Sermon Tone Analysis

Main Idea

Rejoice in being counted worthy to suffer for Christ

Last week, we looked at the second trial of the apostles held by the Sanhedrin.

If you remember the first trial from chapter 4, the Council’s hands were tied.

An undeniable miracle had been performed, and though they wanted to make any sort of charge stick to the apostles, what could they do?

The first sign of persecution was a fairly mild one.

Today is a different story.

Today, the apostles weren’t on trail for healing a fellow Jew (even though Annas was provoked due to the masses being healed in the streets).

They were on trial because they disobeyed direct orders from the Council concerning the content of their preaching.

That is something they could work with.

By punishing the apostles for insubordination, they could further solidify their seat of power in the eyes of the people.

Today, we will see how that trail ended.

Outline & Passage

I - The reaction of the Council

II - Gamaliel’s advice

III - The Council’s Sentence

IV - The apostle’s reaction

I - The reaction of the Council

Enraged

The Council as a whole reacted about how you think they would have.

If they conspired together to have Jesus tried, arrested, and killed, then it’s not a far stretch to think they would act in a similar way to his followers.

After hearing Peter speak the blunt truth to them a second time, they got the worse case of heartburn yet.

Their jealous hearts provoked them to anger, rage, and murderous intent.

The word enraged literally means to be torn through.

These guys fuming!

The text says the wanted to kill the apostles.

It was the burning desire of their heart.

It is important for us to see that it was entirely possible for them to succeed in the death penalty.

They were kicking a tiger that was no longer in a cage.

This was a very real threat to the lives of the apostles.

Their message of life was being threatened by the possibility of death.

Gamaliel shows reason

Fortunately, not every person on the Council thought the same way.

As the various members of the Sadducees and Pharisees were gnashing their teeth and tasting blood, one of them had the sense to speak up and suggest that they might be overreacting.

This man’s name was Gamaliel, and he was a prominent and beloved rabbi.

He came from the school of Hillel, which was important, and Paul boasts of Gamaliel being his rabbi in Acts 22:3.

Because he is respected and held in high regards, he has enough authority to suggest a brief commercial break and have the apostles sent outside while he addresses the council.

In doing this by what he says next, he becomes the apostle’s unlikely ally.

Never discount God’s ability to rise up help in helpless circumstances.

One man out of 71 changed the course of the story.

II - Gamaliel’s advice

Whether it was the vicious nature of the Council’s reaction, compassion for the apostles, or a desire to simply stop further bloodshed, clearly Gamaliel was bothered by the discussion or he wouldn’t have taken a withdrawal from the trust bank of the Council.

In response, he have a compelling, 3-part monologue that effectively save the lives of the twelve apostles.

Be cautious

Gamaliel’s opener was to be cautious.

“Take care what you area bout to do with these men.”

They had just lived through the ordeal of Jesus’ crucifixion and professed resurrection, and no doubt, this started to further attract the attention of Rome.

Attention can be good, but not this type of attention!

At this point, he seems to channel his inner Solomon, because he calls for wisdom by looking at the past and learning from it.

That’s a great thing for a leader to suggest.

We are doomed to repeat the failures of the past if we don’t learn them.

He is effectually saying, “hey fellas.

Pump the breaks for just a minute and let’s think this through.

Let’s at least ask if we are going down the right path before we make a terrible judgment call.”

The underlying advise he is trying to give the Council is this: if they go down this road and push for the death penalty, they might be spinning their wheels for nothing.

While his pursuit falls flat at the end, let’s at least take this one play from Gamaliel’s playbook.

We can glean this bit of wisdom to be cautious in our decisions and use wisdom as we assess situations based on similar past events.

That is good, sound advise for practical living for you and me.

So, what exactly does he mention?

Gamaliel points to two figureheads in recent history and reminds the Council how those uprisings played out.

Remember past revolts

1. Theudas

There isn’t much known about this man.

Pretty much all info we have is found on him is here in the text.

The Jewish Historian, Josephus, mentions a man by this name, but his story takes place after these events, so it’s likely not the same person.

What we know is that Theudas was a messianic-type figure who led a revolt, collected roughly 400 followers, but when he was killed, his movement fizzled and failed.

Even though we don’t know much more than this, the Council members would have and would have gotten the gist.

2. Judas the Galilean

This other messianic figure was also mentioned by the Jewish Historian Josephus (and likely the same person referenced by Gamaliel) and was a Galilean who led a revolt against paying Roman taxes in 6 AD.

It’s even speculated that this could have even been the soil that the Zealots grew out of, which is a group that Simon belonged to.

The mention of the census is likely due to Luke’s historical precision and accuracy, so readers could ground themselves in those events they would have easily understood.

So, his point was to simply leave them alone and let things play out.

Don’t get caught up in it.

If you don’t add fuel to the fire, it will eventually die out.

So far, I like this guy.

He is practical and level-headed.

You may be fighting against God

But he doesn’t stop at that one point.

He takes his advise one level deeper, by addressing the influence behind the action.

First, he says “if this undertaking is of man, it will fail.”

Human volition will only go so far.

You have to remember, Gamaliel believes the Sanhedrin represents God’s will.

They are the religious leaders who speak on God’s behalf and make His will known to the people.

They are on the right side of this fight, and if the apostles are on the other side, then it won’t amount to anything.

It will end the way the other revolts ended.

They will end up destroying themselves if they are trying to make this happen under their own power.

In the end, they will condemn themselves and we will be justified.

BUT...

If they are the ones who have God’s backing, then we are the ones who are fighting in vain.

Gamaliel is not admitting that, but he is asking the Council to at the very least consider the possibility.

However slim of a chance that may be, if it is even remotely possible that the apostles are right and they are wrong, then they must consider the ramifications of such a harsh punishment.

And what’s worse, the religious leaders will be the ones opposing God himself!

He saw the irony in that, and thankfully, he had enough sense to verbalize it and not let his pride and jealousy blind his eyes and lock his mouth.

Gamaliel is certainly more diplomatic than his student - Saul of Tarsus, who we know as Paul - the great persecutor of Christians prior to his conversion.

So, at least we have that.

Yet, for all is wisdom, he failed in one area.

The one thing he didn’t do, which would have been the most effective course of action, was to investigate with enough diligence to see if the claims were actually true.

Maybe then, if they considered the apostles teaching instead of blindly fighting against it… if they searched the scriptures and examined their own traditions and presuppositions… them maybe they would have joined them!

Isn’t that also true of ourselves and our culture?

We live in a sound-bite generation where other people do our thinking for us, don’t we?