June 14, 2026 - The Way: Acts 5:12-42

Listen to this week's sermon from Garry Jones as we continue in our series The Way on the book of Acts.

For further information about Fort St John Alliance Church, check out our website fsjalliance.ca

Our desire is to become a community of people who practice the Way of Jesus together, and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us. Each week, we gather as a community to worship, learn from God’s Word, and be encouraged in our walk with Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Fort St. John Alliance Sermon Podcast. I'm Nate Perry, the youth pastor here at the church. We're so glad you've joined us today. Our desire as a church is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together and, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us. Each week we gather as a community to worship, learn from God's Word, and to be encouraged in our walk with Christ. In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service. Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St. John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith. Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Well, good morning. We are going to have our scripture reading for today. Now, I'm going to be honest with you. We usually are very intentional about when we ask you to sit because there's a lot of standing. But if you feel like this is the time for you to sit, please feel the invitation to do so. But I don't know about you guys, but I sure love being able to stand for the reading of God's Word. So if you feel like that is the way, the posture you want to take, please feel invited to do so, but no pressure at all. Today we'll be reading from Acts chapter 5, verses 12 through 42. Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. Go stand in the temple courts, he said, and tell the people all about this new life. At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin, the full assembly of the elders of Israel, and sent and sent to the jail for the apostles. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, We found the jail securely locked with the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside. On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priest were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to. Then someone came and said, Look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people. At that the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force because they feared that the people would stone them. The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, he said, but yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood. Peter and the other apostles replied, We must obey God rather than human beings. The God of our ancestor ancestors raised Jesus from the dead, whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior, that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are witness we are a witness to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee named Gameleel, a tear teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and offered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed the Sanhedrin, Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Thedeus appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case, I advise you, leave these men alone. Let them go, for if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men, you will only be f 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 go to go to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Today I'm really delighted to be able to invite uh Gary Jones up to preach to us this morning. I think so often we, because in the last season of our church, we've had a number of different voices from within the congregation be able to come and preach. That is a gift that not every church has. I hope we understand that there is something just beautiful in the variety of voices that we get to hear from. And I'm really excited to be able to have Gary join us this morning and share about this passage and what the Lord has put on his heart. So thank you, Gary, so much for preaching for us this morning.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

There's a number of things in it that sort of uh show up, and you ask the question, uh, it's a nice story. It's a good story. It was put in the scriptures for a purpose, uh, God had an intention for it. Uh, what really is the use of it, or how does it really fit into our lives? How does it really work? And so, what I want you to think about is from the Old Testament, there's an example of a story. Uh, the story you know is a Bible character. He's one of the judges, his name was Gideon. Uh, Gideon was uh visited by an angel when he was doing an offering, and the Lord used the angel to come and tell him that Gideon, I'm going to use you to deliver uh the Jewish people from the Midianites, and that will be your task. And so after the angel is there, Gideon goes asks for permission to do a little offering, and so he does some offering, and uh he performs that, uh, continues on, and we read in the few verses later that Gideon turns to God and he says, You know, I really wonder, am I supposed to do this? And so Gideon makes this little uh trade agreement with God. He says, you know, if the fleece turns one way, then I'd be willing to do it. If the fleece doesn't, then I don't have to do it, then he does it again. And he says, you know, if the fleece goes the other way, then I'll know for sure that this is the will of God. And so we ask the question, uh, was Gideon really a man of God, or was he really a doubter that just raised his hand and said, Lord, you know, I really don't know what you're doing, and I really don't trust you very much. I'm a real skeptic. And as we read that in Judges, uh, what we find is that God honored Gideon and the fleece turned one way and then it turned the other way, and God says, Go and get the job done. And so the question really is, uh, what is wisdom? What is wisdom? Uh, you probably have made some financial uh activities and decisions, and you've asked yourself and scratched your head and said to your wife, I don't know whether this is wisdom or not. I really don't know. You've probably made some decisions about life that you look back and you really ask the question, was that wisdom or wasn't it wisdom? How do I really know what was the right thing to do? How do I figure that out? How do I get to the place where I have certainty in my spirit that this is the will of God and this is the thing that I should do? In Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter 1, it says of Solomon. Solomon was told that he would be king, and he turns to God, and God says, What would you like? And Solomon turns and says, Please make me wise and teach me the difference between right and wrong. 2 Chronicles chapter 1, verse 9. And God turns to Solomon and he says, Solomon, he says, You have chosen something that is very, very good. He says, just as a sideline, I'll make you rich. He says, I'll make your name great. He says, I will honor you, I will bless you, and I will do all kinds of things for you, because you made the right choice. He says, because you asked of me to be wise and to be taught the difference between right and wrong. And he says, as a result of that, Solomon, I will bless you. And so as we read this passage this morning in Acts chapter 5, I guess my question to you is, as we look at it and we see that uh going forward, uh, the question is uh, what do we think about in this passage? This passage follows immediately following the uh story of Ananias and Spirah. And so we want you to think this morning. That's really what we want you to do. So we want you to think. We want you to think about how does God get respect? How does God initiate healing? And how does He provide deliverance? We read there in verse 12, it says the apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's colonnade. So people got together and worshiped, and they were doing all of that. It was in a context of what had just happened with Ananias and Sapphira, and the question is, how did God get respect from this little congregation? Well, we had the story last week of Ananias and Sapphira coming in and making an offering and uh being talked to about it, and they said they were giving this much, and in reality they were giving this much, and uh they said, Why did you lie against God? Why did you lie to him? And both of them were carried out and they were buried in a local uh local cemetery somewhere, and as a result of that, it says uh the result was great fear seized the whole church. There was a fear, or all of a sudden there was a respect. And so what God did is he did something supernatural, and how that's uh manifest itself to the rest of the congregation is everybody said, Whoa, God is big, God is great, God does awesome things, and I need to pay attention. And so, as you have that for a backdrop, then they meet for worship, and as they're worshiping, it says, and all the believers used to meet in the colonnade, and no one else dared to join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. So, how does he get respect? Well, he does something supernatural. When God does a work of God, then all of a sudden people recognize it. And that's what happened with Ananias and Spirah. How does he initiate healing? This one really gave me a problem when I read it, uh, because as you read on, it says, uh, they believed in the Lord. There was people added to the church, and as a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats, so at least Peter's shadow might fall on them as they passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, uh, bringing the sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed. So you got any sick, you bring them on a mat and put them in front of the Alliance Church, and your pastor walks by, and everybody gets up and goes home healed. Okay, that's what it says was happening. And what makes the story a little more unique is as you come to the last uh part of that section, it says, and all of them were healed. And all. Not some, not one, but all. So everybody that was laid on the mat, and everybody that was there, uh, when they were brought and they were uh there for uh the crowd and and the sick and the tormented and those of impure spirits and from the crowds around, all of a sudden there is this supernatural thing that is taking place, and all are healed. Everybody that was brought, you and I know in our experience that the church has prayed for many people and some have died. The church has prayed for many people and they have continued sick. The church has prayed for many people and nothing has happened. And so when we know that from our experience in our life, and we read that in this passage, and we read how God provided deliverance and how God did what he did on these particular days with this particular little congregation, then the question is, what do we do with it? What is wisdom? What is wisdom? You see, that's the question that I want you to think about this morning is uh it's easy to read the previous story about Ananias and Zapphira and say, well, you know, that's a story of two individuals and there's nobody been carried out uh dead recently, so we know that we don't have to work with that per se. But when we come to this one in regard, this gets a little closer, and it begins to meddle with your prayer time. It begins to meddle with your lifestyle and how you approach things and how you work with illness and how you work with uh demon possession and people who are uh struggling with oppression and all of those kind of things. And you begin to work with that word all. And so as you come to this and you say, What is wisdom? What is wisdom? What is wisdom about my prayers? Are my prayers no good? Uh do my prayers not work? Do I have no relationship with God? Is this passage teaching that the church doesn't have any faith? What do we do with this passage? This passage begins to stir this is what the early church was doing, and this is where we are. And we ask the question, are they the same? How do we work with that? Remember Solomon just after he was appointed and prayed that prayer, two ladies showed up and they said, You know what? Uh, our child died. Uh, or at least one of the children died the other night, and I laid on it, and now there's a dead child and there's a live child, and they said, This is my live child, and the other one said, This is my live child. And they came to Solomon and they said, What are you gonna do about this? How are you gonna sort this out? What is wisdom? And Solomon says, Well, let's let's just give part of the child to each of you, and it'll be okay. And the woman who the real child it was said, No, give the child to the one whose child died. I'd sooner the child live. You see, Solomon was given the gift of wisdom to sort out what to do with things. And why was he given that? He was given that because he asked of God to give him that insight and that instruction and that wisdom when there was an issue. When you read the Word of God, you need to ask God for wisdom. What do you do with these kind of passages? What do you do with this kind of thing when God is asking us to think and to process and to work with the realities that we have in our lives? And how do we process them and work with them when there isn't answers and there's things we need to do? I want you to think about the next one, and the next one is another story, and that is how does oh, we're in generosity. You need to think about generosity. Okay, we'll try it again. Okay, think about that's too far. We've got to go back. God's program. The program here is as we move down to verse 17, uh Peter is taken and put in jail. It's kind of unique, having been put in the public jail, and it says, but during the night, the an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. Go and stand in the temple courts, he said, and tell the people about this new life. At daybreak, they entered the temple courts, and as they had been told, and they began to teach the people. So, what you have here is I want you to think about God's program. He has the apostles appointed that they are supposed to go and preach. The result is that they're put in jail. And so God does something unique again. What he does is he takes an angel to go and visit in the jail, and he takes them out of the jail, and it says, as they left the jail, they were taken and they were told to go and continue with the preaching. What's unique is that when they go back to the jail, they find the guards standing at their post and they find all the doors locked. So did they unlock the doors? The angel unlocked the doors and blind everybody so that they could come out? I always have these questions when I read the passage and I find that the doors were locked when they go back and check. Did the guards all of a sudden have amnesia and they were quiet and standing there and frozen in time and they couldn't open their eyes and they couldn't see what was going on and they had memory failure? Did he pick them up and move them outside of the jail so that they didn't remember how they got from the inside of the jail to the outside of the jail? I don't know. Don't you think about those kind of things? When you read that the doors were locked and the guards were standing there when they go and check on them afterwards and there's nobody inside? How'd they get there? See, those are interesting questions. What we notice, though, is that the spread of the gospel is continued. It says, why were they taken out of jail? And he said to uh to the ones that were taken out of the jail, tell the people about this new life. They weren't taken out of the jail because they were suffering in jail, because they had been beaten and put in jail, or because they were sad, or because their family didn't want them in jail. They were in jail because they were preaching the gospel, and now they got out of jail so that they could preach the gospel. They got out of jail so that they could go into the temple court and they could share their faith and tell others about God. It wasn't about their convenience, it wasn't about their health, it wasn't about their uh personal interest, it was about getting the gospel out. And so one of the things you notice about God is he spreads the word of God and he spreads the gospel the way he wants to. And if there happens to be a jail and there happens to be opposition and there happens to be difficulty, God says, you know, one of the things that's unique about me is I can do it anyway. I can do it anyway. And through the foolishness of preaching, God saves some. And here's a story that's a reminder of that. Then you have the reminder that he protects his leadership. You see, when it comes to time to talk about it, uh, they say, Well, we got to be careful. These guys didn't show up uh in jail. Now we want to go and find them. When they go and find them, what does God do? God says they're preaching in the middle of the day with crowds around them. We can't take and abuse them. We have to show them some respect. And so what happens is God uses the crowd to protect his preachers or his leaders, the ones who are sharing. And you say, Wow, that's kind of unique. God uses the presence of people to protect others so that they don't get into trouble. That's what God does. God does it in his particular way. You see, he protects the leadership, but at the same time, he allows people who hear the story to put their trust in God. And so Peter and them preach the gospel, and they say, you know what, you guys are the ones who really put Jesus on the cross, and you are the ones who uh had sin and caused this all. And yet God overruled that and raised him from the dead, and you need to put your trust in him. And they say, Don't be so personal when you preach. Don't make it so personal. And God says, Well, I will generate faith in the way that I want to generate faith. And so, as you read through this account, what you read is that God has a unique program and He does it His way. Would you have set up a church program that has people beaten and put in jail and then released from jail and then again beaten and told with a number of things that they shouldn't do that? Would you set up a church program for that and ask people to volunteer? And the answer is no. It's a work of God. And when God does his program, it's unique. And so what we see as we read through this, that God accomplishes his program through the foolishness of preaching, through an angel visiting a prison, and through people finding out who God is and putting their trust in God because He is God. You see, I want you to think about the last part of this chapter, and I had a little bit of a problem in getting it to have a caption as such, and that is to think about the tests that are involved. And the test is really that they've taken and had them put in jail and everything else, and somebody comes along and says to them, Well, you shouldn't preach anymore. And that you shouldn't talk about God anymore, because God is causing some difficulties to you personally and to us. And so it would be just better if you shut it down and you were quiet. And so God does a little test here, and the apostles come back and they say, you know what, it's more important that we serve God rather than that we serve men. Just that way. It's more important that we do the work of God, and if the work of God leads us to be in prison, leads to be a little bit of dispute and leads to criticism, that's okay, but it's better to do what God wants than it is to do what others want. And the ask and the question of endurance is how long will you do that? And the answer is, well, we're going to do it all the time. Whether it leads to prison or whether it leads to suffering or whether it leads to difficulties, we're going to continue to do it all the time. And then we have the third test here, and that is the test of uh what is wisdom, and Gamaliel comes on the scene here. It says, When they had heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed the Sanhedrin. Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago, he says Thadius appeared, claimed to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, and his followers were dispersed. And it came to nothing. And after him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. And he too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you, leave these men alone and let them go. For if purpose or activity is of human origin, it'll fail. But if it's from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourselves fighting against God. So Gamalian brings up an interesting question that when you're making evaluations, that you need to be careful in those evaluations that you don't end up fighting against God. That's a very interesting concept. That you can do the right thing and end up fighting against something that God wants to do. You see, as you go through this uh story, we would have come to Gideon and we would have said to Gideon, you know, Gideon, you had an angel that come and walked with you and talked with you and was able to uh communicate to you what you needed to do with your life. And then you fell off the wagon and you went and asked for a fleece, and you asked for a supernatural intervention that goes against everything else in all of time to have a fleece wet and dry at the same time and to set this all up. And you could have said to Gideon, you know what, you're such a doubter, you have no faith at all, you shouldn't even be uh in God's kingdom at all. And then after he has that answered by God, and Gideon comes along and says, You know what? He says, I still don't believe. Would you do this again and just reverse the terms? And it would have been easy to say to Gideon, you have an angel, you have a fleece, and you just have no faith at all. And what does God do? God says, Gideon, if that's what you need, that's okay. And Gamalia would have said, you know what, if it's of God, you better not fight against it. In other words, don't mess with Gideon. I'm using him. Don't mess with him. You see, there is something from Gamalia's advice that is useful to us. There's something that's useful in our kingdom and our world that's useful for us to understand. When it comes to wisdom, wisdom is a very interesting thing. And that is, wisdom is knowing how to use information, how to use experience, how to use knowledge, how to use the future, and how to use the life that you have. And how do you use that, and how does that fit together, and how does that work? In life, I've made some observations. Old people talk about yesterday. You can decide today whether you're old or not. When you get together and you visit with other people, do you talk about experience of yesterday or do you talk about the things that you're thinking about at the moment? Do a percentage measurement. I've worked a lot with seniors, and now I'm supposed to be one of them. You walk into a coffee shop of seniors, and what's the discussion? What are the stories? You meet with young people and you talk to young people and you ask them, what are you talking about? And they're talking about what they're going to do tomorrow, the day after, what they have anticipation for, and their dream and everything, but they talk very little about what I actually am doing. And you get together with the middle-aged, and what do they talk about? I pondered for a while on this one. They talk about their troubles, their headaches, their season in life, their holidays, what's happening with their finances. They talk about everything else, but they can think of that just is outside of them. You see, one of the things that very few people do is they talk about the now. They talk about now. I want you to think about the disciples that were taken with Jesus in Matthew chapter 17, up onto the Mount of Transfiguration. They went up with Jesus, and Jesus is praying, and there's this tremendous visitation of the old age saints coming and showing up, and the glory of God is shown through Jesus for who he is. And what's the disciples' response? Let's build a tabernacle. What were they really saying? Let's captivate this experience and let's nail it down as a program. And let's make it into an activity that we never ever lose. Let's build three tabernacles. Is that okay? Is that okay? We've had this tremendous experience with God, so let's captivate that, build a tabernacle, and we'll never lose the activity in the relationship with God. It's interesting what God says. God turns and says, you know what? Listen to Jesus. Don't build a tabernacle. Don't build anything. Just listen to Jesus. And what does Jesus have to say? He says, get up and don't be afraid. He says, make your miserable lives useful. Get up and do something. You see, our tendency is to rehearse the past, to talk about the dream of the future, to talk about the circumstances around us, but to never address where we are right now. Where we are right now and the things that we're experiencing and doing. You see, if we go to uh Matthew chapter 22, Matthew chapter 22, uh the discussion is in regard to uh talking to Jesus, and Jesus replied, and the question was, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And Jesus replied, Love your Lord, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commands. Love God and love your neighbor. You see, what the disciples were doing on the Mount of Transfiguration is they said, let's build a tabernacle because we know that works. We know how to build tabernacles, we know how to have Christian relationship with tabernacles, we know how to worship God in them, and we know how to captivate the experience and the relationship with God. So let's build a tabernacle. And God says, now just listen and get on with your life. And Jesus says, get up and let's go. You see, our tendency is to revert to the things that we know and to try and captivate and to capsulize our experience. We try to take the future and make the future really interesting and exciting so that we don't have to work with the present. We take the past because we can use it and we can create it and say that it's positive and we put a positive twist to it. Instead of working with relationship. You see, when you go back to the book of Acts, the story is you read there about what was happening and how when God was there and unique and active in his activities, people were getting healed and people were seeing demons driven out, and people were having relationship with God. And you say, Well, let's duplicate that so that we can have that kind of activity in our lives. And God says, No. You don't look for duplication. What you look for is relationship with God. We superimpose all kinds of responsibilities and duties on people instead of encouraging them to have relationship, instead of encouraging them to allow God to fill their lives, does it really matter whether you pray at six o'clock in the morning or eight o'clock at night, and whether you go for a walk and you read three verses or you read three chapters? No, it's really about do you have a relationship with God? And if God decides to do something unique through you during that day, that's a plus. If he decides just to have you as his friend for the day, that's okay. If he wants nothing to happen that day, that's okay. You see, it's about relationship, and that's why it's about loving the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. It's not about a program, it's not about an activity, it's about a relationship. And we have a terrible time allowing and freeing people up to have relationships. It's far easier to put them in a program. And when God came to Solomon and said, Solomon, what do you want? Solomon said, What I'd really like is I'd like to have relationship. I'd like to be wise. I'd like to have you work in my life in such a way that I know what is the difference between wrong and right, and that that relationship would work in the now. And God says, if you want relationship, if you want relationship, I can give you riches, I can give you victory over your enemies, I can give you anything and everything that you would ever dream of because you are in relationship. You see, we come to Acts chapter 5 and we read the aspect of God visiting and intervening in Ananias and Sapphira's life, and the answer is when God is in relationship, God is really unique. When God heals them laying on the street and drives out, you say, God is really unique. And when God takes and delivers them out of prison and you say, God is unique, God is God. And then they come and they say, What do we do with these people? And Gamalia says, I want you to know something. If this is God working in this situation, don't mess with it. Don't mess with it. Let God work in their lives. Because if you fight against it, you'll be fighting against God. My challenge to you this morning is, are you wise? Have you figured it out that it's not about programs, it's not about activities, it's not about past blessings, it's not about future hope, it's about moment by moment relationship with God. And so if you get in your car this afternoon and you're driving down the road and there's a nudge inside that you should pick up your phone and call somebody, you do it. Because it's relationship. If you're driving and somebody, you have a nudge inside, you know you should go and help somebody, you go and do it. And you say, Well, I've never done that before. I didn't do that. That's not my normal me. It's okay, do it. That's because of relationship. If you're reminded to pray for someone, pray for them. You see, it's not about the programs and the activities and the recapturing of the past or the anticipating of the future. It's about where you are today with your walk with God. And that's why Jesus turned to them and said, You love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And you love your neighbor as yourself. And as you do that, relationship and activities and a walk with God becomes real and becomes invigorating and becomes different every single day. You have no idea what you'll do for God tomorrow. You have no idea how God may bless you tomorrow. But because of relationship, that relationship is something that God can do in your life because you now belong to Him and He is yours. And there is a freeing expression in that that you can enjoy the now. I looked out at our lawn this morning and it was green and the sun was shining, and I just said, Thank you, Lord, that's really good today. That's relationship. Do you tell only stories about the past or only anticipate the future, or only look at your schedule, or only uh anticipate how many things you got to do, or do you enjoy the moment? Do you enjoy the moment? Faith is enjoying the moment. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're so glad for these stories that remind us of you doing unique things. But Lord, help us to be very careful not to make them into programs. Help us to see that there is relationship and that wisdom is to have you. And wisdom is to have you teach us the difference between right and wrong. And help us to see that we want to enjoy who you are because you are really God. And we ask this in Christ's name and for your glory. Amen. God bless you.