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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
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Spirit-Empowered Audacity
Series Acts
| Sermon ID | 12824134111491 |
| Duration | 45:36 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Acts 5:12-42 |
| Language | English |
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