When the Church is Tried. . .

I was voicing a complaint to a friend about the opposition I was experiencing in ministry: “Why is this happening? I didn’t do anything to deserve to be treated this way!” He quickly replied, “Well, you don’t have to be doing anything wrong to face opposition in ministry.” It was something that I knew; but it was something I needed to hear again. No matter how much we long to avoid them, trials are inevitable. Trials will most certainly come in pastoral ministry. The apostles understood this from experience. After being stoned in Lystra for preaching the gospel, the apostle Paul strengthened the believers there, saying, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:23).

The flow of events in the book of Acts exhibit the varied trials faced by a living, growing, and expanding church (Acts 2:47; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7). As the apostles proclaimed the gospel, the Lord brought multitudes to saving faith in Christ. These converts began to grow in spiritual depth, communal love, and numeric multiplication. Running concurrently with this growth were increasing trials. There was a growing conflict in the form of opposition from without and threats from within.

The book of Acts not only highlights the ever present trials and tribulations endured by the church; it also reveals the divinely appointed means of deliverance. With each new trial experienced in the early church, Acts reveals how believers are to respond. In Acts, we discover the divine remedy by the apostolic response to external and internal threats to the kingdom of God. By surveying the trials and the remedies, we learn how to respond when we find ourselves on the receiving end of these elements of spiritual warfare.

Additionally, the book of Acts reveals the outcome of the church facing trials in God’s way with God’s means. The churches grew whenever they faced external and internal threats with the divinely appointed means. This is a recurrent emphasis throughout the book of Acts (e.g., Acts 6:7; 9:31; 12:24; 16:5). Numeric and spiritual growth occurred in the church on the heels of the opposition it faced when the people of God entrusted themselves to the Lord and His means of grace. We, however, often try to avoid conflicts, turn a blind eye to them, or seek to confront them with worldly means of deliverance. Instead, the Scriptures encourage us to give serious consideration to the inevitability of trials, the divinely appointed remedies of overcoming them, and the outcome of God’s blessing His church after the trials.

The Threats

From Without

It is impossible to read through the Acts of the Apostles without recognizing the persistent and ever increasing persecution and opposition experienced by the church during the foundational period of the new covenant church. Often that persecution was stimulated by the hostility of unbelieving Jewish religious leaders. As the apostles made inroads into areas in which the gospel had never been preached, they became the objects of violent opposition.

1. Religious Leaders

The opening chapters of the book of Acts highlights the opposition that the new covenant church should expect from without. After Peter and John heal the lame man outside the temple (Acts 3:1–9), they preached Christ to the people who witnessed this miraculous deed (3:11–26). This gracious proclamation of the gospel incited the opposition of the religious leaders in Israel (4:1–26). After being arrested by the religious leaders in Israel for preaching the gospel, they proclaimed Christ to the religious leaders themselves (Acts 4:8–12). This resulted in further threats at the hands of these unbelieving Jewish religious leaders.

The cameo of the persecution of the early church at the hand of the Jewish religious leaders is seen in the account of the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7). Luke intimates that Saul of Tarsus had authorized Stephen’s murder at the hand of a Jewish mob (Acts 7:58). Saul’s hostility was likely incited by the fact that Stephen had an understanding of Scripture that he himself had never been able to possess despite the rigor of his study. The Lord had kept this supernatural revelation of Christ from Saul, while graciously giving it to Stephen. Spiritual envy and jealousy undergirded the persecution of the Jewish religious leaders, as it had in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 27:18; Luke 20:14). The book of Acts holds envy and jealousy out as the principal motives for the persecution of the apostles as they went city by city proclaiming Christ whenever they went (e.g., Acts 13:45, 50; 17:15). 

2. Political Rulers

In addition to the opposition of the religious leaders, the Christian Church was subject to the persecuting animus of the Roman political rulers. This form of opposition arises as the church spreads out to different regions and provinces. It is the principle focus as the gospel advances into the nations. There were spiritual forces of darkness that lay behind the persecuting governmental authorities seeking to silence the spread of the gospel through imprisonments, beatings, and threats. In Acts, the persecuting gentile rulers included Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:1–3), Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:4–12), Felix (Acts 23–24), Festus (Acts 25), and Herod Agrippa II (Acts 25:13–26:32). Othen, they caved to the complaints of the unbelieving Jewish opponents. In this way, we see that the Jews and Gentiles worked in conjunction to bring an opposing front against the early Christian church.

From Within

When we think of the hardships that the church will endure, we have a propensity to limit our thoughts to persecution, ostracization, circumstantial hardship, or physical affliction. We often stop short of giving due consideration to the threats that arise from within the church. We see three categories of such internal threats surfacing in earliest days of the new covenant church. First, there is the internal conflict brought about by the hypocrisy that arises in the church with the account of Annias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–11). The second is the division that arises due to the debate over the daily distributions of the widows (Acts 6:1–7). The third is the doctrinal compromise that is always a threat to a living and growing church (Acts 15:1–21; 20:29–31)

1. Hypocrisy

This couple, who feigned commitment to the Lord and his people by lying to the Lord about their giving, were struck dead in the midst of the assembly for their rebellion. While questions about the nature of their sin and the consequent judicial action of God are important and should be carefully studied, the reality was that the church fellowship was in dangered by their actions.

Michael Baumgarten, in his Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, explained the rationale for God’s judgment on Ananias and Sapphira, when he wrote:

“It is therefore nothing less than hypocrisy, that leaven of the Pharisees (Luke 12:1), which here comes across us in the community. Had this impurity found free course and play it would have corrupted the holiness of the whole body (1 Cor. 5:6).”

There is the ever present danger of hypocrisy running rampant in the church. If tolerated, this leavening danger would destroy the purity of the members of the body of Christ. It only takes one individual or one couple who are living in unrepentant hypocrisy, white being approved by the church, to spread hypocrisy and defile the purity of the church.

Baumgarten again observed,

“The holiness of the community was that which essentially was revealed in the retribution upon Ananias and Sapphira. The community had in this case shown itself as it were the sacred fire of the altar, which broke forth and consumed everything impure (Leviticus 10:1—10). The community as a whole had scarcely been aware of that extent of its own holiness, which was shown in this event. On this account they themselves cannot but feel fear; not to mention the terror which must have seized those who stood without and heard of such holy rigor.”

2. Division

No sooner had the church been delivered from the threat of hypocrisy that a new threat emerged. This as yet unexperienced, internal threat came in the form of a division that broke out on account of the daily distributions to the widows. If the evil one cannot destroy the church through hypocrisy, he will seek to do so through division. It ought to be astonishing to us that this division first arose in the church’s engagement in the act of mercy. Believers can be involved in some congregational act of mercy and experience the threat of division in the church.

In our day, division is one of the great threats faced by many churches. Personalities, partiality, expectations, and discontentment can all cause division to spring up on the church. This is one of the ongoing threats that every local church will face at some point in its existence.

3. Doctrinal Compromise

The third internal threat to the church comes in the form of false teaching. Acts 15:1 ff. contains the record of the church’s first major controversy over whether or not a person must be circumcised in order to be saved. Then, as he was heading from Ephesus to Jerusalem, Paul warned the Ephesian elders that from among themselves wolves would devour the flock with twisted doctrines and schematically draw away disciples after themselves (Acts 20:29–31). Every single New Testament epistle––with the glaring exception of Philemon––addresses the various forms of false teaching that were a threat to the church.

There are so many forms of false teaching to combat in the church in our day. Various forms of prosperity gospels, legalistic works-righteousness, and antinomianism, are a few of the more prevalent forms of false teaching. The packaging around each of these may vary, but they will still pose a great threat to the life and vitality of a church.

The Means of Overcoming

The book of Acts not only reveals the kinds of trials that the church will inevitably face; it provides us with the divinely appointed means of confronting them.

The Word and Prayer 

When Peter and John were arrested for preaching the gospel, and were threatened by the very men who tried the Lord Jesus––being told not to preach in Jesus’ name any more––they responded, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” When men do not want to hear the preaching of the gospel, the answer is the preaching of the gospel! Peter and John would continue proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ. The kingdom would advance by the primary means of the preaching of Christ crucified and risen. The Apostles met the threat against this means of kingdom advancement by committing themselves again to the Lord and His divinely-appointed means of advancing the kingdom. They could have been tempted to try to rally the believers to take over the government or enact legislation that would offer them greater religious protection. Rather, they continued to proclaim the Christ who had redeemed them, called them, and sent them to carry the gospel to the nations.

When the apostles were set free, they gathered with the believers to call on the Lord together. This is a very clear picture of the way in which they committed themselves afresh to the Lord and His means of grace. Calling on Him as the sovereign Lord of creation, revelation, providence, and redemption, they pleaded with Him to look on the threats with which they had been threatened by political rulers and grant them boldness to further proclaim the gospel. Like their Lord, they committed themselves to “Him who judges righteously” when they were threatened. How often we apply ourselves to prayer after we have tried to deliver ourselves out of some particular trial or threat! We should entrust ourselves to Him first when we are confronted with some fiery trial.

Discipline

 In the account of Ananias and Sapphira, we discover how God intends to make use of discipline for the purification of His church in the way in which he dealt with Ananias and Sappira. Church discipline is a vital mark of the church and a means of grace. Discipline is a divinely appointed means for the restoration of wayward believers, for the restraining of the leavening influences of evil, and for the defense of the glory and honor of Christ. By means of the divine discipline carried out by the apostle Peter with regard to Ananias and Sapphira, the leavening influence of their hypocrisy was removed and the glory and honor of Christ was defended.

Church Officers

The early church was delivered from future damage of the internal threat of division when the apostles charged the members of the church to appoint deacons for the service of distribution to the widows (Acts 6:3). By means of this distinct office and its works of mercy, the apostles could continue “preaching the word of God” (Acts 6:2). The formation of a diaconate freed the apostles (i.e., elders) to be able to commit themselves to “prayer and the ministry of the word” (6:4). As the various officers did their part (i.e., deacons caring for the  material needs of the people and elders caring for their spiritual needs) the division was healed and the church was unified in Christ. Since Christ is the Savior of body and spirit, He has distributed these two offices for the unique care of the members of his body.

Church officers are also seen as the remedy to the false teaching that had infiltrated the early church in the account of the Jerusalem council (Acts 15). Threatened by Judaistic false teaching, the churches gathered together with the apostles and elders to deliberate on the threat of this false teaching (Acts 15:2, 4, and 6). This is ostensibly the first Presbytery meeting in the history of the early church. At this council, the apostle and elders collectively lead the church to recognize the teaching of Scripture regarding justification by faith alone. They did not make up their own laws or doctrines. Rather, they exercised their declarative ministry by appealing to the authoritative teaching of the word of God.

When the elders care for the spiritual and doctrinal needs of the church and the deacons care for the material needs of the congregation, the threat of potential divisions and falsehood are abated. So too in our day. Whatever the trials from within or without, Christ has appointed elders and deacons to carry out the important work of ministering to the holistic needs of the church. As they do so in accord with God’s word, the blessing of God is experienced in the deliverances He brings from these threats to His church.

The Outcome

The final feature of the teaching of the book of Acts regarding threats to the ministry and to the church is the way in which God blessed the church when they faced these threats in His way with His appointed means. When the early church faced external and internal trials in God’s way with God’s means, the following occurred:

• The Word and Prayer – “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31)

• Discipline – “Great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things” (Acts 5:11)

        “Believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women” (Acts 5:14)

• Church Officers – “The word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7)

        “They encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. . .And  were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them” (Acts 15:30–33).

Whenever the church faces external or internal trials in this fallen world, we must remember that such trials are inevitable, that we must face them with the divinely appointed means, and that God intends blessing on the backside of the trials.