Opposition means an effort to prevent something from happening. Therefore, opposition to the gospel means an effort to prevent the gospel from been spread.
The apostles and the early Christians faced a lot of opposition towards the spread of the gospel. They were persecuted through hatred, dehumanized, tortured, imprisoned, threatened and sometimes killed. Yet, the more they were persecuted the more the gospel spread and the more their number increased. The Jewish authorities feared that the success of the Christian faith would mean the end of Judaism, the tradition of Israel. The Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection from the dead felt their teachings are threatened.
##Martyrdom of Stephen##
Martyr: according to oxford advanced learners dictionary, new 8th edition, a martyr is a person who suffers very much or is killed because of religious or political beliefs.
Stephen was one of the seven deacons appointed by the apostles to defend the interest of the Hellenist widows. Stephen went further to help in the spread of Christianity in Jerusalem. He defended the gospel against some of the Jews. The Jews could not withstand Stephen in his defense of the Christian faith, so they made a report to the Jewish councils which ordered his arrest. Consequently, he was accused of:
Blasphemy against Moses.
Blasphemy against god and the temple.
He was charged to have said that Jesus would change the law of Moses.
He was also charged to have said that Jesus would destroy the temples.
In his defense, Stephen told them how God had promised their forefathers the holy land and how he dealt with them even in the wilderness. And how God appeared to Moses and spoke to him in the land of Midian which was itself another holy ground. Therefore, Stephen said that the Jews should not think that without the holy land, God would not have relations with men. God was able to reveal himself to a person of his choice.
Stephen also said from the beginning, the Jews had disobeyed the law of God given to Moses by rejecting people God sent to save them. Joseph, Moses, and all the prophets including Jesus whom the present Jews have rejected, he referred the Jewish council as stiffed-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears. The accusation provoked the Jews and they dragged him out of the city and stoned him. He told them as he gazed to heaven, he saw Jesus at the right hand of God. As they stoned him, he prayed to God for forgive their sins. At the scene, Saul kept his clothes which they had remove from him before stoning him. This shows that Saul approved to his killing.
Saul’s involvement in the opposition to the gospel. (Acts 9:1-2)
After supervising the death of Stephen, Saul led the mass persecution of the church in Jerusalem. He killed great number of Christians. When the surviving Christians fled to somewhere outside Jerusalem, he still seek for permission from the Jewish council to arrest them there.
##Herod’s opposition (acts 12:1-24)
Herod Agrippa was a descendant of Herod, the great king of the Jews. The Jews did not like the rules of the Herods. He did everything to win the confidence of the Jews. This made him to join the Jewish council who were opposing the church. He killed James the brother of John and arrested Peter. When he discovered that his actions pleased the Jews, he put Peter in prison with the plan of killing him after Passover. But at night, an angel ordered let Peter out of prison.
##Conclusion
Peter and John were arrested after the healing at the beautiful gate, all the apostles were arrested, tried by the Sanhedrin, Stephen was arrested, tried and killed by the Jewish authorities. King Herod Agrippa killed James, the son of Zebedee and arrested peter with the intent to kill him.