WITNESSES OF FORGIVENESS
This morning I want to talk about obedience in being a Christian. Sometimes even the best of Christians may be faced with a particular circumstance, and they will decide (for themselves) what is right and what is wrong. Actually, without even talking to God about it.
Have you ever found yourself doing something that seems to be the right thing to do, only to find out later that it wasn’t? Sure thing, we all have.
And when we find out later that what we did wasn’t even close to being Christ like, we may feel really very foolish. We ask ourselves why we did what we did.
Why didn’t we know better? We didn’t mean anyone harm, but we made a decision that wasn’t the best decision.
Listen – God wants what is best for you.
All of the time. Everyday.
Text: Acts 5:27 thru 32
The Bible has many stories about people who make good choices and others who did not. Fortunately, here in Acts 5, Peter and the other Apostles did the right thing. They obeyed God, rather than men.
Actually, this was the second time the Apostles had been through this with the Jewish leaders. In Acts 4, Peter had already been confronted once by the Jewish leaders and told what he was to do. But Peter did not do what the Jewish leaders told him. He kept preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Why was Peter, and the other apostles, so determined to tell others about Jesus?
Because each of them had realized –
1. How much Jesus loved them
2. How Jesus had forgiven them
Peter, and the other apostles, had witnessed for themselves how Christ forgave them all with His death and resurrection from the grave.
They were all WITNESSES OF FORGIVENESS
Here in our text, the Jewish leaders are very upset.
Even though the Jewish leaders weren’t happy, I have to believe God was. God is always happy with His children when they are obedient. I believe this is exactly what God wants from each of us. Amen?
And so, Peter begins to explain himself.
"We ought to obey God rather than men.”
And that is a pretty good explanation.
It really was simple to Peter, but sometimes it is not quite so simple for Christians living today. Peter simply said,
"We ought to obey God rather than men.”
In essence Peter was telling the Jewish leaders: “I have not changed my mind.
I am going to tell everyone I know about Jesus. No matter what you think or say.”
For Peter, talking about Jesus was not an option. When someone discovers how much Jesus loves them and has forgiven them, they can’t help but tell everybody they know about Him.
Talking about Jesus was something Peter knew he had to do. Peter was obedient to what Jesus had told him to do.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…”
You could not silence Peter. He was obedient to the “Great Commission.”
Likewise, we must be obedient to all that God commands us to do.
James said it well,
"…to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin"
Shouldn’t we all –
• Be WITNESSES OF FORGIVNESS?
• Know how to do what is good?
As Christians, we all should know what is good in God’s eyes. But many do not. Many struggle when faced with the challenge as to what should be done.
Listen again to what Peter told the Jewish leaders and is telling you and I today,
“We ought to obey God rather than man."
This is a truth from God that we should consider to be mandatory for us.
Obey God!
Unfortunately, some who claim to be Christians prefer to obey what they read in trashy tabloids to be right. Or what they see on the television, or what they hear on the radio, is what is right.
Some would rather obey what the horoscope tells them, or what the Hollywood celebrity tells them than to simply obey the Word of God.
My friend we have to –
Stop listening to what the world is saying.
Start reading what the Word of God says.
Here is another example.
Listen to Jeremiah 7:23.
"But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."
Things not going quite how you would like for them to? Ask yourself if you are “walking in all the ways” that God has commanded you “that it may be well unto you”.
The prophet Jeremiah was convinced at how important it was to obey God.
The word “obey” is spoken 24 times in the book of Jeremiah. That is more than any other book in the Bible.
Listen to Jeremiah 11:4,
“Obey my voice, and do according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:"
Some people are –
• Discouraged because they don’t know/understand God very well.
• Struggling about what to do with different things going on (or going wrong) with their life.
• Confused and don’t know what they should do.
Why is this? The answer is this.
There is a conflict taking place in our lives in these last days. The world is telling us one thing, and the Almighty One is telling us something entirely different.
We have to decide who we will listen to.
What happened to Peter and the Apostles is really the same thing that is happening to us in the 21st century.
And that is many people in the world are trying to tell Christians to keep their mouths shut.
Other people are saying –
• They don’t want to hear about Godly things.
• We Christians should keep our morals and values to ourselves.
• We believers should stop forcing religion down their throat.
I would imagine Peter and the Apostles heard the same thing told to them. Their response was simple:
“We ought to obey God rather than man."
Peter and the Apostles had just been persecuted and imprisoned by the Jewish council in Jerusalem because they were preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus.
But an angel of the Lord came and set them free. And then the angel spoke to Peter, in verse 20,
"Go, stand in the temple courts, and tell the people the full message of this new life."
Did you know that God can be persistent with His children and getting His Word out? It doesn’t matter what others may tell you to do, just do what God tells you!
When Peter and the Apostles were put on trial before the council the second time (for the same reason) they answered with these words of courage and conviction:
"We must obey God rather than any human authority."
Hey listen church, there have always been a few fervent Christians who have remained faithful to God by sometimes resisting and disobeying the laws of man.
In fact in the history of the early church, hundreds, even thousands, were so convinced that God’s laws were more important that they sometimes died a martyr’s death.
One of the early Christian martyrs was a man of God named Polycarp. He was considered to be a disciple of John. When ordered to denouce Christ, he said this:
‘For 86 years I have been a servant and he has never done me wrong; how can I blaspheme my Jesus who saved me? I am a Christian.’
For confessing to be a Christian, many of the early Christians were thrown to the lions. Others were burned at the stake. This man, Polycarp, was put in chains, and was killed with a sword; his body was then burned.
Polycarp’s courage has strengthened and inspired the faith of many Christians down through the centuries. Polycarp, like the disciples before him, had to obey God rather than any human authority.
In more recent history, we have the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who on one occasion said: If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God’s will, it is your Christian duty to oppose it.
We may find ourselves in situations that test our loyalty to God. Just like the disciples before the Jerusalem council, or just like Polycarp.
We must be able to speak with conviction, and even be willing to suffer the consequences of our faith.
"We must obey God rather than any human authority."
We must learn to trust God when we are faced with those who oppose the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must be men & women & boys & girls of courage and conviction for what we hold dear to us.
It may not be the Jewish leaders (as it was for Peter and the Apostles).
It may be –
• The girl in the check out line down at the Red and White Grocery Store.
• The lonely disgruntled widow next door who is filled with bitterness and remorse.
• That free thinking/liberal relative who thinks they have everything all figured out in life.
• The coworker who is struggling to make ends meet, and thinks that no one in the world cares about them.
With conviction we must at the very least tell ourselves that -
“We ought to obey God rather than man."
Like Peter we must be obedient to God in telling others about Jesus and the plan of salvation. Speaking God’s truth to others is much more powerful than we sometimes realize. We should remember that His Word and His Truth has more authority when spoken than any other philosophy or ideology known to man.
It can and it will overpower any objection that you may face.
Do you remember the story in John 21 when Peter was questioned by Jesus about whether Peter loved Jesus?
Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than
these?"
Peter replied, “Yes Lord. You know that I love you.”
And again Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?”
And the second time Peter replied, “Yes Lord. You know that I love you.”
And yet again Jesus asked Peter the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?”
Nearly frustrated and offended Peter replied to Jesus, “You know all things. You know that I love you.”
Consider this:
Peter was a disciple who became an apostle. Peter had once –
1. Walked on the sea with Jesus.
2. Cast out devils
3. Laid hands on the sick
And yet Jesus asked, "LOVEST THOU ME?"
Notice that Jesus didn’t ask Peter,
• "Will you keep my doctrines",
• "Do you believe my words".
• "Do you think the other disciples love me?"
"LOVEST THOU ME?"
This may seem to be a very simple question for us.
Closing:
We must see that Christ is looking in our hearts and wanting to see -
1. supreme love - loving him above anything and anyone else;
2. suffering love - being prepared to accept the consequences of living faithfully to him;
3. submitting love - putting your whole life under his authority
I believe this is what Jesus wants from each of us.
Jesus simply asked Peter what He is asking you and I -
The question was for Peter’s benefit.
And the question is now for our benefit.
Why is the question so important?
Because a heart that is in love with Jesus has little trouble OBEYING HIM.
