Can't Touch This Series

CAN’T TOUCH THIS

Acts 5:17-21a

My brothers and my sisters in 1990 a rapper by the name of Stanley Kirk Burrell wrote these word in a song. He said and I quote “my music hits me so hard -makes me say oh my Lord/Thank you for blessing me-with a mind to rhyme and hype a beat/That’s good when you know you’re down/ A super-bowl home-boy from Oaktown/And I’m known as such/And this is a beat uh u can’t touch/ I told you home-boy u can’t touch this. These are the words of a song that came out in 1990 by the artist called MC Hammer. It is about his self acclaimed greatness as a then modern day rapper and dancer. This baggy pants lyricist, even before there was a Hammer time, was a child hood success story in the Oakland, Ca. area. It was this young man as a child that used to dance at the Oakland “A’s” baseball games and Charlie “O” Finley the owner of the “A’s” liked him so much that he gave him free tickets to come to the games to dance, and the fans even looked for him to dance during the seventh inning stretch. That my brothers and sisters was the start of Hammer time.

The Disciples start was not that encouraging, although many miracles were done by them. After they were filled with the Holy Spirit, the world did not understand them. They were accused of being filled with new wine, accused of teaching the wrong doctrine, accused of causing public disobedience and they were constantly apprehended and beaten because of preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus. And again in the text the Disciples are being persecuted because of the wonderful name of Jesus.

In the previous text we talked about The Church, The Place of Miracles. There were found out that the church had taken its’ rightful place in time as the place of relevance and the place where miracles were wrought. From the healing of the lame man, to those that were healed at Solomon’ porch in the previous text, it was at the church or performed by the church, the healing of those that needed a miracle in the name of Jesus. So, it was pointed out to us that (1) there was evidence of wonder working power in the church, along with the fact that (2) there was so much power in the church that no one dared to join it under false pretenses, and finally, (3) we learned that the believers embraced the Lord because of the Apostles great deeds.

This week we will take a look at the second persecution of the church. Although it was relevant and had power, there were still those who thought that the apostles were defying the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They thought this because the apostles were teaching in a name that they did not understand. They did not understand that Jesus was the Son of God, they didn’t understand that He was the One they had been waiting for. All they knew is that Jesus, Joseph and Mary’s boy was teaching things that they were not familiar with. They were also envious of the signs and wonders that the apostles were doing, and it is always a problem to some when you do things that can change the life and direction of the people. So, the Sadducees in verse 17 was filled with indignation. They were jealous because of what the Apostles were doing. People were coming from everywhere to Solomon’ porch, and there were so many of them and they brought with them faith that was so great that according to verse 15 they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing over them might heal them.

So, let us continue to look at this powerful church and discover why the traditions of the Sadducees, much like the Pharisees, can’t touch this.

First of all verse 17 let’ us know that...

1. THEIR JEALOUS HEARTS WOULD NOT ALLOW THEM TO UNDERSTAND (V.17)

There is a movie called “Cookout”. It is a Black comedy about this kid who was a basketball player, that was drafted and signed by an NBA franchise. He was worth millions. Everybody wanted to be him, his friends in the hood were jealous of him, his childhood buddies tried to exploit him, and he had an aunt that was jealous of his success as well because it wasn’t her son that got the contract to play in the NBA. She even tried to get her son a tryout with her nephews’ agent at the cookout, thinking that he had as much talent as her nephew. But that was not what he wanted to be, he was a scholar and did not want to be a ballplayer, he wanted to be a doctor. The point I’m trying to make here is that she was so filled with jealousy about her nephew’ success, that her jealous heart would let her understand that her son had a successful future in medicine.