we're going to take a look at this today and discover what we can learn from it, how we can be encouraged. Even today, so far removed from those events and even that context, living in a much different world, but very many things are exactly the same that some of what we'll be discovering today. So we're going to begin by reading, and we're going to look at this opposition, and we're going to find, perhaps, some even startling revelations concerning ourselves. So be prepared. Let's go to the scripture, starting in Acts chapter 5, verse 17. Here's what it says here. But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in public prison. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, and all the people of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison. So they returned and reported, we found the prison securely locked and the guard standing at the doors. But when we opened them, we found no one inside. Now, when the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. And someone came and told them, look, the men who you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us? But Peter and the apostles answered, We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. And he said to them, Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. For before these days Thutis rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God. So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. Let's begin with a moment of prayer. Father God, we praise you this day for bringing us together in this way. And Lord, I pray that as we review these scriptures, as we seek to understand them, that you will strengthen us with your Holy Spirit. for the task of understanding these things and rightly applying them to our very own lives. Help us to put into action what we learned today. Help us, Lord, to understand. Help us to help others with this great news. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we have kind of an interesting affair. They arrest the apostles. The apostles are sprung out of prison by an angel of the Lord, and then they're brought right back the next day again, and interrogated, questioned by these, and give an answer. Well, what we see about this opposition to Jesus Christ, and what we're going to learn today is this. This opposition to God, to the spreading of the gospel, is constant, and it's irrational, and ultimately, in the end, it is futile. So here we're going to begin our outline today with looking at the fact that opposing God is constant. Opposition to God is predicted very clearly by Jesus himself. In John chapter 15 verses 18 through 21, he said, if you know the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. And so this is a powerful reminder that Jesus said these things would happen. He said on the night that he was taken and arrested in John 16, 33, he said, I've said these things to you that in me, you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. So he makes it very plain. In the world, you will have tribulation. opposition to the gospel is constant, and it was predicted by Jesus. Opposition to the gospel has been displayed all through time. And we see this to be the case. As we find in the Old Testament, we find all through the Old Testament, the prophets of God are resisted. The leaders of God are resisted. As people embrace idolatry or other things or anything but, sometimes it seems, But the God of the promise, the God of the land, the God who gave them the promised land, brought them out of bondage in Egypt, and it seems they'll take anything they can to find something else to follow. So the opposition to the gospel is displayed all through time. The book of Hebrews, chapter 11, gives a good review of this. It reviews from the perspective of the faithful and what they did to display the faith that they had. And it reminds us that, indeed, even though those people did not receive the full benefit of the promises that they were following, they will receive them, and they'll receive them together with us. But in their day, they did not see those things, and yet they acted in faith. In Acts chapter 7, just a couple chapters, we're going to see a profound review by the deacon Stephen, servant of the church, and we're going to see Deacon gives this review of the history of Israel, the whole Old Testament as we know it. And it is quite a scathing review, rather it's more of a commentary. And he speaks of the constant rejection of the prophets and the present rejection of Jesus Christ and his church. And as we look through history, some almost 2,000 years since the events we're reading about, we can see clearly that the work of the church has always been opposed. Now some would argue, and they say, no, no, no, it hasn't been opposed. There were times that the church was in charge, that the church in the form of the Roman Catholic Church or in other areas, the Eastern Orthodox Church, that they actually ruled the place by the church. But we can take the Bible, and we can take it back to those times, and we can compare it, and we can say, no, this wasn't exactly the church. and we could see that there were actions that made it very clear that indeed these were people who had crept into the church and were using it as a tool to rule. And so we can see all through church history the true gospel the Gospel of the Book of Acts, the Gospel of the faithful that have been here since then, has been opposed. And this opposition is a spiritual opposition. This is why it's always opposed, because its opposition is eternal in itself. Satan and his powers and principalities that are at work in the world are opposing the work of the gospel. And this is why this opposition goes unchecked generation to generation. It is constant and it is always there. Listen to what it says in the scripture about our opposition. It says, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. This is our opposition. But we are equipped for this opposition. Ephesians 6 is all about having the armor of God, putting on the armor of God to resist the devil and these temptations that we have. In 2 Corinthians 10.4, Paul puts it this way, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. And so, indeed, this is the equipped church resisting these powers and moving forward the cause of the gospel despite them. So, great positive opportunity and positive things for us to understand from this passage. Satan had rebelled against God, and now he continually tempts mankind as he did in the Garden, and his temptations are very similar in nature to what he did in the Garden. So review Genesis chapter 3 and consider how the temptations are much the same in his temptation Did God really say, or you'll be like gods, and indeed it never really changes. But he continues to make this temptation to believer and unbeliever alike in all the world. And this is how he opposes the gospel, to take all that he can from God because he hates God. But Satan, as we know, is defeated already. And in fact, we are campaigning here on earth, our battle is really a cleanup campaign, for the enemy stands defeated. We have only to push him back to his own borders, so to speak. Once Jesus made payment for sin on the cross, and then was raised again for our justification, That means that those who believe in him cannot be touched by Satan. They can be influenced and tempted and everything else, but ultimately he cannot come between a believer and his salvation because the work of Jesus Christ is what secures the believer, not the believer's work. And it is the work of Jesus Christ that he cannot overcome. For as Jesus said on the cross, it is finished. So what is left for Satan to do but to oppose the spread of the gospel? Maybe we can just minimize it. Maybe we can just keep it from going to so many people. And indeed, this is what he does. And he does it through unbelievers. He does it this way in 2 Corinthians 4. In the case of unbelievers, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Well, of course, the power of God and the Holy Spirit overcomes this blindness even. And truly we can say with the blind man that Jesus healed, I was once blind, but now I see. You can always spot this kind of opposition to the gospel. It is always some kind of a temptation. For all those who oppose the gospel, there is some temptation that is causing them to oppose the gospel. They're slaves to their own desires. And this is why this is global opposition because there are always sinful desires in the human heart. I also want to remind you that Satan is called the prince, the ruler, or the god of this world, and when we were lost ourselves, we followed him. This is clearly what it says in the book of Ephesians chapter 2, that when we were lost, before Christ intervened in our lives, we followed the way that the world was going, which was all following the way of Satan, and we were led that way by our own desires. So because this is a spiritual problem that we're dealing with and that this opposition to God is spiritual, well then that tells us something. That means that it often opposes reason. it often comes across as being irrational, and that's why we see, you know, why did these people oppose God? Why were these men opposing God? It seemed quite irrational to us, and indeed it was. As we saw in the previous chapter, the leader stood there with in front of them a man who had been born lame, had been lame at least 40 years, And everyone knew who he was and the disciples healed him. Peter healed this man in front of the temple, took him into the temple dancing and praising God. And it was an undeniable thing, the words of the leaders themselves. What has happened cannot be denied. and yet they still resisted. Is that rational? Is this the kind of person that's thinking straight that they see that someone born lame had been healed and now they're going to oppose the work that did it? They're going to oppose the one in whose name he was healed? This is completely irrational. Now there's been many healings as we go to the scriptures and we see just before the passage we read, look what it says as it summarizes what was going on in the church in that period. It says, the people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem. bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. The verse before that's amazing because they even carried the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. We're talking about the healing power of the Holy Spirit ignited through faith that is so powerful at that time. that even just the shadow of Peter was thought to heal people, and indeed probably did from the way this is phrased. We're reminded of when a woman snuck up upon Jesus, not wanting to interrupt him, not wanting to draw attention to herself, and she thought, if I just touch the hem of his garment I will be healed, and she was. And so these are important and powerful things to understand is that healing was now widespread. Everybody knew it. They were gaining a reputation and people were coming from around. They were laying people in the street. Oh, Peter usually walks by here. He likes to go to lunch at this little deli down here. It's his favorite place. And so let's set up here and we'll put Tim down there on the ground. And hopefully when Peter walks by, maybe a shadow will just touch him and he'll be healed. This is the kind of atmosphere we're talking about. It says very plainly that the people of God had favor with all the people, that this was a summary of how they were getting along with people. Look at chapter 5 verse 13. None of the rest dared join them. See, there was some fear among people too about this because they knew something big was going on. They knew God was involved, and when God's involved there's fear because we all know at some level our own sinfulness. We're all in some way Isaiah, who when he sees the Lord high and lifted up says, woe is me, I'm undone. I shouldn't be here. I'm a man of unclean lips. I live among people of unclean lips. So there was this fear among people, and yet they respected the believers. Look what it says. The people held them in high esteem. In other words, they're like, well, those are good people. Don't you say a bad word about them. No, I'm not ready to join them yet. That kind of freaks me out a little bit. I've got to get my act together first. to oppose such a thing in your town. Imagine this. Imagine your own town and picture this happening in your own town and thinking, I'm going to oppose this. These aren't violent people. They're helping one another. They're sharing their possessions with one another as any of them have need. So there would not be a poor person among them. They were being peaceful. They were full of joy. They were something that people would want to come to your town. You would want to spark tourism to come to see these people that are just happy all the time and they're so nice. Opposition to this movement is powerfully irrational. But that is the nature of sin. See, God is the author of reason, of logic, of order. And to oppose him will always seem unreasonable. And this is unreasonable. And look at the actions of the leaders. They did not discuss this with the apostles. They did not investigate. Sometimes just the magnitude of a claim requires one to investigate. Think about that. Sometimes just the magnitude of a claim requires a person to investigate. Just the mere fact that these men came in and said, the Messiah has come. You killed him, but he rose from the dead. Doesn't that deserve some investigation, just because of the absurdity of the claim? Because the claim is so absurd, it really shouldn't be hard for you to disprove it, if it's untrue. So this comes with these signs and wonders, with these men who do these great signs and wonders, and all the people following them, and they're displaying all the characteristics of godliness, and their behavior with one another, and their behavior in public. But these leaders carry out no investigation. They really don't ask any questions and even though it says he questioned him, it's more or less a statement. This is what you're doing and you intend to bring guilt on us. There's no debate. There's just this arrogant attempt at censorship. bullying. This is just simply oppression and it eventually turns to violence and eventually murder. See, rational human beings, rational leaders would have investigated. And they would have investigated at least to expose this fraud, if there was one, to protect the people under their care. If you think about the responsibility of these religious leaders of the Jews, their responsibility would be to protect people from false religions, from false teachings, and everything else. And if that's the case, if something comes along, then it should be your endeavor to disprove it in the eyes of all without a doubt. But that is not what they do. Among them were the scribes. They were the chief scholars in the Jewish world. And real scholars would have searched the scriptures. They would have demanded audience with the apostles. Then they would have refuted the apostles' assertions by appealing to the scriptures. and to the proper interpretation of those scriptures using the context and rightly understanding the historical situation and the grammar involved. But they didn't. Why didn't they, is the question. Why did they not investigate? Why did they not search? Why did they not debate these apostles and engage them with these things in order to find the truth? Well, it's very simple. They weren't interested in the truth. Let me show you a quote recently from Dr. James White. He said this, and I may not have the quote 100% correct, but he definitely meant this when he said it. He said, if you're telling the truth, you do not need to censor your opponents. You merely need to refute them. And I thought that was a powerful truth. That is so true that if indeed you have truth on your side, then you should be able to engage your opponents and talk these things out and reason them out and through logic and rationality and investigation be able to prove your point. But this was not at all what these were attempting. The actions of the leaders here seem completely irrational. And this is the evidence that they make no rational action. But these people are not acting rationally. It's irrational. But irrationality will always attempt to disguise itself in some way. Because these men know at some level they're being irrational. And so they'll want to hide their true motives. And usually this is what people do in this kind of a situation. They'll hide their true motives. They'll hide behind something like, well this is what's best for our country. Or this is what's best for the safety of everybody. or this is what will make for peace and will keep the peace, or this is really out of love and our concern for this thing and they'll bring up some other thing to be concerned about. They'll say it's to defend the faith or defend our community or it's in the interest of fairness, etc. They'll use all kinds of things as a veil to pull across their irrationality and their deceit. They will try to hide it behind the guise of some kind of positive intention, but it will not work. Now here in the text, we actually have plainly shown to us what the problem is. And as R.C. Sproul points out in his handling of this text, he says this is really about jealousy. And it's interesting that the ESV translates the word at the end of verse 17 as jealousy. because really the word is broader than that. It means kind of a zeal, but it does have this connotation of acting jealously. Jealousy. Jealously. Acting jealously. And it fits here because this is what is happening. The apostles are getting all this positive attention, this great following of people, and they perceive it's the apostles that they're following, but we know that people are following Jesus. They're disciples of Jesus Christ, not of Peter and of John. They are disciples of Jesus. But it looked on the surface, they're getting all the attention, they're having all the influence. These were the religious leaders that met together, the Sanhedrin, the council of the Jews, the leaders, and they were given quite a bit of liberty by the Romans at that time, even though the Romans ruled the area. They gave some liberty and some responsibility and some authority to those who were native there, and in this case it's this Jewish Sanhedrin, which is ruling over the people under, of course, Rome. But all the people are following and listening to the apostles. And so this is jealousy here. It's also covetousness, because they see what the apostles have, and they kind of covet that kind of admiration, that kind of leadership. See, they were in charge, and they had the authority, the leadership the Sanhedrin did, and yet people didn't really like them. People didn't really prefer them. Many people saw through their hypocrisy. And so now they see the apostles' position, and there's covetousness involved. But there's also greed involved because their position carried with it a certain lucrative opportunity of profit. You know the right people and just like in our nation as people go to Washington and become wealthy for some reason, wealthy way beyond their salaries as representatives of the people, it's because they find their opportunity that comes with this kind of leadership position. And so there's no doubt that part of what's motivating these men has to be greed. And so here they come, they're clearly not interested in the truth, clearly not interested in protecting the people from religious heresy, they're clearly not even interested necessarily in leading the people in the right way. What they're most interested in, and this is where it rubs us, this is where it hits us personally, what they're most interested in, maintaining the status quo. They like their positions. They like their authority and their wealth and their influence. They like the relative safety of their positions and they're not willing to give that up easily. But ultimately, when it comes from a spiritual point of view, when we have to assess these men's actions from a biblical perspective, we have to see this, that this is the ultimate lack of faith. The entire Old Testament implies that this One is coming that is going to make everything right, that He is going to accomplish everything the people of Israel could not. He is going to accomplish and bring God's rule upon the earth. that this one is going to come and be their Messiah, the anointed one, the chosen one, to rule as king, to be the ultimate high priest, to be the great prophet that they must listen to, to be the deliverer, the Joshua who brings them a conquering power. And they were promised this from the beginning. yet they didn't believe that this one was really coming and they didn't believe that he could come in a way that they didn't expect. They maybe had their ideas of how he would come and Jesus didn't fit that profile but nothing in them doubted themselves in such a way that they should say maybe we're wrong about this. Maybe God is going to do this a different way. But this was a lack of faith. If they had believed it, if they had believed all the promises of God through all the Old Testament, they would take time to investigate every lead. It often stuns me that when the Magi in Matthew chapter 2 come from a far land, come to Jerusalem seeking Him who's born King of the Jews, And Herod in his jealousy wants to know about this because he wants to try to wipe him out and he does try to wipe him out and he of course fails. But the others, he asks the question, okay where is it that this Messiah is supposed to be born? They're like, oh yeah Bethlehem. So they send a Magi to Bethlehem. None of them went with him. I mean, this should be a sign to you that these people come from a far place, that they come looking for one king, you know, born king of the Jews. Oh yeah, we followed a star. I mean, these are all things that should be red flags, and it should be like maybe these people are onto something. They came from where Daniel used to live. They have a title like Daniel had a title. Maybe we ought to see what they know, but none of them do, at least out of curiosity. And so we shouldn't be surprised by this. We come here to the book of Acts, none of the leaders interested in investigating Jesus. Let's just resist it. Let's just put it down, because it might threaten who we are. It might destabilize our peace with Rome or whatever. Look, if they had any inkling of what Messiah was going to be like, they would know this for sure. They wouldn't have to worry about Rome. And that's the truth, the gospel. this constant and irrational opposition is ultimately and completely futile. And this is the part that's very interesting. See among them Gamaliel stands up as one to give some advice and he was very respected among the people. Now you might know that name because Gamaliel was Saul's mentor before, of course, he became known to us as Paul, who wrote so many of the epistles. Paul that we'll meet here at the end of chapter... well, we'll meet him in the beginning of chapter 8. We'll really get to know him in chapter 9. And he becomes Paul the Apostle. Well, Gamaliel was his teacher. He was very well known among the Jews, and he was one very educated in the scriptures, and also in some ways very wise. We see what he says here in verses 35 to 39. And basically he says, if this plan is of man, it will fail. But I want to point out some things that he's wrong on and a couple things that he's right about. First of all is this assertion as he has here in verse 38. He says, Well, I won't argue with him on this point. This is not necessarily true. Many things that are not of God, many things that are the invention of men, continue. Think about Islam, think about Hinduism, or Buddhism, or the various Christian cults, or general paganism. These things of man do endure. Now, interestingly, if you think about the most enduring inventions of mankind, it's their religions. The other things are banned. There are various civilizations, there are various socioeconomic orders that they establish upon the earth, their governments, their nations. These things don't endure very well. They don't usually last more than a couple hundred years before they fall apart, generally because of the judgment of God for their sins. But nevertheless, these things don't last, but the religions do. Why? Well, I'll tell you the truth, it's because Satan is most interested in false religions continuing. And mankind is also very interested in false religions continuing. Any false religion will always be able to have some followers, even zealous followers, even martyrs for their cause, like the Christian church has, because these things are driven by spiritual forces, and they're willfully embraced by many people as a hiding place from the truth. Gamaliel is wrong about this. Some things do endure and the best example we have is also evidence of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ because these things oppose the gospel. They continue because these forces behind them continue. Now something he's right about in verses 36 and 37 is the fact that in their recent history, he brings up the example of Thutis and the example of Judas, and I think it's just coincidental that they rhyme, but it could be a fun little song. But he gives two examples out of the recent history of failed attempts to make some kind of a movement, to make some kind of a let's throw off Rome, let's enter a new Jewish Arab. See, some people seem to believe that the Christ was brought about by the act of will, that someone properly motivated and properly determined could become this Christ and lead the people to a time of freedom from Rome. And so these people rose up, and as he gives in the examples, they fell. Now there were a lot more than two. He only gives two examples. There were many of them that came before Christ, and there were even some that came after Christ, claiming to be somebody, claiming to start a movement, getting a bunch of disciples or followers, and trying to start some kind of a campaign to make Israel great again. And so he gives two examples of many, but what they're dealing with now is something entirely different. When Thutis rose up, once he was killed, his followers were scattered. When Judas rose up, once he was killed, his followers were scattered. When Jesus was arrested, his followers were scattered. But Jesus rose from the dead. So unlike the others, Jesus is not dead. In fact, Jesus is still alive. And even worse, he sent his Holy Spirit so that Jesus is not just influencing his followers. Jesus is in his followers. And that's the difference. And that's why what they're dealing with here, they're unable to stop. And it spreads from Jerusalem, and just like Jesus predicted, to Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the world, as we see here in the book of Acts. So he's right about this. The fact is, there are many have come and gone. He's also right about this, if it is of God, it cannot be stopped. And he says here, his advice basically is, if it is of God, verse 39, you will not be able to overthrow them. Christianity always has a faithful remnant. Even if a majority of the people are corrupted there is this faithful witness among them all the time This is the promise of God that nothing will overcome it that it will continue This is what God has promised and think about Jesus when he first Announced to his disciples because they were figuring it out revealed to by God Peter says you're the Christ the son of the Living God and Jesus says right, you know God has revealed this to you and And he talks about, on this rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This goes right along with what we see in some of the Old Testament. As we see like Proverbs 21 30, no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord. We talked about a couple sessions ago, Psalm chapter 2. that this, why do the nations rage in a people's plot in vain? It's a vain thing to try to plot against the Lord and His Christ. And so, these are great truths. Indeed, at the pinnacle of Scripture, in Romans chapter 8, verses 31 to 39, Paul, after describing the whole gospel and its benefits to the believer and our position in Jesus Christ and what all that means, he says, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who can separate us from the love of God? Nothing can separate us, is his answer here very clearly. Nothing will stop God's plan to build his church and it has been tried and the church remains. The church has suffered attack, from the outside, in which people just try to squash it, to stop it, to persecute it. It has suffered attack from the inside, in which people try to infiltrate it, and adopt it, and change it from the inside out. But wherever it's been outlawed, or wherever it's been infiltrated, wherever it's been compromised with, or even hijacked, the Christian faithful always remain. There's always this faithful remnant who doesn't go along with the deception, who isn't squashed by the persecution, who escapes it by the hand of God. It continues. Now opposition is constant and irrational, but as we see from history, it is also quite futile. So how can we be encouraged by this today? There are many ways that we can be encouraged and the first one I want to point out to you is very simply this. Stop opposing God. Now I know you're not a Pharisee or a Sadducee. You're not in the Council or the Sanhedrin. You're not trying to enact legislation to cancel the church or anything else like that. But nevertheless, when we look at this text and we examine ourselves, we will all find, as I find when I look at this text, to some extent, I'm the bad guy here. The exact things that motivated those leaders, their jealousy, their covetousness, their greed, their lack of faith, I see in myself opposing my next step in faith. Now, what is your next step in faith? Are you opposing it because of one of these reasons? Are you opposing it because you're afraid? Are you opposing it because you don't want to give something up? Are you opposing and trusting Jesus Christ with your eternal salvation because you're afraid of giving up your sin or you're afraid that you will fail? Well, let me tell you something. Perfect love casts out fear. perfect love casts out fear. Is it something that you love, that you're hanging on to, that you don't want to give up, that you know that if I become a Christian I'll have to put this down, I'll have to stop these ways, I'll have to forsake this kind of behavior. Is there something like that in your life? then understand the power of Jesus Christ himself comes to those who believe. The Holy Spirit indwells the person and can give them victory over all such trials and temptations. It doesn't happen overnight. It's going to be a battle, but you'll finally be armed and you'll finally have an advocate. An advocate on your side who is seated at the right hand of the Father, who is interceding for you. His prayers for you are always answered. So act in faith and not fear and act in truth and not in this deceit and not in this hypocrisy and not in this anger or jealousy Maybe your next step is getting baptized or joining a church. Do those things. Pray for the power in God to do those things. Pray for the boldness to make the next step. Maybe your next step is in bringing church home. Maybe you have unbelieving family and friends that you just are having trouble opening your mouth and speaking to. Well, this is much the same thing. You are opposing the gospel. pray to be taken out of the way, and pray that you can be that vessel, that voice, or pray that someone else will do it. But nevertheless, pray for your family and friends who are lost, and bring them the truth, and open to them the Scriptures, and show them the love of God. Start with John chapter 3, or Romans chapter 3. You know, find some way to touch and engage with them, and get to know them. When we hesitate in all of these kinds of things, we might be found opposing God. If we've been thinking about a certain ministry opportunity and being involved in our church or the work of God in some way and we're hesitating or waiting, we might be opposing God. We need to be careful about that. There are real consequences to opposing God, and I know the main point of this was that the work of God will continue, but understand this, that if you do not overcome the obstacles in your life in order to share the gospel with those around you, you have no reason to expect that those around you will ever hear it. something very profound and important to think about. When we oppose, even in very small ways, we might be robbing those around us of the truth. These leaders were leading their people literally to destruction. Jesus predicted that the temple, and indeed the city, would be destroyed. It would be attacked and destroyed. Not one stone upon another remaining, he said, regarding the temple. And we know that was fulfilled in A.D. 70 when the Jews had an uprising against Rome and they besieged the city of Jerusalem for a great long time. People dying of starvation and people dying of infighting and other things. And finally the city's attacked and up to a million Jews died. The Christians weren't there because they had the message of Jesus. Jesus told them, when you see siege happening to the city of Jerusalem, get out of town. Go to the wilderness. Do whatever you have to do to go and go immediately. And that's accounted in Matthew 24 and 25. And they did. And so they weren't in town. Do you see the same things happening right now today? That Jesus has made it clear that I'm coming back and when I do I'm going to judge everybody where they're at at that moment. There's not going to be an altar call when Jesus comes back. It's going to be a separating of sheep and goats. Those that believe and those that don't. And so now is the time. Today is the day of salvation. Do not wait any longer. Throw yourself at the mercy of Jesus Christ. He said that he will not turn away any who come to him. So come to him with your sin. Repent of it and trust in him for your salvation. He will not turn you away. Stop opposing God. Because it's as futile as it was for these leaders. The next encouragement is this, Jesus Christ is always building his church. Throughout history, there has been persecutions, famine, plague, world wars, empires come and go. There have been debates. There have been scandals. There has been oppression. But the church always grows. It still survives. It still thrives. We may be few, and we may seem weak, and we may seem foolish. But remember, it is God using the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. according to 1st Corinthians chapter 1. It may seem odd that we do it the way that we do, but this is what God has ordained to do, because He wanted to make sure everyone could do it. We simply communicate the truth. And now as many are persecuted and arrested or struck down, sometimes we're tempted to question God's wisdom in how He's doing things, but this is how He's chosen to do it. so that it may be obvious that the church is growing not by the will of man, but by the very power of God. Jesus Christ is always building His church. So pray for boldness. As we saw the disciples in the previous chapter, in chapter four, they prayed for boldness to continue the work. They didn't ask for the persecution to go away. They didn't ask for, you know, somehow for these leaders to be destroyed and themselves to be put in charge or anything of that nature. They asked simply for boldness to continue the work and they were given it. And then the last piece of advice here is stay there until they throw you out. I get that from Warren Wiersbe, that phrase. Because the question comes, you know, how long should they resist? How long should they deal with this kind of persecution? And we saw the result of the disciples. What they did is they went away rejoicing after all this. Rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer for the cause of the gospel. And what's going to happen in the coming chapters is that eventually this persecution will get to such a point that a lot of the believers are going to leave Jerusalem. And what happens then is magnificent because then it really expands and goes throughout the Roman Empire. It's really astonishing but I encourage you this. Stay where you are until you get thrown out. In other words, preach the gospel to those around you. until they won't hear it anymore to your family, your friends, your church. If you're in a church that is not particularly faithful and you're trying to correct them, stay there and keep preaching the truth and keep preaching the gospel until they literally throw you out. This was Warren Wiersbe's advice to a friend while he was ministering at Moody Church in Chicago. Someone that he had met, he led to Christ. This man happened to be a pastor in another denomination. And this pastor began then, in his zeal and his joy of being saved, began to share the gospel with his congregation, with his church. Well, guess what? It was resisted. And it was resisted by his leadership and the people above him and they put pressure on him. You've got to stop talking this way. This is not our way. This is not how we do it. And he asked his friend Warren Wiersbe. He says, what do I do? And he says, stay there until they throw you out. Be loving and kind but do not give in. Eventually, this man was forced out of the church, but not before he had influenced many people, and many people were saved as a result. So stay where you are. Most opposition that we find is from religious leaders, even to this day. Stay there and be an influence. Go to your family first, and then go from there. Remain there where you are. Begin to share the gospel until you get thrown out. And check your intention. Don't preach merely to be a pain. Don't preach just in defiance of law. But preach in obedience to Jesus Christ. And join the apostles in their victory. For they went away rejoicing that they had been counted worthy. to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ. And this is our joy. This was told to us by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, that this would be a blessing for those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's the unmistakable mark of it. And look how Paul puts it in his letter to the Philippians. He says, it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. Let's pray. Father God, these are incredible mysteries that are beyond our comprehension sometimes. And Lord, we pray. We pray that you would lend us understanding. We pray that you would make yourself known and glorified. And Lord, we thank you for your wonderful ministry through the saints. for continuing to keep your work going. Lord, we are stunned that you have done it so long, that you have done it so well, that so many have been saved. And Lord, we understand this is all an act of grace, for not one of us would deserve the salvation that you bring in Jesus Christ, and that's why it's called a gift. Let us accept it this day, and let us, Lord, accept all that comes with it. And Lord, I pray that we will glorify you by proclaiming your gospel truth to many. And I pray that you will continue your great work as you give us boldness, and as you give us the words, and as you push forth your word into the world to save many who are lost and dying. We thank you, Lord, for this great ministry, and we thank you for the privilege. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. And I hope you've enjoyed our time together. I certainly have. And I want to invite you to contact us if you have any questions or comments or concerns or need help finding a church in your area, whatever it is, contact us through whitesrun.org. You can email us at whitesrunbaptist at gmail.com. And I will answer those personally. So I invite you to please reach out with whatever is on your mind, and I'll get back to you and interact with you on these things. And I pray that you will search the scriptures to see if what I have said today is true.