An Unusual Amen
PPT 1 Title
This will be a different text than you probably have ever heard for a Thanksgiving message.
Text: Acts 5:17-42
(Note to Pastor's on sermon central. I read the whole passage, but for posting online I am only showing the last 3 verses.)
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Ac 5:40 And they took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them to speak no more in the name of Jesus, and [then] released them.
Ac 5:41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for [His] name.
Ac 5:42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus [as] the Christ.
Let me start by summing my message this way:
PPT 2 message main points
In life you will face Unexpected Attacks, be helped by Unseen Advocates, you will realize Unforeseen Additions, and will need to verbalize Unusual Amen's.
1. Unexpected Attack
You don't always experience what you expect to experience in life. Just prior to this amazing things were happening:
PPT 3,4 text
Ac 5:14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.
Ac 5:15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
Ac 5:16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.
Ac 5:17 But the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy;
Ac 5:18 and they laid hands on the apostles, and put them in a public jail.
Ac 5:19 But an angel of the Lord during the night opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out he said,
Ac 5:20 "Go your way, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this Life."
This beating was preceded by an incredible escape, and incredible miracles being performed. Why the whooping? Why didn't God send the angel back to beat the living daylights out of those guys? Sometimes we experience trouble that seems to fly in the face of the goodness of the Lord we have experienced at other times.
Sometimes in life God will leave you scratching your head with contrasts and with the why of things.
Why victory here, and sorrow there? Why in a season of breakthrough do we all of a sudden experience the seeming exact opposite? I can't fully answer that, I will give you one thought shortly, but my point for now is that in life you will face attacks that you didn't expect. They will often be seen in sharp relief to blessings you have experienced, making them seem more difficult. A believers life doesn't mean we are always having breakthroughs. Sometimes, and it is a complete mystery to us, it seems as if God let's the devil get the upper hand. (Though he never actually does, it just seems that way from our perspective.) Maybe this will help a little, have you ever heard the saying, "A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down." Would you like trouble all the time? In a world full of sin, and sinners it should be just as mysterious to us that we ever have relative calm. Perhaps some breakthroughs are to give us strength for the trials we must endure. Thank God, life is not all weeping.
2. Unknown Advocate
In life we usually deal more with unseen enemies. (False accusations, water cooler liars, workplace weasels). People who talk about us behind our back, people who destroy our character, and their doings are unseen by our eyes. The good news is that in the same way we have people who are supporting us in ways and with means that likewise are hidden from our eyes. In out text the Apostles were put from the room and then Gamaliel begins to advocate on their behalf.
What I mean by an unknown advocate is someone who is working on our behalf, whose work is hidden from our eyes.
Gamaliel was the leader of the Sanhedrin, that he should help them was probably the last thing the apostles expected, and they were completely unaware it happened. Like God told Elijah, "I have 7,000 knees that haven't bowed to Baal, even so God has secret supporters working on our behalf.
Let me tell you a little bit about Gamaliel. I will explain why all this is important shortly.
A misnic doctor. That means he was a doctor of the law, but particularly trained in the Mishnah which is a commentary and explanation of the law.
He is the 35th receiver to pass down the oral traditions. In other words he was charged with preserving them.
Son of Rabban Simeon, grandson of Hillel, talk about a Jewish Pedigree!
He also was called Rabban which means our teacher or our master, as opposed to rabbi which means my teacher. Gamaliel holds a reputation in the Mishnah for being one of the greatest teachers in all the annals of Judaism.
As I said his grandfather was a Rabbi named Hillel. Rabbi's came because of the Diaspora, what good was a priest without a temple? So rabbi's came in vogue. There were two main rabbinic schools at this time:
Hillel and Shammai. Though they agreed on the major points of the law, they argued about everything else:
Jewish theology today plainly states that they follow the teachings of Hillel, so his house got the upper hand over time.
Some of the arguments they had included:
White lies. Whether one should tell an ugly bride that she is beautiful. Shammai said it was wrong to lie, and Hillel said that all brides are beautiful on their wedding day.
Divorce. The House of Shammai held that a man may only divorce his wife for a serious transgression, but the House of Hillel allowed divorce for even trivial offenses, such as burning a meal. This gives us a little insight to the Apostle Paul's treatment of Christians.
Josepheus the Jewish historian tells us there were about 6000 Pharisees at this time in the world. Gamaliel had the largest school with about 500 students. The Pharisee's were always harassing and arguing with Jesus, it almost seems like they stayed up nights trying to come up with questions they hoped they could trip him up with: Should we pay taxes or not, is one example.
So it was very odd that the leader of the Pharisee's would stand up for them.
When the apostles were outside the chamber if someone were to tell them Gamaliel is in there pulling for them, they probably would have said, "no way!" Yet that very thing was happening.
PPT 5 text & disappearing footprints
Ps 77:19 Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.
Ps 77:20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Somebody you don't know about is praying for you.
Somebody you are unaware of is working on your behalf.
Somebody unseen is pleading your cause.
Somebody is stepping up for you and you are clueless about it.
Think about it this way, how many times have you done something for someone and they never knew it.
You defended them in conversation.
You prayed for them.
You sent them an anonymous gift.
Somebody right now needs to hear this, help is happening outside of your field of view.
Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us.
3. Unforeseen addition
The Apostle Paul, was Gamaliel's student. Is it possible that Gamaliel talked to his students and told them of what happened in the counsel meeting? More than likely, I could pretty much guarantee the different schools were having heated discussions about what went on in the Sanhedrin that day. Where and did Gamaliel come to this way of thinking? Let me show you an interesting scripture that may give us an important clue:
PPT 6
Lu 2:46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
Did you notice that he was sitting in the midst of the, "doctors". There were not a lot of them, Gamaliel was probably not there, he was too young at the time, but perhaps his father Simeon was there, and may have spoken to his son about this. He may have admonished his younger students to be like the poor boy who was so knowledgeable in the word.
I don't believe people just get saved out of the blue. Line upon line, life event upon life event are put together to bring people to Christ. I think God orchestrated life events to bring Gamaliel to this tolerant view of the disciples. Perhaps he even knew people who were healed by Christ. He may have contact with other leaders of the Sanhedrin or their children who interacted with Jesus and the disciples.
Nicodemus was a teacher of the law, perhaps he spoke into Gamaliel's life. Joseph of Arimathea also sat on the council, and was a believer. Perhaps all this congealed in Gamaliel, and subsequently was passed on to Paul. Paul seems to have advocated the exact opposite position as his master, but was it eating at him? God made stepping stones for Paul to come to Christ.
Whatever the case, whenever there is suffering, there will always be additions. They had an unexpected beating, I think that since that is true there were also unforeseen additions. Christian history tells us that one of Gamaliel's sons, Abibo, became a believer and is venerated in the Orthodox church as a saint.
Like Mary treasuring things in her heart, Paul having these small seeds deposited by Gamaliel, and seeing the faith of Stephen when martyred coalesced and led to the fateful day where he met Jesus while riding a steed.
I repeat, whenever there is suffering, there will always be additions. Psalm 76:10 says the wrath of man shall praise thee. Every thing that God allows evil men to do, He will turn to something good.
4. Unusual Amen
Ac 5:41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for [His] name.
This is an unusual amen because most people are Thanks givers, not worshippers.
Thanks givers give thanks when they have something to give thanks for. But when things start going the other way they fall apart spiritually.
Worshippers give thanks even in the most horrible of situations. Like Job of old they can say, "the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh, blessed be the name of the Lord."
Paul and Silas in jail. They sang songs at midnight. Why? Because they probably couldn't sleep because of the pain they were in from the scourging. Whenever there is suffering there will always be additions. The jailor and his family got saved.
Gamaliel had two sons one was name Simeon and he was the head of the Sanhedrin when the Romans destroyed the city in AD 70. As I said earlier the second son was called Abibo and he converted to Christianity and is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox churches
We have the benefit of the rest of the story. They didn't, but they could still praise the Lord because God had entrusted them with a hard task. That's what they meant when the text says they rejoiced because they had been considered worthy to suffer for His name. In other words God said, I have a really hard job to give to someone. Who, do I think can handle it? They rejoiced because God trusted their faith with a difficult task. People who are given difficult assignments often think it is because God thinks little of them, when in fact the exact opposite is true.
If this thanksgiving season, or in your life in general God has given you a difficult assignment. Know that you Have unseen advocates, you will have unforeseen additions, so why don't you take a little time and start lifting up those unusual amen's.
Close: Pray for those with difficult assignments, and remind everyone to lift up unusual amen's. Anyone can praise God when things are going well.
