April 11, 2004 Acts 5:34-39
A Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed them: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
David fought against the lion, the bear, and a nine foot giant named Goliath. These were mighty enemies - which nobody in their right mind would choose to fight. Yet he defeated them all - with God on his side. Gideon fought and defeated a much larger Midianite army with only 300 men - and the LORD on his side. Every day we are at battle with an army of demons who would like nothing more than to take our souls to hell. There is no need to fear, for with God nothing is impossible. Impossible battles can be won. Insurmountable enemies can be defeated.
But against God - nothing is possible. Nobody has fought against God and won. The picture of Armageddon in the book of Revelation really isn’t much of a battle at all. There’s a lot of hype to it, but when it comes down to the actual battle, all that happens is that the devil is tossed into hell - end of story. You can’t fight God - it doesn’t work. By this time in the story the Sanhedrin should have realized this. They had already killed God - thinking they had won - only to have Him rise from the dead. After this, they still tried to lock up the apostles - but they appeared the next day in the temple courts. With every action that they made, things only got worse for them - because they were fighting against God. It should have been obvious. But like stubborn donkeys - they kept on kicking against the goads. After having locked up the apostles a second time, Gamaliel - a well known rabbi - had some words for them - to try and dissuade them from their plans. In these words we’ll see and hear how Gamaliel was -
Speaking the Unstoppable Truth
I. The truth that brings blood
Just prior to our text for today, the disciples had some harsh words for the Sanhedrin. Luke writes that after the apostles were locked up a second time, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” (Ac 5:27-32) Notice the courage of the apostles at this time. They weren’t going to be intimidated by the high priest’s office or the threats of the Sanhedrin. Instead of running upon their release - they returned right back to the temple courts.
Why were they so courageous? They had seen Jesus raised from the dead. The soldiers may have been paid to tell people that they stole Jesus’ body - but they wanted the world to know the truth. The truth of the matter was that Jesus was raised from the dead - and was now ruling over the world and bringing more and more people to faith. The threats of the Sanhedrin had done absolutely nothing to shut them up. You have to admire both the zeal and the courage of the apostles. They just wouldn’t be quiet, they couldn’t be quiet. They were like Jeremiah who said, if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. (Je 20:9) It came from their conviction of the Holy Spirit which truly believed that Jesus was raised from the dead and He was now ruling as the King of the Universe.
It’s good for us to celebrate Easter every year - if not every day of our lives. Because the truth of the matter is that we have a Savior that did not stay in the grave - He rose from the dead. Our God is not dead - we aren’t going to find his bones in some tomb outside of Jerusalem. He is alive and well. This means that God accepted His sacrifice. It means we have been declared not guilty. It means that through faith we are going to heaven. It means that we also will be raised from the dead. Jesus lives and Jesus rules over the world right now. When we hear this Gospel and review the meaning of Easter - the Holy Spirit works through it to give us the same courage and conviction as the apostles. Oh, that He would fill our mouths and our hearts with such joy and conviction this morning so that we could be so obnoxious in our testimony. Oh, that we could draw the anger and hatred of the unbelieving world - that they would know that the only way they could shut us up is if they would kill us. But what weak witnesses are we - who refuse to talk about Christ because the government says we shouldn’t - or our teachers will ridicule us for it - or because we know that somebody doesn’t want to hear about it. Instead of being filled with the Holy Spirit - we are all too often filled with the spirit of despair. Instead of filling our church on this early morning worship, we are too tired or just too lazy to sing loud praises to our God and King. God have mercy on us.
The apostles spoke the unstoppable truth. The Sanhedrin killed Jesus - the King of the Universe - but God raised Him from the dead. So how did the Sanhedrin respond to this? Well, they didn’t exactly repent in sackcloth and ashes. Luke reports - When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. (Ac 5:33) In their minds, the only way they could stop them from talking would be to kill them. Imagine that! The apostles had enraged these religious leaders to the point of putting blood in their eyes.
This is what the unstoppable truth does. When you speak it - it brings wrath - it has to. You can’t listen to the message of the Bible and just respond by saying, “oh, that’s a nice story, I wonder what I’ll have for lunch.” The message of the Bible says to each and every one of us - “you killed Jesus by hanging him on a tree. YOU are GUILTY of death for this crime!” When people are being accused of a horrific crime - they get defensive, angry, and even offensive. That’s what the message of Christ does. It not only accuses - but condemns. Like it or not - it’s the truth. You can’t be saved unless you acknowledge and confess that you killed Jesus. You need to see that you didn’t only kill Jesus - but you killed the Son of God. However, God raised Him raised from the dead. Instead of wanting revenge - that risen and powerful Son is now granting repentance and forgiveness of sins through faith in Him - free of charge. He’s holding out his hands to you this morning and saying, “I have forgiven you for doing this to me! Don’t be angry with these condemnations - accept your responsibility - and believe my promise - that I died for you! God accepted that sacrifice for you sins - having raised me from the dead - and you have been acquitted!”
II. The truth of Gamaliel
The Sanhedrin wanted nothing to do with such a plea. They didn’t want to be held accountable and guilty for the blood of Christ. They couldn’t bribe these witnesses, like they did the soldiers, so they only had one option in their minds - and that was to kill them too. It was in the midst of these deliberations that the much respected Pharisee by the name of Gamaliel stood up. He was most likely the same teacher who ended up teaching the Apostle Paul prior to his being converted to Christianity - a well known man with a good reputation in the community. He had studied history and thought that it would be a good teacher for what would happen here. Instead of bloodshed, he came up with a different solution. He said -
“Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.
Again, it appears from his arguement, that the Jewish leaders were thinking that Jesus was going to lead some sort of a revolt. So by looking at the history of Judas and Theudas, he reminded them of what happened to these insurrectionists - they were put to death and dispersed. He then concluded -
Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
His advice was more or less - “wait and see! Time will tell if these men are from God or not.” It’s much like the advertising you hear today which approves of products which are “time tested.”
At first this may seem like a God pleasing and even pious response. After all, it was better than the plan of the Sanhedrin who wanted to kill them. Yet in trying to take a middle ground, Gamaliel didn’t really please the Sanhedrin - and he didn’t please me either. What was there left for him to decide? By the time this took place, the apostles had been healing people left and right in Solomon’s Colonade. Evil spirits were being chased out from people. The apostles had just escaped from jail without the guards even knowing about it. More importantly - Jesus had raised from the dead. The Sanhedrin knew this. They had paid off the guards who told them as much. There was no time to “wait and see.” Gamaliel may at first seem to be a friend of Jesus - or what some would call a “seeker”. But if he couldn’t see it by now and still recommended a “middle road”, he was blind. The Sanhedrin knew this. But since Gamaliel was such a well respected man - they had no choice but to follow his advice. So they had the apostles whipped and again ordered them not to speak in the name of Christ. That was their version of a “middle road.” If Gamaliel really meant what he said, then you would think that he would have been converted after a few years at the most. But history shows that he certainly didn’t make a convert out of Paul in his training. The Lord had to do the direct converting with Gamaliel’s own student - if that says anything.
However, in an indirect way, Gamaliel was speaking the unstoppable truth. You can reject these words of Christ. Like the Sanhedrin - you can even attempt to kill the messenger. But you can’t kill the message. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Is 40:7-8) The law will come through your conscience. It will scream at you in the rainstorms. It will rage against you through the mountains. The gospel will keep calling through the crosses displayed on every neck and church you see. The love of Christ will keep sounding through the words and actions of those Christians still alive. You’ll find out very quickly that you may be able to kill Christians - but you can’t kill Christ. Time has proven that Christ truly did rise from the dead - that any attempt to fight against the message of Christ is like fighting against God Himself. It is a futile prospect in the end.
It is also futile to try and take the middle road of Gamaliel - the wait and see approach. Gamaliel tried to take a middle road. There is no middle road with Christ. Jesus told the church in Laodicea, I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Re 3:15-16) There are so many people in the world who are trying to take the middle road. They’re found in the liberal “theologians” who claim that we need to find the “historical Jesus.” They say, “yeah, I believe in Jesus - but I don’t believe he actually physically rose from the dead. There are others who say, “I don’t have anything against Christianity - I believe in God.” But those same people don’t really believe they are sinners who need a crucified and risen Christ. They’re found in the Muslim religion that calls Christ a prophet but not a Savior. Jesus is going to spit them out of his mouth. The same Christ who rose from the dead is coming to judge the living and the dead. At that time they will physically see the truth with their own eyes - but by then it will be too late.
My friends, there is no time to wait and see. Look at the truth for what it is. We have a merciful God who put His only Son on the cross and in the grave for our sins. We have a merciful God who accepted that sacrifice of His Son for the sins of the world. As Paul told the Corinthians - God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21) This is the same truth that has been passed on for over thousands of years. You either believe it or you don’t. You either trust in Christ for your salvation or you don’t. But don’t give me any of this garbage about a middle road. Don’t try to throw Christ some bread crumbs about being a great prophet or Christianity being just a good thing for the morality of our country. God will spit your bread crumbs out of His mouth. Thankfully, we are not under such condemnation. By God’s grace - through His baptism - God has put us on the road of faith - the road of Christ - who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. With the apostles we say, “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!” Like it or not - this is the unstoppable truth.
When President Clinton was impeached for lying about an affair he had with Monica Lewinsky, he did his best to deny and cover up the truth. But the more he denied it, the more his enemies and the press sought after it. After denial and lying under oath, the unstoppable evidence came forth and he was convicted - much to his embarrassment. The truth was revealed. People are now trying to find out the truth as to what happened before September 11th, 2001. They want to know, “who knew and what could have been done?” Sooner or later, the truth will come out.
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ rules. Salvation is through faith in Him alone. This is the unstoppable truth. Radical Muslims are willing to kill people to suppress this message. Luther was nearly put to death for it. No matter how much blood is shed - the truth will go on. Gamaliel was right about that. But this is no time to try and take the middle road. Instead of denying it, believe it. Proclaim it. Sing it. I know that my Redeemer lives. What comfort this sweet sentence gives. He lives, He lives, who once was dead. He lives my ever living Head. Amen.
