WHEN YOU FACE OPPOSITION

Religion

This sermon was preached by Pastor Paul Mims at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia on Sunday, February 17, 2012.

Acts 13:4-12

It happened early in my Christian life. Our youth group traveled up from South Georgia to Ridgecrest, which is our Baptist Retreat Center in North Carolina. There were about thirty of us. The year was 1953 and I was fifteen years old. God did a stirring work in our lives. That was the summer that I responded to the divine call to become a minister. It was a glorious time for our youth group. We sang songs that stirred our hearts. We did a sunrise hike to the top of a mountain for morning devotions. We attended classes on Christian growth. We enjoyed the morning and evening worship services. We would go two by two to the prayer garden. We would sit and talk together about our lives and our dreams for the future. One thing that came out of this was a decision to make an impact on our high school friends. Glenn Herndon and I decided to run for student council – he as president and I as vice president. We won an overwhelming victory over a teacher’s son. And this teacher took it out on me in Latin class ridiculing our Christian witness. The school administration allowed us to have a daily devotional in the cafeteria for fifteen minutes before the bell rang to begin the school day. We saw teenagers come to Christ and our Sunday night Singspirations grew in number. It did not take long for opposition to raise its head. We were called “fanatics” and some adults were very critical when we touched on things such as the racial issues that were so prevalent at the time. The lesson I learned from all of this is that anytime a Christian presents the gospel to unbelievers – some will readily believe and others will mount strong opposition.

There is spiritual opposition to the claiming of souls for Christ. Just last week, a picture of Salman’s Head of Christ that had been in a school for 60 years was targeted by the ACLU who told the administration that it had to go. One of our members told of a hospital in Chattanooga that does not allow patients to bring their Bibles. We have watched over the years as the atheist agenda removed prayer from schools, God from public life, and is presently on a rampage to totally secularize our country from Christianity and allow no religion but their own. They have used the courts with a misinterpretation of the “separation of church and state” to forward this dismantling of our Christian foundations. At the same time the Islamic religion is favored and feared by government. Christians face opposition in the armed forces, in the work place, in academia, and in the neighborhoods in which we live.

How do we handle this? What should we do about it? There are lessons from our scripture text today that can offer us some guidance.

I. RECOGNIZE THAT THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AGAINST YOU. (vs.8) “But Elymas the sorcerer opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.”

This is one of the first events on the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas and John Mark. You remember from our study last Sunday that the church at Antioch in Syria followed the leading of the Holy Spirit to “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (13:2). This was the beginning of the world wide missionary movement.

They went down from Antioch to Seleucia on the coast and boarded a ship to sail to the Island of Cyprus, the home of Barnabas, which was about 90 miles away. They landed on the Eastern end of the Island at Salamis and preached in several of the Jewish synagogues where they would go first. Luke does not tell us of any happenings as they travel the length of the Island. But when they come to the capitol city of Paphos he tells a story of satanic opposition to the gospel message. They had grown used to the opposition from the religious leaders of the Jews and from the Roman government, but this was the first time they encountered overt opposition from Satan.

The governor of the Island, called here a proconsul, was an intelligent man who wanted to hear the missionary message and sent for Barnabas and Paul to come to him. He had an advisor, a sorcerer named Elymas, who would tell the future and offer advice on how to govern the people. This type of thing was prevalent in the first century world for the Roman government in their expansion to so many different cultures had opened up provinces to these forms of false religion. So Elymas opposed the missionary team to keep secure his own position with the governor. He knew that if the governor became a Christian he would lose his income and position with the government. He tried with all his might to say to the governor, “You don’t want to believe that. It is just a fable of a Jewish carpenter that was crucified and claims were made by his followers that he rose from the dead. You know that is not possible. Do not allow them to insult your intelligence.”

It would not be an exaggeration to say that every one of us here today has encountered opposition from Satan in some way within this past week. There are powerful forces against us even though they may be subtle and under the surface at times. When you live the Christian life it is an affront to the unredeemed world. When you aggressively witness for Christ, the Satanic underworld comes alive to oppose you.
Steve Burchett said of the opposition on the first missionary journey that it took various forms.
In Paphos, Paul called Elymas a “son of the devil” (13:10), highlighting the demonic nature of the magician’s assault against the gospel. Is there any doubt that Satan is still opposing the church today? We should pray all the more, “Deliver us from the evil one” (see Mt. 6:13).

In Antioch in Pisidia, opposition came in the form of contradictory words (13:45). Similarly in Iconium, words were used that “poisoned” the minds of the unbelievers (14:2). This is why believers must be able to talk about the gospel beyond a few trite statements.

In Antioch in Pisidia, and also in Iconium, a tactic used to thwart the gospel was to incite those in authority to join in the persecution (13:50; 14:5). Sometimes an unbeliever may go to his boss with a false accusation against his coworker simply because he follows Christ, and the boss believes the lies and joins the attack. The Christian in that situation has gotten a taste of what these early missionaries experienced.

In Iconium, the nonbelievers aimed to physically abuse the preachers by stoning them (14:5). The missionaries narrowly escaped, but eventually Paul was bruised and bloodied with stones in Lystra (14:6, 19). Nobody denies that this kind of severe persecution exists today.

When this happens: (1) Don’t think it unusual. Remember that Jesus told us, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). (2) Remember that Prayer moves the hand of God. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8). (3) Don’t take the opposition personally. In reality the opposition is not against you, but against God. But it does feel very personal. (4) Always be redemptive toward the person and resistive toward the spiritual opposition. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).

II. REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES FOR YOU. (vs.9) “Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, ‘You are a child of the Devil and an enemy of everything that is right…’”

Armed with the power of the Holy Spirit Paul saw that Sergius Paulus was in danger of losing his chance of salvation and he uttered those burning and severe words to Elymas. G. Campbell Morgan said, “The severest words of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, are reserved for those who stand between men and truth, for those who stand between men and God…At the close of our Lord’s public ministry He pronounced eight great woes; not one upon sinning men, but all upon those who were false teachers and guides, false interpreters of the will of God. Christ never said anything hard or never to a sinning man or woman. His severity was reserved for men who failed to guide when they professed to do so.”
The Book says that Paul was “filled with the Holy Spirit” which means that the Lord was directing his thoughts and actions. He was given clear discernment of this supernatural opposition. He saw that Elymas was offering a false religion with a false hope. We need to be aware of our family and friends who are caught up in a base spiritualism which comes from those who dabble in the occult which offers a philosophy that is contrary to the word of God. They must be brought into a relationship with the Savior. There may come a time when you need to speak a stern rebuke of the beliefs that they are embracing, but especially of the teachers that are leading them in the wrong way. Jesus said, “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…” (Acts 1:8). It is blessed to be reminded that Jesus prayed for us in his high priestly prayer in John 17:20; “My prayer is not for them (the disciples) alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”

Merrill Unger says, “An upsurge in astrological interest is unmistakable evidence of moral and social decay. Occultism rises ominously in times of world turmoil, religious apostasy, and moral decline. Carroll Righter is perhaps the best known and most successful of United States astrologers. Dubbed “the dean of America’s public astrologers,” he is one of about 10,000 full-time and 175,000 part-time practitioners in the U.S. alone. Astrology is booming.”

Even Christian people are being drawn in to reading their astrological signs daily to seek guidance for their lives. But the mature believer can see the deception in having one’s life guided by the stars rather than by the Holy Spirit.

III. THERE ARE WONDERFUL RESULTS IN VICTORY. (vs.12) “When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.”

Elymas was blinded and groped about needing someone to lead him. But the victory was that Sergius Paulus, the governor, believed the gospel message and was delivered from the clutches of Satan into the arms of Jesus.

I heard Dr. W. A. Criswell tell this story. He said, “I do not think I was any more moved than I was when a man described to me a great throng in his city that had gathered in the municipal auditorium. And they were having there presentations of the religions of the world. And that night was the confrontation between the Buddhist and the Christian. The Buddhist priest stood up, suave, gifted, and learned, he presented the Buddhist religion; one of meditation, one of quiet and introspection. Somehow, for some reason, nobody could explain, the preacher who represented Christ, presented the Christian religion, did so awkwardly and with stumbling steps. And when he described how God came down in human form, it didn’t sound believable. And when he described how it was God who died on the cross, it seemed fantastic. And the whole thing fell to the ground. And they had a rebuttal, a brief one from each one. And when the Christian preacher sat down, having made a poor, weak and anemic presentation, the Buddhist priest stood up in rebuttal and decimated him, pulverized him, made him sound ridiculous, that a man could believe such things as are revealed in the Christian religion.

And when he got through, this man describing it to me said, when that Buddhist priest got through, somehow, some way, and nobody knew, and nobody understood, way back up there in the topmost balcony of that vast auditorium, a man stood up. And he began to sing this song:

All hail the power of Jesus’ name, Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of all.

And another one over here and one over there stood up and joined in the second stanza:

Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race, Ye ransomed from the fall. Hail Him who saves you by His grace. And crown Him Lord of all.

And by that time, the whole vast throng stood up and joined in the third stanza:

Let every kindred, every tribe On this terrestrial ball To Him all majesty ascribe And crown Him Lord of all.

[“All Hail the Power of Jesus Name”; Edward Perronet, 1780]

And the fellow said to me, that Buddhist priest tucked down his head and in humiliation snuck away. “It is not by power, and it is not by might, but it is by My Spirit, saith the Lord” [Zechariah 4:6]. That is, it is not by learning, and it is not by argument, it is by the convicting, saving, regenerating power of the Spirit of God that a man comes to know the living Lord.”
PRAISE BE TO HIS NAME!

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