The Church Will Not Be Defeated

Acts 5:33-42

Introduction

As many of you know, I have a great interest in military history. It is not to glorify war but to learn from what happens to humanity when put in the most difficult situations. There are often practical life lessons, and even lessons for us as a church, even if the weapons of our warfare are not of this world.

Did you know the Battle of Britain ended exactly 80 years ago yesterday? You may or may not be familiar with the Battle of Britain from the Second World War. At the beginning of the war, the two nations that had the most chance of stopping Nazi Germany were France and Britain. Unfortunately, France quickly fell, despite having one of the most powerful armies of the day, and they were occupied. But what would happen to Britain? Britain, being an island, was more of a challenge to be invaded. But the island was not impregnable. Air warfare had come a long way since the First World War and the German air force was impressive. 

The Battle of Britain was an air war and it began near the end of June 1940. Earlier on, the German aim was to destroy the Royal Air Force. By September, the Blitz had started, day and night bombing on London designed to wear down the British people and make them sue for peace.

Why do I bring this up other than I find military history interesting? I want you to put yourself in the position of a person living in Britain during the summer and autumn of 1940. France had fallen, the Germans had a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, the United States had not yet entered the war and the Royal Air Force as well as the British people were suffering terribly. If you were in that position, how confident would you be in an Allied victory? Probably not very confident. And yet five years later, France was liberated, the Soviet Union and the United States were Allies and Germany was defeated.

Is there a lesson that we can learn here for the Church? Not just Queen Street Baptist Church but the Church in general? What does this mean for us when things look difficult? What does this mean for the persecuted church?

A Persecuted Ancient Church

Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. If I was doing a different sermon series, I might have looked for a different passage to preach today. However, we have been going through Acts and it seems that every week we are seeing some sort of example of the early church being persecuted.

Jesus himself had experienced persecution and after he left earth and the apostles took over, some of the same people who persecuted Jesus, began to persecute the early Christians. In fact, Christianity is so early here that it is not even called Christianity yet.

Before getting too far into this, we should not see any of these examples as being about one religion persecuting another religion. This would have been considered a controversy within one religion: Judaism. There are one group of Jews who believe Jesus was the Messiah who died and rose again and one group that rejected that. To be fair to the Jews, Christians have persecuted other Christians when they felt that people were straying too far.

We have been watching as some of the apostles have been arrested, warned, released and then arrested again. There is an intolerance that has already been manifested in physical punishment and will soon lead to the first martyrs for the faith.

The passage we are looking at his a behind the scenes look at the Sanhedrin, the Jewish authority that is trying to deal with the Jesus problem. There are those of the Sanhedrin, mostly Sadducees, that are very angry with the apostles. They have been warned and yet they keep insisting on preaching Jesus. Obviously these followers of Jesus cannot be reasoned with and so it is time to punish them with death. Remember, the Sanhedrin doesn’t have the authority to execute anyone, that is why they need the Romans to intervene with Jesus. The fact that they were contemplating breaking the rules tells us how desperate they were.

Then a Pharisee named Gamaliel stepped forward. It is important that he is a Pharisee. We tend to give Pharisees a hard time, even using the label as an insult. Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees gave Jesus a hard time but as we get closer to the cross, we see the Sadducees take over as they are most interested in killing Jesus. It is the Sadducees that are more active at persecuting the church.

Gamaliel was a highly respected Pharisee and rabbi. He brought up some examples of Jews who had caused trouble and how their movements had died out, especially after their leader was killed. These trouble-making movements always fizzle out. Unless they are from God. If God is behind it, there will be no stopping it, no matter how difficult things get. Gamaliel suggests caution, he has no desire to be on the wrong side of God, and if this is not of God, it will die on its own. A footnote to this. One of Gamaliel’s students was Saul of Tarsus, who will be known as a persecutor of the church until he meets Jesus and then becomes known at Paul the Apostle.

A Persecuted Modern Church

Persecution didn’t die with the apostles. It continued on throughout the early church. Even once the church was institutionalized, it still experienced persecution from without or within. Persecution is still a very real experience today. This is why I push back when western Christians experience mild pushback on their faith and call it persecution.

There are numerous places around the world where it is dangerous to be a Christian. In fact in sheer numbers, there is more persecution happening today than at any other time in history. Christians lose possessions, they lose rights, they lose opportunities and they even lose their lives.

How do we react to the idea of persecuted church? We could idolize them and see them as super-Christians, people we can cheer on for making the ultimate sacrifice. I do admire their faith as they have been put in places where they need to trust God beyond my experience. None of us know how we would react if a shooter entered our building and threatened to kill all believers.

I actually think about my opening illustration of the Battle of Britain. Things looked hopeless but because of the sacrifice of many military and civilian personnel, the war was won. But that did not diminish the loss that was experienced or take away the feelings of the grieving families. 

This is important for us to remember when we think about the persecuted church. It is not either we are inspired by their faith or we grieve their suffering, it is both.

Some terrible things are happening around the world. When we look at places like North Korea, we wonder if the church can ever prosper. We hear about increasing pressure in other countries to either keep faith private or to stamp it out all together. Where is the hope?

This is why I brought up the Battle of Britain. That looked as hopeless as it could get and yet victory appeared.

The words of Gamaliel still stand, if the Christian church is just a human construct, it will fall on its own, and there will be no real loss. But if the Christian church, including the persecuted church, is of God, then there is nothing that can defeat it. There will be setbacks and real suffering but in the long run, God will take care of his people.

Conclusion

Those early Christians were a relatively small group compared to those around them. They did not have many allies and even their Jewish brothers were pressuring them to give up. It did not look all that promising. But God spoke through a rabbi who didn’t follow Jesus. If God is in this, there is no stopping it. The church is much bigger two thousand years later. We have advantages that those early Christians couldn’t have imagined. But there is still severe persecution. Can the church survive? Yes but not because we are a powerful organization. We can survive because this is God’s church and he will make it happen.