While Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke were sharing the gospel in Philippi, Paul cast an evil spirit out of a slave girl. Their reward for working such a powerful miracle in the name of Jesus? Intense persecution. In this message, we’ll take a look at what happened in Philippi and learn how persecution is inseparable from the Christian faith.
Transcription (automatically-generated):
all right. One week after Edward Michael Grylls was born, his sister gave him a nickname that stuck. He called her baby brother Bear. Bear Grylls grew up and has become a famous adventurer and survivalist. He has 532,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, where he posts new content on a weekly basis, giving his viewers access to the adventures that he goes on and their survival skills he teaches.
If you think about it, there are only two different kinds of people that go online to watch his YouTube videos. Only two. There are those who watch Bear Grills online because they actually want to go on adventures and learn how to survive in the wild. They want to experience for themselves what they see Bear doing, and that's why those people watch. And then there are those who watch the exact same videos but have absolutely no intention of actually going on adventures and spending time in the wild.
For some reason, they just want to watch someone else do those things. Maybe it's simply a form of entertainment for them. Maybe the sound of his voice is soothing to some people. I don't know. Whatever the reason is, there are some people who watch Bare Grills videos online, and the wildest thing they might ever consider doing is going on an overnight glamping trip.
Glamping is if you don't know the phrase glamorous and camping together. It's camping with amenities and resort-style services. Any of my fellow glampers here tonight? Because that's the only way I'm going, if I'm honest. But those are the only two kinds of people that are going to watch Bear Grylls videos online.
Now keep that in mind as I share this next statement with you. There are two different groups of people who read the Book of Acts in the Bible. There are those who read the Book of Acts and they want to personally do and experience the things that they read about. And there are those who are content reading about someone else doing those things but have no desire to really experience those same things firsthand for themselves.
After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to His disciples and he gave them a mission. He told them face to face, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you and remember, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Then shortly after giving them this command, Jesus goes to heaven literally right before the disciples' very eyes.
And then ten days later, the Holy Spirit falls upon the believers who were meeting and praying in Jerusalem. And there were 120 of them that this happened to. And then filled with the Holy Spirit, they immediately begin the task of making disciples as Jesus commanded them. The Book of Acts documents the birth of the Church, and it describes for us in incredible detail how the very first Christians went about fulfilling Jesus' command to make disciples. Now everything we see them doing in the pages of Scripture will not be doable in the exact same way in our context today.
We live in a different time, a different place, and a different culture. Aspects of making disciples will look different for us today, but the bones of the mission will look the same. That is if we give ourselves to making disciples the way Jesus did it and the way that the early church did it. Because Jesus didn't give one set of commands to His disciples 2000 years ago and then another set of commands for us today. We have the same commands that Peter and Paul were given.
We follow the James Jesus that they followed. And so, if we're going to learn how to make disciples today, which if you are a Christian should be the number one priority in your life, that's not my opinion, okay? That's not fancy preacher talk, that's Jesus talk. They are the very words that came out of the mouth of Jesus recorded for us in the Bible. And if we're going to learn how to make disciples today, then we would do very well to learn how to do it from watching our brothers and sisters obey Jesus in the Book of Acts.
And although it's not YouTube, may we be the kind of people that read the Bible to learn what the church did back then with every intention of being equipped to do and experience the same kinds of things in our lives today. May none of us who take the name of Christ be observers of His Word only. May we be doers of what we see and learn in the Bible. Amen. Amen.
So armed with that mentality in mind, let's pick up where we left off last week in our study through the Book of Acts. We're going to be looking at Acts chapter 16, verses 19 through 34 in this message tonight. If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn to that passage now if you haven't done so already. And as we work through this section, I'm going to highlight four truths about the Christian life that we can observe from this text. Truths that we need to know if we're going to follow Jesus.
These are truths that are going to help us follow him. But before we dive in, here's a quick recap to bring us up to speed because we're jumping in midway through a story that's already unfolding in front of us. So last week we saw that God had guided Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke to the region of Macedonia, specifically the city of Philippi. I'm going to get the map to be put up on the screen behind us and I love seeing these maps every week to see, to track, the progress and the journey of the disciples, because what this shows us is that we're not talking about mythology when we're talking about the Bible. The Bible talks about real people in real places, in real historic time period.
This is real stuff. And so, when they made their way to Philippi on the Sabbath, they went down by the river to a place of prayer where they met a woman named Lydia. And Paul shared the gospel with Lydia and her household, and they all believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, and they became disciples of Jesus. And then on another day after that, when Paul and his team were on their way back to prayer, a slave girl who had an evil spirit confronted them and began following them around, causing quite a scene. After she had followed them around for some time, Paul cast the spirit out of the girl.
And that's where we pick things up in our story here tonight. So, Acts, chapter 16, verse 19. When her owners realized that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities, bringing them before the chief magistrates. They said, These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.
The crowd joined in the attack against them, and the chief magistrates stripped off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had severely flogged them, they threw them in jail, ordering the jail to guard them. Carefully receiving such an order, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stalks. Now, this doesn't seem to me at first pass like the appropriate response to what just happened, does it? A little girl who was possessed by an evil spirit was miraculously healed by the name of Jesus.
And instead of praising Jesus and thanking Paul and Silas for coming to their town and working this mighty deliverance, they physically manhandle them by dragging them into the marketplace. They stir the crowd up against them, they have them stripped, and they beat the tor out of them and then throw them into jail. Their response was insane. And you might be thinking that this kind of visceral reaction to Christians ministering in the power of Jesus is an anomaly, like something that only happens to Christians here and there around the world in rare but extreme cases. But you need to know that this is not supposed to be a one-off extraordinary event.
If we're students of the Word, we'll come to recognize that the persecution of Christians is one of the main themes of Jesus's teaching. It's something that he promises will happen to us if we follow him. At the very beginning of Jesus's public ministry, after he began calling his disciples to follow him, Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount, considered by many to be the single greatest block of teaching of all time. And did you know that the very first command that Jesus gave in his Sermon on the Mount has to do with persecution? With his brand-new disciples in the crowd that day, Jesus said this to all who were gathered there.
Matthew, chapter five, verse eleven. You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. Be glad and rejoice because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. It's in verse twelve, the command be glad and rejoice when you're persecuted because of me.
The very first command Jesus gives his disciples after they sign up to follow Him has to do with them being persecuted the very first command. And that command wasn't an outlier. It wasn't a one-off mention about persecution that Jesus' let fade away into obscurity. Later in Matthew, chapter ten, we see Jesus take his disciples aside for some private missionary training. He teaches them what they need to know before he sends them out into the world to do ministry in his name.
Listen to what Jesus says in part of that training. Matthew, chapter ten, verse 16. Look, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves. Beware of them, because they will hand you over to local courts and flog you in their synagogues.
You will even be brought before governors and kings because of me, to bear witness to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, don't worry about how or what you are to speak for. You'll be given what to say at that hour because it isn't you speaking, but the spirit of your Father is speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death and a father his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town flee to another. For truly I tell you, you will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher or a slave above his master.
It's enough for a disciple to become like his teacher and a slave like his master. If they called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household. You see how plainly Jesus talked about their upcoming persecution. He said it was a foregone conclusion that they would be persecuted. But maybe Jesus was only saying this to them.
Maybe just to his original disciples. Maybe persecution was only a part of the plan for them. Maybe the rest of us get a Pass. That would be nice. But remember what Jesus commanded them to do in the great commission, Jesus told them to teach the new disciples to obey everything that I've commanded you.
And since Jesus gave commands to his disciples specifically on how to navigate the persecution that Jesus promised would come, that means that those same commands are in play for disciples today. Because that same teaching would have been passed down to new disciples over and over and over the years that followed. If we are disciples of Jesus today, we have the same commands he gave originally to the Twelve. Persecution would come for his disciples back then and it will come for his disciples today. If you're still not convinced that persecution is a part of the plan for the Christian life today, listen to what Paul wrote in his second Peter to his protege Timothy.
It's on your outline two. Timothy, chapter three, verse twelve. In fact, Paul says, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So go ahead and write this down. It's the first fill-in on your outline.
Persecution is inevitable. If you follow and obey Jesus, it's inevitable. Why is this the case? Why will Christians be persecuted? Why is it inevitable?
Here are some thoughts to consider. Number one because Jesus and the apostles said we would be. Number two, because the power of the Gospel confronts people's deep-rooted, idolatry, and wickedness. And although some people humble themselves before the Lord when his power infiltrates their life, others don't. Some people fight back when the darkness they love is threatened.
And that's what we see happening in our text. The slave girl's owner didn't care at all about her welfare even though she was possessed by an evil spirit. All he cared about was the fact that this evil power made him rich. But when his hope of making money was gone, World War III broke out in his heart. And that is what the Gospel does in some people's lives.
Side note - take note of how people in your life treat you. If people only like you because of some benefit that you bring to them, watch what happens when that benefit is gone. Do they still like you or love you? If so, then you have yourself a true friend. But if not, then they never really were your friend.
They only liked you for what you could give to them. Number three. Here's another thought to consider. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. The Bible is plain.
People are not our main adversaries. There is a cosmic battle being waged as we speak between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. And when the kingdom of light gains ground on the kingdom of darkness, the darkness doesn't take it lightly. Darkness doesn't give up. It fights back.
So, the Bible is clear. Christians will be persecuted. And this now raises an obvious question, I hope.
Then why aren't we?
Why does it seem like we've been living in a persecution ghost town. No persecution anywhere in sight. There are Christians among us, but there is no sign of persecution among us. What gives? And you need to know I'm speaking hyperbolically.
I'm exaggerating this claim. I know there are a variety of ways that persecution can take place, and some Christians today in the West do experience some of them - slander, gossip, arguing, among others. I've been following Jesus for 20 years. And do you know what kind of persecution I've encountered in two decades? I've had a couple of people unfriend me, unfriend me on Facebook because of things I've posted about Jesus.
I know, right? When I was running my own small business a few years back, I had one or two customers stop coming to the shop. Coincidentally, after I began talking with them about Jesus, after leading a Bible study in a Christian organization for a couple of years, I was asked to stop coming. And the reason? Because I refused to water down what the Bible said about the questions I was being asked.
I was getting asked a lot of questions about sexuality, so I was teaching them what God says about sexuality in the Bible, and some of the clients and staff didn't like what it said. So, long story short, I was asked to leave after spending a couple of years volunteering my time there. But that's it. That's the short list of my personal persecutions of over 20 years of following Jesus. And I know that there are some of you here tonight who have stories you can share about times where you're trying to share the gospel of Jesus, and you experience some pushback for doing so.
I'm not saying that persecution doesn't happen anywhere among us at all. It does in its tiniest forms. And please hear me. I'm not suggesting that we should expect every Christian around the world to be persecuted at the same time in the same ways. While Paul and Silas were being persecuted in Philippi, I'm sure things were okay for the believers back in Antioch.
But here's the thing. Part of the body was being persecuted, and that means that the whole body was suffering because of it. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians, chapter twelve, verse 26. It's on our outline. So, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
Maybe you've never been persecuted like Paul or Silas. Like Paul and Silas, sorry, were in Philippi, but have you ever personally known a brother or sister in Christ from Port Coquitlam who has? Who are the Pauls and Silases among us? So, I'll ask my question again in a slightly different way. Why aren't we being persecuted the way we read about in the Bible?
Why aren't we being persecuted like our brothers and sisters are around the world today? Now, some people believe it's because we've enjoyed religious freedoms for a while now here in the West, so we can practice our faith without any fear of pushback. I don't personally buy that answer, and I'm going to tell you why. One, we've already seen that the Bible says that very plainly all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. There's no asterisks at the end of that verse.
It doesn't say in the footnotes of your Bible, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted - asterisk - except those who live in Canada in the year 2023. I promise you. Your Bible doesn't say that. It actually speaks about the connection between persecution and Christianity. Very clearly.
It says we will experience it. Secondly, do you honestly think that Satan cares about what our government allows or disallows? Do you think Satan bows his knee to our government, the government of Canada, and doesn't orchestrate the persecution of Christians here because it's against the law to do so? I wish I could hurt them real bad, but the House of Commons won't let me do it. Not a chance.
That is definitely not the reason we aren't being persecuted right now. Satan is not bound by our politics. There's a third reason why I don't think we experience persecution here in the west. Even though God says all Christians will face it, we're not doing anything that's worth the enemy's attention. Think about wartime.
If a country's at war, where does the country place its troops? Where the enemy is advancing? Does a nation play at war place troops where there isn't any activity? No. Because that doesn't make any sense.
The Church is statistically on decline in the west, and it has been for years. Christian are not praying. Christian are not sharing the gospel. Christians are not standing up for righteousness. Christians are not pushing back the darkness in pockets, yes, as a whole, demonstrably not.
So then tell me why Satan would waste his time trying to oppose us when we're not doing anything to hurt him or his kingdom. On the contrary, I think it's a tactic that he's using to his advantage. No persecution allows the Church to become comfortable. We get comfortable playing church once a week for an hour or two on Sundays. We get comfortable living our watered-down version of Christianity where nothing of eternal significance ever really happens in our life, and Satan leaves us alone and we just atrophy into irrelevance.
But if we started to really pray, if we started to not just continue learning things from the Bible, but actually started doing everything that Jesus told us to do, if we started growing in radical obedience to our King if we started sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness in our spheres of influence in our homes and in our schools and our workplaces, not hindered by the fear of potential consequences for doing so. If we started baptizing brand new Christians on a regular basis. If the Kingdom of Darkness began getting pushed back because we started following Jesus instead of just calling ourselves followers of Jesus. This is just my opinion, but if those things started to happen, then the countdown would begin to the time where we would start experiencing the kind of persecution that Jesus told us to expect and that we read about our brothers and sisters experiencing on the pages of Scripture.
If when that day comes, does that mean that we will all just be miserable every moment of every day? Persecution will be tough, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't have to be as completely horrible as you might think. Write this down and then we're going to talk about it. Joy and persecution can coexist simultaneously. Joy and persecution can coexist simultaneously.
Verse 25. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Can you imagine what must have been loving through the minds of the prisoners there that day? I'm guessing that would have had to be the first time pointing ever took place in that jail. What a testimony.
Bodies beaten, but hearts full of praise. This kind of response to persecution is not only possible, we know it's possible because we see it happening plainly in the text. I want to suggest that this is what ought to happen when Christians are persecuted. Joy is not a natural response to persecution. Happy singing is not normal when you've been physically dragged through the city, falsely accused, publicly stripped naked and lynch, mobbed with rods, then thrown into jail like Paul and Silas were.
Songs are not what you would expect to be coming out of the mouths of those who experience these things. A few days before I graduated high school, I skipped class with a couple of friends, got drunk, and went to the beach. We got in a fight with some strangers and I was sprayed in the face from point blank range with bear mace. It was in my eyes. It was all over my skin. It was really painful. And me and my buddy went to the hospital to get the stuff flushed out of our eyes. And then I went home and I lay on my bed in pain. And guess what I wasn't doing? I was not singing songs to Jesus, I'll tell you that much.
I was groaning and moaning and feeling miserable, which is exactly how I should have felt. Paul and Silas got it way worse than I did that day, and they got it for doing righteous things. How were they able to sing in the jail cell, naked, beaten, bloodied, and bruised? How is it possible to experience joy when you've just been persecuted like that? Here are the possible explanations.
Could they have received special grace from God for that very moment? Maybe they got a special filling of the Holy Spirit just for that moment, and that produced the supernatural joy that we see. Yes, maybe. Or maybe it was a case of what's in you will come out of you when you're squeezed. A life that is sold out, dedicated to loving Jesus and obeying Jesus, and following Jesus wherever he leads is a life that will be full of God's spirit.
And when that kind of life gets persecuted, when that kind of life gets squeezed, joy comes out. Because this kind of joy is supernatural. It does not depend on our circumstances being happy. All this kind of joy is dependent on is that it's in us in the first place, before persecution ever comes. Or maybe they thought something along these lines "It's happening, Jesus. They are treating us just like You said they would. They are treating us just like they treated You." And I imagine there is a kind of solidarity with Jesus that is experienced only when we walk in his footsteps through persecution. Or was it a case of it always being a good time to praise God? Does God only deserve our praise and adoration when things are going well in our lives?
Or does God deserve our worship regardless of how things are going? Is God still God when I'm facing hard circumstances? The answer is a resounding yes. Then that means he deserves to be praised when we aren't persecuted, and it means he deserves to be praised when we are. Whatever their joy was attributed to, remember that it is possible for joy and persecution to coexist simultaneously.
We know it is because we read that Paul and Silas were experiencing it themselves.
Here's your next fill and write this down and then we'll talk about it a little bit. Open doors are not meant to be walked through automatically. Open doors are not meant to be walked through automatically. Have you heard people talk about open doors before? If God closes a door, he'll open a window.
Or if he closes a window, he'll open a door. Or something like that. The point of the saying is that if there's a new opening in our life, take that as a sign God's inviting you into it and walk on through. I'm sure that's how it works sometimes. But reading our text, I've come to the conclusion that we aren't to mindlessly walk through open doors just because they're open.
Verse 26 - suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains came loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul called out in a loud voice, don't harm yourself because we're all here now. That's an open door if I ever saw one.
A literal open door, chains undone, jail cell opened. All that's left to do is walk out of there into freedom, just like Peter did. If you remember back remember the scene back in chapter twelve, but Paul and Silas don't go anywhere they stay. We're not told why they stay. All we're told in the text is that they don't go anywhere, even after they're given the chance to scram.
And all we can do is speculate as to why they chose to do that. Maybe the Spirit of God forbade Paul from leaving the prison the same way he forbade him from going into Asia back in verse six and into verse seven. Or maybe the Spirit didn't forbid Paul that harshly, but instead whispered softly to him, don't leave yet. I've got some work for you to do here. Still, we don't know why Paul and Silas stayed when their chains came loose, and the doors were opened.
All we know is that they did stay. And I think we can learn something from their actions when we turn our life over to follow Jesus. We gave up control of our life to Him. We became his servants. Practically.
That means that whatever Jesus wants us to do, this is what we do. This is what it means to be a Christian. So that means if we're in jail for something that we didn't deserve to be in jail for, and the jail doors open, we don't leave if Jesus doesn't want us to leave. Do you understand that? We don't do anything we want to do if Jesus tells us not to do it.
That's what it means to follow Jesus as loved. Not just as savior, but as Lord. Christians need to respond to the Lord the way young Samuel did. This is on your outline. First Saul, chapter three, verse ten.
The Lord came, stood there, and called as before, Samuel, Samuel. Samuel responded, speak, for your servant is listening. And the implication in Samuel's answer is, whatever you say to me, Lord, I'm going to do it. We need to follow in the footsteps of our Lord as he modeled submission to the Father in the garden of Gethsemane. On the night he was arrested, Jesus' prayed, "Father, if you're willing, take this cup away from me nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done." Christian, do you understand that this is the way that you should be living your life, the sum total of your life, under the direction and control of King Jesus, ready and willing to do anything your King requires of you. Now, that might sound like a radical version of Christianity to some of you, but it's not. Let me assure you that what I'm describing to you is just Christianity. Basic Christianity.
Christianity 101 - Christianity for every Christian. And get this what I'm about to say is good and important followers of Jesus. We don't have our arms twisted to enter into this kind of relationship with Him. We want to enter into this agreement willingly and joyfully. We want Him to be Lord over every single part of our life.
Because what's the alternative to having King Jesus as loved over my life? Me being lord over my life, Satan being loved over my life. My government being lord over my life. My wife or my daughter or my friends' opinions being lord over my life. Every one of those scenarios would be an utter disaster for me if they were ever to be played out. The best-case scenario for me, or for you, or for anyone for that matter, is to have the kind of king that is infinite love, infinite goodness, infinite wisdom, infinite power, infinite patience, for that kind of king to be lord over us. The kind of king that loves his people so much that he lays down his life for us so that we can be a part of his kingdom and live forever with him.
Jesus is that king, and I want Him to be lord over all of my life, all of it. That means when the shackles come undone and the prison doors open, either figuratively or literally, I ask Him what he wants me to do next. Do you want me to go, Jesus, or do you want me to stay? The company you work for offers you a huge promotion, but you have to move to another city to get it. Do you mindlessly walk through that open door, or do you ask Jesus what he wants you to do?
Your spouse commits adultery, and they ask for your forgiveness, and they want to work on healing and repairing, and saving your marriage. The Bible is clear that infidelity is an open door for the spouse who is betrayed to walk out on the marriage. But do you mindlessly walk away or do you ask Jesus what he wants you to do? Now, I'm not suggesting what the answer should be in either of these hypothetical scenarios. My question to you in asking them is this is Jesus the Lord of your life or isn't he?
Does he get to give you instructions for your life, even in the hard cases? Just because a door is open for you does not necessarily mean that you should walk through it right away. We only walk through if Jesus says to. So thankfully, Paul and Silas waited around for a little bit to see what would happen after the prison doors were open, and I'm sure they're glad that they did. Verse 29 the jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
He escorted them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, Believe in the Lord Jesus' and you will be saved to you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him, along with everyone in his house. He took them that same hour of the night and washed their wounds right away. He and all his family were baptized.
He brought them into his house, sea a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe in God with his entire household. Now, however they came to the decision to stay put, it didn't take very long before it became obvious why they were meant to. God had made an appointment for them to share the Gospel with this jailer and his family. And when the jailer and his family heard the Gospel from Paul, they believed it and were saved. Do you see how incredible this is?
Do you think this is the outcome Satan had in mind when he schemed against Paul and Silas? Do you think this is what he had in mind when the girl with a spirit was following Paul and his team around? Do you think this is why hatred and persecution were stirred up against this traveling team of disciples? Do you think this is why they were beaten and thrown into jail? Do you think Satan orchestrated all those things just so that Paul could be brought face to face with someone who was going to believe the Gospel when they heard it and be saved?
This outcome is the exact opposite of what Satan wanted. This was the very outcome that Satan was trying to prevent. Look back at with me at the order of events that led up to this. When we read in verses 13 to 15 that when Paul first got the Philippi, he originally went to a place of prayer where he met Lydia, and she got saved when he shared the Gospel with her. Then in verse 16, they went back to a place of prayer, I'm assuming to find more people who would be open to the Gospel.
But Satan, aware of what transpired with Lydia at the place of prayer, tried to put an end to it. He tried to forcibly stop the proclamation and advancement of the Gospel. He tried to halt the completion of the great Commission in Philippi. Did Satan's plan to stop the Christians work? No, it failed miserably.
An entire household entered the kingdom of heaven, in large part because of the persecution that was brought against Paul and Silas. It's not likely that Paul and Silas would have had an appointment with the jailer if it wasn't for the persecution that brought them to the jail. And here's why Satan's plan failed. Write this down. It's your fourth and final fill in Satan cannot stop Jesus.
In Matthew 1618, Jesus says, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. Jesus is building for himself a group of people that receive his forgiveness and are filled with His Holy Spirit and are granted access into the kingdom of heaven. This group of people is called his church, and Jesus is building this group of people up throughout the whole world through the proclamation of the Gospel. And Jesus said that the gates of Hades will not overpower this building project. This doesn't mean that Satan won't try to stop Jesus'.
Oh, he'll try to stop him. It's just that all of his attempts to stop him will be made in vain. They always have been, they always will be utter futility. Now, there are examples of these futile attempts from state Satan to stop Jesus all throughout the scriptures. But we see the single greatest example of this when we look at what transpired leading up to the cross of Jesus Christ.
If I had to guess, I would say that Satan actually thought that he had a viable plan that was going to work to stop Jesus. When he failed to get Jesus to sin in the wilderness. After his baptism, Satan put into motion a scheme that he was sure would deliver a fatal blow that would eliminate his cosmic enemy once and for all. Hatred was stirred up toward Jesus in the hearts of the religious leaders of his day. This hatred was brewing all throughout his three-year public ministry.
Satan had a plan to use Judas, and at the right time, Judas went to meet with the religious leaders to make a deal to have Jesus handed over to them. The plan was put into motion on the night Jesus' was celebrating the Passover meal with his disciples, Judas left to go get a small army and he brought them to the place where Jesus would later be praying with his disciples. Jesus was arrested and he was illegally put on trial in the middle of the night, under the COVID of darkness. They found him guilty and deserving of the death penalty, although he never did anything ever. Deserving of death, Jesus was mocked and spit upon, and beaten.
He was handed over to the Roman governor Pilate. And Pilate didn't want to kill Jesus, but for fear of the crowds and of Caesar, he gave him up to die. Jesus was tortured first, loving killed many men in that day, and it left Jesus on death's doorstep. He was mocked some more. The guards stripped him and put a crown of thorns on his head.
He was so badly beaten he didn't have the physical strength to carry his own cross up the hill to where he would be placed on it. Someone else had to carry his cross for him. Once they got to the location where the crucifixions took Pilate, they laid Jesus beaten and bloodied body onto the beams and they drove nails through his hands and his feet. Once he was fastened securely to the cross, they lifted him up. Passers-by continued to taunt him.
A thief hanging next to him on a cross of his own hurled insults at him. He hung there for 6 hours, beaten, bruised, bloodied, mocked, humiliated, on the verge of death. Satan had Jesus right where he wanted him. He was pouring it on. The victory was in reach.
He had waited so long for this moment. Ever since he was kicked out of heaven. It was finally going to happen. He was going to stop Jesus once and for all.
Or so he thought.
I don't wonder when it happened exactly. I wonder when the penny dropped for Satan. I wonder what the precise moment in time was when Satan had come to the dreaded realization, thinking to himself, oh, no. What have I done? Was it when the sins of the entire world, the sins of every man, woman and child for all time were placed upon Jesus while he hung on the cross and he took upon himself the punishment from the Father?
For all of it so that mankind would have a way where they wouldn't have to go to hell when they died to pay for their sins. Because Jesus paid for them. I don't know if Satan could see that spiritual transaction taking place on the cross where our sins were placed onto Jesus', but if he could see that going down, was that the moment when he realized his plan to stop Jesus didn't work? Or was it when Jesus gave up his spirit and breathed his last breath and died? And was it in that moment, after he physically died, that the spirit of Jesus' went to Hades and released all of the righteous dead to bring them into his heavenly glory with him?
Was it when Jesus was leading all the Old Testament saints into heaven? Was that the moment Satan was like, what have I done?
Or maybe the dreaded moment came a few days later after Jesus's brutal death. Maybe when Satan saw the spirit of Jesus make his way back to his cold, dead body that had been wrapped in burial cloths and laying in the tomb. Oh, no, what's he doing now? And watching in horror as the once-dead Son of God opened his eyes and his lungs filled with oxygen after a three-day hiatus. And in the twinkling of an eye, the Lamb of God, who was slain only three days earlier, manifested heavenly resurrection power from the dead.
And out of the tomb walked the line of Judea, having overcome the power of death, making a public spectacle of it, and paving the way for every human being who believes in Christ to be resurrected from the dead in the same way. Same way, one day, too, was Resurrection Sunday, the day that Satan realized that his very best efforts to stop Jesus only ended up in Jesus receiving the most glory possible.
What Joseph said to his brothers back in Egypt when he revealed to them that he was alive, that after they sold him into slavery, God raised him up to become the second most powerful man on the planet at the time, captures this perfectly in Genesis 50 20, Joseph said to his brothers, you planned evil for me. God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the survival of many people. Satan planned evil against Jesus, but Jesus planned it for good to bring about the eternal survival of many people. Satan cannot stop Jesus. It's impossible.
So, you know what he tries to do? Instead, he turns his attention to the people Jesus loves the most. He turns his attention to the church. He can't stop Jesus. So, the next best thing would be to destroy the ones he loves, and he persecutes those who are living for Jesus, those who are advancing his kingdom agenda around the globe.
But here's the thing. Satan can't seem to catch a break because he can't stop us either, even though he tries. He tries to stop Jesus by trying to stop the Church. But if you know anything about the persecution of the Church historically, you know that it has only ignited the spread of the Gospel around the world more than anything else. And you need to let this be an anchor for your Saul.
If you're a Christian, if you are in Christ, you cannot lose. You win. If you are a part of the church Jesus is building, you cannot lose. You only win. Even if you have an appointment with persecution one day.
The worst possible thing that Satan can do is kill you because of what Jesus did for you on the cross and in his resurrection. If you were to die today, you would go straight into the presence of the glorious and risen Jesus Christ. You would get the very thing you want more than anything else. You would get to see Jesus face to face. If you die, you win.
And if you don't die, that means you still have some ministry to accomplish for Jesus in this life. He still has further work for you to do that will help advance His Kingdom agenda on this earth. If you live, you win. Paul said the same thing in Philippians. He wrote to the church at Philippi.
Philippians, chapter one, verse 21. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Now, if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me, and I don't know which one I should choose. I'm torn between the two. I long to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. If you live, you win. If you die, you win. Because you belong to Jesus, you win. This doesn't mean it won't ever look like you're losing.
Persecution looks like losing, but it only looks like that if you're looking at it with natural eyes. If you look at persecution with the eyes of faith, then you know that even if it looks like a loss, it is always a gain in Christ Jesus. It looked like Jesus was losing when he was hanging on the cross and then buried in the tomb. It looked like he lost, but he rose in victory and is ruling and reigning now and forever. It looked like Paul and Silas were losing when they were beaten and imprisoned for Jesus in Philippi.
But that persecution led them to share the Gospel with the jailer and his family which led to their salvation and entrance into the kingdom of heaven. And it will look like we're losing at times but looks can be deceiving because if we're not dead, that means Jesus still has something left for us to do. And when we do end up dying, when it's all said and done, we will be resurrected one day two, just like Jesus was. And then we will be ruling and reigning with King Jesus forever and ever and ever and there's nothing Satan can do to stop that. Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
There are two ways we can read the Book of Acts. We can read it while having no intention of actually experiencing anything that we see take place in it or we can read it with the desire to have our lives and the life of our church, experience everything that is available to us in the disciple-making journey that Jesus has saved us and called us into, even if that includes persecution. May we be people who read the Book of Acts like that with I said I'm going to pray. I'm going to invite the worship team to come up.
I'm going to pray in light of obvious things that we just heard from the word of God. Now, I don't know what this Holy Spirit is doing in your lives. I'm going to pray a prayer that is personal to me because I want the things I've been talking about here. If you resonate with the things that I'm praying, just hijack my prayer and make it yours. Pray it in the quiet of your heart, in the quiet of your mind, take what you want from it, leave what you don't, but I'm going to pray this for me and then invite you to pray it as well.
So, close your eyes and bow your heads with me. Jesus, I love you only because you first loved me.
I was not searching for you, looking for you. I could never be good enough to make it into your kingdom, but you saved me. You died for me. You pursued me. You covered all my sins.
You washed them away. You removed shame and guilt. You removed my destiny of eternal death, and you filled me with your Holy Spirit, and you gave me hope and joy and life and power. And I deserve none of it. And you gave it all at the cost of your very life.
There's nothing I can give you in return for that, Jesus. There's no way I can live a million lifetimes over and I wouldn't be able to begin paying you back for what you paid to give to me. And so, all I have, all I have is whatever is remaining of my life, I give it to you. It's the only response that's aphrodite, all of it. Take it and take it again and again and again because I so often take it, take parts of it back.
Forgive me, Lord, when I take back what's rightfully yours. My life belongs to you. You paid for it. Take it all, even the hard stuff and the good stuff.
And you're doing something in my heart, Lord, and I pray you're doing it in our church. I want the fullness of the of the Christian life. I want the full experience of it to be lived out in my life.
I want my life to be invested into something that's going to matter in a thousand years from now. Something that's going to matter when we get to Heaven. I want to get to the doorstep of Heaven, Lord, and have every last drop of this earthly life of mine poured out for eternity's sake.
I want to see Your power. And if that means experiencing persecution to be a part, to be on the front loves of you, advancing Your kingdom, then I want it. I don't long to feel miserable. I don't want it. But I just want the fullness of who you are.
And if Jesus, if persecution didn't skip over you, how can I expect it to skip over me if I'm walking in Your footsteps?
So, strengthen us in our inner beings, Lord, for the things that you're calling us to strengthen us and produce Your spiritual life in us so that when we are squeezed, we praise you like Paul and Silas did. It's what comes out of us.
Let us all be tethered to Your spirit, Lord, as we're walking through this life, sensitive to Your leading, not just by what the plain black and white letters of Your Word says to us, but when the Holy Spirit speaks to go here or do this or don't do that. We are sensitive and we obey you, that we don't just walk through open doors or try to kick through closed ones. We go where you tell us to go.
And in all of this, Jesus, anchor our hope in the fact that you are victorious only and always and Satan cannot stop you. Anchor our hope in that and that will see us through to the end.
Glorify yourself, Jesus, in my life. Glorify yourself, Jesus, in the life of Gospel City Church. Glorify yourself, Jesus, in Your Church around the world. Do what we pray for our glory and our deepest joy. Amen.