Gamaliel's Counsel

SERMON: 2011-09-25--ac1170--gamaliel-s-counsel SOURCE DURATION: 00:42:37.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.90 APPROVED: false REASON: All provided candidates are lyrics from a hymn or song (non-sermon material). Since there is no preceding spoken sermon text to mark the end of the exposition, and all visible content constitutes the musical conclusion, the last candidate index is selected as the final token in this continuous block of music. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:38:33.000-00:42:36.240 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Scripture says, "They that sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy." That is the promise of Scripture. Well, we're going to carry on this morning with our regular series of studies in the Book of Acts. You will recall two weeks ago we were looking together at the growth and the maturity of the early church, and we're going to pick it up there today. Really we're dealing in Acts chapter 5 from verse 17 to the end of the chapter, but we're going to work at it backwards and we're going to start with Gamaliel's counsel. And so we're going to read from verse 33 to verse 42, and then we'll work our way backwards as the early church once again experiences persecution and Gamaliel steps into the picture, a wise Pharisee, and he keeps the Sanhedrin from killing the apostles. So Peter's been talking in the context here, he's talking about preaching Jesus, and then we pick it up at verse 33, "When they," that is the Sanhedrin, "heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them," that is the disciples or the apostles, "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. When he addressed them, men of Israel, "Consider carefully what you intend to do to these men." Some time ago, Thutus 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 senses 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. 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. And 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. This is the word of the Lord. Pray with me. Father, in our ongoing study in the book of Acts, you bring us now to a passage of Scripture that speaks into our own lives and into our own situations, and we pray that as we submit ourselves to your word, that we might also learn your heart and your purposes. Father, we're so grateful for the church, we're so grateful for its call to walk with you and to obey you and to proclaim Christ and to carry out His mission. We also recognize that that makes us a shining light in a world that is filled with darkness. And we pray for courage and we pray for strength always to be faithful to you. So we pray that you bless us. Give me the words that I need this morning and each of his hearts to receive it and to hear it, and that Lord, together we may be built up in the most holy faith. We pray it in Jesus' name and for His glory. Amen. All right, I want to begin this morning with a question, and the question is this, Gamalias counseled to the Sinhedrin that we have just read here. Was that good advice or was that bad advice? Let me remind you again what he said, verse 38 and 39, "I advise you, leave these men alone, let them go. 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." Time for some audience participation here. How many of you think that was good advice? Can I see your hands, please? All right. How many of you think that was bad advice? How many of you have no opinion? Because at least half of you are not voting. Well, let me put the question another way. Is it true that things that are of human origin will necessarily fail while things that are of divine origin will necessarily succeed? What's the answer? How many of you would think the answer to that is yes? Oh, you're really brave. How many of you would say the answer to that is no? Again, most of you have no opinion because you don't want to be tricked here, do you? Well, I've got good news for you because the answer is both yes and no. You see, that's politically correct. I want to keep you all as friends. I don't need more enemies, so I thought I wouldn't alienate you this morning. Yes, in the sense that from an eternal point of view, everything human will crumble and come to dust and to disappear while everything divine will last forever. I don't know how many of you have ever heard Mary John Wilkins' song about heaven. He says, "Heaven is the place where the only thing made by man are the scars in the hands of Jesus." Anybody ever heard that song? It's a great country classic. You got to listen to it. It goes back to 1978. From an eternal perspective, time will eat up everything that is human and only that which is eternal will be sustained. That's certainly what Hebrews teaches in Hebrews chapter 12, 26 and 27. God has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." And the words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is, created things so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Only that which is done in Christ by His power and for His glory will last forever. You have a similar image to that back in the Old Testament. In the book of Daniel, you'll recall Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which his wise people could not describe for him, let alone interpret, where he sees this big statue. And then a stone comes from the mountain, demolishes the statue, and Daniel is called in to interpret the dream that the kingdom of God, represented ultimately by the person of Jesus, is going to grow into a huge mountain and it will last forever. Everything else will crumble into dust. So yes, from an eternal point of view, what Gamaliel is saying is absolutely true. But from a temporal point of view, what Gamaliel is saying is not necessarily true. Because one of the great struggles of God's people throughout the course of history is the question, "Why do the wicked prosper when the godly suffer?" And there have been movements galore, political, economic, social, that have prospered for a season, and there have been movements galore that have destroyed, to a very large degree, the work of God. You see examples of it in scripture. You see examples of it in the course of history. I was thinking about this the other day. You know, oddly enough, in Iraq, in the days of Saddam Hussein, for all that he represented, the Christian church actually prospered quite well. But since the revolution, since the war, since the invasion, half the population of Christians in Iraq have either been killed or they have left the country. There's now only 330-some thousand believers left. And you're beginning to see the same thing in northern Europe or northern Africa. In the early days of the church, together with Asia Minor, now Turkey, there was once a thriving Christian community in all of those places. And yet, more and more, that voice has been stilled as it's been taken over by fundamentalist Muslims who are very much opposed to the gospel of Jesus. So yes, Gamaliel's advice may be true from an eternal perspective, but it certainly is not true from a temporal perspective. The wicked do prosper, the godly do suffer. It's only on the day of eternity that God will ultimately and finally straighten that all out. Nevertheless, his speech here to the Sanhedrin buys time. Because the Bible tells us that they listened to him, his speech persuaded them, they called the apostles in and had them flogged, and then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go. And so the passage ends then with this verse, verse 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." And there I think you have the defining theme of the latter half of Acts chapter 5. No matter how the enemy comes in like a flood, no matter how much power the enemy might have or might seem to have, God will always make a way so that his kingdom purposes will continue unhindered. Let's walk through the chapter together and see how the story unfolds. Cut it out two weeks ago that after the death of Ananias and Sapphira, the early church exploded with life and vitality and power. They were walking in the fear of God, they lived in relationship with each other, the grace of God, the anointing of God was upon them in an unprecedented fashion, and people from every walk of life were being healed and being restored by the exalted Lord Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so the church grew and it grew beyond Jerusalem and it began to include the towns of Judea in fulfillment of Jesus' command to be his witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to one day the uttermost ends of the earth. Now biblically and historically, what do you think happens when God's people flourish by the presence and the power of God? Well, historically, almost without exception, persecution breaks out, and that's exactly what happens here beginning at verse 17. The enemy of our souls does not like it when God's people are bearing witness to his name and when the mission of Jesus is being accomplished by the church. He is a very sore loser, and he will do whatever he can to keep the purposes of God from going forward. Here we read in verse 17 and verse 18, "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 a public jail." Now who do you think is the high priest here? The same two dudes who oversaw the crucifixion of Jesus, do you remember their names? Annas and his son-in-law, Caiaphas. Now Annas had long been deposed from office, but continued to exercise a great influence behind the scenes, and he ruled through his son-in-law, Caiaphas. Annas, just for the record, and I never knew this, is supposedly the dude who was in charge of the business enterprise in the temple where they were selling. Remember Jesus came into the temple and he cleaned out the whole business? Well Annas was the dude who ran the business. That might explain a little bit why he might not have liked Jesus very much, because he made a pile of money. Now it goes on to say in the text that the ruling party were the Sadducees. These are people who are sad, you see. And what do you remember about the Sadducees? They didn't believe in the resurrection. Do you see any connection between their faith system and the apostles who were preaching in Jesus the resurrection from the dead? Bit of an issue here, hey? Because if this teaching took root among the people, then they were out of business because it was the significant tenant among a number of others of their faith. And so the high priest and his little clan and the Sadducees all rose up, and the Bible says they moved against the apostles for what reason? They were filled with jealousy. Let's talk about that for just a moment. Why do you think they were jealous? Well, I can think of two reasons. Reason number one is they were losing people left and right to this new movement. If all you have to offer people is a dead orthodoxy, because interestingly enough, the Sadducees as opposed to the Pharisees believed in the legitimacy of Scripture. They didn't believe in the legitimacy of oral tradition. They didn't believe in spirits and in angels either, mind you. But they had a system of law that wasn't very satisfactory to people. Now, along comes the gospel, and along comes the promise of the gospel that through faith in Jesus, we can actually have our relationship with the living God. And He knows me, and my sins can be forgiven. I don't have to keep paying forever, and I don't have to keep feeling forever like I'm a failure because I can measure up to all the demands and the expectations that are made of me. And God gives me the Holy Spirit. And God puts me in community, and God enables me to experience signs and wonders, so the lame walk and the deaf hear and the blind see and the poor have good news proclaimed to them. Do you think that might be a little competition? Just a tad. And how do you compete with Jesus, who's pulling off all these miracles all the time through the church? And so they were filled with jealousy, just like in the days of Jesus. They were filled with jealousy, and they wanted Him put to death. So that's one reason. But there's still another reason, and that has to do, of course, with the temple worship. Their temple worship was threatened. Think back, now here's a very important thing for you to understand. Think back to the crucifixion of Jesus. What was it that finally enabled them to put Jesus to death? Two witnesses who testified on what? Destroy the temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He was talking about the temple of His body, but you see, they took it as He is criticizing the temple. You get that? Now move two chapters ahead to Acts chapter 7, where Stephen, who was the first martyr to be killed, what was the argument that put Him to death? They said He spoke against the temple. Move on further into the book of Acts, Paul brings, who was it, young Timothy with Him into the temple? That became his undoing because they thought Timothy was uncircumcised, and he was polluting the holy temple of God. So here's the point. These religious leaders in the Sadducees were the aristocrats of society. They were the cream of the crop, they were arrogant and they were proud, but they held the power, and they consider themselves to be the chief stewards of the temple things of God. And so here is this new church, these people who are filled with zeal, enthusiasm and excitement, and the danger is that they will lose the loyalty to the old system, and I'm sure that somewhere along the line they felt that that was highly irreverent and they were in danger of incurring God's wrath and God's judgment because the temple was to be the presence of God Himself. And they confused, as many people do, form with substance. Now the fact that they met just around the corner from where the early church was meeting surely didn't help any because remember, where did the early church meet? They met in Solomon's porch, which was on the wing of the temple, while the Sadducees and the Synhedrin, they met in a room off the other corner of the temple. So every day these Sadducees are coming to their meeting and there's all these thousands of Christians who are just carrying on in the temple, it would get under your skin too if that was what your value was. So with jealousy, they were filled with rage, and they do the only thing they know how to do, and that is they arrest the apostles and they put them in jail. Now remember earlier, it was only Peter and John in connection with the healing of the crippled person who had been put into jail. Now it's the whole shooting match, and clearly the idea is you cut off the head of this movement and you can stop it in the words of Jesus, you strike the shepherd, and what happens to the sheep? The sheep get scattered. So they put them in prison, they lock the door, and then they gather the whole shooting match together. The whole Synhedrin, that would be at least 71 people, there's also talk about the Council of Elders, in which case there may have been as many as 120 of them. And so next morning they send the captain of the guard to get the apostles and guess what? Surprise of their lives. Because here are the guards standing in front of the doors, the doors are still locked. If you know this story, they open the door and guess what? They've disappeared. Beam me up, Scotty. How do you explain that? So now we're scratching our heads and we're saying, you know, they couldn't have crawled, there's no tunnel to be found here anywhere. Where do these guys go? And no sooner are they contemplating that, word arrives and guess where they are? They're back in the temple and they're doing this dastardly deed again. They're talking about Jesus. Now you would think, would you not, that that would sort of be the first clue that maybe ought to just leave them well enough alone, but unbelief isn't that smart because unbelief has its own agenda. So what do they do? They send the captain out, you can read the story for yourself in more detail, and because he was afraid of what the crowd might do, they gently drag them back before the Sanhedrin and now begins the interrogation by the high priest. And so moving on, just a couple of slides here too. Acts 5, 28, and you can just hear the frustration in this man's voice. "We gave you strict orders not to teach you 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." You gotta love the way it's always deflected. You are causing us trouble. We gave you specific orders not to speak in this name. Why are you making it so difficult for yourself? And why didn't you just listen to what we told you to do? And then of course follows Peter's very classic response. We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead whom you had killed," I think rubbing it in just a tad, "by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." We must obey God rather than men. We'll elaborate on that this morning other than to say, and we've taught about this before, that if there's a conflict between what God tells you to do and what authority figures in your life tell you to do, if the command is contrary to what God has commanded you, or if the intent of that command is to make you disobey God, you must always obey God rather than men. Think of all the families in Europe during World War II who in contradiction to the Nazi doctrine chose to hide Jews in their houses and in their barns because protecting life was more important than bowing to the dictates of a corrupt and illegitimate government. We must obey God, says Peter, rather than men because Jesus has been exalted at the right hand of God and he is King of kings and he is Lord of lords. Well, that kind of went over like a lead balloon, just so you know. And so we read in verse 33, "When they," that is the Sanhedrin, "heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death." Now I want you to listen very carefully to me. There is an anger that people can experience when they are confronted by the authority of Jesus that is not merely human anger. It is an anger that finds its root in hell. It's the anger that made Cain kill Abel, that made Esau go after Jacob, that made Ishmael tease Isaac, that made Israel put the prophets to death, that made the Sanhedrin, the religious community crucify Jesus, that now is directed towards the apostles and that later on, two chapters further on, is directed towards Stephen, whom I said earlier became the first martyr in the church. Listen to what chapter 7 says, verse 54, "When they heard this," again, "you always resist the Holy Spirit," is what Stephen said to them, "when they heard this they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him." And then verse 57 of that chapter says, "As this they covered their ears," I love this image, "they covered their ears, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city, and began to stone him." I don't know if you've ever encountered that anger, but I can promise you that if you follow Jesus and stand for Jesus and let light shine in dark places, there will be times and there will be people who hate you with an irrational hatred. You cannot reason with them, you cannot argue with them, you cannot debate them, they want to kill you, because you see the light shines in dark places. And that brings us back then this morning to Gamaliel, because remember, it's Gamaliel who stops them from carrying this threat out. And so we read again, "A Pharisee named Gamaliel, the 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. When he addressed them, 'Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men,'" and then follows his little speech that we read earlier. But notice, what party does he belong to? He's a Pharisee. They're not fair, you see. And the Pharisees were much more loved by the common people than were the Sadducees, because the Sadducees were arrogant dudes up there trying to run the whole show. But the Pharisees were held in high esteem by the people and nobody more so than Gamaliel. Who here remembers who is one of Gamaliel's most famous pupils? The Apostle Paul was actually mentored by Gamaliel. So Gamaliel was a very honored and respected person, and the Scriptures then go on to say that they listened to him. 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. I find that a fascinating verse, because that kind of persuasion might save your life, but hokey peters. Those lashes were no minor matter, you might recall, because it was 30 lashes minus one. And if you can't count, that's 39. So you really get the tar beat out of you, but at least you weren't killed. And so the chapter ends then, as we said earlier, with verse 42, where unhindered, unrestrained by all this negativity, 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. And as I said earlier, that is indeed the whole point of this chapter. As the church moves forward in fulfilling the Great Commission, it comes up against the religious and the political power of its day, and they get locked in jail. The whole movement is threatened because it's very young. It would never survive at this point the absence of the apostles, but God knows how to make away where there is no way. And so, if the prison door needs to be opened, He can send an angel, get them out of there. Only happens one other time in the book of Acts, do you remember that? Peter, Acts chapter 12, locked up in shackles, angel walks him out, the church is gathered for a big prayer meeting, they can't believe that their prayers are actually getting answered, and so Rhoda shuts the door right in front of his nose, but eventually they clue in and there's great joy in the church. Another story that is sort of similar is where Paul and Silas are locked in jail in Acts chapter 16 in the city of Philippi, and you will recall they're singing praises to God and I've often said God came along and sang bass, and the whole earthquake thing happened, and their chains fell off. God can set prisoners free, not only emotionally and spiritually, He can even do it physically. And if any of you have read the book The Heavenly Man by a Chinese evangelist who was in town here a number of years ago, you will notice that he had a very similar experience. He was locked in a Chinese prison, an angel of God came along, opened the door, and literally let him out. It doesn't always happen, because Stephen gets martyred. Later on James, the brother of Jesus, gets killed. Eventually most, all of the apostles become martyrs to the faith, but God can make a way to fulfill our calling and our purpose, and He can not only open the doors in jail, but He can also raise up the voice of people like Gamaliel who say, "Now listen you people, you're not doing a very smart thing. Here is what you're ordered here." And why do I share that with you this morning? Because sooner or later, if you and I are going to be faithful to Jesus, if you and I are going to speak the Word of God to people in our families or in our communities or in our places of work, sooner or later we will cross somebody's spirit that disagrees with your testimony to Jesus. And every so often, that will be somebody in positions of authority and positions of power. All over the world today, the church suffers persecution, and persecution is not that far away in North America either. The only reason we don't experience a lot more of it is because we have so blended in with our society that we are innocuous and we're harmless. And you declare that Jesus alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and you see how fast the powers that be will get on your case. And when that happens, they will do everything they can to shut you up. And sometimes they will succeed. But the question then is, do you believe that Jesus is big enough to be with you until you fulfill the calling of your life? What's the last thing Jesus said in Matthew's gospel to the church when he gave the Great Commission? He said, "What? I will be with you always, even to the end of the age." And this much I know for sure, until your life and mine has run its course and we have fulfilled the call that God has upon our lives, nothing and nobody can hinder us from fulfilling what God has intended for his people. I think that's the message of this chapter. Wouldn't you agree with me that that's an accurate interpretation? Amen? Stand with me as we pray. We're so grateful, Father, that there are those who have gone on before us, and they have remained faithful to you, even unto death. And I can imagine for those early apostles to be arrested and to put into jail and to not know what the outcome of that was going to be, was in its own way very intimidating and very scary, and how easy it would have been for them to bend to the powers that were and thus be unfaithful to your call. Lord, each of us in his or her own way will find ourselves in that situation here and there, and in that hour what we need to know is that you're bigger than anybody, and that we stand in Christ alone. So help us to know what that looks like. Give us the wisdom to know the difference between foolhardiness and faith, between rebellion and standing firm before you. And Lord, may we live for that day when on the final day we hear your words, "Well done, good and faithful servants, you've been faithful over little. I will put you over much." So bless us, O Lord, make us a blessing, we pray it, in Jesus' name, amen. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:38:33.000; remove through 00:42:37.000] Christ alone, my hope is found He is my light, my strength, my song His form is strong, His solid ground Under the fiercest drought and storm The nights of love were depths of peace When fears are still and striving seems My comforter, my all in all Here in the love of Christ I stand Christ alone, who took on flesh Hold us if God in helpless faith This gift of love and righteousness Scorned by the ones He came to save 'Til on that cross as Jesus died The wrath of God was satisfied For every sin on Him was laid Here in the death of Christ I lay In the ground His body lay The light of the world by darkness slain Then bursting forth in glorious day Up from the grave He rose again And as He stands in victory This curse has lost its grip on me For I am His and He is mine Fought with the precious blood of Christ No guilt in life, no fear in death This is the power of Christ in me From life's first dry to final breath Jesus commands my destiny No power of hell, no scheme of man Can ever block me from His hand For every sin, for God's behold Here in the power of Christ I'll stand in the ground His body laid The light of the world by darkness slain [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:42:37.000; resume after this marked segment]