Growing Respect, Growing Opposition

Introduction:

Acts 5 challenges us to think about the growing tensions in Jerusalem over the preaching of the apostles.

The first event already occurred in Acts 4 with Peter and John being imprisoned and having to defend themselves before important officials mainly from the priests.

We cannot dismiss opposition to the preaching of Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and exaltation as irrelevant to our lives.

We need to think about how we might have reacted if we had been among the disciples.

Would we have been emboldened?

Because the world is a messy place filled with imperfect people, we should expect things that make sense and some that do not.

Do crowds always understand what they are doing (not according to two books of the same name, The Madness of Crowds)?

Do the actions of people have simple explanations?

Perhaps so.

Rarely so?

Like with Jesus, we can find that people believe, but they may not be the kind of belief that leads to deep commitment.

That seems to continue in this passage.

Belief among the People

The Ananias and Sapphira event continues to govern the thoughts here.

It becomes a lynchpin or connecting event like the raising of the lame man at the Temple.

People would not join themselves to the disciples, but they held them in high regard (Acts 4:13).

Their reticence to join the larger group does not mean they did not believe the message of the apostles or the evidence of the languages, signs, and portents.

Luke contrasts the ones believing the Lord with the reticence of the people.

We should think of these two things together, not separately.

This belief brought about the following result:

They brought the sick out into the streets.

They were placed by those who brought them on cots and pallets.

The intention was with Peter coming, so they placed them in his path, his shadow might overshadow over some one of them.

We should be very careful about looking at this as normal.

We see, here, something very human, namely, the concern of the people for their sick loved ones.

The majority of the surrounding cities were also coming to Jerusalem bringing their sick and those being afflicted by unclean spirits.

All were being healed.

This gives the impression that these were not single occurrences.

This became a practice, at least for a short time.

Opposition among the Priests

Luke gives the reader a scenario similar to the earlier episode of the lame man.

Just as the priests opposed the Apostles then, so now they again oppose them.

Given the message of the resurrection, this might make sense.

Luke is clear this growing concern over the message and activities of the apostles comes mainly from the priests.

They were filled with zeal.

This cannot point to mere jealousy. It must be something more intense that motivates the acts that Luke will describe.

Luke must mean some kind of rage or a zeal to prevent the teaching of the resurrected, exalted Jesus within the precincts of Jerusalem.

They arrested all of the apostles and place them in the public prison.

Now, a new component gets added into the mix, namely, the work of God.

Consider, too, that Sadducees did not believe in angels.

Acts 5:19 explains that an angel of the Lord opened the door of the prison at night, led them out, and told them to be speaking, “all the utterances of this life.”

At morning/sunrise, they obeyed the Lord’s angel, entered the Temple, and were teaching.

When the priests met, the high priest called for the apostles to be brought before all of the religious and political leaders that mattered.

They apostles could not be found.

It was the people who protected them.

The court feared they people might stone them.

Why didn’t this stop easily?