February 26, 2015 (Thursday)
Observation of events of Acts 4 reveals that opposition to the early church by the Sanhedrin was immediate and unanimous. The unanimity was unusual, because the Sanhedrin members, who were Sadducees and Pharisees, rarely agreed with each other. Take a look at Acts 4:5-7. It reads, “The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law* met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them..” (NIV).
The leaders laid aside their disagreements and united in opposition to this alarming (to them) development of thousands of people united in their belief that Jesus of Nazareth was their promised Messiah. Their questions (Acts 4) soon led to outright persecution (Acts 4-9) with arrests, imprisonment and even executions.
Today, the kidnapping and possible murders of Christians by Isis forces in Syria echoes the fanatical opposition that was felt by the church in its earliest days as recorded in the New Testament.
We can see a coalition of unbelief taking shape today. Stars from Hollywood are openly telling the world they do not believe in God. Some in the scientific community have moved beyond their discoveries concerning life on earth to proclamations that “there is no god.” Atheistic organizations are now utilizing all available media to oppose religion of any kind, and, especially, Christianity. Little imagination is required to visualize all the splinter groups that oppose religion coming together someday to create a stronger political voice.
Remember September 11, 2001? The days following that terrible day were days of soul-searching for Americans and their friends around the world. Prayer meetings were held by government leaders, and by businesses throughout the land. Testimonies of people directly affected by the carnage touched our hearts as bereaved families spoke of their faith and that of their loved ones who had perished.
Now, in our own inimitable fashion, we have left those days behind and we feel comfortably safe. My friends, if you and I knew what each of our modern presidents have known about how close we are at any given moment to cataclysmic events threatening our very existence, we would certainly be in church next Sunday, praying for a great revival of faith.
* “rulers, elders, teachers of the law (scribes)” – A.T. Robertson tells us the rulers (priests) were Sadducees, the scribes were Pharisees, and the elders were unaligned. The three groups were rather equally numbered. The Sanhedrin was made up of 71 men.