Why would religious leaders object to seeing God heal people?
WATCH
Sparking the Flame, 5 of 7 from October 4, 2026
“God’s plans stand fast even though people are broken."
Acts 5:12-42 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon teaches that even when the apostles faced jealousy, arrest, and opposition from religious leaders, God’s plans continued and could not be stopped. Pastor Michael encourages believers to obey God over people, test every influence against Scripture, and share the gospel with courage and clarity.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 What influences do we need to measure against God’s standard?
💬 How might our fear of pushback be preventing us from sharing what we know is true?
💬 Where is God leading us to share Jesus this week?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
READINGS
-
Good morning again, church, and welcome to our neighbors. If we haven't met yet, my name is Michael. I'm one of the pastors here. I want to do a little bit of an age check for us as we're getting going. Who remembers Kodak?
All right, all right. Appreciate your honesty. Who has no idea what Kodak is? All right, so mostly the people running the tech have no idea what.
What Kodak is. No, no, no. That's how it ought to be. It ought to be. Okay, so Kodak, if you don't know, if you don't know.
There was this groundbreaking technology called photography. And what happened is you could take a moment in time and print it on a sheet of paper and it was incredible. Nothing like that. Like it used to take forever. And Kodak figured out not only how to take high resolution pictures, but they would put them into cameras that could do a really good job.
And they were semi affordable, like you could afford them. And for the longest time, for decades, if you didn't have a Kodak camera, you didn't actually have a camera. Like Kodak was the defining, like they were the definition of what cameras were. Right. But have you noticed that the young folks have no idea what Kodak is?
They were dominating the Market. There was no other game in town. Kodak was on top of the world. And now most kids have no idea what it is. The logo for Instagram is a Kodak camera and they don't know what it is.
Right. Why.
Kodak?
As I understand it now, I've not like verified all the history, but as I understand it, there was a young upstart photographer who went and figured out how to take photos without having to print them on paper. Let's just bypass the film and bypass the printing process. We'll bypass all the chemicals and we'll take photos and we'll just put them on a screen. It was this radical concept called a digital camera. But Kodak had never heard of a digital camera.
And Kodak, they came to Kodak and said, hey, I've got this idea, I've got this technology. I think it's going to be real big. I want to sell it to you. And Kodak said, why would we buy digital camera photography? We're Kodak, we're on top of the world.
All of photography is always gonna be printed on paper forever because that's what we do.
And now we don't know them because they were so successful that they missed the opportunity of how things were kind of changing. And there's a temptation for us, that. That we are probably the most vulnerable to distraction, to attacks, when we actually have a little bit of victory under our belt. On the heels of victory might be when we are the most susceptible to some kind of an attack. And so we've been going through the Book of Acts.
It's the story of what happened in the lives of the people who were following Jesus after Jesus left the planet. So we know that he died, but he didn't die and then, like, stay dead. Like literally every other teacher that has ever existed. He died and came back to life, but he didn't stick around. Like, you'd think if you claimed to be the eternal God and you came back to life from the dead, that you'd probably just hang around.
Right. And he said, actually, as Carlos mentioned, actually, it's going to be better for me to leave. I'm going to leave the Holy Spirit, and you guys are going to carry on my work and my ministry. I'm going to leave. And he teleported.
Not teleported. He raised up to heaven.
He kind of flew away. Yeah. And all the disciples, they have left their careers. They have added stress to their family by traveling all the time. For the last three years, they've devoted their lives to following this teacher.
And now he's just literally floated away, vanished into thin air. And so what does the community that's following Jesus do after he's gone? He says, I'm going to send my Holy Spirit and it's going to be better. And so what we've seen is God has, like, showed up in miraculous ways. He's communicated through language barriers.
He has brought people who believed in the God of the Bible but still were trying to work their way to make him happy. He gave them salvation by grace alone and faith alone in Christ alone. And people's lives are being changed. It's impacting the way that they handle their material possessions. They're so locked in with what Jesus is doing, they're saying, jesus is everything to me.
My money means nothing. My property means nothing. Let me put it at his feet and let him use it the way he wants to. That's significant. And on the heels of that victory, we see not only pushback, but also opposition.
We saw last week how the enemy had tempted somebody from within that community to try to lie to God and how God was willing to intervene. A couple sold a piece of property, and they lied about how much money they made on it. And when they brought the offering to the church, they told everybody in the church that they're giving the full amount, but they kept some for themselves. And God says, like, you can't lie to me. You can't lie to the Holy Spirit.
And so those two people lost their lives as a result of their sin and of their lie and of their deception. So God is at work. But where we're at in the moment of the story, there's a lot of victory. There's a lot of growth. There's a lot of things coming.
And in Acts, chapter five, we're seeing a kind of a rally from the enemy. The enemy's really trying to push back. You've got a little bit of victory. Let me see if I can undermine. Let me see if I can attack from the side.
Let me see what I can do. And perhaps the church is vulnerable because they're growing. But I hope that by the end of our time today, you'll see that God's plans are going to stand fast. But I needed to give you a little bit of tension so you've got a reason to listen. So let me pray for us.
And by me pray for us, I mean us pray together. Our habit is, neighborhood church, is to pray the Disciples prayer. If you could click on the thing for me, that'd be helpful. Yeah, it's our habit to pray the Disciples prayer. Because when the disciples kind of asked Jesus how to pray, he said, this is how you should do it.
And I'm simple enough to just do what Jesus said to do. But it's more than just like, he didn't just give them a magic spell. Like, if you pray this prayer this way, then everything in your life will go great and your hair will grow back. Obviously, that's not true. It's not like magic words to make God do what you want.
It's when you talk to God, when you approach the creator of the universe, when you come to him under the blood of Jesus, these are the attitudes that you should talk with. You should address him as your father because he loves you. You should be concerned for his purpose first. Because he's the one who's in charge of the world. You should trust him to not specifically give a whole list, but just give me what I need for the day.
So I'm just going to give us a moment to kind of take a deep breath. If you've been running ragged, you were trying to get here this morning, and there's all the things like, let's just take a minute. Let's take our time. We don't have to be in a rush. God will take all the time he wants.
Let's take a deep breath.
And let's pray together.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen. Let's navigate in our Bibles to the book of Acts in chapter five. Acts, chapter five. If you follow along in these blue Bibles, it's going to be on page 1054. These blue Bibles are kind of tucked around on chairs.
There's a couple on the piano if you need to grab one. That's the one that I read out of. The font's big enough for me to read without having to squint too much. Not 40 yet, but my hearing is going faster than my eyes.
We're going to be in Acts, chapter five. And let's start at verse 12.
Acts, chapter 5. Starting in verse 12. 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 to 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. And people also gathered from the towns around 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 stand in the temple and speak to all the people. The words of this life. Let me pause there. So you've got on the heels of this kind of internal threat and God dealing decisively with those who were were trying to lie to him in order to build up their own reputation. You have the apostles as they go out into the community.
Something different is happening through the ministry of the apostles. They are healing everybody. And I almost get the sense, like as I'm reading this, that the impression I got is it feels like the way that Luke describes this, that they're healing almost more than Jesus would have healed. Like, one of the things, as you read through the Gospel of Luke, who is that, like, Jesus would often make a decision to stop healing in an area and to move to a different area. And it's one of the questions that, like, rings in my head is like, how did Jesus decide who to heal and who not to heal?
I still don't know. It's up to his will. But here, like, it seems like these guys are set up camp in Jerusalem and everybody's coming to them and. And they're just touching everybody. They're healing everybody.
They're bringing all the sick people out. They're laying them on the side of the road so that maybe when Peter passes by his shadow, we'll touch them and then they'll be healed by the shadow. Just note, the text doesn't say that anybody was healed by a shadow, but just that's what the people were thinking. Like, something special was happening through the ministry of the apostles. And the Sadducees get frustrated by it, and they would go to throw them in prison.
But it doesn't last very long. Like, that night, an angel lets them out and says, hey, you should go and continue to speak the words of life. Go, continue to preach the words of life. And so that's kind of what they do. But as we've been going through this, there may be a question that you had beforehand, maybe a question that you have today where you're like, okay, as we're reading the Bible, like, how much of the Bible is, like, real real?
Like, how much of it is, like, actually for real, for real? Like, when we're talking about the apostles, like, laying hands on the sick and them being healed, like, is that for real? Like, what was going on? Like, is that actually how it was going for them? And if that's how it was going for them, like, why don't we see that happening in church today?
Like, is this something that we should be expecting? Is this something that should be normal for church?
Anybody else have that question? Is that just me? Because I'm reading Acts going, I need to preach until people throw rocks at me. So I'm not sure exactly what. But, like, anybody else have that question?
Okay, so I just want to draw your attention to verse 13. Let me read 12 and then I'll draw your attention. Verse 13. Now, many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. None of the rest dared to 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 verse 13, none of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. Different, different scholars will interpret that verse differently. They'll say no one dared to join them as a reference to all of the Christians. Like that.
There weren't a bunch of Christians that were joining the church because they were so afraid that the miracles were so common. Right? But then you look at verse 13 next to verse 14, and more, more than ever, believers were added to the Lord. I don't think you can take the them in verse 13 as being like the general congregation grammatically. Like, if you look at it in a bunch of English translations, grammatically, almost universally, it's translated very much the same way.
Nobody dared to join them. Nobody dared to join them. Nobody dared to join them. And so I looked in the Greek and you know what it says in the Greek? Nobody dared to join them.
The modern translations got it right. And so the Greek is just as quote, unquote, vague as our modern English translations. Who's the them? No one dared to join them. I think, like, if you're looking at these verses in context, it seems to me like nobody dared to join the apostles because there were people who were joining the church.
Not just people joining the church, but more than ever, both men and women were coming to faith in Jesus in verse 14, but no one dared to join them.
The them, I think, refers to the apostles. And that shows us that it seems like nobody dared to join them was a sign that, like, what God was doing by the hands of the apostles was something that was specific for that office in that time period. And it's not clear that every church leader is now designated to have that same kind of authority where you just touch people or you walk by and they have the same kind of shadow. Even in the early church, the people recognized as they understood the priesthood of all believers the same way that we do, they recognized that God was doing something different in the apostles. Okay, are we tracking with these verses?
Am I saying then that you shouldn't expect God to heal you? I think not. Excuse me. I think that that is not the conclusion you should draw. I think you should ask God to heal you of your diseases.
Because the Bible also says that. Specifically in James chapter five, it says, hey, if you're sick, you should call and ask people to pray for you. And as you confess your sins to one another, not to the priest, as you confess your sins to one another, you might be healed. Like God still is actively Healing people in the world. But he's not doing it in the same way that he was doing here.
So why would God do that? Why would God choose for a limited amount of time to give this limited group of people just a significant amount of power? We're not picking up the story at the beginning.
Sometimes we read the New Testament as if it was just written with the 20th century in mind. Like. Like we read Acts, and we're like, okay, what does this have to do with me? And literally, I can tell you, doctor, Luke did not care really what it had to do with you. He was not thinking about you.
He did not imagine you. Like, in. As he was writing, he was not thinking, I wonder what's going to happen 2000 years from now. I don't know if he thought that history would go for another 2,000 years. I don't know what his expectation was.
And as he's writing, he's writing to the people there, and he's writing to people who have had a walk with God. They have the whole Old Testament, and they have bought into the whole Old Testament. And God has been communicating in a certain way. And by the way, had been silent for 400 years before Jesus showed up. And so when God starts speaking again, he is going to, by his grace and by his mercy, make sure that people know that he's actually the one who's speaking.
He's actually the one who. Who this. Who is at work. And he's going to validate the work that he's doing. I'm going to say that this is our idea for the section here that God verifies his work through approved leaders.
He's going with the apostles. He's blessing the work of their hands. I can tell you these guys did not glow in the dark like Peter and Paul. It seems like they didn't really communicate very well. They kind of got on each other's nerves.
Oftentimes they did not really understand what was going on. When we opened the Book of Acts in chapter one, they had no idea what was getting ready to happen. And God said, just wait, just wait, and when it happens, you'll know what to do.
However, God's verifying his work through approved leaders. And what are the outcomes? The people hold the apostles in high esteem. They say, God's doing something through you guys. And they're saying, it's Jesus.
You should trust in Jesus. And so many people trust Jesus. More people than ever put their faith in Jesus in this time. And while that's going on, Jewish religious leaders Become jealous. Did you notice that they didn't object doctrinally to the healing?
They were jealous that so many people were following these apostles. They. They were jealous that they were more popular. So we've got the Sanhedrin, and specifically they name the party of the Sadducees. So I know you guys were dying when you woke up this morning to hear about Jewish political politics and religious dynamics of the first century.
Like, that was. I really hope we get there today. The Sanhedrin is the council of people that got together to ask the Roman government to execute Jesus. So that's the governing council. They had significant political sway.
And the reason they had significant political sway is because they were willing to work with the Romans where God had given the Jewish people a religious law. The Romans came and said, we don't care. Without that law is the Sanhedrin. The Sadducees would say, okay, let's figure out how we can fit Roman law into God's law. Like, let's figure out how we can kind of coexist here.
And they were actually really, really concerned to make sure that the Jewish community in Jerusalem had a good reputation with the Roman government, with the governing authorities. They were mostly. And one of the things that's difficult is they didn't write anything down. So everything we know about the Sadducees, we know about what other people said about them. So you can take some of these descriptions with a grain of salt.
But the Sadducees, by and large, most of them were very wealthy. They were politically powerful. And doctrinally, there's a couple of things that they didn't believe in. They didn't believe that God was actively involved in the lives of people every day. They kind of thought that God, he gave us his law, and now it's our job to do his law, and he'll check in with us when we're done.
They did not expect God to be at work. They did not believe that anybody would ever be resurrected from the dead, that that was an impossibility. And they had no hope of any kind of an afterlife. So they were not. They.
They opposed the idea of an afterlife, right? And they're filled with jealousy. And so they see that all of this is going on, that the apostles have favor with the people, which is a problem if you're in politics. You want to win the next election, right? You want people to like you.
And so they arrest the opponents and put them in prison. And I love that Luke spends almost no time on this. He's like, all Right. They put him in the public prison. And then, by the way, verse 19.
But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go stand in the temple and speak to the people. All the words of this life. All right, bro, I've read descriptions of angels. If something like that shows up, I'm gonna spend a little bit more time on the description. I want to know what it's like to be in the room when an angel unlocks your jail cell.
Like, I don't know. Like, I would like some more information. But God, he does his own thing.
So that's, like, where. That's where we start. But as we're looking at these verses, one of the things that I want us to spend a little bit of time thinking about is you've got these Sadducees who will say, I believe the Bible, and I've come to these conclusions. And you've got these apostles who say, I believe in Jesus, and I've come to these conclusions. And Jesus, God the Father's authorizing this message.
What are the influences that we have today that we need to measure against God's standard? Like, there are all kinds of voices, all kinds of people that are trying to influence the way that you make decisions. They're trying to influence the way that you operate at work. And so I just wonder, what influences do we need to measure against God's standard? Now, there's a temptation, if you're a church person, be like, well, we got to measure all of them against God's standard.
And I would agree with you. However, that's a big blanket statement. I'm asking for you personally, what are the voices that you choose to listen to, and have you considered how those influences are measuring up against God's standard? Because there's all kinds of voices that I don't think we think about, we just assume are reliable. So what influences do we need to measure against God's standard?
Our big idea for the whole morning as we go through, we've got the apostles in jail, we've got them freed, is that God's plans stand fast even though people are broken. God's plans stand fast even though people are broken. The apostles, although God's working mightily through them, they're set aside for this office. They are still broken people. Pete's still Pete.
He still denied Jesus 50 days ago, and today he's taking a stand and getting arrested on his behalf. God's plans stand fast even though people are broken.
Pick up in verse 19 but during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go 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. That's good. You followed the angel's instructions. Now, when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council and all the synod 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 savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things.
And. And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. And when they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. Let me pause there.
The Sanhedrin, as they are, like, at work, they arrested the apostles, and then they cocked out for the day. They went home and went to bed. And we'll deal with this in the morning. We'll put them in jail overnight and let them. Let us think about what they said, right?
And so they wake up in the morning, they've got their coffee, and they're like, hey, let's get everybody together. They call the whole council together. And I don't know if you've ever tried to, like, call a meeting, but I'm sure that took some time. And they all get to the meeting like, okay, go and go and get the. Go and go get those guys.
We have. We have some questions for them. And so they go to the prison and they show up and the guards are standing there. Everybody's. Everybody's awake, conscious.
Aye aye, sir. Right, ready to go. And the door is locked. So they unlock the door and they open up the door and they go into the cell and there's nobody in the cell. Like, where are the people that we arrested yesterday?
Did you let them out? No, I didn't let him out, sir. Everything was fine. I was on guard all night. Everything went great.
So somehow like these guys have disappeared and they come back and they report to the council. Hey guys, I know you guys all got together to interrogate these men and we can't find them. Okay, cool. I don't know what that means or what's going to happen next. And then somebody runs in and says, hey, those guys that you arrested yesterday, they're in the temple teaching and preaching the thing that you told them not to teach and preach the last time that you arrested them.
And they're like, okay, well why don't you bring them in here? But they didn't bring them by force. They don't come in and put them in cuffs and drag them away. They, they're like, hey, remember that appointment we had scheduled for today? Could you come and talk with us?
Because they were afraid because the apostles are so well esteemed. They're afraid that the people are going to start throwing rocks at them, that they will be abused because they're opposing the ministry of the apostles. They're afraid of the people.
Not everybody who's talking God talk is walking. God walk. There are all kinds of people, even people who will say, like, I believe the Bible. But then the way that they live out, they actually are working against what God's work is. And I put myself at risk by saying that.
But like, I want you to know that not everybody's legitimate and not everybody is actually walking with God.
Knowing the book is not the same thing as knowing the word. Jesus is the Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Human failures don't negate the truth of God's work.
These guys thought they had it right. They were even in the right ballpark. They had the right book. They had their hands on truth and missed what God was wanting to do in their heart. But God's plans stand fast.
Even though people are broken, they're jealous. These guys are more popular. They sound like politicians, don't they? Like, well, we can't let the polls go the wrong way. We've got to do everything we can to keep the polls going in the right way.
But I think jealousy is an expression, expression of insecurity. We're jealous of you because we're not secure in our position. And I think insecurity stems from fear of other people.
And it's interesting because they're afraid of the people that they claim to have leadership over. So interesting dynamic. Insecurity stems from fearing the people that they claim lordship over.
A life directed by ego is afraid of all the wrong things.
As they are in these roles of spiritual leadership.
It seems like they're more concerned with making people happy than they are with, like, making God happy. Be they're more concerned with what if the people reject us than what if God rejects us.
A strange dynamic. When people ask me what I do like as my occupation, I never really know what to say. I've taken to saying, I'm a janitor lately. That's pretty safe. Like, what do you do?
I'm a janitor. Oh, where do you work? I work at a church. I just clean up people's messes all the time.
It takes them a couple minutes to get the joke.
If you say shepherd, that gets weird because, like, I don't smell like a shepherd. If you say pastor, then people just end the conversation most of the time. And the people who don't end the conversation, you wish they would.
And so there's sometimes where I just say when people ask me, what do you do? Well, I just work for Jesus, and I've got a couple of different jobs that he pays me to do.
If he's not happy with my ministry, then I need to quit. If you guys are happy and Jesus isn't, then I am failing you. And for these guys, they're saying, no, no, no, no. If the people are not happy, then we're in trouble. Now I still, it has been historically a much, a much more difficult issue for me, but I still struggle with insecurity.
I was massive people pleaser as a young person. And when I was. When I was just starting in ministry, I was working at a church. And the pastor who was there is my mentor. Just a great guy, very soft spoken, but just a powerful prayer.
Like, he would kind of stumble through his sermon, he would lose his page in the notes, and he wasn't very eloquent. But man, if you get him in the room, like, praying, like some of the most powerful times of prayer, and he cared for people and he loved people and he would bend over backwards to be with people in their suffering. And I just, I loved this guy. And something happened where people got tired of his bad preaching. And so they asked him to leave and he just said, yeah, okay.
And so I became, I became the only pastor on staff at a church that didn't like the guy who I was trying to become.
And that was scary, especially for a young guy who was a people pleaser. I really wanted everybody to like me. And I'm like, terrified, like, oh, they clearly are not going to like me if I keep doing what I think I'm supposed to be doing. Because they just got rid of the guy who I thought was doing it right.
So God in his grace, he put me together with Pastor Ryan and put us together with Pastor Todd. And Pastor Todd worked in the prison system in Ohio for 13 years. And so he was not afraid of anybody. I would get all worked up about this conflict where I needed to confront him about something and I would go to him and be like, hey man, I just need to tell you, blah, blah, blah. He'd be like, oh, okay.
And I'd be like, so relieved. He'd be like, why are you so relieved? I was like, well, I was just worried about how this was going to go. He's like, do you think we're having a conflict right now? And I was like, yeah.
And he's like, no, this doesn't even register. You need to suck it up. And like that is what I needed in that season of my life. Like those years were formed. Formative, just kind of getting bopped on the nose by him.
Not booped, bopped like bop.
But a life directed by ego is afraid of all the wrong things. Like it is still a temptation for me to be more concerned with how you will respond than how Jesus will respond.
And so I'd encourage you, like if you are actually super afraid of what will people think, then like ask who is the one that you're afraid of?
Proverbs talks about this all over, but this verse stood out to me this week. The fear of the Lord leads to life and whoever has it rests satisfied. He will not be visited by harm. If we fear the Lord, we have confidence and can rest in what it is that he wants to do. If we're afraid of of all this other stuff, then of course we're going to lack confidence.
As they are working through how to interact with the apostles. They realize that if the apostles testimony is true, then they are culpable for Jesus execution. They were the ones who ordered it. They were the ones who convinced Pontius Pilate that he ought to be executed. Even though Pontius Pilate on three Separate occasions say, I find no guilt in this man.
This man is innocent. If the people like the apostles, they'll like Jesus. If the people like Jesus, then they won't like the ones that insisted that he be executed.
And I noticed this time, this is the second time that Peter's been arrested. And the first time he was a little bit more gentle. And now is the second time he says, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge, he says in chapter four. But here today, he says we must obey God rather than men. I'm not asking anymore.
Like, the first time we met, I was trying to be respectful, and now we're having the same conversation again. And I need to be clear with you that. That I must obey God rather than men. Whatever game you're playing, I'm not going to play it. And so I need to declare clearly.
What does he say? I lost it on the page.
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 savior to give repentance to Israel and. And forgiveness of sins. So they say we have to obey God.
We have to tell you that Jesus is the son of God, that you executed him, he died, and God raised him back to life. And in his resurrection, he provides forgiveness of sins. If you don't know, like, that's the whole message of the church. There's lots of side issues and things that are important, but, like, that's the message of the church. Jesus died and he came back to life, and his resurrection means we can be forgiven.
Whatever it is that has made it impossible for you to get to God, whatever it is that's slowing you down from walking with God, whatever it is that has stood in the way from you having a relationship with God. Jesus says, that I've paid for that, and you know that the payment is good because I've come back from the dead.
And so if that's news to you, I'd encourage you ask Jesus to forgive your sins and walk with him today. If that's not new to you, if you're like, of course he's going to preach the gospel. That's what the pastor does. When we get to this part of the passage, like, what ridicule are we willing to face in standing up for what God has commanded us to share?
I think the ridicule that Peter faced in chapter four gave him a greater clarity of what's eternal. He started with a question. I think that's probably a good place to start. But when we come back around to it, he said, no, no, no. Let me be clear.
We must obey God rather than men. How might our fear of pushback be preventing us from sharing what we know is true?
How might our fear of pushback be preventing us from sharing what we know is true? Oh, I can't say that I already know how they're going to respond. Can I tell you something? You don't know how they're going to respond.
I don't know how my kids are going to respond. Most of the time when I give them instructions, I don't know how my students are going to respond. Most of the time when I give them instructions. I don't know how the people at the grocery store are going to respond when I'm just trying to check out, like, sometimes. Sometimes there's things going on that I didn't realize I was walking into.
Right. And sometimes God has put us in places where things are going on, where we have the opportunity to share, and we're so afraid of pushback that we just kind of hold it back. Let me just. I don't want to stir the pot. How might our fear of pushback be preventing us from sharing what we know is true?
The gospel is given in words.
In order to share it, you're going to have to say words. I know that there's a quote that gets used and misused a lot that says, preach the gospel and if necessary, use words. It's necessary. You have to do it. You have to say what you mean.
You have to say what you believe with words. Your life should back that up. You should live out the gospel. That's true, but we have to say it. So proclaim the gospel.
Share your testimony. That's what the apostles are doing. We are witnesses to these things. In verse 32, we are witnesses to these things. And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obeyed him.
When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill him. Well, cool. We're back to, like, square Jesus. That's what they did with him. Verse 34.
But a Pharisee the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders for the men to be put outside for a little while. Sometimes you just need to take a minute, right? So props to Gamaliel. Verse 35. He said to them, men of Israel, take care what you're about to do with These men, for before these days, Theudas rose up claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, a 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 is of God, or excuse me, for if 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 dishonor for the the name.
And every day in the temple, in the temple and every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.
So Gamaliel, I'm kind of a fan. He seems like a wise guy, and he's a Pharisee, where the Sadducees were kind of in charge, and they were usually more wealthy. The Pharisees, who tend to get a bad light in the Gospel or in the Gospels, the biographies about Jesus's life, they were actually more accessible to, like, common people. And they even say that Gamaliel was popular with the people, which is a way to be popular with the Sadducees. If you've got influence with people, then the Sadducees are going to want to be your friend.
And so Gamaliel has different beliefs than the Sadducees, but he's still influential. And what he does is he lists off some rebellions that have failed or they grew rapidly and then they died off really, really quickly. He talks about Theudas, and he talks about Judas the Galilean, who rose up in the days of the census. It's likely that in the days of the census refers to the census that Luke wrote about in chapter two, when he's talking about Jesus being born. So we're talking 30 years ago, this guy, like, led a rebellion, and then it all kind of pittered away.
But his concern in bringing up those historical examples is that he wants to make sure that they understand that they could, in an effort to please themselves and in an effort to please the people, they could be found opposing God. Which is a great. Like, he has done them an incredible gift. Some of the most precious people in your life are going to tell you things that you don't want to hear. Some of the people who love you the most are going to encourage you not to make a decision that you really, really think is the right decision to make.
And so Gamaliel here is loving them well. I don't know his motivation or his heart, but I think he is loving them well and bringing their attention to what their responsibility is. Their responsibility is to serve God. And if they continue to engage with this, they may be found to be opposing God's word. God's plans stand fast even though people are broken.
And so if we oppose God's plans, it's likely that God will oppose us in the process. And so he's concerned, hey, if this is from men, it's not going to last. Which is good to remember when new things pop up and everybody's talking about it all of a sudden. If this is of man, it will not last. But if this is of God, you will not be able to stop.
Let's remember that popularity does not equal God's approval.
God knows what's trending, and it does not change anything about his day.
He was seated on the throne before there was a planet to be concerned about.
If Jesus were going to be, like, physically present at a baptism, I'd be much less concerned about lightning because he can just say to the wind and the waves, knock it off, and then they're done.
Popularity does not equal God's approval. Everybody in the world can be convinced of one thing, but if it's against what God's word has said, clearly, then it's wrong.
I don't care what you label it.
There are some really, really disgusting things that get a Christian label and that oppose the heart and mind of God. There are things on Christian radio that I think are just ev.
Just because it has a hashtag Christian on it doesn't mean that it actually is honoring to Christ. Just because people are saying God words doesn't mean they're walking God talk, walking God's walk.
I think Gamaliel perhaps just hit the nail on the head. Maybe God used him as the last prophet to Israel because you notice that's who he's talking to. Men of Israel, leaders of Israel, people in Jerusalem. This whole conversation is happening in one city.
Maybe Gamaliel is the last prophet to Israel, saying, hey, guys, you should not oppose these people, because if God is with them, you won't be able to stand up against them and the apostles get beaten. We charged you sternly last time. We're here charging you sternly this time. But now we're going to do the stern warning with sticks. And the apostles went home and cried about it and made sure that they posted lots of social media posts about how they were persecuted.
They made sure that they garnered a bunch of sympathy from people that were outside and made sure that everybody knew just how much they had suffered.
Sorry, what does it say? Then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for for the name. It's almost as if Gad answered the prayer that they prayed in chapter four. Do you remember chapter four, verses 29 through 30?
They had had this conversation with the council. They came back and they come back and they pray not for safety, not for deliverance, not for popularity. They pray in chapter four, verse 29. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal. And signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.
They said, give us the boldness to keep doing what we know is right, though all the world is wrong. Let us declare with boldness and clarity that God is in charge, that Jesus is his Son, that the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives today.
Where's God leading us to share Jesus this week?
That random text message from a friend you haven't talked to in a long time is not random. Remember that? I told you that when it happens this week. Where? And I asked you the question, where is God leading you to share Jesus this week?
I don't mean to make it weird. I don't mean like when they text you and be like, the pastor told me that this was gonna happen and I need to tell you about it. Like, don't make it weird, but listen to what's going on, open up the conversation, hear what's going on, and wait for an opportunity to share what it is that Jesus has been doing in your life. You should be praying. I do have more of these now, but about a year ago we started it.
We just call it 3, 2, 1. It's a simple way to refer to setting an alarm on your phone for 2pm to pray for three people every day. And there's step by step guides every day of the week. Everything you could possibly want, like this is supposed to be a resource and they're in the entryway if you need to Grow in the habit of praying for people, praying for lost people, people who are wandering, who are far from God. You should be praying for them because the only hope that they have is that Jesus would get a hold of their heart.
You should be praying for one another. You should be praying for spiritual companions because this is not easy. God doesn't like, magically make your hair grow back and all your problems go away when you start following Jesus, life is still hard. People are still bald.
So we need to pray for spiritual companions. This was a serious moment. I'm sorry, forgive me. And you need to pray for spiritual leaders.
And you can pick a different one. It doesn't have to be me. This is not me trying to garner like a bunch of people to be praying for me. But you should pray for spiritual leaders because the temptation and is persistent to please people rather than God. And it takes courage and it takes boldness to stand with people as they are navigating difficult times and to continue to like, lead people in the direction.
Pastor Mario down at Good News, he says one of the things, one of the gifts of leadership is that if you are leading well, everybody's a little bit frustrated with you because leadership by definition is taking people to a place that they would not have gone by themselves. If they would have gone by themselves, they didn't need leadership. But if you have led them there, then they wouldn't have arrived there by themselves. So pray for spiritual wanderers, pray for spiritual companions, pray for spiritual leaders. Set an alarm on your phone 2pm every day.
And if I'm around you at 2pm every day, or if I'm around you at 2:00pm and your phone doesn't go off, I'll know you didn't listen. JK LOL. But for real, my alarm set at 1:55 because I have a 2pm meeting. So in case I know somebody will come back. Where is God leading us to share Jesus this week?
And if you're like, I don't know what I would say, I'd ask you, what's your God story like? What is it that God has been doing in your life? Do you have something that you can see his fingerprints on that you can tell somebody about? And it might be helpful if you don't think of something right away to write something down. One of the things that I encourage us as we close our baptism class is to take some time to write down your God's story.
What are the things that God's been doing? Not because I like giving essays, although that is a small delight. To me, as somebody who used to hate homework, that now I can just give it out at random. But because I forget stuff, I'm really quick to forget things, and I end up taking credit for things that God did sometimes. And so when we have a discipline to write something down, we can remember what it is that God does, and we can give him the appropriate glory for it.
So if, as I'm asking, where is God leading us to share Jesus this week? You're not sure what the God story would be, I'd ask you just take a couple minutes and journal something out.
It may be that, like, God shows up and you just are filled with a sense of gratitude at all the things that he's been doing. It may be as you sit down to do that exercise, you get really, really angry and you feel like God is not listening, and you feel like God has not been there, and you feel like this whole season is just too, too, too much. Like, I'm aware. Ask me how I know that that happens when we sit down to journal. That's what happens in me.
I'm a terrible journaler because it makes me angry.
But God is at work. And as a brother prayed this morning, when he says no, that doesn't mean he wasn't listening. When he says, wait, that doesn't mean he doesn't care.
And there's not another place to go to to get the kind of help that we need God gives us one another. And there are so many times where God meets needs through other people. And it's beautiful and it's lovely, and we rejoice at that. And there's sometimes where people go to one another and they're like, I don't know how to help you. Let's pray.
Because he's the only source for help for a lot of the things that we face.
So let's do that. Let's pray together.
Lord, this morning is yours. This time is yours. These people are yours. This planet is yours.
God, the Word is yours, and the message in it is yours. I pray if there's something that I have added to or taken away from your Word today that that would be brought out and that it would be clear.
But, Lord, if youf Word has been declared with clarity. God, I pray as we engage with you in the truth of youf Word and the work of your plan, that you would settle that in our hearts in ways that we cannot escape, where we continue to think about and chew on and dwell on the ways that you have spoken. This morning, I pray again that our time. These short hours that we spend here on Sunday would set the temperature for how we live the rest of the week.
As we prayed on Sunday, give us this day our daily bread. We'd remember on Monday to pray for this day, our daily bread. And when we pray on Sunday to forgive those who. To forgive others the way that you've forgiven us. That we'd remember on Tuesday.
Lord, it's all your work. This was just 12 guys coming out of the fishing boat making up stories. It wouldn't have lasted very long. But God, your hand has been upon it even to this very day and this hour. So I pray if there's something that we need to do to respond, that you would make that clear to us.
Us that you would help us to hear clearly your voice and to follow your spirit. We thank you. It's in Jesus name, Amen.
LINKS
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
