In his sermon titled 'Increasing Opposition,' Peter Allison explores the escalating challenges faced by the early Christian church as depicted in Acts 6 and 7. The sermon highlights how the success of the Gospel in Jerusalem led to increased hostility from the Jewish religious establishment, culminating in the martyrdom of Stephen. Allison emphasizes that persecution is not a sign of the church's weakness but rather an indication of the Gospel's triumph. He draws parallels between the early church's situation and modern-day challenges, noting how opposition often arises from within religious institutions before extending to broader society. The sermon underscores the vital role of the Holy Spirit in empowering believers like Stephen to withstand persecution, offering wisdom and strength in the face of adversity. Allison also discusses the transition from the Old Testament sacrificial system to the new covenant established by Jesus, emphasizing the shift from ceremonial laws to faith in Christ as the fulfillment of the Scriptures. He concludes by urging believers to rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance and strength in their spiritual journey.

Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Acts chapter 6. Begin reading at verse 7. Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great signs and wonders among the people. Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen.

And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Then they secretly induced men to say, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses, who said, This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard Him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.

And all who sat in the council looking steadfastly at Him saw His face as the face of an angel. Then the High Priest said, Are these things so? May the Lord direct our steps by His Word and let no iniquity have dominion over us. Almighty Heavenly Father, Your Word is precious to us and it is living and powerful. We ask that that power may work upon us this morning through the preaching of Your Word, to bring faith and to strengthen us in the faith, to bring conviction of sin and the path, the means of forgiveness of that sin.

May you instruct us Lord out of your word and may you open our eyes We might be whole wonderful things out of your law and may you cleanse in my sinful lips to proclaim the riches of Your grace this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, the first time these Jews arrested the apostles, they gave them a stern warning not to preach. But they didn't feel the people would support them if they went any farther, so there was no punishment further. As Luke puts it, they found no way to punish them.

The second time they arrested them, They gave them a stern warning and a beating. But they didn't think the people would let them get away with any more. Luke puts it this way, he says in Acts 5-26, They brought them to the council without violence because they feared the people. But this time, This third time, they arrest only Stephen, and they drag him before the council. But this attack, this third attack, is much fiercer, and more devious, and more corrupt than the previous two.

And this time, as you know, in a blind rage, they kill Stephen. And that's recorded in the next chapter. Now what do you see in this pattern? What do you see? In meditating on this context, this pattern, I was reminded of a camping trip that Sherlock Holmes took with his friend, Dr.

Watson. After a bottle of wine and some pleasant conversation, They lay down in their tent and went to sleep. Sometime later, Holmes woke up and nudged his companion, his faithful friend, and said, Watson, look up. And what do you see? And Watson looked up at the sky and said, I see millions of stars.

The mom said, what does that tell you? Watson thought a minute. And then he replied, I see. Astronomically that tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observed that Saturn is in Leo.

Horologically, I determined that the time is approximately 3 AM. Theologically, I can see that God is omnipotent, and we are small and insignificant in comparison. Meteorologically, he said, I suspect we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you, Holmes? Holmes was silent for a minute.

And then he said, Watson, you didn't come poop. Someone has stolen our tent. Now before we get to this text itself, I wanted to look at the bigger context. So we didn't miss what was happening here in the bigger context like Watson did. What is the context in which this attack has occurred?

And what does this have to do with the pattern of opposition that we're seeing in Acts? Well, Dr. Watson might look at this pattern of increasing opposition and see the enemies of the church getting bolder and bolder, attacking more fiercely. And he would predict that the persecution is about to get far worse, which is exactly what it did do. The very first sentence after Stephen's martyrdom in Acts 8 is, at that time, a great persecution arose against the church.

But that, I think, would miss what is more important and more fundamental. And that is the success of the church. That's what's being illustrated here. Because each attack upon the church is in response to increased success of the church. Did you notice that?

The opposition to the Gospel is increasing because the Gospel was increasingly successful. It was exerting a power in Jerusalem that was completely overwhelming this apostate Jewish church. So these attacks of Satan's empire upon the Church of Jesus Christ were defensive maneuvers. Defensive maneuvers are what you do when you've been attacked. Defensive maneuvers are what you do in response to an offensive attack.

And the Jewish church's response was responding to a pervasive offensive attack by the Church of Christ on their apostasy and their unbelief. The Jerusalem church was witnessing the fulfillment of Jesus' words to Peter in Matthew 16 and verse 18 where he's told Peter, and I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades or hell will not prevail against it. So look at that first attack. That first attack in Acts 4 followed the healing of that 40-year-old some man which resulted in all the people rushing into Solomon's portico, providing Peter with a perfect opportunity to preach the Gospel to them, leading to the number of men reaching 5, 000. Look in Acts 4 verse 1.

It's as they spoke. It's as Peter was preaching as a result of this man being healed and all the people flocking to hear. It's as they spoke to the people, the priest, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about 5, 000." This was a response.

A defensive response to the success of the Gospel. And it's the same for the second attack in Acts chapter 5 verse 12. We read that through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them. But the people esteemed them highly, and believers were increasingly added to the Lord.

Multitudes, now multitudes, of both men and women, so that they brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at least a shadow of Peter passing by might fall on them. And also a multitude gathered from the cities surrounding Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits and they were all healed. Then, it was in this context, in response to not just people in Jerusalem, but the surrounding cities now were pouring into Jerusalem to be healed and to hear the preaching of the apostles. Then the high priest rose up and all those who were with him, which is a sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation. This is in response to the offensive of the Gospel.

People are coming from other cities now. The numbers are multiplying. They're not just adding to the number, they're multiplying. The believers are highly esteemed, which means the public has a lot of respect for these people. The Jewish church is feeling the pressure.

They are losing the people and they are becoming more desperate. And it's in that context that they attacked in chapter 5. And it's the same for this third attack. For this third attack. In verse 7, we read that then the Word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

And a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. The Word of God is spreading. The numbers in the church are multiplying. What does that mean? Well, it means growing fast, yes, but it's in comparison to addition.

Multiplication is fast addition. Exponential addition. It's different from adding. If you add four people to six people, you have ten people. It's the group of four added to six.

But if you multiply six by four, Now you are bringing in six groups of four at the same time. You have parallel addition going on, if you will. That means multiple people are witnessing and preaching the Gospel, and each one of these is reaping a harvest. It's not just four being added, but groups of four now are being added in to the church at one time. The church is multiplying.

But even more than the multiplying church, Priests are believing and leaving. The priests are believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. So the priesthood was controlled by the Sadducees These were the people that don't believe in angels and didn't believe in the resurrection They were what some might call the liberals of the day They didn't believe the Bible even. But these priests, these people who formerly had denied the resurrection and denied spiritual beings like angels. These priests are now believing in the resurrection.

And they are now believing that Jesus is the long-promised Messiah. And these priests are realizing that their jobs are finished. They no longer need to offer sheep and goats on an earthly altar because Jesus has offered Himself once and for all as a sacrifice for our sin. And that's what those Old Testament sacrifices were symbolizing. You don't need the shadow when you have the reality.

You don't need a sign of something when you have that which that sign is signifying. They no longer needed to purify the temple and to maintain all the temple rituals because Jesus has passed through the heavens and has sanctified the heavenly temple with His own blood. That great temple that was their place of work, in this case the one that Herod had built. This is where these sacrifices had been going on for well over a thousand years. There were some interruptions.

For over a thousand years, since the time Solomon built the temple. And even before that, from the time they entered the land of Israel, after the days of Moses, These sacrifices have been going on. The temple, first the wilderness tabernacle, and then the temple were purified by the work of the Levites. That was their job. It was their entire job to purify the temple and to offer sacrifices continually, morning and evening.

Sacrifices were offered. New moons, the start of a month, the annual feasts, and all the other sacrifices in between when people brought them. This great place of work was passing away. It was being replaced by the heavenly temple. That curtain in that temple had been torn in two.

That was a very thick, very heavy fabric that had been torn in two when Christ died, opening the way to the mercy seat and the throne of grace without the need of any Levitical priest. These priests realized that their work was done. The Levitical priesthood was over. And their jobs were no longer needed. Stephen and these others were not preaching a new faith or a new Gospel.

That is what the Old Testament taught. And that's what Jesus Himself taught. The Old Testament looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, who was the fulfillment of all these Old Testament ceremonies and sacrifices. This is not a new religion. And Judaism, people talk about Judeo-Christian.

The Judean religion today has nothing to do with the Old Testament faith. The faith of our fathers. The faith of Abraham. That's the new religion. That's the satanic religion.

The Talmud is what that's based on. It wasn't written down at this time, but it was an oral tradition that most of these priests and scribes were very familiar with, and many would have memorized great sections of it. But it's a satanic document. It was written down shortly after. This is what Jesus was talking about and criticizing when He spoke about the, you have heard, it was the oral traditions of the Jews.

And these had nothing to do with the Bible. Theirs was the new religion. The Christian faith that Stephen and the apostles were proclaiming was the Old Testament faith. When Jesus cleansed the temple in John 2, 19, the Pharisees asked Him what sign He would show them for doing these things. And Jesus answered them with, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

He was referring to His body. That temple was destroyed. And his body was raised up on the third day, just as he said it would be. And that earthly temple that they thought was such a great monument of beauty was utterly destroyed so that not one stone was left standing on another stone. It was completely razed.

As Phil Kiser mentions, they were looking for gold buried in the foundations. And so they completely tore apart the foundation. You would think if a hurricane wipes your house out so there's just a slab left that it's pretty destroyed. But They didn't stop there. They completely tore apart the foundation looking for wealth.

So there wasn't, as Jesus said, not one stone left standing on another. That was the intent. That temple was to pass away. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, the hour was coming when true worshippers would not worship at the Jerusalem temple. She asked Jesus.

She conveniently wanted to change the subject when Jesus had pointed out to her her sin as an adulteress. And she changed the subject saying, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. And Jesus said to a woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you don't know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." But this all was very unsettling to some. This passing away of the temple system. The passing away of all of the Mosaic ceremonies that we were reading about earlier this morning. This was very unsettling, disconcerting. In fact, this whole issue is one of the central themes of the New Testament.

It was The focal point, the subject, of the very first ecumenical council in Acts 15 is how do we handle this passing away? What does this mean? And the synagogue of the freed men are quite disconcerted by this change in the Mosaic law. We see in this pattern of these that I've taken some time to address this pattern because persecution is not a sign that the church is dying. It's not a sign that the church is weak.

Rather, it's a sign that The gospel is triumphing. There is no need and no benefit to persecuting a dead church. And at that time, you have in some way something that's very similar to what we have today. There was a pagan Roman culture, very analogous to our pagan American culture. A paganism that began well over a hundred years ago.

You can trace roots further than that, but it became outward in our culture well over a hundred years ago as we turned away from the Scriptures as a culture and rejected the law of God as a culture. Some of the sins of the pagan Roman culture are different from ours, but there are many more similarities. Rampant fornication, sodomy, an utterly corrupt elite class. The Caesars and the Roman entertainment of the day have nothing on Hollywood and Washington, D.C. You have a society dominated by these two classes.

Then there was the Bible-believing church that was preaching the Gospel. It was small. A few people. It started out with a few people. But it was powerful.

And it brought very quickly, it brought persecution. And then there was the old guard church that had become the apostate church. And this was the group that led the persecution of the true church. The apostate. Did you notice all these attacks to this point have been coming from the apostate church?

The church that has denied the Gospel, rejected the Scriptures, crucified the Lord of Glory. That's where the persecution is originating. And if we look over the past several decades, in our day, the strongest opposition to the church has come from the people who profess to be Christians, who go to church, and in some cases, even proclaim to be evangelistic Christians. And we could cite case after case after case after case. Whereas Christians that are leading the persecution of the truth.

Of course, the pagans join in very soon. But initially, it's the Christians. Some of the strongest opposition to legislation to end abortion comes from the very people and institutions that claim to be pro-life. They're not pro-life. They just claim to be.

Turns out they're not. Some of the greatest persecution against Christians in the last decades have been initiated by people professing to be Christians. We had an attorney general under President Clinton who never attacked the Indiana Baptist Temple and the Dixons. But as soon as we had a so-called evangelical Christian take the role of attorney general, that temple was stormed and the doors were locked under a quote-unquote evangelical Christian. And we could cite countless examples of this.

Persecution of the church often begins with the apostate church, and then it's joined by the pagans. But it arises because of the success of the Gospel. You can think back over what have been the occasions of persecution in our country today. One of the first areas of persecution was homeschooling. When Christians took seriously their responsibility to teach their children and started taking them out of the government schools, and if there weren't Christian schools or they didn't want to spend the thousands necessary for the private schools, started teaching them at home, what happened?

It was those Christians that were put in jail. Texas was a landmark case of that. But it was happening all across the country. Why? Because Christians were repenting and being filled with the Spirit and taking their children away from these pagan institutions.

And that Life, that strength was what attracted the persecution. Or the people today who were refusing to bow to all sorts of various forms of paganism are the ones who are being persecuted. Why? Because there's a power in their faith. When persecution arises in the church, it's because of the success of the church, the success of the Gospel.

And that's what we need to see in this pattern that's being given in Acts. Now Stephen is full of faith and power. He's filled with the Spirit. He's a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Now, the filling of the Spirit is the source of this power.

The filling of the Spirit is not a one-time event. Jesus is said to have been filled with the Spirit. And many times, Paul is said to be filled with the Spirit. Several times. Stephen and Barnabas are people that are said to be filled with the Spirit.

The Spirit comes upon them. We saw Samson. The Spirit would come upon him. The Spirit would fill him. And then he would be able, under the power of the Spirit, to perform some mighty act.

And so this filling of the Spirit is not simply a one-time thing. It's not the same as the baptism of the Holy Spirit which happens at our salvation. This is an additional gifting of the Spirit in this particular situation or at a certain time. And Stephen, being filled with the Spirit, performs signs and wonders. He preached the Gospel, explaining how Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system, how Jesus was the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away our sin.

And these people didn't like that. He is full of power. When someone is full of the Holy Spirit, then the gifts and attributes of that Spirit, of the Holy Spirit abound. And the Spirit is a Spirit of power. And so Him being filled with the Holy Spirit means that He had power.

Paul said to the Corinthians, in my speech and my preaching, we're not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Rooms were shaken. Buildings were shaken. Remember when the Holy Spirit filled people. The angel came to Mary and said, the angel said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. That's a synonym.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. That's a synonym. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. This power comes with the Holy Spirit. And therefore also that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

And Jesus told the disciples as He was right before He ascended, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." And Simon the sorcerer, a little later on, asked for this power so that when he laid hands on, that anyone on whom he laid hands would receive the Holy Spirit. Peter talked about to the Gentiles, he said, that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power Who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him And Paul gives this wonderful benediction in a wonderful blessing in Romans 15 where he says, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. You see, The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of power. And in 1 Thessalonians 1.5, Paul said, For the gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance.

As you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake." You see, the Holy Spirit is a spirit of power. And Stephen being filled with the Holy Spirit had a heavenly power upon Him that was irrefutable. He was also full of wisdom, because the Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom. Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12, 4-2-1 is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit. The Word of wisdom that comes through the Spirit.

And in Ephesians 1, in Paul's great prayer there, he prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. This Holy Spirit is the Spirit of power and the Spirit of wisdom, as well as the Spirit of all the other fruits, joy and peace and long-suffering. So we would expect then that those who are filled with the Spirit would be filled with these attributes of the Spirit, with power, with wisdom, with peace, with joy, with hope. And that's what we see. These freed men were upset and provoked at what Stephen was preaching.

And this synagogue of probably slaves who had been freed, had gathered together from all these different countries, Alexandria, Slisha, where Paul was, Asia, which is this section of Turkey today where the churches in Revelation were in. They are alarmed at this and they begin to attack. And the first thing they do in their attack is to dispute with Stephen. But they are not able to resist in verse 9. They dispute with him.

But they are not able to resist the wisdom and the power with which Stephen spoke because his wasn't a natural human wisdom, but it was the wisdom and power of the Spirit. Stephen knew the Scriptures and they found again and again, just like the Pharisees experienced with Jesus before, they found again and again that Stephen could answer every objection that they were raising. And they were coming out on the short end of the stick, as we say. And so they upped the ante. They secretly, they enter into a secret council to recruit false witnesses.

And they induce them, And that's a Greek word that means suborn, is to secretly persuade someone by bribes or to persuade someone to perform a crime. And in this case, they persuaded them to commit the crime of perjury. It doesn't say whether they bribed them or not, but they in some way forcibly persuaded them or induced them to commit perjury. But they also didn't stop there. They then moved public opinion against Stephen.

Using the media of the day, they stirred up the people against Stephen by using these false statements, these false accusations. You know, the public is very fickle. The crowds in Jesus' day went from cheering Jesus on the Palm Sunday, saying, Hosanna, blessed be the name of the Lord, to merely days later calling for His crucifixion. We've seen the same thing today. I remember about 2004, there was a constitutional amendment proposed to outlaw in Texas marriage by people of the same gender.

And this measure on the public, on the ballot, passed by a five to four, you know, 80% majority voted for this. It passed in every single county except in Travis County. But the average across the state was 80% majority. And yet, barely a decade later, the public opinion is completely flipped. The public opinion is a very malleable and fickle thing.

And throw in a few false statements, a few Lies, a little dirt, and crowds can easily be persuaded. And the crowds here went from holding these believers in high esteem to being ready to kill Stephen. And then once they had public opinion swayed against Stephen through their lies and their false statements, then they seized them. Then they resorted to violence. But they had to get the people on their side first.

Then they seized them. They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came upon Him and seized Him. That is a violent thing. It's a sign, it's key intimidation. And it's really a sign of weak opposition.

And one that's being increasingly used today on Christians by federal agencies, especially the FBI, using SWAT teams in full combat gear, which you would enter into a battle with. They're using these kinds of teams to swoop in and arrest law-abiding, peaceful Christians. Just here this week, I think, they came with a full SWAT team and arrested a farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. And all he was doing was feeding people. He was providing milk and other wholesome foods that people bought.

And they came in with a SWAT team. A great show of force. The intent is to intimidate. The intent is to scare people. The intent is to cow them into compliance.

But it's a sign of weakness. A sign of people that are losing. They cannot win in discourse and debate, and they need to resort to violence. And then they drag him before the court, the law, to get the law on their side. And they had false witnesses to testify against Stephen.

They say, we've heard you speak blasphemies claiming Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs of Moses. You see, that had an element of truth to it, otherwise it wouldn't be credible. All good lies have to have an element of truth in them. If there is no truth in something, if everything something says is exactly wrong, then it becomes a very reliable guide. I used to pick up the League of Women Voter guides.

And they were very reliable. You just had to vote the opposite way of what they were saying. See, in order for a lie to be effective, it has to be elements of truth in it. If there is no element of truth, then it doesn't stand. And so, yes, they twisted things.

They perverted what he was saying. Because he was speaking about the passing away of the Mosaic laws, the ceremonial law, the passing away of the temple because the greater temple had come. Jesus did say that this temple would be destroyed. In Matthew 24 and other places, not one stone would be left standing on another stone. And he did say that the customs of how they worship were going to change.

That's what he told the woman at the well. But they twisted these things. To say that Stephen was saying the Word of God would pass away. And that he was blaspheming. And there he was in that council, full of the Holy Spirit, full of faith.

And the whole council was staring at him. That can be a fearful thing to be sitting in a council of angry people staring you down. But Stephen being full of power and full of the Holy Spirit. His face is shining like an angel's. And the priest said, are these things so?

And we'll, Lord willing, begin next week with Stephen's answer to that question, with this extensive and comprehensive sermon presenting the gospel to this apostate church. May God fill us with His Holy Spirit, that we might have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and of power. Let us pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that is sufficient that we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We ask, Lord, that You would encourage us and strengthen us by Your Word.

Your Word is the bread of life. We live by every word that proceeds from Your mouth. We pray that you would encourage us as we see persecution approaching us, or that we may be filled with your spirit. Spirit of wisdom, revelation, of power. We ask, Lord, that our strength might not be in our arms, in our flesh, in our wisdom, but in You.

May your joy be our strength. May your Holy Spirit guide us, anoint us, direct our steps. May we be led by your Spirit. May you keep us and not let any iniquity have dominion over us. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.