Fighting Against God Series

FIGHTING AGAINST GOD

Text: Acts 5:33-42

Introduction

1. Illustration: When I first got interested in music, the first artist that I took a liking to was a man named Jim Croce. He is famous for songs like Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and Time In a Bottle. I was thinking this week of another one of his hits, You Don’t Mess Around with Jim. It talks about a tough guy named Jim, and the song says, “You don’t tug on Super Man’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Jim.” As the song continues, it introduces another character named Slim, who came to get his money back from Jim. When the two characters meet, Slim whips the tar out of Jim, and the people sing a different kind of story. “You don’t tug on Super Man’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask of the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Slim.”

2. You could re-right this story to say, “You don’t tug on Super Man’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask of the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with God!”

3. The history of the Christian church is loaded with those who tried to stop it and shut it down, like the Soviet Union and China, but in the end, God always wins!

4. Read Acts 5:33-42.

Proposition: When ever someone tries to stop the Gospel or the church of Jesus Christ, God always wins!

Transition: In our text, we see the disciples have an…

I. An Unlikely Aly (33-37).

A. Gamaliel

1. Before this, the Jewish religious leaders had arrested the disciples and threw them in jail overnight. However, an angel of the Lord came and let them out, commanding them to go to the Temple and teach the people about Jesus.

2. So, they were arrested again, but Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke the truth to them and said they must obey God rather than people. The result was, “When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill them.”

a. The council was furious that the apostles refused to head their warnings and declared that they would not stop preaching about Jesus.

b. The problem with this is that they were not allowed to issue a death penalty, only the Romans were allowed to do that.

c. However, they could come up with some trumped up charge against them, just like they did with Jesus.

3. However, something very unexpected, and extremely unlikely happed. Luke tells us in v. 35, “But one member, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while.”

a. Like I said, an unusual character came to their rescue.

b. His name was Gamaliel, a Pharisee who was the other party in the high council, stood up and spoke on their behalf.

c. “Gamaliel was an unexpected ally for the apostles, although he probably did not support their teachings. He was a distinguished member of the council.

d. He stood up to speak to the assembly, but first he ordered that the apostles be taken outside so the situation could be discussed.” (Bruce Barton et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary, 492).

4. The scene continues once the disciples are sent outside. Luke tells us in vv. 35-37, “Then he said to his colleagues, “Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men! 36 Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About 400 others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing. After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got people to follow him, but he was killed, too, and all his followers were scattered.”

a. He tells the council to think carefully as to how they were going to handle this situation.

b. He reminded them that a man named Theudas, who thought he was special, came around and convinced 400 people to follow him. However, he was killed and soon his followers disappeared.

c. He also reminded them that a man named Judas from Galilee appeared, and like Theudas, got people to follow him. But he also was killed, and his movement soon fell apart.

d. What he is telling them is that movements or fads come and go. Unless they have substance to them, they fall apart and come to nothing.

e. He’s telling them not to go all crazy about the disciples and their followers.