The Holy Spirit s Power: A pattern is beginning to develop. Step 1: Power. Redemptive power and Regenerative power. The experience is different, but the Giver is the same God acts! Step 2: Witness. The Holy Spirit s Regenerating power provides an opportunity to tell people about Jesus. The miracle is the prelude, but the preaching is the main event. Step 3: Fruit. The result of the Spirit s power, and human witness is that people come to Jesus just as Jesus told us it will be.
The Holy Spirit s Power: A pattern is beginning to develop. Step 1: Power. Step 2: Witness. Step 3: Fruit. Step 4: Opposition Conflict Persecution. again, just as Jesus said it will be. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20... Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. Jesus - John 15
Note: The Apostles taught that opposition and persecution were simply what accompanied the revolutionary life and were to be expected. 10 Since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too 12 So, dear friends, don t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world 16 It is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! Peter - 1 Peter 4 11 Timothy, you know how much persecution and suffering I have endured. You know all about how I was persecuted in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra 12 Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Paul - 2 Timothy 3
Reminder: God s intention is that you experience both: Redemption Power you possess Jesus. forgiven through Christ, and adopted into God s family. God s power saving you. Regeneration Power Jesus possesses you! empowered by Christ, through the authority of His Spirit. God s power witnessing through you. for the revolution that you have signed up for. 12 We are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Paul - Ephesians 6
This Morning: Spiritual Opposition What It Looks Like, and Why. (Acts 4:1-22) Two Essential Truths: 1. Satan cannot touch your Redemption Power. You have been redeemed by Jesus, who has defeated death, set you free and marked you with His Spirit. When you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own, marking you in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. 14 The Spirit is God s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised, and that he has purchased us to be his own people. Ephesians 1
29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son and having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. 31 If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God s right hand, pleading for us. 35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. Romans 8
38 Nothing can ever separate us from God s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow not even the powers of hell can separate us from God s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8
This Morning: Spiritual Opposition What It Looks Like, and Why. (Acts 4:1-22) Two Essential Truths: 1. Satan cannot touch your Redemption Power. You have been redeemed by Jesus, who has defeated death, set you free and marked you with His Spirit. 2. Satan fights very hard to mess with your Regeneration Power. Three specific arenas of spiritual warfare where Satan operates: i. The Mind: He tempts you to doubt God s redemptive & regenerative power. ii. The Church: He fights to destroy love & unity within God s Church. iii. The World: He stirs up the brokenness in those who have yet to experience God s redemption in Jesus.
Acts 4:1-22: The Third Arena The World. 4 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. 2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. 3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. 4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000.
Acts 4:1-22: The Third Arena The World. Satan loves to manipulate the temporal powers within our world. 1. The Sadducees: Political Power wealthy ruling class who controlled the Sanhedrin and temple operations. collaborated with the Romans to keep order and make money from the Temple. theologically liberal: written law only; no resurrection; angels & demons a myth; God distant & not directly involved with His Creation. 2. The Priests: Religious Power responsible for daily religious worship sacrifices; offerings; feasts. gathering the common people and bringing them before the Lord their God. 3. The Temple Guard: Civil Power provided security for the Temple: crowd control; money collection; civil order.
Satan loves to stir up the insecurities of those yet to experience redemption in Jesus, leaving them feeling threatened. 1. A Religious threat: 20,000 people are gathering in the Temple everyday and not following tradition. they are proclaiming that Jesus whom they rejected has risen and is the Messiah. a man everyone knows was lame all his life has been healed, and is claiming that Peter & John healed him in the name of Jesus. 2. A Political Threat: their religious control over the people is in jeopardy. the impact of this movement is exploding in their city and in their Temple. they thought that when they killed the leader, the movement would die and they were wrong. 3. A Civil Threat: they are losing control over the crowds in the Temple. they will be vulnerable to Rome s anger if these new Christians dominate Temple worship.
At this point the Church is no longer just a novelty, it is a massive threat to the Jewish system You can t have 20,000 people congregating inside your building worshipping the man you just had crucified as an imposter, charlatan and false Messiah. You can t have their leaders condemning you as the ones who killed the true Messiah. You can t have them proclaiming Jesus has risen and is alive although you know this is true, because you bribed the guards to lie about what happened at the tomb Easter morning (Mt 28:11-15). You can t have them performing obvious miracles. You can t have them taking the people s loyalty from you. You just can t have this going on in your temple this is even worse than when Jesus himself came into the temple and threw everybody out just a few weeks ago, before Passover. You have to react, and the Sadducees, Priests and Temple Guard do MacArthur
Acts 4:1-22: The Third Arena The World. 5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in Peter & John and demanded, By what power, or in whose name, have you done this? 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers and elders of our people, 9 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? 10 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. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. 12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:1-22: The Third Arena The World. 13 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. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. 15 So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves. 16 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. 17 But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus name again. 18 So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
Acts 4:1-18: The Third Arena The World. Satan s tactics are usually obvious and almost always predictable. 1. Intimidation: You obviously need to be reminded who you re dealing with! the temple leaders were very disturbed (v. 2) they arrested Peter & John and kept them in prison overnight (v. 3) the next day the Sanhedrin gathered and had Peter & John brought before them (v.v. 5-6) 2. Interrogation: Who do you think you are, anyway? By what power, or in who s name are you doing these things? (v. 7) 3. Confrontation: Stop it if you know what s good for you! 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 and after threatening them further, they let them go. (v.v.16-21)
Lesson: It s a revolution expect opposition! If you re not facing something right now don t worry, you will! Unless you re being obnoxious, spiritual opposition means you re in God s will, not out of it. Know the enemy and his three battlegrounds: The Mind: tempting you to doubt your redemption in Christ. The Church: destroying unity and love within God s people. The World: stirring up the brokenness in those who have yet to experience redemption in Christ. Next week: Applying Regeneration Power to Spiritual Opposition.