When you came to believe on Jesus as "the Christ," repented of sin and error, confessed your faith in Jesus and were "baptized into Him" you were "reconciled unto God in one body by the cross.." (Romans 6:3-6; Ephesians 2:13-16). At that moment you were numbered among the saved as a part of the "bride of Christ" (Ephesians 5:22-33; Romans 7:4). This placed you in a most controversial position. Immediately, you said by your actions that you believe what Christ said, He is "the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me" (John 14:6).

     If you remain true to your "calling" you must live for Christ and stand in opposition to anything and everything that differs from that which He has revealed and that which His word authorizes (2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Ephesians 5:11; Jude 3; 2 John 9-11; Romans 16:17-18; 2 Timothy 4:1-8; 1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 4:1-6).

     For this cause and perhaps others, disciples of Christ should not try and get folks into the waters of baptism prematurely, but should make sure they understand what it means for them to say, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (Matthew 16:16; John 6:67-69; Acts 8:37). When folks know what they are letting themselves in for, they will in all likelihood be willing to stand against any and all opposition. Jesus warned His apostles of what their lot in life would be, and in that warning, each prospect for conversion should likewise take note:

     In John's account Jesus said, "They will put you out of their synagogues; yes the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me" (John 16:2-3).

     To see this last prophesy fulfilled at least in part, all one needs to do is think back on Saul's relentless persecution of the early church in Jerusalem and the trips he took with letters of authority from the Jewish Sanhedrin to foreign cities seeking out any who were of "the way" that he might bind them, commit them to prison and yes, give his voice against them when they were being put to death, and all this with a clean conscience, thinking he was indeed "offering God service" (Acts 7:58; 8:1-3; Acts 23:1; 26:9-11). See also (Galatians 1:13-24; Philippians 3:4-8).

     When you made Jesus the "Lord of your life," you became a part of a hated religious minority in the world. Did you know that? Well, its true nonetheless. Every Jew who knows anything about his own religion rejects the "Messiah" whom you and I now serve. He believes Jesus of Nazareth was a good man, but not the Son of God, and certainly not the Messiah for whom He longs. His Messiah, he believes, will come and restore Israel to their prominence and sit on David's literal throne in Jerusalem, Palestine.

     The apostles, evangelist, and other Christians in the first century taught Jesus as the crucified, buried, resurrected and exalted Messiah, which was why so many of them were hated and or killed for their efforts by the unbelievers among the Jews. In the second and third chapters of the Acts of the apostles they taught Jesus as the Messiah and performed miracles to prove that He was working through them. It wasn't long however until the non-believing Jews (especially the leaders among them) began to worry that this doctrine would spread. To prevent this (they thought) they began to try and stem the tide brought on by the apostle's doctrine. The fourth chapter of Acts following Peter's second sermon in which he said,

     We then read,

     Gospel preachers, and other Christians as well, taught against idolatry and told people that there were no other gods. They taught them about "the one true God" who made the heavens and the earth and all things therein, including man as "His offspring" Some accepted these truths and local congregations were begun, others resented very much such teaching and stood up in opposition to them. Sometimes they incited riots trying to negate the influence of such teachings. ( 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10;Acts 17:16-31).

"The Ephesian Riot"

     Ephesus is the place where Paul found some folks who had been baptized "into John's baptism" (Acts 19:1-3). They were unaware of the "baptism of the great commission" that Christ had commissioned. When they were taught properly Paul baptized them "in the name of the Lord Jesus" (v-5). "And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks" (Acts 19:8-10).

     Here God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Many converts to Christ were made in this city. Some who had previously practiced magic brought their books and burned them in the sight of all. The value of which was fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of God grew mightily and prevailed, Luke records in (Acts 19:11-20).

     This is also the chapter that tells earlier about some Jewish exorcists who "took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, 'We adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches'." "And there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jew who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this became known both to all the Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all..." (Acts 19:13-17).

     I said I would talk about Paul causing a riot by what he preached. Well Luke records that "About that time there arose no small stir about the Way" (Acts 19:23). He went on to tell how Paul's preaching was getting into the pocketbooks of some of the business men in Ephesus, men who made their living making images of the goddess Artemis. But I'm getting ahead of the story.

     Alexander tried to make a defense of Paul and the others but when the people found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians" (v-33-35).

     An official calmed the crowd and defended Paul and others and told the folks that they could take this matter up with the authorities if the law had been broken. He reminded them that this was an unlawful assembly and they were in danger of being called into question for the events of that day. So the assembly was dismissed (vv-35-41). After the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to him, embraced them, and departed to go into Macedonia (Acts 20:1).

     Distinctive preaching will today cause an uproar among those whose incomes will be affected if they are identified and their false doctrines are exposed. When false teachers see that they are in danger of losing their following you can be sure they will stand up and fight, and as they do, those who are exposing them will be put in as bad a light as they are able. We will be portrayed as the source of all manner of evil, and called all manner of uncomplimentary names. You can count on it my friends and brethren.

Spiritual Warfare Demands Proper Armor
(Ephesians 6:10-17)

     Earlier in this study in the second paragraph on page one, I cited (2 Corinthians 10:3-50. There as well as the passages under the heading of "Spiritual Warfare Demands Proper Armor, the items contained in the armor are designed to capture the minds (hearts) of men and women and get them out of Satan's service and into the Lord's spiritual army. It is much more difficult to serve in Satan's service than it is in Christ's. There is a paradox here. We surrender to Jesus and become His slaves in order to really be set free from the bondage in which we live as sinners (John 8:31-32; Romans 6:16-18. Remember what Jesus said to Saul who was in religious bondage and error as he attempted to destroy the church of Christ? Jesus told Saul, "...it is hard for you to kick against the goads" (Acts 9:4-5). We learn from Scripture that often false teachers who in reality are "Satan's ministers," (2 Corinthians 11:13-14) offer the people "liberty" and in the process actually bring them into bondage.

     Peter wrote of these folks.

     Rather than allowing ourselves to be overcome either with moral or doctrinal impurity leading to spiritual bondage, we must put on the armor and do battle with Satan and his allies for the sake of our own souls and others on whom we are able to exert influence both by the lives we live and by wielding the "sword of the Spirit" as kindly yet as forcefully and accurately as we possibly can.

     The faithful gospel preacher(and any faithful Christian) must not only defend the faith when under attack (Jude 3; 2 Timothy 4:1-5), but we must try and edify through teaching and lead an aggressive offensive attack against error and its advocates as well. Paul called the Ephesian elders to him at Miletus and forewarned them of an impending departure from the faith that was in the offing unless they took the proper lead to ward it off. He reminded them that he had not ceased to warn them day and night with tears for some three years. Then he said, "And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified" (Acts 20:17-32).

     Often times a faithful gospel preacher will bring things to the attention of a congregation about which many of them are totally unaware so they may be well informed and study on how to meet potentially divisive doctrines that will take people into apostasy. You can mark my words, if there is a controversy in Podunk Hollow, sooner or later in all likelihood it will come to your area and to the congregation of which you are a member. The old adage, "To be forewarned is to be forearmed" is as vitally true today as ever. Still, the unlearned, the weak and the squeamish among the brethren are often heard to say, "I don't think we need that kind of preaching here. We don't have that problem," why doesn't he preach some positive things and help us learn how to live better lives? Well, of course that's needed also and the faithful preacher will certainly not shun to "declare the whole council of God" (Acts 20:26-27).

     In many cases it seems the song books need to be rewritten. We often sing a good fight but don't like it when the preacher preaches what we often sing about.

     Let me tell you just a few of the foes we face in our present generation. I might add, we aren't doing too well in our battles to stem the popular tide of error both morally and doctrinally. I have said it before, let me remind you again, "we are in the midst of a great apostasy from the faith once delivered." Not only must we fight the enemy without, things like the Judaism, Muslims, Confucianism, Hinduism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Mormonism, Atheism and God alone knows how many other "isms" there are, and to be real frank with you, we aren't doing very well. Many of the "isms" are growing much faster, and are working much harder than are members of the body of Christ.

"The Battle Within.."

     Its high time that some brethren awaken out of their stupor and slothfulness and stand up to be counted for Christ and for His truth before its too late for them and for the congregations of which they are members.

     Jesus-Paul-John the immerser-Stephen-Peter-Timothy and many other preachers would not be acceptable to many members of the body of Christ for they named the sin and the sinners and called upon them to repent and comply with the Lord's will. Can we do any less and still claim to be faithful congregations of the Lord's people or faithful as an individual Christian? The answer is no we cannot. Controversy followed Jesus, Paul, Peter and others. If we are doing our job properly it will follow us as well See (2 Timothy 3:12).

by Kenneth E. Thomas