The Higher Power - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Acts 5:12-42 the apostles appear before the Sanhedrin, counting it all joy to be subject to punishment for following God’s commands.
Transcript:
If you're going to keep your job, you need to know who's in charge. Workplace dynamics can be a bit of a tricky thing. Opinions abound as to how the job should be done. Some colleagues expect everyone else to work at the frenetic pace they do. Others expect everyone to just mail it in as they do. Then there are managers or supervisors, they have their own ideas about how you should be doing your job. Finally, there's the owner, the CEO, the chief, whoever is at the top of things. If they really understand the work entrusted to their employees, then they'll have definite ideas about what should be happening. Human relations can be tricky
but, in the end, we would all agree that our final rule, the definitive expectation, begins and ends with the highest authority. In the end, if what our colleagues think, or even what our supervisors think, is fundamentally at odds with what our boss expects from us, then we must dissent. If we will be good workers, we must do the job that we were employed to do according to the standard and expectation of our employer.
But even our employer's authority is not absolute. Our employer is not above the laws of the land. All the more, our employer's demands do not supersede God's commands. In fact, the entirety of our lives boils down to this. Are we living in accordance with God's expectation? Is he pleased with us? Does he approve of us?
It is very easy to forget this. It is very easy to forget that he is in charge. It is too easy to fold under the bite of social pressure, to bend under the scowling disapproval of the world, its rulers, and its mobs. It's nothing new. The Church, the people of God, feel it today as we have felt it from the beginning.
But as we stood then, so we can stand now. We find our example in the Apostles. This morning we continue in Acts 5, beginning in verse 12. They are, Luke gives us this account. He says the apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's colonnade.
No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. So, as we've seen previously in Acts, so we see continued now, that this Holy Spirit is continuing to work through the Apostles, manifesting through them various signs and wonders, healings, through their word of teaching.
They're making quite an impression on the population of, of Jerusalem.
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, there is a place where they often gather. They would often meet in the temple court, particularly in Solomon's Colonnade, which is depicted behind me. Now it's interesting that even as all these things were going on, these signs, these wonders, this teaching, and they're gathering quite a crowd, it says that no one dared join them, even though the apostles and the believers were all highly regarded.
And we, we may, we might wonder why that is. Why were they afraid of joining them? Why did they not dare join them? Well, we can go back to what we just talked about last week. You think about what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. They were deceitful, lying about giving all the proceeds from a sale of land for the benefit of the church.
Instead, they kept a little bit back, but said otherwise. And as a result, God struck them dead. So the people are, as this word is getting around about this, the people realize, like, this is, this is very serious. We also might surmise that the people understand that the religious authorities, the priestly authorities, are not big fans about what the apostles are doing.
And they all know what happened to Jesus. And so they're highly regarded, but people are not daring to join them. Just as a bit of an aside, I think we should be able to recognize that we can experience that dynamic even today, where as Christians, as a church, we might be highly regarded by many people and yet they won't join us.
It'd be very frustrating. I can tell you as a pastor, sometimes I find that very frustrating, but it's because they're living under the fear of the world. There's all sorts of concerns that are keeping them from coming to Christ, from joining the church. And so then as now we see that people can have high regard for the church, have high regard for Jesus Christ, and yet they don't dare join.
And yet at the same time, this is kind of the paradox, it says that they grew and grew. And we see that even today also. That even while many reject Christ, they won't take that last step, we do see that the church grows. Not just here, but in other places as well, bit by bit, the church grows all across the world.
As we continue on in verse 15, we see some of the nature of some of the wonders that were going on at this time. It says, as a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.
Isn't that amazing? That even as Peter's walking down the street and his shadow falls upon someone, they're healed. It's as though his shadow is an extension of himself. It's reminiscent of the miracle of the, that, miracles that we saw in Jesus's own ministry, when the woman that was dealing with an issue of bleeding just touched the mere fringe of Jesus's cloak and was healed.
Now of course, the healing is not because of who Peter is, but it's because of who God is, working through him by the power of the Holy Spirit. And these, these wonders are just so magnificent that people from towns all over are streaming to Jerusalem so that the sick might be healed and so that demons might be cast out.
And they did experience healing. Now, as we see this, as we hear about these wonders, as we hear about something so wonderful as even Peter's shadow crossing someone and them being healed, we might wonder, well, why doesn't that happen today? And in fact, it might cause us to wonder, you know, did this really happen given that we don't see this happening today?
I don't walk down the street and my shadow when I hit someone, people aren't healed. Well we must say that God could certainly do that. We also have to recognize, though, that God is not held to any rule as to how he would work at any time and place in history, but that he has a specific purpose for every season.
And in this season, we must remember that there's quite a bit of obstacles standing before the apostles in order for them to be able to persuade people that their message is true. Think about it. The one that they claimed to be Messiah was crucified on the cross. Everyone saw that. Not everyone saw that he was raised from the dead.
Many did. The apostles did. It says up to 500 saw him alive at one time. But not everyone saw Jesus raised from the dead. So think about how you're going to work from that small pool of people. And try to persuade a world that only understands crucifixion to be the most shameful way of being put to death and saying, that guy was the Messiah.
How are you going to persuade people? Well, the message certainly counts and the Holy Spirit was working through them as they preached the gospel message and they pointed to the Old Testament and said, this, listen, you see Jesus, he's fulfilling everything that the scripture said needed to occur. But more than this, you can imagine that what might put people, push people over the edge is if you have incredible signs like this occurring. And the fact that we are here today, that the church now spreads across the globe, I believe testifies to the reality that these things occurred, because otherwise, how could it be that the church would otherwise emerge under those kinds of circumstances.
Circumstances that completely mitigate, militated against them ever gaining ground. In fact, we see they drew so much attention by these wonders that the priestly authorities were filled with envy and malice towards them. Continuing on verse 17, it says, then the high priest and all his associates who were members of the party of the Sadducees were filled with jealousy.
They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. Go, stand in the temple courts, he said, and tell the people all about this new life.
This is quite a get by the high priests and all his associates. They're jealous. They're upset about the message that is being preached. They're jealous about what's going on. And it says that they arrested the apostles. And we can only go off of what the text is saying here and assume that they arrested all of the apostles.
Imagine they've arrested all 12 of them. They've got all the leaders here. Seems like a pretty bad situation. The church could just be snuffed out just like that, seemingly, by any sort of natural expectation. If you take, cut off the head of the snake kind of thing.
And yet we have another miraculous sign, wonder, intervention. These authorities say these men shouldn't be preaching this message. They shouldn't be doing the things that they're doing. We're going to throw them into jail. And what does God do? He overrules them. He sends an angel and releases them from jail and gives them their marching orders. Telling them go stand in the temple courts and tell the people all about this new life. Well, that would be a shot in the arm for the Apostles, wouldn't it? Something you have to appreciate is that, naturally speaking, you would expect that the Apostles would be intimidated by these leaders.
Not only because of what they did to Jesus, but just how they were conditioned their whole life. These were Jewish men. They had been brought up to respect the priestly authorities. You can imagine them thinking that maybe they should give in to their authority. In fact, we don't see those sorts of doubts circling in the disciples minds, especially given when something like this happens.
An angel of the Lord coming and saying, No, this is what you're supposed to be doing. You are to be preaching this message. Get back out there. And what they are teaching is not just, a new philosophy, a new way of looking thing at things. The angel says, tell the people all about this new life. You see, the gospel is truth.
Manifest with living power. It is no just mere dead doctrine. It's not just a set of ideas. It is the power of God, poured out because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, realized through the work of the Holy Spirit. And so, that's what the apostles do. They get back out there. Verse 21, it says, At daybreak, they entered the temple courts, as it 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 jail for the Apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors.
But when we opened them, we found no one inside. On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priest were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to. Then someone came and said, Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people. 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. Now, just appreciate the hilarity of this situation. These august priestly authorities, like, we've arrested these men, and we're going to bring them now before the full assembly of the Sanhedrin to judge them. And they said, go bring these prisoners to us.
And they find that they're not there. What do you mean they're not there? They're back in the temple. They're teaching the people again. It's absolutely humiliating for them. And what it shows implicitly is these apostles are fearless. You can imagine, okay, if they got out of jail, maybe they ran to the Galilean countryside.
But no, these guys went right back to where they were. They have no fear. Instead, what we see here is that there's fear among the leaders that are arresting them. It says that the captain and his officers who went to arrest the apostles, they did so gently, said, Please come with us, please. They don't use force because they're afraid of what the people might do to them.
So the tables are completely turned. You expect the apostles are going to be afraid, it's not them. It's the captain, and the guards are afraid. The priestly authorities are full of jealousy, and they're all anxious about these guys doing what they're doing. And in any case, the apostles oblige, they're brought in.
Continuing on verse 27, it says, The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 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.
Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than human beings. So kind of just the opening volley from the high priest, he throws his weight around saying, we gave you strict orders. You weren't supposed to be teaching in this name. You're filling Jerusalem with all this nonsense about this teaching.
And you're trying to make us look guilty. You're trying to make us look like the bad guys here. Now, they wouldn't deny that they crucified Jesus. That they did. But the trouble is about the apostle's message is that they're presenting Jesus as one who is innocent and who was shown to be truly the Messiah by God and that he was raised, Jesus was victified. He was, he, he was, his message was shown to be true. And that implies the guilt of the religious leaders.
And so, they're upset, but Peter and the Apostles are resolute and say, We must obey God rather than human beings. Now, this is a familiar tone that we've heard. You'll recall that this is echoing what Peter and John said just a chapter earlier, when they were brought before these same leaders. When they said, which is right in God's eyes, to listen to you or to him, you be the judges.
As for us, we cannot help speaking what we have heard, seen, and heard. You see, the apostles recognized that God's authority is higher than the authority of these high, of the high priests and his peers. His authority is the greater reality. And so in light of that, they can stand with courage. And it's when we recognize that, that God's authority is above all the authorities of this world.
Maybe it is your boss. Maybe it's political leaders. Maybe it's just kind of the authority of social opinion or whatever it will be. God's authority is higher. And when we reckon with that reality, when we see that He is the King, He is the Lord. That gives us good ground to stand firm.
Now, continuing on, Peter and the Apostles explain how it was revealed that God's authority is on their side. In verse 30 says The God, they say, the God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead, whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior, that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. You see, if, if Jesus was not resurrected from the dead, he wouldn't have been exalted, and the apostles wouldn't have been standing before the Sanhedrin at this point. But it is because Jesus was raised from the dead, it is because he was vindicated by God, shown to truly be the Prince and Savior of Israel, the one in whom the forgiveness of sins might be found.
It's because of this that they now stand here. And they must stand because they are witnesses of everything that's happening. And they're standing there because the Holy Spirit who indwells them now is also witnessing to that reality through all these signs and wonders that are occurring.
The message that they're bringing, even as they are pointing out that yes, these leaders are guilty, is nonetheless not a message of revenge. They're not sending out a message saying, these leaders did this so we all should crucify them in return. They're not saying that. The message is that Jesus is the one in whom forgiveness can be found.
Repent and believe. And so while it's not stated directly, indirectly, the fact that they're preaching this to the Sanhedrin, they're saying this to them as well. This is open to you all. You too can repent and believe. Even the ones that conspired to kill Jesus, even they can be forgiven.
And that reminds us just of how amazing God's grace is, is that if they can be forgiven, the ones who conspired to kill Jesus, then certainly what we've done in our lives, we too also can be forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, by his sacrifice. Now, while their message is powerful, these leaders are just not having it.
In verse 33, it says, When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed the Sanhedrin, Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.
Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about 400 men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
Therefore, in the present case, I advise you, leave these men alone. Let them go. For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourselves fighting against God.
This man Gamaliel is an interesting fellow. We learn later on in Acts 22: 3 that he was in fact Paul's mentor, Paul's teacher. He was a leading Pharisee. And he seems to have some, some wisdom here. Even if he doesn't come all the way around to becoming Christian himself, he dissuades the Sanhedrin from following through with wanting to kill the apostles.
And the way that he goes about bringing them around to his way of seeing things is he points out some previous failed movements. You see, during the time in which Christ appeared, there was a lot of messianic expectation. The Jewish people were expecting that the Messiah would appear and deliver them from Roman rule.
And so you had many a number of leaders who appeared and tried to kind of put on that suit. They said, okay, we're going to overthrow the Romans. Here, you guys got some swords, let's create a little, you know, guerrilla army here. We're going to cause some trouble and we'll reestablish Israel. Well, the Roman Empire is pretty big.
Their army is pretty notorious for being a very effective killing machine. And so as many times as these groups, groups rose up, they got taken down, and the movements just fell apart. The leaders were killed, and the groups just dispersed. Now what's interesting here is that we have a change in the pattern with Jesus.
Jesus gained a great following. Everyone was expecting He was going to be Messiah, and then He was killed. Now if it was going to follow the same pattern as before, He would have been killed, and then the whole movement would have dispersed. But that's not what we see happening here. Jesus was killed, and instead, his believers, his followers are rallying.
In fact, the group is growing. Now, the Sanhedrin would deny that Jesus was raised from the dead, but that's the difference. We know that's the difference here. That Jesus was killed, but he was raised from the dead, and so there's real power here. And perhaps Gamaliel recognizes this difference, or maybe he's just saying, just give it time, it will fall apart.
In any case, it seems like he's like, let's, let's tread carefully here. Why, why involve ourselves in trying to make a judgment here? Just leave them alone. If it's just a man, it's going to fall apart. But he says in verse 39, If it's from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You only find yourselves fighting against God.
And if you're fighting against God, that's a battle you're not going to win. This is testified in Scripture. We see in Lamentations 3: 37, it says, Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord does not decree it? In Proverbs 21: 30, there is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.
Isaiah 8:9-10, the word of the Lord in opposition to the powers of Assyria and all nations that would come against Israel. It says, Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered. Listen, in all you distant lands. Prepare for battle and be shattered. Prepare for battle and be shattered. Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted.
Propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us. For God is with us. And the disciples know this. They know that the God of Israel, the God of their fathers, is with them. They were assured by Christ that they would not be defeated. Remember what Jesus tells Peter in Matthew 16: 18. He says, Peter, you are Peter, on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. You see, the church, can experience setbacks in this world, and the way I kind of imagine it is as we go through the course of history the tide of the church, and it goes out. And when the tide of the church is going out sometime this world will build up its little kingdoms.
It's little castles, it's walls and there will be a little celebration on the part of the world saying see we're overcoming the church. We're pushing back all this Christian nonsense. But it's only a temporary setback. And they cannot resist the tide because they're just built of sand.
You see, when Christ returns, ultimately and finally, we're going to see that all opposition against Christ is going to be obliterated. But even here and now, we can see those walls come tumbling down as the tide comes back in. As the spirit, in accordance with God's plan and purpose, begins to work again in new places and times.
Nothing can stand against us so long as God is with us. Closing with verses 40 through 42, we see the effect of Gamaliel's speech and what befalls the apostles. It says, His speech persuaded them. 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.
The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. 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 Messiah.
So coming out of this private, back behind the closed door meeting, the Sanhedrin said, Oh, here's the good news, guys. We're not going to kill you. But we will flog you.
Now I don't, don't know about you, but the idea of flogging, being flogged sounds terrifying. I would not want to experience that. They're flogged and they're told, don't talk about Jesus. Now Jesus told the disciples that this was, was going to happen to them. Mark 13, he says, you must be on guard. You'll be handed over to local councils and flogged in the synagogues.
On account of me, you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. So they know that's going to happen, but even as they know it's going to happen, once you experience being flogged, being whipped again and again and again, and their backs just opened up, you'd expect that maybe they would be discouraged at this point.
But that's not what we see here. Instead, it says in verse 41, they, they were rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace.
They were rejoicing over the fact that they got to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.
Seems a bit strange, maybe. You're wondering, like, I don't know if I would have rejoiced. But think of where they're coming from. When Jesus was arrested, betrayed, they all scattered. They ran away. They were scared. But now things have changed. Now they're standing firm. They're standing with Jesus now. So that even as he suffered, so now they are willing to suffer for the gospel, for the kingdom of God.
And we see also that apart from just this kind of this honor of being able to stand shoulder to shoulder in Christ and suffering, Peter explains to us in his letter, 1 Peter, of how God uses suffering to shine forth the genuineness of our faith. In 1 Peter 1, verses 6- 7, it says, In all this you greatly rejoice, talking about the gospel message, essentially.
Though now, for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Paul says something similar in Romans 5, talking about how we grow in our sufferings.
You see, it's easy to say that you have faith when everything's going well. But the quality of our faith, the depth of our faith is revealed when we are under duress. As a pastor, I'm always looking for analogies, and the easiest analogies for me just come from my own life. And so, as I was thinking about this, I was thinking about firefighters.
I was thinking about how it's easy to look like a good firefighter when you have the uniform on. Maybe, maybe you're sweeping the bay, you're washing the trucks. It's easy to look like a good firefighter on the good and easy days. But the excellence of a firefighter is not proven on those days. It's proven on the bad days, when everything goes sideways. When you have a three alarm fire. That's when it's proven whether you're really up to the task. When we think about our faith, we have to be able to be humble and recognize that even we ourselves don't know how we're going to hold up under the trial until the trial happens.
You can say you think you're going to stand firm, but it's only proven once that actually occurs. And so there can be a cause for rejoicing even in the trial because now that opportunity has come for us to stand forth and say, yes, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with Jesus Christ. And it's in that hour that God is glorified.
And as God is glorified, we share in that glory. We partake in it. It's an occasion for rejoicing. And so we see the apostles rejoicing. And we see that they kept going house to house even though they were told to stop. Even though they were told to stop, it says in verse 42, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
They were defiant. They said, God's standing behind us. We're going to keep on going. It doesn't matter if you flog us. It doesn't matter if you're going to kill us. You see, we can suffer pain. We can face down our fears. We can keep going when we know that God is with us. We can stand when we know that he is the one who counts, he and his command. We can speak the truth, we can call sin, sin, and we can invite repentance and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Just as Paul says of himself and his colleagues in 2 Corinthians 5: 20, so we can say of ourselves, we are Christ's ambassadors to the world, as though God were making his appeal through us.
We implore everyone on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. We dare not alter our message. We dare not cut corners, twist, bend, or water down. We must obey God rather than human beings. By God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, so shall we be obedient to Him. Let us pray.
Dear Father,
In the example of the Apostles,
We see the wonder of your provision. Of how you gave them everything that they needed, Father. Of how, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you equipped them to be able to show forth these signs and wonders so that they might gather people to Christ.
How by the Holy Spirit, you gave them the words to speak to those people. And what's more, Father, the words to speak. Father, we know that they were able to do this because of the Holy Spirit, and because they understood who their real authority was. They recognized that you are the true authority, God, and that our aim should only be to please you.
Father, help us to walk in their footsteps. Help us to be so confident. Help us to recognize even what Gamaliel recognized, that if God is with us, then we will not be defeated.
Father, we know that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And so, Father, even if we experience setbacks, Even if we go through hard times, even if it comes to flogging, Father, let us not be filled with dismay. Father, by the Holy Spirit, fill us with rejoicing because we get to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jesus Christ. And in that joy, Father, spur us onward to keep on going, to not stop teaching, to not back down from standing on the gospel truth.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series The Spirit and the Church. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)