Hope @ 7 - April 22

Hope @ 7

Good evening everyone. Hope you’ve had a great day so far. That you’ve gotten some time to go outside and get some fresh air and just take a look at the amazing creation that God has provided. I love that we get to live in the Shuswap here and have such amazing views around us. Today we’ve gotten to hang out and get some technology ready for Sunday. It’s so amazing to have all this technology available for us.

Well tonight we’re going to continue in the book of Acts. This is what Bob has been talking about for a few nights. We’re going to look at a pretty cool passage tonight in this book. A passage that really talks about the resilience of the church because of God. Because God has designed this church to be about himself and not about us. Which is really incredible if you think about it. The church as you look back on it; with God using some of the most common people in society, a pretty rag tag group of people to begin his church. And not only that but starting in small home groups which spread the message around and which grew into the church as we see today. Pretty incredible.

So tonight we’re going to quickly look at Acts 5:27-42 which says, “27 Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them. 28 “We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man’s name!” he said. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!”

29 But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority. 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross.* 31 Then God put him in the place of honor at his right hand as Prince and Savior. He did this so the people of Israel would repent of their sins and be forgiven. 32 We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him.”

33 When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill them. 34 But one member, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while. 35 Then he said to his colleagues, “Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men! 36 Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About 400 others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing. 37 After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got people to follow him, but he was killed, too, and all his followers were scattered.

38 “So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!”

40 The others accepted his advice. They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go.

41 The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.* 42 And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.”

So I love this passage. There’s so much that is going on here that talks about the reason why the church as we know it is unshakable, unmovable and has grown despite the odds and despite the people that God uses.

1. Right at the onset of this passage we read that the High Council confronts the apostles and tells them that they’ve been told never again to teach in Jesus’ name. They can’t deny the amazing things that are taking place in Jerusalem in the name of Jesus. The word is spreading and people are being saved.

So we have these religious leaders, let’s call them the uppity ups. Who “know” a lot, which would have been quite intimidating for someone to come up against them. They we commanding these disciples to not share about the greatest thing that has ever happened to them. And you know what some of us might find ourselves in a similar situation. Where we have people around us who we deem as “smarter” and who “know their stuff” who will tell us that Jesus doesn’t exist or matter. And they might use their intellect to try to outsmart us. But the response that we see from Peter, the brash apostle, when he says that he must obey God rather than human authority. What he’s talking about is that Jesus commanded them to go into the world and to share the gospel of Jesus and that’s what their going to do. Let’s not get this idea twisted though. We must honor and listen to the people whom are placed over us when it comes to our countries. But what I think Peter is saying that we cannot allow the world to deter the message. And infact Peter uses this opportunity to jump into a proclaimation to these High Priests about Jesus. Even in his defence he is using it as an opportunity to tell these guys, who are debating whether or not to kill them or not, about Jesus who can save them. And this infuriated them.

This is encouraging to me. We have this message and this hope that we have through Jesus who has saved us. We know what Jesus has saved us from, the hurt, the sin, the depair and disappointment of life, even ourselves. He’s saved us from so many things. We should be excited and wanting to tell others about him. And let’s not be afraid of this. God used lowly fisherman, “uneducated guys”, to spread the gospel. If he can use them, then he can use us. There is no doubt about that. 1 Peter 3:15-16 tells us, “And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way.” We need to have a reason for this hope that we have in Jesus. The reason why we believe in him. Cause there is a reason. Maybe he’s pulled you out of an addiction, maybe he’s saved you from something or someone. Your story is an important one, because its how you’ve gone from death to life. From despair to hope. And we should be ready and excited to tell others about it. To be excited and ready to share that to

2. Then we get this interaction between High Council and one of their members, Gamaliel. Now this is an incredible interaction because someone from their actual group jumps in. This guy who is an expert in the religious law, and respected by the High Council. He gets up and says to send the apostles out of the room and he addresses this council. And he says some profound words. He list a few men who people decided to follow and who pretended to be great. Gamaliel says that when these guys died so did their movements, and that their followers went in different ways. He says that his advice would be to leave these guys alone. Let them do what they are doing because if their movement is not of God then it will die off. It will end and be done with.

Then he says some incredible words. If it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. They may even find themselves fighting God. And this is incredible because this is where they’ve found themselves. These Christ followers, this movement of believers, they are in this bucket where the Holy Spirit is capturing hearts and calling people to follow Jesus and this movement was unlike the others that they have seen.

It is incredible that there are people among this High Council who recognized that if this was true then no matter what they did they wouldn’t be able to stop these guys and their message.

And that’s what we find. We have Christianity. Where God was able to use this rag tag group of men and women, to take this message of redemption and love to the world. And these words from Gamaliel here are so true. If this wasn’t of God then it would have died and ended a long time ago. But just as we celebrated a few weeks ago at Easter Jesus is alive. He rose again and ascended into heaven. He still lives and his message lives with us.

And I believe that we are to take this hope with us into the world, into our families, into our workplaces, into our friendships, and the list goes on.

John MacArthur said, “You are the only Bible some unbelievers will ever read”. Folks you and I might be the bridge that brings someone into knowing that Jesus loves them, that he died for them, and that he wants them to experience this hope and love. Someone watching right now, you, might be that person who needs to hear that. That whatever your going through, whatever struggles you are facing Jesus understands and he wants you to bring whatever your going through to him. He wants to bear those burdens, to help guide you through whatever is going on.

We love Billy Graham around here and he says something pretty profound, he said, “The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, 'O God, forgive me,' or 'Help me.” I don’t know about you but I’ve been in this place over the last few weeks. Even today I was talking to some friends and I told them that I really miss spending time with them. It gets discouraging after so many weeks of not really being able to spend time with people. But I’m reminded that in those moments I need to go to God who will guide me through those lows and help me. All he wants is for us to come to him.

I want to finish our time with the ending of this passage. In the last little bit we read that the apostles took some persecution, they were flogged, but they counted themselves worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. And they went out into their town every day sharing the good news that they had, that Jesus is the Messiah. If Jesus wasn’t someone to consider and to follow this should perk your head up a little. That these guys would suffer and then call that a blessing because they knew all that Jesus went through in dying for their sins. That is pretty incredible isn’t it.

And in my life so far. What I know and what I’ve come to believe and understand is that Jesus is worthy of that exact response. That even if I’m beat up, and not necessarily physically, but tore down emotionally by someone that I need to recognize the suffering and the death that Jesus experienced on the cross and I need to get up and continue to share Jesus. Because that is what he deserves. Romans 1:16 reminds us of this when it says, “16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes.” Let’s not be ashamed of this gospel. It’s the power of God at work in us.

Let’s pray.

So I have 2 songs to share with you before I sign off tonight.

The first is Fight on Fighter by King and Country. It’s a really awesome song to encourage you to keep fighting. Jesus will give you his power to get through it.

The second song is Holy by King and Country. I shared that this is one of my favourite bands and this song declares who Jesus is, our Lord almighty who died for each one of us. I recommend you have a listen to it.

And the last thing that I’m going to post is that today is World International Book day and they are giving away free copies on kindle of Francis Chan’s Letters to the Church. A great read and something that I’m sure will bless you and you can read while having a little extra time on your hands.

Have a great night and we will see you next time.