The Passion We Cant Just take what we want
The Passion We Can’t Just Take What We Want
Acts 5:12-42 (NIV)
Acts 5:12The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.” 21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles. 22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this.
25 Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.
27 Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death… 40 … They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
In Reader’s Digest, a young woman told of being employed as a dental receptionist.
She said: I was on duty when an extremely nervous patient came for root canal surgery. He was brought into the examining room and made comfortable in the reclining dental chair. The dentist then injected a numbing agent around the patient’s tooth, and left the room for a few minutes while the medication took hold.
When the dentist returned, the patient was standing next to the tray of dental instruments moving them around. "What are you doing with my surgical instruments?" asked the surprised dentist. Focused on his task, the patient replied, "I’m taking out the ones I don’t like."
Apparently, some of those tools made the patient very uncomfortable. AND, his intention was to remove anything from the tray that was unpleasant to him.
1. The Trouble.
The High Priest and the Sanhedrin are uncomfortable There’s something about Jesus and the Apostles (and what they were preaching) that is unpleasant for these religious leaders. SO… their intention is to “remove” this irritation from their presence.
Even after Jesus death and resurrection they begin by warning the in Acts Chapter 4. They jail the apostles, flog them as they had done Jesus and warn them sternly not to do this again and later, we find them openly persecuting, not just the Apostles, but the whole church. They threatened them, beat them, imprisoned them, and even stoned some of them to death. Why would they do this?
Peter and John and the rest of the church were doing good things in the community.
They are helping people, healing the sick, reaching out to the poor, and standing against evil. These are good citizens by most standards.
So, why are the High Priest and the Sanhedrin so angry with these Apostles? Why are they making life so difficult on them? Well it is obvious that is not because of what they DOING… So, it must be because of what they TEACHING.
2. The Truth
What is it about their teaching that made the Sanhedrin so upset?
Here in Acts 5, the Sanhedrin explains the underlying reason they’re so upset:
"We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name…yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood." Acts 5:28
Were they guilty of Jesus blood? Yes they were, (that’s part of the controversy with the movie) but that is not the whole story. In the Gospels we find that: Jesus was arrested about Midnight. And the Sanhedrin began its trial at about 2 A.M. on the day before the Sabbath. Now, there were several things about the arrest & trial of Jesus that were illegal.
1st, it was against Jewish Law to arrest someone at night unless the accused was in the act of a crime, plus you weren’t supposed to arrest someone without a warrant and no legal court had indicted Jesus.
2nd, the Sanhedrin was illegally assembled: according to their own rules, they weren’t allowed to convene on the day before a Sabbath, or on a day before such holy seasons such as Passover.
3rd, it was against Jewish law for a court to be held at night.
4th, the Sanhedrin wasn’t allowed to institute proceedings, but only to judge those who were brought before them by magistrates. And the preliminary trial, which was held before the High Priest Annas was illegal. The whole court was required to hear all the information.
5th, the balloting was illegal. The younger were to vote 1st so that they would not be influenced by the elder and more powerful. Here the chairman pronounced Jesus guilty and worthy of death before anyone else had even voted.
6th, Jewish Law insisted that no capital case calling for a death penalty could be heard in single day. The sentence must not be pronounced on the same day as the trial. However, Jesus was tried, convicted, sentenced and executed on the same day.
In short, this was a Kangaroo Court. And the verdict was decided long before Jesus was brought before them.
So, were these leaders “guilty” of Jesus’ blood? Oh yes, and they knew it. But, the Bible teaches that they weren’t the only ones guilty. We’re all guilty of Jesus’ blood; we’re guilty because it was our sins that condemned Jesus to death. Isaiah 53:5 tells us “… he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
We were the reason Jesus went to the cross. It was our sins, our guilt, our lust, our bitterness, our selfishness, our SINS that nailed Jesus to the cross.
That was such an important part of what Mel Gibson tried to communicate in the movie “The Passion,” that in the part of the movie where Jesus is being nailed to the cross the hand (in the movie) that held the nail to be driven into Christ’s hand was Mel Gibson’s own hand. What Gibson was trying to say was: “I’m at fault… I nailed Him there… I’m guilty of this man’s blood” and so are we.
That’s part of the reason that there has been so much opposition to this movie. The anger and hostility that those in the media have shown towards the “The Passion” has been almost unprecedented. There have been accusations of anti-Semitism, complaints that the movie lacked any redemptive value, and that it was too gory and violent.
Some people in media have even made their criticisms personal. Andy Rooney went on record as calling Gibson a wacko and said he was as crazy as a bedbug even though he never saw the movie and said he wouldn’t.
There were even dark whisperings that Gibson would never work in Hollywood again. It was implied that the entertainment industry would blacklist him and the actors who were in the film.
Now, you don’t make people mad like that unless you’ve pushed some of their buttons. Well, this movie pushes some major buttons: Jesus died for our sins! He paid a terrible price for our sins! And His sacrifice demands a decision from us!!!
In a culture that literally celebrates violence and gore and pornography. This movie communicates those ideas in a way that no other one could.
Jesus died for your sins! He paid a terrible price for your sins! And His sacrifice demands a decision from us!!!
The end result of Gibson’s movie was to set loose great anger and rejection from some and great acceptance from others.
3. The Tribulation
I’m going to tell you a secret; you don’t need to direct a $30 million movie to get that type of response. You don’t have to be a Hollywood movie star, act in a TV special, sing from the stage of a Broadway musical, or even be a person of prominence in society to receive this kind of backlash for your faith.
Jesus said, all you have to do is belong to Him. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 10:22: “All men will hate you because of me...” and in Luke 6:22 it says, "Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” In fact, He said: "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. John 15:18-19
Why? Well, because Jesus is not an “inclusive” God. He is not “tolerant” of false religions. You can’t belong to Jesus and just live your life anyway you want to. You can’t belong to Jesus and do a lot of the things the rest of the world entertains itself with.
When you come to Jesus, you will change. You have to admit that you’ve been wrong, that you’ve sinned and that you want to be different. You have to acknowledge that you don’t deserve God’s grace and kindness, but you need His mercy.
One time a politician who was furious after receiving the proofs of a portrait. He stormed to the photographer, uttering angrily, "This picture does not do me justice!" The photographer replied, "Sir, with a face like yours, you don’t need justice, you need mercy!"
We as sinners all need mercy. And until a person comes to grips with the reality that they need forgiveness, and they need God’s mercy, and that they’re not good enough for God as they are, they are not going to be happy around Jesus. And they’re not going to be happy around believers either.
2 Corinthians 2:15-16 says, “…we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life…”
In other words, we smell of life to those who love Jesus, but we smell like death to those who don’t. Our lives, when we live for Jesus, are blaring out that people need to change their lives. And because of that, sometimes the world gets nasty, so they will insult us, they exclude us, and sometimes they do even worse than that. Peter was flogged… imprisoned… and eventually killed because of his faith in Jesus.
4. The Test
How do we handle it when the world treats us that way? Well, it all depends on whether you love Jesus and how much you love Him.
I love all of you. But, I love my wife and children more. Sorry, but that’s the facts. And I will defend them and stand beside them in ways I will not you. I love them in a deeper and a different way than I do you. So also, our love for Jesus, if it is deeper and different than our love for others will reveal itself in how we respond to those who reject us.
Peter stood before the Sanhedrin and faced imprisonment and pain. He was told NEVER to speak about this Jesus of Nazareth - ever again. In Acts 5:29 it tells us: Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!
In ministry, I have watched Christians faced with decisions like that. Decisions about whether they’re going to stand up for Jesus or whether they’re going to sit down and shut up. And how they’ve responded said a lot about how important Jesus was to them.
Back in the 1500’s a Catholic Priest was troubled by his past. He observed all of the requirements of the Roman Church in attempting to relieve himself of his shame and guilt. He did penance, even going so far as to kiss all the hundreds of steps that ascended to the Pope’s throne in Rome. But no matter what he did, he failed to find relief. Finally he turned to the scriptures to see if there could be an answer there that he couldn’t find elsewhere. It was there that he discovered forgiveness and hope and it was also there that he found himself led to question some of the Catholic Church’s activities - indulgences, the selling of church offices and even, eventually the authority of the Pope.
These discoveries prompted him to challenge the church to a debate on 95 different points of doctrine that he wrote on a piece of paper and nailed to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. The following debates and pamphlets that passed out as a result, swiftly brought the German peasants to his side of the debate.
Rome responded by Papal letters called bulls denouncing his teachings and excommunicating this priest, Martin Luther from the church. Luther burned the Bulls. Rome finally called Luther, as an errant priest, to a counsel held at Worms, Germany where he was faced by priests and bishops, knights and court officials, and especially by the hostile young emperor Charles V. Luther was confronted by his teachings, piled on a desk. He was asked if he formally acknowledged these writings, or if he would recant. No debate would be allowed.
Men had died for less. Heretics were burned at stakes or tortured for hours for punishment, and Luther knew that his very life hung in the balance. It was at that moment that he asked for time to consider his answer and to pray to God for guidance. He was granted 24 hours.
The next day, Luther attempted to make a defense of his works but was brusquely demanded to make a plain simple answer. Pausing, Luther looked at his accusers and replied that he would only recant if convinced of his error by either Scripture or evident reason. Otherwise he could not go against his conscience which was bound by the Word of God. He raised himself to his full height and declared "Here I stand, I can do no other."
Shortly afterwards, Luther was "kidnapped" by a friendly German prince who hid him in his castle for a period of time for Luther’s protection.
Where do you stand in your love for Jesus? Do you have forgiveness for your sins and eternal life, because you have accepted Jesus Christ into your life?