Week 38: Satanic Counterattack
Week 38: Satanic Counterattack
Luke has painted an idyllic picture of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. Commissioned by Christ and empowered by the Spirit, the church was about to set sail on her great missionary voyage. But almost immediately a perilous storm blew up that threatened to engulf her.
Alternatively, we might say that, if the chief actor in the story of Acts 1 and 2 was the Holy Spirit, the chief actor in Acts 3 to 6 seems to have been Satan. True, he is mentioned by name only once (5:3), but his malevolent activity may be discerned throughout.
The devil’s crudest tactic was physical violence or persecution; he tried to crush the church by force. Next, he resorted to moral corruption, attempting to infiltrate the church through the deceit of Ananias and Sapphira. His third and subtlest tactic was social distraction. He tried to deflect the apostles from their priority tasks of preaching and prayer. If he had succeeded, and the apostles had given up preaching, an untaught church would have been exposed to every wind of false teaching. So these were the devil’s three weapons—persecution, corruption, and distraction. He has not changed his tactics.
Sunday: The Healing of the Lame Man
Monday: Peter’s Second Sermon
Tuesday: The Outbreak of Persecution
Wednesday: The Continuance of Persecution
Thursday: Ananias and Sapphira
Friday: A Problem and Its Solution
Saturday: A Vital Principle