Wednesday 3 December 2014

Are we on the defensive when it comes to evangelism?

How do you feel when someone starts asking you questions about your faith? ‘How can you believe in God when there is so much suffering in the world?’ ‘How can you believe in the Bible when we now understand so much more about the universe because of science?’ ‘What about other faiths?’ How do you react when someone asks you those sorts of questions? What about when someone mockingly says ‘You don’t believe that do you?’ as if they expected you to be cleverer, or less gullible, or more enlightened. We tend in both those situations to go on the back foot, to go on the defensive, either in our answers or by going quiet. We almost apologetically answer the questions if we know the answer, or we mumble something about ‘finding out’ as we feel got at. Or we come away thinking this is what I wish I’d said.

Those reactions come from a faulty understanding of what is happening when we’re questioned. As we look at Acts 5v12-42 this morning my prayer is that our thinking will be turned on its head. Because we’ll realise that as we’re questioned God is with us, he wants the gospel proclaimed, and he is sovereign even over any hostility we face. And secondly we aren’t on the defensive the world is because it is opposing God and can never win.

God is at work through his people(12-16)Give us an astonishing snapshot of the church gathered and united and its ministry in, and effect on, Jerusalem. Luke highlights the “many signs and wonders” that the apostles are doing. So great is their reputation for doing the miraculous that just like with Jesus people come from all the surrounding towns and bring their sick and possessed(16) and they are healed. In fact there are so many healings that people just long for Peter’s shadow to fall on them(15). Do you remember the purpose of the signs and wonders? (2:22)They were Jesus accreditation by God that he was the Son of God and the Messiah, Saviour and Lord, that God was at work in him and therefore people should listen to his words. Now God is at work through the apostles in just the same way. Accrediting them as his spokesmen by signs and wonders, calling people to listen as they preach about Jesus risen and still at work by his Spirit. Every wonder and sign shows that God is at work through his church and apostles and that he approves of their message, that their message is his good news to the world.

Their signs and wonders and teaching produces a curious but normal set of reactions. People are both fascinated and yet fearful, amazed attracted and afraid. People know the opposition the church faces, they know what happened to Ananias and Sapphira, they can see the power and authority of the apostles, some are amazed and think well of them but are too afraid to join the church(13). But others “more and more men and women” come to faith in Jesus. There’s a curious fascination with the church but a fear of joining for some, but others come to faith. We shouldn’t expect any less, God is at work through his people.

But they aren’t the only reactions(17f). As we’ve seen before the gospel preached always brings two reaction; faith and opposition. (17-18)The high priest and other religious leaders are filled with jealousy, so they arrest the apostles and throw them in jail. But God sends an angel for a prison break and tells the apostles to go back and preach again in the temple courts. Before the confused Sanhedrin have them arrested again and brought to trial.

It’s a slightly comical incident isn’t it? Can you picture it? The jury are all gathered together and told the apostles will be brought out, the captain of the guard is sent to get them. But they aren’t there and a confused captain reports back that the jailed is tightly locked up, the guards are still stood at the doors, but when we opened the doors we found no-one inside(23-24). No wonder everyone’s puzzled. No trick brick in the wall that opens a secret passage, no tunnel dug with a spoon, no insider among the guards. They are just gone, disappeared, it’s as if they were never there in the first place.

And then it just gets stranger, because where are they? They are back where they were originally arrested, preaching about Jesus in the temple courts, and so they are rearrested and brought before the Sanhedrin.

We have to ask why did God free them? When the Sanhedrin put them in prison for the night what were they intending to do the next morning? Put them on trial. God releases them but notice they still end up on trial the next morning. Nothing really changes for all their miraculous escape. So why did God do it? Why the temporary get out of jail free card? Why not tell them to run? Why send them back where they would get caught again?

There are two reasons. Firstly God is showing the Sanhedrin that they aren’t in control. God is and he is at work through the apostles and will decide what happens to them and when and where, not the Sanhedrin. And secondly God is showing that he wants the gospel proclaimed, God frees the apostles and sends them back out to “tell the people about this new life.” Sharing the gospel is God’s work, the apostles aren’t alone against opposition God is at work, God is with them, they are on his mission and he isn’t a silent partner or uninvolved. God Father Son and Spirit are invested in taking the good news to the world.

The Sanhedrin can only do what God allows them to do. Their power is limited. They can’t keep them in jail, they can’t arrest them by force because they fear the people. God is at work. Can you imagine the encouragement that gave the apostles as they went to face the Sanhedrin, God is sovereign, he wants the gospel preached, he is at work in us by his Spirit and he is sovereign over even the opposition, they can do nothing he doesn’t permit.

But there’s one other thing we need to see here. God is answering his people’s prayers. Do you remember their prayer(4:29-30)? Here God answers it as he empowers them to perform signs and wonders and to speak boldly, as he encourages them to do so.

Do you see how that transforms our thinking as we take the good news of Jesus to a needy world. God is at work in the church – we don’t just gather out of habit, we gather expecting God to be at work. That means when we gather together we should expect to hear from others how God has been at work in their lives and in our lives together. When we pray for God’s help in his mission to make the gospel known we should expect God to answer.

It means that as we share the gospel with family, friends, neighbours, colleagues we’re not alone. God wants Jesus proclaimed to the world, that’s why Father, Son and Spirit planned for Jesus to come and die and rise again so that the world might find life with God in him. So that people could be resurrected from being spiritually dead and given Jesus life and relationship with the Father. That’s why Jesus sent the Spirit, (Acts 1:8)the Spirit comes to enable and empower his people, us, to be his witnesses. God is with us as we share the gospel, God is with us as we answer out friends questions, God is with us as we face those who mock us for our faith, God is with us in their reaction whether it is hostile or trusting Jesus.

And God is sovereign even over opposition and how that shows itself. They can do nothing that God does not permit them to do. That doesn’t mean there will be no suffering as we share the gospel. Sometimes we may get the equivalent of the get out of jail free card, but other times that will mean suffering for sharing the gospel as in(40). But God is for his people, he wants Jesus to be made known, he is sovereign and he’s at work through his people.

To oppose the gospel is to fight against God(27-40)Why are the Sanhedrin so angry with the apostles? There are three reasons(28). The apostles disobeyed their charge to stop teaching the people. They are angry about the spread of the message they “have filled Jerusalem with your teaching” that Jesus is Saviour and Lord. Thirdly the Apostles are “determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

How would you react to being put on trial on those charges? Peter doesn’t go on the defensive. He turns the tables and puts the Sanhedrin on trial. (30)The Sanhedrin want the apostles to disobey God and they won’t. The Sanhedrin are opposed to God because God raised Jesus whom they killed to life and God has declared Jesus to be Prince or ruler and Saviour. In Jesus there is forgiveness if people repent and the Sanhedrin won’t accept him, and (32)they are ignoring all the evidence and the eye witnesses. In short the church is now the people of God and the apostles the leaders of God’s people. The Sanhedrin is in opposition to God.

(33)The Sanhedrin’s reaction is no surprise is it. They just want to kill the apostles. But God sovereignly intervenes again, at work even in the Sanhedrin through the actions of those who oppose him. Gamaliel speech is the key to this chapter really, especially(38-39). Other groups have come and gone, they didn’t last he says “Therefore, in the present case I advise you; leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

Acts charts the proof that it is from God. As the gospel spreads and more and more people come to faith, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Gamaliel’s words are proven true – God is at work and opposing the gospel and the church is opposing God himself.

Again we need to realize that and adjust our thinking so that we live in the light of it. God is at work in the gospel and through his church. To oppose it is to oppose God and there will only ever be one winner. The church is unrelenting, it endures even though it faces opposition from without and within. That must change our thinking, it isn’t us on the defensive it’s the world on the defensive.

As a church as we take the gospel to our community and family and friends in the run up to Christmas we are to expect both acceptance and rejection. But we can confidently hold out the gospel because God is at work, God is with us, the gospel is God’s good news he wants the world to hear and we participate in his mission. And to oppose God’s church is to oppose God.

History tells us that. Under communism in the last century the Chinese governments aim was to eradicate Christianity, yet today more Christians will meet together in church in China than in the whole of Europe. That same growth despite persecution happened in Romania and other countries that were behind the Iron Curtain. It is happening today in places where persecution continues to be the norm. To oppose the church and the gospel it holds out is to oppose God and you cannot win.

We don’t need to feel defensive, we need to pray and go trusting God, empowered by the Spirit.

And do you see the confidence these two facts bring the Apostles. God is at work through his people as they join in his mission of making Jesus known. And to oppose the gospel is to oppose God. (40-42)Even as they suffer for the gospel, they know events are not out of God’s control. In fact they count the dishonour of being flogged an honour because the stripes of their flogging echo those of their saviour. “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” And they never stop teaching and proclaiming Jesus as Saviour and Lord(42). They don’t take a step back, they don’t retreat, they don’t go on the defensive. Because God is at work and is for his people and they treasure God above all else.

Isn’t that helpful. Isn’t that encouraging. Shouldn’t that change our thinking. We’re not alone, we’re not on the defensive. God is at work through his people taking his message about Jesus to a world in need and we have the privilege of cooperating in his mission. God is with us by the Spirit and it is his powerful message about his Son that we have to share. And opposition is futile, they can do no more than he allows, because you can’t fight against God and win.

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