The Real Conspiracy: Application from Acts
I am Alvaro Briones, a member of the College and Young Adult ministry, and I was asked to give a reflection on the Acts series. At first this seemed like an overwhelming task, as we’ve gone through many strong and convicting sermons. But, as I thought about it, I thought I’d share a little bit about how this series has impacted me holistically and then get into how a specific message impacted my life and my faith.
To start out, my wife and I have just moved back from Columbia, MO where we had lived for the past two years (buy me lunch for details), and I had moved out there a year into the Acts series. I vividly remember my intentions when leaving were to be with Malaya and to see Columbia, MO be won to Christ! God had opened doors for discipleship, and there were conversations at the pastoral level that led me to believe that God would do a mighty work (in what I thought a mighty work would be).
With much faith and zeal, the work started and I realized I was very much alone. My wife had a busy schedule and the church was not always in line with where MBT was at spiritually (this is not a negative connotation) with a different focus in ministry that left me zealous without traction. I quickly pivoted to being a lone ranger in Columbia, MO, doing evangelism at coffee shops or thrift stores, starting a Bible Study and teaching the “Faith Baptist Boyz” how to study the Bible.
I am sharing this because the series as a whole has taught me that no matter where I am at, I am called to the great commission. God was no different in Kansas City than he was in Columbia; neither were his commands or his promises. This series encouraged me that even though I wasn’t near my fellow people, God wanted HIS people to be empowered by HIS Spirit in the work. I praise God for the Acts series during my time in Columbia because it encouraged me to stay strong during times where I saw no fruit. The crazy thing was that there was fruit, I just often was so discouraged that I lacked the gratitude to realize what he had been doing in my life and the life of those around me. So often God met me with Brandon’s preaching on being a remnant in our world today and how to be a believer that plays out the saying “Though none go with me, still I will follow.”
From a holistic standpoint, the Acts series didn’t teach me what actions or steps I must do to be a man of God, but who I must become internally. Acts taught me how to face difficult circumstances and lean on God’s word to get me through it, how to be patient and trust in his promises in times of perceived fruitlessness, and how to be zealous without sacrificing an intimacy with Christ.
As I came back to MBT, I was blessed with a Bible study of faithful men. I was now entrusted with the lives of these men, so not only did I have to think about my life and my family, but also the lives of men who I would be leading and their growth. After starting off strong with my Bible study in our first meeting in a grungy basement, my guys started having attacks left and right. Unexplainable health issues, chronic sin, weird anxieties and situations that put us in weird mental spaces — it felt like we had just gotten off on the right foot and the attack poured in.
This is why I chose to reflect on the message of “The Real Conspiracy,” because during times of turmoil I realized not everything had to make sense, I just needed to know there was an enemy at hand and the promises of God were true. Brandon preached this message from Acts 23:11-24. In the first few verses we see attacks against Paul: “And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul. Now therefore ye with the council signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you to morrow, as though ye would enquire something, more perfectly concerning him; and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him.”
So in this passage, we see evil men trying to take Paul’s life because he stood for Christ. These guys were taking curses to themselves, so zealously provoked that they wouldn’t eat until they saw their victim taken down. One thing mentioned in this sermon was the fact that Satan has a plan for my life. As much as God seeks our conformity to his Son (Rom 8:29), Satan seeks our fall (Eph 6:12, Rom 8:13). This had me shook, not because I thought the devil was make-believe, but because I don’t always see his attacks clearly. I learned from the first key point that I am going to be susceptible to the attacks of the devil if I don’t know what his tactics look like (1 John 2:15-16).
Satan tells lies: John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil…He was a murderer from the beginning, and bode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Satan is rebellious: Isaiah 14:12-13 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 14 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Satan is an accuser: Revelation 12:10 …for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
These are things I had actually already learned. Yet seeing them not just in my own life, but playing out in the life of brothers near me, that looked to me for counsel, was something I hadn’t faced before. I can look at what happened in Paul’s life and relate it back to my own and my Bible study, facing my brothers’ issues with them.
My Bible study will be susceptible to more attacks the more we share the gospel. Brandon said it this way, “If you preach Christ, conspiracy is closer than you think.” It’s a good admonition for me, as a Bible study leader, because my job as a practicing shepherd is to be the most watchful man out of my group for the attacks of the enemy towards my group. 1 Peter 5:2 says, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.” And the call is to be of a ready mind because six verses down, it calls our adversary a “roaring lion” who seeks those he may devour.
Reflecting on this during the message was really good for me because it hyped me up to have the right heart towards my guys, to love them, and to protect them, but the punchline to this message was actually the last point for me. Pastor Brandon’s Key Point 3 says, “God wants to put us in a position where we can only trust in him.” Amen to this! But I think in a very practical way, it is hard for me to be helpless. My gut reaction to being knocked down is getting back up and to keep going. It is not natural for me to wait on the Lord or even accept a place of helplessness. I think so often I can relate helplessness to hopelessness, and that’s not what this point was saying.
We must be okay with being helpless because God’s promises are being kept. In Acts 23:11, God says to Paul, “… Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.” In this passage God made a promise to Paul prior to Paul’s tough circumstances. He has made me 66 books of promises in the Bible to guide me before every circumstance. This point really hit home because it takes away the trust I can put on myself and places it on God. Psalm 33:20 says, “Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.” So the take away for me was: do I know how to be helpless? Do I know what Paul is talking about in 2 Cor. 4, where he is troubled but not distressed, perplexed, but not despairing, or do I have a fear of waiting on God to be my help and answer to the many issues we face? The message left off on a hanging point from Pastor Brandon, “My biggest fear for C&YA is that we would be so consistent, so zealous, so strong in the flesh that we would not know what it means to be humble and desperate before God.” He is right. So often, I can easily try and try again to rely on my flesh for spiritual results, but without God, it only leads to frustration and emptiness.
Based on this message, I am really considering what it means to be truly helpless. I am trusting God as I lead that my perspective could grow to know that I am nothing in the flesh, that he is everything, and that this recognition would drive zeal to reach people at UMKC. I am trusting him to be a secret prayer warrior (not so secret any more). I am trusting him that my strategy would change so that instead of reacting with my own game plan, I would consider him immediately in any situation life throws out at me (Prov 3:5-6).
Finally, the Acts series should make all of us ask who we are becoming in our relationship with God. I think the more I consider that question, and become solidified in what the Lord is guiding me in, the more he tends to use me, and our ministry. Love you C&YA.
Alvaro Briones is a member of Midtown Baptist Temple and a leader in C&YA. He is involved in the LFBI translation ministry and leads a men’s small group Bible study at UMKC.