No Plan B
Text: Acts 5:27 - 32
Acts 5:27-32 When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, (28) saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us." (29) But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. (30) The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. (31) God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might 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." (NRSV).
As D.L. Moody walked down a Chicago street one day, he saw a man leaning against a lamppost. The evangelist gently put his hand on the man's shoulder and asked him if he was a Christian. The fellow raised his fists and angrily exclaimed, "Mind your own business!" "I'm sorry if I've offended you," said Moody, "but to be very frank, that IS my business!"
Moody rightly observed that this is the business of the church. The church has one primary motive: The proclamation of God's forgiveness in Christ. Brett Blair, www./Sermons.com The High Priest and his associates who were all members of the Sadducees did not like how people responded to their message of the Gospel, so they had them arrested (Acts 5:17). The Sadducees wanted the Apostles to “to be quiet and mind their own business”.
This was not their first rodeo. Before Jesus was arrested and crucified, the Pharisees told Jesus to tell His disciples to be quiet (Luke 19:40). After Jesus was resurrected, the chief priests and the elders bribed the guards to lie because they wanted to control the information saying that the apostles stole Jesus’s body (Matthew 28:12 -15).
Peter and John were arrested Acts 4:3 and the next verse says that five thousand people became believers as a result of their preaching. Again, leaders from the Sanhedrin wanted to stop the news of Jesus’s resurrection from getting out any further (Acts 4:10 & 17). Acts 5:27 -32 represents their second arrest. “Minding their own business” involved sharing the Gospel. Matthew 28:19 was their call to go and make disciples! There was no Plan B.
Two things we want to focus on today are our calling and our opposition.
CALLING
Why is our calling so important today?
1) Kingdom priests: We are a kingdom of priests who have been called to serve the the Lord for His glory and by His power (Revelation 1:3). Peter reminds us that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation who belong to God and are called to declare His praises (II Peter 2:9).
2)Testimony of the Spirit: John’s testimony (Revelation 1:3) and Peter’s testimony (II Peter 2:9) agree because of the Holy Spirit testifying through them that they are God’s children (Romans 8:16).
3) Marching orders: Matthew 28:19 reminds us of our marching orders to go and make disciples that cannot happen without the input of disciples! How is our input?
How do we answer that call?
1) Our mission field: Our mission field is also our battlefield! It was true for the disciples then and it is also true for the disciples today! Just as the disciples encountered opposition, we too, will encounter opposition!
2) Silence: Is silence an option? What happens when the church is silent? The church is supposed to be more than a (noun) building where we worship! The church is supposed to be the Body of Christ being active in the world which means the church is supposed to be a people---”a chosen people”, “a royal priesthood” of “action” which describes how we are called to be a verb! Can the church grow if it is silent?
3) Library silence: There are some who act like they are in the library because they are silent about the Gospel! Friends the message of the Gospel is far more important than any books in the library or any thing else because we are called to witness so that others may have their names in the Lamb’s Book of Life!
4) Ball game silence: Is there such a thing as ball game silence? In golf yes, in baseball, football, and basketball “no”!
ILLUSTRATION: At age five, little Aaron attended his first football game with his father. Beforehand, his dad gave him careful instructions about behavior at the game. He said, "You will have to stay seated, be quiet, and act like an adult." Not long after kickoff Aaron noticed lots of people jumping up and down, screaming, and shaking their fists in the air. He turned to his dad and asked, "Are these adults?" (Raymond McHenry. ed. McHenry’s Quips, Quotes And Other Notes.. [source: * The Best of Grandparents' Brag Board, Judy Pregel & Robin Riley, 1993, p. 33]. Third Printing. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004). How are others to hear without the disciples whom God who called to proclaim the Gospel in word and deed to the last, the least and the lost? (recall Romans 10:14). Is not the way we live a sermon---a lifestyle evangelism?
5) All hands on deck!: This means both laity and clergy are called to go and make disciples! Notice that this Bible verse did not single out the clergy or the laity, but it did mandate our call to service as Jesus’s disciples! Both groups are sinners. Both groups were bought with a price! There is no plan b!
6) For such a time: Recalling a story from the Old Testament in Esther 4:14 For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this" (NRSV). We recall that Esther is a Jewish woman who is married to a Gentile. Haman is the villain of the story who wants to kill all the Jews. Mordecai, her cousin uncovered the conspiracy of Haman and told Esther so she could tell the king. In the end, Haman got snared by his own trap and was hung at the very gallows that he planned for the Jews. Friends, God has called us to be part of His Royal Priesthood in this time. Today! Not tomorrow! Today!
OPPOSITION
Won’t standing up to opposition have consequences?
1) Extinction principle: Have you ever heard that the church is always one generation away from extinction? In his book Actions Speak Louder than Verbs, Herb Miller profoundly says what it means to be the church through history. “History tells us that in every era---Nazi Germany in the 1930s, for example----when the Church does not stand tall and speak clearly regarding what time it is, everyone in town eventually gets in trouble”. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989, p. 24). What time is it for us? What time is it for our church in this community? What time is it for the Church in the world? What time is it for the lost if we don’t reach them?
2) Hostility and resistance: Jesus warned us about the possibilities that there would be opposition from people in our own families and the opposition without with leaders, magistrates (Matthew 10:17 -22).
3) Relocation: When Jesus dispatched his 12 disciples to go out into the community to minister to them He told them two things. In Mark 6:11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." In Matthew 10:23 Jesus told His disciples that when they got persecuted in one place, flee to another (Matthew 10:23).
The Chairman and CEO of Home Depot is reported to have said the following: Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up: It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning, the lion wakes up: It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: When the sun comes up, you'd better be running. When your feet hit the floor running in the morning what motivates you? Fear or a sense of mission? Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com.
What is worse than opposition?
1) Complacency: Why is complacency worse then opposition? It could mean that we are comfortable enough to care about our own salvation while we end up neglecting the salvation of the lost. A famous preacher by the name of W. Herschel Ford once said something profound about the church in the year 1961. He said, “If the church has too little influence over the world, it is because the world has too much influence over the church”. (W. Herschel Ford. Simple Sermons on the Sevn Churches. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1961, p. 19). He also said We “… are bearing the cross when we suffer in order to serve the Saviour” (p. 40). “A ship in the water is a thing of power and beauty, but when water gets into the ship there are tragic results” (p. 54). Does that not describe where we are as the church today? Haven’t we let too much of the world’s water in the ship?
2) Opposition: There was a time in history when the world felt threatened by the church and its mission. The world reacted by opposing Christians and Christianity. One author (Eric Sandras) was candidly honest when he said, “One of my deepest temptations is to practice a lifestyle that appears to be a faithful friendship with Christ but really isn’t. To be a Cheese Puff Christian---lots of volume but little substance”. (Eric Sandras. Buck Naked Faith. Colorado Springs, Colorado: Navpress, 2004, p. 16). When are salty and bright (Matthew 5:13 -16) as Jesus calls us to be, we make a difference.
3) Litmus test question: If we were to be brought up on trial for being Christians would there be enough evidence for us to be found guilty? When we stand before God, will Jesus have to be ashamed to mention our name because we were ashamed to mention His name (Luke 9:26) ?
4) Witness without words: What do we do when we have to witness without words? Can they legislate the fruits of the Spirit Galatians 5:22 -23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Therefore, our witness without words will allow us to be salty and bright (Matthew 5:13 -16) through the fruits of the Spirit!
5) Witness and worship in spite of penalty: Shedrack, Meshack and Abednego in Dabiel 3: What about Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego who refused to bow down to worship the golden image set up by King Nebuchadnezzar? They faced the fiery furncace because they refused to bow and worship it. Daniel: What did Daniel do about his prayer life in Daniel 6 when he knew that there was an injunction signed by the king that if anyone prayed to another god he should wind up in the lion’s den? We know God was with Daniel in that lion’s den just as He was with Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego in the fiery furnace! Matthew 10:20 reminds us that the Holy Spirit will testify through us when those who oppose us want us to be arrested.
Jesus is not concerned about just healing people physically and socially like lepers; beggars like Bartimaeus; social outcasts who were tax collectors like Zaccheus; the immoral like the women of the well in John 4, or adulterer of John 8; the blind like blind man of John 9; the possessed like the Gardarene demoniac of Mark 5; Jesus was concerned about the people and the salvation of their souls. Again, all hands on deck, there is no plan b!
In Acts 5:18 we find out that the disciples Peter and John had been arrested. We find out in the next verse that an angel intervened and got them out of prison. God can open doors no one can shut and shut doors no one can open (Revelation 3:8). Jesus called us to a prison ministry as former prisoners who are called to set other prisoners of sin free. We have all heard that actions speak louder than words. How will the world ever know that we are Christians by our love if it is silent in word and deed? When the world tells us to shut up about Jesus, whom do we seek to please God or those who oppose us, God and the Gospel? In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
