Building
the right foundation part 10
Acts 5:12-42.
Now
many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the
hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's
Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them
in high esteem.
And
more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both
men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the
streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at
least his shadow might fall on some of them.
The
people also gathered from the towns round Jerusalem, bringing the
sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all
healed.
But
the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the
party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the
apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an
angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and
said,
“Go
and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this
Life.”
And
when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began
to teach.
Now
when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called
together the council and all the senate of the people of Israel and
sent to the prison to have them brought.
But
when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they
returned and reported, “We found the prison securely locked and the
guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one
inside.” Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests
heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering
what this would come to. And someone came and told them, “Look! The
men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching
the people.”
Then
the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by
force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
And
when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the
high priest questioned them,
saying,
“We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you
have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring
this man's blood upon us.”
But
Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him
on a tree.
God
exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, to give
repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to
these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those
who obey him.”
When
they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
But
a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held
in honour by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men
outside for a little while.
And
he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do
with these men.
For
before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a
number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all
who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.
After
him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew
away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who
followed him were scattered.
So
in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them
alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail;
but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You
might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice, and
when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them
not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Then
they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were
counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name. And every day,in the
temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and
preaching Jesus as the Christ.
English Standard Version Anglicised
****************
This
passage denotes the beginning of a second wave of persecution for the
church. As with all opposition the resulting persecution
progressively gets worse. In the first wave Peter and John were
imprisoned overnight and instructed not to speak in the name of Jesus
again. Peter's response was that they were to obey God rather than
man on this issue and that they were compelled in spirit to speak of
Jesus as Messiah. As you can imagine that did not go down too well
with the ruthless men who made up the council. We have to remember
that these were the very men that had orchestrated the arrest, mock
trial and death of the Lord Jesus Christ and so for the Apostles to
be preaching in His name was too much for them to bear.
Their
problem was how do they stop what has now become a very successful
movement?
In
and around Jerusalem there were by now many thousands of Christians
and the church was growing at a phenomenal rate, it was also being
authenticated by remarkable signs and wonders. The High Priest of the
day and his liberal theologian friends the Sadduccees were full of
jealousy and had to do something about it. Therefore they persecuted
the Apostles in the hope that fear might stem the tide of this new
religious movement. Little did they know that they would prove
something that many years later was recognised to be a fact:
Persecution
promotes church growth.
Why
that should be the case is beyond human logic but history proves it
to be the case. My Romanian Pastor friend often says that he prays
for the communists to come back because their persecution of the
church had two effects: firstly it kept the faith of the church pure
and secondly it caused people to call on the name of the Lord and to
be saved. We will see how this is proven as we continue in our
studies of Acts.
Today
we will consider the effect that this wave of persecution had on the
infant church and we will learn from them that opposition is not
necessarily a bad thing.
As
the apostles continued to preach boldly, the Holy Spirit worked
miraculously by saving more people than ever and the church grew
phenomenally! Conversion is the greatest miracle that ever takes
place because it is the regeneration of sinful and dead spiritual
life into a new life that is wholly acceptable to God. Upon
conversion the impossible has taken place and the recipient can now
come into the presence of Almighty God when previously he was barred
by the offence that sin is to God. There were also signs of healing
and deliverance given to prove that what was happening was not of man
but a movement of God. Therefore even the shadow of Peter was
believed to have healing qualities.
What
an a mazing way that God had chosen to herald the church as the
people of God.
Israel
had now been replaced by the church as the people through whom God
would glorify His name and will bring sinners into fellowship with
Himself.
The
religious leaders were sore at this but nowhere near as threatened as
was Satan whose bidding they were willingly carrying out. The devil
has no new tricks up his sleeve and so we can learn from this example
that when the church becomes effective he will make sure that it's
leaders will be under attack. Either from outside in the form of
persecution as in this case or from within by those whom Jesus refers
to as wolves dressed up as sheep. The effect is the same, the devil
will do whatever he thinks is necessary and effective to prevent the
gospel from being preached.
From
the passage we see that the leaders had seized their opportunity and
the apostles were in prison. Possibly this time Luke is referring to
all of the apostles!
During
that night:
Enter
an angel of the Lord:
Immediately
things are about to change, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of
the prison and released the apostles. Before he secures the prison
again there is an instruction for the apostles: they are to return
to the Temple and are to speak of Jesus. They are to enter back into
the lion's den. Remember when they were previously imprisoned and
released Peter and John had prayed for boldness to continue preaching
in the name of Jesus. Now the angel of the Lord was sending them on
their way to do just that. For the apostles difficulties would be an
ongoing situation for the rest of their lives for which they would
need boldness.
The
Temple was a hotbed of liberal theology where the priests being of
Sadducee persuasion did not believe in angels, spirits, God's Holy
Spirit, the resurrection, the after life, hell or heaven etc. Why
such people become religious leaders completely confuses me but the
same people are in much of the seen church of today. It was back into
this environment that the angel of the Lord sent the apostles upon
their release from prison. They were told to preach all that the
leaders disbelieved and so they did.
Their
mandate that day is no different to ours today we are still under the
directives of the great commission just as they were at that time. We
are equally called to be bold witnesses to an unbelieving world
around us. They were to begin in Jerusalem and we are to begin in
Callington. We must pray for boldness to speak of Jesus just where we
are and then just as the apostles were, we are to obey God's
directives and go and speak boldly of Jesus to an unbelieving people.
All
of this of course turned the authorities into turmoil. Out of fear
for their lives the leaders gently brought back the apostles to be
tried before the council. The High Priest told them that they had
disobeyed him and had spoken of Jesus against his express command.
That was just what Peter needed in order for him to speak out. He
reminded the council of their guilt in killing Jesus and spoke of Him
now being in heaven as Saviour by whom repentance and forgiveness is
given. Along with the Holy Spirit of God the apostles were witnesses
to these facts! This ultimately made the High Priest and his cronies
furious. They had been accused and their theology attacked and so
they wanted to kill the apostles just as they had Jesus. It is
amazing that those with liberal views of theology are less tolerant
than any when their theological position is exposed. Death would have
been a reality if it had not been for the entrance of:
The
moderator:
Sadducees and Pharisees are often
lumped
together and often did join together against a common enemy but they
could not be further apart in theology. What the Sadduccees
disbelieved the Pharisees wholeheartedly embraced. They were what we
might term uncomfortable bed-fellows. As the council were
contemplating mass murder the Pharisee Gamaliel speaks words of
wisdom; saying “let them be!!!”
This
is the same Gamaliel who Saul of Tarsus had learned his bible truth
from. Gamaliel was known to be a compassionate man and full of
wisdom; we see this clearly in how he handled the council on that
day. He reminded them of other cases where previously there had been
religious uprisings that had come to nothing because they had been
born in the heart of man. This new religious movement would come to
nothing if it were of man but if it were of God, for them to attack
it was tantamount to attacking God.
Enough
said!
Advice
taken!
The
council agree to release the apostles but not before giving them a
good thrashing and telling them to stop speaking in the name of
Jesus.
Persecution
as we said earlier has an amazing effect on the believer. The
apostles went from there rejoicing!
Who
would have believed that?
The
apostles rejoiced because they had been counted worthy to suffer for
the name of Jesus just as He had said at the beginning of His
ministry. Remember the last of the Beatitudes? Matthew 5:10-12.
“Blessed
are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are
you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of
evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
They
rejoiced and were glad and heaven was their reward. They went on
their way evangelising even more fervently. As well as being
witnesses in the temple they knocked on people's doors to tell of
Jesus.
They
never ceased preaching and teaching!
Persecution
never did and never will work. The devil does not seem to have got
that idea yet that the church always grows through persecution.
But
we must be aware:
There
was another and far more subtle attack on it's way. This is a big one
that has a massive effect upon the church and causes us to stumble
far more easily. It is mumblings amongst believers which we will
address next time.
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