What Are the Church’s Greatest Threats? (Acts 8:1-25) - The PursueGOD Truth Podcast

Today we’ll look at the first part of Acts chapter 8. We’ll do a “threat assessment” on the early church as we answer this question: What Are the Church’s Greatest Threats?

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Q. What Are the Church’s Greatest Threats?

• (Alpine is 23 years old today!)
• First public service held Sept 9, 2001
• Two days later the twin towers fell and the world changed
• Threat of terrorism
• Threat of global war
• Threat of losing American way
• But Alpine continued to grow, and today…
• Eight campuses, and growing!
• Opening service at the Syracuse building
• Where will God take us in the next 23 years?
• And what threats will we have to endure?
• Today we’ll look at three threats that the early church faced (persecution, power, and division) and one bonus threat that seems unique to us today (apathy).
• We have a lot to cover, so let’s get straight to the text…

The Threat of Persecution

Acts 8: (NLT) 1 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.

Acts 8:1-3 (NLT) A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. 2 (Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) 3 But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.

• The External Threat
• Pay attention to the language here, and how different it is from what we’ve seen so far in our study of Acts
• First, let’s review the memories (honeymoon stage)
• Growth: Acts 2:41 (NLT) 41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.
• Miracles: Acts 3:7 (NLT) 7 Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.
• Community: Acts 4:32 (NLT) 32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.
• Freedom: Acts 5:42 (NLT) 42 And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.”
• Now we have all new language:
• “Great wave of persecution”
• I remember standing in the ocean with my kids when they were young, the power of the waves
• That’s nothing compared to the tsunami that hit Japan
• March 11, 2011
• They call it “3/11”
• The church experienced this external threat
• A tsunami of persecution
• scary
• “all the believers … were scattered”
• So much for community!
• And then this:
• “Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church”
• This guy’s personal mission!
• I’ve seen some of these guys on YouTube…
• Atheists
• Christian haters
• Deconstructionists

But here’s the thing with God: a threat is just an opportunity.

Acts 8: (NLT) 4 But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.

• Don’t you love it!?
• Genesis 50:20 (NLT) You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. (Like the Esther story with Haman)
• In fact, this was God’s plan all along: that the next stop after Jerusalem would be Judea and Samaria. Let’s put some verses side-by-side:
• Acts 1:8 (NLT) 8 …And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
• Jesus’ final words before his ascension
• Acts 8:1 (NLT) …and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.
• Bad thing, right? Not quite…
• Acts 8:4 (NLT) But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.
• What the enemy meant for evil….

Then Luke gives a specific example…

Acts 8:5 Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. 6 Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. 7 Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

• How did all of this start? With persecution in Jerusalem.

And that’s where our bonus threat comes in…

The Threat of Apathy

Q. Does the church face the threat of persecution today?

• In some countries, yes. Ex: Iran
• Iran was number nine on Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution.
• Sheep Among Wolves Vol 2 documentary
• Incredible persecution among Christians in Iran
• Yet the church is growing, gospel is spreading
• Underground!
• According to scholar Shay Khatiri of Johns Hopkins University, “Islam is the fastest shrinking religion in there [Iran], while Christianity is growing the fastest”, and in 2018 "up to half a million Iranians are Christian converts from Muslim families, and most of these Christians are evangelicals." He adds that "recent estimates claim that the number might have climbed up to somewhere between 1 million and 3 million".
• But what about America, where there is no true persecution?
• Iranian Christian couple was able to move to the US. But after being in US, wife began to plead with husband to take her back to Iran.
• “There’s a satanic lullaby here. All the Christians are sleepy, and I’m feeling sleepy.”
• Spiritual apathy is a greater threat than persecution.
• Lulled into our comfortable lives
• Not caring about the lost
• Not serious about our pursuit of God
• Because we feel like we don’t have to be

As we read on, Luke describes another threat in the early church, one that still exists today.

The Threat of Power

Acts 8:9-11 (NLT) 9 A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. 10 Everyone, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as “the Great One—the Power of God.” 11 They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic.

• Think of him as a popular secular influencer

Acts 8:12-13 (NLT) 12 But now the people believed Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized. 13 Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed.

• Simon had magic, Philip had miracles
• To the outside observer, might not have looked different
• Notice the similarities in the crowds reactions:
• Astounded with his magic
• Amazed by his miracles
• Even Simon the sorcerer is impressed
• He believed
• He was baptized
• Remember this as we hear the rest of the story…

Acts 8:14-17 (NLT) 14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God’s message, they sent Peter and John there. 15 As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. 16 The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.

• (New Bible Commentary) It is, of course, delightful that John, who once wanted to call down the fire of judgment on a Samaritan village (Lk. 9:54), was one of those who was now calling down the Holy Spirit!

But here’s where the threat comes in…

Acts 8:18-19 (NLT) 18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. 19 “Let me have this power, too,” he exclaimed, “so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!”

• Simon was thinking in terms of magic power and influence
• And he wanted to buy this influence
• This came to be known as “Simony” - named after this passage!
• Simony is the act of buying or selling spiritual things, particularly church offices or roles
• In medieval Europe, the church was often intertwined with