Preparing For Persecution IV

 Even though they finally organized a mob to arrest Peter and John, it was already too late. By the time they got around to it, five thousand new converts had been added to the early church, and the ruling class, the priests, elders, and the upper crust of the religious order were beside themselves. How dare a handful of upstarts undermine the authority of the Sanhedrin? Didn’t they know who they’d picked a fight with? Didn’t they know who they were dealing with? They had no power structure to fall back on, no authority to approach for redress; they were just meeting in homes and preaching in the streets, and they needed to be taught a lesson.

In all fairness, none of those things had crossed the Apostles’ minds. They didn’t set out to pit themselves against the religious power of their time; they were just preaching the truth of Christ and Him risen. However, by the nature of their mission, they were now the sworn enemy of the ruling religious sect of their day.

There is a deep and profound lesson to be learned here because although you may not see others as your adversary, they see you as their nemesis. After all, you are becoming a danger to the tenuous power they hold or the perceived authority they have over those to whom you are preaching the gospel. Individuals who know they’re not preaching the whole counsel of God or fleecing the sheep for their own profit will go to war over one whose only interest is the gospel because they would upend their entire business model and endanger their income stream.

Just as it was in the days of the early church, those only interested in numbers, the bottom line, and the number of pews being filled have much animosity toward those whose only interest is to preach the gospel of the kingdom of Christ. It was never your intent to become their adversary; it’s not what you set out to do, but by nature of being a disciple of Jesus and preaching the truth of Scripture, you have nevertheless become their enemy.

You’re messing with their business model, and that’s something that cannot be allowed. The early church was viewed as an invasive species that would disrupt the entire ecosystem if it was not corralled or eradicated. They could not be allowed to continue performing miracles and preaching a risen Christ because you didn’t need to be a mathematician to realize that three thousand converts one day and five thousand in another made for an unsustainable paradigm for the priests and scribes whose fortunes hung on the faithful coming to the temple regularly. When you see the corporate church side with the persecutors of the brethren, don’t be surprised; it won’t be the first time. It’s just history repeating.

The one thing the lie hates more than anything is the truth. The one recourse left to those in thrall to the lie is to silence those speaking the truth. It’s not complicated; it’s just heartbreaking because those you might have once called brother will call for your demise just as vociferously, if not more so, than the godless. This isn’t revelation; it’s just deductive reasoning based on past events. Times may change, but people don’t, and those with the power want to retain power at all costs, even if the price is your freedom or life.

One standout difference between the early church and our present age is that everyone was there for one purpose. Nobody was trying to hock their particular denomination or newest T-shirt design; no one was saying that their home group was more exciting than the other home groups; they were there for the glory of God and worked as one toward that end goal. They were united in purpose, and that purpose was not self-aggrandizement or the promulgation of one individual over another. It didn’t take long for that to become an issue, and Paul addressed it in his first letter to the Corinthians, but it started off pure, and noble, and true, and it is one of the reasons they had such monumental success early on.

Acts 4:5-7, “And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, ‘By what power or by what name have you done this?”’

And herein, their question betrayed their true fear. It wasn’t that they preached a risen Christ that tormented them so, but that signs and wonders followed them, confirming and bearing witness to their words. People were being healed and delivered, and the high priest, rulers, elders, and scribes knew they couldn’t match the power. The best they had were stale words. These men walked in power, and they either needed to control it themselves or stomp it out altogether before it became a threat to the established order. When you threaten the status quo, be prepared for pushback. It is inevitable.

As long as they were feeding the hungry and helping the widows, they were no threat. But now they were healing the sick and preaching a risen Jesus, and that just couldn’t stand. When the doctrine being preached to the masses begins to fail them en masse, and those preaching the truth are still at peace, full of joy, and walking in the way, the modern-day Pharisees will rise up and demand answers. When they get answers they don’t like, they will react in a manner similar to the Pharisees of old.

I get that we’ve been sold on the idea that we’re all children of God just worshipping from different kinds of pews, in a different type of way, honoring a different sort of god, but that illusion is about to be shattered into a million pieces, and the truth of Christ’s words that many are called but few are chosen will be made all the more evident. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Posted on 8 April 2024 | 11:50 am