Stratagem #1: Satan tries to stifle or stop the evangelistic outreach of God's people.Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin
The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand. Acts 4:1-4
Why were Peter and John apprehended? "the apostles were teaching the people" and "proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead" (the Gospel). Satan tries to stop this teaching by silencing its source.
In Acts 5 we see an even more severe form of censorship and suppression of the message of the Gospel.
The Apostles Are Persecuted
"Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life." Acts 5:17-20
When the Apostles attempt to defend themselves the Sanhedrin want them killed. Only Gamaliel prevents this from happening.
"When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death." Acts 5:33
Do we see this type of thing happening today?
Stratagem #2: Satan attempts to contaminate the spiritual life of the church members.
The Strange Story of Ananias and Sapphira
"Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price." Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. " Acts 5:1-10
Satan tries to contaminate an entire church through contamination of one or two individuals. Like a virus or disease it starts small, perhaps as an unseeable entity that attaches itself to people of the church and spreads. By the time most are even aware it has infiltrated the church and it is already ravaging the body. The higher the position in the church of the contaminated person the more people that are detrimentally effected through direct or indirect contact. If Satan can get to one of the leaders, pastors or elders, he could take out the entire church body. A decapitated body cannot move its limbs without the head being in place.
Is this happening today in our churches? Lying to other members of a church body. Deliberate deception? Bad Doctrine? Broken marriages? Manipulation through sympathies? Perhaps it us unintentionally apostate or poor leadership becasue the leader just doesn't know any better.
Stratagem #3: Satan attempts to divide the fellowship of the church
Bigger Isn't Always Better-Its About Quality Not Quantity
"Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food." Acts 5:42-6:1
Explosive growth in a church tends to make members less discerning of the quality of membership. Lowered quality of membership leads to a lowered quality of a leadership pool to pick from when it comes time to expand leadership capacity and implement new elders or pastors. Knowing when to expand leadership to accommodate more people is sometimes an issue also. Not enough leadership leads to pastoral burnout and stress that often leads to mistakes dealing with people. More people come with more problems. New folks can often bring aspects of the outside world into the church that do not belong there and sometimes do not get recognized and dealt with right away. This allows Satan to get a foothold in the church and the body and leadership are unaware. Satan tries to divide or split what is meant to stay whole or in one piece.
Do we see this today. Allowance of detrimental cultural influence into our churches? Seeker-Sensitiveness? Prosperity Gospel? Easy Believism? Syncretism/Interfaithism? Excessive tolerenace of certain sinful behaviors because they are accepted by the culture at large but clearly forbidden by God. Through political correctness we accept them when we should absoutely be rebuking them and calling people on them. Also, there is an attitude of "disposability" in society or the attitude of "no accountability" that leads to divorces, cheating spouses, etc-i.e.: The "if it don't/doesn't work out, throw it away and get a new one" mentality? Tolerance of sexual improprieties/immorality?
Stratagem #4: Satan stirs crushing political powers to attack the church when he can't get the church to collapse from within due to its own sin.
"It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover." Acts 12:1-4
Herod attacked the leadership of the church. He kills James. This in turn "pleased the Jews" and emboldened Herod. Instead of condemnation for killing James he is applauded which will enable further persecution "legally" (Wow! Do we see this beginning to happen here?). Because one had been killed and public sentiment had turned against Christians the rest scatter, go into hiding or are set in disarray. Peter is arrested and imprisoned. Peter was going to be used as a tool to enhance Herod's position in an evil manner. Had God not sent an freeing angel, Herod's plan may have worked. Herod's eventually demise is that of worm food.
There were other satanic attacks on the early church but these were the ones that jumped of the page and begged to be taken notice to. These are enough to deal with and some are monsters as were some of the people that perpetrated them. There is a long merciless and evil line of them down through history. They even lurk in the broom closets of all of our churches. If we do not occasionally take stock of what is in our closets they can, more often than not, begin to breed mold, mildew and rot that we did not know was there until it begins to permeate the entire church. Subsequently it will require fumigation, housecleaning and sometimes massive overhaul in the case of termites chewing away the foundations (doctrine). These kinds of "fixes" would then require backbreaking work and the sweat off the brow that could have easily been avoided had we just paid attention to the Word that God has given us, prayed and stayed vigilant and discerning.
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