Listen to Glisten: Grow Bold

Acts 5:17-41

Responses

Trailer Park:

Can we pray for you? “That’s up to you.”

“Mom, are you kidding me!!”

Key Themes:

Early opposition

Apostle’s Boldness

Unstoppable movement of God

Privilege and joy of suffering for Christ

Three Themes:

Devoted themselves to teaching of the Apostles, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer

They shared everything

Jesus was raised

Teaching includes Jesus as ascended to heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he shall judge the living and the dead.

Raised what? From the dead? or from the dead and into heaven?

AS PRINCE!

Billy Graham stated at one of the International Conferences for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam that when he started preaching about the Lordship of Christ, many felt that less people would respond to the appeal to commit their lives to Christ. But he did not find that to be so. If anything, there was an increase in the proportion of people who responded to the invitation. NIVAC

Introduction: Unstoppable Movement

Last week we talked about how the Holy Spirit singularly influenced the early church and without that influence the early church would haven’t grown.

Miraculous healing last week

Miraculous escape this week

Without God’s intervention, this movement would have been squashed...

A passage that would make a great movie:

Drama, suspense, jealousy, justice, and intrigue...

Scenes flash:

Portico

Prison

Angel

Court case

flogging

Sadducees with fists in the air

Apostles emboldened to go back to preach...

Part I: Opposition to Open their Mouths

High priest and a group of Sadducees fume with jealousy

Movement has gotten out of hand…

They had already spoke to Peter back in the last chapter, threatening them after they had healed the lame beggar...

So this is the not Peter’s first day in county

The apostles are tossed in jail:

v.19-20: But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 20 “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”

Life? Jesus??

Senate of the People gathered: Sanhedrin:

Formal Gathering

Judicial court

Very formal setting, and the prisoners are summoned.

They’re gone! Door are locked. Guards are standing guard, BUT NO PRISONERS!

Shawshank Redemption

Von Trap Family singers escaping Germany occupied??

Apostles are gone!! Full on Shawshank Redemption

Unlike Shawshank, the Apostle’s don’t go into hiding! They just go right back to where they were before!

ARE THEY JUST REALLY BAD FUGITIVES??

Temple Captain and Temple Police =Greatly perplexed!

Scratching their heads: How is this possible?

Did they dig themselves out?

Is there a trap door somewhere?

What’s going to happen me?

Then someone comes and says, “Look! They’re back in the Portico!!”

Without a fist or fight, The Temple Guard politely ask the Apostles to come with them

They are scolded for disobeying their orders to keep their mouths shut about Jesus.

Peter’s response:

“We must obey God rather than human beings! Our God—like, the God of OUR past—raised Jesus from the dead. YOU kill by hanging him. God has now exalted him to his “own right hand as Prince and Savior” WHY? “so that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.”

Peter infuriates the room...

Pause:

Most commentaries provide an application to the modern day Christian regarding civil disobedience and when it is appropriate to do so.

It’s a good question to ask because it’s an important element of this text

And obedience in general was a very important point for Peter!

Peter’s words on obeying authority: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right” (1 Peter 2:13–14).

Is Peter being inconsistent? Like, he was told by the high judicial court in the land to keep quiet, and yet he flat out refuses. So is he not taking his own advice?

Defiance against authority is no small thing!

What are we dealing with here?

Authority demands the Church put a cap on the Gospel!

They aren’t telling him to stop protesting about potholes on Main Street, they are commanding him to put a lid on what the LORD told them to do: Teach and Preach!

And so we celebrate Peter and the Apostles for disobeying these orders because they are in direct defiance to the Will of God!

The demands of the regime overstepped it’s boundaries

And so we stand in solidarity with the Apostles here, believing that any regime who puts on a lid on the Gospel requires civil disobedience.

Examples to follow: Heroes of the faith.

When Shadrack, Michach, and Abednego stayed standing while the masses knelt at Babylon’s idol, that act of civil disobedience was in their godly right.

Daniel prayed to God when he was told not to:

Forced idolatry is worth civil disobedience.

Forced silence is worth civil disobedience.

That’s when civil disobedience is not a suggestion, but a requirement.

Many wise scholars have attempted to understand to handle civil disobedience, I want to rely on their wisdom this morning as well for some further reflection:

John Stott:

“What shall we do, then, when [Government uses their power] to punish good and promote evil?” He answers, “We must resist. ‘Civil disobedience’ is a biblical concept.” Stott argues that “since the state’s authority has been delegated to it by God, we are to submit to it right up to the point where obedience to the state would involve disobedience to God. At that point it is our Christian duty to disobey the state in order to obey God.” NIVAC

Tim Keller, Albert Mohler and John Yates discusses the nature of civil disobedience...

Babylon and the Roman Empire: considerably more hostile states

Caesar claimed to be God: Yes, but even then, Peter and Paul commands us to not be like an Enemies of the State!

Theology of Martin Luther King Jr.: Being willing to be arrested, shows respectful but forceful statement. BUT, he’s not DAMAGING property or DEMANDING ransom. They are making a civil statement to INFLUENCE the moral character of the POWERS THAT BE, NOT ATTACK IT!

And one more point on POWER. Remember how the Bible defines power. It was a gift of the Holy Spirit! We are stewards of this POWER AS WELL. Remember what Jesus says at the beginning of Acts. He says wait in Jerusalem, and there you shall receive POWER in the Holy Spirit. Biblical POWER is found in the Holy Spirit, a process which begins with dying to self, denying oneself, and rising with Christ. That’s power. POWER is found in sacrifice! Sacrifice saved us from our sin. The cross saved us, not a sword! The Apostles understood that POWER IS IN THE SUFFERING THE Apostles experienced later on in this passage which we’ll get to in a second.

A lot of anxiety can be avoided today if we can just remember that we have power today regardless of REGIME. Our POWER comes by sacrificing for others. Through our love for others.

Evangelical Christianity is no longer a respected voice like it used to be. The ethics of Christ’s Kingdom aren’t jiving with society’s trajectory and so how we respond to the culture is super important. Will can fight back demanding our voice to be respected. We can scream like a three year old and demand the world to listen!

John Yates says, “Biblical Christians are less understood or accepted, climate is changing: As we face more opposition, it clarifies our thinking about what really matters and forces us to think about our role in society. We have been pretty superficial about our faith and opposition makes us think more seriously about our faith and gives us a deeper sense of awareness of Christians around the world who really are persecuted... Could opposition be good for us?

That’s a great question!

With that question bouncing around in the back ground, let’s get through the rest of this passage to learn what is good for us...

Part II: God’s Movement

Gamaliel stands up commanding attention:

Gamaliel was a prominent Pharisee. Paul himself studied under Gamaliel

History lesson of insurrection

Theudas and Judas the Galilean who both started movement that petered out.

If this movement is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is God, you will not be able to overthrow them.” v.39

Of course, we know from church history who

John Ortberg: “Let’s assume for a moment that two thousand years ago you were a gambler. I know a number of you don’t like gambling, but bear with me for a moment. Let me ask you, who would you have bet your money on to last: the Roman Empire and the Roman army, or a little Jewish rabbi with twelve inexperienced followers?” Everyone smiled as John went on to say, “Isn’t it interesting that all these years later we are still naming kids Matthew, James, Sarah, and Mary, and we are still naming kids Matthew, James, Sarah, and Mary, and we call our dogs Nero and Caesar? I rest my case.” (9-10)

We know who wins here. We know which regime wins. We know that through the course of history, which movement will last!

INCREDIBLE HOPE!! This WAS a movement from God!

But then look back at the text, just when you think everything is going to be fine, just before the Apostles are released, it says, “the Apostle were call in and beaten and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus.”

Cruel warning!!

Flogged:

William Willimon: Many died with 40-1 lashes, 1/3 on front, 2/3 on back

They aren’t like the Lame beggar who is walking and leaping.

Rejoiced because they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

Went back to preaching that the : Temple and house to house

Could opposition be good for us?

Well, we shouldn’t want it. We shouldn’t ask for it.

But if Christian freedoms will be stripped from us, will we rejoice and be glad in it.

If Christians will face opposition, if our worship services will be deemed illegal, if we will be told we can’t speak the name of Jesus and get punished for it, will we rejoice and be glad in it.

Or consider this: What would you do first when facing opposition: Attack or rejoice!

The Christian response is not fight OR flight, but to rejoice in suffering.

The Christian’s ultimate comfort is Christ, even if that brings comfort brings physical suffering.

I’m not saying this is easy, folks.

It’s one thing for me to say that for myself, but I don’t want to say that for my children… I don’t want to say that for anyone else… But the type of suffering the Apostles experience in that moment was feeling worthy to suffer like Jesus. It was an honor to experience that type of dishonor.

Would you do the same?

I want to conclude by focusing on the final verse

“In the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.”

Notice how that is worded:

It doesn’t say that they were preaching about Jesus Christ.

No, they were preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

That’s a political statement, folks, especially for the crowd listening under that Portico in the Temple

Peter is saying, “There’s a Messiah that our people have been waiting for for centuries, and this Jesus of Nazereth was him.”

That’s a political statement. The Messiah was a politically saturated word...

To teach that the Christ is Jesus is to say, “The political King our country has been waiting for came as God incarnate in Jesus. The political King we have been waiting for is the King the whole world has been waiting for! He’s the King of kings. The Lord of lords. It’s to him we are called to pay homage, respect, love, and honor. The Christ is Jesus, and many of you saw him hanging on the cross just a few months ago. His crown was that of thorns, and as the Christ he showed us power in a cross! That thing you all fear, is not the way tot freedom!!

You want joy, you will find it by participating with this Christ, because his life didn’t end on that cross. It didn’t end in the tomb. It continues in heaven, folks! He is the Christ that we least expected!”

You want to experience power:

Go model humility.

Protest with love and joy.

Protest with peace and patience

Protest with kindness, goodness, and faithfulness.

Protest with genteness and self-control

By doing so, you model this Christ...

Christians unite!

Under one message: JESUS IS THE CHRIST!

We can’t expect this ride to be cushy!

Calvin’s Question: “How important to us is the gospel of Christ and honor of his name?”

“Tertullian, addressing the rulers of the Roman Empire, cried out: ‘Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust.… The more you mow us down, the more we grow; the seed is the blood of Christians.’” Stott

But you know what? I’m not so certain that this is actually what we need to be worrying about...

See, what we really need to worry about is what kind of faith will be really be protecting!

Like, what really is the problem?

Is the problem that we’re facing the type of persecution described in this passage, the type of persecution our brothers and sisters are facing in China, or India, or Sri Lanka, North Korea, etc? Is this really our problem?

I don’t think so...

I think what we really need to worry about is whether or not we really know who is in charge?

Do we believe in a Christianity where Christ is Lord?

We have a Christianity stuffed within consumerism.

We have a Christianity thirsty for political power.

We have a Christianity hungry for bigger, stronger, faster.

A Christianity divided over what side of the aisle you stand on rather than who sits on the throne!

Albert Mohler challenges us to be “Willing to say, I will preach the Gospel, regardless of what that costs me.”