Scripture: Acts 5:27-42 (cf. verses 27 -32); Psalms 150 and John 20:19-31
Theme: Obeying God
Proposition: In this passage the disciples make a very poignant statement: "We must obey God rather than men." How do we know that we are obeying God - 1. Through meditating and obeying His Word 2. Through prayer 3. Through listening to and following the lead of the Holy Spirit.
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God our Father and from His Son Jesus Christ, our Savior and LORD!
We all know this morning that Jesus' death and resurrection has had a extraordinary impact on human history. Our world has never been the same since Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead. And for that we praise the LORD!
Jesus' death and resurrection has also impacted His disciples in ways that we are still experiencing and rejoicing today. St. Luke wrote his book, The Acts of the Apostles, in hopes to share a few of the ways that the lives of those early disciples were impacted by Jesus' death and resurrection. Luke tells us that following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Jesus' disciples continued to heal people much like Jesus had during His earthly ministry.
In Acts 5:12-17, Luke reports that signs and wonders were a regular part of Early Church life. Verse fifteen shares an amazing story of how God used Peter's shadow as a means of healing. These had to be exciting times for the apostles and all those that were around the Early Church. Can you imagine seeing all of this first hand? Those early disciples were experiencing all kinds of amazing miracles, lives were being transformed and people were joining the church in large numbers. Joy and celebrating the name of Jesus was everywhere.
However, that did not mean that everyone was happy or celebrating. Our reading this morning tells us that some in the religious establishment were rejoicing. Our reading arises out of a heated confrontation between the Sanhedrin Council and those early apostles. Earlier in the chapter ( 5:17-26) Luke reports that the apostles had been arrested and thrown into prison. God miraculously then frees them and commands them to go back into the Temple area to continue their preaching about Jesus and salvation (verses 19-20).
When everyone awoke the next morning they were astonished at the news that the apostles were no longer imprisoned but were preaching the Gospel of Jesus once again. How in the world had these men gotten out of prison? The officials checked the prison and found it to be secure and yet, the apostles were outside the Temple preaching about Jesus and the New Life. The High Priest knew that he had to get a hold of the situation before it got out of control. He knew that pretty soon these disciples of Jesus would have more control of Jerusalem than his establishment and he was not going to allow that to happen. This whole Jesus matter was getting out of hand.
In our passage the High Priest has the apostles brought in again. This time it is before the Sanhedrin Council to see if they can get a handle on all that has been going on.
After a period of questioning the apostles are once again commanded to:
1. Never again speak or teach about Jesus or this New Life. They are to refrain from preaching about Jesus' resurrection and to never attempt to heal anyone in the name of Jesus.
2. Quit telling people that the Temple authorities ( the establishment) had anything to do with Jesus' death. (It seems that the Sanhedrin council wanted to shift the blame of Jesus' death solely onto the shoulders of Romans. They wanted people to believe that it was Rome who had put Jesus to death).
It is right here in verse 29 that I would like for us to spend some time this morning. Peter's response to the religious establishment demands our attention. It is Peter's statement that I believe our LORD would like for us to look at this morning:
WE MUST OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MEN.
I think all of us would agree with Peter's statement or at least the principles behind that statement. I think all of us would agree this morning, that we should always obey God rather than men, no matter what men may say or how they respond. We should first and foremost obey God.
However, I think we also have to agree that Peter's statement is quite revolutionary. He is taking on the religious establishment of his day. He is looking square in the face of the High Priest and the Sanhedrin Council and is telling them that he will not bow down to his commands if in fact he believes that God wants him to do something different. He is challenging both their authority and their right over what he can say and do. This was not something that a normal fisherman from Galilee would do in that day. This was radical. But is Peter right?
There is a part of all of us that really wants to cheer Peter on. We want to join in and say things like - "Down with the establishment". "Don't listen to the High Priest or to the Council." "Do what you know you should do, Simon Peter." "We are all behind you."
But let's take a moment and meditate on all of this.
+ Do we really want that type of cavalier spirit in our world or in our churches?
+ Do we really want to give permission to anyone to do whatever they feel God wants them to do anytime and anywhere?
+What happens if those same people suddenly decide that everyone must go along with their agenda? After all they believe that they are speaking for God.
+ How does one know when they are following the true voice of God?
+ How does one know that it is God speaking and not someone or something else doing the talking and the leading?
Before you make the kind of statements that Peter makes in this passage you better be 100% sure that you are being the mouthpiece of God. Thankfully, this morning, the Bible shows us how that can in fact be possible.
One of the things that Luke and God's Word makes clear is that there is a way for us to know if we are in fact actually hearing God. There is a way for us to know God's agenda. There is a way that we can stand beside Simon Peter and echoes those same words = We shall obey God rather than man and know in our hearts that we are on the right path. This morning, I would like to share with you three of those ways:
I. Our first way is to be completely saturated in God's Word
Psalms 119:105 points in the right direction. The Psalmist preaches to us that God's Word will speak to us and will guide us. The Psalmist tells us that God's Word will be a lamp and a light for us to know how and where to walk. It will guide our life path. We are told to be completely dependent upon God's Word for illumination and guidance. The Psalmist believes that the better we understand and make scripture a part of our daily lives the better we will know how to hear God's voice and therefore do God's will.
In 2 Timothy 2:15 the Apostle Paul tells Timothy that he is to be skillful in understanding God's Word. He is to be a person well versed in God's Word and be able to use it every day in his life. Paul would agree that God's word is to be Timothy's light and lamp so to speak. We may think that all of that was easy for Timothy. However, we must understand that God's word, the new life of Christianity was all new for Timothy.
Timothy was one of Paul's earliest converts. While Timothy's mother was Jewish, his father was Greek and Timothy had grown up to believe in and worship the Greek and Roman gods. Timothy had to start like many of us have had to start when we come to Christ. When it came to God's Word and Jesus, Timothy had to start on square one.
Timothy had grown up in a world of great spiritual darkness. A world that Paul believed without Christ would get even worse. Listen to Paul's words in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 as he describes where the world was going without Christ:
"For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."
Paul shares in his letters to Timothy that the only way Timothy will know how to live holy and righteous in such a godless world is to be a passionate student of God's Word. You see, it doesn't matter how much one little we know about the LORD staring out, what matters is how determined and dedicated we are to being saturated with God's Word in our lives today. What matters is how much of God's Word we are continually putting into our hearts, minds and souls right now.
What we need to do this morning is to simply follow Paul's advice to Timothy and do our best to be outstanding students of God's Word. We must make this one of our highest priorities - to be a person who knows how to handle God's Word. To be a person saturated in God's Holy Word.
The only reason Simon Peter was able to stand up to the High Priest was because he knew in His heart that Jesus' life and mission were founded on holy scriptures. He knew that Jesus was the fulfillment of God's Law and the Prophets. Simon Peter was not trying to goad the religious establishment. Rather, he was attempting to get them back into God's Word. He knew that the better they knew God's Word the more they would understand why he had to follow God's direction in preaching Jesus even if it meant disobeying the wishes of the High Priest. Paul was not trying to be a trouble maker, he was being God's prophet.
A. W. Tozer in his book, Experiencing God's Presence shares this on page 105 -
Regarding God's Word, let us love it and live in it and eat it and drink it and lie down on it and walk on it and stand on it and swear by it and live by it and rest in it. ~ A.W. Tozer
Anything God wants us to do will always find its foundation in scripture. If we find ourselves at odds with God's Word then we must stop whatever we are doing. Peter knew he was in the flow of God's Holy Word.
II. Our second way is through individual and corporate prayer meetings
It is amazing as you read through the book of Acts how much of the book is dedicated to telling us about all corporate prayer meetings of the Early Church. Acts begins with the disciples locking themselves away for a time of intense corporate prayer. Jesus had commanded them to go to Jerusalem, to pray together and to wait for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
While they waited they joined together for 10 days of intense corporate prayer meetings. It was through those corporate prayer meetings that they come together heart, mind and soul. It was because of those prayer meetings that they received the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit that would change their lives and our world forever. There is no way for us this morning to underestimate the importance of corporate prayer for God's People.
Dick Eastman shares with us this revelation about Jesus and prayer:
"Someone described the life of Jesus Christ as follows: He went from prayer meeting to prayer meeting and in between he performed miracles."
We know that our Lord believed in both individual and corporate prayer sessions. Many times in the scriptures we see Jesus going off by himself to pray. St. Luke shares in his Gospel that Jesus would go and pray all night to His Heavenly Father. However, the closer we see Jesus getting to Calvary the more we see him participating in corporate prayer meetings.
We see Jesus' passion for corporate prayer on the mount of Transfiguration, at the Last Supper and most importantly in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus could have gone to the Garden of Gethsemane alone that night, but he purposely invited his disciples to come and join him in prayer. If you remember, part of the sorrow he experiences that night was because they failed to pray with him. They fell asleep and left him alone to pray and Jesus needed corporate prayer.
Luke shares with us in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit fell it was in the middle of a corporate prayer meeting. When the Early Church needed to ask for boldness and courage it was in the middle of a corporate prayer meeting ( 4:23-31) . When the Early Church needed to find new workers they were revealed to them after they had been in prayer together as a group ( 6:1-7). When the Early Church sent off its first missionary team it was after they had a corporate prayer meeting (Acts 13).
When we come together in prayer as a group there is something supernatural that occurs. When we come together for the sole purpose to pray, to fast and to wait on the LORD the LORD comes into our very midst and unifies us and shares with us His mission and vision. Corporate prayer is a must for all of us.
Back in Acts 4:13 we see that the religious establishment of that day were amazed with the miracles that John and Peter were able to accomplish. They were amazed that these two young men were being used by God to bring healing into the lives of everyday common people. The establishment could not understand it. They were the leaders of religion and yet they had no real power. They were the ones who walked the hallways of the Temple and yet it was these two men and others like them that were changing people's lives. While they were contemplating this, someone made mention of the fact that these disciples had been with Jesus. Being with Jesus was what made them different. Being with Jesus was what made them have the ability to heal people and change their lives.
That is true today as well. The more time we spend talking to Jesus individually and corporately the more power and authority of Jesus we are going to possess. It is just that simple. First we saturate ourselves with God's Word. Then we join together in times of corporate prayer meetings. All you have to do is to look all over the world at where signs and wonders and miracles and salvation stories are happening and in each case you will find one common theme - God's Word and prayer - individual and corporate.
Corrie Ten Boom shares this advice about prayer - "When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy.”
III. Thirdly, we see that all these apostles were in the flow of the Holy Spirit
In John 16:5-15, Jesus revealed to his disciples that it would be through the power and infilling presence of the Holy Spirit that they would receive their training and their directions. It would be through the Holy Spirit that they would be able to do all the amazing things God wanted them to do to accomplish His Great Commission. Everything they would need would come through the Holy Spirit.
Luke shows us what all of this actually looked like in his story concerning Philip and the Ethiopian treasurer in Acts chapter eight (verses 26-40). An angel appeared and told Philip to go down to Gaza. As he is walking that direction the Holy Spirit impresses upon him to go up and begin talking to the man in the chariot that was heading the same direction. The Spirit tells Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” (verse 29).
Philip obeys and a miracle of salvation occurs. We read how the Ethiopian's live is forever changed. He comes to a full understanding of what Isaiah 53:7-8 says and the true identity of the Suffering Servant; Jesus Christ. Philip's ability to hear and obey the Holy Spirit lead to the salvation of the Ethiopian and to the ongoing mission of Jesus' message.
Philip's encounter however has to be balance by what we later see inappropriately happening in the Church of Corinth. Some of the people in the Corinthian Church were saying that the Holy Spirit was having them do all kinds of things. Some of those things were causing their services to be out of order and invited chaos. People were believing that they could say and do anything they wanting blaming it on the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 12 - 14, the Apostle gives the church some very sound advice. Paul reminds the church that while the Holy Spirit will speak through a variety of people that same Holy Spirit will never bring chaos or disorder. He reminds them that one of the ways to know whether or not you are following the leadings of the Holy Spirit is to see if the name of Jesus is being lifted up and if the people are being encouraged and their spiritual lives enhanced.
Later on in his letter to the Church of Ephesus, the Apostle John has to deal with a similar issue. Once again there were things going on that people wanted to attribute to the leading of the Holy Spirit when it was not in reality the Holy Spirit. In 1 John 4:1-6, the Apostle testifies that there are more spirits at work in our lives, in our world and even in our churches than simply the Holy Spirit. John tells his congregation that when they feel a moving of a spirit; they are not simply to just let go and do what it says. Instead, they are to test that spirit. They are to see if it is from the LORD or to see if it is a spirit that will cause disorder and chaos. John is no doubt remembering when Jesus went to preach in a synagogue in Capernaum and was attacked by a spirit demon that was in the church (Luke 4:31-37). The man had gone to church for years with this spirit demon and no one had noticed. But when Jesus entered into the service, the demon had to reveal its true identity.
Now, does that mean no one should say anything in church? By no means. I have been in many services where the Spirit of the LORD came down and worked through many different people in a variety of ways. But we do have to practice caution. For we must make sure that it is the flow of the Holy Spirit in our hearts rather than our own spirit or even an evil spirit tricking us to cause harm.
I remember years ago having to deal with a lady who had convinced herself that God had told her that she should go to different churches, interrupt the service and tell the people that there were living wrong. She came to our church and told me that God had told her she needed to get up and chastise all the people during one of our services. I tried to tell her as sweetly as I could that God had called me to be the spiritual leader of that particular congregation and that each week God laid His word and His message on my heart to share. The Holy Spirit would tell me if she was to get up or not. I had to remind her that I was the shepherd of that flock and I did not believe that God wanted her to come in and tell everyone what they needed to do. All she would be doing was to cause confusion and bring attention to herself. She was not going to uplift Jesus or help the congregation to grow.
You see, she did not want to do it in a spirit of love and forgiveness. She wanted to set them right. She didn't even know the people nor had she spent time in prayer for them. She just felt that God wanted her to come and set everyone straight. I invited her to come and be with us and after a period of time (through prayer and fasting) that God would show us and our leaders if she needed to share any message at all. Sadly, she got mad, pouted and left. I found out later she was on a circuit. She believed that it was her gift to go and tell people how they needed to get straight with the LORD. She felt that it was her mission to cause confusion and chaos.
We all know that the Holy Spirit does send people like that to churches but when He does it is always in a spirit of love, a heart full of godly sorrow and a humble attitude. They come ready to help a church not tear it apart. They come prayed up and full of Holy Ghost Love. And when they do what the Spirit says you can feel a sweetness, you can sense an anointing falling all around. Without that anointing, without that sweetness it is all simply noise and confusion.
So, how was Peter able to look the High Priest square in the face and tell him - WE MUST OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MEN and it be the right thing to say?
How was Peter able to stand up against the religious establishment and in fact be right in doing so?
1. We see that he did it by being a person saturated with scripture. He did it by being a man of God's Word.
2. He did it by being a person saturated in prayer; both individual and corporate. For Peter was not speaking on his own, he was speaking on behalf of all the apostles that had been arrested and told not to speak in the name of Jesus.
3. And he did it by being in the flow of the Holy Spirit. He did it by knowing that it was the Holy Spirit that was leading him and not his own wishes or the wishes of a demonic spirit.
This morning, we can stand beside Simon Peter and the rest of those apostles by committing today to be:
1. A people passionate about the Word - saturating our hearts and minds and souls with God's Word.
2. A people of prayer - individual and corporate.
3. A people lead and guided by the Holy Spirit.
This morning, as we close let us come to the LORD's Table to receive His grace, His mercy and His love.
