Tag: opposition

Categories
1 Thessalonians

Ready to face opposition

1 Thessalonians

Nobody likes persecution. Nobody likes being disliked.

But as Christians, that’s a reality that we have to prepare ourselves for. There are some people that simply will not like us because of our faith in Christ.

This is a truth that all Christians need to be prepared to face, and Paul made sure the Thessalonians were ready when he was with them. He said,

We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God’s fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials.

You know quite well that we were destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. (Philippians 3:2-4)

Destined for trials. Destined for persecution. These are not words that Christians want to hear, but Paul warned the Thessalonians about these things.

Because of that, they were prepared. When persecution came from their own people, they didn’t falter. Rather they stood firm. (1 Thessalonians 3:6-8)

And so should we.

But remember that God does not call us to stand in our own strength. We need to rest in his strength.

Part of that comes from continuing to grow in our faith through the Word of God. Paul prayed that he could come to the Thessalonians once again so that he could, “supply what is lacking in your faith.” (3:10)

None of us are perfect in our knowledge of Christ. All of us need to continue to grow in our faith. So we need to continue to plug ourselves into his church in order to get the spiritual nutrition and strength we need to stand in times of trials.

That comes through the preaching of the Word. But it also comes through the relationships we have with each other as God pours out his love in our hearts, and we learn to love each other and all those God puts into our lives. (3:12)

But most importantly, it comes as God himself strengthens our hearts through his Spirit who dwells in us. And so Paul prays,

May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (1 Thessalonians 3:13)

As we live our lives for Christ, Satan will oppose us. That’s a given. We see it in Paul’s life, we see it in the Thessalonians’ lives, we see it throughout church history.

Are you ready to face his opposition?

Categories
Acts

Opposition

Acts

If there is one word that comes to mind as I read this passage, it’s “opposition.”

As Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel, they faced opposition from Elymas and the Jews.

One was spiritual opposition. The other was opposition that sprang up from human jealousy and sin. (Although you could argue that all opposition to the gospel is ultimately spiritual.)

How did Paul and Barnabas respond? When the direct hand of Satan was involved, they confronted it by the power of the Holy Spirit, as they did when dealing with Elymas.

One thing we cannot do is face spiritual powers on our own. They are more powerful than us. But as John wrote,

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)

And by the power of the Spirit, Paul and Barnabas vanquished Elymas, and Sergius Paulus and his family were saved.

When confronted by humans in their jealousy and pride, Paul and Barnabas continued to stand boldly and preach the gospel.

And when the people hardened their hearts, Paul and Barnabas moved on. First to the Gentiles in the city, and then, ultimately leaving the city to minister to others.

In the same way, we will face people who will oppose us for their own selfish reasons. And we will face others that simply will not believe no matter what we say.

Eventually, the time will come when all we can do is to leave them over to God and his judgment. We cannot make them believe. All we can do is to preach the gospel. The rest is up to them and God.

So when people reject the message, don’t get discouraged. Simply move on, and continue speaking boldly.

All of us will eventually face opposition. But when you do, remember the words of Paul himself, who said,

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

Categories
Nehemiah

Rebuilding in the face of opposition

Nehemiah and the trumpet

Under Nehemiah, work on the walls of Jerusalem began. But it wasn’t long before the opposition started.

We see this at the end of chapter 2 when the Jews’ enemies tried to accuse them of rebellion.

That accusation no longer had any teeth behind it, however, with Nehemiah leading the efforts under the authority of Artaxerxes himself.

So in chapter 4, they tried to discourage the Jews by mocking them, calling them weak, and questioning their ability to rebuild their walls.

But when the Jews continued to work and had in fact built up the wall to half its height, their enemies tried stronger tactics, threatening to attack them when they least expected it.

In the face of this opposition and the size of the task, some of the Jews began to falter, saying,

The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall. (Nehemiah 4:10)

So Nehemiah took action.

He posted guards to protect the laborers and even armed the laborers themselves.

They also set up a system where if there was trouble, a trumpet would blow and all would rally to defend the people being attacked.

But beyond these practical things, Nehemiah also encouraged the people, saying,

Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes. (14)

And with all this, the work continued on.

What can we learn from this?

I think it’s important to realize that Satan’s tactics haven’t changed very much over the centuries.

And when we start to rebuild the spiritual walls of our lives, Satan will first try to discourage us. He’ll tell us we’re too weak to change.

He’ll say, “What are these feeble Christians doing? Will they restore their walls? Can they bring their marriages back to life? Can they bring back to life all the things they tore down because of their sin?”

If that fails to discourage us, he’ll start to attack and bring trials and troubles in our lives in order to stop us.

How do we respond in the face of this opposition?

First, remember that while Satan is strong, God is stronger. He is “great and awesome,” and he will help and deliver us.

But we have to fight. We need to clothe ourselves with God’s armor and refuse to surrender to Satan’s attacks.

Second, remember that we have brothers and sisters to help us.

Tell them your struggles. Ask them to pray for you. Let them rally around you and support you when you feel under attack. And do the same for them when they’re under attack.

Satan gets angry when we rebuild our spiritual walls.

Let’s not be intimidated by him.

Rather, in God’s strength, and with the support of others, let us rebuild our walls and become the people God has called us to be.

Categories
Ezra

Opposition

Opposition

Things are about to become messy concerning the chronology of Ezra.

I think I’ve got a handle on it now, but as we go through the next several blogs, keep in mind that there is quite a bit of dispute among scholars, not only on the chronology of events, but on who is who.

For the time being, I’m holding to the idea that Xerxes and Artaxerxes in chapter 4 of Ezra are the Persian kings who reigned between 486–423 B.C.

Some hold that they were actually Cambyses and Smerdis who reigned before Darius, which would make sense chronologically, but I’m not sure there’s enough evidence from history to say that they also held the names of Xerxes and Artaxerxes.

At any rate, speaking of things getting messy, things quickly got messy for the Jews who were rebuilding the temple.

As they were doing so, some enemies, apparently Samaritans, offered to help them in the rebuilding of the temple.

These Samaritans were the descendants of the remnant of northern kingdom Jews left in Samaria after the majority of the Jews were exiled to Assyria.

This remnant had then intermarried with the people whom the Assyrians imported from Mesopotamia and Syria.

These Samaritans still worshiped the true God, but not him alone. They mixed their worship of God with other gods.

As a result, the Jews who came with Ezra rejected their help.

When this happened, they started to oppose the Jews, not only in the building of the temple, but in the restoration of the walls and the city, as we will see throughout Ezra and Nehemiah.

I think we can learn a lesson from this in our own lives.

When we start to follow God, to build up and sanctify the temple of our body to Christ, and to build up our spiritual strength, there will be opposition.

Sometimes the people around us will be happy to see the positive changes in our lives and will even support us.

But when they start to see that what we believe is in conflict with what they believe, they try to get us to compromise our faith.

In Japan, for example, there’s much pressure on the Christians here to offer incense at Buddhist ceremonies.

But people will try to get us to compromise in other ways as well. They try to get us to compromise our ethics at work or in our personal lives. And if we don’t do so, they then start to become hostile.

Jesus never promised that if we followed him, everyone would like us. Jesus was perfect, and people still hated him. Jesus said,

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. (John 15:18)

So the question we need to ask ourselves is, “Who are we trying to please?” Are we trying to please God or people?

Let us be people who seek the praise of God over all others. No matter the opposition, no matter the cost.