Two Journeys Ministry with Pastor Andy Davis. Biblical teaching to guide you to spiritual maturity. Turn your Bibles to Acts chapter five. We're gonna be studying from verse 12 up to the end of the chapter, verse 42. Some time ago I came across a sermon by a black preacher in the 19th century entitled, Your Arms Too Short to Box with God. That phrase captivated me. I picture human beings trying to box with God, trying to fight God. When we consider the immeasurable power of Almighty God by which he spoke galaxies into existence with a word, by which he made the earth and everything in it, the sea and all that is in it, the sky and everything that flies through it. It amazes me that anyone would try to fight God. But evil entered the universe when Satan thought that he could fight God and win. He and his evil angels, the demons, lost that battle and were thrown from heaven to earth. Tragically, Adam, representing the entire human race, joined Satan in his rebellion against God and sought to fight God. For this reason, God sent his son into the world to save sinners. Jesus Christ, the son of God, son of man, lived a sinless life. He died an atoning death, rose on the third day, and ascended to heaven. That is the gospel, that is the good news, that if we repent of our sins and believe in that message, we will have eternal life. We'll be forgiven of our fighting against God, our rebellion against God. Now before Jesus ascended to heaven, he commissioned his church, his followers, to make disciples of all nations by the preaching of this gospel message to the ends of the earth and to the end of time. But Satan does not give up ground easily. In every generation, he has people who take their stand against the Lord and against his anointed one, who seek to fight God. Now in today's account, the Sanhedrin is assembled to fight against Jesus' followers who are trying to spread the gospel in Jerusalem and then beyond that to Judea and Samaria. And in the account, there's a rabbi named Gamaliel who raises the possibility maybe they're fighting God. that the Jewish leaders were possibly fighting God. Now we're gonna talk about Gamaliel and his conception, but that's what led me into considering this phrase, your arm's too short to box with God. The glory of the last 20 centuries of church history is the power of the Holy Spirit and the church of Jesus Christ. giving amazing audacity, that is boldness, giving courage and love and truth to sinful people just like you and me. And I believe the Holy Spirit's given the book of Acts to us so that we'll be faithful in our generation in a similar way, not in exactly the same setting that they faced, but that we will have a spirit-empowered audacity and a love of souls, a love of other people, a willingness to suffer. So in today's account, we see some of the earliest patterns being set for the movement of the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and to the end of time. It's a painful journey. It's not easy. It's not an easy journey. The church witnessing to those who are willing to box with God, to fight God, despite God's awesome power. So we're gonna walk through that, and my desire is that we will take these lessons to heart, because God's set us in our own setting, and it's not gonna be exactly the same as theirs, but the ground that we have to travel is gonna be difficult and challenging. The Spirit's power and audacity, that is in boldness. Acts 1-8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. This account, this long account at the end of Acts 5, is a demonstration of the Spirit's power in the apostles. Throughout this account, we're going to see how astonishingly bold, audacious the apostles really were. They were totally devoid of fear. They'd lost their fear. As a matter of fact, the shoe was on the other foot. The Sanhedrin was more afraid and fearful than they were. Reminds me of the proverb that says, the wicked flee, though no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Wouldn't you love that to be true of you? Wouldn't you love that to be true of you, that you, through spirit-empowered boldness, have the chance to lead someone to Christ, perhaps even this week? Now, the account begins with the Spirit's power working through the apostles in doing miracles, signs and wonders. Look at verse 12. The apostles perform many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. and all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's colonnade. A few verses later, verse 15 and 16, it says, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits and all of them. were healed. So the Spirit is at work in ordinary people, the apostles, doing extraordinary things, signs and wonders. It is by the power of the Spirit, amazingly, we learn this later in the book of Acts, that Jesus himself did all of his miracles. Jesus didn't do anything apart from the will of his Father, but neither did he do any signs and wonders apart from the power of the Spirit. It is by the Spirit that Jesus worked miracles, and the same Spirit was at work in the apostles. Apostolic miracles are displays of the Spirit's power. Now the miracles were not performed by just anyone. It wasn't a universal thing, all Christians were doing miracles, but specifically it says they were done by the apostles. Miracles identified the apostles as Christ's ambassadors, Christ's messengers, and also identified their message as authoritative, a message from heaven. The miracles also display beautifully, as they did in Christ's time, God's saving intention toward a sinful and sorrowing human race. Now, the miraculous death of Ananias and Sapphira is an aberration. It's not normal. For the most part, displays of miraculous power in Jesus' life were healing. They were redemptive. They were constructive. The cursing of the fig tree being an exception, and I think also Ananias and Sapphira, a similar exception. But usually the miracles were redemptive. It was taking what God intended and giving eyes and ears and legs to people that those organs, those functions would be restored. And the apostles were doing that. For Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not to kill them. As John 3.17 says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. He could have poured down fire and brimstone as he did Sodom and Gomorrah if he wanted to destroy sinners, but he entered the world to save, not to destroy. And so these displays of the power of Christ through the spirit are pictures of God's saving grace and loving intention toward a human race that was trying to box with God, trying to fight against God, and yet God in his kindness reaches out through his son. And now the apostles of his son doing the same thing. And also as we saw and we've seen in the Gospels again and again, Jesus' miracles are pictures of the spiritual healing that we all need. I believe that they were physical, literal miracles. They actually happened. But they were even more importantly pictures of the spiritual healing we need. Jesus said, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He likens the salvation of sinners through repentance and faith to the healings he was doing of the body. Our hearts were made for God. Our minds were made for God. Our lives were made for God, and sin interrupted that. And Jesus, through the power of the Spirit, through regeneration, heals our hearts and our souls so that we love God. and that we serve God, that's a healing work that he does. And so these miracles were pictures of that. Now the details of the healing, first of all, they were an abundant answer to the prayers prayed by the people. If you look back at chapter 4 and verse 30, as they had gathered together after Peter and John had been arrested for healing the lame beggar in Acts 3, one of the last things they prayed there in Acts 4.30, it says, stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. They prayed for this exact thing to happen, that they would do more healings. And God answered their prayers. They performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And they did it in Solomon's colonnade there in the temple area. So there were lots of people there. The sick were brought into the streets and laid on beds and mats. And it says so that perhaps Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Which is remarkable. Now as you read the account, it doesn't say that healed anyone. But at least it shows that they believed that it might. and that God was doing a lot of his healings through Peter, that God had elevated Peter as a leader, and they expected that there would be healing just as happened with the lame beggar. And so it's really a remarkable time of apostolic healings at that point. Verse 16 says plainly that huge crowds of people were healed, probably through the laying on of the apostles' hands. Also demons were driven out. Evil spirits, fallen angels who come down, they're invisible beings. And a lot of Jesus' miracles were exorcisms. He drove out the spirits with a word. It showed his authority. Incredible teachings. He had the power to drive out demons and it gave him authority also in his teaching. And now the apostles are doing the same thing. These people, the text says, are tormented by demons. I think that's what it means when Jesus was able to see in the spiritual realm that people are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. You can imagine sheep surrounded by spiritual wolves and they're tearing at them daily. And I think we need to understand we are very scientific people. We tend to be materialists and we don't believe what we can't see. And we think that demons, we don't really think about them. We're angels. And yet, demons are every bit as active now as they ever were in Jesus' day. They just hide their tracks and they do the things that they do. And angels also, as we'll see in the account today. And so the demons are driven out. We see also the Spirit's power and holiness. Now this goes back to the account at the beginning of this chapter with the death of Ananias and Sapphira that I've already mentioned. As you remember, Ananias and Sapphira were church members. And in the pattern of the church's generosity, they sold a piece of property and they brought some of the money and put it at the apostles' feet. But they lied about it and they said it was the full amount. And in turn, they lied in turn and they died in turn. Ananias first dropped down dead. Not a hand was laid on him, but God struck him dead for his lie. And then Sapphira had a chance to tell the truth. She lied and she also dropped down dead. And we're told in Acts 5.5, great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Terrible fear came on, because we know the sins of our own hearts. We know our tendency to lie, and we think, I'm not any different. I could drop dead at any moment. And so there was fear that came, and then again in verse 11, great fear seized, listen, the whole church and all who heard about these events. So there was a fear surrounding this nascent Christian church, this growing Christ movement. They hear the story about Ananias and Sapphira, and people were afraid, afraid to join them. Look at verse 13, no one else dared to join them. even though they were highly regarded by the people. So the church's reputation was elevated. By the way, that's a reason why healthy churches perform church discipline now, so that the church's reputation won't be dragged down by the sins of church members and the church not dealing with it. The church's reputation is tied to that. And so when God does this discipline with Ananias and Zephira, the reputation of the whole church is elevated among outsiders. And people are afraid to join them. You don't want to join that group. Look what might happen to you. But look at the very next verse in verse 14. Nevertheless, more and more people, or men and women, believed in the Lord and were added to their number. It's like an open contradiction. Verse 13, no one dared to join them. Verse 14, more and more were joining them. But I think what it is is you got an attitude of the reputation of the church among onlookers. And then God is working in individuals, rescuing them and bringing them over. And so I think this shows very, very clearly that the holiness of a church has evangelistic power. If the church is committed to holiness in the fear of the Lord, that church has evangelistic power. God knows that a display of his fiery holiness is actually very attractive to the human race, paradoxically so. Clearest example of this is at terrifying Mount Sinai, when God descends in fire from heaven to the top of the mountain and gives them the law, the Ten Commandments, and the ground is shaking, and there's terror and fear in all the hearts of the people. Moses himself said, the sight was so terrifying, he said, I'm trembling with fear. And yet God told Moses, now be sure you prevent the people from going up the mountain. Put a barrier around the mountain so that they won't go up the mountain. Because if they do, they'll be killed. It's counterintuitive. You think people will be running the other way like from an active volcano. We're made to be near God. And the truth is, God is a consuming fire. And we want to be drawn to him. And so a display of this kind of holiness in the early church for those that were being converted was actually attractive. They wanted to get close to God. God knows that His holiness is actually beautiful. One of the most mysterious things I learned in Ezekiel is the cherubim there just seemed to be immersed in fire all the time. And there's lightning and light flashing back and forth. And there's fire amongst them. But they're also told in judgment on Jerusalem to take some of the fire and hurl it down on the city. And so therefore I thought this must be a picture of holiness. They love it. They're immersed in it. But wicked, dark Jerusalem can't handle it. And so there's that picture of the holiness of a church, and it is very evangelistically attractive. Holy churches are evangelistically fruitful. Paul commands Timothy concerning this matter, concerning his own personal holiness. He said, in a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also wood and clay. Some are for noble purposes, some for common use. There's different kinds of vessels in God's house. If a man cleanses himself from evil, effectively, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the master, and prepared to do any good work. Robert Murray McShane said this to pastors, it is not great talents that God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awesome weapon in the hands of God. So it is for the whole church, not just for leaders. So, a holy church is an awesome weapon in the hands of God and the Holy Spirit is given to work that in us. I think maybe one of the most important prayers there is in the Bible, I've quoted it literally more times than it can count, is Psalm 139, 23, and 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. We should be praying something like that every day. Because we have so many blind spots, don't we, brothers and sisters? So many rivers of darkness that are still in us, despite the fact that we've received forgiveness of sins, we still aren't fully sanctified. And so this work of holiness. We see also the Spirit's power in overcoming persecution. That's basically the rest of the account. The rest of the account. Just so you know, Jeff only read part of it. I was like, what am I gonna do with this reading? 12 to 42. So I timed it out at like just shy of five minutes. So you're like, thank you, pastor, thank you. All right, that was good. But we're gonna walk through it all. The account from this point on is an account of persecution, overcome by spirit-empowered audacity. The opposition of the Jewish authorities just began lightly in chapters three and four, lightly. They heal the lame beggar and they're preaching the gospel there in the temple. They're arrested, Peter and John are arrested. and they have an encounter with the Sanhedrin that's just words. And they're warned about continuing to preach the gospel. But now we're going to escalate. This is the next level. They're gonna be beaten for the gospel. They're gonna be beaten. And then the next level will happen in chapter seven where Stephen is the first Christian martyr. He will die for the gospel. And then Saul of Tarsus will begin his vicious persecution of the church in chapter eight. It's just gonna escalate. It's gonna keep going harder and harder. A great measure of the Spirit's power in making us witnesses, you receive power when the Holy Spirit comes to you, is our ability to overcome our fear of persecution. to overcome our fear of reprisals in sharing the gospel. We're not afraid anymore. Not afraid of what people will think. Instead, we care more about their souls than about our immediate circumstances. We care more about the glory of God than we do about what might happen if we share our faith. So it begins with the jealousy of the Jewish leaders in verse 17. Then the high priest and all his associates who are members of the party of the Sadducees were filled with jealousy. We're told just a chapter earlier than this that the high priest is Caiaphas, same one that had oppressed or opposed Jesus. Caiaphas and Annas, his father-in-law, that whole cabal ran the temple area, made huge money on it. They were corrupt through and through. Den of thieves, Jesus called them. But they had authority, their word was law over the temple grounds, and so they hauled them in. Now Luke tells us they're Sadducees who didn't believe in angels. or demons, and they didn't believe in the resurrection. Well, they're gonna get an education on angels, although I don't think they knew that that was what was going on here. But here are the Sadducees, effectively like theological liberals of the day, denying clear biblical truths. Now, the account tells us their heart state. They are jealous. We're gonna see also that they're fearful. They're jealous of the apostles, as they had been jealous of Jesus, and they're fearful also of the people. constantly afraid of the crowd, because their hold over the Jewish populace was key to their whole power, and fear factor, intimidation was part of that. But they also had this core jealousy of Jesus. Jesus was doing these effortless, powerful miracles, resulting in huge crowds every day flocking to him, and ardent love for him and affection for him, and they were jealous of it. As a matter of fact, Pontius Pilate saw that in them. In Mark 15 10, he said, knowing it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him. So he could see that they were jealous of Jesus, and now they're jealous of the apostles too. And so, verse 18, they arrested them. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. So the persecution's about to escalate greatly. It began with incarceration. But prison bars never stopped the spread of the gospel. Amen, brothers and sisters? Never stopped it. Paul himself was imprisoned again and again and again for the gospel. And he says in his final epistle in 2 Timothy 2, I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal, but God's word is not chained. That's a great statement. You can't chain God's Word. They're trying to do that. They said in Acts 4 about Peter and John, to stop this thing from spreading any further. Well, good luck with that. There's no way they're going to be able to stop this thing from spreading any further. It's been spreading for 20 centuries now. It can't be stopped. God's Word is not chained. It can never be chained. This is the most forceful powerful thing there is in human history every day, including today. It transforms lives, God's word does. It saves souls. It cannot be chained. So, they're in prison, and then God dispatches an angel. I always think about 100 million angels up there, and it's like, pick me, pick me, I wanna do that. It sounds like it'd be a lot of fun to be sent on these missions. But there's no jealousy there, just the angel that was chosen got to come down and do that. But what fun that would be, huh? During the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. Go stand in the temple courts, he said, and tell the people the full message of this new life. So God sends an angel to rescue them. We're told in Hebrews 1, are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation? It's one of the way they're serving. This is not the last time in the book of Acts that angels are gonna get involved in the spread of the gospel. They're not given the message to preach to lost people, generally, but they help out in some remarkable ways. And so they're involved in evangelism and missions. And chains and locked doors are no problem for angels. Later in Acts 12, an angel is going to be sent to rescue Peter, who after James had the apostle been executed. And Peter is chained with four squads of four soldiers each, and the doors are securely locked and all that, and all of it just falls off Peter's, you know, the door opens by itself. This is nothing. It's just lots of fun. And you just think about the power of God over this, and just the ridiculousness of the effort to fight against God. And I love how the angel tells them to preach the full message of this new life. Isn't that a great statement of the gospel? Preach it all, don't hold anything back. Preach the whole thing. Tell those sinners that they're rebels against God, they're violating God's laws, they're under the wrath of God, but there is a deliverance through faith in Jesus Christ. And if they repent and believe, they will most certainly be forgiven and spend eternity in heaven with God. Go tell them that, the full message. And he tells them to do it right where they were doing it yesterday, back in the temple. No fear at all. The high priest and his associates ran the temple courts and nothing could be done there apart from their authority, so they thought. And they had already commanded Peter and John never to preach Christ there again. But the apostles were delighted to disobey that wicked command. So let's talk about the miraculous escape being discovered. Look at verses 21 through 26. At daybreak, they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, the full assembly of the elders of Israel, and sent to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, we found the jail securely locked with the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priest were puzzled, wondering what would come of this. Then someone came and said, look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people. At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force because they feared that the people would stone them. Well, what an amazing morning that must have been. A high priest and his associates arrive at the Sanhedrin ready to try the apostles and deal with them for their unlawful preaching. They send guards for the prisoners and everything looks fine. The guards outside the cells are alert. They're all there. Everything's buttoned up, locked. Everything's exactly as it should have been. And then they go in and the prisoners are gone. They're not even there. And they didn't know what to make of this. Now, honestly, I don't understand the unbelief. If I'd been one of the guards, I would have repented of my sins and trusted in Jesus for salvation. I just don't understand the stubbornness. The worst of all of it to me is paying off the guards that had been hired to guard Jesus's tomb so the disciples couldn't come and steal the body. Remember that? And they come back saying, an angel came, moved the stone, and the body's gone. We didn't do anything, we didn't fall asleep, we were there the whole night. And they pay them off, they know that didn't happen, but they don't believe in Jesus. How can you not believe in Jesus with the clear evidence of the empty tomb? That's it, the stubbornness of unbelief. But instead, the Sanhedrin, instead of believing, the guards, instead of believing, they're ready to persecute them. Now the fear of the people is a constant issue for them. as it had been in Jesus' day. They were afraid of what the people were gonna do. True to form, the apostles were not ardent, fire-breathing rebel types. They weren't insurrectionists, they weren't trying to throw off, they were just trying to preach the gospel as they'd been commanded to do. And so when they were told to come, they came peaceably. They could have manipulated the crowd, got them up into a mob or riot, that wasn't their nature. And so they just humbly went. As Jesus had said, this will result in your being witnesses to them. So they went to the Sanhedrin to be witnesses. So now we have the apostles' trial before the Sanhedrin. Look at 27 and 28. Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, the high priest said. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood. Again, we see the amazing boldness of the apostles here. The high priest in front of the whole Sanhedrin fiercely questions the apostles. They reminded them of the strict orders given not to speak or teach at all in this name. They can't say Jesus. They hate that name. We gave you strict orders not to preach in this name, this hateful name. But the apostles, they say, have filled Jerusalem with the gospel, with their teaching. Now stop right there, do you realize the significance of that? Acts 1.8, you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. So check that box, that box has been checked. Jerusalem's filled with the gospel. You fill Jerusalem with your doctrine. Everyone throughout the city of Jerusalem is hearing constantly the name of Jesus in the gospel. Furthermore, they accuse the apostles of seeking to make them, quote, guilty of this man's blood. That's amazing. Remember during the trial before Pontius, Jesus' trial before Pontius Pilate, the Jewish leaders had specifically taken responsibility for Jesus' blood. Remember when Pilate washed his hands, that whole famous hand washing thing? Pilate took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. I am innocent of this man's blood. He tried again and again to release him. I'm innocent of this man's blood. He said, it's your responsibility. They answered, let his blood be on us and on our children. They took full responsibility. Now they don't want to take any responsibility for it. The apostles again and again rightly charged the Sanhedrin with murdering Jesus. And they do it again here in this account. And so look at the Spirit's power in proclamation, verse 29 through 32. Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior, that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things. And so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. Do you realize how utterly fearless these men are at this point? They have literally no fear of what's gonna happen to them. This is the power of the Holy Spirit on them. And it's the fulfillment of the promise Jesus made to them in Luke 21, verses 12 through 15. They will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you'll be brought before kings and governors and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand about how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. Direct promise from Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus ascribes the boldness of the Holy Spirit, Mark 13, 11. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking but the Holy Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit's power on them directly. Well, look at the message. First of all, they said, we must obey God rather than men. Now they already said this when they were first warned not to preach Christ, Acts 4, 19 and 20. Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. Now we know that Romans 13 tells Christians to submit to God-ordained authorities. That is a biblical truth. But the exception is when the God-ordained authorities overreach themselves, and don't stay in their lane, overreach themselves, and command things that God's word forbids, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fall down and worship this idol, or forbids things that God has commanded, like here, the preaching of the gospel. And so in that case, we're free from obeying the God-ordained authority when those things happen. Now Christ has commanded the church to preach the gospel to every creature all over the world. The Sanhedrin has no right to forbid that command. We must obey God, not men. Then it says, the God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. So there they did it again. They directly blamed this evil group of men, the high priest, the Sanhedrin, for the murder of Jesus. The Greek word you killed is more forceful, more like you laid violent hands on Jesus. It's not an accident, direct murder on their part. And note again, as we'll see again and again in the book of Acts, the clear proclamation of the resurrection. I just wanna say, when we go out and do our witnessing, let's talk a lot about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is the message that separates Christianity from every other message in the world. Jesus was killed and was raised to life on the third day. They can't preach the gospel apart from mentioning the resurrection. and they specifically use Jewish terms, the God of our fathers. This is the fulfillment of Judaism, not some new cult or wicked false religion. Verse 31, God exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. Now as you think about the trial of Jesus before the high priest, this very man, what got the high priest to tear his robes and declare Jesus a blasphemer was his statement In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty God and coming on the clouds of heaven. And now his apostles are saying that's where he is. Jesus is at the right hand of God. Utterly fearless here. And Jesus is prince and savior. The word prince is like pioneer or captain. He's like the leader of our salvation. He's leading out. He's the prince. He's the pioneer, the captain. He's leading us to eternal life. And he is the savior from eternal damnation of our sins. And it says that he might grant repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. Repentance is essential to salvation. If you want to be forgiven of your sins, you have to repent of your sins. Turn away from those sins in your heart and turn to God in faith. That's what repentance is. And the language here is that God grants it. It's not something you do on your own. It's something He opens His hand and gives to you. If He doesn't give you repentance, you won't repent. And so the language here is that God grants repentance to those that are being saved. We can as easily create ourselves originally as recreate ourselves as new creations. That's something only God can do. And he gives the power of repentance and faith. So I can just stop and say to all of you who are genuinely my brothers and sisters in Christ, give praise to God that he worked repentance in you. That wasn't something you did on your own. It's something that God did in you. Praise be to God. So by him alone are our sins forgiven. And the gift of the Holy Spirit comes to those who obey him, who obey God. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. So faith produces obedience. And the first thing you obey is the gospel. It's a command to repent and believe. And so you repent and believe, and having obeyed, then you get the gift of the Holy Spirit. So, O Sanhedrin, you don't have the Holy Spirit because you've not obeyed God. You've not repented of your sins and trusted in God. So this is the kind of powerful preaching the Holy Spirit works in his witnesses. As the angel said, go stand in the courts and tell the people the full message of this new life. Don't hold anything back. Enable your servants, Acts 4 29, to speak your word with great boldness. The word boldness in Acts 4 29, the Greek word parousia means all the words. Say the whole thing. Don't hold anything back. As Paul says in Acts 20 verse 27, I have not shrunk back from proclaiming anything to you that would be helpful. Or the whole counsel of God, we don't hold anything back. Tell the truth. Well, at this point we get the tragic reaction of the Sanhedrin. Again, I just, It's grievous how much clear evidence there is of Jesus as Savior, of the truth of the gospel, the prophecies being fulfilled. They have all of this, and they still don't believe. But instead, they get angry. Look at verse 33. When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. One thing I've learned about anger, it's in two categories, righteous and unrighteous. All right? Let me ask you a question, brothers and sisters. What percentage of your anger do you think is righteous anger? I mean, let's be honest. A lot of our anger is sinful anger. And I think a large percentage of sinful anger is based on pride. When somebody hurts your pride, you get angry. And I think they were enraged because these people were hurting their pride. They were enraged and they wanted to put them to death. And now along comes this man Gamaliel. What an interesting character he is. Very interesting character, all right? Look at verse 34 through 39, but a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed the men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago, Thutis appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about 400 men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case, I advise you, leave these men alone, let them go. For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourselves fighting against God. So what is he saying? All right, he does a little history. First of all, who is this man? Gamaliel was one of the great rabbis in Israel. He was Saul of Tarsus' mentor in Judaism. The young boy Saul from Tarsus went to Jerusalem and trained under Gamaliel. So he was one of the teachers of Israel. Very well schooled in the law. and a leader there, so he stands up and says these things. And what's his message? First of all, he gives him a little history lesson. There's these two other false leaders, and when you cut off, like, the head of the snake, the snake died, right? Just, that's what happened. So I think the same thing's gonna happen this time, all right? Just step back, let it go. But if you don't, it could be, just maybe, we're fighting against God. Now, I will give some credit to Gamaliel for even entertaining that possibility. It doesn't seem to have ever entered Annas or Caiaphas' mind or any of these other guys that they might actually be on the wrong side of this whole equation. Have you noticed, by the way, the apostles have said it again and again? You killed him, God raised him. What do you get out of that? You are fighting against God. It's Psalm 2, why do the nations rage and the peoples conspire in vain? You're fighting against God. He's at least raising the possibility. But I'm gonna give Gamaliel like a D minus here. I'm like, what are you waiting for, dude? How much more evidence do you need? None of these things were done in a corner. We're talking about three years, a river of miracles done by Jesus. Pure and perfect teaching, a perfect example of a sinless man dying in fulfillment of scripture. And now we've got this clear proclamation. The Pentecost sermon, all of this is proving that these things were predicted and prophesied. It's time to stop wondering. We don't know whether it's from God or not. Furthermore, it's just false. Do you know that there's been significant religious movements that are not from God that have done quite well over the centuries? Whose leaders were even killed or martyred and they continue to flourish? Like Mormonism, for example, Joseph Smith was killed and Mormonism is still around, 17 million fallen. It's not getting any less year by year. What about Islam? You know, since the year, since the seventh century, it's just grown and grown and grown and grown. So it's just not true that if it's just of human origin, it'll peter out. Just doesn't peter out. So the whole thing, that's why I'm giving him a D minus. You might wonder why I don't give him an F. If you talk to me long enough, I'll give him an F. So Gamaliel's speech at least did this. It stopped them from killing them that day. Look at verse 40, his speech persuaded them, they called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. You might be fighting against God, okay, we won't kill them, we'll just flog them. I mean, the logic is the same thing with Pilate. He's innocent, he's done nothing wrong, therefore I'll flog him and release him. It doesn't make any sense. So they're like kind of compromising and flogging them. And this was a significant persecution. If it's done enough, it could kill you. And so it's a very terrible thing. But look at how the account ends in their reaction to the flogging. Verse 41, 42, the apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. This is the relentless courage, the perseverance, the love, that the Spirit worked in these men. They weren't afraid of dying anymore. They weren't afraid of suffering. They weren't afraid of anything. They were amazed that sinners like them would have been chosen for such a high office in the kingdom of God, counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name of Jesus. And their rejoicing was in direct fulfillment of Jesus' statement in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Applications. The first is clearest as always. Come to Christ. If you came in here as an unbeliever, you came to hear the gospel. That's why God brought you. And you've heard it, and I've made a direct appeal. I've told you what to do. All you need to do is repent of your sins and trust in Christ, and you will be forgiven. Now, if you are a Christian, just stand in awe of what the Lord has done over 20 centuries to get the gospel safely to our generation. Think about our brothers and sisters who went before us in this great relay race that were willing to pay this kind of price. to get the gospel to us. We are their spiritual descendants. We are their brothers and sisters and they still live because to God all are still alive. And so we have inherited this relay race and now is our time. And so my final application before we go to the Lord's Supper, my final application is ask God to give you this kind of boldness. And this is a great season for evangelism, isn't it? Great season for it. We've got trappings of Christianity around us. I know there's all kinds of other things too, a lot of secular stuff, I get it. But people are thinking about spiritual things and they're thinking they're open for spiritual conversations. Ask God to make you bold this week. Could be in the workplace, it could be on the campus, could be with some dorm mates, some roommates that you haven't shared with yet. Okay, could be a neighbor, could be a relative. We're gonna gather for getting relatives. Could be some of the hardest witnessing we do is to people very close to us. A lost son or daughter, a lost father or mother or brother. And so we don't have the opportunity to share the gospel. Ask God to give you this kind of boldness. So we're gonna close this time in prayer and then we'll go to the Lord's Supper. Father, we thank you for Acts 5. We thank you for the incredible account of the boldness of the apostles given by the Holy Spirit. And we thank you that we have the opportunity in our time to share the gospel boldly. Help us, O Lord. Create opportunities for us, even this week, whereby we can share the full message of this new life. In Jesus' name we pray. Stay motivated to grow to spiritual maturity by accessing free biblical content at twojourneys.org. Help others in their spiritual growth by sharing these resources, praying for Two Journeys, and supporting the mission financially by visiting twojourneys.org slash donate.