Acts 5.2 Justified fears

The Apostles, chapter 5, and we commence our reading at the 17th verse and go on to the 33rd verse. The disciples have been engaging in their phenomenal ministry at Jerusalem. It has stirred up the interest and indeed the opposition of the high priests and the Sadducees, and they make another attempt to silence these earlier warriors of Jesus Christ.

Verse 17. Then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation, laid their hands on the Apostles and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told, saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors.

But when we had opened, we found no man within. Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow. Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.

Then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. When they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them, saying, Did not we straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name? And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things.

And so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. When they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. Now, perhaps you would kindly have your Bibles open up.

The passage we read together earlier, I remind you that was situated in the fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Some four weeks have elapsed since last we looked into this book and continued our studies in the Acts of the Apostles. And so perhaps I should just spend a moment or two by means of recapitulation to remind you of the reasons why we are engaging at some length in a study of this book.

And I suppose one traces this back to the thought of our memory text, which we are considering throughout the year here in the tabernacle, our motto text rather, a text which was taken from the prophecy of Daniel. You remember, the people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And I said to you that enshrined within that scripture is surely the objective of every sensitive, sincere Christian, a knowledge of God, strengthened day by day by God, an ability to successfully engage in his service.

Could there be greater ambitions than this? And it appears to me that this utterance from the prophet Daniel is in one sense prophetic of the situation that arose in the early days of the emerging Christian church. For as one reads through the Acts of the Apostles, you find that the book is crammed full with living illustrations of people who did know God, whose knowledge of God was profound, who realized the potential of the Holy Spirit in an incredible fashion in their lives, whose ministry was successful as they endeavored to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me put it to you like this, that the Acts of the Apostles is a one book commentary on that verse in the prophecy of Daniel.

Here were people who knew God. Here were people who were strengthened by God. Here were people who did exploits.

And as it was in the days of the early church, so by the grace of God, may it be in the twentieth century, for the fight that they fought is one that we're still continuing. The battle in which they engaged is still raging today, and the equipment that they required is equipment that we desperately need ourselves. So it is prompted by this reasoning that I have been engaging in this particular study from the Acts of the Apostles, obviously not going through it verse by verse, but looking at a particular verse that has taken my attention as I've worked my way through the five chapters up to this point, fixing our eyes on texts which I suggest are seed texts, or if you like, eye openers, that give us an insight into life as it was in the days of the early Christian community at Jerusalem.

And some of these texts that we've looked at, I think you will agree, perhaps have been rapidly read over on previous occasions by us, and maybe we've not seen how significant they are in the picture that they give us of the early church. Now such a text, another one if you like, along this line, is discovered in the 24th verse of the fifth chapter of the Acts. And I take the latter sentence in this verse, when we read this, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.

They doubted of them whereunto this would grow. To what does this statement refer? Well, it refers to the reaction of the Sanhedrin to the life and the witness of the Christians at Jerusalem. More specifically, it has to do with John and Peter.

On two occasions up to this point, they have had to stand in front of the Sanhedrin or at any rate, a representative number of the members of the Sanhedrin. The second occasion is referred to in the 17th and 18th verses of this chapter. And John and Peter, having been brought before the Sanhedrin, are dismissed from their presence and they are locked up in jail overnight with the idea of bringing them back the following morning when a full complement of the Sanhedrin shall be gathered together to listen to what they have to say.

But we discover this, that when Peter and John were in prison, something quite extraordinary happened in that night. So extraordinary that when the high priest and the rest of his colleagues hear of it, they are amazed. They are fearful.

You see, the full complement of the Sanhedrin is brought together and this is quite unusual for everyone to turn out, for everyone to be present. But the following day, this is what happened. And messengers were sent off to the prison.

The two disciples were to be brought to the Sanhedrin to give further evidence. They wanted to know what these men had to say because they were disobeying the law that they had put before them on the first occasion. But much to the embarrassment of the prison officials and to the consternation of the members of the Sanhedrin, the two disciples were not there.

It was the strangest jailbreak that there has ever been. For the soldiers on duty, the prison officers on duty had not been negligent in their task. There was no evidence of that at all.

Neither was there any indication that the locks had been burst and the doors had been forced open. No, these two men had disappeared. And this report is brought back to the Sanhedrin and they do not really understand it at all.

This is just another event in this sequence of events that is beginning to make them alarmed. And thus you come to what I reckon is an eye-opener of a statement. They doubted of them where unto this would grow.

They were worried. They were perplexed. They were anxious about the activity of the early Christian community at Jerusalem.

Now that really is quite incredible. Here is the most august men in Palestine, the most influential body, worried because of the emerging Christian church. And I have to ask this question to you as a congregation, to me as an individual.

How much does our activity today cause those who are alien to the gospel to be worried? For people who stand in direct spiritual line to the early church surely must have this ability to create anxiety in the hearts of those who are not Christians and who are determined to prevent the message of Christianity from reaching the ranks of mankind. Well, I put it to you again then, that these men, these members of the Sanhedrin were very, very worried indeed. And their concern is simply because of the enthusiastic and successful way that the early Christians have engaged in their ministry.

But let me try to analyze more carefully and relate my question to the context of this fifth chapter and the early chapters as to the reason, the justifiable reasons for the fear which the Sanhedrin had towards the Christian community. Let my answer to this question be threefold, for I want to immediately make this observation. They were concerned because the impact of these Christians was inescapable.

The impact of the Christian community at Jerusalem was inescapable. Not many days, certainly not many weeks had elapsed since the events in the second chapter of this book. One hundred and twenty people had gathered together in the upper room.

One hundred and twenty had clumbered up the stone steps to the upper room to wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And there's no indication at all that these men had any influence. Compared to the total population at Jerusalem, they were but a handful.

And yet, when you consider what's happened between chapters two and five of this book, you realize the phenomenal success that the early church enjoyed. Consider the success numerically for a moment. I refer to the fact that a hundred and twenty or thereabouts were gathered together in the upper room, waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit.

And you remember when this happens, when they are baptized with the Spirit. Peter seizes the opportunity of addressing a great crowd that have come together because of the noise of this event. And he speaks to them about the Lord Jesus Christ, a most successful sermon, a Spirit-anointed sermon, with the net result that three thousand people are added to the church, three thousand converts as a result of one sermon.

And then a fact perhaps not so widely recognized as the last one is the information we're given in the forty-seventh verse of the second chapter. We're told that the Lord added to the church daily such as should be said, daily conversions. When you come through into the fourth chapter, an evaluation is given of the impact of Peter's sermon, his second sermon, and also the collective witness of the disciples at Jerusalem during the few days that have elapsed.

And we discover in the fourth verse that the total number of men who are following the Lord Jesus Christ is now five thousand. Come right through into the fifth chapter, and there again we read of conversions, the fourteenth verse. Believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.

Now this is phenomenal if you get it into a time sequence. Not many days, certainly not many weeks have elapsed since the time when the disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit. And now we have a community that numbers thousands and thousands of people.

No wonder the Sanhedrin were getting alarmed. And if they were worried in the fifth chapter then what tell me is going to be their feelings when the events happen recorded in the sixth chapter and when they heard of what we read there in the seventh verse that a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. No wonder they were concerned to interrogate the two disciples again.

The impact that the early Christians were having upon Jerusalem's citizenship is nothing less than inescapable. But what about the influence that these people exerted upon the rest of the population of the city? Well the influence again was enormous. So much so that even those who did not name the name of the Lord Jesus had a very healthy respect for the followers of Jesus Christ.

In the seventeenth verse of the fourth chapter we read of the Sanhedrin's worry that more and more people may be brought into contact and contaminated with the message that these disciples are preaching. Let me read you the sixteenth and seventeenth verse. What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all that dwell in Jerusalem and we cannot deny it.

But that it spread no further among the people let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. Fearful because of their emerging powerful influence. Look at a similar comment made in the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter and of the rest that is the rest of the population of Jerusalem does no man join himself to the disciples to the Christian community but the people magnified them.

You see how the people have a very healthy respect for those who gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus. Here then in the early chapters of this book is some fulfillment of the prophecy of our Lord Jesus when he referred to the kingdom of God as a grain of mustard seed a very very small seed indeed but when it germinates when it grows it becomes a tremendous thing a great thing and here is his church growing rapidly phenomenally and I say that the impact that the church was making upon the population at Jerusalem was so great that it caused the members of the Sanhedrin to be worried. They doubted of them where unto this would grow.

Its impact was inescapable but another reason why these men were so worried is this that its members that is the members of the church were irrepressible. They were irrepressible from Pentecost onwards they showed an amazing enthusiasm to tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in the second chapter in verse forty six that they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.

They did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. He was no mechanical Sunday by Sunday routine. He was no going through the mere mechanics of worship.

Here were people who were aglow with the spirit concerned to worship God in spirit and in truth concerned not just to have a monopoly upon Christian things but to be a channel through which the blessings of God could flow to the rest of the people at Jerusalem. Completely I say irrepressible seizing every opportunity that presented itself for acquainting others with the message of Jesus Christ. Peter and John go to the temple and they see this man who is lame from birth and they are enabled by God to heal him.

A crowd gathers of course it gathers they knew that this was a beggar and he was a beggar because of his infirmity but now he is running around. Now this man has been healed so the crowd comes they are interested. They inquire as to what has happened and bold mighty Peter filled again with the power of the spirit he lets them have it.

He tells them all about the Lord Jesus Christ and he cannot be silenced at all. He tells them that they must respond to the message of the evangel knowing full well that such preaching in the temple precincts will bring him into direct conflict with the religious authorities. And when a man like Peter and a man like John are brought in front of the authorities what happens then? Well read about it in the fourth chapter.

Well we have already read about it we remind ourselves then of the event. When they have this first interview with the Sanhedrin what does Peter do? Defend himself? No he preaches a gospel. He tells them about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when they say no you are not to say this sort of thing here again. How does Peter respond? Well he says that it is a problem that they are now posing him with whether to obey them or to obey God. But says Peter I am not in my conundrum for very long because I realise that I must obey the dictates of the sovereign God.

Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judgy for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. You just cannot stop a man who is filled with the spirit from preaching about Jesus Christ. And this I say is not something restricted to Peter and John.

This was something that the Christian community at Jerusalem knew. The enthusiasm that came through lives that were consecrated to Jesus Christ. Lives that were strengthened daily by his spirit.

No wonder they did exploits. You are bound to do exploits for God when you have such an experience of God's power as these men had. We go through into the fifth chapter and again this note of irrepressibility if there is such a word as that.

The note of people being irrepressible in the cause of Jesus Christ it comes through so very very clearly. They are told not to preach once again and Peter is found to be preaching at the high priests. To be preaching at the members of the Sanhedrin.

Go back a moment before the occasion when they are brought in front of the Sanhedrin. Where were they found after they had broken out of prison? Where did they discover these two men? In the temple. What were they doing? Well you guessed it they were preaching.

Preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 25. Then came one and told the members of the Sanhedrin saying behold the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.

You just couldn't keep them bottled up. And you can never keep a man bottled up who's got a message that is dynamic as was that of Peter and John and the rest of the brethren and women folk at Jerusalem. They were almost in the same predicament as Jeremiah.

You remember how Jeremiah on one occasion because he had suffered such indignities as an ambassador of the Lord God said I'm no longer going to speak in your name. I quit. I hand in my resignation.

And then says Jeremiah there came within my soul. There came within my heart a burning. A burning of fire of power and I could not stay.

It had to come out. Well this I put it to you. It is another reason why these men from the Sanhedrin were so alarmed.

Why they were so worried. They couldn't shut Peter and John up. They couldn't quiet them.

They couldn't contain the ministry of the early church at Jerusalem. And because of this I say they were very anxious indeed. They recognized that the impact of the church was inescapable.

That its members were completely irrepressible. But what is more and perhaps most significant of all is that the message that they preached was verifiable. The message that they preached was verifiable.

When Paul writes to the church at Corinth he has this to say about the kingdom of God. He says the kingdom of God is not in word only. Not in word only.

J.B. Phillips as so often he does picks up the force of that statement and he says this. The kingdom of God is not just talk. The kingdom of God is not just talk.

Listen to a favorite writer of mine A.W. Toza. He says this referring to the tendency to multiply words in the church of Jesus today. Unquestionably there is not another institution in the world that talks so much and does so little as the church.

Any factory that required as much raw material for so small a finished product would go bankrupt in six months. Well there's Toza typically putting across his viewpoint and exposing the dilemma or exposing one of the weaknesses at any rate of the twentieth century church. You could not say that the members of the church at Jerusalem engaged only in talk and neither could you indict the apostle Paul with just being a man engaged in oratory.

Indeed he admits this himself. Again writing to the Corinthians he expresses his fears when he first came to the city of Corinth. He was somewhat afraid on the human level to proclaim the gospel.

Indeed he says that his speech was not in the excellency of men's speech or of wisdom. He said I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And then he goes on to make reference to the way that he did preach when he came to Corinth.

He said my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. In demonstration of the spirit and of power. Go through to the letter of Paul to the church at Thessalonica and what do you find? Well virtually the same sentiments expressed.

He's reflecting upon the occasion when he first went into that city of Thessalonica and he says that his entrance into them was not in vain. He said our gospel came not unto you in word only. That's the phrase I was trying to get.

Our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. Now with all that in mind come back to the Sanhedrin. All the members I say have been gathered together which in itself shows the significance they attach to this Christian movement.

All gathered together to interrogate the two leading men John and Peter or Peter and John to put them in their right order. And when they interrogate them what does the apostle have to say? Well he tells them about the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells them about all that Jesus Christ achieved on this earth and he goes on to make this comment verse 32 of chapter 5. And we are his witnesses of these things and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him.

We're his witnesses and so also is the Holy Ghost. You see what I mean when I say that the Sadducees and all the members of the Sanhedrin were rightly worried about the message of the Christian church because that message was verifiable not only by the word which was preached but by the impact that that word was having in the lives of many of the townspeople at Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit authenticated verified the message that was proclaimed.

Now listen to this man speaking Campbell Morgan making a comment on Acts chapter 5 and verse 32 the witness of the Holy Ghost. He says the church is never powerful unless she can produce her witnesses. If we lack cooperation with the Holy Spirit if we are not in a partnership basis with the Holy Spirit we can do nothing to impress Jerusalem or London.

If we are not in partnership with the Holy Spirit we can do nothing to impress Jerusalem nor Worthing. What concerned the members of the Sanhedrin on the occasion that these two men were brought in front of them was the fact that they were making an undeniable impact upon Jerusalem and its citizens. The fact that they were completely irrepressible in the way that they attended to the ministry Jesus had given to them and in the fact that the message they proclaimed was verifiable.

Now what do we need today to ensure that we ourselves are standing in direct spiritual line to the church at Jerusalem? We need once again to rediscover and to praise God for the discovery on the part of some of the power and the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. We need an authentication of God's word to his people to men and women in the twentieth century and to the extent that God authenticates his word so the church is successful in engaging in exploits for him. Remember what Daniel had to tell us, the people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.

The people at the time of the emerging church at Jerusalem, they knew God, they were strengthened by God day by day and they did exploits for him. Exploits which revolutionized the minds and the hearts and even the bodies of men and women who lived at Jerusalem. Now it seems to me that we need more and more today to confront men and women powerfully with this message of deliverance.

Deliverance from their sins and healing certainly of their mind. I know the whole business of healing is one that is fraught with problems and with questions and I am not the least amongst you here with problems and questions regarding this. But one of the observations that one must make regarding the early proclamation of the gospel at Jerusalem was this, it had a mighty impact upon the spirits and upon the minds of men and women.

Listen once more to Campbell Morgan. The church ought to face this problem, he is speaking of the problem of power, power in health, power in spiritual zeal for the Lord. The church ought to face this problem and inquire as to whether we have not lost with our loss of purity an actual power which ought to have enabled us to deal with very much of physical and mental disease which is still in our midst and which baffles us on every hand.

The church of Jesus Christ in its infancy knew power and I dare to reckon though I have not time to develop that the basis of the power which they knew was related to the obedience that they gave to God. We ought to obey God rather than men and the purity that was evidenced in their gathering together so pure were these people that Ananias and Sapphira forfeited at least their human membership of the church of Jesus Christ. They could not rub shoulders with men and women who were so holy and so obedient and my beloved friends I put it to you that when we are more obedient to the claims of God upon our lives, when we know more of the holiness that the Holy Spirit imparts we shall regain the ability more and more to engage in those exploits and to do for our God those things prophesied way back in the book of Daniel and illustrated by this glorious Christian community who composed the church at Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

Amen. And Father we do solicit thy continuing blessing upon our hearts and lives. Own us O God for your glory.

May we be able to rise to every challenge that life presents us with and help us to be able to proclaim to others the supernatural ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ which saves the soul and heals the mind. So send us those of us who must go at this juncture in our worship on our way rejoicing and those of us who have the privilege to remain to come around the Lord's table may we continue to be aware of his mighty presence for Jesus' sake. Amen.