Our text this morning is from Acts chapter 5 verses 33 through 42. Beloved, this is God's holy and inerrant word. When they heard this, the they in question is the Sanhedrin, and if you remember at the end of the previous passage that we talked about last week, here the apostles had accused them as participating in the death of Jesus Christ. And so when they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all of the people, stood up. And he gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. Now he said to them, men of Israel, take care of what you are about to do to these men. For before these days, Thutis rose up, claiming to be somebody. And a number of men, about 400, joined him. Then he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished and all who followed him were scattered. So in this present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. you might even be found opposing God. So they took his advice. And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and they charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus. And they let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing as they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day in the temple and from house to house, They did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to your word, I pray that that word guides us and that it instructs us. I pray that as we look to see the pattern of life that is found in this early church, that we would apply that pattern to our lives today in the 21st century church. Father, I pray that you would exhort us. I pray that you would not simply instruct our minds, but that you would change our hearts towards the way that we live. And that we might emulate this early church. I pray that your glory would shine in us. I pray that you would use these words to build us up in our faith. And I pray that as you build us up in our faith, I pray that you build us up in such a way that we call others to faith in you. My fellow, I pray too, that if there are those here who do not know you, who have not a relationship, a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, I pray that you would use these words to call them to faith, that they might indeed repent and believe and glorify you on account of your word. I pray that you would be glorified and honored. I pray that you would be praised and proclaimed either through me or in spite of me. In this, I pray in Jesus's name, amen. as we go to the text this morning. I really wanna begin where this passage ends. There's two big ideas, there are two points, if you will, that I wanna kind of dwell on for a little while this morning, but it's the second point, the point that's in the latter part of our passage that helps us to understand, I think, the first point that is spoken of in the earlier part of the passage. And so I'm gonna be a little bit backwards this morning, and I'm gonna start at the end, and then go to the beginning. And hopefully the end will shine light as we explore what takes place in the earlier part of this passage. To remind you of the context, the apostles have been brought before the council. This is the Sanhedrin, the great Sanhedrin. This is the equivalent in our context of something like the Supreme Court. And they have accused the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees in particular who have arrested them, they've accused them of putting Jesus to death. They didn't like to hear that. And so their response is to beat them and threaten them to no longer preach in the name of Jesus. That's verse 40. Verse 41. is wonderful to me. But at the same time, verse 41 is one of those things that I can understand up here in my head, but I really struggle with in my heart and my gut because after they had been beaten, they were let go and they left rejoicing. that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus. If you remember the Psalm that we read earlier in the service this morning, David is talking about being dishonored in the name of the Lord. That's part of what the Christian calling is meant to be about. So it's a sign that we're doing something right, arguably. So they're going out saying, what a privilege it is for us. to have been counted worthy to suffer in this way. Folks, they were tortured. You might be tempted to say, well, maybe this beating, you know, wasn't that big of a deal. Somebody took a cane or somebody took a stick and beat them over the shoulders. And we might be tempted to think that, but if you go to the Greek texts that underlies this passage, The word that is used to describe this beating that they are given is probably better translated or at least more literally translated as flayed. It's a reference to being beaten in such a way that your skin is peeling off. It probably is not that different than the idea of the Roman scourge. where they would bind pieces of metal and pottery shards into the leather of the whips. And so as they beat you with those whips, those pieces of metal and pottery would tear off chunks of your flesh as it went back. That's the beating that these apostles took. This was not something that was light. This was not something that was easy. They were tortured and harmed physically. And yet they went out celebrating. Yet they went away rejoicing. And there's no other way of describing this in terms of the literary context. They were rejoicing, they were celebrating, they were worshiping God. Praising God for the privilege of being tormented. And I wanna spend some time wrapping our heads around this. Because on a certain level, intellectually, I understand the concept. If you read much about the persecuted church here in the world today, through Voice of the Martyrs or some of the other kind of organizations that report their stories, this is how they respond. They don't respond, woe is me, I have been beaten, I have been tortured, I have been tormented. They respond, hallelujah, I have been given the privilege of tasting. We won't ever experience the fullness of our Lord's suffering, but they're saying of just tasting a little bit of what our Lord did for me. And I counted a privilege to be able to do that. Intellectually, I get it. But deep down in my gut, that's something to wrestle with, and I'm concerned that that's probably not our response. When we face persecutions, certainly not of being beaten and tortured, that doesn't happen to us typically in America, though it can happen. But even when we face kinds of persecution that we do face, being looked down upon for being a Bible-believing Christian, being mocked for taking your Bibles to school, being made fun of for doing or leading a Bible study at work or offering to pray with somebody when you're perhaps in the line at Walmart going through collecting your groceries. How do you respond to that? Do you celebrate? Or do you grump and gripe? and get frustrated about that. I mean, don't get me wrong. We have privileges here in America in terms of our freedoms to worship that are absolutely wonderful and I am grateful for. We can come and go in terms of our churches as we please. We have a house of worship that is set aside for one thing, for the glory of God. We can talk about spiritual things in all sorts of different places. We have Bibles. Oftentimes in our homes, we have more than one. And we can read them whenever we want, if we choose to read them. Oftentimes we don't do that. We can advertise the fact that we are Christian. We can have debates about faith and practice in the open. with people who are not Christians. And we can even proselytize, working with friends and neighbors and people that we engage with, pointing them to Christ. Even though oftentimes we don't do that, while we should. I had to confess though, as I wrapped my head around this passage and was kind of struggling through it this week, I had to ask myself, If I knew when I came into worship that I was going to be beaten afterwards, would I rejoice in that knowledge? Would I rejoice after the beating took place? I'm not so sure that I would. I hope that I would still come to preach. That's my calling. And I think based on the experiences that I've had, I probably would, but sometimes even we don't even know how we're going to react until we face such a trial. And so I get that. And I'm not gonna say necessarily before you, I would do this or that for sure, because I've never faced somebody beating me physically. But I think where I physically accosted, my human nature of wanting to fight back would be something that would come out. I'm gonna be honest with you. I think that would be something that many of us, or in terms of the way we would respond, in terms of our Christian witness, or in terms of our response, which isn't the healthiest thing for our Christian witness. But again, I've never been physically accosted. I've been verbally accosted. I have been, had people seek to intimidate me at different times and I've not backed down with that by the grace of God. It had nothing to do with me and everything to do with what God is doing. So I was asking myself there with this in mind, Has it just that we've been spoiled in America? And I don't think it is. A lot of people will say that. And in some ways we may have been spoiled some because of the freedoms we have, but the reality is it could happen anytime and we need to be prepared for different ways that that persecution will look in different contexts and different cultures, because do understand, people in persecuted nations are praying for us as well, because they see the temptations that we face. And they say, wow, we may have to worry about being beaten, but those guys have to worry about all that pornography that's out there. They have to worry about all of those temptations that they're facing in our society. So the question that I wanted to ask and really dwell upon is, how is it that the apostles, and then the result of the apostles, the church even today, when it faces persecution, so we can learn from that in terms of the persecution that we face, and if it's something that actually becomes physical or life-threatening, we can learn from that again in terms of how we respond to those who oppose Christ. So how is it the apostles took such an attitude? I think there's two things that I really want to highlight. First of all, is that it is an affirmation. the Holy Spirit's at work. Again, we could never on our own strength say, I am going to accept persecution in the name of Christ and celebrate it. That's not something that we can do as human beings relying on human strength. That is a work of the Holy Spirit. And when you're on the other side of that and you realize the Holy Spirit is working with you in such a way, that's a powerful experience. It's a wonderful thing in terms of that sense of realization that God has brought me through. Remember what Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse. And he says, when you're captured and arrested and challenged on things, don't worry about what it is that you will say because the Holy Spirit will give you those words. The Holy Spirit gave the apostle those words. And it gave them the attitude as well. The Holy Spirit gave them those things. And as a result of His work in their lives, they rejoiced and celebrated the tormenting, the beating that they received. So first, it is an affirmation of the work of the Holy Spirit and His work in their lives as Christians. And second, is also an affirmation of their faith. Notice they considered themselves worthy to suffer. Jesus said, folks, If you're worried about the world hating you, don't worry about that because recognize that the world hated him first. And that's John 15, 18. So in other words, if the world is not listening to us, that's a good sign. If the world is hating us for our testimony, not because of who we are, but because of the testimony that we give of Jesus Christ, that is a good sign because the world hated our master before the world hated us. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, it's part of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, 10 through 12, said, blessed are those who suffer all sorts of kinds of things in my namesake. Blessed. Usually we don't like to think of blessed in the same context as persecution, but Jesus does. And Jesus presents that to us in the church, that this is something that is a thing that God has given us to strengthen us in our faith, to nourish us. It may harm us in our bodies, but it strengthens us in our faith. It's also an affirmation that God was not going to abandon them in prison. that he was working in their lives and he was there. And it's a demonstration of a different mindset. And this is one of the things, and this is where we transition and kind of begin to apply this first century event to our 21st century lives here especially. Paul writes in Philippians 1 verse 21, that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. He goes on to talk about how in his preferences, it'd be easier to die and just be with Jesus, but God had found it to be more necessary that he remain, even though for Paul, remaining meant suffering. Read the accounts of Paul's life, not just here in the book of Acts, but read how he talks about it in 2 Corinthians, for example. He suffered all sorts of things being beaten and stoned and left for dead and shipwrecked. I mean, he suffered for the gospel in powerful, powerful and profound ways. And the reason he did that, and the reason that he considered it more valuable, and the reason that he considered it something that was worthy to do, Same reason these apostles celebrated the punishment that they were receiving at the hands of the Sanhedrin. It's because they thought in terms of their perspective, first about building the kingdom, and secondly, about their personal comforts. Usually we get that backwards. Usually we think, blessed am I when I am comfortable. Blessed are my children when my children make a good living or my grandchildren have a good job to provide for their families. And those are blessed things, folks. But that's not first. That's second stuff. First things are building the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And we need to embrace that reality. You and me, we need to think that way about what builds the kingdom first and what comforts me or fits my preferences second. So I want to talk to you and apply this idea, and I want to apply it both positively and negatively. Firstly, in terms of positively, when you make a decision, whether it's a big decision or a little decision, What do you ask? Do you begin by asking what's best for me or my family, or do you ask what is best for the church and for building Jesus Christ's kingdom? Let me give you some examples. When you start a new hobby, doesn't matter how big or small that hobby is, what's the first question that you ask? Am I doing this because I think it might be interesting, I think it might be fun, I think it might bring me satisfaction? Or are you doing it because I think it might give me opportunities to build Christ's kingdom? Now, those things don't have to be mutually exclusive. Sometimes things that bring us satisfaction are also things that God uses to build His kingdom. The question is, what question do you ask first? Because if you're asking about me first, If you're asking about my comfort, my preferences, my satisfaction first, we're going about it backwards. We should say, what would glorify God first? What would build Christ's kingdom first? And then seek the answer there and seek your satisfaction in that. When you buy a vehicle, something at some point, pretty much all of us either have done, sometimes several times, or will do. So when you buy a vehicle, what do you do with the old one you've been driving around? For most of us, we turn it in so we can get a, you know, whatever its value is off of the new vehicle that we're buying, or the new used vehicle, or however it ends up working in your household. Do you sell it? Pocket the cash and do something else that you want with it? How about this as a challenge? Instead of selling it, instead of turning in for whatever trade-in value it is, because the reality is its trade-in value is relatively small for most of us if you've had the vehicle of any length of time. Instead of doing that, Maybe sell that vehicle, sell it outright and use the money from that to help support a ministry or a missionary somewhere. Or perhaps keep that vehicle to the side, fix it up and keep it in good running order, but keep it in the backyard somewhere if you've got a little bit of space to do that. And then when you hear about a missionary on furlough coming home and needing a vehicle, give it to him. Say, here, you're gonna be home for six weeks, use this. Or you're gonna be home for six months, here, have this. And at the end of six months, if you don't need it anymore, give it to somebody else. Or if you want, sell it and use that money to help continue the ministry that you're doing wherever it is in the world that God has sent you. Think about it that way. Think about it from, again, a kingdom building perspective in terms of your opportunities. What are you doing with those opportunities that God gives you? Are you being thrifty with your money? It's a good German thing to do. But why are you being thrifty with your money? Are you doing it so that you have a large investment so that you can retire and live comfortably for the rest of your life? There's nothing wrong with retiring and having resources to rely upon. Or you're building up the savings so you leave your kids with a big, you know, kind of investment inheritance that they can enjoy. Nothing wrong with leaving an inheritance to your children, but I would argue that that's not a bad thing at all. But are you doing it maybe kingdom building perspective? So that you can be generous with those who are in need. Not only while you're still working, but then after you've retired and then eventually even after your death. Are you doing it as a way just to start an endowment for a worthy ministry, something like a seminary or a mission organization, or even a church in a denomination so that you can help support the work that they are doing? How are you positively thinking about using the opportunities, the resources that God has placed in your hands to build Christ's kingdom first and your own kingdom second. That's positively. Negatively, when you struggle with sin, if you struggle with sin, now, if you're not struggling with sin, we have to have a total different conversation. So let me just say and assume something for a minute that you're struggling with sin because all of us have sin with which we need to struggle. So don't you dare think to yourself as the heretic does that, oh, I don't have any sin. 1 John 1 speaks to that question, says that you're a liar. So don't fall into that trap. So where you struggle with sin, ask yourself, how do you deal with the sin? Maybe you say, well, you know, This sin, yeah, it's something that I ought to deal with, but you know, most of the time it doesn't really get in the way of anything. Most of the time it's not that big of a deal. Most of the time it doesn't offend anybody. So, you know, yeah, I'll struggle with it a little bit, but I'm not really going to work hard on this. Or I'm gonna turn a blind eye to this other person's sin because they know my sin. And so I don't want them coming after me for my sin. So I'm not gonna go after them for their sin and address that with them. Is that how you think? Or do you think the Bible is calling me to repent and believe? Do you think the Bible is calling my brother or sister over there to repent of her sin or his sin, respectively, so that we might all walk together just as I have to repent of my sin? Do you say, well, you know, there's bigger things to deal with. This just brings me a little bit of pleasure here or there. And so, you know, I'll just kind of hold on to it kind of in the back corner of my mind and maybe go back to it once in a while. What do you say? to glorify Christ in my thoughts and in my actions is better and more pleasurable than any amount of pleasure or supposed pleasure that sin may bring into my life. So I will confront that sin in myself, I will confront it where I need to in others because of God's glory. And with God's help, we will all put that sin to death. and live or strive to live righteous lives. Part of our witness that we seek to put our sin to death. It's part of who we are as Christians. And when we don't, we end up multiplying our sin and excusing it to others. Folks, all too oftentimes, we get caught up in the here and the now. And so we only, when we face persecution, when we face trials, when we face temptations and things along those lines, when we face hard questions and things that are unpleasant to us, we can't see beyond them. And we only look at what we're facing in the moment. But the apostles didn't think that way. They had a different perspective. They had a perspective that was kingdom oriented. And so when they looked at their own trials, they said, well, hallelujah, we can use this for the glory of Christ. We can use this to build Christ's church and to encourage that church. Will you think that way? Will you teach yourself and discipline yourself to think that way? There's an old Puritan statement. The Puritans oftentimes had a way of applying and dealing with things with the old Puritans saying that basically says, why is it that you would pour perfume into a pigsty? Perfume is our affections. The pigsty of course is our sin. There's no amount of perfume in the whole world that will ever make a pigsty smell good. It just doesn't happen. So from the Puritan perspective, they were saying, why is it that we do that? Why is it that we pour out our love on things that have no worthiness of our love being poured out on them? Instead, we should pour out our love and our affections towards Christ, for he is the one that is worthy. Embrace that mindset. And as you embrace that mindset, I would be willing to wager with you that not, will not only change the way that you live and change the way that your families live, but it will also change the culture around us and it'll change the church in terms of the things that we do and the way that we do what we do. And so they're let out. And every day they go around preaching in the temple and going house to house. You ever wonder where the idea of house to house evangelism comes from? Here you go. Here you go is a model and a mindset for that. It's part one. Celebrate when you suffer for Christ's name. Celebrate when you see that you can use the suffering, whatever is causing that suffering, to glorify Christ and to build His kingdom. Use that to teach yourself boldness in your witness. Point two. And this takes us back to the beginning of the passage. The apostles again had been brought back. They'd been set before the Sadducees in the Sanhedrin. St. Hadrian was a mix of both Pharisees and Sadducees there. And the Sadducees were angry and they did what other small-minded, powerful people do. They said, let's kill them. Let's silence them. Because that's the only way to deal with our enemies. Sometimes I fear that the wicked And the wicked simply seek that end because they know deep down somewhere inside that they cannot refute the truth that we offer. And so they use force and they use power to silence the truth when it stands up. And so these small minded and wicked men feel threatened. And so they say, let's kill them. And then we are introduced to this guy by the name of Gamaliel. Camellia is an interesting figure. And I hope you are putting puzzle pieces together as you're thinking about this. That guy's name sounds familiar because he should. He's a very famous student that studied under him. We know that student better as the Apostle Paul, though at the time he would have been known as Saul of Tarsus. Acts 22 verse three says that he was educated at the very feet of Gamaliel. That's of immediate value because that means most likely Paul was there. He was watching all of this because he was standing listening and learning from Gamaliel kind of functioning as a steward, as a student there as Gamaliel was taking a stand. Gamaliel is a really important figure in Jewish history. From history, we know that he was the first of only seven presidents of the Sanhedrin who were given the name Rabban, which literally means our master. He was referred to as the master, if you will, of the Sanhedrin or in the Talmud, which is a series of Jewish writings that were began as oral tradition and that were written down later on. The Talmud refers to Gamaliel as the prince or the Nesee of the Sanhedrin. So here is the master of those who are in the Sanhedrin. Here is the one who is known in history as the prince of the Sanhedrin. Of course, toting around his student, Paul. In the Jewish Mishnah, again, rabbinic oral tradition, he is referred to as one of the greatest teachers of all Judaism. In fact, if you go to Sittah 9.15, which is part of that Talmudic writings, it reads this way in terms of Gamaliel. Since Rabban Gamaliel, the elder, died, there has been no more reverence for the law, and purity and piety died at the same time." That's not a bad epitaph. That's not a bad way to be remembered after your death. That you were the guy that set the standard for looking at the law, for seeking peace and purity in your life and in the context of the church. That's how the Jewish rabbis, rabbinical tradition remembers Gamaliel. And that's pretty impressive, but it doesn't stop there. Gamaliel was also the grandson of a man we know as Hillel the Elder. Hillel started one of the most influential schools of thought in all of Judaism. He was also the leader, the spiritual leader of Israel for the last 40 years of his life from 30 BC to 10 AD. By the way, of course, that is the era where Jesus was born. So the time that Jesus was born, Hillel the elder was one of the primary leaders of Israel. It may even, I'm speculating here, it may even be such that When Herod goes and is confronted by the Magi and says, all right, you scribes and smart guys come over here and tell me where is it the Messiah is supposed to be born. It may be that Hillel the elder was part of that conversation. I don't know about you, but it gives me goosebumps when I see connections like that and start putting history and scripture together and seeing kind of trains that go along that line. But Hillel's words and teachings were so important that even Jesus quotes from him, essentially, in the Sermon on the Mountain. You don't like thinking about that, do you? That's a little bit different way of thinking. We're usually thinking Jesus is always saying everything originally. In a sense, it's God, everything is original with him. He is the word, and the word made flesh. But before Jesus was born, Gamaliel made this statement. that which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole law, the rest is explanations, go and learn. I should sound familiar to you, because Jesus says in Matthew 7, 12, as part of the Sermon on the Mount, so that whatever you wish that others would do to you, also do for them, for this is the whole law and the prophets. Jesus is borrowing this idea and expanding it a little bit, applying it as he teaches to the people. And so Jesus could rightly have said, as he did about Solomon, and as he did about Jonah, that someone greater than Hillel is here. It would have been scandalous in his day and time, but it would have been absolutely and completely true had he made that statement. That's... the pedigree that we find here of Gamaliel who speaks. It's also the pedigree of the apostle Paul who studied under Gamaliel. So why is this important for us to know? First of all, the knowledge of persons and events and things like this in historical context helps us to defend the historicity of the scriptures. Okay, and you go, okay, well, what is that all about? It's about this. When you deal and come into contact with those people who are not Christians, particularly those who are atheists, one of the things that you are going to find in them, one of the attacks that they are going to make is that Christianity is nothing more than a bunch of myths that were written either by the Jewish people or by the Christian church as it was establishing it to protect its power. That's what they will say. They will say that none of these things has basis in history. That this Jesus guy is just a figment of our imagination. Or if he did exist, he certainly didn't do anything miraculous and didn't rise from the dead and didn't do any of these kinds of things that we talk about and then our scriptures talk about. Our faith, The Christian faith is, at its very core, a historical faith. It is rooted and grounded in time and space. The history is true and real, and if it could ever be proven, this is what the atheists understand, if it could ever be proven to be nothing more than myth, we have nothing left to stand on. Because if you remove the historicity from our scriptures, all you have are a bunch of teachings and good morals that are written by men. And so what? So what? It's just one man's ideas against another man's ideas. But as they're found in history, you recognize that the historical witness of one thing confirms and affirms the historical witness of the others. and the miraculous aspects come to life and can be proven and protected. And you go, okay, but I don't run around with too many atheists in my life, but I argue that you do. You run around probably with more than you think you run around with. And even if you run around with people who are professing Christians, there have been atheistic and secular ideas that have been part of our American worldview that have been taught to you in schools, taught to your children in schools, and have been taught in college. Especially today, if you've got children in school today, if you've got children in college today, they are being force-fed junk. and lies about who it is that we worship. being told that this is not historical, but these are spiritual works that are on the same kind of level as the writings of Muhammad Buddha or other people like that. These are not. And when you see these events being grounded here in Jewish history with Jewish names and Jewish peoples, not even Christian peoples, but Jewish peoples, you can confirm that and affirm what is being taught and affirm the historicity of these things. So it grounds these events. When you see these names, it grounds these events in history, not myth and folklore. Secondly, it also gives us a picture of the pedigree of St. Paul. Bear with me for a second and stick with me here. Because Paul was not a backwoods nobody theologically. He was one of the foremost thinkers, theological thinkers, philosophical thinkers of his day and of his era. Spent some time this summer reading a book by a guy by the name of Anthony Flew. You probably don't know him. He is or was an atheist who converted from his atheism, not to Christianity, but to deism. Though some people think that maybe had he not died when he did, he might have come the next step to Christianity. We don't know that. But he wrote a book called, There is a God, explaining his conversion. You go, okay, well, lots of people convert from atheism to Christianity or things like that, and that shouldn't be that big of a deal, but this is for one reason. Anthony Flew was the guy academically that created, if you will, the systematic theology of atheism. He was the guy that taught the atheists today how to argue. And arguably, he was the guy that taught the atheists in the 1970s how to win the argument with Christians. That's Anthony Flew. And so his, in the world of atheism, his conversion, as it were, is a big deal, a very big, big deal because of the caliber of his thinking and thought. And he makes an interesting statement in that book about Christianity. He says, for him, one of the greatest appeals of Christianity was not only the historical aspect of it, but that Christianity had two figures that were side by side. He said, you had the historical figure of Jesus, who is a charismatic leader. And then you have the historical figure of Paul, the apostle. who is an academic, a brilliant academic thinker. And he said, as he looked and surveyed all of the religions of the world around him, he said, that is one thing that made Christianity unique. There were a lot of religions that had a charismatic leader. Think Buddhism, think Mohammed with Islam and things along those lines. And there were some that had a great thinker that was behind the religion. He said, only Christianity has both in harmony with each other. The great charismatic leader of Jesus and the great thinker of Paul. And he said, for him, that is one of the most compelling and interesting things about the whole Christian faith. It stands alone amongst the face of the earth. And I think if one of the top notch Scholars of atheism says, guys, this is really kind of an important thing and a very distinct thing about Christianity. We as Christians should think, oh, it's an important thing and a very distinct thing about Christianity. We should kind of hang our hats on that reality some. But let's get more practical. Both of those things deal with history, they deal with thought, they deal with kind of the academic aspects behind defending the faith. But let's just deal with practical, you and me kind of daily struggles. And here's the thing. The people talking in this event to the Sanhedrin, and again, the Sanhedrin were the thinkers of their day. They were the philosophers and the theologians that were respected above all others. They were the greatest scholars in terms of their understandings of the Hebrew scriptures that existed in their day. And here's something wonderful about it. These 12 that were before them, fishermen, mostly fishermen. We know that there's a tax collector, there's other tradesmen that are involved in this group, but we're talking blue collar workers. The only one that would be close to not being a blue collar would have been Matthew the tax collector. He seems to be pretty educated in terms of the Old Testament law, but as opposed to that, I mean, he was not of these, the caliber academically of these Pharisees and Sadducees. It armed only with the truth of the gospel, these blue-collar men put to shame the thinkers of their day, silenced them. These guys didn't know what to say other than, uh, uh, uh, kill them. They weren't able to silence their thought. Why is this important to us? Because oftentimes people will say to me, but I'm not the Bible scholar here. I know a little bit about things, but I don't know the Bible in and out, or I can't read Greek and Hebrew like you can do, and so I'm not really equipped to go and answer all of those questions that my unbelieving neighbors might have, or I don't understand systematic theology that you keep on talking about, or philosophy, or apologetics, or any of those kinds of things. Let me be on my own and you deal with those kinds of answers. It doesn't matter. And I wanna say that those things are important and those things are very important in terms of who we are and our thought as Christians in preserving a biblical Christianity. But guess what? For you, it doesn't matter because when you're armed with the truth of the gospel, nobody can argue with you. Don't miss the tool that you have been given. There's an old statement by Spurgeon, who's probably the most well-known Baptist preacher of history. Spurgeon said defending the Bible is kind of like defending a caged lion. What are you doing? The better chance is not to you trying to defend that lion, but open the cage and let the lion out. It's gonna defend itself and you while you're at it. Defending the Bible sometimes is like that. You cage it up and you don't use it. He said, use the Bible, preach the gospel. Let the gospel do the work because that's really the Holy Spirit's work anyway. And when the Holy Spirit is at work, you're just gonna get in his way. Let the gospel out. Let the truth of the gospel speak for you. And let that make you bold in the faith that you hold. Because you may not have the kind of training that your pastor has, and that's okay. Somebody has to have those trainings, and it's good for you guys to have as much of the training as you can get. But if you don't have that training, still be bold. Because if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have repented of your sins, you have turned to him in faith as your Lord and as your Savior, you have a Bible, use that Bible, preach the gospel, and you can be bold in that great truth. You don't need to be timid. There's no reason to be timid. So Gamaliel speaks up. And he says, essentially, well, let God sort it out. He says, look, we know examples and he gives us the example of Thutis and of Judas, the Galilean, who have kind of had uprising and revolts. And when they were killed, everybody kind of went away and they disappeared on their own power because they were forced works of men. He basically says, look, if it's a work of men, it's gonna go away. And nobody's gonna remember it. I mean, we don't even remember who these guys are. We don't know anything about these two guys that Gamaliel mentions from history. We're told that Judas Galilean's revolt was somewhere around the census that probably many scholars think is the census of Quirinius. Again, getting us back to the birth narrative of Jesus. Beyond that, we don't know anything about these two men because they were forgotten. They were works of men. And if the works of men or works rely on men, it will be forgotten by history. But it's of God, he says, you can't stop it no matter how you try. The reality is we look at history around us, governments and peoples and movements and atheistics and skeptics have been trying to silence Christianity for almost 2000 years. And guess what? and works. Why? Because we have the truth. Why? Because it's of God. So again, we do not need to be intimidated. Paul really answers the question for us. Now, assuming here that Paul was located here and watching, isn't it interesting how he in Romans 8.31 says, well, if God is for us, Who can stand against us? It's essentially what Gamaliel was saying. Isn't that interesting? As a church too oftentimes we fear everything around us. We fear the culture, we fear the government, we fear that the economy isn't gonna support, you know, and we're gonna lose money and donations and things like that. We fear the challenges that are given to our faith. We fear making people angry and stepping on toes and all of those kinds of things. Yet if we do what we're called to do, If we make disciples of the nations, if we become a buttress and a pillar of the truth, and if we work to tear down every lofty opinion that is raised up against the knowledge of God, then God will take care of the details. He'll take care of the resources that we need to do our job. If we focus on doing our job, but too oftentimes we worry about trying to be what God says that he'll do. Focus on the work that God has given us as a church, and he will provide so that that work is done. Recognizing, recognizing that if we are really doing the work of the church, that will bring persecution. And our right response to that persecution is to rejoice. is to celebrate, is to praise our Lord and our Almighty God. And if we're not rejoicing, if we're not being persecuted, and we've grown comfortable making our own little ishmaels, we will dwindle away and we'll be forgotten. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, none of us woke up this morning saying, hey, help me to be persecuted. for your name's sake. Or sometimes we look at the persecutions that we face that aren't caused because of your name. And we go, oh, see, I'm being persecuted. And we miss the fact that it's also to be about your name. Forgive us of our sins. Set us on a path where we look rightly at your word. And we apply that word rightly to our lives. May you be glorified and honored. May you be praised and proclaimed. And we pray all this in Jesus's name. Amen.