SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Please take your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: I had an introduction all prepared this morning and a great historical account about Benjamin Franklin.
SPEAKER_01: But after that series of songs chosen by Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Stephen, I am compelled to go in a different direction.
SPEAKER_01: Good job, Steven.
SPEAKER_01: I have a question.
SPEAKER_01: If we can answer it just from Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say just from Scripture, what I mean is, can we quote Scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Christ come?
SPEAKER_01: Why did Christ come to earth?
SPEAKER_01: Thinking just from the words of Scripture, can you think of a statement that gives us a reason, maybe the reason, why Jesus came.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody have an answer?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so fulfillment of the Genesis 3.15 promise of a redeemer that would crush the serpent's head.
SPEAKER_01: Good answer, Marge.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody else?
SPEAKER_01: That he might save us from this present evil age.
SPEAKER_01: Good answer.
SPEAKER_01: Anything else?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Who said that?
SPEAKER_01: You stole my thunder, whoever it was.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your finger in Acts and turn to 1 John chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: So when we think about this, this question, why did Jesus come?
SPEAKER_01: There are all kinds of answers.
SPEAKER_01: There really are.
SPEAKER_01: That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death.
SPEAKER_01: That is the devil.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew, he says he came to fulfill the law.
SPEAKER_01: He came to call sinners to repentance.
SPEAKER_01: He came that we might have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_01: He came to bear witness to the truth.
SPEAKER_01: But I think it's rare that we consider 1 John chapter 3 and verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: For the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: And you can't get much clearer than this.
SPEAKER_01: The reason.
SPEAKER_01: The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we just sang.
SPEAKER_01: That is a mighty fortress, is our God.
SPEAKER_01: One little word shall fell him.
SPEAKER_01: Christ Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I would have thought of this earlier than last night, about nine o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: Because this would have made a much better introduction had I crafted it well.
SPEAKER_01: Because 1 John chapter 3, verse 8 is the theme of our text in Acts chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: So now that you've made your way to 1 John, let's make our way back to Acts chapter 5, beginning in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: God acts in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the book is about.
SPEAKER_01: It is about God's actions within his created world.
SPEAKER_01: We must never forget that.
SPEAKER_01: God is sovereign and he acts to accomplish his purpose in his world.
SPEAKER_01: The question is whether or not people will see his sovereign hand at work and join it through repentance and faith, or if they will fight against his power, which according to 1 John chapter 3 means you're joining the side of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: The end of Acts 4 and the beginning of Acts 5 reminds us of how things stood in the city of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Those first believers in Jesus lived in the power of the Spirit, having come on the day of Pentecost as they faced obstacle after obstacle because of their faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, God's work was so evident that people were coming to faith in Jesus daily, by the thousands.
SPEAKER_01: Even Levites from an island called Cyprus trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and was transformed by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Joy filled the church despite antagonism from every corner of the city.
SPEAKER_01: There was human antagonism and there was spiritual antagonism.
SPEAKER_01: Satan was already attempting to infiltrate the church through lying and deceit with Ananias and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_01: But just like in the Garden of Eden, God intervened, dramatically removing Ananias and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone who heard about it was afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Now a new section begins in Acts chapter 5, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: As we look at this, we have to remember three details as we consider the remainder of the chapter.
SPEAKER_01: First detail is that these are the Acts of God.
SPEAKER_01: God is working here.
SPEAKER_01: Specifically, the Lord Jesus was crucified, buried, and risen.
SPEAKER_01: He appeared to over 500 people for 40 days, and he ascended into heaven, where he rules over the world today.
SPEAKER_01: He is working even today.
SPEAKER_01: And Luke is describing those very early days of Christ's work through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He is in heaven, but he has not ceased working.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first detail.
SPEAKER_01: The second detail we must remember is that Jesus works in a particular way.
SPEAKER_01: In a particular way.
SPEAKER_01: He does his work through his people, whom his spirit empowers.
SPEAKER_01: So the Holy Spirit is the divine agent who brings about Christ's work until he returns.
SPEAKER_01: The third detail is what causes all the problems.
SPEAKER_01: Satan rules this world in this age.
SPEAKER_01: He is the arch nemesis of the Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He opposes everything that Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Satan opposes and seeks to thwart everything that Christ empowers his people to do for his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So if you think it's difficult to serve Christ, if you think it's difficult to live a holy and righteous life, if you think it's difficult to display Christ in your life, there's a reason for that.
SPEAKER_01: He's named Satan for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: Because he opposes Christ and his people.
SPEAKER_01: Those details provide some context for Acts 5.
SPEAKER_01: And so now, with that context in mind, we need to observe four foundational elements of the church in the early days in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And as we do that, we will see that these four foundational elements directly apply to our faith today.
SPEAKER_01: Let's start with the first one, beginning in verses 12 through 16, where we see that powerful works accompany spirit-empowered faith.
SPEAKER_01: Powerful works accompany spirit-empowered faith.
SPEAKER_01: So Luke is describing here the apostles' work in all kinds of ways.
SPEAKER_01: That they're productive ways, they're powerful ways.
SPEAKER_01: We see that they're coming together, they're teaching the people, and there are signs and wonders that are done regularly among the people.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, they're even carrying the sick out into the streets and hoping that Peter's shadow might fall on some of them.
SPEAKER_01: And they're healing the sick, they're healing those with unclean spirits.
SPEAKER_01: And it says they're all healed in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Miraculous deeds are being done by the apostles.
SPEAKER_01: God is using human vessels to pour out his power in the world that Satan rules.
SPEAKER_01: Some Bible scholars see significant elements in how God is working here.
SPEAKER_01: They see that God is really fulfilling, maybe if we back away from fulfilling, we can say at least pointing to things that he's already talked about doing.
SPEAKER_01: So for example, in Exodus chapter 40 in verse 35, it says that the presence of God overshadowed the tabernacle in the desert.
SPEAKER_01: And the presence of God was so powerful, so present, intense, that Moses couldn't go into the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_01: But here it's the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of overshadowing a place so that people can't come in, God is now powerfully working through Peter's shadow to extend his power to other people.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's something to that.
SPEAKER_01: I think there's a better illusion, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: In Isaiah chapter 51 and verse 16, where God says about his servant, he says, I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand.
SPEAKER_01: Establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth and saying to Zion, You are my people.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's something to that.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe an even stronger illusion is Ezekiel chapter 34 and verse 4, where God is chastising the Jewish leaders.
SPEAKER_01: Says, the weak you have not strengthened, the sick you've not healed.
SPEAKER_01: The injured you've not bound up, that is to care for them.
SPEAKER_01: The stray sheep you've not brought back.
SPEAKER_01: The lost you've not gone out and sought for.
SPEAKER_01: Meeting a need.
SPEAKER_01: Encouraging one another.
SPEAKER_01: Providing food, finances, assistance of all kinds.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus works powerfully through us by his spirit to shepherd his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now our attention is naturally drawn to the miraculous.
SPEAKER_01: And some of us are drawn to that kind of emotionally, wishing that, wow, wouldn't it be really neat to see all of that happening?
SPEAKER_01: And maybe wishing that that could happen today.
SPEAKER_01: That the sick are healed, the demon-possessed are restored.
SPEAKER_01: But looking closely, we see that those miraculous elements result from another miracle that came first.
SPEAKER_01: There's something that happened before that.
SPEAKER_01: Notice verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: It says, and more than ever, believers were added to the Lord multitudes of both men and women.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what Luke reveals here.
SPEAKER_01: First, he says in this verse, this is God's work.
SPEAKER_01: God is doing this.
SPEAKER_01: More than ever, believers were added.
SPEAKER_01: The grammar there suggests that it's not the people adding themselves, but the people being added by some external force.
SPEAKER_01: God is adding people to his own people.
SPEAKER_01: Specifically, this is the acts of the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen and ascended King, bringing people and adding them to his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Second, the kind of people he is adding are people who are believing.
SPEAKER_01: Distinguishing this group from those who are not believing.
SPEAKER_01: So we have a group of apostles who are chosen and sent by the risen and ascended Christ, who are ministering to a large group of people.
SPEAKER_01: Among that large group of people are believing ones and unbelieving ones.
SPEAKER_01: So this is God's work.
SPEAKER_01: The kind of people he's adding are believing people.
SPEAKER_01: And third, the number is practically innumerable.
SPEAKER_01: So we see the innumerable miracles of healing and restoration because the ascended Lord is adding people to his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: You see, that divine action of God drawing people to himself spreads the gospel like wildfire.
SPEAKER_01: Or to change the metaphor, the news about Jesus spreads across Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside like snow across the North Dakota plains.
SPEAKER_01: One minute it's over here, the next it's on the other side of the state.
SPEAKER_01: People are coming because the news of Jesus is spreading.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is no longer present now to impact people's lives with his hands.
SPEAKER_01: You remember how he touched the leper?
SPEAKER_01: He touched the blind man's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: With his hands he healed the people.
SPEAKER_01: But now Jesus, the risen and ascended Lord, is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But lives are being redeemed because his hands were nailed to a cross for payment for sin.
SPEAKER_01: And now he's extending his powerful work through other hands, the hands of his people, his spirit-empowered people.
SPEAKER_01: And it begins in the spiritual realm and then extends to the physical realm from salvation first to healing and caring for one another in the body of Christ as Christ begins to reclaim Satan's territory.
SPEAKER_01: Because crushing the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said that his disciples would be witnesses in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Luke's showing us how that happened.
SPEAKER_01: The ascended Lord is acting powerfully through his people, empowering them with his spirit to do his works.
SPEAKER_01: And that ought to impact our faith and not just how we believe, but how we live that out.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, anything done with righteous spiritual value for the Lord's kingdom is done through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Let me explain that.
SPEAKER_01: Try to put it in simple terms.
SPEAKER_01: If someone needs a meal and you have a desire and the ability to provide that meal, and you follow through because that person is a brother or a sister in Christ, that act of providing a meal is done in the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't you, that was the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have ever provided a meal for another Christian?
SPEAKER_01: You can never say that the Spirit has not worked through you.
SPEAKER_01: You got to take that excuse out.
SPEAKER_01: God's Spirit works through his people in ordinary ways.
SPEAKER_01: If someone needs a ride to or from church and you provide that ride in the name of Christ, it is done through the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If you speak with someone about Jesus, as Nick prayed this morning in the grocery store checkout line, that is done in the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If someone's life is transformed because they've come to faith in Christ as you have led them to understand who Jesus is, their sin, and to repent of that sin and trust in Jesus, it is done in the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Every aspect of the Christian life is part of the Lord's work to fulfill his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: He works through his people.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit is Christ's presence while he's in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And the Spirit is the divine agent executing Christ's will.
SPEAKER_01: And when he acts through his people, he gives whatever power, whatever strength, whatever wisdom, whatever words for his people to be Christ's hands, feet, and mouth.
SPEAKER_01: You have nothing to worry about when serving Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But if we trust Jesus, we can go out and be fearless.
SPEAKER_01: Knowing that, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I can't speak like the philosophers of the day, but I can tell somebody what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: You merely do what is in front of you for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: He does the rest.
SPEAKER_01: You simply present yourself as an obedient vessel for his work.
SPEAKER_01: Now that also means that we have no excuses, do we?
SPEAKER_01: Because if Christ calls us and if Christ empowers us through his spirit, then there is no reason to not follow through.
SPEAKER_01: Except for unbelief and disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: Now, someone might object saying that there is something legitimate to worry about.
SPEAKER_01: Because in the next section, the apostles are arrested and put in prison.
SPEAKER_01: That's something to worry about.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that is something.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not something to worry about, but it is something.
SPEAKER_01: That leads us to our second detail that we need to point out here, and that is that painful costs accompany obedient faith.
SPEAKER_01: 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 public prison.
SPEAKER_01: This is the second foundational element of the church that we observe here.
SPEAKER_01: Obedient faith may bring painful costs.
SPEAKER_01: Or as the Apostle Paul said elsewhere, everyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
SPEAKER_01: Luke recounts some painful details here.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 4, if we go back there, we see that Peter and John were arrested and put in custody overnight.
SPEAKER_01: Here in chapter 5, it's not just Peter and John.
SPEAKER_01: It seems to be all of the apostles, or at least the majority of them, are taken into custody publicly, in full view of everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe even the text could suggest put in into a public kind of prison where everybody could see that they're kind of in like a public kind of cage, in full view of all of the people.
SPEAKER_01: That's not exactly clear, but what is clear is that they were all arrested publicly.
SPEAKER_01: It's as if it's as if the authorities would come today and arrest some of us in full view of all of us, and not just that, but everybody who's seeing the live stream.
SPEAKER_01: In full view of the public.
SPEAKER_01: Now, yeah, an angel rescues them.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of exciting.
SPEAKER_01: And then they're brought back for questioning, and then after the questioning, they're beaten, they're whipped.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's apostles suffered publicly at the hands of their own kinsmen.
SPEAKER_01: These are Jewish people inflicting pain upon other Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they oppose the gospel of life.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what the angel said to them.
SPEAKER_01: Brings them out of prison, and then he says, All right, remember where you were arrested yesterday?
SPEAKER_01: Go back there and keep preaching.
SPEAKER_01: Keep telling people about the hope of this life.
SPEAKER_01: What life?
SPEAKER_01: The life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The life that is found in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's apostles suffered publicly at the hands of their own people who opposed the gospel of life.
SPEAKER_01: Now you remember, I'm sure, how confident and even arrogant Peter was in following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We saw that in Matthew, but in Luke's narrative, in Luke chapter 22, somewhere around verse 30, 35, Peter claimed that he was ready to endure prison and even die for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He said it to Jesus' face.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what happened?
SPEAKER_01: He denied him.
SPEAKER_01: Not once, not twice, but three times.
SPEAKER_01: So much for boldness, so much for courage.
SPEAKER_01: But the coming of the Holy Spirit changed Peter.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' absence, Peter is now transformed.
SPEAKER_01: He shows a stronger, bolder, more courageous character.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, that's not Peter.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And that is every person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells.
SPEAKER_01: In the right moment, at the right time, when a person yields themselves to be a vessel for God's use.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit brings boldness and courage when we walk with the Spirit, faithfully and obediently, trusting Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't belong to us by our nature.
SPEAKER_01: By our nature, we are all Peter's.
SPEAKER_01: By our own human nature, we all fear the imprisonment.
SPEAKER_01: We all fear the beating.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: We can't stand that.
SPEAKER_01: We want to run from that.
SPEAKER_01: We want to avoid that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what happens when the Holy Spirit comes and begins to affect the work of Christ, overcoming the realm of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: But make no mistake.
SPEAKER_01: Walking faithfully with Jesus is no bed of roses.
SPEAKER_01: It will bring all of the pain, all of the agony, and all of the sorrow that everyone else endures by living in a sin-cursed world.
SPEAKER_01: You don't escape that.
SPEAKER_01: No, you get more.
SPEAKER_01: You get more because it also comes with the pain that comes from those who opposed the work of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It comes because you are now committing treason against the God of this world and joining forces with the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And everything that you do and everything that you are becoming will be opposed.
SPEAKER_01: But take courage.
SPEAKER_01: Because the resurrected and ascended Jesus is no match for the forces of evil in this world.
SPEAKER_01: But we do need to recognize, as we see here, what these apostles and early Christians endured, we need to recognize that Jesus' chosen means of accomplishing his purpose in this world to subdue Satan, to reclaim his world for himself, includes fulfilling that plan through faithful human subjects who will face with his power an evil enemy who is intent on subverting and subduing the king's work and the king's people.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, Acts chapter five is a reality check.
SPEAKER_01: It's a reality check that the life that we have begun is much bigger than anything that we can see with our own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus intends to crush the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, prepare your mind by renewing it with Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And charge your heart to love Christ with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength, such that that perfect love for the risen and ascended Lord drives out all fear, knowing that he who saved you is greater than he who is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: But remember that pernicious decisions accompany unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Pernicious is a fancy word.
SPEAKER_01: It fits my alliteration, yes.
SPEAKER_01: But it fits in its definition too.
SPEAKER_01: Pernicious means having a harmful or painful kind of effect.
SPEAKER_01: Means to cause harm or hurt.
SPEAKER_01: Here, the Jewish leaders do not believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They don't believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They don't want to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They want to shut down the word of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They want to shut down the messengers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They don't even want to take responsibility for having Jesus crucified.
SPEAKER_01: And their unbelief is pernicious.
SPEAKER_01: Their lack of faith generates pain.
SPEAKER_01: Look at how Luke narrates this unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17, the high priest and all who are with him, that is, the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.
SPEAKER_01: So this is in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll remember that there are primarily two significant groups of religious leaders, there are the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
SPEAKER_01: The Sadducees were primarily responsible for the temple and the temple mount.
SPEAKER_01: So they were the high priests, the priests, the temple police.
SPEAKER_01: They took care of the temple itself.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees were the leaders of the common people.
SPEAKER_01: So they were often opposing one another.
SPEAKER_01: They're teaching and proclaiming Jesus and doing signs and wonders in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: So the high priest and his cohorts are there to apprehend the apostles.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they're gaining larger and larger followers, groups of followers.
SPEAKER_01: They're jealous of the attention that is being drawn to the apostles through the teaching of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That results, obviously, in their imprisonment.
SPEAKER_01: The angel then releases them during the night, it says, unbeknownst to all of the other people in that area.
SPEAKER_01: So whatever this incarceration looked like, there were guards, there were prison keepers, there were layers of security, and no one had a clue that the apostles, again, it's probably more than Peter and John, all of them are just being let out and told to go back out to the temple and start teaching people again.
SPEAKER_01: They're oblivious to it all.
SPEAKER_01: And told to speak publicly.
SPEAKER_01: Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: So when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
SPEAKER_01: This shows us that these Jewish leaders opposed the good news of life in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't want the good news spoken publicly, they wanted the good news imprisoned, incarcerated, done away with, hidden.
SPEAKER_01: And so when it's brought to light, they're perplexed in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute, didn't we put them in prison?
SPEAKER_01: Didn't we?
SPEAKER_01: The guards are still there in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is as it should be.
SPEAKER_01: They go and open the doors, and there's nobody there.
SPEAKER_01: There should be at least a half a dozen, maybe all 12 apostles there.
SPEAKER_01: There's nobody there.
SPEAKER_01: Then they hear, uh.
SPEAKER_01: They're all back in the temple teaching the people?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know something here.
SPEAKER_01: Never doubt God's sense of humor.
SPEAKER_01: Seriously.
SPEAKER_01: This is a subtle, maybe a not so subtle dig at the Sadducees and the temple authorities.
SPEAKER_01: We have several indications that the Sadducees themselves did not believe in God's intervention in human affairs.
SPEAKER_01: They were sort of what we might call, in our modern times, deists.
SPEAKER_01: God just kind of got everything started and stepped back and watched.
SPEAKER_01: So they didn't believe that God stepped in and worked out certain details in his world.
SPEAKER_01: But even more than that, Sadducees very clearly did not believe in the spirit world.
SPEAKER_01: They did not believe in angels.
SPEAKER_01: How do you explain an angel coming and releasing apostles when you don't even believe in angels?
SPEAKER_01: A little problematic, don't you think?
SPEAKER_01: You can understand why they're perplexed.
SPEAKER_01: An angel leaves them out of confinement.
SPEAKER_01: How could they not be perplexed when they don't even believe in the ways that God works?
SPEAKER_01: Not only did they not have faith in Jesus, they didn't even know how the God they claimed to serve works in his world.
SPEAKER_01: Now, notice how Luke alludes to Isaiah to show us that Jesus is working from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of his chosen servant, God says that one day in Isaiah 42, the servant would come and he would be a special servant of God himself, and he says, I will take you by the hand and keep you.
SPEAKER_01: I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeons.
SPEAKER_01: From the prison, those who sit in darkness.
SPEAKER_01: I am Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: That is my name.
SPEAKER_01: These are temple authorities, temple teachers who ought to know that Yahweh's work is to bring prisoners out into the light.
SPEAKER_01: When the promised servant brings a new covenant, when when nations begin to come to him and prisoners are brought out of dungeons, the light bulb ought to go on.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean that God's going to do it regularly, constantly, or even consistently.
SPEAKER_01: It means that the promised servant is going to do that kind of work.
SPEAKER_01: And Luke shows us right here how the ascended Christ, God's promised servant, brings in the nations and acts, heals people, and brings prisoners out into the light.
SPEAKER_01: And the religious leaders are just, huh?
SPEAKER_01: How do we make sense of that?
SPEAKER_01: They can't see it because they're blind to God's work of rescuing his servants.
SPEAKER_01: They're full of unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: You would think that these religious leaders would be convicted of the apostolic preaching that's drawing people by the thousands, but instead they're enraged.
SPEAKER_01: And in verse 33, they want to murder.
SPEAKER_01: That's a more accurate translation, I think.
SPEAKER_01: They want to murder God's messengers.
SPEAKER_01: They make harmful decisions amid that unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: They make pernicious decisions.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Luke, Luke, I think, is forecasting a bit here in verse 34.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like not like some forecasters that try to tell us what the weather's going to be and then it doesn't end up happening.
SPEAKER_01: It's more, no, this is going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Gamaliel here is a Pharisee.
SPEAKER_01: So on day one, it's just the Sadducees because they're just in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: They put them in prison overnight so that the next day they can gather the whole council of Sadducees and Pharisees together to have an interview.
SPEAKER_01: Some kind of interview.
SPEAKER_01: Gamaliel is a Pharisee, and he's a highly respected Jewish teacher, even today.
SPEAKER_01: Here he acts with great wisdom and care.
SPEAKER_01: He sends the apostles out of the room when he recognizes it's reached a fever pitch.
SPEAKER_01: He sends them out of the room to avoid stirring up the situation even more, and he recounts some Jewish history to make a point in verse 38.
SPEAKER_01: He says, So listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: What I think is wise is this.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not be fighting God.
SPEAKER_01: If this isn't God's work, it's going to fade away.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they may draw some people, it may cause a disturbance, but you know what?
SPEAKER_01: It's going to fade away.
SPEAKER_01: But it but if this is God's work, we will be found to be God fighters.
SPEAKER_01: So there Luke lays it out very clearly.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Lord Jesus Christ fighting the work of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: And the workers of Satan are God fighters.
SPEAKER_01: Luke's forecasting will come about in a few chapters when Gamaliel's disciple, a man by the name of Saul, does not take his mentor's advice.
SPEAKER_01: And instead he fights against the church of God.
SPEAKER_01: But here the council listens.
SPEAKER_01: But even though they listen to Gamaliel's wisdom, it does not come without pain, does it?
SPEAKER_01: Because verse 40 says they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know exactly what that beating looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Most popular opinions are that they received the 40 lashes minus one.
SPEAKER_01: That was common for Jewish punishment.
SPEAKER_01: So the Jewish law said that 40 lashes with a whip was the most that you could give anybody.
SPEAKER_01: And so the common theory is that they did 39 just in case they miscounted.
SPEAKER_01: That's painful.
SPEAKER_01: When you are a servant of the living God speaking the words of this life, you will encounter pernicious decisions driven by unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Suffering accompanies faith because it connects us to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We must suffer because he suffered.
SPEAKER_01: Suffering for our faith causes shifts in our trust from our own strength and our own circumstances and our own abilities to trusting and hoping only in the ascended Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Paul later spoke of his own suffering in this way.
SPEAKER_01: He says it makes us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Pain for Christ represents the reality that we belong to Jesus, which ought to then shift our focus to the power of Christ over all.
SPEAKER_01: So count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds.
SPEAKER_01: For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
SPEAKER_01: And let steadfastness have its full and perfect, complete work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
SPEAKER_01: That leads us to the last foundational element of the church we observe here.
SPEAKER_01: And that is that they rejoiced that they could suffer for Jesus in verse 41.
SPEAKER_01: They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That is a provocative reaction.
SPEAKER_01: And throughout the book of Acts, provocative reactions consistently accompany faith.
SPEAKER_01: Look at that again.
SPEAKER_01: Look at it in black and white.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 41.
SPEAKER_01: They left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
SPEAKER_01: What a strange reaction rejoicing is to getting beaten.
SPEAKER_01: Now this passage again indicates that it wasn't just Peter and John in prison being beaten.
SPEAKER_01: Peter remains the primary speaker, but this section indicates that it's the whole group of apostles, or at least the majority of them involved.
SPEAKER_01: This is a collective thing.
SPEAKER_01: This is representing the entire growing church.
SPEAKER_01: They're in it together.
SPEAKER_01: They are all beaten and they all rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: Now the church is welcomed with joy by some and greeted with harm and pain by others.
SPEAKER_01: Those who give them pain do that out of unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: Those who do not believe cannot see the work of the risen.
SPEAKER_01: And ascended Jesus through the power of the Spirit through his new covenant people, they can't see that unbelief opposes the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But when they react and try to crush the work of Christ in his world, the result is provocative reactions.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: These Christians don't act like your run-of-the-mill, unregenerate person without the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the church gloried in testifying of Jesus by honoring him with wholehearted commitment.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that on display when they rejoice in their suffering for the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The author of the book of James was not one of the twelve apostles.
SPEAKER_01: We believe he was the half-brother of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And if so, then he came to trust in Christ after the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: But listen to the similarities between Luke and James.
SPEAKER_01: They beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go.
SPEAKER_01: And then they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to James.
SPEAKER_01: Count it all.
SPEAKER_01: Joy.
SPEAKER_01: Because you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
SPEAKER_01: And every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease.
SPEAKER_01: Steadfast.
SPEAKER_01: They did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the testing, the persecution, and the dishonor we receive in this life because of the name of Jesus is not intended to make us angry, to send us into hiding or to generate a pity party or to become more protective of ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: It's designed to make us see Jesus and to rejoice that He is working to strengthen our faith, to embolden us to speak even more and to give us the joy that comes only from committed faith in a sovereign living Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus is no match for the forces of evil in this world.
SPEAKER_01: But his chosen means of accomplishing his purpose includes fulfilling his plan through faithful, obedient people who every moment of every day face an evil enemy intent on subverting and subduing the king's work and his people.
SPEAKER_01: And Luke gives us this to say it's worth it.
SPEAKER_01: And he will never leave you or forsake you, but will instead empower you to face the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we trust that you will accomplish your purpose in us.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your work, we thank you for your promise.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your presence.
SPEAKER_01: May you be faithful to your word, such that the gates of hell itself will not stand in the way of you building your church.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we ask for boldness.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that by your Spirit you would give us boldness to do the little things.
SPEAKER_01: And so that when we see your faithfulness in us and the little things, we can do the even bigger and bolder things, knowing that you will work through us to crush the evil one.
SPEAKER_01: We pray, Lord, that you would soon return to finish that work completely.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.