A
few weeks ago, Amy and I were gathered together with her family at her parents’
house in Ocean Springs, MS for the Fourth of July. As we were all sitting on the back porch
talking about the past, present, and future of our family, a story came up
about Amy and her cousins and a certain trip to a dude ranch out in Texas with
her grandparents some years ago. Now, I
won’t go into the particulars of the story (at least not right now), but I’ll
just tell you that it is the only time that Amy and the other three girls
involved can remember their grandfather ever being mad at them. It left such an impression upon these four
young girls that they went out of their way (and still do to some extent) to
never upset him again. Well, a similar
lasting impression is how we ended our text last Sunday. God had left such an impression upon the
church in Jerusalem concerning the severity of sin by His taking of the lives
of Ananias and Sapphira that they were fearful.
They were downright scared that they could be next, and so they wanted
to do anything they could to avoid such sin and punishment. There’s even a chance that some of them might
have wondered if they had, as a whole group, lost their blessing from God.
Well,
we quickly find out that that was not the case at all. The very next words following “and
great fear came upon the whole church” are “now many signs and wonders were
regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles.” Obviously, there was no way that the apostles
could have done what they were doing without God, without the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit. However, there seemed to be
some timidity on behalf of the people.
We’re told that “none of the rest dared join them,”
which is a far cry from the worship that we saw a few weeks ago that caused
walls to shake. But we still find that
even more people are beginning to believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah,
mostly because of the numerous healings that were being done by the apostles as
they walked through the streets.
Then,
in an almost “here we go again” type of situation, we find that some of the
religious leaders became upset with the apostles once again. I think that Luke very accurately puts it by
stating that it was because they were “filled with jealousy.” Yes, I’m sure that they were a bit upset that
the apostles were continuing to do the things they were doing in Jesus’ name,
but ultimately it was about the fact that the attention that the apostles were
receiving should have (at least in their mind) gone to them instead. We know that some time ago, that Peter and
John were released and warned that if they continued to proclaim Jesus as
Messiah and do works in his name that they would be taken back into
prison. So, the high priest and the
Sadducees have the apostles arrested again and put into prison.
Then we’re
given this story about an angel of the Lord letting the apostles out of prison
at night and sending them to the temple to preach. Then, the next morning the apostles weren’t
in prison when the guards went to bring them before council. The guards found that even though the
apostles weren’t there, they had no clue how they escaped because the prison
door was securely locked, just as it was when they had left them there the
night before. Someone eventually came
and told them that the apostles were in the temple and teaching people about
the very things that landed them in prison in the first place. Finally, the captain of the temple and his
officers got the apostles to stop and made their way to stand before the
council. However, notice that our text
says, “but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.” Now, I get that the fear of the people might
have been real. No one wants to anger a
mob and insight a riot, but if what the apostles were doing was really thought
of as being wrong, don’t you think that at least some force would have been
used. But that’s a discussion for a
whole other time.
So the apostles
went before the council and were questioned and reminded about their previous
encounter with them. It almost seems
like everyone knew how this was going to go.
It’s kind of like when my kids do something that I told them not to
do. “Now you remember what we told you
was going to happen if you didn’t eat all your dinner, don’t you?” It’s as if the council is saying, “Ok guys,
y’all remember that last time we told y’all, that we weren’t going to stand for
you teaching in Jesus’ name anymore.”
Peter then gave in essence the same response that he gave the first
time, “we must obey God rather than men.” He then went on to speak of how they had
Jesus killed and how God exalted him after that and how they were going to be
faithful witnesses for the gospel no matter what. And this infuriated the council and they had
the knee-jerk reaction of putting the disciples to death.
Then, we have
something that really seems a bit odd at first, but after thinking about it, there
might be good explanation (as I’ll suggest in a moment). But we have this Pharisee named Gamaliel who
stood up against the killing of the apostles.
Now, for those who don’t know about Gamaliel, he was a teacher of the
law and a very distinguished and honored man, just as our text tells us. However, he was also the teacher of a man
named Saul, who would later be come to know as Paul, the Great Apostle and
writer of a large portion of the New Testament.
Gamaliel reminded the entire council, in the midst of their fury, that
he had been around for quite some time and had seen a number of folks come
around claiming to be the Messiah. He
reminded they of a man named Theudas and another named Judas who both claimed to
be the Messiah. He also reminded them of
the hundreds of followers they had and how after each man had died then their
followers dispersed and their ideas went away.
He wisely told the council, “keep away from these men and let them alone,
for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of
God, you will not be able to overthrow them.
You might even be found opposing God!” In other words, “let’s all just wait and see
where this goes.” You see, we have to
remember that even though there were many (in fact probably a majority) of the
religious officials of Jerusalem who were primarily concerned with their status
and position, there were still some, like Gamaliel, who were first and foremost
concerned with serving God; even if that meant having to accept an entirely new
set of teachings and an entirely new way of worship and living. So, the council decided to take Gamaliel’s
advice (sort of). They did take a wait
and see approach with the apostles, but not before beating them and warning
them about continuing to speak in Jesus’ name.
Nevertheless, the apostles were released instead of being sentenced to
death.
When we read
about this encounter, we wonder why in the world Gamaliel would speak up. After all, he was a Jew and fully thought
that they apostles were wrong. Well, the
first reason, which we’ve already stated, was that he was first and foremost a
man of God. He was willing to be lead in
whatever direction God would allow him to be lead, even if it was a way that he
thought was wrong. Secondly, I think
that the simplest explanation for why Gamaliel spoke up was God. Now, this can be divided into two different
categories itself. The first of which is
that God inspired Gamaliel to speak.
Now, there is no scriptural evidence for this, but it’s plausible that
God inspired this man to speak to the council.
The second category is that God spoke by using Gamaliel’s actions and
words. In other words, God acted through
the ordinary chain of events to preserve His people. God worked through the natural unfolding of
events to bring about the deliverance of His people from the hands of their
oppressors. This is a glowing example of
the providence of God. There was a plan
for the upholding of God’s people, and that plan was carried out by this
Pharisee.
Sometimes,
God’s plan seems to be unfolded before us in the strangest of ways. I’m pretty sure that the apostles didn’t
think that after the angel of the Lord came and freed them that they were going
to be commanded to stay in the temple just so they could be arrested
again. I’m pretty sure that they weren’t
expecting one of the most noted Pharisees to be the one who spoke up on their
behalf (sort of). I’m pretty sure that
each and every one of us have seen God work in ways that we never would have
imagined to bring about the glorification of His name. We’ve all seen that unlikely display of God’s
love. We’ve all experience that care
that God has shown us come from the most unlikely of sources. Remember that much like the apostles, we have
a job to do. Our job is to proclaim the
gospel and show the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to everyone around
us. In our doing so, God will provide,
just as He did for the apostles. God’s
providence will sustain us and see that His will will be done. God will care for us and provide for us, even
in ways that we cannot even imagine or could never possibly expect. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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