Today's scripture reading comes from Acts 5. Acts 5, verses 33 to 42, but we'll be starting in verse 17 for context. Acts 5, verses 33 to 42, but we'll be starting our reading in verse 17 for context. We are continuing our sermon series in Acts, where we last left off with Seth's sermon entitled, The Gospel in Three Sentences. We will be reading these verses in a second to contextualize our primary passage for today, but just to briefly note, the apostles were imprisoned for their continuation of preaching the gospel. An angel came down and freed them. Seth coined this the non-violent prison break, from which the apostles went back to the temple, continuing to preach the gospel. This enraged the High Council of the Jews in Jerusalem, from which they went back to interrogate them, essentially asking, why are you continuing to preach the gospel even though we told you not to? And Peter responded with boldness saying, I don't report to you, I report to God, and my God told me to share the gospel. And that is where our primary text begins. But once again, just to contextualize, we'll first start reading in verse 17, but our primary text will begin in verse 33, and we'll end on verse 42. Let us begin with a word of prayer, asking the Lord to help us as we approach his word. Father God, I earnestly approach your throne, asking for great help in this hour. I pray that as I come to your text today, in the time in which I've taken to prepare this manuscript, I pray that anything that is erroneous or anything that is wrong, that you make that clear to me that the sheep could be fed today. That when we come and we see the words out of Acts chapter five, we see what the apostles had done by the work of your spirit. And I pray that we see that you are always at work, that you don't stop working, even if we don't see it in a moment. even if we don't see it at a time, even maybe in times where some of these beloved saints think that you're not working at all, that today that they could be encouraged, they could see that you are always at work and that your mission will come to an end. For all of your people will be gathered unto your throne, worshiping you forever, always singing praises unto you. And I pray as we observe this word today that we can be edified and we can be nourished like the Israelites in the wilderness who fed upon manna and that today we can drink upon living water. I pray all of these things in Christ's holy precious name, Jesus, amen. Let us begin the reading of God's word, Acts chapter five, verse 17. But the high priest rose up And all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council and the senate of the people of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, we found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard the words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. And someone came and told them, Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. And when they brought them, they sent before them the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly charged you not to teach in this name. Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teachings, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, We must obey God rather than man. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him at His right hand as leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness for sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him." And this is our primary text for today, starting at verse 33. When they heard this, they were enraged. and they wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held an honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. And he said to them, men of Israel, take care that what you're about to do with these men, Before these days, Thetis rose up claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about 400, joined him. He was killed, and all those who followed him were dispersed, and it 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 who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this is a plan or this is the undertaking of a man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be find yourself opposed to God. So they took his advice. And when they had called then the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Then they, the apostles, left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day in the temple and from the house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our Lord and God stands forever. Amen. The outline of today's sermon is in three parts. The first point is, God is always at work, even if we don't see it. God is always at work, even if we don't see it. The second point is, God is always at work in persecution. And the third point is this, God is always at work in the mission. So the first point, God is always at work even if we don't see it. God is always at work even if we don't see it. This is found in verses 33 to 40. Verses 33 to 40. Here in verses 33 to 40, we see Luke record a conversation that was private for the apostles. Luke doesn't tell us how he got the information because this is irrelevant to the narrative. What we do know is this, looking down at verse 34, the apostles were asked to step outside so the Pharisee, that was highly respected, could talk with the rest of the council. Now, if you look just above into verse 33, you see that the council wanted to kill the apostles for what they had just said. I'm going to repeat this, even though I just said it in the introduction and what we just read in the text. They wanted to kill them because they would not stop preaching the gospel, despite the fact that they told them not to. Yet, a respected Pharisee asked them to step outside. This sounds like the famous Reformation story. Well, Luther was asked to stand before a council of very powerful religious and political leaders. They told Luther to say that all of his work was wrong, and if he could be reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church, then he must be able to say that all of his work was wrong. But what does Luther say? We know the famous saying, he says, my conscience is captive to the word of God, thus I cannot say my works are wrong, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound. Here I stand. I could do no other. God help me. If Luther said that his work was false, he would have been reconciled to the Roman church. But was this work false unto God? Was Luther more concerned with pleasing man or was he more concerned about pleasing God? Luther, I believe, walked in the steps of the Apostle Peter here that we see in Acts chapter 5. If Peter had said, you're right, Jesus is false. I will not preach him again. He would have surely made the religious leaders happy. And he could have then become reconciled to the other Jews that had not converted unto Christianity. But Peter knew better than to please man. Standing firm on the gospel truth, he said, I preach my Christ crucified no matter what any man says. No matter your political position, no matter your religious position, no matter how much authority you have, no matter how much I like you as an individual, I will continue to preach the gospel. Here I stand. Once again, Luther was walking in the Apostle Peter's steps. Notice how the text develops. It says that they wanted to kill him and then they were asked to step out of the room. I don't know if there were guards outside of the room to keep the apostles from running away, but I'll tell you what, if there were not guards, why didn't they just run away? I'll tell you why. Because the angel charged them to go to the temple and to preach the gospel. This is precisely where they were when they got out of the prison. And that's precisely where the council was at. So regardless if they could have escaped or not is irrelevant to the details of the text. Because the apostles were where they were supposed to be by the angel's command. Go back to verse 20. Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. Understand, they don't know what's being spoken in the council room. By the way, I'm assuming here that there's a council room, that the text isn't clear. The point is clear though. The apostles do not know what is being said amongst the council. All they know at this point is that there are men who want to kill them in those chambers. That's all they know at this point. Let me enfold these events if you were the apostles very briefly. You, being one of the apostles, are charged for continuing to preach the gospel despite the fact that you were told not to. Then, you preach the gospel at them. Right after he gets arrested, he says, I'm going to continue to preach the gospel and this is what the gospel is. They see these men want to kill them, these apostles, and then they are asked to step outside. I don't think Luke is being exhaustive with the details here. I do not know how long the conversation lasted for, but that doesn't matter to the details of the text. What does matter is this, what we see in verse 40. And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Once again, they do not know about the conversation, at least at the time that this was happening. And they still came back into the room. They still came back to the council. Once again, these men wanted to kill them. They did not hear the conversation. They walked back into the room. They walked back into a room of men who saw wanted to kill them. We know what happens because we just read it. They are not killed, but instead they are beaten and charged not to speak about Jesus again. But I want us to look at the conversation in the middle that they didn't know about at the time. This respectable Pharisee said, be careful because if these men are for God and we are against them, that makes us an enemy of God. And then this respectable Pharisee uses two examples to make his case. The first example is a man who claimed to be something great, probably claimed to be a messiah. He was a false messiah, and nothing came of it, right? So he dies, and everybody scours. The second example was a man named Judas, not the betrayer. So not to be confused with Judas the betrayer in the Gospels. According to one commentator, this Judas was one who rose up against the Roman Empire because of their taxes. And when he was killed, he had a following, they scattered, and they were disposed of. Nothing happened. Nothing moved forward. Once this man died, the followers scattered, and nothing came of it. Notice how God perfectly orchestrated this moment in this passage. The main character in this passage is not the respectable Pharisee who used two examples to preserve the lives of the apostles. It is not the Apostle standing in the outside room awaiting to be called back. The main character in this passage is God. The God of the universe decreed all things that would come to pass. This actually also includes the two examples. Had these two exampled men never lived, then this respected Pharisee would have not had two examples to give. But furthermore, and we know this, it takes time to get respected. It takes time to build up a reputation amongst other people, especially amongst a council of other leaders. And they looked at him with great respect, as did many of the other Jews. Now, had it been a generation earlier, we don't have these details, but had it been a generation earlier, it could have been a respected Pharisee that would have said, yes, we should surely kill them. Or maybe a generation later, yes, we should surely kill them. But it was this place, at this time, of this respected Pharisee who said, do not kill these men. Here are two examples. And in these two examples, we see that nothing comes of this. Because of this, the apostles were let free. Do you not see the sovereign hand of God in all of this? Once again, for the umpteenth time, they did not see that conversation. But God was at work even before that conversation had happened. Brothers and sisters, you don't need to know everything. You just need to know enough. God is enough. God is enough. Did not God say that he would take care of his children? Are you not a child of God? Do you not believe him when he says, or are you prone to worry anyways despite him telling you these things? Let me exhort you and assure you. I exhort you to stop trying to control what God already has in control. I assure you that you do not know the future and everything that's gonna go on. That's okay. We don't need to know why some things come to pass as they do. We don't need to know if that is, excuse me, what we do need to know is the Christ who will come at the end, who will restore you unto him. We need to know God, God is enough. And when Christ reconciles us unto him, he will return with his perfect judgment into the world, restore man unto him. And we will be holy alongside him, clothed in the garments of righteousness. Now let's turn over to verse 41, where we can see the apostles' reaction to the persecution. Point two, God is always at work in persecution. Point two, God is always at work in persecution. This is found in verse 41. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor in the name." After being beaten for preaching the gospel in the name, if you go back to verse 28, you will see that they were charged for preaching in this name. But they continued to preach in this name and were persecuted for preaching in the name, that name being Jesus Christ. But these beatings did not come as a surprise to them. For Jesus even said, be on your guard, for they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues. And you will stand before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the nations. But they rejoiced because Christ also said, blessed are you when others revile against you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evils against you falsely on my account. These beatings did not come as a surprise. Do not misunderstand this to mean that they found joy in the beatings in of itself. Of course they didn't. They found joy in the persecutions done by beatings because those beatings only came because they preached Christ faithfully. Back when I went to Bible college at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the students shared a story of him doing door-to-door evangelism in the city. At one door, he goes up to it, he knocks on the door, he starts preaching the gospel to him, and he gets punched in the face. A wild story. I must confess something with you brothers and sisters. I struggle with this sometimes. Sometimes it's hard to be a preacher to confess sin, but that's what preachers must do. We're not perfectly sinless. We're not perfect in the way without error until Christ restores us. And so I must confess this because I have flaws. And this is one of them. I am terrified. I'm absolutely terrified of door-to-door evangelism. You might not know that about me, but I'm scared of it. And part of it is because of that story that this friend shared at NOBTS. I don't want to get punched in the face. But also, the state of Mississippi has castle doctrine. And I'm scared to be shot for sharing the gospel. Some of you might say, well, you don't have intent to harm them, so there's a really good case in court. And my response is this. I might not even make it to court. I'm going on their property, sharing one of the most offensive things that people do not want to hear, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. To them, that is a threat. Because my proclamation unto them is saying, you are going to die, and you're going to go to hell unless you repent and believe in the gospel. And I'm terrified of that. And I'll be honest, I can handle being punched in the face. I've never been shot, and I would much rather keep it that way. But I do door-to-door evangelism anyways. Because if something were to happen, would it not hit the news? Why it happened? The headline would be something like, intern at Grace Baptist Church, shot for sharing the gospel. Of course, it's a little bit out of context. It's a media headline. But the point remains, I would die or be seriously injured for sharing the gospel and people would know that. My prayer is that if something like that were to happen, we would continue to do door-to-door evangelism. We would continue to go out into this community knocking on doors, so that way this community around us would see these people are not afraid to share the gospel. And we would rejoice in that. To say that persecution is not merely a byproduct of the Christian life is wrong. To say that persecution is, excuse me, to say that persecution is merely, it's a typo, is merely a byproduct of the Christian life is wrong. Persecution will come to you. Persecution will come to you. Maybe it won't be getting punched or shot, but it could getting neglected by family members. I was shut out for some years by family members because I became a Protestant. But these family members did not even go to the Catholic mass. So why did they shut me out? I'll tell you why. Because I didn't stop talking about my faith. I didn't stop sharing about how the Lord was working in my life. And they would go, but you're not Catholic. And I would say, but I know Christ. And they would say, don't talk to me. Now, it didn't happen one for one like that, but this is a summary, of course. But I feel like I'm speaking a little bit too broad here. So let me use a little bit more of a personal illustration of persecution that happened in my life. In high school, I invited a friend to church. I had gotten to know him for a little while, built up a relationship, and I invited him to church. And as some of you guys know, my grandparents raised me. My grandfather, he gets word that I invited my friend over to church. And he said to me, we do not share the gospel in this household. We mind our own business. You want to do that when you move out, fine, but we don't do that gospel thing in this household. That's tough. You want to talk about inner conflict at 17? How do I honor my parents but continue to honor my father who is in heaven? I did my best to honor my parents, my grandfather in this instance, but my conscience was before God. Here I stand, I can do no other. I must preach the gospel. I must share with others the saving faith of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, we must be like Peter and parrot him when he says, rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you might also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Christ was hated by his own people. His people rejoiced, actually, at his suffering. And his people rejoiced at the crucifixion. And if people are rejoicing at you on a cross, know that you will see the glory of God. You will have a peace of mind knowing that you have suffered much for Christ. You didn't share the gospel so that you can gain man's approval. Man has already abandoned you. You did it so that the lost sheep could hear the gospel and be reunited to the Father. Yet, let us not forget, God works through our suffering. In our suffering, he sanctifies us so that we can be prepared for glory. The amount of suffering that we go through is nothing compared to the suffering of Christ. But God uses that so we could taste what Christ lived. When you have a family member, as I've just shared my story with you, neglecting you, if you're having difficulty with coworkers or a boss who wants to fire you because of some new policy where we can't really share the faith anymore, it might be coded a different way, but you know what it is. Remember this. Christ's entire race neglected him to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah. A taste of what the perfect man had done, guiltless, guilt-less. And we see Christ and go. He went through so much worse. His hands were pieced for our transgressions, left to die with the upcoming wrath of God. So when you share in those sufferings, even in just the taste, look upon the Christ who took it all and count it all as a blessing. Rejoice that he has used you to spread his word to bring many men to glory. God is always at work, even in persecution. This brings me to my third point. My third point, God is always at work in mission. God is always at work in mission. This is found in verse 42. This is found in verse 42. After this beating, the apostles did not stop sharing the gospel. If we look to verse 42, it says, And every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus. If you go back up to verse 40, remember they were told that they were not to speak of the name of Jesus again. Instead, they continued to speak in the name of Jesus anyways. And if you go back to verse 29, Peter already told them that he was not going to stop. At this point in the narrative, they'd already been in prison twice. A couple of chapters ago, Peter and John were in prison for one night. In this chapter, we saw that they were in prison, and an angel let them go free so they can go and preach the gospel. What's interesting here is that, and despite the respected Pharisees saying not to kill them, lest they would be against God, they still beat them and told them to stop preaching the gospel. They beat them, told them to stop preaching the gospel. If the apostles had stopped preaching the gospel, per the order of the council, they would be working against God. but the apostles were never gonna work against God. Once again, verse 29, they were going to follow the command of God. These men saw the risen Lord. They were at Pentecost. They received the Spirit. Many people had come to faith in just a short time. An angel freed them from prison. If you parallel this to the Jews in the Exodus, you see something very different. The Jews who were taken free from the land of bondage pleaded to go back to the land of bondage despite the suffering in the wilderness. But the apostles who were suffering in this moment stayed focused on the gospel that was ahead of them. They never said, let us stop facing the persecution and go back to before Christ was resurrected. Why is this? Because not only did they see the Christ resurrect, surely many of the Jews saw miracles in the wilderness, such as the flaming pillar that led them in the splitting of the Red Sea. Of course, this is not as comparable to a man defeating death on a cross. I must admit that, but miracles nonetheless. But more importantly, because these men had the Spirit of God dwelling within them. Once again, the same Peter speaking back to the council is the same Peter who denied Jesus three times. He saw, mind you, he denied Jesus three times after seeing all the miracles of Jesus. He saw him heal leopards. He saw him make the blind man to see. He saw him resurrect a man from the dead. And still denied his Christ three times. So what is different? This is a man filled with the Spirit so he can have boldness. To stand before a council and say, here I stand, I could do no other. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Realize this, God will finish his mission. God will finish his mission. He has decided to do it through his church, and we can rejoice in that. I'm so grateful that the Lord has decided to do his mission through the church. God has sent evangelists, teachers, and preachers to share the gospel so he can partake in his saving goodness. But let's be honest here, he doesn't need us to do any of those things. Surely He could have awakened everybody's minds to the truth, but instead He showed us the truth through the preaching and the teaching of the Word. Even I, the preacher of this day, is preaching to you, is merely participating in how God reconciles men unto Him. And I love it. I love every time I get to preach. I love hearing men preach to me. I love hearing Pastor Thomas preach, I love hearing Seth preach, I love hearing Prashant preach, because these are men dedicated to the Word of God, and as I'm sitting underneath their preaching and their teaching, I'm being sanctified by the Word. And I'm getting to know Christ more because of it. And I love it. I love hearing, after I preach some sermons, some of these blessed sheep come to me and they said, I have been fed today. I have been fed. It is such a blessing to know that the Lord has used a sinner such as I so that the sheep might know Christ more. So then, brothers and sisters, realize that this same Spirit that is filled with Peter is dwelling within you. You can go in boldness proclaiming the truths of the Gospel, just like we were reminded in the sermon today about Christ's glory. Remind the saints of Christ's glory. Share with the lost His suffering as well. If you're a non-believer visiting tonight, let me share a word with you before I close today. I will never stop preaching the gospel. You might hate me. You may even want me dead. But I find no joy in serving men over God. I find no joy in pleasing lost men to hear what they want to hear. I find no joy in telling you that you are fine with God. I find no joy sharing with you what you want to hear. I only find joy in sharing about what Christ has done so that sinners like you could be reconciled unto him. So let me share with you the gospel today, dear sinner. Jesus Christ was prophesied from old, many, many thousands of years ago, back in the Old Testament. We have two Testaments, the time before Christ. There are prophecies written as early as our first book, Genesis, Genesis 3.15, that a sea would come to crush the head of the serpent. And as ages passed, they preserved the line, and as we read through the prophets, even especially in Isaiah, we read that there would be a suffering servant that would come, he would be persecuted by his own people, that he would die, and he would resurrect. And let me tell you something, that Jesus came. That suffering servant came. And we read in our New Testament, in the Gospels, that not only did he live a perfect life, he lived a sinless life, he performed many miracles, and then he died. And after he died, he rose on the third day, after which he spent 40 days with his disciples before he ascended to the heavens to be seated at the right-hand side of the Father. This is the Gospel. And if you believe in that, let me tell you this, belief is not enough to get you into the kingdom of God. I know many of men who say, I believe in that story, but they don't take it seriously. Jesus Christ says in Mark chapter one, verse 15, he says, repent and believe in the gospel for the kingdom of God is at hand. There must also come godly repentance. And godly repentance is this, recognizing what Jesus Christ has said about your sin. Not what you say about your sin, not what your wife or your sister, your husband, what Christ has said about your sin, that you are a dead man. but this Jesus Christ can save you from that. He can raise you up and bring you new life to be restored unto him. That is the gospel. So repent and believe in the gospel. Let us close in prayer. Father God, thank you for giving me once again an opportunity to preach your word. I pray that this word could be taken home with the saints. They could rejoice upon this living manna I pray that they see that God is always at work. I pray that they can see the things in which you do, even the things that they don't see. I pray that they can realize that they don't need to see everything, that they don't need to control everything, because you, Father, you are in control of everything. And I pray that these saints can leave here rejoicing even in persecution. And I pray that they can rejoice in seeing that no matter what, your mission will be complete. And I thank you that you've used your church as a means by which your mission will be complete. Thank you for letting us participate in your glorious work. I pray all of these things in Christ's name.