Last
Sunday, we saw Peter and John get, in essence, called into the principal’s
office. After healing a lame beggar,
they began to teach and proclaim Christ resurrected. We saw that this landed them in “hot water”
with the leadership of Jerusalem. We saw
that the way in which those in power dealt with the apostles was to arrest
them, intimidate them, and question them.
After asking them by what authority they taught such things, Peter
confidently answered, “by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Now, we didn’t have time to look at the
response of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, but simply ended with seeing how
Peter not only defended himself and John, but proclaimed the gospel while doing
so. We noted that we are to have the
same sense of fearlessness for proclaiming the gospel when the world seeks to
silence us as Christians today. We are
to follow Peter and John’s example and fulfill the words that Christ spoke to
them about how to deal with persecution and those that persecute us. However, much like we see in our text today (the
fact that the leaders didn’t just hear Peter’s words and accept them), we have
to be ready to endure the hardships that come with our fighting persecution
with and for the gospel. We have to
understand that we will indeed face consequences.
Our
text begins by once again pointing out that Peter and John were uneducated, at
least from the perspective of the Jewish leaders, i.e. they had not been through
rabbinical training. My dad has always taught
me that you should never mistake education for intelligence. Never mistake credentials for know-how. Sometimes they go hand-in-hand, but not
always. Just because a person isn’t institutionally
trained in something doesn’t mean that they don’t know how to, and vise-versa. I worked for one summer on the grounds crew
at Starkville Country Club while I was in college. The head greens keeper didn’t have a lick of
education, but he was very good at his job and very knowledgeable as to what
all of the chemicals did and how to properly care for a golf course. You see, Peter and John in fact had not been
through any sort of formal rabbinical or religious training. However, they had been through a period of
training during those three years with Jesus that was so much greater than any
seminary could ever be, it wasn’t as if they were ignorant. As evidence of this fact, not only do we have
the very articulate words spoken by them here in Acts, but we also have their
writings as part of our New Testament (John’s gospel; 1, 2, & 3 John; 1 &
2 Peter).
The
apostles were also standing there alongside the man whom they healed. Notice the intentional use of the word “standing”
to describe the man who once was lame.
As the Sanhedrin were questioning these men, there was no denying the fact
that a miracle had happened. There was
no denying that this man who previously could not use his legs was now standing
before them without any assistance. They
were somewhat speechless as to what to say to these apostles. So, much as the world does even today when
left without explanation, the Sanhedrin simply told Peter and John to stop
it. They didn’t say that Peter and John
were wrong or that their teaching was somehow false, but they simply told them
to stop teaching and proclaiming the gospel so that it wouldn’t spread or else
they would be thrown in jail. I
mentioned last Sunday that the world (and by this I mean those who oppose the
Christian faith) will use any means necessary to try and mute the gospel. They will threaten you concerning your health,
your family, your livelihood, or anything else they can use in order to inhibit
the spread of God’s Word. The sad fact
of it all is that in many cases this has worked. We all have bills to pay, mouths to feed, and
responsibilities that must be taken care of, so we, Christians, have allowed
ourselves to be dictated to by the world around us. In honesty, it’s a very logical thought. We tell ourselves, “Well, if I don’t at least
play by the rules, then I’m going to be left in a situation when I can’t have
any impact of the world for God. If I
just adhere to what the world is asking of me, then I will be able to work my
way to a position of authority and give myself a greater platform for
evangelism and gospel proclamation.” My
friends, this is a dangerous and slippery slope to enter into. This is the talk of espionage; this is the
talk of sinful desires. This is the talk
of dirty, underhanded politics. This is
not the talk of the gospel. This is not
the way in which we are told to go about proclaiming God’s Word. There is nowhere in Scripture where we are
told that we are to infiltrate organizations and lay dormant until such time as
we reach a point of power and then finally reveal our true beliefs. We must be careful of thinking and conducting
ourselves along such lines.
I
want you to listen again to Peter and John’s response to the Sanhedrin after
being told what would happen if they didn’t “play ball” with the leaders in
Jerusalem. Also, keep in mind that it
would have been very easy for these apostles to simply tell the Jewish leaders
that they would keep quiet while having no intentions on doing so once they had
been released. Peter and John say to
them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to
God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” In other words, if the Sanhedrin thought that
what the apostles were teaching was worthy of their being imprisoned then so be
it, but they could not deny the truth of what they had been teaching and what
they had seen and heard. And this brings
us to the point of having to deal with the relationship of the Church and the
State, a principal that we draw (at least in this country) from the First
Amendment to the Constitution of United States, part of the Bill of
Rights. However, this wasn’t a
completely original idea at the time of its origin, nor is it exclusive to the
nation in which we find ourselves today.
In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote quite pointedly about this relationship
his letter to the Roman Christians. Paul
wrote that God ordained civil authorities to be over people. However, he also wrote that those authorities
are under God. In essence, that our
allegiances are to be to those in positions of civil power and authority for
the purposes of striving for the good of the public.
Civil
authorities can be a great blessing to the people of God. For instance, civil authorities make it
possible for us to freely gather here and worship without the threat of someone
coming in and hurling insults at each of us and making worship impossible. If such a thing were to happen, then we could
call upon the civil authorities (in this case the police) to remove that
person(s) so that we could continue our worship. So civil authorities in and of themselves are
not necessarily a hindrance to Christians, but can be a great benefit. However, the problem comes in when those
authorities seemingly, whether intentionally or unintentionally place
themselves on the same level as God. The
most obvious example of such in our word today comes in the form of the
constant attempts at the redefinition of marriage. You see, at least the way I see it, marriage
is not a civil principle, but a biblical institution ordained by God. The term marriage is reserved for the uniting
together of a man and a woman before God.
This union is designed to bring about glory to God through strengthening
of both individuals from a moral and spiritual perspective, and in some cases
raising children in the Christian faith.
In recent years, the civil authorities, i.e. federal and state
governments, have sought to redefine marriage to include relationships outside
of that which is stated biblically. The
question then becomes how the Church is to respond to the State. It’s this question that I want to spend the
rest of our time talking about this morning.
If anyone wants to speak more specifically with me about the particular
issue of homosexual marriages or any other specific infringements of the State
upon the Church, please feel free to do so at a later time, but that’s not
really the focus of our text today.
So,
how are we to respond, as Christians, as the Church, to civil authorities that
act as if they are no longer under God’s authority, under the authority of
Scripture? Well, we’ve touched on a few
of the options already. We could do
nothing, we could go into a full rebellion against the civil authorities as a
whole, or we could do what Peter and John did.
They acknowledged that the civil authorities, the Sanhedrin, did have a
right to imprison them, but they also said that they could not allow themselves
to deny or silence the gospel simply because of the threat put upon them. This is the way that we have to act. I’ve said over the last few Sundays
specifically that we have to be mindful and very much aware of the fact that we
may face hardships and further persecutions due to our allegiances to God. However, I can think of no greater reason for
any sort of disobedience than that of following God’s will. Now, I’m not calling for all of us to go out
and get arrested for the sake of the gospel.
I’m not telling everyone to go and stand outside of abortion clinics,
facilities practicing mercy-killings, pro-homosexual organizations, or any
other buildings. I know that some people
do that and they do it because their consciences have led them to do so. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as
they are simply doing so out of love for God and not hatred of those of work or
visit such places. What I’m saying,
however, is that we must not simply lie down and allow the world to dictate the
manner and degree to which we proclaim the gospel. We must have the mindset that the apostles
displayed here that says, “Do what you have to do, but I cannot help but serve
my God.” For each of us that will look
different. For each of us the visibility
and extreme to which that reaches will vary.
However, we cannot allow the world to set the limit, but we must allow
God to set it. What ultimately lies at
the heart of the matter is that we recognize that civil power does play a role
in our society, a role that God established.
However, we must always remember and keep reminding others around us
that we are first and foremost a people of God, and not a people of a particular
country, state, or city. With that being
the case, our first and primary allegiance is to God and the faithful
fulfilling of His will. Let not your
voice be silenced by the world around you, but let the world around you hear
God speaking through your voice. Glory
be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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