What Are the Church’s Greatest Threats? (Acts 8:1-25)

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Q. What Are the Church’s Greatest Threats?

• (Alpine is 23 years old today!)
• First public service held Sept 9, 2001
• Two days later the twin towers fell and the world changed
• Threat of terrorism
• Threat of global war
• Threat of losing American way
• But Alpine continued to grow, and today…
• Eight campuses, and growing!
• Opening service at the Syracuse building
• Where will God take us in the next 23 years? 
• And what threats will we have to endure?
• Today we’ll look at three threats that the early church faced (persecution, power, and division) and one bonus threat that seems unique to us today (apathy). 
• We have a lot to cover, so let’s get straight to the text… 
The Threat of Persecution

Acts 8: (NLT) 1 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.

Acts 8:1-3 (NLT) A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. 2 (Some devout men came and buried Stephen