Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] So I was thinking about this earlier this week, and I want to pose this to you. Have you ever found yourself praying a dangerous prayer?
[00:00:22] And I'll kind of explain what I mean by that.
[00:00:25] That simply means, have you ever Self. Have you ever found yourself praying the kind of prayer that, if it came true, would actually cost you?
[00:00:33] Right. Like, it would cost you reputation, it would cost you comfort, it would cost you whatever. Whatever. The thing is, there was like, a collective mmm whenever I said that. So, yeah, we don't typically pray that way, do we?
[00:00:48] Right. That's not natural for us to pray that way. Even the songs that we sing. If you think about some of the songs that we sing that we lift our hands to, you know, I surrender all. Like, think about that for just a moment.
[00:01:02] Like, everything.
[00:01:03] You want me to surrender everything?
[00:01:07] Or. We haven't sang this one in a long time. But there's a song called Kingdom's Cause, where one of the lines says, whatever it takes, whatever the cost, I will follow you.
[00:01:20] And every time we sing that, I do think about that line, and I'm like, I find myself internally struggling to sing it with integrity.
[00:01:28] Like, whatever the cost, I will follow you. Like, I don't know that that's always true for me.
[00:01:35] Right. So these are.
[00:01:36] These are dangerous type things to sing and to pray.
[00:01:45] The Valley of Vision, which is one of my favorite prayer books, has a prayer, and we've read it before at Redemption Hill. But I just want to read part of it to you that just kind of talks about the paradoxical reality of the Christian life. Two weeks ago, we talked about how the people of God are. We are all a paradox in many ways. But Christianity itself also is a paradox in many ways. And the Valley of Vision really captures this idea well in this prayer. And this is what it says. It says, let me learn by paradox. Okay, so what he's about to pray is, in my opinion, this is a dangerous type prayer to pray.
[00:02:20] He says, let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision, in other words, not the mountaintop, though that's wonder. Like, if we're on a mountaintop in life. That's amazing. We should praise God for that. We shouldn't shun that. We shouldn't try to enter the valley intentionally, thinking that by doing so by entering suffering, we're going to somehow gain something from God that we don't already have fully in Jesus. Some sort of like self righteousness in that way. But we all find ourselves in valleys at, at points in life and in those moments, in those valleys of suffering, what the author's saying is that's really the place where the vision is clearest.
[00:03:22] If we see it rightly for what it is, that we see God more clearly in those moments of suffering oftentimes than we do of moments of triumph. When it's more tempting to become self sufficient, when things are going really well, when you have the money, when you have the house, when you have the health, when you have all the things that you and I desire that aren't bad things.
[00:03:42] It can be tempting, can it not, to become pretty self sufficient. People like I had a hand in this in some way. We're not going to say that out loud, but we think that way.
[00:03:52] But in the valley, you're stripped clean.
[00:03:56] You have nothing, I have nothing but God.
[00:04:00] And that's what the author's saying is the place of vision is in the valley.
[00:04:05] So this is a paradoxical thing. And the reason I bring this up to you is because we get to a very paradoxical moment in the book of Acts by which the apostles rejoice in suffering.
[00:04:17] How does that happen?
[00:04:20] I mean, we read stories like this and for those of us who've been around the church for any amount of time, you've read the story and we read a line like this and it just kind of passes over us like it's no big deal.
[00:04:33] They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name.
[00:04:42] What does that mean?
[00:04:43] How does that happen?
[00:04:47] Is it possible for you and I to respond in the same way?
[00:04:52] And to be clear, and this is a different sermon for a different day.
[00:04:56] There are different forms of suffering in life that we experience.
[00:05:00] So what we're not saying, and certainly what Luke is not saying in this text, is that you should just be happy clappy in the midst of suffering.
[00:05:08] That's not what he's talking about. Like lament and grief is appropriate and godly in the midst of suffering.
[00:05:16] Psalm 88 ends with this line, darkness is my closest friend.
[00:05:23] That's the end of the psalm.
[00:05:25] Like he doesn't even come back and say, but God is awesome, right? He just says, but darkness is my. Sometimes there are seasons in life where that's just the reality that we're living in. Jesus is just as near in those seasons as Ever. But it feels like all we have is darkness.
[00:05:43] And it's appropriate to say that to God.
[00:05:47] Does this make sense?
[00:05:49] But in this form of suffering that we're talking about in Acts, chapter five, we're talking about suffering for righteousness sake, suffering for the proclamation of the Gospel.
[00:06:01] You and I, we don't experience the same sort of persecution that Christians in Nigeria are experiencing now or Christians in the Middle East.
[00:06:12] We don't. We're not experiencing that.
[00:06:15] But we might experience malignment, we might experience abandonment. We might have experienced loss of relationship. We might have experienced, you know, tarnishing to our reputation that all might seem trivial, but pain is pain. And as followers of Jesus, we ought, we must be equipped to know how to rejoice in the midst of suffering for righteousness sake. Does all this make sense? All right, so this is where we're going today. This is the passage, Acts, chapter five, starting in verse 17. We're going to walk through it. I'll just read it kind of paragraph by paragraph and make some comments along the way.
[00:06:50] How. How do we rejoice when suffering for righteousness sake? That's. That's the idea. So look at verse 17 with me.
[00:07:00] But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees. So just remember for context, sake, that the Pharisees were religious leaders and the Sadducees were politically driven leaders. Okay?
[00:07:14] So who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees. And filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in public prison.
[00:07:24] 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.
[00:07:35] And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
[00:07:41] Now, when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. So just a quick note on kind of the tone that Luke is getting at here. It's a little bit humorous, and you'd have to do some, like, nerdy digging to kind of discover the humor in it. But here's the nerdy digging. I'm going to. I did the work for you, okay?
[00:08:04] The Sadducees were materialists. They did not believe in the supernatural.
[00:08:09] They didn't believe in the resurrection. That was like their big thing. Okay? So when Paul is going around preaching about the resurrection of the apostles, they're like there is no resurrection. And so it's a little bit ironic that an angel of the Lord, right, a supernatural being sent from God comes into the prison and he opens the prison doors. And this is the way by which they're going to be released from the hands of the Sadducees, at least temporarily. So all throughout the story, there's a little bit of irony and a little bit of humor if you'll kind of look at what Luke's and how. How man has his plans, but the Lord is going to have his way. The Lord thwarts the plans of man's to accomplish his purposes. So when you feel in life like things are out of control, what's happening? Just know, like, you don't see everything.
[00:08:48] Like, the Lord is always working and orchestrating things that to us make no sense at all. Like, what in the world are you doing? He's doing stuff. Okay, so an angel of the Lord comes and opens the doors. But prior to that, it's also noteworthy to see that what was driving the Sadducees was jealousy.
[00:09:08] Okay? Jealousy was driving the Sadducees. And as we read through the story, we're going to see what happens when this thing called jealousy, which I'm going to define for you in just a moment, when this thing called jealousy takes root and goes unrepentant of, like, what happens over time when that takes place. So jealousy is not always a bad thing, because the Bible says that God is a jealous God.
[00:09:33] Okay? So in Exodus, chapter 20, verses 4 and 5, while giving Moses and his and the people of Israel the ten Commandments, God says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
[00:09:53] Now, when God reveals himself that way, is he talking about the fickle emotion that you and I typically experience?
[00:10:00] He's not.
[00:10:01] There are multiple meanings to the word. When God's talking about being a jealous God, what it means is that God is jealous for our affections.
[00:10:12] And you're like, well, that seems a little bit like a megalomaniac. Like, why would God be so jealous for my affections? He's jealous for your affections because he loves you and he knows that the best thing for you and the best thing for me is him.
[00:10:27] But the happiest you're ever going to be, and the happiest I'm ever going to be is when we're in communion with him.
[00:10:34] And so when we Try to settle for the things of earth that he's given us. Good gifts, by the way, to enjoy.
[00:10:41] But when we settle for those things to be the ultimate source of satisfaction and joy in our life, it robs us of the fullness of joy that we were created to have. God wants you to be more happy.
[00:10:53] He really does.
[00:10:54] God loves when you're happy. He loves when you're just filled with joy in Him.
[00:11:02] And so he's a jealous God. He's jealous for your affections because there's no one higher for us to funnel our affections toward than God Himself.
[00:11:13] Proverbs 6 also talks about the jealous husband.
[00:11:17] In the midst of warning the young man against adultery, he says that for jealousy makes a man that's the husband furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. That's true, isn't it? For those who are married, like, that's my wife.
[00:11:40] You will not touch my wife. Right? This is how husbands ought to think about their wife. That's a good jealousy. That's a right jealousy. That's a jealousy that somewhat mirrors the jealousy of God.
[00:11:53] I'm not advocating for vengeance, by the way. I'm just saying that the rage that a husband would feel if somebody sought to harm or take advantage of his wife ought to be jealousy in a way that reflects God. But that's not the jealousy of the Sadducees.
[00:12:11] The Oxford Dictionary says.
[00:12:14] Where am I at? Okay, The Oxford Dictionary defines jealousy like this. And this is more in line with what we see in the passage.
[00:12:21] A feeling or showing resentment to someone or their achievements, possessions, or perceived advantages. This is what they felt.
[00:12:31] They were a political sect. They wanted political power.
[00:12:35] And what was happening at this time in the first century was that the church, this small little sect of Christians, was exploding. It's like what we see happening in Iran right now.
[00:12:48] Like, if you want to know how to pray for Iran, there are lots of ways that you can pray for what's going on in the Middle East. Like, pray that the church continues to flourish.
[00:12:55] More people are getting saved. More Christians are meeting together and gathering and gathering around the Word and praying together and sharing the gospel. And Jesus is becoming more and more famous. Like, this is what's happening. And so because the church is advancing and multiplying, the Sadducees see it as a threat to their power.
[00:13:15] So they're jealous. This is like seventh grade jealousy. This is the bad jealousy.
[00:13:21] And so it says that.
[00:13:23] It says that they're.
[00:13:25] They're jealous. And so because they're jealous they arrest the apostles and put them in public prison. And an angel of the Lord comes. I was going to go in to talk about angels, but all I'm. All I'm going to say is that Hebrews one says that angels are ministering spirits sent out to serve those who belong to God.
[00:13:44] And so that's what we see happening. So the angel comes and he opens the prison doors and he tells the apostles, I want you to leave this place. And despite what you've been commanded to do by the governing authorities, I want you to go out and I want you to preach in the temple again. And here's the message.
[00:13:59] Life.
[00:14:01] You're going to go speak in the temple, the message of life.
[00:14:06] Friends, do you think about Christianity, religion of life?
[00:14:13] Christianity is more than a religion, but just to make things. It's about life.
[00:14:21] I think sometimes.
[00:14:25] This week we're fasting from a strong desire. Okay, so for those who are involved with Redemption Hill, members of Redemption Hill, or participating in Lent with us, we're fasting from a strong desire. And I got my week's flip flop. So I did Strong Desire last week. I'm doing news this week, but I might do Strong Desire again. It was really good. Here's my pastoral note to you about the strong desire thing. We have a tendency sometimes to think about Christianity as a confining thing.
[00:14:50] Like it's all. So you come to faith in Jesus and all of a sudden now life becomes more narrow and less colorful and less enjoyable. And it's all about keeping rules that couldn't be further from the truth.
[00:15:03] Genesis 2 says, and the Lord God, this is before the fall. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of any every tree that's in the garden.
[00:15:14] Think about it like this. Like God sets Adam and Eve in the garden, they've got perfect communion with one another, perfect communion with God. And God looks out at this vast array of the beauty of his creation, and he says, you can enjoy all of it.
[00:15:27] All of it is yours. Enjoy it except for this one thing.
[00:15:33] It wasn't confining. It wasn't about limitations.
[00:15:37] God said, it's all yours except for this one thing. And like us, like all of us, that one thing was the thing that they chose to do.
[00:15:49] So it's not about being confined. Christianity is about life. The angel tells the disciples, go and preach life to them.
[00:15:58] John 1:4 says, In Jesus was life, and that life was the light of men. John 14:6. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
[00:16:08] John 10, 10. Jesus, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Ephesians 2, 5 says, Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ.
[00:16:24] And then 1 John 5:12 says, Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. Do you have this life?
[00:16:36] So there are some in the room who aren't yet Christians, and this is available to you today.
[00:16:42] Life.
[00:16:45] Trying to find satisfaction, fulfillment, purpose, right? Standing with God through your own efforts or the created world will never happen for you.
[00:16:58] Life comes through Christ.
[00:17:01] Faith in Christ. He is life. He doesn't just provide life. He is life. And for those of us who are Christians, we just need to be reminded that Christianity is about life. It's not about confinement, it's about freedom.
[00:17:16] Like, you and I have been freed from the things that once enslaved us, we've been liberated from these things.
[00:17:23] And so the angel says, go and speak this life to them.
[00:17:31] Look at verses 22 to 29. 22, 29, it says.
[00:17:37] But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison. They. 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 he put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.
[00:18:02] Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned and by the people.
[00:18:10] 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.
[00:18:18] Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
[00:18:24] But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men.
[00:18:29] All right, so this is like the anchor text here. We must obey God rather than men. It's interesting that the Sadducees in the council won't even mention the name that they're telling them not to preach in.
[00:18:44] I told you, don't preach in that name.
[00:18:47] There's something powerful about the name.
[00:18:50] And it's not an incantation, by the way. Sometimes that's how we talk about the name of Jesus. Like, I'm just going to speak Jesus name over the situation and good things are going to happen. You can't separate the name from the person.
[00:19:02] The Reason the name is significant is because of the person.
[00:19:07] The name is all about the character of the person whose name it is.
[00:19:13] Jesus, Savior, God with us, Lord.
[00:19:18] This is the power behind the name. And the Sadducees won't even say it.
[00:19:24] So they say, don't go out and speak about that name anymore. I've already charged to do this. And Peter, like God, man, Peter, think about the transforming work of God and his grace in our life.
[00:19:36] He denied Jesus to a little girl not long before this moment.
[00:19:42] And we've all been there, haven't we, in various ways, not living up to the potential that we desire to live up to. Not. Not doing all for God that we want to do. And being the Christians that we want to like. We've all experienced what, in various ways, what Peter experienced. And God's grace is so massive and awesome and powerful and all encompassing that even a guy like Peter, even people like us, could be transformed in such a way by which I go from denying Jesus to a little girl to standing before the council and saying, I'm not going to obey you. I've got to obey God instead.
[00:20:17] Only the grace of God can do that.
[00:20:19] It's amazing when you think about it.
[00:20:22] It's such. It gives such hope to me.
[00:20:27] And so what's Peter doing? He's doing something called civil disobedience.
[00:20:34] Okay.
[00:20:36] Civil disobedience essentially is saying no to the government for specific purposes. Okay, so here's just a 30,000 foot high level.
[00:20:48] Some thoughts on how, as Christians, we ought to think about the government. Romans, chapter 13, 1 Peter, chapter 2. Both say that generally speaking, we ought to obey governing authorities because the governing authorities, regardless of what party's in office, the governing authorities have been instituted by God himself. We get to vote, we get a say and all that's awesome. But at the end of the day, God is the one who puts people in charge.
[00:21:15] So you can just kind of breathe a sigh of relief a little bit in that.
[00:21:19] Okay? God is the one who appoints governing authorities. And he appoints governing authorities for a specific purpose. To execute justice on those who do evil and to reward those who do right. That's the purpose of the government, to maintain order in a society so that the people under that society can flourish.
[00:21:38] All governments are fallen.
[00:21:40] There is no perfect government. There is no perfect party, there is no perfect politician.
[00:21:45] All governments are fallen. So at what point, if we're to generally obey what the government's saying and seek to be good citizens that glorify God and seek for the flourishing of our city, which I hope that's the way you think. I hope that's the way you think about your neighborhood and your job and your sphere of influence, flourishing, and that you're an agent in that flourishing. In the name of Jesus, if that's the way that we ought to generally think, at what point are we to say, no, I'm not going to obey that.
[00:22:15] I'm not going to do that.
[00:22:18] Scripture gives some really helpful, clear, cool examples.
[00:22:24] Exodus, chapter 1, verses 15 through 22.
[00:22:28] The King of Egypt tells the Hebrew midwives to kill every Hebrew son born to Hebrew women, but to let the daughters live.
[00:22:39] And in an act of civil disobedience, the Hebrew midwives say no.
[00:22:45] And then Moses comes from that.
[00:22:49] Daniel, chapter 3, verse 18. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. If you're unfamiliar with those guys, you should go read Daniel 3. It's an amazing story.
[00:22:58] Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are called to bow down to a golden statue.
[00:23:04] And they say, we believe God can deliver us.
[00:23:09] We believe he will deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.
[00:23:19] And then they're sent to the fiery furnace, and God rescues them from the fiery furnace.
[00:23:25] Daniel, chapter 6, verses 7 through 10. The Prophet Daniel is told, anyone who prays to anyone other than the king is going to be thrown into the den of lions. So what does Daniel do? Daniel goes up to the upper story of his house, and he opens the window toward Jerusalem and prays to God.
[00:23:41] Civil disobedience.
[00:23:45] Martin Luther, standing before the diet of worms. Worms is how you say it in German, before the diet of worms, as he's told to recant, all of his theology books says that my conscience is bound by the word of God. I can't recant.
[00:24:04] To be fair, to be historically accurate, he takes a day to do so. He's like, could you give me a day to think about it?
[00:24:09] And then he goes off, and then he comes back and he's like, yeah, I can't do that.
[00:24:13] Amazing.
[00:24:14] Like, how does this happen?
[00:24:16] How does Peter stand before the council and say, I must obey God rather than men?
[00:24:23] We are generally to obey the government unless a government demands or creates a law by which a Christian is expected to disobey God.
[00:24:34] And in the case where a government seeks to institute a law or a mandate that requires a Christian to disobey God through his word, we say no.
[00:24:48] Which I think leads to a follow up question that we'll get more into in a couple of weeks when we get to Stephen and the example of Stephen. But I do want to make just a couple of notes on it real quick before we move on. So how should Christians disobey the civil government if it ever comes to that? Like, how should we conduct ourselves in the middle of civil disobedience is what I'm trying to say. So we live in a day and age of by which rage is it just rains.
[00:25:21] You get online. I'm not on Twitter, but I hear about Twitter from Taylor most often.
[00:25:27] You get online and everybody is enraged and there are things to be angry about.
[00:25:35] But this has become the normative way that we respond to things that we don't agree with, the normative way by which we talk about and talk to other Christians. And I just want to take note to say it's all happening online.
[00:25:48] Okay? So being a rage baiter online doesn't make you a man, doesn't make you brave, doesn't make you strong.
[00:25:56] Anybody can do that.
[00:25:59] Anybody can say anything they want online.
[00:26:02] That's not how Christians are to be in the midst of something like civil disobedience. And we see this again in the example of the people of the Bible.
[00:26:11] That's not how they responded.
[00:26:14] They responded with conviction and clarity and meekness, like Jesus.
[00:26:20] How did Jesus respond when he was persecuted?
[00:26:24] He opened not his mouth. Jesus was the manliest man to ever live, ever will live.
[00:26:30] Meekness is not passivity. It's not being soft. Meekness is strength under control.
[00:26:36] That's what it means. That takes a lot more strength than flying off the handle online.
[00:26:42] And so in a culture of rage, we ought to be a people who say our general disposition by the grace of God is going to be the best citizens we can be in our context to the glory of God and the advancement of the gospel. And if the government ever seeks to institute a law or a command that's going to expect us to disobey the word of God, we're going to say no. And we're going to do so with clarity, conviction and meekness to the glory of God.
[00:27:08] So let's keep reading.
[00:27:12] So Peter says we must obey God rather than men. And then this is the result of that. And this is where we'll start to kind of, kind of land the plane, as they say. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
[00:27:29] God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things.
[00:27:40] And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.
[00:27:46] This gospel message, this message of life is not only the message that the apostles proclaimed, and we're going to continue to proclaim, by the way, despite what happened to their bodies or their reputations, but it was the message that compelled them.
[00:28:02] Like, if you want to know how you and I can grow in courage and boldness and conviction to stand in the face of whatever Satan wants to throw at us to keep us from doing the things God's called us to do, namely sharing the person of Jesus with other people, then you and I need to be compelled by that message.
[00:28:21] We need to be compelled by the message of the gospel.
[00:28:24] Jesus is leader.
[00:28:26] He's savior.
[00:28:29] Though he was killed by men, he was raised by God.
[00:28:33] He's defeated sin. He's defeated death for all who look upon him. He's taken your sins and mine and he's put them behind his back.
[00:28:42] The only sin Jesus ever experienced or ever will experience was ours.
[00:28:48] And so in return, the only righteousness that you and I have to boast in is his.
[00:28:54] But isn't that a wonderful. There's no better righteousness than that, than the righteousness of God himself, because he took our shame, because he took our sin. We bask in his righteousness.
[00:29:04] We get his righteousness. And so we stand before God, and we stand before a fallen world as righteous because of Christ. And in Christ, this is the gospel message. And when that message of grace begins to captivate our heart, move and grow in us by the person and power of the Holy Spirit, you going to stand with courage.
[00:29:25] So he goes on, he says, when they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. Which is really a fascinating progression of jealousy, isn't it?
[00:29:36] Jealousy becomes bitterness, bitterness becomes contempt.
[00:29:43] Contempt, by the way, is when you have this settled belief that you're better than another person.
[00:29:50] If you and I allow ourselves to get to contempt, it's a really, really hard thing to overcome.
[00:29:56] Holy Spirit can do that. He absolutely can. But Sean said this last week, and I thought brought up a beautiful point of application.
[00:30:04] You and I can trick ourselves into thinking that we're over something with somebody, when in reality we're just harboring bitterness.
[00:30:11] And you know it, because it colors everything you see about that person.
[00:30:16] You don't really want what's good for them.
[00:30:19] And if you find yourself there, there's grace for you.
[00:30:23] There's hope for you. You don't have to keep sitting in that. You can come with that today and lay it at the feet of Jesus and allow the Spirit of God to move and work in you so that you can walk in the freedom you already have in Jesus.
[00:30:37] You already have the freedom. He's already cleansed you of that sin.
[00:30:42] There's nothing to be ashamed of. Come, bring it at the feet of Jesus and allow the Spirit of God to work in you in such a way so that these things don't domino effect, like what we see happening in the hearts of the Sadducees.
[00:30:53] They were jealous, they were bitter, they were contemptuous, and then they were murderous.
[00:31:03] It says that they were.
[00:31:07] That they were enraged and they wanted to kill them.
[00:31:13] But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, which, by the way, this was Paul's rabbi, a teacher of the law, held in honor 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're about to do with these men. For before these days, Thudas rose up claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about 400, 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 for 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.
[00:32:03] 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.
[00:32:16] So Gamaliel stands up and he says some, like, pretty true things, okay? It's not entirely always accurate that bad people with bad plans don't succeed in some sense.
[00:32:30] So he wasn't totally right in that there are times where bad people with bad plans intended to harm get what they want.
[00:32:38] And we may not ever have the answer behind that, okay? But we can trust that God's working all things together for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose, as we're gonna see played out through the book of Acts. But nonetheless, he gives some pretty sound advice. And he's like, hey, I think you should take your hands off these men, because we don't know Whether or not this thing is from God, he gives two examples from the past of two insurrectionists who gather a following, and they try to do their thing, and they're killed. And then their following scatters. And he's like, hey, so this is how we know some things are from men, some things are from God. So take your hands off these men. And so instead of killing them, they flog them.
[00:33:17] Flogging, as would happen in the first century, was done by a whip or a cord, and it was 39 lashes on the back.
[00:33:28] Okay? So they don't get killed, but they take their shirt off, and with a whipper or cord, they lash him 39 times.
[00:33:38] 40 minus one is what the Jews used to say.
[00:33:42] So 39 times on the back.
[00:33:44] And you would anticipate, if you're reading this for the first time, that there might be some grumbling on behalf of the apostles, some frustration, some anger, some shaking their fist like, God, I've given up everything to follow you.
[00:34:01] I gave up a lucrative business to follow you, and this is what I get in return for following you.
[00:34:10] But let's just close with how they respond.
[00:34:14] They left the presence of the council rejoicing.
[00:34:19] Why would they do that?
[00:34:22] How could they do that?
[00:34:24] They left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.
[00:34:35] There is no higher Name.
[00:34:40] They left rejoicing because they were counted worthy to suffer for the Name, the Name above all names, the Name of Jesus, the person of Jesus, if only to identify with Christ, who saved me from my sin and his suffering. Because if I'm. If I'm identifying with him in his suffering, then I get more of Him. If that's the way that the apostles are thinking about that, it's no wonder they rejoice.
[00:35:08] And every day in the temple, they're like tenacious man. Every day in the temple, and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus.
[00:35:24] And so I just want to conclude with a question for us in light of this.
[00:35:29] The disciples were leveraging the entirety of their lives in sharing Jesus.
[00:35:38] Okay, this doesn't insinuate that every single one of you in the room, or any of you in the room, are going to be in vocational ministry.
[00:35:44] That's not what it's about.
[00:35:46] But for those who are followers of Jesus, as we talked about several weeks ago in Acts chapter one, you are a witness to the resurrected Christ, whether it's in a law office, in a bank, in a classroom, as a Stay at home, mom, in your neighborhood as a doctor. On and on and on it goes.
[00:36:05] You've already been made a witness, empowered by the spirit to the resurrection of Christ. And when we talk about sharing Jesus with people, I think it just, it immediately induces this, like low grade shame in all of us by which we look at our life and we're like, I just don't do that.
[00:36:22] Or I don't do that very well.
[00:36:25] And I don't want to like, take away from conviction that maybe from the spirit. If you're feeling some of that, some of that could be good. And it's intended to lead you to repentance, if that's you.
[00:36:36] But as I was thinking about this week in my own life, we had a terrible tragedy happen two houses down from us this week. Terrible, horrific tragedy. Okay? One of our neighbors passed away.
[00:36:51] And so all the neighbors are outside. And I walk out and begin kind of talking to different people. And I come back home and I just, I tell Sidney, I don't know that I said this, but I thought this.
[00:37:03] I'm just like, God, we got a lot of work to do.
[00:37:06] Not because we're the saviors of anybody. We're not work to do in the sense of like, I have to share Jesus with these people.
[00:37:14] Like, that's the job God's given me. He hasn't given me the job to save anybody or to change anybody's heart, but he has commissioned me to share Jesus with people.
[00:37:23] And so what are the three? If we could identify maybe three hindrances that keep us from sharing Jesus with non Christians in our life, what are they? I just want to give you three possibilities.
[00:37:39] Number one is fear.
[00:37:43] Just good old fashioned fear.
[00:37:46] Fear of loss, maybe in the relationship, like, if I get too specific about Jesus.
[00:37:55] Certainly if, when we get to the response part of the gospel, like, you have to repent of your sin and trust in Jesus, like, you're a sinner. When we get to that kind of sticky stuff, like, what if they leave? What if they never talk to me again? That's fear.
[00:38:09] Fear of conflict, maybe. Like, what if they say something in a combative way? Or what if they say something I don't have a response to? I don't know how to answer that question.
[00:38:19] Maybe it's fear of perception. What if I look weird?
[00:38:24] Whatever the case is, it's fear. And here's the promise for you.
[00:38:27] Matthew 28:20, Jesus says, I will be with you always, even to the end.
[00:38:34] This Moses had fear, like so many of the prophets and the people of the Old Testament and the apostles in the New Testament experienced fear when it came to doing the thing that God had called them to do.
[00:38:50] And God's promise over and over and over again is, I will be with you.
[00:38:55] Let me do the saving, trust that I'm with you always, even to the end of the age, and share.
[00:39:01] You're not going to have all the answers. You might lose the relationship.
[00:39:05] They might think you're weird.
[00:39:07] That's okay. There are worse things in the world than that.
[00:39:11] We are kind of weird.
[00:39:14] So fear is the first and the remedy is Jesus presence.
[00:39:20] The second is that some of us might just have a misunderstanding of what it means to be a Christian.
[00:39:28] And we might think that to be a Christian is merely to have some sort of, like, intellectual agreement with some facts about God, right? Like, I believe God exists, I believe he's the creator, etc.
[00:39:45] But we miss this kind of New Testament reality, that faith in God, faith in Christ always necessitates following.
[00:39:58] They're never separate from one another.
[00:40:02] If you think about the calling of Matthew and the calling of the disciples, Jesus call was not. He didn't come to Matthew in the text booth and say, believe in me.
[00:40:10] That was obviously required, right? He said, follow me.
[00:40:15] Follow me.
[00:40:19] So there is no faith in Jesus without discipleship. To Jesus, they are one in the same.
[00:40:25] To put your faith in Jesus means to follow Jesus by the person and power of the Holy Spirit. And, hey, there's no better way to spend your life, by the way.
[00:40:36] There's no more joyful way, no happier way. It's going to lead to suffering, it's going to lead to pushback, it might even lead to some form of persecution. But it's worth it because you get Jesus in it.
[00:40:50] And then the final is some of us.
[00:40:53] And I promise you, I'm going to end on this. Might have reward, amnesia.
[00:40:59] In other words, we have forgotten the reward that comes at the end.
[00:41:07] I have to imagine that the apostles, when they were standing in front of the council and Gamaliel stands up and he says this thing, and they're like, all right, we're not going to kill you, but we're going to give you 40 lashes minus one.
[00:41:20] And then they give him the lashes as they're getting the lashes, and then they go back to their friends and they go back rejoicing that they weren't thinking about what I'm about to read to you.
[00:41:31] Luke, chapter 6, verses 22 to 30, says this.
[00:41:37] These words of Jesus, blessed are you when People hate you.
[00:41:44] And when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man, rejoice in that day and leap for joy.
[00:41:57] For behold, your reward is great. In heaven, there is a reward at the end of the pilgrimage.
[00:42:06] And if you and I will keep our eyes on Jesus, trusting that he's going to be the one who walks with us and who sustains us to the end, the reward will far outweigh any of the suffering.
[00:42:17] Let's pray.
[00:42:19] Father, we love you. We thank you for the opportunity to gather in your name. We thank you for the mighty name of Jesus. And pray that in the coming moments as we take communion, as we continue to sing God, that you would remind us that the reward that you've laid up for us in heaven, which is you, Jesus, it's inheriting the earth as your sons and daughters, communion with you and with one another forever guiltless, blameless, sinless on that day, that the reward will far outweigh any of the suffering. Would you help us to remember that, to believe that by the. By the person and power of your spirit.
[00:43:02] And so, God, in the midst of suffering, would you help us to rejoice? We love you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
