Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Shortly before Acts chapter five, Peter and John are arrested after healing a man.
[00:00:11] And they are told not to speak or act in Jesus name anymore.
[00:00:19] Now there are so many times in life that this kind of pressure comes on Christians.
[00:00:30] Sometimes in the workplace, from our bosses, sometimes from religious leaders, as it was in this case, and civil authorities.
[00:00:44] But Peter and John demonstrate for us great faith and obedience and determine that they will obey God rather than men.
[00:01:00] As they continue doing the work that Jesus Christ has commanded them to do.
[00:01:05] The church grows and the people are one with each other in spirit. They're united, and what a gift that is.
[00:01:19] So the apostles are teaching, preaching, calling people to repentance, and performing powerful miracles of judgment and healing.
[00:01:36] The result is that even more people are coming into the church, even coming from the surrounding regions, bringing the sick to be healed. You can imagine what an exciting, glorious time this was to be a part of the church as it's just getting started, as it's seeing the power of God poured out, not just through the work of Jesus Christ, but through the passing on of the Spirit to them, and then of the powerful miracles that testified to the truth of the message that the church had been given to proclaim to the whole world.
[00:02:23] But right now there's still, you know, it's not the whole world yet. It's a pretty small group of believers, but it's growing rapidly.
[00:02:35] And what we're going to see in our passage is the response from the Jewish religious leaders at that time.
[00:02:49] And that response, as we'll see, is jealousy.
[00:02:55] Would you please stand for the reading of God's word.
[00:03:02] From Acts, chapter 5, verses 17 through 25.
[00:03:12] But the high priest rose up along with all his associates, that is the sect of the Sadducees. And they were filled with jealousy.
[00:03:22] They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail.
[00:03:27] But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison and taking them out, he said, go stand and speak to the people in the temple, the whole message of this life.
[00:03:41] Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and began to teach.
[00:03:49] Now when the high priest and his associates came, they called the council together, even all the senate of the sons of Israel, and sent orders to the prison house for them to be brought.
[00:04:00] But the officers who came did not find them in the prison. And they returned and reported back saying, we found the prison house locked quite securely and the guards standing at the doors. But when we had opened up, we found no one inside.
[00:04:18] Now, when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard these words. They were greatly perplexed about them as to what would come of this.
[00:04:27] But someone came and reported to them. The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.
[00:04:36] This is the word of the Lord.
[00:04:39] Please be seated.
[00:04:50] So Peter and John had been arrested.
[00:04:54] They had been given this command not to speak or act in Jesus name. It's interesting. Normally we think about speaking, speaking in the name of Jesus, I think, but this acting in the name of Jesus is talking about the powerful miracles that they had performed, right?
[00:05:16] So you've got these powerful miracles being performed in the name of Jesus. So they've got acts in the name of Jesus and you've got words in Jesus name.
[00:05:30] What we see in our passage is that this time all of the apostles are arrested, not just Peter and John.
[00:05:39] And the cause is the jealousy of the religious leaders.
[00:05:48] Now jealousy is a common problem and it's not just a problem among those who are godless.
[00:06:00] Jealousy is something that can grab at the hearts of any of us.
[00:06:09] And really it can happened for a lot of different reasons that were tempted by jealousy.
[00:06:18] So let's look at the jealousy that we see in this passage.
[00:06:23] This is religious leaders that are jealous.
[00:06:32] They were filled with jealousy.
[00:06:38] What we read immediately before this is that the people were coming from surrounding regions bringing the sick to be healed.
[00:06:45] So you're seeing the power of God demonstrated in the words and works of the apostles. And the response of the religious leaders among the Jews was to be filled with jealousy.
[00:07:04] Now what do you think that they would have been jealous about?
[00:07:11] Well, the number of people that were being taught, the number of people that were interested in hearing what the apostles had to say.
[00:07:23] Certainly that would have been one of the first things, because if it was only a few people, you wouldn't really bother to be jealous.
[00:07:33] The influence that they had, right, was growing because the number of people was growing. Even people from the surrounding region were coming in. And also it's clear that they were jealous because the apostles had been not just seeing people come, not just growing their influence, but because they had been given the gift of the Holy Spirit so that they could speak and teach with authority, so that they could perform these miracles.
[00:08:12] Now if you had a brother that suddenly could inexplicably run a two hour marathon who'd never done any exercising before in his life, you might be jealous, right?
[00:08:36] What in the world.
[00:08:38] I've been training and working at this, he's never done anything and now here he is and that's really what the Sanhedrin and the Sadducees probably would have thought about these upstart apostles.
[00:08:52] They'd never had any religious training, formal religious training. They just showed up kind of out of the blue and now they could preach and teach with authority.
[00:09:06] Now they could perform miracles, now they could heal people.
[00:09:11] Where do they come from?
[00:09:13] What is this? It's just this miraculous gift. And it's very easy for us to be jealous of the gifts of other people.
[00:09:22] These are real gifts that have been given to the apostles. And I hope that you can place yourself in the shoes of the Jewish leaders for at least a couple of minutes and see the temptation that you would face. You've been working, trying to lead a fractious, rebellious people for all long time.
[00:09:44] You've been seeking to build up influence with the Roman government.
[00:09:49] You've been seeking to cause the Jews to flourish and prosper.
[00:10:01] And now here comes this group that is small and ragtag and not well educated and they're throwing everything into disarray.
[00:10:16] All of the power structures are being reformed and reshaped.
[00:10:25] Very easy to be jealous of the gifts of others, but especially when the contrast is with the gifts that you have not been given.
[00:10:41] It's easier to be jealous when the contrast is sharp between you and the other person.
[00:10:53] Even if you had trained for five years and were at the peak of your game and could also run a two hour marathon, if this other person just walks up to the line one day, never having trained, you're still likely to be jealous because not because they're running faster than you're running about the same speed, right?
[00:11:14] But because they didn't have to work for it.
[00:11:17] They didn't have to put in years and years of training, pain, suffering.
[00:11:26] So think about what you are inclined to be jealous of other people over.
[00:11:37] It's actually interesting here.
[00:11:41] It doesn't say what specifically in the text. We just sort of have to infer what the Sadducees and the high priest and all his associates and the Senate of the sons of Israel, what all of these men were jealous of.
[00:12:00] But it's very clear that they were jealous of good gifts because they were jealous of the apostles. And the apostles were doing the work of God. They had been given really good gifts.
[00:12:18] Now there's a good and a bad jealousy when you look at others and the gifts that they have been given.
[00:12:27] And this is a bad jealousy.
[00:12:31] If looking at others and thinking, boy, I wish I had their holiness spurs you on to live a more holy life, that's a good kind of jealousy, isn't it?
[00:12:51] But if you look at the holy life of somebody else and you see that they're able to do things that you have never been able to do, to discipline themselves, to live a more holy life, To speak with the unbelievers in their lives, to call them to faith and repentance. And you've never been able to make yourself do that. If you look at that and instead of rejoicing at the gifts that God has given them and seeking to emulate them, if instead you simply become angry at them for making you look bad, become angry at God for giving them gifts that he hasn't given to you.
[00:13:47] This is a terrible kind of jealousy.
[00:13:53] What we see with the Sanhedrin is that it causes them to hate the proclamation of God's word.
[00:14:03] This is terrible jealousy, right? Jealousy that leads to rejection of God and. And hatred of him and of his good news.
[00:14:17] And this is often the way that the world responds to the proclamation of the gospel. This good news that there is salvation in Christ Jesus for those who will repent when the world sees. And there's a line that's drawn.
[00:14:43] The line that's drawn is between those who will receive this good news and rejoice, who will see that this is light and life for men.
[00:14:58] And who will run to it.
[00:15:01] There's the other group, and to this group it will be the stench of death.
[00:15:09] And they'll hate this proclamation.
[00:15:13] They'll hate this good news when that line is drawn.
[00:15:24] And those who hate the good news see those who have received the good news with joy and gladness.
[00:15:35] Jealousy.
[00:15:38] Hatred of the gospel, hatred of God's word is generally what we can expect to see from them.
[00:15:50] Why? Because they're seeing people come to faith. And not only do they not value others coming to faith, they're actually jealous of the fruit in the lives of those who come to faith.
[00:16:12] This is an interesting sort of problem that happens with unbelievers. That they'll see the evidence.
[00:16:23] But having of the truth of the gospel by changed lives, but having rejected that good news for themselves, they're jealous of those who have their lives changed by the gospel.
[00:16:41] It doesn't make any sense to be jealous when there's a free offer of the gospel and they could simply receive it. They could simply receive the same good gifts that everybody else is receiving at the cross from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
[00:17:00] All can receive it.
[00:17:04] But those who refuse to receive it become angry at those who take hold of the kingdom with force.
[00:17:30] In their Rage.
[00:17:33] They're willing to ignore the clear signs that God is at work.
[00:17:40] This certainly describes the high priest and the Sadducees at this time.
[00:17:48] There are obvious signs that God is at work. And yet there are obvious signs that God is at work today among his people.
[00:17:56] Not to say that hypocrisy doesn't exist within the church, not to say that sin doesn't overcome the Christian all too often.
[00:18:09] But when you look at the way that the Gospel changes people's lives, when you see the peace that passes understanding in their heart, when you recognize the joy that they have in their Savior, are these not clear signs that God is at work among his people? In his people?
[00:18:51] And so there is jealousy, not just of the apostles, I believe here among the Sadducees, but jealousy over the fruit in the lives of the other believers.
[00:19:08] So why do they not simply acknowledge the signs that God is at work and turn themselves over to Jesus Christ, become Christians?
[00:19:25] It seems like an obvious thing to do. Now, what is it that stands in the way of the Sadducees?
[00:19:34] I think the main thing that stands in the way of the Sadducees is the power that they have.
[00:19:41] The influence that they have to become a Christian at this point would have been to give up all of their civil religious power and influence.
[00:19:56] And they're holding on to those.
[00:20:00] And they're unwilling, therefore, to receive the true blessing that comes from salvation in Christ Jesus.
[00:20:14] Are there things that stand in your way, like the Sadducees, even as you look with jealousy at what believers have that prevent you from being a follower of Jesus Christ?
[00:20:43] Don't turn away from the Lord because you're holding on to something else tighter.
[00:20:53] Whatever it is, it's not worth it.
[00:20:57] Give it up and turn and follow Jesus Christ.
[00:21:08] Otherwise, as one of these very religious leaders actually said, you might be found to be fighting with God.
[00:21:19] As a matter of fact, that's what we see here in this passage.
[00:21:25] God sends an angel to free the apostles after they've been arrested by the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin. Right.
[00:21:36] It's a pretty clear indication once again, that God is the one that is at work through the message that the apostles are proclaiming. And that message is coming out in their deeds of healing, in their words of teaching, but it also comes out in the fact that they've been freed from jail by a miracle, an angel, something supernatural.
[00:22:10] What does this do?
[00:22:14] Well, for the apostles and for the Jewish religious leaders, it should have done the same thing.
[00:22:25] Show them all that God is the one that is in control.
[00:22:31] God is in control.
[00:22:34] God is the one who has been acting through these men.
[00:22:43] What is the purpose of freeing the apostles?
[00:22:48] Well, you might be thinking, well, God loves them, so obviously he frees them.
[00:22:59] But, you know, it's not too much later after this that James is killed after he's arrested. And it's not too much longer before, earlier than this, that John the Baptist is killed.
[00:23:18] So God doesn't always just free his servants that he loves and prevent them from undergoing serious persecution.
[00:23:30] Oh, he has a purpose, though, here in freeing the apostles. And he has freed them not to hide, but to continue proclaiming the whole message of this life.
[00:23:50] Think about that.
[00:23:52] Sometimes there's these statements that sneak up on you in Scripture, and this is one of those for me.
[00:24:04] Go, verse 20. Stand and speak to the people in the temple.
[00:24:09] So far, I'm like, oh, yeah, this is awesome. Sticking it right in their eye, you know, right back in.
[00:24:16] But the next phrase, what are they supposed to speak in the temple?
[00:24:24] The whole message of this life.
[00:24:30] Life.
[00:24:35] If I remember right, that's what Christian calls out when he is running away from the city of destruction that he's been living in.
[00:24:54] Pilgrim's progress.
[00:24:57] He's running and he's crying.
[00:25:00] Life, Life.
[00:25:03] Eternal life.
[00:25:06] And this is what the apostles have been given to preach, to speak to all the people in the temple. And the temple is the most public place of gathering for the Jews.
[00:25:21] There's no going and hiding in the temple as they're going and preaching.
[00:25:28] It really is right in the eye of the Sadducees and the rest of the religious leaders.
[00:25:36] But what is it that they are proclaiming?
[00:25:39] Life.
[00:25:42] Life.
[00:25:50] It's the whole message of this life.
[00:25:54] And what is the whole message of this life? The whole message of this life is the gospel.
[00:26:03] That's one of the ways of describing this gospel message.
[00:26:09] It's the whole message of this life.
[00:26:19] The apostles do not hesitate to continue in obedience even as they face this first test of persecution.
[00:26:32] They don't try to justify their disobedience, or they don't disobey and then try to justify it.
[00:26:41] There's a lot of ways that we are inclined to doubt whether we should really be obedient, whether it's really wise, whether it really makes strategic sense to obey God.
[00:27:00] They could have fallen into the exact same mistake that the religious leaders were falling into. They could have been seeking to preserve their influence.
[00:27:17] As a matter of fact, having the religious leaders arrest you and having the religious leaders oppose you could make you be seen as illegitimate very easily. In fact, you should assume that's what would happen.
[00:27:40] If the religious leaders are opposing you, it doesn't speak very well of you, does it?
[00:27:50] Or they could have said, well, you know, to go right back into the temple right after we've been arrested for preaching and teaching and performing miracles is just asking for trouble.
[00:28:03] And you know that Christians should not seek persecution.
[00:28:11] They could have said, now, normally, of course, I would be just continuing to proclaim this message of life, but you have to understand that the church is in a very unique circumstance right now.
[00:28:30] It's a fragile new thing, and it really needs the apostles at this moment.
[00:28:40] The church needs us.
[00:28:42] We can't all get stuck in prison. What would happen without the apostles?
[00:28:49] No, they do not respond with any of these excuses.
[00:28:54] They don't talk about the need for wisdom and moderation. They all just go straight back into the temple that very day, that morning, where are they? Back in the temple, proclaiming the gospel, performing signs and wonders.
[00:29:16] All of those possible responses in disobedience are plausible.
[00:29:24] They can sound really good. They're really easy.
[00:29:28] In fact, generally it's easy for us to come up with excuses for why we disobeyed.
[00:29:35] And the older we get, the more plausible the ideas sound, right?
[00:29:49] But think if the apostles had said, oh, you know, the church needs us right now. We can't all get stuck in prison or what would happen.
[00:29:55] They had all just been stuck in prison and God decided, you know what? No, he let him out.
[00:30:06] So you can't really say that unless you don't trust God.
[00:30:19] Now, I've spoken of the whole message of this life being what they were proclaiming.
[00:30:28] And I want you to notice not just that it's the message of life, but it's the whole message, this life.
[00:30:38] They don't remove the parts that are most offensive.
[00:30:43] They don't remove the parts that are most offensive to the men who have just arrested them, those who were powerful and opposing them.
[00:30:54] They just keep speaking the whole truth, the whole message.
[00:31:08] I think generally the Christian response to persecution is not to give up the whole faith, but it's to start cutting off the parts that are inconvenient.
[00:31:24] Just removing the section that is rubbing the culture raw, that's making you stand out like a sore thumb. That's drawing attention to yourself. That's what's getting you in trouble.
[00:31:47] The apostles could have said, oh, yes, we're going to keep teaching, but we're going to stop drawing attention to ourselves by performing miracles.
[00:32:04] But they weren't drawing attention to themselves by performing miracles, were they?
[00:32:09] They were drawing attention to the power of God to change lives.
[00:32:18] You see how easy it is to just twist it a little bit? It's drawing attention. We recognize that it's drawing attention. It's drawing negative attention. Let's see if we can figure out a way for it to not draw negative. Well, you know, maybe we should just. That part isn't. It's not the. You know, it's not really necessary, is it just. If we just give them the basics, maybe they won't be offended and we can proceed without risking everything.
[00:32:54] The gospel really has never been proclaimed, though, without it being offensive.
[00:33:01] In fact, it's at the very spot that it is offensive that the world needs to hear it or they cannot repent.
[00:33:11] So part of the message of this life is that man is caught in his sin and he must turn from it. He must repent.
[00:33:29] Think about what the whole message of this life would mean for the high priest and the Sadducees.
[00:33:39] Your job is gone.
[00:33:43] You have to turn away from it.
[00:33:50] All of the work that you've been doing to build up influence and prestige and power, yeah, it's gone. It's time to give it up.
[00:34:00] You have not been serving God.
[00:34:04] You have been serving your own desires.
[00:34:11] This is the call to repentance for those religious leaders.
[00:34:19] But it's always those who claim to follow God who are most angry. When Christians proclaim the whole Good News, sometimes they're jealous.
[00:34:38] I wanted to be the one that had influence and power religiously.
[00:34:44] Other times they simply say, you're making my job harder.
[00:34:51] You're making my job harder.
[00:34:54] Well, what do they mean by that? They mean what they're trying to communicate is, look, I'm proclaiming the gospel. I'm calling people to be followers of Jesus Christ.
[00:35:09] But you are placing stumbling blocks in front of people.
[00:35:16] And so you're making it harder for me to win people to Jesus Christ by calling them to repentance.
[00:35:25] You see, the gospel is actually a stumbling block.
[00:35:34] And the moment that we're looking for some way to proclaim the gospel without it being a stumbling block is the moment that we're looking for a way to get rid of the gospel to come up with some other message.
[00:35:55] This week, while we were driving on the interstate, I saw a car. We passed it and it had a little bumper sticker. It said, jesus loves you.
[00:36:06] And I was like, man, think about the number of people that see that bumper sticker, right?
[00:36:17] I can't remember There was another one right under it.
[00:36:24] Hmm.
[00:36:27] All I can think of is, and has a wonderful plan for your life.
[00:36:32] God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That's not what the second bumper sticker said. I can't remember what it was.
[00:36:37] But this is what passes as Gospel good news proclamation today.
[00:36:48] If the apostles had been in the temple telling everybody, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, the Sadducees wouldn't have been offended.
[00:37:02] There wouldn't have been anything to be jealous about.
[00:37:05] They could have just been like, yeah, right on me too.
[00:37:18] Too often, those who claim that they are doing the work of proclaiming the gospel actually see their job as doing away with the distinction between Christian and non Christian.
[00:37:37] This is what God loves you on a bumper sticker means.
[00:37:43] It means, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter whether you've repented or not, God loves you. You don't have to worry.
[00:37:53] Now you might say, well, Joseph, you're being too judgmental.
[00:37:57] They're just trying to share the good news with the world.
[00:38:01] And I say, but are they? But are you?
[00:38:07] When you say indiscriminately to the believer and the unbeliever, God loves you, you're doing away with that line of distinction.
[00:38:26] You're doing away with the stumbling block of the gospel.
[00:38:33] They're doing away with the distinction between Christian and non Christian.
[00:38:42] So why, when the true gospel message is proclaimed and people who have heard God loves you, God loves you, God loves you, their whole life are suddenly confronted with their sin, and they say, now this is good news, and they repent and they rejoice that they've been saved. And some get angry.
[00:39:07] Some who are religious leaders get angry and say, you're making my job harder.
[00:39:17] What is it that they're really saying?
[00:39:22] I think generally they're saying, you're making me look bad.
[00:39:31] You're making me look bad in the eyes of both groups, Both groups, because those who hate the gospel message are now associating the confrontation of it.
[00:39:47] And I have been doing my best my whole life to prevent there from being any confrontation over sin.
[00:39:58] And you're making me look bad to the believers that have accepted the gospel because they've never heard this whole message of the life from me.
[00:40:10] So you end up looking bad to both sides if all you say is God loves you.
[00:40:22] But you only start looking bad once the whole message of this life is proclaimed.
[00:40:35] Now, the apostles Peter and John had already faced imprisonment, being beaten, being commanded to Stop.
[00:40:49] Threats of legal consequences. Now the whole group of the apostles has been arrested and they're facing threat of legal consequences and bodily, physical, physical, earthly consequences.
[00:41:13] There are many ways that you might be pressured to cut off pieces of the gospel message when you're talking to others.
[00:41:25] But if you have faith to believe that this message of life, life, eternal life, is actually what will save sinners, then you'll be quick to pull that part that's offensive into the conversation.
[00:41:49] Because it's not until there is a confrontation with what it means for the changes that are necessary in your life that any change comes.
[00:42:02] Do you want people's lives to be changed?
[00:42:07] Confront them with the gospel.
[00:42:10] It is good news. Yes, they might be angry, true.
[00:42:17] But if you believe that there is power in the gospel, then give it to them, the whole message of this life.
[00:42:30] Yes. You might also soon, like the apostles, have people commanding you to stop.
[00:42:40] You might soon face threats of legal consequences.
[00:42:46] But if after that we obey God rather than men, then we will really be persecuted.
[00:42:56] Well, that's true, but what else?
[00:43:01] We will really see the fruit of the gospel.
[00:43:09] We must be committed to obeying even after the persecution starts, not just up until that first confirmation. Oh, yes, persecution does happen.
[00:43:23] We cannot be surprised at that point.
[00:43:30] We cannot allow it to turn us aside from our work as a church.
[00:43:40] Yeah, the world needs to hear this from us.
[00:43:46] This is why Jesus has not come back yet.
[00:43:52] It's out of the patience of our Heavenly Father, desiring that the church would grow.
[00:44:04] So don't be ashamed of the Gospel.
[00:44:09] Don't let persecution stop you.
[00:44:13] Don't let jealousy and competition between men pervert the work.
[00:44:25] Simply trust God and obey.
[00:44:32] And then no matter what comes, his name will be glorified.
[00:44:37] Whether it ends up with you being released from jail by an angel to go right back into the temple or preach, or whether it ends up with you having your head removed.
[00:44:49] Either way, God is glorified when we are faithful.
