Jun 29, 2026 · 38 min · 10 segments
Opposition couldn't stop the gospel—God used it to spread it. In Acts 11–12, we see the early church grow through persecution, experience both loss and miraculous rescue, and remain faithful because…
Kind of like that pesky neighbor.
But in the midst of this, what I want you to understand is that sometimes you and I are like the whack-a-mole.
You see, just as we can be, or as moles are pesty and powers that be want to get rid of them, there are a lot of powers that be that wanted to eradicate the church early on.
And if they make him a king, then the Romans who were ruling over them at the time, and if you know anything about the Roman Empire, they would be pretty decent with you as long as you were obeying their rules.
But as soon as you rose up against them, they would crush you.
Everything that makes our life count will be gone.
And so basically, their way of life was on the line in their minds.
They were so worried about the way that they were living that they missed the very Messiah that the temple and everything else was about.
It's really kind of wild how we can do that.
We get so caught up in our little kingdom that we miss the king of kings.
And so it was in the midst of this that this hostility had developed against those followers of the way of Jesus Christ.
And that was what he left them with.
And as we've been unfolding this book of Acts, you've seen how the church got established in Jerusalem.
And then once persecution started, and this is the whole thing is that we all are like so afraid of persecution, but persecution was actually the weapon that spread the church to and made it grow.
And so Stephen gets martyred, his garments are left at the feet of Saul, and this same Saul gets authority from the powers that be, and he goes off to Damascus to continue persecuting the church, and then he finds himself face to face with Jesus.
So here, as the powers that be had set themselves up to persecute and to destroy this movement, much like I had proposed to do with the moles in my yard, but they just kept popping up in other places.
And then shortly after that, you know, Cornelius gets a vision, sends for Peter.
Peter goes grudgingly to this place.
Kind of like that pesky neighbor.
But in the midst of this, what I want you to understand is that sometimes you and I are like the whack-a-mole.
You see, just as we can be, or as moles are pesty and powers that be want to get rid of them, there are a lot of powers that be that wanted to eradicate the church early on.
And if they make him a king, then the Romans who were ruling over them at the time, and if you know anything about the Roman Empire, they would be pretty decent with you as long as you were obeying their rules.
But as soon as you rose up against them, they would crush you.
Everything that makes our life count will be gone.
And so basically, their way of life was on the line in their minds.
They were so worried about the way that they were living that they missed the very Messiah that the temple and everything else was about.
It's really kind of wild how we can do that.
We get so caught up in our little kingdom that we miss the king of kings.
And so it was in the midst of this that this hostility had developed against those followers of the way of Jesus Christ.
And that was what he left them with.
And as we've been unfolding this book of Acts, you've seen how the church got established in Jerusalem.
And then once persecution started, and this is the whole thing is that we all are like so afraid of persecution, but persecution was actually the weapon that spread the church to and made it grow.
And so Stephen gets martyred, his garments are left at the feet of Saul, and this same Saul gets authority from the powers that be, and he goes off to Damascus to continue persecuting the church, and then he finds himself face to face with Jesus.
So here, as the powers that be had set themselves up to persecute and to destroy this movement, much like I had proposed to do with the moles in my yard, but they just kept popping up in other places.
And then shortly after that, you know, Cornelius gets a vision, sends for Peter.
Peter goes grudgingly to this place.
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