A Lesson in How To Face Opposition!

Leviticus 4; Leviticus 5; Leviticus 6; Acts 14
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Scripture

Acts 14

2 Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas.

19 Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. 20 But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

Observation

Sometimes when we think about the Apostle Paul all we think about is how successful he was in taking the Gospel to folks that had not heard, but we never look or think about how much opposition he faced. In this chapter after the people watched Paul perform a miracle of healing they were about to worship Paul and Barnabas as the Greek gods of Zeus and Hermes. Then as we read along just a few verses down those same people after listening to some Jews that arrived from Antioch and Iconium stoned Paul and left him for dead outside of the city!

Poisoning the minds of the people continues today especially in our country. And crowds are so fickle just look at the results of opinion polls. They can be swayed from one way to the other so quickly. You and I need to be firmly grounded in the word of God. The push to legalize abortion and to legalize homosexual marriages is not going to let up.

Paul got up (after being stoned) and went back into the city! I wonder what the crowd thought when he walked back into town. You notice they didn’t mess with him when he arrived back in town. Maybe they remembered the miracle he performed or maybe they saw his condition after they had stoned him and knew that God has restored him back to health. The scripture say that the next day Paul left with Barnabas for Derbe. He went back into the town that had just stoned him, spent the night and the next day left for Derbe.

A lesson in how to face opposition!

Application

Opposition is part of spiritual warfare and we must look beyond the people that seem to be opposing us to the fact that it is not flesh and blood, but principalities and powers in the heavenly realms that are our real enemies. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me to grasp this huge truth. Our battle is so much bigger than a person or even persons that may want to do us harm. Help me to love people, even the people that are like spiritual sand paper in my life. Thank you for the many Barnabas that surround me. They are a joy. They encourage me to keep serving You. It must have been Barnabas that picked Paul up that day from under the pile of stones. Help me be a Barnabas to the guys in my life.

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