Satan Uses Distractions Against Us
Satan is good at distractions. The interesting thing about his distractions is that we don’t even know they are distractions. Let’s see a few of them as the Early Church was beginning to get started.
When Phasaelis, Herod Antipas’ Nabatean wife, discovers Antipas’ plans to divorce her and marry Herodias, the granddaughter of Herod the Great, she goes back to her father in Petra to inform him. Phasaelis’ father, Aretas IV, doesn’t take the news well. To him it was an insult, so he brings his Arabian army against Antipas around 36 AD. Philip the Tetrarch had died about two years earlier with his territory going back to Syria. This actual fight was slightly after Paul was in Damascus. Likely, a Nabatean contingent was housed there to prepare for battle. The Jewish leaders may have used the Nabatean governor in Damascus to help with their desire to now get rid of Paul as, according to their thinking, he had betrayed them. That way, they did not need to be beholden to Rome or explain themselves to Roman authorities.
Aretas IV defeated Antipas’ army at Gamala, north of Galilee, but apparently did not remove Antipas from power as he later vied for even more power from a later Roman emperor. Tiberias Caesar in Rome ordered the destruction of Aretas IV but died before this could occur so his command was never carried out. Caligula then began to reign in Rome in 37 AD.
During this time, Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great and brother of Herodias, is educated in Rome and befriends Caligula who agrees to give him his uncle Philip’s previous territory north and east of the Sea of Galilee and bestow on him the title of king. Hearing that Caligula was going to make Agrippa a king, Antipas tries to usurp him and get the title for himself. In the end, Antipas gets banished to Gaul (what is today France) and all of Antipas’ territories were given to Agrippa I as well. Before Caligula could bestow him the title of king, Caligula is assassinated.
Agrippa I then becomes instrumental in getting Claudius to become the next Caesar. Because of his favor, Claudius bestows the land of Idumea, Judea and Samaria to Agrippa’s kingdom as well. In the end, Herod Agrippa I ruled the same territory as his grandfather, Herod the Great.
As the new king of the Jews, Herod Agrippa I had several people from the Church in Jerusalem arrested and had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword in 44 AD (Ac 12:2). Seeing that this pleased the Jewish leaders, he also had Peter arrested (Ac 12:3). Yet, God sent an angel and had Peter released from prison (Ac 12:5-19). When Herod Agrippa I was in Caesarea Maritima, God struck him down after he gave a rousing speech where he tried to portray himself as a god (Ac 12:19-23). He later died, likely from parasites.
As all of this was going on, many Gentiles became followers of Christ at Antioch in Syria due to the witness of the Jewish Christians who had come there from Jerusalem and other places due to their persecution. Hearing of this, the Jerusalem Church sent Barnabas to investigate. Being impressed with what he saw, he went to Tarsus and brought Paul back to Antioch where they ministered together (Ac 11: 19-26). Note: It seems from this time forth, Saul used his Latin name Paul almost exclusively.
About a year later, in 45 AD, is the time when the epistle of James was written from Jerusalem by James himself, the half-brother of Jesus, to those Christians who had been scattered to various places due to the stoning of Stephen and the persecution of Christians brought on by Saul of Tarsus (Ja 1:1). There were very few Gentiles who were a part of the church at this time.
These Jewish believers had apparently gone too far from doing away with their Jewish mindset of actions being more important than inward belief, which Jesus had accused the Jewish leaders of doing (e.g. Mt 23:27-28). James gave a reprimand so these Jewish believers in Christ could understand that they needed to keep their Jewish mindset of deeds being important but also incorporate their inward beliefs of Christ’s teachings and let their inward change be manifested and shown to others by their actions (Ja 2:18). James’ words were also a reprimand for the Gnostic beliefs that had already begun to arise, likely through the teachings of Simon Magus.
This is a lesson for us as well that we need to let our actions reveal our inward belief in Christ. James was basically saying what Christ told them: they will know you are followers of Christ by your love (Jn 13:35).
This was also about the time Matthew released his gospel which he wrote about Jesus Christ being their long-awaited Messianic King. It makes sense it would be at this time when the majority of the church was composed of Jews. His gospel presented Jesus in the light of being the coming King which all Old Testament prophets prophesied about with Jesus fulfilling all the prophecies that had been prescribed to their coming Messiah. He has over fifty Old Testament quotes in his gospel and over 40% of his writing is unique to his gospel.
As you can see, there were many potential distractions for those in the early church from the political chaos that was going on around them and figuring out how to live in this new age of persecution. James tried to get them to focus on what was important. May we do the same. We have so many things going on around us that we can take our focus off what is important spiritually. Let’s do what James told the Jewish believers to do: show Jesus to others by your love for them. At this same time, God was working with the Gentiles to bring them to himself.
Cornelius, a Roman centurion stationed in Caesarea who had become a devout believer in God but, evidently, not a Jewish proselyte, has an angelic visitation telling him to send for Peter who was currently staying in Joppa (Ac 10:1-8). This is when Peter had his vision of a sheet being lowered from heaven with all kinds of animals which Peter knew as unclean animals. God told him not to call anything unclean whom God had made clean (Ac 10:9-16). When Cornelius’ men arrived, he went with them and told Cornelius and his household about Christ, and they accepted Christ as their Savior and received the Holy Spirit with a sign of speaking in tongues without ever becoming Jewish proselytes (i.e., no circumcision). Peter then knew this was the interpretation to his vision which God had sent him (Ac 10:44-48).
Through all of what we went over in the last few posts, we see how Satan continues to work in world affairs. He turned the world of the Jews upside down by placing the birthright of Esau back over the descendants of Jacob eventually leading to the destruction of Jerusalem and their temple. Yet, God’s plan went around Satan’s plan. It was a better plan and one that not only was good for the Jews, his chosen people, but good for the entire world. His plan was to first fulfill the spiritual prophecies of his coming before he would take care of physical prophecies of his coming. This was important because his act of dying on the cross took care of the sin problem we have. We are all born into Satan’s kingdom and must make a decision to be switched from Satan’s kingdom into God’s kingdom (Jn 3:18; Ro 5:12). Christ paved the way for that to occur. He paid our ransom, our blood-debt, so that we don’t have to, and he was able to do that for the entire world (Jn 3:16). So, by a simple act of faith on our part, we can be declared righteous and become a join-heir with Christ and inherit eternal life here and in the life to come (Ro 8:12-17). We are given the Holy Spirit to indwell us so we can become more like him in our day to day lives and be his ambassadors to the rest of the world to let them know the good news of Jesus Christ and what he has done for them just as he did for us (2Co 5:20).
We have been talking about how the church began to form, but what about the rest of Jesus’ apostles? We know that Paul was designated the apostle to the Gentiles (Ac 9:15; Ga 2:7) and that Peter was stated to be the apostle to the Jews (Ga 2:7). What about the other apostles? We’ll discuss that next time. Please join me.
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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens