When Evil Succeeds It Is A Setup

Acts 4:27-28
(27) Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. (28) They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

Amplified Bible
to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined [before the creation of the world] to occur [and so without knowing it, they served Your own purpose].

Peter and John were going to the Temple for worship. They met a lame man at the gate begging and they healed him in the name of Jesus. This healing of a lame man caused many people to follow and listen to Peter and John speak about Jesus. The religious leaders of that time were not happy that attention had shifted from them to Peter and John. The religious leaders at that time were not happy that Jesus who they killed was now being preached and accepted by many people, Acts 4:2.

The religious leaders and the security officials came and arrested Peter and John as they spoke to the people, Acts 4:1. They locked them up in prison, Acts 4:3. But their action did not affect the gospel work. The Bible records that as they sought to harm Peter and John, it caused many more people to believe their message about Jesus, Acts 4:4. By arresting Peter and John two thousand people joined the Christian faith making it five thousand since Pentecost. They thought arresting Peter and John would discourage people from believing but instead, it caused the gospel work to grow in a huge unprecedented way.

If you ever get tempted to use your power to control the spread of the gospel or to stop it, you will fail. You may kill the messenger but the message remains unstoppable. The death or the terrible things you will do to the messenger will accelerate the gospel work but you will ultimately perish painfully and hopelessly. The spread of the gospel is God’s own work and we should let it flow and support it by all means necessary.

The next day they took Peter and John to court but there was nothing they could do to them or say against them, Acts 4:14. When God is not on your side, your case against God’s people will be so baseless that you will have nothing to say. They eventually released Peter and John because they had nothing to say against them. Then they threatened them as all tyrants do to those who tell them unpalatable truths, Acts 4:17 and Acts 4:21. When all we have is threats we are empty and evil.

After the release of Peter and John, they went to meet the believers. The believers prayed to God. They prayed to thank God for the release of Peter and John. They prayed to address the threats from the religious leaders. In their prayer, we learn a lot. Our text today is part of their prayer to God.

In their prayer to address the threats from religious leaders, they cite events around the death of Jesus. In our text today, the prayer mentions that Herod, Pilate, Romans (aka Gentiles), and Israelites conspired to kill Jesus. When Jesus died they thought their conspiracy and scheming had succeeded. They must have cheered themselves as very serious strategists whose methods never fail. They must have thought themselves very smart. However, in that prayer, we are told that, even when they thought they had succeeded, they had been set up by God. When evil succeeds, it is a setup!

A setup is a scheme designed to expose another person. A plan to encourage a person to boldly do something wrong so that it is openly established that they are bad. God had already planned that Jesus will die for us. These guys thought they were acting in their power, yet they were just exposing their own evil. God by setting them up did not make them evil but He exposed their evil. When evil succeeds, it is a setup!

The main point in our text today is that when people conspired and killed Jesus, they did not succeed because of any prowess on their side, since God had already planned that this would happen. When in their evil plans they saw themselves succeed, it was not their success but God’s will being done. In due time if they do not repent they will face punishment for these sins. When evil succeeds, it is a setup!

When outright evil and corrupt people keep succeeding, do not despair, it won’t be long. Their current success is a setup they can only escape by repentance. Without repentance, when evil will eventually be exposed, it will be too late to repent. When evil succeeds, it is a setup!

Do not celebrate the success of an evil plan, because each success takes you deeper and deeper into the setup. Each success of evil schemes makes the future consequence worse for you. Remember nothing can happen without God allowing it to happen, even the success of evil plans is allowed by God as a setup that He will eventually use to destroy evil planners. When evil succeeds, it is a setup!

Dear God, may I never be fooled by the success of evil plans, remind me always that it is a setup, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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