Sincerely Wrong

The tough conversation

In life we have things that we believe. Things that we have grown up believing to be true. We get these things we believe from various sources. They can come from our parents, our teachers, our friends, even our pastor and church. We hold onto these things many times because they come from someone that we trust, the person that has told us this thing whatever it is that we believe is someone we love and trust. Usually they too believe this thing and always have. It’s a sincere belief, one that we have always had. Many times we will defend this sincere belief to the bitter end. When I say bitter end I mean the bitter end of reason, the bitter end of understanding, the bitter end of communication, and unfortunately the bitter end of relationship. The thing that we need to realize is that no matter how sincere we are in some of these beliefs sincerity does not make them true. Sincerity does not make them right, sincerity doesn’t even make them okay and give us a pass to behave badly because we hold these “sincere beliefs that are wrong, that have not Biblical basis that come from man instead of God.

It’s not my fault

One of the most interesting and sad things when it comes to humanity interacting with others and more importantly with God is the need to not be responsible for things that are just messed up. We don’t like responsibility, and we hate the blame. In fact humans are really good at throwing others under the bus, and it’s been going on since mans inception. Look at the fall all the way back in Eden. Keep going through scripture.

Saria shifts the blame, even when she’s the one that started the whole Hagar thing.

Abram shifts the blame to God when he says look we are old why can’t you just bless Ishmael.

Saul shifts the blame to the people when he was disobedient.

David tries desperately to shift the focus off onto a man that he ended up having killed because he wasn’t where he was supposed to be when the Kings went out to war. The list goes on and on. Throughout scripture we find humans not liking the truth, not wanting to take responsibility for their actions and therefore needing to not be at fault and to find fault in someone else. (talk about Ink Master and the star wars Tattoos)

Here in Acts we find Peter bringing truth to the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

There is really no big mystery about what’s happened here and the leaders knew what was going on. The High Priest and other religious leaders were Jealous, Luke says as much when he talks about the miracles that are happening, the people that are being changed and healed all of it. So the leaders arrest the apostles and stuck them in public jail. Flexing their earthly muscles in an attempt to intimidate.

God steps in lets the apostles out tells them to go back to the temple. Go back to the very seat of religious power and authority and keep teaching. Talk about a bold in your face move on God’s part, they do it and when the guy that started the whole big thing gets there, and again tries to flex his religious power muscles by calling the Sanhedrin into special session, the full counsel of the Israelites thinking he’s going to shut these uneducated fishermen and tax collectors up, he has a pretty big wake up call. The jail is still locked, the guards are in front of the doors certain that they are still guarding someone only to find that they are not there.

Which brings us to the real issue that these guys are having with the Truth.

Acts 5:28 CSB

“Didn’t we strictly order you not to teach in this name? Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

The high priest and other religious leaders didn’t want to be guilty. They were seeing things that consistently showed that they were wrong. They were seeing miracles happen, they were seeing lives changed, they watched Jesus doing this and it bugged them, they thought that when he was killed that would be the end of it, they had reason to believe that and we will briefly get into that in a moment. But the thing that was the problem is this time things were different. The miracles continued, lives kept being impacted, their power as they saw it was diminishing, they had to shift the blame they had to not be responsible so they try to force the disciples hand and make them shut up out of sheer force of will and earthly power and understanding.

Peter then brings a hard truth right in their face.

Acts 5:29–31 CSB

Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree. God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

Don’t let vs 29 trip you up. It does many people. Using this verse as an excuse for all sorts of sticking it to the government and others. Context, matters. Peter is not talking about civic leaders, he’s talking about a group of power hungry religious leaders, who refuse to acknowledge the truth of the matter. That are attempting to squash the gospel, and end the issue they are having that could and eventually would effect the balance of their own political power.

We take credit for our successes and we shift the blame for our failures and in doing so we miss out on one of the most important parts of our growth as a follower of Christ.

Remission of sin happens when we place our lives into Jesus hands and tell him we must have him as a part of our life, that no matter how hard we try we can’t make ourselves good enough. Thats an initial realization, the “salvation” moment. But if we stop at the initial realization, the initial remission, we leave out the rest of it. We leave out the importance of working on our salvation, we leave out the aspect of repentance and sanctification. If we are unable to acknowledge our continued propensity for sin, we will fail to live the life we are called too.

Twist Endings

M Night Shamalan has made a living with twist endings. Leading you along a path, building anticipation, making you think things could be one way only to find out they are another.

The problem with twist endings is how unsettling they are for some people, most people actually. We want a beginning a middle and an end that makes sense.

Think about the movies you watch the books you read the stories you tell. There are things that are just supposed to happen. There are people that have to know the outcome, have to control that outcome, have to be the one in charge. This is what was going on with the High Priest and the religious leaders. They were losing control of the narrative of who God was and what God did and who God used. As keepers of the Sacred Text of Judaism they had a lot to lose and so they freaked out. This whole Messiah thing was throwing them off. So they were attempting to wrestle control back. To influence the narrative again. Which is why what Gamaliel does and says is rather important.

Acts 5:33–35 CSB

When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. 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. He said to them, “Men of Israel, be careful about what you’re about to do to these men.

He answers his colleagues in a way that would have been a twist for them and he gives them something to think about. He see’s something that they do not see either by choice or by true spiritual blindness.

Guaranteed Losses

Gamaliel had something to lose. That something is what humans for whatever reason seem to chase after more than anything else. Power.

I know that people say well some people chase love or fame or money, but the truth is all of those things can be and many times are seen as a symbol of power. What the world calls love is power. Now to be clear i’m not talking about the Love that we have in Christ, I’m talking about the corrupted idea of love. That whole if you love me you will. To many “love is power over another person. Fame gives the people who wield it power over so many things, it gives them influence on everything from the snacks we eat, the water we drink, the cars we drive and even the government that we have. Fame is a type of power that can be intoxicating, finally money. The power that money wields is huge in today’s world. People who love it are so many times corrupted by it looking at everything around them as a mark to be exploited.

Perhaps no power though has the potential to be so corrupted and abused than the power held by religious leaders because the power that they chase after has the very real possibility of destroying individuals.

It is this specific power that Peter answers when he talks about obeying God rather than man and it is this power that Gamaliel realizes needs to be set aside.

Acts 5:36–37 CSB

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. 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.

Gamaliel is an interesting study at this point. He was a member of the Minority party the Pharisees, the Saducess wanted death and yet this man is speaking, He has proven himself to both parties in the Sanhedrin and is therefore given a lot of credit and is able to speak to the anger and guilt in a way that not only makes sense but tells us all something important.

God works in us and through us. When we are walking square in the middle of his plan success will eventually follow. That success will not always look like what we think success should look like, it may not always seem to be the kind of success that we understand or want. But we have to remember that success in Gods eyes and Success in mans eyes are very different things.

The bottom line

We all need to understand something. Gods purpose will be fulfilled. No matter how much we fight it, no matter how much we put it off, no matter how much we think we can stop it. God will have his way. His way is not what many think it is. His way is not retribution, his way is not death, his way is not destruction, his way is not blind acceptance of whatever the humans want. His way is not what we ever could think it is.

Gods plan and purpose is simple.

2 Peter 3:9 CSB

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

God uses some pretty inclusive words, here’s another one.

John 3:16 CSB

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

All, whosoever. This is God’s purpose that humanity is returned to the relationship it was designed to have with God.

Which is why Gamaliel says this.

Acts 5:38–39 CSB

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; 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.

This is what we all need to understand today. This is what we need to be leaning into.

This Week’s Challenge

Last week you were supposed to walk around a place and ask God to let you see people with His eyes not your own.

Take it a step further this week.

Find a place that becomes your place to inhabit this week. A coffee shop, a park bench, a seating area in the mall, wherever there are people. Go there at least twice for at least 30 minutes. Begin to build relationship with the individual that God will lay on your heart.