The Verdict

Introduction

Who here has ever been on the receiving end of some good advice? Maybe it was advice from a parent about a decision you were contemplating. Perhaps it was advice from a good friend about a relationship or job opportunity. Praise the Lord for people who give us good, solid advice! Think about some of those good one-liners or short pieces of advice that you’ve received. The golden rule is a great place to start, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” That’s good advice to someone going into a new situation or school! The Bible is full of good pieces of advice or wisdom, in fact there’s a whole book basically devoted to this very thing, which book could that be? The book of Proverbs. What practical advice does Proverbs give us? To parents, Proverbs instructs us to

Proverbs 22:6 ESV

6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

To each and every one of us, Proverbs tells us to

Proverbs 3:5–6 CSB

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.

To married folks, Proverbs provides some humorous wisdom as well

Proverbs 25:24 CSB

24 Better to live on the corner of a roof than to share a house with a nagging wife.

Sadly, we know that we don’t always receive the best of advice from other people. Sometimes people mean really well whenever you talk with them, but their experiences and perspectives simply don’t align with your own. Sometimes Christians tell you something that they believe from a traditional standpoint but it simply doesn’t align with God’s Word. From a non-Christian standpoint, maybe the solution to your problem would be to go out and be a jerk to someone who has wronged you and to live out the “eye for an eye” approach. They advise you to strive to get even and fight fire with fire. Maybe you receive advice to do an action that is wrong by a group of friends in the name of having a good time, making memories, or having some fun. We don’t always receive the best of advice, do we? What must we do whenever people give us advice? We weigh it with God’s Word.

This is the pattern given to us in Scripture and this is famously lived out by a group of believers called the Bereans in Acts 17

Acts 17:10–11 CSB

10 As soon as it was night, the brothers and sisters sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. Upon arrival, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 The people here were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, since they received the word with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

In our text, the conclusion of Acts 5, we see that the Sanhedrin (Jewish leaders) receive some advice from a wise Pharisee named Gamaliel. He reminds his fellow Jews that if God is behind something, it is impossible to stop. Do you believe this, friends? Do you believe that the power of God is so great and strong that whenever He is behind you, there is nothing that anyone can do to stop Him? We should, because that is what we see throughout Scripture. God provides for His children and His plan is unstoppable. Our mission is to follow His plan, obey Him, and proclaim His goodness and grace to those around us. We don’t just give bits and pieces of advice and wise sayings, the Gospel is so much more than that. The Gospel is revolutionary and life-changing. Let’s read about the power of almighty God and His Gospel this morning.

Acts 5:33–42 CSB

33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered the men to be taken outside for a little while. 35 He said to them, “Men of Israel, be careful about what you’re about to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed and came to nothing. 37 After this man, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and attracted a following. He also perished, and all his followers were scattered. 38 So in the present case, I tell you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or this work is of human origin, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God.” They were persuaded by him. 40 After they called in the apostles and had them flogged, they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them. 41 Then they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the Name. 42 Every day in the temple, and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

God Always Provides (33-39)

Acts 5 is a long chapter, one of the longest in the book of Acts, and we’ve seen a great deal of things take place before us. We’ve seen how seriously God takes sin as Ananias and Sapphira died because they lied to God. We’ve seen a couple of examples of the persecution of these early Christians. We’ve seen the power of God on full display in healing sick people and bringing salvation to numerous Jews. We’ve also been reminded of the importance of following God’s plan rather than staying in our comfort zones. Acts 5 is a powerful reminder of the fact that our God is the God who provides. Think of how God has provided for the early church. Jesus ascends to heaven in Acts 1 and what does God do? God provides them with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. The early church is small in number, God provides opportunity after opportunity for the Gospel to be proclaimed and tens of thousands of people have joined the church. Christians have been opposed and imprisoned, God provides further opportunity for the Gospel to be proclaimed and He rescues His followers from prison. God provides each step of the way, but He doesn’t always do it in the way that people might’ve expected. Have you noticed this in your own life? Whenever God does something, whenever He provides as only He can, does it always happen in the way that we think it will or does it look a little different sometimes? Often, it looks a little strange or at least not the way that we would’ve drawn it up.

Consider the Old Testament example of Joseph. Joseph was a faithful follower of God who had a rough end of the draw, right? He was favored by his father and this angered his brothers to the point that they sold him into slavery (bad). He goes to Egypt and is placed in the house of Potiphar, the captain of the guard, and he stands out based on his good work and faith in God (good). He is accused by Potiphar’s wife and thrown into prison (bad). He finds favor in the eyes of the Pharoah as God gives him the ability to discern the Pharaohs dream (good). He is placed in a position of leadership and helps Egypt survive a severe famine (good). He then is able to save his family from disaster because of the position that he is in (good). Now, did God provide for Joseph? He certainly did! Do you think that if you had told Joseph in Genesis 36 that he was about to be sold into slavery and be taken to Egypt and be imprisoned there that he would say, “Where do I sign up for that?” Probably not! Yet, whenever he talks with his family in Genesis 50, do you think that Joseph would want things to happen any other way? No. He was obedient. He trusted in the Lord. He says this,

Genesis 50:20 CSB

20 You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.

Joseph understood this very fundamental, yet profound truth: God provides every single time. Does God always make things go easy for us? Absolutely not. Yet, He always provides for us.

Sometimes God provides in very unexpected ways. Whether it be by leading His people with a pillar of fire or a cloud of smoke, or perhaps by sending His Spirit to guide each of His children directly, God promises to provide. Jesus speaks of this truth in the sermon on the mount as He notes that we don’t need to be anxious because the birds are fed by God and the grass is cared for and maintained by God. Jesus adds that we, as humans, are more valuable than the birds and the grass, yet there are moments in our lives where we are prone to wander. We are anxious. We worry. We doubt that God will come through and provide for us. What does Jesus say about this?

Matthew 6:34 CSB

34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Paul adds that we don’t need to worry because

Philippians 4:19 CSB

19 And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Notice what Paul doesn’t say here. He doesn’t say that God will provide exactly what you want, when you want it, how you want it. He simply says that God will supply all your needs according to His riches in Christ. What does that mean? God’s got this. God’s got you! He loves you. He has a plan for you. He will care for you.

This sounds really good, but how can I know that it’s true? Maybe you’re in a rough patch right now. Maybe you’re questioning if God truly has forgotten about you. Friend, if this is you, look to His Word and be filled with confidence.

Hebrews 13:5 CSB

5 Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.

He is with us - just as He was with his followers in Acts 5 and provided for them in a very unexpected way.

In Acts 5, we read that the apostles are back before the Jewish leadership and Peter has just told them, once again, the Gospel and their desperate need to repent and get right with Jesus. We read that they were enraged and wanted to kill these Christians at this point. Again, the Gospel makes people very upset at times! But are the Christians killed? No. Luke continues to share with us the response of a Pharisee named Gamaliel. Who exactly is this person? Why does he stand up to the angry mob and defend these Christians? These are the key questions before us.

Who is Gamaliel? This name might sound familiar to you because of Acts 22 where Paul says this

Acts 22:3 CSB

3 He continued, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strictness of our ancestral law. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

This was the Pharisee who trained the apostle Paul! This man was a very respectable and wise teacher of the law. Being a Pharisee, it makes sense as to why he would be the one to stand up at this point in time. Remember the last couple of weeks in Acts 5, who have been the Jews who complain and bring a charge against the Christians? The Sadducees. Why is this the case? Why do they care so much? Because they deny the miraculous and they want to keep the peace with Rome. They want to stay in control. They love their power! They see the Christians as a sincere threat. Now, we see a Pharisee offer some solid counsel and impart some advice. Why would the Pharisee do this? The Pharisee’s have a little bit more in common with the Christians than the Sadducees. The Pharisees do believe in the resurrection, they believe in the existence of Angels/Demons, they believed that God was sovereign and decreed the end from the beginning as Isaiah 46:10 states and they also held to the responsibility of humans to follow God. There is some similarity between Gamaliel and these Christians that the Sadducees would not have had. This is significant because, even though Jesus had His fair share of encounters with these people, God uses one of them to spare his servants. God doesn’t break them out of the trial with His angel as He did in Acts 5:19. He doesn’t send forth another Christian to speak on their behalf. He uses a Jewish teacher to share some examples of past leaders and their respective followings. How will this play out? How is God providing here?

Gamaliel talks about Theudas and Judas, two leaders of Jewish groups that met gruesome ends. Who are these men and what is Gamaliel’s point? Theudas is largely an unknown person. The Jewish historian, Josephus, talks about a Theudas in his writings but his Theudas would have been active after this point in the book of Acts, not before. As a result, we don’t really know much about this person other than the fact that he claimed to be someone important (maybe a prophet or even the Messiah), and we see that he had a large following of 400 people but after he was killed, his followers abandoned the movement and nothing happened. The same is true of the second person named, Judas. He had a large following but after his death, his followers were scattered and the movement died out at least temporarily. Judas instigated a revolt against the Romans and taught others that Israel didn’t need to pay money to another country because it’s an insult to God. Whenever you pick a fight against Rome, though, you normally lose your head! While there were many people in Jesus’ day who felt the same was as Judas (we call them the Zealots), they never were able to gain enough momentum to crush Rome. Instead, the Romans would eventually defeat the Zealots and destroy Jerusalem to the ground.

What is Gamaliel’s point in mentioning these people to the council? Simple: If they are simply followers of a man, they will fizzle out. If they are followers of God, we cannot stop them.

Friends, this is crucial for us to understand today. We don’t simply follow the teachings and instructions of a man who led a couple hundred people for a few years on earth. We have faith in, obey, and trust in the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. We are followers of God and, as Gamaliel states, His plan and kingdom cannot be overthrown. There was a song by Chris Tomlin a couple years ago called Whom Shall I Fear and in the chorus he writes, “I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind, the God of Angel Armies is always by my side.” Do you know who goes before you, Christian? None other than the Sovereign King of the Universe. Do you know who is by your side today? The Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you - His sheep! We have no reason to fear, worry, be anxious, or to be frustrated because we know that our God provides and He fights the battle for us! What is our responsibility? What must we do? We wait. We trust. We have hope.

Choose Joy (40-42)

As the Christians see God’s hand at work in using Gamaliel to persuade the council to let them go, they undoubtedly were excited. Have you ever been in a situation where you were going to be punished but at the last moment, something happens and the punishment was avoided altogether? Knock on wood, I’ve only been pulled over 1 time in my life and it was whenever I was still 17 and driving with a friend of mine to the golf course. We had finals at school that week and my friend and I were going to get done around 1:30 and we made a tee time for 2. No problem, right? As things happen we didn’t get out of school on time and we were in a bit of a rush to get to the course. I’m going about 10 over on Highway 65 and, sure enough, a cop pulls me over. I’ve only been driving for a year and a half by this point and I’m nervous as all get out. I’m afraid of what my parents are going to say to me. I’m embarrassed because my friend is in the car with me. I’m a little upset because now we we’re going to be really late to the course. As the cop walks over and runs my information, he does something that I’ll always remember. He lets me off with a warning because I hadn’t been pulled over before and because in his words, “I’d hate to give a kid a ticket before his tee time.” Word to the wise, just keep your golf clubs in the car and apparently there’s a highway patrolman who might let you slide by! Seriously, though, I deserved to be punished but it was avoided because of this man’s kindness.

Think of all the many ways that we have avoided what we truly deserve, especially as Christians. Think of all the ways that you have been showered with God’s grace. What should this cause us to do consistently? It should cause us to be full of joy. Ultimately, whenever we are at our lowest point, we are left with a decision that is completely up to us: How will we proceed? What mentality will we have? They say that you can’t pick the hand that you’re dealt, but you can pick how to play those cards. Friends, as Christians, we choose to have joy each and every time!

This is the example given to us in the text by these Christians. They have received God’s grace and they are not going to be killed, as the Sadducees wanted. Yet, we read in verse 40 that they are flogged and reprimanded. They are once again ordered to not speak about Jesus. They might not’ve been killed, but they were still punished. They might’ve not gotten the speeding ticket, but they were fined and warned.

How do the Christians respond to this punishment? They rejoice. If you and I were to be imprisoned, beaten up, cursed at, and nearly killed, we might be a little bit upset about things. After all, this is what social media is for nowadays, right? Whenever something bad happens, it’s so much easier to vent about it on Facebook or Instagram than it is to actually fix the problem. It’s easier to be upset than it is to choose joy. I can’t help but think of the practical application of this for us, church. If these Christians could rejoice in their suffering, why is it so hard for us to rejoice whenever life is good? As DA Carson puts it, “It is almost as if the apostles were, dare I say it, relieved. They had been given astonishing authority but instead of strutting around talking about their power, they were a little worried that they had not suffered yet.… Now they’ve been good and flogged, and they smile because they’ve been counted worthy to suffer for the name.”

Jesus suffered. He tells us that we must pick up our cross. Paul teaches that suffering is for our good. Suffering, although it’s painful, does not get the last word because our Savior has already spoken for us and He paid it all.

Romans 8:18 CSB

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

The next time that you find yourself suffering as a Christian, rejoice because you are following in the footsteps of countless brothers and sisters who came before us.

Application

From this text we see many different pieces of application for us

Trust in God to Provide

Our God is all-powerful. He has the goods to get it done. We trust in Him to provide and we know that He will - it just might not be in the way that we expect or want Him to. As a result, we trust in His plan and in His provision and on His timing.

Follow through and Proclaim the Gospel

Throughout the book of Acts, and in our own lives, we know that God provides. We see it on full display. What is our responsibility as Christians? Simple: Proclaim the Gospel. This is the theme of Acts. God provides for His church so that His Gospel will be proclaimed. This is the same truth in our world now! God provides and the Gospel is proclaimed. How can you do your part of following through and proclaiming the Gospel?

Rejoice in the Valley moments

We see that the Christians give thanks after they are persecuted. After the suffering. They don’t rejoice whenever everything is perfect, they do so whenever things are hard! They are flogged - think of the beating that Paul took several times with the 39 lashings - this was not easy… But it was worth it because the Christians realized that the reason that they were being punished was because of their faithfulness to Jesus Christ. Whenever we go through hard times, we can and should rejoice because we know that God is for us. He is with us. And He is worth it!

Conclusion

Whenever you think of the greatest advice you’ve ever received, do you think of something that points you closer to Jesus Christ? Many of us receive great bits of advice from parents and friends, I pray that those individuals in your life taught you a great many productive, and helpful things! However, the greatest piece of advice that we can give to anyone is to be reconciled to Jesus Christ. To repent of our sins and place our faith and allegiance to King Jesus! This is to be our task as Christ-followers as well - we read that the Christians left and continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. This is the message that we are to proclaim and teach to others today as well! The message that Jesus Christ is the answer. He is greater than whatever well people are running to. He is the Savior who satisfies our souls. He is the Creator who formed us and knew us before the foundation of the earth were laid. He is the One who calls us His own and commands us to be His witnesses.

What about when times are tough? What about whenever I don’t feel 100%? What about when there’s a cost? You are His and He is yours. You are to be His witness. He comes first. Proclaim the name of Jesus with those around you.