Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

It’s a question that has been on my mind as a Christian for many years. And I always thought I knew the answer. The question is this. What is the greatest opposition that the church, and in particular every christian faces? Is it opposition from the outside, or is it opposition from inside? And that’s what I want to talk with you about today. Early in the life of the church, we find that people’s lives were changed by Jesus Christ. And immediately they went and told others. The first account of anyone believing to the point of giving his life is Stephen. Stephen was a follower of Christ. He was a disciple. He believed that Jesus was raised from the dead. And Stephen went to the world and began to tell them. The problem was that when the authorities heard Stephen, they said, this man’s speaking blasphemy.

Saying that the God that we’ve been worshipping through the synagogues in the temple, why, that God had a son, Jesus Christ, and that he has lived and died and now is raised from the dead. And that, in fact, that same Christ is the messiah that we’ve been expecting. Bring Stephen here. And so Stephen appears before the council, and they want it straight from his mouth. And he tells them that Jesus Christ is the son of God. He changes lives. They listen as he recalls the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and Jacob being linked with Jesus Christ. Finally, when they can take no more, they expel him from their council room. And a group gathers outside of the city walls. And with stones in hand, take the life of Stephen, the first martyr of the church.

Opposition from the outside, the opposition of the world against the gospel of Christ. And a man dies. And if you’re like me, you think it’s a horrible thing to have the opposition of the world against you. As a follower of Christ, I would not want to go through what Stephen endured. And yet, while they were in the midst of taking Stephen’s life, they saw on his face a countenance, a seeming glow that caused them all to shiver. And Stephen’s eyes are fixed on the clouds above him. He cries out to God, and he says that he sees Jesus Christ not seated at the right hand of his father. And I’d remind you that in scripture, every time that Jesus is spoken of in heaven, it is always as seated at the right hand of his father.

There is only one place where that is not true. Stephen looks to heaven and he says, I see Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of his father, that Jesus rose from his seat to look from heaven on a man who was going to give his life. The opposition of the world to one man who stood to say, I believe in Christ. It has been said that the blood of the martyrs is the seat of the church. That at every turn where opposition from outside of the church has focused on the church has prospered, the church flourishes. The church, like Stephen, sees Jesus Christ more clearly when there is opposition from outside of the church. One of the reasons that we have so many dead churches is that there is nothing being done in the name of Christ that brings opposition from the world.

And so the people who gather do not see Jesus Christ. And what has been the history of the church? Many of us are under a mistaken concept that the christian faith is a dying faith. Some interesting studies were done, an exhaustive study of the church around the world, all religions. It was the most exhaustive study numerically to try to understand religion around the world. We find that the Church of Jesus Christ begins with twelve disciples. A few years later, on the day of Pentecost, when people prayed for the outpouring of God’s spirit, we’re told that there were 120 people who were involved in that. At the end of that preaching by Peter, 3000 are converted. So the church went from twelve to 120 to 3000. By the year 325, there were three and a half million christians.

By the year 1000, there were 50 million christians. By the reformation, 1500, there were 100 million christians. By 1800. And the movement of the foreign missions, we find that there were 200 million christians. By the year 1900, that number had grown to 500 million. Today, around the world there are one and a half billion christians. 32% of the world today professes to be christian. And at every turn of the growth of the christian church, where there has been significant growth, there has been the opposition of the world to the church. And that opposition continues and grows. And today we find that over 50% of the world is closed to missionaries. And yet in those countries where it is closed to missions, the church is growing at astronomical numbers.

My wife and I visited several years ago Russia and sat in a church in Moscow, which later I have learned has been all throughout Russia, that in many towns there are many Baptist churches. And one of the things that was surprising in Billy Graham’s recent visit to Russia was his observation of many of the freedoms that are present in Russia of christians worshipping in public places. And in Russia we saw a church that was full of some 1500 people. The service lasted for some four and a half hours, there were four sermons given in the midst of the service. You would see people passing notes over the shoulders of people in front of them, and it would slowly make its way up to the front altar. And these were prayer requests, and they would be incorporated into a prayer.

And one of the things that Russia has found is that you cannot destroy the church. And where the opposition publicly is the greatest, there you find the greatest sense of unity, the greatest sense of purpose, the greatest sense of mission anywhere in the world. And yet in America, where there is little opposition to the church from the outside, we find a corresponding inability by christians to share the gospel of Christ, to simply say, I was a sinner, and Jesus Christ has made me new, and a paralysis falls over us, as though were being tortured, as though someone were asking us to say something that is beyond our ability. And yet there is no opposition. You can go and tell church does not go. It does not tell why. There’s no opposition. There’s nothing at stake. It’s business as usual.

The apostle Paul, who was there in the beginning and saw the persecution of the church and saw that persecution of one man, Stephen, led to the church being scattered. And what happened in the scattering of the church, it was perhaps one of the fastest periods of growth in the life of the church. Opposition from outside caused the church to do its business, and they did it very effectively, so that within 300 years, you can find three and a half million christians. It’s the same apostle Paul who spent time in Ephesus. We read about that account all through the book of acts. And in acts, chapter 20, we come to the closing days of the life of Paul. By now, he has seen it all. He’s completed his three missionary tours. He has seen innumerable churches begun.

He has written letters to Corinth and to Galatia, now to the Ephesians. And we’re told that the last port that Paul stayed in was Ephesus. He comes to Ephesus and exhorts the people a church that he had founded, a church that he had poured his life into. And he says to them, I came here. You saw my manner of living. You saw what kind of person I am. I’ve been around here for some three years, he tells them, and in all of that time, I’ve never tried to rob you. I’ve never held back from telling you the counsel of God. He tells them, it is now time for me to go back to where I began all of this. I have to go back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem, that same town where I stood many years ago and watched Stephen be killed.

But I’ve got to go back, because I am bound by the Holy spirit. And I know that when I get back to Jerusalem that I will either be imprisoned or killed. I know that he calls them all together, that little assembly of christians at Ephesus. We’re told that they went down by the dock to see Paul off. He looks them in the eyes and he says, you will never see my face again. I will never return. I have done all that I could, and now it’s time for me to go. And I want you to know that I love you all. But I also want you to know this. That from inside of the church, from those of you who are gathered here on the dock, there are wolves. And when I leave, those wolves are going to seek to destroy the church.

His last word to the Ephesians, watch. Paul says to you and to me, to that church at Ephesus, the biggest problem was not opposition from out there. It was not opposition from the government. It was not opposition when they stoned Stephen. It was not opposition when they put christians in chains. It was not even the point that he himself, Paul, was going to have to return to Jerusalem and probably be killed. That was not his Primary Concern. His primary concern was for opposition inside the church. He says, watch. That’s where to keep your eyes focused. Some scholars at the University of California in San Francisco have discovered a substance called Prion. Prion is almost an immeasurable particle, and it is now believed that this substance comes into the body.

And once it is inside the body, like a type of virus, it is a slow acting virus. It takes 20 years before it shows itself. And it is now believed that prion is linked as the primary cause to such diseases as multiple sclerosis, to arthritis, to diabetes, to Parkinson’s disease, and even to senility. And at first, it is totally undetectable. But as the years go along, it begins to grow in its strength, and that internally, it corrupts the mechanisms to bring on these illnesses. And over and over again, we know that it is not the things that are outside of us that are the biggest problem. It’s the things that are inside of us that are causing the problem.

You can’t sink a boat with an ocean of water until you allow just a boat full of water inside the boat, and then it sinks. And the same thing is true with the church. The same thing is true with you and with me. It is not the opposition that we face from those people out there. Frankly, there is very little opposition from the people out there. The problem is inside. The problem is when we have lost our vision for being a witnessing church for Jesus Christ and being scattered and dispersed and sharing the gospel of Christ, and we lose that vision. We then become preoccupied on ourselves. And with that preoccupation one another, we begin to see the weaknesses in one another.

And as you see the weaknesses in one another, we become very adept at pointing them out to others until finally the opposition is us. Paul gave a warning to the church at Ephesus. He said, watch. Watch for the things internal. Watch for those among you who gossip, who are interested in the weaknesses of one another. Watch why? Because when you become preoccupied on everyone else’s weaknesses, you’re destroying the church. We all have two natures, an old nature and a new nature. We will always have two natures. And if we become preoccupied on pointing at the weaknesses in our old nature, there is a case that can be made for every one of us in this room, myself included, about our weaknesses that will never build a church, that will tear a church apart. Paul said, watch. Watch for that kind of stuff.

Don’t you realize how dangerous it is? I’m not going to be here to instruct you. Watch. Be careful, for the opposition that you need to fear is not something created out there. It is right here. Instead, Paul gives the instruction that they are to build up one another. Your business as a Christian is not to be preoccupied on the old you, on our old nature, on finding those weaknesses and latching onto them. I’m told that when a heal a monster grabs you in the desert, he never lets go. And the only way you can remove him is to cut off his head. As Christians, it is not our business to be hela monsters, to latch onto a weakness and never let go.

Our business as Christians is to build one another up in Christ, to encourage one another to seek to show the mercy of Christ that was shown to us so that we might all grow and mature into the likeness of Christ. What opposition is greatest to the church? I think Paul would tell us it’s not the opposition from outside. The opposition from outside causes us to see Christ even standing in our defense. But it’s the opposition from inside. That’s what he said to watch for.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries, Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.