If It is of God

Introduction

Opener

If you will please open your Bibles to Acts 5, I will be finishing the out the chapter today here in our 4th sermon on Acts 5 itself. What a busy chapter it has been for the apostles of the early Church.

Main Point of the Text (MPT)

As we head into our for Scripture today, the end of our narrative arrives and so a brief review is necessary.

Our narrative began back in Acts 5:12 where Luke tells us that at the hand of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people in Solomon’s portico. While some not dared associate with them, Luke informs us that multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number and that people from the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together to have those who were sick and possessed by unclean spirits healed (Acts 5:12-16).

As we covered last week, this led to the apostles being arrested and put in jail by the high priest and all his associates, the Sadducees, due to being filled with jealousy.

But they wouldn’t be contained long as during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison telling them to go speak the whole message of Life, the gospel, to the people in the temple and so they do about daybreak (Acts 5:17-21a).

During a gathering of the high priest, his associates, the Council (Sanhedrin), and the Senate of the sons of Isreal where they call for apostles to be brought to them, the officers report back that upon finding the prison house locked, the guards still standing outside, that they found no one inside (Acts 5:21b-23).

This caused them to be greatly perplexed, uncertain of what would come of this, but were quickly informed that the apostles they were looking for were standing in the temple preaching and teaching the people and so without violence, the captain and officers brought them back to the Council where 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” (Acts 5:24-28).

Peter answered him this, “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” (Acts 5:30-32).

The question one may have next is how did the they feel about his response? Well, let’s look to God’s Word for the answer and so if you are able please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Scripture Reading: Acts 5:33-42

Prayer

Body

Point 1: If It Is of God

Scripture: Acts 5:33-39

Explanation:

After Peters response, verse 33 tells us that those in attendance were cut to the quick and intended to kill them.

What I want you to notice here is the difference between those who had heard Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, a similar phrase to “cut to the quick” is “pierced to the heart”, when we were in the NKJV, they actually used “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37).

This is the difference between a hardened heart and a soft heart.

The high priest, the Council, and the Sons of Israel along with whomever was in that group all had hard hearts that caused them to be cut to the quick rather than to be cut to the heart.

Their hearts didn’t lead to repentance like that of the crowd at Pentecost, no, their hearts led to violence, they wanted these apostles dead and all due to jealousy as we had read earlier.

But instead allowing them to act, Luke tells us that a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, respected by all the people, stood up in the Council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time.

Before going into what he said, who was this Gamaliel?

From our description here:

We know him to be a Pharisee which means he believed in strict adherence to the Jewish OT law, both written and oral, and taught that Law to others.

He was respected and we are seeing a glimpse of why here, because instead of being quick to kill the apostles, he will propose another way to deal with them that wouldn’t include violence or cause an uproar amongst the people, because remember, they had brought the apostles back without violence before because they were afraid of the people, so his proposal will end in peace, not anarchy.

From our description found later in Acts 22:3, from Paul’s defense before the Jews, he tells us that he is a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel.

And so, Gamaliel can also be know for his most famous student, a Pharisee named Paul, whom we attribute the epistles to. It would have been through Gamaliel’s teachings that Paul would have gotten his knowledge of the OT writings and then, being allowed to preach in synagogues, Paul would be able to use that knowledge to present Christ as the One who fulfilled the Law and who was the Messiah (Acts 17:2; Matthew 5:17).

And so, it was this man, of whom was respected by all the people that after standing up and giving order for the men to go outside, told the group, “Men of Israel, take care what you propose to do with these men. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men joined up with him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after him; he too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered” (Let us pause here).

With the apostles outside, the first thing he suggests is caution, telling them to “take care”. Gamaliel has common sense, he knows there are consequences to killing the apostles so he wants them to carefully consider their actions and not let their emotions guide their actions.

He then offers some examples of those Jesus referred to, when in Mark 16, during his discussion with the disciples about the destruction of the temple and end times, He tells them that, “Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many” (Mark 16:6).

The first example, being Theudas, while there are some records that could lend to who he was, in Scripture we just know that he had:

Claimed to be somebody, just as Jesus.

Has a small group of followers, just like Jesus.

He was killed, just like Jesus.

All who followed him were dispersed, just like Jesus, at first.

Those who dispersed came to nothing, not like Jesus, but you can see why Gamaliel, going off of previous experiences might think this.

Then, we have his second example, being Judas of Galilee, which some say is the same guy, but to me Scripture doesn’t read that way, he had:

Rose up in the day of the census, Jesus was born during a census.

He had drew away some people after him, meaning he had caused a rebellion. This was recorded by the roman historian Josephus and was said to be about taxation, but to continue in our my point, Jesus didn’t cause a rebellion such as Judas leading to violence nor dare I say he caused rebellion of the apostles from the Jews, for He brought truth, instead I would say that the Jews caused the rebellion as they would not accept the truth while the apostles had.

He too perished, just a Jesus did.

And again, all those who followed him were scattered, just as the disciples did at first.

His goal here was of course to give evidence that just as Theudas and Judas, this Jesus, had claimed to be somebody, the Messiah, which as far as he concerned was dead, had a small group of followers, and that these followers would disperse or scatter in a matter of time. He believed that this pattern would be continued here with Jesus and His followers, but we know how wrong he was, don’t we?

He finishes his proposal going off this thought, but throws a little something for the them to consider saying, “So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.”

What great advice from Gamaliel, which I want to note was no friend of the apostles, he offers two trains of thought:

Stay away, leave them alone, if this is of man, their rebellion will come to an end.

If it is of God, even they will not be able to end their rebellion, because through your effort you will find yourself fighting againts God, a battle of which you won’t win.

Explanation:

I know that was a lot of information, but it was relatable, wasn’t it? Let’s break it down.

We have a group of people placed in a position of authority that want to control everyone.

They base their beliefs and actions off an old system of laws created based off an old covenant, and though some still apply, some do not.

They do this despite there being a new covenant that was established by the same authority, God, of which, they reject, causing them to be stuck in the old system.

This causes them to be jealous of anyone who might try to steal that control away from them, becoming enraged when opposition arises.

This rage causes them to act of their emotions instead of using their heads.

While it may seem they’ve let their emotions get the best of them, for most people there is that one person that speaks sense into their situation.

After listening to that person and calming down they suddenly become willing to use their brains rather than to go off their emotions.

I hope I am not the only one that sounds familiar to, if so, you should be up here instead of me. I am sure it was even something that the apostles were familar with, I believe they knew exactly what was going on in the minds of the Jewish authority.

Out of the two groups here, it would be great for us to say that we would have stood behind the apostles, amongst them, but there are many times in our life where we place ourselves in the position of the Jewish authority.

In fact, the very Word we’ve read from today is often the authority we find ourselves in opposition against as we wish to control our own lives, looking to no one, but ourselves and often times we meet God with His Word in anger and frustration, because like the Jewish authority concerning Jesus, we just can’t see the evidence, we blind ourselves.

One of things I have noticed lately and it may just be because God is showing me something or it may be because I have not allowed myself to believe in God enough to see that he is at work before, but what I have noticed is that He has been answering the prayers of the people all around me.

My favorite phrase right now is, “don’t pray for something unless you want it to happen”, because right now He is answering prayer, after prayer, after prayer.

To be honest, most prayers, as a person I place in one of two categories, reasonable, meaning that it’s something I expect to happen, such as my son getting better from an ear infection knowing we’ve done our job as parents by taking him to the doctor, giving him his meds on time, and 99% of the time he becomes healed, which is a work of God, it took God making the person who is the doctor, guiding that person towards becoming a doctor, that doctor choosing to practice in this area, and then my son seeing him. To me, that’s God at work.

And it is when the expected turns into the unexpected, such as when in 2017, Andrew Broadhurst, aged 39 from Birmingham in the United Kingdom died from complications from an ear infection. Despite visiting his doctor four separate occasions, the ear infection went undiagnosed for three months causing him to eventually die from Meningitis and encephalitis or swelling of the brain.

He had done exactly what he was supposed to do by going to the doctors, and while we don’t know how the ear infection was missed because it is usually a basic check up at every doctors visit, it was, and it cost him.

It’s in moments like that where we get angry and frustrated because the expected, what we knew we somewhat had control of, turned into the unexpected, reminding us that no matter how much in control we are that sometimes things happen that are out of our control and this was something that was out of Andrews control because it was up to the doctor to diagnose him. I am sure that many weren’t happy with that doctor.

But then there are some prayers I label as unreasonable, even as a Pastor, yes, sometimes I pray for things I consider unreasonable.

I remember when mom was getting bad, her health was on a huge decline, and people can tell me they don’t think I had enough faith, but in reality, the evidence pointed to her health continuing to worsen, not get better.

Some may say I gave up on my mom, but in my mind I switched my prayers from unreasonable back to reasonable and to be honest with you, personally that gave me peace for the reality I was facing, but looking back to it now that I am living in a moment where I feel like God is answering prayers, I often find myself wishing that I would have continued praying for the unreasonable, because what seemed unreasonable to me might not be unreasonable to God.

I will never know what the outcome would have been and I won’t allow myself to get hung up on, but instead it reminds me that when I do pray, that His Word tells me to pray for what I want (Mark 11:24) and alot of the time, what I want is unreasonable.

But if it is God…I think some of us don’t really want it to be God…even if we ask Him for it.

For thousands of years the Jewish people have been praying for the Messiah, awaiting His arrival and now that He had arrived, they chose to blind themselves from the evidence and instead cling to the Law that they couldn’t even keep themselves.

It was all about control, they understood the Law, they taught the Law, they upheld the Law, and to reveal the truth, the Law was no longer of God, the Law was of the Jewish people.

Their hardened hearts are what kept them from the saving grace of the Father, the gift of His Son, and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.

Church, this is something we must not do.

The song, I Surrender All, the one that goes, “I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all” comes to mind.

Even Jesus knew the important of surrendering all, think back to His time of suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane.

As He was going to pray, Mark 14:33 tells us that he took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.”

It tells us then that after He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground and began praying that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”

Even when suffering Jesus prayed for God’s will, knowing that the what was coming later for Him would be the hardest thing any human being could do, but since it was God at work, remember, but if it is God, He knew that He could endure it, even until the end, because what came next was spectacular.

And the apostles knew that when they prayed for boldness back in Acts 4 after Peter and John’s first arrest that the road ahead would lead to suffering, but that amongst their suffering would be rejoicing!

Point 2: Rejoicing in Suffering

Scripture: Acts 5:40-42

Explanation:

As we look to the end of Acts 5 we read that the high priest and his buddies took Gamaliel’s advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them...

Notice that they didn’t do it in public, they knew they couldn’t due to the people, but in the end, while they didn’t kill the apostles, although you just wait, they did end up using violence for the first time as they flogged them, using a flagrum more than likely which is kinda like a whip, having a wooden handle, leather throngs with small pieces of bone and metal balls at the end of them.

This would have left open wounds on their backs, the pain would have been especially excruciating on the bonier parts of their body, leaving behind not only physical scars, but mental scars as well for many who are flogged, but for the apostles, their reaction was the opposite.

We know this cause Luke tells us that after they flogged them, and once again, ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, they released them…again. Soooo they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Nothing would stop them…this actually got me a little emotional last night...

Explanation:

Because as I was sitting their thinking what has stopped me before and the one word from these verses kept repeating in my mind, shame.

There have been so many times in my life where I let the ashamed of being a Christian, as much I don’t want to admit that, it stopped me from sharing the gospel with some the most important people in my life, some of the people I have loved the most…one of those moments I will always remember, Kyle…first car ride and the night with Tori…years later, agnostic, rejoicing...

As the worship team comes...

I love what John Piper says, “If you are tempted to feel this shame, you should strive to throw it off by faith in Jesus.”

He mentioned 1 Timothy 1:8, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord” and even uses Jesus’s words from Mark 8:38 on top of it, “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels”.

And it is in Peter who tells us this in 1 Peter 4:12-19…Holy Spirit Lead....

Conclusion

Altar Call