Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Acts - 16
Acts 5:33-42
Introduction
Have you ever known someone who has a “short fuse?”
They are like a fire cracker…it’s a short distance from lighting to explosion.
You said something, you did something, you looked at them the wrong way, and the simmer that was always there just under the surface boils over in a flash.
Maybe it was a parent you were continually a victim of…or a sibling you had to endure…or a boss you could never seem to please.
Regardless of who it is, you know you better tread lightly or risk incineration.
In Acts 5, the Apostles are standing in front of a group of Jewish leaders, known as the Sanhedrin, the Senate of ancient Israel.
The Sanhedrin has been simmering for awhile, and now they are going to boil over.
After Jesus rose from the dead, He spent 40 days with His early disciples teaching them and discipling them.
In Acts 1, Jesus ascends into Heaven where He now sits at the right hand of God, ruling and reigning over all His creation.
In Acts 2, He sends the Holy Spirit onto those early Christians on the Day of Pentecost.
An incredible miracle occurs as they speak to the crowds in languages they do not know so that the truth of the Gospel, the glorious news of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, can go to the nations.
As a crowd gathers to witness this miracle, the Apostle Peter preaches the first Gospel sermon based on the work of Jesus to forgive sinners like us.
3,000 people respond and are baptized into Christ that day.
The Church explodes into existence and experiences meteoric growth as more and more people place their faith in Jesus.
In Acts 3, the Apostles Peter and John are headed into the Temple in Jerusalem.
Sitting by a busy entrance gate is a man who had been lame from birth.
He’s been begging at this gate for over 40 years, relying solely upon other people’s generosity to live another day.
Peter locks eyes with him and the man thinks he’s about to score a donation.
Peter tells him, I don’t have any silver or gold, but what I do have, I give to you.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk.
As Peter helps the man up, Jesus miraculously heals him.
He goes off leaping and praising God.
This obviously draws another crowd as they have known this man as the beggar by the gate for the last 40 years.
Peter preaches again to the listening crowd, telling them that just as Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He can now offer to you the hope of eternal life.
The Sanhedrin, populated mostly by Sadducees (a Jewish political party that was theologically liberal, denied most of the Bible, and did not believe in the resurrection) arrested Peter and John for an inquisition.
Standing in front of the Sanhedrin, the most powerful group of men in the nation, Peter fearlessly accuses them of killing Jesus (which they certainly had done) and preaches the resurrection of Jesus to them as well.
The fuse is now lit.
They order the Apostles to immediately cease preaching in the name of Jesus.
They further threaten them and send them on their way.
The response of the Apostles is simple…they totally ignore the orders.
They continue to preach and the Church continues to grow.
By the time we get to Acts 5, several weeks have gone by as more and more lives are being changed.
People are being healed.
Countless people, more than ever before, are placing their faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
The Sanhedrin has had enough.
They’ve been in the background, simmering this entire time.
So now they arrest all 12 apostles.
But before they can hold their inquisition the next morning, an angel of the Lord miraculously rescues them from prison and instructs them to go back out into the temple courts to preach.
Once word gets back to the Sanhedrin that the Apostles, who are supposed to be snug as a bug in a rug in their cells are actually out preaching, they freak out.
Arrest them again and now put the screws to them.
Who do you think you are?
We strictly ordered you to stop preaching about this Jesus.
Yet here you are.
You intend on blaming us for Jesus’ death.
Stop this.
Do what we command.
Peter’s response is fantastic:
Acts 5:29-32 - 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Simple.
Profound.
Provocative.
Peter reinforces the same message he’s been preaching the whole time and clearly declares…yeah, we don’t answer to you.
I say it is provocative because it certainly provokes a response.
The fuse was already lit, now it is time for the explosion.
The simmering is about to boil over.
Acts 5:33 - 33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
They are ‘enraged.’
It is a word that literally translates as ‘cut to the quick.’
The short fuse was lit and then ‘boom.’
A good translation would be ‘infuriated.’
At Peter’s words, fury comes into them and explodes.
Why?
Peter did not say anything he hadn’t already said.
He just continues to be faithful to the truth of the Gospel.
Jesus was crucified, and then God raised Him from the dead, and now He offers forgiveness to sinners and eternal life to all who trust in Him.
This is the problem with insecure, theologically-liberal, Bible-deniers…they can’t handle being disagreed with.
They can only respond with fury when people don’t do what they command.
They want to take the Apostles and ‘put them to death.’
That phrase translates a word that means ‘execute.’
It is the same word used for what they did to Jesus in Luke 22. Just as they executed Jesus, they are now planning and plotting to do the same with His followers.
But in God’s providence, there is a man on the Sanhedrin who will calm them all down and bring some reason to the madness.
Acts 5:34-39a - 34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.
35 And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men.
36 For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him.
He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.
37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him.
He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered.
38 So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.
You might even be found opposing God!”
Gamaliel the Elder was the most famous Rabbi of his day.
He was a Pharisee, not a Sadducee.
He is theologically conservative, believing in and following all the Scriptures.
It is right that he was ‘held in honor by all the people.’
His nickname among the people was “The Beauty of the Law.”
He is wise.
He is the grandson of the most famous Rabbi in Jewish history, Rabbi Hillel, who had founded his own theological training school, which Gamaliel took over upon his grandfather’s death.
And what we find out later in Acts 22:3 is that right now one of the students in his school is a promising young man named Saul of Tarsus.
We know him as Paul the Apostle.
Gamaliel sends the Apostles out so they can have a private discussion.
He warns them of rash and hasty decisions.
Remember, the people are all in favor of the Christians.
It would be a terrible political move to kill these men.
And he offers two examples as to why they should let these men go.
Theudas and Judas…two would-be false Messiahs who in previous years rose up and had a similar following.
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