WE MUST OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MEN
April 23, 2006 - EASTER 2 - Acts 5:17-32
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
As we heard these words, they probably sounded familiar to us. Maybe we even noticed two contrasting ideas that were there. There was captivity and there was freedom. The apostles and Peter were put into jail as prisoners. Yet, they were let go. In there spirit they were always free. On the other hand we see the chief priest and the Pharisees and Sadducees who seem to be free but yet are held captive, captive by their own ignorance and their own blindness to the power of God through his Son Jesus Christ and his resurrection. The freedom that these apostles had is seen in our theme today when they stand before the court, the church council, and the leaders and say: "We must obey God rather than men." We are going to talk about freedom and captivity today, the fact that the Lord sets us free. For spiritual freedom Jesus taught about the importance of holding fast to the word of God. In the Gospel of John: "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31b, 32). Today, we gather together because we hold fast to God’s teachings and his truth has set us free. We are reminded that we are encouraged this morning to be as bold as these disciples and be as confident in our faith to be able to say:
"We must obey God rather than men," for:
I. Mankind tries to silence God’s Easter message.
II. Believers are set free to testify to God’s truth.
I. MANKIND TRIES TO SILENCE GOD’S EASTER MESSAGE
How was it that the apostles and Peter were put into prison? At the beginning of Acts we see Jesus’ ascension into heaven. We see the first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes down and sends out his people. The church grows by 5,000 and 3,000; and the teaching of Jesus grew in favor with men. Believers went to the church daily. We heard in our Lesson in Acts 3 how the disciples healed those who needed healing. So they gained favor among the people. This did not set well with the religious rulers. Verse 12 of chapter 5 says: "The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people." We are told that even people would be blessed by just having Peter’s shadow pass across them. You can imagine the Sanhedrin, the chief priests, and their concern. They thought that they got rid of all of this popularity for the teachings of Jesus when they got rid of Jesus.
Our text begins, verse 17: "Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy." They were jealous of these disciples. They were jealous of this new teaching that the people were following, upset with what was happening. They had not silenced Jesus and the Easter message. They hadn’t squelched the power of Jesus’ resurrection. We are told in the next verse: "They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail." The disciples were quieted, as they couldn’t reach as many people while in the public jail. They couldn’t be in the streets or temple healing the sick. The high priest and Sadducees thought this imprisonment should stop their message. We know that God had far greater plans to spread his message. God has far greater plans for those whom he has called.
Even when they are out of the prison and brought back, the disciples tell them the truth. The disciples stand there before the high priest and the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin. They say to them: "We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead--whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree." In the book of Acts as Peter and the apostles proclaim God’s message, it sounds the same, doesn’t it? If you look at our reading today from Acts, it says: "You killed the author of life. You put him to death even when Pilate was ready to release him." Now, Peter says the same thing again, the same charge is true: "You killed Jesus by hanging him on a tree." Now they try to cover up and hide that message when they put the apostles in prison. You may remember that after they put Jesus to death and Jesus was put into the tomb, what did they do? They hired a guard to watch the tomb and they sealed the rock so that no one would come and steal the body away. Yet what happened? Jesus still rose from the dead. They tried to silence the power of God and this Easter message. But Jesus rose. Then we are told the authorities told the soldiers, "Spread the news that the disciples came and stole the body." Paul even says that rumor was still around when he was preaching and teaching. They tried to silence God’s message. But they could not silence God’s Easter message even though they posted the guard and sealed the rock around the tomb. Even though they put the apostles in jail as prisoners, they still proclaimed the fact that "We must obey God rather than men."
Our text states that the leaders intent was very clear: "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, he said." The original says, "We commanded you the command not to teach." This emphasizes they were given very strict orders not to teach in the name of the Lord Jesus. The leaders didn’t want to hear. In our text: "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood." Yes, they preach the law and preach the gospel even though the church authorities try to silence God’s Easter message.
This sounds strange doesn’t it, that someone would try to silence and suppress God’s message. Yet, it has happened through every generation from the very beginning until the present. Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. Why was that? Because Satan was there and he suppressed God’s message saying, "You will not surely die if you eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." People are led astray because Satan tries to suppress God’s message. Mankind and his own wisdom and his own self-righteousness suppresses God’s message. The Tower of Babel in the book of Genesis, the very first book, man tries to build a tower that would reach to God because he feels so self-important. He tries to silence God’s message and suppress it. We are given this from the Psalm writer: "How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods" (Psalm 4:2). Mankind deludes himself. He seeks out false gods, which describes our society today. There are so many false gods that are around us we can’t list them all. False gods such as our own importance, our own self-worth, our own health or wealth, our own family. Society makes a lot of things in this life seem important, sets them up as false gods and deludes us in turning to man instead of God.
Worst of all, many begin to believe that maybe God’s word is not so important. Many begin to believe, as Paul wrote, what their itching ears want to hear. People turn aside from the truth to myths and lies. So we have books upon books that talk about the rapture and the thousand-year reign, and they don’t all agree. There are hundreds of books and hundreds of authors who made lots of money who are trying to confuse the simple truth of Scripture. Worst part of all, they try to silence God’s simple message and the message of truth and people are led astray. Paul writes in Thessalonians: "For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness" (2 Thessalonians 2:11,12). Again, this is a ringing condemnation of our society. Our society delights in wickedness. It doesn’t take much to see the wickedness that society delights in. Places of debauchery are filled. Places of worship are not so full. It is a powerful delusion that tries to silence God’s message.
How does it happen that even sometimes believers end up having themselves fooled so that the simple truth of God’s Scripture is taken away? Satan is alive and well and uses all kinds of weapons and tools at his disposal to deceive mankind. This week when we looked at Corinthians on Wednesday evening, we learned how devious, how deceptive Satan is. From 2 Corinthians: "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:13,14). Satan does not come and say, "I am going to take away your faith. I am going to take you and your souls down to hell to be punished forever." A false prophet doesn’t say that either, that he will lead one astray, that he will teach some false doctrine that doesn’t agree with God’s Word but might make sense, humanly speaking. No, they masquerade as angels of light. They come as Jesus said in Matthew, "as wolves in sheep’s clothing." They try to silence God’s Easter message. Today, the value of Jesus’ resurrection is lost as people celebrate spring, new life, the Easter bunny, etc.
Much like these early apostles then, we need to understand how important it is when they say, "We must obey God rather than men." You and I, who have at one time, were held captive by sin, slaves to Satan, and under the grip and power of death, are now set free to testify to the truth.
II. BELIEVERS ARE SET FREE TO TESTIFY TO THE TRUTH
Peter and the apostles didn’t expect to spend any time in prison, especially after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the church began to grow. They were able to do miracles. They weren’t expecting the church to put them in the public jail. Yet, they were there; but still, they were free. They were free on the inside. We see God didn’t let them there either. "But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. ’Go, stand in the courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.’" This new life that Christ had lived, died and rose again. This was a new message for God’s believers that the Promised Messiah whom he had promised Adam and Eve had come. Now Jesus was, indeed, raised back to life. No one could extinguish, silence or suppress God’s Easter message.
So they got up early the next morning and went to the temple and they began to teach the people. The next day also the chief priest and the Sadducees wanted to see Peter and the apostles. They wanted to talk to them and remind them not to talk about Jesus, not to mention his name. What a surprise for them. They send a guard to the prison and finds they are not there. The guard brings back the report: "We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside." It wouldn’t take much for a reasonable person to understand that a miracle, something very unusual, had happened. We would have attributed that to God. "On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this." They were wondering, "What is going to happen now?" Or maybe, "What is going to happen to us?" When the prisoners escape, the guards are responsible and so are the ones that had put them there.
We know what happens. The report comes back: "The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people." They bring them back. So are Peter and the apostles afraid to confess their faith before the powers that be? This was the high ruling authority, the chief priest, to be held in all respect and honor. They were the Sanhedrin and council, the leaders of the Jewish people. There were Sadducees, Pharisees, and those who knew the law the best. Yet, they come back and told the apostles and Peter not to talk about Jesus. The disciples state they had to obey God rather than men. They tell the message once again, "You killed Jesus, but Jesus was brought back to life."
More than that, he goes on at the end of our text: "God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel." That was a profound statement. Peter was trying to tell the rulers, the court and the people that were gathered around that Jesus didn’t come as a rabble-rouser or to cause trouble. But Jesus came for repentance. He came to provide forgiveness to Israel, forgiveness for those who sat in darkness. Jesus came as the light of the world.
Then he repeats what we heard in chapter 3 of Acts: "We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." The simple truth! They put Jesus to death; God raised him to life that their sins would be forgiven.
It is the same simple truth that for most of us if not all of us we have learned from very early on in our life. It is a simple truth that is the very essence of our Christian faith and our human living that Christ has died for the sins of the world and has died for my sins. We confess that in the Apostles’ Creed and in the Nicene Creed. It is a message we can not hear enough of. Paul proclaims it in 1 Corinthians: "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). Paul, who once sat in darkness, who once was held as a slave to Satan and captive by sin, was set free. He was set free to testify to the truth. He spent the rest of his life traveling all over the known world to proclaim that very simple truth: Christ lived, died, was buried, and rose again.
That is a message that Scripture prophesied about and was fulfilled in the gospels, and that is the message that is proven in the books after the gospels: Acts and the Epistles. It is a message that is under attack today. The Da Vinci Code book has sold 40 million copies and the movie which is coming out attacks basic Christian beliefs. It claims the church has hidden all the truths of Scripture, and it makes many unfavorable comments about Jesus and Christianity. People almost seem to like that, falsehood more than the truth of Scripture. For us, we are reminded because of the faith that is in our hearts, we must obey God rather than men. We stand up for our faith. Why? Paul says in Romans: "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life" (Romans 6:22). Eternal life is God’s greatest gift for us. We could spend a lifetime trying to pay him for that gift. We could never do it, but we can try.
We can do it by faithful living, a joyful life, and letting that faith that we have grown up with in our hearts be seen in our lives. The prophet Jeremiah wrote these familiar words about hold in God’s message. Jeremiah 20:9: "But 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" (Jeremiah 20:9). That is the same with us. We may not always put it in those words. We may not always feel that same way. But everything we do: when we are honest in dealing with our fellow man, and we are kind to those who aren’t so kind, when we are forgiving to those who are not so forgiving, when we are loving to those who aren’t so lovable, when we treat our enemies as our friends, then we are testifying to the truth that Jesus Christ lived, died, was buried and rose again for forgiveness and to provide eternal life. That is how we obey God rather than men. We also realize the authorities that be, the government that we have which we may not always agree with completely, the government that is there is for our benefit. We obey the laws of the land. God hasn’t given us the right to protest everything and say, "Well, God doesn’t agree." He does remind us that God’s law is far more important and valuable than any law that man might come up with.
We ought to obey God rather than men. Look at Peter and the apostles. It didn’t hurt them to stand up for their faith. They were put into prison. God let them out. They had the chance to testify before all those in authority and they did. The Lord blessed them even though those people whom they stood before tried to silence the Easter message and even though many today try to make Easter seem very unimportant. We know how the world deals with Christmas. God’s message still gets out, because there are believers, you and I and throughout the world. We are set free to proclaim and to testify to God’s truth that God is still God, the truth that Jesus is still our Savior, God’s truth that are sins are forgiven, and God’s truth that eternal life is ours. Peter writes: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3). This is the truth that the world cannot silence. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Easter 2 readings: ACTS 3:12-20; 1 JOHN 5:1-6; JOHN 20:19-31
