Faithfulness to God's Message in a Hostile World

Introduction

As we have continued through Acts in the last couple of weeks we have seen problems without and problems within.

We have seen that everything was not smooth sailing for the church

They were filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit was working powerfully within them and among them but we also see that Satan was at work as well.

There was opposition from without as the religious leaders, the same ones who had Jesus put to death threatened the church, the church was warned that they must stop preaching and teaching in Jesus’ name.

As the apostles stood firm in the face of opposition we saw last week that the enemy attacked from within.

This week as Luke turns again to the opposition that the church faced from without, what we see in this passage is a message that divides, what we see is a message that brings hope and healing and yet this same message that brings hope and healing is a message that is hated by the world.

Within the rest of Chapter 5 we God’s reaction to the apostolic gospel that was being preached, we see the world’s reaction, and we see the early church’s faithfulness to this gospel.

I. Accrediting the Gospel (v.12-16)

One of the things that we have seen is the unity of the early church, we saw that threatened last week.

But last week if you remember one of the things that I mentioned was that the early church was united around the gospel, they were united around the teaching of the apostles that was being passed down to the church.

Of course there were false teachers that threatened that unity, think of the Judiazers, the gnostics, and of course there were other false teachings, but one of the things that we see being taught in the NT is the clear doctrines of the NT church that unite God’s people.

The goal of the true church has always been and will always be to be molded and shaped by the apostolic teaching and most central the apostolic gospel.

Of all of the messages that has been proclaimed, of all of the teachers that have claimed authority since the NT one thing we know is that God put His stamp of approval on the gospel that was proclaimed by the apostles.

That is what we see in this text before us.

As we read this text and as we have already seen in chapter 3 we see signs and wonders that were given to the apostles.

These signs and wonders were God’s way of authenticating the ministry and the teaching of the apostles.

I won’t get into the apostolic miracles today, we talked about that a few weeks ago, but simply a reminder; I believe that some of the signs and wonders that we see in the NT were specifically for that apostles; they were like God’s stamp of approval on their ministry and their teaching.

Romans 15:18–19 ESV

For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;

2 Corinthians 12:12 ESV

The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.

Hebrews 2:3–4 ESV

how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Heb.

The author of Hebrews said that God bore witness to the apostolic message by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The signs and wonders that are spoken of here are like God’s signature on this message, this is my message, these are my messengers.

You may ask, well how do we know who are God’s messengers today, how do we know what God’s message is today?

Glad you asked;

Today we don’t look for someone to preform signs and wonders to see if they are faithfully teaching God’s message, instead we look at their message and compare it to the message of the apostles, that is to the NT. NT is God’s message to us and we look to find preachers and teachers that are faithful to it; this is God’s message, these are God’s messengers.

One more thing that I will point out here before we leave, we won’t get down into a lot of details.

I know we look at a passage like this and can be amazed by the physical signs and wonders, but let me say this; the greatest miracle that we read of in this passage is v.14.

It is a miracle of God when someone is added to the church of Jesus Christ, it is a miracle of God when one comes out of the darkness and death of unbelief and turns in faith to Jesus Christ.

Brother, sister in Christ; do you realize that your salvation is a resurrection from the dead.

You were dead spiritually without any life, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, you were in bondage to sin, satan, and the flesh, you were blinded by satan, you had no desire to repent of sin and trust in Christ and God worked powerfully in your life and brought you to faith in Christ.

That is a miracle of God!!!

Romans 15:17–19 ESV

In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;

Romans 15:18–19 ESV

For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;

II. Attacking the Gospel (v.17-28)

If in the previous verses we see God approving, accrediting, authorizing the apostolic message then in these verses we see the religious leaders of the day attacking God’s message.

Read the passage

Comment on the hardness of heart that we see in these men. They just don’t get it.

The text tells us that the religious leaders are jealous

They hate the message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and they hate the popularity of the apostles and the message, the message is spreading like wildfire and they are jealous.

Think about these men, these are the same men that covered up the resurrection of Jesus, these are the same men who could not deny the healing of the lame man in chapter 3 and yet we see that they are just unwilling to listen to the message.

Let’s just think practically about what it is that keeps people from the gospel.

Pride, right?

These men had plenty of it

Intellectual pride, they thought they were the smart ones, they were the theologians, they were not going to listen to Jesus from Nazareth, can anything good come out of Nazareth

And now they are not going to listen to Peter, James, and John; these are country bumpkins, hillbillies, fishermen; they don’t know anything, right?

To many of the intellectual elite Christ crucified and raised from the dead is a stumbling block, it is foolishness

Be careful thinking that you are to smart to learn from someone else.

social pride, many will not believe because they social elite would look down on them. Let me tell you repentance from sin and faith in Christ has never been the cool or the hip thing to do in any society.

Sin has always been celebrated and righteousness has always seemed awkward to the world.

family pride, some may not have come to Christ because it would have cost them their family and they were not willing to give it up, maybe they were proud of their family name,

maybe they were born into a religious family and didn’t sense there need for the gospel, and that leads us to the last

religious pride, and oh here is the ugliest and most dangerous form of pride.

Thinking that they had done something or could do something to earn God’s favor.

They gospel flies in the face of that and offends the one who thinks that he can earn God’s favor.

That he can be good enough, that he has not sinned bad enough.

Let me tell you, the sinful prideful heart of man despises the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As Paul says the gospel is an aroma of death to some, it is a stench in their nostrils.

I went with Joshua yesterday morning and we met with a trapper and he had some lure that he was using to set traps for coyotes and bobcats and he said here smell this and put it right up to my nose

My reaction without even thinking was to turn and gag

The aroma was offensive, I could not stand it so i turned from it as fast as i could to smell clean air

The gospel is like that for some, it is like an offensive aroma and they turn from it as fast as they can.

Notice v.28 and then v.40

They want it to stop

III. Affirming the Gospel (v.29-32)

But we also see, in the midst of this opposition, again the apostles are faithful to God’s message.

Again they know that these are the same men who killed their Lord, and they do not coward down, they are empowered by the Holy Spirit and they affirm the gospel message before the Sanhedrin.

Notice what they say

We must

It is necessary, this word that is used speaks of divine necessity

In other words, we are not diplomats, they were ambassadors and they had been given a message.

Our Lord had commanded us to speak this message therefore we must do it.

Let me ask you brother and sister, do you feel the divine necessity.

I must obey God,

I must speak this message

Oh brothers and sisters, pray that the Holy Spirit would so work within me, within you that we would say with with the Apostles,

We must speak the gospel.

They did not change their message to tickle the ears of the religious leaders, they did not try to soften the message, they did not try to make the message more culturally acceptable.

One of the great sins of the church growth movement is that the try to take the sting or the offense out of the gospel when it is shared.

I heard a popular preacher in Atlanta Ga. say that when he shares the gospel, he actually tries to help people see that the gospel well make their life easier, more comfortable in America.

This is nothing but subtle health and wealth gospel, it is not the gospel of a bloody Savior, it is not the bloody gospel of Jesus Christ, it is not the gospel that calls you to die to yourself and to take up your cross and follow Jesus, it is cotton candy Christianity not Biblical Christianity.

We see nothing of the sort as the apostles affirm the gospel

What do they affirm?

Jesus came

Jesus died

Jesus rose again

Repent (and believe) v.14, repentance and belief are two sides to the same coin. If you turn from something you have to turn to something else. Turn from sin and turn to Christ.

IV. Avoiding the Gospel (v.33-39)

Notice the offense

They are enraged, they want to kill them. They want to kill them because they hate the message, they want to kill the message.

But notice how things turn with v.34

Gamaliel steps forward and gives his speech after having the apostles dismissed.

Gamaliel cools the crowd but Gamaliel is still wrong.

Lets notice

Notice he compares Jesus to two rebels that have been put down and their rebellion came to nothing (v.36-37)

This is simply a dismissal of Jesus and the apostles, his point is this, give this enough time and it will come to nothing.

Gamaliel simply wanted to avoid dealing with the gospel and dealing with Christ, he hoped that it would all just go away.

Brothers and sisters, when the gospel is preached in the world, without the Holy Spirit at work then you will encounter one of these responses.

People will either attack the gospel or simply try to avoid the gospel and both responses flow from a heart that hates the truth of the gospel and just wants it to go away.

But this is the reality, the gospel cannot be avoided, Jesus Christ cannot be avoided

People cannot dismiss Christ as just a good teacher or just a good man, Jesus will not allow for that

C.S. Lewis was right, Christ demands a verdict, He demands a response from you and your options are limited to three

Liar

Lunatic

Lord of Lords and King of Kings

Let me ask you today, have you tried to avoid the gospel? Have you tried to avoid Christ? You cannot avoid Him, you must deal with Him and what you do with Him will be the most important decision that you ever make in all of eternity.

V. Announcing the Gospel (v.40-42)

We have already looked at v.40

We see the world’s disdain for God’s message and His messengers

But we also see how the messengers are sustained by God.

They are rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ

Let that soak in, in our Americanized understanding of Christianity

Jesus had instructed the disciples in this

Matthew 5:10–12 ESV

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The threatenings nor the beatings stopped the disciples from being faithful witnesses of the glory of Christ, they continued to preach the gospel.

Let me ask you, what stops you from being a faithful witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

The Apostles had been given a command by their Lord, they had been given a commission and they intended to fulfill it by His grace and for His glory.

Brothers and sisters, this is a challenge to us, is it not?

D.L. Moody was fearless in his witness for Christ and sought to speak about spiritual matters to at least one soul each day.

How does your soul prosper today? he would ask; or,

Do you love the Lord? Do you belong to Christ?

Some were offended by his blunt manner, but not a few were led to Christ then and there.

The more we use the means and the opportunities we have he said, the more will our ability and our opportunities be increased.

he also said I live for souls and for eternity; I want to win some soul to Christ. he was not satisfied only to address great crowds; he also felt constrained to speak to people personally and urge them to trust Jesus Christ.

May God help us to be faithful Spirit filled messengers of God’s message in a hostile world