“Putting Your Best Foot Forward”
Acts 5: 12-42
One of the things that has happened in our society across the years is that our concept of service has greatly changed. What we have seen is that real service has almost become a thing of the past and has been replaced by convenience. Some of you can recall pulling into a gas station, which by the way was referred to as a service station and a couple fo attendants would come out, check you oil, wash your windows, check your tires and then fill your car up with gas. And all of these services were free. And then they said thank you.
Now we buy our gas at a convenience store. We can check the oil ourselves, and we can put air in the tires if we want to pay for it and most of us pay at the pump and it’s entirely possible to do all of this without speaking to anyone. But it’s convenient. We have drive through service for everything. You can order food but be aware there are even more things you can do now. Some of the pharmacies offer drive through flu shots, in Las Vegas you can get married at a drive through, never even have to get out of the car, I guess instead of playing here comes the bride, it’s here comes a Buick. Pensacola has had in recent years
drive through funeral visitation, but has not shut down.
As far as the church is concerned one of the things we want to do is to put our best foot forward. The NT church here in the book of Acts understood this concept called service. This story we will see today is told in 5 events. What we have seen so far in this chapter is that there has been a REBELLION IN THE CHURCH. Vv.1-4 A couple named Ananias and Sapphira conspired together to sell a piece of property, then told the church they were giving all of the proceeds from the sale to the church but they didn’t do it. They lied to the Holy Spirit and God held them accountable. It is a remarkable story that shows us that God hates hypocrisy...when we say one thing but do another. When our commitments we make publicly are not kept in private. Clearly they rebelled against God and against the church.
Then we see a 2nd event. It is GOD’S RESPONSE TO THEIR CRIME. Vv. 5-11 They were both struck dead right on the spot. Ananias first, then Sapphira. We wonder why this was such a serious crime that they should receive the death penalty. Too many times in the church we use phony excuses to avoid our responsibilites as a member. Our priorities get reversed and confused and we need God to straighten them out, to take our pride away. And to ultimately do what’s best for His church and the Kingdom. And that’s what God does. Seems drastic. But remember God’s Kingdom is much bigger than any one of us and ultimately much more important.
Now the 3rd event we see explained here is THE REPUTATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE CITY. VV. 12-16. Look with me at verse 12. Verse 17 reminds us that one of the things that triggered the arrest of the apostles which we see in v. 18 was that the Saducees were jealous. Jealousy can drive people to do some terrible things. One of the laws that the Saducees had put into effect was a “no witnessing” law. The apostles were told they could not preach, teach, heal or share their faith in any way. But guess what...they didn’t listen. A careful reading of the book of Acts shows us they referred to the law, the OT scripture that Moses wrote down. 15 times they referenced OT prophecies, they referred to the resurrection 12 times, 8 times they talked about repentance, 5 times they referred to the cross...then they gave 5 warnings about the coming judgement. Twice they remind us that God is creator.
Now why would they continue to share in this way even in the face of death? The answer is simple...it was not about them. John says he must increase, you and I must decrease. And all of these scriptures they references all tell us one thing .. the law makes us aware of our sin, the prophecies point us to God’s solution for sin; the resurrection proves there is hope, without repentance of course, there is no salvation. Most references to creation spell out the fact that we are responsible to our creator.... to someone much bigger than us. So they knew they must present the gospel even in the face of persecution.
But not only did they witness, not only did they heal a man lame from birth but ALL of the apostles performed miracles and on top of that they continued to hold church right in the very place where that first miracle happened. And that miracle continued to attract unbelievers to the faith. So much so that a very interesting thing happens here. Vv. 15-16. Instead of going to the Colonnade which was a porch on the East side of Solomon’s temple, instead of going there they brought their loved ones who were sick into the streets so that Peter’s shadow might fall on them as he walked by. Now this sounds strange. But even today, people search for some kind of physical demonstration of God’s presence in their lives. In the ancient world a person’s shadow represented that person so that they were doing what their culture taught them. The text here does not say they were healed by the shadow, but the people did believe there was healing power there.
This was apparently because of the reputation the apostles now had in the community. Any church can impact their community if they maintain a good, healing reputation. And they did.
The next event we see here was the RELEASE OF THE CAPTIVES. vv. 17-26. The authorities had come in, arrested the apostles and placed them in jail. It is at this point that the story changes. On 3 occasions in the book of Acts a miracle occurs at the jail. This is not the place where we would typically look for a miracle. One of the things here that shows that God sometimes has a sense of humor is that the Saducees whom I have told you about before, did not believe in the resurrection, also did not believe in angels. So it is a bit amusing to me that God uses angels to deliver these captives from jail. Obviously this was a miracle. When God performs a miracle He works in areas and in ways you and I cannot understand. Look with me at the sequence of events here.
* the disciples were placed in jail * an angel opens the doors and brings them out * the High Priest sends for the prisoners * they arrive at the jail and there are no prisoners there. The jail is locked. Guards are in place but no prisoners.
* they were puzzled. I guess so. * the men who were in jail are now out preaching * so they go back out to meet them
Now the question is how did they free them without unlocking the door? How did they get them past the guards without being noticed? Here’s the answer. God did it. It was a miracle. Another question. After the prisoners were gone, why did the soldiers not know it? God has the ability to operate outside of the realm of what you and I can understand. He does not have to explain himself to us. He is God. And God was in control.
The next event we see here is the RESPONSE OF THE COUNCIL. Now the Sanhedrin is still trying to enforce the “no witnessing” law. The disciples however continued to be faithful to preach the gospel and had done so to the point that they said “you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. One of the reasons the Sanhedrin did not want them sharing the gospel was because in essence it made them responsible for the death of Jesus. This should not surprise us because Peter had said this same thing earlier in Acts. It is interesting that the high priest makes no mention of their escape. The last thing he wants to do is to admit to another miracle. Nor does he mention Jesus by name.
Now look at verse 29. Peter makes a powerful statement. He is explaining why they are doing the exact opposite of what they have been ordered to do. There is a time when we must stand up for our faith and this is one of those times. Help then comes to them from an unlikely source. One of the Pharisees, Gamaliel who was a Rabbi. The Saducees were screaming for the apostles to be executed and that’s when Gamaliel steps forward. There is really no reason to think that Gamaliel was actually concerned about the church .. he was simply a good man who knew nothing would be accomplished by killing these men. He mentions 2 men here. The first is Theudas. We can’t say for sure but one man in that day named Theudas claimed to be the Messiah and that he would divide the Jordan river and walk across. This could be that man. Then Judas. This is obviously not Judas Iscariot. This Judas took the view that we should not pay any taxes to the government (he was obviously running for president at the time) and that we should only pay tribute to God. Gamaliel reminds them that both of these men were murdered and their followers were scattered in different places. So he says, leve them alone!... let them go! V. 38b-39.
So they flogged them (whipped them). Then ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus. Between chapters 4 & 5 they have now been warned 3 times. This was not a slap on the wrist that they received. This was 39 lashes and plenty of men died as a result of this punishment. Again they are told... don’t talk about Jesus. Here is the final event ...THERE WAS REJOICING IN THE CONGREGATION.
Let me ask you what would you do if you were in their sandals? Warning after warning. Jail. Beating. Vv. 41-42 Their service for Jesus should not be stopped. What about yours? What does it take for you to become discouraged and just quit? Stop serving?. Nine years ago just as we starting this church I was at a conference n Florida designed for church planters. There were about 100 of us there. For some reason they selected 3 men and asked us to stay after one of the sessions. I was one of the 3 they chose at random. They said when you come to the meeting tonight bring a towel. Then they called us to the front and i still did not know what we would were going to do ...they then instructed us that we were to go through the crowd and sine everyone’s shoes. So we did. As I crawled along and moved through the crowd God spoke and said to me the next time you feel like throwing in the towel, instead pick it up and serve me. And i did.. And we started this church. Today I am calling on you to renew your commitment to God as His servant. To pick up the towel and begin to meet needs.
