Acts 5:17-42

¹⁷ But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy ¹⁸ they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. ¹⁹ But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ²⁰ “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” ²¹ And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. ²² But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, ²³ “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” ²⁴ 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. ²⁵ And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” ²⁶ Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. ²⁷ And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, ²⁸ 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.” ²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. ³⁰ The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. ³² And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” ³³ When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. ³⁴ But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. ³⁵ And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. ³⁶ For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. ³⁷ 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. ³⁸ So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; ³⁹ 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, ⁴⁰ 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. ⁴¹ Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. ⁴² And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

The story of the Church in Acts has taken some fascinating, unexpected and, at times, frightening turns.  In the latter half of Acts 5, the story continues with, we might say, three characters moving front and center:  God, the world, and the Church.  I hesitate to call God a character in the story for obvious reasons:  He is God.  He is above all characters and above the story.  He is writing the story.  Yet He, in Christ, and even in His Church, has entered the story and is working in powerful ways.  He was working in the story of the first century Church and He is working in the story of the twenty-first century Church as well.

Let us consider this text with a story approach, paying attention to the actions of each of the characters.  Taking this approach, we will be looking at the sections of the text that pertain to each instead of working through it in the exact order presented.

God:  Protection and Commission

We see the actions of God in the words of a deliverer who rescues the apostles after they are thrown in prison for preaching the gospel.

¹⁹ But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ²⁰ “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”

In verses 19 and 20 we see the two divine actions at this juncture in the tale:  protection and commission.  God protects His Church by delivering the apostles from prison.  How many apostles were imprisoned we do not know, but this appears to be a larger group than simply Peter and John.  They had been charged to stop preaching and, of course, they refused, saying that they could not disobey God for fear of man.  Their preaching was so effective and bold, and God used it so mightily, that the Church continued to grow at a rate that was alarming to the religious authorities.  Thus, they were incarcerated.

We have spoken before of the absolute necessity of the Church surviving and continuing its mission.  God protects His people.  Jesus had told Peter in Matthew 16:18 that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” the Church.  Here He offers a physical affirmation of that fact by sending an angel to release the apostles.  In so doing, the Lord thereby showed, in a microcosm, what He does for Church throughout the ages:  He protects and frees His Bride to proclaim and live and advance.

And then God reiterates His commission through this messenger.

²⁰ “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”

We may see in these words a concise summation of the so-called Great Commission from Matthew 28.

¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

It is also a summation of His commission delivered at His ascension in Acts 1:8.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

What is most telling is that the Church’s marching orders do not change, and they certainly do not change as a result of changes in environment or escalating risk.  No, the Church has been called to a task:  bearing witness to the risen Christ.  That was the Church’s calling.  That is the Church’s calling.  That will always been the Church’s calling until the Lord returns.

The World:  Acceptance or Opposition (To Greater and Lesser Extents)

If the Church’s calling remains unchanged, it would seem, tragically, that the world’s blind response does as well.  By “the world” I am referring in this text to the Sanhedrin.  While they were certainly religious men, they had missed the truth and rejected it.  In fact, they warred against it.  Thus, their actions may be seen as indicative of how the world acts, even if their actions were bathed in a pious veneer.

When we look at the world, we see either acceptance of the gospel or opposition to greater or lesser extents.  For instance, we may see the naked hostility of the world in the Sanhedrin’s arrest of the apostles.

¹⁷ But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy ¹⁸ they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.

At the 2014 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, Russell Moore, the director of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC, recognized the wife of Iranian Pastor Saeed Abedini.  Pastor Saeed Abedini had been in an Iranian prison for almost two years at the time of that meeting, and Dr. Moore had arranged for his wife to be present with us so that we might recognize her and pray for her husband and family.  As we did so, and as I watched this brave woman and thought of her husband, I was struck by the reality of persecution throughout the ages.  Here, standing before us, was the wife of a man literally suffering the fate of first century apostles:  imprisonment for preaching the gospel.

Yes, the response of the world is tragically consistent:  it hates the Lord Jesus and all that represent Him.  But we also see in this text that there are degrees of opposition to the Church.  A more moderate opposition can be seen in the Pharisee Gamaliel, who stands to caution the Sanhedrin against venting its full fury against the new movement.

³³ When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. ³⁴ But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.

They were “enraged” because when they sent for the prisoners, it was discovered that they were no longer in prison and were, in fact, proclaiming Christ in public once again.  It is against this rage that Gamaliel stands and speaks.  His calming of the Sanhedrin is interesting and reflects the political and cultural dynamics of the religious authorities at that time.  F.F. Bruce informs us that “the Pharisees were in the minority, but they commanded much more public respect than did the Sadducees, so much so that the Sadducean members of the court found it impolitic to oppose the Pharisees’ demands. This was particularly important in a case like the present, in which the defendants enjoyed the people’s goodwill.”[1]

Gamaliel speaks:

³⁵ And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. ³⁶ For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. ³⁷ 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.

Gamaliel cautions them not to act rashly as they were all aware that other so-called messiah’s had arisen before and begun movements only to see those movements dissolve and disappear.  He gives two examples, though he could have given hundreds.  We know very little about this Theudas, but Bruce provides us with some interesting historical information about the second name Gamaliel mentions, Judas the Galilean.

When Judaea was reduced to the status of a Roman province in A.D. 6, after the deposition of Archelaus, a census was held under the direction of the legate of Syria, P. Sulpicius Quirinius, to determine the amount of tribute to be paid by the new province to the imperial exchequer. Judas, a man from Gamala in Gaulanitis (Golan), inaugurated a religious and nationalist revolt, contending that it was high treason against God, Israel’s one true king, for his people in his land to pay tribute to a pagan ruler. The revolt was crushed by Rome, but the spirit which animated it lived on, and emboldened the party of the Zealots to take the lead in the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66. Judas’s movement proved not to be so ineffective as Gamaliel supposed it was.[2]

Thus, Gamaliel argues, they had been here before.  They had seen revolutionaries rise up before, and all for naught.  His next words, however, reveal some uncanny insights and cautions.

³⁸ So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; ³⁹ 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, ⁴⁰ 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. ⁴¹ Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

This is why I say that the world opposes the Church to greater and lesser extents.  Not all seek to obliterate the Church, though there is no doubt that this is the ultimate desire of Satan:  the eradication of the people of God.  Gamaliel, famed for his wisdom and moderation, cautions the Sanhedrin to take care.  If it is not of God, it will fail.  If it is of God, you will be warring against God.  “In other words,” Gamaliel seems to say, to use our terminology, “let it play out.”

This is a fascinating development, and Gamaliel carries the day, though not, tellingly, until the apostles are beaten.  R.C. Sproul has offered an interesting response to Gamaliel’s advice.

            I would say that half of Gamaliel’s advice was good.  He was half right and half wrong when he said, “If this plan…is of men, it will come to nothing.”  Islam is not of God, and it has not failed; it has been around for centuries.  There are abundant evidences in history of false religions under the wrath of God that have not disappeared from the face of the earth.  The Gnostic heresy that plagued the church in the second and third centuries is alive and well today and is being taught in the pages of the Orlando Sentinel by a theologian at Princeton University trying to revive, along with Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, the Gnostic literature of the early church.[3]

This is true enough.  Many ungodly movements do succeed.  Gamaliel’s approach is not perfect, but it does show a degree of restraint.  I think we may yet see the hand of God even in this.  The God who can turn the hearts of pagan kings to His own ends is the God who can temper the Sanhedrin so that the Church may advance.  Even so, let us note that the world opposes the Church.  It has for two millennia.  Should the Lord tarry, it will for two millennia more.

The message of the gospel is antithetical to the entire program of the world.

The Church:  Faithfulness, Boldness, and Trust in God’s Protection

Regardless, it is that gospel that has been entrusted to the Church and it is that Gospel that the Church must never stop proclaiming.  We see this in the response of the Church to this persecution.

^21a And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.

The “this” they heard was the angelic instruction for them to go back out and continue preaching from verse 20:  “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”  So they did precisely that.  This is powerful.  Attention should be paid!  The persecuted Church refused to stop bearing witness to the risen Christ.  This is fuel on the fire of the Sanhedrin’s rage and also fuel on the fire of their own astonishment!

^21b Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. ²² But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, ²³ “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” ²⁴ 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. ²⁵ And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” ²⁶ Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. ²⁷ And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, ²⁸ 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.” ²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. ³⁰ The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. ³² And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

⁴² And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

“They did not cease.”

“They did…not…cease!”

What a testimony of courage!  What a testimony of resolve!

When I was a new pastor, just out of seminary, I endured one of my first ever contentious deacons’ meetings.  Thankfully, I have had very few of those!  I left the church that night and returned to the apartment in which my wife, I, and our then baby girl Hannah lived.  Hannah had a plastic toy horse that would neigh when you pressed a button on its belly.  As I walked into our apartment that night, I heard the repetitive neighing of that toy horse.  The button had gotten stuck just before I arrived and it would not stop neighing.

The sound immediately assaulted my ears and my entire body tensed at the sound of it.  I was reeling emotionally from the meeting and was myself unaware of how frustrated and angry I had become.  I walked into the apartment, picked up the horse, tried to get it to stop, then realized it simply was not going to.  As my wife and small child looked on, I picked up the ever-neighing toy horse, said, “Excuse me,” and walked out the front door.  I went to the car I had just recently exited, lodged the toy horse up under the front driver’s side tire, got in the car, cranked it up, and back over the toy.  I heard it crack and splinter under the tire.  I pulled the car back, then up, then back again, then up again, etc.  Each time I felt a little calmer, my stress level decreasing with each act of vehicular violence against this small toy horse.

Finally, I stopped, got out of the car, picked up the flattened plastic remains and carried the horse back into the house and held it out before my shocked wife and daughter who were wondering what on earth had happened to me.  As I extended the horse before them, to my absolute horror and outrage, it neighed once again!  As a result, we all began to laugh until the tears flowed!  It was the plastic horse that would not die!  It kept making that sound over and over and over again!

That is a funny story, and one that I am not terribly proud of, but I cannot help but see a truth in it:  the story of that little plastic horse is the story of the Church throughout time.  People have tried to silence it.  People have tried to crush it.  People have tried to stop it.  But the message continues!  It will not, it cannot stop proclaiming the message!  It has one message, hardwired into its very soul, and it cannot stop!

No matter how throttled and bludgeoned, the Church cannot stop announcing its message.  No matter how often the enemy makes the Church bleed, it cannot stop!  In fact, the persecution of the Church tends to increase the boldness of its proclamation.  John Stott quotes Bishop Festo Kivengere who “said in February 1979, on the second anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda: ‘Without bleeding the church fails to bless.’”[4]

Here is the story of the Church of Acts.

Here is the story of the Church today.

It has a message and it has a mission.  It received both from Jesus.  Whatever else it might do, it must be faithful to the message and the mission.