The Unstoppable Gospel Acts 5:12-33

Introduction

In the first part of chapter 5 we saw that God is serious about the church. Ananias and Sapphira tried to trick the church but instead lied to a Holy God and ended up dying because of it.

Today we are going to look at the church continuing in the Gospel and we will see that the Gospel is unstoppable. They can try to silence it and put the apostles in prison, but prison can’t contain God’s power and we will see that today.

We will look at the progress of the church, the indignation of the religious leaders, the power of the Spirit over prison, and the unstoppable Gospel.

The Progress of the Church vs. 13-16

The apostles work continues Vs. 12

Many signs and wonders continued to happen in Jerusalem through the ministry of the Apostles

This is what the Apostles prayed for earlier in the Book of Acts where they prayed that God would give them boldness to speak the word and to continue to use them to heal and perform signs and miracles in the name of Jesus after they had been threatened.

They were all in one accord at Solomon’s porch, they had turned the porch of the temple in to the meeting place of the church. vs. 12

This is where everyone had gathered after the healing of the lame man outside the temple. It is the place where the apostles were taken from and thrown in Jail for healing in the name of Jesus. They continued to preach there.

The people magnified or highly esteemed the apostles. vs. 13

Its okay to esteem the preacher, but at the end of the day it should be all about Jesus.

The church was continuing to grow vs. 14

Both men and women were added in multitudes to the church

The greatest growth in the church often happens in a time of persecution.

Vs. 15 and 16 are a continuation of verse 12. The end of verse 12 -vs 14 are extra details into what was going on at the same time.

read vs 12 without the parenthesis then read verse 15-16

The apostles were healing so many people they were lining the streets with sick people.

they were putting them in beds and on couches, hoping that Peter’s shadow would fall on them.

Peter was full of the Holy Ghost and had the power that God had bestowed on them.

It’s almost like we are reading the account of Jesus in the Gospels as he healed a lady by her touching the hem of His garment, that is the power that Jesus promised the Apostles in the great commission.

Reminder *The miracles, signs and wonders were for the Jews to prove to them that Jesus truly was the messiah*

News was spreading outside of Jerusalem and people were bringing their sick family and friends and lining them up in the streets as well. They weren’t only healing sickness, they were also casting out unclean spirits.

The Bible says they healed everyone vs. 16

Isn’t it amazing that every person they were brought to heal was healed.

Today we have some “faith healers” that try to heal and when they can’t they say they don’t have enough faith to be healed. If we had the power to heal like the Apostles did there wouldn’t be a need for hospitals, there wouldn’t be cancer hospitals, there wouldn’t be a need for wheel chairs, but that ministry ended when the word of God was completed. We still see miracles today, but its not done through a man but through God.

The indignation of the religious leaders vs. 17-18

The High priest noticed the church was still meeting on Solomon’s porch.

As they’re walking to the streets to get to the temple, they are filled with sick people waiting on the Apostles to heal them.

They see more and more people coming everyday joining the church and I’m sure the anger was rising every day and finally they just got to the point of indignation

Indignation - Anger or extreme anger, mingled with contempt, disgust or abhorrence.

The high priest wasn’t the only one who was angry about the church being there, the Bible says a sect or section of the sadducees were with him and they were filled with anger toward the church and the apostles.

They were so angry that they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. They would have been treated like all the other prisoners for the night until their trial the next day.

The Spirits power over prison vs 19-20

As they are in the prison all of a sudden the angel of the Lord appears to them sometime that night and opens the prison door for them.

Prison couldn’t quench the power of God and his mission for the church.

The Angel of the Lord told them to go back to the temple stand and preach the word of this life

What is this life? The Eternal life that Jesus promised if we believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

May I remind us all this morning that even if someone is persecuting us they still need to hear the Gospel.

The unstoppable gospel vs. 21-33

When they heard the Angel of the Lord they followed his directions vs 21

As the Apostles are teaching in the temple the sanhedrin meets again to punish the Apostles for mentioning the name of Jesus again. vs 21b

As they gather the officers come in and tell them that they went to the prison and the Apostles aren’t there

they go through the details

All the gates are locked

all the guards were accounted for

we went to their cell and they were gone

As the officer tells this the religious leaders are wondering whats going to happen of this situation vs. 24

The could’ve been thinking something along the lines of...

Maybe they finally moved on

hopefully they left and won’t come back

what if word gets out about their prison break

Before they can think too much on it someone comes up and tells them that the ones they had in prison are standing and teaching in the temple. vs. 25

The captain and the officer go get them out of the temple without using violence because they were afraid of what the people might do.

Remember they were “celebrities” in Jerusalem. People knew who they were because of the miracles and signs they had done in the city. The last thing the high priest wanted was an uproar over these men.

As they brought them in they sat them down before the sanhedrin and asked them “didn’t we specifically tell you not to teach in this name”

Remember in chapter 4 they were threatened to not speak or teach in the name of Jesus.

The Apostles answered them the first time with a question of who the should obey, the religious leaders or God?

Here the Apostles answer the question because the religious leaders had obviously got the answer wrong.

After they asked the question the apostles told them that they can’t help but teach and heal in the name of Jesus.

Look at the testimony of the Apostles

The religious leaders tell them we told you not to speak in this name and now you’ve filled Jerusalem with this doctrine.

If asked would people say we have filled our community with the Gospel?

Peter and the Apostles tell them “we ought to obey God rather than man”

Paul here was not telling us to revolt against the Government, but rather to know that Gods commands trump the commands of man.

The last part of verse 28 says that the apostles were trying to bring Christ blood upon their hands, but the had already done that when they consented to the death of Christ.

Peter reminds them of this in verses 30-31

God raised up Jesus who you slew and hung on a tree

now that same Jesus is seated on the right hand of God offering the forgiveness of sin through their belief in the Gospel

Peter then tells them that the apostles and he are witnesses of the things that they are teaching and so is the holy spirit who they have to obey.

The reaction of the religious leaders show their true heart vs. 33

they were cut to the heart, they were offended by the truth of the Gospel

they were so offended they wanted to slay the messengers

Conclusion

As a believer it should be great pleasure to hear and to share the Gospel with others, we should be bold in sharing the gospel even in the face of persecution

As an unbeliever there are two ways to respond to the gospel, you can be offended as the religious leaders were here or you can be grateful that God sent his son to die on a cross, be buried and rise again on the third day so that your sins can be taken away.

If you’ve never trusted christ come today we can show you from the Bible how you can be saved.