God's Response to a Domineering Authority

Introduction

Opener

If you will please open your Bibles to Acts 5. Today’s message is a serious one, but I also had some fun with it.

Today’s message is gonna kinda be like the take off of a roller coaster, we’ve already in our seats, but we’ll strap in, the signal will be given, we will slowly go up the hill, and then the fun begins once we reach the top! So strap in!

Domination, a word rarely thrown around, but a word that drives our society today.

Power, control, supremacy, preeminence, all words that drive much of our culture today whether that be in political spaces, economical spaces, or even in familial spaces.

What dominates your life?

As I was pondering this question I remembered back to my Sociology class when we discussed intrapersonal (relationship with yourself) and interpersonal (relations with other people) relationships.

As we dove into these topics we looked into the concept of a sphere of influence.

Let me break it down for you…normal sphere of influence…christian sphere of influence...

Main Point of the Text (MPT)

As we head in our Scripture today, we find ourselves reading once again of the interaction between the same two groups from Acts 4, the Apostles and the Sanhedrin.

Let’s take a look at each of these groups spheres of influence and determine why we may encounter a problem here...

In my last sermon on Acts we read that the apostles were publicly meeting as a group, publicly meeting directly by the temple, and publicly preforming signs and wonders (Acts 5:12-16).

The results of this were that while many dared not to associate with them (Acts 5:13), God’s Word tells us that multitudes of men and women were constantly being added to their number (Acts 5:14).

Not only that, they were beginning to do exactly what Jesus told them they would, they were becoming witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1:8).

We read of this in Acts 5:16, as it tells us that people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.

Their mission field was no longer only Jerusalem, but the surrounding cities as well and the one group that wasn’t to happy about this was the Sanhedrin.

How will they react? Let’s find out as we read our Scripture for today, and so, if you are able please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Scripture Reading: Acts 5:17-32

Prayer

Body

Point 1: A Domineering Authority

Scripture: Acts 5:17-18

Explanation:

At the beginning of our Scripture today, we get to see the response of the high priest and all his associates, which were a sect of Sadducees, the Sadduccees, again, being a Jewish religious sect that were active during this time in Jerusalem being primarily made up of wealthy merchants, aristocratic families, and high priests, those who were considered the elite of the Jewish society who controlled the Temple in Jerusalem and the Sanhedrin, of which we first read of in Acts 4 when they arrested Peter and John the first time following the healing of the lame man, threatening them not to speak no longer to any man in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:17).

The Apostles response back then being, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; 20 for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).

With their past in mind, their response here in our Scripture for today should be of no surprise as Luke tells us that in verse 17, they rose up, were filled with jealousy and in verse 18, that led to them laying hands on the Apostles, putting them in jail.

The group here, more than likely, being comprised of many of the same men who had arrested and threatened Peter and John back in Acts 4, should lead us to expect their actions here since the Apostles continued in the sharing of their gospel concerning Jesus Christ, and that sharing not only causing multitudes of men and women to be added to their number from Jerusalem, but also from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem would lead to the high priest and his associates feeling jealous as more and more were leaving the Jewish faith for this new found Christian faith that was centered around a Man they considered not to be the promised Messiah.

They were trying to be a domineering authority in Jerusalem that not only sought to uphold the OT laws, for it had gone way past that, they were a domineering authority who wasn’t willing to accept the evidence that the ultimate authority, God, had given them concerning their Son (Acts 3:11-26), because if they had, they would not allow themselves to call Tiberius Ceaser, the king of the Romans, their king, no, they would have called Jesus their king.

What they really were was an authority that didn’t have the guts to stand up to the people they had decided was their domineering authority, the Romans.

They sought to keep the peace, bowing the knee to man rather than to Christ, the one true King.

Application:

I do not want you to leave here thinking that I am speaking against peace, because we can have peace with those who do not claim Jesus as Lord, but we must not allow that peace to come at the price of our own souls.

Matthew 16:26, Jesus asked His Disciples, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

The cost is high church family and we must understand that peace, a true peace, a true shalom, Hebrew for peace referring to a relationship with God (Genesis 43:21), a true eirene, the primary Greek word for peace referring to rest and tranquility, comes only from salvation through Jesus Christ, in the form of a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

God commands us to seek peace (Matthew 5:9) and Paul tells us that we should pursue the things which make for peace and the building up one another (Romans 14:19), but the reality of the situation is that there are some that don’t desire peace (Romans 12:18), there are some that get peace from places other than God (OT), and that there are some, hopefully I am looking at a room of them, who get their peace from the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), Jesus Christ.

But even Christ’s words seem to confuse even those who get their peace from Him as they read of His words in Matthew 10:34, He says, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Why would the Prince of Peace that Isiah spoke up tell us that He didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword?

It becomes clear when we read the context around this verse, at the beginning of Matthew 10, Jesus sends His Disciples out to preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand and to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons (Matthew 10:7-8).

He tells them that He is sending them out as sheep in the midst of wolves telling them to be as shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves, letting them know that they will be hated because of His name, but that they must not be worried for God will give them the Words they need and that the one who has endured to the end will be saved (Matthew 10:16-22).

In this Jesus reveals a conflict that still exists today, the conflict betwen those whose believe in Him and those who don’t, that while the cross leads to reconciliation with God, among mankind, it will lead to a divide as not everyone will recognize Jesus as their Lord and Savior and so it is not He who keeps us from peace, it is ourselves.

This is the ugly truth, that just like back in the moment we read of today when there was one group, the Apostles, focused on Jesus and one group, the different Jewish groups such as the Sadducees and the Pharisees, focused on things other than Him, we too face the same type of situation today as their are those, called Christians, whose focus is Jesus, and their are those, often refered to as the world, whose focus remain on anything but that Name.

And the thing is, the world has convinced themselves that if this Jesus is real, if His Father is real, if this Holy Spirit resides comes to reside in them, then all They want is to dominate their lives, but that couldn’t be further from the truth as the word domination is never spoken of in the Bible, but dominion is…which leads me to my next point...

Point 2: Dominance vs. Dominion

Scripture: Acts 5:19-25

Explanation:

Luke continues in verse 19 by informing us that those apostles weren’t held for very long as during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison, more on that in a moment, but the angel, as he took them out tells them, “Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life.”

Basically, okay, you’ve had your break, wasn’t your fault, but go and get back to work preach Life to those in the temple!

Our thoughts, being, like what Mr. angel dude, your breaking these people out of jail and sending them right back to the place those who arrested them control?

Okay, whatever brother, but...

The apostles being fearless, actually having guts, unlike those who arrested them, upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach!

Like what?

Then, it tells us that when the high priest and his associates came, they called the Council (the Sanhedrin) together, even all the Senate of the sons of Israel, me reading this at home was like, don't know who those guys are, but cool, not even those guys can stop an angel of the Lord, so don’t know why they came…but anyways, they sent orders to the prison house for the apostles to be brought to them, but guess what?

That place was empty, they weren’t there, because as God’s Word tells us the officers who came did not find them in the prison; and they returned and reported back, saying, “We found the prison house locked quite securely and the guards standing at the doors; but when we had opened up, we found no one inside.”

This causes the temple guard and chief priests to be greatly perplexed, they were uncertain of what would come of the apostles disappearance, but then someone came and reported to them, “The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!”

Application:

Do you get it church? When was the last time something like this happened?

I’ll tell you, Matthew 28, “Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.”

And what did the angel tell them to do next?

He told them, “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”

And what did they do?

God’s Word says those two women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. Thank God for the bold women of the Bible, am I right ladies?

They couldn’t wait to share the good news, the gospel, that Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, was no longer dead, HE WAS ALIVE!

Church, I am here to tell you today that there is no human authority that can dominate you with God by your side.

It is true that we should respect the human authority that God has placed over us (1 Peter 2:13), that is found in God’s Word, but what we cannot do is allow the world to dominate us to the point where the gospel doesn’t leave our lips! No!

We speak the gospel no matter what and we trust that God will put us where He needs us when He needs us!

For Jesus, He was put in a grave, but when it could conceal Him no longer, it was God who raised Him up to walk amongst the living once again.

For the Apostles, they were put in a prison, but when it came time for them to return to the Temple, that prison could conceal them no longer, for just as Jesus, they had a job to do and that was to enter that Temple that day to fearlessly and boldly preach the whole message of Life, the gospel, to everyone there.

AND FOR YOU, our God is not a God of domination, no, like I said, the Word doesn’t even mention domination anywhere, it doesn’t even speak to human domination, no, it speaks to human dominion, for after God created the world, He made man in His own image, male and female He created them and then He gave us dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over every living thing that moved on the earth, He gave us every plant yielding seed, every tree which had fruit yielding seed to take care of, but no where in His Word does it say that man shall dominate man, Democrats should dominate Republicans, Republicans should dominate Democrats, the government should dominate Christians, or Christian should dominate the government, a human shouldn’t his wife, a wife, her husband, a mother, her children, no he uses the word dominion, a word that although might sound domination, it is not domination!

To submit to a domineering authority, to be dominated by an authority, is to completely allow yourself to be controlled by that authority, but to submit an authority that doesn’t look to dominate you, but holds dominion over you, is to respect that authority, but to be free to choose whether or not you will completely submit to that authority.

The latter describes the type of authority that God expresses, our God is a God who doesn’t look to dominate you, but instead gives you the freedom to choose whether or not you want to have a relationship with Him where YOU GET TO CHOOSE whether or not you give Him dominion over your life or not!

And in order for you to be able to enter that relationship, He did the one thing He had to, out of His love He gave His son (John 3:16), so that you might experience that freedom, for before Christ, before the sacrifice that took care of the sin of the world, the very sin that held you down, that had you in chains, it was Christ who has set you free to make the decision, will you submit to God or will you not? It is your choice to make.

That leads to my last point...

Point 3: Submitting to God’s Dominion

Scripture: Acts 5:26-32

Explanation:

Following the receiving of knowledge from the snitch, he’s lucky God is gracious, cause back in my day snitches got stitches…in verse 26, we read of the captain along with the officers went and proceeded to bring them back without violence, but not because they didn’t want violence, cause think of it, someone goes missing on your watch when you’re responsible for them, aren’t you going to want to get back at them if you find em, kind of like an “i’ll ring your neck if I get a hold of you child” moment.

It tells us they only didn’t include violence because they were afraid of the people, that they may be stoned, again, these guys had no backbone, although I am thankful for the lack of violence here for the sake of the apostles in this moment, this group wouldn’t escape from the threat of violence much longer as we will read of next week.

When they had brought them back, they stood them before the Council and the high priest questioned them, saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”

For one, that’s a statement, not a question, but Peter’s response in our final section of Scripture today is legendary and one we might have to repeat one day as this world grows further and further from Christ, he says, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

I just love Peter, what a bold man, what a bold Christian, what an example to look to for inspiration!

Not only this time was he standing before devout Jews in the streets of Jerusalem like on Pentecost (Acts 2), not only this time was he standing before Jews in the Temple following the healing of the lame man (Acts 3), not only this time was he standing before the Sanhedrin, high priest, Caiaphas and John and Alexander, who were of high-priestly descent as he did the day following his and John’s arrest (Acts 4), but he now stood before even more human authority, the high priest, the Sanhedrin, the Senate of the sons of Isreal (Acts 5) and others...

Telling them that they, the apostles, would rather obey God than them, proclaiming once again that they were the ones who put raised up Jesus on a cross, they were the ones who allowed Him to hang their till His death, and they knew for a fact, calling themselves witnesses who have be given the Holy Spirit, whom God had given to them due to their obedience, that Jesus was IN FACT who God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, not to dominate this world, but to grant repentance and forgive the sin of all those who choose to believe in His name.

Conclusion

As the worship team comes…what more is there to say? The example has been given.

Are you willing to continue what the early church began?

I am not speaking of the traditions that the early church held, but the mentality, the heart, the ambition, the passion that the early church held when it came to sharing the gospel, to continuing the mission, seeing that mission through no matter the cost…

Do not allow the world to dominate you so much that you fear man more than God, that you love man more than God, that you love yourself more than God…allow God to have dominion over your life, submit only to Him, no one else…it’s time church…!

HOLY SPIRIT LEAD!

Altar Call