If you want to do something good at your school, and you want to take a stand for Christ and be a witness out in the school yard, you are going to provoke some hostility. Do you want to be a strong Christian witness in the workplace—being visible, vocal? I am not saying you want to be rude and outrageous. I am just saying you want to be able to give it a defence of the hope that is within you. As Peter says, if you want to do that, you are going to provoke opposition. If you get involved in promoting Christian principles in the political opposition, you are going to encounter opposition. If you want to do something good in the church, there is going to be a controversy surrounding it, almost guaranteed.
So what do we do? We resist the opposition. That is what we do. You are going to find opposition to your good work—whatever it is—and in the face of that, what are we called to do? We are to do what they are called to do in Ezra's time. Work through that opposition. Face that opposition. Overcome that opposition. Persevere in our work.
The aim here is to silence the people of God; to halt their work, to intimidate and frustrate them. And our response must be that we cannot let them do that. We are called, even as Israel was called, to be the nurturing womb within which the Messiah is brought forth. We are the same kind of nurturing womb through which the fullness of the kingdom of God is to be realized through the fulfillment of the great commission. We will encounter opposition. What are we to do? Overcome it, persevere, continue to fight, continue the battle. We may be stopped for a while. We may see little progress for a number of years, that may go on for many years. But like a mighty army, the kingdom of God marches on. In Christ, we have the victory; in Christ, we are more than conquerors.1
Terry L. Johnson
4 Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build