Ep 389 – Acts 5:12-18

The church continued to grow. And as we will see in Acts 5:12-18, so did the opposition toward it. As the reputation of the disciples and their ability to perform miracles spread, their popularity increased, but so did the animosity of the Jewish religious leaders. The disciples were about to discover that the commission given to them by Jesus was going to be a battle of wills – theirs against the Sanhedrin. But it was also going to be a spiritual battle of epic proportions that pitted the Spirit of God against the powers of darkness. Soon, they would find themselves suffering arrest and interrogation, beatings and threats, all because of their faith in Christ and their determination to spread the gospel. But even as the opposition grew and the intensity of the enemy's attack increased, God was blessing His church. He was growing the congregation with each passing day as more and more people came to faith in Jesus Christ. This portion of Luke's account provides us with a transition, as the church begins to outgrow the confines of Jerusalem and, with the increase in persecution, the gospel begins to make its way outside the city walls and into the neighboring regions of Judea and Samaria. God was growing His church. And He was using persecution to make it happen. The attacks of the enemy never truly threatened the church, it only caused it to spread. Like trying to use gasoline in an attempt to put out a fire.