No opposition is too great for God

One of the first books I read when I joined the church staff was an old copy of China's Christian Millions. It tells the story of the millions of Christians in China, and how a church explosion was born out of suffering and persecution under the communist leaders in the 1950s. When I read it, it was already pretty out of date. I remember Ramzi and others telling me that the main thing that had changed was the church had grown further – at an astonishing rate, despite China, then (as now) being a very hard place to live as a Christian; Opposition, problems, suffering, yet abundant church growth. That's the pattern we see, not just in our modern world, but from the beginning of God's church at the time when the book of Acts was written. So, before we get stuck in, let's pray…

1. Opposition to God can only serve his purposes

Please open your Bibles to page 925. And remember what we looked at last week: Paul and Silas had been falsely accused, dragged before the Roman authorities, stripped and beaten with rods. And, then they were chucked into the high-security part of the prison…dark, damp, cold and filthy, locked up in stocks that dug into their already lacerated flesh. Well, here’s how they respond (Acts 16.25):

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them…

Paul and Silas knew the truth of the gospel was good news for people, however they reacted to it. They knew the truth that sharing God's message resulted in conversions, but also conflict, in hunger, but also hostility. Then, as today, those things always come hand in hand, because Christianity is about who’s King of our lives, and deep down, don’t we want to be king of our own lives? So, there’ll always be trouble when Jesus is proclaimed as King. And, Paul and Silas also knew they'd (literally) a captive audience. So, they sing praises to God! No wonder all the prisoners listen in! But there’s something even more astonishing to come (Acts 16.26-34):

…suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

So, the earthquake removes the chains from the walls, and throws the doors open, the jailer wakes up and rushes to the scene, confused, he just assumes all the prisoners have fled. He draws his sword to end his life before the authorities get hold of him. But then, from the depth of the prison Paul calls out (Acts 16.28):

…do not harm yourself, for we are all here.

Because the earthquake actually wasn’t sent to free Paul and Silas. None of the prisoners left! So, one reason God sent the earthquake, was to say, “no opposition can stop me…You think you can stop my gospel by throwing my servants in jail? No chance! No opposition is greater than me, and my gospel message”. And it’s the same today. Take countries in the Islamic world hostile to Christianity, where the church on paper is non-existent, where Christians are thrown in jail, or worse. E.g. Iran, where the only way to meet is in secret house churches. About 20 years ago, the Iranian church was absolutely tiny, with around 5-10 thousand converts from Islam, but today that's between 800,000 – 1 million people. It's now estimated Iran has the fastest-growing church in the world, because God is greater than any opposition. But that’s still not the main reason God sent the earthquake! God was doing more.

Now my wife Hayley would say God knew what he was doing because, based on me, her theory is the ground literally needs to shake to wake a man up when he’s sleeping. I keep trying to tell her I’m not the first bloke to sleep through a crying baby! The main reason God sent the earthquake was so that the jailer could become a Christian because the main thing God is doing in this passage is showing us that opposition to God, can ultimately, only serve his purposes. So, let’s think about this jailer. We don't know much, but he was part of the Roman establishment, he was probably an ex-soldier, and that he had a non-stop job – try taking three bank holidays in May when you’re guarding prisoners 24-7! So, this is the guy that isn’t coming to come along to church and that probably isn’t going to give Christianity Explored a go. Our author Luke wants us to understand: this is someone who, on paper, is so unlikely to become a Christian. But the earthquake gets his attention! It gets him talking to God’s servants – Paul and Silas! It gets him hungry for God! God gets him hungry for God! God is behind every detail here. So, Acts 16.30, the jailer asks:

Sirs [good manners have been shaken into him!] what must I do to be saved?

i.e. “your God is obviously displeased with me, how do I get on the right side of him?" What a question to be asked! Paul and Silas reply quickly:

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.

Here at JPC, we have lots of people with us in church who are thinking through what they believe. If that’s you you’re very welcome! And there’s a lesson in Paul and Silas’ reply for you. To become a Christian, you need to believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved from the consequences of the way you've lived life so far, ignoring God. If you do, you will enter into a forever relationship with the living God. In a nutshell: That’s what it is to live as a Christian. So, is tonight the night for you to believe in the Lord Jesus? Of course, there’s much more to be said about living as a Christian – that’s why v.32 – Paul and Silas get the Bible open with the jailer and his entire household! So, the lessons for us if we are Christians are: be ready to explain the gospel quickly, and, be ready to get the Bible open with people if they’re hungry for more – you could use Uncover/Word one 2 one resources to help you do that. And, if you’re anything like me, this passage is an encouragement to think “am I as ready as I can be to do this?”

But, one of the things that’s hard about sharing the gospel is that we can have great opportunities with people – but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll become Christians, does it? And we find what feels like a “low hit rate” when it comes to evangelism discouraging. But one of the great things about the book of Acts is that it reminds us, that though sharing the gospel is hard, God does save people. He transforms lives! He transforms lives of the most unlikely of people! So, let’s read Acts 16.33-34 again:

And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

The man and his household get baptised immediately, as a declaration of their new faith. If you're a Christian and you've not been baptised, it would be significant for you to get baptised - because you'd be making a public declaration of your faith in Jesus, and you'd be assured by the church family here saying, "we recognise you, and welcome you as a Christian brother or sister". But the key thing here is: God has transformed the jailer and his household! He’s made them Christians! That's the miracle Luke wants us to really focus on – that the most unlikely people have become Christians through the most unlikely of circumstances. The gospel is growing and bearing fruit!

Now I know the thing about this passage is we think, "of course it would be really easy if God sent earthquakes – then people would definitely listen to us!" But we need to trust that God will give us gospel opportunities wherever he has placed us. For Paul and Silas it looked like there was no hope of any real opportunity to share the gospel until they were out of prison. Yet God used the very opposition to his gospel to serve his purpose of people coming to faith in him. I guess for us, evangelism often feels slow. The culture around us is increasingly in conflict with Biblical Christianity. We might not face being chucked in jail, but we do have to deal with the kind of heat/pressure from people we might not have faced 10, 15 years ago…And, by nature, we're all suffering avoiders. But God is transforming lives! He is using us to reach people – on our frontlines. So, what opportunities will you have in the week ahead? And he's using us through our witness here – because there are always people among us who are looking into the claims of Jesus (if that's you, you're very welcome!) And, he does give us opportunities when it seems so unlikely. One of you students got chatting to a complete stranger in the library, you got on to Christian things, and they came along to church. Several of us over the years have had friends at work that have invited themselves to church or asked us about faith out of the blue. Those things that never seem to happen, it's funny how they happen among us more than we think. Let's pray for opportunities. So, there's conflict with the culture, but there's conversions.

I remember a friend from a while back. Throughout the year, his housemates became more and more appalled by his faith. It got quite nasty. And I remember him being upset, but also, him also pointing out to me the irony that the abuse was giving him opportunity after opportunity to share the gospel. By the end of that year, he'd received a tonne of criticism for being a Christian, but he'd shared the gospel a tonne of times, and one of his housemates was really thinking about the claims of Jesus. Sometimes the most fruitful opportunities for evangelism are born out of suffering. There's hostility, but there's hunger. Here's how Paul put it, years later, when he was writing to this Philippian church, this time from prison in Rome (Philippians 1.12):

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

Hostility but hunger. Conflict but conversions. So it was with Jesus. So it was with Paul and Silas. So it may it be for us. God has placed us in other people's lives for a reason. Of course, there won't always be fruit for the gospel, and evangelism will always involve suffering – like our reading from Luke showed us. But, friends, let’s believe God can/does save people. And, let's believe that, ultimately, any opposition to the gospel only serves God's purposes. Secondly, we see that:

2. Opposition to the gospel can help establish precedents that help other believers

Reading from Acts 16.35-40:

But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.

So, the magistrates send the police to release Paul and Silas. This is great news! Will they be able to leave with the jailer converted, and a church established, ready to begin sharing the gospel in another city? But they still don't leave! And there's a "sit in" down at the jail because, at the time, it was illegal to beat and imprison a Roman citizen, especially without trial. So, Paul secures a public apology, to show that Christians are not troublemakers, and the charges brought against him and Silas were false. And above all, that helps all future believers in Philippi, which as a Roman colony would have consisted of Roman citizens. Now the officials would think twice before mistreating Christians.

Of course, the obvious question is: why didn't Paul mention he was a Roman citizen before? Had he no opportunity? Was he ignored? Did he choose not to "play the citizen card" to model suffering for the gospel? Simply put, Luke doesn't tell us. We don't know. But what we do know is that Paul uses the opportunity to insist on his rights for the sake of his brothers and sisters. And if it hadn't been for opposition, how would that precedent have been established? This is one of the reasons that we support the Christian Institute here at JPC. So, e.g. through their Legal Defence Fund, they've defended the rights of Christians to speak and preach publically, and to hand out Christian literature on the street. And, where would we be if those people who were wrongly arrested and detained by the police for doing that, hadn't stood up for their legal rights? Would we have been able to carol sing and hand out flyers last Christmas? Or talk to people in the street about our mission events, when Jake Hinton visited? Or, where would the Christian Union movement in schools/uni be, if the several over the years, hadn't stood up when they were treated differently to other societies when it came to things like room bookings and being allowed to advertise themselves? We need to know our rights. E.g. The Equality Act protects faith, including the Christian faith, against discrimination. And, when appropriate, we need to stand up for our rights – not out of ego, or revenge, or because we're horrified we're suffering – but for the sake of other Christians. Doing that in itself will be hard. It's almost always easier not to. But we need to need to be prepared to do it if it's the right thing for the gospel, because God is control of everything, and in his economy, opposition to the gospel can help establish precedents that help other believers.

So, that's Paul in Philippi. Next on our city tour is Thessalonica and Berea – where it's more of the same. Hostility, but, hunger. Conflict, but, conversions. So come back next week to learn more about God's unstoppable gospel, as it goes on to the ends of the earth! Let's pray.