Have you ever thought, “There’s got to be more to being a Christian than this?” Coming to church, singing some songs, trying to stay awake through a sermon. Apparently there can be, and that is what we are seeing in the book of Acts, and hopefully today we can see how to get more out of our Christian life, by their example 2000 years ago.
Let’s watch Acts 5:12-42…
None of the rest dared join them. Now there were at least 10,000 adult believers in Jerusalem by now, and it says, “More than ever believers were added to the Lord, both men and women”. They just weren’t being too public about it.
We see here already that people are starting to look up to the apostles but are afraid to join them. They are seeing the power, and the courage that the apostles have, but they’re hesitating because they’re afraid of the persecution. It’s interesting to me that if there were about 10,000 or more adult Christians in Jerusalem with a total population of anywhere from 30,000 to a maximum of about 100,000 during the festivals. If at least a quarter of those are children, that would mean that the percentage of the adult population that were believers was anywhere from 10-40%.
What if all those people got together and had a sit in? What could the authorities possibly do?
There are two possibilities here. One is that the majority of those people were not really followers of Jesus, they were along for the ride and to experience the miracles. There was perhaps only a core of people who were true followers filled with the Holy Spirit. Or these people were simply not feeling like they could do the things that the apostles were doing and didn’t want to be persecuted.
I think this reflects the church today. There is a small minority of people in the church who do most of the work, especially the teaching and evangelising, and they are admired by the rest who are content to enjoy the ride. It was true in the early church too, but we will see that start to change in the next chapter, and the dispersal from the persecution actually helped to solve this problem a little later on in chapter 8.
So people were coming from even the towns around Jerusalem to get healing and have spirits cast out, even just getting close enough so Peter’s shadow would hit them. And it says they were all healed, because that is great faith. Remember the woman who fights through the crowd to touch Jesus’ garment? Jesus says your faith has healed you. Despite Peter’s efforts to let them know this was Jesus and not him, the natural tendency of people is to attribute it to a person.
So this time the High Priest and Sudducees arrested them and put them in a public prison. Apparently this was a step up from where they incarcerated them before, it’s maximum security this time. But the power of God comes through again and they don’t even make it through the night before God miraculously lets them out. Now we gotta remember these were not like our prisons today. They were tough and the guards, if they didn’t do their jobs, didn’t have a union, they would probably be executed.
Now if God just got me out of this prison and said go stand in the temple and speak the words of Life, I think I would probably do it. They wait until dawn and they get right on it.
The officials were perplexed to find the prison empty with the guards and gates still like they were the night before, and then they’re told that these guys are at it again, and they gently go get them this time to avoid being stoned. Does it seem odd to you that each time they go arrest these guys they’re afraid of causing riots and being stoned? Shouldn’t that tell them something?
They question the apostles and they respond like they did before. We have to obey God over you guys. And they simply again tell the truth. This isn’t a false accusation, and the religious guys know it. They know they’re guilty, but what do guilty people usually do, repent?
No they try to cover it up and spin the story another way. And the apostles end with another jab saying not only are we witnesses, but so is the Holy Spirit who is given only to those who obey God.
So they’re enraged but there is a voice of reason amoung them. Gamaliel was probably the most respected rabbi at the time. He was Paul’s teacher when he was still Saul. He tells a couple stories about mere men who started a movement but when they were killed, the movement died quickly. Here is a similar situation he says, if this is just man it will soon die off, but if it is really from God then you don’t stand a chance anyway, and you may even be opposing God himself.
So the officials listened to Gamaliel and for good measure they gave the apostles a whooping before letting them go, as if that would do any good. In fact it only made them rejoice that they were counted worthy of suffering dishonour for Jesus. And all of this only made them more committed as everyday in the temple and house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching about Jesus as Christ the Messiah.
Now the premise of this sermon is that nothing can stop Jesus including death. That means that nothing can stop us if we are in Jesus, and he is in us. So if nothing from the outside can stop us and the message. Then it’s only logical that there must be something inside of us that is stopping us. And does this passage tell us what that might be?
Well, not in detail, but clearly earlier we hear that its fear that keeps the other believers from joining in on this. In this case fear of persecution in the form of beatings and imprisonment. In areas of the world where the gospel is having a real impact today, beatings and imprisonment are very real consequences. So I have to conclude that the church that is not being persecuted is not being the church as it could be, that it is pleasing the world.
I know that will rub some of us the wrong way. “You might say, well, we shouldn’t be out looking for persecution”. And I agree, but if we are doing what the church is called to do, we will inevitably experience persecution.
There are several references to this in the NT:
*Jn 15:19-20 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours
*2 Tim 3:11-12 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
Mt 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Mt 5:44-45 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
Rom 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
Mt 13:20-21 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. (That falling away is about following Jesus, not necessarily believing in him).
1 Pe 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Pe 2:19-23 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
Acts 8:1 And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
1 Cor 4:12-13 When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
2 Cor 4:9-10 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
2 Cor 12:10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
And in all the letters to the churches in Revelation, it says to those who endure or are victorious, will all these good things be given.
Bless and pray for persecutors, they are simply unbelievers. Look what happened to the greatest persecutor of all, Paul ended up writing half the NT and bringing more people to Christ than probably any other human in history.
Now here I stand preaching this stuff, and I am certainly not the first one out there preaching the word on the street corner and looking for persecution. I think perhaps the reason we are hesitant to really witness in our modern western version of church, is simply because we are not the church as it is supposed to be.
We are not united together in mission as a priesthood of believers, we are not dedicated to the spread of the gospel, and praying for each other as a group while others are out there spreading the word locally.
We feel isolated and alone in our walk, and church is just a place to come and sing and hear a sermon, and give money to those who are doing the work at the ends of the earth.
Let me get personal for a minute. I am just a believer like you, but when I got involved in church and studying the Bible, it wasn’t OK for me to just attend church. The Holy Spirit was calling me to the Great Commission. If we summarize the Great Commission from both Matthew 28 and Acts 1, we see that it is to witness about Jesus with our words and our lives starting in our own back yards.
And we are to make disciples by the following method: Baptising them and teaching them to obey everything Jesus says. What I realized was that our Jerusalem was in much worse shape than the ends of the earth. That the church here in our own country was not making disciples very well, certainly not as well as in places where the gospel is dangerous.
I saw that in our churches were many people who saw baptism as optional, and we were certainly not obeying everything that Jesus commanded. So my call was to get into the church here and work at making disciples of the people who were already in church, already professing believers.
Now the order in the Great Commission is baptism then teaching. I found that we had this backwards.
So as I look at our ministry here I am quite pleased with the fact that we have baptized 34 people in the last five years. In the five years we were at my other church of 350 people, I think we may have seen 10-15 baptisms in five years including Denise and I.
If you look at the New Testament, clearly baptism is the first step in becoming a disciple after you repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour. But the teaching everyone to obey all that Jesus commanded is a little more difficult.
My point in saying all this is that in these chapters of Acts we see a lot of evangelistic public preaching that produces converts and gets people baptized. These are people that have never heard the gospel before and many come to believe. Yes, it’s very much about the public preaching, but it is also just as much about the witness. And how are they witnessing?
We saw in previous chapters up to now that they are witnessing through preaching, yes, but also through the united, generous, loving culture that they have created, which is so different from the world around them. And by the signs and wonders that the Holy Spirit is performing through them. All of this in obedience to what Jesus commanded, and stepping out in faith.
It occurred to me that very little of any of this is present in the North American church. We do some hands off sending of people to the ends of the earth with our finances while the power of the western church dies, and North America and Europe become the greatest mission fields.
Now I don’t mean this to be a critique of the church in the west, but simply an observation that can be backed up with statistics.
Obviously Gamaliel was right, and this truly was an unstoppable movement of God that continues 2000 years after Jesus has died. But I think what has happened here in our culture is that rather than mild persecution causing us to rejoice and grow stronger in our witness, it has caused us to hide our light behind the walls of the church, to shut up about Jesus so that we don’t make any body including ourselves, uncomfortable.
Rather than saying we are going to obey God over man, we have said “If our culture doesn’t want to hear about Jesus, we’ll just be happy we have him and enjoy our church life until we die and go to heaven, and to you know where with everyone else”.
But my question is, if we are not obedient disciples making disciples and being witnesses, are we really the church?
Have we really experienced the change that salvation brings? Does the Holy Spirit really live in us and our churches? Is our own salvation assured if we don’t desire to be disciples, to live in holiness, and to seek the lost?
I am haunted by a passage we looked at in our elders meeting this week from Galatians 5:16-26…
If we walk by the Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the flesh, I think we can add; over the desires of the Spirit. And if we are doing the things that are against the Spirit listed there, we will not inherit the Kingdom of God. That is written to the church folks, to supposedly saved believers.
I think it is a dangerous doctrine we have developed over the years that as long as you have accepted Jesus forgiveness you can go on living as you always have, but now you get to go to heaven when you die. So as a pastor as I have said before, my greatest fear is that anyone listening to me believes they are a disciple of Christ when they are not. That any of you would hear those horrible words, “I never knew you”.
I think Jesus has made it very clear that being a Christian does not lead to a comfortable life. A blessed life, a life full of the internal peace of Christ yes, but not a comfortable life where you always do what you want to do.
And I think you would all agree that when you do something you would rather not do that truly serves God, that makes you step out in faith, you feel a great blessing during or afterward. And often that is when you experience His presence through the Holy Spirit and maybe even experience a miracle, that gives us the confidence to continue and be unstoppable.
The old style evangelism doesn’t work that well anymore in our culture (most people have heard it and there are few venues), but I think the best evangelism today is for the people in the church to be real disciples who witness to their immediate circle of relationships.
So my commitment to God and to you is this. I am going to continue to preach baptism and obedience to Jesus in the church, until we see what Jesus has promised. I am going to encourage us to be devoted to the apostles teaching, to prayer, to eating and spending more time together, to loving each other and being generous, to boldly proclaiming Jesus and his death and resurrection to those who don’t know Him, and to stepping out in faith until we see more signs and wonders, and multitudes of people being added to our numbers.
Your commitment is up to you. But me and the elders are going to keep working on ways we can accomplish this with our bodies and our money, using scripture to guide everything we do.
